"Reduction storm" hits Sino-US AI! After the enthusiasm, will the strongest track fall out of favor?

Overnight, the AI sector of the US stock market fell across the board, with many AI concept stocks plummeting. C3.ai, a technology giant owned by Tom Siebel, fell 10.8% on Friday and fell 25% for the week. SoundHound.ai fell 10.3%, Guardforce AI fell nearly 5.2%, Palantir Tech Tech and Bullfrog AI fell 14% and 11% respectively for the week, and BigBear.ai fell more than 6% for the week.

At the same time as the stock price plummeted, a mighty "reduction storm" is sweeping through the US stock market AI sector, with "computing power leader" NVIDIA at the forefront.

It is reported that Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, a asset management institution owned by the Rothschild family, a veteran European financial family, has significantly reduced its holdings of NVIDIA. Benjamin Melman, the company's global chief investment officer (CIO), recently revealed that the NVIDIA position he currently holds is "much smaller" than in the past.

Last week, Harvey Jones, a long-term member of NVIDIA's board of directors, sold nearly 120,000 shares of NVIDIA stock at a price of $400-408.51 per share, cashing out $48.3 million.

In addition to the $28 million in stock sold on June 2, Jones has sold more than $76 million worth of NVIDIA stock since the beginning of this month.

Also last week, NVIDIA board member Tench Coxe sold 50,000 shares of NVIDIA stock at an average price of $422.15, earning more than $21 million. At the end of May, he sold 100,000 shares at an average price of $379 per share, worth $37.9 million.

After two transactions, Coxe has sold nearly $60 million worth of NVIDIA stock.

In addition, Oracle founder Larry Ellison exercised expiring options this week and acquired 5.25 million shares of stock at a price of $30.11 per share. At the same time, Ellison sold the same number of Oracle shares at an average price of $121.98 per share, cashing out $640 million.

This is Ellison's first sale of Oracle stock in more than two years, and not long ago, Oracle's stock price hit a record high, with a total market value of more than $346 billion, making Ellison the world's fourth richest person, surpassing Microsoft founder Bill Gates. The "reduction wind" not only swept overseas, but also blew into the A-share market in China.

On the evening of June 20th, Kunlun, a leading AI concept stock, announced that its second largest shareholder and founder Zhou Yahui's ex-wife Li Qiong reduced her holdings by 2.2 billion yuan, and half of the money will be lent to Kunlun with an annual interest rate of 2.5%. After this move, netizens exclaimed "the second Jia Yueting".

In fact, after the AI sector soared this year, at least 9 AI companies' major shareholders in A-shares have divorced, causing changes in company equity, such as Forbon and 360.

"Wealth Myth" shattered?

Since ChatGPT became popular, artificial intelligence has triggered an investment frenzy and created a wave of "wealth myths" globally.

The most explosive listed company is undoubtedly Nvidia. As of the overnight closing of the US stock market, Nvidia's stock price has risen by more than 190% this year, and its current market value exceeds 1 trillion US dollars.

In addition, BigBear.ai has risen by 247% this year, C3.ai by nearly 198%, Meta by 140%, Palantir Tech by 119%, Tesla by 108%, Soundhound.ai by 107%, Amazon and Oracle by 54% and 46% respectively, and Microsoft and Google by 40% and 39% respectively.

As stock prices continue to rise, the net worth of tech giants is also soaring.

According to media reports, since the beginning of this year, the personal wealth of four billionaires, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, and Nvidia founder Huang Renxun, has increased by a total of 150 billion US dollars (approximately RMB 1 trillion).

In addition, the latest data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows that except for the stock god Buffett and Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury goods giant LVMH, the top ten on the Bloomberg Rich List are all in the technology field, and their total wealth has increased by more than 400 billion US dollars this year.

In addition to US tech giants, domestic tech companies have also benefited from the AI boom. Since the beginning of the year, Hongbo Shares, CASIT, and Wanxing Technology have all risen by about 4 times, Jinbridge Information and Cambricon have risen by more than 3 times, Kunlun has risen by nearly 250%, and Shenzhou Taiyue and DR Foxit Software have risen by more than 2 times.

For many investors, it's hard to predict whether AI will usher in a new round of technological revolution. After the stock price repeatedly hit new highs, perhaps it's the best opportunity to "take profits and run".