Here’s the ‘core economic flaw’ in the AI bull case as stock and bond trades unravel, according to a top economist
Source: Fortune ·
"So far, the AI payoff for firms has been slow to materialize, implying a growing reluctance to pay for AI services."
From the source
Apollo Chief Economic Torsten Slok was on a warpath this past week, issuing a series of warnings about the AI boom as Wall Street retreated from the sector. On Tuesday, he pointed to the recent slowdown in token spending growth, saying the demand curve for compute is flat and highly sensitive to price changes. Meanwhile, most companies that are investing in the technology have yet to see significant productivity returns, Slok added, with AI now looking more like a cost center than a growth driver. “The core economic flaw in the AI bull case is that the marginal cost of producing compute exceeds the marginal benefit it delivers to users, raising questions about claims of unlimited demand for data centers,” he explained. “How much compute and how many data centers are needed depends on the returns firms are able to generate with that compute. So far, the AI payoff for firms has been slow to materialize, implying a growing reluctance to pay for AI services.” The main determinant in…