Columnist · Cross-cutting op-eds and 'veteran take' sidebars

Hank Reed

Two-time founder, longtime tinkerer, recovering optimist. Writes about technology, markets, and what gets lost in the rush.

Hank is the site's columnist — the editorial point of view. Thirty-plus years in tech, a couple of exits, has watched every cycle since the dotcom bust. Skeptical of the parts that warrant skepticism, sympathetic to the people doing the actual work.

Articles by Hank Reed

Setting AI in Stone
Big Tech

Setting AI in Stone

Etched raised at $10.3 billion for transformer-only chips. AMD just bought Taalas, which etches model weights into transistors. Hank Reed on an industry betting that AI has stopped moving.
Should Washington Own a Slice of the AI Labs?
Markets & Money

Should Washington Own a Slice of the AI Labs?

Sam Altman floated routing 5% of the leading AI firms' equity into an Alaska-style public fund. Hank Reed on whether that is the public capturing AI's upside or the labs buying protection.
The Commerce Department Just Became the FDA of AI
Big Tech

The Commerce Department Just Became the FDA of AI

The US government used export-control authority to force Anthropic to disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 worldwide. Hank Reed on what just changed for every frontier-model launch from here on.
The Week Nvidia Stopped Acting Like a Vendor
Big Tech

The Week Nvidia Stopped Acting Like a Vendor

Spark for laptops, Vera for the data center, equity stakes in the labs that buy its GPUs. Hank Reed on the week Nvidia stopped being a chip company and started being a platform.
Circular Reasoning: The AI Boom Is Starting to Fund Itself
Markets & Money

Circular Reasoning: The AI Boom Is Starting to Fund Itself

Memory makers are now equity investors in the AI lab that buys their chips. Hank Reed on why circular financing is the oldest tell in the bubble playbook.
Nvidia Reported Record Everything. The Stock Fell Anyway. That Tells You Something.
Markets & Money

Nvidia Reported Record Everything. The Stock Fell Anyway. That Tells You Something.

Nvidia posted record $81.6B revenue, record Data Center, $80B buyback, dividend bump. The stock fell after hours. The print is great; the market reaction is worth paying attention to.
Three Headlines in One Week That Tell You the AI Build-Out Just Hit a Cycle Marker
Markets & Money

Three Headlines in One Week That Tell You the AI Build-Out Just Hit a Cycle Marker

Nvidia beat earnings handily. Meta laid off 8,000. Samsung went on strike. Three headlines, one story: the AI cycle is rewiring real labor and real supply chains, fast.
A 25% Government Revenue Cut on Nvidia Chip Sales Is Something New
Markets & Money

A 25% Government Revenue Cut on Nvidia Chip Sales Is Something New

The 25% Treasury take on Nvidia H200 China sales is the kind of commercial-industrial blending the US used to criticize other countries for. The structure has drawn less scrutiny than the headline number.
The AI Labs Are Quietly Turning Into Consulting Firms
Big Tech

The AI Labs Are Quietly Turning Into Consulting Firms

Anthropic just formed a $1.5B JV with Goldman, Blackstone, and Hellman & Friedman to embed engineers in mid-sized companies. This is the McKinsey playbook with model weights.
The AI Power Build-Out Is the Largest Energy Project in American History
Markets & Money

The AI Power Build-Out Is the Largest Energy Project in American History

Five companies are spending $400B on AI infrastructure this year, half of it on the electricity to run it. Almost nobody is covering it as the energy story it has become.
OpenAI at $852 Billion: A Valuation, a Vibe, and a Math Problem
Markets & Money

OpenAI at $852 Billion: A Valuation, a Vibe, and a Math Problem

OpenAI just raised $122B at $852B post. We have seen private valuations like this before. Some of them were right; most were not. How to think about which kind this is.
Welcome to BizTechDaily, and a Couple of Warnings
Big Tech

Welcome to BizTechDaily, and a Couple of Warnings

What this site is, what it covers, and the kind of reader we're trying to earn time from.