WHAT’S INSIDE

👇️ Todays’ Feature: How AI Chatbots are Reshaping the Digital Economy

• Tech News: Constitution, Chip Tariffs, Intel, GPT-5 Free, Musk: Grok 5 coming

• Company Watch: OpenAI, Palantir, Apple, xAI, Perplexity, Clay, Harvey

• Buzzy Tools: Latest Buzzy tech, AI and financial tools

• Deep Tech: The latest in deep tech, biotech, futurism and more

• Space Tech: Latest news in the space race and aerospace tech

• Crypto: Blockchain and crypto policy and startups or protocols to watch

TECH IN THE NEWS

Constitution Glitch Fixed — A coding error at the Library of Congress led to missing sections of the U.S. Constitution online, including parts of Section 8 and all of Sections 9 and 10. The issue is resolved and content restored.

Chip Tariffs — The U.S. plans to impose tariffs on semiconductors and chips as delays hit Intel's Ohio facility. Two Chinese nationals were arrested for smuggling Nvidia chips. Nvidia opposes proposed chip tracking, citing security concerns.

Tariff Tensions — The U.S. announced a 25% tariff on Indian goods, effective in 21 days, threatens Indian exports like textiles and jewelry. The EU delays retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods for six months after a trade deal imposing a 15% tariff on most EU goods.

Intel CEO Under Fire — Donald Trump urges Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign due to alleged China ties. Tan has led Intel since March, contributing to the CHIPS Act initiative.

GPT-5 Debuts — OpenAI releases GPT-5 to 700M ChatGPT users, focusing on software, writing, health, and finance. OpenAI also partnered with the U.S. General Services Administration to offer ChatGPT Enterprise to federal agencies at $1 each.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH INVEST WITH ROOTS

🌱 Roots Surpasses $68M Invested

Roots is transforming the way people invest in real estate. As the first REIT designed to grow wealth for both investors and renters, Roots makes it possible to invest in real estate while helping communities thrive.

Here’s how it works:
✔️ You start with as little as $100
✔️ Roots buys homes and fills them with awesome renters
✔️ Residents can earn rebates to invest by paying rent on time and caring for their home

This win-win model reduces turnover and vacancies, leading to stronger, more consistent returns for everyone!

With target annual returns of 12-15% and a track record of growth, join thousands already investing with Roots.

👉 Get started in just 5 minutes*

*Disclaimer: Information contained herein, although believed accurate and compiled from credible sources, is not guaranteed. There can be no assurance the business objectives of the Company will be achieved. Investors may lose all or part of their investment, and distributions with respect to such investment are not guaranteed. Past performance is not indicative of future returns.

How AI Chatbots are Reshaping the Digital Economy

By Vivien Wang for The Tech Buzz

Yesterday, OpenAI made headlines yet again when it released its highly anticipated GPT-5, more than two years after GPT-4. This new version of the chatbot comes as OpenAI begins talks about a stock sale for employees that would vault up its valuation to $500B, a massive spike from its current $300B valuation. Despite its monumental growth, the early response to GPT-5 is mixed. Some praise its noticeably faster response time, while others feel underwhelmed by the update, saying it’s only minimally better than previous versions. Platformer’s Casey Newton sees the release as evolutionary rather than revolutionary, comparing it to “buying a new iPhone after a few years.” Either way, OpenAI’s metrics speak for themselves – revenue doubled in the first seven months of 2025 and the platform currently boasts 700M weekly users.  

With AI chatbots continuing to gain users at a wildfire pace, their momentum is shedding light on a growing phenomenon that we briefly highlighted in Tuesday’s issue: chatbots are quickly taking the role of search engines for many users. This could mean disaster for online media sites that depend on traffic for survival, but could also provide an opening for a different method of exposure, and startups and VCs are already jumping on the opportunity. 

A Crisis for Online Media

It’s undeniable that AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini are rapidly changing user behavior. This is especially discernible when comparing them to how people interact with traditional search engines and websites. Chatbots give the direct answers that users demand, saving them the time and effort of looking for those answers on their own. Google’s AI Overview feature emulates this effect, and since its release in May of 2024, it has cut the click-through rate to traditional links from 15% to just 8%. Only 1% of users click embedded links within these summaries, costing businesses exposure and crucial conversions. 

The damage is particularly severe to publishers, who depend mostly on advertising revenue, a revenue source directly harmed by decreased traffic. Overall, AI search has slashed click-throughs to news sites by 50-60%, forcing many publishers to consider implementing paid subscriptions to make money; however, these are also impacted by click rates and user traffic. Google’s response to the claims that its AI search features are killing site traffic was to deny that there was any significant change in organic click volume from the search engine to websites, but it still admits that AI is impacting which sites traffic is directed to. Google also recently launched a product that helps publishers monetize through methods like micropayments or newsletter signups, though it’s difficult to tell whether these will be as effective.

Elon Musk is also attempting to steal some of OpenAI’s thunder, taking to x to promise, "Grok 5 will be out before the end of this year and it will be crushingly good". xAI also intends to take advantage of these trends to boost x’s ad revenue by letting advertisers pay to appear in Grok’s conversations. 

SEO is Dead, long Live GEO

All this has been a major contributing factor to the decreasing effectiveness of search engine optimization (SEO), a long-standing necessity to online businesses. With SEO fading, a new opportunity is emerging in the form of generative engine optimization (GEO). Instead of vying for top rankings in traditional search, online brands now focus on visibility within AI-generated citations and summaries. GEO isn’t just changing how companies gain exposure, it’s changing the strategies for doing so. Rather than relying on keyword density or basic backlinks, AI algorithms prioritize depth, context, and authority – rewarding content that provides valuable insights and expertise instead of shallow, keyword-stuffed posts. Since chatbots interpret content much like people do and can be influenced by biases, making genuinely helpful content more likely to be used by AI, which in turn provides exposure to actual users.

While GEO increases to customer acquisition costs an estimated 14% compared to SEO, improved conversion rates and heightened brand authority offset the premium. Companies building GEO tools – examples being Clearscope, MarketMuse, and Surfer SEO – and startups like Profound, which aims to help clients show up in chatbot conversations, have quickly sparked the interest of venture capitalists. Adopters of these GEO solutions are also seeing the gains. Surfer SEO users leveraging GEO have captured new SERP features 27% faster and seen AI-driven referrals jump by up to 800% year-over-year, with generative sources now driving 6.5% of organic traffic. For VCs and entrepreneurs, the current landscape is ripe with opportunity, and for websites, GEO could be a way to rethink digital strategy entirely.

As the digital economy evolves, rumors are circling of a possible product level alliance between OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Search, one that could recalibrate the balance of power in online information. With all these major shifts happening, there’s a chance to witness the rise of the latest “modelbusters,” as a16z calls them, or winners that can capitalize on new tech infrastructure and business models to beat expectations. It’s not quite clear what the future of SEO and/or GEO will look like, but it’s definitely just beginning and well worth paying continued attention to. 

COMPANIES TO WATCH

OpenAI — Launched GPT-5, boasting PhD-level expertise and improved reasoning and two open-weight AI reasoning models on Hugging Face. It is in early talks for an employee share sale valuing it at ~$500B pre IPO.

Palantir — Raised its annual revenue forecast to $4.14B-$4.15B, driven by strong demand for its AI services from businesses and the U.S. government. With shares more than doubling this year, Palantir is expanding hiring to attract top AI talent.

Apple — Announcing an additional $100B investment in U.S. manufacturing, on top of a previous $500B pledge over four years. This includes a new Houston facility and operations across 20 states, amid tariff pressures on foreign-made products.

xAI — Plans to incorporate ads into Grok's AI responses to revitalize X's ad business. Advertisers can pay for their solutions to be recommended by the chatbot, using xAI tech to improve ad targeting. Musk promises Grok 5 by end of year.

Perplexity — Truth Social launched an AI-powered search engine, Truth Search AI, using Perplexity's tech for contextually accurate answers. The platform controls accessible sources.

Clay — The AI-powered sales tools startup raised a $100M Series C at a $3.1B valuation, led by CapitalG. With total funding now $204M, the company aims for $100M in revenue by year-end, tripling last year's earnings.

Harvey — The AI-powered legal startup has reached $100M in ARR within three years, serving over 500 customers like Comcast. Pursues global expansion, supported by over $800M in funding.

Paramount Skydance Merger Shakeup — David Ellison completes the takeover of Paramount amid merger scrutiny, focusing on technology and storytelling.

 SignalPulse — Read the Top signals, Startups + Deals From Last Week

TECH BUZZ DIRECTORY
Featured Products*

SEO Bot — A fully autonomous "SEO Robot" with AI agents for busy founders.

Memelord — Meme Software for marketing memes, tech memes, & sales memes.

Otonomos — Incorporate your Delaware C-corp or tax advantaged foundation and get 5% OFF.

BUZZY TOOLS

Buzzy Tech Tools To Watch & Use

GPT-5 — New AI model family exces in writing, coding, health at cheaper cost.

Grok 5 — Elon Musk promises "crushingly good" release before year-end.

Anthropic — Claude 4.1 scores 74.5% on SWE-bench, outperforms Gpt-4.5, Google.

NotebookLM — AI app for students with Audio Overviews and Mind Maps; privacy.

Wix — Financial services suite; Wix Checking + Wix Capital cash flow mgmt tools.

TBC Dia — $20 Pro subscription offers unlimited AI browser features.

ElevenLabs — AI music generator cleared for commercial use with Merlin, Kobalt.

BUZZY TECH

The Latest Deep Technology & Trends To Watch

AI Plasma Physics — AI redefines dusty plasma physics particle behavior.

HIV mRNA — Claims 80% success in trial of mRNA therapy for HIV.

Smart Dust — Tiny wireless sensors for environmental monitoring.

Nano-Levitation — Quantum sensors levitated at room-temperature.

Neurable — EEG sensors in headphones Oura ring for brain health.

CRYPTO WATCH

Trump's Crypto Shield — President Trump plans to issue an executive order to prevent banks from denying services to crypto firms and other disfavored groups. .

Crypto in 401(k)s — A new executive order permits U.S. 401(k) plans to invest in cryptocurrencies, potentially driving an $800B Bitcoin influx. Crypto fund managers anticipate this will broaden asset class access and transform U.S. wealth strategies.

Crypto Privacy Crackdown — Federal prosecutors secured a conviction against Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm and guilty pleas from Samourai Wallet founders, leading to a $237M forfeiture.

Bullish IPO Ambitions — Bullish, owner of CoinDesk, plans to raise up to $629.3M in its US IPO by selling 20.3M shares priced between $28 and $31 each, potentially valuing the company at $4.2B.

Gemini Onchain — Gemini plans to launch a DeFi platform with a self-custodial wallet and token swap features, mirroring moves by Coinbase and Kraken to integrate DeFi.

Galaxy Digital Tokenizes Stock — Galaxy Digital plans to tokenize its GLXY stock via Superstate, as detailed in an SEC filing. With $9B in assets, the firm aligns with SEC initiatives to integrate tokenization in finance.

Ripple Expands with Rail Acquisition — Ripple is acquiring Toronto's Rail for $200M to boost its blockchain and payment systems. Expected to close in Q4 2025, the deal will integrate Rail's multi-stablecoin tech.

SPACE_RACE

Skyrora_Secured U.K. license for Skylark L suborbital rocket in 2026.

NASA_Terminated Lunar Trailblazer exploration mission, lost contact.

Space Command_Emphasizes integrated space power w/ air, land, sea forces.

China_Completes 3rd launch in 8 days of private Guowang satellites.

Justin Sun_TRON founder joins Blue Origin flight, youngest private astronaut.

FOR INVESTORS
Open Deals
Investors– request an intro to startups - [email protected].

Before we restart our placements of raising startups, we’re sharing an open call to send in your own company. Just shoot us an email with a deck and we may feature you in this bulletin.

For detailed pitch materials, please email [email protected] with your deck.
🔥 — hot deal!
⏰ — leaving soon.

FOR EMPLOYERS
Job Candidates

Employers– request an intro to candidates - jobs@techbuzz.ai