Tech Brew Ride Home - Google and Epic Settle

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

Google and Epic Games settle their beef. Ripple wants to claim the stablecoin crown. Hyperscalers are about to claim the power generation equivalent to 40 million homes. And the wonkiest analysis I’ve seen in a while on whether or not AI can scale productivity in some sort of up and to the right way. Google proposes app store reforms in settlement with ‘Fortnite’ maker Epic Games (Reuters) Cloud streaming finally arrives on the PlayStation Portal (The Verge) Citadel Securities and Fortress take stakes in Ripple at $40bn valuation (FT) How many ‘bragawatts’ have the hyperscalers announced so far? (Financial Times) Amazon Sues to Stop Perplexity From Using AI Tool to Buy Stuff (Bloomberg) Thoughts by a non-economist on AI and economics (Windows On Theory) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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GoogleFi Wireless is not subject to data traffic deprioritization during times of high network usage. Welcome to the TechBrew Ride Home for Wednesday, November 5th, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough today. Google and Epic Games settle their beef. Ripple wants to claim the Stablecoin Crown. Hyper-scalers are about to claim the power generation equivalent of 40 million homes, and the wonkiest analysis I've seen in a while on whether or not AI can scale productivity in some sort of an up-and-to-the-right way. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. If you are looking for enterprise-grade identity automation, Minus the enterprise-grade baggage, aka having your users log on 500 times. Yesh ID delivers advanced IAM automation without moving teams onto a legacy identity provider.

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Google and Epic Games have settled Epic's 2020 antitrust lawsuit with Android and Google Play changes as concessions to expand competition and choice pending a U.S. judge's approval. Quoting Reuters, in a joint filing in the federal court in San Francisco, the company's asked U.S. District Judge James Donato to consider a proposal resolving Epic's 2020 antitrust lawsuit, which accused Google of illegally monopolizing how users access apps and make in-app purchases on Android devices. Google has denied any wrongdoing throughout the closely watched litigation. The proposal requires Donato's approval, the judge oversaw a jury trial in 2023 that Epic won, and last year he issued a sweeping injunction mandating play app store reforms that Google said went too far. Google said the reforms

potentially harmed its competitive position and compromised user safety. Under the new proposal, Google would allow users to more easily download and install third-party app stores that meet new security and safety standards. Developers will also be allowed to direct users to alternative payment methods both within apps and via external web links. Google said it would implement a capped service fee of either 9% or 20% on transactions in play distributed apps that use alternative payment options. Samir Samat, Google's president of Android ecosystem, said on Tuesday the proposed changes maintained user safety while increasing flexibility for developers and consumers. Samat said Google looked forward to discussing the resolution with Donato,

who is expected on Thursday to meet with lawyers involved with the case at a previously scheduled hearing. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called Google's proposal awesome and said it genuinely doubles down on Android's original vision as an open platform, end quote. More on what the settlement actually means in terms of changes from the verge, quote, Google is agreeing to reduce its standard fee to 20% or 9% depending on the kind of transaction. It's agreeing to create a new program in the very next version of Android where alternative app stores can register with Google and theoretically, because first-class citizens that users can easily install. And it appears to be agreeing to offer registered

app stores and lower fees around the world, not just in the U.S. through June 2032, six and a half years from now. The details of how, when, and where Google would charge its fees are complicated, and they seem to be somewhat tailored to the needs of a game developer like Epic Games. Google can charge 20% for an in-app purchase that provides, quote, more than a D-minimus gameplay, advantage, for example, or 9% if the purchase does not. And while 9% sounds like it's also the cap for apps in-in-app subscriptions sold through Google Play, period, the proposal notes that the amount doesn't include Google's cut for play billing if you buy it through that payment system. That cut will be 5% Google spokesperson Dan Jackson tells the verge, confirming that, quote,

this new proposed model introduces a new lower fee structure for developers in the U.S. and separates the service fee from fees for using Google Play billing. For reference, Google currently charges 15% for subscriptions, 15% of the first $1 million of developer revenue each year, and 30% after that, though it also cuts special deals with some big developers. If you use an alternative payment system, Google might still get a cut. Quote, the Google Play Store is free to assess service fees on transactions, including when developers elect to use alternative billing mechanisms.

The proposal reads, but it sounds like that may not happen in practice. Quote, if the user chooses to pay through an alternative billing system, the developer pays no billing fee to Google. Jackson tells the verge. According to the document, Google would theoretically even be able to get its cut when you click out to an app developer's website and pay for the app there as long as it happens within 24 hours. Speaking of Google's play billing, it sounds like Epic is now fine with Google continuing to force developers to provide it in their apps. Instead, quote, alternative payment options shall be shown side by side along with Google Play billing. though developers would be able to set their own prices and even offer lower prices if you pick alternative billing instead. If Judge Donato approves the settlement and these revisions,

it sounds like it could also resolve one of Epic's biggest arguments against the big app stores since day one. The friction and scare screens that Epic alleged keep users from side-loading alternative app stores, end quote. Sony is rolling out PlayStation Portal cloud streaming. If you're not aware, Portal is sort of their answer to the Nintendo Switch, a sort of portable version of PlayStation of PlayStation. But it only let you stream from an existing PlayStation 5 system up until now. Now they are letting PlayStation Premium Plus members stream select titles without a PS5

connection beginning later today. Quoting The Verge, here's some of what you can play. At launch, thousands of PS5 games, support cloud streaming, including blockbusters such as Astrobot, Borderlands 4, Final Fantasy 7 rebirth, Fortnite, go of Yotai, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Resident Evil 4. In addition, hundreds of compatible games from the PlayStation Plus game catalog and classics catalog, including Cyberpunk 27, God of War, Ragnarok, Hogwarts Legacy, Sword of the Sea, and The Last of Us Part 2 remastered are also

streamable directly from the cloud. There's a list of over 2,000 games that will be available for cloud streaming at launch. PlayStation's beta test of PS Portal cloud streaming last year was also only available to US Plus Premium Subsubs. subscribers. In addition to cloud streaming, the PS portal is getting other handy updates, including support for 3D audio, access to accessibility options, and in-game stores, the ability to accept invites and join multiplayer games directly, a new passcode feature, and more, end quote.

Stablecoin operator, Ripple has raised $500 million from Citadel Fortress and more at a $40 billion valuation, and says the value of payments on its platform passed $95 billion so far this year. Quoting the FT. The investment round from big traditional financiers highlights their increasing appetite for crypto companies now that the industry has become more acceptable thanks to the U.S. government, which has made crypto a strategic national focus. Ripple's chief executive Brad Garlinghouse said the funding round reflected further validation of the market opportunity were aggressively pursuing. Ripple is seeking to become a major player in stablecoins and stablecoin infrastructure. The San Francisco-based company was founded in 2012 and has grown to

provide services including payments and custody to fintax and large corporate clients. The company runs its own stablecoin, RLUSD, which has a nominal market value of $1 billion and a cryptocurrency XRP that circulates at $133 billion and is the fourth biggest token in the world. Ripple's $40 billion valuation puts it ahead of its U.S. rival Circle, which runs the world's second biggest stable coin USDC. Circle is currently valued at $26 billion after listing on the New York Stock Exchange in May. It also makes Ripple one of the most highly valued private crypto companies. It recently offered to buy $1 billion of its shares from employees and investors at the $40 billion valuation.

It said in 2025 it had seen its best year yet, and the value of payments made on its platform had surpassed $95 billion, end quote. Study and play. Come together on a Windows 11 PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the unreal college deal. you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 premium and a year of Xbox GamePass Ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller.

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According to Barclays, hyper-scalers have announced a total of 46 gigawatts of AI Data Center capacity recently, which at full utilization will consume as much energy as around 44.2 million U.S. households. quoting the FT. These centers will cost $2.5 trillion to build, according to Barclays, to service an industry that still doesn't turn a profit. But the Mattis bit, arguably, is how much energy they will require once completed. Using Barclay's 1.2 power use effectiveness ratio, all these data centers, if they are all completed, would need 55.2 gigawatts of electricity to function at full capacity. If we also use Barclays' rule of thumb, that one gigawatt can power over or 800,000 American homes, it means that these data centers will consume as much energy as 44.2 million

households, almost three times California's entire housing stock. So where is the energy all coming from? Well, opening eyes, Michigan Stargate is perhaps instructive. All the electricity for Michigan Stargate site will come from DTE Energy, which stressed in its third quarter earnings last week that it wouldn't negatively affect ordinary consumers and said that developer-related companies, which is actually building the campus, would cover the costs of the new power infrastructure needed. However, DTE increased its five-year investment plan by $6.5 billion, which Barclays noted included replacing one of its coal plants with gas turbines. And this seems to be the emerging norm. In many other cases, the data center business plans include the installation of at least

some of the energy generation. For example, Meta's Prometheus campus includes plans for 516 megawatts from solar and gas turbines. Amazon's Pennsylvania data centers have been promised 1.9 gigawatts from Taylin Energy's nuclear power plant. However, in many cases, the regional power grids still seem hopelessly inadequate to cope with demand, possibly surging over the next few years, end quote. Amazon is suing perplexity, accusing it of computer fraud after sending a cease and desist letter demanding it stop letting the Comet browser make purchases on users' behalf. Quoting Bloomberg, the e-commerce giant is accusing perplexity of committing computer fraud by failing to disclose when Comet is shopping on a real person's behalf in violation

of Amazon's terms of service, according to the complaint in San Francisco Federal Court. Amazon is introducing a dispute after sending a cease and desist letter to the startup Friday accusing the smaller company of degrading the Amazon shopping experience and introducing privacy vulnerabilities people familiar with the matter have said. The lawsuit may help set precedence on how far agentic AI can go in helping people figure out and automatically perform real-world tasks rather than just creating online content. A perplexity spokesperson said the lawsuit, quote, just proves Amazon is a bully. In an earlier blog post, the startup said the larger company was targeting a competitor with a rival AI agent shopping product and argued that users should be able to choose their preferred agent to make purchases

on Amazon. It's a bully tactic to scare disruptive companies like Perplexity out of making life better for people, the startup wrote. The clash between Amazon and Perplexity offers an early glimpse into a looming debate over how to handle the proliferation of so-called AI agents that field more complex tasks online for users, including shopping. Like OpenAI and Alphabet's Google, So perplexity has pushed to rethink the traditional web browser around AI with the goal of having it streamline more actions for users, such as drafting emails and conducting research. Amazon's request is straightforward. Perplexity must be transparent when deploying its artificial intelligence, the U.S. retailer said in its filing.

No different than any other intruder, perplexity is not allowed to go where it has been expressly told it cannot, that perplexity's trespass involves code rather than a lockpick makes it no less unlawful, end quote. Amazon is also developing its own AI agents, including some capable of shopping. In April, it introduced a feature still in public testing called Buy For Me, which is designed to let shoppers buy from brand sites within the Amazon shopping app. Another AI assistant called Rufus can browse Amazon's site, recommend products to shoppers, and put them in a cart. But much of the experimentation in how agents might interact with the web has been carried out

by startups like Perplexity, now valued at $20 billion. Amazon's a company that we've actually taken a lot of inspiration from. Perplexity Chief Executive Officer Ervin Srinivas said in an interview, but I don't think it's customer-centric to force people to use only their assistant, which may not even be the best shopping assistant. The Amazon retail site's conditions of use prohibit, quote, any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering, and extraction tools. In November 2024, Amazon asked Perplexity to stop deploying AI agents capable of purchasing

products on the site until the two companies came to an agreement on the practice, the people familiar with the matter said, the startup complied. But by this August, Perplexity started using its new Comet Browser agent, which had logged into their user's Amazon accounts, the letter said. This time, Perplexity identified the agents as a Google Chrome browser user, Amazon said in the letter, when Perplexity refused to stop its bots, Amazon sought to block them, but Perplexity released a new version of Comet to get around the security measure, end quote. Finally today, the most wonky piece I've seen in a while that tries to get a handle on how or if AI productivity is currently progressing in a tangible way. New research suggests AI's ability to complete long and complex software engineering tasks doubles every six or seven months.

But there is still a so-called messiness tax for real-world tasks. This is from a venue called Windows on Theory. drawing on Meador's horizon metric, how long a human would take to finish tasks that a model can solve 50% of the time, the trend looks roughly linear on a log scale, implying a doubling of solvable task duration every around seven months, and perhaps closer to three months for the newest models. For simplicity, let's assume a six-month doubling. The effective horizon quadruples each year. Many caveats can shift the intercept, reliability threshold, benchmarked,

design, real-world messiness, but the core uncertainty is whether anything will slow the slope. Inputs like compute, talent, and capital have grown exponentially so far. If that pace holds, and especially if AI begins to automate parts of its own research and development, the curve could steepen. Performance versus task duration also fits a sigmoid. Below a time threshold, success approaches 100%, suggesting the 100% horizon doubles alongside the 50% horizon. Meanwhile, inference costs have been plunging order of magnitude drops per year. So once a capability frontier is reached, delivering it becomes rapidly cheaper.

Robotics may progress differently due to manufacturing frictions, but it's unclear that capability growth there must be slower. Now, macroeconomically, U.S. real GDP per capita has hugged around 2% annual growth rates for about 150 years, despite many general-purpose technology. So this piece is asking if AI will finally break that 2% per year ceiling. Estimates range from around 0.1 percentage points of annual lift to around 1.5 points. Doubling GDP in a decade would demand 7% growth, implying AI alone would add around 5 points, far above most forecasts. Even smaller gains matter. Adding 1.2 points could meaningfully improve fiscal sustainability. Two channels dominate, though. Automating specific sectors,

by their GDP share and boosting total factor productivity by accelerating idea production. If cognitive labor is around 30% of GDP, near full automation could lift output on the order of around 40% over a decade, roughly 3.5% per year. Stylized models treating AI as virtual workers suggest that rapidly rising quality and quantity could make AI a primary labor source within a decade. The key question from the piece is, do experts? exponential capability gains cause the share of unautomated tasks to shrink exponentially. If yes, growth could transition from steady to transformative very quickly. Nothing more for you today.

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