Bears Have Wallets, Chamath Has Land: Capital Says "Hard Pass" on AI Chips 🥔

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said capital is plentiful during the current downturn even as it flows away from crypto. "We might be in a bear market, but there is a lot of money looking for things to invest in. 🤷‍♂️," CZ posted on X on August 1. Bitcoin ($BTC) trades near $63,037, down 45% over the past year and almost exactly half its October 6 record high.

Social Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya said he is steering that liquidity toward physical infrastructure rather than artificial intelligence silicon. His thesis combines land, grid connections, and empty buildings into what he calls "LPS (Land Power Shell)." In his words, it is "still the most obvious and fastest path to cash on cash returns." Palihapitiya, a former Facebook (now Meta) senior executive, SPAC sponsor, and minority owner of the Golden State Warriors, said he has accumulated nearly six gigawatts (GW) of power with partner Anita Vlallian, with deliveries running through 2029.

Data Center Watch tracked at least 75 US projects blocked or delayed in early 2026, representing roughly $130 billion in stalled investment and the worst quarter on record. Opposition groups doubled in number and now operate in 49 states, while more than 300 state data center bills were filed in six weeks. Maine missed becoming the first state to ban them outright by a single House vote.

Palihapitiya attributed his shift away from semiconductors to cost and supply constraints. He helped start Groq in 2016, and Nvidia licensed Groq's inference technology in a non-exclusive deal disclosed on December 24, 2025, with Groq founder Jonathan Ross moving to Nvidia. Palihapitiya estimated the agreement's value at $20 billion but said he would not repeat the strategy, citing the speed chips require, the precision factories demand, and the memory a startup cannot secure.

The economics of repurposed mining capacity are visible in a recent transaction: Nasdaq-listed TeraWulf ($WULF), a former Bitcoin miner, leased a 401-megawatt site in Hawesville, Kentucky, to Anthropic in July under a 20-year agreement projected to generate roughly $19 billion in revenue.