Today's Wisdom - CapEx, Buoyancy and Moby Dick

Welcome back to A Little Wiser. We hope everyone had a lovely weekend, we have some great lessons ahead this week so stay tuned. Today’s wisdom explores:

Grab your coffee and let’s dive in.

We are currently witnessing a capital expenditure (Capex) explosion unlike anything in human history. This year alone, Big Tech is projected to spend a staggering $660 billion on AI data centers and infrastructure. To put a number like that in perspective, this single year of spending exceeds the entire cost of the U.S. Interstate Highway System ($630 billion), more than doubles the cost of the Apollo Moon Program ($257 billion), and could fund the International Space Station ($150 billion) four times over (all numbers adjusted for inflation). This is the equivalent of spending $1.8 billion a day, $75 million an hour, or $1.2 million every single minute.

The latest 2026 earnings reports reveal that the industry's biggest players have completely demolished previous spending estimates. Amazon is leading the charge with a mind-boggling $200 billion investment, far surpassing the original $146 billion forecast. Google has ramped up to nearly $185 billion, while Meta is pushing toward $135 billion. This "arms race" mentality is driven by a fear of technological irrelevance; in the AI era, being second place is often equivalent to being last. Even OpenAI, now reporting multibillion-dollar annual revenue, faces compute and infrastructure costs that dwarf its current income, highlighting how far ahead spending has run relative to monetization. OpenAI is currently burning cash at a rate that would bankrupt most nations, yet investors are doubling down on the belief that every dollar spent on compute today will generate $10 in economic productivity tomorrow by automating everything from legal discovery to nuclear physics.

However, this massive spending spree carries systemic risks that could rattle the entire U.S. GDP. We are essentially witnessing a "Capex Bubble" where the cost of building the intelligence (the supply) is far outstripping the current revenue generated by AI products (the demand). If these huge investments don't start producing a massive return soon, we could see a "valuation cliff" that drags down the broader stock market. Furthermore, this concentration of capital is straining the national power grid, driving up energy costs for average citizens and potentially forcing a choice between keeping the lights on in American homes or powering the massive server farms that Big Tech is building. We are currently watching the world's largest companies take an all-in bet on a future that must arrive on time, or risk bankrupting the very progress they are trying to build.

Below - Below — Nvidia’s CEO explains why companies are spending so much. It’s insightful, but worth remembering his company sells the chips powering this boom!

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The Dead Sea is one of the world’s most surreal natural wonders. Located at the lowest point on Earth, roughly 430 meters below sea level, it isn't actually a sea, but a landlocked salt lake. While most oceans have a salt concentration of about 3.5%, the Dead Sea is nearly ten times saltier, hovering around 34%. This extreme environment is so harsh that no fish or plants can survive in it (hence the name), but for human visitors, it offers a physics-defying experience: the ability to float effortlessly on the surface like a human cork.

The secret to this buoyancy lies in the principle of density. In physics, an object floats if it is less dense than the liquid it displaces. Because the Dead Sea is packed with dissolved minerals, primarily magnesium, sodium, and potassium, the water itself becomes incredibly heavy. A liter of Dead Sea water weighs significantly more than a liter of fresh water. When you step in, your body (which is mostly fresh water and air) is so much lighter than the mineral-heavy brine that the water pushes you upward with immense force. You don't just float; you sit on top of the water, making it nearly impossible to swim traditionally or touch the bottom.

However, because of the high mineral content, the water feels more like a light oil than a liquid. Visitors are warned never to splash, as a single drop in the eyes feels like a chemical burn, and the bitter taste is described as "revoltingly metallic." Beyond the physics, the Dead Sea is a geological ticking clock; it is currently shrinking at a rate of about one meter per year as its water sources are diverted. For now, it remains the world's most famous natural spa, where the combination of high atmospheric pressure, mineral-rich mud, and extreme density allows you to literally weightlessly drift away from your worries.

When Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick was first published in 1851, it was a spectacular commercial flop. Critics were baffled by its 135 chapters that veered wildly from a standard sea adventure into scientific lectures on whale anatomy and Shakespearean monologues. Melville, who had been a celebrity for his earlier travelogues, died in relative obscurity in 1891, having sold fewer than 4,000 copies of his masterpiece. It wasn't until the 1920s after the horrors of World War I made readers crave stories about the darker, more chaotic parts of the human soul that the "Melville Revival" officially cemented the book as the Great American Novel.

At the heart of the storm is Captain Ahab, a man whose monomania (an obsession with a single object) turns a commercial whaling voyage into a suicide mission. Ahab’s target is Moby Dick, the "White Whale" that took his leg in a previous encounter. To Ahab, the whale is not just an animal; it is a "pasteboard mask" for a malicious or indifferent God. He views the whale as a personification of all the evil and suffering in the world, believing that by killing it, he can finally strike back at the universe itself. His first mate, Starbuck, offers the voice of cold reason, viewing the whale as nothing more than a source of oil and profit making the conflict a classic battle between religious zealotry and corporate pragmatism.

The most famous aspect of the whale is its color, which Melville devotes an entire chapter to explaining ("The Whiteness of the Whale"). While white usually symbolizes purity or divinity, Melville argues that in the natural world, it represents a "heartless void." It is the color of the shark’s belly, the polar bear, and the shroud. By making the whale white, Melville created a blank canvas onto which every reader (and every character) projects their own fears. In the 20th century, the term "White Whale" officially entered the English lexicon as a metaphor for an obsession that eventually destroys the person chasing it. We are left with the chilling realization that Moby Dick isn't the villain of the story; he is simply an indifferent force of nature that only becomes "evil" because Ahab refuses to let go.

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Until next time... A Little Wiser Team