How Wall Street bosses—huddled in Palm Beach—reacted to the AI selloff

At the Wall Street Journal's Invest Live event in Palm Beach, executives grappled with a market sell-off after Anthropic announced its new "Claude Cowork" legal plugins, a move that unnerved investors and dragged down tech stocks, with Thomson Reuters dipping about 20% by mid-afternoon.

Speakers offered measured assessments of the broader outlook. Peter Orszag warned that the US economy and the equity market are highly levered bets on AI's success and suggested the technology may pay off even if many current investors do not ultimately benefit.

Others highlighted where value might emerge from the turmoil. Jon Gray pointed to the demand for data centers and digital infrastructure tied to AI, while Steven Tananbaum said the "indiscriminate selling" created chances for credit investors to find value. Citi CFO Mark Mason described AI as a tool for driving efficiency and cutting costs at the bank, and Hemant Taneja urged investment in education to retrain workers as AI reshapes jobs.

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