Bank of France chief warns AI boom is running on borrowed money

Bank of France Governor Emmanuel Moulin sounded the alarm Monday on the sheer scale of money pouring into artificial intelligence, warning that a growing share of those bets is being paid for with borrowed cash. He made the call at the World in Progress forum in Barcelona, according to Breaking The News.

His worry is contagious: if valuations at US AI companies take a hit, the shakeout wouldn't stop at the American border. Europe would feel it too, Moulin said.

That doesn't mean he's sour on the technology itself. Moulin said he remains upbeat about AI's ability to lift productivity across economies — the concern is the financing stack underneath the hype, not the tools.

Moulin also weighed in on European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde's decision to step down, saying she made the move to open a new chapter in her career. He did not elaborate further.

The warning lands in a week already thick with AI-money jitters. Oracle shares slid more than 6% Monday after the company filed plans to raise $20 billion through stock and bond offerings tied to its AI infrastructure buildout, while Microsoft and Lumen Technologies rolled out an expanded partnership to sell networking for AI workloads.

Meanwhile, the messaging from Washington runs the other way: National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC the AI sector is a well-financed ecosystem with no risk of a wholesale selloff. ECB Vice President Boris Vujcic, speaking in Dublin, put elevated AI valuations among the top risks in the central bank's financial stability assessment.