Blackstone President Jon Gray Says Investors Need Not Worry That the AI Boom Will Turn Into a Bubble
Blackstone Inc. President Jon Gray said in an interview with Bloomberg TV that investors do not need to worry that the artificial intelligence boom will turn into a bubble. He said that when people talk about bubbles, they think of building capacity first and then hoping demand appears. In AI, he said, you are building capacity and hoping to keep up with demand. Gray said current demand is growing at a nearly parabolic pace, which is different from the classic bubble pattern in which capacity comes first and demand lags.
Those remarks came shortly after the company released its third-quarter results. Several days earlier, billionaire Ken Griffin had said he was concerned that the AI industry was almost certainly moving toward a bubble. Gray also said in the interview that Ode, the AI deployment company Blackstone formed with Anthropic, cannot keep up with customer demand; portfolio companies’ spending on models has risen about 20 times year over year. The company is focusing on building long-term infrastructure assets such as data centers to support AI development.
Blackstone has accumulated about $200 billion in data center-related assets. The company said AI-related holdings account for about 7% of its roughly $1.4 trillion in assets under management. Gray views AI infrastructure as one of the biggest bets of his career.
Original sources:
Title: Blackstone’s Jon Gray Pushes Back on AI Bubble Concerns After Griffin Warning Publisher: Bloomberg Publication date: 2026-10-22 URL: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-22/jon-gray-rebuts-ai-bubble-warnings-calls-demand-parabolic Source type: media report (interview) Verification status: key passages and summary read for this article (2026-10-26) Supporting content: Gray said investors do not need to worry that the AI boom will turn into a bubble; capacity is being built to keep up with demand; demand is nearly parabolic; response to Ken Griffin’s remarks.
Title: Financial executives lay out duelling AI bubble viewpoints Publisher: Financial Post (citing Bloomberg) Publication date: 2026-10-22 URL: https://financialpost.com/investing/financial-executives-lay-out-duelling-ai-bubble-viewpoints Source type: media report Verification status: relevant passages read for this article (2026-10-26) Supporting content: Gray’s original words; unable to keep up with customer demand; about $200 billion in data center assets; AI-related holdings account for 7% of $1.4 trillion in AUM.
ABAB AI Insight
The supply-demand structure of AI infrastructure investment differs from historical bubbles in which capacity was built ahead of demand. Gray describes the current situation as demand growing faster than supply, with bottlenecks concentrated in electricity, chips, permits, and capital concentration. Blackstone has entered this constrained area through investment in data centers, power, and related assets, and has formed long-term contracts with hyperscale companies. Its Ode company, formed with Anthropic, and the sharp rise in model spending within its portfolio are cited as internal evidence of strong demand.
On the capital side, AI-related spending has already accounted for a sizable share of U.S. GDP, and several technology companies are financing data center construction through equity, debt, and special purpose vehicles. As an infrastructure investor, Blackstone benefits from constraints in compute and energy supply rather than directly bearing the risk of model development. About $200 billion in data center assets and the share of AI-related holdings show the scale of its capital allocation to this theme. Bubble warnings from market participants such as Ken Griffin focus on whether large-scale spending is running too far ahead of verifiable long-term returns.
Compared with the telecom infrastructure bubble of the 1990s, much of the current supply is being locked in by large technology companies with strong capital strength through long-term contracts, rather than through highly leveraged speculative construction. Gray emphasizes that the difficulty of obtaining chips, power, and approvals makes it hard for supply to catch up quickly with demand. This constraint supports the pricing and returns of infrastructure assets in the near term, but also makes the overall capital expenditure path more sensitive to interest rates, energy availability, and the persistence of demand.
If demand growth continues to outpace supply expansion, holders of infrastructure assets will continue to benefit from scarcity premiums. Conversely, if model adoption or corporate spending slows, already locked-in long-term contracts and capital expenditure commitments may require reassessment. Blackstone’s public stance is consistent with the direction of its existing asset portfolio, and the market’s judgment on the AI capital cycle will still depend on subsequent demand data and changes in financing conditions.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
Classic bubbles usually feature capacity expansion running ahead of demand, whereas current AI infrastructure discussions focus on supply lagging observable demand growth.
Bottlenecks in power, chips, and approvals limit the pace of compute-supply expansion, making the scarcity of infrastructure assets a pricing factor.
The public views of large capital managers are consistent with the direction of their existing allocations in data centers and energy assets.