However, analysts in the stock market say that the short-term speed control aspect is stronger than the "peakout" of AI demand, and there will be no change in mid- to long-term growth.
On the 26th (local time), shares of GE Vernova (5.5%) and Vistra (5.9%) received strong adjustments, including a 10.9% drop in Virtiv Holdings, a power equipment cooling technology holder, on the New York Stock Exchange.
On the same day, TD Cowen, a Wall Street investment bank, analyzed that MS has canceled a total of 2GW (gigawatt) data center business in the U.S. and Europe over the past six months. TD Cowen had already said in February that it had canceled hundreds of MW (megawatt) capacity leases that Microsoft had signed with at least two data center operators.
As a result, AI infrastructure stocks, which had surged since last year on the prospect that power shortages would become visible due to aggressive expansion of data centers, faced a severe shock. With an alternative to low-power data centers already emerging due to Dipsey, Big Tech is also concerned that it could significantly reduce investment due to cost burden.
As AI infrastructure stocks fell sharply, the return on related exchange-traded funds (ETF) also plunged. In the past month, KODEX AI power core facilities fell 12.5% and PLUS Global AI Infrastructure fell 11.6%. It is an ETF that mainly contains value chains related to data center operation such as power devices, nuclear power plants, and liquid cooling.
On the 27th, HD Hyundai Electric fell 8.7% from the previous day and Hyosung Heavy Industries fell 6.93%. HD Hyundai Electric, which reached 450,000 won during the day in January due to expectations for North American transformer exports, fell to 304,000 won on the same day, returning to its stock price level in October last year.
However, some predict that AI infrastructure performance will not be shaken because Microsoft has briefly started adjusting the speed of investment in data centers, but the size of investment has not decreased significantly.
TD Cowen also predicted that overall data center demand will increase further as Google and Meta fill MS' investment gap. Microsoft withdrew its data center lease as it decided not to make new investments in open AI training, but other big techs continue to increase their investment in hyperscale data centers that run more than 100,000 servers.
[Reporter Kim Jerim]
