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AI Can Steal Your Bank Account in Hours
21 days ago
- AI is amplifying cyber threats in the financial sector, exploiting concentrated infrastructure and data breaches.
- Fraud is industrializing via AI, with deepfakes and phishing targeting individuals, especially young investors.
- Resilience and real-time monitoring using AI are key defenses, along with sector collaboration and training.
Even banks and hyperscalers are now sounding the alarm about the AI bubble
20 days ago
- Bank for International Settlements warns of AI bubble pop risking global economy
- Oracle's stock dropped 40% in a month, exposed to AI bubble risks
- Hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta invest billions with uncertain returns
- Risk extends to suppliers, construction firms, and small businesses
- Enterprises seek control, open-source models, and predictable pricing over frontier AI
- Oracle's SEC filing highlights dependency on OpenAI's uncertain payments and capacity risks
- Challenges include data center permitting, power sourcing, and political opposition
- AI companies may raise prices, but market tolerance is limited
- Shift towards using AI models less and optimizing costs signals bubble strain
S&P downgrades Oracle to BBB – only one notch above junk level
12 days ago
- S&P downgraded Oracle's rating to BBB- due to massive AI investments, placing it one notch above junk status.
- The downgrade is driven by Oracle's AI infrastructure expansion, leading to a forecasted $42 billion cash flow deficit and increased debt.
- S&P highlights Oracle's high dependency on OpenAI as a central credit risk, with half of promised service volume tied to this single customer.
- Oracle is transitioning to a cloud infrastructure business, expected to reach 60% of revenue by 2028, but faces weaker financial flexibility compared to rivals.
- The company has cut over 21,000 jobs to fund AI investments, amid broader regulatory warnings about debt-financed AI risks resembling past financial crises.
Five tech giants are hiding $1.6T in AI debt, using the trick that toppled Enron
5 days ago
- Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle have $1.35 trillion in reported debt, but a Nikkei study reveals an additional $1.65 trillion in off-balance-sheet debt, up eightfold in four years.
- The hidden debt uses off-balance-sheet vehicles similar to Enron's, but is now legal due to tighter rules and fuller disclosures, though it echoes Enron's structure.
- Companies package debt for chips, servers, and power into separate legal entities like joint ventures to avoid recording it on their own accounts, e.g., Meta's Hyperion data centre structure with $27 billion debt.
- Examples include Oracle's $260 billion in future lease commitments, Nvidia's $119 billion in purchase obligations, and Alphabet and Microsoft also keeping vehicles off-book.
- The industry is expected to spend over $3 trillion through 2028 on AI data centres, with much financed against chips, but the hidden debt could trigger losses if AI demand fails.
- Off-balance-sheet debts become real when data centres go live, potentially leading to credit rating downgrades (e.g., Oracle's S&P cut) and flagged risks from Moody's and Morgan Stanley.
- The disclosures exist in financial footnotes, but investors see less than half the actual leverage, making it a quiet risk amid bubble talk.
The AI Bubble Is No Ordinary Bubble
5 days ago
- The AI bubble is driven by hyper-rich corporations, not retail investors, and occurs despite high interest rates, making it unusual.
- It consists of two overlapping bubbles: massive capital expenditure on infrastructure (data centers, chips) and soaring company valuations.
- Tech companies are spending over $700 billion on AI infrastructure, which is propping up GDP growth, but they need huge future revenues to justify valuations.
- The bubble could burst if AI companies fail to generate profits, if communities ban data centers, or if Chinese competition reduces computing needs.
- The insularity of the bubble means ordinary people are not directly participating, but they could still be affected through retirement funds, credit access, or job displacement.

Hasty Briefsbeta

financial risk

AI Can Steal Your Bank Account in Hours

Even banks and hyperscalers are now sounding the alarm about the AI bubble

S&P downgrades Oracle to BBB – only one notch above junk level

Five tech giants are hiding $1.6T in AI debt, using the trick that toppled Enron

The AI Bubble Is No Ordinary Bubble