Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) fell 5% Tuesday, with Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) and Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) both around 3% and NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) off 2%, as the 30-year Treasury yield hit its highest level since 2007. This is not a broad rout.
The Invesco QQQ Trust lost 1.4% and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF dropped 4.3%, while the equal-weight S&P 500 edged up 0.2%. The pain is heavily concentrated in tech and AI names. The mechanics are straightforward.
Higher yields make future earnings worth less today, and tech valuations lean heavily on earnings far in the future. They also make the enormous AI infrastructure buildout more expensive to finance. Bokeh Capital's Kim Forrest told that higher yields mean a tighter borrowing environment, a particular problem for AI investment where the payback period remains uncertain.
Renewed U.S.-Iran tensions added to Tuesday's bond pressure by keeping oil elevated and inflation concerns alive, but the rise in long-term yields predates Tuesday's move. Janney Chief Fixed Income Strategist Guy LeBas argues the rise in yields is not primarily an inflation story. Real yields are climbing across the U.S., Germany and Japan, suggesting a broader increase in the real cost of capital as governments borrow heavily and companies pour money into AI and data-center investment.
Asked by Benzinga how much of the pressure comes from fiscal borrowing versus the AI buildout, LeBas said there is "zero way to distinguish" between them, and that the effects are probably nonlinear. Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Oracle issued about $194 billion in bonds through July 7, up 79% from all of 2025, according to and LSEG data. Joseph Wang, a former senior trader on the New York Fed's Open Market Desk, argued that AI debt does not appear to be literally crowding out Treasuries.
If it were, he notes, dealer coupon holdings would likely be building and swap spreads would likely show balance-sheet stress, neither of which he sees evidence for. Prediction market traders think rates could continue higher. The 10-year Treasury yield was around 4.73% Tuesday, after earlier climbing toward 4.75%.
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