Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson

By Andrew Sharp and Ben ThompsonTechnology

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Typical duration
26 min
per episode

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Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson episodes

January 30, 2025 The End of DeepSeek Week: Moneyball for AI, The Future of Compute Demand, Geopolitical Reality Checks, and More
Andrew and Ben reconvene to answer your emails on DeepSeek and its implications. Topics include: DeepSeek as the Oakland A’s and Big Tech as the Red Sox, questions about distillation, video game history and coding to the metal, waiting for Silicon Valley products in AI, the future of compute demand and power consumption, and a variety of follow-up thoughts to Monday’s export control discussion.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
DeepSeek FAQ — Stratechery
DeepSeek-R1, DeepSeek Implications — Stratechery Update
China and Geopolitics — Stratechery
On DeepSeek and Export Controls — Dario Amodei
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
1 hr 16 min
January 27, 2025 (Preview) 72 Hours of DeepSeek Hysteria, What DeepSeek Means for Big Tech, Lessons on the Efficacy of Chip Controls
Unpacking several days of dizzying reactions to DeepSeek, including a closer look at the costs of model development, why the heightened scrutiny looks like a coping mechanism, DeepSeek’s efficiency breakthroughs, the implications for big tech, and the future of export controls on semiconductors.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
DeepSeek FAQ — Stratechery
DeepSeek-R1, DeepSeek Implications — Stratechery Update
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
13 min
January 23, 2025 (Preview) The End of OpenAI and Microsoft, Risks and Rationale of the Stargate Project, DeepSeek-R1 and Bitter Lessons for the Future
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Stargate, The End of Microsoft and OpenAI — Stratechery Update
Microsoft Earnings; Microsoft and OpenAI, Again; GitHub Copilot Adds Gemini and Claude — Stratechery Update
The Accidental Consumer Tech Company; ChatGPT, Meta, and Product-Market Fit; Aggregation and APIs — Stratechery Update
Stratechery Updates, DeepSeek-R1, DeepSeek Implications — Stratechery Update
AI’s Uneven Arrival — Stratechery
An Interview with Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman about ChatGPT and the Near-Term Future of AI — Stratechery Interview
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
14 min
January 20, 2025 (Preview) A Long Weekend for TikTok, Preparing for Trump and an Era of Upheaval, LeBron James as an iPhone
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
TikTok Ban Approaches, Generational Implications, Xiaohongshu — Stratechery Update
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, Asianometry and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
11 min
January 16, 2025 AI’s Uneven Arrival, TikTok’s Potential Departure, Xiaohongshu and the Delights of Cultural Exchange
Looking to digital advertising history for clues about AI’s impact on the economy, proposed frameworks for AGI and ASI, and why AI benefits are likely to be unevenly distributed in the near term. Then: The logic and continued uncertainty surrounding a TikTok ban in the United States, the delights of Xiaohongshu mania, and a word about TikTok and conflicting principles.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
AI’s Uneven Arrival — Stratechery
TikTok Ban Approaches, Generational Implications, Xiaohongshu — Stratechery Update
The TikTok War — Stratechery
'TikTok refugees': Great divide between the public and the government — CGTN
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
1 hr 10 min
January 14, 2025 (Preview) Meta’s Moderation Changes, Tech’s Evolving Political Calculus, The Importance and Difficulty of Maintaining Principles on the Internet
Meta’s new approach to moderation questions, the context for an apparent shift to the right among tech leadership, and lessons from the last several years of moderation challenges and mistakes. At the end: Mark Zuckerberg offers his assessment of Apple in the modern era.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Meta Changes Moderation Policies, Zuckerberg’s Journey — and Mine, The Audacity of Copying Well — Stratechery Update
Mark Zuckerberg on Moderation Changes — Instagram: @zuck
The Audacity of Copying Well — Stratechery
Mark Zuckerberg on Apple — X: @tsarnick
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
15 min
January 06, 2025 (Preview) What AI Could Mean for Aggregation Theory, o3 and Moore’s Law, More Questions Than Answers as Tech Enters 2025
Ben and Andrew return from the holidays to check in on the AI landscape. Topics include: Aggregation Theory and the return of marginal costs for hyperscalers, the architecture of OpenAI’s o3 model, the murky future for software engineers and SaaS companies, and whether Scarlett Johansson fumbled the bag. At the end: In praise of learning to ski as a middle-aged beginner.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
2025 AI & Semiconductor Outlook — Fabricated Knowledge
Enterprise Philosophy and The First Wave of AI — Stratechery
ChatGPT Gets a Computer — Stratechery
The End of the Beginning — Stratechery
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
14 min
December 19, 2024 Holiday Mailbag: The Next Intel, Google’s AI Revival, Modern Sportswriting, TSMC Mugs, Tutoring Takes, and Lots More
Ending the year with a slew of great emails from listeners, including questions about the next U.S. flagship to fail, Google's advantages in AI, an iOS 18 autopsy, the classes that Ben and Andrew would teach as professors, AI for chip production, TSMC mugs, recommendations for X usage, and the return of the TikTot segment to discuss tutoring and children. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the whole Sharp Tech family!
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Rapidus, The End of Economic Rationality, AI Disruption — Stratechery Update
Google Announces Veo 2, The Empire Strikes Back, Free ChatGPT Search — Stratechery Update
The 2024 Stratechery Year in Review — Stratechery
TSMC Coffee Mug — X: @benthompson
TWINSCAN EXE:5000 Lego Set — ASML Store
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
1 hr 41 min
December 16, 2024 (Preview) Google’s Willow Chip, Drones as a Platform and Anduril Follow-Up, Building Inside and Outside Silicon Valley
A high level read on Google's quantum computing announcement and Google's R&D efforts generally, a listener's question about drones as a platform, follow-up on last week's conversation about Anduril and the future of the U.S. defense industry, and questions on the near term concerns surrounding an AI Manhattan project, Clayton Christensen’s theory of integration and modularity as applied to Silicon Valley, and housing prices in the Bay Area.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip — Google
The Anduril Lattice SDK, Understanding Lattice, Anduril + Palantir — Stratechery Update
An Interview with Gregory Allen About the Updated China Chip Ban — Stratechery Interview
The ZTE Ban, Tech’s Trade War Risk, China’s Delayed Approval and Apple’s Pain — Stratechery Update
Chips and Geopolitics — Stratechery
Chips and China — Stratechery
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
23 min
December 12, 2024 (Preview) Anduril and the Lattice Partner Program, A New Direction for Defense Tech, OpenAI Introduces ChatGPT Pro
Unpacking a quietly significant announcement from Anduril this week, the future of hardware and software in the U.S. defense industry, and checking in with OpenAI as the company announces a new subscription tier for ChatGPT.
To email the show: [email protected]
@SharpTechPodcast Channel — YouTube
@Stratechery Channel — YouTube
Anduril Industries — X: @andruiltech
An Interview with Gregory Allen About the State of China Chip Export Controls — Stratechery Interview
ChatGPT Pro, o1 Pro, Sora — Stratechery Update
OpenAI seeks to unlock investment by ditching ‘AGI’ clause with Microsoft — Financial Times
Get all episodes of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk and the Dithering Podcast as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year.
11 min