Trillion-Dollar Bubble: Bank for International Settlements Names AI a Systemic Financial Risk

The hyperscalers' belief in infinite growth has met a stern warning from regulators. On September 10, 2026, the head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Pablo Hernández de Cos, stated that the scale of AI investments is destabilizing the global macroeconomy and posing a threat to financial stability.

According to BIS estimates, five IT giants will pour over $1 trillion into the industry in 2025–2026, and by 2030, total CAPEX will exceed an unimaginable $4 trillion. The problem is that artificial intelligence has become "too big to fail." This capital is being extracted from debt markets, distorting monetary policy and the cost of money for other sectors. If the unit economics of autonomous agents do not add up and AI cannot replace human labor at the promised scale, the popping of this infrastructure bubble will trigger a chain reaction guaranteed to drag the entire global banking system to the bottom.

Source: Bank for International Settlements / Reuters