Cade Metz

They are all making the case that this spending makes sense.

The poster child of this attitude is Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

He has told the rest of the world to bet against his company at their own risk, and he continues to flaunt the company's spending.

He and the rest of the industry are all in.

Do you know about the concept of FOMO, fear of missing out?

That's a lot of what is driving this.

Do I ever.

No one wants to miss out on what could be the most transformative technology the world has ever seen.

And if you don't want to miss out on that, you have to make your bet now.

These data centers...

Not only are they expensive, they take a long time to build.

And so almost by definition, you have to make a bet on something that's years down the road.

But there may be a disconnect between the money that's being spent now and what is possible just a few years down the road.

What if there's no moon landing?

Or what if only one company lands on the moon?

Or what if only two land there and the rest are left hanging?

This is a situation where even if somebody wins, a lot of people are going to lose.

Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, said as much during a dinner I attended here in San Francisco this summer.

He said, rhetorically, are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI?

In my opinion, he said, yes.