The Financial Times reports that Blackstone, one of the world's largest asset managers, told Anthropic it may not obtain an investment-grade credit rating after its IPO. The qualifier is significant: the report describes a warning about a potential rating outcome, rather than an announced decision by a ratings agency. Formal ratings are assigned by agencies such as S&P Global Ratings, Moody's and Fitch, and a grade at or above the investment-grade threshold — BBB- at S&P and Fitch, Baa3 at Moody's — opens a borrower's debt to a far wider pool of buyers, including institutions whose mandates restrict them to higher-quality credit.

The reported concern adds a financing question to the ongoing debate over AI spending. Investors are already weighing the cost of delivering AI growth, and the prospect of missing an investment-grade rating raises a further issue: how expensive could borrowing become? Lower credit quality can mean higher financing costs and a smaller pool of potential debt investors. The stakes are structural for AI companies, whose buildouts concentrate heavy upfront spending in computing power, data centers and energy, making access to affordable capital a core variable rather than a side detail. No agency decision has been announced, so any published rating assessment or direct comment from the companies involved would be the next factual marker on the question.

The reported market reaction — stocks lower and Treasury notes higher — pointed to a more defensive tone; rising Treasury prices push yields down, a combination typically associated with demand for safer holdings. For AI shares, the focus remains on whether future profits and cash flow can justify the investment required today.

US stocks slid, with the Nasdaq indices leading the declines as concerns over AI spending and financing weighed on sentiment. Both Nasdaq benchmarks are heavily weighted toward technology, so an AI-led selloff tends to weigh most heavily on those gauges. The major benchmarks closed as follows:

• Dow: down 489.07 points, or 0.93%, at 51,859.18
• S&P 500: down 144.75 points, or 1.87%, at 7,575.64
• Nasdaq Composite: down 802.55 points, or 3.06%, at 25,382.18
• Russell 2000: down 58.42 points, or 2.04%, at 2,800.80
• Nasdaq 100: down 1,076.94 points, or 3.66%, at 28,325.57

The selling was broad, but technology remained at the center of the pressure.

AI chip and infrastructure stocks take a beating

The selling across AI chips and related infrastructure names was particularly aggressive. Intel led the declines with a drop of more than 30%, and the pressure extended across memory, connectivity, chip design and data center suppliers:

• Intel: down 30.25% at $64.22
• Sandisk: down 13.38% at $1,152.03
• Astera Labs: down 13.41% at $251.49
• Coherent: down 12.81% at $206.83
• Advanced Micro Devices: down 11.96% at $498.66
• Lumentum: down 11.69% at $812.07
• Arm: down 11.53% at $202.39
• Credo Technology: down 11.46% at $146.34
• Marvell Technology: down 11.36% at $193.54
• Arista Networks: down 8.53% at $168.50
• Applied Materials: down 8.08% at $387.58
• Western Digital: down 8.04% at $363.64

The breadth of the declines was the central concern. Intel had its own earnings disappointment, but double-digit losses across so many related names suggested investors were reassessing the broader AI trade rather than reacting to a single company's results. Strong demand expectations offered less support once investors became more demanding about financing costs, profitability and the cash flow needed to sustain the spending. The declines landed on a sector whose buildout — data centers, chips and the power to run them — is among the most capital-intensive in technology, which is why financing terms keep surfacing at the center of the debate.

For buyers, a cheaper price alone does not establish a floor. The first step is for the selling to slow and for support to build. Until that happens, sellers retain control across much of the group.