Since when does "private capital" speak in such honeyed tones to state powers?
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/21/tech/openai-oracle-softbank-t...
Groupthink capital, directed by mostly 2 "thought leaders".
Economies don't like Groupthink Capital, regardless of it being private, public or a combination of the 2
Of course the US economy as a whole is huge so even billions can be absorbed, once you start talking about half a trillion though...
South America didn't have a mix of domestic and foreign investors deploying massive quantities of private money into capital assets in the 60s and 70s. They had governments borrowing to fund their citizens' consumption. Massive difference on multiple levels.
The problem here being that it was money spent that was never earned back, and money that eventually had to be paid back, right?
This can also happen with private capital. 2008 was a bust caused by private banks, for example. AI hasn't proven to be profitable yet [1], and I'm not sure it'll makes a difference, for the success of projects like this, wether the money is coming from government or not.
In fact, if the 2008 bank bail-out, auto industry bail-out, the Silicon Valley bank prop-up, and other such actions by the US government are considered [2], if this turns out to be a bubble it will be taxpayers who end up fronting the bill.
[1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ai-generative-business-mone...
[2] https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/governmen...
I'm not saying "this time will be different". I'm saying this is business as usual.
Zuckerberg lost $30bn or more trying to create a VR amusement park. Scale that up to $500bn and see how much waste and dead-weight losses are created.