<p>This week: Google’s parent company Alphabet announced an incredible $110 billion in first-quarter revenue thanks, in part, to the computing needs of the AI boom. &nbsp;<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:zxqezqfhjwidbrsvk66ded57" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Felix Salmon</a>, <a href="https://www.elizabethspiers.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Elizabeth Spiers</a>, and <a href="https://www.axios.com/authors/epeck" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Emily Peck</a>, discuss the shocking earnings report and the reasons to doubt it as a sign of future growth, including the internet’s ever-evolving information economy. Then, they get into Bill Ackman once again trying and failing to make a closed-end fund happen, and why he’ll never be Warren Buffet. Finally they’ll examine the utility of corporate merch, such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/style/palantir-ai-coat-french-chore-coat.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Palantir’s french chore coat</a>, and company retreats, like the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/workplace/corporate-retreat-gone-wrong-07754741" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Plex’s disastrous <em>Survivor</em>-themed getaway</a>.&nbsp;</p><br><p>In the Slate Plus episode: Can you have a Tiktok <em>and</em> a job on Wall Street?</p><br><p>Want to hear that discussion and hear more Slate Money? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Slate Money show page on<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/slate-money/id876523888" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Apple Podcasts</a> and<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2AgxNbNcUOckZSww9mk8mX" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Spotify</a>. Or, visit<a href="https://slate.com/podcast-plus?utm_medium=link&amp;utm_campaign=plus_pod&amp;utm_content=Money&amp;utm_source=episode_summary" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> slate.com/moneyplus</a> to get access wherever you listen. </p><br><p>Podcast production by Jessamine Molli and Cheyna Roth.</p><br><p><br></p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>