Inside the AI Feedback Loop: Nvidia, OpenAI, and the Bubble Building Itself
Run the Numbers
Valuations, Debt, and the Circular AI Economy
CJ and Kyle explore the circular investments, debt financing, data-center scale needs, and risks in the AI infrastructure boom.
Check out Mostly Growth and get episodes early. Available on all platforms.
* YouTube
* Spotify
* Apple
In this episode of Mostly Growth, CJ Gustafson, Kyle Poyar, and Ben Hillman dive into the question on everyone’s mind: are we in an AI bubble? What starts as a lighthearted riff on the U.S. Postal Service launching a podcast quickly spirals into a sharp, funny breakdown of today’s AI hype cycle — from Nvidia, OpenAI, and AMD trading money and GPUs in a trillion-dollar feedback loop, to startups burning cash chasing “AI-powered” everything. The trio share real examples of when AI helps and when it backfires (including one newsletter that totally tanked), debate whether companies are over-optimizing for automation, and laugh through the absurdity of the hype while grounding it in practical insights on product, finance, and growth.
Timestamps:
00:00 Preview and Intro
00:14 Are We in an AI Bubble?
00:44 The AI Feedback Loop: Nvidia, OpenAI, and AMD
01:00 Perplexity, We Caught You (Again)
02:18 The USPS Podcast and the End of Original Ideas
04:24 How the Team Actually Uses AI at Work
06:07 CJ’s DIY Dunning Saga
08:38 When Automation Goes Too Far
10:49 The Perplexity Gaslight Moment
13:27 AI vs. AI: Outsmarting Resume Screeners
16:09 What Recruiters Really Think of AI Resumes
17:17 The Chief of Staff Hiring Story
19:15 Is AI Adoption Already Slowing Down?
22:42 The “Crossing the Chasm” Moment for AI Tools
26:22 Bundling AI Like Streaming Services
28:49 Everyone’s Paying Everyone: The Circular AI Economy
31:15 Betting Big on AGI and Data Centers
34:09 The Margin: AI Erotica and Peak Absurdity
35:23 OpenAI’s Token Leaderboard and Other Blunders
41:43 What Kyle Tried This Week: Building an AI Agent
44:52 Wrap-Up and Outro
Episodes Referenced:
5,762 Job Applications. Zero Offers.
Episodes Referenced:
5,762 Job Applications. Zero Offers.
Why Only 2% of Startups Make It
The War for Talent is just getting started | Joe Floyd
Links:
https://usps-mailin-it.simplecast.com/
https://i.imgflip.com/a92oy5.jpg
https://tabs.inc/webinar/tabs-agent
https://substack.com/home/post/p-175615945
https://ramp.com/data/ai-index?utm_source=econlab.substack.com
https://medium.com/@samuelvandeth/crossing-the-chasm-162802d1cf27
https://x.com/TrungTPhan/status/1922669292929024017/photo/1
https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1977902195472322620?s=42
https://topline.beehiiv.com/p/the-era-of-haves-and-have-nots
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpd2qv58yl5o
https://fortune.com/2025/10/01/red-lobster-ceo-damola-adamolekun-comeback-plan-bankruptcy/
Today’s podcast is brought to you by Metronome
You just launched your new AI product. The new pricing page looks great. But behind it? Last-minute glue code, messy spreadsheets, and running ad-hoc queries to figure out what to bill. Customers get invoices they can’t understand. Engineers are chasing billing bugs. Finance can’t close the books.
With Metronome, you hand it all off to the real-time billing infrastructure that just works—reliable, flexible, and built to grow with you. We turn raw usage events into accurate invoices, give customers bills they actually understand, and keep every team in sync in real time.
Whether you’re launching usage-based pricing, managing enterprise contracts, or rolling out new AI services, Metronome does the heavy lifting so you can focus on your product, not your billing.
That’s why some of the fastest-growing companies in the world, like OpenAI and Anthropic, run their billing on Metronome.
Visit metronome.com to learn more.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cjgustafson.substack.com
The AI-powered Podcast Player
