Fed Chair Powell: AI Spending Boom Differs from Dotcom Bubble Due to Actual Earnings and Productivity Focus

Powell says that, unlike the dotcom boom, AI spending isn't a bubble: 'I won't go into particular names, but they actually have earnings'

The comments mark what seems like Powell's most direct acknowledgment yet that AI's corporate build-out—spanning hundreds of billions of dollars in data center and semiconductor investments—has become a genuine engine of U.S. growth

Powell emphasized that the explosion of AI spending isn't being driven by monetary policy—or by cheap money

I don't think interest rates are an important part of the AI or data center story. It's based on longer-run assessments that this is an area where there's going to be a lot of investment