That's how arms races work though. Everyone spends a ton of money to end up no further ahead compared to their rivals and peers.

"The share price will tank if we're not seen as AI-forward" is a legitimate fear for many CEOs. It's the only logical explanation for tokenmaxxing and other behavior that only makes sense from a game theoretical perspective.

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play." -WOPR

I think the more spelled out version of this is "our existing debt is tied to our equity in some way so we have to maintain our unicorn valuation, and the unicorns are building AI infrastructure".

If they admit the current pace is unsustainable, they die anyway. Might as well keep building and praying for a hail Mary.

big if true

Clearly true though. “Not reveryone” is doing it. Most of the bubbly(?) trillions are.