Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Depreciation

Source
More than three years ago, based on Paul Butler's The problem with bitcoin miners, I wrote Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The TL;DR was that the economic life of Bitcoin mining rigs was estimated at 16 months, as Moore's law in a competitive ASIC market rapidly generated more power-efficient rigs. But the Bitcoin miners's accounts were using 5-year straight-line depreciation for their rigs, which was significantly increasing their nominal profits.

Below the fold I look at the same problem unfolding in the heart of the AI bubble.