Circular money machine behind the AI boom: supplier, investor and customer in one

Phys.org examines the circular money flows behind the AI boom, where a company sells equipment, invests in the buyer and then rents back what is built with it. Such loops blur how much of the demand for AI infrastructure is real.

• A supplier sells hardware, invests in the buyer and rents back the output
• The same player acts as supplier, investor and customer at once
• Circular deals make real AI infrastructure demand hard to gauge