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They are buying (maybe)... 30 billies... of *nonprofit* stock. :/

Someone who's interested in updating our understanding of the business practices that originally inspired the Sherman Antitrust Act is going to have very, very fertile ground in studying the rise of AI.

A company providing its customers financing via debt is common as the rain, but doing so via cash infusions to equity is IMO a different order of thing. But maybe I just don't know this area well enough. It seems sketchy to me.

Like, if you lend your customer the money to make a capital improvement, you can arrange to retain an interest in the asset in the event of insolvency. Even if not collateralized, the risk of total loss is less. The leverage characteristics of trading cash for customer equity are VERY different.

@wintermute21.bsky.social

Really the only risk benefit I can see in the latter arrangement arises is if one of your competitors comes out with a clearly superior product, so it becomes an "at least we've got this" hedge. All the other risks seem to be pure downside unless it's just customer capture.

John Best

How is this not just even more of the tail wagging the dog?

Paul Hiebing

@phiebing.bsky.social

I keep telling people, between Alphabet being $175B in AI debt, Musk tucking xAI under the government-funded wind of SpaceX, and this Nvidia nonsense… the writing isn’t even on the wall - it’s being scratched on your damn corneas.

Ryan Day

@ryanday.bsky.social

Ed, I have a lawyer in Luxembourg telling me that I have an estate worth up to $30bn and all I have to give them is my wallet. Can you believe the coincidence?

powys42.bsky.social

@powys42.bsky.social