Video: Why do we accept the dividends that the Chinese government offers to overseas Chinese and choose Zhuhai as the primary city for our future home for retirement. By Johnson Choi, MBA, International Business Consultant since 1985
The AI Mirage: Observations from the Edge of a Familiar Precipice. By Johnson Choi, MBA. International Business Consultant since 1985. Sept 2 2026
AI 幻象：站在熟悉懸崖邊的觀察. 作者: 蔡永強, 國際財經顧問(1985年至今).
There is a peculiar recklessness to the current frenzy. Walk into any suburban living room, and you will find ordinary Americans—not hedge fund managers, not Silicon Valley insiders—casually treating their 401(k)s as if they were roulette chips, spinning the wheel on artificial intelligence. It is alarming to watch, and yet, for those who have seen this movie before, it is painfully predictable.
這次令人特別矚目的，是來自權力最高層的公開助威。這個敘事不再只是華爾街的推銷話術，而是被包裝成一場愛國十字軍東征。白宮搭配著好萊塢劇本般的科技救世主陣容，將 AI 塑造成美國的下一個邊疆，一張萬無一失的「金色入場券」。這種政治與文化的加持，為一場核心本質純屬投機的賭博，披上了看似合法的神聖外衣。幾乎沒有人停下來質疑這個神話背後的數學現實。
除了帳面上的數字，還有更實質的限制：物理世界正在反撲。那些承載 AI 夢想的巨型數據中心，耗電量堪比小型城市，更需消耗巨量水資源來冷卻運轉中的伺服器。這些設施正大幅延後，受困於地方反對聲浪，以及資源稀缺的殘酷現實。電網尚未準備就緒。社區並不買單。然而，市場卻持續將這座夢中樓閣的價格炒得火熱，彷彿水泥與銅纜已經就位。
The year 2000 casts a long shadow. Back then, the promise of the “new economy” seduced a generation into believing that fundamentals no longer mattered. The aftermath was brutal: retirement accounts vaporized, homes were lost, and the stress of financial ruin carved permanent fissures through families. Marriages buckled under the weight of margin calls. Now, three decades later, many of those same individuals—grayer, frailer, and far closer to their last paychecks—are falling into the same trap. Human nature, it seems, learns nothing from history; it only rehearses its lines for the next performance.
What is striking about this iteration is the visible cheerleading from the highest offices. The narrative is no longer just a Wall Street pitch; it is a patriotic crusade. The White House, aided by a Hollywood-scripted cast of tech messiahs, has framed AI as the next American frontier, a golden ticket that cannot be missed. This political and cultural endorsement lends an air of legitimacy to what is, at its core, a speculative gamble. Few pause to question the math beneath the mythology.
And the math is glaring. Across the industry, trillions have been spent. Monthly operating costs run into the tens of billions. Yet the revenue coming back? A mere trickle—millions, not billions. This is the great unspoken contradiction: an industrial revolution priced like eternal prosperity, while the cash registers remain eerily quiet. Where are the profits? The question lingers in the margins of earnings calls, brushed aside by visions of a future that has not yet arrived.
Beyond the balance sheets, there is a more tangible constraint: the physical world is pushing back. The colossal data centers powering this dream require more electricity than small cities, and water to cool their humming servers. These facilities are falling behind schedule, stalled by local opposition and the sheer scarcity of resources. The grid is not ready. The communities are not willing. And yet, the market prices the dream as if the concrete and copper are already in place.
To observe all this from the outside is to watch a slow-motion collision. The central question is not if the correction will come, but when. And more importantly, what will remain afterward? For the prudent eye, this is not a moment for FOMO, but for damage control. The bubble has been inflated by hype, fueled by authority, and justified by a future that refuses to materialize on time.
History does not repeat, but it rhymes. And this rhyme sounds hauntingly like a dirge. The only counsel worth offering, from the vantage point of an observer who has counted the cost of the last crash, is this: if you cannot see the profits today, do not mortgage your tomorrow. The silicon gold rush may yet change the world—but it will likely bury a few more fortunes before it does.
China’s Lesson From the U.S.: Finance Must Serve, Not Rule: A nation’s rise begins in factories, but it can end on Wall Street. Over the past 500 years, four great powers have followed the same fatal cycle: commercial expansion, industrial dominance, financial supremacy, and eventual manufacturing decline. Is this a historical cycle China can break?
Only China can do it in days! Case in point: In Hawaii, a 26 miles slow rail took 12 years still unfinished, 3x over budget. In China, 20,000 miles high speed rail completed on time and within budget.
In days, Rescuers on Wednesday fully reopened the G216 national highway leading to mudslide-hit Gyirong Port in southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region.
VIDEO: NEPAL ACCESS ROUTE OPENING SOON! ARAY OF HOPE IN DESPAIR! BREAKTHROUGH IN GYRONG LAND RESCUE! CHINA HEAVY MACHINERY ADVANCES INTO THE CORE AREA! 尼泊爾聯外道路即將開通! 絕望中的曙光! 丐隆陸路救災大哭彼! 中國重型機械挺進核心區!
