NYU finance professor Aswath Damodaran, widely known as the “Dean of Valuation,” is warning that the artificial intelligence investment frenzy is dangerously overvalued and heading for a reckoning. Damodaran argues the current AI boom displays classic signs of what he calls a “Big Market Delusion,” where too many investors assume they will each capture the majority of a vast new market. Venture capitalists and private market investors are among the most exposed, according to Damodaran, who believes they face the greatest risk of being left behind when the correction finally arrives. For AI valuations reaching the $26 trillion range to be justified, Damodaran argues the technology must deliver productivity gains so sweeping that they would require eliminating roughly half of all white-collar jobs globally. This scenario, while more sustainable for the broader economy, would result in significantly lower headline valuations for AI stocks than the market is currently pricing in.