Paresh Dave

Paresh Dave examines how powerful technology companies work on the inside, focusing on the systems, workers, and supply chains that turn abstract platforms into concrete products and risks. He is a senior writer at WIRED, covering the inner workings of Big Tech companies and how apps and gadgets are built, used, and abused, with particular attention to underappreciated and disadvantaged people affected by them. He has covered these firms and their technologies for more than a decade, bringing experience in artificial intelligence, corporate governance, and industry infrastructure to his current beat.

Big Tech’s Internal Culture and Power Struggles

Dave’s reporting frequently goes inside company walls to show how decisions and conflicts among executives and employees shape what the public ultimately experiences from major platforms.

He has chronicled Meta’s internal turmoil around its AI reorganization, including stories on a chief technology officer calling the restructuring “atrocious,” employee backlash to a companywide AI hackathon, and a new AI unit described as a mess. He has written about Meta pushing a new AI agent on employees while trying to manage token usage and internal skepticism, showing both strategic intent and rank-and-file resistance. His work on corporate leadership includes coverage of SpaceX’s planned IPO and how it tests Elon Musk’s “extreme” ownership, as well as OpenAI and Anthropic filing confidentially for blockbuster public offerings, tying boardroom decisions to broader questions of control and accountability in AI.

He also captures smaller but revealing episodes, such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang taking a call from Donald Trump during an all-hands meeting, to illuminate how political and business spheres intersect inside these companies.

AI Hardware, Data Centers, and Tech Manufacturing

A distinct strand in Dave’s coverage tracks the physical infrastructure behind digital services, from batteries and chips to data centers and logistics networks.

He has reported on truckloads of Tesla batteries being stolen before leaving the factory and on thieves targeting trailers branded with “Nvidia” only to discover they were hauling nearly 20 tons of sand, using these cases to show how AI hardware and related equipment have become high-value targets for cargo theft. In another piece, he describes violent cargo thefts in pursuit of AI hardware as “the worst” some experts have seen, framing AI not just as software but as a source of dangerous pressure on supply chains. His stories follow the expansion of data centers and their local impact, including Amazon workers saying they are under investigation for speaking out about data centers and employees attending city council meetings to demand limits on those facilities.

He has examined Meta’s move to put robots to work in data centers, as well as AT&T’s efforts to automate away jobs along with parts of its old telecom empire, connecting automation to layoffs, job quality, and industrial change. Dave’s reporting on Anthropic being designated a supply-chain risk by the Pentagon further underscores his interest in how governments and companies handle physical dependencies behind AI and cloud services.

Workplace Impacts, Surveillance, and Social Harms

Dave consistently foregrounds workers and communities dealing with the consequences of technology deployments, whether in hospitals, offices, or neighborhoods.

In a story on AI systems making a mess of nurses’ schedules, he shows health care workers contending with software they say creates safety issues, highlighting how algorithmic optimization can erode day-to-day conditions on the ground. He has covered Wikipedia workers unionizing for the first time, documenting efforts by staff to assert rights and protections around a major online knowledge platform. His series on Flock, a company selling automated license plate reader cameras, includes reporting on the firm promoting its hardware as “made in the USA” despite murky manufacturing realities, employees being offered buyouts as customers leave, and lawmakers pushing states to crack down on Flock’s surveillance systems or accept financial consequences.

Across these stories he ties corporate marketing and procurement to privacy, accuracy, and the lived experience of communities under constant monitoring.

Social media harms and online safety are another focus. Dave has written about a major settlement that will impose limits on Instagram for teens and require Meta to pay up to $16.7 billion over social media harms, then followed up with coverage of how, despite new restrictions, young users remain vulnerable.

He reports on internal changes at Meta and related platforms to show how legal outcomes and regulatory pressure translate into product decisions and enforcement gaps. His piece on “AI slop” ruining cute animal content online uses the lens of pets and wildlife imagery to explain how synthetic media and low-quality generative content are degrading trust and enjoyment in everyday internet culture.

Together, these stories emphasize how seemingly small design choices and moderation policies at large platforms can produce broad social and psychological effects.

Money Flows, Long-Term Storylines, and Reporting Background

Dave often situates corporate and technical developments within longer-term financial and philanthropic narratives.

He has explored how Silicon Valley’s next wave of IPO billionaires is coming and how nonprofits are preparing for them, linking wealth created at Big Tech and AI companies to potential impacts on civic institutions and charity. His coverage of OpenAI and Anthropic’s fundraising and IPO trajectories, alongside pieces on SpaceX, places individual companies within a broader ecosystem of investors, regulators, and beneficiaries of AI-driven growth.

His current beat draws on extensive prior experience covering big technology firms, including Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, TikTok, and Meta, as well as the industry’s use of artificial intelligence.

Before joining WIRED in January 2023, he reported on Google and AI at a global news agency and previously covered the technology sector and entertainment convergence at a major regional newspaper. His work has also spanned the courts system, cybersecurity, and sports business, and has included stories on esports, Olympic baseball, and diversity and ethics in the tech industry. His team reporting on Snapchat’s IPO was recognized by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, showing his ability to handle complex financial stories and collaborative projects.

This breadth supports his current coverage, allowing him to connect boardroom decisions, technical architectures, worker experiences, and regulatory responses into coherent narratives about how Big Tech reshapes markets and daily life.