Nikkei 225 falls more than 7% following AI-related declines on Wall Street

The Nikkei 225 stock average declined more than 7% on Friday morning, falling below 60,000 for the first time since May.

It tracked heavy losses on Wall Street on Thursday, as concerns grew over data center and artificial intelligence investments following the Democratic Party’s resounding victory in the U.S. midterm elections.

By 10:25 a.m., the Nikkei 225 was down 7.09%.

Japanese AI, chip and data center-related stocks were hit hard, with Rohm sliding 20%, Furukawa Electric plunging over 19%, Resonac dropping 15%, Kioxia falling more than 12% and SoftBank Group declining 11%.

The Topix was down more than 6% in Friday morning trade.

Overnight, the Nasdaq composite fell 5.5%, the biggest drop since April 2025, and the S&P 500 declined 4.4%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which measures the performance of the 30 largest U.S. semiconductor-related stocks, plunged 12.3%.