The stock market’s bull rally could last another 5 years, but it’ll end in a ‘spectacular bursting of a bubble,’ veteran tech investor Gene Munster says

• The stock market’s current bull rally could last for another 5 years, according to tech analyst Gene Munster.
• Munster said a new crop of AI companies will go public and drive a boom in the stock market.
• But Munster expects the stock market rally to morph into a bubble that eventually bursts.

The stock market’s bull rally is poised to continue higher for the next three to five years before it ends in a spectacular bubble that ultimately pops, according to veteran tech analyst and Deepwater Asset Management managing partner Gene Munster.

Munster doesn’t make this prediction lightly, as he still has painful memories of being a tech analyst during the 1990’s dot-com boom and bust, but he sees potential for massive upside, and eventual downside, in stocks driven by the growing adoption of AI technologies.

“We’re in the early stages of what is a three to five year bull market, and that may seem out of touch given the market run that we’ve had more recently… but if you ultimately believe in the substance of AI is going to be greater than the hype, then the market is going to continue,” Munster told CNBC on Friday.

Munster said the broader tech trade should continue to power the stock market higher but that investors shouldn’t count on just mega-cap tech stocks to drive the bulk of the gains. Instead, much of the upside that Gene sees inflating the stock market bubble will come from smaller AI-focused companies. 

“The substance of the bubble is going to come from a different class of tech companies that are going to power this higher. I think part of it is going to be an IPO class of AI-first companies,” Munster said.

Meanwhile, the Magnificent 7 tech stocks should “continue generally to be well positioned, they’re going to benefit, but that’s not where you’re going to get this kind of 2x to 3x type of appreciation,” Munster said.

Munster’s bullishness is based on the idea that AI technologies are going to have double the impact that the internet had. 

“The concept of a machine to be able to function with general intelligence to me is a 2x bigger factor than what the internet is,” Munster said. “I think that’s going to come from some of the smaller middle cap and some IPOs that ultimately will be the next Mag 7 call it five years from now.”

And while Munster sees the stock market rally morphing into a bubble that comes to a painful end towards the end of the decade, that doesn’t mean investors should avoid owning stocks.

“This is going to end in the spectacular bursting of a bubble, but I think there’s a lot of wealth creation that can happen between now and then,” Munster said.

Munster also highlighted Alphabet and Meta Platforms as unique, flagship holdings in Deepwater Asset Management’s tech-focused portfolio thanks to their in-house build AI technologies.

“These two companies are unique because their AI future is not dependent on someone else,” Munster said. “If you go to Microsoft, Apple, look at what Amazon’s doing. All of those are requiring third party models to really power what they’re doing.”

“So when I think about just really cutting to who are going to be some of the biggest winners in AI specifically, I think it comes down to Meta and Google.”