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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CAPEX WEEK is always spooky!
My Writing
Follow the CAPEX: Q3 2025 Scoreboard
The quarterly HyperCAPEX update warrants its own post. Is $114 billion a lot?
News
Did OpenAI Find the Money This Week?
But they did qualify for some money Softbank previously promised:
But it looks like they’re going to need even more money than we previously thought:
Up from a reported burn of $2.5 billion in the first half.
A floated 2027 flotation at a trillion dollar valuation still doesn’t fill the cash hole:
The search for a twelve digit injection of cash continues.
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Cloud Growth Rates – Q3 2025
AWS finally reaccelerates a bit, but still losing share.
CAPEX vs. HyperCAPEX: Oracle Edition
Self-proclaimed aspiring hyperscaler Oracle spent $27.4 billion on CAPEX over the last 12 months. For comparison this quarter:
- Amazon spent $36.07 billion
- AWS spent $28.3 billion
- Google spent $23.95 billion
- Meta spent $19.37 billion
- Microsoft spent $34.9 billion
The Free Cash Flow comparisons are even more brutal.
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They Still Don’t Have the CAPEX: Oracle, They Still Don’t Have the Margins: Oracle Edition, They Don’t Have the Margins, They Don’t Have the Money, They Don’t Have the Money: Oracle and Tik Tok, Remaining CAPEX Obligation, Why Can’t Oracle Afford Data Centers?, Why Can’t Oracle Build Data Centers?, Oracle Still Can’t Build Data Centers, Oracle’s Data Center Difficulties, Oracle’s Data Center Difficulties: FY25 Q1, Oracle’s Data Center Difficulties: FY25 Q2, ClownWatch™: Oracle FY25 Q3, Why Can’t Oracle Build Data Centers? FY25 Q4 Edition, Words are Cheap, CAPEX is Expensive: Oracle Edition, Why Can’t Oracle Build Data Centers? (Or Subcontract Them?), Follow the CAPEX: The Clown Car Race Checkered Flag, Stargate Struggles to Get Out of Gate, Stargate: “Science fiction, just like the movie it is named after”, CAPEX Clues: The B Word, And You Thought Softbank Was the Dumb Money, Follow the CAPEX: Cloud Table Stakes 2024 Retrospective, Stargate: So Many Mouths to Feed, CAPEX Clues: Softbank Needs More Cash, Stargate: $5 Trillion and Counting, Stargate: A New Hope?
Going Nuclear: Google Nukes Iowa
Google does its reactor rehabilitation deal.
A Cloud Reactor Tracker refresh remains overdue.
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Going Nuclear: Amazon’s Deployment Plans, Cloud Power Up, Introducing the Platformonomics Cloud Reactor Tracker, Going Nuclear: Meta Finally Overcomes the Bees, Going Nuclear: Google Adds Elementl, Going Nuclear: Yay Nuclear Edition, The Moore’s Law of Energy, Meta Goes Nuclear, Navigating Nuclear Obstacles: The Utilities, Navigating Nuclear Obstacles: The Bees, The Nuclear Call to Action, Nuclear: To SMR or Not to SMR?, Nuclear: To PPA or Not to PPA?, Starting to think my nuclear power cheerleading work is done…, Yay Google: Nuclear Edition!, It’s Time to Build: Energy Edition, An Even More Nuclear-Powered Cloud, The Nuclear Power Vibe Shift Continues, Not That Kind of Nuclear Cloud, Better Late Than Never, Power Crunch, Behold the Nuclear Cloud, Nuclear Powered Cloud Data Centers Are Happening, A Nuclear-Powered Cloud, When Nuclear-Powered Data Centers?
Mainframe Migration: At Last?
From Amazon’s Q3 earnings call:
“Customers have also already used Transform to analyze nearly a billion lines of mainframe code as they move mainframe applications to the cloud.”
Needless to say, this has implications for quantum meme stock IBM.
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ClownWatch™: IBM Q3 2025, Are Markets Efficient?: IBM Edition, Godwin’s Law for AI: Curing Cancer, The Mainframe is the Solution! What Was the Question?, ClownWatch™: IBM Q4 2024, ClownWatch™: IBM Reports Negative CAPEX, Follow the CAPEX: The Clown Car Race Checkered Flag, Introducing Platformonomics ClownWatch™, IBM is Not a Technology Company: Employees Agree, IBM is Not a Technology Company: Layoffs Are Their Specialty, IBM is Not a Technology Company: But Ecstatic to be Treated Like One, IBM is Not a Technology Company: McDonald’s Edition, This Week in Securities Fraud, IBM and the Art of Misleading Investors, Last IBM Strategic Imperative Bites the Dust, IBM’s “Cloud” Business (or Lack Thereof), Tweetstorm Digest: Reactions to Barron’s “IBM’s Reboot” Story, IBM’s Lost Decade, Follow the CAPEX: The Clown Car Race Checkered Flag, Introducing Platformonomics ClownWatch™, Regulating the Land that Moore’s Law Forgot, IBM Pulls Late April Fool’s Prank?
Private Equity Buys Software Company from Private Equity: Nexthink
No word yet what Vista company Permira will buy as PE touts “exits”.
Private Equity Buys Software Company from Private Equity: AOL
PE giant Apollo dictated the following story with a straight face:
Apollo was not actively looking to sell AOL, but the brand’s strong performance prompted inbound interest, pushing the firm to more formally evaluate potential buyers, Axios reported.
Apollo has since invested in its products, which a source said has helped contribute to engagement growth across its web and mail portfolio.
I’m afraid it is a little late to issue an AOL migration alert.
Software Migration Alerts: Jamf
Private equity on the scene. The effects can be foreseen.
Two, four, six, eight — migrate!
Filling Big Shoes: Warren Buffett Premium Edition
The test is unfolding of our “never follow a legend” career advice.
