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I am a business developer, sales professional, and FinTech strategist who strives to make an impact and change the world. For the better.

Although I have a bachelor's degree in Economics (with a major in Economics and Politics), I have been actively following and/or working in the Financial Services field since the very first year at university.

Because of the early start of my career and given opportunities to try myself out in different roles and different players in the world of finance (I worked at Western Union, Danske Bank, Norne Securities), quite quickly and easily I found myself being the most passionate about Financial Technology and its enormous potential to reinvent conventional finance and change the world for the better.

Now I am working in FinTech for more than 6 years, and every day I try to be a bit better and learn something new (and there are lots to learn!).

Currently, I am a part of Flutterwave, where I am scaling the business and leading company's expansion into Europe. Flutterwave is a Mastercard, VISA, Greycroft, Y Combinator, and Worldpay FIS-backed payments technology company headquartered in San Francisco. We're simplifying payments for endless possibilities. Flutterwave is trusted by leading companies like Uber, Facebook, TransferWise, Netflix, Jumia, Azimo, Binance, among other 90,000+ businesses. We were recognized as the #2 Most Innovative Company in Africa in 2019, according to Fast Company. We're part of 50 Future Unicorns🦄 according to CB Insights & Fast Company. Also, CNBC has included us in the Upstart 100, which lists the brightest, most intriguing, young startups promising to become the great companies of tomorrow. I am super excited to play an important part in the Financial Technology revolution, and having the ability to move the financial disruption forward.

I am highly interested in FinTech/TechFin, digital innovation (especially in banking, payments, and finance per see), and emerging technologies.

P.S. If you're passionate about FinTech as well as Blockchain & Cryptocurrency and always want to stay up-to-date, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter 🔔linas.substack.com🔔 and join over 111,000+ professionals globally who follow my work.

Linas Beliūnas

All the biggest people in AI and tech… united in one tiny dorm room… plotting the future of the world 😳

That would be incredible.

Except none of this is real.

This picture is 100% AI generated using Google’s newest model: Nano Banana Pro.

A model so good it can recreate a $10T “strategy summit”…
with a $12 IKEA lamp, tangled chargers, and a pizza box on the floor.

Masterpiece.

P.S. for more great stuff, check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

All the biggest people in AI and tech… united in one tiny dorm room… plotting the future of the world 😳  That would be incredible.  Except none of this is real.  This picture is 100% AI generated using Google’s newest model: Nano Banana Pro.  A model so good it can recreate a $10T “strategy summit”… with a $12 IKEA lamp, tangled chargers, and a pizza box on the floor.  Masterpiece.

Brilliant: This is the actual tech stack holding up the global economy 👏😂

The middle couldn’t be more accurate:

↳ Unpaid open-source devs holding everything together with duct tape.
↳ AWS + Cloudflare doing 95% of the heavy lifting.
↳ AI bolted on like an afterthought.
↳ Microsoft, just… vibing aggressively.

But the bottom is where the entire plot twists.

ASML.

One Dutch company.
One machine.
One supply chain.

→ The foundation of ALL modern computing.

If ASML stumbles…

Nvidia breaks.
AI stalls.
Cloud collapses.
Finance panics.
Civilization reboots.

The funniest part?

This isn’t a meme.

It’s the closest thing we have to a global single point of failure.

P.S. for more great stuff, check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

HSBC just dropped the most brutal AI report: OpenAI needs to raise at least $207 billion by 2030 so it can continue to lose money 😳

HSBC just published a 33-page analysis on OpenAI, and the takeaway is savage:

Even in their most optimistic scenario, OpenAI ends up with a $207 billion funding hole by 2030 🤯

Not because the business is collapsing.

But because the cost of intelligence is colliding with the laws of physics.

In essence, OpenAI isn’t a software company. It’s an industrial-scale energy and infrastructure project masquerading as one.

According to the HSBC model:

→ $250 billion committed to Microsoft
→ $38 billion committed to Amazon
→ 36 gigawatts of contracted compute (yes, gigawatts)

That’s enough power for a mid-sized country.

And the bill is up to $620 billion per year in data-center costs once everything goes online.

But here comes the wildest part.

HSBC assumes nearly everything goes right.

↳ 3 billion users
↳ 10% conversion to paid plans
↳ Massive enterprise adoption
↳ AI Ads
↳ AI Agents
↳ Jony Ive’s hardware moonshot
↳ 2% of the global ad market
↳ Zero competitive erosion

Even then… it’s not enough.

OpenAI still comes up short by $207B, and that’s even before adding the $10B safety buffer.

The report even hints that OpenAI may eventually need to “walk away” from parts of its cloud commitments because “less capacity is better than a liquidity crisis.”

But this isn’t just about OpenAI. This is about the entire AI economy.

If the leading company in the world - backed by Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Silicon Valley’s deepest VC pockets - can’t make the math work under ideal conditions, what does that say about everyone else? 🤔

It says the AI boom isn’t a software revolution.

→ It’s an infrastructure arms race.
→ It’s GPUs, power plants, cooling towers, land, water rights, grid upgrades, transformer stations, and supply chains.
→ It’s the biggest capex cycle since the industrial revolution - disguised behind a chat interface.

And suddenly the industry’s real bottlenecks become obvious:

Not talent.
Not models.
Not data.

Energy. Efficiency. Economics.

This is why the next breakthroughs won’t just be better models - they’ll be cheaper models.

Sparse architectures. TPU-scale alternatives. 20–60× efficiency gains.

AI that uses less, not more.

Because unless costs collapse, the race to AGI won’t be won by the smartest lab.

It will be won by the AI lab that can pay its power bill the longest.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

HSBC just dropped the most brutal AI report: OpenAI needs to raise at least $207 billion by 2030 so it can continue to lose money 😳  HSBC just published a 33-page analysis on OpenAI, and the takeaway is savage:  Even in their most optimistic scenario, OpenAI ends up with a $207 billion funding hole by 2030 🤯  Not because the business is collapsing.  But because the cost of intelligence is colliding with the laws of physics.  In essence, OpenAI isn’t a software company. It’s an industrial-scale energy and infrastructure project masquerading as one.  According to the HSBC model:  → $250 billion committed to Microsoft → $38 billion committed to Amazon → 36 gigawatts of contracted compute (yes, gigawatts)  That’s enough power for a mid-sized country.  And the bill is up to $620 billion per year in data-center costs once everything goes online.  But here comes the wildest part.  HSBC assumes nearly everything goes right.  ↳ 3 billion users ↳ 10% conversion to paid plans ↳ Massive enterpri

AI is about to change forever: Google may have just revealed the biggest shift in AI since the Transformer, and almost nobody is paying attention 😳

Google researchers just dropped something called Nested Learning, and if it works the way early results suggest, it might be the biggest shift in AI since the famous “Attention Is All You Need.”

- Not another bigger model.
- Not another trillion-parameter arms race.
- A completely new learning paradigm.

The core idea is beautifully simple yet mind-bending:

What if AI didn’t learn once but learned continuously? 🤔

- Not just updating a few temporary attention states.
- Not forgetting everything outside a 1M-token window.
- Not freezing after pre-training like it’s stuck in amnesia.

Nested Learning reframes an AI model as multiple learning systems stacked inside each other, each operating at its own speed - some adapting instantly, some slowly consolidating long-term memory.

Exactly like the human brain does.
Fast for experience.
Slow for wisdom.

And Google didn’t just theorize it. They built it 🤖

The proof-of-concept model - HOPE - already beats Transformers and modern RNNs across language modeling, reasoning, and long-context tasks at only 1.3B parameters.

- It retrieves information from massive sequences with ease.
- It resists catastrophic forgetting.
- It evolves during use.

This is not a bigger hammer. It’s a different physics.

→ Instead of stacking more layers, it stacks optimization loops.
→ Instead of making context windows larger, it makes memory smarter.
→ Instead of freezing intelligence, it lets intelligence grow.

If this trajectory holds, Nested Learning could push us closer to something that actually resembles AGI:

↳ Systems that don’t just perform but improve.
↳ Systems that don’t just store knowledge but develop it.
↳ Systems that don’t just follow rules but learn new ways to learn.

And that’s the part people aren’t ready for.

Because once AI models can rewrite their own learning processes, the frontier stops being about scale and starts being about self-improvement.

And that changes everything.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

AI is about to change forever: Google may have just revealed the biggest shift in AI since the Transformer, and almost nobody is paying attention 😳  Google researchers just dropped something called Nested Learning, and if it works the way early results suggest, it might be the biggest shift in AI since the famous “Attention Is All You Need.”  - Not another bigger model. - Not another trillion-parameter arms race. - A completely new learning paradigm.  The core idea is beautifully simple yet mind-bending:  What if AI didn’t learn once but learned continuously? 🤔  - Not just updating a few temporary attention states. - Not forgetting everything outside a 1M-token window. - Not freezing after pre-training like it’s stuck in amnesia.  Nested Learning reframes an AI model as multiple learning systems stacked inside each other, each operating at its own speed - some adapting instantly, some slowly consolidating long-term memory.  Exactly like the human brain does. Fast for experience. Slow

Incredible: Google may have just pulled off the quietest power move in AI, and almost nobody seems to grasp its significance 😳

Google’s latest AI model Gemini 3 Pro is now sitting at the top of the major leaderboards.

Not by a little, but clearly ahead on LMArena, WebDev Arena, and Vision Arena - in a year where the frontier is brutally competitive.

But here’s the part that actually matters:

Google trained it entirely on TPUs.

No NVIDIA.
No GPUs.
No external silicon.

Sure, that’s not new, as Google has used TPUs since Gemini 1.0…

But this marks the first time a TPU-trained model has matched and, in some areas, surpassed the strongest GPU-trained systems from OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI in the same generation 🤯

Most importantly, it validates something Google has been quietly betting billions on:

Custom silicon + mature software + vertically integrated infrastructure can compete at the absolute frontier.

In other words, you don’t need Nvidia to build a world-class frontier AI model anymore.

Turns out, the next Google is Google.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

Incredible: Google may have just pulled off the quietest power move in AI, and almost nobody seems to grasp its significance 😳  Google’s latest AI model Gemini 3 Pro is now sitting at the top of the major leaderboards.  Not by a little, but clearly ahead on LMArena, WebDev Arena, and Vision Arena - in a year where the frontier is brutally competitive.  But here’s the part that actually matters:  Google trained it entirely on TPUs.  No NVIDIA. No GPUs. No external silicon.  Sure, that’s not new, as Google has used TPUs since Gemini 1.0…  But this marks the first time a TPU-trained model has matched and, in some areas, surpassed the strongest GPU-trained systems from OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI in the same generation 🤯  Most importantly, it validates something Google has been quietly betting billions on:  Custom silicon + mature software + vertically integrated infrastructure can compete at the absolute frontier.  In other words, you don’t need Nvidia to build a world-class frontier AI

End of an Era: "The Big Short" Michael Burry, the man who called the 2008 crisis, just placed a bet against AI… and then disappeared from public markets 😳

Michael Burry just made the most controversial move of the AI decade.

He spent $9.2M buying 50,000 Palantir put options expiring in 2027 - a bet that could pay up to $240M if AI hype cracks.

And right after placing it, he liquidated Scion, deregistered with the SEC, and went completely dark.

Exactly like he did before the 2008 crash.

Why is he doing this? 🤔

Burry believes the AI boom is being held up by a structural accounting illusion.

Hyperscalers are extending the “useful life” of GPUs and servers - from 2–3 years to 6-10 years - making earnings look far stronger than reality.

He estimates this inflates profits by $176 billion through 2028 🤯

Lower depreciation.
Higher EPS.
Sky-high valuations built on sand.

Palantir? Trading at a 287× forward P/E - nearly 10× the sector norm.

To Burry, that’s not innovation. That’s 2007 energy in GPU form.

The stakes are super high here.

→ Big Tech’s 2025 AI capex: $200B+
→ Key segment growth rates: <20%
→ Data center power demand: 1% of global electricity by 2027

Something doesn’t add up unless AI delivers massive productivity gains - fast.

Burry’s question: What if it doesn’t? 🤷‍♂️

There are 2 possible futures ahead.

1️⃣ The Bubble Burst

→ AI stocks drop 20–50%
→ Nasdaq loses trillions
→ Hyperscalers take massive write-downs
→ GPU supply chains buckle
→ Startups that rely on subsidized compute collapse

Burry wins big.
AI survives - but leaner, focused, forced to produce real value.

2️⃣ The AI Super-Boom

→ Productivity spikes
→ Enterprise adoption explodes
→ Capex compounds
→ AI becomes the next electricity

Burry’s puts expire worthless.

But most importantly, we need to understand what Burry is actually betting against.

Not AI itself.
Not the technology.
Not the future.

He’s betting against the story.
He’s betting against inflated earnings, manufactured EPS, and infinite-growth narratives built on depreciating silicon.

It’s the same pattern he saw in 2007: Everyone believes until the math breaks.

My takeaway is this:

Love him or hate him, Burry is doing what he always does:

He exits the stage right before everyone else sees the smoke.

The AI era is definitely not ending, but Burry thinks the first chapter is.

Buckle up.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

End of an Era: "The Big Short" Michael Burry, the man who called the 2008 crisis, just placed a bet against AI… and then disappeared from public markets 😳  Michael Burry just made the most controversial move of the AI decade.  He spent $9.2M buying 50,000 Palantir put options expiring in 2027 - a bet that could pay up to $240M if AI hype cracks.  And right after placing it, he liquidated Scion, deregistered with the SEC, and went completely dark.  Exactly like he did before the 2008 crash.  Why is he doing this? 🤔  Burry believes the AI boom is being held up by a structural accounting illusion.  Hyperscalers are extending the “useful life” of GPUs and servers - from 2–3 years to 6-10 years - making earnings look far stronger than reality.  He estimates this inflates profits by $176 billion through 2028 🤯  Lower depreciation. Higher EPS. Sky-high valuations built on sand.  Palantir? Trading at a 287× forward P/E - nearly 10× the sector norm.  To Burry, that’s not innovation. That’s 2

You don’t need a co-founder anymore - you need an AI stack. These are the exact tools solo founders are using to hit $1 million ARR in 2025:

🧠 Cursor → Code like a dev
🔍 Perplexity / Gemini → Market research
✍️ ChatGPT / Claude / Grok → Write & plan
🎨 Midjourney / Figma / Canva → Design & brand
⚙️ Zapier / Calendly / Tidio → Automate operations

That’s an entire startup.

No team. No office. No funding.
Just one person and ten tools.

And it’s working:

→ 78% of solopreneurs say AI has transformed their business
→ Generative AI spend is up 76% YoY to $644B
→ Dozens of $1M+ solo startups already proving it

But here’s the truth nobody tells you:

AI replaces tasks, not taste.
Automation builds speed, not belief.

The tools are your leverage. But You are the edge.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

You don’t need a co-founder anymore - you need an AI stack. These are the exact tools solo founders are using to hit $1 million ARR in 2025:  🧠 Cursor → Code like a dev 🔍 Perplexity / Gemini → Market research ✍️ ChatGPT / Claude / Grok → Write & plan 🎨 Midjourney / Figma / Canva → Design & brand ⚙️ Zapier / Calendly / Tidio → Automate operations  That’s an entire startup.  No team. No office. No funding. Just one person and ten tools.  And it’s working:  → 78% of solopreneurs say AI has transformed their business → Generative AI spend is up 76% YoY to $644B → Dozens of $1M+ solo startups already proving it  But here’s the truth nobody tells you:  AI replaces tasks, not taste. Automation builds speed, not belief.  The tools are your leverage. But You are the edge.

Epic: an AI detector just flagged the 1776 Declaration of Independence as 99.99% AI-written 👏😂

Either the AI detector doesn’t work, or the Founding Fathers were time-travelling prompt engineers...

And the wildest part?

These same tools are still used to expel students, flag employees, and trigger academic investigations - all based on vibes masquerading as science.

Meanwhile, millions of people are trusting software that can’t tell Jefferson from AI with life-changing decisions.

Peak 2025 risk management.

P.S. for more great stuff, check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

Epic: an AI detector just flagged the 1776 Declaration of Independence as 99.99% AI-written 👏😂  Either the AI detector doesn’t work, or the Founding Fathers were time-travelling prompt engineers...  And the wildest part?  These same tools are still used to expel students, flag employees, and trigger academic investigations - all based on vibes masquerading as science.  Meanwhile, millions of people are trusting software that can’t tell Jefferson from AI with life-changing decisions.  Peak 2025 risk management.

Insane: GeoSpy AI can locate an image using just a few pixels from a reflection. No metadata is needed 😳

The craziest part?

Everything you see here is run in real time and not sped up at all.

RIP privacy.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

Jeff Bezos just made his biggest move since Amazon, and almost no one is ready for what it means 😳

He’s co-running a new AI startup, Project Prometheus, backed with $6.2 billion on day one.

Not for chatbots.
Not for apps.
For computers, cars, and spacecraft - the physical world.

In other words, he’s going after Tesla, NVIDIA, and SpaceX at the same time 🤯

Prometheus has already hired nearly 100 researchers from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta - people who actually know how to build robots, materials systems, and real-world AI.

Bezos is not chasing the “AI that talks.” He’s chasing the AI that builds 🤖

The one that can design, test, manufacture, and improve machines at superhuman speed.

That’s the real prize. The trillion-dollar one.

And when you zoom out, the picture becomes clear:

→ Musk has xAI + Tesla Optimus Bot.
→ Zuckerberg is building embodied Llamas.
→ Google is rebooting robotics.
→ And now Bezos steps in with a war chest the size of a sovereign fund.

That’s beyond just a rivalry. This is the final boss round of tech:

AI that runs factories, ships products, builds infrastructure, and eventually… builds itself.

Whoever gets there first doesn’t just win a market. They win the physical world.

And that’s exactly why Bezos came back from retirement.

He’s not here to compete. He’s here to end the game.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

Wild: The Reverse Turing Test just happened in China 😳

XPENG just unveiled a humanoid robot so realistic that people thought it was a human in a suit.

Seriously, the CEO had to go on stage, grab a knife, and cut open its leg live to prove it wasn’t human.

Metal. Wires. Actuators. Not flesh 🤖

Welcome to the Reverse Turing Test Era, where machines are now so lifelike, we doubt they’re machines.

In case you missed it, XPENG’s Iron has:

→ 82 active joints
→ Synthetic muscles for fluid motion
→ 3 custom AI chips handling vision, language & action
→ Can walk, gesture, and even dance like a human

XPENG plans mass production by 2026, focusing on factories, malls, and homes.

Once, we built machines to imitate humans.

Now, we’re building humans who make us question if we’re still real.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

“Your startup is just an OpenAI wrapper”.

But everything is a wrapper…

→ Startups are venture capital wrappers.
→ VCs are rich people's wrappers.
→ Rich people are wrappers of wealth.

Zoom out far enough, and everything you build - from startups to AI - is basically just sand, reimagined.

Innovation was never about creating from nothing.
It’s about wrapping what already exists in ways no one else dared to.

That’s how every revolution begins - not from zero, but from a better wrapper.

So next time you think you need a new idea, remember: the world doesn’t need new atoms - just new wrappers for old ones.

Everything is a wrapper.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

“Your startup is just an OpenAI wrapper”.  But everything is a wrapper…  → Startups are venture capital wrappers. → VCs are rich people's wrappers. → Rich people are wrappers of wealth.  Zoom out far enough, and everything you build - from startups to AI - is basically just sand, reimagined.  Innovation was never about creating from nothing. It’s about wrapping what already exists in ways no one else dared to.  That’s how every revolution begins - not from zero, but from a better wrapper.  So next time you think you need a new idea, remember: the world doesn’t need new atoms - just new wrappers for old ones.  Everything is a wrapper.

Historic: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has just successfully landed its New Glenn rocket booster, becoming only the second company in history to land a rocket booster after SpaceX 😳

Yesterday, Blue Origin finally did the thing nobody thought they’d pull off:

New Glenn landed its booster on a droneship.
First flight.
First try.
Clean landing.

And with that SpaceX’s 10-year monopoly on reusable heavy-lift rockets is over.

For a decade, SpaceX was the only company on Earth that could launch something big… land the booster… and fly it again.

That meant cheaper launches, higher cadence, and total dominance.

Blue Origin just broke that dominance.

This is the moment competition returned to space.

The space race is officially back 🚀🌎

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

West’s WeChat Moment: OpenAI may have just launched the single most important feature for the future of FinTech, & almost no one seems to realize it 😳

OpenAI just added group chats functionality, and with that, unlocked a new distribution layer.

Up to 20 people.
Planning, building, debating - all with AI inside the room.

A small feature on paper, but a paradigm shift in practice.

Because once you add social coordination to an AI interface, you’re no longer a chatbot.

You’re a platform. And platforms change everything.

For 18 months, OpenAI has been quietly assembling the components of an Everything App:

↳ Apps SDK → native apps inside ChatGPT
↳ Atlas browser → conversational navigation
↳ Sora → video + creator ecosystem
↳ Stripe integration → agentic commerce rails
↳ Now: group chats → social layer + collaboration

One interface.
One identity.
One behavioral loop.

This is the Western equivalent of WeChat’s expansion but built on intelligence, not messaging.

And the timing is perfect as ChatGPT already commands ~800M weekly users.

But here’s where it gets interesting for finance.

AI agents inside a social environment fundamentally change how people:

→ discover financial products
→ compare options
→ ask questions
→ make decisions
→ transact
→ and coordinate with others

When discovery → recommendation → decision → transaction
all happen inside ChatGPT…

Why would users jump to 12 different fintech apps?
Why would banks spend millions on customer acquisition?
Why would comparison tools survive?

That’s why OpenAI is constructing a world where the interface becomes the aggregator, and everyone else becomes a plugin.

Just like WeChat.
Just like iOS.
Just like Android.

Winner-take-most dynamics. Except this time, the OS is intelligence.

My takeaway is this:

FinTech spent a decade unbundling finance.

OpenAI is about to re-bundle all of it - inside one conversational layer.

We’re witnessing the birth of a new financial OS in real time.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

West’s WeChat Moment: OpenAI may have just launched the single most important feature for the future of FinTech, & almost no one seems to realize it 😳  OpenAI just added group chats functionality, and with that, unlocked a new distribution layer.  Up to 20 people. Planning, building, debating - all with AI inside the room.  A small feature on paper, but a paradigm shift in practice.  Because once you add social coordination to an AI interface, you’re no longer a chatbot.  You’re a platform. And platforms change everything.  For 18 months, OpenAI has been quietly assembling the components of an Everything App:  ↳ Apps SDK → native apps inside ChatGPT ↳ Atlas browser → conversational navigation ↳ Sora → video + creator ecosystem ↳ Stripe integration → agentic commerce rails ↳ Now: group chats → social layer + collaboration  One interface. One identity. One behavioral loop.  This is the Western equivalent of WeChat’s expansion but built on intelligence, not messaging.  And the timing is

Buffett is officially buying into the AI Revolution: Berkshire Hathaway acquired 17.9 million shares of Google parent Alphabet for $4.3 billion 😳

The man who sat out the entire dot-com boom.
The man who said “tech is outside my circle of competence.”

The man who built his entire career on avoiding hype, and he’s now making Alphabet one of his biggest holdings at age 95.

After the stock is already +90% since April 🤯

Warren Buffett finally said the quiet part out loud:

Google isn’t getting disrupted by AI.
Google is the disruption.

The world spent two years yelling “ChatGPT will kill Search.”
Buffett looked at the data, the distribution, the cash flow, the moat, and said:

“Actually, this might be the Coca-Cola of the AI era.”

→ Google touches billions of people every day.
→ It trains on the richest dataset in existence.
→ It embeds AI into Search, YouTube, Android, Workspace, Cloud. At the planetary scale.

Because in AI, Data + Distribution is everything.

And Google has both at an absurd scale.

Most importantly, Buffett doesn’t chase trends. He buys inevitabilities.

And today he told the world something very simple:

If the biggest tech skeptic of our time is buying Google now, maybe the AI revolution is just getting started.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

Buffett is officially buying into the AI Revolution: Berkshire Hathaway acquired 17.9 million shares of Google parent Alphabet for $4.3 billion 😳  The man who sat out the entire dot-com boom. The man who said “tech is outside my circle of competence.”  The man who built his entire career on avoiding hype, and he’s now making Alphabet one of his biggest holdings at age 95.  After the stock is already +90% since April 🤯  Warren Buffett finally said the quiet part out loud:  Google isn’t getting disrupted by AI. Google is the disruption.  The world spent two years yelling “ChatGPT will kill Search.” Buffett looked at the data, the distribution, the cash flow, the moat, and said:  “Actually, this might be the Coca-Cola of the AI era.”  → Google touches billions of people every day. → It trains on the richest dataset in existence. → It embeds AI into Search, YouTube, Android, Workspace, Cloud. At the planetary scale.  Because in AI, Data + Distribution is everything.  And Google has both

Nailed it! This has to be the best illustration about Enterprise AI 👏😂

Everyone wants AI Agents, but nobody wants to admit their data looks like a crime scene.

What execs think AI Agents will do:

→ Fix workflows
→ Boost margins
→ Turn the company into a machine that prints EBITDA

What actually happens:

→ 37 data sources, none agreeing with each other
→ Compliance sweating harder than the GPUs
→ Agents hallucinating because they’re feasting on chaos

And the uncomfortable truth is this:

AI agents aren’t failing. Your data strategy is.

You can’t expect intelligence from an ecosystem held together by CSVs, legacy systems, and hope.

That’s not innovation. That’s an expensive science fair project.

Fix the data first, and only then implement AI.

That’s when AI Agents stop being a demo and start becoming your competitive advantage.

P.S. for more great stuff, check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

Nailed it! This has to be the best illustration about Enterprise AI 👏😂    Everyone wants AI Agents, but nobody wants to admit their data looks like a crime scene.    What execs think AI Agents will do:    → Fix workflows  → Boost margins  → Turn the company into a machine that prints EBITDA    What actually happens:    → 37 data sources, none agreeing with each other  → Compliance sweating harder than the GPUs  → Agents hallucinating because they’re feasting on chaos    And the uncomfortable truth is this:    AI agents aren’t failing. Your data strategy is.    You can’t expect intelligence from an ecosystem held together by CSVs, legacy systems, and hope.    That’s not innovation. That’s an expensive science fair project.    Fix the data first, and only then implement AI.    That’s when AI Agents stop being a demo and start becoming your competitive advantage.

AI is going back to the basics: ChatGPT’s Android beta app code just confirmed that OpenAI is launching Ads 😳

Not rumors.
Not speculation.
Hidden strings in the Android beta: “search ads carousel”, “bazaar content”.

This was only a matter of time because OpenAI is burning cash at a rate no startup in history has ever survived.

HSBC’s recent model showed the brutal truth:

→ Up to $792B in cloud + compute costs by 2030
→ $620-702B in annual data-center bills
→ $207B funding shortfall even under optimistic assumptions
→ Only 5-10% of users pay today
→ Growth = more usage = more loss

In other words, the free tier is a money pit.

So ads were never optional. They were inevitable.

The recent leak simply shows the moment the company stops pretending otherwise.

But here comes the interesting part.

OpenAI thinks ads could be a multi-billion-dollar revenue line.

↳ 2% of the global ad market.
↳ Integrated into shopping assistants.
↳ Invisible to paid users.

A Google-style engine inside ChatGPT.

And that’s the real shift.

AI isn’t just becoming the new interface. It’s becoming the new advertising surface.

The ironic part?

OpenAI is quietly turning into Google while Google is turning into OpenAI.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

AI is going back to the basics: ChatGPT’s Android beta app code just confirmed that OpenAI is launching Ads 😳  Not rumors. Not speculation. Hidden strings in the Android beta: “search ads carousel”, “bazaar content”.  This was only a matter of time because OpenAI is burning cash at a rate no startup in history has ever survived.  HSBC’s recent model showed the brutal truth:  → Up to $792B in cloud + compute costs by 2030 → $620-702B in annual data-center bills → $207B funding shortfall even under optimistic assumptions → Only 5-10% of users pay today → Growth = more usage = more loss  In other words, the free tier is a money pit.  So ads were never optional. They were inevitable.  The recent leak simply shows the moment the company stops pretending otherwise.  But here comes the interesting part.  OpenAI thinks ads could be a multi-billion-dollar revenue line.  ↳ 2% of the global ad market. ↳ Integrated into shopping assistants. ↳ Invisible to paid users.  A Google-style engine inside

Wild: Google just launched Gemini 3, and it might be the first AI that actually feels smarter than you 😳

It’s no longer just a “better chatbot.” It’s more like a thought partner.

A model that doesn’t just answer - it understands, reasons, builds, and creates.

Here’s why everyone’s freaking out:

↳ 1. It sees the world like a human.

Gemini 3 can watch a full-length video (hours of it) and understand plot, style, intent, and emotion.
Then remix it into something new.

Nothing else can do this.

↳ 2. It codes like a senior engineer.

Record-breaking performance on coding benchmarks.
Long refactors, messy codebases, multi-step planning - no sweat.

We’re finally moving from autocomplete to competence.

↳ 3. “Vibe coding” is the cheat code.

Say: “Make an app that feels like rainy Tokyo nights.”
Gemini 3:
→ designs it
→ animates it
→ scores it
→ builds it.

No specs.
Just vibes → product 🤯

↳ 4. The context window finally works.

Drop in a full codebase, a giant doc dump, or a 3-hour meeting.
Gemini 3 stays coherent.

Most importantly, it stays smart & useful.

My takeaway is this:

Gemini 3 probably marks a line in the sand.

The models before it feel old, while the models after it will feel dangerous.

And somewhere in between, the future of AI just arrived early.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

Jeff Bezos just said the quiet part out loud: “Human progress will demand moving heavy industry off Earth.” 😳

Factories.
Data centers.
All of it - in space.

Using endless solar energy.
Mining asteroids for raw materials.
Leaving Earth as the home we protect.

“There’s no Plan B. This is the good one” - Jeff Bezos

It sounds wild. But it’s also… inevitable.

AI’s energy demands are exploding.
Data centers could soon eat 8% of global electricity.
Grids are cracking. Cities are overheating.

So what if the next data center isn’t in Texas but in orbit? 🤔

Projects like Google’s Suncatcher, Starcloud, and Blue Origin are already testing it.

→ Solar power with no night or weather.
→ Cooling powered by the vacuum of space.
→ Asteroid resources worth quadrillions.

Bezos’ speech just connected the dots:

AI → Energy → Space → Civilization shift.

If it works, we unlock a future of abundance:

↳ Infinite clean power
↳ Restored ecosystems
↳ Trillions in new industries
↳ Jobs no one’s imagined yet

If it fails, well, we’ve just wasted decades chasing stars while Earth suffers.

Either way, the question isn’t IF anymore.

It’s WHEN energy becomes too scarce, and who moves first.

Brilliant: This is exactly what it’s like to watch AI fixing a bug 👏😂

AI won’t take your job but it might rewrite it, refactor it, and break it before lunch.

P.S. for more great stuff, check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

thoughtbot

Managing Director

Belgrave & Co

Digital Transformation Programme Lead                       	   	        
(Fixed-term contract - Failte Ireland/256 media)
                       
Strategy and Experience lead for Failte Ireland, focusing on digitising core services and creating a seamless omnichannel customer experience.
+ Designed and implemented a digital transformation programme for an Irish government department 
+ Led Experience Design and Engineering team of 10 people, accountable for overall performance and client satisfaction
+ Aligned Executive Board around a unified vision and plan
+ Collaborated with cross-functional teams to define requirements and priorities
+ Conducted digital maturity assessments, technology audits, and CX mapping
+ Led customer interviews, persona development, and jobs-to-be-done analysis
+ Developed an end-to-end customer experience strategy promoting self-service
+ Managed content auditing, strategy, and a complex web migration plan
+ Prototyped future-state product experiences, driving digital service innovation

Independent Consultant

Q agency

In January 2023, I joined the Executive team as Director of Product Strategy. In this role, I collaborated with my fellow directors to streamline business operations and was tasked with leading Q’s new strategy department.

ACHIEVEMENTS
+ Established strategy function defining services, approach, roles/responsibilities, budget and key performance metrics
+ Directed multi-disciplinary teams in delivering user research, innovation, rapid prototyping, experience design and strategy assignments, achieving an 8.2% client satisfaction score
+ Delivered in-depth user research and CX recommendations for the Ajeer labour platform, part of the Saudi government’s national digital transformation initiative
+ Designed and launched an MVP streaming platform for Waterbear, enhancing acquisition and retention
+ Developed a new product strategy and roadmap for Times Travel, aligning key stakeholders
+ Supported the pre-sales team with 100+ pitch presentations for global clients, raising standards and significantly improving conversion rates
+ Secured a major tender as the Digital Transformation partner for an Irish Government department, spearheading the project as the lead Consultant
+ Delivered internal initiatives spanning Revenue Analysis, Performance Management, Leadership, Utilisation, Mentoring & Coaching

Director of Product Strategy

Q Agency is the largest software development agency in Croatia, with a team of over 350 digital experts. Specialising in creating high-performing agile product teams, Q Agency collaborates with enterprise clients to develop the digital products of the future. 

MY ROLE:
As Director for the UK, my board remit spanned company strategy, brand positioning, sales and new business, client relations and working as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders to drive revenue growth.

ACHIEVEMENTS:
+ Established a new UK legal entity, London HQ and operational model
+ Articulated and launched Q’s brand in the UK market
+ Aligned Q’s value proposition and marketing collateral to meet customer expectations, achieving product-market fit
+ Developed UK sales strategy and strategic growth plans for key accounts
+ Built authentic client relationships based on credibility and trust
+ Leveraged consulting and creative expertise to identify new opportunities to sell solutions and create value for clients
+ Grew Q’s largest UK account, NewsUK, by 200% 
+ Secured two large-scale digital transformation initiatives for government clients
+ Won new clients including Liverpool FC, BPP University, Petroineos and Waterbear, generating £2m+ annual recurring revenue

CLIENTS:
+ 200+ enterprise clients across Europe, North America & the Middle East
+ NewsUK, BPP, Smart Pension, Liverpool FC, BBC, Waterbear, Uswitch, Manpower, HILTI, Twint, Novartis, Takamol, Sela, Tamkeen

AWARDS:
+ Top 15 world’s best agencies - Clutch 2022
+ Best employer award, Croatia - 2020, 21 & 22
+ Top 200 fastest growing - Financial Times
+ Tech Fast 500 EMEA - Deloitte

Director, UK

Sennep

Sennep is a multi-award-winning digital product studio on a mission to add a human touch to the digital world. 

MY ROLE:
As Client Strategy Director, I managed the sales process and worked to identify and unlock growth opportunities for brands such as Google, Barclays, and McKinsey, as well as game-changers such as LUMI and Back Market.

ACHIEVEMENTS:
+ Engineered sophisticated digital tools for McKinsey that empowered their consultants to offer data-driven insights, enhancing client service capabilities
+ Facilitated a continuous partnership with Barclays Bank, providing a dedicated team of Product Designers to support in-house brand, product, and innovation projects
+ Collaborated with Google’s innovation team to develop a playful AR game to encourage the citizens of Hong Kong to rediscover the everyday magic of their city 
+ Established a long-term strategic partnership with Tradestation, delivering expert design and product development support to enhance their trading platforms
+ Spearheaded the launch of a mobile app for LUMI, revolutionising piano learning with an illuminated keyboard, making musical education more accessible and engaging
+ Developed a new product experience for Black Market, helping them to build trust in the purchase of preloved devices

CLIENTS
+ Barclays, McKinsey, Google, Fidelity, TradeStation, Abcam, Edwin, The Guardian, Richard Mille, LSO, Sky, Nike, BackMarket, King's College London, ROLI & Intermusica

AWARDS:
+ ‘Top 50 Creative Agencies’ - Design Week
+ ‘UK’s top 30 studios’ - Computer Arts
+ 20x Webby Awards, 21x Lovie Awards, 3xD&AD, 6X NYC Festival, 12xAwwwards

Client Strategy Director

Miura - Looking Further

Miura is a brand and digital agency that helps clients achieve business growth through a customer-centred approach to strategy, experience design, and transformation.

MY ROLE:
As Managing Partner, I led the business alongside the founder and provided hands-on consultancy to senior client stakeholders, focusing on brand, product strategy, innovation, and customer experience. 

ACHIEVEMENTS:
+ Orchestrated a comprehensive one-year rebranding initiative for V.Group, the world's largest ship management company, collaborating closely with the CEO and Board to facilitate the sale of the business
+ Designed and developed ‘Market Masters,’ a mobile trading app for S&P Global Platts, enhancing brand awareness and driving client acquisition in emerging markets
+ Created a distinctive brand identity and placemaking strategy for Greystar’s Greenford Quay, an iconic canal-side residential development in west London
+ Formulated a digital strategy for Argent, supporting a decade-long redevelopment plan for Kings Cross, focusing on transforming the area while driving substantial business growth

Managing Partner

Design Council

MY ROLE:
The Design Council is the UK’s national strategic body for design. As part of the Business & Strategy Team, I developed design-led innovation services to help public and private sector clients innovate and build innovation capability.  

ACHIEVEMENTS:
+ Pioneered new innovation services that were adopted by 11 university clients, directly supporting 30 research teams in developing commercialisation plans, raising investment, and securing licensing deals and spinouts, with standout projects like Navetas, Sugru, and SnapFashion
+ Successfully recruited and managed a network of over 50 ‘Design Associates’ to deliver accredited services nationwide, establishing a scalable ‘plug and play’ operational model for third-party agents
+ Led strategic initiatives, including a comprehensive service portfolio review and contributed to a 5-year vision and operational plan as part of an executive working group
+ Secured £1 million in government grant funding to expand a new university-focused innovation service across the UK
+ Managed relationships with major stakeholders including Virgin, Hewlett Packard, The IP Group, and The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills

Head of Innovation

Booz Allen Hamilton

MY ROLE:
Booz Allen is a global consultancy with expertise in business strategy, technology and organisational change. For their Government division, I worked internationally on economic development programmes funded by USAID. My role was to advise SMEs in emerging markets on harnessing the power of design and innovation to improve competitiveness.

ACHIEVEMENTS:
+ Co-led initiative to develop premium-priced products for national food retailer
+ Developed a New Product Development process for a leading apparel brand and secured new export contracts
+ Launched national innovation award and training programme for 100+ business leaders

Senior Business Consultant, Emerging Markets

The Bank Relationship Consultancy

MY ROLE:
Boutique cash and treasury management consultancy based in the heart of the City. I was responsible for BRCs research portfolio and provided consultancy services to global banking clients, including Citibank, Bank of America, Bank of Scotland, Barclays, HSBC and ABN-AMRO.

ACHIEVEMENTS:
+ Delivered a comprehensive audit of 100+ European Bank's preparedness for the Euro and Y2K on behalf of the Omnicom Group
+ Led a 2-year pan-European research project into cash management practices and generated sales income of £500,000

Market Analyst

The Business Research Unit

MY ROLE:
TBRU is a full-service market research agency.  I was responsible for conducting desk research, focus groups, expert interviews and quantitative research for FMCG brands including Sainsbury’s, IBM, Cannon and MFI.

Account Executive

Digital Leader specialising in Strategy, Customer Experience & Transformation. 

I combine creativity and pragmatism to help clients navigate the increasingly complex and ubiquitous (but often confusing) digital world.

As a customer-centric champion I am committed to creating exceptional user experiences through cutting-edge technology and innovation. With a proven track record I have developed award-winning digital projects for global brands such as Google and McKinsey, and led complex transformation programmes for large enterprises and government departments.

My expertise lies in distilling complexity into insightful thinking, identifying tech-led growth opportunities and building consensus for action among senior stakeholders. I am adept at inspiring teams to achieve business objectives through strong leadership and empathy. 

Combining prior experience in management consultancy, product innovation and technology, I have developed a diverse skill set and the digital authority required to support and drive value from cross-functional transformation efforts, from strategy to delivery.

I possess a natural entrepreneurial drive with a strong point of view and a high degree of personal ownership. I am action-oriented and comfortable taking the lead or being part of an expert team.

—--

Areas of expertise: 
+ Digital Strategy & Transformation, Solution Design/Execution, Change Management, Digital Enablement, Customer Experience, Product Strategy, Sales & New Business, Client Relationships, Account Growth, Team Leadership, and Operations.

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