Apple closed Friday at a $5.03 trillion market capitalization to overtake Nvidia at $4.94 trillion as the world’s most valuable company, capping a tech rout that wiped nearly $2 trillion from US equities. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.85%, or 746.33 points, to 25,438.40 for its worst day since June, while the S&P 500 lost 1.84% to 7,578.14 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.11% to 51,763.41. The Nasdaq 100 sank 4.2% to erase $1.7 trillion in value, pushing the index 10% below its October 6 record high into its third correction of 2026 and leaving it down more than 7% in its worst month since March 2025.
The selloff has erased roughly $5 trillion from the Nasdaq 100 since October 6 as investors question whether AI capital expenditures will generate sufficient cash returns. Intel plunged 31%, its steepest drop since its 1971 IPO, after guiding fourth-quarter revenue to $15 billion to $16 billion against expectations of roughly $17 billion, dragging the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down about 9% as AMD, Marvell, and Qualcomm each slid about 12%. Amazon fell after posting a second straight quarter of negative free cash flow alongside plans for $220 billion in 2026 capital spending and up to $80 billion in hardware-backed supplier loans, even as AWS revenue rose 39% to $46 billion.
