Bookmarks (60)

The best Stratechery content from the week of April 21, 2025, including Tech History and Apple's Future, Dithering on Google, and Hamsters and Antibodies.

An interview with Eric Seufert about the impact of the trade war on digital advertising, the Google Ads antitrust case, and why the biggest platforms keep on winning.

Apple is not doomed, but for the first time in a long time its long-term fortunes are cloudy; the time to make change is now.

Google lost its ad antitrust case; if the case is upheld, it has important implications for all Aggregators.

The best Stratechery content from the week of April 14, 2025, including the three eras of Facebook, the NBA Playoffs, and the CHIPS Act.

An interview with Dan Kim and Hassan Khan about their work distributing CHIPS program money, and why they are optimistic about U.S. industrial policy going forward.

It appears that Nvidia will never be allowed to sell AI accelerators to China again, even crappy ones, while Huawei makes its own supercomputer with outside help.

The FTC’s case against Facebook doesn’t make sense because it conflates three distinct Facebook eras, and today’s era is very much defined by competition.

ChatGPT's memory feature is pretty basic, but it's the sort of product feature that can build a moat, particularly if it's extended to other use cases.

The best Stratechery content from the week of April 7, 2025, with a focus on the Trump administration's disastrous tariffs, Apple's complicated future, and how China might respond.

An interview with Google Cloud Platform CEO Thomas Kurian about Google's infrastructure advantage and building and enterprise service culture.

A new take on Trump's tariffs, including using a disruption lens to understand the U.S.'s manufacturing problem, and why a better plan would leverage demand, not kill it.

A focus on the tariff's impact on Apple specifically, and how Apple itself contributed to China's technological development.

There is an argument for the Trump tariffs, but the risks are too great relative to the uncertain rewards

Stratechery is on vacation from March 31 to April 3; the next Stratechery Update will be on Monday, April 7. There will be still be one Sharp Tech episode on Monday, March 31, and one Dithering episode on Tuesday, April 1. The full Stratechery posting schedule is here.

An interview with Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy about taking over Snowflake, focusing on product, and competing in AI.

OpenAI's new image generation capabilities feel like another AGI domino; then, yes, security is about more than encryption.

The Trump administration's Signal gaffe raises fascinating questions about secure messaging and the trade-off inherent in transparency.

Google could aggregate TV, but it might not have the product capability; that's a convoluted way of explaining why buying Wiz is a good idea

An interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about building OpenAI and ChatGPT, and what it means to be an accidental consumer tech company.

Jensen Huang's GTC keynote was a compelling argument in favor of Nvidia's position relative to ASICs when it comes to inference.

Intel's new CEO casts Pat Gelsinger's tenure and firing in a new light: was Intel's problem simply bad execution?

Metallica on the Vision Pro was cool, but ultimately disappointing, and symbolic of Apple's need to control everything.

An interview with Tailscale CEO and co-founder Avery Pennarun about Tailscale, and how he’s been learning to build a New Internet his whole life.

OpenAI has compelling new updates to their API that should be good for the API business; is that good for OpenAI?

More on Apple and AI, this time through the lens of Google's point of integration and where Apple should be in response. Plus, why Apple is so hostile to developers.

Apple AI is delayed, and Apple may be trying to do too much; what the company ought to do is empower developers to make AI applications.

An interview with Michael Nathanson about the endgame for traditional media companies as the streaming wars near their end, plus AI bubble questions and the future of analysis.

Alexa+ looks amazing, and that's exactly my problem with it: Amazon is trying to do too much, must like Apple did with new Siri

TSMC announced new fabs in the U.S., but without dates and processes it's safe to assume Taiwan is keeping its Silicon Shield.

Microsoft is pulling the plug on Skype, a service they never should have acquired and on which they spent way too much time and money; I'm still sad.

An interview with Benedict Evans about AI lessons over the last year, and the many unresolved issues that will impact industry structure going forward.

Ending the chip ban might be a mistake; I just hope people pushing for more realize that could be wrong as well. Then, Google's current position with LLMs, and the importance of GCP.

The AI industry is more exciting than ever, but the chip situation is very precarious and requires drastic action.

The iPhone 16e is more expensive than the SE it replaces, but the situation is probably temporary as Apple resets its lineup for Apple Intelligence

An interview with Manna founder and CEO Bobby Healy about drone delivery: how does it work, what is the regulatory landscape, and why the suburbs will be the place to be.

More on the U.K. vs. Apple, and then Netflix's earnings demonstrate how an Aggregator's advantage compounds via pricing power.

Grok-3 appears to be state of the art; that speaks to the power of Nvidia, and actually increases the pressure to spend more.

An interview with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi about taking over Uber in crisis, managing dynamic marketplaces, and the value chain for autonomous vehicle ride-sharing.

The Super Bowl drew record ratings even if it wasn't a big deal on social media; the NBA has the opposite problem. Is consolidation of media the way? Then, a new court case about AI.

The U.K. demands Apple build a back door into its products; Apple is more likely to leave the country. Then, Musk messes with OpenAI.

Deep Research is an AGI product for certain narrow domains; it's ability to find anything on the Internet will make secret knowledge all the more valuable.

An interview with ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott about his life story, leadership, and why ServiceNow is the right platform for enterprise AI agents.

Investor disappointment in Google is overwrought, while Search is showing some positive results from AI. Then, China is investigating Google and Apple for very different reasons.

I give my analysis of Apple's Earnings, and then OpenAI Deep Research does the same, demonstrating the unbundling of substantiation from creation.

Trump's new tariffs take aim at the de minimis exception, which has undergirded Temu and Shein growth, and had knock-on effects on Amazon and Meta.

An interview with Matthew Ball about the current (bad) state of the gaming industry, including mobile, consoles, and why the PC has better prospects.