Cade Metz

Other companies deliver our real-time products.

Internet video, so many of the things that were promised in we have today.

And we're actually using that fiber optic cable that was laid and that sat there dormant for many years.

And we are now reaping the benefits.

It's just that it didn't happen as quickly as a lot of people thought.

So many people I talk to say that very thing.

They point out that in the end, despite the bubble bursting, eventually everything turned out as promised.

They make that analogy, and that's why they're making these enormous bets today.

They acknowledge there might be losers, as Sam Altman did during that dinner, but they think it's going to work out in the end.

The concern, however, among some in the Valley and some in New York where the financial analysts are, is that the risk being taken on by some companies is far larger than in the past.

And if that's the case and the bubble bursts again, the fallout could be far more significant.

Well, as I discuss this with all sorts of people, including technologists, but also financial analysts, the other thing that often comes up is the housing bubble of the late 2000s, which was a much more serious thing.

People generally agree that this is not what we're going through at the moment.

Let's not go that far.

That said, they do point out that there are elements that we're seeing now that were also present then.

Basically, this is about the enormous amount of debt that is being taken on to build these data centers, the enormous amount of money that's being borrowed to build them.

And as you look at that debt, it's hard to know how much there is and who is holding the debt.

If that debt is spread across a lot of companies, then you have more systemic risk.

You have greater risk that could damage the rest of the economy.

Well, some companies are not taking on debt to do this.