Scale & Strategy
This is Scale & Strategy, we cut the crusts off your business news sandwich – just the way you like it.
Here’s what we got for you today:
- Altman sketches OpenAI’s trillion-dollar roadmap
- MSNBC Drops the Peacock, Becomes MS NOW
Altman sketches OpenAI’s trillion-dollar roadmap
Sam Altman invited reporters from TechCrunch, The Verge, and a few others to dinner — and dropped a mix of candor, flexes, and trillion-dollar hints. The conversation touched on GPT-5’s design, hardware bottlenecks, OpenAI’s consumer bets, and even whether Chrome might one day fly the OAI flag.
The details:
- On 4o’s removal: Altman admitted, “I legitimately just thought we screwed that up.” GPT-5’s fix? Make responses warmer without turning into a yes-man.
- On compute: OpenAI has models it literally can’t release because of hardware limits. The answer: spend “trillions” on data centers.
- On valuations: He compared the AI frenzy to the dot-com bubble — “insane,” but worth it if the tech delivers.
- On Chrome: With Google’s browser tangled in lawsuits, Altman said OpenAI should “take a look” if it ends up on the block.
- On hardware: The Jony Ive-designed device is still coming. Altman’s pitch: “You don’t get a new computing paradigm very often.”
Why it matters: OpenAI’s growth curve is already absurd, but this dinner pulled back the curtain. What came through wasn’t just trillion-dollar ambition — it was Altman casually workshopping the future of AI, browsers, and devices over dessert.
MSNBC Drops the Peacock, Becomes MS NOW
The cable news network is ditching its NBC ties ahead of a spinoff
MSNBC is rebranding as MS NOW—short for My Source News Opinion World—as it prepares to spin off from Comcast’s NBCUniversal. Staffers got the word Monday: the Peacock is gone, the NBC name is gone, and the network is officially standing on its own.
The move is part of Comcast’s $7 billion carve-out of its cable portfolio, which will form a new company called Versant later this year. CNBC, USA, Oxygen, and E! are also included in the deal, but NBC, Bravo, and Peacock streaming stay in the mothership.
MS NOW’s logo swaps the iconic bird for a red, white, and blue palette, with the network aiming to sharpen its identity as a progressive news-and-opinion hub separate from NBC News. CNBC, meanwhile, will keep its name but also roll out a fresh logo.
The rebrand is the latest in a string of media identity flips—Warner Bros. Discovery recently backtracked Max into HBO Max, Dotdash Meredith morphed into People Inc., and Roku decided “Howdy” was a good name for a new streaming service.
Despite the cosmetic overhaul, executives say the mission remains the same: a progressive-leaning outlet that mixes straight news with opinion and keeps political figures “from both parties” accountable.
Why it matters: MSNBC has spent nearly 30 years building brand equity under the NBC umbrella. Walking away from the Peacock is risky—but also signals Comcast wants its new Versant spinout to stand on its own in a streaming-first era.
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