U.S. tech stocks continued their decline this week, with the apparent trigger being a potential delay in OpenAI's IPO. However, analysts point out that the deeper threat may be Zhipu's low-cost AI model, which not only impacts corporate clients of OpenAI and Anthropic but also shakes market optimism regarding AI infrastructure spending. Previously, it was reported that OpenAI is considering postponing its initial public offering, partly due to SpaceX's lackluster post-IPO performance and recent heightened volatility in tech stocks. This news served as the immediate catalyst for the latest sell-off.
According to industry sources cited by Jefferies strategist Christopher Wood in a client note, Zhipu's newly launched GLM5.2 model "performs almost as well as Anthropic's, but at a quarter of the cost per token." He characterized the past week as "another DeepSeek moment." During Friday's trading session, Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ: MU) shares fell over 7%, while Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ: AMD) and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) both dropped more than 4%. Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) hit new lows after a five-day losing streak that saw it decline 19%.
Zhipu's Low-Cost Model Disrupts Leading AI Pricing
Zhipu's GLM5.2 model is seen as a core variable in the current pressure on the tech sector. A Jefferies analyst report from Thursday noted that the model is not only highly comparable in performance to Anthropic's flagship product but also offers privacy protection levels that rival top-tier models. Morgan Stanley traders stated on Thursday that Zhipu's new model demonstrates "exceptional programming capabilities" and poses direct competition in the enterprise market. They noted, "The trend of enterprises and hyperscale cloud providers shifting to lower-cost models looks more like a recalibration of AI payment willingness, rather than a decline in AI demand."
Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid also highlighted similar pressures in a June 18 client report, noting that DeepSeek's V4-Pro model performs "comparably to Anthropic's flagship Claude Fable 5 on roughly 90% of daily tasks, but at about 1.5% of the cost."
Enterprise AI Spending Landscape Undergoes Rapid Reshaping
The pricing pressure in AI is already triggering a chain reaction on the enterprise side. In recent months, several companies have begun scaling back AI expenditures or exceeding their original budgets, with token pricing for high-end AI models becoming an increasing pain point. Jefferies analysts further pointed out that if low-cost models also offer reliable privacy protection, enterprises have an incentive to migrate AI workloads from cloud providers back to their own servers, which would fundamentally alter the investment logic for AI infrastructure. "The demand structure is clearly tilting toward low-cost models," wrote Morgan Stanley traders in their report. This trend is putting valuation pressure on stocks related to the Nvidia supply chain, cloud computing platforms, and even data center construction.
OpenAI and Anthropic IPO Prospects Clouded
The rumors of OpenAI's delayed listing, combined with the reality of intensifying competition, are leading the market to adopt a more cautious outlook on the valuation expectations for these leading AI companies. Analysts are concerned that if enterprise clients continue to migrate toward lower-cost models, the revenue growth potential of OpenAI and Anthropic ahead of their potential IPOs could be eroded. Furthermore, a potential price war between them could compress their respective valuation ranges even before going public.
The continuous emergence of cheaper, performance-competitive open-source AI models is seen as a more profound threat to the proposed IPOs of these two companies and the broader tech sector. The market's previous assumption of an "astronomically high growth trajectory" for AI infrastructure spending is now facing significant reassessment pressure.
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