A Sharp Drop in Tempus AI Defies an Otherwise Resilient Tape

The setup — Major indexes pressed to fresh highs during Tuesday's session as software rebounded and commercial nuclear power commitments underscored the energy demands of artificial intelligence. Yet beneath the broad market strength, deep pockets of selling hit speculative tech and data storage names. Healthcare analytics platform Tempus AI dropped nearly fourteen percent on heavy volume. No obvious headline explains why.

What's moving

Big tech's search for baseload power reached another milestone before Tuesday's opening bell as Constellation Energy ($CEG) secured 20-year power purchase agreements with Google ($GOOGL) and Amazon ($AMZN) to support nearly 1.1 gigawatts of nuclear expansion (per Utility Dive). During the session, the U.S. Department of Energy announced plans to loan Vistra ($VST) $4.2 billion to preserve roughly four gigawatts of existing nuclear capacity and add 433 megawatts of uprates across the PJM grid (per Utility Dive). Computing scale is no longer constrained only by semiconductor availability. Power delivery is dictating the schedule.

The capital required to feed that compute appetite continues to escalate. In news crossing after Tuesday's close, SpaceX entered talks to borrow $40 billion from banks and investors specifically to purchase processors from Nvidia ($NVDA) (per MarketWatch). The proposed borrowing matches the rocket maker's entire annual revenue. At the same time, private cloud provider Lambda moved toward closing a $4 billion raise at a $14.5 billion pre-money valuation ahead of an expected 2027 initial public offering (per TechCrunch). As our signals dashboard measures, hyperscaler capital expenditures are running 97.7% above last year's pace. Balance sheets are stretching to keep up.

Physical infrastructure buildouts face growing friction on both sides of the Atlantic. Following Tuesday's close, Finnish authorities ordered Google to halt construction work on two data centers (per CNBC), creating an unexpected obstacle in a country that has emerged as a key European hub for compute clusters. Back in the United States, Elon Musk and Intel ($INTC) leadership moved to confirm the chipmaker's continued role in the Terafab plant project (per MarketWatch). Permitting and fabrication remain complex.

Featured: Tempus AI ($TEM)

The session's largest move among liquid NASDAQ technology stocks occurred in healthcare intelligence, where Tempus AI ($TEM) suffered a sharp reversal.

• The move — Tempus AI fell 13.9% in Tuesday's session, sliding from a previous close of $83.55 to finish at $71.98. Trading volume expanded to 16,564,767 shares, which was 2.3 times its 30-day average of 7,198,693 shares. The retreat cuts into what had been a resilient medium-term rally. Over the trailing six months, the stock is up 53.8%, alongside gains of 25.7% over three months and 11.4% over the past month, though it remains down 22.6% over the trailing year. From its 52-week low of $41.55, the equity sits 73.2% higher, while trading 30.3% below its 52-week peak of $103.25. Tuesday's close still holds above major moving baselines, resting 12.5% above its 50-day moving average of $63.97 and 27.3% above its 200-day moving average of $56.56. The longer upward trend has paused.

• What drove it — Nothing in Tuesday's regulatory filings or published news explains the drop. The company filed no disclosures with the SEC during the lookback period, and no news items crossed the tape before or during the session. When an actively followed stock with a $12.99 billion market cap drops double digits on twice normal volume without an announcement, mechanics and market positioning offer the only immediate clues. Short sellers hold 27.8% of the company's 116.3 million share float, representing 3.5 days to cover. A crowded short base may have added fuel to an institutional sell program if an early holder chose to trim a block. With an enterprise value to sales multiple of 9.5 and negative profitability—reflected in a trailing twelve-month net margin of -17.8% and a forward price-to-earnings ratio of -8864.5—the stock remains sensitive to shifts in sentiment. Without an official filing, we do not know what triggered the selling. We must wait for subsequent disclosures.

• The bigger picture — Tempus operates where clinical pathology meets algorithmic diagnostics. Its core platform pairs high-throughput sequencing assays, such as its xT and xR panels, with clinical workflow software like Hub and Lens. The business aggregates multimodal clinical and genomic records to guide oncology treatments, while licensing de-identified data libraries through its Insights unit to life sciences companies. Top-line demand is expanding, with revenue rising 21.6% year-over-year in the latest reported quarter. Yet diagnostic laboratories carry substantial physical overhead for laboratory processing and sample collection that pure software businesses avoid. Wall Street consensus holds a buy rating across 18 analysts, but the average target of $70.06 sits 2.7% below Tuesday's close. Tempus is not tracked in this publication's core research universe, but its structure reflects the ongoing tension in applied AI: promising data moats tied to cash-burning operations. The company reports quarterly earnings on November 3. Expect swings to continue.

Across the tape

Hardware and optical networking stood out on the winning side of Tuesday's tape. Optical transceiver maker Applied Optoelectronics ($AAOI) rose 7.1% to $130.16 at an $11.05 billion market cap, while connectivity specialist Astera Labs ($ALAB) climbed 7.6% to $389.80, reaching a $67.62 billion market valuation. High-speed component supplier MACOM Technology Solutions ($MTSI) advanced 6.8% to $350.67, and AI infrastructure provider Nebius Group ($NBIS) rose 7.4% to $249.87. Quantum hardware developer Xanadu Quantum Technologies ($XNDU) led smaller capitalization gainers with an 11.9% rise to $5.06.

Storage hardware and life sciences software absorbed the session's steepest selling. Memory and storage makers tumbled together, with Seagate Technology ($STX) falling 9.2% to $805.63 and Western Digital ($WDC) shedding 6.9% to $411.04. In healthcare tech, life-sciences software provider Certara ($CERT) slid 7.9% to $9.27 alongside sample management provider Azenta ($AZTA), which declined 7.9% to $39.35. Field service software platform ServiceTitan ($TTAN) fell 4.8% to $68.67.

Broader market performance diverged across sub-sectors. Enterprise software led the day, lifting the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF ($IGV) up 1.3%, while the VanEck Semiconductor ETF ($SMH) slipped 0.2%. The S&P 500 ETF ($SPY) added 0.6% and the Nasdaq 100 ETF ($QQQ) gained 0.5%. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields fell four basis points to 5.27%, while the Cboe Volatility Index ($VIX) climbed 5.6% to 15.85. Crude oil rose 0.9% to $90.25, and the US Dollar Index climbed 0.5% to 102.36. Gold fell 1.0%.

What to watch

1. Tempus AI ($TEM) earnings: The company reports third-quarter financial results on November 3. Watch whether revenue growth holds above its recent 21.6% pace and if laboratory costs continue to weigh on its -17.8% net margin.
2. Institutional Form 4 and 13G/D filings: Monitor ownership disclosures over the coming days for evidence of insider sales or fund exits that would explain Tuesday's elevated volume.
3. Enterprise storage metrics: Watch for updates on hard disk drive pricing and enterprise channel inventories following the simultaneous drops in Seagate ($STX) and Western Digital ($WDC).
4. Nuclear loan terms: Follow subsequent filings regarding closing conditions on the Department of Energy's $4.2 billion loan to Vistra ($VST) and regional grid interconnection approvals.