After the AI Crash: A Proposal, from the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator
The article warns that massive AI infrastructure investments—projected at $5 trillion over five years—far outpace current revenues, creating systemic economic risks similar to past financial crises. It argues that an AI market crash could have widespread consequences due to opaque financial structures and draws parallels to the 2008 housing crisis. The author proposes preemptive policy reforms to mitigate harm, protect workers, and regulate emerging AI monopolies. Without proactive measures, a future AI crash could lead to prolonged economic damage and erode public trust.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
After the AI Crash: A ProposalAsad Ramzanali and Vanderbilt Policy AcceleratorMar 26, 2026ShareEarly large language models couldn’t handle anything but the most simple math problems. While leading models are now much better, AI firms still have a problem with basic math: Companies are investing trillions of dollars based on tens of billions of dollars in revenues. J.P. Morgan estimates $5 trillion of AI infrastructure investment in the next five years. Yet OpenAI and Anthropic currently earn an annualized $25 billion and $19 billion in revenue, respectively, and “profit” isn’t even part of the conversation.To put things in perspective, the hundreds of billions of dollars in planned 2026 capital expenditures from hyperscalers is on a path to be a larger share of the U.S.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Substack.
