The rout in technology stocks, driven by massive artificial intelligence spending, has brought the competitive moat metaphor back to the fore: can AI leaders preserve their advantages as prices fall and online search erodes? Alphabet, ServiceNow, Amazon and Intel suffered sharp declines, while Big Tech lost about $900 billion in market value. AI providers are cutting prices, yet business users are not yet seeing a significant financial payoff, raising concerns about the returns on their investments. This anxiety is expressed through the commercial success of gothic fiction, which portrays glamorous but flawed systems, from Karl Marx’s vampire to heavily indebted companies kept alive by credit. Software now stands among the main sectors on the front line, with $131 billion in loans priced below 80 cents on the dollar, 32% of which are tied to software companies.
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