Why Bloom and AI Stocks Are Rising Despite OpenAI Safety Scare -- Barrons.com

By Callum Keown

The stock market doesn't like to dwell on artificial-intelligence safety fears too long.

That's a good thing. After OpenAI's decision to pause the training of its latest AI models sparked a sharp selloff Monday, you might expect the worst Tuesday after it scrapped the launch of one altogether.

But you'd be wrong, and pleasantly so probably. The gains weren't huge in early premarket trading, but there were gains nonetheless. Bloom Energy, the supplier of power solutions for data centers, rose around 2%. The stock was the S&P 500's worst performer Monday, falling 8.9%.

AI infrastructure provider Vertiv Holdings and memory chip maker Micron were both more than 1% higher. Nasdaq 100 futures were flat, outperforming S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures.

There isn't much room for nuance when it comes to knee-jerk stock market reactions. Both OpenAI developments are giving off the same signal-a threat to the assumption that the AI boom will continue to grow at a rapid pace.

The necessary damage was done Monday in response to that signal.

There's also a buzz ahead of OpenAI's developer conference later on Tuesday. A flurry of announcements could boost AI-related stocks.

It's also worth noting that the ChatGPT maker said it has other new models coming soon that do meet the safety bar.

"For anything regarding safety and alignment, there's a trade off. You really do need to find what's the right line between staying within scope, but also avoiding laziness in terms of how the model actually pursues tasks even when it hits friction," OpenAI's head of safety systems Saachi Jain said in an emailed statement to Barron's.

She added that the GPT-6.1 Astra model "didn't quite meet the bar" in terms of staying within scope and authorization and how it communicates back to the user.

Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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September 29, 2026 08:34 ET (12:34 GMT)