Bernie Sanders warns Oracle, Nvidia and other technology companies on expenditure that has wiped billions from their market value; says: Don’t come begging to taxpayers, you ...

Senator Bernie Sanders has a warning for technology companies on their ballooning AI expenditure. In the last few quarters, Silicon Valley's biggest technology companies -- Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, SpaceX, Oracle and Nvidia -- have increased their capital expenditure by billions. Wall Street has not taken this kindly, so much so that it has wiped out billions from their stock value. According to a report in Reuters, "More than $2 trillion in market value is set to be wiped from the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 this month, as Big Tech earnings intensified investor scrutiny of whether the billions being poured ​into artificial intelligence can generate returns quickly enough."Hitting at rising AI debt, Senator Bernie Sanders slammed technology companies for what he called their risky AI bets. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he told these companies not to come to taxpayers if their bet fails to deliver. "Companies like Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, SpaceX, Oracle & Nvidia have racked up $3 trillion in debt on a high-stakes gamble on AI. Big Tech Oligarchs: If your AI bet fails, don’t come begging to taxpayers. You won’t be bailed out — period. End of Discussion," wrote Sanders.More than $2 trillion in market value is on track to be erased from the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 this month as Big Tech earnings intensify investor questions over whether the enormous sums being poured into artificial intelligence will deliver returns quickly enough. The Nasdaq 100 has already fallen more than 5.8% so far in October as the AI trade has hit turbulence. Hyperscalers including Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Amazon.com have raised their spending forecasts further while racing to expand AI infrastructure.$2 trillion-plus wiped out from Nasdaq 100Hyperscalers Meta, Google-parent Alphabet, and Amazon have all raised their forward-looking spending projections in recent months, committing hundreds of billions to compute clusters, custom chips, and data center infrastructure. However, with benchmark interest rates remaining elevated, Wall Street is growing increasingly uneasy about the rising cost of servicing capital investments that may take years to deliver meaningful profit margins.The reckoning was felt sharply on Thursday, when Alphabet suffered its largest single-day percentage decline on record. Investors reacted to slowing growth in the company's core search advertising unit alongside a steep rise in cash burn. Concurrently, Meta rattled markets with plans for a record $97.5 billion capital raise, sparking fears of equity dilution and raising concerns that tech giants may soon lean heavily on external financing to fund the AI arms race.AI companies’ growing reliance on debt funding is emerging as a fresh risk for investors, challenging the long-held view that the firms at the center of the boom are insulated from broader macroeconomic pressures. The concern is spreading beyond equities into credit markets, where investors are starting to price in the possibility that higher financing costs, combined with slower returns on AI spending, could squeeze companies previously regarded as relatively protected.Microsoft and SpaceX offered some relief from the gloom, delivering results that suggested AI spending is beginning to pay off. Microsoft posted quarterly results that suggested commercial AI applications are beginning to translate into revenue gains, offering a rare bright spot amid the tech sector selloff."It may be that we've overestimated how strong the growth might be, but they're not going negative in aggregate," John Bilton, global head of strategic research for multi-asset solutions at JPMorgan Asset Management, told Reuters. "We have an insatiable and growing demand for data," he added.Market focus now turns to next week, when Apple is scheduled to report its quarterly earnings, followed by Nvidia in mid-November. Nvidia's forward guidance, in particular, is viewed by analysts as the definitive litmus test for whether hardware demand can withstand cooling sentiment across the broader tech landscape.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.