Hype Cycles with Nitesh and Vineet

Apple practically doubled its prices overnight. Your PlayStation costs $900. Vineet's SanDisk SSD died and the company won't replace it because the replacement now costs 12,000 rupees more than what he paid. All of this has one cause, and it isn't the tariffs. (Spoiler alert: It's Sam Altman) Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron control 95% of global DRAM production. They have systematically reallocated t...

Four companies. Four IPOs. Four completely different stories about what it means to go public in 2025 - and what that tells you about the state of capital markets, quick commerce, and the art of calling yourself a trillionaire. Nitesh walks through SpaceX, NSE, Jio Platforms, and Zepto all heading to market (almost) simultaneously. We start with the numbers - $75 billion, $60 billion, $150 billion...

Google is going to Google for you, and tell you the results - rather than pointing you to a webpage. That changes the Internet...a LOT. Two Google stories this week that are really one Google story - about a company that has spent 25 years collecting everything about you, and has finally figured out what to do with it. We open with Amazon Prime putting a "add to cart" button inside TV ads. No fric...

The word "AI" has meant nothing specific for 60 years. That's not a bug, it's the main feature. This week we have a guest: Jaidev Deshpande, ML engineer, vibe coding janitor, and chief code deleter, who joins Vineet and Nitesh to try and parse what AI and AGI mean. We open with the defective magic kit. The AI industry has perfected a single rhetorical trick: when the product doesn't work, it's you...

The AI chip trade is moving downstream fast. And the Indian economy is moving somewhere nobody wants to talk about. Two stories this week that are bigger than their headlines suggest. Vineet opens with a tour of the AI semiconductor stack - and the uncomfortable math behind it. Nvidia's crazy spike was just the start. AMD up 200%, memory plays like SanDisk up 400%, cooling companies, networking la...

This week we get into the data center story properly. One upcoming facility in Utah will consume more power than the entire state does today. Data centers account for 0.01% of US jobs but 4.4% of electricity consumption. Anthropic is spending $50 billion on infrastructure that will create 800 jobs. And Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic have all simultaneously published press releases promising to b...

AI companies want to create myths around themselves - and now they're literally calling a product "Mythos". Just in case, y'know, you miss the point. Anthropic announced Mythos - a new model capability so powerful it found multiple zero-day vulnerabilities in critical banking infrastructure, alarming enough to call an emergency meeting between the Fed Chair and the Treasury Secretary. OpenAI, not...

We recorded this one live from Jayanagar, Bangalore, and as usual, we couldn't resist a few pitstops before the main story. In this episode: We open with a quick "financial year-in-review", even though no one invited us for any cool financial new year eve parties. We touch on the HDFC Bank chairman's mysteriously worded resignation that sent markets into a tailspin, a genuinely bizarre emergency a...

The AI boom is being built on borrowed money - and not the kind you can easily track. This week, Nitesh and Vineet go deep on private credit: what it is, why it exploded after 2008, and how firms like Blue Owl are now sitting on billions of dollars of opaque, leveraged loans made to AI data center operators - some of whom used to be crypto miners. We break down listed retail investment vehicles an...

This week on Hype Cycles (formerly known as What Was That?!, an SEO nightmare), we go into the (use case) fundamentals of Bitcoin. Why does it exist? What problem does it solve for, and does it succeed? Is it a currency, an asset, or a gambling chip? We start where all good crypto origin stories begin: the 2008 financial crisis. We walk through how Bitcoin was born out of distrust in institutions…...

Welcome back to What Was That?! , where Nitesh and Vineet discuss the latest in tech, business, and how it impacts us. This week, we try to figure out whether Claude has quietly detonated the software industry or whether everyone just discovered a shiny new hammer and is now declaring the end of carpentry. The trigger: a string of Claude upgrades - tool calling, desktop control, MCP servers - that...

It's What Was That?! Time, and this time we went deeeeeeep into the AI industry's financial mess, and also the recent GST announcements in India. There's enshittification going on - there's a bubble - there's cash flow issues and crazy hiring - and just so much hype. Links:https://www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-a-money-trap/https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/28/anthropic-unveils-new-rate-limits-to-curb-cla...

It's What Was That?! time, and our stories are getting longer and deeper, no jokes related to last week's topic, please. We discuss how Google Play Store has lost a key court case about the fees charged by its Play Store services. It's a big one, they're appealing for sure, but this is a key loss with ramifications for their global ops. Nitesh gets into some of Tata Sons' struggles as it tries to...

It's What Was That?! Time again. We did deep dives into two stories this time - one, how rapidly solar power capacity is increasing, far beyond most people's expectations, and what it means from the lens of geopolitics, economics and the environment - all areas we have no expertise in. It's a fascinating story, based on this article: https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/46-bil...

It's What Was That time again, in an episode where Nitesh and Vineet talk about betting markets in scandal over what defines a suit, and Tiffany the jewellery company collaborating with Patek Philippe and losing goodwill by irritating the folks who wanted to, y'know, give money and get a watch. By taking their money, giving them jewellery, promising them the option to buy a watch in the future, an...

A lot of action, both on the business side and the tech side in the AI industry. Acquisition offers - both for townships, and for people. Fun fact: Meta offered *one guy* a signing bonus that's equal to what Welspun offered to pay for all of Lavasa. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/property-/-cstruction/welspun-bids-the-most-for-lavasa-corporation-lodha-developers-jindal-stee...

We recorded two weeks in a row! Vineet and Nitesh discuss a ton of ranging from Ferrari's first SUV-is-not-an-SUV, to the complexities of India's vehicle registration system. We look into the consolidation and evolution of India's paint industry, the impact of AI on financial certifications, and the ongoing struggles of OpenAI in securing funding, and the interesting dance going on between OpenAI,...

It's What Was That?! time again. A lot has been happening, in both the business world and the tech world. People are making wills suddenly, after a few rather sad incidents. Greater Than has been acquired, and it seems like a big win for Diageo. People are dating ChatGPT. They're making it their therapist. They're feeding into conspiracy theories. And the world is...getting...weird. https://www.ny...

Welcome Back to What Was That?! from the start of June. We discuss a bunch of AI stuff as always, including the collapse of an AI startup, this being the second instance of AI in reality just meaning "Actually Indian":https://futurism.com/ai-startup-builderai-collapseBaby Shark creator Pink Fong applies for an IPO:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-30/-baby-shark-creator-pinkfong-appl...

Nitesh is in West Rajasthan in his infuencer Era - carrying podcasting equipment to remote parts of the country, finding hidden gems.  The FIIs are back. This is absolutely not investment advice - we don't know anything about anything, remember - but we do get into how sentiment is everything when it comes to the markets.  There's a new car in the US market - and this is interesting because it's c...

Welcome to the worst-shot episode of the podcast! Grainy footage, background noise, changing locations, changing podcast software, this was a fun week. But also, in less important news than a change in podcast software, bond prices went up and threw the financial world into a tizzy.  Tesla gamed odometers (allegedly) to get out of warranty repairs:  https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/tesla-accus...

What Was That, 8 April - Edited just in time for the first story to be completely outdated, and then made completely redundant again literally while this edit was going on. Do tariffs exist? Do we? Ooooooom. We discuss tariffs, yes. But also return-to-office becoming a huge mess for the US Government: https://www.wired.com/story/federal-workers-rto-chaos/ More clarity (or was it?) <suspense-typ...

What Was That financial-year-ending episode, but no, there are no tax implications of listening to this podcast. Nitesh and Vineet discuss ChatGPT's viral Studio Ghibli filter; billionaires like Li Ka-shing and Warren Buffett are hoarding cash, Google loses an appeal and has to open up its Play Store in India, and more.   Links: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-03-27/when-warren-buf...

It's What Was That?! Time again. This week Nitesh and Vineet discuss IT raids on Ola showrooms, and a huge mismatch between their sales figures and RTO registrations - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-07/ola-electric-stores-see-raids-seizures-on-flouting-india-rules Chinese find managers now have string perform-or-get-docked norms. Apple's very, very late on delivering "AI Siri", an...

Welcome Back to What Was That?! where Nitesh and Vineet discuss the tech and business news of the week gone by.   This week we discuss Ozempic coming to India; a pushback in a small town in the US against drone deliveries ( https://www.wired.com/story/texas-amazon-drones-stop-flying/ ); Reliance Retail announcing a pullback and an overhaul ( https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-04/amban...