Microsoft vs. Google: Bing's resurgence has Google worried, but will it last?

2/12/23 7:00PM

Microsoft vs. Google‍

‍Microsoft announcing the integration of ChatGPT into its search engine Bing, closely followed by Google unveiling its underwhelming AI chatbot Bard, has heralded a new era of competition in internet search after decades of quiet domination and not-much-innovation.

In the case of Google, where you’re so dominant that your company name becomes a verb, it’s easy to see why there’s been little incentive to change things. You don’t get to ~88% US market share (according to StatCounter) without a product that billions of people find useful.

‍Searching beyond silver

‍After years of being labeled "a joke" in the tech world, despite still making ~$8.5bn in revenue as we wrote about recently, Bing’s AI-powered revamp is looking like a masterstroke after years of battling for the silver medal in search with Yahoo!. Indeed, last Thursday Bing’s iPhone app had its best ever day of downloads, roughly a 9x increase on previous daily download figures.

The question is whether, for the first time ever, Bing will be able to make inroads into Google’s fortress. If Google’s own AI chatbot, Bard, does turn out to be a flop, Bing’s success will likely hinge on how much value we all place on what you could call “complex searches”. Using an AI-enabled search engine to help “plan an anniversary weekend” in a certain city, with complex search results for accommodation, travel and things to do might be where Bing can win. But if you just need to get to a login page for your emails, find out the Super Bowlscore or look up what time it is in Australia — what you might call “simple searches” — it’s not clear whether you'll need, or want, AI’s help.

Jon Keegan3h

Report: Google is backstopping Anthropic’s $35 billion data center deal

Google and Anthropic have always had close ties. The search giant invested early in the maker of Claude, which boosted Google’s investment returns last quarter.

But the two companies appear to be closer than we knew. According to a new report from Bloomberg, it turns out that Google is backstopping $35 billion worth of data center leases for Anthropic.

Last fall, Anthropic announced that was getting into the data center business, pledging $50 billion in a partnership with Fluidstack.

The revelation adds to concerns of so-called “circular deals,” which could lead to a domino-like collapse if one company fails.

Google’s Backstops Underpin $35 Billion Chip Deal for Anthropic

Last fall, Anthropic announced that was getting into the data center business, pledging $50 billion in a partnership with Fluidstack.

The revelation adds to concerns of so-called “circular deals,” which could lead to a domino-like collapse if one company fails.

Jon Keegan

Anthropic releases Claude Fable 5, a locked-down, safer version of Mythos

Claude Fable 5 will cost twice as much as Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic’s current flagship model. The company also released Claude Mythos 5, but only for trusted partners for testing.

Rani Molla6h

Amazon shatters record in Canada’s “maple bond” market

Amazon has set a record in the Canadian corporate bond market by issuing CA$14 billion ($10.04 billion) of Canadian dollar-denominated notes, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The five-part deal officially eclipses the previous record of CA$8.5 billion established just last month by Alphabet.

This massive push comes as hyperscalers aggressively diversify funding to bankroll historic AI capital expenditure, a strategy mirrored by Alphabet’s parallel expansion into European debt markets to fuel its soaring infrastructure demands.

Man using smartphone, his head is replaced with a huge brain

Apple wants to finally give smartphones a brain

Releasing the iOS 27 developer beta is a start, but Siri can’t rescue us from app overload until it can run the third-party apps we actually use.

Rani Molla9h

Jon Keegan6/8/26

OpenAI files confidentially for IPO

Today OpenAI announced it has filed confidentially with the SEC to go public. The company said in a blog post that it filed the draft S-1 form.

OpenAI’s filing comes a week after archrival Anthropic — now valued at $965 billion — also filed a confidential S-1 for its own public offering. Both IPOs are expected to be among the largest in US history.

In a press release, OpenAI wrote:

“We expect it to leak so we’re just announcing it. We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”

Confidential submission of draft S-1 to the SEC