Elon Musk backs AI traffic forecast while Michael Burry questions who will pay for surging AI agents

Elon Musk vs Michael Burry: World's richest man says AI internet traffic will outpace humans, market expert asks who is paying

Elon Musk says AI agentic traffic will eventually vastly exceed human internet usage, while Michael Burry questions who will pay for AI agents. The contrasting views highlight a broader debate over AI's rapid expansion, massive infrastructure spending and whether the technology can generate enough economic value to justify current valuations. World's richest man Elon Musk believes that AI agentic traffic will "vastly" exceed human usage, but veteran American investor Michael Burry quickly questioned who is paying for these AI agents, raising worries over the sustainability of the AI frenzy. US MarketsPowered By As on 08 Aug 2026, 01:30 AM IST S&P 500 Top Gainers Airbnb178.07(17.43%) Microchip Technology84.69(13.89%) Palantir Technologies172.01(10.32%) Moderna59.17(9.86%) Gainers" S&P 500 Top Losers Trade Desk13.80(-21.90%) Coterra Energy32.56(-8.62%) Akamai Technologies110.54(-6.76%) Zoetis72.66(-5.97%) Losers" SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long been known for his support for artificial intelligence. During a recent interview, Musk said artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics could lead to widespread economic abundance, and its pace of progress has become so rapid that it cannot realistically be stopped. Meanwhile, Burry is known for pointing out bubbles against the overall market tide. The American investor, best known for correctly predicting the 2008 housing crisis, has recently been highlighting excessive AI spending by hyperscalers, warning investors that a massive crash may be coming. Musk says AI to vastly exceed humans in internet traffic Reacting to a Cloudflare forecast that AI bot traffic could reach 1,000 times the level of human traffic within five years, Elon Musk said, "AI agentic Internet traffic will obviously VASTLY exceed human usage. Not a close call at all." In a post on X, Musk highlighted that Cloudflare's forecast is accurate. "And the only system that can support the insanely fast bandwidth growth needed by AI is Starlink...It's possible that Starlink may end up doing >90% of IP traffic, even if competitors 10X their bandwidth," he added. Also read | Peter Lynch does not like the AI trade; here's why he says 'Know what you own' Michael Burry asks 'Who will pay?' Reacting to Musk's post, veteran market investor Michael Burry said it is a lower bar than most think, but he still does not know who will pay for these AI agents to socialise. Burry has been betting against several AI heavyweights including Tesla, Caterpillar, Nvidia, Applied Materials, Palantir and other companies. Recently, Burry said he continues to believe that the market is close to a major top, warning of a similar crash to that of 1987 when Dow Jones recorded a historic 23% plunge which led to the introduction of regulatory circuit breakers. However, the market investor noted that the S&P 500 making new highs likely will bring new money into the market. Burry continues to hold his short positions in the iShares Semiconductor ETF, Micron, Nvidia, Caterpillar, Palantir, Tesla and Applied Materials. "Again, shorting is not for everyone," Burry wrote. "I must short. Most should not." Earlier this year, Burry wrote on a Substack post that he sees many indicators, both technical and fundamental, lining up for the same conclusion as the Dotcom crash. "1999 went where no market had gone before, and I would say so can this one...It is already there on a number of indicators," he said, arguing that massive venture capital flows, rising AI debt issuance, and extreme market optimism are creating conditions where valuations may detach from economic reality. Also read | Big Short fame Michael Burry is betting against Nvidia, AMD, Micron and other chipmakers. Is a massive AI crash coming? (With inputs from agencies) (Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Elon Musk Says AI Agents Will Dwarf Human Internet Traffic, But Michael Burry Asks, 'Who Will Pay' for AI

Elon Musk Backs AI Traffic Explosion On Sunday, Musk highlighted Cloudflare Inc. (NYSE:NET) executives' projections that machine-generated internet traffic could eventually dwarf human activity. Musk said AI-driven, or "agentic," internet traffic will "obviously VASTLY exceed human usage," adding that Cloudflare's forecast is accurate. Cloudflare had previously expected bot traffic to surpass human traffic in 2027, but the milestone arrived earlier than expected in 2026. During the company's second-quarter earnings call, Cloudflare CFO Thomas Seifert said the trend means humans could become a "rounding error" on the internet as non-human activity continues to accelerate. Michael Burry Questions Who Will Pay For AI Burry, the investor known for anticipating the 2008 financial crisis and featured in "The Big Short," responded to Musk's post with a different question. "This is a lower bar than most think, and we still do not know who will pay for AI agents to socialize," Burry wrote. AI Spending Raises Bubble Concerns The debate comes as the world's largest technology companies pour unprecedented amounts of money into AI infrastructure. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Elon Musk backs forecast that AI traffic may outpace humans by 1,000x

Michael Burry questioned the economics of AI agents amid growing concerns over massive AI infrastructure spending. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has made headlines for yet another bold statement about the future of AI. In his latest post on X, Musk backed the Cloudflare forecast that AI agents and other machine generated systems can eventually produce internet traffic at scale far beyond human activity. Musk stated that AI-driven internet traffic would "vastly exceed" human usage. The comments come as machine-generated traffic is already growing rapidly, with Cloudflare reporting that non-human traffic surpassed human-generated traffic earlier than it had previously expected. AI traffic has already overtaken human usage Interestingly, Cloudflare's data indicates that machine-generated traffic overtook human traffic in May 2026. The company had previously expected this shift to happen in 2027. Cloudflare CFO Thomas Seifert has suggested that the gap could widen dramatically if current trends continue. The company estimates that non-human traffic could eventually be as much as 1,000 times greater than human-generated traffic within five years. The forecast does not mean people are spending less time online. Instead, the volume of automated activity is increasing as AI agents, bots and machine-to-machine services generate more requests and exchange more data across the internet. Burry, who is known for predicting the 2008 financial crisis, responded to Musk arguing that the forecast may represent a lower hurdle than it initially appears. More importantly, he questioned who would finance all the activity generated by AI agents. Previously, Burry has taken bearish positions in several companies exposed to AI infrastructure and has warned that heavy spending on data centres and computing hardware may eventually lead to excess capacity. In the meantime, major technology companies continue to invest heavily in AI. Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle are collectively expected to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on capital expenditure this year, with much of that investment directed towards AI infrastructure and data centres.