Fears that the artificial-intelligence boom is a bubble are now visibly moving markets. Oil hit $115 a barrel for the first time since May as global stocks were knocked by AI jitters, tech megacaps slid again after a brutal selloff, and investors fled to safe havens—Jensen Huang added to the tension by warning that AI is short on cash as stock futures slipped once more. Even the boom's biggest beneficiary is pricing in the mania: OpenAI is targeting a $1.25 trillion valuation in a fresh round seeking around $30 billion, while Blackstone's early bet on chips fueled a debt boom that is now upending credit markets. Over the past week, Citadel's Ken Griffin called an AI bubble 'almost certainly' present, EQT's CEO warned of shared hidden exposure through data-center buildouts, and megacap earnings failed to reassure investors—while a few voices, including Blackstone's Jas Khaira and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, shrugged off the risks as overblown. The question now is whether the staggering capital flowing into AI will produce returns before sentiment turns.
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