Apple Tax is Dead, OpenAI Ends Vesting Cliff, Anthropic’s Massive TPU Order | Diet TBPN

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

• The Format: This casual host-led discussion weaves through breaking tech news and historical deep dives like a lively newsroom brainstorm, centered on antitrust battles, AI talent wars, and business model shifts in Big Tech. Analytical yet playful.
• The Format: A casual chat between two hosts dissecting industry headlines with rapid-fire banter.
• The Key Players:
• If Just Hosts: Two unnamed hosts (one frequently called John) share electric chemistry—witty interruptions, shared laughs, and seamless pivots—bantering over the high-stakes drama of Apple's App Store empire, AI hiring frenzy, and quirky anecdotes like Jim Carrey's Grinch meltdown.

🗝️ Key Themes & Topics

The episode bounces through tech's biggest fault lines: antitrust rulings shaking app ecosystems, cutthroat AI talent competition, ballooning AI infrastructure spends, and the absurdity of sky-high private valuations amid market resets.

• Topic 1: Apple's App Store "Tax" Faces Ninth Circuit Hammer – Hosts celebrate Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney's victory lap as the Ninth Circuit blocks Apple's workaround to maintain its 30% cut on external payments (repackaged as 27% fee + 3% processing/IP licensing). They unpack the 2011 Pepper v. Apple saga, where a consumer sued over alleged overcharges on apps like Flappy Bird, arguing Apple's fees aren't tied to real cost