Welcome back to This Week in Stratechery!
This week we’re launching a new site: Sharp Text, by Andrew Sharp. You know Andrew as the host of Sharp Tech, Sharp China, and Greatest of All Talk, but before he was reluctantly persuaded to be a podcaster by Bill Simmons, he was a writer — and a very good one (check out his new About page here). Andrew has been diving deep into tech and China in particular over the last several years, and seeks to answer the question raised by President Trump: Did Xi Jinping Just Have a Bad Moment?
More from Stratechery Plus:
- So You’re Wondering About Rare Earths… Late last week China made clear to the United States and the rest of the world that dependence on China for the mining and refining of critical minerals is an untenable strategy for the long term, and possibly the short term, as well. So what does that imply for America? This week’s Stratechery interview with the director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at CSIS, Dr. Gracelin Baskaran, was one of my favorite interviews of the year: Dr. Baskaran provides an excellent primer on the U.S. dysfunction and Chinese market abuses that have doomed Western producers in the past, as well as a clear-eyed look at solutions that need to be explored in order for the U.S. to nurture a durable supply of minerals that have become crucial to everything from F-35s to EVs to semiconductors. Warning: this interview will make you furious at a variety of U.S. policy realities, but it will definitely make you smarter, too, and perhaps even hopeful. — Andrew Sharp
- The State of the Trade War. On Sharp China this week we took a 360-degree look at US-China trade tensions, beginning with the shocking scope of China’s rare earth policies, why Xi Jinping chose to take this step now, and what this inflection point portends for the weeks to come. Bill explained why the market’s apparent expectations of another “TACO” capitulation from the Trump Administration may be misplaced, as volatility is likely in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, I agree with President Trump’s assessment that “Xi had a bad moment” in approving moves that may not alter the trade war dynamics as much as China hopes, but will nevertheless galvanize world leaders to accelerate decoupling efforts and deepen partnerships with the United States. — AS
- Why Netflix Wants Bill Simmons. In lighter news — and speaking of Bill Simmons — Netflix announced a deal this week in which Spotify will pull 16 of its biggest podcasts, including the Bill Simmons Podcast, off of YouTube and make videos of full episodes exclusively available on Netflix. Thursday’s Daily Update had a smart take on this news, and we had a fun conversation about all of it on Sharp Tech this week (the segment is outside the paywall), including thoughts on the limits in this area for Netflix, and marveling at YouTube’s unusually generous revenue sharing model with creators—another example of Google benevolence that could be a meaningful competitive advantage if platform retention becomes more contested. — AS
Stratechery Articles and Updates
- China and Rare Earth Metals, Chips and Rare Earths, The U.S.’s Self-Inflicted Challenge — China is instituting controls on rare earths, which are essential for technology, that look like chip controls; we can fix the problem by building, but we might not be able to.
- OpenAI and Broadcom, ChatGPT and XPUs, AMD and Nvidia — OpenAI’s deal with Broadcom makes perfect sense, because OpenAI already knows exactly what workloads it needs to optimize.
- An Interview with Gracelin Baskaran About Rare Earths — An interview with Dr. Gracelin Baskaran about rare earths: how did the U.S. become dependent on China, and how do we fix the problem going forward?
- Walmart on ChatGPT, Walmart (and Amazon) Motivations, Spotify Podcasts on Netflix — Walmart joins ChatGPT Instant Checkout; will Amazon be next? Then, Spotify and Netflix form the anti-YouTube alliance.
Sharp Text by Andrew Sharp
- Did Xi Jinping Just Have a Bad Moment? — A closer look at the trade war, and what China may be misreading about the U.S. as it sends an ominous message to the rest of the world.
Dithering with Ben Thompson and Daring Fireball’s John Gruber
Asianometry with Jon Yu
Sharp China with Andrew Sharp and Sinocism’s Bill Bishop
Greatest of All Talk with Andrew Sharp and WaPo’s Ben Golliver
- First-Time All-Stars in 2025, Sorting Through the Southwest Division, How to Watch a Basketball Game
- A New Era with Amazon and NBC, The State of the Center Position, Over/Under Picks for the Central Division
Sharp Tech with Andrew Sharp and Ben Thompson
This week’s Stratechery video is on OpenAI’s Windows Play.
Source: Stratechery by Ben Thompson.
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