AI Tokens Vs. AI Stocks: Promises Vs. Profits

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Artificial intelligence dominates market conversations, spawning two competing investment narratives. One rides on blockchain promises and decentralized computing dreams. The other ships actual chips,...

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AI Stocks: Promises Vs. Profits\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2025-12-16 00:53 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://www.benzinga.com/Opinion/25/12/49398673/ai-tokens-vs-ai-stocks-promises-versus-profits><strong>Benzinga_recent_news</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>Artificial intelligence dominates market conversations, spawning two competing investment narratives. One rides on blockchain promises and decentralized computing dreams. The other ships actual chips,...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.benzinga.com/Opinion/25/12/49398673/ai-tokens-vs-ai-stocks-promises-versus-profits\">Source Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","isBrief":false,"type":0,"news_type":1,"symbol":"LU1732800096.USD","symbol_name":"摩根大通环球收益基金A (irc)","start_time":0,"source_url":"https://www.benzinga.com/Opinion/25/12/49398673/ai-tokens-vs-ai-stocks-promises-versus-profits","article_id":"2591231836","we_media_id":null,"thumbnails":["https://static.tigerbbs.com//next-assets/images/benzinga-post-card-placeholder.svg?optimize=medium&dpr=2&auto=webp&width=240?op=imageView2&mode=2&width=256&height=256&quality=70&format=png"],"rights":{"source":"benzinga_recent_news","url":"https://www.benzinga.com/Opinion/25/12/49398673/ai-tokens-vs-ai-stocks-promises-versus-profits","rn_cache_url":null,"directOrigin":true},"url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2591231836","pubTimestamp":1765817580,"columns":[],"sourceInfo":{"source_id":"benzinga_recent_news","name":"Benzinga"},"weMediaInfo":null,"summary":"Artificial intelligence dominates market conversations, spawning two competing investment narratives. 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One rides on blockchain promises and decentralized computing dreams. The other ships actual chips, generates billions in profit, and pays real dividends. As we head toward 2026, the gap between AI cryptocurrency tokens and traditional AI stocks isn’t just wide. It’s becoming a canyon.\nAI tokens currently sit at a combined market cap of $30.6 billion. That represents a sharp 28% decline from $70.4 billion reached on December 7, barely over a week ago. Projects like Bittensor (CRYPTO: TAO), NEAR Protocol (CRYPTO: NEAR), and Internet Computer (CRYPTO: ICP) have hemorrhaged value despite sophisticated narratives about decentralized machine learning and blockchain AI infrastructure.\nNow compare that to NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), which posted fiscal 2025 revenue of $130.5 billion, growing 114% year over year. The company’s data center division alone generated $35.6 billion in Q4 fiscal 2025, a figure that exceeds the entire AI token market by $5 billion. This isn’t speculation about future adoption. This is revenue collected from customers paying for actual products today.\nThe infrastructure spending gap reveals even more. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) collectively spent approximately $380 billion on AI infrastructure throughout calendar year 2025, which is now wrapping up. All four companies have signaled they plan to spend even more in 2026.\nAmazon expects its 2025 capital expenditures to hit $125 billion, with the vast majority directed toward AWS infrastructure and AI data centers. Microsoft poured $88.7 billion into infrastructure during its fiscal 2025, which ended June 30. Meta raised its 2025 spending guidance to between $70 billion and $72 billion. Alphabet lifted its forecast to between $91 billion and $93 billion.\nThink about that for a second. AI tokens couldn’t fund a single quarter of Amazon’s infrastructure spending with their entire market capitalization. The scale difference isn’t just notable. It’s existential.\nCrypto projects excel at technical storytelling. Bittensor markets itself as a peer to peer intelligence network with proof of intelligence consensus. Virtuals Protocol promises AI agent infrastructure. Render Token (CRYPTO: RNDR) attempts to monetize distributed GPU rendering. These concepts sound innovative in whitepapers and conference presentations.\nRevenue disclosure remains conspicuously absent. Most AI token projects cite GitHub commits, node counts, and theoretical network capacity rather than actual paying customers or revenue figures. The gap between marketing narrative and business fundamentals sits uncomfortably wide.\nCompare that to Microsoft, which reported $76.4 billion in revenue for Q4 fiscal 2025, an 18% increase year over year. Azure surpassed $75 billion in annual revenue, growing 34% and contributing to a $13 billion annual revenue run rate specifically from AI products. GitHub Copilot serves millions of paying subscribers. Azure AI powers enterprise customers across every major industry. These aren’t theoretical use cases. They’re products generating measurable revenue from real businesses.\nAlphabet achieved its first ever $100 billion quarter in Q3 2025, posting $102.3 billion in revenue. Google Cloud reached $15.2 billion quarterly, growing 34% year over year, driven by demand for TPUs and Vertex AI services. AI Overviews achieved 2 billion monthly users. That’s adoption at scale that actually shows up in financial statements.\nMeta reported ad revenue jumped 26% to $50.1 billion in Q3 2025. The company’s AI recommendation systems increased engagement on Facebook and Threads, directly contributing to higher impression volumes and better pricing power. AI tools helped advertisers plan campaigns more effectively, translating into billions in incremental cash flow. This is AI monetization happening right now, not someday in a hypothetical future.\nWalk into any Fortune 500 company and you’ll find widespread adoption of Microsoft’s AI tools, Google’s AI services, and Amazon’s AI infrastructure. Companies are integrating these products into core business operations, generating measurable productivity gains that justify continued spending.\nAI token projects struggle to demonstrate comparable adoption. They point to wallet addresses, transaction volumes, and staking metrics, but rarely disclose paying customers or revenue from those customers. When pressed, they often cite pilot programs or proof of concepts rather than production deployments generating significant revenue.\nThe broader cryptocurrency market headwinds haven’t helped. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) fell below $90,000 in mid-December after dropping to $83,824 earlier this month, down nearly 30% from October highs above $108,000. This selloff hit AI tokens particularly hard because they lack the brand recognition and perceived digital scarcity that Bitcoin maintains.\nStablecoin inflows into exchanges dropped roughly 50% from $158 billion in August to approximately $76 billion by December 2025. The 90 day average fell from $130 billion to $118 billion. This liquidity drainage directly impacts AI tokens because it represents actual buying power leaving the market.\nMeanwhile, AI stocks continue attracting institutional capital. Nvidia’s market capitalization briefly touched $4 trillion during 2025. Microsoft and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) both surpassed $4 trillion valuations, driven by AI growth narratives supported by actual revenue and profit.\nWhen AI tokens peaked at $70.4 billion in early December, that entire market represented less than half of Nvidia’s quarterly data center revenue. The subsequent 28% crash brought valuations somewhat closer to their actual revenue generation, which for most projects approaches zero.\nTraditional AI stocks trade at premiums because they generate cash flow. Nvidia’s forward price to earnings ratio around 30 to 35 times might seem expensive until you remember it’s backed by $130.5 billion in annual revenue and billions in net income. Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta all produce substantial free cash flow that funds dividends, buybacks, and continued AI investment.\nAI tokens offer no earnings, no dividends, and no cash flow. Their value derives entirely from speculation about future utility and hope that adoption will eventually materialize. Some projects may succeed long term, but current valuations often assume perfect execution of completely unproven business models across competitive markets against well-funded incumbents.\nThe verdict heading into 2026 couldn’t be clearer. Traditional tech companies are capturing the overwhelming majority of AI related economic value. They’re generating hundreds of billions in revenue, serving millions of paying customers, and delivering measurable business results that show up in their financial statements every quarter.\nAll four major tech companies have signaled they’ll increase AI infrastructure spending in 2026. Meta CFO Susan Li stated capital expenditures will grow considerably larger next year. Microsoft expects its fiscal 2026 spending to accelerate after previously indicating growth would slow. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy emphasized the company will remain aggressive in investing capacity as demand stays strong.\nAI tokens trade primarily on narrative and technical possibility. While blockchain based AI infrastructure could theoretically offer advantages like decentralization and transparency, the market has decisively shown it values proven revenue over theoretical benefits. Until AI token projects demonstrate substantial paying customer bases and sustainable business models, this valuation gap will likely persist or widen further.\nFor investors seeking AI exposure, the choice between speculative tokens with no revenue and profitable companies generating billions quarterly shouldn’t require much deliberation. The AI revolution is happening right now, but it’s being monetized by Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta. Not by cryptocurrency tokens with market caps that couldn’t fund a single quarter of their infrastructure spending.\nThat’s not a prediction about what might happen. That’s the reality unfolding today.\nBenzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.","kind":"highlight","is_publish_news":true,"is_publish_highlight":false,"is_publish_live":false,"is_publish_wemedia":null,"editions":null,"column":"","sentiment":"0","news_tag":"","news_rank":0,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":0,"need_auth":false,"code":"91000000","status":"200"},"commentList":[{"id":511144907485824,"gmtCreate":1765824780759,"gmtModify":1765837028668,"author":{"id":"4194540426634072","authorId":"4194540426634072","name":"SanuSandip","avatar":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/default-avatar.jpg","vip":1,"crmLevel":11,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"authorIdStr":"4194540426634072","idStr":"4194540426634072"},"htmlText":"Share your opinion about this news…","listText":"Share your opinion about this news…","text":"Share your opinion about this news…","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/511144907485824","repostId":2591231836,"repostType":2,"repost":{"id":"2591231836","kind":"highlight","pubTimestamp":1765817580,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/2591231836?lang=en_US&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2025-12-16 00:53","market":"hk","language":"en","title":"AI Tokens Vs. AI Stocks: Promises Vs. Profits","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2591231836","media":"Benzinga_recent_news","summary":"Artificial intelligence dominates market conversations, spawning two competing investment narratives. One rides on blockchain promises and decentralized computing dreams. The other ships actual chips, generates billions in profit, and pays real dividends. As we head toward 2026, the gap between AI cryptocurrency tokens and traditional AI stocks isn’t just wide.","content":"<div>\n<p>Artificial intelligence dominates market conversations, spawning two competing investment narratives. One rides on blockchain promises and decentralized computing dreams. The other ships actual chips,...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.benzinga.com/Opinion/25/12/49398673/ai-tokens-vs-ai-stocks-promises-versus-profits\">Source Link</a>\n\n</div>\n","source":"benzinga_recent_news","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>AI Tokens Vs. AI Stocks: Promises Vs. Profits</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nAI Tokens Vs. AI Stocks: Promises Vs. Profits\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2025-12-16 00:53 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://www.benzinga.com/Opinion/25/12/49398673/ai-tokens-vs-ai-stocks-promises-versus-profits><strong>Benzinga_recent_news</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>Artificial intelligence dominates market conversations, spawning two competing investment narratives. One rides on blockchain promises and decentralized computing dreams. The other ships actual chips,...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.benzinga.com/Opinion/25/12/49398673/ai-tokens-vs-ai-stocks-promises-versus-profits\">Source Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"https://static.tigerbbs.com//next-assets/images/benzinga-post-card-placeholder.svg?optimize=medium&dpr=2&auto=webp&width=240?op=imageView2&mode=2&width=256&height=256&quality=70&format=png","relate_stocks":{"LU1732800096.USD":"摩根大通环球收益基金A (irc)","USAW.SI":"AMZN 3xLongSG261006","BK4549":"软银资本持仓","NVDS":"1.5倍做空NVDA ETF-Tradr","LU0006306889.USD":"SCHRODER ISF US LARGE CAP \"A\" (USD) INC AV","LU2473716301.USD":"ALLIANZ GLOBAL INTELLIGENT CITIES INCOME \"AMF\" (USD) INC","NVDU":"2倍做多NVDA ETF-Direxion","LU1814569148.SGD":"WELLINGTON GLOBAL QUALITY GROWTH \"D\" (SGDHDG) ACC","LU1670710661.SGD":"M&G (LUX) GLOBAL DIVIDEND \"A\" (SGD) INC","LU0476273544.USD":"CT (LUX) I GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY \"BU\" (USD) ACC","USJW.SI":"ALPHAB 3xLongSG261006","LU0788109477.HKD":"BGF GLOBAL ALLOCATION \"A2\" (HKDHGD) ACC","LU2065170008.USD":"M&G (LUX) GLOBAL MAXIMA \"A\" (USD) INC","AI":"C3.ai, Inc.","SG9999014914.USD":"UNITED GLOBAL QUALITY GROWTH (USDHDG) INC","NVDX":"2倍做多NVDA ETF-T-Rex","BK4504":"桥水持仓","IE000W1ABFV2.USD":"PIMCO BALANCED INCOME AND GROWTH \"R\" (USD) INC","NVD":"2倍做空NVDA ETF-GraniteShares","NVDY":"NVDA期权收益策略ETF-YieldMax","AMZN":"亚马逊","NVD2.UK":"2X NVIDIA ETP","GOOGL":"谷歌A","LU1235294995.USD":"FIDELITY GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY \"A\" (USDHDG) ACC","3NVD.UK":"LS 3X NVIDIA","NVDD":"1倍做空NVDA ETF-Direxion","NVD3.UK":"LS 3X NVIDIA","LU0056508442.USD":"贝莱德世界科技基金A2","SNVD.UK":"LS -1X NVIDIA","GOOG":"谷歌","NVDS.UK":"LS -1X NVIDIA","GB00B4LPDJ14.GBP":"FUNDSMITH EQUITY \"R\" (GBP) ACC","LU2326559502.SGD":"Natixis Loomis Sayles US Growth Equity P/A SGD-H","BK4503":"景林资产持仓","NVDA":"英伟达","LU1629891620.HKD":"ALLIANZ INCOME AND GROWTH \"AMG2\" (H2-HKD) INC","BK4122":"互联网与直销零售","META":"Meta Platforms, Inc.","IE00BKDWB100.SGD":"PINEBRIDGE US LARGE CAP RESEARCH ENHANCED \"A5H\" (SGDHDG) ACC","NVIW.SI":"NVDA 3xLongSG261006","BK4528":"SaaS概念","LU2458330243.SGD":"FRANKLIN SHARIAH TECHNOLOGY \"A-H1\" (SGDHDG) ACC","MACW.SI":"APPLE 3xLongSG261006","BK4505":"高瓴资本持仓","LU1633808545.USD":"ALLIANZ GLOBAL EQUITY GROWTH \"AT\" (USD) ACC","LU1244550577.SGD":"FTIF - Franklin Global Multi-Asset Income A (Mdis) SGD-H1","2NVD.UK":"2X NVIDIA ETP","MSFT":"微软"},"source_url":"https://www.benzinga.com/Opinion/25/12/49398673/ai-tokens-vs-ai-stocks-promises-versus-profits","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"2591231836","content_text":"Artificial intelligence dominates market conversations, spawning two competing investment narratives. One rides on blockchain promises and decentralized computing dreams. The other ships actual chips, generates billions in profit, and pays real dividends. As we head toward 2026, the gap between AI cryptocurrency tokens and traditional AI stocks isn’t just wide. It’s becoming a canyon.\nAI tokens currently sit at a combined market cap of $30.6 billion. That represents a sharp 28% decline from $70.4 billion reached on December 7, barely over a week ago. Projects like Bittensor (CRYPTO: TAO), NEAR Protocol (CRYPTO: NEAR), and Internet Computer (CRYPTO: ICP) have hemorrhaged value despite sophisticated narratives about decentralized machine learning and blockchain AI infrastructure.\nNow compare that to NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), which posted fiscal 2025 revenue of $130.5 billion, growing 114% year over year. The company’s data center division alone generated $35.6 billion in Q4 fiscal 2025, a figure that exceeds the entire AI token market by $5 billion. This isn’t speculation about future adoption. This is revenue collected from customers paying for actual products today.\nThe infrastructure spending gap reveals even more. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) collectively spent approximately $380 billion on AI infrastructure throughout calendar year 2025, which is now wrapping up. All four companies have signaled they plan to spend even more in 2026.\nAmazon expects its 2025 capital expenditures to hit $125 billion, with the vast majority directed toward AWS infrastructure and AI data centers. Microsoft poured $88.7 billion into infrastructure during its fiscal 2025, which ended June 30. Meta raised its 2025 spending guidance to between $70 billion and $72 billion. Alphabet lifted its forecast to between $91 billion and $93 billion.\nThink about that for a second. AI tokens couldn’t fund a single quarter of Amazon’s infrastructure spending with their entire market capitalization. The scale difference isn’t just notable. It’s existential.\nCrypto projects excel at technical storytelling. Bittensor markets itself as a peer to peer intelligence network with proof of intelligence consensus. Virtuals Protocol promises AI agent infrastructure. Render Token (CRYPTO: RNDR) attempts to monetize distributed GPU rendering. These concepts sound innovative in whitepapers and conference presentations.\nRevenue disclosure remains conspicuously absent. Most AI token projects cite GitHub commits, node counts, and theoretical network capacity rather than actual paying customers or revenue figures. The gap between marketing narrative and business fundamentals sits uncomfortably wide.\nCompare that to Microsoft, which reported $76.4 billion in revenue for Q4 fiscal 2025, an 18% increase year over year. Azure surpassed $75 billion in annual revenue, growing 34% and contributing to a $13 billion annual revenue run rate specifically from AI products. GitHub Copilot serves millions of paying subscribers. Azure AI powers enterprise customers across every major industry. These aren’t theoretical use cases. They’re products generating measurable revenue from real businesses.\nAlphabet achieved its first ever $100 billion quarter in Q3 2025, posting $102.3 billion in revenue. Google Cloud reached $15.2 billion quarterly, growing 34% year over year, driven by demand for TPUs and Vertex AI services. AI Overviews achieved 2 billion monthly users. That’s adoption at scale that actually shows up in financial statements.\nMeta reported ad revenue jumped 26% to $50.1 billion in Q3 2025. The company’s AI recommendation systems increased engagement on Facebook and Threads, directly contributing to higher impression volumes and better pricing power. AI tools helped advertisers plan campaigns more effectively, translating into billions in incremental cash flow. This is AI monetization happening right now, not someday in a hypothetical future.\nWalk into any Fortune 500 company and you’ll find widespread adoption of Microsoft’s AI tools, Google’s AI services, and Amazon’s AI infrastructure. Companies are integrating these products into core business operations, generating measurable productivity gains that justify continued spending.\nAI token projects struggle to demonstrate comparable adoption. They point to wallet addresses, transaction volumes, and staking metrics, but rarely disclose paying customers or revenue from those customers. When pressed, they often cite pilot programs or proof of concepts rather than production deployments generating significant revenue.\nThe broader cryptocurrency market headwinds haven’t helped. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) fell below $90,000 in mid-December after dropping to $83,824 earlier this month, down nearly 30% from October highs above $108,000. This selloff hit AI tokens particularly hard because they lack the brand recognition and perceived digital scarcity that Bitcoin maintains.\nStablecoin inflows into exchanges dropped roughly 50% from $158 billion in August to approximately $76 billion by December 2025. The 90 day average fell from $130 billion to $118 billion. This liquidity drainage directly impacts AI tokens because it represents actual buying power leaving the market.\nMeanwhile, AI stocks continue attracting institutional capital. Nvidia’s market capitalization briefly touched $4 trillion during 2025. Microsoft and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) both surpassed $4 trillion valuations, driven by AI growth narratives supported by actual revenue and profit.\nWhen AI tokens peaked at $70.4 billion in early December, that entire market represented less than half of Nvidia’s quarterly data center revenue. The subsequent 28% crash brought valuations somewhat closer to their actual revenue generation, which for most projects approaches zero.\nTraditional AI stocks trade at premiums because they generate cash flow. Nvidia’s forward price to earnings ratio around 30 to 35 times might seem expensive until you remember it’s backed by $130.5 billion in annual revenue and billions in net income. Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta all produce substantial free cash flow that funds dividends, buybacks, and continued AI investment.\nAI tokens offer no earnings, no dividends, and no cash flow. Their value derives entirely from speculation about future utility and hope that adoption will eventually materialize. Some projects may succeed long term, but current valuations often assume perfect execution of completely unproven business models across competitive markets against well-funded incumbents.\nThe verdict heading into 2026 couldn’t be clearer. Traditional tech companies are capturing the overwhelming majority of AI related economic value. They’re generating hundreds of billions in revenue, serving millions of paying customers, and delivering measurable business results that show up in their financial statements every quarter.\nAll four major tech companies have signaled they’ll increase AI infrastructure spending in 2026. Meta CFO Susan Li stated capital expenditures will grow considerably larger next year. Microsoft expects its fiscal 2026 spending to accelerate after previously indicating growth would slow. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy emphasized the company will remain aggressive in investing capacity as demand stays strong.\nAI tokens trade primarily on narrative and technical possibility. While blockchain based AI infrastructure could theoretically offer advantages like decentralization and transparency, the market has decisively shown it values proven revenue over theoretical benefits. Until AI token projects demonstrate substantial paying customer bases and sustainable business models, this valuation gap will likely persist or widen further.\nFor investors seeking AI exposure, the choice between speculative tokens with no revenue and profitable companies generating billions quarterly shouldn’t require much deliberation. The AI revolution is happening right now, but it’s being monetized by Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta. Not by cryptocurrency tokens with market caps that couldn’t fund a single quarter of their infrastructure spending.\nThat’s not a prediction about what might happen. That’s the reality unfolding today.\nBenzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.","news_type":1,"symbols_score_info":{"NVD2.UK":0.6,"AMZN":1,"SNVD.UK":0.6,"3NVD.UK":0.6,"NVDD":0.6,"NVDS.UK":0.6,"NVDX":0.6,"2NVD.UK":0.6,"GOOGL":1,"AI":0.9,"USJW.SI":0.6,"MSFT":1,"USAW.SI":0.6,"NVDA":1,"META":1,"GOOG":0.9,"MACW.SI":0.6,"NVDY":0.6,"NVD3.UK":0.6,"NVD":0.6,"NVDS":0.6,"NVIW.SI":0.6,"NVDU":0.6}},"isVote":1,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false,"reportStatus":false,"tweetType":1,"langContent":"EN"}],"isCommentEnd":false,"newsSizeData":{"likeSize":0,"commentSize":1,"repostSize":1,"favoriteSize":0,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false},"APP":{"userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)","isDev":false,"isTTM":true,"deviceId":"web-server-community-laohu8-v3","version":"4.35.12","shortVersion":"4.35.12","platform":"web","vendor":"web","appName":"ttm","isIOS":false,"isAndroid":false,"isTiger":false,"isTHS":false,"isWeiXin":false,"isWeiXinMini":false,"isWeiBo":false,"isQQ":false,"isBaiduSwan":false,"isBaiduBox":false,"isDingTalk":false,"isToutiao":false,"isOnePlus":false,"isHuaWei":false,"isXiaomi":false,"isXiaomiWebView":false,"isOppo":false,"isVivo":false,"isSamsung":false,"isMobile":false},"href":"/m/news/2591231836","isCrawlerRequest":true}