Tech stocks lost ~$1.3T at the Nov 5, 2026 open. Midterms and a Texas data-center moratorium threat hit suppliers: $SNDK -15%, $WDC -13%, $NBIS -13%, $AMD -12%.
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Tech stocks fell hard at the open on Thursday, November 5, 2026 because the market is repricing how fast America can keep building AI data centers. Democrats won both chambers of Congress and the Texas governor's race on November 3. Texas holds roughly 27% of planned US data-center capacity, and the new governor-elect campaigned on a moratorium. On Wednesday the builders sold off. On Thursday it reached the chip, memory and storage suppliers whose revenue depends on that buildout: SanDisk ($SNDK) -15%, Western Digital ($WDC) -13%, Nebius ($NBIS) -13%, AMD ($AMD) -12%.
👉 Watch the damage by layer: the Memory Supercycle basket and the Storage basket track the names that fell hardest, with live prices and two-year performance.
The Kobeissi Letter put the opening damage at about $1.3 trillion of US tech market cap in roughly 30 minutes, with the Nasdaq 100 down about 4%. Investing.com's index feed showed the US Tech 100 down 4.48% (about 1,270 points) by mid-morning, the Nasdaq Composite down 3.85%, the S&P 500 down 2.38% and the VIX up 41% to 23.4.
We checked the $1.3 trillion against Macroplane's own market-cap data for the 20 names on Kobeissi's list. Taking each company's market cap at 10:30 a.m. ET and backing out the reported percentage drop, those 20 stocks alone lost about $1.32 trillion. The headline number holds up, and almost all of it sits in this one list.
| Company | Move at the open | Approx. market cap lost |
|---|---|---|
| Nvidia ($NVDA) | -5% | $283B |
| Tesla ($TSLA) | -10% | $163B |
| TSMC ($TSM) | -7% | $155B |
| AMD ($AMD) | -12% | $115B |
| SpaceX (SPCX) | -7% | $107B |
| Broadcom ($AVGO) | -5% | $105B |
| Micron ($MU) | -10% | $85B |
| Intel ($INTC) | -9% | $54B |
| SanDisk ($SNDK) | -15% | $35B |
| Palantir ($PLTR) | -8% | $30B |
| Oracle ($ORCL) | -5% | $27B |
| Arm ($ARM) | -10% | $25B |
| Qualcomm ($QCOM) | -10% | $24B |
| Western Digital ($WDC) | -13% | $24B |
| Seagate ($STX) | -12% | $23B |
| CrowdStrike ($CRWD) | -10% | $17B |
| Marvell ($MRVL) | -10% | $16B |
| Dell ($DELL) | -10% | $16B |
| Nebius ($NBIS) | -13% | $8B |
| CoreWeave ($CRWV) | -8% | $5B |
| Total | ~$1.32T |
Percentage moves from The Kobeissi Letter's opening tally. Dollar losses are Macroplane estimates from 10:30 a.m. ET market caps, so treat them as approximate. Intraday prices moved several points either way during the morning.
Two things stand out in that table. The biggest percentage losers (SanDisk, Western Digital, Seagate) account for only about $82 billion between them. Nvidia, at -5%, lost more than all three combined. And the list is almost entirely suppliers to the AI buildout. The companies that pay for it, Microsoft ($MSFT), Amazon ($AMZN), Alphabet ($GOOGL) and Meta ($META), are not on it.
This wasn't a single-headline crash. It was the second leg of a move that started the day after the election.
Tuesday, November 3 (Election Day). Memory and AI-infrastructure names actually rallied into the vote. SanDisk rose about 7%, and miner-turned-neoclouds Hut 8 ($HUT) and Cipher ($CIFR) gained 16% and 18%, per 24/7 Wall St. and Stock Titan. Overnight, Democrats took both chambers of Congress, and Democrat Gina Hinojosa beat Governor Greg Abbott in Texas, 57% to 41%.
Wednesday, November 4: the builders crack. Hinojosa's campaign had called in July for a statewide moratorium on new data-center permits. CNBC cited Wells Fargo data showing Texas holds about 27% of planned US data-center gigawatts, ahead of Georgia (7%) and Ohio and Pennsylvania (5% each). Jefferies estimated about 13 GW of announced Texas projects are at immediate risk. Goldman Sachs expects Democratic governors in Texas, Georgia and Michigan to consider conditional moratoria, and says the states likely to add restrictions hold 45% of planned US capacity (Motley Fool).
The companies that physically build data centers fell first. Closing moves on Wednesday, per Stock Titan:
The hyperscalers went the other way. Microsoft closed up 6.7%, Amazon 6.1%, Apple ($AAPL) 5.3% and Alphabet 3.2%. Trefis estimated the four big spenders added about $556 billion in market value in a single session. Its summary: "Investors bought the cash, not the AI."
On Wednesday, Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) posted on X that "top of the Democratic agenda on day 1 needs to be a pause on advanced AI development." That is one member's post, not a bill. But it landed on a market that was already pricing slower spending.
Thursday, November 5: it reaches the suppliers. Memory was weak before the bell. SanDisk was down 7%, and Micron and Western Digital about 5%, by 8:47 a.m. ET. At the open the sell-off spread to every chip, memory and storage name tied to AI capex. By 10:11 a.m. Investing.com had SanDisk down 14.3% to $889.
The two days make sense once you lay them out along the supply chain:
Memory and storage took the largest percentage losses because their earnings are the most sensitive to the AI buildout. A slower buildout hits them twice: lower volumes and lower prices. Memory has been priced on scarcity all year. CNBC noted on Wednesday (via Stock Titan) that a slower build-out means "easing pressure on memory chip prices" for buyers like Apple. Cheaper DRAM and NAND are good for Apple and bad for Micron and SanDisk.
The stocks were also priced for perfection. SanDisk is the top performer in both baskets we track it in, up about 2,191% over two years even after this week:
*The Memory Supercycle basket on Macroplane, equal-weighted, two-year view. The right edge shows the November drop from an already declining level.*
SanDisk reported strong numbers only days ago: Q1 FY2027 revenue of $11.03 billion, with data-center revenue of $4.80 billion, up 61% from the prior quarter. That didn't stop Fox Advisors from downgrading it to Equal Weight on November 2, the day before the vote. When a stock has gone up 20-fold, a policy shock gives holders a reason to sell.
The Storage basket, which holds Seagate, Western Digital, SanDisk, Kioxia, Pure Storage and Dell, has the same shape:
Neoclouds sit in an awkward spot in this chain. They are buyers of GPUs, memory and storage, so they don't benefit from lower capex the way the hyperscalers do. They are also builders who need power and permits to turn contracts into revenue. And they were already under pressure from financing.
Macroplane's supply-chain graph for Nebius ($NBIS) shows the dependence. Its biggest disclosed contracts are a five-year Meta agreement worth up to $27 billion and a Microsoft deal of about $17 billion. NVIDIA is its main GPU supplier and holds a 9.3% equity stake. Its US expansion runs through partner campuses such as the 300 MW DataOne site in Vineland, New Jersey. That one is outside Texas, but the market isn't sorting neoclouds by state this week. As we covered in Neoclouds lost the debt market, the bond and asset-backed-loan channels that funded this group mostly closed in late October. A permitting shock on top of a financing shock is why Nebius fell 13% at Thursday's open, after falling about 7% on Wednesday.
Tesla and SpaceX are in a different position from the chip names. Both are Texas-headquartered, and Elon Musk spent at least $474 million on the midterms, including $224 million in Texas, according to CNBC. SpaceX's AI segment (Grok, X and its compute infrastructure) makes it a data-center buyer as well. Musk's answer on Wednesday morning was a post on X: "Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now."
Here's what has changed and what hasn't.
What changed: the policy risk premium on US AI infrastructure. No moratorium has been enacted. Hinojosa takes office in January, and her campaign hasn't said whether projects already under construction would be exempt. But the market now has to price a real chance that the state with more than a quarter of planned capacity slows new permits, and that other states follow.
What hasn't changed: demand and backlogs. Vertiv's Q3 sales rose 61% to $4.3 billion. GE Vernova's backlog reached $197 billion. Comfort Systems' backlog nearly doubled to $17.8 billion. AWS grew 39% last quarter and Azure 48%. Alphabet and Amazon both guided 2027 capex higher. A moratorium in one state moves where data centers get built, and Futurum's Daniel Newman summed it up in four words: "Location is now fungible." Projects can move to other states or abroad, but that takes time, and the market is pricing the delay.
Some context on scale: the Nasdaq 100 had already entered correction territory at the end of October, after a $1 trillion one-day drop on October 30 driven by AI-spending doubts. Bank of America's Michael Hartnett had warned earlier in the year that a Democratic Senate plus a Texas upset could mean a slump of more than 10% into year-end. That scenario is now playing out.
Investors are pricing a slower AI data-center buildout after Democrats won Congress and the Texas governor's race on November 3. Texas holds about 27% of planned US data-center capacity, and the governor-elect campaigned on a moratorium on new data-center permits. Builders fell on November 4. On November 5 the sell-off spread to chip, memory and storage suppliers.
Memory and storage earnings are the most sensitive to AI capex. A slower buildout means fewer drives and chips shipped and lower memory prices. These stocks had also risen the most: SanDisk was up more than 20-fold over two years.
Hyperscalers pay for the buildout. If they spend less, their free cash flow rises. Nvidia, AMD and the memory makers receive that spending as revenue, so lower capex is bad for them.
Not yet. The governor-elect takes office in January. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pushed for a national pause on data-center construction in March 2026, but nothing has passed. Goldman Sachs expects some Democratic governors to consider conditional moratoria.
The Kobeissi Letter estimated about $1.3 trillion in the first 30 minutes. Our estimate for the 20 biggest named losers alone is about $1.32 trillion, with Nvidia accounting for roughly $283 billion.
No. This article is for research and education only. Intraday figures change quickly. Do your own research before making any investment decision.
Investors are pricing a slower AI data-center buildout after Democrats won Congress and the Texas governor's race on November 3. Texas holds about 27% of planned US data-center capacity, and the governor-elect campaigned on a moratorium on new data-center permits. Builders fell on November 4. On November 5 the sell-off spread to chip, memory and storage suppliers.
Memory and storage earnings are the most sensitive to AI capex. A slower buildout means fewer drives and chips shipped and lower memory prices. These stocks had also risen the most: SanDisk was up more than 20-fold over two years.
Hyperscalers pay for the buildout. If they spend less, their free cash flow rises. Nvidia, AMD and the memory makers receive that spending as revenue, so lower capex is bad for them.
Not yet. The governor-elect takes office in January. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pushed for a national pause on data-center construction in March 2026, but nothing has passed. Goldman Sachs expects some Democratic governors to consider conditional moratoria.
The Kobeissi Letter estimated about $1.3 trillion in the first 30 minutes. Our estimate for the 20 biggest named losers alone is about $1.32 trillion, with Nvidia accounting for roughly $283 billion.
No. This article is for research and education only. Intraday figures change quickly. Do your own research before making any investment decision.