Giant tech firms including Apple, Tesla and Alphabet have been of wiped out of trillions of dollars amid a global stock sell off, fuelled by investors’ worries that the Federal Reserve had left it too late to cut rates and prevent a major downturn.

The sell-off was further exacerbated by disappointing earnings from big tech giant Apple, Intel and Amazon that triggered concerns over artificial intelligence (AI), combined by US job data analysis that sparked fears of potential recessionary signals.

Over the weekend, billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway halved its stake in Apple, further deflating more of the optimism generated by the potential of AI during the past months and raised worries about the outlook for the tech industry.

Share price of Nvidia and Apple fell over thirteen percent after the firm reported that the launch of its upcoming AI chips could be delayed by three months due to design flaws, potentially impacting customers such as Meta, Google and Microsoft.

Apple lost seven percent on Nasdaq, with Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Tesla also falling between four and ten percent.

The so-called Magnificent Seven’s combined market value lost at least $3.2 trillion as a result, according to AJ Bell analysis.

Shares in US chipmaker Intel also suffered a sharp fall of six percent in its biggest drop fifty years. Chip stocks of other chipmakers including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Super Micro Computer and Broadcom falling as much as 10.3 per cent.

"Expectations have arguably become too high for the so-called Magnificent Seven group of companies. Their success has made them untouchable in the eyes of investors and when they fall short of greatness, out come the knives," Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, said.

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