Harry Sintonen
tanteMcSweeney's on "AI finances" goes harder than most business publications.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/ai-economics-for-dummies
fedithom
3Jane Tessier Ashpool
Timothy Wolodzko@tante makes perfect sense, TBH
Roy@tante I think I’m going to boost every iteration of shares of this today. So good.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
Mother Bones@tante Benjamin's Mules, lolsob
jgrzinich
Alex Lubertozzi 🇺🇦
i was going to say 3 but the sacrificial altar means 4 wins
Jon Shell
baconandcoconut
Curio
Sassinake! ᑐ ∪ ∩ ⊂
DeManiak 🇿🇦 🐧-The Stinkening
RawiWoof
Stephen Cox Authoraccurate and balanced
disorganized tropical low@tante I think you may have understated how hard they go 🤣🤣🤣
Linda A. Tam
Pride_is_a_Protest@tante Damn if that wasn't a broadside I've never seen one.
Laura
Nicole ParsonsIs AI funded by the fossil fuel industry as a new element of an intergenerational trust?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-06/saudis-plan-100-billion-ai-powerhouse-to-rival-uae-s-tech-hub
So much about the AI fraud is reminiscent of JP Getty's money shuffle, where paper losses, tax evasion, & fraud go hand in hand.
There's no such thing as a perpetual motion machine. There's no such thing as a perpetual money machine either.
1. Oil fields
2. Shipping
3. Refineries
4. Gas stations
5. Hotels & housing
6. Getty Trust
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aCSga0_K1r8
1/
Saudi Arabia Plans $100 Billion AI Powerhouse to Rival UAE’s Tech Hub
Saudi Arabia is planning a new artificial intelligence project with backing of as much as $100 billion as it seeks to develop a technological hub to rival the neighboring United Arab Emirates, people familiar with the matter said.
2/
The fossil fuel industry likes to invest in loss leaders with an anti-democracy agenda.
Exploratory oil drilling. Rideshare startups.
https://jacobin.com/2019/08/uber-koch-brothers-david-charles-rideshare-public-transit
https://jacobin.com/2026/06/uber-hawaii-taxes-insurance-robotaxis
The wealthy like to invest in strategic businesses with iffy revenue prospects & dubious sources of cash. They make money win or lose. The iffy valuations of data center corporations. The delusional revenue projections. The bailouts if the initiatives fail.
https://www.ft.com/content/51c51b49-57fc-435d-9146-e86d7b19ca81
3/
Useful for tax evasion, hostile takeovers, propaganda, government subsidies, & money laundering.
https://agbrief.com/news/macau/10/02/2026/epstein-files-several-macau-mentions-including-stanley-ho-sheldon-adelson-and-steve-wynn-report/
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/sheldon-adelson-obit/
Media monopolies. Stadiums, golf courses & professional sports. Hotels, resorts, & gambling. Railways. Refineries. Pipelines.
https://hartmannreport.com/p/monopoly-in-media-how-big-money-controls
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/a-pro-trump-mega-media-monopoly-emerges
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7158840/2026/03/30/mark-cuban-mavericks-sale-regret/
All have opaque provenance practices for revenue.
James Wallbank@Npars01 @tante Without gigantic investment and vast energy expenditure, AI (in the West) proposes, you can't play this game.
These features of AI's design aren't "unfortunate", they're the objective. The data centre is a sink for fossil fuel capital. The scale is the point. Its purpose is to attract those huge stores of wealth.
The Ghost Data Centre, which is announced, impacts share price, is financed, but somehow hasn't actually been constructed yet, has already fulfilled its purpose.
Being financed is what AI is for.
The AI data center overbuild resembles the ghost city overbuild in China by Evergrande.
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/saudi-arabia-didnt-learn-anything-from-chinas-ghost-cities/
https://www.newsweek.com/what-happened-china-ghost-cities-2047985
https://allthatsinteresting.com/chinese-ghost-cities
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underoccupied_developments_in_China
Nobody uses it. Nobody can afford to buy it. Lots of shady loans. Top down fiat control. Disenfranchised residents.
SpaceLifeForm
Toni Aittoniemi@tante New loans must be created, even if it’s against all things that make sense. Loans are the only way to create new money.
Without creating new money stock prices that aren’t reflective of anything real can’t keep going up.
Ps. Stocks are mostly bought with loans, not cash. The leveraged routinely exceed 10:1.
Pps. The inflation trickles down to us.
Christoph Lühr@tante Brilliant!
Gilgwath
Mrinappropriate
tootbrute@tante
This one is SpaceX, isn’t it? 
Jenny owns a crematorium. John’s propane company gives her a $20 billion investment in return for 5 percent of her operation. Jenny throws $10 billion into the incinerator, then pays John $10 billion to buy propane to burn that money to ashes. John reports that his AI investments have generated $10 billion in revenue this quarter and that he owns 5 percent of a $100 billion business. A reporter from Forbes is assigned to profile John and Jenny, and over the course of his research, he becomes embroiled in a passionate but confusing three-way love affair with them, which eventually turns into a polyamorous common-law marriage. His profile is glowing, but light on financial details.
Matt Noyes
Uwe Küchler@tante Wondering if @davidgerard has seen this already.