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Thiel: Google has $50B, doesn't innovate

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  • Recommended by 2 people: 2 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2017 to 2020.
  • Presented by Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

230K views14 years ago2 recommendations

Careers and interviewsInside tech companiesThe tech industry

Peter Thiel debates Eric Schmidt, arguing that Google's massive cash reserves signal a lack of technological innovation.

Venture capitalist Peter Thiel tells Google Chairman Eric Schmidt the company has no idea how to invest its money.

Why it's here

2 people recommend this

What people say. Pointed to as a classic critique of big tech companies hoarding cash instead of innovating.

alexashkaon Hacker News • Recommends

On “People Don’t Actually Want Equality, They Want Fairness”

It's not so much about tax rates and I haven't looked into it too deeply - although I'm sure the big companies hire the best accountants to use every loophole in existence. I am referring to this: link Companies should not be allowed to simply hang on to 250 billion dollars. Imagine what could be done in science, infrastructure, services etc if 10% of that money went towards those things. There's a great Peter Thiel clip about this that sums it up very well: link to this video
View on Hacker News

heimatauon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation”

Is no one going to talk about the hypocrisy? Eric Schmidt isn't a beacon of sensible innovation pushing America forward. Peter Thiel called him out eight years ago 1 and I strongly encourage you to watch the 4 min clip. 1 - link to this video
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oculusthrifton Hacker News • Mentions

On “Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value”

Ask Eric Schmidt why Google has billions laying around in cash. You don't actually have to since peter thiel did: link to this video You can skip to 3:00 for an answer.
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arcanuson Hacker News • Mentions

On “Apple has a record $250B in the bank”

I can't help but think of Peter Thiel's very appropriate comments (admittedly targeting GOOG, but still applies) here: link to this video As I read it: if AAPL had any idea at all what to do with this cash, they would deploy it. They are completely out of innovative ideas, and are just turning the product crank. Instead, they should return $$ to investors in the form of a dividend.
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whatyoucantsayon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Technology firms as a threat to basic liberties”

It's interesting you bring up Thiel with regards to Google. I haven't ever seen anyone so willing to slam their top leadership directly and on television. link to this video It's not clear at all that Google will be safer from anti-trust investigation now that Thiel has political influence either: > “Peter has indicated that if he takes the P.I.A.B. position he intends to take a comprehensive look at the U.S. intelligence community’s information-technology architecture. He is super-concerned about Amazon and Google”—and Facebook, less so. “He feels they have become New Age global fascists in terms of how they’re controlling the media, how they’re controlling information flows to the public, even how th…
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est31on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Google Decides to Monetize Maps”

Obligatory Peter Thiel statement on this (2012): link to this video > Google is no longer a technology company, and ... it's basically ... a search engine. The search technology was developed a decade ago, it's a bet that ... no one else will come up with a better search technology so you invest in Google because you're betting against technological innovation in search, and it's like ... a bank that generates enormous cash flows every year but you can't issue a dividend because the day you take that 30 billion and send it back to people you're admitting that you're no longer a technology company. Still relevant today.
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liamcardenason Hacker News • Mentions

On “OpenAI Announces Funding for Startups”

I am a fan of Open AI, but is this not an admission that they raised more capital than they know how to deploy on research? Similarly, Peter Thiel once made a case that if Google ever paid a dividend it would be an admission that they are no longer a technology company and are instead a bet again innovation in search. 0 0 link to this video
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e1gon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ask HN: Why do so many large Tech companies buyback their stock?”

Peter Thiel expressed the same sentiment against Google and friends, even calling them non-tech companies link to this video The counter point is that nearly every one of these incredibly successful businesses is doing this, and they can’t all be incapable. Money never sets the speed limit for these companies. Some amount of money in the bank is too much even for your grandest of plans. Once you have 10x that, what else do you do.
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freediveron Hacker News • Mentions

On “France fines Google €500M over copyright row”

For high margin tech businesses it almost is. Google does not need 150,000 people to operate search&ads. There is a lever it can pull, but doing so would turn it into a different kind of business. Thiel has a great line for this phenomena: link to this video
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ahmetnoidon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Is Google’s 20-year search dominance about to end?”

I remember Peter Thiel once said that investing in google is investing against innovation, that the company had no competition for a very long time, and that they see no reason to why they needed to reinvent themselves. As long as there's no threat to the company, they can just maintain the current tech and harvest the green from it. link to this video
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