TLDR 2025-12-22

SAM ALTMAN ON OPENAI'S PLAN TO WIN, AI PERSONALIZATION, INFRASTRUCTURE MATH, AND THE INEVITABLE IPO

Sam Altman recently appeared on Big Technology Podcast to discuss OpenAI's strategy to win, where the product lineup is going in the coming year, how OpenAI's over $1 trillion in AI infrastructure commitments make sense, and the company's future plans for AI devices and AI cloud. The strategy to keep OpenAI ahead involves getting people to use its products, keeping them there with the best models, serving the use cases they want with reliable compute, then expanding into areas like enterprise and hardware. The full conversation, along with links to the audio, is available in the article.

TESLA WINS FINAL COURT FIGHT OVER ELON MUSK'S PAY PACKAGE

Tesla won its fight over Elon Musk's record-breaking pay package approved by shareholders in 2018. The Delaware Supreme Court said the lower court's ruling would have deprived Musk of compensation for several years of work, so he should get the full pay package. Musk's 2018 stock options have grown in value to $139 billion. It was initially valued at more than $2.3 billion, already shattering previous compensation records.

US PLANS LARGEST NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAM SINCE THE 1970S

The Trump administration launched a partnership in October to build at least $80 billion worth of new, large-scale nuclear reactors. The money will support the construction of a type of pressurized water reactor developed by Westinghouse that can generate about 1,110 megawatts of electric power. The partnership includes profit-sharing mechanisms that will give the US government some of the upside if the initiative succeeds.

EX-ASML WORKERS REVERSE-ENGINEERED STATE OF THE ART CHIPMAKING MACHINES TO GET CHINA FAR CLOSER THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT TO INDEPENDENCE FROM FOREIGN TECH

China reportedly has a prototype EUV chipmaking machine. While it has not yet produced a working chip, it is apparently creating EUV light. The machine is expected to produce its first chip in 2028. The Dutch company ASML had previously been the sole producer of EUV machines.

antigravity.tech.

THE BIG-O COMPLEXITY OF VIBE CODERS

Efficiency becoming a metric will create pressure and cause exploration to look wasteful. High-token sessions will start to look sloppy. Over time, AI will turn into another optimization target, and eventually into something that people virtue signal about rather than something that reflects real impact. Some of the most valuable work exists in the messy, high-token exploratory phase that resists easy measurement.

DESIGN IS MORE THAN CODE

Design is about finding the right problem, the right intent, and the right vision. The features you design and build today should be considered a step toward that vision. Without the right context and goal, you could be iterating toward a direction that wasn't chosen intentionally. The industry is not very patient, but that doesn't mean you should devalue the why behind your designs in favor of output.

ELLISON'S HARDBALL WARNER BROS. TACTICS GAVE NETFLIX AN OPENING

Lawyers for David Ellison sent a letter to Warner Bros. Discovery on the night of December 3 expressing serious concerns about the fairness and adequacy of the company's sale process. This surprised Warner Bros., as the company believed it had run a fair process. Ellison's inner circle tried to retract the statement, claiming some partners didn't even know the letter was going out, but it was too late. In response, Warner Bros. decided to sell to Netflix.

GRAPHITE GETS BOUGHT BY CURSOR: THREE REFLECTIONS FROM SIX YEARS OF WORK

Software quality startup Graphite has been acquired by code generation startup Cursor. Graphite started out as Screenplay, which couldn't find product-market fit right away. The conversations around Graphite started right before the pandemic lockdowns. The team started working in person together as soon as it was advisable, allowing them to knit a culture early and build trust. The three founders took three distinct roles, and they all remain vital to the company.

GOOGLE WAS AT RISK OF LOSING ITS DOMINANCE — UNTIL IT PROMOTED THIS AI EXECUTIVE

Josh Woodward, a 16-year Google veteran, was tasked with growing Gemini while also keeping his existing job running Google Labs.

WERNER VOGELS IS RIGHT

It's important to take the time to learn new technologies, the capabilities of those technologies, and where they can help your business, rather than just shoehorning in new technologies everywhere you can.

REFLECTIONS ON AI AT THE END OF 2025

Almost everybody has stopped saying that large language models are stochastic parrots.

MORE ON WHETHER USEFUL QUANTUM COMPUTING IS “IMMINENT”

Scalable quantum computing is now plausibly imminent.

NETFLIX AND DISNEY+ PROBABLY ONLY ADDED AD-TIER SUBSCRIBERS THIS YEAR, SAYS MORGAN STANLEY

The ad tiers scored all net additional subscribers for both Netflix and Disney+ this year.

2025 LLM YEAR IN REVIEW

2025 was a strong and eventful year of progress in LLMs.