The week ending November 30, 2025, was characterized as a "wacky races kind of week," with constant shifts in the perceived leadership of the AI sector. Google was highlighted as the biggest weekly winner, seeing a rise in stock, positive reviews for Gemini, and developing its own chip that critics suggest has pierced NVIDIA's "aura of invulnerability". Other models, including Anthropic's Opus 4.5 and ChatGPT 5.1 Codex-Max, were also noted as big deals in the accelerating innovation cycle. Internationally, China reportedly "leapfrogged the U.S. in global markets for open AI models".

Despite individual corporate victories, the discussion emphasized that the AI development is an "endless and accelerating innovation cycle" with no "finish line," making the media framing of a "race" misleading. Key tensions include the fact that corporations are not embracing AI as much as expected due to the innovator's dilemma and general climate uncertainty. Furthermore, AI appears to be "winning the copyright fight", while venture capital is experiencing massive concentration into fewer funds and companies, creating a significant liquidity trap. The overarching theme suggests that the AI boom represents a new industrial stack, not a software bubble, making the ultimate outcome dependent on managing the three Cs: Capabilities, Capital, and Civics

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