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GOOG

A collection of 82 issues

When the Ads Come to the Data

Last week, I wrote why Muse may never need ads. That piece traveled quite a bit, and interestingly, while I received glowing praise from some readers, I have also heard from people who vehemently disagreed with the word “never”. After pondering this a little more, I actually came to agree

License to Chase the AI Frontier

While looking at Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, I was quite struck by what they all have in common. The top model developers except one all have one thing in common: they are all currently founder-led companies. Alphabet is the sole exception. But even in Alphabet’s case, the company

Digital Advertising Industry Snapshot 2Q'26

As I do after every quarter, let me share the snapshot of the overall digital advertising industry. Let me first explain some changes for this quarter’s edition. First of all, digital advertising industry is defined as Alphabet’s advertising revenue+ Meta’s advertising revenue+ Snap’s ad revenue+ Pinterest

DoorDash 2Q'26: Growth Beyond the Restaurant

DoorDash had a fine quarter with total orders growing ~27% YoY (~17% ex Deliveroo) and marketplace Gross Order Value (GOV) growing ~36% YoY (~23% ex Deliveroo). More importantly, GOV in US restaurant category slightly accelerated in 2Q’26 primarily due to DashPass membership. Speaking of DashPass, management shared some interesting

Hyperscalers vs AI Labs Debate, and the Moving AI Frontier

I thought I would cover Microsoft’s earnings today, but let me first respond to a tweet by SouthernValue and then I will share some thoughts on the state of AI models. I recommend you read his pushback to my yesterday’s piece before you read the rest. I will

The Fleet Owners' Push for Aggregating Demand

Last week, Financial Times reported that Waymo notified Uber that it intends to launch its own app in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028. These were the two cities where Waymo’s robotaxis have been exclusive to Uber’s platform after the two already unwound their Phoenix pilot earlier this

Alphabet 2Q'26: Google Cloud is On Cloud Nine

For the first time as a public company, Alphabet reported negative Free Cash Flow (FCF) in 2Q’26. That sounds scary (only if you have very rudimentary understanding of investing); you need to juxtapose it with the fact that the same company has now accelerated its revenue for six consecutive

The ASIC-GPU Standoff

My friend Liberty recently highlighted an interesting paper from Google that goes through the evolution of TPUs. The objection to domain-specific silicon which might sound quite persuasive is the one about obsolescence: a chip may take two to three years to design, fabricate, and deploy, and AI moves fast

The Honeymoon Phase of Capacity

Although I am yet to write any Deep Dive on any neocloud, I still like to pay close attention to what they are saying during their earnings calls. Both CoreWeave and Nebius had some interesting nuggets in their 1Q’26 call. Let’s start with CoreWeave. Just like the hyperscalers,

Digital Advertising Industry Snapshot 1Q'26

As I do after every quarter, let me share the snapshot of the overall digital advertising industry. Please note that digital advertising industry is defined as Alphabet’s advertising revenue+ Meta’s advertising revenue+ Snap revenue+ Pinterest revenue+ Microsoft Search advertising revenue+ Amazon advertising revenue+ Trade Desk revenue+ AppLovin revenue.