The Subprime Data Center Crisis: How AI Infrastructure Became a Financial Bubble

Zitron: The Subprime Datacenter Crisis

Ed Zitron argues the AI data center boom mirrors the 2008 subprime crisis. Over 15x more capacity is being built than actual demand, and that demand is already inflated by loss-making firms like OpenAI and Anthropic. Hyperscalers hide spending obligations via off-balance-sheet SPVs. If AI revenue disappoints, long-term leases could default in a chain reaction, spreading risk through pensions and insurance. Zitron blames the media for enabling the grift.

Why it matters: Zitron maps the AI datacenter buildout onto the 2008 subprime playbook with two hard claims: 15x overcapacity and off-balance-sheet SPVs hiding lease obligations. It's a single-source opinion piece with no cross-verification, and Zitron's bearish bias is known — I'm capping at...