Financial journalism has always preferred inputs to outputs — it is structurally easier to report on a funding round than on whether a product is useful. In a normal technology cycle, that preference produces a modest blind spot: some companies with large raises fail quietly. In the AI cycle, the blind spot is load-bearing. The funding figures are so large, and the infrastructure costs are so contested, that the gap between "capital raised" and "value delivered" is the central question of the industry — and the central question the funding…