In mid-August, two events shook the world of artificial intelligence. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman <a href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/759965/sam-altman-openai-ai-bubble-interview">recognized</a> that the situation on the market had signs of an investment bubble. Shortly thereafter, a sensational report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) came out, <a href="https://fortune.com/2025/08/18/mit-report-95-percent-generative-ai-pilots-at-companies-failing-cfo/">claiming</a> that 95% of attempts to implement AI in companies had failed. What is this - the beginning of the collapse of a multi-billion dollar industry and a repeat of the history of the dot-com <a href="https://oninvest.com/article/kakoe-budusee-ii-prorocit-diva-interneta-meri-miker-ne-uvidevsaa-puzyr-dotkomov">bubble</a>? More likely, the beginning of a new technology's collision with reality.

Failure or triumph: who will benefit from AI implementation

D-Wave Quantum Inc. WT

Rigetti Computing, Inc.

NVIDIA Corporation

Quantum computers have the potential to revolutionize medicine, materials science, the management of complex systems like cellular or power grids, and last but not least, <a href="https://oninvest.com/article/nezametnyj-apokalipsis-kakoj-konec-sveta-mogut-ustroit-kvantovye-komp-utery">cryptography</a>. According <a href="https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/07/14/investor-sentiment-pivots-as-funding-ma-and-research-advances-spark-interest-during-q2-2025/#:~:text=Total%20private%20capital%20investment%20in,fewer%20but%20larger%20funding%20rounds.">to</a> Quantum Insider, venture capitalists invested 50% more in the technology in the second quarter of 2025 than in the same period a year earlier. Perhaps in part because many companies have announced that they are beginning to explore the use of quantum computers in the super-hot topic of artificial intelligence. What happens when you combine these two technologies? Is this really a future incredible breakthrough or just hype squared?

Hype squared or breakthrough: Is it time to capitalize on quantum AI 

Intel Corporation

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited

On Friday, August 22, Intel officially <a href="https://newsroom.intel.com/corporate/intel-and-trump-administration-reach-historic-agreement">confirmed</a> that the U.S. government received 9.9% of the company and became its largest shareholder. Measures of this kind are usually taken in crisis situations, when the collapse threatens entire industries. This was the case, for example, with General Motors and Chrysler in 2009 - then the Obama administration bought their shares to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-08-21/heres-why-you-dont-want-the-trump-administration-to-buy-stock-in-intel">save</a> 1.9 million jobs. Intel employs 96,000 people and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/intel-is-cutting-more-jobs-ceo-tan-tries-fix-manufacturing-missteps-2025-07-24/">will</a> have 75,000 by the end of the year - a significant reduction, but not a national disaster. Yes, the computer giant has been making serious losses lately, but it has already raised $2 billion from Softbank and is now <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/20/intel-investors-equity-softbank-trump.html">looking for</a> other big investors. The point seems to be different: Intel is virtually the only U.S. company capable of producing state-of-the-art computer chips, and this production is exactly what the government does not want to lose.<br>

Intel's share went to the White House: what do U.S. officials fear losing? 

Tesla, Inc.

Meta Platforms, Inc.

In mid-August, it became known that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman intends to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/04484164-724e-4fc2-92a2-e2c13ea639bd">back</a> Merge Labs, a company that is developing a brain-computer interface - a class of technology that allows people to control computers using neural signals from the brain, i.e., actually by the power of thought. This further intensifies competition with his former partner and now rival Elon Musk, who launched a similar startup, Neuralink, in 2016. So far, the technology is being used with the noble goal of helping completely paralyzed people to communicate with the world around them again by controlling computer interfaces. However, both billionaires believe that in the long run, this technology will literally save humanity from extinction.

The great merger: why billionaires are getting in our heads

Alphabet Inc.

SHUANGLIN

CHANGSHENG BEARINGS

In early August, Chinese startup Unitree unveiled its new robot - A2 Stellar Hunter. The "robot dog" <a href="https://x.com/UnitreeRobotics/status/1952672597558309136">demonstrates</a> incredible tricks, from dancing on one leg to confidently traversing difficult terrain off-road. Almost simultaneously, Google's Deepmind lab announced the <a href="https://x.com/GoogleDeepMind/status/1952732150928724043">development of</a> Genie 3, its new AI capable of generating not just videos, but entire three-dimensional worlds that can be freely explored. Why, out of all the huge stream of news, do these two seem the most interesting to me? They demonstrate two vectors of technology development that, when combined, are capable of turning the world upside down.

Zuckerberg's mistake: metaverses are more necessary for robots than for humans

Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft, Google, and Meta have cheerfully reported revenue and profit growth, not failing to emphasize the contribution of AI technologies to their successes. Individual AI startups also continue to energetically attract investment.&nbsp; So what is the AI race: a financial bubble or a new economy? It's an unprecedented question that worries both private investors and CEOs of major tech companies that have invested billions in AI. Let's try to figure out what's going on.

AI is starting to pay the bills: why the dot-com bubble story won't repeat itself


The AI revolution is rapidly changing many sectors of the economy, including the very internet in which it originated and without which it would probably not have been possible. Recently, articles have become popular about how the internet, at least as we've known it, is <a href="https://qz.com/internet-future-google-search-ai">"dying"</a> or even already "<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-internet-is-dead-and-you-killed-it/">dead"</a>. Strong statements are good for headlines, but I'd rather say that the internet is reinventing itself under the influence of AI, and this process holds both dangers and opportunities.

How invisible robot wars are changing the internet


Mira Murati - former CTO of OpenAI and co-founder of startup Thinking Machines Lab - raised $2 billion from investors in July. As <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/15/mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab-is-worth-12b-in-seed-round/">noted</a> by TechCrunch, this is one of the largest seed rounds of funding in Silicon Valley history. Thinking Machines Lab's total valuation has reached $12 billion - the company is <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mira-murati-4b39a066/">less than a year old</a>, it hasn't brought a single product to market yet, and Murati hasn't even <a href="https://x.com/miramurati/status/1891918876029616494">told</a> much about what it's going to do yet, other than that it will be a new AI. Still,&nbsp; Thinking Machines Lab is one of the few startups that investors see as a real threat to leading AI modelers like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind. Thinking Machines Lab is a level of credibility that many startups can only dream of. Let's try to understand how Albania-born Mira Murati achieved this and what she is going to shake up the market with.

Star on trust: how Mira Murati attracts investment in a startup without a product


Late on Wednesday night, July 9, famed technopreneur Ilon Musk <a href="https://x.com/xai/status/1943158495588815072">presented</a> Grok 4, not very modestly (which is pretty typical for Musk) called "the most powerful AI in the world." This could be considered just another stage of the endless <a href="https://oninvest.com/article/souz-zaklatyh-konkurentov-i-rekruting-za-14-mlrd-kak-nacalos-leto-v-sfere-ii">AI race</a>, in which all the leading technology companies are now taking a very active part. However, a number of related events suggest that for Ilon and his entire business empire, Grok is much more than just another AI model.

Roman Kutuzov

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