Big Tech lost big in the 2026 election

The 2026 midterm elections in the US ended in a sweeping win for Democrats — and several dozen sweeping losses for the AI industry. Nilay and David dig into what the results will mean for data centers, Big Tech, and even the future of X. Then, they try to figure out whether anyone's making any money in AI — not so much, it turns out — and whether the touchscreen MacBook is worth the price.

Further reading:

• ⁠The fight for tech accountability starts now ⁠

• ⁠Tech is about to get hammered in Congress⁠

• Forbes: ⁠Elon Musk Deletes Midterm Posts After Stunning Election Losses⁠

• ⁠Data centers lost the midterms ⁠

• ⁠Democrats leaned into Big Tech and AI opposition this cycle. ⁠

• ⁠Not even $200 million could help Elon Musk buy Texas ⁠

• ⁠OpenAI says ChatGPT is catching up to Google in search ⁠

• ⁠Google hasn’t figured out how to make AI pay like its search engine ⁠

• ⁠Uber only fulfilled 4 rides from AI agents last quarter ⁠⁠

• ⁠DoorDash's CEO: Don't be 'delusional' after just a few hundred AI agent orders⁠

• ⁠Apple is reportedly lowering AI usage budgets.⁠

• ⁠Brendan Carr plans to let prisons jam cellphone signals⁠

• ⁠SpaceX could buy Boost Mobile as part of its big mobile carrier plans ⁠

• ⁠Apple MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display review: a touchscreen winner⁠

• ⁠Sam Altman addresses RAM comments: People should ‘put as much as they want in their computers⁠

• ⁠⁠Sam Altman says it’s better for RAM to be in a data center than on your desk ⁠⁠

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0:00 Bezos Hair Transplant Hoax

01:15 Midterms Shockwave Begins

02:00 Corruption And Data Center Backlash

06:53 AI Products Not Worth It

09:26 What Democrats Can Do Now

11:15 Congress Investigations Lawyer Up

13:15 Hype Reels Take Over Politics

15:42 X Bubble Versus Real Life

22:47 Microblogging Decline And AI Regulation

23:56 Ossoff Speech And AI Doomerism

27:35 Google Then Versus OpenAI Now

33:35 Back From Break

33:42 OpenAI Search Claims

35:19 Google Moat Erodes

38:02 Monetizing AI Overviews

42:52 Ads Break Trust

45:49 Google Zero Spiral

47:43 Agents Reality Check

50:41 Token Spending Pullback

52:50 Muse Novelty Wears Off

01:00:16 Brendan Carr is a Dummy

01:02:00 FCC Heat On Carr

01:07:04 MacBook Pro Touchscreen

01:09:09 Touchscreen Love Hate

01:10:25 Dynamic Island Reality Check

01:11:17 Best Touch Use Cases

01:11:58 App Support And Optimization

01:14:10 MacBook Pro Verdict

01:14:27 Speakers And Trade Ins

01:15:42 Sales And Upgrade Timing

01:17:11 SpaceX Boost Mobile Drama

01:22:05 Ram Altman Cloud Take

01:29:31 AI Photo Editing Panic

01:37:13 Wrap Up And Plugs

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