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Oracle on the hook to pay data centre investors even if site has no electricity

158 points · 154 comments · Betelbuddy

  1. cmiles8 · · focus · HN ↗
    The AI bubble has built a giant interconnected web of commitments backed by a debt bomb. It all flows back to the ability of net new cash to flow in to pay for all this, not just VC funding and circular vendor financing. We’re seeing the early signs of that starting to all implode.
    1. PLenz · · focus · HN ↗
      When new money pays old that's a ponzie scheme
      1. mitxela · · focus · HN ↗
        You're calling the stock market a Ponzi scheme?
        1. nrclark · · focus · HN ↗
          As currently practiced, yes. Non-dividend non-voting shares might as well be pokemon cards. Their only real value lies in getting somebody else to buy them, and new money has to flow in from the outside. The question isn't "will it collapse?", it's "when?"
          1. cmiles8 · · focus · HN ↗
            By your logic buying a house is a Ponzi scheme too.
            1. gspr · · focus · HN ↗
              My god, this is the most HN comment of the day. You do know that most normal people buy a house not to resell it at profit, but to have a place to live, right?
              1. phil21 · · focus · HN ↗
                It’s almost always both. Basically every single retired person I know in my family or friends of family are relying on their home to be their primary asset/income in retirement. It’s always a much larger chunk of their net worth than any retirement savings, if they even have the latter.

                They were commonly called forced savings accounts when I was growing up. The standard advice was to buy a home as an investment vehicle. Every older family member giving me advice would preach about how they don’t make any more land and the price will only go up.

                You can - to this day - talk until your are blue in the face to these people that your primary place of living is not an investment, but they will refuse to even entertain the idea even with the stark cold math staring at them in the face.

                If these retired folks can’t sell their homes for a huge profit they will be in for some very difficult times a decade or two from now. They are highly motivated to keep the music playing as long as they can vote and show up to local city council meetings.

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