OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has warned that the artificial intelligence market may be entering a bubble, likening the current frenzy around AI to the dot-com boom of the late 1990s.
In comments reported by The Verge on Friday, Altman said, “Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes. Is AI the most important thing to happen in a very long time? My opinion is also yes.”
Altman’s comments come amid record-breaking investment activity in the AI sector, including OpenAI’s own explosive valuation growth. The company is reportedly preparing to sell $6 billion in stock in a secondary sale, potentially valuing it at $500 billion—up from a $300 billion valuation just seven months ago.
While acknowledging investor overexcitement, Altman maintains that the core innovation in AI remains deeply significant. “When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth,” he said, hinting that today’s market enthusiasm is rooted in real, transformative potential—despite some frothy valuations.
Altman compared the current climate to the infamous dot-com bubble, during which the Nasdaq lost nearly 80% of its value between 2000 and 2002. That collapse was fueled by massive investments in internet companies that failed to generate profits—a scenario some experts fear may repeat in today’s AI ecosystem.
Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio, Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai, and Apollo Global Management’s Torsten Slok have echoed Altman’s concerns. Slok has gone so far as to claim that the current AI bubble may be “bigger than the internet bubble,” citing overvaluation in top tech stocks.
Ray Wang of the Futurum Group offered a more nuanced view. “The fundamentals across the supply chain remain strong,” he told CNBC, adding that while the core of the AI market is solid, “speculative capital” is flooding into companies with weak business models, creating potential pockets of overvaluation.
OpenAI has grown into one of the most influential AI firms globally, with Altman recently confirming that its annual recurring revenue is on track to surpass $20 billion. Despite that, the company remains unprofitable.
The rollout of OpenAI’s new GPT-5 model earlier this month was met with mixed reviews, with some users criticizing its responsiveness and intuition. In response, OpenAI reinstated access to legacy GPT-4 models for paid users, signaling a rare public step-back.
Altman also appeared to distance himself from previous bullish claims about AGI, or artificial general intelligence. “I think the term AGI is losing relevance,” he told CNBC, in contrast to earlier statements suggesting it could arrive in the “reasonably close-ish future.”
Despite the uncertainty, Altman signaled OpenAI’s ambitions remain sky-high. The company is planning to spend trillions of dollars on data center buildouts in the “not very distant future.” Altman also confirmed OpenAI’s interest in expanding into consumer hardware, social media, and brain-computer interfaces.
In a surprising remark, he even hinted that OpenAI would be interested in acquiring Google Chrome should antitrust regulators ever force a sale.
When asked whether he’d still be CEO in a few years, Altman responded cryptically: “I mean, maybe an AI is in three years. That’s a long time.”
