Let's turn to this major story in tech today. Alphabet shares jumping after a judge ruled that Google will not be forced to divest its Chrome browser.

It's a major antitrust win for the tech company and for big tech.

Implications reaching beyond just Alphabet are McKenzie Sagalos and Steve Kovac help us cover every angle in today's tech check. Max, kick us off.

So here in Silicon Valley, Carl, the takeaway is clear.

Google keeps its moat.

No divestiture of Chrome and Android, and it can still pay Apple billions to remain the default

browser, keeping its distribution muscle intact, while also positioning Google to maintain its edge

in the AI wars.

So the data sharing remedy, that is a concession, but even that doesn't expose its secret sauce.

A former Google exec I spoke with says that it locks in the company's current ecosystem across

search, its browser, and operating system.

And retaining Chrome is especially key to its AI strategy since browsers are the launchpad for Gen.

AI agents, which is part of why OpenAI has explored building its own.

Now, the case itself predated ChatGBT, but the judge said that the rise of those new

Gen AI rivals really swayed the outcome here.

Now, as for what it means for the fate of the AI race,

the CEO of an AI startup put it bluntly. The M&A pipeline is open again, so expect more

sub-1 billion-dollar startup acquisitions and fewer unicorns built from scratch. And those AI talent wars,

they're going to remain white- hot, but smaller firms without cash

or investor appetite will struggle to retain people. Meanwhile, the giants, Open AI, Anthropic,

they will keep running secondary share sales giving employees liquidity. Open AI, they are doing

exactly that this week at a half a trillion dollar valuation. And the effect from what I'm hearing is that it could narrow the field for everyone else, Carl.

...