Buying Locomotives Before the Freight Arrives
On corporate panic, hundred-billion-dollar data centers, and the ancient art of confusing capital outlays with actual commerce.
When corporate treasurers smell a new frontier, prudence takes a back seat to sheer panic. Today's feverish spending on silicon and megawatts looks less like sound business and more like the nineteenth-century rail barons racing to bankrupt each other.
Marcus Thornewood
September 25, 2026
7 min