A Price to Pay is with one editor, my fantasy heist novel is with another, and I’m stuck twiddling my thumbs without much writing to do. I don’t remember this feeling lol.
Maybe it’s time to revive one of the projects I shelved a while back.
#BookSky💙📚
NEW: On Polymarket, more than $5 million has been spent gambling on "Will the Iranian regime fall by June 30?"
On Kalshi, a competing prediction market where users can bet on almost anything, $54 million was spent on “Ali Khamenei out as Supreme Leader?"
The depravity economy has no bottom.
Fun fact for readers: we authors love when you leave reviews on our books with great written feedback.
Sincerely, a guy who just noticed a really lovely review on his book on Goodreads. 😊
#BookSky💙📚
We interrupt your scrolling to let you know that CANADA IS GOING TO THE SEMIFINALS!! MITCH MARNER IS ONLY CLUTCH WEARING THE RED MAPLE LEAF BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
👀👀 #BookSky💙📚🪐
ITS OFFICIAL! Hot off the press from my publisher over at Turnstone, my new novel “Bounty: A Price to Pay” is on its way! Release date soon 👀 www.turnstonepress.com/news/in-the-... #BookSky💙📚🪐
If Non-OpenAI/Anthropic AI Compute Isn’t A $100 Billion A Year Business By 2028, 75%+ Of AI Data Centers Will Go Under I realize this sounds dramatic, but hear me out. If we assume a comparable amount of US-based data center deals happen in 2026, that means that we’re going to need at least $80 billion in annual compute business to make any of it make sense. I realize that somebody could say that Anthropic, OpenAI and hyperscalers are spending $X on compute, but remember: hyperscalers are spending nearly $700 billion in the next year, and while some of that $178.5 billion in debt may be considered theirs, the vast majority of it is likely from independent developers hoping to scoop up some of the revenue from the “insatiable demand for AI compute.” What’s truly insatiable is AI’s appetite for debt. AI is so expensive to build for that it necessitates massive amounts of upfront capital, and because most AI data centers are being built by either brand new entities or cryptocurrency miners attempting to move onto their next grift, the debt is often high-interest, and gosh darn do these motherfuckers need a lot of it. There are also blatantly obvious signs that the demand doesn’t exist, the most glaring being that NVIDIA has pledged $26 billion of its own money to pay its customers to rent back its GPUs per its last earnings: Multi-year cloud service agreement commitments as of October 26, 2025, were $26 billion for which $1 billion, $6 billion, $6 billion, $5 billion, $4 billion, and $4 billion will be paid in fiscal years 2026 (fourth quarter), 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, and 2031 & thereafter, respectively. Some cloud service capacity may be reduced, terminated or sold to others by the CSPs, in which case our commitments will be reduced. We expect cloud service agreements to be used to support our research and development efforts and DGX Cloud offerings. NVIDIA is also planning to lease 200MW of data center capacity funded entirely by junk bonds, for some reason. …
Why AI Data Centers Are So Uniquely Unstable So, why hasn’t this been a problem in the past? Scale: in the past, data centers were way, way smaller. It was a big deal back in 2023 when Applied Digital vowed to build a 5MW data center that would have 300 GPUs, and likely a lot cheaper to build. Up-Front Cost For Critical IT: building an AI data center is a fucking nightmare for your balance sheet, as you need thousands of GPUs that each cost $50,000 or more and require massive server racks, networking and all sorts of other crap to make them run, and when they finally turn on, revenues have to fill a massive hole. Up-Front Cost For Construction, Power and Cooling: All of that specialized GPU compute requires a bunch of specialized cooling and infrastructure, as well as way, way more power. They Take Years To Build: Depending on the data center, construction can take anywhere from a year to three years. Stargate Abilene started construction in 2024, and won’t be finished until 2027 at the earliest. All of these factors create massive, impossible-to-avoid charges up front, which requires massive debt to fund them, followed by onerous construction timelines, at which point these data centers better have a fucking customer, or they’re absolutely quad-fucked.
The Money Does Not Exist To Make AI Data Centers Make Sense So, one clapback against this piece is to suggest that OpenAI and Anthropic will combine to spend over $550 billion by 2030, and my answer there is “how?” You see, neither company can actually afford to pay that much, and thus rely on a near-constant flume of venture capital to the point that new rounds require a fucking We Are The World telethon to get done. Anthropic’s $30 billion round had thirty seven different investors, which heavily suggests we’re hitting the limits of what venture capital, private equity and even hyperscalers can afford to fund these companies. And to be clear, even with an IPO, neither of these companies can afford to pay their current commitments, and both of these companies are the only entities using large amounts of compute. Anthropic needed that money less than five months after it raised $13 billion! OpenAI is already trying to raise another $100 billion despite receiving $22.5 billion from SoftBank less than two months ago! And really, where’s the rest of the demand? Because unless the AI compute industry is going to 10x in the next 12 months, the demand does not exist! If the argument is that AI startups will want to rent these GPUs directly, then I simply must ask where that money is coming from, because they’re all unprofitable too? Tell me: what happens when the majority of this data center debt goes tits up? That’s the scenario we’re setting up for.
How The Chain Of Pain Breaks The Back Of The Data Center Boom There are really two scenarios here: either there’s a massive, unbelievable surge of AI demand that floods AI data centers with tens of billions of dollars of revenue in the next year, or the majority of data center debt deals are left unpaid. Regardless, the raw economics of the AI data center boom are horrendous. Even in the best-case scenario, with guaranteed tenancy for years, these data centers are so debt-dependent and drenched in depreciation, opex and maintenance that even the most meager margins are hard to attain. Even if you believe that every data center occupant will be timely with its payments, my model shows that even the slightest push or delay can send costs spiralling out of control, and any failure by OpenAI or CoreWeave will likely create a cascade effect, choking off any potential new data center deals and breeding anxiety in the hearts of those who have already issued them. CoreWeave is likely the first domino to fall, and when it does so, it’ll rip a hole in Applied Digital’s balance sheet, and potentially kill Core Scientific, a company with a negative 46.7% operating margin who counts CoreWeave as its largest customer. AI data centers cost too much to build and by extension require too much debt. Their margins stink, their customers are all either compute-curious hedge funds or unprofitable startups, and - I don’t say this lightly - rely on a near-distant future where $50 billion to $100 billion of AI compute spend pops up effectively overnight. And then there’s Oracle, who has tied itself to a billion-dollar failson in OpenAI. Even if it can get the lousy 30.9% margins I believe it’s making on Stargate Abilene, the costs associated with building, maintaining and running it are likely to swallow either Oracle or Crusoe whole far before the completion of the data center. Oracle can try and cover the losses by selling more shares and raising more debt, but at some point it…
Tomorrow's Premium: The Great Data Center Financial Crisis, where 20-40% margins are only possible after years of construction and billions in debt, and if we don't have $100bn in demand by 2028, everything's a wash.
Here's $10 off annual.
edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo...
Shoutout to anyone writing a book right now. Keep going! I believe in you.
#writersky
Something the current era of sci-fi and cyberpunk needs to include is how humanity is willingly slipping into a corporation-led surveillance culture.
This is Governmentality to its extreme.
NEW: Ring has introduced "Search Party", a horrifyingly dystopian feature nominally designed to turn all of the Ring cameras in a neighborhood into a dragnet that uses AI to look for, in their commercial, a cute lost dog.
With Ring, US consumers are actually building a surveillance dragnet.
Toronto’s Don River was declared “biologically dead” decades ago — now fish are returning after a major wetland restoration. The rebound follows a C$1 billion renaturalisation that rebuilt wetlands, reshaped the river’s course, and restored spawning habitat. buff.ly/Mm6gOi1 #ShareGoodNewsToo
I just might 👀
I had a can’t-miss opportunity to speak at Worldcon in Seattle back in August, but getting to our flight out my fiancée had a very stressful experience going through security.
Since then things have gotten so much worse and I can’t imagine trying to go now. It’s really sad.
Still can’t get Blood Over Bright Haven out of my head. ML Wang did a fantastic job and inspired me to take a stab at my own self-pub journey! #BookSky💙📚
Moltbook is a “social media” site for AI agents that’s captured the public’s imagination over the last few days.
'It exploded before anyone thought to check whether the database was properly secured.'
www.404media.co/exposed-molt...
Last time walking through these doors this season! Has been a great build year for the herd, currently 5th in the conference, could see a playoff berth next season! #Hockey #Broadcaster #CanWest🏒
Posted up between the benches today for Bisons V Golden Bears handling colour commentary. We’ve got the illustrious Brian Munz in the house handling play-by-play!
And by “catching up on my reading list” I actually mean working with my OTHER editor on a new self-pub project I hope to share details about soon! #BookSky💙📚
Draft of Bounty 2 is in the hands of my editor, so now I can get caught up on my reading list!
So happy with how the latest draft turned out and can’t wait to share more!! New characters, new locales, and a whole new threat to Nikos and the gang 👀 will everyone make it out alive? #BookSky💙📚🪐
Only one copy of BOUNTY left at @mcnallyrobinson.com at Grant Park 👀👀 grab it now before it’s gone! #BookSky💙📚🪐
So Xmas is now less than two weeks away! Got a family member who loves John Wick, Cyberpunk 2077, and action movies? Pick them up a copy of BOUNTY!
Trying to get your dad to start reading more? According to my research (asking them) it's a great gift for dads! Dads love BOUNTY!
#BookSky💙📚🪐
An interesting world-building conundrum I'm working through with the BOUNTY universe. For cities located in deserts, particularly those under photovoltaic domes, how do they keep cool? There are so many natural cooling methods from the ancient past that I might need to crib from 👀
#BookSky💙📚🪐
A re-enactment of English Longbowmen at the Battle of Agincourt, with the words "All I Want For Christmas Is Yew" at the bottom of the picture. You see, my dear alt-text readers, Yew wood was the preferred wood for longbows, prized for its strength and flexibility. So it would make sense that the bowmen might want yew for Christmas. This is a pun, a terrible Christmas pun, playing off that Mariah Carey song, you know the once, yes you do. I'm a bad person for making this pun. I am so sorry.
It's a longshot people will get this joke
It’s the holiday season, so I’m contractually obligated to mention that my novel BOUNTY would look nice under the Christmas tree. Especially for the sci-do lover in your life!
(Ok I’m not contractually obligated to say that, I just firmly believe it 😉) #BookSky💙📚🪐
www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...
I’ve been heads-down working through notes from my editor on Bounty 2, so I think it’s time to announce…
I’M WORKING ON BOUNTY 2 WITH MY PUBLISHER! 🎉🎉🎉
With that in mind, now would be a great time to pick up a copy of BOUNTY. #BookSky💙📚🪐
www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...
Exactly THREE DAYS LEFT to back THE BOOK OF SPORES on Kickstarter! Don’t miss your chance to help fund this gorgeous deluxe edition anthology and delve into 17 fungal fantasy, sci-fi and horror short stories 🍄
Back it HERE until Dec. 4 at 5pm EST: www.kickstarter.com/projects/fan...
Tonight on #TheHockeyShow on 101.5 UMFM, @jasonpchajek.bsky.social and I chat with TSN's James Duthie about his book Certified Beauties, published by @harpercollinsca.bsky.social! It should be a great chat, so join us at 530pm CT! Links below!
🔗: hockey-blog-in-canada.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
LAUNCH DAAAAAAY!!! THE BOOK OF SPORES anthology goes live on Kickstarter in ONE HOUR! Go support our mad, fungi-fueled crowdfunding project starting at 9am EST 🍄
Back The Book of Spores HERE: www.kickstarter.com/projects/fan...
Just ONE MORE DAY until THE BOOK OF SPORES anthology launches on Kickstarter! We put a lot of love into this deluxe edition hardcover, so consider backing the project starting tomorrow, NOVEMBER 13, at 9am EST 🍄
Follow our pre-launch page HERE: www.kickstarter.com/projects/fan...
My great-uncle loves telling the story about sneaking onto the train between Winnipeg and Winnipeg Beach. Some day soon I can do the same perfectly legally 🤣
Jokes aside, this would be a amazing. We need light rail in Manitoba. We need commuter trains. It IS viable.
