The biggest pitfall of AI might be Masayoshi Son betting everything—himself and SoftBank—on it❗️ To understand why he’s panicking, you need to first grasp this meat-grinder-like chain of transmission. First layer: U.S. Treasury yields are draining liquidity. The 10-year Treasury yield is nearing 5.2%. With risk-free returns this high, why would capital bother taking on high risks? Second layer: Bank interest rates are rising. The Fed’s rate hikes have pushed major banks’ prime lending rates above 7%. The baseline for corporate borrowing has been completely elevated. Third layer: Borrowing costs for AI are getting expensive. CoreWeave’s default probability is priced by the market at over 50%, and Oracle’s bond yield has climbed to 7.41%. AI companies’ bond subscription multiples have plummeted from 4.66x to 1.61x. Creditors are getting picky. Fourth layer: The math doesn’t add up, and valuations are being slashed. Anthropic’s growth has slowed, and its IPO valuation has dropped from $2 trillion to $1.5 trillion in an instant. OpenAI outright announced it won’t go public before 2026. When faced with a 5% risk-free return, a $2 trillion valuation simply doesn’t hold up. Fifth layer, and the deadliest one: Masayoshi Son’s do-or-die gamble. SoftBank just issued $11.1 billion in junk bonds, with interest rates as high as 9.75%. This money is being used to pay OpenAI’s third investment installment, bringing the total commitment to $64.6 billion. A borrowing cost of 9.75% to bet on AI’s returns being nearly double that of Treasury yields. He’s betting that AI’s profits can outpace that 9.75%. But the reality is: borrowing costs for AI are rising, and AI’s ability to generate revenue is slowing down. Squeezed from both ends, the middle gets crushed. This isn’t investing. This is using SoftBank’s balance sheet to make the final guarantee for the AI bubble. In the 2000 dot-com bubble, he bet on “the future will come.” In 2026, he’s betting on “the future is already here—and it has to arrive before I die.” But the 9.75% interest rate won’t wait for him. If the bubble bursts in 2027, that $64.6 billion exposure will turn into a chain-reaction explosion. Do you own any AI-related stocks? Go check the borrowing costs of the company you invested in.