Jeff Bezos Talks Taxes. Kara and Scott Are Not Buying It | Pivot
1871 segments
I started doing it and I'm sitting there
in the park and I'm like, do I really
need to be an [ __ ]
>> Not today. Yeah, tomorrow. Tomorrow.
>> Hi everyone. This is Pivot from New York
Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast
Network. I'm Cara Swisser
>> and I'm Scott Callaway.
>> We're going to do something a little
different today and start with a
voicemail from a listener who's going to
explain the situation. Let's play a
clip.
>> Hi. After listening to Pivot today, I
saw that James Murdoch is buying part of
Box Media and I was curious how that
might change the freedom you guys have
on your various podcasts. Anyway, love
your shows. Just finished burn book and
listen to all your podcasts. Keep up the
good work. Jenny from Texas.
>> Oh, that's a very good question. Jenny
from Texas. So, in case people don't
know what she's talking about, James
Murdoch's company, Lupa Systems, is
acquiring Vox Media Podcast Network, New
York Magazine, and the Vox site. Um, the
other parts of Vox Media, including
Eater, The Verge, SP Nation, are
becoming a a different company, a new
independent company. The deal is
expected to close in the coming weeks.
There's a few legal legalities and this
and that. From what I understand, Lupa
Systems has not disclosed the purchase
price, but it's reportedly around 300
million. the podcast network is the mo
the more attractive asset that we love
New York magazine and it does rather
well um and love docs uh and so explain
Scott people want to know what we think
about this because a lot of people have
bad information one first of all Jim
Bankov is staying as CEO of this unit um
it's a spin-off essentially uh of of
these assets and which have been fast
growing so explain Mr. business. Explain
the situation.
>> Well, about a decade ago, people
thought, wouldn't it be great to
aggregate kind of this alternative media
or build alternative media companies for
a new world? And so, Buzzfeed, Food 52,
CNET, Vice, was it called Mike,
Mashable,
>> Mike? Yeah.
>> And Vox. And back when they thought
probably six, seven years ago that if we
bring together sort of these good little
media assets, some digital, some not,
and group them together, we can spack it
and it'll go public at 1 23 billion. And
so Jim logically, the CEO of Vox thought
this is a good idea. bought New York
magazine, had a bunch of very, you know,
fast growing websites, Eater, Verge, you
know, Vulture, and then started some
naent podcasts, right? And then
essentially what happened was uh the
market never said, okay, there was never
the bloom came off the rose
>> of all these companies. But basically
they're competing against monopolies who
extract rents and then their margin was
you know the margin of all these
companies is Google and Meta and
Amazon's opportunity and they've slowly
but surely sucked the oxygen out of the
room and BuzzFeed from peak valuation to
sales price was off 86% food 52 lost 96%
of its value CNET lost 94% of its value
was I think uh basically went bankrupt
but sold some assets was down at least
93% % uh Mashable off 80%. I mean just
on and on and on and on. Tumblr, my
favorite, 1.1 billion to 3 million. Uh
if you're an investor in Union Square
Ventures, thank God that the guy with
the Caesar's haircut, I forgot his name,
was able to convince
probably one of the weaker CEOs in
digital history to buy his bag of [ __ ]
for 1.1 billion tons.
>> That was Marissa Mayer at Yahoo.
>> Marissa Mayor, right? So effectively
this has just not worked out. Now what
and what to be you know Jim our guy who
we like has always said Scott be honest
and always told us to be honest so let
me be honest. They spent a lot of money
to create a company with negative
synergy. There's some real assets there.
New York Magazine is a trophy iconic
asset. Um the the sites themselves, the
digital assets are actually do pretty
well, but again see above they're in
they're swimming upstream against
giants. And then the smaller division
that started out as an afterthought has
become the growth engine and the crown
jewel. And Jim is a smart guy and
realized that the whole was less than
the sum of its parts and basically
decided to break them up into what was
going to be three buckets. But my
understanding is, and I do not have
inside information here, and I don't
want it, is that Jim Murdoch or James
Murdoch, who wants to be in the media
business, said, "I'll take New York
Magazine because I think he likes it and
it's an iconic asset. And what I really
want is the podcast network, which is
growing. I'll stop there. Where did I
get that right?"
>> No, you got that all right. And I think
Jim of all of them has cannilally moved
that into a space. Obviously, Buzzfeed
uh just bought by Byron uh Allen. Um you
know, they've all Vice has had a much
less happy
situation. I don't know where that went.
Like there were a lot of them and it was
very exciting. And one of the reasons I
sold my tiny little site to Vox many
years ago, Recode, was cuz they were
ridiculously priced and were sort of
pricing me at I was even a smaller
minnow. And so when I got to Vox, um, I
I I understood the ad market was really
a problem here. Although we did great,
let me just The only thing you're
leaving out is so much great journalism
by so many of these sites and so much
really interesting independent media.
Absolutely. Um, all the Verge, Eater,
um, you know, all of them and New York
Magazine just won a the national the
general excellence award and the
national magazine awards. Wonderful.
>> It was punches above its weight class.
It's like the HBO of magazines is the
way I would describe it.
>> Right. Exactly. It's amazing. Um, and
so, uh, so anyway, so it it's it's
really nice parts. They're really nice
parts, but what happened was exactly
what Scott said and what I thought,
which is one of the reasons I went to
Jim 12 years ago and said, I'm going to
start this little podcast called um, uh,
was Recode Decode at the time or might
have been something else. I don't
remember what it was. and cuz I really
did have an interest in this area and
felt it was shifting and then they added
on the Ezra was on there. Um there's a
whole bunch uh today explained a bunch
of things and what essentially happened
after that after that I met Scott
Galloway and the rest is history like
we've done really well
>> bald man with the erectile dysfunction
Murdoch it just all makes sense
>> in Germany in the Murdoch
>> in the Murdoch and I worked for Murd so
rich isn't it how did this happen I know
right I know people are thinking it's
very funny for me especially because I
knew James from a million years ago when
he was actually around for digital stuff
um very early when I was covering the
early digital industry and he tried very
hard to move his family's company
digitally. But Rupert always did
something idiotic like whether it was
the way they handled MySpace or there
was so many I can't even tell you. I
just like Disney, they had 19 of these
things and especially the iPad news
thing that I thought was ridiculous. Um
and so I w I we left we left the Murdoch
Empire largely over um Rupert over
problems. He was he was doing all sorts
of nefarious things and we wanted to
come out on our own. Um and then ended
up selling to Vox and so everything
comes around essentially. I met Scott,
we built Pivot and we built each of our
other stuff on and all the prof stuff
which is wonderful. Um and over time in
our recent renegotiation we became
partners with Vox and they sell our
advertising. They help us mount the
events which they're excellent at and
Scott has his has his has his own way of
doing things. he just started a great
Substack and so it's a really actually
fertile time and but there's all these
different configurations and I would say
for people to understand they are we we
I have met with uh James Murdoch and uh
his uh wife um Katherine who is also
very involved in this uh I have nothing
but good feelings for them I don't have
good feelings for his father neither
does he um which has been well
documented um and so we have complete
freedom to do what we want we own these
podcasts s that we have. Scott owns his,
I own mine, and we own pivot together in
a in a um in a death grip to the end for
whoever which one of us survives. Um and
uh and so we'll be keep doing what we
want and we really like working with
Jim. We and now this other gym and uh
and the rest of it and we hope there'll
be more, you know, synergies between
them. We're we're not like a total
believer in all synergy, but they've got
some cool uh things like Art Basle and
um a number of number film festival,
which I'll be at uh interviewing Mark
Maron on stage. And so there's lots of
opportunities here, but most of the
mostly it's not going to change from,
you know, not going to change our deal.
We like the deal we got. Um we again own
our things and so uh we're happy to take
suggestions from, you know, the same
thing like Jim will suggest something.
will either ignore him or will not like
he might have a he just had a great idea
to this morning for me. Um and I'll take
it. Uh so and I really do think of James
Murdock has always been very smart
digitally. I think um uh I think I we I
like him. He's not you can't just put
Murdoch on it and say they suck. I I
would agree about Rupert Murdoch. I
would not be owned by Rupert Murdoch and
uh and we're not owned by anyone. So I
think that's it. Anything else? Well,
when Reuters called me, I said, "Look,
we like the gyms and we have, you know,
we have a lot of power here and we
didn't ask for anything. We just asked
for everything to stay the same. I sell
>> Pivot is a joint venture between
Swisser, Galloway, and Vox. You own on I
own PropG, but both on and PropG uses
Vox for we do a revenue split where they
sell our ads. And if we could have I
mean, this is going to sound
self-absorbed. We could have killed this
deal. And we didn't. And we just we
didn't ask for anything extra. We just
said, "Yeah, we just want things to stay
the way they are." And Jim Bangoff has
never once
asked me to tone it down, to stop the
dick jokes, to reconsider.
>> That doesn't work.
>> No, you have. But you're you're trying
to save me from myself, and you're also
posing for your woke friends.
>> Oh, stop it. You're so much woker than
No.
>> Anyways, I'm so much wer than you. I'm
the woke.
>> But let me go to just some of the the
learnings here. And
Basically, the business model for tech
has been find have great technology,
find a very compelling leadership team
that's able to craft a narrative to
raise more capital than anyone else,
deliver an unbelievable product at below
price and then consolidate the market
and then start sucking the oxygen out of
the entire ecosystem. So, let me give
you an example. And then everybody else
gets crushed. Google and Meta have been
increasingly pushing users away from
external sites in in favor of their AI
overviews which they can monetize. So
Huffpo
between 2022 and 2025, so basically the
last 3 years that we have data on this,
Huffpost's organic search traffic has
been cut in half. The Washington Post
down by nearly half. Business Insider
has seen their organic traffic cut in
half. NT organic search as a as a share
of their total traffic fell from roughly
44% to 36.5%.
And the Wall Street Journal's organic
search as a as a share of their total
traffic fell from 29% to 24%. And let me
just go back in history and pat myself
on the back in 2006 when I joined the
board of the New York Times and
literally my first meeting I said they
said okay you're the digital guy which
we do. I'm like shut off Google. Don't
let them crawl your content because
eventually they're going to commoditize
your content,
>> right?
>> Stop driving traffic to us and all
you're doing is building them into the
ultimate toll booth.
>> That's correct.
>> And Martin Nenholtz, who's a very smart
guy, said, "Well, if we can't figure out
a way to compete against Google and
we're making money from the traffic they
send us, then shame on us." I'm like,
"Yeah,
go to go to Murdoch, go to the New
Houses, go to the Financial Times and
consolidate and turn off Google and then
license your content to the highest
bidder." And at that point, Microsoft
had Bing and we would have been able to
get a lot of money and say, "Look, if
you if you want to crawl this gorgeous
content from Thomas Freiedman and from
Vogue and from the FT, you got to pay
us." But instead they said no, we like
the traffic. They were pursuing this
eyeballs thing and now it's way too late
and these companies are the internet and
very few people go directly to NY the
New York Times.com. They get served
stuff on Meta. That's how they decide
where they're going or the the Google is
now entirely they don't take you to the
best place. They take you to a place
they can further monetize. And Jim, you
know, Jim is managed to get on the last
helicopter out of Saigon.
>> Oh, wait. Do you want to hear some of
the threads I thought of? I thought I'll
be I'll test the limits of our new
ownership.
>> I was walking around Lisbon yesterday
and it was beautiful and I was bored.
>> So, as soon as I saw the announcement, I
thought, I'm going to test the limits of
my freedom. My first thread, my first
thread was alternative media is like a
vegan restaurant. Virtue signaling loses
money and a billionaire bails you out.
That was my first one. My second one was
that that picture of Jim Brooff and
James Murdoch where it looks like the
30-year reunion of Abbercrombie and
Pitch. They're both very handsome.
>> They're very handsome.
>> And I wrote Romeo and Michelle's high
school reunion 2 post transition. That
one I'm especially proud of. And
>> oh, okay, last one. And then we
>> What was What was my What was my third
one? Oh god. I wrote something about Oh,
no. It just, you know, late late stage
capitalism. But anyways, and and then I
started doing it and I'm sitting there
in the park and I'm like,
>> do I really need to be an [ __ ]
>> Not today. Yeah, tomorrow. I'm like,
give them their moment.
>> Give them their moment.
>> Give them their moment.
>> They'll be an [ __ ] later
>> before we start making their lives
difficult.
>> No, you know what? Let me let me just
end this because we got to end this. So,
two things. Jim B, he said, we don't we
can say whatever we want. I don't see
that problem from James Murdoch or
Katherine Murdoch at all. They might be
irritated by us, but there's no going to
be no change in that. And let me be I
hate to say this, but Rubert Murdoch
never asked me to change a thing. Like
that is one thing I never experienced
when I worked at the walls. I just don't
I think he's a heinous piece of well I
think he's heinous the way he he's done
Fox News and the other stuff, but and
has degraded democracy quite a bit, but
he's not James is not him. And so, but
but that said, and Murdoch never meddled
in my stuff and and he certainly could
have um for for my entire time there. I
just didn't like him. Um but um but one
of the things we have to say, we we get
to do what we want. We will do what we
want. And also just I know Scott was
sort of putting a sort of an ugly
picture on it, but actually New York
Magazine is uh profitable. So are the
pod the podcast networks are doing great
and very profitable. Uh a lot of these
websites are. So, it's not like it's
just not a like a it's not a crazy
business, but it's not these are not
suffering properties. And last of all, a
lot many of them most of them provide
amazing journalism. Uh, and I I think
David Haskell deserves all due credit
for New York Magazine winning that
award. And awards are one thing, but
they certainly they were up against some
amazing uh journalism this year from The
Atlantic and from ProPublican Wired. Uh,
so uh they're very good property. He's
bought some good properties here um in
that regard. It's not they're not
falling knife properties. Um, but we'll
see what we can do. Let's see what he
does.
>> They make money, but the the crown
jewel, shockingly, of all this is the
podcast. New York Magazine is a vanity
asset.
>> It is, but it does. Okay. It doesn't
It's not It does fine.
>> You become one of the sexiest men in
Soho when your rap is I own New York
Magazine.
>> We're going to stop there. It's a very
It does journalism, too. Anyway,
>> that's
So is NPR. It doesn't make any money.
it. Yeah, but this one does. So, anyway,
speaking of things not making money, we
have some IPO news to get to. First up,
SpaceX has filed an IPO prospectus, and
it is revealing the company brought in
$791
million in profit in 2024. It swung back
to $4.9 billion in losses in 2025. For
context, 200 companies in the S&P 500
had more revenue than SpaceX last year,
including Tesla. also revealed in the
file, by the way, they buy a lot of
stuff from Tesla. There's a lot of
roundt tripping happen at the these
companies. It also reve all all
controlled by Elon Musk. It also
revealed in the filing, Anthropic is
paying SpaceX and thank God for it,
$1.25 billion per month through uh May
2029 as part of the compute deal that
two signed, meaning Grock will not be
using that space in Colossus 1 and two.
SpaceX is reportedly targeting targeting
a $1.7 trillion valuation. I mean it
goes on and on and on. on a lot of these
a lot of words like um human I don't
know like connection there's AI
mentioned a lot just it's this business
is not economically and mass speaking
it's not worth 1.7
I mean it's just the Elon that that guy
gets a lot of uh credit for for for
using this number um because even the
stuff they're promising seems
problematic but he's not he hasn't done
it before he just moves from one lily
pad to the other in terms of from Tesla
to this. But the big the big winner in
this in that I read is Starlink does
great. The others Grock and um the
rocket company is not so much. Go for
it.
>> I got a lot.
>> Okay, good. I can't wait. I'm excited.
>> Yeah. What was
>> Spit it out, Scott.
>> At 3:00 a.m. I was reading the S1. What
were you doing?
>> I know you were.
>> First off, I have some notes here. The
first 14 pages of the S1
>> are pictures of rockets.
>> AI is mentioned 1,200 times in the S1.
There are 277 pages of the perspectives.
For context, it's longer than The Great
Gatsby and The Catch in the Rye. And
some direct quotes from the filing.
These are direct quotes. We do not want
humans to have the same fate as
dinosaurs. Well, thank God you're here,
Elon. For decades, a reality where
humanity travels between the planets and
the stars has felt tentalizingly close.
But still,
>> would you mind if I ate my protein bar
where you do this because I'm hungry and
I also am fascinated. Keep going.
>> For for decades, a reality where
humanity travels between the planets and
the stars has felt tantalizingly close,
but still locked in the pages and
screens of science fiction. The sun
contains approximately 99.8% 8% of the
solar systems energy. And as a result,
we believe it is the only truly scalable
solution to terrestrial energy
constraints in the age of AI.
Oh, Jesus [ __ ] Christ. All right,
hold on.
>> Woke.
>> We believe the next paradigm shift for
humanity is the creation of a resilient,
perpetually expanding, space fairing
civilization. Ultimately,
>> sexy voice, please. I mean, I need a
more sexy. ultimately preparing us to
Kardashev type 2 status defined as
defined in the filing itself as a
civilization that harnesses the full
energy output of the sun. Remember we
work its mission was to elevate the
world's consciousness.
>> Yes. No, this seems like he sounds like
a Mayan. He sounds like a Mayan but go
ahead.
>> So let's talk about the numbers here.
Headline valuation 1.8 trillion. He
they're whispering they can go out at
two. That's roughly the GDP of Canada.
So let that marinate. that the core
business is genuinely an excellent
business,
>> right?
>> Starlink generated 3.26 billion in
revenue in a single quarter with 1.2
billion in operating income. That's 36%
operating margin on a monopoly satellite
inner business, internet business with
no serious competitors in sight. It's a
great business. If this were the whole
company, it would be one of the great
businesses of our era. And then, but the
problem is it's not. Stapled to this
rocket ship is XAI, a business that is
clinically speaking a money furnace. In
2024, XAI lost 1.6 billion on 2.6
billion in revenues. By 2025, losses
ballooned to 6.5 billion on 3.2 billion
in revenue. So revenue revenue went up
20% but losses went up 310%. That's
>> Can I ask you quickly, these revenues
don't seem like killer? It's 30%. It's
not like wow. It's they're not wow
growth, right? Is it's sort of good
solid. Am I wrong there?
>> No, it's Well, let's just let's just
talk about SpaceX, the best business.
It's growing 20% a year and it's trying
to go out at 100 times revenue. When
Google went public, it was growing 240%
a year and went out at 10 times
revenues. So, just back to back to XAI.
XI is losing money on the way to losing
more money in in Q12 2026 alone the net
loss of 4.3 billion on 4.7 billion in
revenue total capex 10.1 billion in 90
days 7.8 8 billion of that uh for AI.
Cash on the balance sheet um cratered
from 25 billion to 16 billion in just 3
months. They burn 9 billion in cash in a
single quarter. That's a hund00 million
a day. That's not investing in the
future. It's it's the future billing you
in advance,
>> right? Can this anthropic thing is
critical. Do you think he's moving into
being the infrastructure player rather
than the AI player here? building and
providing infrastruure. Tim him having
spent too much capbacks thinking that
>> X AI his AI would need it and he woke up
and realized he didn't. It's like this
has happened to me a million. Every time
I start a company, I raise too much
[ __ ] money. I go get a giant office
base in Soho and before I know it, I'm
renting it out to a bunch of shitty
startups to try and recoup some of the
capital. That's what h happened here,
>> right?
>> Total debt is for that, right?
Presumably from the anthropic,
>> total debt on the balance sheet is 29
billion. Um, so just for context, that's
more debt than it's on the Delta
Airlines, United Airlines, and American
Airlines combined with all their planes
and and those they carry passengers.
SpaceX has Starship, which has cost over
15 billion in development and is still
on its 12th test mission. The bottom
line, you're being asked to pay 1.75
trillion for a great satellite internet
company, a rocket business that loses
money, an AI product losing 6 billion a
year and falling further behind its
competitors that has 29 billion in debt,
and a CEO who, and this is my favorite
part of the filing, purchased $131
million of his own recalled cyber trucks
with company cash.
>> Right. He's propping up Tesla. Propping
up Tesla. Right.
>> So, in some Starlink is the golden
goose, an amazing company. Everything
else is Elon's hobbies. And at this
valuation, you're paying full price for
all of them. So, you know, Snow White is
[ __ ] hot, but you gota if you marry
her, you're taking on these little
nonvalue ad weirdos. Uh this is so this
company you have an amazing company
buried in all of these other money
furnaces,
>> right? I like money.
>> He's asking you to pay essentially 100
times revenue.
>> People will so talk about that because
look it is not I I read it. I'm like,
"Wow, this is not a there's one good
business in there, right? Really good
business." And and by the way, easy to
disrupt that business by the people will
come into this business and there'll be
more competitors. Um and uh and so that
that's my worry about Starlink is like
sure he has the win for today. It
doesn't mean he will have the win
forever just like Tesla. Um, the second
thing is it will it doesn't matter
because people will just buy into this
and run it up because it's him and these
promises which you left out a little bit
here is there's going to be all these
robots in your home. There's going to be
he he made a lot of promises in this in
this perspectus too about the future
like you have to assume he's going to
kill it in robots and by the way I have
heard from many people his robot
technology is really advanced but it has
to get to people right it's got to it's
got to get to people it's got to become
a product um and so just hand it feels
very hand wavy this entire thing but I
don't think it's going to matter I mean
be be a Wall Street person and say you
know what would you do as an investor
faster here.
>> Uh you might want to play it for the
pop, but I actually think that there's
going to be a ton of bill people and
analysts that will look at this thing.
The more scrutiny on this thing, the
worse it's going to be for the IPO and
does it go out at 1.8 trillion? I
wouldn't be surprised if the bankers try
and manufacture scarcity and it gets a
small pop, but I think by the end of the
year it's well below a trillion dollars.
There's just no there's no way to
justify this thing is a cash
incinerator.
And also certain components of the
business feel very weiworky in the fact
that as they grow they burn more cash.
There's no operating leverage.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Even with even with this
entropic deal because that's all he can
sell. That's right. It's like he's
selling the chairs or something. Right.
I mean
>> he built out infrastructure for that he
doesn't need because his his AI is not
growing the way.
>> Right. Exactly. And he's got it. He's
got this colossus and of course he's
facing lawsuits all over the place
because he's going to buy more of these
methane engines. That's going to and
trust me that they're going to put a
stop to that eventually. Um, so so what
would you how would you do it here?
People are listening. What would you do
here?
>> I won't tell you what to do because I
have been wrong about Tesla. I thought
Tesla was a sell in 2017 and it's gone
up 8x.
>> No, you were right. But you were wrong
about what people would do.
>> I think we have to squarely say I was
wrong.
>> Okay.
>> So what I'm going to do is if someone
called me and no one's going to call me,
but if Elon Musk called me and said, "Do
you want allocation in the IPO?"
I would probably say sure and I'd sell
it on the first trade. They will
manufacture scarcity. Goldman and
everybody will tell him, "Okay, this is
what it looks like." Put out press
releases saying you're 30 times over
subscribed. It'll get a pop and then get
out again. An amazing business can be a
shitty investment even at some
valuation. And a shitty business can be
an amazing investment at a certain
valuation. This is an amazing business
surrounded by businesses that are not
scaling where he's trying to play
catchup and at a valuation that makes
just abso fuckingutolutely no sense.
>> Yeah.
>> So what I would do X AI in here was a
way to save his ass, his own ass.
Correct.
>> It's a it's it's the cheapest form of
capital he could find by attaching it to
an amazing business such that he could
try and catch up. And even the business,
even the amazing business on its own
which is doing 16 billion in topline
revenue and 8 billion in IBIDA
>> this is Starlink.
>> Yeah. I don't know give it 25 you know
give it a 100 times IDA it's worth 800
billion. 100 times I zeba is no you know
no one trades at that. But you not only
are trying to to get it out at 1 and a
1.7 to 2 trillion, you've attached onto
it all of these businesses that look to
have negative leverage.
>> Andy's using the business to help Tesla
out by buying shitty Cyber Trucks and
everything else.
>> Well, that was the most that was the
most eye popping thing.
>> I know. I agree.
>> Was that it reminded me of and this is
the argument against when corporate or
when governments decide to get start
cosplaying business. the the Irish
government or the UK government said
Delorean is the future and they give
them a bunch of loans and then these
pictures came out of a ton of Deloreans
sitting in a warehouse in Ireland
unsold.
>> So
the the worst product arguably the worst
tech product maybe than the Oculus or
Siri, the worst tech product of the last
decade is hands down the Cybert truck.
>> Cyber Truck. So he went out, a bunch of
them recalled, and he used money from
this organization to buy to buy back
Cybert trucks. You're not supposed to do
that. You're supposed to say, "Okay,
Tesla Tesla has a a a turd of a product
and we're going to take a right down."
And you just take your, you know, you
take your pain. This is Elon brings a
level of awareness, magic. People have
done investing with him. He is an
unbelievable visionary.
But uh you know this goes to something
broader and that is this is all part of
an entity that will cement where I
believe we are now and that is I finally
believe we are squarely in 1999.
>> Yeah I would agree with you. That's what
I felt after looking at I didn't look at
over as carefully but I thought oh no no
no this is not good. This is you know
all I don't really care about the
luminous humanity [ __ ] and flying to
the stars and the sun is going to power
our world. Like that's all his I I I've
had to listen that nonsense from him for
many years and great. I'm glad you think
that. I mean, I don't really care if
everyone if that's what turns him on.
That's great. But it was the the Tesla
thing. There was a several things in
here that were very speaking of
latestage capitalism. I felt it was late
Elon, right? That's what that's what it
felt like to me. But just we'll see.
>> Look, it his job is to get capital as
cheaply as possible. He's going to do
that. Yeah. I think it's smart for him
to do this.
>> That's good for him. Yeah.
>> But I think investors in some if you
look at what happened.
>> So there was a really interesting
analysis done in the FT and that is at
the peak of the dotcom boom about 60% of
GDP growth was coming from capex related
to telco infrastructure and the
internet. It's now 93% is coming from AI
including and I'm loosely and also these
companies will be grouped into that. In
addition, the total capex
inflation adjusted was about 850 billion
in 99 up until that point. Now we're at
about 1 and a.5 trillion.
>> And every time you have over 2 or 3% of
GDP going into the buildout or capex or
something, whether it's railroads or
highways or the telco infrastructure of
the late '9s, two years later, there's a
crash. Two to three years later, there's
a crash. Railroads, all of it.
>> We are there. and and one of these
companies or more of them is going to
experience what every big tech company
has experienced when they're get out
over their skis and that is you're going
to see a 70 to 95% decline in the value
of one or more of these companies.
Nvidia, I mean all these companies are
there's the the expectation
of they're increasing their capbacks 20%
a year while increasing their revenues
optimistically 15% a year. That's
negative operating leverage. And
eventually the music's going to stop
here.
>> Yeah, I felt drunken sailors had a feel
of this. I don't know. I just like
>> Well, the way I would describe it is I
think Nvidia is a casino
and we're all drunk people at the
blackjack pay table and
>> it will affect very good businesses and
then along with the tariffs and all the
other corruption around Trump. It just
gets to be a real problem here.
>> Nvidia is an amazing business. SpaceX is
an amazing business. They should, oh my
god, they should be worth they should be
worth a trillion dollars and 300 billion
respectively. So down about 50 to 80%.
And the technology I think the
technology will live up to its
expectations more on the optimistic side
than the pessimistic side, but the
valuations won't.
>> Yeah. All right. Well, speaking of
which, OpenAI is preparing to
confidentially file a draft of its IPO
perspective as soon as Friday. I expect
you to read it over the weekend and tell
me about it next week. Um, as you're
listening to this, the company is valued
at over $850 billion by private
investors. The things I'm looking at
there is all the cross investments with
Altman involved. I'm probably interested
in that. Um, where the where their where
the trends are in terms of their
subscriptions. Um, and where their spend
is. I think those are the things I'm I'm
looking at. What are you looking at
there very briefly? Well, just to
distill it, to justify the $1 trillion
valuation that OpenAI is pursuing at its
IPO, it needs to grow from 13 billion in
revenue to the to the size of today's
Microsoft in four years. So, they're
saying they're going to be the size of
Microsoft in four years. And I just
don't think revenue did triple to 13
billion, but the company burned 9
billion. And right now, it has negative
momentum relative to Anthropic. And what
they have said is get out right away. We
need the perception that we're the
leader. And also Sam Alman looks at
SpaceX and says there's not room for
there's only so much retail money that's
going to come into the ecosystem. Get
out because it's going to dry up because
if SpaceX goes out of pop and comes
down, retail investors are going to
start to get queasy and then when you
have these enormous IPOs,
in other words, at some point retail
investors are going to run out of money
to invest in these things. So he's like,
"Get out." And the CFO, Sarah Frier, who
I'm shocked still has a job because
she's not towing the company line. She
worked at Goldman and Mckenzie, has
reported previously that colleagues uh
to colleagues at OpenAI saying, "We're
not ready for an IPO because the risk
from its spending commitments."
>> Yeah, I know her. She's a very She's
like that. She's
>> like a Ruth Barrett. She's an adult.
Yeah.
>> The the company is committed to spending
600 billion over the five years across
vendors and their Oracle deal alone
requires 60 billion a year starting in
2027. nearly five times OpenAI's entire
2025 revenue.
>> So
>> again, this is we are squarely a 99
>> 99. All right. Well, we'll go with that.
All right, Scott, let's take a quick
break. When we come back, Jeff Bezos, so
good God. Speaking of billionaires
behaving badly, speaks out on all sorts
of things.
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>> Scott, we're back. Jeff Bezos sat down
for an interview with Andrew Ross
Sorcin, our favorite Canadian on
Wednesday. Let's talk about some of the
things he said. First up, Bezos said
that Trump was more mature and more
disciplined in his second term. The
Washington Post owner defended massive
cuts he made to the newsroom earlier
this year, saying he doesn't want a post
to be a charity. I have some things to
say about that because I think he's the
one that drove it into a wall. Bezos
also backed the idea of eliminating
income taxes for the bottom half of US
earners. Let's hear what he said to say
about his own taxes.
>> People sometimes say that uh that you
know I don't pay taxes. So true. I pay
billions of dollars in taxes and it's a
per again if people want me to pay more
billions, right?
>> Then let's have that debate. But don't
pretend, you know, that this that that's
going to solve the problem. You could
you could double the taxes I pay and
it's not going to help that teacher in
Queens. I promise you.
>> Let's try.
>> Let's try.
>> Let's try. Let's see what happens.
>> Let's see what happens. Jeff,
>> if we take his effective tax rate from
16 or 17% to 32 or 34 like the rest of
us, I don't know. Let's just give it a
whirl.
>> Let's just give it a whirl. Let's see
what happens.
>> So disingenuous in this interview. Let
me let me start and then I'll let you
go. First up, the more mature. Come on,
Jeff. Like seriously. Like, I get that
there's a lot of face work going on and
a lot of other enhancements, but it's
gone to your [ __ ] head. Like, I get
what he means. It's good for me. Instead
of saying more mature, more disciplined
is he's more focused on giving me the
[ __ ] I want. That's I I would just
prefer that if he wouldn't mind like
saying that. Whatever. He can say what
he wants. He's never been a particularly
liberal person, but now he's just he's
just now being just as disingenuous. The
Washington Post thing drove me crazy
because he's the one who kept the same
management in place then hired an
incompetent like Will Lewis uh did
nothing that the New York Times took
moves after Trump left office to do
something. He he created all manner of
situations where people just just left
cut their subscriptions which were which
were slightly growing but they were
definitely stabilizing. And then after
he put his dirty little fingers in the
editorial process, he messed it up. A
huge exodus of talent blaming the talent
which then went to successful properties
like the Atlantic and many other and the
Wall Street Journal and other places
which are doing okay. They're doing
they're they're making businesses. New
York Times, Wall Street Journal, The
Atlantic, everything else. So, every
time he says this, I'm like, why don't
you look over at Lorraine Powell Jobs,
who's managed to do a very nice job over
there at the Atlantic by not meddling
and supporting and not losing money. Um,
the income tax thing I'll let you take,
but it was so full of disingenuous
stuff. And again, let's try Jeff. Even
if you pay billions, you have billions
and you pay the fact that I pay more of
a percentage of my taxes than you. And
then the corpor Don't even get me
started with corporations. So anyway, uh
the whole thing was and also he didn't
look well in my opinion and since he
spent so much time on cosmetic stuff, I
feel like I can comment upon this. Go
ahead.
>> Jeff Bezos pays himself $82,000, just
enough such that he can claim a child
tax credit, which by the way he takes,
and then he puts all of his additional
money and such that the value of his
shares go up. He borrows against those
shares, not not triggering a taxable
event. likely has a lot of those shares
in a trust. And then after leveraging
the unbelievable infrastructure and
culture of the great state of
Washington, he then
>> post office everything
>> takes his $120 billion in shares and
moves to Florida to spend more time with
his father and then starts selling
shares. Now granted, just as every
prisoner has an obligation to escape, I
think every individual has an obligation
to avoid taxes. I don't blame him for
tax evasion. I blame our government for
letting him engage in it. But quite
frankly, Jeff, when you start trying to
wallpaper over the tax avoidance of
billionaires by claiming you care about
nurses,
>> teachers,
>> sit the [ __ ] down. Just sit down. This
is a misdirect.
And it's like when Jensen talks about,
"Yes, tax me more." Okay,
thanks guys. But I just don't think
they're in a position when a guy has
when a guy has so optimized the dynamics
of supply and demand of labor such that
his delivery drivers have to pee in
bottles to make their correct
>> quotas. You're just not the person to
pretend to have empathy for that nurse
in Queens. So, I'm not even going to
I'll talk about his idea, but give me
the mother of all eye rolls when Jeff
Bezos
claims to be concerned about the tax
rates of the nurse in Brooklyn. What I
when I've advised or when I was talking
to Andrew Yang when he was running for
president mayor, I said, "You [ __ ] up.
It shouldn't be universal basic income.
It should be basic income." And to get
Republicans on board, you need different
frame it. Don't call it universal basic
income because it sounds like socialism.
call it a negative income tax.
Republicans love tax breaks. I do
believe there's something to the notion
of saying anyone who makes below $50,000
should not only not get taxed, but maybe
get a tax credit in the form of services
or maybe just cash quite frankly because
most of the studies show that when you
create a government infrastructure to
deploy social programs, they're
inefficient and never go away.
>> Just give them the money. Just give them
>> just give them the money. Just cut them
a check. You're in a household, you have
kids, whatever. They did a bunch of
studies in Africa, and quite frankly,
I'm going to be a sexist here. When they
give money to the men, the prostitutes
in the bars do well. When they give
money to the women, the kids get taller
and fatter. You couldn't do that in
America and just give money to single
mothers, which is what I would like to
see happen. But if you gave just gave
money, nationalized healthcare, there's
a lot of good taxation ideas. What he
said was very accurate is that if you
had a tax holiday for people under the
age of 30, he didn't say this, but if
you gave a tax holiday, which is what
he's saying, or cut the taxes of people
making less than $75,000, you don't lose
that much tax revenue. Because it is
true that only 1%, the top 1% in New
York pay 48% of the taxes and the bottom
25% really don't pay much. So, he's
right they wouldn't be giving up much.
But he is just not. We need an
alternative minimum tax on people like
Jeff Bezos. of I believe 60%.
Because the earner that's making 2
million bucks working her ass off as a
baller partner at Scatterenarps in
Manhattan is paying 54. And fine, maybe
she pays maybe the person making 10
billion or 10 million a year pays makes
60%, because here's the whole objective
of taxation.
You want the least taxing tax. If you
start attacking education and food and
housing, you end up
>> with homelessness. Yep.
>> Less educated people, people who put off
their mammogram and die of metastatic
breast cancer. Those are taxes that are
too taxing. An alternative minimum tax
on corporations making above a billion
dollars and people say making over 3
million a year. They don't lose any
happiness. The Baso and also do away
with the estate tax exemption. If the
Bezos children inherit 20 billion
instead of 30, no loss in happiness. But
that 10 billion that could potentially
be divided amongst the million the
$10,000 to the million poorest
households, a lot of incremental
happiness.
>> You know what the the contrast was? His
ex-wife. Like she doesn't say a word.
She doesn't do an interview. She gives
money.
No ribbon cutings, no cosplaying, no
whatever weirdness you're doing to your
body, Jeff. uh just and doesn't lecture
us. That's the tone was what was crazy.
I I I know I got like Ben about the post
stuff, but all of it had this tone. The
post stuff was disingenuous in the
extreme. He's the worst media owner of
any media owner and it's a low [ __ ]
bar. Let me tell you, I take Rupert
Murdoch twice every day of the week and
twice on Sunday to Jeff Bezos. At least
he understands media and likes it. Um,
you know, this the tone was so obnoxious
and this is why this general, you know,
he talked about people demonizing
billionaires. Well, stop stop talking.
stop appearing like I I honestly it it
the the the damage these people are
doing to the brand of capitalism, brand
capitalism and brand AI and brand tech
is so vast that you can see why these
polls are showing up like this way. I
know my own sons who both are incredibly
hard workers
and it has nothing to do with me. They,
you know, they often don't listen to me.
um they don't listen to anything I do at
least and and I'm fine with that. But
they have these feelings, right? It's
just it I don't know. It just and then
it gives rise to too much demonization,
right? Because of the way these people
behave. So I don't know.
>> So I have stories about McKenzie Scott
and Melinda French Gates. I'm involved
in two nonprofits. I'm involved in
something called the Jed Foundation that
tries to train high schools around how
to identify what is kind of normal
strange adolescent behavior and
adolescent behavior that should raise
red flags around depression and suicide
and they leverage the infrastructure of
public schools and educate them and they
are they are amazing. It was started by
a couple that lost their son Jed. It's
run by this wonderful management team.
They do a great job. Right after I sort
of got involved, they called me and said
they did a big thing event and they got
they go we got great news. I'm like
what's that? and he goes, "We got a $10
million wire yesterday and we're trying
to figure out who it's from." Mackenzie
Scott
didn't didn't want an RFP, didn't want
to meet with them, didn't want her name
on anything. She just wired 10 million
bucks. And then another association I
love, the American Institute for Boys
and Men, which focuses on the struggles
and mental health of young men and boys,
run by one of my role models, Richard
Reeves. Melinda French Gates, $10
million. recognizing the majority of her
funds are focused on the struggles in
gender equality and struggles of young
women. But she she said without thriving
young men, women aren't going to
continue to flourish. And she just sends
10 million bucks. And then someone who
shall remain nameless contacted the firm
and I get it. He's trying to be or
contacted one of these companies and
said, "Can I meet with so- and so and
Scott? I want to hear about the
strategy." And I'm like, typical [ __ ]
rich dude. We got to go sing for our
supper. We got to like
>> go talk to him as if it's a business and
return on investment. Whereas these
these women are just like you're doing
good work.
>> Yeah. Excellent. Here you go.
>> Get back to work.
>> You don't hear from him. They definitely
check you out. But it's not It is It's
such a different way of giving. I
>> It really is. There's something
>> I couldn't dislike Jeff Bezos more after
this interview. I thought I honestly
thought
could have pressed him harder. Honestly,
I didn't think Zoro pressed him hard
enough on this stuff and let him get
away with some stuff that I wish he had.
But I that said, we got to see him the
way he is. And that is the way he is.
Folks,
>> let me make the conservative or at least
give some sunshine to conservative part
of this. I can't stand it when people on
the far left say Jeff Bezos didn't earn
his money.
>> Oh, he did
>> because he was born to a single mother
at the at the age when she was 17.
I believe he deserves to have earned
$120 billion. I think we deserve to
elect people who have the backbone to
tax him at 60 or 80%.
But don't slow him down. He's not a bad
person,
>> right?
>> He's doing he's doing what we all do.
He's optimizing for his own
self-interest. You may you may just you
may say he's more self-interested than
some people. Fine. We're not doing our
job. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie
Sanders, you've been in Congress for
[ __ ] ever and the taxes keep going
down under your watch.
>> Yeah. Let's do something.
>> You want to demonize them? No. Tax him.
>> Tax him. That's the best way like to say
take look you whatever you want to do.
Now let me switch to another billionaire
because this was something that
happened. I we have not said a lot. Our
listen some of our listeners are not
going to like what I have to say here
and I don't really care but I do care
but I don't care. Um unexpected sighting
in DC this week. Mark Cuban standing
alongside President Trump. Cuban
endorsed Kla Harris was a big supporter
in 2024. It's been one of Trump's most
vocal critics, but the two appeared
together as the Trump announced a major
expansion of Trump RX's administration's
online drugstore. The site is adding
more than 600 lowcost generic
medications through partnerships with
Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs, Amazon
Pharmacy, and Good RX. At this event,
Trump was asked about his new alliance
with Cuban. It's only on this issue,
just for people to be clear. Let's
listen. It's pretty remarkable seeing
you and Mark Cuban up there and the fact
that obviously Mark endorsed Kla Harris
back in 2020.
>> Well, he made a mistake. It was a big
mistake.
But
>> what does this say about what you two
are building here? The important
>> Well, it says we love people. We love
our country. He wants to he's got a a
good company and he's going to do a lot
of business with this and uh I'm going
to get drugs out through Amazon through
the whole group and we're going to get
drugs out and uh Mark wanted to be a
part of it and I think Mark was very
gracious. He said this is something that
really works.
>> Cuban later posted on X, if anyone
thinks I'm going to put politics ahead
of helping Americans reduce their cost
of healthcare and pharmaceuticals, they
are a [ __ ] idiot. He took that down
because he thought swearing undercut his
argument. He's probably right. Um, let
me just say a few things. The stuff out
there about him making a bank or he's
mobbing up with Trump is it's just not
true. You don't have to like that he
stood there. I get it. I get it. I get
it. But he this this business is to get
drug prices down. He does not make a ton
of money here. He This is more It's not
a charity either. He's trying to build a
business. But this the the stuff that's
out there about what he's doing is just
inaccurate and it's not if you don't
like him standing there and you think he
betrayed you and I saw a lot of these I
now can't like him. I thought he was a
good guy. He is a good guy. He is doing
something that I'm sure makes him deeply
uncomfortable for a very good thing
which is to bring lower prices. He's got
to get in this Trump RX. He essentially
took control of Trump RX in a weird way
because you've got to get these things.
If Trump is doing this site and I hate
that Trump's name is on it, I hate it.
But look, he's an ego mana who puts his
name on every [ __ ] thing and there's
nothing we can do about it. And if he he
sat up there with Biden, you'd love him
for it or whoever a Democratic
president, he would sit up with anyone.
The only thing I would say was that I'm
not sure he got grretched. I sent him a
note. I said, "You just got gretched."
When he when he first he started talking
about this this $1.776
trillion slush fund for people who
criminals who attack the capital, I
don't know. He got grretched. He was
sitting there when Trump was going on
about something that's obviously
illegal or and also a slush fund. I
don't know what would he should he walk
out? Should he leave? I don't know. He
did laugh at the you voted for Kla
Harris. I'm not sure what you do in
situ. Should he have sat there and said
I still would? I don't know. He would
have gotten lost out this deal. I don't
know. And it's not great to have to
stand with Trump. We get it. We get it.
I wouldn't do it. But if I had something
that mattered a lot, I might. And the
only other thing I would say is Zoran
Mandani went there and stood right next
to Trump and everyone praised that. And
I the difference was is but he didn't
insult Trump and he didn't like slap him
or do anything rude. He also didn't say
much and he didn't get gratched. And so
he he needed something for New York and
he got it from Trump. And so I'm not
quite sure what the difference here is
because that's what I think was
happening here with Mark. And you can
hate on me all you want saying I love
the billionaires, but I think what he's
doing is an important thing for bringing
drug prices online and you cannot wait
for 3 years to do so. Your thoughts,
Scott? If your emotions and political
partisanship trump the health of
Americans, then the problem is you, not
Mark Cuban.
The partnership between Trump RX and
Cuban's cost plus drugs will unlock
millions of Americans
in terms of cheaper prices or unlock
cheaper prices for millions of
Americans. Uh, this week's expansion
adds 600 generics, nearly seven times
the previous catalog. They'll be
available to anyone regardless of
insurance status and in many cases the
cash price through cost plus is actually
lower than what insured pay uh insured
people pay at the pharmacy counter after
co-pays. Cost plus Drugs sells the
cancer drug I believe it's called a
tanamibanib
for $17. The same drug runs over $2,000
at conventionalies.
three PBMs um uh Optim RX, CVS Caremark
and Express Scripts control roughly 80%
of the US drug access and are untouched
by this deal. It look something has to
change. And I respect and the US
government has a scale and capital that
no one can match. And if you have
something that's good for America that
requires that scale and that capital,
then you act like a [ __ ] adult.
I shouldn't have said [ __ ] You act
like an adult and you go there. So, you
know, you know, if if you think that
Mark Cuban sold out, then all right, you
go buy people's cancer drugs, I this I
can't imagine Mark enjoyed this, but
helping people get access to life-saving
drugs at a reasonable value is more
important than him getting dragged by a
bunch of bots and people virtue
signaling and and applying purity tests
from their keyboard.
>> Right. I would agree. You just didn't
have the right information. The
inaccuracy is what I as always
inaccuracy desires me. And to say that
that he's going to make bank at this is
just not true. It's just absolutely not
true. And and you again, I I wouldn't
want to have to do this. I don't know if
I could stand next to him, but he's
there for the next three years. And if
someone needs these drugs now, and if he
has to take the reputational hit, that's
fine. I guess that's fine. The fact that
you're dragging him is a pro I I
understand the the and I don't want to
in this case for the first time I
thought derangement. Don't be so [ __ ]
deranged that you don't understand what
Mark just did which is he had to like
put his like ego in a in his pocket. He
remains by the way Mark is not I would
say he's liberal or conservative. He's
quite it can vary all over the place,
but there is absolutely no way Mark
Cuban would vote for Trump. I at this
moment in time or support Trump in
politically. So, I don't know what you
want from him, but to me, I thought it
was just a bad a bad um look for for the
left. I thought I really did. I just was
sort of disappointed. Very disappointed.
So, but they're going to drag us for it.
So, too bad. I don't care. All right,
Scott. Let's go on a quick break. When
we come back, we'll talk about Nvidia's
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Scott, we're back with more news. Let's
talk about Nvidia's latest earnings. You
just called them a casino. The company's
profit for the quarter was over 58
billion. They're benefiting from what's
happening now, which is up 211%
from a year earlier. That is a number.
It's not 30%. It's a lot. 3 years ago,
profit was 2 billion. Nvidia projected
sales in the current quarter would reach
91 billion and it would uh as spending
on AI infrastructure would reach 2 to
three trillion in 2030. This is an
insane growing streak, but like you
said, they're benefiting from this huge
spend by all these other companies. Uh
thoughts very quickly.
>> Well, not a casino. They're the house.
>> Okay.
>> All of these companies spending just a
crazy amount of money on 1.6 trillion on
capex are kind of drunk gamblers is the
way I would describe it. And they're
benefiting from it. They're the house.
They're the house when billionaires show
up, sharks with who are drunk and have
unlimited credit at the casino. That's
the way I would describe it. But just in
terms of the earnings, the revenue was
81 billion, up 85% year-on-year, which
was a beat. Earnings per share was a
beat. Data center revenue 75 billion, up
92% as you said, year-on-year accounting
for 92% of total revenue. Again, a beat.
Their Q2 guidance 91 billion above the
86 billion expectations. Another beat.
And their shareholder returns dividend
was raised 25x from 1 cent to 25 cents
per share. 80 billion in new buybacks
authorized. And I mean the reason he's
on that plane to China is there's no
shipments right now and he he's like he
looks at the stock price and thinks I
have got to continue to be
>> continue.
>> Yeah. And the only thing that's I found
really interesting here was despite
beating on every every conceivable
metric, the stock was flat, which says
to me that so the expectations of the
stock price are so enormous now that
they don't they people don't expect
Nvidia to beat, they expect them to
massively beat, which says to me that
the first time Nvidia even whispers
things might be slowing down, it it
craters. So unbelievable company, 15th
beat in a row, but I just think so the
expectations that are built into this
valuation. I think it's the most
valuable company in the world now.
>> Yeah.
>> Um are pretty significant as evidenced
by the fact that it beat on every
conceivable metric and the stock didn't
move.
>> Right. Right. That's interesting. That's
a really good point. Anyway, we'll see.
We'll see what happens. There's a lot.
It's it's precarious
is what I fragile.
>> By the way, stocks off 2% today.
>> Yeah. But let me see a lot. Several
different Wall Street people call me in.
They said, "Everything feels so
fragile." So, we'll see. All right,
Scott. One more uh quick break. We'll be
back for predictions.
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Okay, Scott, bring your predictions in a
second. I just want to note we're going
to be off on Memorial Day uh for
Tuesday. would not be we'll be taping a
show on Memorial Day for Tuesday.
>> All right. Oh, I'm sorry. Um, so I have
one
we talked about late state or 99, but I
I'm I'm going to I just can't help it. I
don't think SpaceX is going to price
near $2 trillion.
>> Okay.
>> The financial suggest
>> I think you're going for it.
>> Well, you're going to have so many
people pouring over this S1 and it's
just pretty ugly. You just read this
thing and you start thinking, okay, this
feels
this feels a little bit, you know,
Iawasa. It just it it's a lot. And if
and if you take each of the three
business lines, space, connectivity and
AI, and apply a comparable price to
sales multiple to each, Rocket Lab for
space, VSAT for connectivity, and
anthropic for AI, which are very
generous, you know, health healthy
valuations and you add them up, you end
up with a valuation of 547 billion. My
my hero on this stuff, Asat Motorin,
valued the thing at 1.1 trillion. And if
you double each of those price to sales
multiples,
um, you assume that each business will
command a valuation that is two times
the typical market rate, you are still
about $750 billion away from SpaceX's
projected valuation.
>> Yeah.
>> So
>> that's being kind. You're saying that's
being
>> if you just get very aggressive and
value every piece of this as a leader in
its respective field
>> and add the Elon plus,
>> you add you get 600 billion and then you
go, okay, Elon effect, double it, 1.2
trillion. So, I've I've always been
wrong around Elon, but I'm saying I
think it's going to I think two China is
a real stretch for here and it's going
to price below that.
>> All right.
>> And then the other one is just boring
one. There's I think you can expect a
deal between the US and Cuba in the
coming months.
>> Cuba is currently in a fullblown crisis.
I absolutely think the smartest thing we
could do is be providing humanitarian
aid and let people decide that they want
to be the 51st state or at least get
along with us.
>> Yeah, I agree.
>> The collapse is comparable. Well, it's
not getting any news because of
everything else going on. But the
collapse is literally comparable to the
1990s crash that followed the fall of
the Soviet Union.
>> Yep.
>> Between December of 2025 and April of uh
26, Cube received just one of the eight
monthly fuel shipments its economies
required requires to function.
>> And blackouts are now, get this, 20
hours a day.
>> I mean, it's crazy. No, we should just
help them
>> 100%.
>> part of the world again. And uh and but
there's going to be a deal here because
Rubio is reportedly having secret talks
with Ral Castro's grandson, bypassing
official Cuban channels. Trump told
reporters in February, Cuba wants to
make a deal. Just yesterday, Rubio sent
video message to the Cuban people,
proposing 100 million in aid, and
blaming Cuba's leaders for shortages of
electricity, food, and fuel. Uh Rubio
was born to two Cuban immigrants, and
this is a deal that he has personal
investment in. He sees this as his run,
his next
>> his
president.
>> All the people
>> sets him up well for a 2028 run. Cuba is
in a deep dark corner. And also Trump,
he doesn't want another military
excursion. There's just there's no
[ __ ] way.
>> There's a way to do this. Just let it
fall apart and we come in and help pick
up the pieces.
>> It's already Well, it's falling apart,
>> right? You know what I mean? It's like,
you know, interestingly, I agree with
you here because I do think it should be
welcomed back into the nations. It's
I've always wanted to go there. You
know, my my actually everyone in my
family has been there but me, which is
interesting.
>> I've been there. It's great.
>> Yeah. That's I just feel like it's it's
a wonderful people and it'll help Rubio
immeasurably. This is at the heart of
his presidential camp. You understand
that? Like it's very clear for at least
for Florida. Um and uh and one of the
things that speaking of collapse, I've
heard from so many foreign affairs
people who I really trust and think are
smart that Russia is very in much
distress. Putin is under much stress
right now because of the situation in
that that in Ukraine, the economy,
everything else. And that they had
thought this is the first time they see
a light at the end of the tunnel,
Putin's rule. Just saying that. Just
putting that out there which was
interesting and
>> I gonna say it as a lie at the end of I
think the end is nigh.
>> The end is nigh. Yes. Whatever. Anyway,
so it's just interesting and we should
do this you know there let me let me
quote that more on Brendan Carr. We can
do this the easy the hard way or the
easy way. Let's do it the easy way with
the Cubans, right? Let's show them the
bigness of the United States and really
help them. And then Scott and I will
open our hotel there and retire.
Okay. Uh okay.
>> Great mojito. Great,
>> great cigars, everything else. Uh, in
any case, we want to hear from you. Send
us your questions about business tech or
whatever's on your mind. Go to
nymag.com/pivot
to submit a question for the show or
call 85551 pivot. Okay, that's the show.
Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure
to like and subscribe to our YouTube
channel. We, as I said, will be back
next week.
Ask follow-up questions or revisit key timestamps.
In this episode of Pivot, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway discuss the acquisition of the Vox Media Podcast Network and New York Magazine by James Murdoch's Lupa Systems. They delve into the broader challenges of the digital media landscape, focusing on the difficulty of competing against tech giants like Google and Meta. The hosts also provide an in-depth analysis of SpaceX's recent IPO filing, comparing the successful Starlink division with other business lines like XAI, which they characterize as capital-intensive ventures. Additionally, they critique Jeff Bezos's recent interview comments regarding taxes and the Washington Post, and discuss Mark Cuban's partnership with Donald Trump on an online drugstore initiative, framing it as a pragmatic approach to healthcare affordability despite political polarization.
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