What Brad DeLong thinks about data centers
Economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury. Author of Slouching Towards Utopia and writer of the Grasping Reality newsletter.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Brad DeLong did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
4 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Brad DeLong has said — not written or endorsed by them.
The line under a date shows how recently it was said: empty within a month, full after three years.
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Our readingThe AI buildout is unlikely to be a hyperprofits engine for research labs and attached companies.
Their wordsThis week brought me news increasing my confidence with respect to one thing it is not: it is unlikely to be a hyperprofits engine for research labs with companies attached making money serving up calculations made in datacenters by simulated neural networks.
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Our readingThe sudden upward bend in the net operating cash flow forecast for HyperScalers is interesting.
Their wordsAnd the sudden upward bend in the net as the costs curve slows and the revenue curve accelerates is—interesting.
↗HyperScaler Operating Cash Flow “Consensus” Forecast: CHART OF THE DAYbraddelong.substack.com
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Their wordsWhat bottom-up detailed understandings of the technology and its deployment do the guys with the spreadsheets working for the sell-side actually have here?
↗HyperScaler Operating Cash Flow “Consensus” Forecast: CHART OF THE DAYbraddelong.substack.com
- 5 days earlier
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Their wordsAnd when market opinion is nervous, it might turn and collapse the boom at any moment.
↗DataCenter Risk Is the Real Thing: CHART OF THE DAYbraddelong.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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