Cry Me a River

Bubbles, Builders and the Race to Own AI

🎙️ Canada pioneered AI — but between invention and scale, the signal faded.

It began here, when Geoffrey Hinton’s work at the University of Toronto gave the world the neural networks that power modern AI.

But the irony runs deep.
Canada sparked the idea — others built the industry.

The country that lit the lighthouse now risks becoming its spectator.
The world is sailing ahead — and we’re still standing by the shore.

⚙️ The Rational Bubble

Allianz’s Chief Economic Advisor Mohamed El-Erian calls what we’re witnessing a “rational bubble.”

Massive sums are chasing AI because the promise of productivity is huge — and not all that optimism is misplaced.

We’ve seen this story before:
Railways in the 1800s. Electricity in the 1900s. The internet in the 1990s.
Each began as overinvestment — and ended as infrastructure.

The same may hold true for AI.
But even a rational bubble has an irrational edge — when valuations rise faster than real-world adoption.

This boom won’t just create winners.
Money will chase every idea until only a few with real scale and staying power remain.

💻 The Acceleration Game

From California to Shenzhen to Bangalore, capital spending has gone vertical:

• Semiconductor orders have more than doubled in two years.
• Data-centre construction is growing nearly 30 % a year worldwide.
• Power demand for AI compute could exceed Japan’s total electricity use by 2030.

The irony runs deeper when you see how far the race has moved.
The AMD–OpenAI deal — a partnership to deploy six gigawatts of GPUs and a 10 % equity stake for OpenAI — sent AMD’s stock soaring nearly 50 % in a month, blurring the line between fundamentals and FOMO.

If history rhymes, today’s frenzy will leave two legacies —
✨ The infrastructure that powers the next century.
💥 And the correction that reminds us excess has a cost.

This feels like a rational bubble — not the kind that collapses, but the kind that creates.
The challenge is ensuring ambition doesn’t outrun affordability — and that innovation stays rooted in progress, not speculation.

🇨🇦 Canada’s Quiet Irony

Despite being home to the pioneers of deep learning, Canada’s AI investment gap is widening.
While global AI infrastructure spending nears $500 billion this year, Canadian public-private investment remains in the single-digit billions.

We don’t lack ideas — we lack velocity.
For Canada, this is a crossroads moment:
Do we remain a nation of brilliant beginnings — or become one of the builders of what comes next?

🎯 Beyond Growth Takeaways

“In a world racing to scale AI, true strength lies not in how fast we build — but in how wisely we sustain.”

1️⃣ Not every boom is progress.
When capital floods faster than adoption, innovation risks turning into inflation. True growth builds capacity, not chaos.

2️⃣ Productivity is the new oil — but discipline is the refinery.
The nations that turn compute into competitiveness will be those that invest with purpose, not panic.

3️⃣ Every revolution carries a cost curve.
The next correction won’t be about technology failing — it’ll be about expectations outpacing returns.

4️⃣ Canada’s moment of reckoning.
We gave the world the neural networks that power AI. The question now is whether we’ll stay the inventor — or scale as the builder.

5️⃣ Leadership in an age of acceleration.
Great leaders know when to speed up — and when to slow down. Because in every cycle of hype, timing isn’t just strategy — it’s survival.

💬 What Do You Think?

Are we witnessing the foundation of a new global infrastructure cycle — or another story of capital sprinting ahead of clarity?

🤝 Let’s Collaborate

I’m a Canada-based entrepreneur and growth strategist working at the intersection of technology, trade, and transformation — helping organizations navigate the next wave of disruption without losing sight of sustainability.

My focus: guiding leaders to
🌍 expand intelligently,
🧠 invest with discipline, and
⚙️ build growth that lasts — whether through digital ecosystems, global markets, or innovation-led transformation.

What I Help With

🚀 AI & Digital Strategy — transforming emerging technologies into measurable productivity, not just potential.

🌍 Trade & Market Diversification — reducing overdependence on single markets and finding new pathways for growth in a shifting global order.

🛒 CPG & Consumer Strategy — aligning value, pricing, and positioning with evolving consumer and market expectations.

📺 Media & Technology Transformation — enabling FAST channels, content ecosystems, and digital platforms to scale and monetize across borders.

Across sectors — from manufacturing to media — the strongest organizations aren’t just chasing scale.
They’re designing sustainability.
They’re finding rhythm in acceleration and turning volatility into vision.

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🔔 Stay Connected

If this story of balance, resilience, and reinvention resonates with you — let’s continue the conversation.

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