So are we in an AI bubble? Here are clues to look for.
Planet Money
NPR
4.6 • 30.5K Ratings
🗓️ 10 January 2026
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On our latest: How do economists detect a bubble? And, how much should society be worried about bubbles in the first place?
Related shows:
- How to make $35 trillion ... disappear
-What is a bubble? (featuring Nobel prize winning economics Eugene Fama and Robert Shiller)
-What AI data centers are doing to your electric bill
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Planet Money from NPR. |
| 0:06.1 | All right, Jeff, you have summoned me here today because I understand you have a question for me about the economy. |
| 0:13.2 | Yes, it's the million dollar question right now. |
| 0:15.6 | What do you got? |
| 0:17.0 | Are we in a bubble? |
| 0:20.4 | That's like a several trillion dollar question, I think. |
| 0:23.9 | Okay, but look at the stock market right now. |
| 0:26.7 | The S&P 500 is up almost 50% over the last two years. |
| 0:30.7 | Yes, it is absolutely bonkers. |
| 0:33.3 | Bunkers! |
| 0:34.0 | And what is even more wild is that if you look at what companies are mostly responsible for that growth, it's just a handful of them. |
| 0:41.1 | It's the companies doing AI stuff. |
| 0:43.5 | Yes, all this AI stuff like Microsoft and Amazon and meta. |
| 0:47.9 | People are calling them the Magnificent Seven. |
| 0:50.4 | Yes, and we would be remiss if we did not mention Nvidia. |
| 0:53.8 | Invidia, of course, is the microchip company that's powering all this stuff, and its stock price. |
| 0:59.4 | I think it is almost like quadrupled over the past two years. |
| 1:02.6 | It's wild. |
| 1:03.8 | It's so wild. |
| 1:04.9 | It's the most valuable company in the world. |
| 1:06.9 | Yeah. |
| 1:07.3 | And all of that, it kind of makes you nervous, right? |
... |
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