The OpenAI Bubble

Zitron Squeeze · Jul 16, 2026 · 9m

The core claim here is bigger than one startup maybe overspending on GPUs. It’s that OpenAI has become the story holding together a huge chain of spending, lending, construction, and stock-market optimism, and if that story breaks, a lot of supposedly separate bets may turn out to be the same bet.

The load-bearing narrative

OpenAI’s spending and obligations

Who actually holds the risk

Oracle as the sharpest edge

Memory chips and knock-on inflation

Phantom deals and media amplification

SoftBank and the funding chain

Anthropic as a mirror image

What would actually happen in a failure

Source:

Ed…