---
title: "Lenders’ clock: what it means · The AI Compute Race · DRYBURGH"
source: https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/lenders-clock
description: "Lenders' clock: The schedule on which the debt raised against the machine is repaid, which the machine must outlast."
---

# Lenders’ clock

What does “Lenders’ clock” mean?

Lenders’ clockThe schedule on which the debt raised against the machine is repaid, which the machine must outlast. Chapter 10 calls it the rack’s clock, the term over which the rack’s hardware is paid for; the owner’s own clock is the useful life over which it depreciates the hardware. *Chapter 10.*

From *The AI Compute Race*. [Read the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#buy)

The book uses this term in a sense of its own.

## Where the book uses it

- [Chapter 10 — The Lender’s Decision](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes/chapter-10)Who is lending the money and who bears the loss: the bonds, leases and guarantees behind the largest campuses, and how the paper reaches ordinary retirement accounts.

## Related terms

- [Useful life](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/useful-life)
- [Clock](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/clock)
- [Rack](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/rack)
- [10-K, 10-Q](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/10-k-10-q)
- [Backstop](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/backstop)
- [Basis point](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/basis-point)
- [Beignet](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/beignet)
- [Bridge loan](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/bridge-loan)
- [Convertible](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/convertible)
- [Coupon](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/coupon)
- [Covenant](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/covenant)
- [DDTL](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/ddtl)

From the glossary of The AI Compute Race.

- [Campuses](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/ledger)
- [Tests](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/tests)
- [Scorecard](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/scorecard)
- [Data](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/data/releases)
- [Chapter by chapter](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/companion)
- [The record at a glance](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/observatory)
- [The machine](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/machine)
- [One campus, four futures](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/hyperion)
- [Glossary](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary)
- [People](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/people)
- [Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources)
- [Notes](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes)
- [Where the book was wrong](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/corrections)
- [Where its sources were wrong](https://dryburgh.com/corrections?book=vol1)
- [The Paper](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/paper)
- [Consent](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/consent)
- [Who builds and pays](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/parties)

*The AI Compute Race: Five Races, One Machine* is a book by Lee S. Dryburgh, the first volume of THE COMPUTE ECONOMY, published by Dryburgh, an imprint of Contestra OÜ, Tallinn, Estonia; its record closes on 8 November 2026.

[About the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1)[Tell me when it is out](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#notify)