Investor confidence in artificial intelligence is holding fast in 2026, despite increasing concern about a potential AI bubble forming, similar to the dot-com bust that caused $5 trillion in losses in 1999.

According to a survey of 2,600 people, conducted by finance podcast Motley Fool Money, 57 per cent of AI investors plan to hold their investment levels steady this year.

The 2026 AI Investor Outlook Report said that a further 36 per cent wanted to increase funds in the technology, while only 7 per cent intended to reduce their money in AI-related stock.

This came despite worries in some quarters about the direction of the industry. Bubbles typically form when customer expectation outpaces reality. When the bubble pops it can cause widespread economic devastation and stock market falls.

Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia — the firm that produces most of the world’s AI chips, has argued that there is no AI bubble, just a natural transition from an old computing model to a faster one.

However, the Bank of England takes a different view.

British newspaper The Guardian recently reported that the BoE’s Financial Policy Committee has warned that risks to financial stability increased last year, with one concern being the rise in valuations of AI companies.

The FPC said this heightened the risk of sharp correction.

“Meanwhile, those AI firms have been taking on much more debt to build data centres and compete in the global tech race, leaving the financial sector exposed if the AI bubble bursts,” The Guardian reported.

Donoto Riccio, head of AI for Motley FoolMoney believed there was a bubble forming around AI but thought it was less formidable than previous ones with investors taking a more measured and thoughtful approach than in previous years.

“That does not mean that this bubble will not pop or at least deflate a bit,” he told podcast listeners. “But investors are in this mode of evaluating the risks and the trade-offs. They are more willing to demarcate their personal lines that go between investing and speculating.”

The survey uncovered optimism, with 62 per cent of investors expressing confidence that AI firms would deliver strong long-term returns.

Mr Riccio thought the high level of investor faith showed that people had an inherent belief that AI was tied to value in the global economy.

Motley Fool Money said the survey’s upbeat sentiment reflected a broader trend playing out in the stock market.

“Of the ten publicly traded companies that score highest for AI readiness and execution in the Motley Fool’s Moneyball database as of November 24, 2025, six have beaten the S&P 500 over the past five years,” podcasters said. “Overall, those ten stocks had an average return of 220 per cent compared with the S&P 500’s 84 per cent over that period.”

Survey responders saw data quality, security and a sense of overvaluation in the sector as the biggest risks in AI investment.

Motley Fool Money’s senior investment analyst Asit Sharma thought the risk of an AI bubble increased last year as people became more excited about agentic AI.

“Now the hype has cooled down and become more measured,” he said.

Some people called 2025 the year of agentic AI, but he thought it was more correct to call this the “decade of agents”.

“It is just getting started,” Mr Sharma said. “This is an emerging technology.”