Apart from several voices in technology, voices in finance now also seem to believe that in spite of the record spending, there’s no bubble in AI.
Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with over $10 trillion in assets under management, has weighed in on one of the most debated questions in business today: whether the massive investments pouring into artificial intelligence represent a sustainable opportunity or an unsustainable bubble. Speaking with conviction, Fink offered a sweeping vision of AI’s transformative potential, particularly emphasizing the infrastructure build-out required and the technology’s promise to revolutionize energy production and scientific research.
“I sincerely believe there is no bubble in the AI space,” Fink stated. “That being said, in everything else, in capitalism, there’s gonna be some big failures. We always see a rotation and there’s gonna be some huge winners and some losers.”
But Fink’s optimism extends far beyond just acknowledging market dynamics. He views the capital requirements for AI infrastructure as representing “one of the great opportunities for the world to come. When you think about the hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure that’s necessary, countries are gonna have to rebuild their grids. We’re gonna have to source new powers of energy.”
The BlackRock chief pointed to broader implications beyond just computational infrastructure. “Last night at a dinner, we had an amazing conversation on how AI is gonna change science and how it’s gonna improve human lives in terms of medicine,” he said. “But importantly, there’s a strong foundational belief that AI is gonna accelerate new sources of power. And if we can have cheap sources of power, abundant, cheap sources of power, maybe things that we can’t even think of today through AI, imagine how that could lift the rest of the world.”
Fink’s comments add a significant financial sector perspective to an ongoing debate that has seen technology leaders stake out varying positions. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has argued that AI is not currently a bubble, while Y Combinator’s Paul Graham has similarly maintained that AI is not hype. However, the picture is far from unanimous. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has suggested that some parts of the AI industry are probably in a bubble, while AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton has warned that AI could be a bubble because companies are underestimating the social impacts of the technology. Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has hinted at concerns about an AI bubble, and Meta’s Yann LeCun has distinguished between applications and unrealistic expectations about large language models replicating human intelligence. What makes Fink’s perspective particularly noteworthy is his emphasis on AI as an infrastructure play rather than purely a technology bet—framing it as a multi-decade transformation requiring grid rebuilding, new energy sources, and fundamental changes to scientific research. And at least from a finance perspective, this buildout seems to make sense to the Blackrock CEO.