AMD, Nvidia lead chip declines as economic data spurs recession talk
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AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) led the semiconductor industry lower on Wednesday as investors worried about weaker-than-expected economic data and the potential for a recession. 
AMD (AMD) shares fell more than 4% while Nvidia (NVDA) fell 3.5%, due in part to worries about Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (GOOGL) highlighting the capabilities of its own custom chips.
In a research paper, Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) said the fourth-generation Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs, that train its artificial intelligence models are faster and more power-efficient than Nvidia's (NVDA) A100 chips.
Google (GOOG) did not compare the fourth-generation TPUs to Nvidia's (NVDA) H100 chips because those came to market after Google's chips and use newer technology.
Qualcomm (QCOM) shares turned around and gained more than 0.5% after it was reported that some of the company's chips bested Nvidia's (NVDA) in AI-related efficiency.
According to MLCommons, Qualcomm's (QCOM) AI 100 chips topped Nvidia's (NVDA) H100 chips in certain areas, including classifying images. 
Nvidia (NVDA), however, received the top spot in terms of absolute performance and power efficiency for natural language processing.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) fell more than 1.5% even as it was reported that European Union lawmakers are likely to finalize a 45Bâ¬ plan to fund chip production in an effort to reduce reliance this month.
Intel (INTC) has worked to increase its manufacturing presence on the continent and compete in the foundry space, announcing plans to build a fab in Germany and discussing plans for another plant with Italy and other European countries. 
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), the world's largest semiconductor foundry, fell nearly 3% in mid-day trading, while GlobalFoundries (GFS) dropped 4.6%.
Smartphone-related chip stocks also fell, including Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), Qorvo (QRVO) and Broadcom (AVGO), as Apple (AAPL) manufacturing partner Foxconn reported strong first-quarter results but forecast a decline for the upcoming quarter.
Looking ahead, Foxconn (OTCPK:HNHPF) said it expects second-quarter revenue to decline sequentially and on a year-over-year basis because of a seasonal off-peal period and an "unseasonally strong pull-in in the first half of last year which occurred as the components shortage from 2021 eased."
A number of other semiconductor stocks fell on Wednesday, including Micron (MU), NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) and ON Semiconductor (ON), all of which declined 1.5% or more.
On Tuesday, data from the Semiconductor Industry Association pointed to a rebound in semiconductor sales in February.