alt Hacker NewsI think you're taking off in the wrong direction.
Retirement savings are 401ks in the US and they're managed by _NOT_ the retirees, but random middle managers. Those are the people who are chasing whatever the bubble is producing because their "due diligence" requires them to be bootlickers.
The same can be said of many of the tech moguls who've sworn fealty to trump; if they didn't lick the boot, they could be considered acting against shareholders value.
So, like most things in America: the people are not in control of their actual power. Not in retirement funds, not in healthcare, and not in education. They've all been turned into bizare economic dependent indirect funding programs.
Replies
Article is about pension funds.
401ks are self-managed, though many stick with the default investments.
I despise target retirement age funds for exactly this reason and I have all my 401k funding in major index funds that I do not care about beyond that on a day to day basis.
I didn't say anything about the management of retirement savings.
The author claims two things:
1. AI company valuations dropped because of fears that Democrats would restrict data center construction.
2. The AI industry is doomed because of unsustainable spending on data centers.
If 1 is true then investors clearly believe that the current level of spending is appropriate and any restrictions on it are harmful to long term returns.
If 2 is true and unsustainable spending continues despite a lack of RoI, then "arms race" is the only explanation for the irrationality. It is driven by the fear that if you don't spend big, you'll be part of the permanent underclass of companies.
This in turn implies a data center construction moratorium is a blessing in disguise. Everyone has an ironclad excuse to reduce financially-irresponsible but mania-driven data center investments.
Bottomline:
"Data center restrictions are bad for the industry"
and
"Data center spending is unsustainable"
are polar opposite viewpoints and imply vastly different outcomes of the current buildout.
I don't know which one is true. And like most things, I suspect the truth is in the middle. But they can't be simultaneously true.