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Yesterday · 8 min
Concentration Risk
“AGI has arrived” makes a great headline. A trillion dollars of compute commitments makes a much harder spreadsheet. The question hanging over this boom is simple: who ultimately pays for all this capacity, and with what cash flow? AGI as a moving target Revenue concentration behind the boom The compute reset wall Circularity and the backlog story Where end-user demand stands What would break the narrative Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — Concentration Risk This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
September 2 · 9 min
Hyperscale Normalization
A trillion-dollar technology buildout can look inevitable long before its economics are settled. That gap between the story and the underlying evidence is where this episode lives. Hypernormalization Who Gets Rescued Media and the Reality Gap AI’s Financial Loop Run Rates and Valuations Infrastructure and Productivity Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — Hyperscale Normalization This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
August 26 · 10 min
The AI Hater's Manifesto
A tool that helps debug a crash log can be useful. A trillion-dollar industry built around the promise that it will eventually think, work, and decide for us deserves a far harder audit. The question isn’t whether language models can do anything. It’s whether their demonstrated value matches the certainty, spending, and social pressure surrounding them. Useful tools and the boundary of judgment Outsourcing work versus thought The financial story under the hype Inference costs and productivity proof Growth, power, and human investment Future tense and accountability The maintenance burden Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — The AI Hater's Manifesto This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
August 19 · 9 min
What Happens If OpenAI Dies?
The core question here isn’t whether people want AI. It’s whether the biggest AI company can sell more of it without losing even more money. And if the answer is no, that problem doesn’t stay inside one startup. It leaks into cloud giants, chip vendors, lenders, and a whole lot of investor storytelling. Unsustainable economics Compute obligations and circular demand Funding constraints Run-rate headlines versus durable revenue Anthropic, IPO optics, and valuation logic What failure would actually look like Systemic risk or overheated narrative Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — What Happens If OpenAI Dies? This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
August 12 · 8 min
Don't Look Up
A lot of the AI story still gets told through stock charts, capex totals, and vibes. The harder question is whether there are enough real customers, at real prices, to justify what everybody is building. Revenue concentration Demand versus capacity How the growth story got framed Circular financing questions What breaks if the labs slow down Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — Don't Look Up This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
August 8 · 9 min
Premium: The Hater's Guide To NVIDIA (Part 2)
A lot of the AI story gets told as pure technology progress. But if the customers only exist because the vendor helped finance them into existence, you’re not just looking at demand. You’re looking at a system. The core claim What Jensen Huang admitted How dependent the neoclouds look The financing loop Technology versus hype economics Why the GE Capital comparison matters What this protects and what it risks Bottom line Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — Premium: The Hater's Guide To NVIDIA (Part 2) This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
August 6 · 6 min
News: Microsoft Disclosures Suggest OpenAI Sales Account For Around 70% Of FY26 AI Revenue, More Than 7% of FY26 Revenue
The headline here isn't just that AI is expensive. It's that one customer-partner relationship may already be large enough to shape how we read Microsoft's entire AI business. And once you look at the disclosed revenue mix next to the scale of capital spending, the obvious question is whether this is proof of strength, or a warning about concentration. What the revenue disclosure actually says Why concentration matters What this could mean strategically The capital spending number How to connect the two stories carefully What would strengthen either case Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — News: Microsoft Disclosures Suggest OpenAI Sales Account For Around 70% Of FY26 AI Revenue, More Than 7% of FY26 Revenue This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
August 5 · 8 min
The AI Demand Bubble
A lot of the AI economy starts looking strange once you ask a boring question: who is actually paying for all this? If the answer is basically two companies, then the story shifts from explosive broad demand to concentrated financial dependency. Revenue concentration Capex versus actual demand The circular funding question Is there real demand beyond the labs Disclosure and narrative framing Debt, balance sheets, and second-order risk Why NVIDIA is part of the same story What actually seems most supported Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — The AI Demand Bubble This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
August 1 · 8 min
The AI Revenue Reality
A lot of the AI conversation is being carried by vibes, projections, and fundraising headlines. The awkward part is that some of the people closest to the data are also admitting the biggest labor-market claims still are not showing up in reality. AI job impact narratives Economic indices and narrative incentives Revenue versus funding mismatch The scale of commitments Infrastructure costs and profitability Venture capital exposure What actually seems supported Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — Premium: AI Is Getting Way Too Expensive This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
July 29 · 8 min
The More You Buy, The More You Lose
A lot of the AI story still sounds like physics and destiny. But the pressure is showing up somewhere less glamorous: bond spreads, memory prices, lease obligations, and the fact that nobody wants to say exactly how much money this is making. Blackwell efficiency claims The capex mountain What bond markets are saying The memory cost spiral Circular financing and missing foundations The startup business model problem Opaque revenue and the hype machine What could break, and what might not Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — The More You Buy, The More You Lose This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
July 25 · 7 min
Premium: The Hater’s Guide To Oracle (Part 2)
Oracle's story right now sounds simple if you only read the hype: huge AI demand, huge data centers, huge future. The harder question is whether the business underneath that story is actually getting stronger, or whether scale is masking fragility. The baseline problem Free cash flow and what changed The AI GPU spending surge The OpenAI contract question Cerner and the margin mix Accounting and the story management problem Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — Premium: The Hater’s Guide To Oracle (Part 2) This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
July 23 · 7 min
The Subprime Data Center Crisis
A lot of the AI story is being told as a technology race. But underneath it, there's a financing story, and that story matters because booms usually break where the money got weird. Why the CDO comparison exists Off-balance-sheet debt and what it hides Overbuild versus actual demand Customer concentration and contract cliffs NVIDIA's backstop and circular demand Who ultimately holds the risk Why so much money flowed in How bad could it get Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — The Subprime Data Center Crisis This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
July 16 · 9 min
The OpenAI Bubble
The core claim here is bigger than one startup maybe overspending on GPUs. It’s that OpenAI has become the story holding together a huge chain of spending, lending, construction, and stock-market optimism, and if that story breaks, a lot of supposedly separate bets may turn out to be the same bet. The load-bearing narrative OpenAI’s spending and obligations Who actually holds the risk Oracle as the sharpest edge Memory chips and knock-on inflation Phantom deals and media amplification SoftBank and the funding chain Anthropic as a mirror image What would actually happen in a failure Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — The OpenAI Bubble This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
July 11 · 8 min
Premium: The Hater's Guide To The Memory Crisis
A lot of AI spending gets talked about like it's abstract, inevitable, almost weightless. Then you look at memory costs, who controls supply, and how much of this buildout depends on debt, and suddenly the whole thing looks much more fragile. Why memory changes the math Concentration and the collusion question NVIDIA as the demand center The hyperscaler spending loop What a pullback would actually break Consumers eventually pay What holds up best Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — Premium: The Hater's Guide To The Memory Crisis This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
July 8 · 8 min
Let AI Burn
The hard question here isn't whether generative AI is impressive. It's whether the money pouring into it reflects durable demand, or a financing loop mistaking spend for traction. The core bubble thesis Weak commercial demand GPUs, data centers, and overbuild Private credit and hidden exposure SoftBank and concentrated bets Too big to fail, or just very expensive AGI narratives and fandom What a bust would actually hit Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — Let AI Burn This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
July 7 · 8 min
Premium: The Hater's Guide To SoftBank
SoftBank’s story sounds simple if you hear it fast enough: huge AI exposure, huge upside, visionary founder. Slow it down and the real question is whether that upside can arrive before the financing pressure does. The structure problem How much debt really matters What the market is signaling The OpenAI wager Vision Fund track record NAV versus the goose Masayoshi Son's pattern Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — Premium: The Hater's Guide To SoftBank This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
July 1 · 8 min
The AI Industry Is Losing
A lot of the AI story still gets told like demand is infinite and financing is somebody else's problem. The more interesting question is what happens if the spending assumptions are even a little bit wrong. The trillion-dollar premise Are data centers being overbuilt What AI revenue actually means OpenAI and Anthropic economics Oracle and SoftBank concentration risk Monetization versus infrastructure spend Systemic risk and second-order effects The human cost of always-on AI Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — The AI Industry Is Losing This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
June 27 · 8 min
Premium: Notes From The Bubble, Volume 1
A lot of tech right now feels like people acting out the shape of innovation without the substance underneath it. You can see the same pattern across AI branding, strange product launches, and giant partnerships that sound important before you ask what problem they're actually solving. Cargo-cult innovation AI hype and the search for a story Side bets that look like signals PR narratives versus actual strategy Executive detachment and product judgment What actually follows from all this Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — Premium: Notes From The Bubble, Volume 1 This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
June 24 · 9 min
Cargo Culture
A lot of tech stories right now ask you to trust the scale before you understand the product. Billions in GPUs, endless token burn, weird hardware demos, and growth metrics that sound huge until you ask what actually got better. Cargo-cult AI spending AI token loops Financial opacity and cost shifting SaaS slowdown and monetization rot VC drift and zombie companies Product theater and founder mode The hype loop in tech media Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — Cargo Culture This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm
June 20 · 8 min
Premium: The Silicon Valley Bubble (Part 2)
There are two stories around AI right now. One is that the future is arriving at godlike speed. The other is that a lot of this depends on accounting, incentives, and people being too emotionally invested to ask basic questions. OpenAI financials The pseudo-cult problem Hype, doom, and inevitability The infinite-growth promise Sub-bubbles feeding each other What actually holds up Source: Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At — Premium: The Silicon Valley Bubble (Part 2) This podcast was created with Podkey. Make your own at https://podkey.fm

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