This was the most aggressive quarter for American capitalism ever (hat tip
@itsurboyevan). And it’s still only the supporting act.
The hyperscalers grew like crazy, printed money, and then doubled down, stopping share buybacks and putting the profits and more into AI capex. It’s full on red blooded capitalism, but the amazing thing is they are all selling compute to, and reselling tokens from, the two privately held companies that have the models upon which all this growth depends.
I know Google has Gemini, but compare its growth to Anthropic. Microsoft and Amazon are literally nowhere in terms of a competitive model. Meanwhile, Meta is building one that looks pretty good but no one knows why they are doing it. These guys are all betting their balance sheets and their futures on reselling someone else’s differentiated IP.
I started with American capitalism, and I’m going to finish with Lenin, who said “the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we hang them.” Is this the role the hyperscalers want?