Slate Daily Feed Slate Money | Three-Headed AI Unicorn
Sep 27, 2025
Max Chafkin, a business journalist at Bloomberg/Businessweek, dives into the implications of NVIDIA's $100 billion investment in OpenAI, questioning if the AI surge is a bubble. He also discusses the chaotic rollout of Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee and its potential impact on innovation. Most intriguingly, Max recounts how a parody of Enron spiraled into a memecoin fiasco, illustrating the thin line between satire and financial reality, while reflecting on the broader meme culture that shapes today’s media landscape.
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Circular Money In The AI Boom
- NVIDIA's $100B arrangement with OpenAI looks like money cycling within the AI ecosystem rather than organic demand.
- Max Chafkin and Felix Salmon warn this circularity can inflate valuations without sustainable external revenues.
Financial Challenge Equals Technical One
- The AI industry currently raises enormous capital for data centers and compute before clear revenue follows.
- Felix Salmon argues financing the buildout is as urgent as technical progress and may require large-scale financial engineering.
Ecosystem Lock-In As Monopoly Power
- NVIDIA uses cash and deals to lock customers into its hardware and software ecosystem, creating de facto monopoly power.
- Felix Salmon says ecosystem lock-in could prevent switching even if rivals build better chips.
