Decoder with Nilay Patel · Thursday, October 1, 2026
Despite the massive investment in data centers for AI development, there is significant uncertainty about the economic viability and profitability of AI itself, with the ultimate return on investment unclear. Investors are relying on the creditworthiness of hyperscalers like Meta and Google, creating a system that races forward regardless of AI's future success.
“And I don't think anybody knows what that is yet. Anthropics S1 just came out. It is unclear from that document what that will be. But no one seems to care.”
“And so what Paul explained was that the investors, because no one can pay for these projects, not even the hyperscalers directly, they're too huge, like these sorts of entities who are coming in. And they see these projects as a reliable return for many years because in the contract, meta is good for it no matter what happens with AI.”
“To me, one of the big questions is I can't answer whether there's a bubble or whether it's going to pop. I don't know. I don't think anyone really knows. So only time will tell there.”