Future of Global Markets – a technological revolution or a financial trap?
Will artificial intelligence become the foundation of a new economy, or will the enormous investments in its development trigger another financial market crash? This question came to the fore on 20 October 2026 at the Future of Global Markets conference in New York, organised by Citadel Securities. Remarks by Ken Griffin, the founder of Citadel, sparked a debate in which Jon Gray, President of Blackstone, offered a different perspective two days later.
Ken Griffin: a technological revolution does not rule out a speculative bubble
In a conversation with Bloomberg Television journalist Dani Burger, Ken Griffin acknowledged that the artificial intelligence market was almost certainly already displaying characteristics of speculative bubbles.
This does not mean that he questions the importance of the technology itself. On the contrary, he believes AI could significantly change how businesses operate, how work is organised and the structure of entire sectors of the economy.
Griffin pointed to a recurring historical pattern: breakthrough innovations are often accompanied by excessive investor optimism. This happened during the expansion of the railways and, later, the internet. In both cases, some ventures failed, but the infrastructure and technologies created during periods of intensive investment permanently transformed the economy.
A speculative bubble can therefore burst even if the technology behind it proves to be a historic success.
Billions invested — but who will profit?
One of the most important issues Griffin raised was the economic sustainability of the current model of AI development.
Technology companies are committing enormous resources to building data centres, purchasing graphics processing units and developing increasingly advanced artificial intelligence models. Rising capital expenditure alone, however, does not determine whether these ventures will be profitable.
Griffin highlighted the risk of excessive expansion of computing infrastructure. If the supply of computing capacity exceeds demand, service prices could fall sharply. He compared this situation to the airline industry, where unused capacity puts downward pressure on prices.
The rapid technological obsolescence of processors presents an additional challenge. Hardware generating substantial revenues today may become significantly less competitive within a few years.
Consequently, forecasting profits over many years on the basis of current prices for computing capacity may lead to inflated company valuations.
Jon Gray: demand for AI is outpacing infrastructure capacity
On 22 October 2026, following the release of Blackstone’s financial results, Jon Gray offered a different assessment in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
In his view, the current wave of investment in artificial intelligence cannot be directly compared with the telecommunications bubble at the turn of the century.
At that time, companies built extensive fibre-optic networks on the assumption that the future growth of the internet would provide enough customers. Much of this investment was financed through debt, and the anticipated demand did not always materialise quickly enough.
Gray argued that the sequence of events is different today. According to his observations, companies are rapidly expanding data centres precisely because existing capacity is insufficient to meet demand for AI services.
He described demand growth as almost parabolic.
From this perspective, rising capital expenditure is less a sign of speculation than a response to the actual needs of businesses and technology users.
Artificial intelligence is also transforming the labour market
The implications of AI development for employees and businesses were another important part of Griffin’s remarks.
He noted that tasks which previously required several weeks of work by highly qualified specialists can now be completed in a matter of hours using appropriate artificial intelligence tools.
Such a significant increase in productivity creates new economic opportunities, but also carries the risk of reducing demand for some existing occupations and tasks.
Griffin believes that extensive retraining of workers will be necessary. Businesses, meanwhile, will have to innovate more quickly, reduce costs and seek new sources of competitive advantage.
AI development may therefore lead both to the creation of new businesses and jobs and to profound changes in existing employment structures.
Will growing demand be enough to avoid a crisis?
Griffin’s and Gray’s positions are not necessarily entirely contradictory.
Genuine, rapidly growing demand for artificial intelligence can coexist with excessive valuations of some companies operating in the sector.
Demand for a technology does not guarantee the profitability of every investment associated with its development.
The ultimate success of individual projects may depend on energy costs, infrastructure availability, the pace of hardware replacement, financing conditions and companies’ ability to generate enough revenue to recover their investment.
How investments are financed will also be crucial. High levels of debt make businesses more vulnerable to declining revenues, rising debt-servicing costs and changes in asset valuations.
Technological revolution and investment risk can coexist
Economic history shows that even technologies of immense significance to society do not protect investors from losses.
The internet survived the bursting of the dot-com bubble, and its importance grew many times over. That did not mean, however, that every company involved in its first wave of development succeeded.
A similar scenario is possible with artificial intelligence. AI may become an integral part of the economy while some of the investments being made today turn out to be unprofitable.
The debate sparked at the Future of Global Markets conference shows that the central question is no longer solely about the future of artificial intelligence itself.
What increasingly matters is which companies will manage to turn a technological breakthrough into sustainable profits — and whether investors’ expectations are already running ahead of the market’s economic potential.
Sources
Citadel Securities: Conversation with Ken Griffin.
Bloomberg Television (20 October 2026): Ken Griffin on the AI investment bubble.
Bloomberg Television (22 October 2026): Jon Gray on demand for AI infrastructure.