LONDON, 19 November 2025: Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet (Google’s parent company), has issued a caution that no company will be immune to the fallout if the current intense investment boom in Artificial Intelligence (AI) proves to be a speculative bubble and bursts.

In an interview with the BBC, Pichai acknowledged that while the growth of AI investment is an “extraordinary moment,” there are also “elements of irrationality” present in the market.

Parallels to the Dot-Com Era

Pichai drew a parallel between the current AI frenzy and the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. He noted that:

The internet era saw “a lot of excess investment,” but the fundamental, profound importance of the technology itself was never in question.
He expects AI to follow a similar trajectory, being both a rational, profound technology and one subject to market overshooting and irrational investment exuberance.

Impact and Google’s Position

Despite Google’s strong position in the AI race—which has seen Alphabet’s shares surge as investors bet on its ability to compete with rivals—Pichai stated that the company would still feel the effects of a market collapse.

“I think no company is going to be immune, including us,” he stated, highlighting the potential for widespread economic carnage should the high valuations and massive capital expenditure prove unsustainable.

Pichai believes Google’s “full-stack” strategy—controlling everything from chip production to AI-model development—positions it better than others to weather a potential storm, but acknowledged that a major market correction would affect the entire sector.

A Separate Warning on AI Trust

In the same interview, Pichai issued a separate warning to users, cautioning them not to “blindly trust” everything AI tools tell them. He noted that even the most advanced AI models are “prone to errors” and should be used alongside other, more grounded information sources like traditional Google Search.