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Big Tech’s AI Vibe Shift | Prof G Markets

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Big Tech’s AI Vibe Shift | Prof G Markets

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1645 segments

0:00

Today's number, $5,923.

0:03

That's the price of the cheapest ticket

0:05

to the Super Bowl this year. Ed, I don't

0:07

even watch the game. I watch for the

0:09

commercials. My favorite commercial,

0:11

Cardi B's Wet Ass Pepsi.

0:18

>> What's going on, Ed?

0:19

>> I'm doing very well. It's still freezing

0:20

cold here. It's unbelievable. Mountains

0:23

of snow on the streets of New York. It's

0:24

It's pretty insane. How are you doing?

0:27

>> I'm good. I'm in Jackson Hall. I spoke

0:28

at one of these master another master of

0:30

the universe conference and decided to

0:33

stay here and ski. When I say ski, I

0:35

mean sit inside a beautiful room and do

0:36

podcasts all [ __ ] day long.

0:38

>> Just to confirm you you I know you

0:40

already did one. Is it two in Jackson

0:42

Hall or is it just the one and you're

0:44

there for a for a few days?

0:46

>> No, it was just the one. I've done a

0:47

bunch of meeting though cuz one of the

0:49

great things about having the footprint

0:51

that I enjoy um is if you post where you

0:54

are, people like you haven't heard from

0:56

like, "Oh, remember me? We played

0:57

basketball together in the 11th grade.

0:58

You want to have coffee? I'm like, no,

0:59

but it's good to hear from you. Um,

1:03

people, it's so funny. I was out last

1:05

night and a bunch of people came over

1:07

and the people I with are like, "Do

1:08

people come up to you?" I'm like, "Yeah,

1:10

they come up to me a lot and they say,

1:11

why do you think that is?" It's because

1:14

everyone assumes I'm so [ __ ] pathetic

1:16

that they're doing me a favor coming up

1:18

and saying, "Hi." Everyone assumes that

1:21

I'm so lonely and so desperate and

1:24

depressed and have so few friends that

1:26

people don't come up to me and say I

1:28

mean they come up and they're very nice

1:29

but they're more like do you want to

1:30

join us? Are you okay?

1:33

So it's

1:34

>> I highly highly doubt that.

1:37

>> It's a different type of approach. But

1:40

anyways, I'm here in Jackson Hole. It is

1:42

it is beautiful.

1:43

>> Are you skiing?

1:44

>> No, I'm all about injury. The only time

1:46

I ski now is with my boys because I'm

1:47

all about injury prevention.

1:49

Uh, but I'm going to go snowshoeing. I'm

1:51

officially an old man. In between World

1:53

War II documentaries, I'm going to go

1:54

snowshoeing.

1:55

>> You're not skiing because you're afraid

1:56

of getting injured. Really? It's a

1:58

That's a little bit of a lame excuse. I

2:00

I just got to be real with you.

2:01

>> I don't like the outdoors and I

2:03

especially hate skiing.

2:04

>> Okay, fair.

2:05

>> I can't stand The reason I ski is I want

2:07

to be able to trap my boys on a mountain

2:10

for four or five hours where they have

2:11

to talk to me.

2:12

>> Yes.

2:12

>> And so I ski I maintain I'm I'm also not

2:16

very good at it. Are you a good skier?

2:17

I'm a decent skier. Yeah. I'm not I'm

2:20

not amazing, but I'm okay.

2:21

>> I'm not. And their mother is such an

2:24

extraordinarily beautiful skier. I

2:26

remember the first time I saw her ski, I

2:27

was like, "Wow, that's amazing.

2:29

>> It is very cool." And people are good at

2:31

skiing.

2:31

>> And she grew up very kind of lower

2:33

middle class, middle class in Poland.

2:34

And she said her parents just always put

2:35

her on skis two or three weeks a year.

2:37

And I said, "We got to do that for our

2:38

boys." But unfortunately, when you do

2:40

that, you have to actually ski with

2:41

them. So, but no, if I if I don't I

2:45

would much ra I'm sitting in here. I'm

2:47

going to go work out. I might, you know,

2:50

do one of these weird like hot stone

2:53

wrecky massage treatments with some dude

2:56

with beads who's going to talk to me

2:57

about my chakra. And I like that [ __ ]

3:01

Now I'm turning into like the white

3:03

women of wine. I'm just into the spa.

3:06

Um, and I'll just hang on. We'll go for

3:08

a really nice dinner. But here I am

3:10

stuck in the middle with you. Anyways,

3:12

are you resisting and unsubscribing, Ed?

3:16

Isn't that next month?

3:17

>> Next month, [ __ ] Do you even follow

3:19

anything I do? Starting on Sunday, and I

3:21

know Ed's very interested. We're trying

3:23

to engage in a targeted national

3:24

economic strike against big tech and the

3:26

companies enabling ICE and the Trump

3:29

administration's policy of terror and

3:31

anxiety come to you in your own town.

3:35

And we're putting on a site listing all

3:36

these companies that might move the S&P.

3:39

Trump responds to markets, not to

3:41

protests or to political pressure. He

3:43

responds to markets. And we think we

3:45

found a way to press on the soft tissue

3:47

of the markets and that is to go after

3:48

these big tech firms by just

3:50

unsubscribing.

3:52

Um, we talked about this in the last

3:53

one, but the site goes live on Sunday.

3:56

We think it's we think we're on to

3:57

something in terms of a low tax,

3:59

loweffort way to perform what is the

4:02

most radical act in a capitalist society

4:04

and that is not participation. But I've

4:06

been spending a lot of time on it, Ed.

4:09

People have called challenge on my

4:10

[ __ ] and said the music needs to

4:12

match the words. What are you actually

4:13

doing

4:13

>> now? You have to do something.

4:14

>> I know. I hate that. I hate that. I'd

4:17

rather just [ __ ] from the I'd rather

4:18

just heckle from the cheap seats. Ed,

4:20

>> can we

4:23

just talk about

4:24

>> Can I just pretend to be concerned?

4:27

>> This is an outrage. Off to off to

4:30

Jackson Hoer game.

4:32

Gosh. Most of the Magnificent 7 reported

4:35

earnings last week. Overall, it was a

4:38

strong quarter with Microsoft, Meta, and

4:40

Apple all beating expectations on the

4:43

top and bottom lines. However, the

4:45

reactions from the market have been not

4:48

as consistent. So, we're going to go

4:50

through all of these earnings, Scott,

4:53

see what you make of them. Uh, and I

4:55

think that we should probably start with

4:57

Meta. Fourth quarter sales rose 24% from

5:00

a year earlier. Also issued strong than

5:03

expected sales guidance for the current

5:04

quarter. stock rose as much as 10%.

5:09

So that has been the biggest performer.

5:13

Um I think you know a few things stand

5:16

out to me about the the Meta earnings. I

5:18

mean one is as we'll see the earnings

5:21

were pretty similar to what Microsoft

5:22

reported but it was a tale of two stocks

5:24

here because Meta rose around 10%

5:27

Microsoft fell around 10%. Microsoft

5:30

wiped out nearly half a trillion dollars

5:32

in value. So I think the big question

5:34

here is what was different about Meta

5:39

and I think the thing you have to sort

5:41

of look at here is this unbelievable

5:43

revenue growth of 24% $60 billion in

5:47

revenue um over the year. So that is

5:51

just a staggering

5:53

um increase from what we've seen before.

5:57

And I think what Zuckerberg is basically

5:59

proving is that AI is turbocharging the

6:02

business. And now investors are

6:04

realizing, okay, this guy probably knows

6:06

what he's doing. We could also talk

6:08

about the capex which exploded or at

6:10

least the guidance exploded 115 to 135

6:13

billion in capex guidance for 2026 up

6:16

60% from last year. He's doubling down

6:19

on AI. Last year people were scared

6:21

about that. Now investors decide

6:24

actually we trust this guy. Scott, any

6:26

initial reactions to Meta and then we'll

6:28

get into the other earnings as well.

6:30

>> Well, it appears that it's better to be

6:32

in the business of leveraging AI than in

6:34

the business of AI. And there's few

6:36

companies that can boast that they have

6:38

adopted to greater effectiveness AI than

6:40

Meta right now. Um the users clicked on

6:44

Facebook ads 3 and a half% more often

6:46

this quarter and boosted conversions on

6:48

Instagram by 1%.

6:51

And the number you talked about, they

6:53

increased, what was it? They increased

6:55

their revenues 23%.

6:56

>> 24%.

6:58

>> I mean on on that number on that topline

7:00

number what I would have loved to have

7:01

seen is I don't think they did it with

7:03

many more employees.

7:05

So, you know, they are kind of I mean,

7:09

quite frankly, anyone who's on Instagram

7:10

or on Rails or on threads understands

7:13

the power of AI because I keep getting

7:15

served with more and more relevant I

7:18

mean almost kind of those eerie moments

7:19

where I'm talking about doing a trip to,

7:23

you know, DC with my kids and I start

7:25

getting served ads by the park high at

7:27

DC and it's like, who are they? You

7:29

know, it just it's incredible how

7:31

they've been leveraging AI. Microsoft,

7:34

it was that, and you said this, that the

7:37

new expectation is that you beat

7:39

expectations and they only met

7:41

expectations. So, it wasn't, you know,

7:44

they took the stock down 10%. Which I

7:47

I'm not entirely sure I understand.

7:48

Maybe it's cuz they're just got out over

7:50

their skis, but the metal one really

7:54

struck me. Any thoughts on Microsoft,

7:56

Ed?

7:56

>> Yeah, Microsoft is pretty staggering. um

8:00

you know $440 billion in market value

8:03

just erased pretty much overnight after

8:06

they I mean you say met expectations

8:08

which is more accurate they beat by like

8:12

marginally I mean revenue was up 17%. I

8:15

think saying they met expectations is

8:17

the right characterization.

8:19

Um I think two issues for Microsoft. One

8:23

is that Azure the the cloud growth this

8:26

is all that investors really care about

8:28

because this is representative of how uh

8:32

how growthy is your AI business. It grew

8:34

39%. I still think that's a pretty big

8:37

number. It also beat expectations or as

8:40

you say met expectations but it's

8:41

slightly lower than the previous

8:43

quarter. So I think investors are kind

8:46

of upset about that. I think maybe in

8:48

comparison to Meta um they see the

8:51

growth of that business and they don't

8:52

like that. But I think the big problem I

8:56

would estimate and we'll see over the

8:58

coming weeks uh is their RPO number,

9:01

their remaining performance obligations,

9:03

their future future commercial bookings.

9:05

Basically this is how much revenue they

9:07

have in the in the pipeline. the

9:08

contracts they've secured which they're

9:10

going to see in the income statement uh

9:12

in the next few quarters. It grew

9:14

dramatically to $625 billion. So that's

9:17

great news. However, 45%

9:21

of that backlog is attributable to Open

9:25

AI. I think investors have decided what

9:28

we have been saying for a long time,

9:30

which is you can't really trust this

9:32

company if you're making $1.5 trillion

9:35

in spending commitments all over the

9:37

place.

9:38

um and you're only making generating $13

9:40

billion in revenue and you're going out

9:42

there and you're kind of struggling to

9:43

raise not struggling to raise but

9:46

they're raising they're talking about

9:47

raising you know hundred billion but

9:48

that that doesn't cut it there's so many

9:51

so much money they have to spend on

9:53

these contracts in the next few years

9:55

and basically Microsoft is coming out

9:56

there there and saying hey we have a

9:58

bunch of growth opportunity coming down

10:01

the pike uh but half of it is going to

10:03

come from open AI and it appears that

10:05

investors are saying uh we call

10:08

[ __ ] We don't think that that

10:09

revenue is actually going to come in. I

10:11

would guess that that is the main

10:13

concern. I think there's the additional

10:16

concern that compounds the mistrust in

10:18

OpenAI which is where is that revenue

10:21

actually coming from? Well, it's not

10:22

coming from their profits. This is not a

10:25

profitable business. It's coming from

10:27

Microsoft. Microsoft is the main

10:29

investor in OpenAI. So, this is just the

10:31

circular transaction happening again.

10:33

Microsoft invest and then it comes back

10:35

to Microsoft in the form of these

10:37

remaining performance obligations which

10:39

makes it doubly concerning. So I think

10:42

these are this is the investor response.

10:44

People are coming around and saying you

10:46

know this open AI thing

10:48

this has gone a little a little too far

10:50

at this point. And so if you come out

10:51

and say yeah we've got all this money

10:53

coming in but most of it's open AI we're

10:55

not going to take it all too seriously.

10:56

I see a theme emerging where it's better

10:59

to draft off of the AI wars in terms of

11:02

capital expenditure than to be on the

11:04

front lines. And that is it feels like

11:06

people are increasingly skeptical that

11:09

uh Open AI is going to be able to

11:11

justify an $850 billion valuation much

11:15

less the trillion or trillion half

11:16

dollar valuation that's been floated for

11:18

a public offering. and that there's, you

11:21

know, only about three or five percent

11:22

of its users actually upgrade to a paid

11:25

subscription and it looks like they're

11:27

being bested by anthropic in the

11:28

enterprise market. So that's beginning

11:31

to infect Microsoft who again is looking

11:34

to similar to the way that Tesla is

11:38

claiming Optimus robots are going to be

11:40

the growth vehicle being reliant or

11:42

claiming that you can justify a $4

11:44

trillion valuation because of all the

11:45

additional profits and revenues to your

11:47

point you're going to get from your

11:48

investment or your relationship with

11:50

Open AI that looks like there's no way

11:52

it can meet its expectations is a

11:54

dangerous place to be. At the same time,

11:57

when you're a company like Meta or even

11:58

I would argue a company like Whimo

12:01

where you're leveraging AI, you're

12:03

you're drafting off of or freewriting

12:05

off of other people's cheap capital and

12:07

massive investments. I mean, even Apple,

12:10

I think Apple will probably be a

12:11

beneficiary of AI because what they'll

12:13

do is similar to avoiding the search

12:16

wars, they'll stay out of it and they'll

12:18

start figuring out ways to provide

12:21

licensing agreements or access to the

12:23

billing consumers. But it feels like the

12:25

new kind of Libus test is all right.

12:28

It's great to be in AI, but your

12:30

valuations have gotten out in front of

12:31

your skis and you're spending so much

12:33

money that the sweet spot is to leverage

12:36

AI and leverage the falling price and

12:39

inference and show that you know how to

12:42

leverage AI see above, you know, Meta's

12:44

targeting capabilities. Can we talk

12:46

about Tesla for a second, Ed?

12:48

>> Yeah, we should talk about Tesla. I mean

12:50

ju just before we move on to Tesla, I

12:51

would just add one caveat which is that

12:53

Meta is spending like crazy on AI. I

12:56

mean that capex was unbelievable. But I

12:59

think that to your point what investors

13:01

want to see is like show us that you

13:03

have leveraged AI, show us that there's

13:05

real money coming in. Meta was able to

13:07

do that which gives them the option to

13:10

go out and spend like crazy. That could

13:12

reverse, you know, on a dime and we've

13:14

seen this continue to happen over the

13:17

past year. I think what we're

13:18

increasingly seeing in the AI wars is

13:20

this is this is a a war of vibes, a

13:23

narrative. This is all about like does

13:26

the market generally agree that you know

13:28

what you're doing with AI and are you

13:30

associating with the right people. Last

13:32

year associations with open AI was a

13:34

vibe to the upside. Now it's reversed.

13:36

It's a vibe to the downside. I think

13:38

it's it's highly possible that that vibe

13:41

could keep whipsing back and forth, but

13:43

there is no question the vibe is

13:45

massively important to valuations right

13:47

now. It's literally moving hundreds of

13:50

billions of dollars at a time.

13:51

>> Well, just just just to use an acronym

13:53

here, ROI, right? It's all about ROI to

13:56

some extent. And there's a a raft of new

13:58

unicorns and it's an exciting part of

13:59

the economy and we got to give AI, you

14:02

know, its credit. it there it's created

14:04

an ecosystem of companies that put a

14:06

thick layer of innovation on top of

14:07

inference and then sell into niche niche

14:10

you know uh products and services into

14:13

into specific sectors and they're

14:15

basically free riding off of the massive

14:17

the massive eye right and they get a big

14:20

return because they can free ride and

14:22

have small eye themselves which makes

14:24

the ROI bigger and then there's

14:26

companies that are huge on the eye but

14:29

it's not entirely clear what the R is I

14:32

would put open AI high in that bucket.

14:33

It's like it's very hard to figure out

14:34

how all of this spending and these

14:36

trillion dollar commitments where the R

14:38

is going to be big enough. But the sweet

14:40

spot is companies that have huge R and

14:43

huge I because they're seen as pulling

14:44

away from everybody else but also are

14:47

showing the massive kind of return. And

14:49

right now that's meta huge capbacks can

14:53

make that capback so they can pull ahead

14:55

of Pinterest didn't lay off people

14:57

because of AI efficiency. to laid off

14:59

people because they can't compete with

15:02

um a company like Meta and in addition

15:05

it's showing huge Rs. So the sweet spot

15:07

that creates, you know, what might be

15:08

the most valuable company in the world

15:09

at some point is enormous R and enormous

15:13

I so to speak. Tesla.

15:15

>> Tesla.

15:16

>> Tesla. Oh my gosh, I love that he's

15:19

trying to distract. Talk about weapons

15:21

of mass distraction on the on the

15:23

earnings call. I don't know if you saw

15:24

this. Musk updated investors on Tesla's

15:27

new mission, which is open quote

15:30

>> to build a world of amazing abundance.

15:33

and we're going to build a world of

15:35

amazing

15:36

abundance. I I would translate that into

15:38

an abundance of ketamine before the

15:41

earnings call. He also focused on

15:43

Tesla's humanoid robot product, Optimus.

15:46

Sales of the robot are expected to begin

15:49

in 2027. Musk mentioned Optimus 28 times

15:53

on the earnings call. I'm I'm shocked he

15:55

didn't threaten to bomb Iran at this

15:57

point to distract from the fact that the

16:00

Cybert truck is a total [ __ ] disaster

16:02

and revenues were actually down.

16:05

Automotive revenues declined 10% yearon

16:08

year and their pre-tax profit margins in

16:11

2025 were about 6% less than half as

16:15

much as Toyota's. Just to give you a

16:17

sense for what is I would say with the

16:19

exception of Palanteer the most

16:20

overvalued company in the world. Uh

16:22

Tesla trades now at 400 times earnings.

16:26

Toyota which in my view is the best

16:28

managed automotive company in the world

16:30

trades at 10 times earnings. Your

16:32

thoughts? I would love to know if there

16:34

have been companies in history and that

16:37

I would go with large cap companies in

16:38

history that have traded at near 400

16:41

times earnings and yet their revenue has

16:44

been in decline for not just multiple

16:47

quarters but going getting on to

16:48

multiple years now. I mean that is just

16:51

unbelievable the fact that revenue the

16:54

stock actually jumped in after hours

16:56

then it came down. People seem to kind

16:58

of, I guess, come to their senses a

17:01

little bit, but revenue was down 3%

17:04

year-over-year.

17:06

And yet, this is the company of the

17:09

future. It's a declining business.

17:10

>> It's a declining business, trading at

17:12

400 times earnings.

17:13

>> And we can just go through more of the

17:14

statistics. I mean, there's no question

17:15

this was a horrific year for Tesla.

17:17

>> Operating margins down, everything.

17:19

>> Yes. Free cash flow down 30%

17:21

year-over-year. Net income down 61%

17:25

year-over-year. Also, a lot of the

17:28

reason why they're staying afloat is

17:29

because of these regulatory credits

17:31

where they registered half a billion

17:32

dollars because of these regulatory

17:34

credits. Without them, profit would have

17:35

fallen another 65%. And of course, the

17:38

big beautiful bill is going to get rid

17:40

of those regul regulatory credits going

17:42

forward. But the genius, and I mean you

17:46

call his bluff, and so do I, and I think

17:48

so do many investors, but the market

17:51

seems to believe it. The genius is Elon

17:55

has been able to just launder in a new

17:58

future growth project every few years to

18:02

keep the multiple afloat. He's not he's

18:04

not keeping this business or this

18:06

valuation up through fundamentals. He's

18:09

decided he doesn't even care about that.

18:11

The car sales are done, whatever. But

18:13

he's laundering in his next project,

18:14

which is the Optimus, which as you say,

18:16

he mentioned 28 times on the earnings

18:18

call. He said he's going to stop

18:20

producing the Model S and the Model X

18:22

because he's going to increase the

18:23

production capacity for these humanoid

18:25

robots. So, that's one piece. And then

18:30

there are these rumors out or at least

18:31

Bloomberg has been reporting this that

18:33

he's considering merging Tesla with

18:36

SpaceX and also merging Tesla with XAI

18:39

and also investing having Tesla invest

18:42

$2 billion into XAI. So then the stock

18:45

goes up again on that news. So this guy

18:48

is just like a a magician of I guess

18:52

brand laundering would be perhaps sort

18:55

of maybe multiple laundering, valuation

18:56

laundering. I'm not sure what exactly

18:58

what it is, but it's working because

19:02

somehow this business is in decline and

19:04

yet the markets are saying, "Yeah, it's

19:06

okay. We've got the we got the robots

19:08

coming later. We got the AI coming

19:10

later. It'll be fine."

19:11

>> I think he's going to attach every

19:13

anchor to the the ship here that is

19:15

SpaceX. I think he's going to roll it

19:17

all up into one kind of AI story about

19:20

space, communications, connectivity,

19:23

self-driving cars, robots, and talk

19:27

about a world of abundance where you can

19:30

get to where you need to be faster,

19:31

communicate with people faster, new

19:34

ideas, new communication,

19:36

um, new means of of self-expression,

19:40

unlimited abundant. I think it's going

19:42

to turn into this giant kind of tomorrow

19:45

belongs to me narrative with all these

19:48

granted amazing products and companies

19:51

and the ones that aren't working he'll

19:53

roll up into the ones that are working

19:55

>> right

19:55

>> u but I think this has been his plan all

19:57

along it's you're right it's a ton of

19:59

jazz hands it's trying to sell the

20:01

narrative over the numbers and

20:02

constantly get people to look away from

20:04

the numbers

20:05

>> so they're focused on the narrative and

20:07

also the narrative is very exciting

20:09

space launch capabilities

20:11

you know, huge communications platform,

20:14

self-driving cars, electric EVs. I mean,

20:18

it's like every 8-year-old's dream is

20:21

this company, you know, or every

20:22

8-year-old boy's dream is this company.

20:24

And then never lets never lets the

20:27

company settle in enough to let analysts

20:30

say, "Okay, this is what this company

20:32

is, and this is the multiple it should

20:34

be trading at or the range of the

20:35

multiple it should be trading at." I

20:37

think it's so true that there's a

20:38

benefit to having analysts and

20:40

commentators and investors and observers

20:42

just arguing over what actually is the

20:45

company.

20:45

>> Yeah. Just whips it around.

20:46

>> Yeah. And it gives it this this air of

20:49

like it's so mysterious. We don't even

20:52

know what it is. How do you even define

20:53

it? You can't even pin it down.

20:55

>> You just described Palunteer.

20:56

>> Exactly. Palanteer as well.

20:58

>> And it's like it's almost as if that's

21:00

what you need to do as a CEO these days

21:02

if you want to get that extraordinary

21:04

multiple. you have to just sort of

21:05

obiscate around this. You you can't

21:08

define what our company does. Our

21:09

company does so many different things.

21:10

We're doing all these things out in the

21:12

future. You don't you don't even know

21:13

what we're doing. And then we all

21:15

quibble in the comments about what is

21:17

Tesla. Is it a car company? Is it not a

21:18

car company? And ultimately, I think it

21:21

translates to an extraordinary multiple.

21:23

I find it ridiculous, but I mean, I

21:25

guess give the guy credit because it's

21:27

working. He's selling that narrative and

21:29

it's working well.

21:31

We'll be right back after the break. And

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24:28

We're back with Profy Markets. We talk

24:30

about Apple. Uh not that much

24:33

interesting here. Stock is up a little

24:35

bit around 1% better than expected

24:38

earnings. Revenue was up 16% which is

24:40

pretty impressive. Um beat on EPS. I

24:45

think, you know, I think one analysis

24:48

that we found kind of interesting that

24:52

says something about Apple, I I'm not

24:54

particularly bullish on Apple, as you

24:55

probably know, um, but this was an

24:58

analysis from Sherwood. They got this

25:00

data from the Consumer Intelligence

25:01

Research Report, which found that people

25:04

aren't buying iPhones for the new

25:08

features of the iPhone. In fact, that

25:11

number is only 14%.

25:13

Everyone is buying an iPhone either

25:15

because their iPhone is old or because

25:19

their iPhone is lost or it's broken. And

25:22

they they lay out these numbers. It

25:24

translates to around 70% of new iPhone

25:27

purchases are for one of those two

25:28

reasons. And for me, I mean, I I think

25:31

Apple has gotten so entrenched in our

25:35

society as a product that the iPhone has

25:37

at least. And it is impressive that they

25:39

are growing sales, but in the long term,

25:42

I don't think it's very exciting what

25:43

they're doing. And I think the market's

25:44

response kind of reflects that. It's

25:46

like, "Yep, you did well. You're doing

25:48

things right. Congrats, and we're going

25:51

to reward you with, you know, a 1% bump

25:54

in the stock. I'm not going to give you

25:55

a super extraordinary multiple right

25:57

now, but, you know, things are going

25:59

well." I mean, it seems that Apple is

26:01

more and more becoming a a legacy uh

26:05

tech company and it seems to be

26:07

reflected in in in the numbers and also

26:10

uh in the way they're handling the

26:11

business. But any reactions from you?

26:13

>> I think you're being a little unfair. I

26:15

I was actually I was actually shocked

26:17

that they grew their revenues 16%. I

26:19

mean, that's on a company of this

26:21

revenue base, 16% is real.

26:23

>> Yeah.

26:24

>> And it's actually its fastest quarterly

26:27

growth in more than four years. So it

26:28

looks like growth has kind of revved up

26:30

again and its earnings per share

26:32

increased 19%. I mean there's that's an

26:36

incredible quarter for a company this

26:38

size and that's despite a pretty

26:40

lackluster AI story. Uh the growth came

26:43

from as you mentioned better than

26:45

expected iPhone sales and record

26:46

services revenues which have you know

26:48

greater margins and hardware. Um so I

26:52

was I I would say the topline number

26:55

surprised me more than any other

26:56

company. 16% on this company is I mean

27:00

basically they grew this company you

27:02

know kind of like the the size of

27:03

Proctor and Gamble in one quarter. I

27:05

mean it just uh 16% I mean let me put it

27:08

this way. Tim Cook would love to repeat

27:10

this quarter over and over and it just

27:14

shocked me because I I always get the

27:15

new iPhone more signaling than anything

27:18

else. It's just automatic for me to have

27:20

the newest iPhone but I don't really

27:22

sense any difference. As a matter of

27:23

fact, I think the operating system is a

27:25

little bit confusing. I think it's sort

27:26

of a step backwards.

27:28

>> They say the camera's better, but at

27:29

some point, you know, camera, the last

27:31

camera seemed pretty incredible,

27:33

>> but they grew their revenue 16% topline.

27:36

I just I I was quite frankly I was

27:39

really shocked to the upside by the

27:40

revenue growth.

27:41

>> Yeah, I think that the the 16% I think

27:44

that's a totally fair point. the 16%

27:45

revenue growth is very impressive and

27:47

it's because people are buying the

27:49

iPhone and you know I think that that is

27:51

a testament to their marketing

27:54

capabilities.

27:56

Um I don't think it's a testament to the

27:58

product itself and I think that is my

27:59

point. The thing that you were saying

28:01

there about the iPhone itself I mean I

28:04

got the new iPhone. The reason I got it

28:06

was because my old iPhone was the

28:08

battery was kind of dying and I figured,

28:11

okay, like I guess I should get the new

28:13

iPhone and it's time for an upgrade. Um,

28:16

but I'm not impressed by the new iPhone.

28:18

I'm not impressed by the product. That's

28:20

what I'm hearing from most people. I

28:21

don't think anyone's really impressed by

28:22

the operating system and the growth

28:24

potential of AI is not really there. He

28:26

was asked about how they're going to

28:28

monetize AI. Tim Cook was on the call

28:30

and he didn't really have an answer to

28:32

that. So, I I think I think that's true.

28:35

I think it is impressive the sales

28:37

growth um of the iPhone, but I just

28:39

don't view it as that sustainable going

28:42

forward because I just don't I don't see

28:44

them introducing new products that

28:47

people are really excited about. Um but,

28:51

you know, perhaps I'm being perhaps I am

28:52

being too harsh on Apple. Perhaps I'm

28:55

upset with Tim for going over the

28:56

Melania show.

28:58

Um, I think Apple is going to

29:02

basically essentially create an enormous

29:05

new licensing agreement with one of

29:07

these

29:09

um, LLMs that's raising ridiculous

29:12

amounts of capital to have to be the AI

29:15

LLM of choice to their billion

29:17

wealthiest consumers in the world. I

29:18

think they're doing the same thing. I

29:20

think they're going to stay out of the

29:21

AI wars and leverage their leverage

29:24

their custody of the billion most

29:26

important consumers in the world and

29:28

enter into some sort of similar

29:30

agreement as they have with search. You

29:31

know, they never got into the search

29:33

wars. They said we can't compete. It's

29:34

better to it's better to rent our

29:36

consumer base than go vertical in this.

29:39

I think they're doing the same thing in

29:40

AI. So anyway, we'll see.

29:42

>> President Trump has nominated Kevin

29:44

Walsh to be the next Federal Reserve

29:46

chair. If confirmed by the Senate, Walsh

29:49

would replace Jerome Powell in May. The

29:51

major indices fell slightly on the news.

29:53

Meanwhile, the dollar climbed and

29:54

long-term bond yields rose. In a truth

29:57

social post, Trump said, quote, "I have

29:59

known Kevin for a long period of time. I

30:01

have no doubt that he will go down as

30:02

one of the great Fed chairman, maybe the

30:05

best. On top of everything else, he is

30:08

central casting and he will never let

30:11

you down." Um, we finally got our Fed

30:14

chair. People thought it was going to be

30:16

Kevin uh Hasset. People thought it might

30:18

be Chris Waller. Then people thought it

30:20

might be Rick Reer. It is going to be

30:24

Kevin Walsh. Um my initial reactions to

30:28

this, the options were not that great.

30:30

At least if you were to look at uh Kevin

30:33

Walsh versus Kevin Hasset versus Chris

30:35

Waller. I don't know as much about Rick

30:37

Reader because he came onto the scene

30:38

very late. Uh what I do know is that in

30:42

my opinion at least Kevin Wat is the

30:43

least bad of the options. Um you know

30:46

he's definitely been a sickopant of late

30:49

but he could not have been more

30:50

sickantic than Hasset has been and also

30:54

than Waller has been. And what is also

30:57

quite interesting is you know he is

30:59

traditionally known as a monetary hawk.

31:03

His view is at least in his past has

31:06

been you need to fight inflation which

31:08

means higher interest rates which is

31:10

interestingly the exact opposite of what

31:12

Trump wants right now. He is of course

31:14

changing his position a little bit

31:16

lately to make Trump like him. I mean

31:19

they're all doing this. They're all

31:21

playing the syphant role. Um, but it it

31:25

will be interesting and I could see this

31:26

playing out quite similarly to the

31:27

Jerome Powell situation where Trump said

31:29

very similar things about Jerome Powell

31:31

and then eventually Jerome Powell held

31:32

his own um and he did what he thought

31:35

was right for inflation and now they're

31:37

in this war against each other and the

31:40

administration is trying to investigate

31:41

him. So

31:43

uh I think he was the least bad of the

31:45

options. So I think this went about as

31:47

well as it could have gone given the

31:49

circumstances.

31:49

>> That feels right. I think the markets

31:51

are doing a collective exhale right now.

31:53

And the key term you used was hawkish. I

31:57

think the fear was that he was going to

31:58

put some sycopant alkali in and the guy

32:01

and the person was immediately going to

32:02

cut interest rates to 1% and and ignite

32:06

an upward spiral a death spiral of

32:09

inflation

32:10

and that that was kind of the doomsday

32:12

scenario. And this guy is known as a

32:14

hawk. Yeah, he likes Trump's policies

32:16

but we knew that was going to happen. uh

32:18

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney,

32:20

who's seen as a responsible guy. He was

32:22

the first nonUK citizen to, I think,

32:24

chair the Bank of England, called him a

32:26

fantastic choice. He's also said Walsh

32:29

has also been critical of the Fed for

32:31

enabling too much deficit spending,

32:33

which I'm I'm a big fan of that

32:34

viewpoint. Um, so, you know, he has ties

32:38

to the billionaire class. He's a Trump

32:40

fan, but he's I I think, you know, I

32:45

think this is a good pick. We'll see.

32:46

>> Yeah, we'll see. I thought the central

32:48

casting quote was hilarious. It's

32:50

possible that he meant that he has the

32:51

right resume, but I think it's more

32:52

likely he meant that the guy's

32:53

good-looking and tall.

32:54

>> I think he's listening to our podcast.

32:56

Central out of central casting is our

32:58

term.

33:00

>> I think he listens to Fox News and turns

33:02

into Edson.

33:04

>> Get that young guy. What's that young

33:06

guy think? What's that young guy? You

33:09

know, the guy with the communist

33:10

professor.

33:12

>> Let's arrest him. Let's put him in a

33:14

cell next to Don Lemon.

33:15

>> Yes. That's what's going to happen.

33:17

>> By the way, just a brief note, breaking

33:20

news this morning. Don Lemon was

33:21

arrested. And this wasn't an arrest of

33:23

like a bunch of people trespassing. So,

33:25

one by one, this was a targeted arrest

33:27

by our attorney general. And when you

33:30

start targeting journalists, it's not

33:32

enforcing the law. It's trying to shape

33:33

reality. And just to bring this back to

33:35

markets, whether it was Turkey in 2013

33:38

or Russia in the early 2000s, the moment

33:40

you start uh policing speech, it creates

33:44

a level of selfcensorship that is really

33:46

bad for democracy and bad for economics

33:48

and history is brutally clear here. The

33:51

moment you start censoring people and

33:52

arresting journalists,

33:54

markets just start to fail and the

33:56

nations become much poorer and much

33:58

angrier. So distinctive what you think

33:59

of first amendment rights targeted abuse

34:02

and arrest of people who speak out

34:04

against the Trump administration. Be

34:06

clear if we it's a fast hill down and a

34:09

slow hill back up to restore free

34:12

speech. But the moment you you you put

34:14

up with the arrests of journalists your

34:17

nation is about to get much much poorer.

34:21

>> We'll be right back. And for even more

34:23

markets insights, sign up for our

34:25

newsletter at profarkets.com/subscribe.

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38:05

We're back with Profy Markets. 2026

38:08

could be a blockbuster year for IPOs. In

38:11

fact, Blackstone's president said the

38:12

company had lined up quote one of our

38:14

largest IPO pipelines in history. SpaceX

38:18

is reportedly targeting a midJune

38:20

listing, seeking to raise up to $50

38:22

billion at a roughly $1.5 trillion

38:26

valuation. That would make it the

38:28

largest IPO in history. Open AAI,

38:30

meanwhile, is reportedly raising

38:32

additional funding at a valuation of

38:35

$830 billion with discussions underway

38:38

about a potential IPO later this year.

38:41

Anthropic and Data Bricks are also

38:44

expected to go public this year. So,

38:48

Scott, everyone said last year was going

38:50

to be the year of the IPO. It was kind

38:54

of the year of the IPO, but not really.

38:57

We didn't really see any huge big

39:00

splashes in the IPO market. It seems

39:02

that this actually will be the year. Um,

39:06

and according to John Gray, president of

39:08

Blackstone, he says it's going to be the

39:10

largest ever. Your thoughts?

39:12

>> It may be the largest ever, but it'll be

39:14

the largest ever by gross dollar volume

39:16

raise. And unfortunately, it'll be

39:17

crowded into a small number of

39:18

companies. We've been sort of we keep

39:22

getting hints of some sunshine that the

39:25

kind of the nuclear winter and the IPO

39:27

market is coming to an end and there's

39:29

the beginning of a thaw and it never

39:31

quite gets its mojo. So I think they're

39:34

saying this is there's so much pent-up

39:36

demand and these companies have you know

39:40

have reached such exceptional valuations

39:42

in the private market that they need to

39:44

find

39:45

you know the greater fool and the

39:47

greater fool I think in those instances

39:49

will be taking these unbelievable brands

39:51

and an unbelievable technology and

39:52

giving retail investors the first shot

39:55

at owning them. In terms of the

39:57

companies themselves,

39:59

you know, SpaceX, I think SpaceX has as

40:03

big a moat as OpenAI does not. And that

40:07

is SpaceX, I think it's like 80 or 90%

40:10

of launch capability now is controlled

40:12

by one company, SpaceX. I think the next

40:15

big big thing in terms of a company with

40:18

no revenues being worth 200 billion is

40:20

going to be space defense. All the moons

40:22

are lining up around that. And the

40:25

infrastructure play, the Nvidia of space

40:27

quite frankly is SpaceX. I just I think

40:31

I don't I I have trouble thinking of a

40:33

company that has built a wider moat than

40:38

SpaceX. Open AI, I think, could be

40:44

I think Open AI could get pulled. I I

40:47

think there's a nonzero probability that

40:49

Gemini and some of these open weight

40:52

gain so much traction against

40:56

open AI and Anthropic is kind of beating

40:58

them in the enterprise has done a better

41:01

job of branding instead of branding

41:02

catastrophe.

41:04

Anthropic has branded itself as a

41:06

partner if you will and their ads are

41:08

much clever. They're more about humans

41:11

and saying this is a tool not the you

41:13

know not something that could be the end

41:15

of the world. Uh, I don't think OpenAI

41:18

has done a good job managing their brand

41:19

of late, especially the proximity

41:21

between Sam Alman and the president. I

41:24

think people are starting to gag on that

41:26

and I think they're way out in front of

41:28

their skis in terms of the valuation

41:30

they're that they're anticipating.

41:32

Anyways, I'm very bullish on SpaceX. I I

41:35

don't know from a valuation standpoint,

41:38

you know, how unreasonable the the

41:40

valuation is going to be, but I I very

41:43

rarely see a company that has the kind

41:45

of competitive advantage or sustainable

41:46

advantage it has. And I think Open AI

41:48

sustainable advantage is really really

41:52

thin. You mentioned the valuation of

41:54

SpaceX, you ask the question, is it

41:57

unreasonable or unreasonably high? The

42:00

answer is pretty much yes. I mean one

42:03

and a half trillion that would be a

42:04

price to sales multiple of 97

42:07

>> and you just look at

42:08

>> Palunteer. I mean yeah true Palanteer

42:11

but you know Microsoft when when

42:13

Microsoft hit a trillion they had $97

42:15

billion in revenue. Google had 183 Apple

42:19

had 265.

42:21

SpaceX has less than $16 billion in

42:24

revenue in 2025. But to your point, the

42:29

moat of this company and the potential

42:31

growth of this company is also

42:33

unreasonably high. I mean, as you say,

42:36

80 to 90% of all global launches. SpaceX

42:40

is responsible for them. They have and

42:42

operate twice as many satellites as the

42:45

rest of the world combined. Uh, also,

42:48

they're way cheaper than all of their

42:50

other rivals. And I do think it's it's

42:53

it's going to be, you know, the growth

42:56

potential of just space as an industry

42:58

is just gigantic. I totally agree. Space

43:00

defense could be a huge thing as well.

43:02

So $1.5 trillion, I mean, it's hard to

43:06

come up with a reasonable valuation for

43:10

a company that is pursuing such an

43:12

unreasonable and crazy and unknown

43:15

business. Uh but the number itself is

43:19

staggering. One and a half trillion is

43:20

just completely insane. Um, by the way,

43:24

if it happens at one and a half

43:26

trillion, Bloomberg estimates that this

43:29

will increase Elon Musk's net worth to

43:31

$950 billion.

43:34

And now, according to Khi, the

43:37

probability that he will become a

43:38

trillionaire next year is 64%.

43:42

So, it's more than likely that Elon will

43:46

be a trillionaire next year. Yeah.

43:48

>> Well, thank God he's he's responsible

43:50

and not an addict.

43:52

That could be scary having that much

43:54

power in one person's hand if that

43:56

person, I don't know, had a drug

43:57

addiction or uh was generally seen as

44:00

not having a great deal of empathy for

44:02

HIV positive mothers or

44:05

um yeah, so thank God, thank God he's so

44:07

stable and doesn't sleep with a loaded

44:09

gun next to his bed.

44:10

>> It is quite striking. um that would mean

44:14

that his net worth would be equal to 3%

44:16

of America's GDP.

44:19

And if you compare this to John D.

44:21

Rockefeller, widely known as the richest

44:24

man in the history of America, at the

44:26

peak of the guilded age, his wealth

44:28

amounted to 2% of America's GDP. So Elon

44:32

is basically

44:34

the wealthiest as a percentage of the

44:36

pie, the wealthiest man in the history

44:38

of this country about to get uh even

44:41

wealthier likely u because of this

44:44

SpaceX IPO. I feel like there's a lot to

44:48

talk about there.

44:49

>> Yeah. And I want to be clear. I I think

44:50

we need billionaires. I'm not sure we

44:52

need trillionaires, but I think we need

44:53

billionaires. And one of the wonderful

44:55

things about capitalism is the incentive

44:56

structure to make just a crazy amount of

44:58

[ __ ] money.

44:59

The thing that bums me out about that is

45:01

that now that he lives in Texas, he's

45:03

going to end up paying

45:05

does 1202 matter? I don't know. He's

45:07

going to end up paying a tax rate

45:08

probably of like 15 or 18% on that

45:10

money. Whereas the people who work the

45:12

engineers who work at SpaceX who make 23

45:15

$400,000 a year will end up paying

45:18

especially the ones back in California

45:20

will end up paying 40 45 some will

45:22

probably pay 50%. Anyways, um our first

45:26

Wow. Wow. So Calier Poly Market predicts

45:30

it's going to be it's more likely than

45:31

not he'll be a trillionaire. That's just

45:33

wild.

45:34

>> By next year, if you look at by 2028 or

45:36

2029, the odds go up to above 80%. It's

45:40

basically baked in to prediction markets

45:42

that Elon will become a trillionaire

45:44

within the next few years. Likely, more

45:47

likely than not, as soon as next year.

45:49

>> Yeah. Hand it to SpaceX and Elon Musk. I

45:52

mean, technology is changing the world

45:53

of protests. It's changing

45:56

what would have happened. What would

45:57

have the response been to the activities

46:00

of ICE in Minneapolis had there not been

46:02

the advent of camera phones, right? Or

46:06

of cameras on phones. It just would have

46:08

been, you know, one narrative versus the

46:11

other. And also SpaceX or Starlink

46:14

terminals in Iran have helped kept the

46:17

world apprised of what's going on. So

46:19

both of these technologies and I think

46:21

Elon's done a really good job of trying

46:23

to ensure I assume it's him trying to

46:25

ensure that the people of Iran have some

46:27

sort of communications

46:30

hotspots. But and also when I paid like

46:35

50 or $70,000 to have crazy high-speed

46:38

internet in my home in London and they

46:40

had to run a cable across Regions Park

46:42

or whatever and of course it went out

46:45

and this guy was running around and he

46:47

what did he do? We installed Starlink

46:50

and it wasn't as good as the fiber, but

46:52

it was the quickest, best, quick

46:54

solution. It's an incredible product. I

46:56

used Starlink on a plane the other day

46:59

and I could have done a podcast. It was

47:02

that good. It was Anyways, um I I I just

47:06

don't think there's any denying. I I

47:07

think SpaceX is going to be worth more

47:10

than X, worth more than Tesla, worth

47:13

more. I I I think that's that's his I

47:16

don't know his golden egg, if you will.

47:18

>> A question about investing in a IPOs. I

47:21

mean, this is obviously the question.

47:24

>> Don't

47:24

>> Excuse me.

47:25

>> It's an easy one. If you have access to

47:27

the IPO, absolutely. But buying on the

47:29

first trade is usually a bad bad idea,

47:32

>> right? Yeah. So, we've got Canva, we got

47:34

Revolute, Stripe, Data Bricks,

47:35

Anthropic, Open AI, SpaceX. Your view on

47:39

these is don't invest. The game is

47:42

[ __ ] rigged. It's essentially either

47:45

you're powerful and know the CEO or have

47:47

influence or you're an institution that

47:49

gives so many fees to these investment

47:50

banks that they give you an allocation.

47:53

They purposely price it 10 to 40% below

47:55

what they think the market with the

47:57

first trade will be. The institutions

47:59

and the powerful friends of management

48:01

get in get easy money and then the

48:04

retail investors get to come in and buy

48:05

the first trade which is usually you

48:08

know at market. So buying on the first

48:10

trade of these things has not been a

48:12

high return strategy in the last couple

48:14

years cuz these things have been so

48:16

priced so aggressively. That is exactly

48:18

the data I've got in front of me.

48:19

Institutional investors own about three

48:21

times more than retail investors on the

48:24

IPO. The reason being the institutional

48:26

investors, the insiders, they get early

48:28

access, which gives you access to a

48:32

price that is almost always discounted

48:35

to what the what the stock goes at when

48:37

after it's gone public. So, we saw that

48:39

with Figma as an example. And as a

48:42

reminder again, we were saying that

48:44

Figma was a good buy at 33, which was

48:46

the IPO price. Then it gets listed on

48:49

the public markets. Some people got

48:50

access to that price, but if you did and

48:53

you were a retail investor, if you got

48:54

access, it's most likely you only got

48:56

one share, then it lists and it goes up

48:58

to 120. So, it's likely that the same

49:01

thing is going to happen for a lot of

49:04

these IPOs. And I think because there is

49:07

so much pent-up demand because we've

49:10

seen so few IPOs over the past year, it

49:13

basically means that that opening price

49:15

is going to be even more crazy because

49:18

everyone's going to want to get in on

49:20

the OpenAI IPO and the Anthropic IPO and

49:24

the SpaceX IPO and it's going to be a

49:26

completely irrational price. But what

49:28

will be interesting is to see the

49:31

insiders price. What are they going to

49:32

price it at for them? And I think for

49:35

those guys, it's basically a given that

49:38

you want to buy um at that price because

49:42

yeah, I think it's as you say, it's it

49:44

is a totally rigged game. I'm not sure

49:46

what to do about it. Um from a

49:48

regulatory perspective, it seems unfair

49:52

that insiders just get better returns.

49:56

That's just the way it is. Um but yeah,

50:00

I think that's that is the truth that

50:02

you highlight. One interesting idea is

50:04

the tokenization of companies from a

50:05

very early stage so everyone has access

50:09

early stage fewer transaction fees. The

50:12

thing I hate about the secondary market,

50:14

I get opportunities all the time as

50:15

anyone does through setter or you know

50:16

all these secondary markets is it's very

50:18

inefficient. They want to charge you 7%.

50:21

You don't have confidence to buy because

50:22

it's not a liquid market with a price.

50:25

But I like the idea of some sort of

50:27

tokenization where you use AI to grade

50:30

the compliance of the company

50:32

um and the disclosures and the

50:34

transparency. But from a very early

50:35

stage, you can buy tokens in these

50:37

startups and they don't go public. they

50:39

just have a a publicly traded currency

50:43

that represents ownership. The problem

50:44

is that creates all sorts of all sorts

50:46

of um disclosure requirements. But I

50:48

wonder sometimes if the SEC and these

50:50

regulatory bodies want to hold on to

50:51

their jobs as opposed to acknowledge

50:54

that you know the entire market has

50:56

become very speculative. So and there's

50:58

so much opportunity for speculation but

51:00

that people have with their money. what

51:02

exactly who exactly are you protecting

51:04

from what with these you know and I

51:07

think AI could serve uh we've talked

51:09

about this as a pretty thick layer of

51:12

disclosure where you buy a token and

51:14

your buddy that started that company

51:16

Rogo that has that that layer of

51:18

innovation on top of AI for financial

51:20

services companies you know should that

51:23

company have tokens right now that

51:25

anyone could buy and it doesn't it never

51:26

goes public it just keeps increasing or

51:28

decreasing in value um but there's

51:31

There's got to be some sort of

51:32

innovation here that gives retail

51:34

investors access to this access to this

51:38

stuff.

51:38

>> Yeah. I I think my my view on this is

51:42

the the line between private and public

51:44

markets has become so blurred at this

51:46

point that it should really just be

51:47

eliminated. I mean, the fact that we're

51:50

we have all these investor accreditation

51:51

laws that are supposed to protect people

51:53

from buying shares in OpenAI. Meanwhile,

51:56

you can buy [ __ ] Rocket and Pepecoin is

51:59

just completely ridiculous. or bet on

52:00

the Super Bowl on like what if the next

52:02

play is going to be a run or a pass. I

52:04

mean, enough already.

52:06

>> Exactly. And it's like, oh, no, we we

52:08

want to we want to make sure that you're

52:09

only investing in real companies. So,

52:11

that's why we're going to have to go

52:12

through this accreditation process and

52:14

you're going to have to prove to us that

52:16

you've made uh $200,000 a year for two

52:20

years in a row and then you're able to

52:22

invest in these private. It's just

52:24

completely ridiculous. So all of these

52:26

private companies, everyone should be

52:28

able to invest in them. If we're going

52:30

to say that crypto is legal, then

52:32

investing in private companies should

52:33

also be legal. My only problem with the

52:35

tokenization point is I feel like it

52:37

assumes that it needs a crypto aspect

52:41

because crypto is highly associated with

52:43

tokenization. I don't think it needs

52:45

that. I think all you need to do is say

52:48

anyone can invest in private companies.

52:50

That's the law. And so let them invest.

52:54

And then that will mean that the New

52:56

York Stock Exchange and all these public

52:57

exchanges can reach out to private

52:59

companies and have them list. And it

53:01

basically just means that everyone can

53:03

list as a public company. I don't think

53:05

you necessarily need crypto or AI to

53:08

enable that to happen. I take your point

53:10

about um you know

53:13

getting the auditing done on some of

53:15

these companies, but the reality is

53:16

we're not auditing prediction markets.

53:18

We're not doing any of that [ __ ] on

53:20

crypto. So why are we pretending that we

53:22

should be do doing it with companies

53:24

too?

53:24

>> Yeah, but I was thinking about,

53:26

you know, we do a plan every quarter or

53:28

we get I get all the financials from the

53:31

I try to pretend I have a board at Prof

53:33

Media. By the way, I love not having a

53:34

board, but I try to pretend I have a

53:35

board and I do kind of an internal

53:37

quarterly board meeting where

53:40

>> Who's on the board?

53:41

>> Oh, it's it's Scott Galloway and his 17

53:43

alternative personalities.

53:47

>> It's news to me. I didn't know we had a

53:48

board. I didn't know we had a pretend

53:49

board. Uh, I'm gonna have the second and

53:51

third board members will be those two

53:52

hotties from that gay hockey series. I

53:54

want to put those two on my board. But

53:56

what I do is I put together a board deck

53:59

or something resembling a board deck.

54:00

Basically, I ask Karen and the finance

54:02

team to put together all these metrics

54:03

and and I run it through AI where we

54:05

where is there opportunity, where there

54:07

isn't. I look at it. I've I've gone

54:08

through a million board decks. But I was

54:11

even thinking about publishing it

54:12

because

54:14

a I think it's illuminating how an

54:16

entrepreneur thinks about a small media

54:18

business and each media business it's

54:19

trying to grow 20 or 30% a year and

54:21

trying to grow its EBIT to 40% a year.

54:24

But also I do think that I just I think

54:28

AI I think AI could say all right I

54:31

think there's a business in becoming an

54:34

SEC an AI version of SACE where it says

54:36

all right we need the following I need

54:38

the following access to the following

54:40

APIs I need access to your company's

54:42

bank account it'll be anonymous not

54:43

going to release any information I need

54:45

access to your payables I need access to

54:47

your client contracts I need access to

54:50

and if you give me access to all those

54:51

things I'm going to put out a rating on

54:54

your company and I'm going to write

54:55

fantastic analyst reports and it'll give

54:58

people the confidence to invest or not

54:59

invest and you could create it almost

55:02

like well if you don't have this good

55:04

housekeeping seal of approval stay away

55:07

and then you could have a much simpler

55:09

much lower cost means of buying and

55:11

selling shares or tokens in that company

55:14

as long as it had this AI audit on a

55:17

regular basis and it could do it every

55:19

day but just total transparency

55:22

you wouldn't have insider trading

55:23

problems because everyone would kind of

55:25

know everything. And if a company says,

55:26

"Well, for strategic reasons, we don't

55:27

want the AI publishing that we're in a

55:29

deal. We're thinking about acquiring

55:31

this company." It's like, "Yeah, there's

55:32

certain things that are anonymized,

55:34

certain things that are not disclosed

55:35

publicly, but we have metrics on how

55:38

well the AI in a millionth of a second

55:40

says there, this is how good they are

55:42

return on invested capital. This is how

55:44

good their turnover is or bad it is.

55:46

This is how good they are at managing

55:47

their IP. This is how good they are

55:48

managing their expenses. This is their

55:51

renewal rates." And it may it doesn't

55:52

even need to publish that. It just gives

55:54

it a rating and says, "Oh, also on a

55:58

fraud detection thing, we see almost no

56:00

evidence of fraud or there's something

56:03

fishy going on here or their internal

56:05

checks and controls don't seem to be up

56:07

to snuff. It just there's this a

56:10

gigantic administrative infrastructure

56:13

bureaucratic government layer in between

56:15

investors and companies that is

56:18

expensive, cumbersome, and I would argue

56:21

is now not probably adding the value

56:25

that an AI infrastructure or AI layer

56:27

could. Uh I mean again it's the boring

56:30

[ __ ] that moves the needle. It doesn't

56:31

sound fun, right? that I think that

56:32

could be

56:33

>> doesn't sound fun, but it also sounds

56:35

difficult and you better hope that that

56:37

AI isn't hallucinating. Current

56:39

technology will not really guarantee

56:42

that at all. I mean, if it's possible

56:44

for ratings agencies and Moody's and S&P

56:47

to hallucinate as they frequently do,

56:50

then think about the hallucination rates

56:52

of the AIs. And then are we taking that

56:54

at face value? This is this is the

56:57

truth. This is what what's going on with

56:59

this company. These are the risks. Well,

57:00

what's closer to an objective truth,

57:02

right? Because Moody's Moody's had AAA

57:04

ratings on all the bonds, the subprime

57:05

bombs bonds before they literally folded

57:08

and almost took down the global economy.

57:10

What I think is important is the reason

57:11

you have Moody's and Fitch is, you know,

57:13

and I forget the third one

57:15

>> is you benchmark them against each

57:17

other. And what I always do, I never ask

57:20

one LLM a question of any importance

57:23

without asking two or three and then

57:25

cross referencing them. And I think you

57:28

could do that here. I think you would

57:29

run it through a variety of LLMs to say

57:31

where because you're right, it gets it

57:32

wrong all the time, but I would argue

57:34

>> it gets it wrong all the time. I mean,

57:36

it I I'll ask it a question. I'll say

57:39

this is the answer. And they'll say,

57:40

"No, it isn't." And they're like, "Oh,

57:42

you're right. No, it's not. It's it's

57:44

this. No, it isn't. Oh, sorry, you're

57:46

right. It's this."

57:48

I do this on and on and on and on. I

57:51

find the ratings agencies and those guys

57:52

have find they've been so weaponized by

57:54

who their clients are. And anyways, um I

57:59

find it's the boring [ __ ] that moves the

58:00

needle. If I were thinking about an AI

58:02

startup, I would think about trying to

58:04

connect it downstream with Galaxy

58:06

Digital or something around tokenization

58:07

and some sort of rating method.

58:10

AIdriven, no mercy, no malice, un can't

58:14

influence it, can't bastardize it that

58:16

puts out a rating on a company that you

58:18

then have the opportunity to buy tokens

58:19

in. Okay, let's take a look at the week

58:21

ahead. We'll see job openings for

58:23

December. We'll also see ADP employment

58:25

data and the employment rate for

58:27

January. Meanwhile, we will get earnings

58:28

from Amazon, Google, Palanteer, AMD,

58:32

Disney, Uber, FISA, Eli, Lily, and Novo

58:36

Nordisk. Scott, any predictions?

58:38

>> Well, I'm talking my own book here, but

58:40

um basically I think these economic

58:43

strikes are about to become a static

58:45

part of a new era in a citizenry quiver

58:50

of pushing back on governments. And that

58:52

is, and we talked a lot about this, my

58:55

observation is that the current

58:56

administration and also leadership

58:58

around the world is now responding more

59:00

to markets than they are to the

59:01

citizenry or the even the Supreme Court.

59:04

And that while protests are effective,

59:06

I'm not suggesting they're not. They're

59:08

very cinematic. But I would argue that

59:11

the current administration has only

59:13

responded to changes in the economy and

59:15

the markets. And the greatest political

59:17

movement in history in terms of action

59:19

and size of action was in Q1 of 2020

59:24

uh with COVID. And again, it wasn't

59:25

because hundreds of thousands of people

59:27

started dying. It's because GDP went

59:29

down 31%.

59:30

And the greatest act of again the

59:33

greatest act of radical transformation,

59:35

you know, kind of radical action in a

59:37

capitalist economy is not participation.

59:39

And I'm seeing a bunch of economic

59:41

strikes, including the one that we're uh

59:43

organizing, pop up. And I think that the

59:46

marketplace's vulnerability around such

59:49

a huge concentration of value across a

59:51

small number of companies who also

59:52

happen to be the companies, many of whom

59:54

who are enabling the president with

59:56

their sickopantry or showing up to

59:58

premers or giving money for a new White

60:00

House or or whatever it is. Your free

60:03

gift with purchase here is that a small

60:05

number of companies have a big impact on

60:07

the S&P. of a small amount of action.

60:10

Cancelling Apple TV Plus, canceling your

60:12

Amazon Prime just for the month of

60:14

February, going to one streaming

60:15

platform, having one LLM versus two and

60:18

being loud about it will get a lot of

60:20

attention. And you're going to see

60:22

national economic strikes. You're going

60:24

to see a bunch of them and they're going

60:25

to about to become a static part of the

60:28

resistance. And if you like what I'm

60:30

saying, don't like and subscribe. Resist

60:32

and unsubscribe. And by the way, that's

60:35

our website, resistandunsubscribe.com

60:37

or unsubscribe February. We have a list

60:40

of the companies at ground zero that

60:41

would have a disproportionate economic

60:43

impact on the markets. And then we have

60:45

something called the blast zone and

60:46

that's companies ranging from Home Depot

60:50

to to Hilton who are kind of aiding or

60:53

or participating in the support of

60:56

providing infrastructure to ICE. And um

60:59

anyways, prediction uh national economic

61:02

strikes are about to become the new

61:04

technology of pushing back on what I

61:06

think are fairly upsetting policies of

61:09

terror and anxiety

61:11

in the United States.

61:17

Thank you for listening to Propy Markets

61:18

from Prof Media. Tune in tomorrow for a

61:21

fresh take on the markets.

Interactive Summary

In this episode, Scott Galloway and Ed analyze the 'Magnificent 7' earnings, highlighting Meta's AI-driven success against Microsoft's OpenAI-related skepticism. They critique Tesla's declining fundamentals and Elon Musk's use of the 'Optimus' robot as a narrative distraction to maintain high valuations. The discussion also covers the potential $1.5 trillion SpaceX IPO, the 'rigged' nature of the IPO market for retail investors, and the launch of the 'Resist and Unsubscribe' economic strike as a new form of political protest.

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