AI Stocks Tumble: Intel and Reddit Lose Around 30%

Intel and Reddit plunged about 30% in Friday’s U.S. trading. Amazon, Google parent Alphabet and Sandisk also fell. Weak outlooks and heavy spending on AI infrastructure weighed on tech stocks.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq was down more than 3%, according to Yahoo Finance market data. The stock prices in this article are a snapshot from Friday, October 30, 2026, at around 18:50 Central European Time, while U.S. markets were still open.

The sell-off comes two days after sharp gains in Vertiv and Micron. Data center revenue is still growing rapidly at several companies. But the latest results also show the immense cost of that expansion—and the pressure facing other parts of their businesses.

Intel shares fell about 30.4%. Its fourth-quarter outlook fell well short of expectations: the chipmaker forecast revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion, versus analysts’ estimate of about $17 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.

The past three months told a different story. Revenue from Intel’s data center and AI division jumped 78% to $7.3 billion. The PC division generated $8.1 billion, down 5% from a year earlier, according to Intel’s official quarterly results.

CEO Lip-Bu Tan said higher memory prices and limited supply are making computers more expensive. That is squeezing customers’ budgets and prompting PC makers to adjust their inventories. In his comments on the memory market, he said tough conditions will persist until prices and availability return to normal.

Storage maker Sandisk also suffered a steep share-price drop, despite strong growth. For the quarter ended October 2, the company reported revenue of $11 billion, up 378% year over year. Data center revenue climbed 61% from the previous quarter to $4.8 billion, according to Sandisk’s results. The company supplies storage for AI infrastructure, among other products.

Amazon shares fell about 1.9%. Its cloud business, Amazon Web Services (AWS), delivered its fastest revenue growth in nearly five years, with quarterly revenue rising 39.3% to $46 billion. Businesses use AWS to rent computing power and storage, including for AI applications.

At the same time, Amazon’s free cash flow for the 12 months through September dropped to negative $42.4 billion. Over the same period a year earlier, it had generated $14.8 billion. Amazon said in its quarterly report that the increase in investment was driven mainly by AI.

Free cash flow is the money left after a company’s operations and investments. So negative cash flow does not mean Amazon posted a net loss of $42.4 billion. In fact, the company reported net income of $20.7 billion for the third quarter. Buildings and equipment are often expensed over several years when calculating profit, even though the cash is paid upfront.

Amazon is sticking to its plan to spend about $220 billion in cash on capital investments in 2026.

Alphabet fell about 1.6%. Pressure on the stock began after its quarterly results on Wednesday evening. Shares dropped nearly 13% on Thursday, wiping out $475 billion in market value, according to Yahoo Finance’s updated estimate.

Google executives acknowledged in their earnings briefing that the growth of AI Mode is slowing revenue growth. For now, AI-powered search generates less advertising revenue than traditional search results, Yahoo Finance reported, citing Google’s comments.

Search revenue is not falling, however. Google Search & other grew 12% to $63.35 billion. Google Cloud more than doubled its revenue to $30.7 billion, according to Alphabet’s official results.

Google sees the growing use of AI as an opportunity to generate more revenue down the road. The company says most questions asked in AI Mode lead to follow-up searches. It expects this additional activity to create more opportunities for ads over time.

Reddit shares plunged more than 30 percent. The platform reported revenue growth of 53 percent to $895 million, but daily active users and its revenue outlook both fell short of analyst expectations, according to Yahoo Finance.

Reddit averaged 130.3 million daily active unique users worldwide, up 12 percent from a year earlier. In the United States, however, the figure fell 2 percent to 50.7 million, according to the company’s official quarterly results.

Reddit wants more visitors to log in. The decline in traffic from search engines is one factor, TechCrunch reports. AI-generated answers can resolve questions without users clicking through to Reddit. The shift is also intended to curb AI companies’ use of Reddit content and support paid licensing deals.

The platform will begin testing the change in a handful of countries outside the United States in the fourth quarter. There is no timeline for a global rollout, and it remains unclear which parts of Reddit will still be accessible without an account.