An executive at the world’s largest alternative asset manager says investors fixated on AI bubble talk are overlooking the scale of the coming productivity boom.
In a new interview with CNBC, Blackstone president and COO Jon Gray says the current wave of capital pouring into chips, data centers and energy infrastructure reflects a rational pursuit of long-term productivity gains rather than speculation.
He points to early results in several industries showing tangible benefits from AI.
“But I do think the AI, which gets a lot of bubble talk, it’s worth thinking about why people are investing this much capital. We are beginning to see now some really powerful examples of productivity in coding, in customer engagement, on the legal side, in the content area.”
Looking at the bigger picture, Gray says AI has the potential to reduce labor costs while driving efficiency gains.
“And if you think about what’s happening, it’s a huge investment boom. chips and data centers and power, which will enable this big productivity boom. And if you think about the numbers involved, labor costs globally are $60 trillion.
If this technology makes companies 15% more efficient, that’s $9 trillion of annual productivity gains. That means a lot of value created. That justifies a lot of this capital spent.”
But he warns that not all AI investments will generate profits.
“There will be misallocations of capital. There will be poor investments. We saw that with railroads, with the internet.”
Last month, the trillion-dollar asset manager revealed two broad investment themes to ride the AI train.
“Well, it starts with the picks and shovels, with things like chips and data centers and power at massive scale. This is what you need to do to make this AI a reality.”
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