Welcome back to This Week in Stratechery!

As a reminder, each week, every Friday, we’re sending out this overview of content in the Stratechery bundle; highlighted links are free for everyone. Additionally, you have complete control over what we send to you. If you don’t want to receive This Week in Stratechery emails (there is no podcast), please uncheck the box in your delivery settings.

On that note, here were a few of our favorites this week.

1. Twitter Ruined Television — and Taylor Sheridan Saved It. When I introduced Sharp Text, the new site from Sharp Tech co-host Andrew Sharp, I said he would mostly write about topics that aligned the podcast he hosted. To that end, Did Xi Jinping Just Have a Bad Moment? aligned with Sharp China, and The NBA’s ESPN Problem Might Finally Be Over aligned with Greatest of All Talk. Well, Andrew’s first Sharp Tech adjacent Article is here, and it’s fantastic. In Why Taylor Sheridan Is Worth a Billion Dollars Andrew tells two tech stories: first, the value of capturing and retaining customers in the finicky streaming marketplace, and second — and most provocatively — how Twitter created Hollywood groupthink that left a massive lane for Sheridan to fill. — Ben Thompson
   
   

2. The TSMC Brake. TSMC reported earnings, which were, of course incredible. That raises another question, however: should the Taiwanese chip-maker be investing even more in the leading edge? Sam Altman certainly wishes they were,  which is itself a reminder that one company is actually the deciding factor in just how much can be built. To put it another way, we are certainly entering some sort of bubble, but it’s TSMC that will decide just how big it gets — unless, of course, they get some competition. Intel seems to be the only alternative, but there is at least one startup giving it a go as well. AI everywhere may depend on one of them succeeding. —BT
   
   
3. Victor Wembanyama Takes Flight. The NBA season has been underway for 10 days, and with apologies to the undefeated 76ers and the potentially invincible 76ers, the story of the season so far is Victor Wembanyama. For anyone uninitiated with what’s happening here, a recent Greatest of All Talk episode provides an excellent primer on the sensation in progress. After an obligatory 30 minutes on the NBA’s latest gambling scandal, we get to Wemby’s 40 point, 15-rebound debut last week, including changes to his game that unlocked new dominance, implications for the Spurs, and marveling at how helpless the Dallas Mavericks looked. All of it begs the question: Will American audiences embrace a 7’5 French kid as the face of the NBA? What was a fun, abstract debate as recently as two weeks ago is becoming more urgent by the day. — Andrew Sharp

---

Stratechery Articles and Updates

• TSMC Earnings, The TSMC Brake, Intel Earnings — TSMC’s earnings reinforce the possibility that TSMC’s willingness to invest is real governor on the AI bubble. Intel needs to provide some competition.
• Nvidia GTC in DC, Qualcomm’s AI Chip, OpenAI’s Restructuring — Nvidia makes its pitch to DC to preserve its CUDA moat, which also explains the challenges facing Qualcomm’s new chip. Then, OpenAI’s restructuring and Microsoft’s collar trade.
• An Interview with Substrate CEO James Proud About Building a Disruptive Foundry in America — An interview with Substrate CEO James Proud about X-ray lithography, disrupting TSMC, and betting on American innovation.

Sharp Text by Andrew Sharp

• Why Taylor Sheridan Is Worth a Billion Dollars — Taylor Sheridan’s new deal with NBCUniversal, and two tech stories that explain how he became the most valuable creator in Hollywood.

Dithering with Ben Thompson and Daring Fireball’s John Gruber

• Ticketmaster
• Bubble Dynamics

Asianometry with Jon Yu

• The American Catalog Home Boom and Bust
• The Mac Clone King’s Brief Reign

Sharp China with Andrew Sharp and Sinocism’s Bill Bishop

• A Basic Consensus on Arrangements to Address US-China Concerns; The New Five-Year Plan Sounds Familiar; Nexperia as an Object Lesson

Greatest of All Talk with Andrew Sharp and WaPo’s Ben Golliver

• Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier Arrested, A Wembanyama Religious Experience, Takeaways from the Opening Week
• Two Surprises and One Disappointment, Close Encounters with the Blazers, More on the Gambling Mess

Sharp Tech with Andrew Sharp and Ben Thompson

• The Hidden Benefits of Bubble Economics, Microsoft and OpenAI Make a Deal, Notes on Taylor Sheridan, Sora, and Nexperia

This week’s Stratechery video is on Resiliency and Scale.