AI hype under pressure: Microsoft cuts sales quotas, Nasdaq drops 200 points

The American tech sector took a hit on the stock market today. Unexpected figures from Microsoft caused unrest among investors and clearly put pressure on the Nasdaq. Concerns about the AI ​​hype are increasing. Is that correct?

Microsoft lowers sales targets for AI

The Nasdaq 100 index, which includes the largest US tech companies, opened with a sharp decline of 200 points to 25,400. There has now been a recovery towards 25,620 points.

According to analyst TrendSpider, the blow came after the news that Microsoft has lowered its sales targets for AI software. The tech giant then lost 1.31 percent on the stock market. Other big names were also under pressure: Amazon fell more than one percent and Meta ended 0.43 percent lower.

The latest quarterly figures show that many Microsoft salespeople are not meeting their targets. The company is therefore reducing internal quotas for certain AI products. This adjustment fuels the suspicion that companies are more cautious about the adoption of artificial intelligence than previously thought.

The stock market correction comes at a time when doubts about the AI ​​hype are increasing. Tech giants such as Microsoft and Nvidia are investing billions in AI infrastructure, but the actual returns are lagging behind.

Reuters reported that Microsoft invested more than $35 billion in AI development last quarter. Yet there is a growing gap between investments and actual adoption, and that is putting pressure on the market.

Michael Burry warns of AI bubble

Criticism of AI is not new. Michael Burry, known from The Big Short, draws parallels with the dotcom bubble of the early 2000s. According to him, billions are again being invested in promises without immediate returns.

Burry sees problems on three fronts. First, he calls the expectations surrounding AI hardware far too high. Companies are stocking up on chips and servers en masse, but their use is lagging behind. He also strongly criticizes Nvidia’s share buyback policy, which he believes artificially supports the stock price. Finally, he states that the lifespan of Nvidia’s GPUs is estimated too optimistically, leading to an underestimation of value loss on the balance sheet.