Tech Brew Ride Home - The Friday Of All The Headlines

Episode Date: February 27, 2026

I’ve got everything for you today. OpenAI closed its round. Anthropic draws a line with the Pentagon and Sam Altman supports it. A huge AI inspired layoff round, maybe. Netflix walks away from the deal, and, of course, The Weekend Longreads Suggestions. OpenAI announces $110 billion funding round with backing from Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank (CNBC) Sam Altman says OpenAI shares Anthropic's red lines in Pentagon fight (Axios) Employees at Google and OpenAI support Anthropic’s Pentagon stand in open letter (TechCrunch) Block shares soar as much as 24% as company slashes workforce by nearly half (CNBC) Netflix ditches deal for Warner Bros. Discovery after Paramount’s offer is deemed superior (CNBC) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: The Looming Taiwan Chip Disaster That Silicon Valley Has Long Ignored (NYTimes) 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 Tech Brew Ride Home for Friday, February 27th, 2026. I'm Brian McCullough today. I've got everything for you today. Open AI closed its round. Anthropic drew a line with the Pentagon and Sam Altman supports them. A huge AI-inspired layoff round, maybe. Netflix walks away from the deal. And of course, the weekend long read suggestions. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Some Fridays are slow, which is why I have the Weekend Longreads segment. baked into our process from literally the first week of this show's inception. And then there are Fridays like this one, where all the news happens all at once. Here we go. OpenAI closed their next fundraising round, raising $110 billion at a $730 billion pre-money valuation up from their $500 billion valuation in a secondary financing round from October. Amazon invested $50 billion, $1.Vidia and SoftBank invested $30 billion each, quoting CNBC. We're super excited about this deal. Open AI CEO Sam Altman told CNBC's Squackbox on Friday, AI is going to happen everywhere. It's

transforming the whole economy, and the world needs a lot of collective computing power to meet the demand. In addition to its participation in the funding round, Amazon announced a multi-year strategic partnership with OpenAI. The companies will develop customized models that will help power Amazon's customer-facing applications as part of the agreement, according to a release. OpenAI said it is expanding its existing $38 billion agreement with Amazon Web Services by $100 billion over the next eight years. AWS will also serve as the exclusive third-party cloud distribution provider for OpenAI's enterprise platform frontier, which it unveiled earlier this month. The company said Amazon's $50 billion investment in OpenAI will start with an initial commitment

of $15 billion, followed by another $35 billion, quote, in the coming months when certain conditions are met. It's so early right now in the AI space and OpenAI is off to an amazing start. Amazon CEO Andy Jesse told Squackbox on Friday, they're going to be one of the very big winners, we believe, long term. I think we can help them quite a bit as part of this partnership. OpenAI said Friday that nothing about its announcement in any way changes the terms of its partnership with Microsoft, which has been one of the startup's major financial backers since 2019. The company said in a joint statement that the partnership remains, quote, strong and central. Microsoft still has an option to participate in Open AI's funding round,

according to a source familiar with the matter who asked not to be named, because the discussions are confidential, end quote. Though it is interesting that they didn't pull the trigger, at least at this point. Again, to clarify, Amazon will invest $15 billion in Open AI initially, followed by $35 billion if certain conditions are met. OpenAI has committed to consuming around 2 gigawatts of tranium capacity through AWS in the coming years. OpenAI also took this opportunity to reveal that chat GPT has more than 900 million weekly

active users and more than 50 million consumer subscribers and that weekly codex users have more than tripled since the start of the year to 1.6 million. Dario Ammodai says Anthropic cannot, quote, in good conscience, accede to the Department of Defense's request to remove safeguards on their AI systems and will work to ensure a smooth transition if Anthropic is off-boarded from the DoD's systems. Quoting TechCrunch, Anthropic has reached a stalemate with the United States Department of War over the military's request for unrestricted access to the AI company's technology. But as the Pentagon's Friday afternoon deadline for Anthropics' compliance approaches, over 300 Google employees and over 60 Open AI employees have signed an open letter, urging the leaders of their companies to support Anthropic and refuse this unilateral use.

Specifically, Anthropics stood in opposition to the use of AI for domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weaponry. The open letter's signatories seek to encourage their employers to, quote, put aside their differences and stand together to uphold the boundaries Anthropic. has asserted. They're trying to divide each company with fear that the other will give in, the letter says, that strategy only works if none of us know where the others stand. The letter specifically calls on executives at Google and OpenAI to maintain Anthropics red lines against mass surveillance and fully automated weaponry. We hope our leaders will put aside their differences and stand together to continue to refuse the Department of War's current demands, end quote. Leaders at the companies have not yet formally responded to the letter. TechCrunch has

reached out to Google and OpenAI for comment. However, informal statements suggest both companies are sympathetic to Anthropics' side of the case. In an interview with CNBC on Friday morning, OpenAI CEO Sam Aldman said he doesn't, quote, personally think the Pentagon should be threatening DPA against these companies. According to a CNN reporter, an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed that the company shares Anthropics red lines against autonomous weapons and mass surveillance, end quote. And on that point, quoting Axios. Open AI CEO Sam Maldman wrote in a memo to staff that he will draw the same red lines that sparked a high-stakes fight between rival Anthropic and the Pentagon, no AI for mass surveillance

or autonomous lethal weapons. If other leading firms like Google follow suit, this could massively complicate the Pentagon's efforts to replace Anthropics Claude, which was the first model integrated into the military's most sensitive work. It would also be the first time the nation's top AI leaders have taken a collective stand about how the U.S. government can and can't use their technology. Altman made clear that he still wants to strike a deal with the Pentagon that would allow Chatchipat T to be used for sensitive military contexts. Despite the show of solidarity, such a deal could see OpenAI replace Anthropic if the Pentagon follows through with its plan to declare the latter a

supply chain risk. Regardless of how we got here, this is no longer just an issue between Anthropic and the Pentagon. This is an issue for the whole industry, and it is important to clarify our stance, Altman wrote Thursday evening in a memo obtained by Axios. We have long believed that AI should not be used for mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons and that humans should remain in the loop for high-stakes automated decisions. These are our main red lines, end quote. Chat GPT is already available in the military's unclassified systems and talks to move it into the classified space have accelerated amid the Pentagon Anthropic Fight sources tell Axios. But the Pentagon has insisted Open AI and Google would have to agree the military can use

their models for, quote, all lawful purposes, the same standard anthropic rejected since it didn't incorporate their specific guardrails. Elon Musk's XAI recently agreed to those terms, but Grok is not seen as a wholesale alternative. to Claude. Altman wrote that the military will need AI, any hopes, quote, to help de-escalate things. We are going to see if there is a deal with the Pentagon that allows our models to be deployed in classified environments and that fits with our principles. We would ask for the contract to cover any use except those which are unlawful or unsuited to cloud deployments, such as domestic surveillance and autonomous offensive weapons, Altman said. Open AI's ideas for enforcing its red lines include

preserving the company's ability to continuously strengthen its security and monitoring systems as it learns from real-world deployments, a source familiar with the matter-told Axios. The company also wants researchers with security clearances who can track how the technology is being used and advise the government on risks. Finally, the source said, OpenAI wants certain technical safeguards, including confining models to the cloud rather than edge environments like autonomous weapons. Based on how Pentagon officials have described their position, to Axios, those proposals could face the same resistance Anthropic encountered, too much private company influence over critical government work. While Anthropics said it intended to continue negotiations,

a rupture appeared close. Emile Michelle, the Pentagon official handling negotiations with Anthropic and the other major AI firms, denounced Ammodai as a, quote, liar with a, quote, God complex who was, quote, putting our nation's safety at risk, end quote. Many others in D.C. and Silicon Valley praised Anthropic for taking a principled stand at the risk of a major financial hit, end quote. From the is AI going to lead to a job apocalypse file, Block, formerly known as Square, says it is laying off more than 4,000 of its more than 10,000 employees, saying AI tools have changed, quote, what it means to build and run a company.

Block saw its stock jump more than 15% on the news, which, you know, laying off 40% of your entire workforce, like we've not seen anything like this, at least so far in this AI moment. Though I would point out that Block Knee Square is not universally known as a well-run company managerially. So maybe this is a specific case as opposed to a trend-setting one. Quoting CNBC, today we shared a difficult decision with our team. Jack Dorsey, Block's co-founder and CEO wrote in a letter to shareholders. we are reducing Block by nearly half from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000, which means that over 4,000 people are being asked to leave or entering into consultation, end quote.

Block CFO, Amrita Ahula, said that the job cuts will position the company for the next phase of long-term growth. We are choosing to shift how we operate at a time when our business is accelerating, and we see an opportunity to move faster with smaller, highly talented teams, using AI to automate more work. The CFO wrote, Block was last up nearly 18% in pre-market trading on Friday. Dorsey said he expects other companies to similarly overhaul their workforces as they see more efficiency gains from intelligence tools.

Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes. Dorsey said, I'd rather get there honestly and on our own terms then be forced into it reactively. Other companies like Pinterest, CrowdStrike, and Chegg have recently announced job cuts and directly attributed the layoffs to AI reshaping their workforces. In an ex-post, Dorsey said he was faced with the choice of laying off staffers over several months or years as this shift plays out or to act on it now.

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after WBD deemed Paramount's $31 per share bid to be superior. Quoting CNBC, earlier this week, Paramount raised its bid to buy the entirety of WBD to $31 a share, up from $30 per share, all cash. It was the latest amendment to Paramount's multiple offers in recent months, and since moving forward with a hostile bid to buy the company, and it's now unseated a deal between WBD and Netflix to sell the legacy media company's studio and streaming business for $27.75 per share. Last week, Netflix granted WBD a seven-day waiver to re-engage with Paramount resulting in the higher bid. Paramount's offer is for the entirety of WBD, including its pay TV networks such as CNN, TBS, and TNT.

Netflix has four business days to make changes to its own proposal in light of Paramount's superior bid, the WBD board said in a statement Thursday. Instead, the decision by the streaming giant to walk away puts a pin in a drawn-out saga that saw a offers from both bidders. Netflix is a great company, and throughout this process, Ted, Greg, Spence, and everyone there have been extraordinary partners to us. We wish them well in the future. WBD CEO David Zasloff said in a statement referring to Netflix's co-CEOs Ted Serendos and Greg Peters and CFO Spencer Newman. Quote, once our board votes to adopt the Paramount Merger Agreement, it will create tremendous value for our shareholders. We are excited about the potential of a

combined Paramount Skydance and Warner Brothers Discovery, and we can't wait to get started working together telling the stories that move the world. Netflix stock spiked 10% in extended trading Thursday, while Paramount Stock gained 5%. Shares of Warner Brothers Discovery fell 2%. The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval. Sarandos and Peters said in a statement, however, we've always been disciplined and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance's latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declined to match the Paramount Skydance bid. The latest Paramount bid included a $7 billion breakup fee in the event the proposed merger doesn't win regulatory approval. The company also agreed to pay the

$2.8 billion breakup fee that WBD would once owe Netflix if that deal didn't go through. Sarandos told CNBC's Julia Borsden in an interview this week that Netflix granted WBD the waiver to reopen Paramount talks in order to give shareholders clarity. Paramount had been making a ton of noise flooding the zone with confusion for shareholders, including floating all these hypothetical offers and talking directly to the shareholders and bypassing the WBD Discovery Board, Sarandos said at the time. So we've given the opportunity to get those shareholders exactly what they deserve, which is complete clarity and certainty.

However, Sarandos had fallen short of commenting on whether Netflix would open its own offer to match a revised Paramount bid. And Thursday, Sarandos attended meetings at the White House to discuss the potential tie-up. Werner Brothers is a world-class organization, and we want to thank Zazloff, Wendt Felds, Campbell, Singer, and the WBD Board for running a fair and rigorous process. The Netflix co-CEO said in their statement, we believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Brothers' iconic brands and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U.S., they said. But this transaction was always a nice to have at the right price, not a must have at any price, end quote.

One long read for you after all of that, and it's something that you know has been bothering me for a long time. The New York Times looks at how Silicon Valley has long ignored China's looming Taiwan invasion potentially and the follow-up chip supply impact that would basically decimate everything in the technology industry. U.S. officials have apparently warned Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm about China's plans, which seem to be imminent. And you know if that happens, everything we've been talking about on the show for years is kind of thrown up in the air, right? Quote, federal officials have for years tried to wean Silicon Valley from its dependence on Taiwan, an island democracy roughly the size of Maryland that makes 90% of the world's high-end computer chips. In secret briefings held in Washington and Silicon Valley, national security officials warned executives from companies like Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm

that China was making plans to retake Taiwan, which Beijing has long considered a breakaway territory. A Chinese blockade of Taiwan, the official said, could choke the supply of computer chips made on the island and bring the U.S. tech industry to its knees. Two presidents have tried persuading the industry to change. President Biden offered financial grants worth billions to improve the domestic production of chips and after that didn't work, President Trump threatened billions in tariffs to essentially accomplish the same thing. But warnings, gifts, and threats have made little difference. The U.S. tech industry has stubbornly refused to shift where it gets most of its chips, which power things like smartphones, laptops, and the giant data centers that run artificial intelligence.

Now there is increasing concern that inaction by some of Silicon Valley's most important companies risks destabilizing the global economy. Those worries drawn into focus by recent live fire drills, conducted by the Chinese military and waters surrounding Taiwan have prompted dire warnings from White House officials. The single biggest threat to the world economy, the single biggest point of single failure, is that 97% of the high-end chips are made in Taiwan. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, slightly overstating industry estimates, quote, if that island were blockaded, that capacity were destroyed, that would be an economic Apocalypse, end quote. No weekend bonus episodes for you this weekend. Talk to you on Monday.

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