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In artificial intelligence, compute and data matter, but people matter more. Behind every breakthrough model, every infrastructure leap, and every revolutionary chatbot lies a shrinking pool of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians capable of building them. The defining constraint on the next decade of AI isnt just hardware: its human capital. Across the world, a quiet arms race is unfolding for that capital. The most advanced AI firms, like OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, Meta, Google, and a few in China, are no longer competing just for customers or GPUs. They are competing for brains. The new concentration of intelligence In the past two years, the hiring and acquisition patterns of AI companies have begun to resemble a geopolitical map. Anthropic and OpenAI lure entire research teams from Google or Meta with compensation packages approaching nine figures. Apple and Amazon, late to the party, are buying startups not for products, but for the engineers behind them. And venture capital is no longer funding ideas so much as acqui-hiring: purchasing human potential before it matures elsewhere. Multiple analyses show that elite U.S. programs, especially Stanford, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and MIT remain dominant feeders into frontier AI labs, reinforcing a tight concentration of expertise in a few firms and geographies. The result is intellectual concentration unprecedented in the history of technology. This clustering may accelerate progress in the short term. But it also increases fragility. When innovation lives inside a handful of firms, the industry becomes monocultural. The same assumptions, ethical frameworks, and commercial incentives repeat themselves. Alternative approaches, like symbolic reasoning, hybrid models, and decentralized architectures, struggle for attention or funding. The global scramble for minds Meanwhile, countries are treating AI researchers the way they once treated nuclear physicists or oil engineers. The United Kingdom launched its Frontier AI Taskforce with special visas for top scientists. Canadas Global Talent Stream fast-tracks work permits for AI engineers in under two weeks. France offers tax incentives and research grants for companies that locate their labs in Paris or Grenoble. China, faced with export controls on chips, has doubled down on human intelligence as a strategic resource. Its leading universities are producing tens of thousands of AI graduates a year, many trained on open-weight models after Washingtons hardware restrictions. As one analyst at the Carnegie Endowment put it, If you cant import compute, you import talent. In other words: brains are the new semiconductors. Americas self-inflicted wound And yet, the United States, still home to most of the worlds top AI firms, is busy tightening the spigot. Donald Trumps renewed hostility toward immigration includes threats to limit, suspend, or impose heavy fees on H-1B and F-1 visas, the very programs through which thousands of AI researchers enter the country each year. The pattern is not new. In 2020, during his previous term, Trump signed an executive order suspending key visa categories, prompting MIT Technology Review to warn that the move threatened to undercut Americas lead in artificial intelligence. The logic hasnt changed. The worlds best AI researchers are disproportionately international: roughly 60% of top AI scientists working in the U.S. were born abroad, according to the National Foundation for American Policy. Limiting their entry isnt protectionism: its strategic sabotage. When your biggest competitive advantage is talent, closing the door to talent is a slow form of self-destruction. The corporate paradox Ironically, the companies that benefit from global talent the most are also the ones making that talent scarce. By offering astronomical salaries and exclusivity contracts, they create a gravitational field that pulls expertise out of universities and startups. Academia, long the seedbed of AI progress, is now bleeding researchers to industry at an unprecedented rate. The result is a research vacuum where public institutions can no longer afford to compete. Even national labs struggle to retain talent when private firms offer multiples of government pay. This corporate concentration of minds has another cost: intellectual homogeneity. When the same people cycle between the same companies under the same investors, the frontier of AI becomes narrower, more predictable, and less plural. The next big breakthroughs might never happen, and not because we lack compute, but because weve trained the global research community to think the same way. The geopolitical stakes For decades, the United States has dominated global innovation by acting as a magnet for talent. The H-1B and F-1 visa systems, for all their flaws, turned American universities and tech hubs into engines of discovery. That advantage is now at risk. If Washington continues down the path of visa restriction, and if the industry continues to hoard rather than nurture expertise, the gravitational center of AI could shift elsewhere. Canada, the European Union, and the UAE are already competing for displaced researchers. China, meanwhile, is developing homegrown alternatives with staggering speed. The irony is that America may lose the very thing that made its technology ecosystem unstoppable: openness. The more insular it becomes, the more it resembles the centralized systems it once out-innovated. The ethics of scarcity Talent concentration also raises moral questions. When a small number of corporations control the majority of global AI expertise, they effectively control which problems get solved and which are ignored. We are already seeing this bias in practice. Billions are being poured into models that optimize productivity, marketing, and financial forecasting, while underfunded projects in climate modeling, education, and healthcare languish. AIs promise to benefit humanity is hollow if humanity doesnt have a seat at the table. Diversity of thought, background, and geography is not a moral luxury; its a prerequisite for resilience. Homogeneous systems fail in homogeneous ways. A new social contract for intelligence The solution is neither regulation alone nor market freedom alone. Its a new social contract for talentone that treats human intelligence as a shared strategic resource, not a proprietary asset. That means: Immigration policies that attract, not repel, the worlds brightest minds. Funding mechanisms that keep public research competitive with corporate labs. Ethical frameworks that prevent non-competes and exclusivity contracts from turning scientists into captives. Global cooperation that recognizes AI as a common infrastructure challenge, not a zero-sum race. In the 20th century, nations competed for oil. In the 21st, they will compete for cognition. A warning and a choice The United States still holds the advantage: world-class universities, deep capital markets, and a culture of risk. But advantages erode when arrogance replaces openness. If America turns inward, it wont just lose talent: it will lose the diversity that fuels creativity. And when the next generation of scientists chooses to work in Toronto, Paris, Madrid, or Shenzhen instead of Silicon Valley, the American century of innovation will quietly end. Not with a revolution, but with a resignation letter. Computing power, as I said in previous articles, is important, as it is access to cheap energy, or as Europe very well knows, regulation. But the race for AI supremacy will not be won by compute, nor by energy prices or by policy alone. It will be won by whoever attracts and empowers the minds that make intelligence itself. And right now, those minds are watching which countries still deserve them.
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Apple has become the third company to see its market capitalization top $4 trillion, underscoring its role as one of the leading publicly traded tech companies and making it the second most valuable company in the world. Shares of the company briefly topped $269.53 soon after trading began on Tuesday, putting it above the milestone. Apple was the first company to top $1 trillion, $2 trillion, and $3 trillion in market capitalization. But Nvidia beat it to the $4 trillion mark, on the back of surging investor interest in artificial intelligence. That company’s staggering chip sales have boosted its stock more than 400% since October 2023. Apples march to $4 trillion began in earnest on Oct. 20, when Loop Capital upgraded its rating from hold to buy, citing improving demand for the iPhone. In a note to investors, the firm wrote: “we are NOW at the front end of AAPLs long-anticipated adoption cycle that suggests ongoing iPhone shipment expansion through CY2027.” The stock hit an all-time high following that upgrade. Nvidia seems to be the new market leader and on path to be the first to reach $5 trillion. But from the dizzying heights of Big Tech, things shift quickly. Microsoft, for example, was the second company to hit a market cap of $4 trillion, topping it on July 30, following a strong earnings beat. But it lost ground, sending its market cap lower than Apples for a period of time. (Microsoft surged above the milestone once more Tuesday as well.) Trillion-dollar milestones don’t have any specific value in and of themselves. They’re visible indicators, however, of which companies are growing at impressive rates (assuming those companies maintain the levels). The first company to ever be worth $1 trillion was Petrochina, which reached the valuation briefly on its first day of trading following its 2007 IPO. But that peak coincided with a Chinese stock-market bubble and was short lived. Today, PetroChina is worth roughly one quarter of that. Apple’s ascent to the $4 trillion club is a notable turnaround from earlier this year, when analysts were less bullish as the company struggled to keep up with its competitors. Apple also faced tariff-based manufacturing issues in China and India. Year to date, the company’s stock has climbed nearly 10%, however. And demand for the most recent iPhone showed that, despite the economic froth of this year, pervasive recessionary threats and tariff concerns, consumers are still willing to buy top-tier devices. (The high-end iPhone 17 Pro now starts at $1,099, $100 more than the previous year’s model.) Additionally, the base model of the iPhone 17 has been selling well in China, while the iPhone Air sold out when it went on sale in that country. Lead times for iPhone 17 orders are longer than they were a year ago as well, underscoring strong, continued consumer demand. What’s perhaps most remarkable about Apple making it into the $4-trillion club is that it has done so without a real artificial intelligence play. (Its AI efforts have, so far, not impressed anyone, including the company.) In January, Apple suspended its news summary notifications from Apple Intelligence, after users called out for making repeated mistakes. The company is expected to roll out a long-delayed AI-enhanced Siri in the spring of 2026, assuming it meets the company’s standards. That could be another catalyst for investors that gives Apple’s stock (and market cap) another boost. The takeaway of Apple crossing this milestone, though, is that, for investors and consumers, new hardware and improved features are, at the moment, even more important than AI.
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In many ways, renowned illusionist Rob Lakes entire life has been building up to his Broadway debut in Rob Lake Magic with Special Guests The Muppets, which begins previews tonight at the Broadhurst Theatre. As a child growing up in Oklahoma, his parents exposed him to theater by taking him to touring shows. The education didnt stop there. When they took me to New York, my first Broadway shows were The Secret Garden, The Will Rogers Follies, and Beauty and the Beast, ” Lake tells Fast Company. I was just so fortunate to be exposed to the arts quite often as a kid. This early education included the Muppets and their films. I wore those tapes out so many times. The Muppets Take Manhattan was my favorite, Lake explains. This is especially fitting since Lake is now essentially living the plot of the 1984 film, which revolves around Kermit the Frog and friends and their madcap efforts to mount a musical on the Great White Way. These characters, they’ve been part of my life for as long as I can remember. And I wouldn’t be in show business without them,” Lake says. “Kermit and the gang taught me what show business is, success is, how to follow your dreams and how to persevere. That’s not just a sound bite.” Where the magic happens Lake has great respect and reverence for Jim Henson and Walt Disney, childhood heroes of his. At age 10, a magic show in Branson, Missouri, would clarify his life trajectory and give him a clear goalto become a world renowned illusionist. At just 42 years old, Lake has certainly accomplished that and more. He has performed to sold-out audiences in over 60 countries and made numerous television appearances. ABC dubbed him one of the worlds top Illusionists while NBC crowned him the worlds greatest illusionist. In 2008, he became the youngest person ever to be given the Merlin Awardas International Stage Magician of the Year. This is magics highest honor, similar to an actor winning an Oscar. Beyond performing, he worked as a creative consultant on multiple Broadway productions, such as Death Becomes Her. He also worked at Sesame Street Live, Walt Disney Imagineering, and as the creative consultant and illusion designer for Adele’s Las Vegas Residency at Caesars Palace. In 2018, he competed on America’s Got Talent. One of the questionnaires where they’re trying to get your backstory asked you to name a celebrity that you’re similar to or you relate to,” Lake recalls. “And my response to that was Kermit the Frog.” Shortly after this, he met producer Joe Quenqua. (Lake, Quenqua, and Glass Half Full Productions all serve as producers on Rob Lake Magic with Special Guests The Muppets.) Quenqua, who previously worked for the Walt Disney Company, had Muppet connections. When we discussed bringing Robs show to Broadway, we spoke about his early inspirations and what drove him to be a performer,” Quenqua says. “The Muppets were at the very top of this list.” After an introduction from Quenqua, all the pieces fell into place to have Lake join forces with Kermit and the gang. The creativity and the vision and the idea for that came at the right time, the right place,” Lake says. “Just everything aligned perfectly when that happened. “Surreal and humbling” Rob Lake Magic with Special Guests The Muppets officially opens on November 6 after beginning previews tonight. It will have a limited 12-week run. Both Lake and Quenqua are acutely aware that they are fulfilling a dream that the late Jim Henson didnt live long enough to accomplish. I’d had no idea until the documentary by Ron Howard that Jim had been wanting to get this to Broadway, Lake revealed. It really struck a chord with me, because when I saw that documentary, I had already been working on my show with the Muppets, and it just really hit methe gravity and reverence of this. Quenqua called fulfilling Hensons legacy, both surreal and humbling. A good magician never reveals his tricks, especially not before opening night, but Lake was able to give some hints on what audiences may be able to expect. Lake has curated my favorite illusions, the culmination of my entire life’s work, to be able to bring my best magic to Broadway. These greatest hits represent years of work, trial and error, and perseverance. Adding the Muppets into his illusions was a fun challenge for Lake. I think I was really well prepared just because of my childhood obsession with the Muppets, he says. I had a really good understanding of how they filmed and how they operated. I was able to design illusions that could incorporate my whole life’s memories, research, and studying of the process for them. He took special care to incorporate their specific character traits into the show. “Magic is not about being tricked” Lake says his show is going to take the audience on a journey filled with peaks and valleys and highs and lows. He compared it to an orchestral piece with contrasting movements, saying Not every part of my show is light and fun, and not every part of my show is mysterious and intense.” “For me, magic is not just about being tricked,” he added. “No one likes to be tricked. No one likes to be fooled. For me, magic is about creating wonder and enchantment: a scene, a world, an emotion and experience where anything can happen.” The Broadhurst, he says, offers the perfect backdrop for this magical 90-minute theatrical event: It’s very intimate, even though it’s one of the largest theaters. Everyone will be able to see myself and Kermit really well.” When asked what he would want Jim Henson to notice about the show if he could come back and see it, Lake replied, I would just want to make sure I did him proud. I would just want to make sure I took care of the world he created. And I would want him to know that the Muppets are as beloved and cherished and celebrated as they always have been. Quenqua, meanwhile, would want Henson to know how hard Lake worked to honor his legacy: I would hope that he sees how much love and reverence Rob has for him and all he created.” I’ve been preparing for this moment my whole life,” Lake says, “before I even knew it.”
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