Dave Lee

Column: Why Microsoft CEO Nadella Needed a Low-Budget Blog

The low-budget aesthetic is the point, part of a playbook fast on its way to becoming a cliché. One part of it is the mantra — codified (though not invented) by leading tech PR consultant Lulu Cheng Meservey — of “going direct.” This is the idea that the internet has freed company founders and executives from needing to deal with “third parties with misaligned interests,” such as pests like me in the mainstream media.

Why Microsoft CEO Nadella Needed a Low-Budget Blog · bloomberg.com

Column: ‘Hectocorns’ Are Just One AI Flashpoint for 2026

In 2026, AI hectacorns might go public. That process, historians would tell you, was a harbinger for the dot-com bust as hopeless balance sheets were ignored in favor of overhyped promises that eventually collapsed. Will the A-IPOs prove to be a similar come-to-Jesus moment? It’s one theme I’ll be watching closely in 2026, but it’s certainly not the only one.

‘Hectocorns’ Are Just One AI Flashpoint for 2026 · bloomberg.com

Column: Books We Read in 2025 That Prepared Us for Tech’s Future

Trillions of dollars hang in the balance of two questions that dominated this year and loom perilously large over the next. “Will the artificial intelligence bubble burst?” and “Will China beat the US?” Searching for answers is the theme of this year’s book recommendations from Bloomberg Opinion’s technology columnists. We’ve chosen a list that sets the intellectual table for the tech year ahead: new books with the latest insights, established ones with renewed relevance and even instructive fiction.

Books We Read in 2025 That Prepared Us for Tech’s Future · bloomberg.com

Column: Sundar Pichai Is Google’s AI ‘Wartime CEO’ After All

"Pichai’s leadership is why the arrival of ChatGPT can be seen as Google’s “Pearl Harbor moment” — not the beginning of the end but the clarifying moment at which, after a period of costly indecision, it became clear the company had to commit fully to the AI race. Pichai took the decisive step to restructure the company to give more power to the brightest AI mind he had at his disposal, DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis. Lesser CEOs would have seen Hassabis as a threat; Pichai harnessed him as his best asset."

Sundar Pichai Is Google’s AI ‘Wartime CEO’ After All · bloomberg.com

Column: An AI Replay of the Browser Wars, Bankrolled by Google

"The fact hypocrisy is thick in the air does not make Google’s current complaint less valid. What’s good for Google, in this case at least (and maybe at most), is good for healthy competition across the rest of the AI pack. The company, or ideally companies, that win the browser battle will be richly rewarded — and they should get there through merit, not pre-installation or dark patterns."

An AI Replay of the Browser Wars, Bankrolled by Google · bloomberg.com