Money For the Rest of Us · Wednesday, July 29, 2026
The current AI boom's capital spending, as a percentage of overall capital, is significantly larger than previous speculative investment cycles. A BIS report indicates it's over four times the investment in AI in the 1970s and surpasses the scale of the railway mania and the dot-com bubble.
“In preparation for this episode, I read a report by BIS. And they looked at sort of other prior cycles. And the AI boom, in terms of the multiple of capital being spent in this arms race, it's over four times what was invested in AI in the 1970s.”
“It's larger than the railway mania, larger than the dot com. In the internet, and the roaring 20s. So the scale of this is definitely larger as a percent of the overall capital.”