US stock futures were steady on Friday after a sharp selloff in technology shares the previous session, as mounting doubts about the durability of artificial intelligence–related investments pressured sentiment. On Thursday, the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.6% and the S&P 500 declined 1.21%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 0.02%. Notable laggards included memory chipmakers Micron (-6.3%) and SanDisk (-8.5%), semiconductor leaders Nvidia (-4.4%) and AMD (-8.1%), as well as Elon Musk–linked companies SpaceX (-9.1%) and Tesla (-3.1%).
The tech-led selloff followed Meta Platforms’ (-7%) announcement of plans to boost capital expenditure, reviving worries that major technology firms may need to take on additional debt to finance an expansion of their AI infrastructure. At the same time, rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East added to the pressure on equities, driving some investors toward the relative safety of government bonds.