Good morning. Can we talk about how comedian John Mulaney roasted techies last week at Dreamforce? I’ve never witnessed such savagery at a corporate event:
“Let me get this straight: You’re hosting a ‘future of AI’ event in a city that has failed humanity so miserably?”
“You look like a group who looked at the self-checkout counters at CVS and thought, ‘This is the future.”
“So many of you feel imminently replaceable.”
Thoughts and prayers, geeks. You shall indeed inherit the earth, but not before the creatives burn it to a crisp. —Andrew Nusca
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Qualcomm wants Intel to want it
It would be the year’s most spectacular tech deal: Qualcomm has reportedly approached Intel about a takeover.
The San Diego-based mobile chipmaker (No. 117 on the Fortune 500; $188bn market cap) undoubtedly smells blood in the water as the Silicon Valley legend (No. 79 on the Fortune 500; $93bn market cap) struggles to cure what ails it.
As we wrote in Data Sheet earlier this week, CEO Pat Gelsinger has been hustling to turn around Intel by nipping, tucking, and toning a company of some 130,000 people and pricey-to-run businesses where it’s not a category leader.
Capital expenditures have been slashed, dividends have been cut, layoffs have been instigated, and a costly foundry business has been oh-so-slightly separated from the mothership. (It’s no cheap trick, is all I’m saying.)
Meanwhile rivals Nvidia and AMD eat up market share for all things AI while Taiwan’s TSMC outmaneuvers Intel on wafer cost.
A deal like this would undoubtedly attract antitrust scrutiny, and would likely lead to the sale of various parts of Intel’s business. But for now, we wait while repeating the mantra: Fiduciary duty. —AN
Microsoft goes nuclear (no, not like that)
Thanks to Microsoft, the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history may be brought back to life.
Baltimore-based Constellation Energy announced a 20-year deal on Friday that would restart operations at the Unit 1 reactor of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear plant…and sell power to the Seattle-area tech giant.
The reactor in question is the sibling to the one that partially melted down in 1979, and most recently operated at a loss in 2019. It is expected to be back online by 2028—if, of course, its rebirth is approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
That’s a big “if.” Though nuclear power is back in fashion in other parts of the world (a war with petro-giant Russia will do that) it has not quite caught on in the imagination of the American public.
Microsoft’s energy purchase from the plant would help it reach a goal of using carbon-free tech to power its growing number of data centers to support its work in cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
But those data centers have been criticized for contributing to—you guessed it—soaring carbon emissions. —Sharon Goldman
Ukraine bans Telegram on government devices
Ukraine banned official government use of the Telegram app on Friday, citing concern that Russia could use the messaging service to spy on users. Ukrainians will still be able to use Telegram on their personal devices.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has been popular among Ukrainians—including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy—for sharing news and text updates about the ongoing war.
But Ukrainian security officials say Russia used Telegram for cyberattacks, identifying user locations, and even plotting missile strikes. Russian intelligence had access to the personal data and messages of users, including deleted messages, according to Ukraine intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov.
Last month, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France and charged with allowing criminal activity on the platform, including fraud and drug trafficking. The arrest prompted debate over free speech online.
Budanov, for his part, can’t be dissuaded: “The issue of Telegram is not a matter of freedom of speech. It is a matter of national security.” —Jenn Brice
Who’s using Meta AI, and where
It’s been a few months since Meta AI showed up, uninvited, inside many of Meta’s biggest products, including Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
For many users, the addition of the generative AI feature—presented as a sort of search box thingie—was met with either a shrug or annoyance.
Users of Meta products are accustomed to the apps being tweaked on a whim. Remember when the Kardashians said how much they hated a sudden change on Instagram that filled everyone’s feed with Reels, and how the effort was then scaled back?
Don’t bank on Meta AI disappearing from your apps though; not anytime soon anyway. It turns out that some people actually are using it.
Who? According to a report in The Information, users of Facebook and WhatsApp are Meta AI’s biggest fans. The report, based on an anonymous source who the publication says has seen the internal data, does not specify how many people are actually using Meta AI.
As for the Meta app seeing the least amount of Meta AI use? Drumroll…it’s Instagram. Maybe they’re too busy keeping up with the Kardashians. —Kali Hays
How Google broke into venture capital
Picture this: You’re in your final job interview at Google and you’re sitting across from co-founder Sergey Brin, who has just one question for you: “Explain something technical to me that I don't already understand.”
That was the situation David Krane found himself in 24 years ago. Krane—who is not an engineer—thoughtfully explained the process of crafting a clarinet reed, earning Brin's approval. Today Krane is the CEO and managing partner of GV, or Google Ventures, the company-funded startup investment firm, which just celebrated its 15th birthday.
Fortune recently spent time with the Alphabet-backed VC trying to understand where it has been and where it’s headed.
What we learned: Independence from a huge corporate overlord is an asset; sometimes spoiling a founder’s transportation plans might end in a deal; and a 300-year time horizon can help you resist the trends (provided your sole limited partner keeps paying the bills).
But don’t take my word for it. Well actually, please do. —Allie Garfinkle
More data
—Nvidia takes a run at the telco market. Yo dawg, we heard you like AI, so we put it in your wireless networks.
—Cards Against Humanity sues SpaceX over land use in Texas. Gotta admit, this wasn’t on my bingo card.
—Thrive Capital plows cash into OpenAI. To achieve investors’ desired returns, it would have to grow bigger than Meta or Berkshire Hathaway. No pressure!
—Huawei's latest phone is surprisingly hard to get. A sold out $2,800 phone? In this economy?
—Yes, there's now a startup called Alan. It’s a French insurer. (Of 1951’s most popular names, we’re still holding out for Kenneth.) —AN
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