The Bank for International Settlements, the institution that serves as a coordinating body for the world’s central banks, just published its annual economic report with a message that boils down to four words: slow down, maybe think.
The BIS warns that the current frenzy of AI infrastructure spending, particularly by the five largest hyperscalers, could end in a severe investment bust. The group projects those companies will commit over $1 trillion in capital expenditure over the next two years. That is an almost incomprehensible sum being funneled into data centers, chips, and cooling systems on the bet that AI will reshape everything.
The report, issued June 28, 2026, doesn’t mince words about what happens if that bet doesn’t pay off quickly enough.
The dot-com playbook, but with more zeros
BIS officials drew explicit parallels to two of history’s most famous investment bubbles: the railroad boom and the dot-com era. Both involved genuinely transformative technologies. Both attracted enormous capital. And both ended with investors staring at balance sheets that looked like they’d been through a paper shredder.
