SoftBank wipes out about $32 billion in market cap as Asian AI stocks slide on valuation jitters (www.cnbc.com)

Asian AI-linked stocks slid sharply Wednesday, led by a 10% drop in SoftBank and an over 8% fall in semiconductor tester Advantest, as the sell-off tracked declines among U.S. peers. The weakness followed an roughly 8% decline in Palantir overnight — despite the company beating third-quarter expectations — underscoring that stretched valuations, not fundamentals, are driving recent moves. Traders described the broader AI theme as one of the market’s most crowded trades, and profit-taking or de-risking pushed prices lower across software, hardware and investor-linked names. For the AI/ML community, the episode matters because it signals a re-pricing of risk across the ecosystem: hyper-high multiples on AI beneficiaries can unwind quickly, creating episodic volatility that affects funding, hiring, and partnerships. Technical implications include potential pressure on capital-intensive parts of the stack (chipmakers, test-and-measure vendors and AI infrastructure firms) and a sharper emphasis by investors on revenue durability and margins rather than growth narratives alone. The disconnect between earnings beats and stock performance also suggests sentiment and valuation metrics may temporarily outweigh fundamentals, so teams and startups should prepare for tighter financing conditions and more scrutiny on unit economics.