Big Tech's huge AI spend creates 'a little bit of a prisoner's dilemma' that hits everyone, says a hedge fund exec (www.businessinsider.com)

Hedge-fund CIO Tony Yoseloff told Goldman Sachs’ "Exchanges" podcast that Big Tech’s AI spending has become a "little bit of a prisoner's dilemma": companies must pour vast sums into AI infrastructure and talent because their rivals are doing the same, or risk falling behind. That dynamic doesn’t just shape Silicon Valley — a handful of mega-cap tech firms dominate U.S. equity markets, so their capex choices and risk-taking behavior ripple through nearly every investor portfolio. Yoseloff warned markets may be treating promised AI payoffs as imminent, even though history suggests real productivity gains from platform shifts typically take years to materialize. For the AI/ML community this matters both technically and economically. Massive investments in compute, data centers, model training and specialized hardware are accelerating capability development but also concentrate risk: if public markets grow impatient, there could be a sharp re-pricing of assets, funding, and hiring (“an AI wobble”). Yoseloff referenced prior waves (PCs, internet, dot‑coms) where investors waited 5–15 years for returns, highlighting that while AI is transformative, the ROI timeline and which bets win are uncertain. Leaders including Sam Altman and Bill Gates have echoed caution about overexuberance, underscoring that downstream research agendas, product roadmaps, and infrastructure planning should account for longer horizons and more rigorous economic discipline.