The Asymmetry of Selling Compute

A couple of readers recently emailed me a paper by Columbia Business School professor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh.

Narrowing the Downside on the Labs

Given the private market valuation of OpenAI and Anthropic, it does feel a little strange for me to claim the labs may be better business than appreciated by investors. But I do notice a persistent skepticism among many investors about the labs business model.

A Month with Muse

On September 8 this year, Meta launched Muse. The very next day, I shared my first impressions of Muse, and in that piece, I promised I would share more thoughts in a month on how I’m actually using the product.

Room at the Top

I came across this astonishing chart from Michael Batnick yesterday showing that the combined market cap of the bottom 434 companies in the S&P 500 equals that of the top 5. It is the time series, though, that drives home just how unusually concentrated the index has become over the last 30 years.

Quantifying My AWS "Vibes"

I actually laughed out loud when I came across this meme yesterday. With (near to medium term) unfalsifiable bearish takes flying around for non-AI stocks, I sympathize a bit with the complaints about the rise of “vibes” based investing.

ezCater and the Other Half of Uber's FCF

Barely a week after my Uber Deep Dive, Uber announced yesterday it is buying ezCater, the largest online catering marketplace in the US, for $2.3 Billion in cash.

When the Ads Come to the Data

Last week, I wrote why Muse may never need ads. That piece traveled quite a bit, and interestingly, while I received glowing praise from some readers, I have also heard from people who vehemently disagreed with the word “never”.

The Thin Margin of Safety in Selling Compute

I came across this funny tweet last week that says “the best way to signal status in the Bay Area is to act noticeably stressed about lack of compute”. Every earnings season, all the hyperscalers and neoclouds remind us how demand for compute is outstripping supply.

The Ever-Widening Overton Window of AI Safety

AI alignment or safety used to be bit of a fringe issue primarily discussed in some corners in the Silicon Valley offline or in the pages of LessWrong online.

Why Muse May Never Need Ads

It didn’t take too long for the app layer to start to respond to Muse. Amazon, of course, already blocked Muse.