AI Capex: Transformative, Ruinous, or Both?
Value accrues to those who control scarce inputs; if compute is abundant how do hyperscalers capture value?
Stand at the edge of a hyperscaler build site, and it feels like watching a new industrial revolution take form1. Substations the size of small towns. Cooling towers misting into the sky. Transformers humming. Billions in hardware delivered under armed guard. And somewhere in the CFO’s spreadsheet, the payback cell is still blank.
This is the paradox of A…