How to Know When the AI Boom Is About to Go Bust (opens the source in a new tab)
- Columnist Jonathan Weil argues booms need a steady flow of fresh capital, and can turn to busts once the window to raise new money closes; he says we are not there yet.
- His signal to watch: the return of the phrase ‘funding gap’, which entered the lexicon with ‘burn rate’ in 2000 as the dot-com bubble began to deflate.
- Early nerves: OpenAI ruled out going public this year, Holtec Nuclear paused its IPO Initial public offering: when a company first sells its shares on a stock exchange. plans and Anthropic pushed its IPO from October to November.
- 2000
- ‘funding gap’ enters lexicon
- Nov
- Anthropic IPO, from Oct
Why it matters Watch the money supply, not the hype.
Other side The delays may be bumps rather than warnings: the companies still appear able to raise private money, and Holtec is already profitable. Because OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s finances aren’t public, outsiders can’t easily read how close any funding gap really is.