[randomname4325]

This is wild. Meta, OpenAI, MSFT, Nvidia are collectively keeping the AI trade alive, which is propping up the stock market and overall perception of the economy. This admission makes it clear that the AI spends are being made up not based on business value/demand...

[vineyardmike]

To be fair, when he suggested $600Bn in spend by 2028, it’s obvious they won’t actually be spending that. That would exceed their yearly revenue each year. They just don’t have that money. This feels like less of an indictment of AI spend, and more of the political process of blatant lying for political favor.

For comparison, Google said $250b, Microsoft said $80b, but Apple has said $600bn. Meta currently spends ~$100bn.

[belter]

Smart lawyers can make a lot of money here for suing shareholders.

[gruez]

>and more of the political process of blatant lying for political favor.

Even that's debatable because he walked back on the number shortly after

>Once the discussion concluded, Zuckerberg leaned over to Trump to privately admit the president had caught him off guard. "I'm sorry I wasn't ready...I wasn't sure what number you wanted to go with," Zuckerberg said in a revealing moment caught on a hot mic.

[mettamage]

But how does it keep that alive? Wouldn't it mean that the marginal utility of each dollar spend would go lower? They are already spending as much as they can and believe is needed since they are diehard AI bulls themselves. If they saw a need to spend 600 billion dollars themselves through 2028, they'd have already done it.

[aprilthird2021]

> This admission makes it clear that the AI spends are being made up not based on business value/demand...

Well, isn't that okay? All the companies are racing to capture a nascent market. It would make sense to spend beyond current demand and even projected 5Y demand if it gives you a larger share of a market that might last 20+ years

[cmiles74]

IMHO, this indicates to me that these numbers are more like a marketing exercise.

[belter]

Its even more wild that is flagged.

[jaybrendansmith]

Agree. This article is completely on point for Hacker News. There seems to be a cabal of Maga-types (or AI) on these forums that reflexively flag any content that seems to smack of exposing the reality of the corrupted and anti-democratic times in which we live.

[leptons]

Zuck should have asked the AI what the spend number should be, I'm sure it would give him a correct answer.

[gruez]

>This admission makes it clear that the AI spends are being made up not based on business value/demand...

Because one executive got flustered and gave a random number to Trump, and therefore that's representative of the other 3 companies in the list?

[lazide]

I mean, it seems pretty obvious to me as an industry insider.

Having a major exec flat out admit he’s just saying what he things the president wants to hear makes it seem night and day.