A trader who inspired the film The Big Short set off a dramatic sell-off in artificial intelligence and chip stocks in June 2026, according to the BBC, rattling markets and wiping out an estimated $1.4 trillion in value across AI chip stocks, according to Intellectia AI.
The carnage was broad enough to drag Wall Street back to levels not seen in roughly five weeks, BNN Bloomberg reported, erasing weeks of gains built on AI optimism in a matter of days.
The Pioneer Press described the episode as putting Wall Street "back on the roller coaster," with AI stocks swinging sharply as investors tried to gauge whether the sell-off reflected a temporary panic or a deeper reassessment of sky-high valuations in the sector.
Some stabilization followed. The Los Angeles Times reported that Wall Street held steadier as AI stocks clawed back a portion of their losses, though the recovery appeared partial rather than a full reversal.
Intellia AI's analysis framed the episode as a volatility event with both a crash and a recovery phase, suggesting the market absorbed the shock without a sustained collapse — at least in the short term.
The episode is a reminder of how concentrated and sentiment-driven the AI trade has become: a single well-known short-seller can move trillions of dollars in market value almost overnight, exposing just how fragile the consensus around AI's near-term earnings potential may be.