Still, the coincidence between Altman's statement and the MIT report reportedly surprised Tech Stock Investors, who have already seen AI ratings rise to extraordinary heights earlier this week. Palantir trades with 280x advance revenue. During the DOT-COM peak, a 30-40x revenue ratio marked the bubble area.
The obvious contradictions in Altman's overall message are notable. This is not a way to expect high-tech executives to speak when they believe their industry is facing an imminent collapse. While warning about the bubble, he is also hoping for a rating that makes Openai more valuable than Walmart or Exxonmobil. Openai achieved $1 billion in monthly revenue in July, but is reportedly heading towards an annual loss of $5 billion. So, what's going on here?
Over time, looking at Altman's statement reveals potential multi-level strategies. He likes to talk big. In February 2024, he reportedly sought a bold $7 trillion to $7 trillion for AI chip manufacturing, effectively normalizing astronomical numbers in the AI debate, with a bold $5 trillion to $7 trillion for AI chip manufacturing rather than the entire semiconductor industry.
By August 2025, while someone warned of a bubble that would lose “a staggering amount” he casually said Openai would provide “a few trillions of datacenter construction and billions of people every day.” This creates urgency while potentially insulating Openai from criticism. It exists to grasp the bubble when placing his company's infrastructure spending as different needs. When the economists raised concerns, Altman dismissed them by saying, “Let's do our things.”
This dual messaging (ambled warning with sign ambitions) seems contradictory, but makes more sense given the unique structure of today's AI market.
Another type of bubble
The current AI investment cycle is different from the previous technology bubble. Unlike startups in the ventilator capital-fired.com era, there is no path to profitability, so the biggest AI investors, Microsoft, Google, Meta and Amazon, generate hundreds of billions of dollars in annual profits from their core businesses.
