CNBC Daily Open: AI is coming after more sectors, and its pace isn't slowing

Artificial intelligence is having a moment. And in markets, that usually means someone else is having a rough week.

The latest victims of the technology are real estate, trucking and logistics stocks, joining financial and software-as-a-service stocks in plunging on AI fears.

Office towers could soon be empty, according to Elon Musk, who made the comments on a podcast last week, as AI replaces workers. It's a point echoed in an essay by OtherSide AI co-founder and CEO Matt Shumer, who argued that AI could eradicate entry-level, white-collar jobs. If fewer people clock in, fewer leases get signed.

In freight, the pressure was more concrete. AI company Algorhythm Holdings released a tool it claims allows operators to scale freight volumes by 300% to 400% without hiring more employees. That prospect was enough to send trucking and logistics stocks plummeting.

"We believe investors are rotating out of high-fee, labor-intensive business models viewed as potentially vulnerable to AI-driven disruption," Jade Rahmani, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said in a note Wednesday.

Not every balance sheet is under siege. Japan's SoftBank said it added $4.2 billion in value to its OpenAI investment, which helped boost its Vision Fund by $2.4 billion in the December quarter.

AI was also the centerpiece of Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's 2026 budget announcement. The city-state will launch a "national AI council," support firms that want to harness AI and provide citizens who undergo select courses with six months of free access to advanced AI tools.

Separately, CK Hutchinson Holdings on Thursday said that it would take "legal recourse" against APM Terminals, an affiliate of Danish shipping giant Maersk, if it takes over its operations at the Balboa or Cristobal ports in Panama. A CK Hutchinson subsidiary currently runs those ports, but Panama's Supreme Court recently ruled to void the firm's license, a move widely viewed as a victory for the Trump administration.

— CNBC's Michelle Fox, Sarah Min, Lim Hui Jie and Anniek Bao contributed to this report.