The Big Read

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Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images
The Big Read

How an Ex-Oilman Became the Face of Elon Musk’s Supercomputers

By Theo Wayt · Sep 19, 2025 9:00am PDT
In February, a peace summit of sorts took place on the top floor of Memphis City Hall. On one side there were a handful of local politicians and environmental activists. On the other was the city’s mayor, Paul Young, and Brent Mayo—a youthful, bearded, hoodie-clad Texan—who came with a message that his boss, Elon Musk, had become... In February, a peace summit of sorts took place on the top floor of Memphis City Hall. On one...
Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images
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As Tech Leaders Flatter Trump, Anthropic Takes a Cooler Approach

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Sep 12, 2025 9:00am PDT
In June, the artificial intelligence startup Anthropic was finally getting close to hiring a candidate—a Republican—for its top government relations job after months of searching for someone. That decision marked a shift: Anthropic had hired several former Biden staffers earlier in the year, which had aggravated people in the... In June, the artificial intelligence startup Anthropic was finally getting close to hiring a...
Art by Clark Miller; photos from Getty Images
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Why Silicon Valley Believes GLP-1s Are All-Purpose Wonder Drugs

By Ann Gehan · Sep 5, 2025 9:13am PDT · 1 comment
Over the past year, investor Brian Sugar has developed what he considers a “superpower,” finding it newly possible to push himself harder than ever before at home, in the gym—and in the office. What’s given him this boost? He attributes it to a recently acquired prescription for semaglutide, which places him among a sizable portion of the... Over the past year, investor Brian Sugar has developed what he considers a “superpower,” finding...
Art by Clark Miller; Getty images.
Why Musk’s Legal Battle Over OpenAI’s Structure Isn’t a Total Long Shot
By Rocket Drew, Theo Wayt and Sri Muppidi · Aug 29, 2025 9:01am PDT · 2 comments
Art by Clark Miller; Getty images.
The Big Read

Why Musk’s Legal Battle Over OpenAI’s Structure Isn’t a Total Long Shot

By Rocket Drew, Theo Wayt and Sri Muppidi · Aug 29, 2025 9:01am PDT · 2 comments
Much is known about the pastimes of the world’s wealthiest person, Elon Musk. They include playing videogames, fathering children and reading Douglas Adams novels. Over the past couple of years, Musk has picked up another hobby: waging war against Sam Altman, an ex-friend with whom he co-founded OpenAI a decade ago as a nonprofit. And Musk’s... Much is known about the pastimes of the world’s wealthiest person, Elon Musk. They include...
Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.
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Struggling Snap Considers Outside Funding for AR Glasses

By Kaya Yurieff, Erin Woo and Jemima McEvoy · Aug 22, 2025 6:09am PDT · 2 comments
For nearly as long as Evan Spiegel has run Snap Inc., his big bet has been on Spectacles, the company’s augmented reality glasses. All together, he has poured $3 billion into the effort—a fraction of what Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Platforms has invested in wearable technology, but a major expense for a company of Snap’s modest size. Spiegel... For nearly as long as Evan Spiegel has run Snap Inc., his big bet has been on Spectacles, the...
Art by Clark Miller; Trump image via Getty
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Tech Needs AI Talent From China and Other Countries. But Researchers Are Caught In a Bind

By Kalley Huang and Erin Woo · Aug 15, 2025 9:04am PDT · 2 comments
In the fast-paced AI wars, time is precious. So when Google last month said it would pay Windsurf $2.4 billion to license the prominent AI startup’s technology and hire some of its employees, the search giant hurried to add Windsurf’s researchers and engineers to its ranks. Within a day, Google had onboarded most of the Windsurf staff it had... In the fast-paced AI wars, time is precious. So when Google last month said it would pay Windsurf...
Art by Clark Miller; image via Getty.
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Nvidia’s Quiet Rising Stars? The Son and Daughter of Billionaire Founder Jensen Huang

By Anissa Gardizy · Aug 8, 2025 9:01am PDT · 3 comments
At an all-hands meeting earlier this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang received a question that prompted him to talk about a personal topic: nepotism at Nvidia. In response, Huang acknowledged that Nvidia had indeed hired the children of many employees and insisted it didn’t bother him. He said he believed those parents wouldn’t have vouched for... At an all-hands meeting earlier this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang received a question that...
Art by Clark Miller
How Microplastics Became Silicon Valley’s Big New Worry
By Ann Gehan · Aug 1, 2025 9:00am PDT · 1 comment
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

How Microplastics Became Silicon Valley’s Big New Worry

By Ann Gehan · Aug 1, 2025 9:00am PDT · 1 comment
Lee Jacobs, co-founder of Long Journey Ventures, thought he had seen it all among his friends and acquaintances in Silicon Valley: the continuous glucose monitors, the cortisol tests, the frequent bloodwork to monitor hundreds of biomarkers and maximize longevity. Recently, another wellness obsession took him by surprise. “I didn’t know the... Lee Jacobs, co-founder of Long Journey Ventures, thought he had seen it all among his friends and...
Art by Clark Miller; image courtesy Joby Aviation.
The Big Read

A Flying Taxi Finally Nears Takeoff With an Unlikely Boost From Toyota

By Steve LeVine · Jul 18, 2025 9:15am PDT · 3 comments
We all grew up with wide-eyed ideas of flying cars—you know, one day zipping around town like the Jetsons. Their failure to materialize so disappointed investor Peter Thiel that he quipped: “We wanted flying cars; instead we got 140 characters.” You’re free not to believe him, but JoeBen Bevirt is here to tell you we are now... We all grew up with wide-eyed ideas of flying cars—you know, one day zipping around town...
Art by Clark Miller (photo: Getty Images)
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With Figma IPO, Dylan Field Bounces Back From Adobe Fiasco

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 11, 2025 9:38am PDT · 3 comments
The main Department of Justice building, across from the National Archives in Washington, was the kind of brooding edifice Dylan Field had walked through a lot in 2023 as he tried to convince governments around the world to let him sell Figma, the design software startup that had been his life, to Adobe for $20 billion. He made a final attempt... The main Department of Justice building, across from the National Archives in Washington, was the...
Art by Clark Miller.
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Inside the Great AI Talent Auction: The Deals, the Free Agents—and the Egos

By Erin Woo · Jun 27, 2025 9:04am PDT · 2 comments
Say you’re at the top of your field. Say you’ve been promoted to be a senior researcher at OpenAI, watching the paper value of your equity swell as your company’s valuation goes from less than $20 billion to $260 billion in just four years. Say Mark Zuckerberg—yes, Zuck, personally—comes texting and calling, offering you tens of... Say you’re at the top of your field. Say you’ve been promoted to be a senior researcher at...
Art by Clark Miller
Why Humanoid Robots Are the Latest Front in America’s Tech War With China
By Steve LeVine, Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Jun 20, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

Why Humanoid Robots Are the Latest Front in America’s Tech War With China

By Steve LeVine, Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Jun 20, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments
Elon Musk’s forecasts of an ultralavish future for Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, have not only been a boon to his company’s share price: They’ve provided a broad lift to nearly everyone working on humanoids, a technology once considered a fantasy land. One of the biggest beneficiaries is Apptronik, a scrappy Austin, Texas, rival working, in a... Elon Musk’s forecasts of an ultralavish future for Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, have not only...
Art by Clark Miller (photos: Getty Images).
The Big Read

A Marc Benioff Protégé Has Morphed Into Salesforce’s Big Worry

By Jon Victor and Kevin McLaughlin · Jun 13, 2025 9:19am PDT · 2 comments
After an unexpected exit as Salesforce co-CEO in 2022, Bret Taylor sat down with a friend, Benchmark’s Peter Fenton, to brainstorm ideas for what to do next. He knew if he chose to go up against ex-boss Marc Benioff, who had shared the CEO duties with him, Benioff would be a formidable opponent. “He had an immense admiration for Marc,” Fenton... After an unexpected exit as Salesforce co-CEO in 2022, Bret Taylor sat down with a friend,...
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read

Why Eric Schmidt and Jeff Bezos Are High On Space Data Centers

By Evan Robinson-Johnson · Jun 6, 2025 9:00am PDT · 3 comments
If all goes as planned in August, a startup called Starcloud from Redmond, Wash., will load a rocket bound for space with a refrigerator-sized satellite, the first to contain an Nvidia H100 chip. Normally, that chip is at the heart of the sprawling data centers back on Earth that run the latest artificial intelligence models. Compared to... If all goes as planned in August, a startup called Starcloud from Redmond, Wash., will load a...
Art by Clark Miller
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Jensen Huang Used to Delegate Politics—Until Trump’s Return

By Qianer Liu and Wayne Ma · May 29, 2025 10:41am PDT
Since the start of this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been thrust into an unexpected new role—chief lobbyist for his company—forcing him to carry its hopes, suggestions and pleas directly to President Donald Trump. Many of Huang’s conversations with Trump have happened at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence and private club in south... Since the start of this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been thrust into an unexpected new...
Art by Clark Miller. Portraits courtesy of TBPN.
How the ‘Technology Brothers’ Seized Silicon Valley
By Abram Brown · May 23, 2025 9:02am PDT · 4 comments
Art by Clark Miller. Portraits courtesy of TBPN.
The Big Read

How the ‘Technology Brothers’ Seized Silicon Valley

By Abram Brown · May 23, 2025 9:02am PDT · 4 comments
In recent months, John Coogan and Jordi Hays, co-hosts of  “TBPN,” a daily tech news talk show that has captured the attention of Silicon Valley’s investors and founders, have followed the same morning routine. The two men meet in downtown Los Angeles at the members-only Jonathan Club to work out, then sauna together while reading print... In recent months, John Coogan and Jordi Hays, co-hosts of  “TBPN,” a daily tech news talk...
Clark Miller
The Big Read

Bots or Bust: ServiceNow’s Bill McDermott Makes an All-In Bet on AI

By Akash Pasricha · May 16, 2025 9:02am PDT · 2 comments
Late on a Friday night in March, Bill McDermott, ServiceNow’s CEO and chairman, walked off a flight in San Jose, Calif., and then immediately asked his chief of staff to get his top sales and engineering execs on the phone. He had a task for them. McDermott had just spent a week in New York meeting with customers, including the heads of banks... Late on a Friday night in March, Bill McDermott, ServiceNow’s CEO and chairman, walked off a...
Art by Clark Miller.
The Big Read

Meta Renews Work on Facial Recognition Tech as Privacy Worries Fade

By Kalley Huang and Catherine Perloff · May 7, 2025 6:01am PDT
Back in 2021, Mark Zuckerberg and other top Facebook executives were dreaming big about how to design the company’s first generation of smart glasses. One feature they considered adding to them was facial recognition, which would have allowed someone wearing the glasses to, say, identify a person they bumped into at a party. Ultimately, though,... Back in 2021, Mark Zuckerberg and other top Facebook executives were dreaming big about how to...
Art by Clark Miller.
The Big Read

The NFL Loves Netflix. But Does Netflix Want to Love the NFL?

By Sahil Patel · Apr 25, 2025 9:03am PDT
A couple weeks ago, a steady stream of media and sports heavyweights could be found at the white-marbled Breakers hotel in Palm Beach, Fla., where the NFL was hosting its annual owners’ meetings. The conclave is a big deal for the league—an occasion for it to hash out its multibillion dollar business deals and discuss what the future may... A couple weeks ago, a steady stream of media and sports heavyweights could be found at the...
Art: Clark Miller
After a Dramatic Implosion, Can Unity Software Resurrect Itself?
By Simon Parkin · Apr 18, 2025 8:20am PDT · 5 comments
Art: Clark Miller
The Big Read

After a Dramatic Implosion, Can Unity Software Resurrect Itself?

By Simon Parkin · Apr 18, 2025 8:20am PDT · 5 comments
In mid-September 2023, Rami Ismail was at his home in the Netherlands when his phone began to buzz, buzz and buzz again. Ismail, a videogame developer who’d become well known for a hit iPhone game, Ridiculous Fishing, often received unsolicited messages from other indie designers, but even so, this was an unusually intense flurry of activity. ... In mid-September 2023, Rami Ismail was at his home in the Netherlands when his phone began to...