Bay Table

The Bay Table: analysis and commentary on the business of technology

Issue No. 3

11 October to 17 October 2026

From ZIRP to SVB to Figma, and the teenagers asking whether college is worth the wait.

  • Startups raised more in nine months of 2021 than in any full year before, on money that was about to get dearer.
  • Washington was right to protect SVB's depositors; startups should learn the lesson the rescue cannot teach.
  • Figma's debut shows public investors want good startups, and that bankers still struggle to price them.
  • Three Terman columns ask whether dropping out still pays, and find the case narrower than its fans claim.

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Read this issue

Intel and the state

Government inside

Washington's stake in Intel should be a short loan of patience, with a public timetable to sell, not a permanent seat at the chipmaker's table

Leaders ·

Initial public offerings

Pop idol

Figma's dazzling debut shows that public investors want good startups, and that bankers still struggle to price them.

Business & Finance · Giannini ·

Thiel Fellowship

Double or quits

Business & Finance · Terman ·

The world this week

Briefs from the issue of 17 October 2026

  • Student founders. Student debt makes skipping university look shrewd, but the best evidence says successful founders are closer to 45 than 19, so the case for dropping out is narrower than its fans claim. Read more on Tune in, drop out
  • Venture capital. Startups have raised more in nine months than in any full year before, and the boom rests on a price of money that is about to change. Read more on The roaring 2021s
  • Skipping university. Americans are leaving college and starting firms at record rates, and cheap AI will make that trade more tempting, but a degree remains the better bet for most would-be founders. Read more on Class dismissed
  • Silicon Valley Bank. Washington was right to protect SVB's depositors, but startups should learn the lesson that rescue cannot teach them. Read more on A run for their money
  • Thiel Fellowship. Peter Thiel has doubled the price of dropping out just as AI makes small teams mighty, yet students are drifting back to campus, and on the evidence they are right to. Read more on Double or quits
  • Initial public offerings. Figma's dazzling debut shows that public investors want good startups, and that bankers still struggle to price them. Read more on Pop idol

All the week's briefs

Scrapbook

The former Silicon Valley Bank headquarters at 3003 Tasman Drive, Santa Clara, California Silicon Valley Bank The sandstone arches and courtyard of the Main Quad at Stanford University Skipping university Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California, the street where many venture-capital firms have their offices Venture capital Memorial Church at Stanford University Student founders

Leaders

America v Google

Spare the Chrome

Judge Mehta was right to leave Google its browser and its phone software, and America should now spend its energy on making the data-sharing order work rather than on an appeal for a break-up.

Leaders ·

Business & Finance

DeepSeek and Nvidia

Less is Moore

A cheap Chinese model has rattled the AI trade, but it makes computing cheaper rather than pointless, and the bill for the boom will still be paid

Business & Finance · Giannini ·

Policy & Regulation

Export controls

The silicon curtain

America's sweeping new chip controls on China make strategic sense, but unlike the cold war's embargo they have only one government behind them

Policy & Regulation · Warren ·

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