Semiconductor stocks in the United States and Asia fell after chip equipment maker ASML (ASML) cut its annual sales forecast over weak non-AI chip demand. Consequently, a notorious AI chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) which had briefly surpassed Apple (AAPL) as the world's most capitalized company the previous day, dropped 4.5%, wiping out about $158 billion from its market cap, widening the gap with Apple's value of $3.56 trillion.

Other microchip firms, including AMD (AMD), Intel (INTC), Broadcom (AVGO), Micron (MU), fell between 3.2% and 5% at Tuesday's October 15th’s close, which dragged the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index down nearly 5% and weighed on the Nasdaq index (.^IXIC).

U.S.-listed shares of ASML closed 16% down after the Dutch company published results ahead of schedule in an apparent error, reporting weak bookings, lowering forecast, and indicating slower chip demand recovery outside the AI sector. Despite the surge in demand for AI-related chips, the company reported that other segments of the semiconductor market remain weaker than expected, with logic chipmakers delaying orders and memory chipmakers only planning “limited” new capacity additions.