# Platform Algorithms, Media Mergers, and Orbital Compute Valuations

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-07-15

## Transcript

This is TechCrunch.
Sam Oldman's Space Data Center Trash Talk is what most experts already believe.
I'm Imran Shaikh and your Daily Crunch for Wednesday featuring three big tech headlines.
Start right now.
X has made a tweak to its algorithm to boost the visibility of posts to users' mutuals, you know, the people they follow who follow them back, as said by head of product Nikita Beer on Monday.
The change may not drastically revamp the site's user experience, but may make X feel a little bit more like a community rather than a, well...
torrent of disparate voices shouting into the digital abyss.
Beer noted that the change would also help clusters form around interests more easily, which many people have asked for.
X has introduced a number of changes lately, many of which seem designed to make the site a bigger hub for creators.
Earlier this year, the site changed how it compensates accounts in an effort to incentivize original content rather than mere aggregation, and earlier this month, it also introduced a video editor designed to make it easier for users to work on the platform.
This tweak follows changes that Meta's Threads has been making to its algorithm, aimed at creating communities largely as a differentiation from its main rival X.
For instance, last month, Threads rolled out a Your Algo feature, which lets users privately control what they see in their feed.
It also reached 500 million monthly active users.
A coalition of 12 state attorneys general is filing a lawsuit to block the merger of Paramount, Skydance and Warner Brothers Discovery, alleging that the deal would harm movie theaters, basic cable distributors and audiences.
The coalition led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta argues that the acquisition violates the Clayton Act, which prohibits mergers that may substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly.
The attorneys general alleged that if the two companies are allowed to merge, it would lessen competition in three areas, wide-release theatrical film distribution, top-grossing theatrical distribution, and basic cable licensing.
The deal would combine two notable film studios as well as streaming platforms Paramount Plus and HBO Max.
It would also create one of the largest portfolios of television networks, bringing together Paramount CBS and MTV with Warner Bros.
Discovery's CNN and HBO.
The proposed acquisition has already received scrutiny from filmmakers, actors, and industry professionals who've argued that the deal would reduce competition and further consolidate the U.S.
media industry.
Paramount has argued against this, of course, saying the combined film studios would release 30 movies a year.
The states argue that if approved, the deal would give Paramount significant control over key areas of the entertainment industry, including 27% of the U.S.
film distribution market, 30% of blockbuster movie distribution, and 27% of the basic cable channel market.
The 11 states joining California are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington.
Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's requests for comment.
Sam Altman and Elon Musk traded barbed social media posts over the weekend, drawing new attention to the gap between vision and reality for the space compute business.
Responding to Musk accusing him of being a scammer, Altman said, Homeboy, you're the one selling public market investors on short-term space data centers.
Setting aside Homeboy, Altman is saying what a lot of experts have concluded, but public market investors seem to be ignoring.
Space data centers are not going to be a serious business anytime soon.
SpaceX's plans to launch a fleet of orbital data centers to perform AI inference tasks are the main driver behind the company's $2 trillion valuation.
Bullish analysts say that the potential for that processing power to fuel SpaceX AI's models or act as an orbital neocloud are unprecedented in the AI boom.
But when you talk to subject matter experts, whether it's the entrepreneurs behind other space data center startups, the team at Google developing that company's orbital compute project, or engineers who have done the numbers for fun, you find the same answer.
This isn't going to make a big dent until we have much cheaper rockets and the ability to produce high-powered satellites at low cost en masse.
Musk's answer to this is easy to predict, a starship.
SpaceX's huge new rocket is expected to make its 13th test flight as soon as July 16th.
If Musk's team can get that vehicle to the point where it flies again and again, the data center business case could close.
But even if the company successfully recovers both stages of the rocket on this test flight, operational reusable flight will still likely be years away, and Space Data Center launches.
will likely take a backseat to SpaceX's commitments to NASA and to building out its own Starlink network.
And folks, that's your Daily Crunch.
Today's stories were reported by Tim Fernholtz, Aisha Malik, Lukas Ropek, and more awesome TechCrunch journalists.
We'll see you here tomorrow, same Tech Time, same Crunch channel.
And until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.