As AI investors sell off, will the money flow back into crypto?

Several well-known AI stocks suffered heavy losses this week after Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, called for a slowdown across the entire sector. Investors responded by dumping a range of stocks. Dell lost more than 5% in a single session, while SoftBank, the largest investor in OpenAI, fell by more than 10%.

Does this mean money will automatically flow back into crypto, or are we misreading the situation?

AI

For most of the past two years, AI (artificial intelligence) dominated investors’ attention and attracted vast amounts of capital that once flowed freely into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. That is arguably the main reason Bitcoin has lost so much ground since its peak last October.

Now, however, a growing debate is taking shape: if concerns about an AI investment bubble prove justified, could crypto (once again) become investors’ next destination?

The discussion gathered pace after Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei warned that expectations around AI may be running further ahead of reality. Although Amodei remains one of the technology’s biggest advocates, his warning underlines a growing concern among investors: huge spending on AI infrastructure does not automatically translate into sustainable profits.

If confidence in AI starts to fade, cryptocurrencies could stand to benefit. Historically, capital in search of high growth opportunities rarely disappears; it usually shifts into other assets. Bitcoin in particular has matured considerably since the previous crypto bull market. Institutional adoption has increased, regulation has become clearer in several jurisdictions, and Bitcoin is increasingly regarded as a macroeconomic investment rather than a purely speculative bet.

Even so, a shift from AI to crypto is far from guaranteed. A correction in AI stocks could lead to broader risk aversion across financial markets, dampening interest in speculative assets in general. In such a scenario, both AI and crypto could come under pressure at the same time.

But if investors conclude that expectations around AI have become excessive while crypto remains relatively undervalued, a rotation of capital could take place. The most likely scenario is not a mass exit from AI, but rather a reweighting of portfolios. AI will remain a transformative technology, but investors may go in search of alternative growth stories. Should that happen, crypto could once again find itself at the centre of attention in the financial markets.