The important part is that started from zero and went through all the steps to production in 8 weeks.
And I assume it is not the only thing he did, presumably he did that in addition to what he was hired for. When he found that bug, he probably did a good enough impression so that the company let him work on it.
Most interns introduce more bugs than they fix, and are usually assigned internal tools and other noncritical code for that reason. A net 1 bug fix is already a good score.
> The important part is that started from zero and went through all the steps to production in 8 weeks.
Why is that important? That may be personally impressive, but it's unclear how the company benefits from the intern starting from zero.
> And I assume it is not the only thing he did, presumably he did that in addition to what he was hired for. When he found that bug, he probably did a good enough impression so that the company let him work on it.
That's a lot to assume with no evidence. None of this was stated by the OP.
> An internship is just a glorified interview process. They found a good future employee
Why are you assuming that? The OP said nothing about the intern become an employee, much less a good employee. You'd think that would be mentioned if it were the case.
It is the definition of an internship. They’ve de-risked this hire. Now they can do things like offer a more competitive offer or otherwise close the candidate with high confidence
Short-sighted companies with high turnover probably won't see the benefits, companies that actually give their employees careers definitely will. It is all about potential, what is 8 weeks of internship if you expect your employees to stay for a decade or more? It may not be the culture of Silicon Valley, but the Silicon Valley culture is more the exception than the norm (at least for decent companies).
The intern fixed 1 bug in 8 weeks. That hardly seems to be star quality.