Artificial intelligence (AI) is the most revolutionary technology in a generation. The industry is still in its infancy, but Wall Street's forecasts suggest AI could add anywhere between $7 trillion and $200 trillion to the global economy during the next decade. According to an estimate from investment bank Morgan Stanley, four technology giants alone could invest a combined $300 billion in capital expenditures (capex) in 2025.

Last week, space news site Payload Space told the heartwarming tale of a small Ukrainian company, "Promin," and its quixotic quest to build a new rocket by joining some of the best Soviet-era rocket scientists with American corporate know-how. Based in Dnipro, not far from the front lines in war-ravaged southeastern Ukraine, Promin was working toward its first rocket launch when Russia invaded in 2022. There, the Maine Space Corporation has helped the Ukrainian start-up find U.S. partners -- including tech giant Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) -- and establish a development and testing site at a former Naval Air Station.

The excitement of investing in a company that can reverse its fortunes is a big draw for some speculators, so even...

While the market has been in a festive move to close out the year, the recent pullback in Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) looks like a gift. The chipmaker has been the biggest beneficiary of the AI infrastructure buildout, as its graphic processing units (GPUs) provide the computing power for both training large language models (LLMs) and AI inference. While not the only GPU maker, Nvidia has created a wide moat though its CUDA software program.

Each week, Quartz rounds up product launches, updates, and funding news from artificial intelligence-focused startups and companies.