Key Points
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Hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin spoke at a conference this week, where he said AI investors are “almost certainly” in a bubble — but expressed bullish sentiment for the future.
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Griffin believes companies will scrutinize their AI spending more closely to ensure they’re seeing productivity gains.
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There might be some bubble-like overinvestment and failed experimentation in the short run.
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Citadel CEO Ken Griffin was interviewed at a conference on Tuesday, where he said some interesting things about the artificial intelligence (AI) boom in the stock market. Although Griffin sees some reasons to be cautious about a possible AI bubble, he sees strong reasons for optimism about AI’s effects on the economy in the long run.
Let’s take a closer look at Ken Griffin’s AI bubble comments and see what insights they might offer for your investment strategy.
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Ken Griffin: AI bubble is “almost certainly” happening
On the one hand, Ken Griffin said that we’re “almost certainly” seeing some bubble-like behavior around AI. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Companies are still experimenting with the technology’s new capabilities and trying to decide how much to invest in it.
The stock market is trying to figure out how much AI is worth to the economy and which stocks and sectors will be long-term winners — whether that means semiconductor stocks or software stocks, AI hyperscalers or smaller companies, or all of the above. No one knows yet who the AI winners will be. In times like these, some experiments don’t work out, and some investments inevitably fail to pay off.
Griffin: U.S. corporations see “uneven” business results from AI models
Ken Griffin also said that U.S. corporations so far have been “uneven” in their ability to “extract value” from AI models. He believes that many corporate leaders right now are reevaluating the costs of AI and are “looking at their bills from Anthropic and OpenAI and going, ‘OK, we need to think about how to make sure we’re getting productivity out of this.'”
AI tools have inspired a lot of excitement and widespread adoption, but so far that hasn’t always translated into clear results for corporate earnings. If companies struggle to integrate AI into their businesses in meaningful ways and start cutting back on their AI spending, that could be bearish for AI stocks and the overall stock market in the short run.
Long term: Griffin is bullish on AI
But in the near- to long term, Griffin is bullish on AI. He subscribes to the belief that, just like previous technological transformations such as railroads, electrification, and the internet, AI is likely to bring significant long-term gains for the overall economy. We just don’t know yet which companies or industries will be the big winners of the future. There might be some volatility along the way.
As Griffin said, according to Bloomberg reporting, “Any radical transformation of our economy is generally intertwined with a bubble” and that AI will be “a golden era for entrepreneurs.” Some of the best AI stocks of the future might be companies that haven’t been launched yet.
How to invest for an optimistic future of AI
Ken Griffin didn’t recommend any specific AI stocks or investments in his remarks at the Oct. 20 conference. But if you agree with the general idea that AI is going to pay off in the long run, you might want to invest for that future.
If you have a strong point of view about certain tech companies that you’re excited about and that you believe will have a lasting competitive advantage to lead the future of AI, you could choose your own targeted portfolio of AI stocks. This could let you own market leaders of the future.
Or if you don’t want to pick just a few AI stocks, you could buy a broader tech exchange-traded fund (ETF) like the Invesco Nasdaq-100 ETF (NASDAQ: QQQM). This low-cost tech ETF tracks the entire tech-heavy Nasdaq-100. If AI delivers the kind of results its enthusiasts believe are possible, many of those big future winners will likely be included in this ETF’s portfolio.
QQQM charges a low expense ratio of 0.15% and has delivered a year-to-date return of about 20.9%, and annualized returns of about 16.4% for the past five years.
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In 2009, a “Double Down” signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. If you’d invested $5,000 then, you’d be sitting on $2,758,512 today.*
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*Stock Advisor returns as of October 23, 2026.
Ben Gran has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
