I believe you've described "investing with a hope for a profitable return" which is usually the point of investing.

Circular investing is a thing that is happening with all of these companies related to language models. Google hoping for a ROI isn't a great example of that.

Since when is leasing capacity in a datacenter considered investing?

Buying the 5 percent stake is investing, but is paying them to be sure they can IPO normal? It reminds me more of Microsoft paying apple or Google paying Firefox or something.