Renowned investor Dr. Michael Burry has flagged a critical accounting risk for Nvidia and its largest cloud customers: the useful life assumptions for high-end AI GPUs. Hyperscale operators typically assign a three- to six-year depreciation schedule to their GPU fleets, but Burry warns that if the actual economic lifespan is closer to two or three years, these firms could face a multi-billion-dollar write-down. With Nvidia’s GPUs representing roughly 60% of global AI accelerator spending—and $100 billion+ in server purchases by hyperscalers last year alone—an overly aggressive schedule could overstate profits by up to 10–15% annually, translating into potential $5–10 billion impairments across major cloud players. While potential write-downs are nontrivial, Nvidia’s revenues from AI software and system-level licensing bolster its ability to absorb cyclical hardware revaluations. In fiscal 2025, the company generated $8 billion in software and services revenue—up 60% year-over-year—offsetting roughly one third of its quarterly chip revenue. Should enterprise AI deployments accelerate as forecast—with management guiding for 25–30% growth in AI service adoption—monetization gains may cushion hyperscalers’ capital charges. Nonetheless, analysts caution that overstated hardware lifecycles remain a key variable in modeling Nvidia’s medium-term margin trajectory. Nvidia’s upcoming Vera Rubin architecture promises performance and energy-efficiency gains of 30–50% over the current generation, raising the specter of accelerated obsolescence for H100 series chips deployed just 12–18 months ago. If hyperscalers must replace or repurpose legacy GPUs sooner to maintain competitive AI training costs—given that roughly 40% of their infrastructure is dedicated to large-scale model development—depreciation cycles could shrink further. Investors should watch for disclosure on mixed-use repurposing: last quarter hyperscaler reports indicated 25% of aged GPUs were redirected to less compute-intensive workloads, a stopgap that may not fully mitigate accelerated capital write-offs.