This week: Google’s parent company Alphabet announced an incredible $110 billion in first-quarter revenue thanks, in part, to the computing needs of the AI boom. Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck, discuss the shocking earnings report and the reasons to doubt it as a sign of future growth, including the internet’s ever-evolving information economy. Then, they get into Bill Ackman once again trying and failing to make a closed-end fund happen, and why he’ll never be Warren Buffet. Finally they’ll examine the utility of corporate merch, such as Palantir’s french chore coat, and company retreats, like the Plex’s disastrous Survivor-themed getaway.
In the Slate Plus episode: Can you have a Tiktok and a job on Wall Street?
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Podcast production by Jessamine Molli and Cheyna Roth.