Overpromised or underrated? OpenAI, Europe, and Southeast Asia on the line

This week, the 60/40 team dives into the eye-popping $300 billion OpenAI–Oracle deal and what it signals about the future of compute, models, and AI monetization. We also unpack OpenAI’s StatSig acquisition, Europe’s big swing with ASML backing Mistral, and whether we’re already in an AI bubble. Plus, the gang break down Alibaba’s latest earnings and Lightspeed’s “consumer barbell” thesis in Southeast Asia. Expect sharp takes, laughs, and yes, Peter’s poems are back. Timestamps 00:00 – Kicking off with OpenAI & Oracle’s $300B compute deal 03:00 – Can OpenAI really afford this? Risks, revenues & runway 12:30 – A poetic take on Oracle + OpenAI 13:30 – OpenAI acquires StatSig: why it matters for safe model deployment 20:10 – ASML’s $1.5B bet on Mistral and Europe’s AI ambitions 26:31– Is there an AI bubble—or just the next paradigm shift? 34:40 – Alibaba’s flat revenue but booming cloud numbers 40:45 – Southeast Asia’s “consumer barbell” thesis: hits and misses 50:20 – The pitfalls of fintech lending and “cheap dopamine” apps Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at 6040podcast@techinasia.com. 60/40 is a bi-weekly podcast co-hosted by Prashanth Ranganathan, Peter Bithos, Aleksey Mironenko, and Maria Li. A podcast by Tech in Asia, a member of The Business Times.