Dave Lee
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Column: Meta Is Killing Off Its Only Good Virtual Reality App

Somewhere at the company is a dreary little spreadsheet that justifies this move. It likely says it wasn’t driving quite enough sales for the Quest headset, which is now less of a priority anyway. That the decision makes sense to Meta doesn’t make it any less of a shame. I can’t think of any other part of Meta’s business that is measurably good for its users’ health. It’s a low-cost home workout option that was compatible with the lives of busy parents and families who are pressed for time and square footage in their homes. It appealed to people who may have been intimidated by going to the gym but could instead start their fitness journey in more comfortable confines. It was tremendous fun. But it wasn’t AI, so I guess it had to go.

Meta Is Killing Off Its Only Good Virtual Reality Appbloomberg.com

Column: The ‘Tech Left’ Is Different This Time

One factor is the knock-on effects of a Biden administration that put the tech industry in its crosshairs and made Trump a lesser evil to some. Mergers that would have given workers a windfall were snarled by regulators. The administration’s hard-line stance on cryptocurrency stirred resentment and frustration. “The only reason Silicon Valley was split in the past election was the spectacular own goal the Biden administration scored by alienating so many people in it,” Graham wrote to me in an email. “Now that the Democrats have (mostly) stopped trying to attack tech, SV should revert to its historical mostly-Democratic norm.” He added: “I think the tech left will tend naturally to reassemble.”

The ‘Tech Left’ Is Different This Timebloomberg.com

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 Blogbloomberg.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 2026bloomberg.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 Futurebloomberg.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 Allbloomberg.com