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Five tech giants are hiding $1.65tn in AI debt, using the trick that toppled Enron


in reply to Chris Remington

Can that bubble pop real soon, pretty please? Even sd-cards tripled in price since March 2025 ...
This entry was edited (4 days ago)
in reply to Chris Remington

why is this written using sarcastic capitalization
in reply to morrowind

I'd have to guess it's something weird with how they're using web fonts or something. Looks fine on my end.
in reply to morrowind

Are you using a very specific browser? On vanilla thrashware it works just fine.
in reply to Chris Remington

ILLEGAL? But these are CORPORATIONS! They CANT do anything Illegal!
in reply to SocialistVibes01

This entry was edited (3 days ago)
in reply to DdCno1

Aw, beehaw. As expected. Corruption is a cog in the machine. You pigs call it lobbying sometimes. You're almost there but still unable to grasp that embezzlements are bound to happen in every market economy, planned or not that happens in capitalist systems, what those economies really were although severely restricted by NATO.
in reply to DdCno1

I'm struggling to get the point of your comment. Let me try to squeeze some ideas from your post:
- socialists are even worse than capitalist;
- extremely inefficient chip production collapsed Soviet Union economy;
- current-day tech giants as desperate today in attempt to save "their economic system" as Soviet Union and East Germany were in '70s and '80s?
- all of above mentioned "doesn’t make the AI bubble okay, of course"
right?

PS
If you feel painful to read this, so did others who read your post.

in reply to tracyspcy

in reply to DdCno1

Oh boi. Save some words for yourself, stop wasting them on me.
Don’t have time to read it rn, maybe later
in reply to tracyspcy

When he alluded to the Nordic model, ignoring the international division of labor, I rolled my eyes. A bonafide liberal.
in reply to SocialistVibes01

Tldr as well, but I do find it funny that the discussion is now moving from ”communism bad” to ”socialism bad”. The Nordics have the highest life satisfaction recorded because all the socialist programs implemented after WW2.
in reply to SocialistVibes01

You can talk to me directly instead of behind my back, you know?

I'm not ignoring the international division of labor. Every country is part of it and every country has been part of it in the past, including Socialist ones.

in reply to DdCno1

Most countries should be all over LLMs

Whether people want to admit it or not. AI will be the thing that takes the next step in most areas of influence. It's literally the next industrial or atomic revolution. Just because there is an AI bubble and the companies around it are doing all they can to bail out the water of a sinking ship doesn't make the actual tech itself bad or stupid.

That said all systems are corrupt. This whole capitalism vs socialism shit just exposes anyone who thinks that way as an idiot. It's not red vs blue , it's not an is or isn't sort of thing.

in reply to deft

It’s literally the next industrial or atomic revolution.


/s?

in reply to XLE

Imagine thinking a breakthrough in protein folding is a joke.

Do you understand how computers work or why they were ever useful? Or just make pretty color box light change?

in reply to deft

Protein folding isn't LLMs. You forgot to format your motte and bailey fallacy properly.
in reply to XLE

What does that first L in LLM stand for?

You realize math is exactly that right? A language?

I know you probably felt like a big gotcha cause you tried to move away from the term AI or AGI since they're not true artificial intelligence. But at it's core it is doing really really big math.

in reply to deft

What does that first L in LLM stand for?


Large.

You realize math is exactly that right?


A large?

Protein folding is not done with an LLM.

I know you probably felt like a big gotcha cause you tried to move away from the term AI or AGI


No I was using your terms

in reply to XLE

Man you got me there.

If you can't understand how computers are used to create a model of something and doing big math makes that better nobody can help you.

in reply to deft

We had that before AI. Where's this industrial revolution in concrete terms: specifically without having to say "if" or "when" or pointing out anywhere past a few weeks into the future for it
in reply to XLE

in reply to Chris Remington

Those business people. Do they even know business? I think it's just fraudulent of them to call themselves "business" people. Also, my kitchen sink tap is "tech". Not everything "tech" has to be related to the computers or the "digitals".
in reply to melsaskca

Youre forgetting that their kitchen tap is touch sensitive and "smart"
in reply to Chris Remington

Huh, the thing i remember about Enron was how they colluded with power plant operators to cause blackouts and raise the price of electricity so they could cash out.

Interesting that the debt thing was less memorable.

The mechanics are simple. A company packages the debt for chips, servers, and power into a separate legal entity, often a joint venture, so the cost never flows through its own accounts.

Take Meta’s Hyperion data centre in Louisiana. Meta and Blue Owl Capital both put equity into a separate structure that took on $27 billion in debt. Meta is the sole tenant, yet argues it does not have to record that debt, because it is not the one who must find replacement tenants.

Oracle has $260 billion of future lease commitments that will eventually land on its books. Nvidia carries $119 billion in purchase obligations. Alphabet and Microsoft keep their vehicles off-book too.