民主党在美国中期选举中的胜利刺破了人工智能泡沫。11月5日周四，以美国科技股为主的纳斯达克指数盘中一度下跌达5.3%，科技股出现全面下跌。前一天的表现曾具有欺骗性：由于民主党取得选举大胜带来的政治不确定性消散，加之亚马逊、微软和谷歌等在近几周财报发布后遭受打击的科技巨头出现反弹，各大指数曾一度上涨。
The Democrats' victory in the US midterm elections has burst the artificial intelligence bubble. On Thursday, November 5, the Nasdaq, the American tech-heavy index, was down as much as 5.3% during trading, with a broad decline across tech stocks. The previous day's performance had been misleading: Indices had risen due to the end of political uncertainty brought by the Democrats' clear electoral win and a rebound in giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google, which had been battered in recent weeks following their earnings reports.
然而，在表象之下，一场风暴已经在酝酿之中。芯片股的崩盘实际上是由前半导体巨头英特尔令人失望的业绩触发的，该业绩释放了需求放缓的信号；此前投资者曾开始相信，由于人工智能的存在，这个高度周期的行业已经变得能够免疫周期波动。“卖铲人”的下跌——指的是在1849年淘金热期间发家致富的公司——随之而来。如今，随着这场人工智能淘金热的到来，提供冷却系统、电气或光纤连接的公司继承了这一地位，它们通过以溢价出售产品和服务，收获了供应短缺带来的红利。
Beneath the surface, however, a storm had already been brewing. The collapse in chip stocks was actually triggered by disappointing results from Intel, the former semiconductor giant, which signaled a slowdown in demand; investors had begun to believe that this highly cyclical business had become immune to cycles because of AI. The decline of the "pick-and-shovel sellers" – a reference to the companies that made fortunes during the 1849 Gold Rush – soon followed. Now, with this AI gold rush, companies providing cooling systems, electrical or optical connections have inherited that status, reaping the benefits of supply shortages by selling their products and services at a premium.