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5:03
>> Today is Friday, August 1st, 2025.
5:03
We are live from Manhattan from New York City. >> The Big Apple. >> The Big Apple.
5:10
The city that never sleeps.
5:12
>> And we certainly have not been sleeping a lot this week.
5:15
>> I got a pretty good night's sleep last night.
5:16
>> Decent night last night. >> Massive day. Massive. is so wild and exciting.
5:21
>> Still feels like a dream.
5:22
>> Yeah, really, really crazy that everything came together.
5:24
So, if you weren't watching, we were at the New York Stock Exchange uh yesterday for the Figma IPO uh and uh Jordy was getting emotional over software basically the entire time.
5:39
You've actually used Figma for a decade.
5:41
It was an interesting uh it was an interesting first IPO for us to cover live uh from NY because it was a product that I've been such an active user of for so long and genuinely >> love and uh and I and I was thinking if next next software IPO the likelihood that I will have any emotional attachment to the product is like near zero. >> Exactly.
6:05
Like like I love the core weave guys.
6:07
We've had them on the show, but it's like I'm not a Core Wee user, so it's a little bit more abstract >> in many ways.
6:12
Like Figma is one of the one of the few like like enterprise SAS products that people like genuinely like deeply love and have an emotional connection to. So, >> super super fun.
6:25
Um, thank you to Lynn Martin and the whole team for hosting us.
6:30
Uh, I was looking down on the floor.
6:33
There's a bunch of other media companies with dedicated space and I thought maybe >> there my favorite moment of the entire stream was when you had told the story of hanging out in Figma as like a third space during COVID with uh a couple of your team me team members >> Chris the CTO we talked about it. >> Yeah.
6:53
So, so, so you talked about it a few times and you'd mentioned that like, yeah, it's so interesting that like, you know, it was this space where we'd hang out.
6:59
Uh, and then, and then, uh, Dylan came on and was like, yeah, we're seeing this like weird phenomenon in people.
7:06
>> People would use it as a third space.
7:07
And I was like, how did you predict this? Uh, but it really was. Yeah. Yeah.
7:11
It's real, so it makes sense.
7:13
>> Um, >> and uh, we of course are recording this at uh, 6:48 Pacific time. So, >> welcome.
7:19
It's our friends on the West Coast.
7:21
uh sorry to uh go live uh before you're waking up, >> but the good news is that Reream works 24 hours a day.
7:29
If you're looking to publish a stream to multiple platforms, get on Reream.
7:34
>> Uh and also thank you to RAMP for making this possible. Time is money. Save both. Go to ramp. com. >> Easy.
7:40
>> Incredible timing with RAM.
7:40
Ramp's announcement this week. Fantastic.
7:42
It was a massive, massive week.
7:46
>> Really backto back wins.
7:48
>> Back toback big days for us. >> Big wins. Um, yeah.
7:49
And then, uh, we had a really fun time last night.
7:52
We, uh, co-hosted an event with Emily Sunberg from Feed Me. Uh, it was fantastic.
7:57
Uh, we were at San Vicente West Village, uh, and Jeff Klein and Abby and the whole team there.
8:06
Uh, we planned the event roughly >> we locked it in like 24 hours before, >> uh, we it actually started.
8:13
So, uh, it really came together and it was super fun. >> Yeah, it was great.
8:17
So, thanks to everyone who attended and thank you for Vanta for making all of this possible. vanta.
8:22
com automate compliance, security, and trust.
8:24
Uh, and you can go to vanta. com to get started.
8:27
Um, so, uh, Apple beat earnings. Uh, >> there we go.
8:33
>> Apple's iPhone sales blew past Wall Street's expectations in the June quarter, helping to lift the company the company's overall revenue about 10% from a year earlier. Interesting.
8:41
We've been tracking >> Apple Apple uh lands a windfall as customers race to beat tariffs.
8:49
>> Tariffs that Yeah, that's the story.
8:49
I think that what's really driving iPhone adoption is uh just Gerard and Metics against uh against what we did with Tyler.
8:59
People saw, oh, if I beat ArcGI as a human, I deserve an iPhone, a little treat.
9:05
And so, I think we kickstarted a trend.
9:06
And I wouldn't be surprised if the leaderboard, if I opened it up, it's it's uh tens of millions of people that have treated themselves to an ArcGI and then and then gotten a new iPhone out of it.
9:17
Yes, >> I think there's there's probably something there.
9:20
>> There's something there.
9:20
Uh but uh on a more serious note, uh Ralph Winclair in the Wall Street Journal has the story.
9:26
He says, "Apple's iPhone sales blew past Wall Street's expectations in the June quarter as some US consumers rush to buy their devices before potential price increases from tariffs."
9:36
I didn't realize that the the prices are going up because of tariffs.
9:41
Meme had actually taken hold. >> Yeah.
9:45
>> Especially because it felt like on day one, >> Apple was maneuvering to never be in a situation where tariffs were going to affect the iPhone.
9:54
We put up that poly market um >> where we were saying, "Will the next iPhone be over a thousand dollars or under thousand dollars?
10:01
Like where will that sit?"
10:03
And so there was like plenty of data points and and very early you could see that uh that Tim Cook was negotiating with Donald Trump to make sure that that that the prices weren't moving very heavily.
10:12
But of course there's always like a impending possibility that something happens.
10:15
But it was it was odd that uh I I I wasn't aware that like this happened a lot in the automotive industry.
10:25
Every single dealer was using the pending tariffs as to get people in the door to convert and stuff.
10:29
Yeah, but the I I mean Apple store, it's not exactly the same.
10:33
It's not used car salesman energy at the Apple store.
10:34
You think they're like people?
10:38
>> They probably weren't pushing it, but I think people underestimate how many people are are iPhone uh buyers that are still price sensitive and and the difference if price goes up 20%.
10:46
They're going to um you know, they they care about saving.
10:51
The weird thing is like I feel like right now I always feel like it's a bad time to buy an iPhone because they release every year and and and I and I want it the day it comes out and then even if I'm like a month in like if the new iPhone comes out October 1st, if it's like if it's like December, I'll be like I'll just wait till the next one comes out.
11:10
>> I know these people rushing to buy.
11:12
>> But if you buy this and then you get the new and and then the next one's going to be a proper I think a proper refresh of the design.
11:17
the design. we saw that new C maybe maybe going less camera bump maybe the the flash and the LAR or the the dot the dot projector kind of moved over and so there's a few different things that could be different and all of a sudden you could be stuck with an iPhone that
11:31
doesn't doesn't scream I have the latest and greatest which I think people uh often enjoy although although all of the design iterations have been so subtle um the upgrade from even even four years ago to today you really have to notice like okay yeah the the edge of screen's like a little bit thinner and that's it. Uh anyway, uh the robust sales growth
11:50
Uh anyway, uh the robust sales growth for the company's signature product was the highest increase in years, exceeding 13%.
11:57
And I mean, I feel like we talked about this a couple months ago on the show.
12:01
The like the iPhone had fully saturated, reached maximum penetration, and was plateauing in China, losing ground there as the Chinese were moving to more domestically made and domestic brands, the Huawei phones, etc.
12:15
And so, >> when we talked about it a couple months ago, we were we were certainly not expecting a big jump in iPhone sales. >> Yeah.
12:25
Remember earlier this week it was reported that Apple was closing a retail store in China for the first time. >> That's right. That's right.
12:31
So, um, shares rose by about 3% in after hours trading.
12:35
Overall sales came in at $94 billion, about 10% higher than the same period year a year ago.
12:40
Um, so that puts them almost just almost at a 400 billion ARR.
12:47
>> Um, which is nice to see.
12:48
>> In China, for the first time in two years, Apple's revenue uh rose.
12:49
Uh it's a little bit of a comeback story.
12:53
They had >> suffered six to seven consecutive quarters of decline >> uh prior to that.
13:00
Um so again driven by >> increased iPhone sales.
13:03
Um I guess there is >> real demand for the 16.
13:08
Um and they uh they were running a bunch of but they were discounting going into some local uh festivals there.
13:15
So Tim Cook said the company will face tariff costs of about 1.
13:19
1 billion in the July to September period compared with 800 million in the June quarter.
13:24
That's still so little when you're making a hundred billion dollars.
13:29
It's I mean it's a 1% tax effectively. Yeah.
13:31
Uh and so I do wonder if if this is uh dramatically changing the amount of tax that's actually paid from Apple to the US government in on a regular basis because uh I mean companies are famous for you know being in Ireland and withholding the earnings and then you know not just not generating a ton of cash and investing in R&D or stock buybacks and just doing everything that they can to mitigate the tax burden.
13:58
I wonder if this is a this is a meaningful >> Yeah.
14:00
It wasn't too long ago that Apple was sending how many 747s uh to pick up they were like evacuating iPhones. >> That's right.
14:08
They were they they were worried about the the tariffs in a in a pretty serious way.
14:12
But >> I think that was more so hey if we get all this inventory to the states today we're going to save >> you know however many it's just good practical business decision.
14:22
So uh so the CFO Kevin Periq said the company saw some obvious signs of pull ahead demand related to tariffs earlier in the quarter.
14:32
He attributed about 16th of iPhone sales growth to such purchases.
14:38
So uh what they say the growth was 14%.
14:41
So one six of that you know an incremental 2% of of sales coming from uh customers who were worried about tariffs.
14:47
Um he said um uh the rest was due to very strong upgrade performance in general. Interesting.
14:54
Another I mean that's just like the health of the American consumer.
14:57
Like people are not they're like I like my phone and I still have a job and I'm making a decent amount of money so now is as good of time to upgrade as ever.
15:07
>> Um another bright spot was an increase in China sales. Wow. Uh unexpected.
15:12
After declines in recent years the tariff impact could rise in the near future.
15:15
an exemption for smartphones from reciprocal tariffs is expected to to lapse.
15:20
Um when it does, Apple could face steep tariffs for iPhones that originate in India as well.
15:25
Uh especially after President Trump announced new levies on India on Wednesday.
15:31
Tariffs are just one issue that Apple has weighed has weighed on Apple shares this year.
15:36
Apple has kept spending uh kept spending in check relative to Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta Platforms, of course, because of their massive AI investments, which we will get into.
15:46
Um, but some investors are wary of rewarding that discipline as it points to the iPhone maker struggle to keep up with an AI arms race.
15:54
Maybe they should be spending $70 billion on capex to build a foundation model. Who knows?
16:01
um gross margin came in at 46. 5% above the 45. 9% expected.
16:06
And so uh the the the really interesting question is just like what does the next iPhone refresh look like and how much does it change the actual e economics of the business if they do that fold in phone and people uh love it and then there's a whole new upgrade cycle.
16:24
Like imagine if if it really becomes a status symbol and everyone on the pro phone needs to upgrade and it's a $2,000 phone instead of a $1,000 phone.
16:32
Like that's a pretty that could be a pretty significant driver of growth. >> Yeah.
16:37
Uh what he uh mentioned um uh Tim Cook discussed uh openness to M&A on the earnings call as well which is interesting. >> Yeah. And um >> what they buy? >> Yeah.
16:52
>> Everything's so expensive.
16:52
When you look through the history of Apple's acquisitions, it's like Yeah.
16:55
Like they they >> remember Beats, they bought for $3 billion.
16:59
That's their largest acquisition of all time.
17:02
>> Their run rate at the time was a billion dollars a year. >> They paid 3x revenue.
17:07
>> 3x revenue uh to buy uh >> and they probably they probably sold so many Beats headsets. Yeah.
17:13
You don't >> that 10 times over.
17:13
You don't see Beats, at least I don't see Beats very often out in the world.
17:20
>> Not that often, but I I definitely see good reviews for the for the the AirPod competitors that are more athletic and they wrap around the ear.
17:27
Some people say they don't fall out of your ears if you're doing like really extreme athletics.
17:31
Uh, and they definitely sell.
17:33
Um, and then and then I think Siri was like >> no more than a couple hundred million acquisition.
17:38
And they also bought Shazam and that was also not a huge acquisition.
17:42
They've never done some sort of massive multi-billion dollar acquisition that was frothy. >> Yeah.
17:48
So Tim said, "We see AI as one of the most profound technologies of our lifetime.
17:52
We are embedding it across our devices and platforms and across the company.
17:56
We're also significantly growing our investments.
17:59
>> Uh Apple has always been about taking the most advanced technologies and making them easy to use and accessible for everyone.
18:04
And that's at the heart of our AI strategy. Uh all sounds good.
18:06
I feel like the I feel like the text to speech has gotten better.
18:13
>> Not the speech to text, that's still bad, but the the this the text to speech because I was I was I was pulling up a semi- analysis article uh on Wednesday and I went into reader mode and I told Safari, the native Safari app, >> read this to me.
18:29
And it sounded pretty reasonable.
18:31
And so I think they updated the model at some point because it used to be really robotic and now it's it's it's not quite at the level of chatt when chachi pt reads you something but uh the the text speech was pretty pretty good and and it should it should get better.
18:46
It should get better very very quickly. Um anyway, >> yeah.
18:49
Um so capex uh like you said is up, but uh it doesn't I I I don't have the exact data point here, but the thing to note is that it's not an exponential increase in capex.
19:01
And they've uh said that they're going to continue to rely on like third party capital providers for some of these investments.
19:06
And so they just said broadly don't expect capex to rise anywhere near what other hyperscalers are doing.
19:12
Uh the other thing that's uh interesting in uh relation to their notes on M&A is that uh Apple's acquired seven companies this year. >> Yeah.
19:25
>> And I'm struggling to think of any of them.
19:28
Um >> I mean the the the most recent Apple acquisition I can think of is like you have a buddy who sold a company to them, right? Or something like that.
19:36
>> That was like years ago. >> Yeah.
19:37
But like that's the one that comes to mind and it's only because it's like an in-et network deal.
19:40
So, uh, yeah, they've acquired seven companies this year.
19:44
Tim says none were huge in terms of dollar amount.
19:48
>> Yeah, I remember when I was digging into how they built >> and he also said Apple's making acquisitions at the rate of one every several weeks.
19:55
So, it's just >> wow >> quite strange um not uh >> again not hearing about uh a lot of this. >> Yeah.
20:05
I I mean, Applecom's famously locked down, so it's not like they're doing some like, you know, mutual podcast tour if if if they do some sort of deal.
20:14
It's usually like come into the organization and then we're going to we're going to run a pretty tight ship.
20:20
Um, I remember when I was digging into the the precursor, like the the the rumors around the Apple Vision Pro a few years ago before the VR headset dropped, before their augmented reality headset um dropped.
20:30
Um, >> and a lot of a lot of the technology that went into the Apple Vision Pro was acquired in >> Yeah.
20:38
>> Uh, and so like Apple Vision Pro, they they acquired some teams, but they also acquired some patents and some technology and a whole bunch of different things together.
20:45
>> Ben Taft, uh, neighbor of mine and close friend.
20:48
So he that one of them he was working on a virtual reality product uh called Mera and his entire I believe his entire team is still at Apple.
20:55
Um >> and uh anyway so Zuck earlier this week also shared that he believes that uh uh so eyewear will be like one of the important new computing platforms.
21:08
Uh Tim Cook on the earnings call yesterday was was asked about uh nextgen computing platforms and and just hardware broadly and he said it's difficult to see a world where the iPhone's not living in it.
21:23
That doesn't mean we aren't we are not thinking about other things as well but I think that AI devices are likely to be complimentary devices not substitutions.
21:31
Uh so obviously uh going to be uh somewhat biased there given that the iPhone is the greatest cash cow in human history.
21:41
But um I I tend to agree and I do believe that's how a lot of I mean that's how a lot of these hardware new AI hardware companies are messaging.
21:51
They're calling it a net new device, not a necessarily a replacement. Um so we'll see.
21:56
I think per Perplexity is working on a phone.
21:58
Uh Salana is working on a phone and those are um there's just a lot of people that are taking crack taking a crack at the market.
22:06
So obviously >> nothing's working on a phone. Nothing has a phone. >> Nothing has >> Yeah. Odd odd company name. I know. Yeah.
22:14
>> Uh >> well uh the market is selling off broadly today.
22:17
The NASDAQ's down 2 and a half% so far.
22:19
And uh Apple is one of the more stable in the Mag 7.
22:23
Most of the Mag 7 companies are down 2 to 3%.
22:25
Apple less than 1% uh on this news.
22:28
On the flip side, uh Amazon also reported earnings and is down 7% and is doing much less well.
22:37
But it's interesting because uh the headline in the journal is cloud helps catapult Amazon and um and like the the short of the long and the short of it is that Amazon beat expectations on both revenue and earnings and did very well.
22:54
But there was a big question about how AWS is performing relative to the competitors in the cloud.
23:01
And so um there there was still a lot of pressure and there's some there's a few posts in the timeline about Amazon we should pull up.
23:06
But I will first uh give a little bit of an overview of what happened uh uh with earnings but also let me tell you about graphite.
23:18
dev dev from one thing >> smooth John >> um >> uh teams that ship on GitHub use use graphite code review in the age of AI get on graphite.
23:27
dev uh >> CEO was at uh the event last night and got some fantastic updates on the business.
23:34
So team is absolutely crushing.
23:37
>> Um so cloud helps catapult Amazon e-commerce giants quarterly earnings beat Wall Street's expectations. Amazon.
23:43
com reported sharp increases in sales and profit, partly fueled by the growth of its cloud computing business.
23:50
The company said Thursday that revenue rose 13% in the second quarter to 168 billion. Profit increased 35%.
23:55
The sales and profit expectations beat Wall Street's expectations.
24:00
Uh the results beat the expectations.
24:02
AWS um uh reported that sales climbed 17.
24:05
5% in the three months following the earnings report.
24:10
Amazon shares fell 7% in aftermarket trading because the cloud business wasn't growing as much as its rivals. It's such a bull market.
24:17
It's such it's such a hot market that uh you it's the red queen race.
24:22
You have to keep up with everyone else.
24:24
Uh Jeffree post here from uh Buco Capital Bloke.
24:27
He said, "Doug from JP Morgan asks why a AWS is growing slower than Azure and GCP."
24:35
And Jasse responds with some weird comment about the law of large numbers and the Genai customer experience and the stock instantly yeetss four negative 4%.
24:44
Imagine your company losing 96 billion from your bad answer. Lol. So >> yeah.
24:50
>> Um, love large numbers.
24:50
What is he trying to say?
24:52
He's just like like we're we're we're so big and because we are the biggest that it's harder for us to to grow at the same percentage rate.
25:00
Is that what he's saying?
25:03
You know, >> Britain uh Britain who's uh again biased, he's over at Microsoft now.
25:08
He says AWS was leading when they had inertia on their side. I saw it break and left. >> It is wild.
25:19
>> I mean, >> some of the developer advocates get wild on the timeline. Love it. >> It's war. >> Yeah, it's war. >> Blood sport to them. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's It's remarkable. So, yeah.
25:29
Uh Jeffre is saying the same thing.
25:31
Disappointing given the momentum at Microsoft and Google's units.
25:33
Of course, Google has Gemini. Microsoft has Open AI. Uh Google has the TPU.
25:42
Microsoft is uh is uh you know a massive NVIDIA customer and has all the open AAI and the Crusoe facility.
25:47
There's like so many different uh tiers of capabilities at Microsoft.
25:52
Satcha has been messaging very very well to the enterprise about the capabilities of Azure as that cloud routing model.
26:01
The idea that we we have basically the best asset in the category.
26:06
We have completely differentiated access to OpenAI which is the the one that if you just ask people on the street what is AI? They'll say oh chat GPT. Oh, just chat.
26:14
Like that's the one that they're familiar with.
26:16
one that they're familiar with. It has massive brand recognition and Microsoft has a preferential deal there and then >> but at the same time yeah at the same time I think that businesses make much more >> uh you know >> researched decisions around us and
26:33
that's why we talked with Aby earlier this week he's saying he's running friend on on Gemini uh >> yeah but >> notable yeah but uh but but Amazon's been able to to act as that model router for a lot of companies obviously uh not with Gemini But the uh but with llama and grock that will serve all these different things. And so uh AWS just
26:50
And so uh AWS just doesn't quite have that same narrative like like we can describe Google's and GCP's uh plan in the sense that it's like they're staying on this paro frontier with Gemini.
27:01
They have all these great models.
27:03
We can describe Microsoft strategy with uh getting super early in OpenAI and then acting as you know model agnostic and serving Grock and Llama and DeepSeek and everything.
27:14
Um, it's harder to articulate AWS's AI strategy.
27:17
>> Uh, direct quote here from Andy.
27:17
We have more demand than we have capacity right now.
27:22
We could be doing more revenue and helping customers more.
27:23
And we're working very hard on changing that outcome and how much capacity we had.
27:28
>> Uh, he did say that constraints such as power and chip availability may take several quarters to resolve.
27:34
>> So again, >> the backlog >> the backlog is real, but Satia >> and Sundar are still putting up >> putting up numbers. Yeah.
27:42
Uh but uh so Amazon is best known for its e-commerce business which no one cares about anymore because they only care about AI at this point.
27:51
Uh and it's heft in the retail industry makes it a bellweather for consumer spending. It's business.
27:57
>> I am interested to see I wonder if they had any comments about um about the new dimminimus exemption. >> Yeah. Yeah. Look that up. Amazon spent $30.
28:08
4 billion on capex in the second quarter.
28:12
much higher than analysts forecast of 26 billion.
28:14
So 31 to 26 that's a pretty that's a pretty big jump and that puts them on a 120 $125 billion capex run rate that is that is massive and that definitely puts them at the top of the stack.
28:30
>> Uh like its rivals but of course like if you're if you're investing that much in data centers like you have to put up the numbers uh in the growth of the cloud.
28:38
Um, like its rivals, Amazon has been trying to cut costs while increasing capital expenditures and integrating AI.
28:45
Uh, Jasse said that AI would be where where are we going with this?
28:49
Um, would be uh would would result in the company having fewer white color workers.
28:58
The company spokesperson recently said Amazon would lay off a number of employees in its cloud computing division in part because of shifting business priorities. Hm. Interesting. Um I don't know.
29:07
I was talking more with Joe Wisenthal last night about um uh why you would turn down one of Zuck's offers, the white whale.
29:17
whale. why why you would stay at OpenAI and and one of the um one of the >> or thinking machines or anthropic >> any of those player >> and I and I I was thinking that um there's this there's this world where the if you if you want to be like a top executive it's there's something
29:39
powerful about being at the company where that's the main thing >> being top that's true also just being in the top 10 kind of key players in an org versus being top 50 at meta, you're going to be able to have potentially more impact, responsibility, uh, and and ultimately Yeah. influence on this like broader
30:00
influence on this like broader trend. >> Yeah. Yeah.
30:03
Like it the thinking machines one's a little bit more complicated, but certainly like the question of like why didn't Mark Chen accept like a billion dollar offer to go to Meta?
30:12
to Meta? like the financial stuff maybe maybe that pencils out but I think the the other interesting thing is that um it's like it's like like for Google search is the priority search is the is the most important it's the crown jewel of the of the overall structure of that
30:30
of that business and so if you're the number one researcher the number one guy or the number one person the number one executive in search like that's extremely valuable um And at with with um OpenAI being in that position in with Chat GBT, you are like the market leader right now. If you think you can maintain
30:52
If you think you can maintain that, it's like even if even if Meta puts up a really great performance and creates a great number two product, there could be a really steep power law where you're you're running something that is is not as important as Facebook and Instagram to their bottom line, to their business. >> Yeah, that's true.
31:14
>> I think the already already rich reason uh is is probably a real factor as well.
31:20
I I would be hard uh don't know any details at all, but I'd be hardressed uh to believe that Mark Chen is not worth at least half a billion at this point.
31:31
So, >> uh anyways, >> uh well, in other news, Ray Dalio has sold his last remaining stake in Bridgewwater and left its board, capping the protracted transition from the hedge fund firm he founded.
31:43
Uh, and really quickly, let me tell you about numeralhq. com. Sales tax on autopilot.
31:50
Spend less than 5 minutes per month on sales tax compliance. Thank you for clapping.
31:54
>> Great transition, John. Still got it. >> Still got it.
31:56
Uh, so yeah, Ray Dalia has been Oh, >> and by the way, if you're just joining us, uh, early show today.
32:02
Uh, we are still in >> York and we will be, uh, headed back to LA later today. >> Yes.
32:13
Um, we should do Coinbase at some point, but um, in the meantime, uh, Ray Dalio sold his last remaining stake in Bridgewwater Associates and stepped off its board, capping a tumultuous transition at the hedge fund he founded.
32:25
Bridgewwater bought the remaining shares held by its charismatic billionaire founder.
32:30
The firm told clients in a letter last week.
32:35
People familiar with the matter said Bridgewwater subsequently issued new shares to the sovereign wealth fund of Brunai in a multi-billion dollar deal that gave the Southeast Asian fund a nearly 20% stake in the Connecticut firm.
32:47
Neither transaction has previously been reported in Bridgewwater's letter didn't mention the Brunai Investment Agency, the Sovereign Wealth Fund, has been a longtime investor and transferred its money invested in a Bridgewater fund to invest in the firm's equity.
33:00
So, they're rolling from LP to GP stake basically.
33:04
Um, the Brunai Fund now ranks as one of Bridgewwater's biggest owners.
33:11
Uh, though co-investment chief Bob Prince has a larger stake, said one of the people. Uh, Dolly was 75 now.
33:15
That really I feel like he that crept up on me.
33:21
I I feel like I when I think of him I I don't think of him as that.
33:24
I feel like I feel like >> you don't think of him as a >> 75 guy. >> You wouldn't.
33:30
>> He looks great and he's and he's like Yeah.
33:32
And he really is like charismatic, but he brings a lot of energy to his podcast. >> Certified status.
33:38
>> Certified status, but also Yeah.
33:38
Just like an incredible amount of energy.
33:41
And he doesn't look he doesn't look like he's like fighting it. I don't know.
33:44
And he probably wants to focus on being a content creator. >> Probably.
33:48
I mean, two bucks under his belt. >> I've done it all. >> He's done. >> He's done it all.
33:52
>> I just want to make Tik Toks now.
33:54
>> Have you seen his like social distribution strategy? >> Oh, it's it's great. >> Fantastic.
33:59
>> Probably has a thousand clippers globally.
34:02
>> Whoever whoever he hired actually turned his book into like a straightup mega viral YouTube video with graphics and did it really really well.
34:10
And the team that was on that just executed at a very very high level.
34:14
It was it was very surprising given that you wouldn't expect that to come from like a Connecticut hedge fund that's like so out of the YouTube world. Totally.
34:20
But, uh, he's done very well.
34:21
Um, >> so, uh, Dalio in a statement that said he looks forwards to Bridgewwater's future success in his role as a client and a mentor.
34:31
He remains invested in the funds.
34:33
People close to the firm said they hope that Dalio's exit from its ownership ranks and board will simplify its governance.
34:39
Though Dalio has given up his CEO, co-investment chair, and board chairman roles over the years, in addition to selling down his own stake, he had remained actively engaged, regularly making requests and registering complaints, said people.
34:53
He's still giving us feedback, and he said he was leaving.
34:57
>> That's that's that's been something I've been I mean, we we'll have Gurley on the show at some point, but uh I've been trying to get a read on, you know, is Yeah.
35:07
what's what's really soft power over benchmark.
35:09
He's still >> he he went over to China recently, I think, to check out what's happening in in AI there.
35:16
>> Um, benchmark >> people and people definitely read Bill Gurley's tweets and see that as like an uh like a proxy or a s a surrogate.
35:22
He's like a surrogate for benchmarkers.
35:26
It feels like that, but I don't know.
35:28
I don't know what's actually going on. >> Yeah.
35:30
The question is uh yet is he could he still be one of their largest LPs, right?
35:37
And then in that case like you do exercise quite quite a lot of >> totally can totally >> exercise influence over the firm. >> Yeah. Yeah.
35:45
Uh so he's he's remained actively engaged which is also hilarious because are you familiar with how Bridgewwater like tracks every meeting?
35:53
Are you familiar with this?
35:53
So Bridgewwater famously like records every meeting and transcribes it all and makes it all available or they did for a long time.
36:03
time. Yeah, >> I don't know how much of this is like apocryphal, but uh the idea is that >> back in the day was radical was there somebody >> I think so >> actually Stripe does something somewhat similar where Stripe uh for a long time and I think it's probably evolved in the age of Slack and chat and whatnot but for a long time uh by default every email was on kind of a list serve that
36:29
anyone could look at and so you could go and see and trace through not just the GitHub, you know, pull request history of how Stripe was built as a software product, but you could actually go and read the emails that the product
36:45
managers were sending sending around, what the engineers were discussing, all the different trade-offs that led Stripe to build certain things, certain ways, and so incredible for onboarding. >> So if you wanted to Yeah. If you wanted
36:54
>> So if you wanted to Yeah.
36:54
If you wanted to figure out basically the why behind anything, you could without bothering anybody or making them repeat. Yeah.
37:02
>> The reasons or remember all the the >> and then remember we we we talked to Jeff at at Stripe.
37:07
He came on the show and he was saying that like we're really glad we did that because now we have this incredible log of of stuff that's already public within Stripe >> and you can probably now query it and organize it or >> what are all the what what are the key meetings that like drove this decision or this product?
37:25
Who who are the who were the people that pushed for those?
37:29
were the people that you know had concerns about it >> and so and so you can query.
37:33
So I think they've done that and then he was also saying that they they can they now have I believe like an AI agent that's proactive and will actually jump in and say based on what I know like you two are talking about this you probably want this extra context even though you didn't even ask me.
37:48
Uh so that's very interesting.
37:50
Anyway, uh Bridgewwater's been doing that for a very long time.
37:52
They called it radical transparency.
37:52
It was uh very controversial because it's it's such a bizarre way to run a company.
37:58
It's very different from most hedge funds.
38:00
Um, but it worked out and and a lot of people that have been at Bridgewwater have certainly enjoyed it, even though it is kind of an acquired taste.
38:06
Um, but it certainly resulted in uh fantastic performance for the fund.
38:11
Uh, in 2011, Dalio said succession at Bridgewater would be a 10-year process.
38:16
Um, we're now 14 years into this process.
38:18
Little little uh miscalculation there.
38:21
Uh, it has been a protracted, messy affair, says the Wall Street Journal.
38:25
The firm tried various numbers and combinations of CEOs.
38:27
One of them later sued, then settled with the firm.
38:32
Bridgewwater chief executive uh Near Ne near Bardia and Mike uh McGavoc, co-chair of the firm's board, wrote in the letter to investors that the sale of Dalia's last shares was an ideal culmination of the ownership transition process.
38:46
They said Dalio, the board, and employees would celebrate the firm's 50th anniversary together in Connecticut, New York.
38:53
Bridgewwater's assets under management have fallen in recent years to just $92 billion.
38:56
Just a just a small >> just a small 92 billion fund.
39:03
Still massive, but this is down from 168 billion in 2019. It's pretty massive.
39:08
I mean, it is it is the world's biggest hedge fund or one of definitely in the top 10.
39:15
And I remember a decade ago, these these hedge funds were like being in the 10 billion range would put you in the category of being the biggest and they've all basically 10xed, I believe. >> Yeah. >> Fascinating.
39:26
Anyway, >> well, >> Coinbase earnings, >> end of an era. Coinbase earnings. Uh, let's walk through.
39:33
>> But first, let me tell you about adquick. com.
39:34
Out of home advertising made easy and measurable.
39:35
Only AdQuick combines technology, out of home expertise, and data to enable efficient, seamless ad buying across the globe.
39:44
We need to go see our billboards while we're here. John, >> we do.
39:48
We still haven't seen them in person.
39:49
I've seen so many photos.
39:49
I feel like I've seen this.
39:51
So, uh, Coinbase in summary, um, they they missed on topline but beat on bottom line.
39:56
Uh, revenue was, uh, estimated to be what was it?
40:02
Uh, one point um one point wait topline verdict. Uh, 1. 59 billion.
40:06
uh and they posted just slightly below 1. 4 billion.
40:14
So, Coinbase said its profits surged in the second quarter.
40:16
So, that's the bottom line.
40:18
Beat fueled by gains in its investments including crypto company Circle Internet Group.
40:22
So, they're making more money from Circle uh and that's obviously higher margins.
40:26
So, that's driving higher uh profits.
40:27
So, the cryptos the update >> since the journal is already out of date.
40:34
Coinbase is down 15% today. >> 15% today. Wow.
40:37
still sitting at 82 billion. >> 82 billion.
40:40
Uh, Coinbase Global, led by CEO Brian Armstrong, said it earned $1. 4 billion or 5.
40:44
14 per share in the second quarter compared with 36 million a year ago. That's a huge swing.
40:51
That's the nature of this company.
40:53
Um, uh, it's still not on this like, you know, uh, just like, you know, clockwork, uh, clockwork profit.
41:04
So, if you look at this chart here, I don't know if you can see this, Jordy, but um it's like it's like very neutral profits and then just put up a billion dollars in profit and then very neutral profits and then and then like break even and then a billion.
41:21
Break even and then a billion.
41:22
>> So, naturally the >> real founders journey >> the the share price is just going to fluctuate wildly. >> Yes. Yes. Yes.
41:27
Um >> still almost a 10x from the bottom uh >> wow >> uh in 2022.
41:31
So uh um the company said uh it's the increase was driven in part by a pre-tax gain from its investment in stable coin provider Circle Internet Group, which had a blockbuster stock market debut in June. Total revenue rose to 1. 5 billion from 1.
41:48
4 billion a year ago, but fell short of Wall Street's expectations.
41:52
Analysts were expecting 1.
41:54
59 billion in revenue for the quarter.
41:56
On a quarter-by quarter basis, revenue fell 26% uh from over two billion in the first quarter.
42:02
Um which the company attributed in part to lower market volatility.
42:07
So if you remember Q1, the liberation day, Bitcoin was all over the place and there were talks of the sovereign wealth fund in the United States.
42:17
There was so much crypto news back and forth, back and forth.
42:19
That was all driving volatility and that was driving volume on Coinbase and obviously revenue for Coinbase.
42:24
uh transaction revenue declined from 764 million uh to to 764 million from 781 million a year ago.
42:34
Um the slide was caused by a slump in spot crypto trading activities during the three months that ended June 30th.
42:42
Total trading volume rose to 237 billion in the second quarter from 226 billion a year ago.
42:48
to drive its next leg of growth.
42:50
Coinbase said it aims to become the everything exchange and focus on tokenization with a conver or the conversion of trading financial of traditional financial and real world assets into tradable tokens on chain.
43:02
The company also has been working to diversify its business and recently partnered with JP Morgan Chase and PNC Bank to facilitate the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies by their clients.
43:11
I think a lot of that is on the back of a couple acquisitions that they made for custody.
43:16
There's I mean co Coinbase at this point goes all the way from you know a like a consumer you know like just general user who just downloads the app wants to buy a couple dollars of Bitcoin all the way up to the largest institutions in the world at this point.
43:32
We're really really widespread of the client base but I think that's part of the strategy.
43:35
Um, meanwhile, Coinbase has been capitalizing on moment on momentum under President Trump's crypto-friendly positions with Bitcoin trading near its peak of more than $120,000.
43:48
Shares have jumped 52% this year, cementing it as one of the largest publicly traded crypto companies with a market cap of more than 90 billion, although it is of course down today. And Bitcoin is at 115. >> Yeah.
43:59
Outside of uh the numbers, the the thing that stood out was Brian's messaging around uh he says it here on Coinbase post, right? Yeah.
44:07
Coinbase is becoming the everything exchange.
44:09
All assets will inevitably move on chain.
44:14
So, we want to have everything you want to trade in one place.
44:15
Uh incoming our DEX integration uh which will allow uh users to access millions of assets and expansion of our derivatives offerings.
44:26
Uh he says next are tokenized equities and more.
44:28
So again we covered this before but it feels very much like Coinbase and Robin Hood are converging towards uh to to to old >> Super Bowl Super FinTech Super Bowl.
44:42
>> We're not going to we we don't like the war analogies.
44:43
That's too that's too negative. >> Yeah.
44:46
>> I like the I like the sports analogies.
44:48
I'm going >> NBA Finals >> the NBA finals of fintech. >> Truly.
44:52
And it's funny cuz like when both of those companies started around the same time I believe Andre and Horowitz invested in both of them.
44:57
Um yeah and uh I mean I I I went through I was in the same YC batch loosely with Brian Armstrong and Coinbase and then I remember talking to Chris Dixon at a dinner and he was like hey like you know you're like young like what apps are you using?
45:13
And and the one app that I was on my phone that was like an upand cominging startup was Robin Hood >> and he was like he was like why are you investing in public equities? Yeah.
45:20
I was like, I >> remember Mickey from Ribbit is also early in Coinbase and Robin Hood, right?
45:28
So, >> all is converging. >> Yeah.
45:31
Mickey is just wearing the NFL hat like the I just support all fintech.
45:36
>> He's like picking a team. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.
45:38
It was the Rob Low, I believe, is the meme. Rob Low in the NFL hat. You've seen this? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It's great.
45:43
Um, anyway, let me tell you about adio. com.
45:45
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45:53
Um, let's go through the mansion section.
45:55
Find me some posts on the >> Before that, let's give a little bit of coverage of uh updates on on the Figma IPO.
46:02
>> Of course, uh there was a funny post in here from Jawan. >> Okay.
46:08
>> Jan apparently got a uh offer back in 2019. >> Okay. >> S territory.
46:16
and he was gonna get a base of 165k a year and 300,000 in Figma RSUs >> 300,000 shares >> and uh I guess by his calculation it would have turned into 30 million but the important thing >> Jawan is now uh getting the the ability to spend his time automating finance. Yes.
46:41
Uh and certainly >> didn't uh pick a bad company to join on that front.
46:45
Uh Gary Tan says, "If you stick around in tech and you're good, sooner or later you start collecting these stories." Yeah.
46:53
>> Um >> I think remember Gary designed the Palunteer logo back in the day. >> Crazy.
46:58
>> And I wonder if he held on. Uh >> I know. Yeah.
47:03
It's a trillion dollar company.
47:04
>> More uh Siki ran some numbers.
47:04
Siki Chen said there's 10x returners, there's fund returners, and there's Figma.
47:11
Figma alone returned 10x the entire fund of not one, not two, but three VC funds.
47:19
So, um, he pulls up Index Ventures, which made their initial investment out of a seed fund.
47:24
Uh, the it was a $4 million investment or 3.
47:28
9 million out of a $400 million fund, and it is a $1,850X multiple.
47:37
They're they're >> What's the multiple of fund on that?
47:40
>> The fund multiple is 18x.
47:40
Greylock, who did Greylock, who did the series A, >> uh, is sitting on an 11X fund.
47:46
They did the the series A out of a $600 million fund.
47:51
KP, which did the series B um, uh, is uh, sitting on a 10x fund out of a $700 million fund, which is just wild.
48:02
And then Seoia uh will will have returned uh one and a halfx on a two and a half billion dollar fund. >> That's crazy.
48:12
>> So um >> just from that one deal.
48:13
And then there's other >> stuff.
48:15
Gary uh chimes in says grand slam home run business. >> Yep. Yep.
48:20
>> It's not just a home run business.
48:20
It's a grand slam home run business. >> Yeah.
48:23
This is good advice for all the VCs out there.
48:24
And >> just get one Figma in your >> I noted this on the timeline yesterday, but we are retiring the gong uh that we had at NY.
48:33
It's a game hit gong uh by none other than Dylan Field.
48:37
So, we still need to get him to uh sign it uh and date it, of course.
48:42
But um pretty pretty wild.
48:46
Um Delian says, "Greatest capital markets on earth, greatest country on earth."
48:52
throws up not one but three American flags.
48:54
Uh quoting signals u signals post.
48:58
He said nothing hits like an IPO in America.
49:01
It's the most iconic cultural moment that's relatively infrequent.
49:05
The most beautiful part about it is that only here does a company going public trigger a national feedback loop of inspiration.
49:10
Kids watch it, builders feel it, and the next gen catches fire.
49:15
Nowhere else turns liquidity into legacy like this.
49:17
So, >> signal is such a funny posting style. >> Very very unique. >> Good job.
49:26
>> And uh yeah, pretty pretty insane.
49:31
Uh we also didn't really cover this yet, but uh Chat GBT is apparently now generating a billion a month in revenue. >> Yeah.
49:39
>> Um but but is projecting to burn 8 billion in 2025.
49:42
What is Oh, so so they will so they'll generate 12 billion in revenue and and it sounds like they're run rating >> run rating a billion >> run rating a billion >> a month.
49:53
So they're 12 billion a year.
49:55
>> And the other story here is that Anthropic is now at 4 and a.
49:56
5 billion in annual annualized revenue.
50:01
>> DD is calling it DD Doss is calling it the fastest growing software company in history.
50:05
>> Um and they just overtook OpenAI to become the market leader in LLM API cost.
50:11
>> Uh so he drops an analysis here.
50:11
So >> well if you want to use AI use Finn AI the number one AI agent for customer service.
50:18
Finn is the best performing AI agent delivering higher quality customer service and higher resolution rates.
50:22
And um uh another post here uh so of course a couple days ago Mark Zuckerberg announced his vision for personalized super intelligence personal super intelligence for everyone.
50:38
Uh, Near says, "I'm having flashbacks of 2023."
50:44
And it's a post by Character AI that says, "Uh, we started Character AI to bring personalized super intelligence to everyone on Earth."
50:51
Uh, so anyways, funny little throwback.
50:54
Uh, funny little throwback there.
51:00
And then in other news, one thing I wanted to highlight, uh fintech, uh junkie, uh what's his I feel bad that uh I don't uh remember his real name, but uh clearly he's uh running as Fintech Junkie >> end to end now.
51:18
Uh but Fintech Junkie was a uh founding partner, co-founder of QED Investors.
51:28
uh >> fintech uh invest in investment group uh backed a bunch of companies.
51:32
I think they were >> I think they led like two two rounds in Wander and they're in a bunch of great stuff.
51:37
Um he's introducing 37 Maru uh and taking a step back from QED. Now he's 37 Maru.
51:46
>> So at a high level 37 Maru is a small batch idea factory with one simple app approach.
51:51
identify profound problems, develop well-thoughtout solutions, find amazing founders to partner with, and then obsessively build together.
51:56
So, uh, venture venture studio is is my read on it.
52:01
This is my chance to collaborate with the many remarkable people I've grown to know and respect in the VC world, as well as the opportunity to partner with a few hunger eager founders, capital Founders, to build special businesses together.
52:11
37 Maru isn't an incubator or an accelerator.
52:15
It's a way for me to throw my time and resources at a very small number of ideas and roll up my sleeves as an operator once again.
52:21
Um, it is uh got to put them in the truth zone here a little bit because this this does seem like the definition of a of a venture studio, so to say.
52:32
It's not a it's not an incubator.
52:36
Um, uh, and he says, "I don't plan on doing it alone.
52:39
Every idea will require a co-founder.
52:40
Every idea will require require hiring amazing people to work with. >> Yeah.
52:46
>> Um >> and uh >> what's the name again? 37 Maru. Is it MU? >> Mu.
52:51
>> You think that's is that a reference to move 37 and the Kobayashi Maru from Star Trek? >> It must be. It must be. Here's Kobayashi Maru.
53:01
>> Kobayashi Maru is this like it's like the final exam that you have to take at Starfleet or something. I don't really remember.
53:05
remember. Um uh in the simulation it's a training simulation used by Starfleet Academy to test cadets character decision-m and how they handle a no- win scenario part it's a legendary part of Star Trek lore and then move 37 from the
53:21
Lisa doll deep mind match but then there's also 37 signals and I don't know where Jason came up with 37 how he picked that because he named 37 signals before move 37 so it's clearly not a reference to deep mind um >> maybe move 37 is >> a reference to 37. They're like, "We saw
53:36
They're like, "We saw DH's Valkyrie and we're embedding.
53:39
We're sending code messages.
53:43
>> We saw his remote work set up." >> Yes. Yes. >> We want that.
53:46
The super intelligence wants that. >> Yes. Yes. Yes.
53:48
And I can only communicate with you via numbers via So the the the the super intelligence locked in Alph Go is like, I need to send a signal to patterns that don't exist.
54:01
>> Put me in the car and take me around the track.
54:02
I need to fill the G-forces.
54:02
Um well 37 Maru's investment themes algorithmic isolation >> uh which he's saying personalized content algorithms are fracturing our shared cultural experiences leaving us with less common ground than ever before.
54:17
Uh the algorith algorithms powering our daily digital diet have become remarkably sophisticated at learning our preferences and serving us exactly what we want to see.
54:25
Um, I'm not going to read through all of this, but uh, he basically is referencing >> back in the day radio, TV, everybody was kind of like consuming a lot of the same media.
54:36
Uh, and, uh, you could strike up a conversation with anyone about last night's episode or this week's hit song.
54:44
Um, I do feel like I I gota, you know, my immediate thought is is when a tweet deeply resonates with me. >> Yep.
54:52
>> Most most of our friends I feel like have already seen it.
54:54
also thought it was funny.
54:57
So there's like some effect of like >> even if a group of people don't follow the same person like if you have like again like common ground with somebody already then then the content will be served to you.
55:08
>> But anyways he wants to um uh fresh tools and experiences that focus on shared content and group activities.
55:16
uh music's missing layer uh says the music industry offers consumers inexpensive passive streaming services and expensive engaging live events leaving a vast opportunity for new products to emerge in the middle.
55:28
Uh the access paradox zero commission trading apps have democratized market access but created a generation of untrained investors gambling with sophistic with sophisticated financial products they don't understand.
55:40
I think some people like that they don't understand it makes it more exciting.
55:44
Um and uh he let's see here >> understand the internals.
55:50
>> He wants to create creative new approaches are needed to support ongoing waves of participants focusing on innovative tools, intuitive safeguards and adaptive resources rather than conventional teaching.
56:00
>> Have you ever heard of dice control?
56:01
Have you ever heard of this this theory?
56:03
So at at the craps table, you know how you have to like throw the dice? Yeah.
56:07
And there's like and there's like like you can't just be like I threw it like that, you know?
56:10
They like you have to throw it across the table.
56:12
It has to bounce hit the back and the back has like this spiky foam that makes the dice go in random directions. Yeah.
56:18
So in theory it's like impossible to to be like I'm intentionally good at throwing snake eyes or I'm intentionally good at throwing, you know, seven in theory.
56:27
But dice control is is a thesis that some people believe that you can actually control the dice.
56:34
You can actually become so precise at throwing the dice that you're like, "Okay, I know that if I throw it that the perfect perfect arc, it will bounce once, do do a 360, bounce another time, do a do a 720, and then land exactly where I want.
56:50
>> I need back to back to back 720s." >> Exactly. And I'm the money. >> Exactly. Exactly.
56:54
So people There are people that believe this and I and I guess in theory you could do it 10xes in a row, John, and I'm I'm a billionaire. >> Yeah. Yeah. And uh Yeah.
57:02
I I'm thinking of the financial markets equivalent of that now.
57:07
>> Well, 37 Maru's last theme is financial nihilism.
57:10
So, he simultaneously wants to >> uh build here. What's going on?
57:16
>> Well, no, I I like it.
57:16
Like on one hand is like new approaches that help people that are new participate participants in financial markets and then the other side is just is just like life's a casino. >> Sure. Sure. Sure.
57:26
Um and uh he says a new theory is needed to help restore society's confidence in the achievability of realistic financial goals.
57:34
So this is more focused on uh yeah helping people get out of being blackpilled and towards ownership.
57:40
I mean I think that that um the uh the Gersonner accounts that Trump is rolling out >> uh are are an example of that but that's a you know public solution versus private.
57:55
Has anyone built a casino on top of that yet where you can wrap the Gersonner accounts and trade forward contracts against your Gersonner account in a in the most in the highest leverage casino possible?
58:05
>> Miss Rachel meets like Robin Hood and he's just teaching four-year-olds to to use options.
58:11
>> I mean I mean I I I do I do like that he's coming out with some strong thesis about how he wants the world to look and then executing on that.
58:18
I'm thinking of uh other folks who have done that like Trey Stevens with the Soul Reader, the the K the Face Kindle.
58:24
He's like, you know, I I I like to read.
58:26
I want portability, but I don't want the the infinite dopamine machine to read.
58:31
I don't want to read on the infinite dopamine machine.
58:35
So, I'm making a pair of of e- in glasses that let me read uh in essentially isolation.
58:41
Palmer Lucky, same thing with chromatic uh and mod retro.
58:46
thinking about I I I want the world to embrace this nostalgic legacy technology.
58:52
I think there were things that were done very well.
58:53
So, I'm going to go and and marshall resources and to actually go and build that company that otherwise would just not exist because it's not it's not a natural path that the the the the business community or the capital markets would like go and fund.
59:06
So, he has to marshall himself.
59:08
>> Also important, I finally remembered Fintech Junky's name, which is Frank Rottman.
59:12
So, we should have him on the show.
59:14
I've always appreciated his writing over the years and uh we'll reach out Frank. >> Fantastic.
59:20
>> Well, let me tell you about Bezel. Get bezel. com.
59:22
Bezel is the top marketplace in the world for authenticated luxury watches. Thank you.
59:25
And uh speaking of the luxury world, maybe we should >> wait before we go into that.
59:31
I just have one more one more story that dropped.
59:34
>> Okay, tell me tell this week by uh Andrew Ross Sorcin contributed to it.
59:36
Uh we got to hang with Andrew last night. >> Absolute legend. absolute legend.
59:44
It >> was a pleasure talking to him.
59:46
>> Yeah, it was a pleasure.
59:46
His day is like very inverted from ours. He sucks.
59:50
>> He's clearly he's clearly much better at this than us. >> He had uh Yeah. No, there's levels. There's levels to this.
59:55
You basically show there's levels.
59:57
>> There's levels to this, >> you know.
59:58
So, we do the show for us.
59:58
It it sits in the middle of every single weekday.
1:00:02
That makes it very hard to have any type of deep work or anything like that.
1:00:07
>> We're doing it on hard mode.
1:00:07
Andrew last night goes, "Yeah, I think about it as like I do television on my way to work because he does he he he works he he's live like 6:00 to 9." Yeah.
1:00:17
>> Uh Eastern and uh >> anyways, very cool.
1:00:20
Uh but he contributed to this piece in Dealbook.
1:00:25
Uh new exclusive OpenAI secures another giant funding deal.
1:00:27
The venture capital round values the chat GPT maker at 300 billion >> and underscores the fierceness of the AI money race.
1:00:36
I've been hearing rumors about 350.
1:00:37
300 seems like potentially an absolute steal.
1:00:42
>> So, OpenAI's latest mega round.
1:00:42
While Wall Street has been focused on how tech giants are spending on artificial intelligence, the most prominent name in the field, OpenAI has been racking up big money.
1:00:50
Dealbook is the first to report on the huge numbers and what the round means for the company behind Chat GPT.
1:00:56
In an increasingly heated AI race, OpenAI has raised 8.
1:00:59
3 billion at a $300 billion valuation, months ahead of schedule as part of its plans to secure four 40 billion in funding this year. Um >> billion. >> Yeah.
1:01:11
And again, I believe that uh uh yeah, the the whole, you know, a lot of the deals with MASA were getting like announced with like clearly like Masa needed some lead time to pull the capital together.
1:01:24
obviously is very bullish on the company.
1:01:26
Um so back in March, OpenAI announced ambitious funding plans with SoftBank committing to provide $30 billion by year end.
1:01:32
So Moss is just racing uh you know dialing uh probably flying all around the world to help put this money together.
1:01:40
Might might end up being one of the biggest SPVS of all time in the private in the in the venture uh in the venture context.
1:01:48
It's hard to think of print out the SP SPV document and hang it on the wall.
1:01:54
Um uh and again they they're burning eight like roughly 8 billion this year.
1:01:59
So they they do need the cash.
1:02:01
Uh a wave of new investors participated in the new round including private equity giants Blackstone and TPG and the mutual fund manager Tro Price. >> Yeah.
1:02:10
>> Uh so really going after the big dogs.
1:02:12
Other participants include Fidelity Management, Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, Andre Horowitz, CO2 Management, Altimter Capital, D1 Capital, Tiger Global, and Drive Capital.
1:02:19
just just a few of our >> just a few of uh former guests of the show.
1:02:24
Blackstone and TBG aren't major investors in AI model makers, but they were seen by OpenAI as particularly valuable since they can promote the adoption of chat GBT among their portfolio and companies, including those in healthcare, financial services, and industrials.
1:02:37
The round was five times oversubscribed uh and left some early investors in OpenAI frustrated by the smaller allocations they got as the company prioritized bringing on new strategic backers.
1:02:47
The lead investor was Dragon Investment Group, which committed 2. 8 billion.
1:02:52
Uh, you got the size going there? >> I do. >> There we go.
1:02:56
Uh, an astonishing check from a single venture capital firm that may be one of the largest ever written.
1:03:03
Uh, the investment cast a spotlight on Dragon, which made successful early bets on companies like Airbnb, Spotify, and Uber, but has largely stayed behind the scenes in SV.
1:03:12
Mark Stad, Dragon's founder, is now taking a very public claim on what many in Silicon Valley see as the defining tech platform of the next decade.
1:03:20
The investment represents about 10% of the firm's funds, which I'm just reading as AUM. >> Yeah.
1:03:27
>> Uh, OpenAI's business continues to surge.
1:03:29
Dealbook hears that the company's annual recurring revenue has soared to 13 billion, >> up from 10 billion in June, and is projected to surpass 20 billion >> uh by end of the year.
1:03:39
So, uh, >> it is funny when, you know, you just see people, uh, I think we talked about this on the show last week.
1:03:47
Um, >> all the all the stuff around, you know, GPT psychosis felt like, you know, massive comm's crisis brewing.
1:03:55
Uh, but we said at the time numbers still going to go up, right?
1:04:01
Like the usage is just astonishing.
1:04:04
Uh the number of businesses business business users who pay for chat GPT has reached 5 million up from 3 million just a few months ago.
1:04:11
The new funding round uh comes amid OpenAI's delicate negotiations with Microsoft.
1:04:19
>> Uh remember that OpenAI is seeking to become a for-profit company which uh of course Microsoft needs to sign off on >> uh as which is still its biggest investor and partner. >> Yeah.
1:04:30
>> Yeah. remember a couple was it a couple years ago or maybe even just a couple months ago people were like oh the foundation model labs are cooked all the value will acrew to the application layer and then open AAI is just like cool like what if we got an application
1:04:45
installed on everyone's phone and then charge them $200 a month for it like could do you think we could make a billion a month >> 5 million B2B >> user paying B2B users too >> yeah like they're dominating in in the application layer >> absolely Absolutely. And uh all of this,
1:05:00
And uh all of this, you know, the the uh negotiation with Microsoft as well as some of this new capital like a lot of the new people coming in traditionally, you know, some of the largest asset managers in the world.
1:05:12
Uh it does feel like there's a the path to IPO is is starting to become uh quite a bit more clear. >> Yeah.
1:05:20
Well, uh we know that they use linear. You got it on linear. Linear.
1:05:22
app meet the system for modern software development.
1:05:26
Linear is a purpose-built tool for planning and building products.
1:05:30
uh in other open >> one thing.
1:05:31
>> one thing. So Dylan uh when we interviewed uh Dylan >> yesterday he was highlighting how design is a like competitive advantage and that's the edge and there's no better example than linear that's just been again one of those companies that has to have incredible product and incredible
1:05:49
product experiences and design because they're helping people design and build products >> and uh just a perfect example where they came into a crowded category uh and it's really one of those like Jurro dreams of sushi businesses where again they weren't the first um tool uh in their category. There's companies with
1:06:07
There's companies with billions of dollars in revenue and they just focus so >> uh you know intensely on on making a delightful product.
1:06:15
So >> yeah uh in other OpenAI news they are doing Stargate Europe.
1:06:18
OpenAI is joining forces with two European companies to set up a data center in Norway uh dubbed Stargate Norway.
1:06:26
The project is expected to house 100,000 Nvidia GPUs by the end of next year.
1:06:32
OpenAI is partnering with AI infrastructure company Nscale Global and industrial group Aer to set up uh a facility in uh Kandal just outside Narvik in northern Norway.
1:06:44
The company's jockeying for the position in the AI race are seeking to expand data center infrastructure to meet the energy needs to power the technology.
1:06:52
And if you're looking to travel the world, get on wander, find your happy place, happy place, >> uh, book a wander with inspiring views, hotel, great amenities, dreamy beds, top tier cleaning, and 24/7 concier service.
1:07:04
Um, and so yeah, yeah, the the the there was that article a while back that was saying like Stargate isn't going well. They've scaled it back.
1:07:11
And it's like it just keeps I I keep abstracting it into like, oh, well, what is a Stargate?
1:07:17
Is if if Stargate is just build a lot of data centers, like we can build data centers. it is possible.
1:07:22
centers. it is possible. Uh the question is like can you build more than can you build 500 billion dollars worth of data centers extremely quickly and the answer is probably no but if you shoot for the moon you land in the stars and that's
1:07:36
kind of what's happening where uh it seems like Stargate will have a lot of really really big facilities all over the place and like that will be uh like a compounding advantage and a and a continuing uh a continuing project for everyone involved. Uh and so some of the
1:07:50
Uh and so some of the folks in the group, SoftBank, Oracle, uh and MGX are equity funders in Stargate.
1:07:57
Uh and they committed a h 100red billion initially with plans to invest up to 500 billion over the next four years.
1:08:01
Um so in other news, the mansion section has dropped. It's Friday >> finally.
1:08:09
It's >> one of our favorite sections.
1:08:10
Uh from uh let's see, is this in focus? No.
1:08:12
Well, we we'll we will pull that up in just a second.
1:08:16
Uh, so tech founder Eugene Nonco has paid $51 million for an oceanfront home in Delray Beach, the highest recorded home sale in the city.
1:08:24
Eugene, co-founder of the software company Media Alpha.
1:08:30
Have you ever heard of this company, Jordy? Media Alpha.
1:08:34
He has uh his wife Olga Nonko bought the home from IARE mogul Masimo Musa.
1:08:42
Property records show Musa had taken the home off the market and initially listed it for 60 back in 2021.
1:08:45
Uh the nonos declined to comment.
1:08:48
No one no one's commenting, but the home is very interesting.
1:08:52
Masa and his and his ex-wife Carrie Wo paid around 9 million for the Delray Beach land in 2002 and spent around 5 years building the home.
1:09:02
Uh the property has n has a nine-bedroom, roughly 22,000 square foot main house as well as a guest house.
1:09:06
The estate's amenities also include a gym, a roughly 1,000 bottle wine seller. Not too helpful for me.
1:09:15
I guess I could put a bunch of Diet Coke there.
1:09:16
Uh, but this is where it gets interesting.
1:09:19
Guess how many movie theaters this house has.
1:09:24
>> I mean, since you're ask three, >> two, >> damn.
1:09:27
>> It has a formal movie theater for guests and another movie theater just for kids. >> I love that.
1:09:34
It's like I don't want the popcorn in the seats of the kids to watch whatever the parents want to watch versa. >> Exactly.
1:09:42
>> Although it's somewhat I mean you know people are going to critique this and say like it should be a family experience you know shared experience >> lost social time.
1:09:50
>> lost social time. Oh yeah yeah yeah controversial but yeah uh you know many people are in the market for a two bed two bath get a nine bed two movie theater a thousand model wine seller uh seems like a fun house um Musa co-founded several companies including the in the eyeare industry including my
1:10:09
iab and the lasic vision institute which he sold because uh he sold this house because he wanted to downsize uh media alpha and and I I've never heard of this company media alpha but I wanted to dig into it says in late 2024 media alpha but was notified by the FTC uh was prepared to file a complaint against the company for alleged deceptive marketing practices. As of April, Media Alpha said
1:10:28
As of April, Media Alpha said it was in active settlement discussions with the FTC.
1:10:32
In June, the company announced that Eugene Nonco would step down as Media Alpha's CTO and become the chief architect.
1:10:39
And so, I guess he founded this company uh stepped into the CTO role instead of the CEO role.
1:10:45
um now is stepping down and still uh was able to purchase a $51 million home.
1:10:50
So, has clearly done very well.
1:10:52
Uh the previous Delray Beach record was set at 50. 5 million.
1:10:57
So, just barely edging that out earlier this year.
1:10:59
The area has seen a number of high-end transactions recently.
1:11:03
Um and uh another property.
1:11:06
>> I mean, this this home is truly palatial.
1:11:09
>> It is it is it is very loud opulent.
1:11:12
The gold over the >> look statues of philosophers. >> Philosophers. Oh, no. I haven't seen this.
1:11:21
>> Um, >> but the the the golden fireplace is really really something.
1:11:24
Anyway, uh, another tech founder who I think we are >> one thing if if we can really mine that asteroid that had however many. >> Yes.
1:11:33
Many more palatial >> 20 million tons coming to the market.
1:11:37
Everybody is going to have a golden uh fireplace like this.
1:11:40
So, universal basic golden fireplace coming soon.
1:11:42
So, everybody can look forward to that.
1:11:46
>> What was the What was the Donald Trump thing?
1:11:47
He had a golden toilet in uh in the Trump Tower apartment that he had.
1:11:49
I mean, everything was gold in that apartment, but also the I think I believe >> Oh, that's another thing.
1:11:54
While while we're at it, we got to cover the White House is uh creating a new ballroom secretary.
1:12:03
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1:12:05
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1:12:06
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1:12:13
Uh so tell me about the I I saw somebody was saying oh I thought it was 9,000 square feet which is would already be huge for a ballroom.
1:12:21
Apparently it's 90,000 square feet. Is that correct?
1:12:23
How big is this ballroom? >> Uh yeah.
1:12:26
So the press secretary announced yesterday the construction of a new 90,000 foot ballroom. >> 90,000 square feet. That is so huge.
1:12:34
going to be able to fit quite a lot of people in there.
1:12:37
That should be where we do the next event uh with Emily. Uh seems like an ideal.
1:12:42
I know uh I know some people that could probably get us access to that to that to the space.
1:12:49
Obviously, we'll have to wait a few years.
1:12:50
Uh but construction is expected to begin in September.
1:12:54
>> Uh it sounds like this is being funded by donors.
1:12:56
Secretary says President Trump and other donors have generously committed to donating the funds necessary to build I'm pretty sure a football field is around 50,000 square feet.
1:13:09
>> So you're it's twice it's two football fields.
1:13:12
>> That's that's absolutely >> maybe Trump wants to be able to hold like a like a gladiator style.
1:13:18
>> He went he went to the >> NFL allstar game. >> Yeah.
1:13:22
The uh >> really could he you could do UFC you could probably do UFC there.
1:13:26
>> You could do Wrestlemania.
1:13:27
>> It's 50 A typical football field is 57,000 square feet.
1:13:30
So, we have we're going to have a >> with some stands.
1:13:35
>> America needed a presidential >> uh ballroom of >> Where is this going to be? In the White House. No, >> in Washington. >> Okay.
1:13:42
Just somewhere in DC because they can't possibly find a spare 90,000 ft in the White House, right?
1:13:47
That it would make no sense. >> Yeah. Let's see.
1:13:50
Um but but what I what's exciting to me is like the space is like we should uh it shouldn't be hopefully this is not uh nobody sees this as hyper political.
1:14:00
I'm sure will but the space looks uh absolutely beautiful and I think it's important to exercise the muscle of building beautiful things. >> Yes.
1:14:10
Although it is it is somewhat ironic because uh Trump was a little bit upset about the Fed remodeling a bunch of stuff and spending a ton of money on a on a building funded by donors. Okay. Okay.
1:14:21
So, so no no impact on the taxpayer. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Got it. Makes sense.
1:14:25
A little bit more defensible. We'll see. >> Sure.
1:14:27
I'm sure I'm sure somebody can figure out how >> how it's going to impact the taxpayer, but who knows?
1:14:32
Hopefully it's built quickly.
1:14:34
That would be my biggest hope.
1:14:36
Uh anyway, should we move on to uh what's going on in Miami?
1:14:40
>> Uh we area pen houses sold.
1:14:40
This is fun because it's a it's a uh so look up open evidence and pull up the cap table because I think you're going to want to dig into this company.
1:14:49
Uh, we haven't had Daniel Nadler, the founder, on the show yet, but we got to talk to him because I've heard a lot of people talking about Open Evidence.
1:14:56
Uh, so this spring, 42-year-old tech entrepreneur Daniel Nadler gave up his Miami rental apartment and moved into a beachfront hotel.
1:15:06
We were talking about living in hotels uh, recently.
1:15:08
Uh, when and where you stand on that.
1:15:12
The goal was to be was to streamline his life and focus on building open evidence.
1:15:17
his Googlebacked medical AI company, which is now valued at $3. 5 billion dollars.
1:15:21
Uh, quote from him, "I didn't want the overhead of dealing with houses and all the stuff that comes with houses."
1:15:28
He said, "If I could wake up at 4:00 a. m.
1:15:30
and just order room service, this is so perfect. I love it."
1:15:35
Uh then a point then a friend pointed out that the hotel where he was staying, the Four Seasons at the Surf at the Surf Club in Surfside, Florida, also had condos for sale, which is hilarious that you're you're staying there and you don't realize that they're it's like uh that's kind of an L on the Four Seasons for not upselling.
1:15:51
It's like you >> you have a guest here that's just >> you stayed here for a month.
1:15:54
Why don't you just tell them about the condo that's right over there?
1:15:57
But >> friend of the show lives in in a in a Four Seasons really uh I think uh Mr. John Fentino.
1:16:03
Doesn't he live in in a residence?
1:16:06
>> No, I didn't know that residence.
1:16:07
>> Uh so this week uh he he checked out of uh the hotel and moved over to the condos. He paid $ 38.
1:16:14
2 million in cash for a fully furnished penthouse at the beachfront surf club. Four seasons, $38.
1:16:22
2 million for a 6,000t 5-bedroom uh penthouse with a rooftop pool.
1:16:26
Uh the seller was tied to an entity um who bought the triplex for three stories.
1:16:34
>> Open evidence >> for30 million.
1:16:36
>> Uh open evidence uh just a couple weeks ago uh raised a new round uh of $210. $210 million.
1:16:46
>> $210 three and they raised $210. Everybody give it up. Hit the size.
1:16:51
>> You probably you probably could do that.
1:16:53
Just raise $210 and then just put that out there and people will misprint it and you'll get all the press you need. uh led by GV and KP. Okay.
1:17:00
>> Uh and valuing the company at 3. 5 billion.
1:17:03
So uh he I imagine >> uh was able to to pull enough liquidity.
1:17:08
>> And I believe this is one of those stories where the company's been going for a long time like preAI boom and then now is a major beneficiary of the AI boom.
1:17:16
So it is >> started seed was in 2021. >> 2021.
1:17:19
So that's still pre GPT3 like pre GPT4. >> Right. of course.
1:17:24
Sequoa did the A, >> of course.
1:17:27
>> In Sequoia did the A in this year. >> What? Oh, wow.
1:17:31
So, they were grinding for a couple years and then started uh taking off.
1:17:36
Um, Nadler's new penthouse spans about 6,000 ft with five bedrooms and roughly 2,000 ft of terrace space.
1:17:43
Nadler said there's also a roof deck with an infinity pool facing the ocean.
1:17:48
It actually feels almost like one of those Venetian palazos but in the sky he said I like this guy.
1:17:52
What a good what a good turn of phrase.
1:17:57
>> Um >> he sounds like he's not is not the guy to turn off his Zoom background on a call, you know.
1:18:02
He's just he's just >> Yeah. >> embracing reality. Yes.
1:18:06
>> Um well any any more notes here and then I think we got >> uh I wanted to pounce on it.
1:18:09
He said whatever I paid I think it'll be d worth double that in five years.
1:18:13
There was very little negotiation, Nadler said.
1:18:15
He said that's what he wanted. And I said, "Okay."
1:18:20
A Canada native, Nadler is founder of Kenshow Technology. Okay.
1:18:23
I because I was wondering how did he wind up with $40 million in cash to buy this to buy this penthouse if he's still in the series.
1:18:33
He could Yeah, he could have done some crazy secondary, but that would be kind of a crazy deal.
1:18:36
Uh, but he is a second time founder.
1:18:39
In 2018, he sold Kensho Technologies for $550 million.
1:18:42
So you walk into Sequoia for a series A for your second company, they're probably going to say yes and that's and that's what happened.
1:18:50
So his decision to move into the Four Seasons was partially inspired by inventor Nicola Tesla's tenure at a New York hotel during the last years of his life.
1:18:57
It sounds completely insane, but there's precedent.
1:19:00
Nadler said he's like defending it. >> All right.
1:19:04
Uh we got to wrap this up. Uh thank you so much.
1:19:06
Really important news before we leave.
1:19:08
Meera Marotti has started following Growing Daniel. >> That's amazing.
1:19:12
And uh >> congratulations to growing Daniel.
1:19:14
He's posted so many times.
1:19:17
It's wild that she's following him.
1:19:21
>> I wouldn't be surprised Daniel if you know Thinky Thinky Machines buys his company.
1:19:26
He's an AI He's an AI founder.
1:19:28
>> That would be amazing. >> He's a tier one.
1:19:30
>> I I just think he'd have a lot of fun there. I don't know.
1:19:32
I what whatever he chooses to do, I fully support.
1:19:34
Um and uh we're looking forward to getting back to LA.
1:19:38
Looking forward to get back to Eight Sleeps. Go to eightleep. com.
1:19:42
That's our final ad read.
1:19:42
And thank you for watching.