Gary Cohn: AI Energy Trade Is Holding This Market Together
Former Trump NEC Director Gary Cohn says AI's power demand is the real market lifeline right now as tech sells off.
Gary Cohn isn't sugarcoating it. The IBM vice chairman and former Trump White House economic adviser told CNBC's Squawk Box straight up: strip out the AI energy trade and this market would be floundering. That's a bold call, but it tracks with what savvy traders have been watching all year.
The tech selloff is rattling portfolios, but Cohn's framing flips the narrative. It's not just about software multiples or rate sensitivity — it's about the raw, physical infrastructure powering the AI boom. Power generation, data center buildouts, grid upgrades. That's the trade keeping bulls alive while mega-cap tech takes hits.
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Cohn also weighed in on the broader state of the economy and the AI boom itself. His read suggests the AI story is far from over, but the market is repricing who actually wins. Hint: it might not be the flashy model makers. It could be the companies keeping the lights on for those models.
For retail traders, this is a wake-up call. If one of the sharpest macro minds in the room is pointing at energy infrastructure as the AI trade's backbone, that's worth paying attention to. Utilities, power plays, and data center REITs aren't boring anymore — they're the thesis.
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