OpenAI CEO Sam Altman doesn’t hold back. In a recent interview, he said, “My opinion is yes” — we are indeed riding an AI bubble. He likened today’s AI surge to the 1990s dot-com boom, saying bubbles start when smart people latch onto a small truth and blow it up. The internet really did transform everything, but going overboard cost a lot of startups dearly.
Altman compared the current AI rush to the dot-com boom of the 1990s. Back then, the internet was a groundbreaking shift that promised to change everything. And it did. But in the frenzy, people overestimated how quickly those changes would happen, leading to inflated valuations and a painful crash for many companies. Altman believes AI is following a similar pattern. A small, genuine truth, that AI can transform industries, has been magnified to an extreme, attracting enormous attention and investment.
Crazy Funding, Unchecked Hype
Altman did not mince words when describing the funding frenzy. He called the valuations for some small AI startups “insane.” In his view, there are companies with only a handful of employees, no proven product, and nothing more than an idea, yet they are being valued at astronomical sums.
He predicts that some of these ventures will collapse. “Someone’s gonna get burned. Someone is going to lose a phenomenal amount of money. We don’t know who, and a lot of people are going to make a phenomenal amount of money.” For him, this is the nature of bubbles, they create both winners and losers. Yet Altman remains hopeful that even if individual companies fail, the overall economy and innovation landscape may still benefit from the surge of interest and investment.
OpenAI’s Bold Play: Trillions on Infrastructure
While many startups are chasing funding and hype, Altman has a much bigger and more grounded vision for OpenAI. He sees the company investing “trillions of dollars” into building the infrastructure needed for advanced AI. That means massive data centers, cutting-edge computing resources, and the energy capacity to sustain them.
This is not a plan for the distant future. Altman expects these investments to happen sooner rather than later. He knows such a move will spark concern from economists and policymakers about costs, energy demands, and long-term sustainability. But his position is clear, let the builders build, and let progress unfold.
Why This Matters
Altman’s perspective is a blend of caution and conviction. He acknowledges the bubble. He is realistic about the risks. But he also sees these speculative waves as part of the natural cycle of innovation. Without the boom times, the foundational work that leads to real breakthroughs might never happen.
The AI moment we are in is messy, unpredictable, and full of contradictions. Some fortunes will vanish, others will be made. But if Altman is right, the long-term gains — in technology, productivity, and societal change — could far outweigh the short-term turbulence.
