Semafor Business & Finance Editor Liz Hoffman: AI Trade Unwinding Will Reach Beyond Silicon Valley to Glass, HVAC and Other Sectors
Semafor Business & Finance editor Liz Hoffman argues that the AI boom has pulled non-Silicon Valley companies such as glassmaker Corning and HVAC manufacturer Carrier into the same valuation logic, meaning the impact of a market unwind will far exceed current expectations. Starting from OpenAI's financing setbacks and SpaceX's debt re-pricing, she demonstrates that FOMO-driven 'can't-lose trades' are evaporating, leaving non-tech companies that previously benefited from AI narrative re-evaluations most exposed.
In a column published on November 9, Semafor Business & Finance editor Liz Hoffman posited a key judgment: the AI trade is unwinding, and its impact will be broader than what markets are currently pricing in. Her core argument rests not on how much any single stock has fallen, but on a structural fact—that this wave of AI enthusiasm has drawn a vast number of industrial companies outside Silicon Valley into the same narrative framework, making them unable to escape when the tide turns.
Hoffman uses two threads to illustrate changes in the funding environment. OpenAI originally planned to raise $30 billion, money it was reportedly able to assemble 'with its eyes closed' just a few months ago, but which now appears likely to shrink significantly. Meanwhile, SpaceX, an investment-grade giant, is being priced in the debt markets like a junk-rated startup. These events alone do not signal the end of the AI era, but Hoffman argues they mark the evaporation of the underlying psychology driving these transactions—the combination of FOMO (fear of missing out) and the 'greater fool' theory of investing.
What adds incremental value to this column is her tracking of 'spillover effects.' Corning’s stock doubled in the first half of 2026 following a $6 billion data center supply agreement with Meta; by early November, almost all those gains had been given back. Modine, formerly a car radiator manufacturer, announced in January that it would spin off its traditional business to become a 'pure-play climate solutions company focused on the high-growth data center market,' yet its stock now trades lower than before that announcement. Hoffman also notes that paint supplier Sherwin-Williams and HVAC manufacturer Carrier are in the midst of their own pivots toward AI.