>AI Hype Collapse Tracker: Which Companies Are Overhyped?
Which AI companies are overhyped in 2026?
Block currently leads with a hype gap score of 17.3, meaning its marketing output significantly outpaces measurable delivery. Across 100 companies analyzed, the Hype Collapse Tracker splits them into three tiers: Hype Rising, Reality Check, and Consistently Honest.
Hype gap = Hype Score minus Reality Score. Updated every 10 minutes from live event and signal data across 100+ AI companies.
Analyst consensus on AI company credibility increasingly depends on the gap between what companies announce and what they deliver. This tracker classifies 100 AI companies by their hype_reality.trend signal into three tiers — giving investors, journalists, and researchers a data-backed view of which companies are building versus broadcasting.
Hype Rising: Gap Increasing
These companies are generating marketing output faster than they are producing verifiable results. The hype-to-reality gap is actively widening — their public narrative is running ahead of their execution. High hype gap scores combined with an increasing trend are the strongest signal for potential credibility risk.
| Company | Hype Gap Score | Trend | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block | 17.3 | → | significant hype |
Reality Check: Gap Decreasing
Companies in the Reality Check tier may have had elevated hype gap scores in the past, but their execution is catching up. The gap is narrowing — either because marketing has cooled, measurable output has increased, or both. This tier is worth watching: a decreasing gap often precedes improved credibility and ranking momentum.
No companies currently show a decreasing hype gap. Check back as new events are analyzed.
Consistently Honest: Stable Low Gap
These companies maintain a stable, low hype gap — their public claims are closely aligned with verifiable execution over time. Low hype gap combined with a stable trend is the profile of a company that under-promises and over-delivers. Historically, companies in this tier are often undervalued relative to their actual output velocity.
| Company | Hype Gap Score | Trend | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deepgram | -25.0 | → | significantly under hyped |
| Snowflake | -7.5 | → | significantly under hyped |
| Databricks | -5.2 | → | under hyped |
| Cisco | -4.8 | → | under hyped |
| Western Digital | -4.8 | → | under hyped |
| ServiceNow | -4.3 | → | under hyped |
| Asus | -4.3 | → | under hyped |
| Hetzner | -3.8 | → | under hyped |
| Stability AI | -3.5 | → | under hyped |
| Mastercard | -3.1 | → | under hyped |
| Visa | -2.7 | → | balanced |
| HuggingFace | -1.9 | → | balanced |
| Cerebras | -1.9 | → | balanced |
| Bytedance | -1.6 | → | balanced |
| LM Studio | -1.3 | → | balanced |
| Valve | -0.9 | → | balanced |
| Dell | -0.9 | → | balanced |
| Xiaomi | -0.7 | → | balanced |
| Twilio | -0.6 | → | balanced |
| Mistral AI | -0.5 | → | balanced |
| DeepSeek | -0.3 | → | balanced |
| World Labs | -0.1 | → | balanced |
| AMD | 0.0 | → | balanced |
| Sony | 0.0 | → | balanced |
| Mercor | 0.0 | → | balanced |
| Intel | 0.1 | → | balanced |
| Bose | 0.2 | → | balanced |
| Huawei | 0.3 | → | balanced |
| Nvidia | 0.4 | → | balanced |
| CrewAI | 0.4 | → | balanced |
| xAI | 0.4 | → | balanced |
| Tencent | 0.7 | → | balanced |
| Cognizant | 0.9 | → | balanced |
| Tesla | 1.0 | → | balanced |
| Cloudflare | 1.0 | → | balanced |
| HubSpot | 1.2 | → | balanced |
| Adobe | 1.2 | → | balanced |
| Salesforce | 1.4 | → | balanced |
| Runway | 1.4 | → | balanced |
| Samsung | 1.6 | → | balanced |
| SambaNova | 1.6 | → | balanced |
| Blackstone | 1.6 | → | balanced |
| a16z | 1.7 | → | balanced |
| ElevenLabs | 1.8 | → | balanced |
| Perplexity | 2.1 | → | balanced |
| Microsoft | 2.3 | → | balanced |
| Lenovo | 2.3 | → | balanced |
| TSMC | 2.4 | → | balanced |
| MiniMax | 2.9 | → | balanced |
| SAP | 2.9 | → | balanced |
| 3.0 | → | moderate hype | |
| Baseten | 3.0 | → | moderate hype |
| Moonshot AI | 3.0 | → | moderate hype |
| Zhipu AI | 3.1 | → | moderate hype |
| Uber | 3.2 | → | moderate hype |
| Apple | 3.3 | → | moderate hype |
| Disney | 3.5 | → | moderate hype |
| WordPress | 3.6 | → | moderate hype |
| Palantir | 3.7 | → | moderate hype |
| OpenAI | 3.7 | → | moderate hype |
| Accenture | 3.7 | → | moderate hype |
| Oracle | 3.9 | → | moderate hype |
| Meta | 4.0 | → | moderate hype |
| Alibaba | 4.0 | → | moderate hype |
| Ai2 | 4.0 | → | moderate hype |
| IBM | 4.1 | → | moderate hype |
| Deloitte | 4.3 | → | moderate hype |
| Amazon | 4.4 | → | moderate hype |
| Anthropic | 4.6 | → | moderate hype |
| Shopify | 4.9 | → | moderate hype |
| Humain | 5.0 | → | moderate hype |
| AT&T | 5.2 | → | moderate hype |
| Qualcomm | 5.3 | → | moderate hype |
| Netflix | 5.3 | → | moderate hype |
| Cohere | 5.5 | → | moderate hype |
| Coinbase | 5.6 | → | moderate hype |
| SpaceX | 5.9 | → | moderate hype |
| Y Combinator | 5.9 | → | moderate hype |
| Mozilla | 6.1 | → | moderate hype |
| Vercel | 6.1 | → | moderate hype |
| Spotify | 6.2 | → | moderate hype |
| Z.ai | 6.3 | → | moderate hype |
| Intuit | 6.7 | → | moderate hype |
| Figma | 6.7 | → | moderate hype |
| Goldman Sachs | 7.0 | → | significant hype |
| Stripe | 7.2 | → | significant hype |
| Snyk | 7.7 | → | significant hype |
| Arm | 7.9 | → | significant hype |
| Datadog | 8.0 | → | significant hype |
| Epic Games | 8.3 | → | significant hype |
| Anker | 8.7 | → | significant hype |
| McKinsey | 9.0 | → | significant hype |
| Wayve | 9.0 | → | significant hype |
| Nintendo | 9.6 | → | significant hype |
| Toyota | 9.7 | → | significant hype |
| Coursera | 9.7 | → | significant hype |
| ASML | 9.8 | → | significant hype |
People Also Ask
Block currently holds the highest hype gap score at 17.3, indicating its marketing narrative significantly outpaces its measurable product and funding activity. The Hype Rising section tracks all companies where this gap is actively widening.
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Data last updated: Feb 26, 2026, 8:15 PM