Key facts
- Steve Eisman disagreed with Michael Burry's bearish thesis on AI.
- Burry predicted hyperscalers would understate depreciation by over $175 billion between 2026 and 2028.
- Eisman believes current demand for AI chips makes depreciation schedules less relevant.
- Eisman warned that a failure by OpenAI could cause a massive AI market correction.
- CoreWeave has a contract to rent Nvidia A100 GPUs through 2029.
Steve Eisman, a fellow 'Big Short' trader, has publicly disagreed with Michael Burry's bearish outlook on artificial intelligence, particularly concerning the depreciation of high-tech chips. While Burry has predicted that major cloud providers, known as hyperscalers, will understate depreciation by over $175 billion between 2026 and 2028, Eisman argued that the current intense demand for AI chips makes this accounting detail less critical for the moment.
Eisman stated on the New Money podcast that Burry's argument, while potentially valid from an academic or accounting perspective, overlooks the immediate market reality. He believes that as long as companies like OpenAI and Anthropic experience rapid growth, and hyperscalers continue to perform well, the specific depreciation schedule for chips will not be a significant impediment.
Recent developments, such as CoreWeave's contract to rent Nvidia's older A100 GPUs through 2029, appear to support Eisman's view that demand for existing AI hardware remains strong. However, Eisman is not entirely bullish on the AI sector. He has also issued his own warnings, identifying the market's reliance on OpenAI and Anthropic as a potential 'Achilles' heel' that could trigger a substantial market correction if these companies falter.