Investor anxiety about an AI bubble is at "fever pitch", with fears growing that a surge in artificial intelligence investment could lead to a crash similar to 2000s dotcom bust.

Artificial intelligence has seen huge investment: 50% of venture dollars were spent on AI startups during the first half of 2025, according to data from CB Insights. And, in those six months, AI funding "exceeded spending for all of last year", said Business Insider.

But some investors "are wondering whether large language models are actually powerful enough to develop the long-desired superintelligence", and there's concern that "less experienced investors are getting caught up in the hype".

Why is there so much concern now?
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology report found that 95% of companies investing in generative AI have yet to see any financial returns. Given that there has been between £22 billion and £29 billion in enterprise investment in generative AI, the lack of returns is concerning.

Another reason is a warning from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that investors are getting "over-excited". He told The Verge: "Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are over-excited about AI? My opinion is yes. Is AI the most important thing to happen in a very long time? My opinion is also yes." He added that some valuations of AI startups are "insane" and "not rational".

Will the bubble burst?
It's too early to call a peak in the US stock market "but the signs of one are starting to appear", said UnHerd. Share prices in the data mining and spyware firm Palantir fell by 10% last week, and those in AI chip maker Nvidia lost more than 3%. Other AI-linked stocks, such as Arm, Oracle and AMD, are also down.

Is it all gloom and doom for investors? 
Not necessarily. If comparisons to the dotcom bubble are apt, there are likely to be some big losers – and some very big winners.

"Even when the dotcom bubble burst, there were a handful of fairly obvious winners that eventually came roaring back," said CNBC's Jim Cramer. "If you gave up on Amazon in 2001, you missed the £1.4 trillion boat."

Netflix has joined the cosy crime bandwagon with a star-studded adaptation (pictured above) of Richard Osman's smash-hit novel, "The Thursday Murder Club".

Osman's book sales have already "caused a dent the size of Monaco in the Amazon rainforest", said Alec Marsh in The Spectator. The streaming giant is therefore "confident" that viewers will flock to the adaptation "until their servers start to melt".

'Cats, cakes and desirable properties'
"In our world of constant, instantly accessible horror, TV schedulers are turning more than ever to – excuse me while I gag – cosy crime," said Jude Rogers in The Observer.

Where the front covers of crime books once featured "eerie landscapes, sinister shadowy figures and young female murder victims", these days they show "a multitude of cats, cakes and desirable properties", said Jake Kerridge in The Telegraph: a "cosification" of the genre.

Shows like "Miss Marple", "Murder She Wrote" and "Midsomer Murders" were early televised examples – but it "doesn't take Miss Marple to work out who is responsible" for cosy crime's current popularity.

Osman's four novels have broken numerous publishing records and collectively sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. A genre previously associated with "an elderly, gore-averse readership" has "become cool", and publishers have "scrambled" to put out more books that "bear a startling visual resemblance" to Osman's.

'A sense of justice'
In cosy crime, the murder weapon is "more likely to be teapot than a metal bar", said Marsh. The setting will be "rural" rather than a "big city", with "essential accoutrements" including a "cycling vicar" and an "inevitable brace of spinsters".

The genre "offers us order and closure" in a world "dominated by individuals such as Trump, Putin and Xi", where "we see heinous actions going unpunished", said Marsh. In cosy crime, the killer "usually gets their comeuppance and then "it's time for tea, or a gin and tonic, or evensong".

Cosy crime books share "a focus on the puzzle of the crime rather than brutality and gore", said "The Dog Sitter Detective" author Antony Johnston on Culture Fly. Alongside "a light touch, often with a wry sense of humour", there is a "sense of justice" – all "qualities readers love and seek out".

Somerset: Battlefields House, Lansdown
A first-floor flat in a delightful crenellated villa built by the architect Charles Harcourt Masters in 1802. Set in gardens with views over the Severn Estuary and the Brecon Beacons. 2 beds, family bath, kitchen, recep, communal gardens, parking. £435,000; Fine & Country.

Norfolk: The Victorian Wing, Hunstanton Hall
A substantial part of a historic Grade I country house with Elizabethan origins. 6 beds, 4 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 4 receps, billiards room, gym, garden, parking. £2.2m; Bedfords.

Northumberland: Yew Tree, Belford Hall
Ground-floor flat in an elegant Grade I Palladian-style building dating back to 1756. 2 beds, family bath, recep, kitchen/breakfast room, communal gardens, parking. £325,000; Finest Properties.

Ayrshire: The East Wing, Sundrum Castle, Ayr
A major part of a 14th century castle, which is set in 2 acres with views of the Water of Coyle. 2 suites, 3 further beds, family bath, kitchen/diner, 4 receps, garden, parking. OIEO £800,000; Savills.

Think Rylan is right about asylum-seekers? So does Tommy Robinson…
Sharan Dhaliwal in The Independent
Presenter Rylan Clark "shared his thoughts" about asylum seekers on "This Morning", and they were "exaggerated" and "incorrect", writes Sharan Dhaliwal. My jaw dropped "as every new line came out". It's "lazy" and "scare-mongering" to say things on live TV "that aren't fact-checked" and, "unfortunately, many people will believe what Rylan has said". But now he's been praised by Tommy Robinson, maybe it's time to hit the "kill switch" on his immigration views.

Why progressives should care about falling birth rates
John Burn-Murdoch in the Financial Times
"The UK birth rate has fallen to a record low", writes John Burn-Murdoch. Progressives think "worrying" about this is "inherently" right-wing but "ceding the floor to the right" risks a "more conservative, less green future". The birth-rate decline is "overwhelmingly" confined to "those on the progressive left", which effectively nudges "each successive generation's politics further to the right". There's no clear evidence that not having children "embodies progressive values".

Taylor Swift and Donald Trump are the same
Lily Isaacs in The New Statesman
Donald Trump has called Taylor Swift a "terrific person", writes Lily Isaacs. It was "not a gesture of reconciliation but of recognition". Swift, "with startling efficiency", is "playing the same game" that Trump has "mastered". They both "saturate the media without engaging with it", and "make their followers feel like insiders to something historic". Now "treated less like celebrities and more like movements", they don't "speak to the moment", they engulf it.