2025.29: What It Takes to Change the Web

(Stratechery)

Welcome back to This Week in Stratechery!

As a reminder, each week, every Friday, we’re sending out this overview of content in the Stratechery bundle; highlighted links are free for everyone. Additionally, you have complete control over what we send to you. If you don’t want to receive This Week in Stratechery emails (there is no podcast), please uncheck the box in your delivery settings.

On that note, here were a few of our favorites this week.

1. The Economic Future of the Web. One reason why I love writing is that it, more than any other medium, forces me to challenge and validate my initial reactions to a piece of news, and this week provided a perfect example. My initial reaction to Cloudflare’s Content Independence Day, when they blocked AI crawlers by default, was discomfort at the advantage this provided Google, along with the audacious exercise of power on Cloudflare’s part. When I thought about it more deeply, however, I realized that realizing vision I painted in May’s The Agentic Web and Original Sin would actually require audacious action like Cloudflare’s. — Ben Thompson
2. Greatest of All Talk in Las Vegas. One would think that basketball news slows down in the summer, but in fact, the news continues well into July, it just gets much nerdier. NBA Summer League is the epicenter of the nerdery, and Greatest of All Talk has been on the scene in Las Vegas for the past week. For those interested in a scouting report of number one pick Cooper Flagg, Ben Golliver and I spent 45 minutes talking through his performance on an episode Sunday. As for everything else—speculation surrounding LeBron’s future, whether the league will expand to Las Vegas and Seattle, misgivings with the current CBA among NBA players, and a mid-summer league “Chesstival” hosted by Magnes Carlsen and Derrick Rose (I told you it was nerdy)—Ben and I covered the scene from top to bottom on two more episodes later in week. Whether you come for Cooper Flagg or chess, GOAT is a great listen for the weekend.  — Andrew Sharp
3. How We Cool Computers. Since the dawn of computing, engineers have been struggling to keep computers from overheating. This week’s episode of Asianometry traces that history, beginning with an era of vacuum tubes that were literally cooled with air conditioning, and arriving at the Gen AI era, when Nvidia’s H100 and B200 accelerators now emit 700 to 1,000 watts of heat apiece and companies all over the world are experimenting with hybrid methods to cool chips. Altogether the episode was a great look at the history underlying a challenge that most people never think about, and one that will be central to the future of AI infrastructure, energy costs, and the tension between performance and efficiency that has defined computing from the beginning. Check out the YouTube video here, or if you’re on the move this weekend, all Stratechery subscribers can listen to the episode as a podcast. — AS

Stratechery Articles and Updates

• Google and Windsurf, Stinky Deals, Chesterton’s Fence and the Silicon Valley Ecosystem — Windsurf’s founders and IP are going to Google in the latest stinky deal that is downstream of regulator’s recklessly messing the startup ecosystem.
• Cognition Buys Windsurf, Nvidia Can Sell to China, Grok 4 and Kimi — Cognition rescues Windsurf, Nvidia can sell H20s to China, and Grok 4 and Kimi K2 point to future avenues of model improvement
• Cloudflare’s Content Independence Day, Google’s Advantage, Monetizing AI — Cloudflare is unilaterally blocking AI crawlers unless they are willing to pay

Dithering with Ben Thompson and Daring Fireball’s John Gruber

• Tech’s Chesterton’s Fence
• Beeper and RCS

Asianometry with Jon Yu

• Chilling Chips: A Computer Cooling Chronicle
• AT&T’s UNIX PC Failure

Sharp China with Andrew Sharp and Sinocism’s Bill Bishop

• Nvidia Can Sell H20 Chips to China Again; Trump Softening on China?; A Flurry of Xi Activity; Yang Hansen at NBA Summer League

Greatest of All Talk with Andrew Sharp and WaPo’s Ben Golliver

• Live from the Chesstival with Derrick Rose and Magnus Carlsen, News and Notes from Vegas, More on the Bucks, Jazz and Yang Hansen
• An Embiid Profile and LeBron Uncertainty, Expansion May Have to Wait, Live Reactions to Lillard’s Blazers Homecoming

Sharp Tech with Andrew Sharp and Ben Thompson

• Windsurf Madness, Big Tech Wins as the Silicon Valley Ecosystem Erodes, Cloudflare Wants to Fix the Internet Economy

This week’s Stratechery video is on Tech Philosophy and AI Opportunity.