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Ain’t No Drama Like AI Industry Drama
00:21:55
Apparently their ain’t no drama like AI industry drama, proven once again by some high-profile defections from Thinking Machine Labs. Grok says it’s cleaned up its act. TSMC is winning thanks to AI. More price rises from Spotify. And why is Ireland missing out on the AI datacenter boom?
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Welcome to the Tech Brew Ride home for Thursday, January 15, 2026. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, apparently there ain't no drama like AI industry drama. Proven once again by some high profile defections from Thinking Machine Labs. Grok says it's cleaned up its act. TSMC is winning thanks to AI. More price rises from Spotify. And why is Ireland missing out on the AI data center boom? Here's what you missed today. In the world of tech, Attackers don't need exploits when they can use your allowed tools against you. That's why ThreatLocker enforces default deny at execution, stopping unknown software scripts and ransomware the moment it tries to run. No signatures, no guesswork, just control. Threatlocker takes zero trust from theory to practice. By blocking any unauthorized application or behavior from ever running in the first place, generative AI has lowered the barrier to malware creation. So ThreatLocker prevents AI generated polymorphic and fileless attacks by shutting down unknown behavior automatically. Even if it's never been seen in the wild. Threat Locker gives you tight control without the noise, meaning fewer alerts and a cleaner, predictable operational posture. Learn more@threatlocker.com TechBrewRideHome that's threatlocker.com TechBrewrideHome now, there is always drama in the tech industry. You've got huge egos, rivalries, grudges, but I have to say the the AI industry pretty much takes the cake when it comes to drama. I mean, remember the whole Sam Altman almost being defenestrated from OpenAI thing? Well, grok this new one word leaked out that Mira Muradi, she formerly of OpenAI and the SAM Altman succession drama. Her new startup Thinking Machines Lab has parted ways with its cto Barret Zoth, with Saumoth Chintala now set to take over that role. Sources say the termination of Zof was due to quote, unethical conduct. Later, Fiji Simo of OpenAI tweeted that Zof and Luke Metz and Sam Schoenholtz have returned to OpenAI from thinking machines Lab and quote, this has been in the works for several weeks. What could possibly be going on here? Well, here's Wired, quote, two narratives are already forming about what prompted the departures. The news was first reported on X by technology reporter Kylie Robison, who wrote that that Zoff was fired for, quote, unethical conduct. A source close to Thinking Machines alleged that Zoff had shared confidential company information with competitors. Wired was unable to verify this information with Zoff, who did not immediately respond to WIRED's request for comment. According to the memo from Cimo, Zoff told Thinking Machine CEO Mira Murati on Monday he was considering leaving. He was then fired on Wednesday. Simo went on to write that OpenAI doesn't share the same concerns about Zoff as Marathi. The personnel shakeup is a major win for OpenAI, which recently lost its VP of research, Jerry Tuorek. A third Thinking Machines staffer, Sam Schoenholtz, is also rejoining OpenAI, per the company's announcement. The departures are a blow to Thinking Machines, which also lost another co founder, Andrew Tullock in November when he took a new job at Meta. In a post on X, Morati confirmed Zoff's departure and said that Salmith Chintala will replace him as the startup's chief technology officer. Zafan Metz left OpenAI in late 2024 start thinking machines with Murati, the ChatGPT maker's former chief technology officer. Zoff was previously OpenAI's vice president of post training, where he led teams that made final improvements to AI models before they were deployed into products like ChatGPT and OpenAI's API. Metz worked at OpenAI for two years during his first stint at the company and contributed to projects like ChatGPT and the O1AI Reasoning Model. Simo told employees in her memo that Zoff will report directly to her and Metz and Schoenholtz will work under him. The hiring announcement timeline was accelerated, she said, so they still have to work out some details about their roles. Thinking Machines Lab is one of several well funded AI startups led by former OpenAI researchers, reflecting the incredible appetite among investors to cash in on the AI race last year. Mirati's startup was last valued at $12 billion and was recently in talks to raise more than $4 billion at a $50 billion valuation. The startup's main product today is called Tynker, which allows developers to customize AI models on their own data sets. End quote Here is some further speculation from fleetingbits on Twitter. Quote Some quick thoughts on Barrett, Zof and Metz and Schoenholtz going back to OpenAI. Number one Barret Zoff was the vice president of post training at OpenAI before he left for thinking machines. He left OpenAI in September 2024. Number two Barrett would have probably initially had options for about 10 to 30% of thinking machines. Post training was one of more valuable skills at Launch 3 the seed round as $2 billion at $12 billion. So this would mean that he would have options now for about 8 to 25% of the current company. There were rumors back in November that Thinking Machines was in talks to raise at $50 $60 billion. This puts his equity at $4 $15 billion in valuation. 5. Thinking machines could probably exit at somewhere between 30 and 60 billion dollars today or at least at some point over the next two years. 6. I think would probably be Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Amazon and Nvidia. A large cap public company that wants to build a Frontier model. Number seven Barrett would have been just over his one year cliff assuming he was not fired for cause or thinking doesn't want to litigate. He still has about 1 to $3.5 billion in thinking machines equity right now. 8. It would be interesting to know his OpenAI pay package. The rumor is that OpenAI set aside about $50 billion for the equity pool for the new PBC so they can afford a decent pay package. Him number nine My guess is that it was a personality dispute or a disagreement over the commercial direction of the company with the mira executive team. Number 10 and if there is something behind the unethical conduct claim, it could be just a game of telephone over him talking to other labs and Mira interpreting that as him disclosing trade secrets. End quote and some snark from Andrew Curran on X the OAI TV series will obviously end season one with the boardroom coup, so this is probably the dramatic climax of say episode 11 in a season three. That means we need a recognizable threat for the Season Finale Episode 12 Return of the Whale, to which Asdjenson tweeted, Nah. Season 1 will be Elon and OpenAI parting ways. Season 2 would be the board drama. Season 3 would be X AI stuff. This would be a solid season 4 mid season episode thing. End quote. X has updated GROK to prevent the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis. And is GEO blocking this for all users Quote where it's illegal? Quoting Ars Technica. The update includes restricting image creation and the ability to edit images via the Grok account on the X platform, which, quote, are now only available to paid subscribers. This adds an extra layer of protection by helping to ensure that individuals who attempt to abuse the Grok account to violate the law or our policies can be held accountable. X Safety said. Additionally, X will quote geoblock the ability of all users to generate images of real people in bikinis, underwear and similar attire via the Grok account and in Grok in X in those jurisdictions where it's illegal. X Safety said. X's update comes after weeks of sexualized images of women and children being generated with Grok, finally prompting California Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate whether Grok's outputs break any US Laws. In a press release Wednesday, Bonta said that quote xai appears to be facilitating the large scale production of deep, fake, non consensual intimate images that are being used to harass women and girls across the Internet, including via the social media platform X. Notably, Banta appears to be as concerned about Grok's standalone app and website being used to generate harmful images without consent as he is about the outputs on X. Before today, X had not restricted restricted the Grok app or website. X had only threatened to permanently suspend users who are editing images to undress women and children if the outputs are deemed illegal content. It also restricted the Grok chatbot on X from responding to prompts to undress images, but anyone with a premium subscription could bypass that restriction, as could any free X user who clicked on the Edit button on any image appearing on the social platform. On Wednesday, prior to X Safety's update, Elon Musk seemed to defend Grok's output as benign, insisting that none of the reported images have fully undressed any minors, as if that would be the only problematic output. Quote I not aware of any naked, underage images generated by Grok, musk said in an X post. Literally zero. Musk's statement seems to ignore that researchers found harmful images where users specifically requested minors be put in erotic positions and that sexual fluids be depicted on their bodies. It also ignores that X previously voluntarily signed commitments to remove any intimate image abuse from its platform as recently as 2024. Recognizing that even partially nude images that victims wouldn't want publicized could be harmful, Banta pointed to news reports documenting Grok's worst outputs as the trigger of his probe. The avalanche of reports detailing the non consensual sexually explicit material that XAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking, banta said. This material, which depicts women and children in nude and sexually explicit situations, has been used to harass people across the Internet, end quote Acting out of deep concern for victims and potential Grok targets, Banta vowed to, quote, determine whether and how XAI violated the law and quote use all the tools at my disposal to keep California's residents safe, end quote Banta's announcement came after the United Kingdom seemed to declare a victory after probing rock over possible violations of the UK's Online Safety act, announcing that the harmful outputs had stopped, end quote. It's the holidays, which means you're probably trying to figure out what to get the people in your life who live in back to back meetings. This isn't some sci fi concept. It's Plaud P L A U D. It snaps onto the back of your phone and records phone calls, meetings and conversations. This isn't just note taking though. It can summarize meetings, generate to do lists, draft emails, extract insights, analyze perspectives and help you make better decisions, all with full contextual awareness across your past conversations and meetings. Black Friday is coming and Plaud is giving tech we Write home listeners 20% off. Search P L A U D on Google or Amazon and get 20% off. If you've ever wanted to be a fly on the wall for the conversations world class CEOs have behind closed doors, then you may want to listen to the new podcast Long Strange CEO to CE. In each episode, Brian Halligan, co founder of HubSpot, speaks with leaders to unpack the real stories behind scaling their companies from the emotional toll of leadership to the tactical decisions that shape a company's future. Expect candid conversations about hiring, culture, communication strategy and more. Whether you're an aspiring founder, a seasoned CEO, or simply curious about the stories behind the CEOs on the long, Strange trip of building enduring legendary companies, this is a show you won't want to miss. Long Strange Trip is available everywhere you get your podcasts. That's Long Strange Trip podcast. TSMC has reported Q4 net profit, up 35% year on year to a record $16 billion above the $15.17 billion that was estimated as it is benefiting from a surging demand for AI chips and has hit $100 billion in 2025 revenue. Quoting CNBC, the world's largest contract chipmaker has now posted year over year profit growth for eight consecutive quarters. In an earnings call, TSMC executives guided revenue for the current quarter to hit between 34.6 and $35.8 billion, up 4% sequentially or up 38% year over year. At the midpoint. We expect our business to be supported by continued strong demand for our leading edge process technologies, said TSMC's chief financial officer Wendell Huang during an earnings call, adding that the company's profit margins have been incre. Tsmc, Asia's largest technology company by market capitalization, has benefited greatly from the proliferation of artificial intelligence, producing advanced AI processors for clients such as Nvidia and amd. The company's high performance computing division, which includes artificial intelligence and 5G applications, made up the majority of sales in the October December quarter at 55%. Demand from smartphones made up 32% of sales, TSMC said. Advanced chips measuring 7 nanometer or smaller made up 77% of total wafer revenue during the quarter. For full year 2025, those chips made up about 74% of revenue, up from 69% in 2024. In semiconductor technology, smaller nanometer sizes indicate more compact transistor designs, allowing faster processing speeds and greater energy efficiency. The company is looking to further ramp up its cutting edge 2 nanometer offerings this year after rolling out mass production last quarter. With TSMC further leaning into its advanced products, it said that its capital expenditure was expected between 52 and 56 billion dollars in 2026, as compared to 40.9 billion in 2025. The demand for AI remains very strong, driving overall chip demand across the entire server industry, counterpoint Research senior analyst Jake Lai told CNBC, predicting that 2026 will be another breakout year for AI server demand. With all of this data center built out around the world, you know who weirdly hasn't been benefiting as much as you might think? The country of Ireland, which was an early data center winner and poster child for the post.combust sort of Web 2.0 data center build out. Ireland has apparently missed out on much of the AI boom now due to creaking infrastructure and a strained electricity grid stopping projects. Quoting Bloomberg, Companies have scrapped huge data center plans in Ireland or have been blocked by Irish authorities, and Officials estimate some 10 billion euros, or $11.7 billion worth of investment has been lost because of constraints. Ireland's past success at luring the world's biggest names in tech and pharma turned it into one of the richest countries in the world. If overseas companies start to turn away, the damage would be huge. Aware of the risks, the Irish government is making a fresh push to get back on the data center bandwagon. It has outlined plans for special parks where energy devouring projects can have easy access to clean power, balancing energy constraints with the need to stay attractive for investment. The move follows a decision by the energy regulator on new rules for electricity grid connections after a long running review that left businesses in limbo for years. We risk missing an enormous wave of European AI and cloud investment, niall Molly, chief executive officer of Echelon Data Centers, which operates facilities in multiple countries, said after the regulator's announcement last month. If they can't locate in Ireland, we are running the risk of major problems in our foreign direct investment and our tax strategy. It's an especially pressing issue because of the economic risks Foreign owned multinationals drive growth, employ more than 600,000 people and are the main reason the government can run annual budget surpluses. Those companies accounted for almost 90% of corporate tax income in 2024. The power tensions reached ahead in 2021. Amid growing concern about blackouts, the energy regulator CRU started a review leading to a DE freeze on data center grid connections around Dublin. Since then, only two centers secured a connection agreement from operators Iregrid and ESB Networks. A final decision on connections was published by the regulator only last month. The clarity was welcomed by the industry, but there are concerns about new strict requirements. Operators will be required to install energy generation or storage capable of meeting their full demand, and 80% of each facility's annual electricity must come from renewable energy projects in Ireland. That will put additional costs on business at a time when Ireland needs to be as competitive as possible to win back their trust. While Ireland's infrastructure has vastly improved, the problem is that it's been progress from what was a very low standard. It was a relatively poor country for much of the 20th century, lacking investment resources, meaning work in recent decades has been a case of playing catch up. And there are still huge gaps in the IMD World Competitiveness Index. Ireland is ranked 44th for basic infrastructure and after years of warnings, Ireland paid a real price last year when Amazon Web Services scrapped plans for a new industrial facility in Dublin. That decision was linked to a delay with a grid connection. The government has acknowledged it needs to do more and last summer announced an infrastructure investment package worth around 112 billion euro. It has the money, thanks to corporate tax revenue, but there are other roadblocks, from a shortage of workers to a cumbersome planning system. Meanwhile, Kirby is going where there's work. It built its first data center in Ireland in 2007, has seen rapid expansion in recent years. Revenue has more than doubled since 2020. A lot of it started in Ireland, said CEO Henry McCann. But in 2026, quote, more than 65% of our revenue will be generated by projects outside Ireland. End quote. Finally today, Pocketbook News Spotify has announced plans to raise its Premium subscriptions by $1 per month to $12.99 per month. Month in the US oh, and also price increases in Estonia and Latvia, too. But this is Spotify's first US price hike since July of 2024. Quoting Bloomberg Spotify, which has more than 280 million paid subscribers, has been under pressure to raise prices to keep them in line with inflation and increases by other consumer service platforms such as Netflix. The company has fiercely loyal listeners who have spent sometimes years building music and audio libraries. Reports have shown Spotify listeners are the least likely to cancel among the major video or audio streaming services in the US over the past two decades, Spotify has grown into the most powerful company in the music industry and proven it can be profitable. But growth has slowed as streaming matured in major markets. Spotify has been working for the past two years or so on a new, more expensive service that would capitalize on the site's most ardent fans. Nothing more for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.