Tech Brew Ride Home – Episode Summary

Episode: Amazon Didn’t Scare Investors
Date: October 31, 2025
Host: Brian McCullough
Podcast: Tech Brew Ride Home (Morning Brew)

Episode Overview

In this Halloween 2025 episode, Brian McCullough breaks down the surprising strength of Amazon’s latest earnings, especially those of AWS, and explores the broader trends in tech earnings, including Apple’s "meh" quarter, the staggering losses at OpenAI, and Nvidia’s mountain-sized investments in AI startups. The episode also touches on some fascinating long reads and emerging tech—including Nike’s robotic shoes and research into aphantasia.

Key Topics & Insights

1. Amazon’s Q3 Earnings: Not Spooky, but Spectacular

• AWS Rebounds:
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) reported Q3 revenue of $33 billion—beating Wall Street’s $32.42 billion estimate and growing 20% YoY (01:40).
  • This marks AWS’s fastest growth rate since late 2022, accelerating 2.3 percentage points over the prior quarter.
• Competitive Landscape:
  • Despite slower growth than Google Cloud (34%) and Microsoft Azure (40%), AWS’s absolute numbers still dwarf those rivals (03:00).
  • Brian: “AWS, by far the biggest of the major cloud firms, has joined its nearest rivals…in showing accelerating growth" (03:15).
• AI & CapEx Spending:
  • Amazon spent $34.2 billion on capital expenditures this quarter, likely to hit $125 billion for the year.
  • Heavy spending justified: CEO Andy Jassy emphasized growing demand for AI services and highlighted the Trainium AI chip (05:25):

    “As fast as we’re adding capacity, Amazon is making money off it.” — Andy Jassy (quoted by Brian)

• Investor Sentiment:
  • Amazon stock jumped 13% in after-hours trading; investors appear reassured that Amazon’s AI and cloud investments are working (04:10).
  • “The cloud is growing again, which means they’re catching that AI surf.” — Brian (06:15)

2. Apple’s Quarter: All-Time Highs, Yet Oddly Quiet on AI

• Apple’s earnings were unremarkable but positive; shares up 2%.
• Notably, Apple is the only big tech firm where AI and CapEx are “a complete nothing burger.”
• Brian:

  “That is…either a sign of how far behind they are in AI, or else how much potential there is for them whenever they decide to deliver anything even remotely meaningful…” (07:10)

3. OpenAI’s Gargantuan Losses Revealed

• Microsoft’s Filing Sheds Light:
  • Due to equity accounting, Microsoft’s $3.1B reported loss on OpenAI implies OpenAI itself lost roughly $11.5B this quarter alone.
  • OpenAI’s revenue for the first half of the year was just $4.3B (09:45).
• Selling Sora Credits:
  • OpenAI now charges for extra video generations on Sora, moving to monetize its popular but costly AI video tool (12:20).
• Sustainability Concerns:
  • Bill Peebles, head of Sora: “The video platform’s economics are currently completely unsustainable.” (12:40)
  • OpenAI plans to further monetize, including “cameos” and creator payments, even as legal and copyright questions loom.

4. Nvidia’s Mega-Investment Blitz in AI Startups

• Poolside Funding:
  • Nvidia to invest up to $1B in AI coding startup Poolside, which is focused on automation and AGI.
• Building an AI “Moat”:
  • Nvidia has made 59 startup investments in 2025, including 10 in the last two months—an increase from previous years (15:40).
  • Brian: “One person’s ecosystem is another person’s moat.” (16:10)
  • Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgin:

    “Once you get entrenched, it’s much more difficult for a competitor to come in and take it away.”

• Startup Support:
  • Nvidia not only invests, but provides inside access and resources—cited with examples like Perplexity’s CEO getting instant technical support from Jensen Huang (18:00):

    “With Jetson, boom, boom, it’s done.” — Aravind Srinivas

5. Long Reads & Tech Oddities

Nike’s Project Amplify: Powered Shoes

• Nike unveils a “powered footwear system” for everyday runners, developed with robotics partner Defi.
• Unlike e-bikes, these shoes help users run or walk faster and farther with less effort (19:40).

The Science of “Aphantasia” and Mental Imagery

• Recap of New Yorker feature: Some people (like Brian) literally cannot form mental images; a newly named condition called aphantasia.
• Others have “hyperphantasia”—ultra-vivid mental images. Most people fall somewhere in between (20:15).
• Brian personalizes:

  “All my life I always assumed people talking about seeing it in your mind’s eye…as being figures of speech. But it turns out most of you really can actually see things in front of you if you concentrate really hard…” (20:30)

Notable Quotes

• On AWS Growth:

  “Amazon stock, the worst performing big tech stock this year, shooting up 13% in after-hours trading. Amazon needed this as proof that its heavy investment in AI is generating incremental business.” — Brian (03:43)

• On OpenAI’s Financials:

  “We now know that OpenAI lost $11.5 billion last quarter on $4.3 billion in revenue.” — Brian (11:20)

• On Sora Monetization:

  “The video platform’s economics are currently completely unsustainable.” — Bill Peebles, OpenAI (12:40)

• On Nvidia’s Ecosystem:

  “One person’s ecosystem is another person’s moat.” — Brian (16:10)

• On Aphantasia:

  “All my life I always assumed people talking about seeing it in your mind’s eye… as being figures of speech. But it turns out most of you really can actually see things in front of you if you concentrate really hard.” — Brian (20:30)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:40] — Amazon’s Q3 earnings; AWS outpaces expectations
• [04:10] — Market reaction, AWS compared to Google and Microsoft
• [05:25] — Amazon’s AI and CapEx commitment
• [07:10] — Quick take on Apple’s “fine, but not AI-driven” results
• [09:45] — Microsoft reveals OpenAI’s staggering losses
• [12:20] — OpenAI starts charging for Sora video generations
• [15:40] — Nvidia’s expanding investment in AI startups; Poolside funding
• [18:00] — Nvidia’s startup support culture
• [19:40] — Nike’s Project Amplify powered footwear
• [20:15] — The New Yorker: Aphantasia and mind’s eye imagery
• [20:30] — Brian’s personal connection to aphantasia
• [21:03+] — [Outside regular content, not summarized]

Episode Tone

Brian’s takes are punchy, lightly sardonic, and deeply sourced. He draws on major tech publications, SEC filings, and first-hand CEO quotes, aiming for clarity over hype—while keeping things breezy.

For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

You’ll walk away understanding:

• Why Amazon’s financials finally turned investor sentiment around
• How much OpenAI is losing—and why that’s not yet a disaster for Microsoft
• The scope and strategy behind Nvidia’s near-daily investments in the AI sector
• Some emerging, even quirky, stories in tech—from robotic shoes to mental imagery blind spots

All with Brian’s characteristic mix of good humor and insight.