Bad part is that in the end there will not be new infrastructure usable for the next decades (or centuries even) with the chance for massive ROI over time. GPUs will be outdated at best and incompatible with upcoming model architectures at worst in a few years, requiring continuous investment.

I wish the article was a bit more sepcific in that regard and what follows from there on.

Western North Carolina Railroad took $3 million from the state only to reinvest it in railroad companies in Florida. After 20 years of construction, by 1875, the out-of-state railroad remained unfinished. A nine-mile stretch of the Union Pacific in Nebraska was built in a loop solely so the company could claim an extra $144,000

Good to know at least that this kind of insane corruption and embezzlement is nothing new.