The IO+ Week: are we in an AI bubble, or aren't we (yet)?
Our weekly recap offers an overview of the most interesting stories around key innovations every Sunday.
Published on September 7, 2025
Will the bubble burst?
Bart, co-founder of Media52 and Professor of Journalism oversees IO+, events, and Laio. A journalist at heart, he keeps writing as many stories as possible.
If you're experiencing dotcom déjà vu these days, you're not alone. Morgan Stanley estimates global spending on AI data centers will reach “nearly $3 trillion” by 2029; yet Big Tech is expected to account for only about half of that, pushing a flood of outside capital into a market still in development. The result is one of the largest bursts of capital expenditure in modern technology, with an unusually complex capital structure. Now that even Sam Altman of OpenAI thinks we're heading for a bubble, it's time to dig deeper. So that's what we did.
We measured the temperature in four steps.
1 Why it looks like a bubble
2 Why it's not (exactly) the dot-com bubble
3 Will it burst or just wobble?
4 What to look out for (the bubble barometer)
Read the full article here. We're curious to hear your opinion. Bubble or slide?
The podcast
Oh, and we've had another week full of innovation news in our podcast. The ideal solution for those who prefer listening over reading. Because our news easily stays fresh for a week, you can also easily listen to the daily episodes one after the other. This makes the IO+ Daily the ideal way to fill your head with some optimistic news from the world of innovation and technology. In less than ten minutes per episode, our AI voices Oliver and Shelby discuss two fascinating topics for you. So even if your commute is short, it's long enough to inspire you for the whole day. There's no better way to kick-start your day!
ioplus daily podcast trailer
Our other newsletters
We understand that not everyone visits ioplus.nl several times a day. That's exactly why we also distribute a selection of our news via LinkedIn and other social media. And we have various newsletters in our package. Every time a newsletter is sent out, we immediately see a spike in our traffic. The great thing about newsletters is that you can tailor them to the specific needs of the user. That's why we now have seven different newsletters at IO+:
The top two are our weekly editions: you are reading one now; they are published in two languages and have around 6,000 members. Our daily newsletter is only available in Dutch. Our most popular newsletters are each linked to one of the four main themes of IO+ and written by our specialists in that field. Each of these newsletters keeps you perfectly informed of the most important developments. Signing up is very easy (just click on the name of the newsletter):
- IO+ Daily (1,200 members)
- Mauro's Green Corner (monthly, 13,800 members)
- Elcke's Saturday Data Dive (monthly, 20,550 members)
- Elcke and Mauro's BIO+ Bites (monthly, 29,300 members)
- Aafke's Saturday CHIPS (monthly, 16,300 members)
A selection of other highlights from this week:
- ‘Solution to the major challenge of nuclear fusion energy near’
- Knowledge institutions as drivers of regional innovation
- World's first cultured meat farm in the Netherlands
- Growing tissue, fighting tumors: the Accardo lab
- Battle for EU chip sovereignty gets support from Oudenaarde
- Japan's DNP opens Dutch R&D center with TNO
- Mini camera with AI predicts repeat heart attacks
- The young, driven entrepreneurs of the 4TU Impact Challenge
- AI can learn a lot from the brain about energy efficiency
- Concerns about research and innovation in the Netherlands
Enjoy your Sunday and don't forget that a new episode of IO+ Daily will be waiting for you tomorrow morning at 6:30 a.m.