The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published its annual economic report on June 28, warning that AI funding risks could trigger a global financial disruption that, in the worst case, could rival or exceed the damage caused by the 2008 crisis. The BIS identifies AI as one of three “pressure points” squeezing the global economy, alongside persistently elevated inflation and record sovereign debt. The report warns that a rapid concentration of investment, high leverage, limited transparency, and dependence on markets lacking traditional regulatory guardrails are assembling again around artificial intelligence. The BIS places the current AI investment cycle alongside historical boom-and-bust patterns, including British canal building in the 1830s, the railway boom of the 1840s, the electrification wave of the late 1920s, and the dot-com surge of the late 1990s. Zhang Tao, the BIS chief representative for Asia and the Pacific, stated: “The speed of a correction could be much faster than previous banking crisis episodes.” The report notes that households are now more exposed to equity markets than at any previous point in comparable cycles, and that the bulk of AI investment moves through hedge funds and private markets rather than regulated banks.