The WhatsApp messages began on Sunday. Fellow fund managers had spotted social media buzz on the success of China’s DeepSeek AI app. Was this the iceberg that would sink the apparently unsinkable Magnificent Seven US tech Titanic? 

Nvidia shares took a 16 per cent tumble in just two days, bounced and then stumbled again. The company lost about $600bn of market value. Microsoft held up, but later in the week reacted badly to slower growth in its core cloud business, while Meta reacted well to decent advertising income. Chips stocks so far have fallen a lot, while the software companies have held up.

Is this a false alarm, or a chance for alert investors to jump into a lifeboat, while the rest of the passengers are still on the dance floor bouncing to the 80s classic “The only way is up”?