Dave Lee
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Column: Apple’s Tight-Lipped CEO John Ternus Fails to Inspire

Just as the impact of rising memory costs is being partially offset — for Apple at least — by consumers not (yet) balking at price increases, Ternus had an opportunity to do some offsetting of his own by engaging in a little salesmanship.

Apple’s Tight-Lipped CEO John Ternus Fails to Inspirebloomberg.comApple Inc. investors and fans hoping to get an insight into the philosophy of new Chief Executive Officer John Ternus on Monday were left sorely disappointed. The 51-year-old’s first earnings call was a timid affair, with Ternus taking cover behind a carefully written script as analysts peppered him with questions.

Column: Amazon’s Jassy Has a Trillion-Dollar AWS in His Sights

Not for the first time this week, investors seemed to get hung up on short-term disruptions while missing the far bigger picture, which in Amazon’s case is a cloud unit that could surpass $1 trillion in annual revenue within five to 10 years, Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said. He was not being hyperbolic.

Amazon’s Jassy Has a Trillion-Dollar AWS in His Sightsbloomberg.comSimilar to investor reaction to Alphabet Inc.’s earnings a day earlier, the stellar performance of Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud unit was overshadowed by jitters around other parts of the business when the company reported third-quarter results on Thursday. A softer-than-expected forecast for Christmas and a miss on quarterly revenue prompted a sharp selloff after hours. At one point shares were down 7% after dropping 4.25% earlier in the day.

Column: Alphabet’s Wobbly Quarter Is No Sign of a Crisis

Not long ago, investors were deeply concerned that people would stop using Google altogether in favor of a competing AI product. Instead, the company has moved quickly to defend its position, and those fears have been largely unfounded. Search-query growth is at its highest in half a decade, the company disclosed on Wednesday. Monetization comes next, and investors need to be patient as the company manages that transition.

Alphabet’s Wobbly Quarter Is No Sign of a Crisisbloomberg.comInvestors were thoroughly unimpressed with Alphabet Inc.’s third-quarter earnings on Wednesday evening. Shares tumbled nearly 11% after the company missed sales and profit expectations. It was a sign, Bloomberg News reported, that Wall Street wasn’t satisfied that Google is seeing enough of a return on its artificial-intelligence bets.

Column: Anthropic Is Bringing the ‘Anti-Sell’ Strategy to Its IPO

Ahead of going public in mid-November, Anthropic has offered up to Wall Street an anti-sell S-1 prospectus, a doomsday document seeking to weed out investors who might not be able to stomach what lies ahead.

Anthropic Is Bringing the ‘Anti-Sell’ Strategy to Its IPObloomberg.comIn the introduction to Anthropic PBC’s filing for its initial public offering, published on Monday morning, the AI lab’s co-founders talk about the “anti-sell” they give prospective employees. It’s described as “a pitch deliberately designed to be unappealing to those who are a poor fit … while appealing to the type of person we want to hire.”

Column: Meta’s Muse Can’t Be a Freeloader’s Paradise Forever

It’s easy to build a popular and useful service if money is no object. Think Club Tropicana, a great song about a questionable business model: The drinks were free. That’s where Meta Platforms Inc.’s AI assistant, Muse, is today: a breakout success, but one that Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg admitted on Wednesday is too expensive to scale because he’s basically giving it away.

Meta’s Muse Can’t Be a Freeloader’s Paradise Foreverbloomberg.comWhen I introduced my mother to Uber, she asked whether it was always the same driver. Imagine that! Some poor guy waiting around all day on the off chance I’d need a car. Uber’s innovation, obviously, was to pair me with any available driver nearby. Only then was it economical — and it still took more than a decade for the idea to turn a profit.

Column: The Good Guys Notch a Victory in the AI-Cybersecurity Age

But like a thwarted terror attack, or the Year 2000 problem, the general feeling of a nothingburger can disguise the behind-the-scenes heroics that have — so far — averted catastrophe. That’s the case here: an incident that should be considered the most significant victory for the good guys so far in the new AI-cybersecurity age, a boon for the cybersecurity industry eager to prove it’s more valuable than ever.

The Good Guys Notch a Victory in the AI-Cybersecurity Agebloomberg.comThe headlines were unremarkable. Researchers had found a way to weaponize two vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used for websites and apps, and companies were being urged on Wednesday to install a patch. A smattering of websites and services were taken offline while it was installed. The US said it was looking into government systems and expediting mitigations. The media barely blinked.

Column: Meta Investors Are Looking to Zuckerberg for the Muse Payoff

Muse can’t take the entire AI industry’s weight on its shoulders, but it can offer good signals on the moneymaking potential of consumer AI agents.

Meta Investors Are Looking to Zuckerberg for the Muse Payoffbloomberg.comMeta Platforms Inc. leads the tech pack this week, reporting its third-quarter earnings a week ahead of most of its peers. Take that as a sign of confidence, perhaps. The positive reception to the company’s Muse assistant has Wall Street investors wondering whether the personal artificial-intelligence agent is proof of an AI business model they have been desperately seeking.

Column: Meta’s Muse Is Ending Its Honeymoon Phase on Solid Ground

What Meta investors need to see now is proof that those who bought into the Muse idea are actually finding it useful. Users are fickle and will gladly abandon apps after mere minutes unless given a compelling reason to stick around.

Meta’s Muse Is Ending Its Honeymoon Phase on Solid Groundbloomberg.comYou can barely take a step on the New York subway lately without seeing the face of Meta Platforms Inc.’s furry Muse AI assistant. I’ve written already about how impressed I’ve been with the form and function of the breakthrough bot. Now, attention must move to assessing whether Muse has long-term staying power — or whether its launch will be just a flash in the pan.