The Register's tech podcast "The Kettle" tackled signs that the AI investment bubble may be starting to deflate, as big tech companies' second-quarter earnings triggered unusually volatile stock market reactions. Editor-in-chief Matt Rosoff and systems editor Tobias Mann joined host Brandon Vigliarolo to discuss why massive, established companies are now swinging in value like penny stocks, a pattern often seen near the end of speculative market bubbles, and what this means for both investors and the broader AI industry.

Rosoff highlighted several dramatic examples: Apple shares fell 10% after warning that high memory and component prices could hurt its next quarter, while IBM suffered its worst single-day loss since the 1987 Black Monday crash following a previous earnings warning. Meta's stock also sold off sharply after its free cash flow dropped to under $1 billion, down from $8.5 billion a year earlier, due to heavy capital expenditure on AI-related data centres. The panel suggested Meta is betting this spending will pay off through improved ad targeting and future capacity rental, though this remains speculative, and the podcast also offers advice for IT teams on navigating the volatile market without over-committing to frontier AI vendors.