We've all heard the warnings: AI companies are drowning in debt, private borrowing is far larger than reported, revenues are nowhere near justifying the spending, and it's all a bubble that will pop suddenly. Fine. But I have a different answer to the question of \*when\*.
The first sign of the pop won't be bad news. It will be good news.
Watch for the moment revenues jump, an unusual, instant surge in profits that makes it look like AI has finally delivered on every promise. That's your signal. Not because the boom is real, but because that's exactly when the big players will start heading for the exit, and then it would be like Dominos falling.
By then, the major AI companies will have gone public. A blockbuster earnings report is the perfect cover: the market cheers, expecting stocks to climb even higher, while insiders quietly sell as much as they can. They cash out, cut their losses, and some walk away with enormous profits.
And who's left holding the bag? The public. Ordinary investors, pension funds, and retirement accounts will be left to pick through the wreckage after the pop.
Worse, the pain won't stop there. Debt losses will be socialized. Whatever the companies lose, taxpayers will end up covering.
The big players cash out on the way up. The public pays on the way down.