Semi Analysis: “An AI Neocloud is defined as a new breed of cloud compute provider focused on offering GPU compute rental. These pure play GPU clouds offer cutting edge performance and flexibility to their customers, but the economics powering them are still evolving just as the market is learning how their business models work…AI Neocloud Giants, unlike traditional hyperscalers, focus almost exclusively on GPU Cloud services. The largest have current or planned capacity in the next few years well in excess of 100k H100 equivalents in aggregate across all their sites, with some planning for hundreds of thousands of Blackwell GPUs for OpenAI. The main three Neocloud Giants are Crusoe, Lambda Labs, and Coreweave, which is by far the largest. They have a higher cost of capital compared to the hyperscalers but usually have a better access to capital at a reasonable rate vs Emerging AI Neoclouds, which means a lower comparative cost of ownership for Neocloud Giants.”
Tyler Cowen: “Economists tend to focus on structural changes to address differences in income, but a recent paper shows the simple value of working more hours…The decision to work harder operates on at least two levels. First, you put in more total time, which leads to higher lifetime earnings. Second, you invest more in your human capital, which makes you more productive. Between one-third and one-half of the higher income for the harder workers stems from this human capital channel. One lesson is that if you are going to work hard, you should do so relatively early in your life, so as to reap the human capital benefits for future years.”
WSJ: “Google’s share of the U.S. search ad market is expected to drop below 50% next year for the first time in over a decade, according to the research firm eMarketer. Amazon is expected to have 22.3% of the market this year, with 17.6% growth, compared with Google’s 50.5% share and its 7.6% growth. “This space has been ripe for a shake-up for a long period of time,” said Brendan Alberts, head of search and commerce at the ad-buying firm Dentsu. Google remains in an enviable position: far ahead of the pack in the search market, with plenty of resources to counter moves by its rivals. Still, advertisers are eager for more competition. “For the first time in probably 15 years, we will have viable alternatives to Google,” said Nii Ahene, a veteran digital-advertising executive.”
FT reviews “On Freedom”: “The book starts from a passionate conviction that freedom is not negative — and so defined by the absence of external constraints — but positive, and so defined by what we are able to do. The latter, in turn, depends on what we get from others. For [Timothy] Snyder, then, the capacity to recognise others as beings like ourselves is the foundation of freedom. Without that, we will treat others as objects, not subjects, and finish up with tyranny. Thus, he argues, “We enable freedom not by rejecting government, but by affirming freedom as the guide to good government.” Politically, freedom means democracy. A democracy of equal citizens is incompatible with an oligarchy protected by “negative freedom”. If, as in the US today, the law says that money is speech and corporations are people, it creates a plutocracy, “Freedom” then becomes a synonym for privilege.”
