Platformonomics TGIF is a weekly roll-up of links, comments on those links, and perhaps a little too much tugging on my favorite threads.
Get Platformonomics Updates By Email
I did a local radio appearance (?) on KIRO to talk about Cleveland as a cautionary tale for Seattle (audio, video). Somehow they chose SteveB screaming “developers” for the walk-on ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The fact-finding mission to Cleveland is coming together. Hit me up if you’re interested in joining the delegation.
News
They Don’t Have the Money: Oracle Update
Layoffs plus Larry accepting dilution with a sale of stock is yet more evidence they do not have the money. Letting Bronny overpay for Warner Brothers doesn’t help the family coffers either (see Quick(er) Hits below). The database vampire reports earnings next week!
Previous:
Oracle; they’re taking the dilution, Oracle wants you to know things you weren’t wondering about until they mentioned it, Remaining CAPEX Obligation: Divestiture Edition, Allocating Oracle’s Capital, They Don’t Have the Money: Who Could Possibly Have Guessed?, Oracle Disappoints: Q2 FY26, Oracle’s Remaining CAPEX Obligation: Q2 FY26, Oracle Still Can’t Build Data Centers: Q2 FY26, Oracle: Not Even a REIT?, 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, Why Can’t Oracle Afford Data Centers?
AWS Availability Zone Testing Launched
Usually they’re pretty good at object management…
Gonna need some more CAPEX.
Previous:
Times of the Times
While local newsletter The Seattle Times lobbies to become a ward of the state, their biggest competitor is doing donuts (or at least eating dumplings) in their front yard. The Times (of New York) likely has more subscribers in Seattle than The Times (of Seattle).
(I make fun of the The New York Times for aspiring to be a technology company and I make fun of The Seattle Times for aspiring to be a newspaper. At least The New York Times is looking forward, not pining away for a time machine. And The New York Times has figured out the best way to do journalism is to make it a side project, subsidized by their crossword puzzle and chocolate chip cookie recipe empire).
Previous:
Washington Post Layoffs? Blame the New York Times, Not Jeff Bezos, A Post about the Washington Post, Existential Corner: What is the New York Times? Living in a Glass House: The New York Times On Tech, Living in a Glass House: What is the New York Times?, Aspiring Technology Company Neither Interested in Technology Nor Understands Technology, Putting the Seattle Times on Notice, Media Self Harm: Lobbying vs. Innovating, Yay Google: New Zealand Edition!, Wrapping Oneself in the Flag: Seattle Times Edition, Media Self-Harm: Time Magazine Edition
Don’t be Cleveland: Starbucks Says “Bye Bob”
The exodus of Washington State’s largest businesses continues under Governor Bob Ferguson. Progressives claim to like “small businesses”, so they must be ecstatic about Starbucks getting smaller in Seattle.
Quick(er) Hits
AWS is so close to quoting Stalin explicitly (“quantity has a quality all its own”): Amazon Tries Its Low-Cost Approach to Winning the AI Race
Commentary on AWS-OpenAI: Corey, Om, more Om
“The private equity complex is in the midst of a pretty nasty crash” Sad!
Proposal: private equity should be required to put down a damage deposit when buying companies. Endorsed!
Bronny’s Boffo Bid: Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters says he is “nervous” about severe job cuts after Paramount’s WBD acquisition and “a bunch of people are going to lose their jobs”, In an interview, David Ellison says CNN would retain editorial independence if the WBD deal closes: “it’s maintained at CBS and it will be maintained at CNN”, All the Ways Netflix Actually Won Even Though It Lost Warner
“Newspaper” fans console thyselves: With Washington Post Local diminished, other news sites step up their D.C. coverage, Politico founder plots new Washington newspaper war
Tim O’Brien on the upcoming 2026 AI election.
Semianalysis, having debunked the AI data center water hysteria, looks at AI’s impact on electricity prices. It is more complex, but AI data centers are a convenient scapegoat for decades of bad energy policy (The Pain in Maine Stems Mainly from the Insane, The Pain in New England Stems Mainly from the Insane).
The enduring cultural legacy of the Windows Entertainment Pack: Minesweeper as AI agent eval