US stock futures dipped on Tuesday, pausing a record-setting rally as investors absorbed a fresh wave of artificial-intelligence spending plans alongside fading expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts. The mixed market mood, marked by a 200-point fall in Dow futures, spread to crypto, where AI-focused tokens outperformed the broader digital asset market while bitcoin faced headwinds from a more hawkish macro outlook.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise surged 29% after pulling forward long-term targets on AI server demand, while Marvell Technology jumped 21% after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called it a potential “trillion dollar company” at Computex Taipei. These moves underscored the scale of AI infrastructure buildout, lifting tokens closely tied to the trend. At the same time, Alphabet slid 4% on news it would raise $80 billion—including a $10 billion investment from Berkshire Hathaway—to fund its own AI infrastructure, highlighting the capital intensity of the AI race.
In the crypto sphere, AI-linked tokens such as Fetch.ai (FET), SingularityNET (AGIX), and Render (RNDR) saw heightened buying interest as traders rotated into projects seen as beneficiaries of accelerating AI adoption. Broader market sentiment, however, remained cautious. Money-market pricing now shows traders have largely priced out rate cuts for 2026 and are assigning growing odds to a hike, as fresh job openings data and upcoming comments from Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack will offer further clues. Geopolitical tensions—including US-Iran negotiations and potential supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz—added another layer of uncertainty, keeping bitcoin and ether in a narrow range.
The divergence between AI crypto tokens and the rest of the market echoes a pattern seen in traditional equities, where enthusiasm for AI-linked stocks has so far outweighed macro concerns.
