AI Shakeup in Tech: Resilience Amid Market Volatility

In the past 48 hours, the AI industry faces a stark market downturn amid surging capital expenditures and disruption fears. US equity markets saw sharp declines, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 both dropping 1.4 percent, and the Dow Jones falling 1.2 percent, driven by AI concerns across sectors.[1] Big tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet are projected to spend over 600 billion dollars on AI capex in 2026, wiping nearly 1.5 trillion dollars from their combined market value in recent weeks and pushing the Nasdaq 100 into negative territory for the year.[3]

Key partnerships signal resilience. On February 16, 2026, Cognizant expanded its alliance with Google Cloud to operationalize agentic AI at enterprise scale, deploying Gemini Enterprise internally and launching client productivity tools via a new Center of Excellence.[2] Google also signed a licensing deal with the Financial Times for AI pilot projects, promising more focused publisher agreements.[4] In infrastructure, Blackstone led over 1 billion dollars in funding for India's Neysa on February 16, aiming to deploy 20,000 GPUs to fuel the country's AI growth.[8]

Emerging pressures include AI tools disrupting legal, financial, insurance, and logistics firms, sparking a stock market doom loop.[3] No major regulatory changes or consumer behavior shifts emerged in the last 48 hours, though enterprise adoption of agentic AI accelerates via partnerships.[2]

Compared to prior weeks, this intensifies a two-week sell-off from stretched valuations and delayed ROI skepticism, reversing years of AI-fueled rallies where Meta surged 450 percent and Alphabet 250 percent since late 2022.[3] Leaders like Cognizant respond by building scalable AI ecosystems, integrating tools like Agent Development Lifecycle to deliver business outcomes despite investor jitters.[2] Volatility persists, but funding and deals underscore long-term bets on AI infrastructure.

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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI