Buzzwords 2025: All the words and phrases that went viral this year

Mr Trump also instigated tough trade policies , though the world economy remained remarkably resilient and is forecast to grow by around 3% in 2025. His big-bang “Liberation Day” tariffs in April led to the biggest fall in stockmarkets for the year. The S&P 500 tumbled by 4.9% in a day (and a further 6% on the following day) and the NASDAQ by 6%. Many tariffs were eventually lowered or postponed, however, leading stockmarkets to bounce back. Overall, they had another good year.

The bosses of OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank joined Mr Trump at the White House soon after his inauguration to announce the Stargate project, a $500bn investment in the infrastructure for artificial intelligence. A new AI industrial policy emerged in America, with the government taking a 10% stake in Intel.

The pace and size of AI deals were mind-boggling, $50bn here, $300bn there, and stocks in AI-related companies soared. Nvidia became the world’s first $4trn company, and just a few months later the first $5trn one (albeit briefly). Investors have some doubts, however, about whether all that spending on AI will produce profits.