Apollo warns AI boom risks repricing as demand slows
Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok warns that the AI boom may be losing momentum as token-spending growth slows and customers appear sensitive to prices. He also points to flat revenue per worker and profit margins among the S&P 493—the S&P 500 excluding the Magnificent Seven—as evidence that AI investment has yet to deliver broad productivity gains.
Hyperscaler capital expenditure could reach about 3% of US GDP a year from 2027 to 2029, while widening credit spreads and inflation may delay debt-funded data centre projects. Slok warns that AI valuations could face a painful repricing if returns fail to materialise. Traders are watching AI usage and spending, corporate productivity, credit spreads and infrastructure timelines. A pullback in the AI boom could also weigh on wider risk appetite, including crypto markets.
Bearish
The article does not identify a direct catalyst for any cryptocurrency. Its relevance is indirect: Slok’s concerns about slowing AI demand, weak productivity gains, high capital expenditure and widening credit spreads could prompt investors to reduce exposure to risk assets. In the short term, a pullback in AI-linked equities or renewed concern about technology valuations could spill over into crypto through weaker risk appetite, potentially increasing volatility and selling pressure. Traders may watch equity-market moves, credit spreads and broader indicators such as the US dollar and Treasury yields for signs of a cross-market shift.
The bearish classification is conditional, not a prediction of a sustained crypto decline. Similar episodes of technology-sector valuation concerns have at times triggered broader risk-off trading, although crypto prices also respond to crypto-specific factors such as liquidity, regulation and digital-asset flows. Over the longer term, evidence that AI investment is producing measurable productivity and revenue growth could restore confidence; continued weak results alongside rising spending would strengthen repricing concerns. Since the article reports no direct crypto-market data, the likely effect is sentiment-led rather than a change in crypto fundamentals.