Consumer electronics prices are shooting up. Energy prices are increasing fast. Even water bills are climbing. For a technology that promises “efficiency,” the ongoing AI gold rush seems to be taking things away, much like the proverbial gift that keeps on grabbing.
With hundreds of billions in AI investment already racked up for 2026, it’s important to remember the entire industry is currently built on a mountain of debt — and much of this borrowed money is being spent on data center capacity. That’s true, even though consumers would probably rather have a cheap Mac than spend money on an AI subscription service.
All this debt is being amassed because a small number of people at a very small number of firms have decided to make huge investments in the tech, which at present requires huge quantities of energy, memory and data center capacity to run.
But it won’t always be this way.
A mountain of debt, but we’re short of memory
