The Powers That Be: Daily Is the A.I. Bubble About to Deflate?
25 snips
Aug 21, 2025 
Bill Cohan, an expert journalist at Puck known for his insights into tech stocks and SPACs, joins Peter Hamby for a thought-provoking discussion. They analyze the recent decline in tech stocks and debate whether the hype around A.I. is justified. With eyes on Big Tech leaders like Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg, they explore their financial maneuvers. The conversation also dives into Chamath Palihapitiya's return to SPACs and the associated risks for average investors, highlighting the intricate ties between technology investments and political dynamics.
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Euphoria Inflates Tech Valuations
- Investors repeatedly get euphoric about technological shifts and overvalue single-theme companies like NVIDIA and Palantir.
- Those euphoria-driven markets correct sharply when expectations outrun revenue and profit reality.
AI Use Cases Often Lack Clear ROI
- MIT research shows many GenAI deployments produce no measurable returns, challenging the revenue case for current AI hype.
- Free, high-quality AI outputs risk displacing traffic and ad clicks that historically funded digital publishers and search businesses.
AIs Threaten Click-Based Revenue
- Users increasingly bypass original sources by getting answers from AI, reducing clicks to publishers and search links.
- That shift threatens advertising and subscription-based revenue models across digital media and search.