IA: Private equity giants continue to bet on a still uncertain market

At Davos 2026, artificial intelligence has emerged as the central topic of economic discussions. Private equity giants continue to bet on a still uncertain market, fueled by investor FOMO. Between record valuations and competition with crypto, the future of AI raises as many hopes as doubts.

AI valuations soaring at Davos

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, AI startups were at the heart of the debates. Indeed, OpenAI has a record valuation of $500 billion, while Anthropic has doubled its value in a few months to reach $350 billion. To this end, Orlando Bravo, co-founder of Thoma Bravo, summed up the situation by stating that funds are flocking to any AI story, confirming the extent of FOMO dominating the markets.

As a result, investors fear missing the next revolution and are injecting massive capital, even into still fragile AI projects. This frenzy is reminiscent of the dotcom bubble of the 2000s, where valuations soared without correlation to revenues. In Davos, this situation shows that AI is now essential, despite the economic and technological uncertainties that persist.

Why private equity giants are banking on AI

Private equity giants persist in investing in AI because they see it as a major transformative force. In Davos, Orlando Bravo qualified his remarks by saying that AI will not disrupt more than half of software companies, but that it will be disruptive for a large number of them. This vision reflects a clear strategy: securing a place in a market deemed essential, even if tangible proof is still lacking.

Funds therefore want to be at the heart of the technological revolution and prefer to take risks today rather than remain on the sidelines tomorrow. Davos could serve as a showcase to reaffirm this confidence and reassure the markets. The logic is simple: AI is seen as a strategic lever, and investors prefer to overpay now rather than regret later.

Crypto: can AI eclipse bitcoin?

As AI attracts massive capital, the question arises: will this frenzy eclipse interest in cryptos like bitcoin and ethereum? Global funding in 2025 reached $425 billion, nearly 50% of which was captured by AI, mechanically reducing the share of investments in crypto. Some analysts believe that AI could become the priority of funds, relegating crypto to the background.

However, Bitcoin retains its status as a digital reserve and Ethereum remains at the heart of decentralized applications. The competition between AI and crypto is not only financial, it is also narrative: AI is presented as the technological revolution, while crypto defends decentralization and digital sovereignty. While in Davos AI seems to dominate the attention, crypto retains unique assets that could prevent its erasure.

At Davos 2026, artificial intelligence confirmed its status as a must-have market, attracting massive capital despite uncertainty. As AI sucks all the energy out of bitcoin and causes the Hashrate to plummet, the question arises: will artificial intelligence eclipse interest in crypto, or can these two technological revolutions coexist and reinforce each other?