When the cash river stops flowing, tech companies might be in for a nasty surprise.

As of late 2026, the U.S has AI companies lining up to make their debut in public markets. C.E.Os tout the capability of models, compute capacity and AI application across numerous different market segments, and many have already started laying off large swathes of personnel to replace them with AI. In conjunction with lay-offs and I.P.Os, there has been a massive issuance of high yield tech bonds. This leads to one point: they need the money river to keep flowing.

The issue has begun to surface. Companies who have adopted AI on a large scale have already seen their token cost increase, making what was once cost efficient, no longer. They have had to limit token usage by developers because the cost is getting too prohibitive to use at the scale they’d like.

Tech companies need the cash river to keep flowing and they need revenue to continue climbing. What happens when the company decision makers come to the conclusion that spending money on expensive tokens and cutting staff may have been premature? Will they re-evaluate their spend on AI? What happens if revenue and income decline for one of the companies who has issued large amounts of bonds? Will they suddenly be on the verge of catastrophe?

AI isn’t going anywhere, but leading the pack at the start of the AI marathon does not mean you will win.