“When people get rich quick, a whole bunch of people come in and want to get rich too, and that’s why we end up with bubbles,” Gurley said. “One day we’re going to have an AI reset, because waves create bubbles, because interlopers come in.”
Gurley said the exorbitant amounts of money being spent on AI are a warning sign for a potential bubble burst.
“One day, I just think we trip and run out of money on those things,” he said. “I do think that moment stands in front of us.”
“God bless them,” Gurley said of OpenAI and Anthropic. “It’s a scary way to run a company.”
“I’m not that big of a doomer, he said. “I think these waves come, and especially with AI, there have been a lot of people pumping kind of miracles into it … .They get this kind of apocalyptic view. We’ve had technology disruption before.”
Gurley noted CEOs announcing layoffs are going to blame AI, rather than take responsibility for “being bloated” or making tactical missteps. Analysts say companies like Oracle are slashing headcounts as a way to conserve cash following massive waves of investment. To Gurley, these cuts will become the new normal.
“We’re going to see a ton of these announcements,” he said. “But it’s a normal thing that we’ve been through before.”
