Tech Giants Pay Up
Good Morning from San Francisco, Tech executives lined up Thursday to shower Trump with billions in AI pledges. Microsoft promised
Latest news (Page 8)
OpenAI Backs BCI Startup to Challenge Musk’s Neuralink
Sam Altman's OpenAI is backing a $250M brain-computer startup to directly compete with Elon Musk's Neuralink. The rivalry moves from AI models to neural interfaces—whoever controls how humans connect to AI systems wins the future.
Chrome for Sale? Why a Browser Divestiture Could Rewire Search
AI startup Perplexity bids $34.5B for Google's Chrome—nearly double its own valuation—as federal judge prepares antitrust ruling. The timing isn't coincidental. Browser control becomes the new battleground in AI search competition.
Claude expands to 1 million tokens as enterprise AI race intensifies
Anthropic's Claude now handles million-token prompts—entire codebases in one go. But doubled pricing and enterprise-only access reveal the real strategy: premium AI capabilities for those willing to pay computational costs.
Is AI Eating Software? The Moat Is Moving Down the Stack
AI is compressing SaaS margins and shifting value to platforms. Traditional software vendors face a choice: differentiate on proprietary data and workflows, or watch core features get commoditized by "good enough" AI assistants.
China’s soft ban: How quiet pressure is steering Nvidia’s H20 out of sensitive projects
Good Morning from San Francisco, Three stories capture AI's consolidation moment. Musk threatens Apple with antitrust action over
Musk vs. Apple moves from charts to court, but proof is thin
Musk threatens Apple lawsuit over AI app rankings, claiming systematic bias toward OpenAI's ChatGPT. No evidence provided, but highlights growing tension over who controls AI distribution through mobile platforms.
Beijing demands firms justify Nvidia H20 orders in sensitive projects
Beijing pressures Chinese tech giants to justify Nvidia chip orders just days after Trump approved sales for 15% revenue cut. The three-way dance between Washington's tollbooth and China's nudges creates a new template for tech competition.
Microsoft scraps GitHub CEO role, folds platform into CoreAI
GitHub's CEO exits just as the platform hits peak success—1B+ repos, 150M developers, 20M Copilot users. Microsoft's response? Dissolve the CEO role entirely and absorb GitHub into its AI empire. Independence was the price of victory.
OpenAI Backs Down: Legacy Models Return After GPT-5 Backlash
OpenAI's forced GPT-5 migration sparked a three-day subscriber revolt that exposed cracks in the AI scaling story. Users demanded their old models back—and won. The rapid reversal signals shifting power between AI companies and the professionals who depend on reliable systems.
U.S. takes 15% of Nvidia, AMD China revenue; GPT-5 stumbles
Good Morning from San Francisco, Two stories reshape AI's power dynamics today. Washington monetized export controls. The US
Washington Turns China Chip Licenses Into a 15% Toll on Nvidia and AMD
The U.S. will take 15% of Nvidia and AMD's China chip revenue as export license condition—the first time Washington has monetized export controls through private revenue sharing. From bans to tolls.
The Best in Tech: Weekend Press Review
Six stories this weekend point to the same shift: AI concentrates value while closing old entry paths—from junior coding roles to consumer interfaces to capital allocation. The throughline is substitution over augmentation at the base of the economy.