Originally published in Svenska Dagbladet by Björn Jeffery, September 15, 2025
The AI trend is stronger than ever and is pulling the entire American stock market toward new heights. But more and more signals suggest that the top may be near.
“We didn’t see it coming.” The familiar explanation, heard all too often when something unexpected and unwelcome has happened.
In reality, it is rarely quite true. There are signs. Perhaps they were not so clear at the time, or perhaps it was difficult to see the connection between them. But they were there. This is worth keeping in mind when looking at the red-hot AI market.
Three individual events that have recently occurred may not look like much on their own. But could these be exactly the kind of signals you look back on afterward and think you should have seen coming, after all?
Let us start with the first event — an acquisition. Software company Atlassian bought The Browser Company for 5.7 billion kronor. The company made a web browser, Arc, which gained moderate popularity in certain circles of enthusiasts, but never really made a big splash. After that they developed the browser Dia — an “AI browser.” What that means is difficult to answer, since the product has not yet been released to anyone beyond testers.
What we do know is that The Browser Company has essentially no revenue at all. They also barely have any users of Arc, and in any case the company has stated that all energy will go into the new Dia going forward. 5.7 billion kronor for an AI browser that nobody uses sounds instinctively expensive.
Let us look at the next event. Chip company Nvidia — also the world’s highest valued listed company — has also made a peculiar deal. Since February of this year, Nvidia has been a part-owner of cloud company Lambda, which specialises in cloud services and software that facilitate AI models. This is familiar territory for Nvidia, and nothing strange in itself.
The strange part happened last week. Nvidia then signed a deal to pay 1.5 billion dollars — around 14 billion kronor — to rent capacity in 18,000 of Lambda’s chips. But where did those chips originally come from? From Nvidia, of course. They are renting back the very same chips they recently sold to Lambda.
The publication The Information, which broke the story, described it as a “circular financial arrangement.” That sounds like a generous description. Nvidia builds up Lambda’s finances through the billion-kronor deal, but benefits itself both by selling chips to them and by having been a part-owner of the company from the start. This becomes especially clear given that Lambda is reportedly heading toward a stock market listing. Nvidia is now simultaneously one of the company’s largest owners, suppliers, and customers.
Finally, a more pop-cultural observation. In the original gold rush, many people left everything behind for the chance to take part in the promised golden future. It therefore raises an eyebrow or two when American rapper Meek Mill has decided to become an AI entrepreneur. On X he writes that he is working on an “AI tool that will change the world.”
Changing careers is of course a choice open to anyone. But it is unusual for a rapper — one known partly for having been imprisoned for weapons offences — to change course in this particular way. He has a “genius tech guy” with him, so we shall see what the two of them manage to produce.
Let us remember where things stand. The S&P 500 index is at its highest point ever. Nasdaq 100 likewise. According to Goldman Sachs, the companies known as the Magnificent Seven — Apple, Amazon, Google (Alphabet), Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla — had annual profit growth of 28 percent in the most recent quarter. And the American market overall is still going very strongly.
But looking at the other 493 companies in the S&P 500, the equivalent figure is just 6 percent. The tech companies and the AI trend have been an enormous locomotive — but they do not represent the whole economy. A great deal hangs on a very small number of companies, all of whom are deeply rooted in this AI trend in various ways.
Is it a bubble? As we know, you cannot say until after it has burst. But it does look like things are simmering here and there, at least.
