An AI bubble or a psychological domino? Why investors mustn’t confuse OpenAI’s health with that of the whole AI industry
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.I’ve questioned before whether Wall Street has the temperament for the artificial-intelligence (AI) era. It’s hard to argue it does when just one report from the Wall Street Journal, which suggested OpenAI had missed some internal growth targets, was enough to wipe billions of dollars of value off related stocks. For a moment on Tuesday, you’d have thought the sky was falling on the AI boom.It wasn’t, of course, and some of the initial shock losses were pared once OpenAI had struck a reassuring tone in a statement that said it was still “firing on all cylinders.”Still, the knee-jerk reaction was an indication of how closely the fate of OpenAI is tied to perception of the AI industry’s future.
Circular financing has made these conclusions understandable, but OpenAI’s execution struggles shouldn’t be allowed to speak for the sector as a whole.After the Journal reported that OpenAI’s chief financial officer was worried its revenue growth couldn’t support its expansion plans, the shares of its partners tumbled. Oracle, which is building OpenAI’s data centers, fell about 3%. AMD, which has a deal to provide OpenAI with GPUs, was down 5.5%, while OpenAI’s chip-making partner, Broadcom, was down by more than 4%.But the skittishness escaped containment.
Intel doesn’t have any direct deals with OpenAI but was down as much as 5%, for example. Power companies linked to the AI buildout also fell. The big slate of tech earnings this week—with four main hyperscalers reporting on Wednesday—will now be considered in the context of OpenAI’s performance issues.
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