Good morning. Tokenmaxxing quickly became one of the buzziest metrics in enterprise AI.

Fortune’s Jeremy Kahn reported that tokenmaxxing turned into a status symbol at some big tech companies, where engineers were urged to climb leaderboards by burning more AI tokens. Critics argue that the practice skewed incentives and exposed a broader gap between AI spending and actual productivity gains.

I recently spoke with Dermot McDonogh, the CFO of BNY, which is making major strides with AI. While some companies track success by the volume of prompts, tokens, or agents deployed, McDonogh said that framing never took hold inside BNY.

“It’s not something we spend any time talking about,” he told me, noting that token costs are “modest within modest” relative to the firm’s broader engineering budget. Even as the topic gained traction externally, the bank’s leadership prepared to address it—but ultimately viewed it as a distraction from more meaningful measures of value.

McDonogh said that BNY had an early and deliberate AI strategy. Since the emergence of ChatGPT, the bank has spent several years building an internal, LLM-agnostic platform and forging partnerships across hyperscalers and model providers. Just as important, he said, has been CEO-level commitment and a focus on cultural adoption.

“There’s been a demystification,” McDonogh said. “People don’t feel insecure about AI. That’s a really important cultural point.”

That approach has allowed BNY to scale AI without fixating on cost per query. Internally, systems route tasks to the appropriate models, ensuring efficiency without requiring employees to optimize prompts manually. “I couldn’t tell you how many prompts we did last week,” he said. “I’m focused more on outcomes.”

Those outcomes are increasingly measurable. In the first quarter of 2026, more than 40% of BNY’s code was authored by AI, rising to roughly 50% more recently. AI is also embedded across operations: about half of annual account plans are drafted with AI, 25% of client onboarding is AI-supported, and roughly 70% of restricted-party payment screening is reviewed by AI.

The impact is showing up in financial metrics. Revenue per employee rose from $338,000 in 2022 to $401,000 in 2025, while pre-tax income per employee increased from $99,000 to $143,000 over the same period.

McDonogh frames these gains less as cost savings and more as capacity creation. “We haven’t reduced the footprint, but it’s allowed us to do more with the footprint that we have,” he said.

To track progress, BNY measures AI impact across core workflows—including innovating, prospecting, onboarding, transacting, and streamlining—while continuously building out its internal “Eliza” platform. The system serves as a firm-wide context layer, improving over time as it ingests more data and use cases.

Employee adoption is also structured. Staff progress through three levels of AI proficiency, culminating in a “pioneer” designation that requires formal training and testing. Access to more advanced models is gated by expertise, reinforcing both quality and accountability.

Within finance specifically, AI is already reshaping core processes. McDonogh points to regulatory reporting, balance sheet analytics and predictive modeling as key use cases. The technology is also playing a growing role in earnings preparation, helping synthesize analyst expectations and anticipate investor questions.

For McDonogh, the takeaway is straightforward: AI productivity is not about how much you use, but how effectively it changes what an organization can do.

Intel (INTC -0.89%) has been a monster stock so far in 2026. It has risen by around 150%, but it’s still well below its peak. Intel’s stock has plummeted around 35% from its all-time high, set just a few weeks ago at the end of June.

Since then, Intel has reported some incredible figures, including one that broke a nearly 15-year-old record. That points to an imminent turnaround and could justify some of Intel’s incredible performance over the past year.

Investors are likely taking gains

Intel is a true turnaround story. Last year, rumors were swirling about its semiconductor foundry business being shut down due to a lack of clients. However, thanks to an investment from the U.S. government and Nvidia, that hasn’t happened, and Intel appears to be turning the corner.

Today’s Change

(-0.89%) $-0.82

Current Price

$91.50

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$461BMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.

Day’s Range

$86.95 – $94.98

52wk Range

$18.96 – $142.35

Volume

4.9M

Avg Vol

131.6M

Gross Margin

39.05%

This was confirmed by a stellar Q2 earnings report in which Intel delivered 25% revenue growth — its best since 2011. That’s a clear sign that Intel could finally be turning the corner, and a closer look reveals that its foundry business grew at 31%.

That’s exactly what investors were looking for, but it will take several quarters before the market declares Intel’s turnaround complete. Intel’s stock is still highly valued, and it will take a few years to return to a reasonable valuation.

INTC PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

At 60 times forward earnings and 46 times next year’s earnings, the stock price has accounted for nearly all of Intel’s short-term success. As a result, investors are likely taking some gains off the table amid the current sell-off. There’s nothing wrong with that, as Intel’s stock has been a monster winner over the year since the investment from the U.S. government and Nvidia was announced.

But does that mean now is the time to buy the dip? I don’t think so.

There is currently negative sentiment surrounding the AI build-out. That may flip after big tech earnings conclude, but with the market worried about an AI overbuild, I don’t see this sentiment ending anytime soon, and it could lead to a further sell-off in Intel’s stock.

Intel just delivered the biggest news for investors in over a decade, reporting rapid growth, and the stock still sold off. That should tell you a lot about the sentiment behind Intel’s stock, and I think smart investors are staying patient until the sell-off stabilizes.