Fireside Alpha (@firesidealpha)

Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger reveals Steve Jobs had already spent four releases porting Apple's operating system to x86 before Intel even offered to do it for him. "They did a few little chips internally. It wasn't a big deal. And then the little chips got a little bit bigger, and Steve was a master of this, just starting these small efforts to build core competence inside the company. I remember when we had the first conversation with Steve about porting the operating system to the Intel chip from the power chip that they were running on before they moved to Intel. And we were quite proud of the silicon software competencies that we had in compilers and operating systems. "So Steve, we'll help you port the operating system to the x86." And I remember Steve said, "I've been working on that the last four releases." He had been preparing the core technologies inside of Apple for something that might happen in the future, and to me, I just remember I was just shocked."

Former $INTC CEO Pat Gelsinger warns Taiwan holds less than three weeks of energy reserves, and a Chinese blockade that browns out the island shuts its fabs for 90 days at a cost greater than the Great Depression. And no shot needs to be fired. "Now, let's make it ugly for a second. The island of Taiwan has less than 3 weeks, a big article in the Wall Street Journal two weeks ago on this, less than 3 weeks of energy reserves." "That should just put a chill in everybody's spine, right? Because the blockade after 3 weeks, the island browns out. When you turn off a fab, it doesn't come back on for 90 days." "The economic impact of a brown out of Taiwan is greater than the Great Depression." "Never do you need to do anything, a shot to be fired. You just need to say, great, no energy for 3 weeks." "That is scary to me. We need more resilient supply chains."

$GOOG's Ruth Porat says the biggest risk in the AI buildout is the ROI question, and focusing on short-term tactics at the cost of building a great company. "I think the biggest risk for everyone is when the question is asked, which it often is, how do you get to an ROI? That's going to force our teams to do something short-term and tactical. You can always do a cost cut to get something to drop to the bottom line, and that is not a way to build a great company." "So I think the risk is don't be so in the moment maniacally focused on what is it, but have a right mix of an engine that's continuing to drive the business, which also explains why you need to start building early for growth so that you can grow into it." ____ Follow @firesidealpha for more daily highlights of key business and technology conversations.