Applied Materials and Lam Research fell between 4 and 5% Wednesday despite dropping Treasury yields, signaling AI capex repricing rather than a rate-driven selloff. SOXX's 77% YTD gain masks equipment-specific stress because its blended holdings dilute the pressure hitting pure-play names like KLA, down 4%. Anthropic's $65B annualized run rate and 2028 revenue projection of $190 to $200B landed below investor expectations, shaking confidence in locked-in AI infrastructure spending.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Applied Materials didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today. Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) shares are down 4% to $494.82 in midday trading Wednesday, extending a second straight session of heavy selling across chip equipment names.
The company's stock is still up 101% year to date through Tuesday's close year to date (YTD), so today's decline sits inside an enormous run rather than reversing it. The pullback is concentrated in the picks-and-shovels group that led the AI infrastructure trade this year. The chipmakers get the headlines, but the buildout also runs through power, cooling, and networking suppliers we profiled in a free report here: 7 Stocks Powering the AI Boom (That Aren't Chipmakers).
What makes today unusual is the backdrop. Long-end Treasury yields fell hard on Treasury Department plans to at least double buybacks of 10-year to 30-year debt, and that relief normally lifts high-multiple growth names. Equipment stocks selling into that tailwind points to AI capex repricing rather than a rates problem.
The trigger is a sharper debate over how much AI infrastructure spending is actually locked in. The Wall Street Journal reported that nine top tech companies carry roughly $3 trillion of off-balance-sheet commitments mostly tied to AI, growing faster than traditional capital expenditures that totaled about $600 billion over the past year. Those obligations were about triple what those companies owe under outstanding leases and long-term borrowings.
Model economics added to the anxiety. Anthropic told investors its annualized revenue run rate reached $65 billion at the end of July, and OpenAI's run rate recently reached $40 billion. Both figures landed below expectations circulating among investors. reported that Anthropic is projecting 2028 revenue of $190 billion to $200 billion, a figure that also sits below some investor projections.
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