Stratechery by Ben Thompson
On the business, strategy, and impact of technology.
The best Stratechery content from the week of September 1, 2025, including the Google Patronage Network, Google and competition, and Cloudflare and the future of the Internet.
An interview with Cloudflare founder and CEO Matthew Prince about founding Cloudflare from the bottoms up, and why now is the time to leverage the power that followed to enact pay-per-crawl.
Google lost some battles but won the war in its search distribution case: the Google patronage network was deemed too important to undo.
Google's latest Pixel event re-imagined launch events; it was appropriate given that Google is truly re-imagining the smartphone.
The best Stratechery content from the week of August 25, 2025, including the U.S. getting into the chip business, KPop Demon Hunters and the Netflix machine, and China's plan for AI chips.
Nvidia's earning continue to be governed by supply — and reasoning models make that even more the case. Plus, why Nvidia is so desperate to get back into China.
KPop Demon Hunters is the hit of the year. Sony missed out, but they didn't make a mistake; Netflix won the reward by being an Aggregator.
The U.S. taking an equity stake in Intel is a terrible idea; it also happens to be the least bad idea to make Intel Foundry viable.
A Personal Update and Vacation Break
The best Stratechery content from the week of August 11, 2025, including Facebook is Dead; Long Live Meta, GPT-5's Arrival, and the Top 5 Airports.
Meta delivered blowout earnings the same quarter that Mark Zuckerberg doubled down on AI; I don't think it was a coincidence.
GPT-5 seems fine; the more interesting questions are about the ChatGPT product and OpenAI’s tradeoffs.
President's Trump plan for the U.S. to get paid by Nvidia and AMD for China exports is dubious, but overall policy is headed in the right direction.
The best Stratechery content from the week of August 4, 2025 including what Nokia can teach us about the AI era, what the NFL wants from ESPN, and how Visa conquered debit cards.
The NFL is taking equity in ESPN. It's a great deal for Disney, driven by the NFL's long-term concern about tech dominance.
When paradigms change, previous winners have the hardest time adjusting; that is why AI might be a challenge for Apple and Amazon
Apple appears committed to its original Apple Intelligence strategy.
The best Stratechery content from the week of July 28, 2025, including how to think about Figma, the future of the U.S. semiconductor supply chain, and whether Trump is softening on China.
Figma is well-placed to succeed in an AI world, because they are an operating system. However, they need to move quickly to capitalize, and that explains why they are going public.
Tesla is making future chips with Samsung, likely cementing the Korean company as the industry's second supplier.
TSMC and Intel's approach to backside power are downstream of their cultures: customer-centric versus self-serving. It may doom the latter.
The best Stratechery content from the week of July 21, 2025, including exaggerated rumors of Google's demise, content and community, and computers as entertainment machines.
Google doubles down on AI in the cloud
Netflix advertising will change the service; then, F1 might be headed to Apple TV, and it might work.
The old model for content sprung from geographic communities; the new model for content is to be the organizing principle for virtual communities.
The best Stratechery content from the week of July 14, 2025, including the economic future of the web, Greatest of All Talk in Las Vegas, and how we cool computers.
Cloudflare is unilaterally blocking AI crawlers unless they are willing to pay
Cognition rescues Windsurf, Nvidia can sell H20s to China, and Grok 4 and Kimi K2 point to future avenues of model improvement
Windsurf's founders and IP are going to Google in the latest stinky deal that is downstream of regulator's recklessly messing the startup ecosystem.
The best Stratechery content from the week of July 7, 2025, including who invests and why, Apple's search for an AI partner, and if Xi Jinxping is on his way out.
Apple is considering partnering with foundation model providers to replace Siri; the choice of which is profound.
Positioning AI contenders — and losers — by their tech philosophy and business potential.
Meta won another fair use case, even though the judge wanted to rule against LLMs; he'll have a hard time doing so.
Stratechery is on summer break the week of June 30. There will be no Weekly Article or Updates. The next Update will be on Monday, July 7. Dithering, Sharp Tech, and Sharp China will also return the week of July 7. Greatest of All Talk and Asianometry will continue to publish. The full Stratechery posting […]
The best Stratechery content from the week of June 23, 2025, including AI and the Big Five, a compelling ruling on LLMs and the Fair Use Doctrine, and NBA salaries in tech (and the actual NBA).
An interview with Sierra founder and CEO Bret Taylor about his career in tech and the future of AI.
The first big AI copyright decision has come down, and it's a big win for AI. It also provides a blueprint for how Congress can do more.
Top AI talents is starting to get NBA level money — and they might still be underpaid.
A review of the current state of AI through the lens of the Big Five tech companies.
The best Stratechery content from the week of June 16, 2025, including OpenAI getting testy and xAI getting expensive, speedbumps for China's car industry, and Meta continuing its AI hiring spree.
Everyone wants xAI to exist, but is anyone actually using it? Then, Xbox as it once existed is dead; it's just Windows now.
Microsoft and AI continue to fight, and WhatsApp adds ads and subscriptions (and I explain why as a creator I'm not interested).
WarnerBros. Discovery is splitting up, but the real split goes back to Turner Broadcasting.
The best Stratechery content from the week of June 9, 2025, including Apple's Retreat at WWDC, Apple in China, and the upside down NBA Finals.
An Interview with "Apple in China" Author Patrick McGee about Apple's reluctant shift to outsourcing and how its position relative to its supply chain has shifted over time.
Meta is reportedly buying 49% of Scale AI and hiring CEO Alexandr Wang; this seems to be deal about fixing Llama, not about Scale AI.
Apple's WWDC was a retreat from not just last year's WWDC, but potentially a broader reset for the company. That's why it was a great presentation.
AI coding is much broader than vibe coding, the dynamics of AI coding, and why OpenAI wants to own everything.
The best Stratechery content from the week of June 2, 2025, including why Nike is working with Amazon, the logic of an Anduril and Meta partnership, and the Japanese rice crisis.
An interview with Cursor founder and CEO Michael Truell about AI coding and capturing the critical point of integration in the AI value chain.