Tesla Roadster Flies and Stock Pops as AI Overspending Fears Drag Chip Stocks Lower

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the long-awaited next-generation Roadster on Thursday night at SpaceX's facility in Waco, Texas, after a two-week delay and nearly a decade of missed deadlines. The vehicle uses compressed air thrusters borrowed from SpaceX technology to hover in the air and perform maneuvers, and Tesla claimed it is the world's fastest production car with a sub-one-second 0-to-60 mph time. Musk said the Roadster would not enter production until 2028 and did not disclose a price. Tesla shares rose as much as 5.4% in Friday premarket trading on the news, while SpaceX also gained more than 1%, boosted further by a price target increase from Evercore ISI and rival Blue Origin's announcement of plans to ramp New Glenn launches to multiple flights per week by decade's end.

The premarket session was otherwise clouded by a tech selloff driven by renewed concerns about artificial intelligence overspending. A closely watched chip index had already fallen for seven consecutive sessions, and CoreWeave led the damage, dropping more than 15% for its worst day since February, as investors questioned the return on AI infrastructure investment. Dell shed about 11%, Nebius fell roughly 10%, and Oracle slipped more than 8%, with all four stocks sharing heavy exposure to the AI data center buildout that investors are now scrutinizing.

Netflix added to the negative sentiment after co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters announced the company's largest round of layoffs in four years, cutting approximately 1,000 positions. Sarandos had said only weeks earlier that the company was not growing as fast as he wanted. Netflix shares slid in premarket trade ahead of its upcoming quarterly earnings report. Strategy, Klaviyo, and MicroStrategy, the last of which was tracking broader digital asset volatility, also moved lower.

On the earnings front, Citizens Financial Group reported third-quarter results before the open, beating earnings per share estimates but missing revenue expectations, sending shares down more than 5%. Travelers Companies also reported Q3 results, with Wall Street having expected diluted EPS of roughly $6.77, down about 17% year over year, and the stock slid in premarket trading. Alcoa was a bright spot, rising more than 2% after reporting adjusted Q3 EPS of $1.82, well above the $1.54 consensus estimate, though its $3.7 billion in revenue fell short of the $3.78 billion forecast.