What we’re reading (11/10)
“Investing In AI: The View From One Big Investor” (Wall Street Journal). “[Laela] Sturdy [of CapitalG:] AI companies are growing almost five times faster than the software companies that came before them, which is good and bad. It’s good because it demonstrates the market pull. You can really understand the customer value that’s being provided. But things like differentiation and moats [that is, whether a company has a durable, competitive advantage] are a lot more challenging to assess.”
“State Street Buys Private-Sector Inflation Data Provider” (American Banker). “On Monday, State Street Corporation announced that it has acquired PriceStats, a for-profit gatherer of daily inflation statistics. The Boston-based holding company of State Street Bank and Trust Company did not disclose the price of the acquisition. State Street had already been exclusively partnering with PriceStats since 2011, providing the custody bank's clients with proprietary data on the prices of goods and services. But acquiring the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company outright, State Street said, will allow its research to go further.”
“Why The Buzziest IPO In History May Never Happen” (CNN Business). “ It’s a tad early for 2026 predictions, but given how the past few weeks have gone for OpenAI, I’ll offer one of my own: OpenAI isn’t going public. Not in 2026, anyway. Maybe not ever.”
“Trump Tariff Trouble” (Paul Krugman). “…the prize for doublethink surely went to Trump’s pitiful Solicitor General, John Sauer. With the Justices suggesting that Trump’s tariffs infringe on Congress’s unique right to set tax rates, Sauer declared that ‘they are not revenue-raising tariffs’. That’s essentially an impossible position to argue[.]”
“Paramount Skydance Expects Another $1B In Merger Savings As David Ellison Resets Spending” (CNBC). “Paramount Skydance said on Monday it expects $1 billion more in merger savings than it previously forecast as it outlines CEO David Ellison’s ambitions for the company. The update came in Paramount’s third-quarter earnings report — the company’s first since its merger closed in early August. Ellison has been investing heavily in streaming and content, including live sports rights, and paying for it in part with cuts to other parts of the business. Paramount on Monday announced a new round of layoffs, affecting roughly 1,600 employees, tied to divestitures of assets in Argentina and Chile. Those cuts come weeks after Paramount began the process to lay off approximately 1,000 employees.”
