Goldman Sachs executives: Current speculative activities are far less than during the tech bubble era

Ben Snider, who will serve as the head of U.S. equities at Goldman Sachs (GS.US), stated in an interview with Bloomberg's podcast that the current investor attitude towards the market shows key differences compared to the dot-com bubble era. Today, investors are focused on the substance of artificial intelligence and recent profits, rather than speculating on the long-term potential of AI.

He pointed out that during the dot-com bubble, investors attempted to forecast the long-term productivity gains and economic benefits brought by the internet, whereas current investors are focused on immediate profits, leading the market to concentrate on sectors such as semiconductors, hyperscale cloud computing, and electricity. He also noted that speculative activities are significantly lower compared to the dot-com bubble era. Goldman Sachs' "Speculative Trading Indicator" shows that current speculative activities are still far below the levels seen during the dot-com bubble, and even lower than in 2021.

However, Jan Hatzius, Chief Economist and Head of Research at Goldman Sachs, who also attended the same program, warned against betting on AI driving the economy, pointing out that in last year's U.S. economic growth, the contribution attributed to AI was nearly zero, as many of the goods invested in this field are imports, and semiconductors are viewed as intermediate inputs rather than investments