US, China seen as top AI beneficiaries in new growth forecast from ‘Doctor Doom’ economist

Nouriel Roubini predicted the 2008 financial crisis – now he says an explosion of hi-tech will be unlike anything mankind has ever seen, trivialising near-term headwinds

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Economist Nouriel Roubini said artificial intelligence and other hi-tech advancements could propel America’s annual economic growth into the double digits. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

Published: 6:06pm, 13 Apr 2026

The economist famously dubbed “Doctor Doom” for predicting the 2008 financial crisis has seemingly morphed into a bullish “Doctor Boom” with his latest economic outlook.

Nouriel Roubini now predicts that a “Cambrian explosion” of technological advances – including artificial intelligence – could propel the US’ potential economic growth to 4 per cent by 2030, and as high as 10 per cent in less than a quarter-century, overshadowing Middle East oil shocks and other near-term headwinds.

Framing AI as a long-term driver rather than a bubble, the economist said that the US and China were the world’s two leading innovators, and that both stood to benefit.

“That fundamental story – regardless of geopolitics, regardless of climate change, regardless of populism – is the driver for the next 10 to 20 years, and is a positive for the world at large,” Roubini said at the Greenwich Economic Forum in Hong Kong on Monday.

Roubini pointed to around 15 technologies – including AI, semiconductors, humanoid robots and space exploration – that he said collectively represent a “Cambrian explosion of new technologies of the future that we’ve not seen in human history”.

With the boost from technology, the American economy’s potential annual growth, which now stands at 2 to 3 per cent, is expected to reach 4 per cent by the end of the decade, said the economist, who is also the chairman and CEO of Roubini Macro Associates.