Citadel’s Ken Griffin went from calling AI ‘garbage’ to predicting a golden age in five months

Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, who dismissed AI as 'garbage' in January, now predicts a 'golden age of entrepreneurial activity' powered by the technology, signaling a shift in institutional capital flows toward AI-driven strategies including crypto.

Citadel’s Ken Griffin went from calling AI ‘garbage’ to predicting a golden age in five months The hedge fund billionaire's rapid about-face on artificial intelligence carries implications for how institutional capital flows into tech-driven strategies, including crypto Five months ago, Ken Griffin stood at Davos and called AI “garbage.” By May, he went home on a Friday “actually fairly depressed” about what the technology could do. Now he’s forecasting a “golden age of entrepreneurial activity” powered by the very thing he dismissed. Speaking with Goldman Sachs’s Raj Mahajan at the firm’s Apex Global Family Office Symposium in New York City, Griffin laid out a vision where AI doesn’t just optimize existing businesses. It levels the playing field entirely. New companies, he argued, will be able to compete with entrenched incumbents faster and more effectively than at any point in modern history. The symposium drew over 200 family offices from 19 countries. At Davos in January, his dismissal of AI wasn’t some offhand remark. It reflected a genuine skepticism shared by a segment of traditional finance that viewed the technology as overhyped and underdelivering. The Stanford event in May represented the middle chapter, where the realization hit that automation wasn’t theoretical anymore. And by June, Griffin had landed on what he described as a “step change” in AI productivity, one where real-world applications had finally outpaced the noise. Griffin isn’t talking about AI as a job killer. He’s talking about it as a productivity multiplier, a tool that makes smaller teams capable of doing what previously required armies of analysts and engineers. According to data from the event, 41% of family offices plan to increase their AI allocations in their investment strategies. Family offices have historically been conservative allocators, slow to rotate into emerging themes compared to venture capital or hedge funds. The symposium also touched on geopolitics, particularly the semiconductor supply chain dynamics centered around Taiwan. Citadel Securities began making markets in crypto in recent years. Quantitative trading firms, Citadel very much included, have been using machine learning for years. The difference now is that the tools are becoming accessible enough for smaller players to deploy them. When 41% of family offices say they want more AI exposure, some of that capital will inevitably find its way into crypto-adjacent AI projects. The tokenized AI agent narrative has already attracted significant attention in digital asset markets. Investors watching this space should track two things closely. First, whether family office allocations to AI actually translate into deployed capital or remain stated intentions. Second, whether the entrepreneurial boom Griffin predicts creates meaningful on-chain activity, or whether it stays confined to traditional venture-backed startups. Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/ .