Nearly Two Years Later, Forbes’ Argument for Bittensor Is Worth Revisiting

In February 2025, Forbes published an article exploring how decentralized artificial intelligence could challenge the dominance of major technology companies, with Bittensor featured as an example of this emerging approach.

Written by Forbes contributor Tor Constantino, the article, titled How Big Tech, ChatGPT and DeepSeek Could Lose to Decentralized AI, examined how blockchain-based incentives, open participation and distributed computing could change who develops AI, who controls it and who benefits financially.

Why Forbes Saw an Opportunity for Decentralized AI

The article highlighted the enormous financial resources being committed to artificial intelligence. Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft were expected to invest approximately $320 billion in AI during 2025, illustrating the scale of capital behind centralized AI development.

Despite these investments, Constantino questioned whether centralized development would remain the dominant approach as decentralized alternatives matured.

Major AI companies control much of the infrastructure, models, pricing and access to their technologies. Decentralized AI offers an alternative where independent participants can contribute computing resources, data and AI capabilities while receiving economic rewards.

The article identified several potential advantages of this model, including financial incentives for contributors, distributed computing resources, greater transparency, open innovation, and more competitive pricing.

Why Bittensor Received Attention

Bittensor was highlighted as an operational example of decentralized AI.

The article discussed its subnet architecture, where specialized networks compete to produce useful AI services. Bittensor uses token incentives to reward contributors, creating a system in which independent participants can help develop AI capabilities.

Forbes also referenced Digital Currency Group (DCG) founder Barry Silbert’s vision of Bittensor as the “World Wide Web of intelligence.”

Silbert compared Bittensor’s potential expansion to the early internet, when open participation enabled rapid growth in websites and online services.

18 months ago, @BarrySilbert joined @RaoulGMI to discuss his conviction in Bittensor and why he believes it could be the next big thing in crypto and AI. pic.twitter.com/qUY2VFUHeC

— The TAO Daily (@taodaily_io) October 19, 2026

Could Decentralized AI Really Challenge Big Tech?

One of the central arguments in the Forbes article was that the future of AI development might not need to depend entirely on a handful of companies with enormous capital and computing infrastructure.

Bittensor presents a different approach, allowing independent developers, miners, and validators to compete in producing valuable AI capabilities while receiving rewards for their contributions.

However, the potential advantages of decentralized AI do not automatically establish superiority over centralized alternatives. Decentralized networks still need to demonstrate that they can consistently deliver competitive performance, reliability and pricing.

Nearly two years later, Bittensor has made considerable progress. The network has expanded from 64 to 128 subnet slots, with projects delivering products across AI inference, GPU computing, robotics, weather forecasting, cybersecurity and more. Subnets like Lium (SN51), Chutes (SN64) and Targon (SN4) are serving paying customers, while others are demonstrating what decentralized competition can produce in specialized AI applications.

The commercial progress is particularly notable. By October 2026, Bittensor’s subnets had surpassed $50 million in estimated annualized revenue from external customers, according to SubConnect, growing more than 40% in a month. Some projects are also using revenue to buy back their alpha tokens, connecting commercial activity to their subnet economies.

Bittensor has not displaced Big Tech, but the ecosystem Forbes highlighted in February 2025 is now demonstrating that decentralized AI can deliver working products, attract customers, and generate real revenue.

Source: Forbes, February 12, 2025. The article represents the views of Forbes contributor Tor Constantino.