Google CEO: No company will be immune if AI bubble bursts

2025-11-18 07:35:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Every company would be affected if the artificial intelligence bubble bursts, the head of Google's parent company, Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, told the BBC.

Speaking exclusively to BBC News, Sundar Pichai said that while the surge in investment in artificial intelligence (AI) had been an "extraordinary moment", there was some "irrationality" in the current AI boom.

This comes amid fears in Silicon Valley and beyond of a bubble, as the value of artificial intelligence technology companies has risen sharply in recent months and companies spend heavily on the booming industry.

Asked whether Google would be immune to the impact of the bursting of the artificial intelligence bubble, Mr. Pichai said the tech giant could weather that potential storm, but also issued a warning.

"I think no company will be immune, including us," he said.

In an exclusive wide-ranging interview at Google's headquarters in California, he also spoke about energy needs, slowing climate targets, investment in the UK, the accuracy of his artificial intelligence models and the impact of the artificial intelligence revolution on workplaces.

The interview comes at a time when scrutiny of the state of the artificial intelligence market has never been more intense.

Alphabet shares have doubled in value in seven months to $3.5 trillion (£2.7 trillion), as markets have become more confident in the search giant's ability to fend off the threat from ChatGPT owner OpenAI.

A particular focus is Alphabet's development of specialized artificial intelligence superchips that compete with Nvidia, led by Jensen Huang, which recently reached a $5 trillion valuation for the first time in the world.

As valuations rise, some analysts have expressed skepticism about a complex web of $1.4 trillion in deals being made around OpenAI, which is expected to have revenue this year of less than a thousandth of its planned investment.

In comments that echo those made by US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in 1996, who warned of “unreasonable euphoria” in the market during the dotcom boom and well before that market’s crash in 2000, Mr Pichai said the industry could “outperform” investment cycles like this one.

"We can look back at the internet now. There was clearly a lot of overinvestment, but none of us would question whether the internet was important. I expect artificial intelligence to be the same. So I think it's both rational and there are elements of irrationality at a time like this," he said.

His comments follow a warning from Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of US bank JP Morgan, who told the BBC last month that investment in artificial intelligence would pay off, but some of the money poured into the industry "would probably be lost".

But Mr Pichai said Google's unique model of owning its "own full suite" of technologies from chips to YouTube data to models and advanced science meant it was better positioned to weather any turbulence in the artificial intelligence market./ CNA, translated by BBC