Open AI Buys Windsurf for $3B?! Apple’s Legal trouble & Slate’s EV That Might Flop
Show notes
The boys dive into a range of tech topics and global power moves, making headlines in this episode of Admin Access. Dominic kicks things off with breaking news about Open Ai's massive $40 billion funding round (the largest in private company history!) and their aggressive vertical integration strategy. The SoftBank-led investment has Open AI making power moves, including a mind-blowing $3 billion acquisition of Windsurf (formerly Codeium) after failing to acquire CASA. Dominic predicts this puts Open AI on a collision course with Microsoft despite their partnership, showing that when you're playing at the top, there's not enough room to avoid stepping on each other's toes. In true car enthusiast fashion, Evans dives into Slate, a customizable car that lets you build your own ride with accessories like SUV kits and fastback options starting at just $20K. He compares this to the old "Phone Blocks" concept and makes a bold prediction that Slate is going nowhere because people don't actually want unlimited choice, they want a compelling vision to follow! Dominic disagrees, arguing there's always space for modularity players like Lego and Framework laptops. The debate gets real as they explore whether consumers really want to make all these decisions or prefer when companies make the hard choices for them. The conversation shifts to Tom Sweeney and Epic Games' massive legal victory against Apple, with a judge finally ending Apple's "malicious compliance" tactics around App Store payments. The ruling forces Apple to allow developers to process payments outside the ecosystem without the crazy 27% tax, dealing a huge blow to Apple's golden goose. The boys discuss the broader implications for platform economics, pondering whether Google's Play Store could be next and exploring the philosophical question: when does a platform creator's right to set their own rules become monopolistic behavior? The episode wraps with a mini-review of Arc browser, which both hosts use daily. Dominic highlights features like vertical tabs, distraction-free browsing (Command+S), powerful keyboard shortcuts, AI-powered tab management, and customizable workspaces. He also reveals that Arc's developers have stopped updating it to focus on a new AI browser called Deep Useful Links: Open AI Buys Windsurf:https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/16/openai-is-reportedly-in-talks-to-buy-windsurf What is cursor :https://www.cursor.com/ Slate EV :https://www.slate.auto/ Apple vs Epic games :https://africa.businessinsider.com/news/a-judge-found-that-an-apple-executive-outright-lied-under-oath-in-epic-games-case/kb9zck9 Arc Browser :https://arc.net/