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.
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.
Since when is leasing capacity in a datacenter considered investing?