The logical conclusion is that we don't have an AI bubble. We have a USD flood. Or consequentially, fiat floods. You see stupid expected valuation of OpenAI et al. not because investors are stupid. It's because there is a stupid amount of USD and it has to go somewhere. You either get real estate bubble or AI bubble or whatever bubble.

I'm at a loss for what asset class can even protect against such an implosion.

Because as an American, they are all effectively denominated in USD. Even Bitcoin, which everyone claims to be the savior.

And while I don't know as much about other countries, something tells me most Western countries and their currencies are equally as exposed.

And when everything is a bubble then it’s simply that money has just less value overall. Remember asset inflation is not accounted into CPI, the money surplus/devaluation can take a long time to trickle down into the consumer economy.