Powell – unlike the dotcom boom, AI spending isn't a bubble

> Powell’s framing echoes that view: The AI race, while frothy at times, is being financed mainly through corporate cash flow rather than speculative debt.

I think this is the most important line. Even if these companies are overvalued, I don't think there will be a nasty pop (this could change if banks start getting more involved, but so far it's been mainly company reserves and VC funding).

The pop will be nasty for everyone that’s heavily exposed to the public players involved, which is a sizable amount of the public given their outsized impact on indices.

That said, it’s the sort of bubble pop that’s far more constrained than, say, the dotcom bubble (with tons of IPOs) or subprime mortgage bubble (when a variety of financial instruments and securities obfuscated risks to investors). It’ll hurt for the highly-paid folks working for the companies who suddenly have to downsize, and it’ll hurt for investors who are all-in on AI without diversification, but for everyone else? It’ll be a gloomy year, but nothing as spectacular as prior collapses.