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More →Ken Griffin Says AI Is 'Almost Certainly' in a Bubble—And Compares GPUs to Airline Seats
Ken Griffin, founder of the Wall Street giant Citadel, <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ai-stocks-are-probably-in-a-bubble-but-might-be-worth-holding-onto-says-citadels-ken-griffin-87f535ce" target="_blank" class="sc-adb616fe-0 dJryYS" rel="nofollow">said</a> Tuesday that investors are “almost certainly” in an AI bubble—though he isn’t telling them to dump their AI stocks. “What’s left in the wake of these bubbles, if we want to use that word, is often game changing for the world. And the companies that are on the other side of that bubble are the market leaders for decades to come,” Griffin said at Citadel’s Future of Global Markets Conference in New York on Oct. 20 This reaches beyond tech investors, since the AI buildout has <a href="https://decrypt.co/359175/nvidia-earnings-steady-markets-ai-spending-debate-intensifies" target="_blank" class="sc-adb616fe-0 dJryYS" rel="nofollow">underpinned equity markets</a> over the past year, so many index funds and retirement accounts hold a slice of it. A bubble is what happens when prices climb far faster than the businesses behind them can justify, until reality catches up. Citadel is a hedge fund, a private firm that invests money for wealthy clients and institutions. But the fact that it seems like a bubble isn’t <i>that</i> big a deal if you look at the big picture, according to Griffin. “Any radical transformation of our economy is generally intertwined with a bubble,” he said, recalling the internet boom and adding that he wishes he had kept his Amazon stock. The companies that emerge on the other side of a bubble tend to lead markets for decades, he argued, though he stopped short of predicting a collapse. His own firm is a case study: Griffin said AI agents, software that carries out multistep tasks on its own, cut some high-level Citadel research from weeks to a couple of hours. Griffin compared GPUs, the graphics chips that many companies use to train and run AI models, to airline seats. Both have a very low marginal cost to run, meaning the extra expense of serving one more customer is tiny, so prices can collapse once supply outstrips demand. He pointed to the telecom boom around 2000, when companies laid more fiber-optic cable than demand required and communication prices fell. He also doubted that chips five or six years old, which still earn rental rates he called extraordinary, will keep doing so for another five or six years. Buyers are getting pickier, Griffin said, sorting which jobs justify premium models from OpenAI and Anthropic and which can run on cheaper open-source alternatives, meaning models anyone can download and run on their own computers. Corporate America has been uneven at extracting value from AI, he added, with companies studying their bills from the labs and asking where the productivity is. Gartner forecasts worldwide<a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-09-17-gartner-says-worldwide-ai-spending-will-total-1-point-5-trilli
UK consumer confidence posts biggest monthly drop since the pandemic.
According to a report by Bijie.com, the latest survey shows that the UK consumer confidence index fell sharply by 11 points to -24 in October, marking the largest single-month drop since April 2020. The result reflects deepening public concern about the economic outlook and was below all economists' forecasts in a Reuters poll. Market research firm GfK said the sharp drop in consumer confidence was driven by multiple factors, including rising inflation, the Middle East conflict, and continued pressure on household budgets.
A U.S. Senate investigative subcommittee is investigating Tether's payments to Nxum Group.
CoinWorld news: U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal has sent letters to Tether and Nxum Group demanding an explanation of the arrangements related to payments made by Tether to Nxum Group. Nxum Group was co-founded by White House crypto adviser Bo Hines, and during Bo Hines' tenure as White House crypto adviser, Nxum Group received large payments from Tether. Richard Blumenthal said that the business relationship between Tether, Nxum Group, and Bo Hines raises ethical and legal concerns.
SK Hynix cancels plan to list its subsidiary Solidigm in the US, with regulatory scrutiny and shareholder opposition posing obstacles.
CoinWorld news: SK Hynix has abandoned plans to take its Solidigm business public in the United States, citing strong opposition from shareholders and regulatory scrutiny. The controversy centers on concerns that the move could harm minority shareholders' interests. According to a regulatory filing submitted by the company on Friday, SK Hynix has also suspended the pre-IPO investment introduction process that was being pursued in parallel with the listing plan. Solidigm is a flash memory subsidiary under SK Hynix and had originally planned to pursue a potential U.S. listing next year. The reversal stems from concerns by South Korean regulators about "duplicate listing," with regulators believing that Solidigm's listing could constitute a duplicate listing and dilute the interests of existing shareholders.
SK Hynix cancels Solidigm's US IPO plan
According to CoinWorld news, SK Hynix has abandoned the plan to take its subsidiary Solidigm public in the United States, citing strong opposition from shareholders and regulatory scrutiny. The controversy centers on the possibility that the move could harm the interests of minority shareholders. According to a regulatory filing submitted by the company on Friday, SK Hynix has also suspended the pre-IPO investment introduction process that was being advanced in parallel with the listing plan. Solidigm is a flash memory business subsidiary under SK Hynix and had originally planned to pursue a potential U.S. listing next year. The reversal of the plan stems from concerns by South Korean regulators over "duplicate listing," as the regulators believe that Solidigm's listing could constitute a duplicate listing and dilute the interests of existing shareholders.
HSBC launches stablecoin redcoin, which PayMe users can use for payments and investments.
According to CoinWorld news, HSBC has launched the stablecoin redcoin, enabling more than 3.3 million PayMe users to make payments to 100,000 merchants. Wu Yang Yuru, Chief Executive of HSBC Hong Kong, stated that funds, assets, and information are shifting from traditional infrastructure to digital networks. Li Guankang, Head of Retail Banking Products at HSBC, stated that redcoin's transaction speed is consistent with PayMe's existing wallet and offers payment discounts. In addition, John O'Neill, Managing Director of Digital Assets and Currencies at HSBC, stated that within the year, a stablecoin wallet function will be added to the HSBC Hong Kong mobile banking app, supporting users in using redcoin to subscribe to tokenized investment products, including the HSBC Hong Kong Dollar Money Market Fund, with a minimum subscription amount of HKD 100. HSBC has completed pilot testing and will subsequently expand use cases for corporate and institutional clients.
Arthur Hayes predicts Bitcoin will reach $800,000 in early 2028.
According to CoinWorld news, Arthur Hayes predicts that Bitcoin's price will reach $800,000 by early 2028, and believes that the bursting of the AI bubble will trigger excessive money issuance, and that the companies involved will be unable to pay their computing commitment fees.
The U.S. Senate is investigating Tether's dealings with a White House adviser.
Coin World news, according to Coindesk, Richard Blumenthal, the lead Democratic senator on the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, is investigating millions of dollars in payments that Tether made to Nxum Group, a consulting firm founded by former White House crypto adviser Bo Hines, and has sent letters to Tether and Nxum demanding disclosure of the relevant business arrangements. Previously, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nxum received large consulting fees from Tether while Hines was still serving as a White House crypto policy adviser. Blumenthal believes that Hines was directly involved at the time in shaping stablecoin policies affecting Tether's business, and that the payments may involve legal and ethical issues. Hines currently serves as head of Tether's U.S. operations, and Tether has not yet responded to the investigation.
US Senator Blumenthal investigates Tether's payments to Bo Hines' company.
CoinWorld news: U.S. Senator Blumenthal, as the Democratic leader of the investigative subcommittee, has added the investigation into the former White House cryptocurrency advisor to his list of cryptocurrency-related concerns.
Intel CTO: Leading-edge wafer output can at most double, and AI compute expansion hits a supply chain ceiling.
According to a CoinWorld report, Intel CTO Pushkar Ranade said in a podcast interview that even with sufficient funding, global leading-edge wafer output would be difficult to expand tenfold, with a realistic growth ceiling of about twofold. He noted that AI computing power has grown threefold annually over the past decade, but the key equipment and fab scale required to manufacture advanced chips are becoming a new capacity ceiling. Ranade mentioned that ASML produces fewer than 100 EUV lithography machines each year and will struggle to significantly expand production by the end of this decade, and that equipment supply failing to keep up will affect overall output growth.