Alistair Barr is the author of Business Insider's Tech Memo newsletter. Sign up here. Before that, he was BI's Global Tech Editor and the Big Tech team leader at Bloomberg, following a reporting career at The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reuters, and MarketWatch. Alistair won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2007 for coverage of short selling and was a finalist in 2013 for scoops on the Facebook IPO. More recently, he won a 2024 San Francisco Press Club award for commentary. Got a tip? Reach out using the secure messaging app Signal (+1 415-341-4927) or via email on abarr@businessinsider.com.
Expertise
Alistair oversees all things Big Tech, along with startups and venture capital. He writes analysis and columns about topics including generative AI, large language models, cloud computing, semiconductors, online search, e-commerce, EVs, robotics, and autonomous vehicles.
Popular Stories
Artificial Intelligence:
It's getting harder to make big leaps at the frontier of AI
OpenAI's AI-adjusted earnings numbers have echoes of Groupon and WeWork
Death by LLM: Stack Overflow's decline, and its plan to survive, shows the future of free online data in an AI world
Cloud computing:
Amazon dominated the first cloud era. The AI boom has kicked off Cloud 2.0, and the company doesn't have a head start this time.
In cloud, there's AI (which is hot) and everything else (which is not)
Chips:
Why Intel is still so important: Real countries have fabs
Apple's made-in-the-USA chips signal a turnaround for the US's big semiconductor bet
EVs and Tesla:
Tesla's AI supercomputer has a Silicon Valley town rushing to meet surging electricity demand
Tesla's Cybertruck is outselling almost every other EV in the US
Online Search:
Google is losing its status as a verb
A simple way to fix search: Bright pink ads
AI is helping job candidates apply for thousands of roles. There's a solution for this: more AI.
Tech
2025-07-31T09:01:02Z
The Elon Musk backlash has hammered Tesla sales. How are fans of the company holding up? I went to find out.
OpenAI launches Study Mode for ChatGPT, intensifying a battle with Google over the future of AI-powered education
The AI arms race has entered an intense new phase dubbed "vibe spending." Thanks go to Google. Or maybe Zuck. Or Sam.
The cofounder of AI-construction startup Unlimited Industries shared how she used ChatGPT to find an Airbnb for an event.
Tech
2025-07-25T00:37:42Z
Intel warns it may halt development of its 14A chip, signaling an end to US chipmaking dominance and increasing reliance global leaders like TSMC.
A new partnership weaves the startup's powerful AI models into a learning app used by thousands of schools and colleges.
OpenAI emerges as a key player in India's booming AI landscape as JPMorgan highlights growth opportunities and challenges for the generative AI lab.
Exclusive
AI models weren't that good at coding. Then, in the summer of 2024, Anthropic released a new model that blew everyone away. Here's what happened next.
Cognition swiftly snapped up the remnants of Windsurf. The deal highlights the essential role of data in AI advancement.
Tech
2025-07-16T18:01:01Z
General Motors partners with Redwood Materials to repurpose EV batteries for data centers, amid rising electricity demand and AI growth.
I asked OpenAI's ChatGPT to suggest amusing ways to celebrate AI Appreciation Day. Snark alert.
Meta is building data centers in tents to rapidly scale AI infrastructure and try to catch rivals such as DeepSeek, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
Anthropic shifted its stance on AI use in job applications, allowing job candidates to collaborate with its chatbot Claude in certain ways.
Nvidia's $4 trillion valuation surge has made many of its 36,000 employees millionaires, with stock awards driving unprecedented wealth concentration.
Tech
2025-07-11T15:02:23Z
Nvidia's $4 trillion valuation underscores the unprecedented power and wealth of big tech, centered on the northwest coast of the US.
Exclusive
Jellyfish's latest annual survey sheds more light on AI coding tools, and which services are used the most by software developers.
The most important AI partnership in the world partly revolves around whether OpenAI achieves AGI. I propose several practical tests.
Learn how ChatGPT and Claude 4 stack up in planning a Tahitian getaway, providing comprehensive itineraries, activity options, and restaurant picks.
Legal wins for companies like Google and Microsoft in AI copyright disputes may change online content dynamics.