Shares of technology companies fell amid fears about social-media court rulings and the implications of a new Alphabet product for memory chip demand.
In one landmark case, a New Mexico jury found Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms liable for failing to protect young people from online dangers including solicitation, sexually explicit content and human trafficking. Just a day later, California jurors found Meta and Google's YouTube negligent for operating a product that harmed children and teens and failed to warn about those dangers. Meta Platforms fell almost 8% while Alphabet slid about 3%.
Shares of Micron Technology, the largest American maker of memory chips, plunged for a second straight session after Google unveiled technology this week that could reduce the amount of memory needed in AI models. The onerous computing requirements for AI models had bolstered shares of Micron and rival storage and memory-chip stocks such as Sandisk, Western Digital and Seagate Technology. The iShares SOX Semiconductor index fell by roughly 4%.
Uber Technologies announced it is launching the first commercial robo-taxi service in Europe, partnering with China's self-driving technology company Pony.ai and closely held Verne, which will manage the fleet of robo-taxis.
Shares of MARA Holdings rose after the company disclosed the sale of $1.1 billion worth of Bitcoin to support its expansion into AI computing. Bitcoin slid during Thursday's flight from risk, dropping below $70,000 once again.
Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-26-26 1723ET
