# The Pulse: Firebase’s global outage & poor response
### Also: OpenAI’s platform play that has similarities to AWS, more data on companies moving to open models, and more


_The Pulse is a series covering events, insights, and trends within Big Tech and startups._

Today, we cover:

1.  **Firebase: global outage & poor handling by Google.** The Firebase iOS SDK crashed after a backend change, crashing all apps which used Firebase analytics for 2-6 hours. Google did not update the status page or offer any postmortem, which is a head-scratcher from a company known for standout incident management practices.
    
2.  **OpenAI’s platform play from AWS playbook?** OpenAI is becoming a platform where it’s possible to allocate ChatGPT spend on open models and AI offerings from among 16 partners, not just OpenAI models. It’s fair to ask if Anthropic will consider a similar platform play.
    
3.  **More data on companies moving to open models.** Vercel’s AI gateway shows 60% of model spend goes to open weight models, and OpenRouter also shows open models are being more used than closed ones.
    
4.  **Why CTOs and VPEs are quitting en masse: another take.** What if it’s not “founder mode”, but about people who love building software, feeling like they can do it solo (or with a small team) with AI tools?
    

1\. Firebase SDK: global outage & poor handling by Google
---------------------------------------------------------