Platformonomics TGIF is a weekly roll-up of links, comments on those links, and perhaps a little too much tugging on my favorite threads.
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The recovery from Clown Week continues.
News
Blockbuster News of the Week
Google announces “We are a place of business”. Who knew?
Some employees (and a growing number of ex-employees) are still struggling with this concept:
Is Quantum Computing a Scam?
The strongest evidence for quantum computing being a scam is IBM’s avid involvement (or at least incessant PR). IBM has an unrivaled track record in the 21st century at selling futures that never materialize (e.g. Watson, blockchain, IBM Cloud, smart cities, enterprise-class Second Life). Somehow they never get past the elaborate TV ad campaigns.
Power Crunch
With even Oracle discovering that electricity is the long pole for large scale AI deployments, I think we can now safely say this is common knowledge. Told ya!
Cantwell Recants?
Last week:
This week:
Great news if true. Hopefully she will take great pride at bringing such principled and material improvements to this legislation. I still have not heard from her office, despite checking the box that “I Would Like A Response From The Senator”.
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Private Equity in Action: The VMware Saga May Never End
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Software Migration Alerts, Private Equity in Action: VMware “Unease” Continues, Perfidious Private Equity, Private Equity in Action: VMware Yet Again, Private Equity in Action: VMware (Continued), Private Equity in Action: VMware, Private Equity Will Buy and Ruin More Software Companies, Software Migration Alert: VMware (Continued), Software Migration Alert: VMware, Private Equity in Action: VMware Customer Complaints “Unwarranted”
Private Equity Raises More Money to Ruin Software Companies
When Vista Equity (or any other PE firm) comes amalgamating, it is time to start migrating.
EU Insanity: Regulatory Contortions
The Information responds on my behalf:
Driving the opinion was European privacy group NOYB, which last November complained that Meta’s offering—of a free service supported by ads or one that was ad-free but cost money—wasn’t structured fairly. The privacy group argued that the subscription was a “privacy fee.” If extended to other services, such a fee would require people to spend thousands of euros a year to, for instance, keep their phone “private,” the group said.
How about this idea as an alternative—Europeans who don’t want their data used could simply stop using Meta’s services? Where is it written that having access to a social media site is a fundamental human right? What happened to the idea that a private company has a right to make money? Seriously, if NOYB dislikes Meta so much, why on earth are its members using Facebook or Instagram to start with?
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EU Insanity: Not Learning From Regulatory Failure, EU Announces DMA Struggle Sessions, EU Insanity: AI Regulatory Suicide, EU Insanity: AI Energy Suicide, EU Insanity: The Kafka Singularity, EU Insanity: AI Energy Suicide (Part Deux), EU Insanity: Mistral Edition, Move Fast and Regulate Things (You Don’t Understand), The EU Will Continue to Fiddle While Rome Burns, When “Move Fast and Regulate Things” Breaks Down, AI Regulation: Move Fast and Regulate Things
UK Announces Big Tech Struggle Sessions “For The Children”
The struggle sessions will continue until Europe has a tech industry (i.e. indefinitely).
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Mercantilist Showdown
“Insiders say the immediate impulse of EU policymakers confronting the West Taiwanese threat to the European auto industry was to levy new fines on American Big Tech companies.”
Maybe, just maybe, Europe is starting to wake up to its real challenges (even if the previous two items suggest otherwise).
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Trade Surplus Region Complains Trade Deficit Region is “Protectionist”, Collapsing Economic Models: German Edition, EU Rethinking Its Stance on Mercantilism, German Auto Industry Reaches Hail Mary Stage, How Do You Say “Burning Platform” in German?, Volkswagen’s Death Throes Continue, The Fate of the European Economy: Automotive Edition, Europe: Investing in Slave Labor
Related:
Viewer Mail – Episode 2
Q: What about Apple’s CAPEX?
A: I haven’t tracked Apple because they don’t have a public cloud. Apple’s CAPEX spend is both flat and underwhelming in absolute terms. They spend on manufacturing tooling so the proportion going to data centers is even smaller. In the past they have relied on the hyperclouds for storage. I don’t know if they have migrated entirely to their own data centers or not. We’ll see if Apple gets more excited about CAPEX in the generative AI era.
Got more Viewer Mail questions?
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