Overview
- In a BBC interview, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai cautioned that the AI investment cycle can overshoot and acknowledged that Google would feel any downturn, while arguing its full‑stack approach offers relative resilience.
- Alphabet’s market value has roughly doubled in seven months to about $3.5 trillion as investors price in AI growth across chips, data and models.
- Markets weakened for a fourth session with tech and cryptocurrencies under pressure, and several prominent investors trimmed or hedged AI exposure, including Michael Burry’s puts on Nvidia and Palantir and exits from Nvidia by SoftBank and Peter Thiel’s fund.
- Nvidia’s quarterly earnings, due Wednesday, are seen as a bellwether for whether soaring AI infrastructure outlays are translating into profits.
- Pichai highlighted AI’s hefty power needs, citing IEA data putting AI at about 1.5% of global electricity use, noted slippage against Alphabet’s climate targets, and reaffirmed a £5 billion UK investment with plans to train some models in Britain.