• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

3

Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

3

Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026
AI

OpenAI board chair doubles down on CEO Sam Altman’s belief we’re in an AI bubble: ‘A lot of people will lose a lot of money’

Sasha Rogelberg
By
Sasha Rogelberg
Sasha Rogelberg
Reporter
Down Arrow Button Icon
Sasha Rogelberg
By
Sasha Rogelberg
Sasha Rogelberg
Reporter
Down Arrow Button Icon
September 15, 2025, 11:39 AM ET
Bret Taylor speaks into a microphone he is holding.
OpenAI chair and Sierra CEO Bret Taylor said we're in an AI bubble, but there will be big winners from the boom.David Paul Morris/Bloomberg—Getty Images
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor is not naive to the potentially mammoth consequences of a tech bubble, but he said the prospect isn’t without its benefits. The former Facebook CTO and current CEO of AI business platform Sierra shares the opinion of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that we’re in an AI bubble—but that’s not entirely a bad thing.

Recommended Video

“It is both true that AI will transform the economy, and I think it will, like the internet, create huge amounts of economic value in the future,” Taylor said in the most recent episode of The Verge’s “Decoder” podcast. “I think we’re also in a bubble, and a lot of people will lose a lot of money. I think both are absolutely true at the same time, and there’s a lot of historical precedent for both of those things being true at the same time.”

Altman echoed Taylor’s sentiments last month, warning of big winners and big losers from an AI hype cycle.

“Someone is going to lose a phenomenal amount of money,” Altman said during a dinner for journalists, The Verge reported. “We don’t know who. And a lot of people are going to make a phenomenal amount of money.”

Taylor and Altman join the chorus of industry giants and economists warning about how the astronomical rise of AI has led investors to overhype companies, inflating them beyond their actual worth—with significant financial consequences. Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Sløk warned in July that the top 10 companies in the S&P 500 are more overvalued today than they were during the dotcom era 25 years ago. Alibaba’s chair Joseph Tsai and C3.ai CEO Tom Siebel have both warned in the last year that we’re entering an AI bubble. 

The fallout of the dotcom bubble burst in 2000 was weighty: In March, the NASDAQ rose to its peak of 5,048 units, only to plummet to 1,139.90 units in October, a 77% plummet. The downturn, by the time it ended in 2002, had wiped out about $5 trillion in market capitalizations.

Bubble beneficiaries

According to Taylor, it’s worth paying attention to the big winners of the dotcom era when drawing conclusions about the impact of a bubble burst and what it would mean for the tech industry.

“There’s a lot of parallels to the internet bubble,” he said.

Looking at the successful companies that emerged from the early dotcom era is evidence that just because scores of internet companies were overhyped doesn’t mean the hype wasn’t justified for others, according to Taylor. The dotcom bust had famous flops such as Pets.com, a pet-supplies retailer that went belly-up prioritizing rapid growth, and Webvan, a grocery-delivery company that filed for bankruptcy in July 2001—but it also produced Amazon and Google, which have growth to be some of the world’s largest companies, Taylor pointed out. Amazon’s share price has grown nearly 15,000% since October 2000, and Google, which was not a publicly traded company in 2000, has similarly grown, reaching a more than $2.9 trillion market cap. 

Moreover, even failed companies like Webvan made their mark on the tech work, Taylor said, paving the way for companies like Instacart and DoorDash to build upon the retail delivery companies of the turn of the century.

“You start to look and you say, ‘Actually, if you look at the GDP of the world, how much has actually been created or influenced by the existence of the internet?’ One could argue that all the people in 1999 were kind of right,” he said. “It was as impactful on pretty much every measure.”

Taylor indicated there will be winners of the AI boom, but it’s difficult to say what these wins will look like. He pointed to fiber companies, many of which went under as a result of the dotcom bust, but not before making their mark on improving the speed of data. Most famously, Global Crossing, which had a value of $55 billion in its heyday, went bankrupt in 2002 after failing to find customers to make it profitable. 

“Because of the amount of economic opportunity, you just end up with a ton of investors, and some companies will fail and some will succeed,” Taylor said. “If you look at the people who built out fiber in the early days of the internet, a lot of them went bankrupt, but that fiber ended up getting used, just by the next person or the private equity firm or whatever entity bought it.”

Taylor did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

Subscribe to Fortune Gulf Brief. Every Tuesday, this new newsletter delivers clear-eyed, authoritative intelligence on the deals, decisions, policies, and power shifts shaping one of the world’s most consequential regions, written for the people who need to act on it. Sign up here.
About the Author
Sasha Rogelberg
By Sasha RogelbergReporter
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Sasha Rogelberg is a reporter and former editorial fellow on the news desk at Fortune, covering retail and the intersection of business and popular culture.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in AI

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in AI

Why build AI data centers in a cornfield when Saudi Arabia has cheap oil and cheaper power?
Big TechMeta
Why build AI data centers in a cornfield when Saudi Arabia has cheap oil and cheaper power?
By Catherina GioinoJuly 2, 2026
4 minutes ago
Scott Bessent, US treasury secretary, during an Economic Club of New York (ECNY) event in New York, US, on Tuesday, June 23, 2026.
Economynational debt
Elon Musk says AI is the only way to fix the $40 trillion U.S. debt crisis—but a new study says even the most optimistic scenario won’t fill the hole
By Eleanor PringleJuly 2, 2026
2 hours ago
Sam Altman seeks new world order for AI as OpenAI slowly loses ground to Google and Anthropic 
AIMarkets
Sam Altman seeks new world order for AI as OpenAI slowly loses ground to Google and Anthropic 
By Jim EdwardsJuly 2, 2026
4 hours ago
Today, Emily Blunt is worth $80 million thanks to her Hollywood career—but she actually wanted to be a UN Spanish translator on $80K
SuccessCareers
Today, Emily Blunt is worth $80 million thanks to her Hollywood career—but she actually wanted to be a UN Spanish translator on $80K
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJuly 2, 2026
6 hours ago
How foodservice giant Sodexo is embracing AI and robotics to reshape the kitchen
NewslettersCIO Intelligence
How foodservice giant Sodexo is embracing AI and robotics to reshape the kitchen
By John KellJuly 1, 2026
21 hours ago
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
AIAnthropic
Anthropic’s AI models are back online after a two-week government standoff—settling the company and administration into a fragile truce
By Tristan BoveJuly 1, 2026
21 hours ago

Most Popular

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
Big Tech
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 1, 2026
1 day ago
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
Success
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
7 days ago
Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 1, 2026
1 day ago
The Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win
Newsletters
The Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win
By Diane BradyJuly 1, 2026
1 day ago
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
Success
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
By Preston ForeJune 27, 2026
5 days ago
Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place
Success
Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place
By Sydney LakeJune 29, 2026
3 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.