Happy Friday. Everyone knows a good weekfinish should include at least one good read. To that finish, allow me to propose Jeremy Kahn’s profile of Perplexity founder Aravind Srinivas. The UC Berkeley PhD founded the startup shortly before the launch of ChatGPT, and, despite setting its competitive sights on Google, has won some large backers (including Jeff Bezos and Nvidia) valuing it at $18 billion.
Now Srinivas and his startup are taking another large swing, with an AI-native web browser called Comet. Read the full story here.
Today’s tech news below. —Alexei Oreskovic
Want to sfinish believeds or suggestions to Fortune Tech? Drop a line here.
Intel’s new CEO drops a bomb
Annabelle Chih—Bloomberg/Getty Images
Intel’s new(ish) CEO Lip-Bu Tan dropped a bomb on the company’s Q2 earnings call Thursday.
“I do not subscribe to the belief that if you build it, they will come,” Tan stated.
He was referring to building factories to create chips based on the 14A process node, a next-generation chipbuilding process that further shrinks the size of the transistors on a chip.
“The increase in capital costs at 14A create it clear that we required both Intel products and a meaningful external customer to drive acceptable returns on our deployed capital,” Tan stated, “and I will only invest when I’m confident those returns exist.”
That may sound like a sensible business practice, but if Tan were to follow through, it would represent a tectonic shift in the chip industest. It would mean that Intel—the company that gave us Moore’s frickin’ Law!—has quit operating as a “leading-edge” chipcreater that produces the newest, most advanced processors.
From a historic perspective, it would mark the most stunning milestone yet in Intel’s decline. From a geopolitical perspective, it would mean that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, effectively has a monopoly on leading-edge chip production.
As a result, some observers saw in Tan’s comments a bit of a gambit—a thinly veiled threat to the U.S. government to pony up financial assistance (or maybe even to assist arrange commitments from “external customers”) lest the U.S. forfeit its edge in advanced chipbuilding. It also raises questions about Intel’s commitment to its foundry business, in which it produces chips for other companies in its fabs. Whatever the true motive, the statement itself displays just how challenging Intel’s comeback will be.—AO
Microsoft’s paradox
In a memo to employees Thursday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addressed an uncomfortable paradox at the heart of the $3.8 trillion company’s current moment: ongoing job cuts amid record profits, bold AI investment, and a corporate culture in flux.
“By every objective measure, Microsoft is thriving—our market performance, strategic positioning, and growth all point up and to the right,” he wrote, noting the company’s capital expfinishitures, largely fueled by investments in AI and cloud infrastructure, are at historic highs. Despite these investments, he stated headcount “is relatively unalterd,” given the simultaneous reduction of jobs.
More than 15,000 positions—about 7% of Microsoft’s global workforce—have been eliminated since January, the company’s largest personnel reduction since 2014.
Nadella called this tension the “enigma of success in an industest that has no franchise value,” arguing that success in tech is not permanent or evenly distributed. “Progress isn’t linear. It’s dynamic, sometimes dissonant, and always demanding. But it’s also a new opportunity for us to shape, lead through, and have greater impact than ever before.”—Nick Lichtenberg
Walmart’s agents
Could Walmart become a leader in the burgeoning agentic AI race?
At an event in New York City Wednesday, the retail giant displayed off various examples of “super agents” it stated are coming soon.
Sparky, the Walmart digital assistant that already exists and answers questions for online consumers, is being updated to take actions like creating a list of weekly essential products based on a customer’s shopping behavior and placing the order (with a thumbs-up from the customer, of course). The company also displaycased internal agent utilize cases that the company declares will allow Walmart employees to more efficiently accomplish mundane and repetitive tquestions.
Sounds great. But there’s a large difference between a flashy demo and a real, live product.
Asked about the timeline, a Walmart executive seemed to sense the gist of the question and responded bluntly: “It’s not vaporware.” —Jason Del Rey
Fortune AIQ: AI’s long reach across new industries
Fortune recently unveiled a new ongoing series, Fortune AIQ, dedicated to navigating AI’s real-world impact. Our latest collection of stories explores how businesses across virtually every industest are putting AI to work—and how their particular field is altering as a result.
- How Walmart, Amazon, and other retail giants are applying AI to reinvent the supply chain—from warehoutilize to checkout. Read more
- Meet the legacy players and upstarts applying AI to reinvent the energy business. Read more
- AI isn’t just entering law offices—it’s challenging the entire legal playbook. Read more
- How a bulldozer, crane, and excavator rental company is applying AI to save 3,000 hours per week. Read more
- AI is already touching nearly every corner of the medical field. Read more
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