Lens family
20 analyses · Business ModelThe Cross-Subsidy
Search Earns About $121 Billion and Tows the Rest of Alphabet — Now Under Court Order
Alphabet (Google)
What AWS's 37% Margins Buy Amazon: The Freedom to Run Retail Thin on Purpose
Amazon
Sony Spent ¥1.5 Trillion on Sensors to Buy a Seat Inside Every Smartphone Camera
Sony
When Samsung's Chips Lost KRW 14.87 Trillion, the Rest of the Company Barely Stayed Above Zero
Samsung
Samsung's Chip Division Drove 93.8% of Profit — by Raising DRAM Prices on Its Own Phone Arm
Samsung
Google Services Earned $121.3B in 2024; Other Bets Lost About $4.4B — a 17:1 Cross-Subsidy
Alphabet (Google)
Live Nation's 150 Venues Earn 2.5x the Per-Fan Profit — and Prop Up Every Other Leg
Live Nation
In December 2008, GE Borrowed on America's Full Faith and Credit to Save Its Invisible Bank
GE
In 2024, NextEra's Boring Utility Out-Earned the Renewables Arm It Supposedly Subsidizes
NextEra Energy
The F-35's Real Business Is the Tail: $1.58 Trillion in Sustainment, Up 44% Since 2018
Lockheed Martin
United Borrowed $6.8 Billion Against MileagePlus and Showed Where the Profit Really Lives
United Airlines
Comcast's $45.1 Billion Broadband Engine Funds the Rest, and Now It's Losing Customers
Comcast
PepsiCo's Snack Empire Began as a 1965 Takeover Defense and Took 32 Years to Come True
PepsiCo
Vertical Integration Concentrated Samsung's Memory Crash Into an 85% Profit Collapse
Samsung
The Bookstore Quietly Became an Ad Company and a Cloud Company. You Still Think It Sells Books.
Amazon
CVS Calls Itself a Health Company. It's a PBM Carrying Two Expensive Passengers.
CVS Health
Waymo Just Raised $16 Billion. The Real Story Is Who Keeps Writing the Check.
Alphabet (Google)
PepsiCo Is a Snack Company That Happens to Sell Soda. That's Now Its Problem.
PepsiCo
Berkshire's Best Investor Is a Pile of Other People's Money It Will One Day Have to Repay
Berkshire Hathaway
The Pipe Won: How Broadband Quietly Took Over the Business Cable TV Built
Comcast