Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak and Paul Swartz examine whether massive AI infrastructure investment constitutes a genuine economic bubble, noting that estimates of data-center spending have grown from hundreds of billions to several trillion dollars, fueling fears of overcapacity and poor returns. Rather than debating simply whether a bubble will burst, the authors argue executives should focus on whether such a burst would pose a meaningful threat to the broader economy. They offer a framework for distinguishing speculative excess from a manageable investment cycle.
