WSJ Tech News Briefing – Tech Minute: Cloudflare Outage Knocks X, ChatGPT and More Offline

Date: November 18, 2025
Host: Zoe Culkin (The Wall Street Journal)

Episode Overview

On this concise Tech Minute edition, host Zoe Culkin reports on a major Cloudflare outage that disrupted countless major sites, delivers two WSJ exclusives about significant AI business developments, and reflects on the fervor around AI investments. The episode focuses on the intersection between technological infrastructure vulnerability and the accelerating race to dominate AI.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Cloudflare Outage Disrupts Major Sites

• What Happened:

  • A global outage at Cloudflare affected tens of thousands of users, temporarily knocking major sites such as X (formerly Twitter), ChatGPT, and Spotify offline.
  • Cloudflare is a foundational service providing web security and defense against cyberattacks and traffic surges for a broad range of internet companies.

• Immediate Impact:

  • "Sites like X, ChatGPT and Spotify were knocked offline for tens of thousands of users this morning due to a global outage affecting the web security service Cloudflare." – Zoe Culkin [00:33]
  • The unreliability of a single web security provider rippling through the digital ecosystem highlights concentrated risk.

• Market Response:

  • "Shares of Cloudflare were down 4.7% in pre market trading." – Zoe Culkin [00:52]

2. OpenAI and Intuit Announce Multi-Year Partnership

• Details of Deal:

  • The exclusive report reveals OpenAI and Intuit have forged a multi-year partnership.
  • Intuit will further integrate OpenAI’s language models and make its own applications available through ChatGPT’s ecosystem.

• Financial & Strategic Implications:

  • "The company said they expect the deal to generate more than $100 million in revenue for OpenAI over an unspecified number of years." – Zoe Culkin [01:04]
  • Intuit gains “extensive access” to OpenAI APIs, unlocking new use cases “across the business.”

• Industry Context:

  • Partnerships like these allow large software companies to accelerate AI integration and deployment. For OpenAI, this reflects growing enterprise adoption.

3. Lambda’s $1.5 Billion Series E Funding Round

• Company Profile:

  • Lambda, a startup specializing in AI chip rental services, announced an enormous $1.5 billion Series E funding round.
  • Led by TWG Global (Thomas Toll and Mark Walter) with additional support from the Toll' Innovative Technology Fund and others.

• Insight on AI Investment Trends:

  • "The latest fundraise underscores the amount of cash pouring into AI as Wall street lenders, venture capitalists and big tech giants spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build out AI data centers with advanced chips." – Zoe Culkin [01:44]
  • There is intense demand for the infrastructure—physical and digital—that enables advanced AI.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Cloudflare Outage:
  “Many major sites and companies rely on Cloudflare for security tools that protect from cyber attacks and traffic surges. The company said they're investigating the issue.”
  – Zoe Culkin [00:42]

• On the Intuit-OpenAI Deal:
  "Intuit will gain extensive access to OpenAI's APIs and the partnership will allow it to leverage OpenAI frontier models for cutting edge use cases across the business, according to the companies."
  – Zoe Culkin [01:13]

• On AI Investment:
  "The latest fundraise underscores the amount of cash pouring into AI..."
  – Zoe Culkin [01:44]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:33] – Cloudflare outage knocks X, ChatGPT, Spotify, and others offline.
• [00:52] – Cloudflare stock drops in early trading.
• [01:01] – WSJ exclusive: OpenAI-Intuit multi-year partnership.
• [01:13] – Strategic details on Intuit-OpenAI collaboration.
• [01:28] – WSJ exclusive: Lambda raises $1.5 billion for AI chips.
• [01:44] – Analysis: AI infrastructure investment surge.

Tone and Style

The episode retains the Wall Street Journal’s trademark blend of concise, authoritative reporting and inside access. Zoe Culkin delivers the news in a brisk, fact-rich manner, keeping the focus tightly on critical developments without speculation or editorializing.

Summary

This Tech Minute underscores the dependency that both consumers and businesses have on critical internet infrastructure, while also capturing the relentless momentum and financial commitment behind AI technology. The Cloudflare outage provided a wake-up call on internet fragility, as landmark partnerships and aggressive funding rounds make clear that artificial intelligence is both the present and future of tech—commanding attention, innovation, and immense capital.