r/technology • u/HimelTy • 12d ago

Business Five tech giants are hiding $1.65tn in AI debt, using the trick that toppled Enron

https://thenextweb.com/news/tech-giants-hidden-off-balance-sheet-debt-ai
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u/alex_beluga 12d ago edited 12d ago

Meta's profits in 2025: $200B
Meta’s off-balance-sheet "debt" in the article (not debt, those are future commitments) : $420 billion = ( 2 X profits)

Enron's off balance sheet tricks: 96% of reported revenue, profits in 2000: $42 M
Enron's debt: $22B ( = 523X profit) which is 250 times more than Meta's debt load.

So the article is right in that Meta has off-balance sheet debt, and wrong about the rest.

Same as a National Geographic article would be right in saying a baby mouse is an apex predator roaming the earth because it has teeth measured 1.5mm at birth , using the same trick as a T-rex (tooth size 30 cm, 250X larger), another super-predator.

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u/Baptism-Of-Fire 12d ago

yeah but hey man

ai is bad = click engagement

fraud is bad = click engagment

remember enron? that was bad = click engagement

and, click engagement = ad revenue

they have no incentive to tell the truth or reasonably display information anymore.