EVERY SPOKEN WORD
65 min read · 13,018 words- 0:00 – 0:54
Intro
- SGScott Galloway
I started doing it, and I'm sitting there in the park, and I'm like, "Do I really need to be an asshole?" [chuckles]
- KSKara Swisher
D- not today. Yeah, tomorrow. Tomorrow. [upbeat music] Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.
- SGScott Galloway
And I'm Scott Galloway.
- KSKara Swisher
We're gonna do something a little different today and start with a voicemail from a listener who's gonna explain the situation. Let's play a-
- SGScott Galloway
Mm. All right
- KSKara Swisher
... clip.
- SPSpeaker
Hi. After listening to Pivot today, I saw that James Murdoch is buying part of Vox 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 listened to all your podcasts. Keep up the good work. Jenny from Texas.
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, that's a very good question, Jenny from Texas. So in case
- 0:54 – 16:07
James Murdoch Buys VMPN
- KSKara Swisher
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, SB Nation, are becoming a, a different company, a, a new independent company. The deal's 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 three hundred million. The podcast network is the m- the more attractive asset, though we love New York Magazine, and it does rather well. Um, and love Vox. Uh, and so, uh, expl- Scott, people wanna know, uh, what we think about this 'cause a lot of people have bad information. One, first of all, Jim Bankoff is staying as CEO of this unit. Um, it's a spin-off essentially, uh, uh, of, of these assets, and which have been fast-growing. So explain, Mr. Business, explain the situation.
- SGScott Galloway
Well, about a decade ago, people thought, "Wouldn't it be great to aggregate kinda this alternative media or build alternative media companies for a new world?" And so BuzzFeed, Food52, CNET, Vice. Was it called Mic? Uh, Mashable.
- KSKara Swisher
Mic. Mic, yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
And Vox.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
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 SPAC it, and it'll go public at one, two, three billion dollars. 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 w- websites, Eater, Verge, you know, Vulture, and then-
- KSKara Swisher
Thrillist
- SGScott Galloway
... started some nascent podcasts, right? And then essentially what happened was, uh, the market never said okay. There was never... The bloom came off the rose.
- KSKara Swisher
Of all these companies. Mm-hmm.
- SGScott Galloway
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 eighty-six percent. Food52 lost ninety-six percent of its value. CNET lost ninety-four percent of its value. Vice was, I think, uh, basically went bankrupt but sold some assets, was down at least ninety-three percent. Um, Mashable off eighty percent. I mean, just on and on and on and on. Tumblr, my favorite, one point one billion to three million. Uh, if you're an investor in Union Square Ventures, thank God that, [sighs] the guy with the Caesar's haircut, I forget his name, was able to convince, uh, probably one of the weaker CEOs in digital history to buy his bag of shit for one point one billion Tumblr.
- KSKara Swisher
That was Marissa Mayer at Yahoo, but go on.
- SGScott Galloway
Marissa Mayer, right. So effectively, this has just not worked out. Now, what... And what to be, you know, uh, 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 or wrong?
- KSKara Swisher
No, you got that all right. And I think Jim, of all of them, has cannily 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, Re- Recode, was 'cause they were ridiculously priced and were sort of pricing me out. 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. H- And New York Magazine just won a n- a j- a na- the national, the General Excellence Award in the National Magazine Awards. Wonderful.
- SGScott Galloway
Always punches above its weight class. It's like the HBO of magazines, is the way I would describe it.
- KSKara Swisher
Right, exactly. It's amazing. Um, and so, uh, so anyway, so it, 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 gonna start this little podcast called," um, uh, it was Recode Decode at the time, or it might've been something else. I don't even remember what it was. And 'cause I really did have an interest in this area and felt it was shifting, and then they added on, 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 with this, uh-
- SGScott Galloway
A bald man of erectile dysfunction.
- KSKara Swisher
Yes, James. [laughs] Jim.
- SGScott Galloway
James Murdoch. It just all makes sense.
- KSKara Swisher
In Germany.
- SGScott Galloway
It just... Uh, and the Murdochs.
- KSKara Swisher
And Murdochs. And I worked for Sp- for Rupert-
- SGScott Galloway
Life is so rich, isn't it?
- KSKara Swisher
I know. Yeah, I know.
- SGScott Galloway
How did this happen?
- KSKara Swisher
I know, right? I know.
- SGScott Galloway
How did this happen?
- KSKara Swisher
And people are thinking it's very funny for me, especially 'cause 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 Buh- there were so many, I can't even tell you. I d- there... It... Like Disney, they had 19 of these things, and especially the iPad news thing that I thought was ridiculous. Um, and so I wa- 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 G stuff, which is wonderful. Um, and over time, in our recent renegotiation, we became partners with Vox, and they sell our advertising. They he- 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, uh, we, we... I have met with, uh, James Murdoch and, uh, his, uh, wife, um, Catherine, 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, [laughs] um, which has been well documented. Um, and so we have complete freedom to do what we want. We own these podcasts 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 Jim and, uh, and the rest of it, and we hope there'll be more, you know, synergies between them. We don't- we're not, like, a total believer in all synergy, but they've got some cool, uh, things like Art Basel and, um, a number of s- number of-
- SGScott Galloway
Tribeca Film Festival
- KSKara Swisher
... Tribeca Film Festival, which I'll be at-
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah
- 16:07 – 35:03
SpaceX IPO
- KSKara Swisher
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 fi- by the way, they buy a lot of stuff from Tesla, so there's a lot of roundtrippin' happen at the, at these companies. It also reve- all controlled by Elon Musk. They 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 the two signed, meaning Grok will not be using that space in Colossus 1 and 2. SpaceX is reportedly targeting, targeting a $1.7 trillion valuation. I mean, it goes on and on and on, a lot of these, a lot of words like, um, uh, human, I don't know, c- light connection. There's l- uh, AI mentioned a lot. Just, it's, this business is not, economically and math speaking, it's not worth 1.7. M- 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 do- and, and he's, he hasn't done it before. He just moves from one lily pad to the other in terms of, uh, from Tesla to this. But the big, the big winner in this, in, that I read, is, is Starlink does great. The others, Grok and, um, the rocket company is not so much. Go for it.
- SGScott Galloway
I got a lot. [laughs]
- KSKara Swisher
Okay, good. I can't wait.
- SGScott Galloway
So-
- KSKara Swisher
I'm excited.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah, what was-
- KSKara Swisher
Spit it out, Scott.
- SGScott Galloway
You know, at 3:00 AM, I was reading the S- S1.
- KSKara Swisher
I know you were.
- SGScott Galloway
What were you doing?
- KSKara Swisher
I, [laughs] I know you were.
- SGScott Galloway
So first off-
- KSKara Swisher
I glanced at it
- SGScott Galloway
... I have some notes here.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
The first 14 pages of the S1-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- SGScott Galloway
... are pictures of rockets. AI is mentioned 1,200 times in the S1. There are 277 pages of the prospectus. For context, it's longer than The Great Gatsby and The Catcher 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.
- KSKara Swisher
[laughs]
- SGScott Galloway
"For decades, a reality where humanity travels between the planets and the stars has felt tantalizingly close, but still looks-"
- KSKara Swisher
Would you mind if I ate my protein bar while you do this? 'Cause I'm hungry, and I also am fascinated.
- SGScott Galloway
Got it.
- KSKara Swisher
Keep going.
- SGScott Galloway
"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% of the solar system's 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 fucking Christ.
- KSKara Swisher
Oh my God.
- SGScott Galloway
All right, hold on.
- KSKara Swisher
Talk about woke.
- SGScott Galloway
We believe the next paradigm shift for humanity is the creation of a resilient, perpetually expanding, space-faring civilization, ultimately propelling-
- KSKara Swisher
Can you say that in a sexy voice, please? I mean, I need a more sexy voice.
- SGScott Galloway
Ultimately preparing us to Kardashev Type II status, defined as, defined in the filing itself as a civilization that harnesses the full energy output of the sun. Remember WeWork? Its mission was to elevate the world's consciousness.
- 35:03 – 47:11
Jeff Bezos Interview
- KSKara Swisher
we're back. Jeff Bezos sat down for an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin, 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 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.
- SGScott Galloway
For example-
- SPSpeaker
These people, uh, sometimes say that, uh, that, you know, uh, I don't pay taxes. It's not true. I pay billions of dollars in taxes, and it's a per- Again, if people want me to pay more billions-
- SGScott Galloway
Right
- SPSpeaker
... then let's have that debate, but don't pretend, you know, that this, that that's gonna solve the problem. You could, you could double the taxes I pay, and it's not gonna help that teacher in Queens, I promise you.
- SGScott Galloway
Let's try.
- KSKara Swisher
Let's try. That's what I say.
- SGScott Galloway
Let's try. Let's see what happens.
- KSKara Swisher
Let's see what happens, Jeff. The whole-
- SGScott Galloway
If we take his effective tax rate-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, yeah
- SGScott Galloway
... from 16 or 17% to 32 or 34 like the rest of us-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, let's try
- SGScott Galloway
... I don't know. Let's just give it a whirl.
- KSKara Swisher
Let's just give it a whirl, Jeff.
- SGScott Galloway
Let's see. Let's see what happens.
- KSKara Swisher
He was so disingenuous in this interview.
- SGScott Galloway
Let's see what happens.
- KSKara Swisher
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 fucking 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 shit I want. That's-- I, 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 disingenuous. The Washington Post thing drove me crazy, because he's the one who kept the same management in place, then hired a- 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 l- just left, cut their subscriptions, which were, which were s- 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 sh- 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 corp-- uh, don't even get me started with corporations. So anyway, uh, the, uh, the whole thing was... And also, he didn't look well pr- in my opinion. And since he spends so much time on cosmetic stuff, I feel like I can comment upon this. Go ahead.
- SGScott Galloway
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 takes-
- KSKara Swisher
The post office, everything
- SGScott Galloway
... takes his $120 billion in shares and moves to Florida to spend more time with his father and then starts s-selling shares. Now, granted, uh, 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-
- KSKara Swisher
Teachers
- SGScott Galloway
... sit the fuck down. Just sit down. This is a misdirect. A- and it's like when Jensen talks about, "Yes, tax me more." Okay. Uh, uh, 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-
- KSKara Swisher
Correct
- SGScott Galloway
... quotas, you're just not the person to pretend to have empathy for that nurse in Queens. So I'm not even gonna... I'll talk about his idea, but give me the mother of all eye rolls when Jeff Bezos, uh, 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 and mayor, I said, "You fucked up. It shouldn't be universal basic income. It should be basic income. And to get Republicans on board, you need to different frame it. Don't call it universal basic income 'cause 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, 'cause most of those studies show that when you create a government infrastructure to deploy social programs, they're inefficient and never go away.
- KSKara Swisher
Just give them the money. Just give them-
- SGScott Galloway
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 gonna be a sexist here, when they give money to the men, the prostitutes and 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 two million bucks working her ass off as a baller partner at Skadden Arps in Manhattan is paying 54. And fine, maybe she pays s- maybe the person making 10 pel- 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 taxing education and food and housing, you end up-
- KSKara Swisher
Hitting the poor
- SGScott Galloway
... with homelessness.
- 47:11 – 56:42
Mark Cuban’s Deal with Trump
- KSKara Swisher
billionaire, because this was something that happened. I've, we have not said a lot. Our list- some of our listeners are not gonna like what I have to say here, and I don't really care, but I do care, but I don't care. Um, it's unexpected sighting in DC this week, Mark Cuban standing alongside President Trump. Cuban endorsed Kamala Harris, was a big supporter in 2024, and it's been one of Trump's most vocal critics. But the two appeared together as Trump announced a major expansion of Trump Rx's administration's online drugstore. The site is adding more than 600 low-cost generic medications through partnerships with Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs, Amazon Pharmacy, and GoodRx. 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.
- SPSpeaker
It's pretty remarkable seeing you and Mark Cuban up there, and the fact that obviously Mark endorsed Kamala Harris back in 2024.
- SPSpeaker
Well, he made a mistake. It was a big mistake. [laughing]
- SPSpeaker
But what does this say about what you two are building here, the importance-
- SPSpeaker
Well, it says we love people. We love our country. He wants to-- He's got a, a good company, and he's gonna do a lot of business with this. And, uh, I'm gonna get drugs out through Amazon, through the whole group, and we're gonna get drugs outAnd, uh, Mark wanted to be a part of it, and I think Mark was very gracious. He said, "This is something that really works."
- KSKara Swisher
Cuban later posted on X: "If anyone thinks I'm gonna put politics ahead of helping Americans reduce their cost of healthcare and pharmaceuticals, they're a fucking 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 just not true. You don't have to like that he stood there. I get it. I get it. I get it. But he, 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, this 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 d- can't like him, I thought he was a good guy," he is a good guy. He is doing something that I'm sure it makes him deeply uncomfortable for a very good thing, which is to bring lower prices. He's gotta get in this Trump Rx. He essentially took, uh, control of Trump Rx in a weird way because you've gotta 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 maniac who puts his name on every fucking 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. Uh, the only thing I would say was that, uh, I'm not sure. He got gretched. I sent him a note. I said, "You just got gretched." When he, when he first, he started talking about this, this one point seven seven six trillion dollar slush fund for people who would, who-- criminals who attacked the Capitol. I don't know. He got gretched. He was sitting there when Trump was going on about something that's obviously, uh, uh, illegal, uh, or, and also a slush fund. I don't know what, what he... Should he walk out? Should he leave? I don't know. He did laugh at the, "You voted for Kamala Harris." I'm not sure what you do in situat- Should he have sat there and said, "I still would"? I don't know. He would've 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 Zohran Mamdani went there and stood right next to Trump, and everyone praised that. And I, 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 gretched. And so w- w- 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 three years to do so. Your thoughts, Scott.
- SGScott Galloway
If your emotions and political partisanship trump the health of Americans, then the problem is you, not Mark Cuban. Uh, the partnership between Trump Rx and Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs will unlock millions of Americans, uh, in terms of cheaper prices or unlock cheaper prices for millions of Americans. Uh, this week's expansion adds six hundred 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 etanemabi- etanimab, for seventeen dollars. The same drug runs over two thousand dollars at conventional pharmacies. Three PBMs, um, uh, OptumRx, CVS Caremark, and Express Scripts, control roughly eighty percent of US drug access and are untouched by this deal. It-- Look, something has to change, and, uh, 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 fucking adult. Uh, uh, I shouldn't have said fucking. You act like an adult, and you go there. So, uh, you know, you know, w- w- i- if you think that Mark Cuban sold out, then all right, you go buy people's cancer drugs. I, uh, this, uh, uh, 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.
- KSKara Swisher
Right. I would agree. Uh, you just didn't have the right information. The inaccuracy is what dri- I, you, as always, inaccuracy drives me. And to say that, that he's gonna make bank at this is just not true. It's just absolutely not true. And, and you, again, I, I wouldn't wanna 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 it w- Someone needs these drugs now, and he, 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 wanna s- In this case, for the first time, I thought derangement. Don't be so fucking 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, m- I would s- say he's liberal or conservative. He's quite... It c- c- it can vary all over the place, but there is absolutely no way Mark Cuban would vote for Trump by, at this moment in time or support Trump in, uh, 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 th- I really did. I just was sort of disappointed, very disappointed, so. But they're gonna 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 latest earnings.Support for this show comes from ShipStation. As much as we talk about AI, it's only as smart as how you use it, and real breakthroughs happen when the AI is built to tackle specific problems. That's why ShipStation's AI isn't a general purpose tool. It's specialized, trained on decades of real shipping data and billions of actual orders. ShipStation is an end-to-end order fulfillment platform for e-commerce businesses. Powered by AI, ShipStation is trained on decades of data from billions of shipments across the world. ShipStation adapts to your unique business, alerting you when stock is low, recommending the best carrier selections and rates, and automating tasks to save you time so you can stay one step ahead. With features like inventory syncing across your sales channels, a branded returns portal that helps transform returns into revenue, automatic rate shopping, and integrations with accounting and CRM software, ShipStation eliminates the need for multiple tools in your workflow. The sooner you switch, the sooner you start saving time and money. Get started with ShipStation today and get 60 days free at shipstation.com with the code pivot. That's shipstation.com, code pivot. Shipstation.com, code pivot. Taxes and fees apply. Support for this show comes from NPR. NPR understands your curiosity is boundless, but your time isn't. That's why they made Up First. Up First is a podcast that covers the three biggest news stories of the day with reporting and analysis to understand them in under 15 minutes. Look, there's no shortage of news right now, but Up First doesn't just give you the headlines, it gives you the context. Recent episodes covered how American citizens are getting caught in ICE's growing surveillance web, and what the Iran war means for the US economy, and why Attorney General Pam Bondi's exit is bigger than it looks. Three stories fully reported every morning in under 15 minutes. Up First does something most daily news shows don't. It asks better questions to get better answers. Not just what happened, but how it came about, why it's a big deal, and what happens next. That's the difference between knowing the news and understanding it. Follow NPR's Up First podcast so you can understand what matters and what happens next. It's hard news through a human lens. And while you're at it, give money to NPR. They're fantastic, and everything they do is something I hugely admire as a journalist. Scott, we're back with more news.
- 56:42 – 1:01:07
Nvidia Earnings
- KSKara Swisher
Let's talk about Nvidia's latest earnings. You just called them a casino. The company's profit for the quarter was, uh, 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. Three years ago, profit was two billion. Nvidia projected sales in the current quarter would reach 91 billion, and it would, uh, a- as spending on AI infrastructure would reach two 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?
- SGScott Galloway
Well, uh, not a casino. They're the house.
- KSKara Swisher
Okay.
- SGScott Galloway
All of these companies spending, uh, 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 w- 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-
- KSKara Swisher
Amazing
- SGScott Galloway
... from one cent to $0.25 per share, $80 billion in new buybacks authorized. And y- I mean, the reason he's on that plane to China is there's no shipments right now, and he, he like, uh, uh, he, he looks at a stock price and thinks, "I have got to continue to beat."
- KSKara Swisher
Continue. Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
And the only thing that's I found really interesting here was despite beating on every, every conceivable metric, the stock was flat, uh, uh, 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, uh, unbelievable company, 15th beat in a row. But I just think so... The expectations that are built into this valuation-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- SGScott Galloway
... I think it's the most valuable company in the world now-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- SGScott Galloway
... um, are pretty significant, as evidenced by the fact that it beat on every conceivable metric, and the stock didn't move.
- KSKara Swisher
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 precari- it feels precarious, is what I've, fragile.
- SGScott Galloway
By the way, stock's off 2% today.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, but let me say, a lot, several different Wall Street people called me, and they said, "Everything feels so fragile." So we'll see. All right, Scott, one more, uh, quick break. We'll be back for predictions.
- SGScott Galloway
Today's show is brought to you by Vanguard. To all the financial advisors listening, let's talk about bonds for a minute. Capturing value in fixed income is not easy. Bond markets are massive, murky, and let's be real, lots of firms throw a couple flashy funds your way and call it a day. But not Vanguard. Vanguard bonds are institutional quality. Institutional quality isn't a tagline, it's a commitment to your clients. It means top-grade products across the board. The lineup includes over 80 bond funds that are actively managed by a 200-person global squad of sector specialists, analysts, and traders. A lot of firms love to highlight their star portfolio managers, like it's all about that one brilliant mind making the magic happen. Vanguard's philosophy is a little different. They believe the best active strategies shouldn't be locked away with one person. They should be shared across the team. So if you're looking to give your clients consistent results year in and year out, go see the record for yourself at vanguard.com/audio. That's vanguard.com/audio. All investing is subject to risk. Vanguard Marketing Corporation distributor.
- KSKara Swisher
Support for this show comes from Navan. Business trips are great. The baggage that comes with them is not. The shuffle of paper receipts, the dreaded post-trip paperwork. Navan deletes all the grunt work so employees can actually focus on the business part of business trips. More than 12,500 companies, including Box, Anthropic, and Crate & Barrel, refuse to work the old way. They choose Navan to make the manual expense report extinct. So if you want to save 15% on your T&E budget, yes, 15%, check out navan.com. Okay, Scott, we're going to do predictions in a second. I just want to note we're going to be off on Memorial Day, uh, for Tuesday. We'll not be, we'll not be taping a show on Memorial Day for Tuesday.
- SGScott Galloway
All right. Oh, I'm sorry. Um, so I have
- 1:01:07 – 1:06:08
Predictions
- SGScott Galloway
one. We talked about late state or '99, but I, I'm, I'm gonna... I just can't help it. I don't think SpaceX is gonna price near $2 trillion.
- KSKara Swisher
Okay.
- SGScott Galloway
The financials suggest otherwise.
- KSKara Swisher
I like that you're going for it.
- SGScott Galloway
Well, you're gonna have so many people poring over this S1, and it's just pretty ugly. You just read this thing, and you start thinking, "Okay, uh, this feels, this feels a little bit, you know, ayahuasca." It, 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, ViaSat 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 fi-, $547 billion. My, my hero on this stuff, Aswath Damodaran, 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 its b- typical market rate. You are still about $750 billion away from SpaceX's projected valuation.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
So-
- KSKara Swisher
That's being kind, you're saying. That's being-
- SGScott Galloway
If you just get very aggressive-
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm
- SGScott Galloway
... and value every piece of this as a leader in its respective field-
- KSKara Swisher
And add the Elon plus
- SGScott Galloway
... you at, 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 gonna, I think $2 trillion is a real stretch for here, and it's gonna price below that.
- KSKara Swisher
All right. Okay.
- SGScott Galloway
And then the other one is just a 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 full-blown, full-blown 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.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. I agree.
- SGScott Galloway
The collapse is comparable. 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.
- KSKara Swisher
Yep.
- SGScott Galloway
Between December of 2025 and April of, uh, '26, Cuba received just one of the eight monthly fuel shipments its economies required, uh, requires to function, and blackouts are now, get this, 20 hours a day.
- KSKara Swisher
I mean, it's crazy.
- SGScott Galloway
Um, and the-
- KSKara Swisher
No, we should just help them-
- SGScott Galloway
100%
- KSKara Swisher
... become part of the world again.
- SGScott Galloway
And, and, uh, and, but there's gonna be a deal here 'cause Rubio is reportedly having secret talks with Raúl Castro's grandson, bypassing official Cuban channels. Trump told reporters in February Cuba wants to make a deal. Just yesterday, Rubio sent a 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-
- KSKara Swisher
His president
- SGScott Galloway
... his next ticket on his run for president.
- KSKara Swisher
It'll, it'll win back all the people to, to, uh-
- SGScott Galloway
Sets him up well for-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
Episode duration: 1:06:09
Install uListen for AI-powered chat & search across the full episode — Get Full Transcript
Transcript of episode l56H6Z9g9o0
Get more out of YouTube videos.
High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.
Add to Chrome