Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson

Latest Episodes:

(Preview) Apple Flunks a Vision Pro Test, Microsoft Unbundles Teams from Office, AI and Energy Consumption Apr 02, 2024

Show notes

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

Scheduling Note: There will be only one episode of Sharp Tech this week

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

MLS on Vision Pro, The Vision Pro’s Missing Content, The Vision Pro’s DRI — Stratechery Update

An Interview with Hugo Barra About a Career in Tech and the Future of VR — Stratechery Interview

Exclusive: Microsoft to separate Teams and Office globally amid antitrust scrutiny — Reuters

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

New Laws to Regulate Big Tech, The Distinction Between Platforms and Aggregators, Apple’s API and Accessories Mar 28, 2024

Show notes

Follow-up on Apple and the DOJ, including new antitrust laws Ben would like to see, distinctions between platforms and aggregators in a regulatory context, and both sides of the Apple API argument. At the end: Attempts to bridge antitrust confusion and a rant on Boeing’s CEO search.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

Scheduling Note: There will be only one episode of Sharp Tech next week

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

United States v. Apple — Stratechery

Apple and Antitrust for Aggregators, DMA Investigations and Apple’s Risk — Stratechery Update

Apple and the Monopoly Question, iPhone Market Share, Apple’s Durability — Stratechery Update

A Framework for Regulating Competition on the Internet — Stratechery

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

(Preview) US v. Apple, Specific Allegations and Broad Implications, The Decisions that Made Apple a Target Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

A closer look at the US v. Apple complaint, including the good and bad of the introductory rhetoric, debate over the notion that consumers have co-signed Apple's control of the app store, text messaging technology, smartwatches, what Apple has always offered consumers, and the strategic decisions that made the company an attractive antitrust target.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

United States v. Apple — Stratechery

The Supreme Court Declines to Hear Apple-Epic, Apple’s (Predictable) Response — Stratechery Update

Integrated Apple and App Store Risk — Stratechery

App Store Arguments — Stratechery

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

Nvidia Searches for a Moat at AI Woodstock, The Blackwell B200, Microsoft’s Deal with Inflection AI Mar 21, 2024

Show notes

An AI day for Sharp Tech. Topics include: Nvidia’s GTC and the Blackwell B200 GPU, Nvidia’s strategic calculus after achieving product market fit, whether Google missed a chance to market TPUs to a wider audience, the logic underlying Microsoft’s bizarre arrangement with Inflection AI, and Apple’s rumored talks about a partnership with Google Gemini.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

Nvidia Unveils Latest Chips at ‘AI Woodstock’ — Wall Street Journal

Nvidia Looks to Extend AI Dominance With New Blackwell Chips — Bloomberg

Nvidia Waves and Moats — Stratechery

Microsoft and Inflection AI, Inflection Oddities, The Acquisition That Isn’t — Stratechery Update

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

(Preview) Monetizing WhatsApp, Big Companies and Big Company Incentives, Why the New York Times Has a Podcast App Mar 18, 2024

Show notes

A closer look at Meta's strategy with WhatsApp, why Disney's failure to buy Google in 1999 shouldn't be surprising, Apple's doomed car project and attendant AI ambitions, and a question about the New York Times spawns discussion of the podcast industry, in general.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

WhatsApp launches in-chat payments service for businesses in India — Financial Times

Strategy Letter V — Joel on Software

The incredible shrinking podcast industry — Semafor

How Apple Sank About $1 Billion a Year Into a Car It Never Built — Bloomberg

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

(Preview) Reddit Goes Public, Reddit and Evolution on the Internet, The Company that Should Buy TikTok Mar 14, 2024

Show notes

A look at Reddit’s business as well as the company’s message board DNA, examining some of the opposition to this week’s TikTok legislation, and at the end, identifying the company that should buy TikTok.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

Reddit S-1, Reddit’s Prospects, Reddit Grows Up — Stratechery Update

Congress Considering TikTok Ban, TikTok’s War, What Now? — Stratechery Update

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

(Preview) Congress and TikTok, Listening to China to Understand the TikTok Concerns, Empty First Amendment Arguments Mar 11, 2024

Show notes

The latest legislative push to address TikTok’s relationship to ByteDance, Ben’s 2020 analysis of the threats posed by the app, the arguments and interests opposing a ban, and why US freedoms may ultimately be the best defense against a foreign influence campaign.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

Congress Considering TikTok Ban, TikTok’s War, What Now? — Stratechery Update

The TikTok War — Stratechery

Xi Jinping Thought, Facebook’s Blindspot, The Moat Map Revisited — Stratechery Update

Lulu Cheng Meservey — @lulumeservey

Engineers of the Soul: Ideology in Xi Jinping's China by John Garnaut — Sinocism

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

(Preview) Elon Musk Sues OpenAI, Apple’s Bizarre Epic Misstep, What Microsoft Could Teach Google Mar 07, 2024

Show notes

A closer look at Elon Musk’s lawsuit, why it will probably fail, and the OpenAI concerns Musk highlights that remain relevant. Then: Apple’s latest App Store crusade, some amateur psychology, and an emailer’s Google observation yields a Microsoft history lesson.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

Elon Musk Sues OpenAI, Sam Altman, Saying They Abandoned Founding Mission — Wall Street Journal

Elon Musk vs. OpenAI, OpenAI’s Response, OpenAI’s Foundational Problem — Stratechery Update

Elon Musk’s legal case against OpenAI is hilariously bad — The Verge

OpenAI and Elon Musk — OpenAI Blog

Apple Fined by European Commission, Apple’s Spotify Press Release, Apple Revokes Epic’s Developer Account (Again) — Stratechery Update

Post from Tim Sweeney — X: @TimSweeneyEpic

Post from Paul Graham — X: @paulg

Complexity and Strategy — HackerNoon

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

The Road to Personalized LLM Answers, The AI Risk for Aggregators, Anthropic Releases a ‘Near-Human’ Claude 3 Mar 05, 2024

Show notes

The challenges posed by AI as aggregators like Meta and Google deploy models around the around, why personalized LLM output might be a long term solution, and reactions to the latest release from Anthropic and the current pace of AI progress. At the end: A word about Perplexity.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

Aggregator’s AI Risk — Stratechery

Google's Culture of Fear — Pirate Wires

The AI wars heat up with Claude 3, claimed to have “near-human” abilities — Ars Technica

The End of the Beginning — Stratechery

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

(Preview) Pichai's Gemini Letter, Nvidia and TSMC and Market Structure, The End of the Apple Car Feb 29, 2024

Show notes

The letter from Sundar Pichai in the wake of a Gemini’s disastrous week, the relationship between TSMC and Nvidia (and why Intel is part of the conversation), and an emailer asks Ben to compare Apple’s now-abandoned car ambitions with Google’s investment in Waymo. At the end: A Vision Pro question and a new Formula One season.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

Gemini and Google’s Culture — Stratechery

Google CEO says Gemini AI diversity errors are ‘completely unacceptable’ — The Verge

An Interview with Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross Reasoning About AI — Stratechery Interview

Get Sharp Tech Premium, Sharp China, Stratechery Update, Stratechery Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $12/month.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson

Related Podcasts

1

2

3

4

5

6