Hashtag Trending · 2026-06-25 · 14 min
IBM is making one of the biggest bets in its history, investing $10 billion in an effort to build a practical quantum computer by 2029. Jim Love looks at why the company that once stunned the world with Watson's Jeopardy victory is now wagering its future on quantum computing instead of competing head-to-head in the generative AI race. Also in this episode, Elon Musk briefly becomes the world's first trillionaire before slipping back below the trillion-dollar mark just days later as SpaceX's valuation retreats, a reminder of how quickly paper wealth can change. NVIDIA announces a new liquid-cooling architecture designed to dramatically reduce water consumption in AI data centres, a move that could help address one of the fastest-growing sources of public opposition to AI infrastructure. Finally, we examine the growing political influence of major AI companies. As organizations linked to OpenAI and Anthropic spend millions of dollars in the 2026 U.S. election cycle, a larger question emerges: should the companies that increasingly shape how we access information also become major political players?
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