Nvidia, grande queda na madrugada! O "pânico de IA" foi ampliado, instituições fazem declarações em massa!

Local time Thursday, the three major U.S. stock indices opened mixed. As of press time, the Nasdaq fell 0.89%, the Dow rose 0.21%, and the S&P 500 declined 0.4%.

Nvidia’s earnings exceeded expectations again but received a冷淡回应, with its stock price once dropping more than 3%.

Customer relationship management software giant Salesforce released a better-than-expected earnings report, easing investor concerns about the software industry.

Additionally, tech giants like Nvidia, Pinduoduo, and top investment firm leaders have spoken out intensively, agreeing that market panic over AI is significantly exaggerated. AI is not a “disruptor” of the software industry but an important “enabler.” The future mainstream trend is the integration, symbiosis, and iterative upgrading of both.

Popular Chinese concept stocks all declined, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index dropping over 2%, KE Holdings down more than 6%, Baidu Group and Li Auto down over 5%, Bilibili nearly 5%, XPeng Motors over 4%, Alibaba, JD.com, Ctrip, and New Oriental down over 2%.

Salesforce’s performance exceeds expectations

One of the biggest victims of the recent software sell-off—customer relationship management software giant Salesforce—released a quarterly report better than market expectations.

The report shows that for the fiscal quarter ending January 31, Salesforce’s revenue was $11.2 billion, up 12% year-over-year, slightly above the market expectation of $11.18 billion, and the fastest growth in two years. Adjusted earnings per share were $3.81, far exceeding the expected $3.04. Meanwhile, the contract value expected to be recognized within the next year—remaining performance obligations (CRPO)—reached $35.1 billion, higher than the market forecast of $34.53 billion.

Salesforce remains optimistic about short-term prospects. The company expects revenue of $11.03 to $11.08 billion in the first quarter, with adjusted EPS of $3.11 to $3.13, both above analyst expectations. The company also projects annual revenue growth of 10% to 11%, with organic growth expected to accelerate in the second half.

Furthermore, Salesforce announced a new $50 billion share repurchase plan and increased quarterly dividends to $0.44 per share. The company stated these measures “strengthen our commitment to creating significant value for shareholders.” CEO Marc Benioff explicitly said during the analyst call that buybacks are happening because “the current price is very low.” The company also disclosed that its investment in AI startup Anthropic yielded $811 million this quarter, with additional investments, and now holds about 1% of the company.

Benioff emphasized in the statement that the company is steadily progressing toward its goal of $63 billion in annual revenue by fiscal 2030, a figure higher than the previous estimate of $60 billion and surpassing Wall Street’s current forecast of approximately $59.07 billion. Benioff stated that intelligent AI agents are one of the growth drivers.

Since the beginning of the year, Salesforce’s stock has fallen 27%, and it is considered a victim of the AI boom.

Industry leaders collectively speak: AI’s threat to the software industry is exaggerated

Apart from Salesforce, the entire software sector has faced difficulties. Oracle, Accenture, and others have seen declines of over 20% since the start of the year. However, industry consensus generally believes that the threat of AI to the software industry is overstated.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said after the Wednesday earnings release that the market has seriously misjudged AI’s threat to software companies. He stated that AI assistants will not replace existing software tools but will instead become users of these tools, helping software companies significantly improve development and operational efficiency. “Tools like Cadence, ServiceNow, SAP have fundamental and legitimate reasons for existence. AI will represent human users of these tools, and ultimately, work still depends on these tools, with feedback in a human-understandable manner.”

Sequoia Capital partner and co-leader Alfred Lin also refuted the idea that “AI will overthrow the software industry.” He pointed out that artificial intelligence itself is a “collection of a large number of software,” and the software industry is always evolving. Traditional software companies like Oracle remain highly competitive, demonstrating the industry’s resilience. Lin believes that AI’s long-term impact is overall positive for enterprises, acting as an “efficiency amplifier” rather than replacing humans or destroying existing business models.

Renowned growth investment firm Baidu also provided its assessment of the software industry’s development from the perspective of market fundamentals and investment strategy. Baidu believes that recent market reactions to AI news are much faster than assessments of company fundamentals. While changes in software construction methods are real, they will not damage all software business models. The core value of software companies lies not only in code but also in their comprehensive service systems, including business support, compliance services, tool integration, and user experience. This is a key reason why companies will not replace software subscriptions with custom AI in the short term. Developing internal AI tools involves high maintenance costs and significant regulatory and operational risks, making collaboration with professional software providers more cost-effective. Baidu also pointed out that cases like OpenAI’s Frontier platform show that leading AI providers are focused on enabling rather than replacing existing enterprise systems. Core business software such as customer management databases and financial programs will continue to exist long-term, accounting for about 50% of the enterprise software market, and their valuations have already shown noticeable dislocation amid the industry downturn.