Experts Dispute Altman’s AI Bubble Concerns

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, believes the AI market is in a bubble.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, believes the artificial intelligence market is in a bubble. He made this statement to a small group of journalists, according to The Verge.

“When bubbles form, smart people get overly excited about a grain of truth. Are we currently in a phase where investors are generally too excited about artificial intelligence? In my opinion, yes. Is AI the most important event in a very long time? In my opinion, also yes,” he noted.

Altman mentioned the word “bubble” three times in 15 seconds, jokingly adding that “someone will definitely write a sensational headline about this.”

His comments amplify concerns among experts and analysts about the overly rapid pace of investment in the artificial intelligence sector. In July, Apollo Global Management’s chief economist, Torsten Slok, stated that the current AI bubble is even stronger than the dot-com boom. He pointed out that the 10 largest companies in the S&P 500 index are now more overvalued.

Similar warnings were previously expressed by Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio.

Ray Wang, director of research in semiconductors, supply chains, and emerging technologies at Futurum Group, noted that Altman’s words have merit, but risks depend on specific companies.

“From the perspective of broader investments in artificial intelligence and semiconductors, I do not consider this a bubble. The fundamentals across the supply chain remain strong, and the long-term trend trajectory supports further investment,” he said.

However, the expert added that there is a growing volume of speculative capital being directed towards companies with weak performance and only presumed potential.

Following the release of GPT-5, Altman stated that the term “artificial general intelligence” (AGI) is losing relevance. His company is expanding its activities beyond AI models, covering consumer hardware, brain-computer interfaces (BCI), and social media.

In the “near future,” OpenAI plans to spend trillions of dollars building data centers. The firm is also interested in acquiring Chrome.

Other Opinions

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives stated that demand for AI infrastructure has increased by 30-40% in recent months. In his view, there are bubble elements in certain market segments, but the revolution in artificial intelligence and autonomous systems is just beginning to unfold.

“The real impact in the medium and long term is actually underestimated,” he said.

Rob Rowe from Citi urged not to compare the current growth of the AI market with the dot-com boom.

“Back then, there was a lot of debt capital and few profitable companies. Now it’s about firms with very solid revenues and large cash flows. They finance a significant part of their growth with these funds. In this respect, the situation is somewhat different,” the expert emphasized.

The current wave of investment in artificial intelligence is driven by structural changes in the global economy, particularly the rapid growth of digital services, he added.

The dot-com crash wiped out many companies but gave birth to the modern internet. According to Altman, something similar will happen with AI: a few downturns followed by a sustainable transformation.

“I really think some investors will get burned here, and that’s bad. I don’t want that. But the value AI will create for society will be enormous,” concluded the CEO of OpenAI.

Back in August 2024, hedge fund Elliott Management declared that artificial intelligence technology is “overvalued.”