00:00 Brian Sozzi
There’s something called liberation day was heaved on to all our plates in April. Tariffs are in effect, crypto has finally been embraced by major financial institutions, and the Federal Reserve has started to cut interest rates again. But as soon as the Yahoo Finance team sat down to discuss who deserves to win our 11th annual company of the year award, one thing became abundantly clear. How can this year’s winner of our news room’s highest honor not be super grounded in AI? They can’t. 2025 has been the year where AI has permeated markets and infiltrated our everyday lives. Nvidia is still seen as the leader in AI chips, but Google is now nipping at its heels. Nvidia was also the first public company to ever reach a staggering $5 trillion dollar valuation. Rival AMD managed to make inroads into Nvidia’s domination, inking a headline making deal with OpenAI. The deal will bring massive money into AMD and find OpenAI as a long-term investor. Microsoft and OpenAI tightened up their relationship with an eye toward the next decade of AI. Qualcomm said it would get in on the AI chip game next year. Intel got two new investors in the US government and Nvidia. The Mag 7 players earmarked billions of dollars to build more data centers to support their AI ambitions. With that as a backdrop, it’s my honor to reveal the three contenders for our 11th annual company of the year award, OpenAI, Oracle, and Nvidia. Over the next week and a half, you will see us preview each of these companies and discuss why they are in the running to take home the crown. The big reveal of the winner winner will be on the morning of December 8th right on the Yahoo Finance homepage and our app with a full day of live coverage on this network. In the meantime, I want to hear from you. Who do you think should win our company of the year award and why out of these three? Have other worthy names? I would love to hear them too. Just drop me a line at Brian Sozzi on X, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Be sure to tag Yahoo Finance.