I'm sure they're measuring some things. Silicon Valley companies, historically, care more about growth and dominating a market and addicting customers before they even try to make a profit. Amazon famously didn't make any profit for, like, 10 years or something. I don't know what they're looking at right now, but I don't think that this is what is driving the investments. Yes, I think if you take seriously the possibility of AGI and superintelligence in a few years, which the investors and especially the people building it do, then the investment is certainly justified, except that this is also incredibly dangerous and shouldn't be happening. If it kills everybody, it will kill the investors, kill the people who own these companies, kill everybody in this room. It won't matter if we've created a bunch of good businesses, as Sam Altman says. It won't matter if we've cured cancer, etc.
