This is an I-Heart podcast.

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Quarzone Media.

I'm Ed Zedron, and this is Better Offline.

That's right, folks. We're back for the second part of our series on the dot-com bubble, and why I believe the

AI bubble could be much, much worse.

While the dot-com bubble was a mixture of dodgy venture capital deals and websites that

could never turn a profit combined with a global mania

around the interconnectivity of high-speed internet companies, the AI bubble is one company selling

expensive AI GPUs, a bunch of companies building data centers to put them in,

and a bunch of companies building shit that runs on GPUs that only loses money and that customers kind of fucking hate.

I should also note that a very important

part of the story is venture capital's lack of returns in the last few years, something I covered

in the inshitter financial crisis last week, specifically in parts two and three. In simple terms,

AI startups now make up more than half of venture investment, and I believe that most of these

startups will die

because of their horrible margins, no path to profitability, and products that people really don't want to

pay for at scale. And when they die, they will leave venture capitalists stranded with tons of

dead equity at a time when they already have trouble generating returns and thus raising money

from their limited partners. The result I worry will be

gruesome. Venture capitalists make their money through the fees they generate, which are based on

the value of their investments and the returns they give their investors, which don't seem to be

...