Optimism Wanes as AI Risks Take Center Stage

Optimism among The Information’s readers about the tech industry’s near-term outlook has fallen to its lowest level since President Donald Trump’s tariffs spooked markets last April, according to our latest monthly subscriber survey.

This month, 38% of readers said conditions would worsen in the next six months, up from 25% in December 2025. At the same time, readers are keeping close tabs on how the AI investment boom is playing out. They overwhelmingly saw AI as the dominant theme in tech this year, and they were roughly evenly split over whether the boom is a bubble.