AI boom risks global financial crash, warn central bankers

Central bankers warn that excessive, debt-fueled spending on AI infrastructure and opaque financing arrangements—including complex transactions between tech giants, shadow banks, and data center operators—create systemic financial risks comparable to the 2008 crisis. IT leaders must recognize that aggressive capital expenditure in AI and infrastructure, while competitive, may become unsustainable if AI underdelivers, potentially triggering a broader economic downturn that would directly impact technology budgets and vendor viability. Organizations should prepare contingency plans for potential disruption to cloud services, chip supplies, and technology vendor consolidations, while reassessing the business case and ROI expectations for large-scale AI and data center investments.