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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Some of our favorite characters continue to work hard this summer.
News
AI Mulligan Taker Meta Takes Another Mulligan
Can’t wait to hear Meta’s AI strategy (vs. spending plan). There has to be an immense new business for any of this to even remotely make sense.
Never Take a Dependency on Elon Musk: X API Edition
This particular decision might even make sense, but is yet another deprecation. To their credit, they actually communicated this one!
Previous:
Never Take a Dependency on Elon Musk: Grok Enterprise Value Proposition Really Coming into Focus, Never Take a Dependency on Elon Musk: xAI MechaHitler Edition, Never Take a Dependency on Elon Musk: Where to Even Start?, Never Take a Dependency on Elon Musk: Chapter 150, Never Take a Dependency on Elon Musk: Grok API Edition, Do Not Take a Dependency on Elon Musk: Chapter 147, Do Not Take a Dependency on Elon Musk: Chapter 148, Do Not Take a Dependency on Elon Musk: Chapter 149
From Hipster Antitrust to Grifter Antitrust
We’ve been chronicling antitrust’s descent into ideological incoherence, making it a tool of arbitrary political power with which to punish enemies as opposed to clear rules of the road to economic participants, where all “benefit from coherent policy with clear red lines”.
Not surprisingly, the Trump administration has embraced the incoherence and seized upon antitrust as another source of leverage. But surprisingly, there actually was a doctrinal debate between the MAGA populists and the more “transactional” lobbyists. It seems the grifters have won.
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Antitrust Incoherence: Hipster Antitrust Incoherence, A New Antitrust Doctrine, Antitrust Incoherence: Don’t Make Me Complain to the Authorities About a Deal I Signed but Want to Renegotiate, Pedal to the Meta: Hipster Antitrust’s Day in Court, Antitrust Incoherence: iRobot Elegy Edition, Antitrust Incoherence: Existential Amazon Questions Edition, Antitrust Incoherence:Dodging DOGE Edition, Antitrust Incoherence: The Emerging Trump Doctrine?, Antitrust Incoherence: The Consistently Incoherent Lina Khan, Antitrust Incoherence: New Administration, Continuity of Incoherence, Antitrust Incoherence: Google Breakup Rumors, Antitrust Incoherence: Breaking Up Google #monopolist, Antitrust Incoherence: Google Verdict,Antitrust Incoherence: Competitive Harassment Edition, Antitrust Incoherence: Don’t Forget Microsoft, Antitrust Incoherence: Isn’t Market Division Illegal?, Antitrust Incoherence: Roomba Aftermath Edition, Antitrust Incoherence: Apple Edition, Antitrust Incoherence: Spotify Edition, Antitrust Incoherence: Roomba Edition, The Incoherence Doctrine: The FTC Strikes Again, The DOJ Play at Home Game,
You Can’t Spell Metallica Without A and I
How can anyone possibly compete with Amway Salesforce in AI musical guests?
Previous:
Benioff’s Blizzard of Bluster: FOOM Edition, Salesforce is (Still) Not a Technology Company, Salesforce Holds “Developer” Conference, Salesforce is Not a Technology Company: Nor an AI Company, 2025 Will Not be the Year of Agentic AI, The Agentic Abyss of Disillusionment, Salesforce is Not a Technology Company: Nor a Dogfood Company, What’s Bugging Marc Benioff – Continued, Benioff’s Blizzard of Bluster, Salesforce + Indian Mystic + AI = ???, “There’s an art to this kind of horseshit, and Benioff is its Michelangelo”, The Hard Thing About “Hard Pivots”, Thought Leadership (in Mascots), Salesforce Rallies Its Deep Bench of AI Experts (and Cartoon Characters), Bluster, Bombast and Bullshit: Just Another Day at Salesforce, Salesforce’s Shamelessness is Staggering, Salesforce Gonna Salesforce, The Spectacle that is Dreamforce
Seizing the Means of Computation
In Trump’s defense, he hasn’t bankrupted a chip company. Yet.
“Transformers of the world, unite!”
Software Migration Alert: Dayforce
PE on the loose! Time to vamoose! Start your migrations!
Not Available in Europe: Email Archives
Is there a case to be made for why the UK is not doomed?
The water consumption attack on data centers is super weak. If you really care about water, consumption, you should focus on alfalfa, almonds or golf courses. But you might just be trying to conceal the fact you’re a Luddite…
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Not Available in Europe: A Tech Champion, Not Available in Europe: Meta AI, Not Available in Europe: Spinal Fortitude, Not Available in Europe: Air Conditioning, Not Available in Europe: Working Through the Not Available in Europe Backlog Edition, Not Available in Europe: WhatsApp Edition, Not Available in Europe: ChatGPT Memory Edition, Not Available in Europe: Bird Flies, Not Available in Europe: Open AI Deep Research, Not Available in Europe: A Bubbly Economy, Not Available in Europe: Better Late Than Never Apple Edition, Not Available in Europe: Apple’s Math, Not Available in Europe: This Week’s Edition, Not Available in Europe: Coming Soon to a Continent Near You, Not Available in Europe: Don’t Say You Weren’t Warned (by Meta), Not Available in Europe: A Tipping Point?, Not Available in Europe: Stratechery Edition, Not Available in Europe: Apple Edition, Not Available in Europe: Meta Edition
Mercantilists Seek Expanded Trade with Other Mercantilists
The US absorbs roughly half of the world’s trade surpluses. Who do they think is going to step up and buy more European cars?