Chinese Hedge Fund Managers Warn the AI 'Super Bubble' Is Ready to Burst

Two of China's most respected hedge fund managers issued stark warnings in late June 2026 that the global AI stock rally has become an unsustainable bubble. Yang Dong of Wealspring Asset Management and Li Bei of Shanghai Banxia Investment Management laid out specific evidence for their views — just as technology markets around the world suffered one of their worst weeks in over a year.

Yang Dong: 'Collapse Is Inevitable'

Yang Dong, founder of Wealspring Asset Management, declared in an investor letter that global AI stocks are in a "super bubble" and that the "collapse point may not be far away" . In a highly unusual move for a top-performing manager, he halted new subscriptions to his funds on November 1, 2025 — months before the June 2026 selloff and well before many peers .

Yang Dong explicitly compared the current AI mania to the 2007 Chinese stock market peak, which he famously called. His track record on that call gives his warning significant weight among Chinese investors . He described the rally as disconnected from fundamentals, with valuations driven by speculative fever rather than sustainable earnings growth . As of June 2026, Wealspring managed more than $1.4 billion in assets .

Li Bei: 'The Trigger Has Already Appeared'

Li Bei, founder of Shanghai Banxia Investment Management, warned investors in her June 2026 monthly report not to chase AI stocks, stating that "the trigger for the AI bubble to burst has already appeared" . Her warning was unusually direct: "If you want to use this money to chase AI, even if you scold me, I still have to advise you to be extremely cautious" .

Li Bei's primary evidence was Anthropic's revenue trajectory. She pointed out that Anthropic announced $47 billion in revenue on May 28, 2026, up from $44 billion on May 1 — a month-on-month growth rate of less than 10%. She questioned whether such deceleration could sustain the valuations priced into the broader AI sector .

Despite significant underperformance in her own fund — the net equity position had fallen to 50% as losses mounted in energy, real estate, and consumer sectors — Li Bei refused to rotate into AI . She characterized the AI chase as a dangerous "fear of missing out" dynamic reminiscent of past bubbles, noting that leading domestic demand stocks in China now trade at P/E ratios below 10x, in stark contrast to AI's elevated valuations .

Other Prominent Investors Questioning AI Valuations

Yang Dong and Li Bei were not alone. Several other high-profile investors had raised similar concerns:

• Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, said the AI boom is "in the early stages of a bubble" in a post on X on January 5, 2026 .
• Michael Burry of Scion Asset Management, famous for betting against the 2008 housing market, disclosed bearish put options on Nvidia and Palantir in his 13F filings, publicly stating his belief that the economy is in an AI bubble .
• Francesco Sandrini, multi-asset head and CIO for Italy at Amundi (Europe's largest asset manager), said he is using a "dotcom-era playbook to dodge AI bubble risks" and questioned what investors will "do when the music stops" .
• Simon Edelsten, CIO of Goshawk Asset Management, expressed concern that the current AI boom could falter, saying it feels reminiscent of past speculative peaks .
• Vincent Lu, partner and head of private equity at Australia's Boman Group, noted that while bubble risks are visible even in Chinese AI names, they are much more contained than in the U.S. .

A Bank of America survey of fund managers conducted in November 2025 found that, for the first time in 20 years, a net 20% of investors believed companies were "overinvesting" in capital expenditures, driven largely by AI spending .

Global Tech Market Selloff: June 22–26, 2026

The week the Chinese hedge fund warnings were published (June 22–26, 2026) saw a sharp and broad technology selloff across global markets :

• Nvidia and Alphabet suffered a second consecutive day of losses, with chip and AI leaders leading the decline .
• SoftBank plunged 11% in a single day as the Asia tech rout deepened .
• U.S. semiconductor stocks struggled broadly: Intel fell 2.6%, Sandisk dropped 4.8%, Arm lost 3.3%, and Marvell fell 3.5% .
• South Korea's KOSPI plunged over 4.5%, led by semiconductor and memory giants Samsung and SK Hynix .
• The selloff was triggered by a combination of Broadcom's underwhelming AI revenue outlook, reports that Meta planned an equity raise, a sharp unwind in semiconductors after a strong rally, and renewed Federal Reserve rate fears .

NPR reported that the week's decline represented a "significant decline in technology stocks" that signaled "skepticism regarding the sustainability of the spending surge on AI" . The Nasdaq 100 fell 4.53% for the week, its worst performance in over a year .

Key takeaway: The warnings from Yang Dong and Li Bei landed exactly as global tech markets were experiencing their sharpest selloff in more than a year, with AI and semiconductor stocks at the epicenter of the rout. Whether this marks the beginning of a sustained correction or a temporary pullback in a longer AI boom remains an open question — but the chorus of skeptical voices from the top of the investing world has grown notably louder.