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Comment by kakacik

7 hours ago

Yet we see it happening all the time with various AI deals.

How? "AI fincancing bad" is starting to seem like a new non sequitur meme. There's no imaginary thing being traded for indefensible valuations in AI dealings. Stock units at a certain valuation exchanged for an equivalant value in hardware is just a standard payment-in-kind transaction.

If the valuation turns out to change in the future, that's the hardware seller's risk.

It's not the same thing as buying a $20 million banana from a bahamian llc secretly owned by yourself, which is fraud.

I thought in that case nvidia was (approximately) purchasing stock in exchange for hardware? Which AFAIK is the entire point of stock - selling it to raise needed capital.

  • And if they actually constructed the deal that way, it would be fine. But by essentially creating a sham sale where they return the cash back to the customer in return for equity, Nvidia can book revenue and claim non-existent cash flow. The key is that the sale would not have happened without the corresponding equity deal. Nvidia had no discretion to use that cash any other way, so the "cash flow" in that case is illusory.

    • I don't see the issue. Goods valued at that amount changed hands. Why shouldn't bartering be booked as cash flow? The regulator is going to require you to value it for them regardless.