Why This Investor Says the AI Boom Isn’t the Next Dot-Com Crash

Bold Names

The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The artificial intelligence boom has sparked one of the costliest building sprees in history. By 2028, investment in chips, servers and data centers could hit nearly $3 trillion, according to Morgan Stanley. To help fund the build-out, tech companies are taking on huge amounts of debt, raising concerns of a possible bubble. On the latest episode of the Bold Names podcast, Martin Casado, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, who leads the firm’s $1.25 billion infrastructure practice, speaks to WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins, about whether the industry’s biggest bet in decades will deliver returns. Casado explains why he is optimistic about AI and how this moment compares to the internet buildout of the 1990s. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: The Google Exec Reinventing Search in the AI Era Condoleezza Rice on Beating China in the Tech Race: 'Run Hard and Run Fast' Why IBM's CEO Thinks His Company Can Crack Quantum Computing How Tubi Is Coming for Netflix and YouTube in the New Streaming Wars Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected] Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column. Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Nearly home.
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0:25.7	Pros number one most trusted app based on August 24 proprietary survey.
0:30.1	You know, it's interesting you were in San Francisco in Silicon Valley during the last bubble
0:35.7	bursting.
0:37.1	What are the signs you're going to be looking for that San Francisco is in a bubble again?
0:42.0	I mean, the late 90s is just so wild.
0:44.5	I mean, I think people forget.
0:45.4	I think it takes maybe 20 years to forget what these things look like.
0:48.4	It was the limos, the parties.
0:49.9	It was the taxi drivers offering stock tips.
0:53.9	I mean, like the janitor at one of the startups my friend worked at, like didn't want to get paid in cash, wanted to get paid in equity.
1:01.4	It was just total, total chaos.
1:04.5	You know, that's not where we are right now.
1:06.4	I mean, I think we just forgot what a true bubble looks like.
1:11.7	Today on Bold Names, we have Martin Casado.
1:16.0	He is a general partner at venture capital firm Andresen Horowitz, where he is responsible for their billion-dollar infrastructure practice.
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