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The AI Investment Boom

(www.apricitas.io)
271 points m-hodges | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.207s | source
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hn_throwaway_99 ◴[] No.41896346[source]
Reading this makes me willing to bet that this capital intensive investment boom will be similar to other enormous capital investment booms in US history, such as the laying of the railroads in the 1800s, the proliferation of car companies in the early 1900s, and the telecom fiber boom in the late 1900s. In all of these cases there was an enormous infrastructure (over) build out, followed by a crash where nearly all the companies in the industry ended up in bankruptcy, but then that original infrastructure build out had huge benefits for the economy and society as that infrastructure was "soaked up" in the subsequent years. E.g. think of all the telecom investment and subsequent bankruptcies in the late 90s/early 00s, but then all that dark fiber that was laid was eventually lit up and allowed for the explosion of high quality multimedia growth (e.g. Netflix and the like).

I think that will happen here. I think your average investor who's currently paying for all these advanced chips, data centers and energy supplies will walk away sorely disappointed, but this investment will yield huge dividends down the road. Heck, I think the energy investment alone will end up accelerating the switch away from fossil fuels, despite AI often being portrayed as a giant climate warming energy hog (which I'm not really disputing, but now that renewables are the cheapest form of energy, I believe this huge, well-funded demand will accelerate the growth of non-carbon energy sources).

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bwanab ◴[] No.41896426[source]
While I agree with your essential conclusions, I don't think the automobile companies really fit. Many of the early 1900s companies (e.g. Ford, GM, Mercedes, even Chrysler) are still among the largest auto companies in the world.
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cloud_hacker ◴[] No.41896540[source]
> While I agree with your essential conclusions, I don't think the automobile companies really fit. Many of the early 1900s companies (e.g. Ford, GM, Mercedes, even Chrysler) are still among the largest auto companies in the world.

American Automative filled for Bankruptcy multiple times.

American Government had to step in to back them up and bail them out.

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1. johnnyanmac ◴[] No.41903883[source]
Every sector has its story like that. bankruptcy for a huge business isn't the same as an individual doing it.

And yea, it will vary. Amazon crashed hard on stocks through the 2000's. Google completely thrived. they are still considered on the same standing today as a trillionaire tech company