Tech Earnings Recap, Beautiful Data Centers | Mike Isaac, Kyle Harrison, David Marcus, Turner Caldwell, Everette Taylor, Puneet Mehta & Justin Wexler, Alexander Embiricos

May 1, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Tech Earnings, Courtroom Drama, and the Beautiful Data Center Debate

The four biggest tech companies reported earnings on the same day—a rare alignment the hosts compared to a solar eclipse—and the results revealed a fracturing AI narrative. Google crushed expectations, Meta got punished despite a stunning core business, and the market is now demanding clear revenue evidence for every dollar of AI capex. Meanwhile, the Elon Musk versus OpenAI trial in Oakland is producing daily theater, and a new debate about whether data centers should be beautiful has taken over the timeline.

The Earnings Quad Kill: Google Wins, Meta Bleeds

Google was the clear victor. Search revenue hit $60.4 billion, up 19% year over year, decisively answering the question of whether AI chatbots are eating into the core business. "The answer is unequivocally no," the hosts said. But the real story was Google Cloud: revenue grew 63% year over year to $20 billion, with cloud backlog nearly doubling to more than $460 billion. Critically, more than half that backlog is expected to be recognized within 24 months, not some distant five-to-ten-year horizon. Cloud operating income hit $6.6 billion with strong margins. The stock rose 10%.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:57) **Tech Earnings Quad-Kill Recap** - The hosts kick off the main segment by setting up the historic day when Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta all reported earnings on the same day.
2 (09:34) **Meta's Rough Go and the CapEx Debate** - Meta's stock dropped nearly 10% despite strong core business results, as the market struggles to justify the company's massive spending on frontier AI.
3 (15:34) **Fracturing the AI Narrative** - The hosts argue this earnings season revealed that the "biggest number wins" narrative is over, and each hyperscaler now has a distinct story that the market is judging differently.
4 (18:13) **Is This the Dot-Com Bubble?** - A comparison of today's PE ratios to the dot-com era suggests the largest tech companies are not in a bubble, but the rest of the market is a different story.
5 (21:09) **George Hotz and Jensen Huang on AI Jobs** - A clip of Jensen Huang is played where he argues that scaring people about AI wiping out jobs is "hurtful" and that the US needs more software engineers than ever.
6 (22:35) **Mike Isaac on the Elon Musk vs. OpenAI Trial** - New York Times reporter Mike Isaac joins live from the Oakland courthouse to discuss the drama and his experience covering the trial.
7 (40:35) **Elon's Trial Strategy: High Concept vs. Low Blow** - Isaac breaks down Elon Musk's dual-pronged legal strategy of appealing to the jury's emotions with grand vision while also getting into the weeds on technical violations.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Mike Isaac Turner Caldwell

Show Notes

(01:29) - Tech Earnings Quad Kill Recap
(28:44) - Mike Isaac, a technology reporter at The New York Times and author of "Super Pumped," discussed his experiences covering high-profile tech trials, including the Apple vs. Samsung case and Mark Zuckerberg's testimony in the ZeniMax lawsuit. He shared insights into the challenges of attending these trials, such as early morning courthouse arrivals and the competition for press seating, and highlighted the public's growing interest in tech industry legal battles, noting the presence of Elon Musk fans in the courtroom. Isaac also reflected on the dynamics of jury selection, emphasizing the importance of selecting jurors with varying levels of familiarity with the tech industry to ensure a fair trial.
(01:07:20) - Kyle Harrison, a General Partner at Contrary, discusses his 300-page book, "The Anduril Thesis," which explores the history and strategy of defense technology company Anduril Industries. He highlights the company's unique position in the defense sector, emphasizing its counter-positioning against decades of military-industrial history and its innovative approach to defense production. Harrison also touches on Anduril's recent product developments, including autonomous systems and partnerships, and reflects on the broader landscape of defense technology investment.
(01:19:06) - David Marcus, CEO of Lightspark, discusses the launch of Grid Global Accounts, a platform offering global dollar accounts with real-time money movement across 65 countries, integration with Visa's network for spending at over 175 million merchants, and support for stablecoins and Bitcoin. He highlights the platform's ability to delegate payments to AI agents, enabling users to authorize agents to perform transactions on their behalf while maintaining control. Marcus also notes that recent regulatory advancements and improved wallet technologies have made such innovations feasible.
(01:26:57) - Turner Caldwell, co-founder and CEO of Mariana Minerals, discusses the company's focus on automating mining operations to enhance efficiency and productivity. He explains their approach to integrating autonomous systems across the entire mining and refining process, aiming to double productivity through better orchestration and logistics management. Caldwell also highlights the potential for autonomy to fundamentally change mining operations, enabling more selective mining methods and reducing costs.
(01:36:13) - Everette Taylor, CEO of Kickstarter since September 2022, has revitalized the platform by focusing on the creator economy and forming strategic partnerships. He discusses the launch of the Next Wave Fund, a collaboration between Kickstarter and Google, aimed at supporting early-stage tech startups and small businesses in hardware, software, gaming, and connected technology. This initiative offers selected applicants $10,000 in non-dilutive capital, guidance