I think this is the most important line. Even if these companies are overvalued, I don't think there will be a nasty pop (this could change if banks start getting more involved, but so far it's been mainly company reserves and VC funding).
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-31/meta-xai-...
(Archive link: https://archive.ph/NBNEu)
"Just this month, Meta Platforms Inc. has secured about $60 billion in capital to build data centers, part of its spending to get ahead in the artificial intelligence race. Half of that won’t show up on the social media giant’s balance sheet as debt.…"
https://techstartups.com/2025/10/31/the-hidden-debt-behind-t...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-10-06/big-de...
I think there’s any way we don’t see contagion. There’s too much money involved.
because they're doing deals to keep the debt off the balance sheet
the fact they are doing this says rather a lot
except that this doesn't quite add up IMHO
1. we have the current _speculation_ on an explosive need of both more data centers and energy if AI has a break through. This investments are mostly not from the big tech but VC/higher risk investment soured.
2. VC isn't always just private equity, I have seen enough rent founds, banks and similar acting as VC investors. Sure mostly by proxy, but they are doing that anyway.
3. 1st point also involves a lot of loans handled and resold by banks...
4. even with out all this a lot of founds are based on S&P 100 and similar. If the AI bubble goes pop before it's filled with enough magnetizable value a lot of the companies in there will lose a non negligible amount of valuation, which will have shock waves across much more then just "big companies".
That said, it’s the sort of bubble pop that’s far more constrained than, say, the dotcom bubble (with tons of IPOs) or subprime mortgage bubble (when a variety of financial instruments and securities obfuscated risks to investors). It’ll hurt for the highly-paid folks working for the companies who suddenly have to downsize, and it’ll hurt for investors who are all-in on AI without diversification, but for everyone else? It’ll be a gloomy year, but nothing as spectacular as prior collapses.
However, someone has now uttered the four words we should all recognise. "This time it's different."
And then you get to Nvidia. Which to me looks like clear case where price must correct if their profit drop due to demand dropping.
So even if there is no "pop", there will likely be a deflation and at these valuations even that will have impacts.
As someone who follows the man’s speeches and comments, I’ve always found that the real message is between the lines of what he says, especially for things he cannot say explicitly. So reading his comments here, my takeaways are:
* Zero job growth is a serious concern, especially as companies and business elites continue to demand a return to ZIRP
* Inflation also remains a concern in that same context, as it continues to skyrocket for essential goods
* Even if this AI investment is highly speculative and collapses, its “blowback” is broadly contained vis a vis the AI “sphere” being a handful of companies in circular investment schemes, not mass public buy-in like prior bubbles
* His immediate concern remains trying to figure out how to address rising inflation, stagnant wages, and negative/zero job growth in the face of a red hot securities market and continued trade uncertainties. The only levers left to pull will disproportionately hurt the working class even further, and he seems to continue suggesting that this isn’t an issue the Fed can solve absent Congressional intervention (which, let’s face it, ain’t happening)
That’s my takeaway from his comments this year, and it fits my own perspectives on the AI Bubble (in that yes it’s a bubble, but it’s a highly concentrated bubble that’s painting over broader harms and misleading public officials about the state of the economy). Being head of the Fed, he can’t come right out on either side of the fence and call AI a bubble or a real boost, hence why he’s couching comments deeply within economic terms alone.
Just my two cents, anyway.
When you think what we could have done with that money instead…
I'm not as cynical about the state of the world as others but from time to time I have to shake my head when I consider how much better we could have it. That to me is the real tragedy.
Why not go into particular names? Without doing so the second half of your sentence is worthless.
Meta? Of course they have earnings. Not AI earnings.
Alphabet? Apple?
We kind of need particular names.
which doesn't mean it's not a bubble
a bubble is a over valuation of a industry sector
it isn't a "it has no use at all"
it's a "the use as big as assumed", "the use isn't worth the money invested in it" etc.
and so far that's the trend with AI, it has use, you can make money with it, but not _enough_
But there is just that much money you can get from people for the services OpenAI is currently usable/used for. Some (e.g. search, generating shopping lists, grammar correction) of which people expect to be cheap or even fully free and some (coding assistance) which involve other companies in the value chain.
Add circular money deals to that.
And it's very clearly a bubble.
But if you can drag out a bubble long enough you might be able to largely fill it up before it pops.
Through with how confidence in AI is moving + the general world economical situation I wouldn't bet on it.
In 1999 people correctly understood that this thing called the internet was going to transform life like nothing before it had ever done. And they were correct. But that has very little to do about investing in stocks. Just because you have an insight into a fantastic technology doesn't mean the price being asked to purchase stock will earn a profit. And there is no way Powell would opine on whether now is a good time to buy, sell, or hold stocks.
My reading of Powell's comments is they were directed upon the stratospheric dollar amounts being spent creating AI data centers and what that means for the economy. There is just no way he is providing advice about the price of stocks.
or someone figures out how to do AI at 1/100000th the CPU/memory on the edge
a company or two collapses
all the other companies now back way off
now the bubble is popped
AI returns 5-15 year later
For most people in the comments section of "AI bubble" articles, it seems like "big numbers == bubble"