Citadel's Ken Griffin called AI almost certainly a bubble, yet his firm just engineered one of the most profitable trades of the year directly from the chaos. What he knows about bubbles that most investors ignore could change how you think about the entire AI trade.
Citadel's Ken Griffin called AI almost certainly a bubble, yet his firm just engineered one of the most profitable trades of the year directly from the chaos.
What he knows about bubbles that most investors ignore could change how you think about the entire AI trade.
Citadel's Ken Griffin called AI almost certainly a bubble, yet his firm just engineered one of the most profitable trades of the year directly from the chaos. What he knows about bubbles that most investors ignore could change how you…
Citadel founder Ken Griffin told the Future of Global Markets Conference in New York on October 20, 2026 that investors are “almost certainly” in an AI bubble. Griffin built his reputation as one of the world’s greatest hedge fund investors running Citadel and the market maker Citadel Securities, and he pointed straight at the gap between AI spending and results: “Corporate America has been very uneven in its ability to extract value from its AI models.”
He added: “I think all of Corporate America is looking at their bills from Anthropic and OpenAI and going, ‘Okay, we need to think about how to make sure we’re getting productivity out of this.'” The Kobeissi Letter summarized the remarks on X, noting companies are struggling to turn AI spending into productivity gains while Griffin stays bullish on AI’s long-term potential. Those bills are set to grow. Anthropic is preparing to go public, and The Wall Street Journal reported, as cited by Bloomberg, that Anthropic may put $750 billion toward extra computing capacity over the next several years.
Griffin Says Bubbles Produce Decades-Long Leaders
“Any radical transformation of our economy is generally intertwined with a bubble,” Griffin said. “The companies that are on the other side of that bubble are the market leaders for decades to come.” His dot-com regret: “I just wish I’d kept my Amazon stock in that moment.”
His view has shifted this year. He called AI “garbage” at Davos and told a Stanford audience in May he was depressed by what it could achieve. Now he expects a surge of startups and “a golden era for entrepreneurs,” even as AI threatens white-collar jobs and competitive advantages. Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio said earlier this month AI has the signs of a “classic bubble.”
Supplier Earnings Show Demand Behind the Bubble Talk
Griffin’s critique targets AI buyers. The sellers keep posting record numbers:
Averytin News Financial update.