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Ed Zitron
@edzitron.com
170K followers 2.7K following 28K posts
British, But In Las Vegas and NYC
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Newsletter - wheresyoured.at
https://linktr.ee/betteroffline - podcast w/ iheartradio
Chosen by god, perfected by science
CEO at EZPR.com - Award-Winning Tech PR
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edzitron.com
Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 1d
Here’s this week’s Better Offline. Hater season continues, and I’m joined by Cal Newport to talk about the ways in which the media fails to report the truth about AI.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...
Linktr.ee/betteroffline
Hater Season: Cal Newport on AI Reporting
Podcast Episode · Better Offline · 02/11/2026 · 1h 7m
podcasts.apple.com
edzitron.com
$30bn raised from a *telethon* of investors. This is insane. Never seen anything like it in my life. Anthropic is scraping every barrel dry, and guess what? This barely covers the $21 billion in orders it has with Broadcom, let alone the projected $12bn in training costs this year
Significant investors in this round include: Accel, Addition, Alpha Wave Global, Altimeter, AMP PBC, Appaloosa LP, Baillie Gifford, Bessemer Venture Partners, affiliated funds of BlackRock, Blackstone, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, General Catalyst, Greenoaks, Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Insight Partners, Jane Street, JPMorganChase through its Security and Resiliency Initiative and Growth Equity Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, NX1 Capital, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Sands Capital, Sequoia Capital, Temasek, TowerBrook, TPG, Whale Rock Capital, and XN. This round also includes a portion of the previously announced investments from Microsoft and NVIDIA.
February 12, 2026 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Ed Zitron
edzitron.com
Made an annotated version of "Something Big Is Coming" for all of you to enjoy. I hate this guy's writing so much
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qw6k5...
February 12, 2026 at 3:26 PM
edzitron.com
Found a nuanced way to explain the rickety finances of data center development
I’m the CEO of Colocation Corporation (CoCorp), and we’re building a 118MW data center. For the sake of this example (and simplicity), it costs around $1.4 billion to do so, of which I’ve financed $840 million at an interest rate of 6%, with a term of 6 years. Construction takes a year, which means that I’ve been paying $4.2 million a month - or $50.4 million a year - of interest payments to stop the loan from ballooning. Once payments start again - a year later - I’m suddenly paying $16.239 million a month in interest and principal payments (or $194.87 million annually), with principal payments ballooning thanks to the loan now having an effective 5 year term. I’m about to find out exactly how rickety the world of data center leasing really is. Finally, my big, beautiful data center - which features 100MW of critical IT load on a 118MW building - is finally ready, and my new client, GPUCorp, moves into the building and starts paying a colocation fee of $130 per kilowatt a month, or $156 million a year. Pretty good, right? Using a simplified version of depreciation - where we depreciate over 15 years - CoCorp would have about $93 million a year in depreciation costs, which leaves us with big, sexy, honking profits of $63 million a year. That’s 59.6% gross margins! We’re printing money! I’m going to be rich! Wait, fuck! Shit! Ass! I just did the minus of $156 million and $194.87 million! That’s…that’s $38.87 million a year! And that’s when I’m getting paid! I have negative 24.9% operating margins! This sucks ass! Though everybody I know says my gross margins ROCK, gross margins are only on paper! Reality sucks! What am I going to do? As I pace around my office with my hands in my pockets, I get an email from the CEO of GPUCorp (His name is “Glent Fudge”) with a subject heading that says “uh oh.” Turns out that GPUCorp can’t afford to pay its own loans, which means it can’t afford to pay me for my big, beautiful data center. I email back a simple request: “PAY ME … I go to Guns Dot Com and I purchase a rifle. It’s time to kill Glent Fudge. I get a phone call. It’s the bank. “Hey Ed, how are you?” my banker (Shelton Crelton) says. “I just read on CNBC that Glent Fudge ran out of money, and your contract explicitly states that we loaned you this money based on you having a tenant for that 118MW data center.” I begin to sweat. “Do you have another to replace them? If not, you’re in default of your loans.” I do not have another tenant. I try to buy another gun, but guns dot com declines my credit card. I am in default on my loans to the bank, and Shelton Crelton can seize my data center.
February 12, 2026 at 7:10 PM
Reposted by Ed Zitron
edzitron.com
Keep being sent this completely nonsensical hogslop. It has multiple egregious lies, which is appropriate because he’s a fraud. Back in September 2024 he falsified a bunch of benchmarks to hype up his open source model. Article is total dogshit. I should annotate it venturebeat.com/ai/reflectio...
Something Big Is Happening Something Big Is Happening Matt Shumer @mattshumer_ • Feb 10 Think back to February 2020. If you were paying close attention, you might have noticed a few people talking about a virus spreading overseas. But most of us weren't paying close attention. The stock market was doing great, your kids were in school, you were going to restaurants and shaking hands and planning trips. If someone told you they were It took just one weekend for the new, self-proclaimed king of open source AI models to have its crown tarnished. Reflection 70B, a variant of Meta's Llama 3.1 open source large language model (LLM) - or wait, was it a variant of the older Llama 3? — that had been trained and released by small New York startup HyperWrite (formerly OthersideAI) and boasted impressive, leading benchmarks on third-party tests, has now been aggressively questioned as other third-party evaluators have failed to reproduce some of said performance measures.
February 12, 2026 at 1:42 AM
Reposted by Ed Zitron
samblum.bsky.social
NEW: Your average prediction market user can soon bet on the popularity of trends, brands, concepts and ideas. Everything is becoming increasingly monetized and financialized. VCs are eating it up.

www.inc.com/sam-blum/pre...
Prediction Markets Like Kalshi Are Attracting Billions. A New 'Stock Market for Trends' Could Mint Millionaires Fast
Noise users can bet on the popularity of everything from the Labubu craze to ChatGPT. It could be the first prediction market for the attention economy.
www.inc.com
February 12, 2026 at 5:15 PM
edzitron.com
I thought about doing a longer newsletter about this but I am fairly certain everyone will forget about this in a week
edzitron.com Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 6h
Made an annotated version of "Something Big Is Coming" for all of you to enjoy. I hate this guy's writing so much
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qw6k5...
February 12, 2026 at 4:20 PM
edzitron.com
Made an annotated version of "Something Big Is Coming" for all of you to enjoy. I hate this guy's writing so much
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qw6k5...
February 12, 2026 at 3:26 PM
edzitron.com
Mysterious! I thought Clamuel said they were “way over $13 billion.” No need to mention this I guess
techmeme.com Techmeme @techmeme.com · 14h
Sources: some OpenAI execs were surprised by WSJ's report that the company was targeting a Q4 2026 IPO; OpenAI hopes to triple its ~$13B 2025 revenue in 2026 (New York Times)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
February 12, 2026 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Ed Zitron
edzitron.com
Here’s this week’s Better Offline. Hater season continues, and I’m joined by Cal Newport to talk about the ways in which the media fails to report the truth about AI.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...
Linktr.ee/betteroffline
Hater Season: Cal Newport on AI Reporting
Podcast Episode · Better Offline · 02/11/2026 · 1h 7m
podcasts.apple.com
February 11, 2026 at 2:30 PM
edzitron.com
Keep being sent this completely nonsensical hogslop. It has multiple egregious lies, which is appropriate because he’s a fraud. Back in September 2024 he falsified a bunch of benchmarks to hype up his open source model. Article is total dogshit. I should annotate it venturebeat.com/ai/reflectio...
Something Big Is Happening Something Big Is Happening Matt Shumer @mattshumer_ • Feb 10 Think back to February 2020. If you were paying close attention, you might have noticed a few people talking about a virus spreading overseas. But most of us weren't paying close attention. The stock market was doing great, your kids were in school, you were going to restaurants and shaking hands and planning trips. If someone told you they were It took just one weekend for the new, self-proclaimed king of open source AI models to have its crown tarnished. Reflection 70B, a variant of Meta's Llama 3.1 open source large language model (LLM) - or wait, was it a variant of the older Llama 3? — that had been trained and released by small New York startup HyperWrite (formerly OthersideAI) and boasted impressive, leading benchmarks on third-party tests, has now been aggressively questioned as other third-party evaluators have failed to reproduce some of said performance measures.
February 12, 2026 at 1:42 AM
edzitron.com
What a nice thing to say! It also means absolutely nothing. Anthropic doesn’t own or even lease data centers and thus does not pay power bills on anything other than its office space
Feb 11 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence company Anthropic on Wednesday announced initiatives to limit the impact of data centers on consumer energy prices amid increased investment in power-hungry infrastructure necessary for Al tech. Anthropic will cover all grid upgrade costs needed to connect its data centers by increasing its monthly electricity charges, thereby preventing them from being passed on to consumers, the company said.
February 12, 2026 at 12:54 AM
edzitron.com
My “Oracle’s construction progress across our AI data centers remains on schedule and on plan” t-shirt is getting me a lot of questions answered by the shirt
Oracle's construction progress across our Al data centers remains on schedule and on plan. We're also rolling out local workforce trainings, subcontractor engagement efforts, and technical skilling programs - in classrooms and through on-the-job training - to ensure that the thousands of good-paying jobs we're creating can be filled by local workers as much as possible.
February 11, 2026 at 10:48 PM
edzitron.com
Microsoft, Google, Meta and Amazon paying influencers $400k-$600k to post months of AI hype content. Absolutely busted, failed industry, embarrassing era
www.cnbc.com/2026/02/06/g...
Google and Microsoft offer lucrative deals to promote AI, but even $500,000 won't sway some creators
Tech companies including Google and Microsoft are paying influencers hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote AI products.
www.cnbc.com
February 11, 2026 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Ed Zitron
guykawasaki.bsky.social
Free for four more days. Twenty five reviews. 4.9 stars. www.amazon.com/Everybody-Ha...
Everybody Has Something to Hide: Why and How to Use Signal to Preserve Your Privacy, Security, and Well-Being
Amazon.com: Everybody Has Something to Hide: Why and How to Use Signal to Preserve Your Privacy, Security, and Well-Being eBook : Kawasaki, Guy, Nuismer, Madisun: Kindle Store
www.amazon.com
January 29, 2026 at 5:55 PM
edzitron.com
So that's the magic of everybody talking about 1GW data centers - this is a very new concept! they are all working it out as they go along.
hiking-metal-punk.bsky.social Yeti @hiking-metal-punk.bsky.social · 1d
are all those different players normal for data centers? Like as a layperson I’d have expected maybe the land, buildings, power, etc to be owned by one party, leased it to a second who furnishes it, and sells capacity and that’s it.
February 11, 2026 at 3:25 PM
edzitron.com
Here’s this week’s Better Offline. Hater season continues, and I’m joined by Cal Newport to talk about the ways in which the media fails to report the truth about AI.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...
Linktr.ee/betteroffline
Hater Season: Cal Newport on AI Reporting
Podcast Episode · Better Offline · 02/11/2026 · 1h 7m
podcasts.apple.com
February 11, 2026 at 2:30 PM
edzitron.com
?
AI (artificial intelligence) 'Wake up to the risks of AI, they are almost here, Anthropic boss warns TECH Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns Al may cause 'unusually painful' disruption to jobs PUBLISHED TUE, JAN 27 2026 12:54 PM EST UPDATED WED, JAN 28 2026 2:07 AM EST Anthropic CEO Says AI Could Replace Software Engineers in 6 to 12 Months Dario Amodei delivered a chilling warning at the World Economic Forum in Davos. 'Country of geniuses in a data center: Every AI cluster will have the brainpower of 50 million Nobel Prize winners, Anthropic CEO says
February 11, 2026 at 2:10 PM
edzitron.com
This makes no sense. People need to stop assuming there’s a huge genius strategy behind this. It’s effectively obeying in advance, it empowers evil people with intelligence and guile they lack. They’re doing this because number went up. GPUs are not helpful in that way.
andyfraser.bsky.social Andy Fraser @andyfraser.bsky.social · 1d
Aren’t they just going to end up being subsumed into the colossal digital Stasi that MAGA are building to control their entire population 24/7? Won’t that be their primary use?
February 10, 2026 at 11:45 PM
edzitron.com
the last two days have been endless dicking around with spreadsheets but i think i've reached an actual defensible model for modeling data center costs, and even in a perfect situation these things have mediocre (30-40%) gross margins when they have a tenant and negative ones without
February 10, 2026 at 10:05 PM
Reposted by Ed Zitron
edzitron.com
Premium Newsletter: The Hater's Guide to Microsoft, a decaying empire experiencing the stagnation of all of its core products that's using OpenAI's billions in inference spend to cover up the collapse of Azure's growth. It makes no more than $15bn a year from AI.
www.wheresyoured.at/premium-the-...
Premium: The Hater's Guide To Microsoft
Have you ever looked at something too long and felt like you were sort of seeing through it? Has anybody actually looked at a company this much in a way that wasn’t some sort of obsequious profile of ...
www.wheresyoured.at
February 6, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Ed Zitron
coachfinstock.bsky.social
February 9, 2026 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Ed Zitron
davidjroth.bsky.social
I wrote about Jason Myers, who delivered my favorite postgame quote and was perfect in the Super Bowl, and who makes it to the top in the strangest job in sports. defector.com/jason-myers-...
It Feels Great, Dude | Defector
The history of professional football is long enough and strange enough to include a placekicker or two who had “a normal career.” Theoretically. I have found scant evidence of that, but presumably the...
defector.com
February 9, 2026 at 6:40 PM
edzitron.com
So sick. I love it. Business
techmeme.com Techmeme @techmeme.com · 3d
Sources: Apollo nears a $3.4B loan deal to a Valor-led investment vehicle to buy and lease Nvidia chips to xAI; through fall 2025, xAI was burning $1B per month (Miles Kruppa/The Information)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
February 9, 2026 at 6:10 PM
edzitron.com
it offended me. how dare he buy a soda during the super bowl? how dare he? he also broke the roof of a hard working family and didn't even apologize! he even seemed happy!
washingtonpost.com The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 3d
Analysis: Weeks before he set foot on the stage, Bad Bunny’s halftime performance had already become a media event.

But if you were looking for political commentary, the closest that you got was when he said “God bless America” in English.
Analysis | Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show was expected to provoke. Did it?
The Bad Bunny Super Bowl show nodded to injustices in Puerto Rico but mostly evoked wholesome family values that meshed with the more sentimental commercials.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 9, 2026 at 5:46 PM
edzitron.com
chatgpt has been at 800m+ weekly actives since october. gotta wonder if they stalled out or are just saving for 1bn. but it's been a while! Took from August to october 2025 to go from 700m to 800m for example
More than 800 million people use ChatGPT each week, but Google and Anthropic have been gaining ground. OpenAI declared a “code red” in December to improve ChatGPT, and temporarily sidelined several projects to focus on that effort. Sam Altman says ChatGPT has hit 800M weekly active users TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com › 2025/10/06 › sam-altman-says... Oct 6, 2025 — “More than 800 million people use ChatGPT every week, and we process over 6 billion tokens per minute on the API. Thanks to all of you, AI has ...Read more
February 9, 2026 at 4:11 PM