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Mon. 02/17 – Folks Are Circling Intel Feb 17, 2025

Show notes

The vultures are circling Intel, if that’s not too aggressive an analogy. OpenAI’s board officially rejects Elon’s bid. Zelle is quietly the biggest player in P2P payments. Everybody wants to go after robotics as the next big thing. And why over a thousand tech unicorns are in trouble.

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TSMC Considers Running Intel’s US Factories After Trump Team Request (Bloomberg)
Broadcom, TSMC Weigh Possible Intel Deals That Would Split Storied Chip Maker (WSJ)
OpenAI Rejects Elon Musk’s $97.4 Billion Bid for Control of the Company (NYTimes)
Zelle payments top $1 trillion in 2024 as network’s growth outpaces rivals including PayPal (CNBC)
TikTok Grabs Market Share From Shein Despite Looming Risks (Bloomberg)
Meta Plans Major Investment Into AI-Powered Humanoid Robots (Bloomberg)
Apple and Meta Are Set to Battle Over Humanoid Robots (Bloomberg)
The Unicorn Boom Is Over, and Startups Are Getting Desperate (Bloomberg)

Fri. 02/14 – Arm Upends The Entire Semiconductor Industry Feb 14, 2025

Show notes

TikTok is back in the app stores. But the biggest news is that Arm is going to make its own chips, thereby upending how the entire semiconductor industry has been constituted. Why Reddit has been killing it lately. And in the Weekend Longreads Suggestions, what if TikTok, but for Wikipedia?

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Apple, Google Restore TikTok App After Assurances From Trump (Bloomberg)
Arm to launch its own chip in move that could upend semiconductor industry (Financial Times)
Shein IPO plans hit by Trump’s low-cost parcels crackdown (Financial Times)
AI Licensing Deals With Google and OpenAI Make Up 10% of Reddit's Revenue (AdWeek)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Forget DeepSeek. Large language models are getting cheaper still (The Economist)
How a resurgent Walmart saw off the Amazon threat (Financial Times)
Developer creates endless Wikipedia feed to fight algorithm addiction (Ars Technica)

Thu. 02/13 – Do We Maybe Have A Roadmap For GPT-5? Feb 13, 2025

Show notes

We maybe have a roadmap for GPT-5, but also, is it not really GPT-5 just a renaming of what they already have in the pipeline? It’s kind of weird. Elon gives his conditions for dropping his takeover bid. Utility companies say the AI hype is real, but what if, in the end, the end users don’t actually show up?

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OpenAI postpones its o3 AI model in favor of a ‘unified’ next-gen release (TechCrunch)
Elon Musk will withdraw bid for OpenAI’s nonprofit if its board agrees to terms (TechCrunch)
Musk, Altman Spar Over $97.4 Billion OpenAI Bid in Court Filings (Bloomberg)
The Apple TV app is now available on Android: watch Apple TV+ and MLS Season Pass (9to5Mac)
Meta Opens Facebook Marketplace to Rivals in EU Antitrust Clash (Bloomberg)
Data Center Power Demand Almost Doubled in Virginia, Utility Says (Bloomberg)
AI Agents Are Everywhere…and Nowhere (WSJ)

Wed. 02/12 – The First Big AI Legal Ruling Feb 12, 2025

Show notes

The first big AI legal ruling has come down, and it might not be good news for AI startups. Apple launches its biggest health study yet. This one weird trick that tech companies are using to make their AI spending seem not so expensive. And Matt Levine on the whole Elon buying OpenAI thing.

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Thomson Reuters Wins First Major AI Copyright Case in the US (Wired)
Apple Plans to Learn More About Your Holistic Health With Its New Apple Health Study. You Can Enroll Now (CNET)
Meta In Talks To Buy Korean AI Chip Startup Founded By Samsung Engineer (Forbes)
Meta Accounting Move on AI Servers to Boost Profit This Year (Bloomberg)
Sam Altman Dismisses Elon Musk’s Bid to Buy OpenAI in Letter to Staff (Wired)
Sure Elon Musk Might Buy OpenAI (Matt Levine/Bloomberg)

Tue. 02/11 – Elon Wants To Buy OpenAI Feb 11, 2025

Show notes

Elon makes an unsolicited bid to buy OpenAI, or at least the non-profit that controls it, and maybe he doesn’t really want to own it, it’s complicated. I’ll explain. YouTube continues to be the biggest thing in media. Forget smartwatches, get ready for smart earbuds. And the crazy cheap Chinese EVs can now do crazy cheap self-driving too!

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Mon. 02/10 – How Sam Altman Outflanked Elon Musk? Feb 10, 2025

Show notes

According to the Super Bowl ad I saw last night, anyone can use Starlink on their phone soon, not just T-Mobile users. Was this the Super Bowl of crypto-betting? Are we seeing the first signs that AI is stealing jobs from tech workers? And a behind the scenes tale of how Sam Altman outflanked Elon Musk.

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Links:

T-Mobile to Charge $15 Per Month for Starlink Satellite Texting Feature (Bloomberg)
Polymarket Bettors Punt $1.1B on Superbowl Results, Despite Regulatory Overhang (CoinDesk)
Exclusive: OpenAI set to finalize first custom chip design this year (Reuters)
IT Unemployment Rises to 5.7% as AI Hits Tech Jobs (WSJ)
Exclusive: Anthropic's "index" tracks AI economy (Axios)
Christie’s announces AI art auction, and not everyone is pleased (TechCrunch)
How Sam Altman Sidestepped Elon Musk to Win Over Donald Trump (NYTimes)

(Omnibus) Week Of 02/03/2025 Feb 08, 2025

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(Omnibus) Week Of 02/03/2025

Fri. 02/07 – UK Backdoor Into iPhones? Feb 07, 2025

Show notes

Is the UK government about to force Apple to put backdoors into all of our iPhones? Tallying up the Tech Earnings week of CAPEX announcements. We might get a new iPhone next week. The Weekend Longreads suggestions. And listen to the end of the show cause I’m running an experiment.

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Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

How is Fortnite's Attempt to Become the YouTube of Gaming Going? (Posting Nexus)
The Sims Turned Players Into Gods. And Farmers. And Vampires. And Landlords. (NYTimes)

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Thu. 02/06 – A $50 (!!) AI Model? Feb 06, 2025

Show notes

Now researchers say they have trained a cutting edge AI model for… checks notes… $50. Not $50 million dollars. $50. Dollars. Get ready for the superbowl of AI ads. Amazon has scheduled an Alexa AI event. And also, why does Amazon fail so hard when it comes to physical retail?

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Links:

Researchers created an open rival to OpenAI’s o1 ‘reasoning’ model for under $50 (TechCrunch)
Google Kills Diversity Hiring Targets (WSJ)
Google Unwinds Employee Diversity Goals, Citing Trump’s D.E.I. Orders (NYTimes)
OpenAI Set to Make Super Bowl Ad Debut (WSJ)
OpenAI to Air Its First Super Bowl Ad (AdWeek)
Amazon's AI revamp of Alexa assistant nears unveiling (Reuters)
Bill banning social media for youngsters advances (Politico)
Trump's de minimis cancellation is bad news for Temu, but worse for Shein (Reuters)
Amazon, King of Online Retail, Can’t Seem to Make Its Physical Stores Work (WSJ)

Wed. 02/05 – Shein And Temu In Deep Trouble Feb 05, 2025

Show notes

Temu And Shein got a reprieve from the USPS, but they are still in deep, deep trouble. I’ll explain why. Alphabet earnings disappoint their investors but cheer investors of Nvidia. Google and Meta going in different directions when it comes to AI. And why are people increasingly refusing to pay ransomware?

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Links:

USPS Resumes Accepting Packages From China After Unexpected Suspension (Wired)
Google expects to spend $75 billion this year on the AI race (The Verge)
Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance (The Washington Post)
Meta says it may stop development of AI systems it deems too risky (TechCrunch)
After a bruising year, Sonos readies its next big thing: a streaming box (The Verge)
35% Year-over-Year Decrease in Ransomware Payments, Less than Half of Recorded Incidents Resulted in Victim Payments (Chainalysis)
Apple Launches New 'Invites' App (MacRumors)

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