US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday dismissed the possibility of “systemic” economic risks stemming from the AI boom, the Financial Times reported, as a global tech selloff fueled by AI spending fears continued into Thursday.
Meta stock plunged after the hyperscaler drifted into negative free cash flow, while China entered bear market territory with Alibaba’s stock dropping 6%, as investors questioned the return on its AI investments.
Still, Bessent as well as Blackstone President Jon Gray dismissed parallels to the 1990s dot-com bubble: “Demand is almost parabolic,” Gray said about a Blackstone-backed AI consulting firm created with Anthropic, days after Citadel’s chief said AI was “almost certainly a bubble.”