Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson

Latest Episodes:

(Preview) New iPhones and an Absence of Awe, How Oracle Wins in the AI Era, Questions on MidJourney, Meta, and Armageddon Sep 12, 2025

Show notes

Thoughts on Apple's new generation of iPhones—which are genuinely exciting—and why the underwhelmed reaction from fans and analysts reflects choices that Apple made a long time ago and a new direction that lowers the ceiling on any release. From there: Mail on Apple's messaging and the competition in China, Oracle's strategy in the AI era, Midjourney and Meta, the strategic logic (or not) of Reality Labs investments, whether and how Netflix could attempt a Disney-ification (at the Sphere? via acquisition?), and a message to the Armageddon heretics.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

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iPhones 17 and the Sugar Water Trap — Stratechery

Oracle stock gains 36% to post best day since 1992, adding $244 billion in value — CNBC

Ellison Tops Musk as World’s Richest Man After $101 Billion Gain — Bloomberg

An Interview with Midjourney Founder David Holz about Generative AI, VR, and Silicon Valley — Stratechery Interview

Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.

(Preview) Google and Apple Avert Disaster, More on Kpop Demon Hunters and Hollywood, Mail on Microsoft, Adobe and ASML Sep 05, 2025

Show notes

Talking through Google’s big win in court this week, including the confounding opinion from Judge Amit Mehta, a strategy that paid off for Google, anti-monopolists and the Chrome crusade, and the hidden cost of Apple’s Google money. From there: Mail on ChatGPT’s follow-up questions, a KPop Demon Hunters digression, what really killed Hollywood’s creativity, Microsoft’s future in the AI era, Adobe and Salesforce vs. disruption concerns, trailing edge chips, ASML, and Nvidia comes to DC.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

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Google Remedy Decision, Reasonable Remedies, The Google Patronage Network — Stratechery Update

Friendly Google and Enemy Remedies — Stratechery

New Bing, and an Interview with Kevin Scott and Sam Altman About the Microsoft-OpenAI Partnership — Stratechery Update

GPT-5: It Just Does Stuff — One Useful Thing

Tech Philosophy and AI Opportunity — Stratechery

Paradigm Shifts and the Winner’s Curse — Stratechery

Innoveracy: Misunderstanding Innovation — Asymco

Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.

Why Nvidia Wants to Sell Chips to China, Answering Intel Objections, KPop Demon Hunters Conquers the World Aug 29, 2025

Show notes

Unpacking the latest round of Nvidia earnings and the questions that loom over the company's future in China. Then: Answering a few of the most common objections to the US government's plans for Intel, and why the current path may be the least bad option on the board. At the end: A look at KPop Demon Hunters, Netflix dominance, the modern movie business, and dual monitor desk strategies.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

Nvidia Earnings, Moats and China, Nvidia vs. the AI Labs — Stratechery Update

U.S. Intel — Stratechery

KPop Demon Hunters, Sony’s Risk, The Netflix Aggregator — Stratechery Update

Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.

Facebook is Dead; Long Live Meta, Does OpenAI Need to Log Off?, Questions on Bubbles, Blackberry, and Bell Labs Aug 15, 2025

Show notes

Ben and Andrew discuss a monster earnings report for Meta, the mechanics of how they got there, and the newfound trust the company enjoys from investors. Then: Reactions to GPT-5 and subsequent updates from OpenAI, the strategic logic of the changes, questions about OpenAI leadership, the AGI race, and prompts to engineer the right LLM tone. At the end: A question on bubbles and the implications of our current circumstances, Apple's interests vs. America's interests, Blackberry's thin client comeback, a few fun Bell Labs facts, and Google as slime mold.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

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Facebook is Dead; Long Live Meta — Stratechery

Meta Myths — Stratechery

Meta and Reasonable Doubt — Stratechery

ChatGPT 5, Product Trade-Offs, Personality and Model Upgrades — Stratechery Update

A leaked Google memo compared it to slime mold — Business Insider

Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.

(Preview) AI and the Winner’s Curse, Google’s Genie 3 Breakthrough, Questions on Intel, Fertility Rates, and Banning Advertising Aug 08, 2025

Show notes

Andrew and Ben discuss Ben’s article on Apple and AWS in the AI era, including a call for Apple to make an acquisition, a bit of AWS history, AWS as the new Azure, and the challenge of making changes amidst continued success. Then: Thoughts on Google’s Genie 3 breakthrough and OpenAI’s open weights models, and questions on Intel, scrutiny of Lip-Bu Tan, whether AI will compound the fertility crisis, and an emailer who wants to eliminate advertising from the human condition.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

Paradigm Shifts and the Winner’s Curse — Stratechery

Genie 3: A new frontier for world models — Google DeepMind

Trump Calls on Intel CEO to Resign Over China Ties — Wall Street Journal

Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.

Intel and the US Semi Future, Will Any Big Tech Incumbents Lose in an AI World?, Questions on Tea, Grok, and The Ringer Jul 30, 2025

Show notes

Intel's future in leading edge manufacturing looks more uncertain, while prospects for the US semiconductor supply chain are beginning to look more promising. Then: Google's earnings inspire a question about Big Tech in AI, who will win the entertainment space in AI, thoughts on doomerism and marketing, Apple's App store promises and a very bad week for the Tea development team, a question about The Ringer and Grantland, and a note on life coaching and Apple's 2TB storage plan.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

TSMC Earnings; A16 and TSMC’s Approach to Backside Power; Intel Earnings, Architecture, and AI — Stratechery Update

Tesla and Samsung, Customer Service and Intel, The U.S. Semi Supply Chain — Stratechery Update

Google Earnings, Google Flips the Switch on Cloud, Search Notes — Stratechery Update

The End of the Beginning — Stratechery

Meme Stocks Are Back — Bloomberg

Grantland and the (Surprising) Future of Publishing — Stratechery

Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.

(Preview) The Post-AI Internet Realities, How Future Creators Can Succeed, Mail on Startups, F1 Rights, and Alternative Rock Jul 24, 2025

Show notes

The pay-per-crawl model for compensating content creators on the Internet, what sorts of content might win if that market actually materializes, and the grim outlook for today's digital publishers. From there: Thoughts on the cost structures that can succeed, the value of community and direct connections to customers, and Stephen Colbert's exit at CBS. At the end: Questions on big tech's hiring power, contractors at startups, Chinese AI development, F1 broadcast rights, alternative rock, and what to do in Taipei and DC.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

Content and Community — Stratechery

Cloudflare’s Content Independence Day, Google’s Advantage, Monetizing AI — Stratechery Update

Netflix Earnings, Apple and F1 — Stratechery Update

Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.

Windsurf Madness, Big Tech Wins as the Silicon Valley Ecosystem Erodes, Cloudflare Wants to Fix the Internet Economy Jul 18, 2025

Show notes

A week of news surrounding Windsurf and Google (and now Cognition), why the Silicon Valley ecosystem as we've known it appears to be coming to an end, and why the hiring and acquisiton conventions emerging now are a clear win for big tech. From there: A counterfactual on the founding of OpenAI, and various reactions to Cloudflare's plans to block AI crawlers by default and offer a pay-per-crawl model to LLMs and websites. At the end: An email about having a second child spawns a discussion about parenting.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

Google and Windsurf, Stinky Deals, Chesterton’s Fence and the Silicon Valley Ecosystem — Stratechery Update

Cognition Buys Windsurf, Nvidia Can Sell to China, Grok 4 and Kimi — Stratechery Update

Cloudflare on the Edge — Stratechery

OpenAI, Artificial Intelligence and Data, Data and Recruiting — Stratechery Update

Cloudflare’s Content Independence Day, Google’s Advantage, Monetizing AI — Stratechery Update

Cloudflare Introduces Default Blocking of A.I. Data Scrapers — New York Times

Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.

(Preview) Apple Searches for an AI Partner, A Second Fair Use Ruling and Reckoning with Reality, The F1 Movie and Related Matters Jul 10, 2025

Show notes

The considerations for Apple and its potential partners as the company considers external help with its project to supercharge Siri, a word about risks for Google and Microsoft in the AI era, and thoughts on a second ruling regarding the scope of the fair use doctrine and LLM training. At the end: Politics and LLMs, bad news for TSMC engineers, and variety of thoughts on F1: The Movie and the future for F1 the sport.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

Apple + Anthropic?, Apple’s Fall, Apple’s Options — Stratechery Update

Tech Philosophy and AI Opportunity — Stratechery

Post by Tyler Palmer — X: @tyler__palmer

Training AI is Not Fair Use?, LLMs and Scale, Pushing on a String — Stratechery Update

Apple bids for Formula 1 rights in US after success of Brad Pitt film — Financial Times

Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.

A Big Ruling on LLM Training and Midsummer Mail on NBA Salaries in Tech, Starting from Scratch in 2025, and More Jun 26, 2025

Show notes

On today's show Andrew and Ben begin by breaking down a favorable ruling for Anthropic in a case concerning copyrighted material, the fair use doctrine, and LLM training. Then: A midsummer mailbag with questions on huge salaries for big names in tech that may be past their prime, waiting for AI to suggest software solutions, starting careers from scratch in 2025, Huwaei’s ascent and China’s commitment to Apple, Taylor Swift, shortform video regulation, recommendations for would-be watch collectors, and more.

To email the show: email@sharptech.fm

@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube

@Stratechery Channel — YouTube

Training AI is Fair Use, Product Protection Versus LLM Liability, Piracy and Competition — Stratechery Update

BARTZ v. ANTHROPIC — U.S. District Court, N.D. CA

Talent Wars, NBA Money, AI Money — Stratechery Update

Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.

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