Fears around the future of the artificial intelligence trade pushed Nvidia shares down by nearly 17% on Monday and weighed on the stock market — but investors seem to be overreacting, according to Tom Lee, head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors. Chinese AI startup DeepSeek spurred a sell-off Monday. The company in late December debuted a free, open-source large language model that it claims took less than $6 million to build. The development ignited fears that competitive AI models could be built on the cheap and with less-powerful chips . The tech sector sold off in earnest, sliding more than 5% on Monday as shares of Nvidia and Broadcom suffered. “To me, it’s an overreaction,” Lee told CNBC’s “Closing Bell ” on Monday. “Nvidia’s decline is the worst since March 2020, and we know that ended up being a huge opportunity for investors. It’s not a fun day, but I’d be looking at this as an opportunity.” NVDA 1D mountain Nvidia stock. Monday’s market moves also reflected a broader sense of worry that the AI race between China and the U.S. is entering a new phase with Beijing possibly pulling ahead. Lee said he would be “personally surprised if Nvidia became Betamax in the past week” — referring to the now-obsolete video cassette recording format that lost to its rival VHS — and that that would be the only situation that would justify selling the chip giant’s shares to the degree seen Monday. To be sure, Lee also said time will tell if the sell-off will bear fruit and turn out to be a longer-term trend for the chipmaker. For now, he said, he stands by his view that Nvidia’s slide is a buying opportunity. “We don’t know if its overblown,” he cautioned. Outside tech, Lee said he likes financials moving forward, adding that the sector is his No. 1 S & P 500 sector idea. “I think financials to me represent a pretty good fundamental case of change this year because we have a new administration, a Fed that is dovish, yields that aren’t painful for banks — and a time when it could lead to upside for capital markets activity, and multiples are low,” Lee said. Correction: Tom Lee said he thinks Monday’s market sell-off was an overreaction, and he noted that Nvidia’s decline was its worst since 2020. A previous headline on this article mischaracterized his statement.
