On November 20, 2025, trading algorithms identified what may become the largest accounting fraud in technology history—not in months or years, but in 18 hours.
If I gave you $5 and then you gave it to someone else and then they gave it back to me we’ve done nothing but can call it $15 in business transactions.
But it has to be used this week.
And during quiet times.
And not within an hour of any other break.
Or the start and end of your work hours.
And not on any day that ends in Y.
That’s why transactions are defined as the exchange of something of value. In most legal systems, if you’re caught swapping phony transactions like that, you can be prosecuted for fraud.
Why would nvidia have new money to invest when its stock goes up? That’s not how the stock market works, you buy stock from other investors, not the company. Unless they finance all their investments with debt and use their higher valuation to get easier access to that financing. Which seems unlikely.
Don’t get me wrong, I 100% think AI is a crap bubble, but I don’t think you understood how this scam works.
That’s not how the stock market works, you buy stock from other investors, not the company.
The company can issue more stock, not just use debt for its financing. And the value of the new stock is strongly influenced by the market price of the stock that has already been issued.
NVIDIA sells GPUs to Oracle. Oracle sells GPU time to openai.
When time comes to pay the bills, openai doesn’t have the money to pay Oracle who then doesn’t have money to pay NVIDIA. So, Oracle gives stock to NVIDIA, and openai also gives stock to NVIDIA.
NVIDIA doesn’t care if both go broke because now a gpu is worth a lot more, and in the books they’re selling a lot more GPUs each for a lot more money. So NVIDIA stock goes through the roof even if they ran out of cash and got into ridiculous debt.
Shareholders have a ridiculous profit, NVIDIA directors get a massive bonus and NVIDIA CEO gets famous.
Why is it a problem? Because nobody has cash and this can’t go on forever without some massive bankruptcies. I’m sceptical anyone is paying their power bills or servicing bank loans, so these may get dragged into the mud too.
Wouldn’t NVIDIA care? They now own part of the company in exchange for that hardware?
If they go bankrupt, nvidia loses their stake in a company, and it all falls apart. GPUs won’t stay this expensive if this implodes.
OpenAI though, can only go on for as long as their venture capitalists are willing to support it.
I’m not convinced the current LLM architecture can ever make an AGI, but it a can be useful and be made more useful. There could come a point where it’s usefulness and it’s short comings reach a profitable point that people will accept.
What could also help is nvidia being able to come out with more power efficient chips as well. It could go a long way to solving at least one of the problem.
The money flows in loops: Nvidia invests in AI startups, startups commit to cloud spending, cloud providers purchase Nvidia hardware, Nvidia recognizes revenue, but the cash never completes the circuit because the underlying economic activity—AI applications generating profit—remains insufficient.
I haven’t read the article, but I have read previous accusations of the same thing, so I assume it’s the same.
Basically, the new AI companies are all losing money, but they are all investing big money in each other which makes it look like the industry is doing well.
“Every public company now faces machine-speed scrutiny of accounting practices. Anomalies that might have persisted for quarters until human analysts identified patterns now trigger immediate algorithmic responses.”
ELI5?
If I gave you $5 and then you gave it to someone else and then they gave it back to me we’ve done nothing but can call it $15 in business transactions.
I think I understand. Can… Can I have the $5 now please?
300% profit! Where’s my bonus!
You are allowed to take an extra 15-minute break.
But it has to be used this week. And during quiet times. And not within an hour of any other break. Or the start and end of your work hours. And not on any day that ends in Y.
That’s why transactions are defined as the exchange of something of value. In most legal systems, if you’re caught swapping phony transactions like that, you can be prosecuted for fraud.
Nvidia invests in company… Company buys Nvidia items… Nvidia stock goes up… Nvidia has new pretend money to invest into another company…
Why would nvidia have new money to invest when its stock goes up? That’s not how the stock market works, you buy stock from other investors, not the company. Unless they finance all their investments with debt and use their higher valuation to get easier access to that financing. Which seems unlikely.
Don’t get me wrong, I 100% think AI is a crap bubble, but I don’t think you understood how this scam works.
Companies issue new stock to raise capital all the time.
The company can issue more stock, not just use debt for its financing. And the value of the new stock is strongly influenced by the market price of the stock that has already been issued.
NVIDIA sells GPUs to Oracle. Oracle sells GPU time to openai.
When time comes to pay the bills, openai doesn’t have the money to pay Oracle who then doesn’t have money to pay NVIDIA. So, Oracle gives stock to NVIDIA, and openai also gives stock to NVIDIA.
NVIDIA doesn’t care if both go broke because now a gpu is worth a lot more, and in the books they’re selling a lot more GPUs each for a lot more money. So NVIDIA stock goes through the roof even if they ran out of cash and got into ridiculous debt.
Shareholders have a ridiculous profit, NVIDIA directors get a massive bonus and NVIDIA CEO gets famous.
Why is it a problem? Because nobody has cash and this can’t go on forever without some massive bankruptcies. I’m sceptical anyone is paying their power bills or servicing bank loans, so these may get dragged into the mud too.
Wouldn’t NVIDIA care? They now own part of the company in exchange for that hardware?
If they go bankrupt, nvidia loses their stake in a company, and it all falls apart. GPUs won’t stay this expensive if this implodes.
OpenAI though, can only go on for as long as their venture capitalists are willing to support it.
I’m not convinced the current LLM architecture can ever make an AGI, but it a can be useful and be made more useful. There could come a point where it’s usefulness and it’s short comings reach a profitable point that people will accept.
What could also help is nvidia being able to come out with more power efficient chips as well. It could go a long way to solving at least one of the problem.
And this is news to people?
Apparently so.
Question is: which of those is truly the best short play?
Only winning play is to not.
I think this snippet get the gist across:
I haven’t read the article, but I have read previous accusations of the same thing, so I assume it’s the same.
Basically, the new AI companies are all losing money, but they are all investing big money in each other which makes it look like the industry is doing well.
“Every public company now faces machine-speed scrutiny of accounting practices. Anomalies that might have persisted for quarters until human analysts identified patterns now trigger immediate algorithmic responses.”