In ancient Greece, the twin gods Castor and Pollux, known collectively as the Dioscuri, were the divine patrons of sailors and warriors.

Here we are a couple of thousand years later and their Latin name, the Gemini, graces the artificial intelligence chatbot that’s an earthly patron of tech giant Alphabet’s stock. On Tuesday, Alphabet subsidiary Google debuted the latest version of Gemini, which could use some of that ancient warrior spirit as it takes on OpenAI at a time when all anyone talks about is how big an AI bubble we’re staring into.

Model Inc.

Executives are touting Gemini 3, which comes eight months after the chatbot’s 2.5 model, as a “massive jump” for AI. In an introductory blog post, Google said the model outperforms top rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT 5 in benchmarks that measure coding, academic and common-sense reasoning, visual understanding, mathematics and scientific knowledge.

Meanwhile, Google is using its massive scale as a strategic tool to put the new Gemini in the hands of as many users as possible. Gemini 3 was immediately made available across the company’s major products, including its world-leading search engine. Once seen as a laggard in the AI race by some observers, the Alphabet subsidiary has grown Gemini to 650 million monthly active users, adding 200 million in the third quarter alone. That’s fast approaching ChatGPT’s 800 million weekly users. Needham analysts wrote Tuesday that Google’s other business segments, which include Search, YouTube, Android and Cloud, leave Alphabet better positioned to monetize AI than rivals. Among those who seem to share that view is Warren Buffett. While Alphabet shares were flat on Tuesday, they kicked off the week with a 3.1% gain on Monday, thanks to Berkshire Hathaway disclosing a 17 million-share stake. Alphabet’s appeal as the AI trade of choice for the legendary bargain-hunter is pretty straightforward:

• Evercore ISI analysts noted Tuesday that, even while it’s up 50% this year, Alphabet is still trading at an appealing 26 times forward earnings. By contrast, the S&P 500 Information Technology Sector trades at roughly 30 times future earnings, positioning Alphabet as a relatively affordable outlier.
• Prediction market Polymarket is pricing in Gemini’s chance of being the “best” AI model on the market at the end of 2025 at 89%. Improvement is welcome: A European Broadcasting Union study released last month found AI chatbots including Gemini, ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot and Perplexity AI misrepresented news content 45% of the time and offered significant inaccuracies, such as hallucinated information, 20% of the time. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said on Tuesday that people shouldn’t “blindly trust” AI.

Grain of Salt: Meanwhile, Pichai isn’t ignoring the emerging chorus of market observers warning of a potential AI bubble. He told the BBC on Tuesday that there are “elements of irrationality” in the volume of deals fueling the sector’s rally. OpenAI alone has struck $1 trillion in deals, prompting skepticism. Pichai added that “no company is going to be immune” to a potential bubble, “including us.”

Topgolf was a big duff for Callaway.

On Tuesday, the golf giant announced it had agreed to sell a 60% stake in the popular driving-range-slash-golf-simulator-slash-brewpub brand to LA-based private equity firm Leonard Green. The deal values Topgolf at $1.1 billion, roughly half of what Callaway paid for the brand in 2020. So how could something so beloved by bachelor parties be such a business bogey?

Tee Time

On paper, Topgolf and Callaway seemed a perfect pairing. The equipment-maker had been a backer of the entertainment enterprise since 2006, owning a roughly 14% stake before its $2 billion takeover during the pandemic’s golf boom. Callaway even changed its name to Topgolf Callaway after the acquisition, a symbolic gesture that both brands carried equal import (the company’s name will revert to Callaway Golf Company once the sale closes). Back in 2022, the company even implied to investors it could climb to a total market valuation of $15 billion. Its market cap today? Just $2 billion.

In practice, the two had a hard time sharing a golf cart:

• While Topgolf had been the company’s fastest-growing unit, growth has stalled out amid increased competition and a broader consumer pullback. In its third-quarter earnings call earlier this month, the company said revenue for the segment fell 1.4% in the first nine months of 2025 from the same period a year earlier, and predicted same-venue sales for the year would be “down to mid-single digits,” following a 9% decrease in 2024.
• Worse, the arrival of inflation and high interest rates in 2022 have proven gale-force headwinds for a property business attempting to tee off, spiking its capital expenditures as it expanded its Topgolf footprint from around 60 locations in 2020 to around 100 today.

“I never thought I would actually be listening to the cost of chicken wings going up. But evidently, they did,” longtime CEO Oliver “Chip” Brewer lamented way back in 2022.

Faded: Shares in the company have plummeted more than 70% from a 2021 peak, though they have clawed back some ground this year in anticipation of the long-discussed Topgolf spinoff. Over the same period, shares of competitor Acushnet, owner of Titleist, have climbed by more than 50%, driving the company’s market cap to $4.6 billion. But why keep score when playing amongst friends?

Bitcoin briefly fell below $90,000 yesterday, hitting its lowest level since February in a drastic drop from its record high above $126,000 just six weeks ago.

The dip has been deeper than some analysts expected. JPMorgan said last week that bitcoin’s fall would be stopped at $94,000, and investors would then buoy the coin to new all-time highs within the year. Nope.

Though bitcoin slightly rebounded yesterday, crypto’s immediate future is unclear as investors feel the FUD.

Fear, Uncertainty and Death Crosses

Bitcoin has entered “death cross” territory, meaning its 50-day moving average has fallen below its 200-day moving average. The dramatically named phenomenon illustrates some investors’ fears: Bitcoin spot ETF inflows have stalled in recent weeks, while corporate buyers have backed off aggressive buying. A Fear & Greed index for crypto on Monday hit its most fearful level since 2022.

Experts, however, consider a death cross a lagging indicator that isn’t an accurate predictor of the future. And a quick scan of crypto forums on Reddit shows long-term bitcoin investors replying to panicking posters with variations of, “First bull run? Buckle up.”

• Bitcoin has historically had a four-year cycle of highs and lows, previously peaking in 2013, 2017 and 2021. Do the math, and 2025 would be the next peak in that cycle. Some analysts say it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, helping spook investors after the coin rose to new highs last month. There’s debate about whether the last peak was truly the end of the cycle, whether the current dip will remain relatively shallow before rebounding, and whether the four-year cycle is still relevant. (Strategy co-founder and crypto-evangelist Michael Saylor said the cycle is dead.)
• Bitcoin has fallen about 27% from its last peak, which is still short of a typical downturn. Crypto dropped 45% twice in 2022, and a crypto researcher told CoinDesk this is the third 30% correction since spot bitcoin ETFs were introduced in the US last year.

Hedge Trim: Pinning down the exact reason bitcoin’s in a slump now, from general economic fears to deleveraging and so on, is complicated and may be beside the point. Volatility isn’t uncommon in crypto, but it calls into question narratives about bitcoin being a hedge against the dollar and even digital gold. On the flip side, after bitcoin has historically fallen to lows, it has always eventually bounced back to new highs.