AI Insights

Is the AI industry in a bubble, as OpenAI CEO says?

Published

2 weeks ago

August 19, 2025

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, testify during the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing titled “Winning the AI Race: Strengthening U.S. Capabilities in Computing and Innovation,” in Hart building on Thursday, May 8, 2025.

Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

There’s a bubble forming in the artificial intelligence industry, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

“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 said, according to a report by The Verge.

Altman’s AI company is currently in talks to sell about $6 billion in stock that would value OpenAI at around $500 billion, CNBC confirmed Friday.

In another context, Altman warned that the U.S. may be underestimating the progress that China is making in AI.

Given the above premises, should investors be more cautious about OpenAI? Altman was not posed this question, but one wonders whether his opinion would also be “yes.”

Outside pure-play AI companies, the money is, likewise, still flowing. Intel is receiving a $2 billion injection of cash from Japan’s SoftBank.

It’s a much-needed boost to the beleaguered U.S. chipmaker. Intel has fallen behind foreign rivals such as TSMC and Samsung in manufacturing semiconductors that serve as the brains for AI models.

But going by Altman’s views, the investment in Intel might not be a good bet by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.

Not everyone agrees with Altman, of course. Ray Wang, research director for semiconductors, supply chain and emerging technology at Futurum Group, pointed out that the AI industry is not heterogeneous. There are market leaders, and then there are companies that are still developing.

In the real world, bubbles delight because they reflect their surroundings in a play of light. But the bubble Altman described could be one doesn’t show the face of its observer.

— CNBC’s Dylan Butts contributed to this report

What you need to know today

Trump suggests territory ‘exchanges’ between Ukraine and Russia. At a White House meeting between the U.S. president, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump raised that possibility as part of the peace process.

Intel is getting a $2 billion investment from SoftBank. Both companies announced the development Monday, in which SoftBank will pay $23 per share for Intel’s common stock. Shares of Intel jumped more than 5% in extended trading.

The artificial intelligence market is in a bubble, says Sam Altman. Separately, the OpenAI CEO said he’s “worried about China,” and that the U.S. may be underestimating the latter’s progress in artificial intelligence.

U.S. stocks close mostly flat on Monday. The three major indexes made moves that were less than 0.1 percentage points in either direction as investors await key U.S. retail earnings. The Stoxx Europe 600 ticked up 0.08%.

[PRO] Opportunities in one area of the European market. Investors have been pivoting away from the U.S. as multiple European indexes outperform those on Wall Street. But one pocket of Europe still remains overlooked, according to analysts.

And finally…

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and China’s Great Wall Motor (GWM) CEO Mu Feng attend the opening of the GWM automobile factory on August 15, 2025, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

China News Service | China News Service | Getty Images

China’s EV industry is spending more on factories abroad than at home for the first time

For the first time since records going back to 2014, the Chinese electric car supply chain last year invested more outside the country than at home, according to a U.S.-based consulting firm Rhodium Group report published Monday.

Around 74% of announced overseas investment was in battery factories, the report said. But it noted investment in assembly plants abroad was also “growing rapidly.”

— Evelyn Cheng

Source link

Up Next

Citi’s Rob Rowe Rejects Comparison of AI to Dot-Com Bubble

Don't Miss

Optimized Artificial Intelligence Covers Perplexity Challenging Chrome

The Editors

Click to comment

AI Insights

Oakland Ballers to use artificial intelligence to manage Saturday home game against Great Falls

Published

1 hour ago

September 4, 2025

The Editors

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Oakland Ballers manager Aaron Miles will leave it to artificial intelligence to decide when to pinch hit or replace his pitcher.

The playoff-bound Ballers of the independent Pioneer League are turning to AI to manage most aspects of Saturday’s home game against the Great Falls Voyagers at Raimondi Park. So it might feel almost like a day off for the skipper, whose lineup and in-game decisions will even be made for him — from a tablet he will have in the dugout providing instructions.

The starting pitcher is already set.

“Luckily it’s only game. Maybe we’ve done so well that the AI will just keep doing what we’re doing,” Miles joked Wednesday. “Being a 70-win team we’ve got a very good bench. It’s hard to write a lineup without leaving somebody out that’s really good. This game I’ll be like, ‘Hey, it’s not on me for not writing you in there, it’s on the computer.’ It won’t be my fault if somebody’s not in the lineup, I guess I’ll enjoy that.”

Yet Miles knows he still might have to step in with some lineup adjustments, because the human element still matters when it comes to someone who could need rest or take a break because of injury or other circumstances.

Co—founder Paul Freedman said the second-year club will produce the first AI-powered professional sporting event. It happens to be Fan Appreciation day, too.

Last year, during the Ballers’ inaugural season, they had a game in which fans wrote the lineup and chose the uniforms — but Oakland lost. So the Ballers are doing it differently this time by partnering with AI company Distillery to control almost everything.

“The AI won’t be able to do third-base coaching, we don’t have the technology for that yet,” Freedman said. “The human will be responsible for waving somebody home or throwing up the hand. But those kind of situational decisions, we will look to the machine to make the call.”

Freedman figures with the Ballers having locked up the top seed for playoffs, this is a perfect opportunity to give AI a try.

And no need for Miles to be concerned with job security, even with the greater potential for Monday-morning quarterbacking when it comes to his moves.

“The good news is Aaron has won 100 games for us and right now our winning percentage is well over 75%, I think his job is pretty safe,” Freedman said. “And we’re happy with the decisions he’s made, but we do think it’s cool. One of the fun things about being a sports fan is being able to engage in conversations after the game about the key decisions. So this is a breadcrumb for us for what we think could be something if it works well could be part of a fan experience application or something that we do where after a game we kind of highlight what the key decisions were that our manager made and which ones kind of went against the grain — either for right or wrong.”

Miles has already experimented with AI a couple of times but earlier this season one roster showed up as the 2024 group. He expects AI might end up making a smarter decision just based on real-time data.

“I fooled around with this before just for fun, now it’s for real,” he said, “for one game.”

Ballers catcher Tyler Lozano is open-minded to incorporating new elements into the game to complement the analytics — as long as the treasured traditions aren’t lost.

“It’s immersive, it’s definitely involving new technology, new everything. It’s interesting to see what an AI platform or AI software can do for a baseball team,” Lozano said. “There’s always going to be a human element in the game of baseball. I think in sports period there’s going to be some type of human element because you’re live, you’re there. These AI platforms aren’t watching the game or don’t see all of the intricate moments that happen throughout the game and the human element of the player. I don’t think you’re going to lose that.”

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Source link