CNBC Daily Open: It’s a bad time to be a tech investor — or employee

October’s job losses in the U.S. were nearly twice as high as a month earlier — the steepest for any October since 2003, data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed.

The technology sector was the hardest hit, with 33,281 cuts, almost six times September’s total.

Being laid off is an awful feeling — and it must feel bitterly ironic to work in a field that’s developing the very technology making you redundant.

One person spared both redundancy fears and existential doubt is Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who just had a nearly $1 trillion pay package approved by Tesla shareholders.

To earn the full trillion, though, Musk has to meet a chain of performance targets, culminating in Tesla reaching an $8.5 trillion valuation.

Its market cap is currently $1.54 trillion — by contrast, the world’s most valuable company now is Nvidia, which briefly hit a $5 trillion valuation last Wednesday.

After Thursday’s slump in tech stocks, however, Nvidia’s market cap has dipped to a “mere” $4.57 trillion.

Other tech companies, such as Microsoft, Broadcom and Palantir Technologies, also fell broadly over concerns that their stock prices are too high. Those moves dragged the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite down by 1.9%.

For most tech workers and investors, Thursday was another reminder of volatility’s sting. For Elon Musk, it was just another day on the road to the stratosphere.

India has ‘largely stopped’ buying Russian oil. That’s according to U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, who added that he would visit the country in 2026 if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended an invitation.

China’s exports in October contracted. Outbound shipments dropped 1.1% in U.S. dollar terms from a year earlier, the first decline since March 2024. Economists polled by Reuters expected 3% growth.

SoftBank Group is down over $50 billion for the week. Shares of the company slumped as much as 8% on Friday, extending losses from earlier in the week. The moves track a broader decline in AI stocks on Wall Street.

U.S. markets tumble as tech retreats. Major indexes fell Thursday stateside, with the Nasdaq Composite suffering the heaviest losses. Asia-Pacific markets lost ground Friday, weighed by AI-related stocks such as Advantest and SK Hynix.

[PRO] Other companies benefiting from AI spend. Big Tech firms, including Alphabet and Microsoft, are spending $380 billion on AI infrastructure this year. Analysts say there are under-the-radar companies that can ride this wave of investment.

Inside the Gulf’s trillion-dollar AI gamble

After raking in trillions of dollars in oil revenue, the Gulf monarchies have become known for splashing cash on big-ticket projects like sci-fi-worthy cities in the desert, major sports franchises, and advanced military hardware.

Now, though, as they face prolonged lower crude prices, some of the region’s leaders are looking at leveraging their vast sovereign capital to build domestic artificial intelligence industries.

— Emma Graham