On December 17, 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin used X to question claims that the United States must avoid any AI slowdown to keep ahead of China in the race toward Artificial Superintelligence. He responded to Senator Bernie Sanders' call for a moratorium on large AI data centers by outlining pros and cons and suggesting a "pause button" for supercomputers instead. Citing recent data, Buterin argued that assertions about China's determination and capacity to lead the ASI race are overstated, pointing to higher US AI investment and China's ongoing hardware constraints.

Coinbase projects AI-driven productivity could spur a new crypto upswing in 2026. Total market capitalization peaked near $4.2 trillion in 2025 before easing toward $3.0 trillion, framed as a transition rather than cycle end. Institutional treasuries, tokenization, stablecoins, and regulated DeFi are cited as structural adoption signals.

X plans to implement new Terms of Service on Jan. 15, 2026, redefining user "Content" to explicitly include AI prompts, inputs, outputs, and information created or obtained through its services, while keeping the current Nov. 15, 2024 terms active until then. Under the updated contract, users grant X a broad license to reuse this Content for any purpose, including AI training, face new bans on AI "jailbreaking" and scraping, and remain subject to a $100 liability cap and Texas-based dispute rules that critics say could chill research and speech.

MetaX Integrated Circuits Shanghai Co. is set to begin trading in Shanghai after raising $585.8 million in an IPO that was oversubscribed 2,986 times on the retail tranche. The AI GPU maker, whose valuation at listing is 41.8 billion yuan, is seen by some fund managers as having potential upside of 10–12 times, which could fuel a broader rally in Chinese tech stocks. The company's Xiyun C500 series accounted for nearly 98% of its 2024 revenue, and MetaX captured about 1% of China's AI chip market.

On December 16, 2025, Beijing approved China's first two passenger cars with level-three hands-off capability. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Changan and BAIC can produce models restricted to designated zones, with limits of 50 kilometers an hour on city roads and 80 kilometers an hour on highways.

On December 15, 2025, OpenAI was selected as Yahoo Finance's Company of the Year even as it carried the largest losses ever recorded, tied to $1.4 trillion in spending plans. The firm shifted into a for-profit structure, struck massive deals with Microsoft, Oracle, AMD, Nvidia and others, and now reports 800 million weekly active users, $13 billion in 2025 revenue, and a private valuation of $500 billion. HSBC projects a $207 billion funding gap by 2030, while analysts warn that ambitious chip and data center investments have rattled partners and heightened competitive and financial risks.

On Dec. 15, the Gensyn Foundation launched its $AI token sale on Sonar, offering 3% of the total supply. The event features an English auction with a $1 million FDV floor and $1 billion FDV cap, plus a Testnet bonus multiplier and a chance to receive a Gensyn-branded GPU workstation.

Microsoft, valued at $3.59 trillion, is projected to reach about $5 trillion in market capitalization by 2026 as it expands artificial intelligence across Azure, Office, Windows and other products. The company has invested roughly $13 billion in OpenAI and holds a 27% stake, yet most of its AI revenue already comes from Azure AI services rather than reselling OpenAI models. Microsoft is also spending heavily on AI infrastructure, including a planned $80 billion outlay through fiscal 2025 and a $5 billion commitment to Anthropic.