Caterpillar Shares Slide 4% to Lead Dow Lower as AI Data Center Trade Raises Concern

Caterpillar fell roughly 4% to $783.15 on Monday, September 14, shaving approximately 200 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was down nearly 150 to 284 points at various points in the session. Goldman Sachs and Nvidia also contributed to the Dow's decline, but Caterpillar was the single largest drag on the index.

The selloff centers on investor unease about how much of Caterpillar's recent gains rest on the AI data center construction boom. Power generation sales to users surged 72% in the second quarter of 2026, the first quarter in company history with revenues above $20.5 billion, driven by strong demand for large reciprocating engines and turbines used in data center applications. The stock has gained 38% year to date but is down 8% over the past month, and Monday's move appears to reflect a momentum unwind in the AI-linked portion of the trade rather than any deterioration in the underlying order book.

Caterpillar's fundamentals remain robust by most measures. The company ended Q2 2026 with a record $72 billion backlog, up 92% year over year, with 59% of that expected to ship within the next 12 months. CEO Joe Creed said on the August earnings call that "we haven't seen any customers back off of demand." Deere, by contrast, edged higher on the same session, highlighting the divergence within industrials.

On the analyst front, Monday's biggest calls included attention to Caterpillar alongside Nvidia, Apple, Netflix, Broadcom and others. A separate analysis published the same day argued that Caterpillar stock looks expensive on headline multiples but more reasonable once the $72 billion backlog and expanding margins are factored in. Concerns about the durability of data center demand into 2027 and beyond, amplified by earlier regulatory moves such as New York State's moratorium on large-scale data center permitting, remain a watch item for investors.