TechCheck

Shares of the software maker Rubrik are up about 20% since its debut on the NYSE yesterday. That success is being cheered in Silicon Valley as the latest sign the public market waters are safe to wade into. Plus, Alphabet and Microsoft shares are both popping after the companies beat on the top and bottom lines. The tech giants emphasized the growth of their respective AI businesses, but that also comes at a big cost. 

At the heart of the battle over TikTok is its algorithm - one that overhauled social media, captivated Gen Z, and continues to engage them more than copycats like YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels. But without it, a sale of TikTok would be a very different proposition, and interested buyers like Steve Mnuchin have said that he would rebuild the app if there’s no technology transfer. 

Two Google alumni are among those now turning up the pressure on their former employer. Aravind Srinivas of Perplexity and Dario Amodei of Anthropic are both leading upstart gen AI native companies. This time around, they have less to lose and are unafraid of taking on the giants. Plus, Softbank is reportedly now sinking nearly a billion dollars into developing a new generative AI model -- but is it too little, too late? 

This earnings season, could we see Amazon and Alphabet follow Meta’s lead and issue a dividend or boost buybacks? Free cash flow has jumped across the six megacaps in the last two years, with Nvidia and Amazon seeing the biggest increases. In Amazon’s case, it was hard to imagine the tech giant doing so under Jeff Bezos. But CEO Andy Jassy is friendlier to Wall Street and has talked about focusing on profits and efficiency. 

Google has been the poster child among big tech for having a more cuddly environment, with kombucha on tap or massuesses on staff. That also applies to what was once an openness for employees to bring social and political causes to work and mix ethics and business. But we're increasingly seeing a tougher Google and CEO Sundar Pichai. In the wake of multi-city protests across the company, he reminded employees in his latest memo that "this is a business."    

: The latest bottleneck in the AI boom might not be chips anymore - it's energy. Computing for AI requires way more power than traditional data centers, and CEOs including Elon Musk, Andy Jassy and Sam Altman are all sounding the alarm. Plus, the AI race is on -- and it's now faster and more competitive than ever. Meta says its just-released latest AI model, the Llama 3, is the most powerful model that's also freely accessible. Meta is also teaming up with Google to include search results with its new AI chatbot, Meta AI, in a show of force against ChatGPT. 

The practice of stack ranking might be making a comeback in Silicon Valley. Sometimes called “rank and yank,” it’s becoming increasingly popular among tech companies during what’s turning into the multiple years of efficiency, with big tech cutting costs and trimming their workforce. The type of merit-based, competitive culture has been around since the 80s, popularized by Jack Welch of GE, and is alive and well in other sectors including banking. 

Microsoft is making a major investment into the Abu Dhabi-based AI firm G-42 -- $1.5 billion dollars for a minority stake and just the latest in several foreign AI and cloud investments Microsoft has made, designed to continue its head start in AI and lock up another major customer for its cloud service Azure. Plus, HSBC is making a big call on AMD today, arguing in a new note that it shouldn’t be overlooked as an AI play because of its upcoming AI accelerator chip series, and because its non-AI business segments are improving. 

Apple and Tesla are the only two stocks in the Magnificent Seven that are still in the red this year, and shares of both are also sinking today on news that Tesla is laying off 10% of its workforce and Apple smartphone shipments are slumping. But it’s not just the stock declines that the two have in common. Some parallels are even more fundamental to the companies, including increased competition from China, both reportedly killing major car projects, and highly anticipated events this summer with a lot at stake. 

Box is going all in on AI. The cloud management company just crossed $1 billion in annual revenue, and says there’s still a lot more opportunity ahead.  We chat with CEO Aaron Levie on how regulators should tackle AI, how AI will impact jobs and hiring, Google’s AI strategy, and more. Plus, with sticky inflation increasing the chances of higher rates for longer, Silicon Valley investors are now paying close attention to what it means for their privately-held portfolios. We dig into what VCs have been saying and the divergence between AI startups and the rest of tech.