The Tea in Tech went live at LinkedIn this week!! Vibes were immaculate TBH.

I spoke to 100+ LinkedIn employees at a global offsite on how to use AI effectively at work, and where I think the industry is headed.

We turned it into a tea party. Everyone had their own tea towers, we poured a cup, and talked AI: demystifying the tech, the headlines, and how it all actually shows up at work.

How freaking brand-aligned is that?!

In all seriousness, seeing a real community form around a cup of tea and honest conversation about the future of tech was surreal for me.

More Tea from the event—plus photos and clips—coming to socials this week 🫖

1. SpaceX files for the largest IPO in history at ~$2T

My Tea: Reminder that SpaceX owns xAI, making this an AI + infrastructure valuation, not just satellites. Because, of course.

2. OpenAI acquires TBPN, a social-first tech media company, for ~$200M

My Tea: This new era of product distribution isn’t just about selling products. It’s about controlling the narrative. More in The Steep, below.

3. Meta is quietly assembling an AI hardware team to build a family of devices

My Tea: Meta definitely doesn’t want to lose to Apple again. This is about owning the AI ecosystem, end-to-end.

4. Oracle announces 10,000+ job cuts, doubles down on AI

My Tea: We are approaching 100,000 total tech jobs lost just this quarter. Is AI the driver, or a convenient cover for cost-cutting?

5. Anthropic’s Claude source code leaks, revealing internal system prompts

My Tea: Wait… I thought Anthropic was supposed to be the safe one?!

This week, OpenAI acquired TBPN—a social-first, creator-led tech talk show with ~$5M in revenue and ~70,000 subscribers. The deal is reportedly valued at $200M.

So how exactly does the math…math?

What’s really going on here?

First, some context. TBPN has quickly become a go-to source for Silicon Valley news; a tight-knit community of insiders, with everyone from Mark Zuckerberg to Sam Altman making appearances. It’s a place people go not just to hear the news, but to understand what it means, from the people building it.

Now, the deal. We all know OpenAI is facing a bit of a publicity moment right now. They have arguably the greatest consumer product in the market, but they’ve lost control of the narrative. And in light of that incongruence, this move starts to make a lot of sense.

With this acquisition, OpenAI bought more than a media company—they bought themselves an owned media channel.

Distribution used to mean selling people your products. Now, it’s come to represent much more: it’s about selling people your narrative.

And relying on third-party platforms, press cycles, or social chatter is no longer enough. It’s too hard to control.

OpenAI just bought a direct, repeatable line to its audience—users, partners, investors.

My Tea? The marketing model used to be about earned vs. paid media. I believe that the mix is changing; and increasingly, companies will move towards owned media.

Something to sip on. ☕️

Salesforce had a big launch event this week for the new AI-enabled Slackbot, and I was there as a Salesforce partner covering it.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Slack GM Rob Seaman—and yes, Mr. Beast—were all in the room.

It has been really fun expanding the Tea into IRL event coverage and interviews. A LOT coming up the next few weeks…you’ll get the first brews here.

Haven’t you heard? Best Tea in town.

If you know me, you know I spend a lot of time in my head. So I’m going to try to have more fun with the content, including some silliness like the above. Follow along on IG if that’s your flavor. Don’t worry, Linkedin will stay all business.

Yours brewly,

Meghana