Are We in an AI Bubble?

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Adam Nordin, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs; Ernesto Pagano, Managing Director and Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group; Hriday Kemburu, Product Growth Lead at GPTZero Inc.; John Bailey, Non-resident Senior Fellow at AEI; and Naomi May, Partner at Cooley.The speakers examined whether AI represented the next great infrastructure cycle or the next great bubble. They discussed how enterprise demand had been accelerating, hyperscalers had been committing unprecedented capital to chips and data centers, and private markets had been assigning historic valuations to AI startups—while noting that technological revolutions and speculative excess often move in lockstep.The panel explored key questions shaping the AI capital cycle:Are AI valuations and infrastructure spending justified by real, durable demand?Where are we seeing repeatable business models — and where is it still “PowerPoint revenue”?What happens to startups, enterprises, and public markets if growth slows or the narrative shifts?And if this is a bubble — what survives when it clears?The session offered a clear-eyed debate on whether the industry was in the early innings of a generational transformation or nearing a peak of exuberance.