What if soaring AI power costs erode the operating margins of AI services themselves?
Structurally higher power prices driven by AI demand erode the operating margins of the very AI services meant to justify the spend, squeezing returns.
how we built this number — every step
The class rate is measured from our dated, sourced event library (decade-normalized Poisson — the full table is public at base_rates.json). The variant’s share within its class is the analyst’s editorial call, published so you can audit it. A wider range means thinner precedent. Full recipe: methodology · scored at Reality Check.
The butterfly cascade
How this trigger trickles across markets, left → right — the root shock, its first‑order moves, then the ripple effects. Drag any node; tap a market for its real price history.
Resolution timeline — how this probability is moving
Our model's odds (gold) over time vs the crowd's (Polymarket, blue), from the past toward the 1–3 years horizon. Each dot is a real macro event that nudged the probability — green pushed it up, red pushed it down. Tap a dot for the source. The gold path is an illustrative reconstruction anchored to today's estimate — real dated events, not a live re-estimate history.
What it would mean
If this plays out, it is a risk-off shock. Structurally higher power prices driven by AI demand erode the operating margins of the very AI services meant to justify the spend, squeezing returns. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — AI capex ▼ · Credit spreads ▲ · Inflation surprise ▲ · Risk appetite ▼ — which propagate through our causal graph to the markets below.
If it happens — the markets it would move
Biggest moves first. Projected moves are cascade-model priors; hist A–B% = what comparable past events actually did (measured abnormal returns), and model prior · unmeasured marks markets with no analogue backing yet. Tap any market for its price history.
| Market | Class | Projected move | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nvidia NVDAon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -1.0% hist -1.01–+0.44% · other way +3.39% (n=12) |
| 2 | Broadcom AVGOon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.8% hist -1.53–+2.65% · other way +4.6% (n=12) |
| 3 | Micron MUon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.7% hist -1.46–+2.31% · other way -1.63% (n=12) |
| 4 | Semiconductors SMHon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.6% hist -0.72–+1.02% · other way +1.18% (n=12) |
| 5 | Solana SOLon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Crypto | ▼ -0.6% hist -14.26–+3.24% · other way -17.69% (n=10) |
| 6 | MicroStrategy MSTRon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.6% hist -4.09–+0.81% · other way +11.37% (n=12) |
| 7 | Hyperliquid (HYPE) HYPEon Hyperliquid | Crypto | ▼ -0.5% model prior · unmeasured |
| 8 | Ether ETHon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Crypto | ▼ -0.4% hist -8.81–+3.26% · other way +0.32% (n=10) |
| 9 | Nasdaq 100 NDXon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Index | ▼ -0.4% hist -0.64–+0.05% · other way +0.15% (n=12) |
| 10 | Volatility (VIX) VIXon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Vol | ▲ +0.4% hist -1.44–+3.37% · other way -6.08% (n=12) |
| 11 | High-yield credit HYG 📈 chart | Rate | ▼ -0.4% hist -0.22–-0.13% · other way -0.36% (n=12) |
| 12 | AMD AMDon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.4% hist -0.37–-0.06% · other way -3.02% (n=12) |
| 13 | TSMC TSMon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.4% hist -0.24–-0.11% · other way +1.27% (n=12) |
| 14 | Marvell MRVLon Hyperliquid 📈 chart | Equity | ▼ -0.4% hist -0.85–+1.14% · other way +0.35% (n=12) |
Probable recommendation
Historical precedent — what analogous events actually did
Across 40 analogous events (overlap‑weighted), as abnormal returns — market beta stripped, so it's the event's own effect, not the market backdrop. Shown at 20 days (persistent) and 5 days (immediate); ↺ fades = the two horizons disagree. Confidence = consistency × sample × significance.
| Asset | History says | Abnormal (20d · 5d) | Hit | n | Confidence | vs cascade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOL SOL | SHORT | -12.2% · 5d -6.6% | 86% | 14 | 0.48 | ✓ matches cascade |
| Bitcoin BTC | SHORT | -5.8% · 5d -2.8% | 71% | 17 | 0.33 | ✓ matches cascade |
| MSTR MSTR | SHORT | -3.4% · 5d -2.4% | 67% | 33 | 0.27 | ✓ matches cascade |
| ETH ETH | SHORT | -8.1% · 5d -3.7% | 69% | 16 | 0.27 | ✓ matches cascade |
| 30y yield DGS30 | SHORT | -7bp · 5d -3bp | 57% | 40 | 0.15 | ⚠ differs |
| 10y yield DGS10 | SHORT | -10bp · 5d -4bp | 57% | 40 | 0.15 | ⚠ differs |
| SMH SMH | LONG | +1.3% · 5d -1.3% ↺ fades | 58% | 33 | 0.13 | ⚠ differs |
| XLF XLF | LONG | +0.2% · 5d -0.7% ↺ fades | 58% | 33 | 0.13 | ⚠ differs |
| AVGO AVGO | LONG | +2.9% · 5d -1.5% ↺ fades | 56% | 25 | 0.11 | ⚠ differs |
| TSM TSM | SHORT | -0.0% · 5d -2.0% | 58% | 33 | 0.11 | ✓ matches cascade |
| AMD AMD | SHORT | -0.1% · 5d -2.5% | 57% | 37 | 0.10 | ✓ matches cascade |
| US dollar DXY | LONG | +0.5% · 5d +0.3% | 55% | 40 | 0.09 | · |
| MU MU | LONG | +2.6% · 5d -4.0% ↺ fades | 54% | 35 | 0.07 | ⚠ differs |
| ASML ASML | SHORT | -1.3% · 5d -3.8% | 55% | 33 | 0.07 | ✓ matches cascade |