BUBBLE speculation is something of a sport in Wall Street circles. After all, to be first in identifying any form of excess can be wildly profitable.

Being the next Jeremy Grantham, often acknowledged for predicting the 1999 tech bubble, or Michael Burry, he of the housing bubble prophecy in 2007 that earned him recognition in books and film, has significant appeal. But their accurate predictions are clear exceptions in bubble speculation history. So, when I see more and more reports questioning whether there’s a generative artificial intelligence (AI) bubble, I view them with a sceptical eye.

When analysing a sector for potential excess in the market, we have to look at its foundation, going beyond recent performance and hype. AI’s foundation is data and the infrastructure required to use it, which is one reason that leads me to believe that this isn’t a bubble. It’s a developing long-term growth opportunity across a potentially transformative technology value chain.