What’s in This Week’s Issue…

Good morning. Everyone's debating whether we're in an AI bubble, but they're asking the wrong question.

This isn’t really a story about overhyped startups or inflated tech stocks that will eventually correct themselves.

It's about Wall Street quietly using the same financial engineering tactics that fueled the 2008 housing crash to bankroll a multi-trillion infrastructure boom that may never generate real returns.

So this week…

• 🏆 The Big Play: How circular funding loops and private equity are building AI infrastructure using your money

• 💪 The Power Move: Why understanding this hidden crisis now could save your financial future

• 💵 Follow the Money: How fentanyl became a ‘weapon of mass destruction’

-GEN

🏆 The Big Play

The biggest money power story of the week.

Why the AI Bubble is Actually a $60 Trillion Black Hole

Everyone sees the AI hype cycle playing out in public.

OpenAI launches ChatGPT, Nvidia's stock soars, tech companies announce trillion-dollar partnerships.

But the real action is happening behind closed doors, where Wall Street has created a financial structure so circular and self-reinforcing that money flows in one direction: down a black hole.

Here’s how the system actually works:

1. The Circular Money Machine

It starts with what looks like a generous investment but is actually a sophisticated accounting theater.

• Nvidia "invests" $100 billion in OpenAI, but with a catch: OpenAI must spend that money buying Nvidia chips

• OpenAI signs a $300 billion infrastructure deal with Oracle, despite making only $12 billion in revenue

• Oracle, in turn, pours billions into Nvidia chips, creating a perfect loop where every dollar spent gets counted as revenue multiple times

This isn't an investment. It's financial engineering designed to manufacture the appearance of demand.

And the circular funding extends beyond tech companies. It spills into real assets with real consequences.

2. Wall Street’s Infrastructure Land Grab

While everyone watches the tech company theater, private equity has been executing the largest infrastructure acquisition in modern American history:

• Since 2022, private equity firms have acquired or invested in over 450 data center companies, representing the majority of all mergers in the sector

• In 2024 alone, they announced $70+ billion in deals

• By 2030, $7 trillion is projected to be spent on data center infrastructure

The arrangement is perfect for everyone except taxpayers.

Private equity builds shells to collect rent payments from big tech, while tech companies keep massive infrastructure liabilities off their balance sheets.

But these deals are funded with leveraged debt at hefty interest rates, meaning if AI demand doesn't materialize, the losses ripple through banks and credit markets.

And once built, these facilities cannot be easily shut down or repurposed.

That leads to the cost most people never see coming.

3. The Hidden Costs You’re Already Paying

The most insidious part of this infrastructure boom is how the costs get socialized while the profits stay private:

• OpenAI's $500 billion Stargate project alone will require enough power for a million U.S. homes.

• On current trajectories, U.S. data centers will draw as much power as several major cities combined.

• Nearly one in five data centers is concentrated in communities already dealing with pollution.

Since the US grid can't handle this load and we've built only one nuclear plant in 30 years, companies are installing gas turbines directly at data centers and fast-tracking environmental reviews in states like Tennessee.

This violates their own green pledges while forcing communities to bear the environmental costs.

Meanwhile, tech companies lobby against laws that would make them pay for grid upgrades they cause.

Instead, regulations allow utility companies to spread costs across everyone, adding $10-20 to monthly bills for households where 50% of Americans already live paycheck to paycheck.

💪 The Power Moves

Playbook for understanding the game of power.

Why This Isn’t a Bubble You Can Time

This isn't a bubble that will pop and reset the market. It's a black hole where capital disappears into depreciation, energy bills, and endless debt payments.

And historically, moments like this are exactly when investors return to one asset that still stands outside this system, gold.

You already know the reasons to own it: it’s real money, it’s lasting wealth, and it can’t be inflated away.

But here’s the thing: most people just let their gold sit there, doing nothing.

That’s where Monetary Metals is changing the game.

Instead of paying to store your gold or watching it collect dust, you can now earn a yield on it, paid in physical gold.

With their gold leasing marketplace, investors earn up to 4% per year in gold. This means your stack grows in real gold, while gold prices may even rise on top of that.

Join thousands of investors earning real yield in physical gold and silver every month with Monetary Metals.

So don’t just hold gold, make it work for you.

Earn up to 4% in gold, paid in gold, with Monetary Metals. Go to Monetary-Metals.com/GEN to learn more and start putting your gold to work.

The Takeaway:

Whether you support AI or not, you're already paying for this infrastructure boom through higher utility bills and environmental costs while private equity and big tech socialize the risks.

The smart move isn't to predict when this ends, but to understand how power moves in a system where the biggest bet in human history is being made with other people's money.

💵 Following the Money

Three of the wildest financial and corruption stories from around the world.

#1 - Trump designates fentanyl a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ 

#2 - Is Australia reconsidering gun laws after the Bondi Beach attack

#3 - AI can now get past news paywalls, but it may be giving you misinformation

✨ Poll time!

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