The explosive growth of AI infrastructure is facing a sobering reality check as Eric Jackson warns that massive debt loads could turn today's market leaders like CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) into tomorrow's cautionary tales.

Real Revenue, Real Risk

While many skeptics compare the current AI surge to the 1990s tech bubble, Jackson argues that CoreWeave is fundamentally different from the “fake revenue” era of the Dot-com crash.

Instead, he draws a chilling parallel to the 1860s railroads—real physical infrastructure built on a mountain of precarious debt. “Railroads weren't frauds,” Jackson noted in a recent series of posts.

“They were real infrastructure with real customers.” However, he cautions that CoreWeave's $25 billion+ debt pile creates a “lenders first” structure where equity sits precariously behind the requirement for “constant growth.”

In this environment, even a minor deceleration in AI demand could trigger an equity wipeout.

Is CoreWeave the next dot-com blowup?No.Dot-com was fake revenue.CoreWeave's revenue is real:$1.4B/quarter.$55B backlog.Microsoft and OpenAI contracts.Real GPUs. Real hyperscalers. Real demand.The closer analogy is 1860s railroads.Railroads weren't ...