Citadel Founder Ken Griffin Says AI Is Almost Certainly in a Bubble, Compares GPUs to Airline Seats

Citadel founder Ken Griffin stated on Oct. 20 at Citadel's Future of Global Markets Conference in New York that investors are "almost certainly" in an AI bubble, while noting that companies surviving such cycles often lead markets for decades. Griffin warned that a chip glut could send GPU prices into freefall, comparing graphics processors to airline seats and the year 2000 fiber-optic telecom overbuild because low marginal costs to serve additional customers can trigger steep price drops once supply exceeds demand. He questioned whether GPUs that are five or six years old—which still earn what he described as extraordinary rental rates—will continue to command those prices over the next five to six years as corporate buyers weigh premium models from OpenAI and Anthropic against cheaper open-source alternatives. Even with those valuation concerns, Griffin said AI agents have reduced some high-level research tasks at Citadel from weeks to a couple of hours, and on July 30 Citadel bought most of the public stock portfolio of Leopold Aschenbrenner's hedge fund Situational Awareness at roughly a 10% discount after the portfolio's value reportedly fell about 67% in July, before Citadel shed more than 80% of that risk by August. "What's left in the wake of these bubbles, if we want to use that word, is often game changing for the world. And the companies that are on the other side of that bubble are the market leaders for decades to come." — Ken Griffin