Amazon Rushes Out Latest AI Chip to Take on Nvidia, Google

Summary

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Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast Summary

Episode: Amazon Rushes Out Latest AI Chip to Take on Nvidia, Google
Date: December 2, 2025
Hosts: Paul Sweeney, Scarlet Fu
Guests: Mandeep Singh, Poonam Goyal, Geetha Ranganathan, Brian Egger

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Overview

This episode dives into the latest competitive developments in AI chips, focusing on Amazon’s push to challenge Nvidia and Google. The hosts also analyze Cyber Monday retail trends, major moves in media M&A with Warner Brothers Discovery, and discuss New York City’s new casino licenses. Each segment features insight from Bloomberg Intelligence analysts, providing deep analysis of market impacts and competitive dynamics across tech, retail, media, and gaming sectors.

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Key Discussion Points and Segment Summaries

1. Amazon’s AI Chip Ambitions: Taking on Nvidia and Google

Guest: Mandeep Singh, Senior Tech Industry Analyst

• Amazon’s position: As the largest cloud provider (~50% market share), Amazon is under pressure to reduce costly dependence on Nvidia's GPUs for AI training. Google has succeeded with its in-house TPU chips; Amazon’s latest push is to emulate this self-reliant approach but with less traction so far.
• Goal: Reduce cloud capex spent on Nvidia chips from 20-25% by developing competitive proprietary chips.
• Competitive landscape: Google is currently ahead; Amazon is aggressively accelerating its chip efforts to catch up and achieve better capex efficiency.
• Industry shift: The "AI arms race" in cloud computing is evolving beyond just hardware acquisition to focusing on maximizing capex efficiency, especially as gold rush demand for GPUs recedes.

Notable Quote:
“All these hyperscalers don’t want to spend, you know, 20 to 25% of their capex on procuring Nvidia’s chips. That is what the end game is.”
— Mandeep Singh [02:37]

• Winners of 2026: Capex efficiency is expected to be the key metric for success among cloud giants (Amazon, Google, Meta).

Notable Quote:
“We are moving into a phase where capex efficiency will be front and center…”
— Mandeep Singh [03:47]

Apple’s AI Lag

• Apple’s slow progress in AI and lack of strong partnerships is drawing concern. The absence of proprietary AI models and clear OS integration could eventually impact hardware sales.

“If Apple doesn’t have a good AI strategy, a good model that works natively on the operating system, I think you will start to see an impact on the hardware sales.”
— Mandeep Singh [04:54]

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2. Cyber Monday & Consumer Retail Trends

Guest: Poonam Goyal, Senior US E-Commerce and Retail Analyst

• Cyber Monday data: Sales hit $14.25B (slightly above expectations, 7.1% year-over-year growth).
• Discounting trends: Promotions were largely on par with last year; retailers pulled back on aggressive discounting to protect margins, especially in light of tariff-related cost increases.
• Category performance: Electronics (Apple AirPods among top sellers), PlayStation, fashion apparel, and home goods performed strongly. Athletic wear was softer.
• Major retailers: Walmart and Target had solid results, maintaining stable promotional activity to protect margins.
• 2026 retail outlook: Anticipate a post-holiday lull. Next year’s pressure points include potential for higher prices as tariff effects become widespread and uncertainty over whether price increases will be absorbed or passed on.

Notable Quote:
“We did see retailers pull back on discounting because there’s just more costs that are built into this year from tariffs.”
— Poonam Goyal [09:08]

On tariffs: “The approach that most retailers have been taking is we’ll raise prices where we can and where we know we can’t, we’ll absorb it or we’ll offset it otherwise through efficiencies and supplier kickbacks.”
— Poonam Goyal [12:39]

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3. Media M&A: The Battle for Warner Brothers Discovery

Guest: Geetha Ranganathan, Senior Media Analyst

• Deal status: Second-round bids for Warner Brothers Discovery are in, with Netflix, Comcast, and Paramount/Skydance among bidders; Netflix’s all-cash interest is a surprise.
• Industry impact: The bid is considered a major move in “industry realignment.” The acquirer will instantly gain one of the largest studios, with Warner Bros. leading 30% of 2025's domestic box office.
• Valuations: Warner Bros. wants $30/share (stock currently ~$24). The asset’s streaming/studio business could be worth $28/share alone.

Notable Quote:
“You take Warner Brothers and Paramount Skydance… that basically then becomes the second largest media company after Disney.”
— Geetha Ranganathan [18:08]

• Strategic drivers: Synergies are the biggest draw—consolidation could yield $5–6B in savings, further monetizing a vast IP library.
• Possible winners: Warner Brothers reportedly prefers Comcast due to executive ties, but Comcast’s cable struggles and debt financing requirements make this a challenging, risky bid.

Notable Quote:
“Synergies really is the name of the game here, apart from, of course, monetizing all of the IP.”
— Geetha Ranganathan [21:01]

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4. New York City Casino Licenses: What’s at Stake?

Guest: Brian Egger, Senior Gaming and Logic Analyst

• Overview: Three new downstate casino licenses approved (locations: Bronx and Queens), following a competitive and prolonged selection process.
• Return prospects: High development costs and ambitious expectations for non-gaming revenue make returns tight—estimated 10% ROI, lower than typical for the industry.
• Revenue mix: Non-gaming revenue (retail, entertainment, food and beverage) could make up about half of total revenues—key for profitability in an urban environment.
• Competitive implications: New York casinos may threaten Atlantic City's customer base. Major operators (Sands, MGM) that lost out have other growth avenues internationally (e.g., UAE, Japan).
• Timeline: Expect openings by 2030, with construction hurdles possible.

Notable Quote:
“Development costs are quite high and perhaps some of the targeted non gaming contribution elements might be a bit ambitious… we came up with something like a 10% return on investment, which is certainly a bit less than most operators would expect to attain in these regional markets.”
— Brian Egger [27:36]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

Amazon’s AI Ambitions

• “All these hyperscalers don’t want to spend, you know, 20 to 25% of their capex on procuring Nvidia’s chips. That is what the end game is.”
  — Mandeep Singh [02:37]

• “We are moving into a phase where capex efficiency will be front and center…”
  — Mandeep Singh [03:47]

Apple and AI

• “If Apple doesn’t have a good AI strategy, a good model that works natively on the operating system, I think you will start to see an impact on the hardware sales.”
  — Mandeep Singh [04:54]

Retail Tariffs & Margins

• “The approach that most retailers have been taking is we’ll raise prices where we can and where we know we can’t, we’ll absorb it or we’ll offset it otherwise through efficiencies and supplier kickbacks.”
  — Poonam Goyal [12:39]

Media M&A

• “You take Warner Brothers and Paramount Skydance… that basically then becomes the second largest media company after Disney.”
  — Geetha Ranganathan [18:08]
• “Synergies really is the name of the game here, apart from, of course, monetizing all of the IP.”
  — Geetha Ranganathan [21:01]

NYC Casinos

• “Development costs are quite high and perhaps some of the targeted non gaming contribution elements might be a bit ambitious… we came up with something like a 10% return on investment...”
  — Brian Egger [27:36]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Amazon AI chips & industry implications: [02:04] – [05:57]
• Cyber Monday/E-commerce trends: [08:48] – [13:31]
• Warner Bros Discovery M&A battle: [16:23] – [23:29]
• NYC casino license discussion: [26:21] – [31:45]

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Tone and Language

The episode maintains a sharp and insightful tone, with analysts offering clearly articulated and pragmatic assessments backed by data. Host Paul Sweeney keeps the conversation fast-paced and topical, ensuring listeners come away with actionable insights into market trends, major corporate maneuvers, and their long-term impacts.

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Transcript

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[Paul]

A lot of news in the tech space I guess it's just every day we have a lot of news in the tech space. One that jumped out at me is Amazon rushes out latest AI chip to take on Nvidia and Google. When that gets my attention, let me check in with somebody who might know a thing or two about this stuff. Mandeep Singh, Senior Tech Industry Analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence he's out there in San Diego. I don't know what's going on in San Diego. I didn't get the invite, but Mandeep's out there doing the Zoom thing. Mandeep Amazon chips. Where do they stack up relative to say, an Nvidia or Google?

[Mandeep Singh]

I Mean, look, Amazon we know is the largest cloud provider with almost 50% share and when it comes to the GPUs, everyone so far except for Google has relied on Nvidia, you know, for training. And what Amazon is doing is really copying that Google playbook where they want to use their own chips. It's just that they haven't had that kind of success that Google has had with TPUs and they're trying to speed things up because in the end all these hyperscalers don't want to spend, you know, 20 to 25% of their capex on procuring Nvidia's chips. And that is what the end game is. I think Google so far is ahead in that but clearly Amazon is trying to catch up when it comes to their own chips efforts.

[Podcast Host]

Mandeep it feels like Amazon, Google are becoming more formidable competitors to Nvidia in this space. Nvidia the AI darling we when you think about 2026, who are some of the winners in this AI arms race?

[Mandeep Singh]

I mean look, when you're running a cloud business, you know, you're trying to optimize things across the stack and that's where you know a matter is very different from a Google or an Amazon which have a big public cloud business. I think what you are going to see is focus more on capex efficiency. If Google can deliver, you know, a lot more with their $90 billion in capex in terms of training and printing and having a cloud business, everyone will be measured the same way, whether it's Amazon or Metta. And that's where CapEx efficiency will be a much bigger focus in 2026 than it was in the past two years where you know there was a gold rush going on in terms of getting these GPUs, making sure you have chips or training your models. I think we are moving into a phase where capex efficiency will be front and center going forward.

[Paul]

Mandy I see a Bloomberg news story. Apple, I had to leave. This doesn't feel right to me. What's going on with Apple and AI and should I am I reading too much into this? Seems like there's a lot of turnover there.

[Mandeep Singh]

I mean look, for good reason because Apple, when you think about the back seven players has trailed in terms of having an AI strategy making those investments. And right now we are seeing even, you know, just yesterday Deep SEQ released their latest model. ByteDance is talking about a model that can be run on your operating system. So there is so much going on at the hardware and at the operating system layer that you feel like Apple is missing out one because they don't have any AI models of their own. And also in terms of their partnerships, they haven't been that upfront about, you know, whether it's OpenAI or Google in terms of making changes to their operating system. So even though the hardware sales haven't really suffered because of that, I mean, when you look two years out, if Apple doesn't have a good AI strategy, a good model that works natively on the operating system, I think you will start to see an impact on the hardware sales.

[Paul]

Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.

[Baillie Gifford Representative]

What is actual Investing? We believe that it's a real world task to deliver thoughtful capital deployment. It's not about speculating over the short term, it's about understanding the long term opportunities for companies through technological progress or new business models. So we seek out those exploring big new ideas that will change the world. Then we back them to give those ideas time to flourish. Baillie Gifford Actual Investors Find out [e-mail].

[Paul]

Support for the show comes from public.com you're thoughtful about where your money goes. You've got your core holdings, some recurring crypto buys, maybe even a few strategic option plays on the side. The point is, you're engaged with your investments and Public gets that. That's why they built an investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public you can put together a multi asset portfolio for the long haul. Stocks, bonds, options, crypto. It's all there plus an industry leading 3.6% APY high yield cash account. Switch to the platform built for those who take investing seriously. Go to public.com market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com market paid for by Public Investing.

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All investing involves the risk of loss including loss of principal. Brokerage services for U.S. listed registered securities options and bonds in a self directed account are offered by Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC trading provided by ZeroHash complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder? With a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other, One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. Before you know it, you are drowning in software. Instead of growing your business, this is where Odoo comes in. Odoo is the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all in one fully integrated platform that handles everything CRM, accounting, inventory, E commerce, HR and more. No more app overload, no more juggling logins. Just one seamless system that makes work easier. And the best part, Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. It's built to grow with your business, whether you are just starting out or already scaling up. Plus, it's easy to use, customizable and designed to streamline every process so you can focus on what really matters running your business. Thousands of businesses have made the switch, so why not you try Odoo for [e-mail] that's o d o o.com.

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[Paul]

Cyber Monday, it's a thing a lot of people spending a lot of money at the click of a button. Let's get some of the data here. Poonam Goyal, senior US E Commerce and Retail Analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, joins us here. Hey Poonam, talk to us about Cyber Monday. What were some of the trends you guys saw there as more and more people continue to shop online?

[Poonam Goyal]

Yes, so people definitely came online to shop. The results came out this morning. According to Adobe, sales were $14.25 billion. That's just slightly ahead of the 14.2 billion estimated, so a 7.1% G. So I'd say, you know, overall things were largely to me, as expected, maybe slightly better. We saw deals over Cyber Monday, which drew customers. But in all honesty, Paul, you know, we looked at 81 brands online yesterday and what we found was that the majority of them, the deals were in line to last year. So we did see retailers pull back on discounting because there's just more costs that are built into this year from tariffs.

[Podcast Host]

Consumers buying, what were they buying up? Cyber Monday, what is that telling you about the health of the consumer? Was it big ticket items? Were they trading down to private labels?

[Poonam Goyal]

Yeah, well, we saw so we saw electronics still being very powerful this holiday season. The Apple AirPods were cited to be among one of the top sellers. We also saw the PlayStation in high demand. People were shopping for fashion apparel they were buying for the home. Across the news that we read, what we've seen, sneakers, you know, athletic wear was probably a little lower than expected. But once again, that's not really an item that you often put under the tree as much as you buy for yourself. So we think that could pick up.

[Paul]

Talk to us about the I'm thinking about some of the folks that really do a good job online. Walmart, Target. How are those guys? How are they performing?

[Poonam Goyal]

Yeah, so Walmart and Target, we think both actually had a good holiday season, but in terms of promotional activity, we think they were largely in line with last year. That said, we were in the stores on Black Friday. We monitored their deals online over the weekend to yesterday and we think their deals were good, but they weren't aggressive or more aggressive, I should say, than last year, which is in a way a good thing because they'll help their margins. Right. We think margins this holiday quarter won't suffer because retailers had to discount more aggressively than they did last year.

[Podcast Host]

How are you thinking about the retail sector going into next year? Do you expect that the strength will continue?

[Poonam Goyal]

I think it'll be tough. You know, we've seen shoppers come out to shop for event driven buying. Whether that's back to school or holiday or birthdays or events. They're coming out and they're spending. But once we exit holiday, there is really no catalyst in January to shop. So we do think that you will kind of see the normal lull that you see after the holidays also creep into 2026. But next year it's really going to be more about what happens with pric. We've seen retailers be able to hold prices steady or raise them just slightly into the back half from tariffs. But next year will they have to implement bigger price increases? Because all the inventory will likely be impacted by some sort of tariff into next year.

[Paul]

That's kind of where I want to go put them just lastly here. I mean, I don't know how to think about the tariff impact because it seems like we haven't really seen it too much at the consumer level. And maybe that means that the retailers, the distributors, that they've kind of taken it in their margin and the tariff is what it is. That doesn't look like there's going to be a second round of tariffs next year. The tariffs are what they are in the economy. But you're saying that maybe there still could be some impact next year?

[Poonam Goyal]

Well, if you think about when the tariffs were implemented, it really affected the back half of this year. When you go into the first half of next year, you're up against comparisons where there really wasn't a tariff impact. So that's one thing that you have to deal with. The second thing is that prices are going up. I'm not. You know, we did see select price increases. In fact, you know, Nike came out and said that they're directly raising prices but on select goods. And I think that's the approach that most retailers have been taking is we'll raise prices where we can and where we know we can't. We'll absorb it or we'll offset it otherwise through efficiencies and supplier kickbacks. So that's what we'll continue to see happen next year. But there is still some pressure now. We'll see what happens next week right where the court ruling could be that the tariffs are just unwarranted and are unlawful. And if that happens, then I think we have some positive surprises for us next year.

[Paul]

Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this. Support for the show comes from public.com you're thoughtful about where your money goes. You've got your core holdings, some recurring crypto buys, maybe even a few strategic option plays on the side. The point is, you're engaged with your investments and Public gets that. That's why they built an investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can put together a multi asset portfolio for the long haul. Stocks, bonds, options, crypto. It's all there plus an industry leading 3.6% APY high yield cash account. Switch to the platform built for those who take investing seriously. Go to public.com market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com market paid for by Public Investing.

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[Paul]

We are waiting for a huge M and a trade to be announced. Warner Brothers Discovery with an enterprise value of about $90 billion. It's up for sale. Second round bids for the company were due yesterday and we understand that it's Netflix, it's Comcast and it's of course it's Paramount, Skydance and all that kind of stuff there. So Gita Ranganathan, she is the senior media analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. Geetha, what's the latest there on Warner Brothers Discovery? Because it seems like this is a company that wants to be sold and be sold quickly.

[Geetha Ranganathan]

Yeah, absolutely, Paul. I mean, things seem to be definitely intensifying. So the second round bids were due yesterday. The reporting so far seems to suggest that Netflix has mostly a cash bid. That's a little bit of a surprise given that, you know, when you compare Netflix with both Comcast and Paramount Skydance, obviously that stock has the most value. You know, they're trading at almost 30 times forward, but compared to a Comcast which trades at about five times. So obviously, I mean, you know, it just goes to show that Netflix is very, very interested. There was obviously some speculation earlier whether they were a serious bidder or not. I think this kind of puts that to rest. The offers this time are binding means if the board likes something that it sees, they can absolutely go ahead and bring this whole process to a conclusion pretty quickly. So right now just waiting to hear on the actual numbers we haven't heard any num. Any reporting on the actual bid numbers themselves. Warner Brothers, of course, looking for $30 a share.

[Podcast Host]

Geetha, bank of America has a note that calls the bidding war for Warner Brothers, quote, industry realignment. Is that a fair characterization? And how do you see this bidding war transforming the industry?

[Geetha Ranganathan]

Absolutely agree with that. I mean, you know, you have Warner Brothers, which is one of the most iconic studios in, in Hollywood. You know, you have streaming service and hbo Max. You just look at the Warner studio this week at the, I mean, sorry, this year at the box office, they've had an absolutely phenomenal run. So they're leading with about a 28, almost 30% share of domestic box office. So this is a huge studio that could obviously, or a huge company even that could, you know, completely reshape the media landscape. And it is transform, transformative in many, many ways. So if you think about, you know, Paramount Skydance is streaming assets right now with Paramount plus they have 70 million subscribers. You add HBO Max, you get over 200 million. Same is true for, for Comcast. You know, these are, this is kind of an existential deal, I would say, for both those companies and absolutely transformative. So, you know, you take Warner Brothers and Paramount Skydance, for instance. If those two companies combine, that basically then becomes the second largest media company after Disney. So again, huge, huge things at stake here for all of these three bidders.

[Paul]

How about valuation here? The company has said in the past that they would like $30 a share. The stock is trading at just north of $24 a share. John Malone, the company's chair emeritus and of course one of the biggest dealmakers in media and telecom over the last 50 years. He says that number is, quote, possible. How do you think valuations can shake here? What's the price that's going to clear, do you think?

[Geetha Ranganathan]

I think it's definitely going to be above $28, Paul. So we know that when all of this had started, Warner Brothers was trading at about $12 a share. We're already up to $24. We know that in the last bidding round, Paramount Skydance offered close to about $24, which was rejected. Now, if you just think about the two parts of the business for Warner Brothers Discovery, you have the TV networks business again throwing out a lot of cash, but not necessarily big in terms of valuation. I mean, this is a melting ice cube. You know, the multiple that you would slap on this part of the business would be maximum about a 4 or 5x. But then you think about the streaming and the studio assets. Now that is where you have your scarcity asset. You have a lot of the IP sitting there. You have a streaming business that is, that is turned profitable, that could become extremely profitable over the next few years. And so that's where most of the valuation is going to be. And, you know, we ran some numbers. We think that just the streaming and the studio portion of the business alone could be worth about $28. So when you think about that $30 per share that John Malone says is possible, we absolutely think. Yes.

[Podcast Host]

Etha, can you please talk to us a little bit about what some of the long term strategic advantages will be for Warner Brothers when this deal closes? Whoever, you know, the final winner is.

[Geetha Ranganathan]

I think for the final winner, you know, off the Warner Brothers asset, one thing is it, it obviously completely transforms the business in terms of, you know, increasing revenue, increasing scale, increasing ebitda. But I think the big thing that everybody is looking for really is the synergy number. And if you think about, you know, Paramount, Skydance, which is really looking to acquire all of Warner Brothers, so not just the studio and streaming, but also the linear networks, the synergies are going to be sizable. We think it could be anything upwards of five to six billion dollars. And that's really where, you know, a lot of this is going to kind of flow down to the bottom course. You know, there's always this question about how much of synergies can be extracted. But actually, Warner Brothers Discovery themselves have kind of provided us with an excellent template. They've done a fantastic job when it comes to extracting synergies, both with the Scripps transaction as well as with the most recent Warner Brothers and Discovery merger. So we think if, you know, they lay out a good plan, it can definitely be done. And so synergies really is the name of the game here, apart from, of course, monetizing all of the ip, because they do have some of the best brands in the business.

[Paul]

Comcast. How credible are they? I mean, we know the Roberts family, Brian Roberts loves to do deals. Rarely goes more than five or six years without doing a big deal here. How do you handicap them here?

[Geetha Ranganathan]

You know, Paul? So, you know, industry sources seem to suggest that Warner Brothers Discovery actually wants Comcast to be the winner. And I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that, you know, David Zaslav obviously has this history with NBC. He used to work there. He obviously knows Brian Roberts Extreme. But I think they're all. David Zaslav also kind of sees this as a path for him to ultimately run NBC. He doesn't necessarily want to exit Hollywood just yet, which is what would happen if he sold to either Paramount, Skydance or to Netflix. So I think in many ways he does want to kind of sell to Comcast. Again. It's going to come down to whether Comcast can put up the money because they are right now in a very, very tricky, precarious situation. Their cable business is struggling. They are, you know, the stock is trading at historical lows 5 times EBITDA. So really, really in a tough spot and they have to come up with a majority cash bid. You know, we're looking at something like about $60 billion. This has to be debt financed. And so you kind of think about all of that incremental interest expense for them, Paul. I mean this is going to be diluted to free cash flow and I don't think investors are going to like it.

[Paul]

Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this. Support for the show comes from public.com you're thoughtful about where your money goes. You've got your core holdings, some recurring crypto buys, maybe even a few strategic option plays on the side. The point is you're engaged with your investments and Public gets that. That's why they built an investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public you can put together a multi asset portfolio for the long haul. Stocks, bonds, options, crypto, it's all there plus an industry leading 3.6% APY high yield cash account. Switch to the platform built for those who take investing seriously. Go to public.com market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com market paid for by Public Investing.

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[Paul]

We have some news this week. Big news for New York City. Getting three casino licenses for the city, one in the Bronx, two in Queens. This is to build like real casinos, not just the, you know, some of the gaming stuff. This is real time stuff and it's big for the greater New York City metro area here. So we want to break it down with Brian Egger, Senior Gaming and Logic Analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. So let's step back. Brian, talk to us about kind of what the licenses represent and kind of where do we go from here?

[Brian Egger]

Sure. So this is a fairly protracted process involving ultimately the selection of three recipients. By the way, the only three left in the running after a few others were eliminated and dropped out. And really it authorized resort casinos for the downstate New York area, mostly New York City. And as it turns out, as you mentioned, the three casino qualified casino applicants, if you will, really are are in New York City but outside the borough of Manhattan itself.

[Podcast Host]

Brian, just looking at your note on these license approvals, you write that they face a narrow path to decent returns on investment. Can you please talk to us a little bit more about that idea?

[Brian Egger]

Sure. So what we assume for these resorts is they will get what I would call a gaming revenue premium, a room rate premium of 10, 20% to other kind of high end urban area resorts such as the Brigade Atlantic City Winds Encore in Boston. However, our concern in terms of the return prospects are that development costs are quite high and perhaps some of the targeted non gaming contribution elements might be a bit ambitious. So for that reason when we work the numbers, we came up with something like a 10% return on investment, which is certainly a bit less than most operators would expect to attain in these regional markets.

[Paul]

So I'm thinking here, I mean again, I'm just thinking about Steve Cohen's, I was looking at his plans yesterday for, in conjunction with his Citi Field. He obviously he owns the Mets. Citi Field is out there, the National Tennis Center's out there. The world, you know that the World's Fair situation. So there's a ton of opportunity out there. It seems like these are going to be more retail hotel than casino. How do you think the mix of revenue is going to be there?

[Brian Egger]

So there certainly is. I think when we work the numbers we assume that with respect to either food and beverage or retail entertainment revenue, those will be fairly sizable chunks of the overall revenue pie, probably cumulatively close to half, which is true of many kind of gaming resorts in attractive environments where you get a lot of non gaming revenue. I think the same will be true here. The question is, will it be enough and will the margins, which we take to be about 30%, be sufficient to get a good return? But certainly, you know, the logic of having it next to Citi Field makes a lot of sense. You know, the other locations, Bally's at a golf course in the Bronx, you know that Resorts World in Queens, pretty much expanding an existing facility, all have their merit. The question is will be enough to get a decent return. But certainly some of these locations have rational prospects.

[Podcast Host]

What is this victory for these three companies mean for their competitors like Sands, mgm, when, where do they go from here?

[Brian Egger]

So to be clear, you know, Sands exited this process back in, in April, when exited in May, it's Hudson, New York project because of community opposition at MGM in October because of the license terms. But bear in mind that they do have other prospects. You know, WIN is developing a UAE resort of its own. MGM is building in Osaka, Japan. They all can buy back their own stock. So I think they're weighing this particular opportunity relative to other development prospects.

[Paul]

All right, so we're going to get the licenses by year end. What's the timetable? Have any of these three license winners lay out a timetable for getting a shovel on the ground and maybe even opening the doors?

[Brian Egger]

So I think it'll vary by operator, but the expectation is that These resorts will generally open by 20, 30 or so. It'll take a few years to develop. There was always the possibility of, of construction challenges, but that's the target. And of course our related concern since you mentioned MGM was mgm, Bally's, Caesars, all operate casinos in Atlantic City. And you know, the proximity to Atlantic City of resorts with casino elements at this caliber certainly presents a potential competitive challenge to Atlantic City itself.

[Paul]

AC that's tough. That is tough because I always see, you know, on the parkway. Brian, I know you see it too. We have for years, for 20, 30 years, we've seen the limousines from New York City going down the parkway to AC that's going to get impacted, isn't Will.

[Brian Egger]

I think, you know, some operators regard it, for example, a hard rock may hold up better than others. But you know, there's always a challenge when you've got this much additional gaming capacity with resort elements opening up in relative close proximity to a, to a key Atlantic City feeder market.

[Podcast Host]

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