A.I.
Eriq Gardner
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June 13, 2022
David Boies’ Multi-Million Dollar Bet Against Google
A group of super-elite law firms just won a head-turning victory as part of a lawsuit alleging that Google’s “incognito” mode is anything but. Is the payday worth the billable hours?
Theodore Schleifer
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June 7, 2022
Sheryl’s Political Headwinds, Thiel’s Sway, & Gates+
Recent notes and observations from the increasingly competitive intersection of wealth, philanthropy, and political ambition.
Dylan Byers
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June 1, 2022
Just Spoke to Sheryl…
Shortly after announcing her departure from Meta, I spoke with Sandberg about her decision and what’s next. Also, some news on David Zaslav and Toby Emmerich.
Theodore Schleifer
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May 31, 2022
Billionaires at The Gates
This week’s Giving Pledge gathering, the foundation’s first in-person since 2019, may be the most exclusive leg of the global ultra-high-net-worth circuit. And it’s got the elite philanthropy world humming: a likely appearance by MacKenzie, Bill & Melinda, and the fact that it is principals-only.
William D. Cohan
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May 25, 2022
Elon’s Private Chat with Jack
The Twitter proxy statement is a veritable telenovela of all the dealmaking foreplay surrounding Musk’s $44 billion Twitter blockbuster.
Theodore Schleifer
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May 24, 2022
Bezos, Musk, Ellison & The Rightward Lurch of Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley has always been declaratively liberal, particularly during the high times of the Obama era. But the political tenor has been quietly moving rightward for years, punctuated of late by the declarations of three of its heaviest heavies.
Theodore Schleifer
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May 18, 2022
Inside S.B.F.’s $12 Million Long Shot
Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried lost big on Tuesday despite airdropping a historic sum into a congressional race in Oregon. What was he thinking? The logic, the math, and the aftermath.
Eriq Gardner
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May 16, 2022
Elon’s Other Legal Headache
While Musk plays hardball with Twitter, risking a lawsuit from the board, Texas threatens to transform his free speech utopia into a forcibly unconstrained, heavily regulated hellhole.
Theodore Schleifer
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May 10, 2022
After Elon: Inside Larry Ellison’s New G.O.P.
In his twilight years, the yacht-racing, barrel-chested, private-island-dwelling former Democrat is helping to liberate Twitter from the left and placing a massive bet on what could be an unlikely Republican 2024 contender.
Theodore Schleifer
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May 3, 2022
Elon’s Eccentric Empire
With ingenuity and insane leverage, Elon Musk has created one of the world’s most unconventional financial concerns. Maybe the Twitter deal, against that backdrop, actually makes perfect sense.
Theodore Schleifer
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April 26, 2022
Tales from the PayPal Mafia: Elon’s Hatchet Man & Thiel’s Test
Notes on the B.Y.U. alum running Musk’s family office and Thiel’s next moves. Plus, new details on how Reid Hoffman plans to kneecap the Berniecrats.
Baratunde Thurston
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April 21, 2022
How Twitter Became Twitter
Twitter, which was once a peer with Facebook, is now 1/15th its size, and its most fastidious user is trying to take it private, while everyone—Democrats, Republicans, mom-fluencers, journalists—hates the damn thing despite their own contrary addictions. Herewith, an anatomy of a social media tragedy.
Theodore Schleifer
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April 19, 2022
The Peter Thiel D.C. Gateway Drug
With two weeks until the Ohio G.O.P. primary, Thiel is on a hot streak and doubling down on J.D. Vance. A win could invigorate the billionaire’s national ambitions. A loss could relegate him to Miami—and send thirsty Republicans reeling.
William D. Cohan
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April 13, 2022
The Elon-Twitter Corporate Hostage Negotiation
Twitter has been at war with itself since its inception. But Elon Musk’s stock accumulation arms race is an existential crisis.
Theodore Schleifer
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April 12, 2022
The Right’s MacKenzie Scott Problem
After decades of G.O.P. dark-money supremacy, the arrival of liberal mega-billionaires like Scott and Zuckerberg is fueling a MAGA-inspired woke backlash that threatens the institution of philanthropy itself.
Eriq Gardner
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April 11, 2022
Elon Musk and the Three Libel Suits
Twitter’s newest activist investor could be called to testify this week at Johnny Depp defamation trial against his ex-wife, Amber Heard. If it happens, it wouldn’t be his first time on the stand.
Theodore Schleifer
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April 5, 2022
Notes from the Steyerverse
For the first time in a decade, Tom Steyer, the billionaire hedge funder-turned-Democratic power forward, is no longer working in politics full-time. Inside his Bloombergian afterlife—and who might rise up in his place.