US stock markets have been hit by a fresh wave of AI jitters after a speculative report from little-known firm Citrini Research went viral, unnerving investors and triggering a sell-off in shares of major companies including Uber, Mastercard and American Express.
The report, posted on Substack and described as a 'scenario, not a prediction', portrays a near future in which autonomous AI agents upend the US economy, leading to unemployment above 10% and an Occupy Silicon Valley movement by 2028. Citrini’s scenario outlines a series of events starting now, where widespread use of AI agents gut software companies and ripple through private credit and mortgages, causing an unchecked downward spiral.
The S&P 500 fell more than 1% on Monday, with the software component of the index dropping to its lowest level since President Trump’s 'liberation day' tariff announcement in April. Neil Wilson, an analyst at Saxo Capital Markets, described the report as 'real doomsday porn stuff' that is 'always lapped up by readers and market commentators'. He added: 'I don’t think it’s necessarily going to play out as they see it, but it’s a bit of a wake-up call that the economy already no longer resembles the one just a few years ago.'
Uber, American Express, Mastercard and DoorDash, all specifically named in the Citrini report, lost between 4% and 6% in Monday’s trading. While some of the market wobble is attributed to Trump’s latest tariffs, the viral AI scenario appears to have exacerbated investor anxiety.
