Tether’s Ardoino Warns Big Tech’s AI Spending Spree Could Hit Bitcoin Hard

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has warned that Big Tech’s massive artificial intelligence spending could unravel in a way that spills over into crypto markets. In a detailed critique published on July 4, Ardoino outlined four structural mismatches he says are baked into the current AI infrastructure buildout, according to Crypto Briefing.

His central argument is that tech firms are pouring unprecedented sums into data centers, GPUs and power capacity even as profits remain elusive and open-source rivals continue to erode pricing power. Ardoino, who runs the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, framed the imbalance as a risk not just to tech valuations but to markets broadly, including digital assets.

Four mismatches Ardoino says should worry everyone

According to Crypto Briefing, Ardoino’s warning centers on four specific economic gaps in AI. First, he argues compute token prices fail to reflect their true underlying costs. Second, there is a growing gap between the enormous upfront capital required and the distant timeline to profitability.

Third, he points to a mismatch between capital maturity timelines and hardware lifespans: AI chips typically depreciate within three to five years, while the debt and equity structures financing them often assume much longer payback horizons. Fourth, he says open-source AI models are steadily undercutting the commercial revenues that were meant to justify the spending in the first place.

The scale of the spending

The figures behind Ardoino’s concern are large. JPMorgan projects global AI-related spending could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030, a forecast the bank revised upward in June 2026, Crypto Briefing reports. Goldman Sachs estimates that Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet alone will account for roughly $5.3 trillion in AI spending between 2025 and 2030.

Hyperscaler capital expenditures are expected to climb from $650 billion in 2026 to more than $1.1 trillion in 2027, according to the report. Major players are targeting $725 billion in spending for 2026 alone, a 77% year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that growth in the information sector slowed to just 1.5% in the first quarter of 2026, and Crypto Briefing notes that companies including Amazon and Uber have reportedly pushed back internally against rising AI-related costs.

Why a stablecoin CEO is watching AI so closely

This is not the first time Ardoino has raised the alarm. In December 2025, he stated that an AI bubble posed the single biggest risk to Bitcoin in 2026, arguing that a sharp correction in AI stocks could spread into correlated assets, including crypto, as reported by Crypto Briefing.

His reasoning is that institutional portfolios holding both AI-linked equities such as Nvidia and Bitcoin would likely face margin calls that force selling across both markets simultaneously. Tether itself has been investing in AI infrastructure and backing decentralized alternatives through initiatives like QVAC, positioning the company at the intersection of stablecoins and decentralized AI.

Crypto Briefing suggests investors should watch two signals in the months ahead: whether hyperscaler earnings begin showing deteriorating returns on AI capital expenditure, and whether open-source model adoption accelerates enough to meaningfully undercut commercial AI pricing. With planned 2026 spending up 77% year-over-year, the report notes there is little margin for error if revenue growth fails to keep pace.

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