2025-10-29T10:41:01Z<\/p>\n
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Facebook Email X<\/p>\n LinkedIn<\/p>\n Reddit<\/p>\n Bluesky<\/p>\n WhatsApp<\/p>\n Copy link<\/p>\n lighning bolt icon Impact Link<\/p>\n Save <\/p>\n Read in app<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n This story is available exclusively to Business Insider Bill Gates says we’re in the midst of an AI bubble. Are we in the midst of an AI bubble<\/a>? Bill Gates<\/a> thinks so.<\/p>\n But the Microsoft cofounder said during a Tuesday appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that it’s not a product of pure speculation.<\/p>\n He pointed to the example of “tulip mania” during the 1630s in the Netherlands, when the price of tulips soared for several years only to suddenly crash.<\/p>\n “That’s not where we are,” Gates said.<\/p>\n But the billionaire philanthropist does think the current bubble is akin to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and early aughts, when several Internet-based companies turned out to be overvalued, resulting in a significant crash.<\/p>\n “In the end, something very profound happened. The world was very different,” Gates said. “Some companies succeeded, but a lot of the companies were kind of me-too, fell behind, burning capital companies.”<\/p>\n “Absolutely, there are a ton of these investments that will be dead ends,” Gates added.<\/p>\n Gates also said that AI has been “the biggest technical thing ever in my lifetime.”<\/p>\n “The value is extremely high, just like creating the internet ended up being, in net, very valuable,” Gates said. “But you have a frenzy. And some of these companies will be glad they spent all this money. Some of them, you know, they’ll commit to data centers whose electricity is too expensive.”<\/p>\n There’s been growing concern about an AI bubble in recent months, with even figures like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warning of overexcitement<\/a> from investors.<\/p>\n
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\n He says it’s probably not like the “tulip mania” that took place in the Netherlands in the 1630s.
\n It could be like the dot-com bubble, where some companies ended up overvalued.<\/p>\n