Chapter 7334

Steve continued, "When an industry overheats, as you Chinese say, 'many hands make light work.' Everyone keeps adding fuel to the fire. Some know why they're doing it, some just follow the crowd. So the fire gets bigger and bigger, and the bubble grows. But can a fire like that burn forever? Of course not. Eventually, you run out of firewood, or people get tired. Little by little, fewer people add wood, and the fire naturally dies down."

"And sometimes, while everyone's desperately feeding the fire, someone suddenly wonders, 'Why am I even doing this?' Maybe you can roast a potato over the fire, but otherwise, what's the point? So that guy leaves. Others see him leave, and they start leaving too. Some want to leave, but they've already thrown all their wood in and can't get it back. Those people end up bankrupt and out of the game."

Steve smiled. "Honestly, the AI craze is just like that. Look at them, throwing money at computing power and electricity like mad. But deep down, they're all a little anxious, staring at the fire and asking themselves, 'Why the hell am I doing this?' Mr. Wade, I don't know much about tech, but here's my take: Do billions of people around the world really need that much computing power?"

Charlie laughed. "I'm not an expert either. I did have your family help build a computing center, but I don't use it myself, so I don't really get it. Why don't you give me a crash course?"

Steve nodded seriously. "Here's what I think, Mr. Wade. Right now, a lot of computing power is just being wasted."

Charlie looked curious. "Oh? Why do you say that?"

Steve explained, "Take the old IT software industry. Software companies would concentrate people, resources, and computing power to develop a really good product. Then hundreds of millions would use it—some paying, some not. Resources were pooled for big results, and computing power wasn't wasted."

Then Steve changed tack, spreading his hands. "But look at things now. AI is everywhere, vibe coding is everywhere. On the surface, it's all about tech equality—everyone can use AI to code and make software. So, aside from a handful who really need customization, now you've got hundreds of millions tinkering alone, using their own computers and paying fifty or a hundred bucks a month for cloud computing, just to build nearly identical little private apps. Isn't that just pointless?"

"Take image editing software. You can buy a lifetime license with free upgrades for a hundred bucks. Or just pirate it for free. But some people won't do either. Instead, they spend two hundred bucks a month on cloud computing to build and maintain their own version—spending more than if they'd just bought the real thing. How is that not a waste? How can there not be a bubble?"