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A Quantum Computing Company Went Public—and Its Stock Jumped 73% Before Most People Could Explain What It Sells

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Pasqal’s shares surged as much as 73% during their Nasdaq debut even though quantum computing remains an emerging industry, illustrating how early investors often pay for what a technology might become rather than what the business earns today.

French quantum-computing company Pasqal made a dramatic Wall Street debut on August 28, with its shares surging as much as 73% during their first day of Nasdaq trading before finishing roughly 40% higher. The company entered the public market through a merger with Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. II that valued Pasqal at around $2 billion and provided approximately $360 million in cash to help expand its technology and commercial operations. The excitement is remarkable considering Pasqal generated only €16.5 million in revenue in 2025. Investors are not paying billions because quantum computing is already a massive business. They are paying because they believe it could eventually become one.

Quantum computing is difficult to explain because it operates very differently from the computers people use every day. Traditional computers process information using bits represented as either zeros or ones. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which can behave in more complex ways and potentially evaluate certain types of problems far faster than traditional machines. Pasqal specializes in a method known as neutral-atom quantum computing, using lasers to trap and manipulate individual atoms. The company hopes this technology will eventually help solve extremely complex problems involving drug discovery, financial modeling, materials science, energy and other industries.

The important word, however, is eventually. Quantum computing remains an emerging industry with major technical challenges, particularly around errors, reliability and scaling machines enough to outperform conventional computers on commercially valuable problems. Pasqal already has commercial customers and working quantum systems, but today’s quantum-computing market remains tiny compared with industries such as cloud computing, semiconductors or artificial intelligence. That means investors buying the stock today are making a very different type of bet. They are not simply analyzing current earnings. They are trying to estimate what the entire industry might look like five, ten or twenty years from now.

History contains many examples of investors making similar bets long before technologies became mainstream. Investors financed railroads before most towns had stations. Money flooded into internet companies when relatively few households were online. Biotechnology companies attracted billions while many of their products were still experimental. More recently, investors poured enormous amounts of capital into artificial intelligence before anyone could predict exactly which companies or business models would eventually dominate. In each case, early investors were buying something more difficult to measure than revenue: possibility.

That possibility can produce enormous returns when the technology eventually succeeds, but it also creates enormous risk. When investors value a young company primarily on what its industry could become, relatively small changes in expectations can dramatically change what the company appears to be worth. A technical breakthrough can send valuations soaring. A delay, unsuccessful product or better technology from a competitor can have the opposite effect. The further investors look into the future, the more assumptions they must make about customers, competition, pricing, technology and demand.

Pasqal illustrates this tension particularly well. The company has real technology, commercial relationships and prominent scientific credentials. It was co-founded by physicist Alain Aspect, who shared the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for groundbreaking work involving quantum entanglement. Pasqal says it now works with more than 40 clients and partners and intends to use its new capital to increase quantum-system production, expand cloud access and continue developing fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of operating more reliably at much larger scale.

But scientific credibility and a promising market do not guarantee commercial success. The history of emerging technology is filled with companies that correctly predicted the future but still failed to become the businesses that ultimately dominated it. The internet changed the world, but many early internet companies disappeared. Electric vehicles became mainstream, but countless EV startups failed. Artificial intelligence may transform almost every industry, but that does not mean every AI company will become valuable. Investors must therefore answer two separate questions: Will this technology matter? And will this particular company be one of the winners?

Pasqal’s 73% opening-day surge demonstrates why emerging technologies can become so exciting to investors. When the potential market is enormous and the current market is still small, almost anything seems possible. But possibility is also much harder to value than an established business with predictable customers and profits. The earlier investors arrive in a new industry, the less they are buying proven economics and the more they are buying a vision of what the future might become. Sometimes that is where extraordinary fortunes are made. It is also where some of the biggest mistakes happen.

Cenk Demircan is an entrepreneur, author, and business strategist who thrives at the intersection of innovation and efficiency. As the founder of Elite Coaching Circle, he has guided countless entrepreneurs toward success, blending mindset, strategy, and execution. His latest venture, Fire Your Employees, challenges traditional business models by leveraging AI and automation to streamline operations and maximize growth. With a relentless drive for transformation, Cenk continues to push boundaries, helping businesses evolve in an ever-changing digital landscape.

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GPT-6 Astra Could Change How Businesses Think About Employees

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The latest leap in artificial intelligence is forcing businesses to reconsider a question that goes far beyond which chatbot they should use: How much of the work itself still needs to be performed by people?

OpenAI’s newly released GPT-6 Astra is being positioned as a major advance in AI capabilities, particularly in computer use, coding and completing complex multi-step tasks. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has even declared that artificial general intelligence, or AGI, has arrived with Astra — although that claim remains controversial and there is no universally accepted definition of AGI.

For businesses, however, the AGI label may be less important than what these systems can actually do.

The biggest change is the growing ability of AI to complete work rather than simply generate information. Instead of asking an AI to write an email, summarize a report or produce an idea, companies can increasingly give AI a larger objective and allow it to work through multiple steps toward completion.

That changes the economics of automation.

A company could eventually have AI handling portions of customer service, research, administrative operations, sales follow-up, software development and internal analysis with considerably less human intervention. The human role shifts from performing every step to setting objectives, reviewing results and handling the situations AI cannot reliably resolve.

That does not mean businesses should immediately replace employees with AI. It means companies should start examining their workflows differently.

The companies that gain the most from increasingly capable AI may not be the ones that simply purchase the newest model. They will be the ones that redesign their operations around what AI can now accomplish.

This is also why the arrival of more autonomous AI creates a new management challenge. OpenAI’s chief scientist has warned that increasingly capable agents could create consequences that organizations and society are not yet prepared to manage.

For executives, the message is straightforward: AI is moving from a productivity tool toward a potential digital workforce.

Businesses should be asking now which tasks can be automated, where humans must remain in control, and how employees can move toward higher-value responsibilities.

The competitive advantage may no longer come from simply having AI.

It may come from knowing how to reorganize the business around it.

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NVIDIA’s $12.9 Billion Hugging Face Deal Signals the Next Phase of Business AI

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AI infrastructure is becoming the next major battleground as businesses adopt open models and customized AI systems.

NVIDIA is making a massive bet that the future of artificial intelligence will not be controlled solely by a handful of companies selling access to closed AI models.

The chip giant has agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, one of NVIDIA’s largest acquisitions. Hugging Face has become a central platform for developers building, sharing and deploying open-source and open-weight AI models. More than 18 million developers, researchers and creators use the platform, while more than 200,000 companies rely on it for AI development.

For businesses, the deal matters because it points toward a future in which companies have far more choices about how they build AI.

Rather than depending entirely on expensive proprietary models, businesses can increasingly customize open models for specific tasks, run them across different cloud providers and potentially deploy them using their own infrastructure. NVIDIA says Hugging Face will remain open and will continue supporting different models, clouds and computing platforms rather than requiring NVIDIA hardware.

That could eventually make enterprise AI more flexible and less expensive.

But there is another message behind the acquisition: AI infrastructure is becoming the real battleground.

NVIDIA already dominates the chips powering modern AI. By moving deeper into the software and developer ecosystem, the company is positioning itself across more of the AI stack—from the computing hardware to the models and tools businesses use to build applications.

For business owners, this means the AI decision is becoming less about asking, “Which chatbot should we use?” and more about asking, “What AI infrastructure gives our company the greatest control, flexibility and return on investment?”

The companies that begin experimenting with customized models, AI agents and internal AI systems now may have an advantage as these technologies become cheaper and more capable.

The NVIDIA-Hugging Face deal is therefore more than a $13 billion acquisition. It is a signal that the next phase of business AI may be defined by open models, customized systems and control over the underlying AI infrastructure.

And for businesses, that could ultimately mean more powerful AI without being locked into a single vendor.

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Should you trust “finfluencers” regarding cryptocurrency prospects?

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Conducting proper market research when investing in cryptocurrencies is essential to managing risks and seizing opportunities. Starting with reading the whitepaper and analyzing the coin’s profile, you gain a basic understanding of how it could perform in the future. Usually, you can also check social media for opinions or developers’ insights, but this guideline is tricky when making crypto predictions.

That’s because users on social media, from regular investors to influencers, can only offer their limited insight into the future of a cryptocurrency, each considering their own risks and goals. When it comes to crypto influencer advice, you should practice caution before you buy Bitcoin or other coins, as a person with the right experience and knowledge can truly have a positive impact on your journey as an investor, but the wrong one can cause more harm to your portfolio.

On a broader note, these popular users are also known as “finfluencers” who offer financial advice for others to follow. However, they are far from being what accredited advisors are, and can pose serious risks for investors. Let’s learn more about them.

What makes finfluencers appealing?

Influencers in the financial domain have become famous content creators on social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok, where GenZ is the majority of viewers. Finfluencers create engaging video posts that leverage storytelling and conversational language to make the content interesting and relatable. Interestingly, the type of content appealing to younger investors has been successful because Gen Z has a greater appetite for risky investments as opposed to older generations, which is why they rely on influencers to hit the right spot.

Unfortunately, finfluencers expose their followers to risks, such as misinformation, which can be particularly dangerous for beginners. They might portray crypto investments as straightforward and without risk, when the truth is that people must thoroughly research the market and make investment decisions with safety in mind.

Moreover, influencers’ content can also lead to scams and risky investments, as they leverage their positions in the online media ecosystem to sell risky products, promote unregulated exchanges, or make pitches for trading platforms that risk bankruptcy at any time.

How do influencers impact companies?

Besides confusing users about the right information, financial influencers can also spread misleading information about a firm to promote personal gain. This is possible by oversimplifying financial topics or misinterpreting a company’s latest announcement, affecting customers’ perception of the company’s image.

Luckily, there are efforts to minimize such impacts, as regulators like the SEC are charging finfluencers for their involvement in stock manipulation schemes or for participating in “pump and dump” activities with new coins. But companies must also practice due diligence when collaborating with influencers and try to promote their products and services in ways that educate retail investors and strengthen investor relationships.

That’s why designing effective communication strategies can help identify the right collaborators who are willing to respect key features such as transparency and consistent messaging for a campaign. Otherwise, working with fake influencers can detrimentally affect a company’s brand image.

However, some investment advisors can be present on social media

While it’s generally unwise to follow every influencer’s approach to cryptocurrency investment, it is not uncommon to find accredited financial advisors making content on social media to expand the range of people who can access genuine, free information.

These advisors work only after achieving specific qualifications that allow them to offer advice, and they must respect their duties to seek the best execution and to offer advice that works in the best interest of the customer. They also know their charging fees and can earn commissions for financial transactions, which allows them to be registered employees, like any of us.

Checking whether a public figure has the right qualifications to serve as an advisor and seeking their collaboration on content they create can be helpful for crypto investors.

Social media has helped bring people together from around the world, but this is becoming a problem for modern cryptocurrency investors due to the risk of fake influencers spreading misinformation. These users are also known as finfluencers, and they can influence investors’ decisions by offering information that lacks proper research, as well as by coercing them into scams. While some financial institutions are starting deals with them, their growing presence on social media is overwhelming, making it people’s responsibility to protect themselves.

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Nvidia’s $13 Billion Hugging Face Deal Signals a New Phase for Business AI

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Teams review open-source AI models on transparent displays in a modern data center workspace following Nvidia's $12.9B acquisition of Hugging Face.

Nvidia is making one of its biggest moves beyond chips, agreeing to acquire AI platform Hugging Face for roughly $13 billion. The deal is significant because Hugging Face has become a major home for open-source AI models, datasets and applications, with more than 18 million developers and 200,000 companies using the platform. Nvidia says Hugging Face will remain open and support multiple cloud and computing platforms.

What It Means for Businesses

The acquisition points to an important shift in the AI market: businesses are increasingly looking beyond simply subscribing to a chatbot.

Open-source AI gives companies more opportunities to customize models, run AI within their own infrastructure and reduce dependence on a single AI provider. Nvidia’s investment could accelerate that trend by combining its computing infrastructure with one of the world’s largest open AI communities.

For smaller businesses, the bigger takeaway is that AI is becoming infrastructure rather than an experimental tool. Companies that build AI into sales, customer service, marketing, operations and internal workflows are likely to have more choices about which models power those systems.

But there is also a warning. Hugging Face has recently faced AI-related security concerns, while businesses are giving autonomous AI agents increasing access to company systems. Security researchers and lawmakers are now pushing for stronger controls around what AI agents can access and execute.

The business opportunity is no longer simply “use AI.” It is building an AI stack that is flexible, secure and capable of changing as better models arrive.

For business owners, that means the companies that avoid locking themselves into one AI model today may have a significant advantage tomorrow.

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Tesla Is Building a Car Without a Steering Wheel. At What Point Does a Car Stop Being a Product and Become a Service?

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Tesla’s steering-wheel-free Cybercab highlights a bigger shift in transportation: the possibility that vehicles may become recurring revenue-generating assets in autonomous ride-hailing networks rather than simply products sold once to individual owners.

Tesla is showcasing its two-seat Cybercab in Austin as it pushes deeper into autonomous ride-hailing, and the vehicle’s most striking feature may be what it does not have: a traditional steering wheel. That design decision matters because it signals that Tesla is not simply introducing another car. It is trying to build a vehicle meant to function primarily as part of a transportation network rather than as a product someone buys, parks in a driveway and drives personally. If that strategy works, the economics of the car business could start to look very different.

For most of automotive history, the business model has been simple. A car company designs a vehicle, manufactures it and sells it once. Revenue is tied largely to unit sales. The company may earn additional money from financing, servicing or software, but the main transaction still happens when ownership changes hands. A robotaxi model changes that completely. Instead of generating revenue one time at the point of sale, the same vehicle could potentially generate revenue over and over again by selling rides throughout the day.

That is why autonomous ride-hailing is such an important idea for Tesla. A privately owned vehicle often spends most of its life parked. A robotaxi, in theory, becomes a productive asset. If it can operate for many hours a day, carrying passenger after passenger, the same car begins looking less like a consumer product and more like infrastructure. The financial value of the vehicle no longer comes only from what someone is willing to pay to own it. It comes from how much transportation revenue the vehicle can produce over time.

This is a very different business model from traditional car manufacturing, and it pushes Tesla closer to something that resembles a hybrid of automaker, software company and transportation platform. The company is no longer just asking how many vehicles it can sell. It is asking how many rides each vehicle can complete, how efficiently the fleet can operate and how much demand exists for driverless transportation. That moves the conversation from hardware margins to utilization, network density and recurring revenue.

The appeal of that model is obvious. A company that successfully operates autonomous vehicles at scale could capture much more lifetime value from each car than a one-time sale would provide. It could also potentially reduce reliance on the normal replacement cycle in which customers buy a new vehicle only every several years. In that sense, the most valuable transformation may not be making a better car. It may be turning the car into a machine that continuously earns money.

But that vision also explains why the path is difficult. Building a robotaxi business involves much more than manufacturing the vehicle itself. The company must prove the safety of the technology, satisfy regulators, manage public trust, secure operating permits, build the ride-hailing system and maintain the vehicles as part of an active fleet. A traditional carmaker mainly needs to persuade a customer to buy the car. A robotaxi operator must persuade cities, regulators and the public to accept an entirely different way of moving through everyday life.

There is also a broader lesson here for other industries. Some of the most powerful business transformations happen when a company stops earning money only when the product is sold and starts earning money from what the product does after it is deployed. Software shifted from one-time licenses to subscriptions. Industrial equipment increasingly includes ongoing monitoring and service contracts. Media moved from individual purchases to recurring access. Tesla’s robotaxi push reflects the same logic in physical form: the biggest opportunity may be turning an owned product into a recurring service.

The Cybercab therefore represents more than an unusual vehicle design. It is a visible example of a much larger economic shift. If autonomous transportation becomes mainstream, the winning company may not simply be the one that builds the most cars. It may be the one that best turns those cars into revenue-generating assets inside a functioning network. At that point, the question is no longer just whether a customer wants to buy the vehicle. It is whether the vehicle itself has become the business.

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