Since David Ellison first set his sights on Paramount, he has talked a big game about transforming the century-plus-old Hollywood outfit into a “world-class media and technology enterprise,” with as much emphasis on the tech as on the content itself. He’s discussed using technology “to transform every single aspect of this company,” and stressed a commitment to establishing Paramount as “the very best storytellers and the most technically advanced media and entertainment company in the world—because we know it takes both to win.” Heavy cake, and easier to digest with a silver spoon.

On some level, “improve the tech” is a rather obvious priority. Netflix didn’t disrupt Hollywood because HBO passed on House of Cards; it did so with a superior product, format innovations, and data-driven personalization, among other things. Paramount+ has always been among the worst of the streamers from a tech and UX perspective, and HBO Max—which Ellison may yet acquire—isn’t much better. Modernizing the D.T.C. experience through improved algorithmic recommendation, data tools, and ad-tech is, frankly, table stakes.

Still, David’s emphasis on the tech always seems to hint at some grander ambition. He has talked about building “a studio in the cloud”—a cloud-based production platform that relies entirely on digital and A.I. tools for production and postproduction, powered by his father Larry’s Oracle. (In a week where Sam Altman is rolling out OpenAI’s Sora video tool to great fanfare, the once lofty promise of A.I.-generated blockbusters suddenly seems frighteningly plausible.) Meanwhile, looming in the background of every Paramount story is the fact that Larry is also set to acquire some piece of TikTok’s U.S. business, which could somehow play into his son’s grand strategy for his new media company—even if no one can explain exactly how Larry’s stake in TikTok would allow his son to leverage that platform.

So, what does all this actually look like in practice? Paramount executives, who are currently caught up in more pressing matters like the potential WBD deal, don’t seem ready to shed much light. But somewhere between the Oracle piece and the TikTok piece, it’s possible to divine the broad contours of the plan.

On the production side, a shift from on-premise to cloud-based production would allow Paramount to do away with some of the hardware and much of the manpower required for editing, visual effects, sound mixing, etcetera, while also allowing postproduction teams to access and augment content from anywhere in the world—all of which would ostensibly yield material cost savings. A.I. tools could also rapidly increase the pace of preproduction (storyboards, rotoscoping, etcetera) and even enable content generation (again, see Sora). At a time when much of the entertainment industry is allergic to anything to do with A.I., Ellison presumably hopes to pivot Paramount’s company culture to capture the benefits of early adoption.

On the distribution side, nontraditional channels such as TikTok could be integrated into the streaming app, reorienting Paramount’s approach to the content itself. In addition to traditional films and series, Paramount might also find novel ways to repackage assets in its library for shorter formats and social media. Some Paramount sources have waxed poetic to me about the potential to infuse the TikTok algorithm into Paramount+ itself, creating a truly A.I.-powered tech and media platform that combines one of the world’s largest content libraries with a more powerful recommendation engine—although I couldn’t pin any of them down on how that might work. So far, there’s more confidence than details.

Of course, executing on all this doesn’t just involve flipping a switch. It requires hiring a lot of new engineers and dramatically reorienting Paramount’s—and perhaps WBD’s—culture and identity, which is no small task. There may be a lot of Hollywood talent on David’s rogues’ gallery leadership team—Jeff Shell, Cindy Holland, etcetera—but not a lot of tech savvy. To date, David has hired one former Meta executive, Dane Glasgow, to serve as chief product officer, which is an opening salvo at best.

In the meantime, the media piece of this may prove to be just as important. As my partner Julia Alexander has noted, Paramount+ and HBO Max have largely complementary portfolios, and a combination of the two companies could boost scale—the combined assets would deliver roughly a quarter of U.S. audience demand—while fueling growth across the funnel, from customer acquisition to audience engagement. Obviously, Ellison isn’t alone in trying to capitalize on future technologies. Netflix, YouTube, and others will be similarly, if not more, aggressive.

After years in pursuit, Silver Lake’s Egon Durban has finally landed video game maker Electronic Arts—thanks to help from Jared Kushner, who played an instrumental role in connecting Egon with the Saudis. Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and Kushner’s own Affinity Partners will pay $36 billion for the company, along with another ~$20 billion in debt financing. PIF will take the majority stake, Silver Lake a “substantial” minority share, and Kushner’s Affinity Partners gets the final 5 percent.

Several suitors have kicked the tires on EA over the years: In 2022, I reported that Comcast’s Brian Roberts had approached EA C.E.O. Andrew Wilson to pitch him on a plan to spin off NBCUniversal and merge it with EA. In one scenario, Wilson would have been put in charge of running the combined entity, displacing then-NBCUniversal C.E.O. Jeff Shell. The deal fell apart due to disagreements over price and structure. In an earlier era, Bob Iger had eyed Wilson for the top job at ESPN before giving it to Jimmy Pitaro. Sliding doors, I guess.

In any event, this deal has something for everyone: The Saudis get to turbocharge their investments in the video game and e-sports sector, Silver Lake returns to form as a large-cap tech investor, and Kushner gets a seat at the table. (We might pause here for a moment to address the conflicts of interest inherent in Kushner’s public- and private-sector work vis-à-vis the Saudis, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt today declared such inquiries “despicable.”) As for EA, this deal seems to carry a lot of upside: more capital to grow the business, and without the burden of quarterly reports. “We are entering a new era of opportunity,” Wilson told employees this week. “This is one of the largest and most significant investments ever made in the entertainment industry.”