Can AI create trillions in value without today's AI leaders capturing enough of it to justify their valuations?
u/Rare_Piano_1369 ·
Reddit — r/ValueInvesting
· September 05, 2026 at 08:43
· ⬆ 15 pts
· 💬 37 comments
| View on Reddit ↗
AI Summary
Summary
Author is bullish on AI’s real-world value creation but skeptical that today’s AI leaders will capture enough of it to justify current valuations.
Draws an analogy to the internet: transformative technology often spreads value broadly across society rather than concentrating it in early incumbents.
Asks whether AI valuations could be in a bubble even if AI itself is not overhyped.
Quality assessment: Thoughtful speculative macro/valuation commentary, not well-researched DD with specific data or positions.
Score15
Comments37
Upvote %86%
▶ Full Post Text
I'm curious how others think about this.
I'm very optimistic about AI itself and think it will create an enormous amount of value over the next decade. However, I'm much less confident that the companies currently commanding massive valuations because of AI will actually capture enough of that value to justify where they're trading today.
My thinking is that AI could become like the internet, a transformative technology that creates trillions of dollars in value for society, while much of the economic benefit ends up being widely distributed across businesses, consumers, and new entrants rather than concentrated in a handful of incumbents.
So even if AI lives up to the hype technologically, is it possible that investors are overestimating how much of that value today's AI leaders will capture? If so, could that lead to an AI valuation bubble bursting without it meaning that AI itself was overhyped?
I'd love to hear different perspectives. What assumptions am I missing, and what would make you more or less confident that today's valuations are justified?