AI Companies Issued $236 Billion of Debt in Just Five Months.

AI Companies Issued $236 Billion of Debt in Just Five Months. AI borrowing is rising fast. Famous economist Jim Rickards explains why that could matter more than the technology itself in a new free presentation. Over the first five months of 2026, companies tied to artificial intelligence took on roughly $236 billion in new debt. Economist and former government advisor Jim Rickards has built a free presentation around that figure. His point is simple. How the AI boom is being paid for may end up telling us more than any product demo ever could. Rickards notes that banks and private lenders keep inventing new ways to keep the money flowing, with fresh financing arrangements built specifically to fund AI projects. For him, all of it points to one question that rarely makes the headlines. Why does an industry this celebrated need to borrow this heavily? An Industry Running on Borrowed Money Powerful artificial intelligence is expensive to build. Companies are pouring money into the physical side of AI long before they can see what it will earn them. Warehouses full of computing hardware. Enormous amounts of electricity. The systems needed to tie it all together. Most of that money goes out the door years ahead of any profit. Companies are betting demand will eventually catch up with the cost. Rickards thinks that bet is worth questioning. "Technology changes quickly," he says in his presentation. "Balance sheets don't." The Question Has Changed For a long time, the excitement around AI was about what...