Why AI Stocks Are Down Today on Fears of Data Center Limits
AI stocks fell for a second day on November 5, 2026 on fears Democrats will limit new data centers, CNBC reported. At 10:53 a.m. ET Nvidia was 2.7% below its 2026 start, and by 11:21 a.m. it was about even. A J.P. Morgan strategist sees the main risk in 2028 projects, since most 2027 power is already being built.
The short answer. Chipmakers fell on worries that new Democratic majorities and governors will slow data center building, CNBC reported. For much of the morning, Nvidia had given back its whole 2026 gain. Where those sites go matters beyond stocks, because data centers make up about 90% of new requests for power on the Texas grid, Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office says. J.P. Morgan sees the main risk in data centers due in 2028. Abbott has already ordered a halt to new data center permits in Texas.
Show the data
| Data center power | J.P. Morgan estimate |
|---|---|
| Due to switch on in 2027 | 37 GW |
| Share of the 2027 power already under construction | 75% |
| Due to switch on in 2028 | 96 GW |
| 2028 power that may face a pause | 37.5 GW |
| 2028 power that may face conditions | 15 GW |
Three numbers from the AI stock slide on November 5, 2026
On this page
- Why AI stocks are down today
- How much of their 2026 gains have AI stocks lost?
- Is the Texas data center moratorium a law?
- Which AI data centers could the new limits hit?
- Are AI chipmakers still forecasting sales growth?
- Can AI data centers be built somewhere else?
- How often has QQQ fallen 4% in a day?
- Frequently asked questions
Why AI stocks are down today
Investors are selling AI stocks on worries that new Democratic majorities and governors will make data centers, the giant buildings full of computers that run AI, harder to build, CNBC and Reuters reported. None of Nvidia, AMD, Micron and Broadcom had put out news on its sales, forecasts or spending today by 11:32 a.m. ET.
CNBC’s live markets page, updated at 10:16 a.m. ET, said investors “fear that a Democratic sweep of both chambers of Congress as well as victories in key gubernatorial races could spell more regulation of the AI buildout across the country.” Reuters reported the same link at 5:57 a.m. ET. It said chip and AI infrastructure stocks fell again “including in some key data-center states, where public opposition to the industry’s rapid expansion has been growing.”
The chipmakers themselves had little news. None had filed a current report, the form companies send the SEC, the US market regulator, for big news, by 11:32 a.m. ET. An 8:00 a.m. ET release from IBM named AMD as a partner in a quantum computing research platform. Micron answered a report from Taiwan. Taiwan’s Central News Agency said at 8:04 a.m. ET that Bloomberg News had reported a near halt in work on Micron’s new memory chip plant in Taoyuan, over a labor dispute. Micron told the agency its operations in Taiwan are running normally and that it expects to keep negotiating with its Taoyuan union.
Democrats won majorities in both the House and the Senate on Tuesday, CNBC reported, and Gina Hinojosa won the Texas governor’s race. In July she called for a moratorium on data centers, which means a pause on building them. Neither she nor Governor Greg Abbott had posted a new data center order on their news pages by 10:28 a.m. ET. Texas holds about 27% of the power planned for US data centers, a Wells Fargo estimate CNBC cited on Wednesday.
At their lows at 10:53 a.m. ET, AMD and Micron were each down more than 17%. QQQ, a fund that tracks the 100 largest non-financial companies traded on the Nasdaq, was down 6.4%. All three then won back part of the fall, as the table in the next section shows.
The selling spread to Asia overnight. Memory maker SK Hynix fell 9.03% and chip tester Advantest 11.69% there, CNBC reported. Wednesday’s first day of the slide hit the builders of data centers hardest, which StockTitan covered on November 4. Today the chipmakers took the bigger blow.
One analyst named a reason beyond politics. Michael Cembalest of J.P. Morgan Asset Management wrote on November 4 that “the recent AI market selloff appears influenced by a heavy bout of hedge fund profit-taking,” meaning big investment funds selling to lock in gains.
How much of their 2026 gains have AI stocks lost?
Nvidia lost all of its 2026 gain for much of the morning, and at 11:21 a.m. ET it was just 0.1% above where it began the year. AMD and Micron are still up a lot for the year, though each has given back about half of its rise.
Nvidia ended 2025 at $186.50 a share. It reached its highest close of 2026 on October 6, then slid back over the following month. Today it fell as low as $181.55 at 10:53 a.m. ET.
The stocks that fell hardest today had climbed the most. AMD is still up about 101% for the year and Micron about 148%.
Both still stand more than 30% below their highs, though. Broadcom has fallen further than Nvidia and trades well below where it ended 2025.
| Stock | Close, Dec 31, 2025 | 2026 high close (date) | Price at 11:21 a.m. ET | Today | Change in 2026 | Below the high | Share of the 2026 rise lost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nvidia (NVDA) | $186.50 | $239.24 (Oct 6) | $186.70 | -6.7% | +0.1% | -22.0% | Nearly all |
| AMD | $214.16 | $649.42 (Oct 6) | $429.89 | -12.0% | +100.7% | -33.8% | 50% |
| Micron (MU) | $285.41 | $1,213.56 (Jun 25) | $708.15 | -11.0% | +148.1% | -41.6% | 54% |
| Broadcom (AVGO) | $346.10 | $481.57 (Jun 2) | $304.81 | -6.4% | -11.9% | -36.7% | All of it, and more |
| Nasdaq-100 fund (QQQ) | $614.31 | $759.66 (Oct 6) | $660.79 | -4.5% | +7.6% | -13.0% | 68% |
Source: StockTitan real-time Nasdaq data at 11:21 a.m. ET on November 5, 2026, against the November 4 official close; StockTitan daily closing prices for 2025 and 2026.
Is the Texas data center moratorium a law?
No. Hinojosa’s moratorium is a call she made as a candidate, and she takes office in January. Texas already has limits, though, ordered by its Republican governor, Greg Abbott.
Hinojosa’s campaign release of July 23 asked Abbott to sign “an emergency executive order putting a moratorium on data centers until the legislature meets.” In plain terms, she wanted the sitting governor to stop new data centers by order until lawmakers could act. The release does not say what would happen to projects already being built. In victory remarks her campaign posted on November 4, she said, “in January, I will take the oath of office.”
Abbott acted before she could. His August 3 directive ordered an audit of every data center waiting to connect to the Texas grid, which the state “must complete … before any data center project moves forward.” On September 21 he told the state’s environmental agency to “halt all permits sought by data centers” until that audit is done.
Both sides of the Texas race name the same two worries, power bills and water. Hinojosa said in her July 23 release that data centers are “guzzling up all our water, guzzling up all our electricity.” She wants them to prove that households will not pay more for either. Abbott’s September 21 order says data centers “must pay their own way, protect our grid and water.”
| Called for, not in force | Ordered by the sitting governor | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Hinojosa: a moratorium on data centers until the Legislature meets | Abbott: no new grid hookups or state permits for data centers until audits end |
| Since when | Asked of Abbott on July 23, 2026; she takes office in January | Grid audit ordered August 3, 2026; permit halt ordered September 21, 2026 |
| What it is | A candidate's demand | A sitting governor's orders, not a law passed by the Legislature |
Other states are moving too. New York’s governor signed an order in July 2026 pausing new hyperscale data centers, the largest sites, built for big tech companies, according to Bloom Energy’s quarterly filing. Bloom also counted at least 86 local moratoriums proposed across the US by May 2026, in a survey it published in June.
Which AI data centers could the new limits hit?
Projects due in 2028 more than those due in 2027, by J.P. Morgan’s estimate. Three quarters of the power set to switch on in 2027 is already under construction.
Limits from new governors are “not an issue for the 37 GW expected to be delivered in 2027, 75% of which is under construction,” Cembalest wrote in his November 4 note. A gigawatt, or GW, is a billion watts of power. His state table uses data from Aterio and SemiAnalysis.
The risk sits in 2028, when he expects 96 gigawatts. Based on the election results, 37.5 gigawatts “may be subject to a ‘pause’” and another 15 gigawatts to “conditions,” he wrote. Those conditions could mean data centers paying grid costs, losing tax breaks or facing water limits.
Texas tops his list of states, with 26.5 gigawatts expected in 2028, more than five times the next state in his table.
A CNBC piece today added a twist. Tighter rules could favor the tech giants that already have data centers running, and squeeze newer rivals that borrowed to catch up.
Are AI chipmakers still forecasting sales growth?
Yes. In their latest results each one forecast more sales, and none has put out a new forecast since.
Show the data
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Micron (quarter to September 3) | 379% |
| Nvidia (quarter to July 26) | 106% |
| Broadcom (quarter to August 2) | 86% |
| AMD (quarter to September 26) | 45% |
Nvidia’s sales rose 106% from a year earlier in the quarter to July 26. It forecast about $108.0 billion for the quarter that ended October 25. CEO Jensen Huang said in an October 21 release that Nvidia’s limit is how much it can make: “Demand is extraordinary. Capacity is the constraint.”
AMD forecast on Tuesday about $17 billion in sales for the last three months of 2026, about 66% more than a year earlier. CEO Lisa Su said demand for its data center chips “continued to strengthen.”
Micron’s sales nearly quintupled to $54.23 billion in the quarter to September 3, and it forecast about $61.5 billion for the next quarter. Arm said on Wednesday that fees from chipmakers using its designs in data centers doubled from a year earlier. It also named a limit: “Power availability is becoming a critical constraint on data center growth.”
The buyers have not cut their plans either. Amazon still expects to spend about $220 billion on buildings and equipment in 2026, it said on October 29, and Meta expects $135 billion to $145 billion. Both set those figures before the election.
| Company | Latest quarter | Sales growth from a year earlier | What it forecast next |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micron | Ended Sept 3, 2026 | 379% ($54.23 billion) | About $61.5 billion for its next quarter |
| Nvidia | Ended July 26, 2026 | 106% ($96.2 billion) | About $108.0 billion for the quarter ended Oct 25 |
| Broadcom | Ended Aug 2, 2026 | 86% ($29.6 billion); AI chips up 221% | About $34.8 billion for the next quarter |
| AMD | Ended Sept 26, 2026 | 45% ($13.4 billion) | About $17 billion for the October to December quarter |
Source: each company’s results release for the quarter shown; Broadcom’s from its Form 8-K exhibit.
Can AI data centers be built somewhere else?
Some builders already work in more than one state. Meta’s president says new US projects will be very hard to start, and Meta is also looking at other countries. No chipmaker has said on the record that demand abroad could fill a gap in the US.
Texas draws so many projects that its grid has a long line. Abbott’s office says Texas faces about 474 gigawatts of requests to connect to its grid, more than five times its record peak demand.
Hut 8, one of the builders that fell on Wednesday, is building a campus in Louisiana as well as a larger one in Texas. It said on November 4 that work at both is on track. Daniel Newman, the head of research firm Futurum Group, wrote on X that chip and infrastructure chief executives told him “if the build slows in the U.S. the demand outside the U.S. is more than sufficient,” as Yahoo Finance reported.
One of the biggest buyers sees the same split. Meta President Dina Powell McCormick said on Wednesday that to start new data center build-outs in the United States “will be very challenging,” The Wall Street Journal reported from its tech conference. She said companies like Meta would have an easier time growing sites they already run, where the community “has felt those benefits.” Meta is also looking at other countries, she said. It is building large data centers in Louisiana, Ohio and Texas.
How often has QQQ fallen 4% in a day?
Since QQQ began trading in March 1999, it has closed down 4% or more on 128 days, and a month later it was higher after just over half of them.
Those days bunch up in a few hard stretches. Most of them, 75, came in the calendar years 2000 to 2002, when the dot-com bubble burst. Most of the rest fell in the 2008 financial crisis, the 2020 pandemic crash and the 2022 slide. The latest was June 5, 2026.
What came next was close to an even split. The median change, the middle result, stayed under 1% one day, one week and one month later. Today joins that list only if QQQ closes 4% or more lower at 4:00 p.m. ET.
| After a 4% drop day | Days the fund was higher | Share | Median change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 trading day later | 67 of 128 | 52% | +0.2% |
| 5 trading days later | 71 of 128 | 55% | +0.8% |
| 21 trading days later | 67 of 128 | 52% | +0.4% |
Show the data
| Calendar years | Days QQQ closed down 4% or more |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 2 |
| 2000 to 2002 | 75 |
| 2003 to 2007 | 3 |
| 2008 to 2009 | 18 |
| 2010 to 2019 | 9 |
| 2020 | 9 |
| 2022 | 8 |
| 2025 to 2026 | 4 (the latest June 5, 2026, down 4.8%) |
Source: StockTitan daily closing prices of the Invesco QQQ fund, March 10, 1999 to November 4, 2026.
What to watch
- Did Nvidia meet its sales forecast, and what does it expect next: its results and its finance chief’s written comments on November 17, 2026.
- Whether Texas turns its orders into law: the bills of the Texas Legislature’s next session and the first orders of Governor-elect Hinojosa, who takes office in January.
- Whether Nvidia ends the day below its 2025 close: StockTitan’s official closing prices after 4:00 p.m. ET.
Our numbers
These figures are our calculations from the sources linked in this article. Today’s figures use the 11:21 a.m. ET price, not the day’s close, and no dividends.
- Today’s moves (Nvidia down 6.7%, Broadcom 6.4%, Micron 11.0%, AMD 12.0%, QQQ 4.5%): the 11:21 a.m. ET price against the November 4 official close.
- The morning lows (AMD down 17.4%, Micron 17.5%, QQQ 6.4%, all at 10:53 a.m. ET): the day’s lowest trade against the November 4 official close.
- Nvidia mostly below its 2026 start from 10:13 to 11:21 a.m. ET: 54 of those 69 minutes ended under its $186.50 close of December 31, 2025, and its low of $181.55 at 10:53 a.m. ET was 2.7% under it.
- Change in 2026 (Nvidia up 0.1%, AMD about 101%, Micron about 148%, Broadcom down 11.9%): the 11:21 a.m. ET price against the December 31, 2025 close.
- Distance below the 2026 high (Nvidia 22.0%, AMD 33.8%, Micron 41.6%, Broadcom 36.7%): the 11:21 a.m. ET price against the highest 2026 close.
- Share of the 2026 rise lost (AMD 50%, Micron 54%, QQQ 68%, Nvidia nearly all): the drop from the 2026 high to the 11:21 a.m. ET price, over the rise to that high.
- 128 days with QQQ down 4% or more, 75 of them in the calendar years 2000 to 2002: every daily close from March 10, 1999 through November 4, 2026, against the close before, counted on StockTitan daily closes.
- Higher afterward on 67, 71 and 67 of the 128 days, with median changes of 0.2%, 0.8% and 0.4%: the QQQ close 1, 5 and 21 trading days later.
- Micron’s sales nearly quintupled, up 379%: $54,229 million in the quarter to September 3, 2026, against $11,315 million a year earlier.
Frequently asked questions
Why are AI stocks down today?
AI stocks fell on November 5, 2026 on fears that Democrats will make data centers harder to build, CNBC reported. Democrats won both houses of Congress and the Texas governor’s race on Tuesday, CNBC reported.
Why is Nvidia stock down today?
Nvidia was down 6.7% at 11:21 a.m. ET with the rest of the AI chip group, on the same worries about limits on data centers. For much of the morning it traded below its $186.50 close of 2025, so its whole 2026 gain was gone. Its next results come on November 17.
Why is AMD stock down today?
AMD was down 12.0% at 11:21 a.m. ET, more than Nvidia, two days after it forecast about $17 billion in sales for the fourth quarter. The news reports cited here gave no separate reason for AMD’s larger fall.
Has Texas passed a data center moratorium?
No law has passed. Hinojosa called for a moratorium as a candidate and takes office in January. Governor Abbott ordered holds on new grid hookups and state permits for data centers until audits are done.
Are AI stocks crashing?
At 11:21 a.m. ET Nvidia, AMD, Micron and Broadcom were down 6% to 12% on the day, and QQQ was down 4.5%. Before today, QQQ had closed down 4% or more on 128 days since March 1999.
Sources
- StockTitan real-time Nasdaq data, November 5, 2026, and StockTitan daily closing prices
- NVIDIA Announces Financial Results for Second Quarter Fiscal 2027, August 26, 2026
- NVIDIA and Supply Chain Partners Expand Capacity, October 21, 2026
- NVIDIA Sets Conference Call for Third-Quarter Financial Results, October 28, 2026
- AMD Reports Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results, November 3, 2026
- Micron Reports Record Fiscal Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2026 Results, September 30, 2026
- Broadcom third quarter fiscal 2026 results, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1, September 2, 2026
- Arm Holdings Reports Results for the Second Quarter of Fiscal 2027, November 4, 2026
- Amazon.com Announces Third Quarter Results, October 29, 2026
- Meta Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results, October 21, 2026
- Hut 8 Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results, November 4, 2026
- Hut 8 Reports First Quarter 2026 Results, May 6, 2026
- Hut 8 Fully Commercializes 1 GW Beacon Point AI Data Center Campus, July 20, 2026
- J.P. Morgan, Eye on the Market, Michael Cembalest, November 4, 2026
- Office of the Texas Governor, Governor Abbott directs a data center audit, August 3, 2026
- Office of the Texas Governor, Governor Abbott directs TCEQ to halt data center permits, September 21, 2026
- Hinojosa campaign release on a data center moratorium, July 23, 2026
- Governor-elect Hinojosa victory remarks, November 4, 2026
- Invesco QQQ fund page
- Bloom Energy Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026
- Bloom Energy data center power survey, June 15, 2026
The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendation, or an endorsement of any particular investment strategy. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.