If you've lived through previous tech bubbles, the current pattern probably looks familiar. Astronomical valuations, "AI" in every pitch deck, breathless pre...
If you've lived through previous tech bubbles, the current pattern probably looks familiar. Astronomical valuations, "AI" in every pitch deck, breathless predictions about transformation. Companies are [spending over $635 billion on AI infrastructure](https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/ai-investment-is-expected-to-approach-200-billion-globally-by-2025) in 2026 alone — nearly double last year. Some of this will surely deflate. But the dot-com bubble popped spectacularly, and then the internet went on to transform almost everything about how we live and work. Financial bubbles and technological revolutions can happen at the same time. The valuations may well be inflated. The question is whether the technology underneath is real.
Verdict: The financial patterns look bubble-like. The technology underneath is real. Both can be true. Valuations are probably inflated. The spending-to-revenue gap is wide and growing. Not every company adding "AI" to their pitch deck survives a correction. The people pointing this out aren't wrong. But "just another tech bubble" implies the technology itself is the illusion.. and that's where it goes too far. AI is deployed at scale, generating real revenue at major platforms, changing how millions of people work. The dot-com crash didn't mean the internet was fake. An AI correction wouldn't mean AI is fake. It would mean the market got ahead of itself — which is what markets do every time a transformative technology shows up.