STRATEGY & MANAGEMENT
iPhones 17 and the Sugar Water Trap (Stratechery)
“Apple is positioned to be kingmaker — or gatekeeper — to AI companies who need a massive userbase to justify their astronomical investments, and to the extent that subscriptions are a core piece of the AI monetization puzzle is the extent to which the App Store is positioned for even more recurring revenue growth… And besides, isn’t it a good thing that Apple is unique amongst its Big Tech peers in having dramatically lower capital expenditures, even as they are making just as much money as ever??? … ”
Meta's New RayBan Just Launched the Next Era of Mobile Computing (Varun Mayya)
Wait... Smart Glasses are Suddenly Good? (Marques Brownlee)
Oracle, OpenAI Sign $300 Billion Cloud Deal (WSJ)
“The OpenAI and Oracle contract, which starts in 2027, is a risky gamble for both companies. OpenAI is a money-losing startup that disclosed in June it was generating roughly $10 billion in annual revenue—less than one-fifth of the $60 billion it will have to pay on average every year. Oracle is concentrating a large chunk of its future revenue on one customer—and will likely have to take on debt to buy the AI chips needed to power the data centers…”
Oracle’s insane cloud infrastructure forecast is giving shades of Nvidia’s data center business (Sherwood)
INDIA
Winning the Quick-Commerce Decade: Playbook for Brand Success (Redseer)
How to Build Serious Wealth in India: The Untold Secrets to Success in 2025 (Breakdown)
The Great Unlock (Nandan Nilekani & Arkam Ventures)
Zoho’s LLM isn’t trying to win the AI race. It’s trying to survive the SaaS war (The Ken)
Link to cost leadership strategy
Strategic Musings
“Anyone can move fast. That's the trap. Speed is cheap, but the ability to be fast without being reckless is expensive.
The chess master's lightning moves come from decades of slow study. The CEO who is in the weeds knows where the problems lurk.
Details don't slow you down; they speed you up.” - FS
Caught my eye…
