Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 16h

Anyone here going to Bread and Net 2025? If so let's hang!

#breadandnet

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · Aug 6

Second main takeaway:

2️⃣➤ Each investment may be insignificant, but cumulatively they shape tech ecosystems in Big Cloud’s interest.

Thus, beyond scrutinizing only the big deals (eg, MSFT-OpenAI), we must track these investments and their effects in an ecosystem-wide, cumulative, & ongoing manner.

1 3 5

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · Aug 6

First main takeaway:

1️⃣➤ Dependence on Big Cloud is not just technical or contractual. It is also 💸 *financial* 💸

Structural separation is needed: Big Cloud must divest their cloud businesses, so they don’t both provide infra AND compete with customers *and investees* which rely on that infra.

1 3 4

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · Aug 6

Finally, fully *half* of all Big Cloud investments are made internationally, and each has their target countries.

Interestingly, Big Cloud invests primarily through accelerators abroad while prioritizing traditional equity investments at home.

3 heat maps of the world, one for each Big Cloud company. Amazon visibly invests a higher % of its deals in India, Google in Brazil and lesser in india, Microsoft in China.

Two split bar charts, split in the same way as above, but with one bar chart for Non US and the other for US investments, showing that Google and Microsoft use Accelerator programs abroad more than equity investments, whereas Amazon prefers equity investments at home and abroad.

1 2 4

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · Aug 6

Big Cloud is also *investing* in a way that brings much of the same risks as vertical integration, which competition authorities watch for.

And startups operating in the AI supply chain *more likely to rely on Big Cloud as their lead or sole investor* when they invest vs other investors:

Two very large heat maps, each with Developer Services, As a Service, Cloud, Data, Internet Infra, and Hardware on the Y axis, and the Big Cloud companies alongside NVidia, Apple, Meta, Accel and Sequoia Capital on the Y axis. The temperature of each sell measures % of time that investor is the sole or lead investor respectively, and broadly show that AI supply chain companies are more likely to be dependent on Big Cloud investor as their sole or lead investor than other investors.

1 2 6

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · Aug 6

Big Cloud invests heavily through accelerator programs, locking in startups early:

• They offer *massive cloud credits* that smaller cloud companies can’t compete with
• Capture ecosystems by pushing startups to use their other tech
• Incentivizes compute-heavy tech, such as building Gen AI.

Split bar chart with red and blue bars per investor, showing that Google and Microsoft invest via Accelerator programs more than their other investments, whereas the reverse is true for Amazon. Of course, accelerators invest only through accelerator programs, and the biggest VCs make no accelerator investments. Other Big Tech companies have no recorded accelerator investments.

1 2 5

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · Aug 6

We might remember Microsoft's huge investment in OpenAI, but this was just the tip of a massive hidden iceberg🥶:

Big Cloud deploys *hundreds of billions* over *thousands of deals*, often in smaller, lesser-known startups.

They invest like VCs — and *100x more* than other Big Tech companies.

The first bar graph in the report, showing google having the most investments (3501), Microsoft second (1681) and then Amazon (745), all way more than other “Magnificent Seven” big tech companies and way way more than all other investors, and in the same range of other bars representing Big VC and Active Accelerators.

The second graph in the report, showing a similar trend to the last one, but this time as measured in the dollar size of the deals they participate in. Google and Microsoft invest in deals summing to an amount similar to big VCs, with Amazon at a smaller amount about one third that of Microsoft.

1 2 6

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · Aug 6

📣🚨NEW: ☁️ Big Cloud—Google, Microsoft & Amazon—control two thirds of the cloud compute market. They’re getting rich off the AI gold rush.

In new work with @nathanckim.bsky.social, we show how Big Cloud is expanding their empire by scrutinizing their *investments*… 🧵

📄PDF: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

The cover of the report, with dark blue title "How Big Cloud becomes Bigger" with "Bigger" in bold, and subtitle in light blue "Scrutinizing Google Microsoft and Amazon's investments", and light grey author line "David Gray Widder and Nathan Kim" on light grey page background with three clouds: white, dark grey, and very dark grey getting bigger and going towards the top right until they're off the page.

1 37 78

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

AdyBee 🐝 @adybee.bsky.social · 3d

3 5

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 4d

🫧The news is finally asking if we're in an AI Bubble, and when it will pop. Good!🎈

Our data shows how we got here: Big Cloud is frantically investing in AI startups to build cloud market share and justify their *massive* investments in AI infrastructure.

How Google, Microsoft & Amazon invests:

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · Aug 6

📣🚨NEW: ☁️ Big Cloud—Google, Microsoft & Amazon—control two thirds of the cloud compute market. They’re getting rich off the AI gold rush.

In new work with @nathanckim.bsky.social, we show how Big Cloud is expanding their empire by scrutinizing their *investments*… 🧵

📄PDF: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

3 7

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 4d

Yep. Same: ash.harvard.edu/resources/wa...

Watching the Generative AI Hype Bubble Deflate – Ash Center

ash.harvard.edu

2 21 110

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

The Onion @theonion.com · 4d

Israel Agrees To Go Back To Killing Palestinians On Less Frequent Basis

CAIRO—As part of a historic ceasefire agreement with Hamas following two years of war, the Israeli government reportedly agreed Thursday to go back to killing Palestinians on a less frequent basis. “I...

theonion.com

67 1.5K 5.2K

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 4d

Every paper of Cella's is a banger, she's a pillar of the local organizing scene, a rare scholar who walks the walk.

Cella is amazing - hire her!

Cella (is on the job market) @cellllla.bsky.social · 4d

✨I’m on the academic job market ✨

I’m a PhD candidate at @hcii.cmu.edu studying tech, labor, and resistance 👩🏻‍💻💪🏽💥

I research how workers and communities contest harmful sociotechnical systems and shape alternative futures through everyday resistance and collective action

More info: cella.io

Cella M. Sum –

cella.io

3 8

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 4d

🫧The news is finally asking if we're in an AI Bubble, and when it will pop. Good!🎈

Our data shows how we got here: Big Cloud is frantically investing in AI startups to build cloud market share and justify their *massive* investments in AI infrastructure.

How Google, Microsoft & Amazon invests:

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · Aug 6

📣🚨NEW: ☁️ Big Cloud—Google, Microsoft & Amazon—control two thirds of the cloud compute market. They’re getting rich off the AI gold rush.

In new work with @nathanckim.bsky.social, we show how Big Cloud is expanding their empire by scrutinizing their *investments*… 🧵

📄PDF: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

3 7

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · Aug 14

Just three companies comprise “Big Cloud” — Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, which together control two thirds of the cloud computing market. But dependence on Big Cloud is not just technical or infrastructural: it is also financial, write Nathan Kim and David Gray Widder.

‘Big Cloud’ is Building Power via Pervasive Investments | TechPolicy.Press

Dependence on Big Cloud is not just technical or infrastructural: it is also financial, write Nathan Kim and David Gray Widder.

buff.ly

7 10

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

nathan kim @nathanckim.bsky.social · 5d

Did you know that the university of Michigan is building the world’s largest supercomputer for Los Alamos National Labs’ nuclear weapons production programs, and paying for $830 million of it despite not being able to use >90% of it?

I wrote about it here:

www.michigandaily.com/opinion/umic...

UMich says the Ypsi Data Center won’t “manufacture nuclear weapons.” What does Los Alamos think?

University administration must make a choice: Will it side with the public and live up to its stated ideals of serving the public good and public interest? Or will it side with LANL and spend hundreds...

www.michigandaily.com

1 14 26

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

Jordan Uhl @jordanuhl.com · 8d

Israeli drone footage shows the destruction in Gaza:

25 220 540

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 6d

You cannot, by definition, be eugenicist to an LLM.
Thats not what eugenics was, is or means.
But also, it should worry everyone when tech people like Hailey dehumanize the actual survivors and ongoing victims of eugenics by making comparisons like this--its alarming.

Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 6d

A someone who has written extensively about the eugenic roots that permeates those who claim to be building so-called artificial general intelligence, I'm here to tell you to please NOT compare criticism against corporations claiming to build a machine god, with eugenics. The audacity.

if you're writing a sentence that sounds like eugenics but you go "oh that's fine to say because it's not a real person" (whatever that means) you may want to consider what made you okay with saying that.

4 40 170

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 7d

jumpscare on instagram @dandekadt.bsky.social

some instagram account has posted a screenshot of dan's post that says "My wife and I never talk baby talk to our kid. We enforce academic seminar norms and jargon. My child isnt even 2 yet and can interrupt presenters on the first slide. Adults at family gatherings are shocked when my child asks a questino that turns out to be more of a comment." it has THIRTY SIX THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIVE LIKES

3 30 330

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 8d

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

Signal @signal.org · 10d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

signal.org

31 1.6K 2.3K

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

AAUP @aaup.org · 13d

BREAKING: WE WON!!!
💥 💥 💥

Federal Judge William G. Young ruled today in our lawsuit against the Trump administration that the policy of arresting, detaining, & deporting noncitizen students & faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the 1st Amendment.

Full ruling here:

Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law – #261 in American Association of University Professors v. Rubio (D. Mass., 1:25-cv-10685) – CourtListener.com

Judge William G. Young: ORDER entered. FINDINGS OF FACT AND RULINGS OF LAW, PURSUANT TO FED. R. CIV. P. 52(A)(Sonnenberg, Elizabeth) (Additional attachment(s) added on 9/30/2025: # 1 Main Document) (J...

www.courtlistener.com

18 760 2.6K

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

Travis Campbell @hcoyote.bsky.social · 13d

A wise man once said, “you get paid more for linear regression if you call it machine learning and data science.”

Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 17d

There is absolutely no good faith reason to use the term “AI” for any technology one is selling.

It serves only for dazzling people into thinking the technology has capabilities that it doesn’t.

If one wants a technology to be trustworthy, just use a transparent, informative term without hype.

1 17 83

Reposted by 🌶 David Gray Widder

Dan Hirschman @asociologist.bsky.social · 14d

Cornell admin overruled a faculty committee to suspend a professor who asked a disruptive Israeli student to leave his class on Gaza. Details in the article. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Cornell Cut Classes by a Pro-Palestinian Professor After an Israeli Student’s Discrimination Complaint

Dr. Eric Cheyfitz, who has taught at Cornell for more than two decades, claims the university is attempting to silence him as part of a broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism.

www.thenation.com

4 30 54

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 16d

The hype bubble popping won't fix things, though. Disastrous effects remain, you may find our short piece useful:

bsky.app/profile/davi...

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · Nov 21

Pleased this is now out from the Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center Political Economy of AI essay collection.

In it, @histoftech.bsky.social and I examine the the lasting harmful effects of the deflating GenAI hype bubble:

ash.harvard.edu/resources/wa...

Watching the Generative AI Hype Bubble Deflate – Ash Center

ash.harvard.edu

1 1