Meta Explores Leasing Idle Data Center Resources, Tech Stocks Fall

News of Meta's plan to lease out idle data center resources led to a decline in New York Stock Exchange tech stocks. On July 1 (local time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 13.96 points (0.03%) at 52,305.24, and the S&P 500 index fell 16.13 points (0.21%) to 7,483.23 on the New York Stock Exchange. In particular, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, composed of AI and semiconductor-related stocks, dropped 6.27%.

News emerged that the company is considering creating a new revenue stream by selling surplus computing capacity from its own data centers to external clients, causing Meta's stock price to surge 8.81%. Across the AI industry, concerns arose that Meta's move signals a potential lack of demand for AI services themselves, and that AI infrastructure investment might be reduced due to marketability and profitability considerations. This led to a concentrated sell-off of AI and semiconductor-related stocks, becoming a major factor behind the fall in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. Among the components of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, Micron Technology (-10.48%), Intel, Applied Materials, Lam Research (down over 9%), TSMC, AMD, and ASML (down around 7%) saw significant declines.

Conversely, driven by expectations that Meta's approach to AI infrastructure utilization could expand the cloud services industry, some Big Tech companies such as Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Tesla saw their stock prices rise by more than 1%, while Microsoft gained 3%.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) announced that its Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for manufacturing in June recorded 53.3. This figure is a 0.7-point decrease from the previous month's reading of 54.0 and fell below market expectations of 54.0.

The Federal Reserve Chair stated that while inflation risks have decreased, inflation remains high. This remark influenced the bond market to reverse gains in U.S. Treasury yields. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) rose 0.14 points (0.85%) from the previous session to 16.59.