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> Google spends $9B a year on software engineers. Well they are projected to spend $175 - $185B on capex in this year alone most of it for AI buildout. Lets sa
by victoro 5mo ago
> Google spends $9B a year on software engineers.
Well they are projected to spend $175 - $185B on capex in this year alone most of it for AI buildout. Lets say only 150B of that is for AI. If they can then somehow replace all their software engineers with AI that they then run for free and depreciate over 10 years then they just replaced 9B a year software expense with 15B a year depreciation expense for the next decade. Yes this is grossly oversimplified but it still illustrates how crazy high of a bet they're making on AI.
- nearbuy 5mo agoThat's assuming they only use it to replace their software engineers and make no money selling AI usage or using it for anything else.
- ericbarrett 5mo ago> depreciate over 10 years I believe the One Big Beautiful Bill Act allows full depreciation in the first year: https://www.bassets.net/blog/obbba-depreciation-2025-2026-guide https://www.bassets.net/blog/obbba-depreciation-2025-2026-gu...
- dahinds 5mo agoThat's a bookkeeping issue, it doesn't affect the argument at all (which is that the capex has a finite useful life over which it would need to pay for itself).
- ericbarrett 5mo agoYeah, just tangentially pointing out that asset depreciation rules in the U.S. changed recently. Could explain some of the crazy magnitude of this year's spending spree.