In August, the founder of hedge fund Praetorian Capital Harris “Kuppy” Kupperman penned an essay on the absurd finances behind AI data centers. While the tech industry has likened data centers — or more specifically, the expensive semiconductor chips that power them — as the “shovels” of the AI gold rush, Kupperman’s napkin math found that AI data centers have an impossibly short runway to achieve profitability.

In short, this is because data center components age rapidly, either made obsolete through rapid advances in technology, or broken down over years of constant, high-powered usage.

After publishing his initial findings, Morningstar reports that Kupperman got an earful from anxious professionals in the data center industry. Thanks to those conversations, the investment manager real

See Full Page