Seeing Jensen's Shadow
Google Antitrust & AI • New iPhones Inbound • OpenAI/Microsoft Talks Extension • Meta AI Defections • Intel's Dance with Trump • Perplexity's Chrome Offer • Apple's iPhone Event
Happy NVIDIA Earnings Day to those who celebrate – which would seem to be a massive portion of Wall Street right now. Hopefully they have reason to continue to party after today's earnings – because if they don't it will be ugly for the entire stock market. That hasn't happened in a while – there was a quick drop about a year ago over Big Tech AI spend concerns, and then again a few months later around tariffs, of course – but it's always only a matter of time...
• Written on an M4 MacBook Air 💻
• Sent from London, England 🏴 I Wrote…
⚖️ Google Lost a Search Antitrust Case. Will Gemini Take the Blame?
As the remedies loom, AI is top of mind...
📱 The 3 iPhone Problem
An interesting dilemma coming soon to iPhone users: choice.
I Think…
🗣️ An Update on the OpenAI/Microsoft Talks
Update: no real update! Well, other than the talks remain ongoing and complicated, and as such, sides are signaling that any resolution may drag into 2026. That's a problem because it would technically void some of SoftBank's promised investment (which was tranched). But it also seems highly unlikely that SoftBank would walk away – on purpose or not, the new employee tender offer at $500B is a masterstroke in this regard because it allows SoftBank (they're apparently also buying here, btw!) to mark up their first tranche – and critically, that second tranche, which would be done at the same $300B valuation of the first – so, in effect, SoftBank would be walking away from free money (on paper). Yeah, there's no way they walk. And that, quite literally, buys more time. And that, in turn, likely ratchets down the pressure on both sides – the war of words has quieted, it seems. But the bigger hurdle still may be the states (CA and DE) approving any major structural changes – which is the angle Elon, Meta, and others continue to go after in court. One more thing: more reporting backing up my ~33% eventual Microsoft equity stake guesstimate that I first made last year. [FT 🔒]
🧠 Meta Loses Some Superintelligencers
It's not clear how much to read into these folks jumping ship as two of them have a ton of career overlap and seem perhaps like a package deal (one could easily see them agreeing that the Meta situation wasn't for them), the third listed may simply have left because he joined pre-MSL and so signed up for something which was then wildly shaken up. It's not great optically – especially given the other headlines about internal turmoil – but we'll see. The far bigger deal is a tidbit buried in here: it always seemed weird that Shengjia Zhao joined Meta from OpenAI but only later was named "Chief Scientist" of the new lab. That's seemingly because he was on the verge of going back to OpenAI, "going as far as to sign employment paperwork," per the reporting! So it sure reads like beyond the money, Zuck countered with the title (after failing to hire other high-profile candidates for that role, apparently). If true, that is definitely not a good sign as it adds to the sort of rat race and mercenary vibe of the whole endeavor. [Wired]
💰 Inside Intel’s Tricky Dance With Trump
The tick-tock on how the Trump/Intel situation played out has some fun background – including a reminder that the CHIPs-Act-money-for-equity idea was originally from Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren! While the then-new administration broached the topic with Intel's board early on, Trump got interested by what else: a segment on Fox Business. And suddenly, boom: a 10% stake and a de-facto bail-out. One more thing: there's a "poison pill" provision in the deal so if Intel were to sell the majority of their manufacturing business, the US Government could buy another 5% of the company at a steep discount (via warrants). So yeah, doesn't seem like they'll be exiting that business... And so they're gonna need Trump's (and/or SoftBank's) help drumming up business! Sounds like Tim Cook is at least listening! [WSJ 🔒]
I Quote…
"We have yet to hear back from Google."
– Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity, when asked about the status of their $34.5B offer to buy Chrome from Google. No surprise there.
I Note…
Playing around with Google's new 'Gemini 2.5 Flash Image' model focused on image editing and yes, it's really good. My only complaint is that they should have actually named it 'Nano Banana'! [TechCrunch] 🍌
It was an opportunity to steal the fruit spotlight that OpenAI also should have owned from a branding-perspective! 🍓
If you feel like Masa Son is just following President Trump around and involved in seemingly every deal he does, well, you’re not alone… [FT 🔒]
Meta is launching a Super PAC called, yes, META (well, sort of, technically METAC: Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across California). Tens of millions of dollars likely coming focused on what else: AI regulation in California. [Politico]
This news immediately follows the 'Leading the Future' Super PAC which has over $100M in funding from a16z, Perplexity, Greg Brockman, and others to focus on pushing the same pro-AI initiatives (nationwide). [WaPo]
That OpenAI employee tender offer mentioned above? It may balloon to $8B in size, which would make it the largest such secondary ever – almost larger than all such offers last year at other companies, combined. [Information 🔒]
Spotify has a new DM feature. Okay, sure. But also undoubtedly a new vector of spam and abuse. [Verge]
A new Hogwarts-themed immersive environment for the Vision Pro (while using the HBO Max app). Fun. [9to5Mac]
A new show from Nic Pizzolatto starring Matthew McConaughey? No, it's not a new season of True Detective (Nic Cage has that covered), but it did lead to a bidding war which Netflix won (versus Apple and Amazon). [THR]
I Spy...
Apple has given their two weeks notice for new iPhones. Well, the unveiling of the iPhones 17 anyway. If the past years are any indication, those new phones would then be available for pre-order on Friday, September 12 – and go on sale on Friday, September 19. And this may be the first of three slightly more interesting iPhone unveils thanks to the 'iPhone Air'. Clever interactive thermal heat map on the apple on Apple's website too.
One more thing: it looks like the impending announcement leaked via hashmoji. Which is silly but also slightly more interesting in light of Xitter owner Elon Musk's lawsuit against Apple...
