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The Benefits of Bubbles – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

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It’s funny to remember that a decade ago there were enough people convinced we were in a bubble that I felt compelled to write an Article entitled It’s Not 1999; that was right then, and it’s obviously right now, when we have a clear counter-example: this is a bubble. How else to describe a single company — OpenAI — making $1.4 trillion worth of deals (and counting!) with an extremely impressive but commensurately tiny $13 billion of reported revenue? Sure, the actual number may be higher, but that is still two orders of magnitude less than the amount of infrastructure OpenAI has publicly committed to buy over the coming years, and they are not the only big spenders. Over the past week every big tech company (except Apple) has significantly expanded their capital expenditure plans, and there is no sign of anyone slowing down. This does, understandably, have people wringing their hands. What goes up must come down, which is to say bubbles that inflate eventually pop, with the end result

The Benefits of Bubbles – Stratechery by Ben Thompson Skip to content The Benefits of Bubbles Wednesday, November 5, 2025 Listen to Podcast Watch on YouTube Listen to this post : Log in to listen It’s funny to remember that a decade ago there were enough people convinced we were in a bubble that I felt compelled to write an Article entitled It’s Not 1999 ; that was right then, and it’s obviously right now, when we have a clear counter-example: this is a bubble. How else to describe a single company — OpenAI — making $1.4 trillion worth of deals (and counting!) with an e

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