Mortgage interest rates have started rising again. And the reason is simple. When a bank lends several hundred thousand euros over 25 years, it must itself borrow that money on the markets.
To work out the price, it refers to the rate at which the Belgian state borrows. Or, at the end of August, that rate reached 3.81% — a record level since 2012.
What is behind this increase?
Oil, inflation, governments that do not keep their finances under control? All of that plays a part, certainly, but one culprit is missing from the list. For the past year and a half, American artificial intelligence giants have been building data centres across the world: colossal buildings packed with machines that cost a fortune.
The scale of the investment is so vast that profits are no longer enough to fund it. They therefore have to borrow. Ratings agency S&P did the maths: $225 billion raised in six months, nearly ten times more than the previous year.
AI is being financed with our savings
And who is lending this money? We are. Our money, our savings, our life insurance, our pension fund. Until now, our banks and insurers mainly lent to states, but a new client has just arrived at the counter: artificial intelligence companies.
They need hundreds of billions and, to be served first, they are offering to pay a little more than the others. And the Belgian state must match that if it does not want to come away empty-handed.