Business

The 2024 Stratechery Year in Review – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

12/20/2024

Stratechery, extremely sufficient, has been my full-time job for over a decade; that is the twelfth year-in-review. Here are the earlier editions:

It has lengthy been a helpful cliché to say that overlaying tech is simple, as a result of one thing is at all times taking place; now that that one thing is AI, that’s extra true than ever. Nearly each Article on Stratechery this yr was about AI ultimately or one other, and that’s prone to be true for years to return.

This yr Stratechery printed 29 free Articles, 109 subscriber Updates, and 40 Interviews. Today, as per custom, I summarize the preferred and most essential posts of the yr.

The Five Most-Viewed Articles

The 5 most-viewed articles on Stratechery in line with web page views:

Intel Honesty — The greatest approach to each save Intel and have vanguard manufacturing within the U.S. is to separate the corporate, and for the U.S. authorities to choose up the invoice by way of buy ensures.
Gemini and Google’s Culture — The Google Gemini fiasco reveals that the most important problem for Google in AI will not be enterprise mannequin however reasonably firm tradition; change is required from the highest down.
Intel’s Humbling — Intel beneath Pat Gelsinger is reaping the catastrophe that got here from a scarcity of funding and execution a decade in the past; the corporate, although, seems to be headed in the appropriate route, as evidenced by its execution and up to date take care of UMC.
The Apple Vision Pro — The Apple Vision Pro is a disappointment for productiveness, partially due to decisions made to ship a outstanding leisure expertise. Plus, the way forward for AR/VR for Apple and Meta.
MKBHDs For Everything — Marques Brownlee has great energy as a result of he can go direct to customers; that’s potential in media, and AI will make it potential all over the place.

AI and the Future

Looking forward to how AI will change all the things.

Enterprise Philosophy and The First Wave of AI — The first wave of profitable AI implementations will most likely look extra like the primary wave of computing, which was dominated by large-scale enterprise installations that eradicated jobs. Consumer will come later. YouTube
The Gen AI Bridge to the Future — Generative AI is the bridge to the subsequent computing paradigm of wearables, similar to the Internet bridged the hole from PCs to smartphones.
The New York Times’ AI Opportunity — The New York Times is suing OpenAI, however it’s the New York Times that stands to learn essentially the most from giant language fashions, due to its transformation to being an Internet entity. YouTube
AI Integration and Modularization — Breaking down the Big Tech AI panorama by way of the lens of integration and modularization. YouTube
Aggregator’s AI Risk — A single AI can by no means make everybody joyful, which is basically threatening to the Aggregator enterprise mannequin; the answer is customized AI. YouTube

Government and Regulation

An rising theme this yr — which I count on to proceed alongside AI — is the rising significance of non-economic elements by way of technological growth, at the same time as regulators ramp up stress on the giants of the Aggregator period.

A Chance to Build — Silicon Valley has at all times been deeply built-in with Asia; Trump’s try to alter commerce may damage Silicon Valley greater than anticipated, and in addition current alternatives to construct one thing new. YouTube
Intel’s Death and Potential Revival — Intel died when cellular value it its software program differentiation; if the U.S. needs a home foundry, then it should leverage the necessity for AI chips to make an impartial Intel foundry viable. YouTube
The E.U. Goes Too Far — Recent E.U. regulatory choices cross the road from market correction to property theft; if the E.U. continues down this path they’re prone to see fewer new options and no new corporations. YouTube
Friendly Google and Enemy Remedies — The DOJ introduced the correct of case in opposition to an Aggregator, which stagnates by being too good; the objective is for corporations to behave like they really have enemies. YouTube
United States v. Apple — Apple is being sued by the DOJ, however many of the complaints aren’t concerning the App Store. I believe, although, Apple’s strategy to the App Store is what led to this case.

Big Tech

The largest tech corporations, as standard, offered essentially the most constant lens on how the world is altering.

Stratechery Interviews

Thursdays are for Stratechery Interview — in podcast and transcript type — with public firm executives, founders and personal firm executives, and different analysts.

Public Company Executive Interviews:

Startup/Private Company Executive Interviews:

Rescale CEO Joris Poort | Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi | Terraform Industries CEO Casey Handmer | Scale AI CEO Alex Wang | Canva CEO Melanie Perkins

Analysts:

Om Malik on tech historical past | Joanna Stern on the Apple Vision Pro | Eric Seufert on digital promoting in February and October | Matthew Ball on VR and gaming | Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman on AI in February and June | Hugo Barra on AR and VR in March and October | Benedict Evans on regulation and AI | Michael Morton on e-commerce | Matthew Belloni on Hollywood and streaming | Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) on YouTube | Ben Bajarin on Apple and Intel | Craig Moffett on Apple and telecoms | Gregory Allen in October on the U.S. protection trade, and December on the China chip ban | Timothy B. Lee on AI and self-driving vehicles | Dylan Patel and Doug O’Laughlin on the semiconductor trade | Byrne Hobart on innovation | Tae Kim on The Nvidia Way

The Year in Stratechery Updates

Some of my favourite Stratechery Updates:

January 29: Apple and the DMA, Apple and “Or”, A Reluctant Apple Apologist (See additionally: European Commission Charges Apple, Apple Delays New Features for E.U.)
February 19: Xbox’s Announcement; Microsoft’s Messy Middle; Apple in Europe, Continued
March 12: Walmart Earnings, Walmart Connect and Closing the Loop, Walmart Acquires Vizio
April 1: MLS on Vision Pro, The Vision Pro’s Missing Content, The Vision Pro’s DRI
May 7: TSMC Earnings, TSMC’s Pricing Mistake, Intel v. TSMC
May 20: Netflix and the NFL, Netflix Internalizes Ads, Comcast’s Bundle (See additionally: Netflix’s Boxing Event, Customer Acquisition vs. Churn Mitigation, Accounting for Events)
June 18: FTC Sues Adobe, The Legal Question, The Value of Doing Right
June 24: Perplexity and Robots.txt, Perplexity’s Defense, Google and Competition
July 17: Tech For Trump, Breaking the Deal, From Inertness to Interest
August 26: Telegram CEO Arrested, Telegram’s Non-Encrypted Advantage, Telegram Complexities
September 16: OpenAI’s New Model, How o1 Works, Scaling Inference
September 30: More on Orion, Where Vision Pro Went Wrong, Apple’s Response and Meta’s Motivation
October 1: Taking Waymo, Uber and Waymo (See additionally: GM Kills Cruise, Fleets Versus Autonomy, Robotaxi Outlook)
October 7: U.S. Communications Hacked, The History of CALEA, Encryption and Backdoors
October 22: Stripe Acquires Bridge, Stablecoins, Platform of Platforms
October 28: Trump on Rogan, The Voters Decide, The Podcast Election
November 6: President Trump, Take Two; Big Tech, Little Tech, Chips, and Hardware; Elon Musk’s Triumph
November 13: Shopify Earnings, Software Self-Awareness, Rebels and the Arms Dealer
December 4: AWS re:Invent, Nova and Model Choice, AI as Commodity
December 17: Google Announces Veo 2, The Empire Strikes Back, Free ChatGPT Search

I’m so grateful to the subscribers that make it potential for me to do that as a job. I want all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and I’m trying ahead to an important 2025!

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