The central question this week at Stratechery is who actually wins as AI models mature. Microsoft bet on OpenAI integration, then pivoted to betting on infrastructure. The latest evidence, specifically Copilot Cowork and Anthropic's own integration layer, suggests the model makers are capturing value that platforms assumed they would own. Ben Thompson and Andrew Sharp break down the full AI value chain on Sharp Tech, and the argument is more specific and more damaging to the infrastructure thesis than the summary suggests.
On the geopolitics side, Andrew Sharp's Sharp Text piece argues the U.S. war in Iran is best understood as one in a sequence of deliberate moves targeting Beijing's global interests. Sharp names specific takes from the past year that have not aged well and explains why. The Oracle earnings piece runs a parallel track: Oracle beat numbers in a way that reveals both AI infrastructure demand and Oracle's surprisingly durable software moat, two things that are usually in tension.
The full bundle this week also covers the MacBook Neo as a case study in cloud-dependent hardware strategy, a MoffettNathanson analyst interview on Netflix, Paramount, Disney, and Amazon, and a Greatest of All Talk episode using Ben Thompson's Capital-T Team Test to rank NBA title contenders. The Team Test framework alone is worth the read.
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