Market selloff, rising rates test AI data centre deal boom

Commenters debated whether the AI data‑centre buildout is a justified industrial boom or a leveraged bubble vulnerable to rising rates. mattbrewsbytes argued recent IPOs are largely private‑equity cash‑outs rather than capital raises and warned that stretched credit profiles (he cited Oracle) look like adjustable‑rate mortgages that will punish companies if rates climb. toomuchtodo highlighted distressed credit signals around CoreWeave and cited swap pricing and bond moves as evidence investors see high default risk. Analemma_ and maerF0x0 portrayed tech IPOs as offloading risk to public buyers, while others like iugtmkbdfil834 insisted there remains a substantive demand rationale for building these centres. Several contributors noted the mechanics of a failure: collidnmcnulty and ElevenLathe explained creditors would absorb losses or take the assets and either operate or liquidate them at market rates.

Opinion divides over whether skepticism of AI is justified and who to trust. vatsachak and Ailogeneous defended watchdog critics like Ed Zitron as necessary accountability, while jokellum and others pointed to lists of failed predictions and called him unreliable. bunderbunder and others said LLMs haven’t transformed everyday work the way the web did, while supporters like ricciardo argued big players bet on outsized returns that dwarf borrowing costs. Some commenters downplayed broader harm - lotsofpulp urged index‑fund investors not to worry - whereas SoftTalker warned of broad public resentment that could have political or consumer‑spending consequences.