仅 Meta 就积累了约 4200 亿美元的表外债务，《日经》称，这凸显了人工智能行业在人工智能投资上的风险程度，并激发了人们将其与能源公司安然相比的联想：https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/ai-sector-enron-sector-111500396.html，由于类似的债务隐藏在空壳公司背后，安然在 2001 年以戏剧性的方式崩溃。像安然一样，他们使用特殊目的工具公司，或表外安排，如法律上独立的子公司，来使财务报告看起来比实际更健康——这通常是后台存在严重问题的明显信号。
“这种会计处理本身很流行，”技术会计顾问 Tom Selling 告诉彭博社：https://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/big-tech-ai-spree-revives-accounting-devices-that-toppled-enron。“但如果这些公司中的某家实际上是一座纸牌屋，而是通过这种会计处理来支撑自己呢？对我来说，这就是风险。”
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AI companies are pouring untold billions of dollars into enormous data centers in their efforts to sustain increasingly complex and resource-intensive AI models.
It’s an extremely costly undertaking built on seemingly bottomless hype — and a mountain of debt. As Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Asia found in a recent investigation：https://asia.nikkei.com/business/technology/five-us-tech-giants-hidden-debts-soar-to-1.65tn-on-opaque-ai-funding, just five US tech giants — Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle — are hiding an estimated $1.65 trillion in debt that doesn’t appear on balance sheets. That’s even more than the $1.35 trillion in debt the five companies officially reported in their financial data for the most recent quarter.
Meta alone has amassed around $420 billion in off-balance-sheet debt, according to Nikkei , highlighting how precarious the AI industry’s steep investment in AI has become, and inspiring comparisons to energy company Enron：https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/ai-sector-enron-sector-111500396.html, which collapsed in spectacular fashion in 2001 because of similar debts hidden behind shell companies. Like Enron, they’re using special purpose vehicles, or off-balance sheet arrangements such as legally distinct subsidiaries, as a way to make their financial reporting look healthier than it actually is — often a glaring sign that something is deeply amiss behind the scenes.
“The accounting treatment itself is in fashion,” technical accounting consultant Tom Selling told Bloomberg ：https://news.bloombergtax.com/financial-accounting/big-tech-ai-spree-revives-accounting-devices-that-toppled-enron. “But what if one of these companies was a house of cards and was propping itself up with this accounting treatment? To me, that’s the risk.”
Experts continue to warn of an AI bubble：https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/problem-ai-industry-collapse-efficiency, noting the enormous and widening gulf between company valuations and their comparatively measly profits. The latest news will do little to quiet critics who say the situation is more dire than the companies’ official balance sheets suggest.
To keep up with the ongoing AI race, tech giants are committing vast sums to build out large-scale data center projects, a long-term bet that may — or may not — pay off. They’re also selling new shares to raise new funds, as Nikkei reports, which could lead to equity dilution and a drop in investor confidence.
That could make them even more vulnerable if the AI bubble does pop, or the industry fails to generate enough demand to justify the data center construction frenzy.
The pressure is on: four of the five companies Nikkei analyzed are set to report second quarter earnings in the coming days and weeks. We’ll be watching.
More on the AI bubble: There’s a Gigantic Problem at the Heart of the AI Industry That Could Cause the Whole Thing to Collapse ：https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/problem-ai-industry-collapse-efficiency
I’m a senior editor at Futurism, where I edit and write about NASA and the private space sector, as well as topics ranging from SETI and artificial intelligence to tech and medical policy.
By Victor Tangermann：https://futurism.com/authors/victor
By Frank Landymore：https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore
By Joe Wilkins：https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins
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情报判断
Aioga 编辑摘要
Aioga 编辑摘要：多家 AI 公司正面临巨额债务压力，但试图通过财务手段掩盖其真实负债规模。 Aioga 将其归入「行业动态」方向，重点关注它对真实使用和行业竞争的影响。
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