#433 - Werkzaam en toxisch

The hosts discuss the hack at crypto exchange Binance, which the FBI says was carried out by North Korean hackers and is estimated to have cost $6.3 billion. Binance subsequently temporarily limited withdrawals to prevent a bank run, but according to the podcast, users had already withdrawn around $7 billion. The company is trying to recover the stolen funds and promises to reimburse customers, although it appears that more money is being claimed than is still available.

According to the hosts, investigators are examining ties between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, an alleged Chinese spy and Megaspeed, Nvidia’s largest customer in Southeast Asia. The company is said to work for the Chinese government and to have rerouted chips to China that were not supposed to go there. They wonder how much Donald Trump and Nvidia knew about this, but warn that hasty accusations could also have consequences for the chip sector.

Marvell Technology is acquiring Lumentum, a producer of optical components used by data centers to transmit data. A price of around $150 billion was initially mentioned, but the hosts note that this figure was presented as larger than it really is; it nevertheless remains a major acquisition in the chip and data center sector.

DoorDash, described as Uber Eats’ main competitor, is buying Instacart for $17 billion. Instacart collects groceries from various stores and was worth around $40 billion at its peak during the pandemic, when consumers could hardly go to the supermarket. The hosts see the deal as further consolidation, but expect even more transactions given the current investment climate.

OpenAI is seeking less money than initially expected: the company reportedly wants to raise an additional $20 billion instead of the previously mentioned $30 billion. Alphabet and Amazon are issuing bonds to finance their AI plans, while their shares are under pressure because AI investments are weighing heavily on cash flows. According to the hosts, Microsoft appears to be holding up better for now.

Reddit lost more than 10 percent in a single day after the company decided not to give AI agents unrestricted access to its content and user accounts. The hosts explain that Reddit fears AI companies will strip the platform of its content without paying for it. Apple also came up: growth is slowing, electronics are becoming more expensive, margins are under pressure and service revenue is growing more slowly, while the stock is still highly valued.

A workfluencer or corporate influencer creates online content about their own work to build authority or a network. According to the hosts, LinkedIn is moving toward YouTube and Snapchat by sharing advertising revenue with creators; the number of LinkedIn users is said to have doubled since 2020 to 1.3 billion, and 38 percent of Top Voices still have a regular job. Examples include software engineer Madeline Zang, sponsored by HubSpot, Deloitte creator Laura Sophie Butter and corporate comedians such as Corporate Natalie and Ross Pomeranz.

Starbucks encourages employees to post about their work because an employee may come across as more credible than a corporate account. The hosts also mention a Kruidvat employee who made dance videos in her red uniform and attracted hundreds of thousands of views, after which Kruidvat was able to capitalize on the hype in the media. There are risks, however: companies need clear guidelines, and an organic hit can turn into reputational damage once the employee leaves or the collaboration falls apart.

In the regular fact segment, the hosts discuss esoteric programming languages. In the Shakespeare Programming Language, programs consist of theatrical dialogue; words such as ‘speak your mind’ mean that the computer should print something, while adjectives and words such as ‘king’ and ‘lord’ determine values. Piet, a visual language based on Mondrian, Whitespace, which uses only spaces and tabs, and brainfuck are also discussed. Several of these languages are Turing-complete, but are mainly intended as experiments or satire.

An investigative article describes Proton as a privacy company with a strong security reputation and a suite including Mail, Calendar, Drive, Meetings, VPN and Password Manager, but portrays an aggressive AI culture internally. CEO Andy Yen allegedly called employees who wanted to test cautiously ‘losers,’ pushed for more AI-generated code and proclaimed: ‘Get on board or get crushed.’ A CTO manifesto stated that programming is dead and old jobs are disappearing; employees found this unnecessarily frightening, especially on a Friday afternoon.

The hosts cite more internal examples in which speed appears to matter more than care, including in relation to post-quantum encryption. When Reddit criticized Proton’s communication, Yen allegedly said: ‘Perception is more important than truth’ and instructed employees to use their personal Reddit accounts to set the record straight. At the same time, Proton is building AI features, while employees question whether that direction is compatible with privacy. Internal documents also refer to insufficient speed, a possible move to the US or China and a team that may need to be rebuilt from the ground up.