Om Malik, Whose Blog Shaped How Silicon Valley Saw Itself, Dies at 59

- Om Malik (1967–2026) was a prominent tech writer and founder of GigaOM, a highly influential blog launched in the early 2000s that became essential daily reading in Silicon Valley for its coverage of startups, venture capital, and the early internet boom. - Born in India, Malik began his career as a journalist covering the telecom industry. He started GigaOM as a solo blog in 2001 (during the dot-com bust); it grew into a media network with paid research and events, shaping the narrative around Web 2.0, cloud computing, and the rise of companies like Salesforce, Amazon Web Services, and Google. - Malik was known not just for scoops but for a distinctive, thoughtful voice that helped Silicon Valley tell its own story to itself — writing with both insider access and critical independence. He sold GigaOM to a venture firm in 2015, later becoming an investor and essayist. - This obituary marks the passing of a figure who, in an era before Twitter/X and newsletters dominated tech coverage, was one of a handful of bloggers who defined how the industry was discussed and understood.