The AI Boom: Will It Continue?

The AI boom has actually been with us for quite some time. Algorithms recommending content have been a fixture in our daily lives for more than 20 years — versions of recommendation systems existed even earlier. Over the past two decades, as we’ve gained access to vast amounts of data online, algorithms have become essential for suggesting material, making sense of the ocean of choices available. These systems, now powered by increasingly sophisticated GPUs and CPUs, guide our experience on platforms like YouTube, this channel, and a wide array of others.

Today however, we’re witnessing a different kind of AI boom: a stock market surge centered on AI-focused companies. NVIDIA, for example, recently reached a $5 trillion market cap. To put that in perspective, that’s $5,000 billion US, or 5 million million US — the largest market cap in the world. Other giants like Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, and to a lesser extent, Apple, are all deeply involved. The trade is broadening, with data center owners and energy groups also benefitting, making this a very substantial boom.

Naturally, questions arise about whether this is a bubble — a very valid concern that deserves serious analysis. For today, however, the key takeaway is that there is an enormous wave of money and deals being committed, many of which set the stage for investments and deployments in 2026 and 2027. For instance, NVIDIA is partnering with OpenAI on chip deals involving vendor financing — essentially a form of leasing or discounting. These practices date back thousands of years, to the Babylonians, so there’s little reason to worry about vendor financing itself — it’s a tried-and-true financial mechanism and does not equate to past problematic corporate transactions.

These deals are significant in scale. One recent transaction between NVIDIA and OpenAI was reportedly worth about $100 billion. Oracle, too, has experienced increased demand for its products and services, resulting in a surge in share price and market cap at the end of 2025. Oracle is engaging in larger transactions with OpenAI and SoftBank — Masayoshi Son from Japan is among the consortium’s key figures. It’s a “consortium of elephants,” shaping the future of AI deployment.

AI-powered productivity is far from hypothetical — current applications range from Amazon managing product returns to complex recommendation algorithms, and from generative AI producing written content to creating images and video. These applications — and their number — are only set to increase.

So, will the AI boom continue? The answer is yes. Where is it headed? It’s likely to accelerate further over the next three to four years, approaching 2030. Will the stock market keep up? That is less certain. Markets may fall back by 10 or 20 percent as investors take profits and re-evaluate the trade before new earnings arrive. Stock performance may not perfectly align with the AI boom’s trajectory, but this won’t halt the growth or adoption of AI itself.

Certainly, there remain challenges for hyper-scalers and AI companies, particularly in refining large language models (“LLMs”) to minimize hallucinations and mistakes. The goal is to significantly reduce error rates, but perfection is still out of reach.

In summary: Will the AI boom continue? Yes, it will. Where is it going? Upward, as we approach 2030, and there are very solid reasons for this optimism. Stay tuned for part 2, where we’ll explore why this boom is so robust and what obstacles — and opportunities — lie ahead.