Adam Lashinsky

A 'free and open' Internet has been an article of faith in and around Mountain View, Menlo Park, and its environs for two decades.

One of the world's most successful and yet mysterious companies in the world, Samsung Electronics, has been operating without its leader for months and likely will continue to do so for some time to come.

The reliable way great conglomerates grew over time was by adding new products and buying new companies. IBM moved from mainframe to PCs.

Chip maker Nvidia is the new old thing, an overnight success story years in the making that is having its moment and then some.

Porat is among a handful of top people who work for both Alphabet and Google. As such, there's a regular cadence to her week.

Amazon has suffered quarters-long profit droughts. Alphabet has given its investors agita over profligate spending on non-core products. Microsoft's growth - if not its profit engine - stalled for years, causing its stock to idle, too.