U.S. stocks in freefall, NVIDIA down 8.49% as U.S. hits China with AI chip restrictions

U.S. stocks see major losses, tech stocks fare the worst as Nvidia risks a $5.5 billion revenue loss due to export restrictions on China.

After this week’s relatively low volatility, U.S. stocks are tumbling again. This time, tech stocks and Nvidia were leading the declines. On Wednesday, April 16, Nasdaq was trading at 16,216.68, losing 606.49 points or 3.61%.

Still, the rest of the market also suffered, as investors turned bearish due to fears of a trade war. Dow Jones fell 613 points or 1.55%, trading at 39,742.32. At the same time, the S&P 500 was down 125.78 points or 2.33%.

The recent Bank of America survey suggests that recession fears are growing, with a net 42% of investors expecting a global recession. Notably, this is the fourth highest level this figure has been in 20 years.

Investors are also looking to cut their exposure to the U.S. dollar, with nearly 61% believing that the USD would fall in the next 12 months. At the same time, safe haven assets like gold are on the rise.

The stock market decline also impacted Bitcoin (BTC), which reached a daily low of $83,100 before stabilizing at $84,233. Despite its higher volatility, Bitcoin remained relatively resilient compared to the U.S. market.

Nvidia leads market declines

Leading the declines was Nvidia, down 8.49% to $102, after estimating a major loss in revenue. Namely, the company projected that Washington’s new restrictions on AI chip exports to China would cost it a total of $5.5 billion in expected revenue losses for the first quarter of 2025.

According to the company, the U.S. government informed it that it would need an export license to sell its H20 chips to China. These advanced AI chips are used to train AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Washington is concerned about the potential for China to use these chips to train its own AI models, like those of DeepSeek.

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