It feels like this should go without saying by now, which is why I relegated it to below-the-fold coverage on Tuesday, but professional investors are much more concerned about an AI bubble than they were just a couple of months ago.

That was one of the main takeaways from an otherwise bullish BofA fund manager survey, which saw indicative cash levels slip near record lows this month.

The figure on the left, below, shows “long Mag7” reclaiming the top spot on the poll’s “most crowded trade” list from “long gold,” which stormed up the chart last month as bullion’s historic 2025 rally crescendoed in a blow-off top.

The figure on the right shows that nearly half of respondents now see an AI bubble as the biggest tail risk. That’s a meaningfully higher share than the prior month and triple September’s share.

The heightened concern almost surely reflects widespread recognition that the deals at the heart of the hype cycle are in many cases hopelessly self-referential. That wasn’t as immediately obvious in September, and only began to grab headlines last month. Now it’s all anyone wants to talk about.

Asked if AI stocks are in fact already in a bubble, 53% of BofA poll respondents said they are, around the same as last month. The share who said global equities are overvalued hit yet another record high at 63%.

The AI bubble concern was also reflected in the share who said companies are over-spending which, at a net 20%, was the highest in 20 years. (Indeed, this month was the first time that metric has been positive since 2005.)

On the bright side, more than half of poll participants said AI’s already increasing productivity. Now if only corporate management teams could quantify the impact of those productivity gains for margins, we’d be in good shape.