MM #244: Stock Crash: Buying Opportunities? China's DeepSeek vs OpenAI, Nvidia Collapse, Trump ETF, & Bitcoin

Summary

Market Mondays Episode #244 Summary: Stock Crash: Buying Opportunities? China's DeepSeek vs OpenAI, Nvidia Collapse, Trump ETF, & Bitcoin

Podcast Information:

• Title: Market Mondays
• Host/Author: EYL Network
• Description: On Market Mondays, Earn Your Leisure and stock market expert Ian Dunlap discuss strategies to make money in the stock market under any circumstance. The show also features live caller investment questions, providing a fresh perspective on investing and money management.

Episode Details:

• Episode: MM #244: Stock Crash: Buying Opportunities? China's DeepSeek vs OpenAI, Nvidia Collapse, Trump ETF, & Bitcoin
• Release Date: January 28, 2025

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1. Introduction and Announcements

The episode kicks off with the usual greetings and brief updates on upcoming shows. Hosts Ian Dunlap, Rashad Bilal, and Troy Millings emphasize the eventful nature of the current market week.

Notable Quotes:

• Ian Dunlap [01:05]: "It has been an eventful Monday, to say the least."
• Troy Millings [01:25]: "We saw Caterpillar rise last week. RTX is reporting this week. These are the type of companies we're discussing."

2. Market Overview and Volatility Indicators

The hosts delve into the current stock market volatility, focusing on the VIX index—a key measure of market risk and investor sentiment.

Discussion Points:

• VIX Trends: The VIX recently closed at 15, jumped to 20, and reached 2162, indicating significant market turbulence.
• Implications: A low VIX typically signals complacency in the market, which can precede major downturns.

Notable Quotes:

• Rashad Bilal [87:23]: "VIX is a measure of volatility in the market. When it's at a low, usually the market is at a high and then it's going to have a reversal."
• Ian Dunlap [88:14]: "If the VIX is at a low, it's usually a canary in a coal mine telling you that turmoil is about to happen."

3. Key Topics Discussed

a. Trump ETF and DeepSeek vs. OpenAI

The conversation shifts to the potential introduction of a Trump ETF and the emergence of China's DeepSeek technology as a competitor to OpenAI.

Discussion Points:

• Trump ETF: Speculation around the creation of a Trump-themed Exchange-Traded Fund, involving major players like Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle.
• DeepSeek Allegations: Concerns about DeepSeek's ability to rival OpenAI with claims of utilizing vast Nvidia GPU resources efficiently, potentially undermining existing AI leaders.

Notable Quotes:

• Rashad Bilal [06:40]: "After the success of the Trump coin, the next move would be to have a Trump ETF."
• Ian Dunlap [22:57]: "Nvidia is still going to be necessary even for DeepSeek. They still need the GPUs."

b. Nvidia's Stock Collapse and AI Bubble Concerns

Nvidia experienced a significant stock drop of 15%, sparking discussions about the sustainability of AI-driven market valuations.

Discussion Points:

• Stock Impact: Major chip stocks like Nvidia, SMH, ASML, and TSM saw drastic declines.
• AI Bubble: Debate on whether the AI sector was overhyped and if the stock pullback signals a market correction or a fundamental shift.

Notable Quotes:

• Troy Millings [17:58]: "All of these chip stocks are down drastically. Is this a reset and it's going to be just a lot slower growth for these companies?"
• Ian Dunlap [22:14]: "Is Nvidia overhyped? No, they're still necessary. They’re part of the advanced hardware essential for AI development."

c. Impact on Other Tech Giants

The hosts analyze how the Nvidia crash affects other tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, AMD, and Oracle, emphasizing the interconnectedness of AI advancements and hardware investments.

Discussion Points:

• Meta's Turnaround: Despite doubling capex spending on AI infrastructure, Meta's stock reached all-time highs, indicating investor confidence in their strategic shift.
• Microsoft and AMD: Both companies are expected to continue their strong performance in the AI and chip sectors.

Notable Quotes:

• Rashad Bilal [12:45]: "Most people who put money out are looking to get 10x back."
• Ian Dunlap [13:57]: "Meta has been one of the greatest comebacks since 2022."

4. Cryptocurrency Insights

The discussion transitions to the cryptocurrency market, focusing on Bitcoin's recent decline and potential buying opportunities.

Discussion Points:

• Bitcoin Trends: Bitcoin recently dropped by $5,000, breaking into the $90,000 range, with suggestions that buying opportunities exist if it falls further into the $80,000s.
• Market Cycles: Emphasis on understanding market timing, holding long-term investments, and recognizing cyclical patterns for optimal investment strategies.

Notable Quotes:

• Rashad Bilal [36:36]: "If you're going to hold for a five-year period and Bitcoin is averaging 100 a year, it would be a good time to buy."
• Troy Millings [36:36]: "Is it a good time to buy crypto? Because we do see XRP back under $3, Bitcoin under $100,000."

5. Interest Rates and Economic Indicators

The hosts briefly touch upon the influence of interest rates, particularly in Japan, and their impact on global markets.

Discussion Points:

• Interest Rate Impact: The effect of rising or falling interest rates on investment strategies, emphasizing the importance of dollar-cost averaging and hedging investments.

Notable Quotes:

• Troy Millings [36:36]: "It's always a good idea to invest at all times, dollar cost average, especially when things are down."

6. Dividend Stocks and Investment Picks

A segment is dedicated to discussing dividend-paying stocks and identifying potential investment opportunities amidst market volatility.

Discussion Points:

• Recommended Stocks: Nvidia, Apple, Meta, AMD, TSM, Palo Alto, and others are highlighted as strong investment options despite recent market downturns.
• Dividend Insights: Debate on the necessity of dividend stocks in a market dominated by high-growth tech companies.

Notable Quotes:

• Rashad Bilal [30:57]: "Nvidia, Apple, Meta."
• Ian Dunlap [29:40]: "I'm still in TSM. That's not a MAGA."

7. Guest Segment: Derek Lewis

The episode features a special guest, Derek Lewis—a seasoned entrepreneur, author, and former President of Multicultural at PepsiCo. Derek shares his insights on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), his entrepreneurial journey, and strategies for business growth.

Discussion Points:

• DEI Evolution: Derek critiques the outdated DEI playbook, advocating for a more comprehensive approach encompassing collaboration and compassion.
• Entrepreneurship Journey: Transitioning from a corporate role at PepsiCo to owning and scaling franchises with Big Dave's CheeseSteaks, emphasizing mentorship and community impact.
• Book Launch: Derek promotes his memoir, "Surviving and Advancing," detailing his resilience and strategies for personal and professional growth.

Notable Quotes:

• Derek Lewis [104:14]: "Bet on yourself. Believe in yourself. Be yourself."
• Rashad Bilal [110:55]: "What suggestions would you give to be able to get some of that equity back that has been taken from us over the last couple of months?"
• Derek Lewis [122:54]: "This book gives you valuable lessons chapter to chapter. All 25 chapters have stories that are told that ultimately create lessons."

8. Closing Remarks and Upcoming Shows

The hosts wrap up the episode by reiterating upcoming events, expressing gratitude, and offering personal shoutouts to listeners.

Announcements:

• Wednesday's Blackout Hour: "Don't forget 10 o'clock on Wednesday."
• Thursday's Episode: Special on home buying with Kiana Watson at 9:00 PM EST.
• Friday's Stock Club Call: Scheduled for 5:00 PM Central.
• Weekend Mastermind in Atlanta: Encouragement to attend for registered participants.

Notable Quotes:

• Rashad Bilal [127:33]: "Shout out to everyone born in January. Rest in peace to those who lost loved ones this weekend."
• Ian Dunlap [129:11]: "Another author, man. Congrats on that for sure."

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Conclusion:

Episode #244 of Market Mondays provides a comprehensive overview of the current market landscape, highlighting critical issues in the tech and AI sectors, cryptocurrency trends, and investment strategies amidst volatility. The insightful guest segment with Derek Lewis adds depth to the discussion, focusing on leadership, DEI, and entrepreneurial growth. Whether you're an investor looking for opportunities during a market crash or someone interested in the evolving dynamics of AI and tech giants, this episode offers valuable perspectives and actionable insights.

Listen to the full episode for an in-depth analysis and expert opinions on navigating today's complex financial markets.

Transcript

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[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, yeah. Happy Monday.

[Rashad Bilal]

Happy Monday. We're back.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, we back, man. It has been an eventful Monday, to say the least.

[Rashad Bilal]

For sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, yeah. How's everybody? Everybody good?

[Troy Millings]

Sure.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. I still got my soul. Deep seek didn't take my soul.

[Ian Dunlap]

Not for sale.

[Rashad Bilal]

Still intact? Nope, not at all.

[Troy Millings]

Welcome back to Market Mondays. Everybody Check out Blackout this Wednesday. Shout out to everybody that watched Blackout last week. It's been going crazy. So we back, we back Wednesday at 10 o'clock. We got a, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna have some interesting conversations. For sure.

[Rashad Bilal]

For sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

There's, there's about 17 different things happening per day.

[Rashad Bilal]

Interesting news cycle.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh, man. Oh man.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. A lot to talk about. And then this Thursday we got a special episode of eyo. Back to the how to series. We got Kiana Watson and we're going to be going over things to know before buying a home.

[Ian Dunlap]

Very important.

[Troy Millings]

So we're going to have a whole checklist of everything from the earnest money to, you know, how to actually estimate how much interior design is going to cause, you know, as far as the kitchen, the bathroom, the, you know, home inspections, like, everything to know, contractors, all that everything to know before buying a home. So if you're in the home buying process or you. You have a idea that you want to buy a home this year, this is a very important episode. Everything you need to know before buying a home, you know, go over the whole checklist. So that's at 9:00 this Thursday. 9:00 Eastern Standard time this Thursday.

[Ian Dunlap]

This is one of them episodes where not only is it going to save you time, but more importantly, it's going to save you money.

[Rashad Bilal]

Because money.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh my gosh, just the. The home building process. The home buying process is tedious if you don't know what you're doing. So here's your step by step booklet. Make sure y'all tap in, all right?

[Troy Millings]

Okay. Ian, any announcements?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes, if you want to get rich from the market and don't want to get faked out by deep seek shot, the meta hitting the all time high. Apple being on a tear, go to Ian invest.com. i put prices out last week. On those prices. I told you where in video is going to drop to. We hit there today. If I've made you money, please put yes in chat. Tune in the blackout amazing episode. We'll be bringing more of the energy all year, so stay tuned. And I love y'all dearly and my lawyers are on the prowl. But all you individual property thieves, he's. I probably can get you easy about 6,7 million. I said bring it to me. Come get some, you little bums. So let's have an amazing episode. Glad to be back. A lot is happening in the market, so let's break it down.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, yeah. Before we do announcement, first and foremost, congratulations to all you Philadelphia Eagles fans. Congratulations. I got all your text messages. I'm okay. I'm doing okay. Shout out to y'all. And obviously shout out to the Kansas City Chiefs. 15 did it again. 15 is a dangerous man.

[Rashad Bilal]

That pass interference, though.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. 15 a dangerous man. So congrats to them. And y'all know how this works. Well, I'm saying the Chiefs, everybody know he's a. He's now a teacher. Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

But we gotta still give him praise on the win.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh, yeah. Congratulations to the Chiefs and. And you for being a supporter of the Chiefs. But you changed the year. Now you say 80, now 98.

[Troy Millings]

I was born in 84. Somebody 80. That's humanly impossible.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's not humanly impossible. Not humanly impossible.

[Troy Millings]

Are you a fan before you born?

[Ian Dunlap]

I said 88. He was born in 80.

[Rashad Bilal]

In a parallel universe.

[Ian Dunlap]

No, he was born in 84. Here's how it's humanly possible. You're born in 84 in 88 you was a fan so I was four.

[Troy Millings]

Years old you you I've been comprehend.

[Ian Dunlap]

Things it's not true because I've been a Redskin well commanders fan now since 87 when they won a super bowl and I was 5 so it's humanly possible. But congrats to the Chiefs. It is a rematch and I don't have to ask who you're going for. It should be an interesting game so shout I'm okay about 14 points y 14 okay and rest in peace. Yesterday was the fifth anniversary and I hate to call it an anniversary of Kobe Bean passing. So rest in peace to him and the nine people and families that were affected by that tragic day five years ago. Horrific. So recipes to him and everybody who is dealing with the loss from that and you know how this works man. Do your own research. Our content is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. It's very important to do your own analysis before making any investment based on your own personal circumstances. You should take independent financial advice from a professional in connection with or independently research and verify any information that you find on our show and wish to rely upon whether for the purpose of making an investment decision or otherwise continue to do the research, share the research. When it's great research, run it back and keep spreading the research and build community. Let's make some money. Love is love.

[Troy Millings]

All right. So yeah, there's a lot to talk about. Obviously. You know stock market down heavy today. Chip stocks, sure. But let's talk about the Trump ETF before we get into that. So the Trump ETF looking like you know, that's there's a pathway for it. So what's the, what's the deal with this?

[Rashad Bilal]

I gave you guys some insight that I think after the success of the. Well for him of the Trump coin, shout out to all of you who are holding the bag at an all time high. The next move would be to have a Trump ETF and I think the obvious players would be meta Microsoft. You gotta throw in Larry at Oracle. And I felt so bad for Salesforce because I don't know how they turned the ship around. Nvidia I think AMD is going to have an amazing year despite shipping technology with deep seek in it.

[Ian Dunlap]

Allegedly.

[Rashad Bilal]

And a few people. Allegedly according to inside reports. But a lot of people have been asking me if this ETF is pushed, could it be allowed and should you Invest in it. If you're black, we can have that conversation for another day. I think you guys know our stance on that. But the thing that I did find interesting with this deep seat situation, it feels like they're trying to find the new iteration of the Max 7 and that ETF could be it. I don't think it's fair. But in the land of lawlessness, what is fair?

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, I'd add, I mean, it makes sense that Tesla would be inside that ETF for sure.

[Rashad Bilal]

I mean, that goes without saying. But yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, I, funny enough, I, I feel like Truth Truth Social will be inside this etf. I think this is another way for people to invest in it.

[Rashad Bilal]

I wouldn't be mad at them.

[Ian Dunlap]

Right. Like, why, why wouldn't you just add that now it doesn't have to have the largest allocation and if you look at ETFs, some of them have 50 positions. Right. And the allocation is just kind of spread out based on the, the growth of the companies. But I mean, there I could see a world where that is inside of it at a smaller allocation, 2% or 5%. And if people, if we're seeing any signs of what quote unquote, retail and institutional done inside of the meme coin, when people have access to an etf, will there be similar enthusiasm? Perhaps. So, I mean, if people pour into that etf, even at the smallest allocation, the valuation of that, that company is going to go up. So it'll be interesting to see. Man, I know they were trying to ban government officials from investing in the stock market.

[Rashad Bilal]

Never going back.

[Ian Dunlap]

I don't think that's going to fly anymore.

[Rashad Bilal]

They should have Pelosi, a senior advisor if they do put one together, because she is on fire. Oh, Broadcom will probably be in there as well.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, yeah. Any Microsoft, like you said, Microsoft, any company that's affiliated definitely with the initiatives that he's been speaking over. And we spoke about some companies last week in terms of industrials and he saw the spider industrial etf. Have a great week last week. We saw Caterpillar rise last week. RTX is reporting this week. These are the type of companies, man, when we're talking about defense and we're talking about cybersecurity. Palo Alto had a great week last week. CrowdStrike is running up all these, the cybersecurity space. So those are the type of companies if. When he's talking about making America, quote, unquote, great, it's tough to use the word again, these are the companies you should be looking at. And if he puts those inside the etf, there's a reason why.

[Rashad Bilal]

What companies won't be in an etf. That. That's the real conversation. Who won't be Salesforce? Probably not. And I like Mark, but.

[Ian Dunlap]

It'Ll be there. It'll be there.

[Rashad Bilal]

You think so?

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, business is business, right? Like Meta is. I mean, talking about top five in terms of market cap. Meta, Salesforce. Oh, no, you talking about Salesforce. Oh, Salesforce.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. Oh, no, no. Meta gonna be there. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's questionable. But the re. And it's interesting, like if you watch it. I've talked about Salesforce for the past maybe four years ago. And then I kind of was like, you know what, I'm leaving Salesforce. It's just not moving. But it is. It's related to the AI story the same way everything else is. In, in terms of like, yes, we know the computing standpoint, we know the energy standpoint, we know the connectivity standpoint. There's also a software component like how are. And where are we placing these things into application from an enterprise standpoint? Salesforce, Is that right? In terms of enterprise CRMs and then obviously HubSpot, we spoke about that for the past two years at a smaller scale and we've seen that run. And so that's why you're starting to see that, that company move, that stock move in the way it's been moving over the past six months. And you know, every quarter it seems like over the past two or three, you know, they, they're growing at a nice rate. So.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

So okay, so let's talk about meta. 60 billion dollar investment. Mark Zuckerberg is committed to meta infrastructure. Over the next few years, Meta stock rallied. They doubled their capex spending and the stock rallied. Yes. Well, Friday, Friday and today as well, as you said, all time high. So this is counter to what most people would have probably expected if you double capex spending. But why is meta stock at all time highs?

[Rashad Bilal]

I mean, combination of things, incredibly well run company since 2022. And it's the thing when everyone was messaging me about Deep Seek, I'm like, okay, you take Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple and meta who have the greatest compute power in the history of the world. And you think they missed with that algorithm and the real quants that they have in there, what the capex is worth. Like, here's an investment secret. Most people who put money out are looking to get 10x back.

[Ian Dunlap]

Most people.

[Rashad Bilal]

So with them spending this, it's the race of who is going to. It's a race of capital because if they don't put the money out, you can be a laggard and end up falling behind like a salesforce, like AMD did, etc. I think it's a great spin. But people, I mean, it's the number one media company in the world. I think they have more watch time than any other network. Whether it's linear or digital, profit margins are looking better than ever and they're investing into the Future. So in 22, I was very critical. But you have to give them credit for taking the money out of the Metaverse and put it into a real physical infrastructure to have a lead there. Like, I know that season he messed up and man, he's been on fire ever since. He's been doing Brazilian Jiu jitsu. He seemed to have some, you know, added vigor after being at the inauguration. I got a little motivation, you know what I mean? So it's not, he's not talked about in the same breath of Steve Jobs and Tim Cook and Bezos. But this time we start having that conversation about the turnaround he did since 2022. And it's one of the greatest comebacks ever.

[Ian Dunlap]

It's been a miraculous comeback. At that time, he had just announced that he was going to spend 50 billion over the next five years inside the Metaverse. We kind of swept that under the rug, went in front of Congress, we forgave them. And now Meta has just been on a tier. The $60 billion investment obviously is built around AI data centers being one of the main focal points and the, the global footprint. And we spoke about this over the past couple weeks. They're on pace to do that based on all their innovation. But here's the interesting part and that's why I think the, I almost called it deep fake, but the, the deep.

[Rashad Bilal]

The DC thing is truth in there.

[Ian Dunlap]

It's interesting, right? When you look at its competitors inside the Max 7 space, Amazon has committed to spending over 75 billion. Last year they spent 75. They've committed that their capex is going to be higher than 75 billion in 2025. Microsoft just said that they're planning to invest about 80 billion in the 2025 fiscal year. So they're actually spending less than the some of the other Max sevens. Why are they spending less? Because a lot of their infrastructure is in house. And we kind of went over this shout out to everybody that was in the class on Thursday. But Meta has built things in house, right? A lot of the infrastructure is in House and they're doing their thing. So that spend is not going to be as vital or as much as, as robust, I'm sorry, as other companies. But there are some companies that they need to build out infrastructure and we kind of went over that as well. But they're right in line with what Max7 is doing. So again, when you think about what's happened since the last time we were here, $500 billion invested in OpenAI, obviously Oracle and SoftBank combined to create Stargate. 500 billion, right?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

We saw the president talk about getting money from the Saudis, up to a.

[Rashad Bilal]

Trillion trillion.

[Ian Dunlap]

For infrastructure. We just talked about 65 billion for Meta, 80 billion for Microsoft, 80 plus for Amazon. And then there's a company that says we did it for 5 million cap. I mean it's interesting.

[Rashad Bilal]

Like you think all of these companies with all of this great executive leadership and once again they got, they have the model, you think all of them misprice what the costs are. Come on. And this is a startup. The Chinese stock market has been gridlocked since 2021. Let's take it to their country. You think Alibaba, 10 cent, all those great companies that are there miss this build?

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

So if we're a six million dollar build, like, well this is a startup, let's be real. They, they just, they lie. What Flex say you lied or, or worship.

[Ian Dunlap]

So I, I got trust issues with China stocks as well. It's well documented. I have even more trust when it comes to numbers that come out of China because that story's been well documented as well in 2020. Luke and coffee go do the history on that. But did they lie? We'll see. Time will tell that. But have they cracked the code on efficiency? Now that could be something we can open the door with. Right? Like maybe we don't have an open source. Open source. The amount of spent for computer, maybe the amount that has to be spent isn't as much, but money needs to be spent. And I don't think there's no, I mean anybody in the tech space is looking at that and saying this is impossible.

[Troy Millings]

Regardless of whether it's real or not, it definitely had a real impact on the market for sure. This brings us to true main topic of today with tech stocks crashed, specifically chip stocks. Nvidia down 15%. SMH down tremendous amount. ASML down TSM down tremendous amount. So in a very short period of time, and there's been a lot of people that have said that AI bubble would end at some point. Mike Novogratz being one of them saying that not artificial intelligence wasn't real but it was overpriced, overhyped and it was going to be a catalyst at some point in time to kind of bring things back to the level of reality. So this deep seat thing comes out and shoots to the apps top of the app store overnight. Pretty much a Chinese app company that yeah they said achieved workable function at a very high level. Some say even better than open AI for $6 million a fraction of the cost of the billions of dollars that's been poured into all of these companies including OpenAI and IT shakes the whole industry and things make people think that yeah, maybe not that Nvidia is not valuable company but maybe their, their products are over hyped and overvalued as far as how much money is being poured into the space and then for other companies that have not even done anything yet but still have been able to raise a bunch of money from venture capital. So all of these chip stocks are down drastically. So like I said even if they're forging the numbers a little bit or it's not a. It definitely speaks to some level of pessimism that people have been talking about talking about this for a while as far as the AI bubble for at least 18 months. So I don't think that these companies just disappear overnight. But the question that everybody has is okay, is this a sign of what's to come? Is this now this is a reset and it's going to be just a lot slower growth for these companies. Is it a good time to buy the companies? That's the next question as well.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes. Shameless plug. Go to Ian invest.com if you want to know where to get into the market, where to get out. I put this price in I think two weeks ago for Nvidia. As far as it being a reset, the top two or three players in the space will remain that they'll be dominant. But I think and I don't want to be flippant about the deep seek allegation but I want to be clear, it's almost okay if you run it through their model. Can't wait for the mastermind because I'm going to show you some of the prompts that I use for investing. The mathematical probability of being able to get this compute out of $6 million is 0.00001% probability. So not me, that's their own tech when I ran my model and based on capex spend of other companies now is there AI Bubble. I think there's a lot of companies that don't have any real AI yet have acted like they do and they're going to fall apart. So. Yes, but will Nvidia be fine? Yes. Meta be fine? Yes. Will Oracle be fine? Yes. Will AMD be fine? Yes. And a lot of people who kept calling for this AI bubble are people who missed out on buying Nvidia, the same dirty Mac and Elon did over that Stargate project what got stolen from Microsoft and he's mad because he didn't get part of that spend. So in order for Deep Seek to be great, let's just go through some of them and say that they are better. They got to be open AI0101 mini Gemini Gemini 1.5 Claude Nova Pro Llama 3 and 3.3 GPT, 4.0 GPT 4o mini. It's a lot of competition. So is the AI bubble overhyped? I think there are too many companies who attach themselves to be AI facing and they weren't. But Nvidia, no. And also too, it's a conversation about interest rates that people are afraid of. And I think this just took the leadership cycle. And for everyone who said you found the next quant company, why are you afraid of Deep Seek? Because Quantum is superior. If you found the quant companies that are going to rule the next 20 years, why are you asking me if you should sell off your quant position because of Deep Seek? It makes no sense.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, I think the question that they. Can you create innovation without advanced hardware? That's the question, right? Like, is it possible? And so when we talk about advanced hardware, you're talking about the Nvidias, you're talking about the Broadcoms, you're Talking about the AMDs, you're talking about the micro, like that's advanced hardware. Now, is Nvidia overhyped? I. I can't use the word overhype because they're still going to be necessary even for Deep seq. If you look at how it's built, it still needs the GPUs. Does it need as many GPUs is the real question. But you're still going to need them. And so that that's the first thing. And then it's is this a war to who's first? Right?

[Rashad Bilal]

Absolutely.

[Ian Dunlap]

So like if China is saying like, hey, we have this company and we can do it for this efficiency, then when you try to use it today, why can't we use it if it's a global thing? Right. So there's that part of it? And then it talks about efficiency from our standpoint, like I said, think about the amount of money that's been allocated. Last week we talked about 500 billion. That was for AI expansion, data centers and everything adjacent to it. Energy. We saw Vista go down today. We saw VRT move down today. We saw GEV moved down today. All these are energy components, Broadcom connectivity. All these things pull down because of this quote unquote efficiency. The other thing is this man, people want new buy in points, right? Like the market has to fall so people can buy in.

[Rashad Bilal]

Absolutely.

[Ian Dunlap]

If Deep Seat was created In December of 2023, if it was disufficient, is it coincidental that it is? This announcement is happening after all those. Everybody said that they're going to have their capex and it's the same week of these max 7 earnings. Meta's reporting this week, Apple's reporting this week, Microsoft's reporting this week. In two weeks Nvidia will be reporting. Big companies reporting with their numbers and what they've been spending coincidental, I don't know.

[Rashad Bilal]

So okay, and the real conversation is were they able to get some of those GPUs in China that they were not supposed to get in for the infrastructure? Now that's the conversation that needs to be had.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh, during the bench.

[Troy Millings]

Allegedly. Well, the thing about it is that you never buy stocks at all time highs facts. So that stocks always pull back for one reason or another. But there's a difference between a pullback and a reset. Because a reset, you can actually just reset the whole landscape and it can change potentially forever as opposed to a pullback which would just pull back for the second then just go back to things as normal. So the question is, will things be as normal or will it be a reset in the space? Like I said, I don't think anybody doesn't think Nvidia is not going to be here anymore. But will it be a reset in this space where chip stocks will not be leading like they were.

[Rashad Bilal]

And in the cycle of America, what could replace it? It's a great question, but what will replace it? I think Nvidia is here to stay. AMD I think is going to have a monster year. But what when people talk sector rotation and some people, well, banking is doing better. I'm like, you're not going to go buy bank of America. I mean, shout out to Brian Moynihan, amazing person. You're not buying bank of America over amd. Like AMD is neck and neck with Apple in terms of returns over the last five years, it's not talked about because of what sector they're in. So would that be a reset? I've been really big on, I don't think the energy companies are going to do what they did last year. So Nvidia would do well. MD do well. Meta would do well. As a result, Tesla will do well. They have a lot of compute over there as well, but everyone just slapping AI on their stock to make the value go up. Yeah, that's over.

[Ian Dunlap]

I, I, I'm on the record saying I believe energy will do well. Will it have 50, 60% gains? Nobody can call that will it do well? Yeah. From the standpoint of what we're talking about efficiency. How do we make energy more efficient if we know that it's going to cost us this amount to have this type of compute and not just in the GPU space, but if you're even talking about in the crypto space as well, that still requires energy to run at its highest and most efficient capacity for sure. So even like I said when I talked about this data center revolution, they originally would house and they were mining Bitcoin. Right. When you saw how much energy it took. We have to create more efficient ways to have connectivity, to have coolant, all that is inside of it. Now obviously with AI being at the forefront. Yeah, it's dual purpose in a sense where like, hey, we need it for this too. So I still think energy is going to be, be a story this year.

[Troy Millings]

So. Okay, so let, let's speak even a little bit clearer for the people. What stocks do you think would be good buys?

[Rashad Bilal]

Nvidia, Apple, Meta.

[Troy Millings]

All right, let's, all right, let's, let's, let's, all right, let's go a little deep dive. Amd I'm a, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm the advocate for the, for the, for the people and I know, I know what the people will say. So what's the stocks that are not in the mag seven the Look, Troy, because you've championed a lot of these other companies, so. Yeah, these companies that are not in the mag 7. Are you, are you still confident about these companies? Are you starting to feel a little bit nervous?

[Ian Dunlap]

No, I'm still confident.

[Troy Millings]

All right, which of these companies would you be enthusiastic about now tomorrow morning buying? Because all of them are down like we got.

[Ian Dunlap]

I'm still in tsm. That's not a max.

[Troy Millings]

No, no, no. I'm talking about the VSTs.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, you said max. Seven.

[Troy Millings]

Okay. The. The lower. The lower ranking.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, I actually mu. Yeah, so I went shopping even. Right. Like, so when. And again, it's one of these mindset things, right? We see a pullback like that. I woke up, I saw NASDAQ was down angel points. I'm like, all right, we. We already have some. Some money in reserves now. Let's see if we can get some of these. These price points that we were saying prior to. And so when I saw VST get down to a number, I was like, oh, it ran up to 199 last week. I'm like, damn, it might have outran me. I saw it go back down to 148. I'm like, all right, well, it's back in the range where I wanted to get it at. So I went shop. I did grab some VST because again, I still think energy is going to be a story. We spoke about this on the Thursday call about a company that, I mean, we. If we. If we look at his chart over the past six months and we look about the story in AI, it pulled back to a point, and I'm like, all right, down at 110. Let me, let me go grab. Let me go grab some. Some contracts down there. And that is Arista Networks. A N E T. And so I, I think the story stays the same for at least 20, 25, for sure. But again, when we, when we do these contracts, I'm going, you know, out for a lot further with maximum potential growth. Right. And so.

[Troy Millings]

So you're still confident on your companies?

[Ian Dunlap]

I'm still in. I actually went shopping today. I'll be honest with you. I went shopping.

[Troy Millings]

And what'd you buy?

[Ian Dunlap]

I'll show you in a second. You want to see it? So I bought. I bought more. I bought VST because it got to a point. I bought vrt. Right. Again, energy as well, and talking about cooling for. For the data centers. So I'm still in the data center revolution. I got more contracts on TSM because that's pulled back. I already had the 105 that I exercised, and I talked about that on the class. I had a 180. We. We went down and got some more down at the 195 range. And I got one more. I don't even know if it got full. I'll chat. I'll throw you in when I open up my brokers, but I definitely got those three for sure. And then I had one that was this pending.

[Rashad Bilal]

And I'll play devil's advocate to my own Position. The threat the deep sea does pose is open source. But what happens when Trump knocks on somebody's door, maybe Elon, and say, hey, make grock AI open source so we don't have to deal with this threat in China? Then what Deep seek. You're screwed. I'll wait till the second hour to curse. Thank you to the families and the parents to watch with your kids. Love you. My heart goes out to you.

[Ian Dunlap]

My fourth one was Palo Alto. I bought more.

[Troy Millings]

But they do have an advantage of, of education.

[Rashad Bilal]

They have smart people a thousand percent.

[Troy Millings]

And they have a unified government. They have, they have a lot of. So you can't just count you, right. Can't count them out.

[Ian Dunlap]

No, I, I'm not counting out. I, I, because it's either a couple things are going to happen, right? Like either America, American company is going to say, hey, they're on to something and we've got this wrong and they have to cut back spending, right? But then that spending is going where, right? This, these are the Capex numbers already for 2025. So this money is already been allocated out by the time we see it, it's already been spent, right? So like when Nvidia reports, Meta has already spent the money with them, right? Like Microsoft has already spent the money with them by the time we see the report. So what does that look like for 2026? We gotta, we gotta really monitor this.

[Troy Millings]

We'll see.

[Rashad Bilal]

And you know who didn't have all this capex and AI Manzana. My favorite investment move is when people get to pitching me things that I'll need. Let me wait three months to six months to see if I still want it. Apple is on fire today as a result. And, and the thing is too, and I keep stressing this, it's not the sexy media answer. A lot of you needs to stop chasing the next new thing week to week. I just thought y'all loved Quantum and that collection of stocks. Sorry to the parent.

[Ian Dunlap]

Sorry to the parent.

[Rashad Bilal]

Like, yo, what do we like?

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, but even Apple pulled back, right? Like this is what I'm saying. Like we saw Apple run up to 253, we spoke about it. We like, what's the innovation? It pulls back down to 225 and people like, well, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know but I mean it's a big week for Apple.

[Rashad Bilal]

Long term.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, obviously long term vision, you're looking at this as a great opportunity for a buy point. But it's a, this is a big week for Apple. We'll see what happens.

[Rashad Bilal]

The only thing in a SWOT analysis that we have to remember is that their own leadership are keeping. They have some amazing companies that are publicly traded and they've kept them quiet the last three years. I don't think they're gonna let this one flourish.

[Ian Dunlap]

Censorship.

[Rashad Bilal]

If it wasn't for that, my stance would be different. I would have baba over Amazon. I would be worried about Sam Altman and, and open AI. But it's their own leadership that are keeping those companies and, and they.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh they own the ip. Like I was like read a little bit about it. Like they own the IP of everything that's put into it in their chat box. So if they create something for you, it owns it. Right. And it owns anything that you put on it is no longer yours. Like if you prompt it, all the data is this and all the information and that. That's something that's different from.

[Rashad Bilal]

From perpetuity.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

So all right. So yeah. So if you feel confident in this, the safer bets would be Nvidia and TSM and what other companies is down? Microsoft is down.

[Ian Dunlap]

They all, they all took a hit today.

[Troy Millings]

Can't go wrong with Microsoft.

[Ian Dunlap]

Unless. What happens when they. If they lose open AI?

[Rashad Bilal]

Never going to get it. Never going to get it.

[Ian Dunlap]

20Yo.

[Rashad Bilal]

They. They have to get it back in blood.

[Ian Dunlap]

The contract is over in 2030. Now I. I'm just saying Ian. The contract is up in 2030 for 49 ownership. We have seen Sam with. With a multi billionaire over the past couple of weeks by the name of Larry Ellison. He has already part with him on Stargate which means that they are opening to new partnerships. What happens if they lose Open AI?

[Rashad Bilal]

The same thing that happens with every artist when they have to that one last album they got to turn in before they free and then we freeze that. We seeing the boy going through it right now.

[Troy Millings]

They gonna be Sam, they gonna be public. They're gonna be public by then.

[Ian Dunlap]

So Open AI.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, for sure.

[Troy Millings]

They're gonna get forced to go public. So they're gonna, they're gonna go public before 2030 and yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

What you think? 2720s right when we need it.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. So if anything work on the worst. They sell that position and they make hundreds of billions of dollars and then reinvest the money in some something else.

[Rashad Bilal]

Deep seek defect 2.0. I'm gonna go get one. That look like the other one.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, they got the cat. I mean you talk about reserves is Apple number one, Microsoft number two in terms of reserve yeah, Nvidia is climbing up there. Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Another pullback today was crypto as a whole. Bitcoin down $5,000, broke back into the 90s, 99 and it's been hovering around the 90s to the mid 105, like 105, 104 for a while now. My personal, my personal thing is I just feel like if it gets into the 80s, you gotta, you gotta be attracted to big up, right? 80s, 86, 88. But that's another question that people have. Is it a good time to buy crypto? Because we do see XRP back under $3. We see Bitcoin under $100,000, we see Ethereum still down a little bit. So for crypto, is it a good time to start buying crypto?

[Rashad Bilal]

I did like, like you said, load the boat price like 88,000, 87,000. But if it breaks the 92,300, I like it. But the thing is, if you're going to hold for a five year period and Bitcoin is averaging 100 a year, it would be a good time to buy. But anytime it's at the top, 108, 107, stay away. Like just go to any chart. If it's at the high, you don't want to buy if it's within 5% of their range. No one should be shocked about this. I'm wondering why people think the deep sea caused the crypto market to drop, which tells me institutions are taking some profit. A lot of capital starts to go into the market late February, early March and then we have a run up into the summertime. July and August are usually light. September, the market goes back up. So follow the cycles. The supplies of crypto stay bought out the entire crypto space. No decentralization. But yes, long term it would be a good time to start to look at prices to buy for crypto.

[Troy Millings]

Okay, what do you think about interest rate? What do you think about interest rates in Japan? Did that play anything? Yes, that's a fact. And yeah, once again, it's always a good idea to, to invest at all times, dollar cost average, but especially when, when things are down. So you know, you never want to really put all your money in at the top of any investment because you're vulnerable. I mean, yeah, it could potentially keep going up, but you do have a high risk ratio on that because it usually goes down from the top before it goes back up again. So you have buying opportunities is important. But it's also important to hedge your investments because if you're too Overly leveraged in trading. This is why long term investing is important too. Because the swing, the swings can be extremely volatile. And especially if you're investing in the wrong time, timing is really more important in trading than it is in buying hole. Because like you said, I mean, you could technically buy at the top. It's just a loss on paper. As long as you wait it out, you're gonna, you're gonna be all right. Not to say that you should do that, but it's not really, you're not going to lose money. You don't lose money in investing until you actually sell the investment. So even if you bought Coinbase at an all time high years ago and then it took five years to recover, well, you still, you, you're still better now than you were five years ago. But if you were trading it, that's when, that's when it's time sensitive. You didn't have five years to make up that trade. So that's why it's very important to keep these things in consideration at all times. But especially, especially trading. Then we have the mastermind coming up on, on this weekend. So I'm sure that, that probably will be covered as well. But whether it's future trading, whether it's stock trading, whether it's option trading, vitally important to consider.

[Ian Dunlap]

It'S, it's humbling. It definitely is. And that, I mean, we've seen it happen and we've told the stories of how it's happened. Like I've told you, I've watched Chipotle run away from me. We watch, we watch Netflix right now, even with, with this, I mean, it had an incredible, you know, reporting, added 18 million users. Great. And we watched it go up $120. And you're just sitting there like, damn, it's at its peak. All the analysts are raising their price target to 1200. It's like, well, it's at a peak now, right? Like we might have to just wait this thing out and if not, let's find another investment. Right? Or if you're going to invest in the stock itself, then wait for a pullback because it will pull back and then grab it and hold it long term, if you believe in it.

[Troy Millings]

All right.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, I, we can even speak. We can fine tune that. Last year, 2024, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft equated to 29 of the gains for the S P. Ridiculous. Right? So if all the other companies didn't perform, as long as those three perform, the index is going to move. Right? I mean, it's weighted at, I think each of them obviously weighted differently, but I think Nvidia has the largest weighted average. But combined, I think it's almost like 20%, some crazy number. So I mean, these three companies are moving, moving the economy. It's not normal, right? Because that's what it's starting. It feels like that, right? It feels like if you're not one of those Max 7 companies, can you even play a role in this? Right. Whereas this is saying, hey, you don't have to be a magsafe company to actually play a role. Right. If you are a group of smaller companies and y'all combine and y'all work collaboratively, maybe y'all can create something. So it's the interesting dynamic there too.

[Troy Millings]

All right. Okay. So. All right. So you think this is overrated? Pretty much. Well, you know, people, you know, you know, the vast majority of people are not educated as far as how to actually spend money. I just watched a documentary the other day where United States government, you know, these, these guys, they had this scandal where this guy was, he was the head of food for soldiers in the war of Afghanistan and $1.6 billion got to the point. I mean he just, he got too greedy. And then they actually, but long story short, the government overpaid 400 like million dollars in food and he was charging like a hundred dollars for lunch. But this happens all the time. This is why they can't account for billions of dollars in the government. Right. So I mean, yeah, on paper you would think like these are educated people, they would not be spending money if they didn't have to. But corporate waste is a real thing and people spend money over in excess on stupid things all the time. That's why they created a whole government efficiency department. Right.

[Ian Dunlap]

Doge to the rescue.

[Troy Millings]

So the Chinese, one thing about them is that they are very efficient. They, they, they do a lot of fraudulent activity a lot of times with the government, but they are very efficient. So yeah, 6 million might be a stretch, but they might have been able to do this at a fraction of the cost. And it might actually be exposing that. Yeah, this, this, this technology is valuable, but you're raising the price tag. It's just. So then, yeah, it's actually a movie, War Dogs. That's another. These other kids, they was actually like 20 and 23. They actually got sentenced to federal jail. But there's a whole industry in war and they, they, they was, these death story is pretty unbelievable. They was like working in like a 9 to 5 job and then six months later, they just started what they started buying. They was buying weapons from China and then selling it to America. I don't know how they pulled this one off. And it was marking it up like 10x and nobody realized what was going on. They got filthy rich off of it. And then, like I said, they ended up getting caught. But just the idea that you can just buy weapons from one country, sell it to America. And Congress was paying an exorbitant amount of money for this. And then they was keeping. They was keeping a difference. They wasn't even experienced arm traders. So one thing about it, it, government and companies, they. They g. They gonna blow a lot of money now if you black, you're not gonna get those contracts. But.

[Rashad Bilal]

Sounded good. Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Don't even think. Don't even think.

[Ian Dunlap]

They. They don't. They don't waste the budget on this.

[Troy Millings]

Don't even think about it. Actually, at least 10 million questions before they give you $50,000.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. That's a fact.

[Troy Millings]

Anybody else? If it's a good idea. Open checkbook.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. Here you go. Here's a billion. Yeah, I mean, this is what, this.

[Troy Millings]

This is no experience. No. That's what happened with Blackwater. So Black Water, pretty much. Allegedly. That's like a band of mercenaries. The government paid a private security company to actually train the military. That's crazy if you think about it. How the hell you gonna pay private security to train the military? The military is supposed to already be trained. And the guy got filthy rich off of it. Then they ended up killing 80. 80 civilians in Iraq. Then they lose their contracts, but he sells the company, and it makes hundreds of millions of dollars. So, man, you'd be surprised how much money is being spent. And it's just like, what the hell are we spending this money on?

[Ian Dunlap]

Billions.

[Troy Millings]

Fraud, for sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

Fraud. Fraud would be the word. That would be the word.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. I. Legend, Allegedly.

[Ian Dunlap]

So Doge is here to save the day, then.

[Troy Millings]

That's why there's a need for those.

[Ian Dunlap]

He said.

[Troy Millings]

I mean, there is a need for it.

[Ian Dunlap]

And he just spoke, right? He said, oh, soft bake, Y'all know you ain't got the money. Oh, yeah. Two weeks. Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

You're done.

[Troy Millings]

But I'm just saying, I don't think their primary focus should be, like, dei, stuff like that.

[Ian Dunlap]

Their primary focus should be government spending.

[Troy Millings]

Billions of dollars that's getting spent on all this stuff that I just named. That's just one part of it. Like, imagine how much money gets spent every single day and nobody's checking and then it's just common nature. If you're an entrepreneur, if you're greedy, it's like, damn, if I can get. If I can sell this for 100, nobody's gonna ask. I'm gonna sell 200 and then 300 and then 500. You just keep. Keep raising the number. And they. And they have it. They have. The thing about the government is that they have a open checkbook because they just print the money. So. Thousand dollars for lobster. Why not go for it?

[Ian Dunlap]

Bl.

[Troy Millings]

Oh, the lobster bag. Lobster bag is crazy. He first did the tip. He did the tims with the print on it. Thousand dollars. Two. $2,500.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, I didn't do that.

[Troy Millings]

Then. Then.

[Ian Dunlap]

Then I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it in a series of.

[Troy Millings]

It's been a series of child to Pharrell. Salute. Salute. But the lob. The what collection? Marvel.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh, the Nigo. The Nigo collection. Yeah. Yeah. Moral. Kami. Yeah, they brought it.

[Troy Millings]

But they gonna. They're gonna be buying it. They're gonna buy.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, I think that was a re. Release from 20 years ago. That. That bag. That's. I mean, it is. Yeah, yeah, it's a lobster. Not that bad.

[Rashad Bilal]

Not.

[Ian Dunlap]

Not the lobster bad. The. The white with the. Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Shout out to all the lobsters.

[Ian Dunlap]

Send your plan or send your plane back. Nah, nah, nah, bro. Yeah, you gotta go back, bro.

[Troy Millings]

Well, I mean, that actually worked.

[Ian Dunlap]

They sending the plane form. Yeah, yeah. Right, right. Right to it. Right to it. Right to it.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Different type of.

[Troy Millings]

What is top four dividend stocks.

[Rashad Bilal]

Man? I wanted to answer this. And I mean, of course there's four in there that I put. But I think it would be irresponsible to give four when there are other stocks that are outpacing and giving higher return. So just bitcoin on surface. Nvidia on surface. VYM, of course, is 1s, Chy, VNQ and IEF R4. But if Bitcoin is outpacing. Hate to even bring this name up, but if MicroStrategy is outpacing, if meta is outpacing, do you. This is my point. Do you even need a dividend Play now?

[Troy Millings]

Well, MicroStrategy is interesting because that's a company we just found out might have billions of dollars, a tax bill, and Bitcoin's down $5,000, but the stock's not really down that much today. It didn't go down as drastically as you.

[Rashad Bilal]

As much as it could have.

[Troy Millings]

And they brought another billion dollars of bitcoin today.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

So yeah, they're holding a line and they have no signs of retreat. They're still buying bitcoin and there's still confidence in them obviously because they haven't, you know.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, in order for.

[Troy Millings]

Cliff.

[Ian Dunlap]

In order to. So yes, this is true. I would, I thought it would be pulled down a little bit further today. But that bill is coming. Right, that allegedly is supposed to be like a 19 billion dollar tax bill. Right. For gains where in order to get that, that capital you'd have to, you would think they would have to sell some bitcoin. No, no.

[Troy Millings]

I mean every.

[Rashad Bilal]

Nothing they can roll over.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. They just gonna offer. They said they offer a preferred stock. I think they gonna. As far as the guy is very smart as far as how he's been able to raise money. So. And I think he. They'll be able to leverage their bitcoin as well.

[Ian Dunlap]

They'll use that as leverage. Okay.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, I think, I don't think that that's something that. And I don't think that's gonna happen because they've already met with Trump.

[Ian Dunlap]

That could be the other part. So knowing that guy helps.

[Troy Millings]

I think that they'll be able to maybe smooth it out. But microstrategy, it's interesting. It's interesting for sure. I mean they brought a billion dollars of bitcoin today, so 20 on the hook.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's tough.

[Ian Dunlap]

Different. And I put some of the like old Star wars dividend stocks. I don't really invest in dividend stocks but yeah, in addition to the ones you said, I'll just add those. Verizon or. Always a good option if you're doing dividends. Johnson and Johnson. These are like these old guard. Legacy, Legacy. Exxon, Chevron, PepsiCo, these, these are legacy companies. But they do produce a dividend.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. And even though it's an older model, I think when the market isn't as fractured and there's hyper concentration, whatever. The people used to mention the ticker O Income Royalty, which I think is the best stock but paid a high dividend. When you have companies that are giving you 60 and 70% per year, it's almost no need for a dividend. And Apple and Microsoft pays a very small dividend as well. But whatever you miss out on investing in a company that pays a higher dividend but drops 20 a year, you're going to make up for it and having a higher quality company, that's for sure. So. Yeah.

[Derek Lewis]

All right.

[Troy Millings]

So not to harbor this point, but before we just completely go off of this topic forever.

[Ian Dunlap]

Maybe not.

[Troy Millings]

I think it was interesting we did post about this today where the CEO is out in Davos. You know they got Davos going on right now. So the CEO of Scale AI said that is his understanding that Deep Seek has about 50000 Nvidia H1 hundreds which they cannot discuss. We can actually play the clip if we can.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. And play the clip.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, let's play the clip.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

The Chinese labs, they have more H1 hundreds than, than people think. You know, the.

[Ian Dunlap]

And these are the highest powered Nvidia chips that they were not supposed to have.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes. My understanding is that, is that Deep seek has about 50,000 each one hundreds which they can't talk about obviously because it is against the export controls that the United States has put in place. And I think it is true that, you know, I think they have more chips than other people expect. But also going to go forward basis they are going to be limited by the chip controls and the export controls that we have in place.

[Ian Dunlap]

Okay, so let me just give quick context. So when people talk about that H1 H1 was the GPU prior to Blackwell. So. So that's what people were using prior to Blackwell. And obviously Reuben will be the predecessor after that. So that's what that. That chip is.

[Troy Millings]

Okay, so interesting because like I said, you know, I want to harbor this point but it's important maybe, maybe, you know, maybe this thing is deeper than it appears to be.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. Yes.

[Troy Millings]

If they don't, if they have 50000 do the math of these things and they can't talk about it because like I said, Nvidia is actually. TSM actually got in trouble for that before when they was sending, sending chips to China to both. And it was against US policy and US actually obviously takes care of Taiwan safety. So they apologized for that. They actually said they didn't, they didn't really know how that happened.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

And.

[Ian Dunlap]

Allegedly they know. And then Nvidia at the, the government put a ban on Nvidia from shipping out their GPUs to China. And not just Nvidia though, AMD as well. And so they created an alternative chip that they can use in that market. Alternative Red Magic, not the blue magic.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

So when he speaks of these GPUs, I like the wording there to my understanding. Which means my, my understanding could be wrong. But it's just to my knowledge. But the math ain't mathing right. If defects. It took 6 million to get their GBT off the ground. Well, 50000 of those chips at an average price of 30,000. Because that's what those H1s were going for. I mean, just off the top, that's like 1.5 billion.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, but to Rashad's point, I think. I won't speak for you, Rashad, but I think you're alluding to. They weren't trying to give up that secret and his CEO did, which is like, why are you dirty backing on their business? Trump goes in that plane right around.

[Ian Dunlap]

Circle it back. Circle it back.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. So for sure, I think we all can agree the investment was higher than 6 million. For sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

Look. Yeah. Yes.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yes.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

We all agree. Yes.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

Okay. Sure. Okay.

[Rashad Bilal]

And the real threat, if we're gonna belabor this point, is Chinese software infiltrating American economies and Trojan Horse kind of ways. So if AMD does ship out a chip with Deep Seek on it for cheaper, with the same kind of compute and Tick Tock just got bought and Red Note is being elevated. There is a concerted effort on the technological side in China to make our apps popular. And for the record, once again, everything you put in Deep Seek, they own and the CCP owns. So if you're putting up your relaunch podcast, they're gonna own the rights. If you're a showrunner and you put in season four of. Of Landman and you try to write your show, they're gonna own it.

[Ian Dunlap]

So.

[Rashad Bilal]

And it's in the terms of service, please be careful. But I am interested in seeing the Chinese Trojan horse that comes out of these situations over the next year.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's interesting.

[Ian Dunlap]

It says this. This is what it says about dc. Its terms grant the company broad rights over content users submit, including the ability to modify, publish, and sub license it, which can pose risks for privacy and ip. Deep seat claims, ownership of the AI generated outputs, potentially limiting users control over the content created by the platform.

[Rashad Bilal]

I need a new lawyer.

[Ian Dunlap]

Fine print.

[Rashad Bilal]

Hey, lawyer fire, yo. What, for two lifetimes. Oh, boy. Okay, put the ideas in there and then they remix your whole idea. Kanye, download that new album up in.

[Ian Dunlap]

There, please, please modify and publish.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's crazy.

[Troy Millings]

300 billion dollar market cap loss. Biggest, biggest recorded drop for any company ever.

[Ian Dunlap]

I feel like that's a theme over the past two years. It's like going back and forth. Like, we saw this with Meta, we saw it with Microsoft. Now we've seen it in a video. This is the second time for Nvidia. I feel like it was the largest removal of equity in a company in the past, well, ever in History. I think Microsoft had direct. Then Nvidia broke the record. Then meta broke the record. Now here we go with Nvidia and each time what has happened since?

[Rashad Bilal]

I mean what I will say there is not enough balance in the U. S Stock market. Like no. Over the last two and a half years we haven't mentioned the Russell 2000. Very little. Even though the Dax is doing well. A little conversation about the German Dax. There's two and I'm a hyper concentration guy. There's too much hyper concentration in every country now. And once again the bond market is damn near dying and no one has said a word. Everyone put in chat. If you factor in crypto, investment and AI, what percentage of gains does that make up for the stock market? Even micro strategies and AI play like if you take those out, the market will be negative.

[Ian Dunlap]

Right. Well so that's.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

They are 100. Right, right. Those companies, the Russell, those companies have not performed.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

Which means even when those companies start like because if you look at all the earnings growth over the past few years, it hasn't caught up. Obviously those three companies that we spoke about have let it. We talk about how much they were weighted.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

But is there a turnaround now? Right. Even if those companies start to perform, that's still not enough for the market to move. Those three companies have to question is that.

[Troy Millings]

Well, all right, so let me, let.

[Ian Dunlap]

Me just finish that. Those companies have to move for it to be positive just because of how heavy they're weighted.

[Troy Millings]

$1.5 billion spent as opposed to 6 million. But will Trump retaliate if this is true? Allegedly. Obviously you don't get that many Nvidia chips by accident or in the black market. So this would have to be backdoor channels working with China indirectly with the. The top ranks of Nvidia employee stole.

[Rashad Bilal]

It out of the back office and.

[Ian Dunlap]

Shipped it so wrong place. 50,000.

[Troy Millings]

If that happens, will Trump have some level of retaliation or Nvidia?

[Rashad Bilal]

That's a great question, Rashad. You are broadcasting today. You would have to if not just to set an example like, like growing up in the household, like sometimes I would get a spanking for me and my brother so my, my mom would just be like I have to do it. So your brother know not to do it. They may have to get Jensen just so AMD and everyone intel because if I was intel I'd be calling everybody in charge.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's, that's the part that like that's the part. Right. We couldn't figure out why they keep Keeping this thing alive. Why is the government giving it the biggest contract? That's like that part. I don't know if it's beneficial to knock out to put restraints or retaliate against the company that's leading your economy. Yeah but if you got a player that's waiting, that's been kind of dormant that you want to propped up, but even then they still don't have the technology to do it. That's the problem. They're not in, they're not ready to do it. So you can put restrictions.

[Rashad Bilal]

Intel, intel.

[Ian Dunlap]

Not even close. They're not close yet. It would still, it would still be Nvidia as a leader for the GPUs. They, the market share is too great. Number two is, is AMD at 15 of the market share for the GPU market. They're at 85 bro.

[Troy Millings]

But they have, but they can he can import tariffs on them because they, they, we need them. They need us. They need, they. Their biggest clients are all American companies. So it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a two way relationship here. They, they have to sell it. They have to sell their products to American companies and American companies have to buy their products from them. So if, if he, if he, you know, has some level of penalty that they have to pay now, but they still got to pay it.

[Ian Dunlap]

I mean they're American company too Cool. Okay, so like what?

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[Rashad Bilal]

Additional terms apply. Like, you can't. They're all doing business.

[Ian Dunlap]

Like, they're all doing business with China. Who's not? Well, Meta's not. Well, I shouldn't say who's not.

[Rashad Bilal]

They're not allowed to.

[Ian Dunlap]

Right. Because they're not allowed to, but majority of them are. Right. Google might have some issues, obviously, because Baidu is. Is pretty much what Google is, so not as much. But Tesla for sure needs China. Apple for sure needs China. Right. Maybe Nvidia needs China too.

[Troy Millings]

I mean, everybody needs China.

[Ian Dunlap]

Right?

[Troy Millings]

But I mean.

[Ian Dunlap]

I mean, you put a tariff isn't. I mean, how does that even work?

[Rashad Bilal]

Listen, Elon confirmed it as well, that they have about 50,000 Nvidia Hopper GPUs.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh, they got the Hopper ones. Oh, yeah. H1.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, that's scary.

[Ian Dunlap]

So how'd they get it?

[Rashad Bilal]

Did he take his heart back out the crowd and put it back in his chest? Shout out to all y'all who defended Elon, who clearly. Because if that was Kyrie.

[Ian Dunlap]

Whoa.

[Rashad Bilal]

Or Kanye. Oh, man. Being back up to two, Billy. But, yeah, now them having 50, 000 gpus on a come out the back office. They got the trains and the trucks like I used to do in Jordan, Chicago, back in the day.

[Ian Dunlap]

This is the Memphis. The Memphis line.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. Interesting.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, man.

[Rashad Bilal]

Now, now, that Rashad would be a real threat. 50, 000 GPUs afloat. It's like Alias with Jennifer Garner back in the day. Like this espionage getting crazy.

[Ian Dunlap]

All right, so here's the other part of it. If it's the 55, 50,000H1S. Sounds like a virus at this point, but if it. It's still not the latest model. So you still. You're still not computing at the highest level with the people you got to compete with because everybody's good enough. It's good enough to get you to a certain point. Right, but it's like having.

[Troy Millings]

I mean, if you. If you think they got 50,000 of those, you don't think they got Blackwell everything.

[Rashad Bilal]

Some. Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

I don't know. I'm just saying, if I got.

[Troy Millings]

They probably got the samples that they even come out yet.

[Ian Dunlap]

What. What we do know is that. Well, allegedly, we know to his understanding, he said. And what Elon's confirmed is that they have that one, which is still a model behind in in six months it'll be or eight months it'll be two models behind.

[Troy Millings]

No I'm just saying you think that they.

[Rashad Bilal]

They might have it now they should have no models.

[Troy Millings]

If you. If it's. It's like snowfall. If they're gonna front you 50000 bricks you're a one client. You get it off consignment after a while. So if they get 50000 of these I'm pretty sure they got then they.

[Rashad Bilal]

Got very good relationship in Blackwells.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah they got some black whale in the stash.

[Troy Millings]

Like I said they probably got something they probably got the sample product that's not even like Redwell Ruben.

[Ian Dunlap]

Not Reuben. Reuben's next somebody calls him Speaking of.

[Rashad Bilal]

H1 there's been an outbreak of the H5N9 bird flu in California. We in all out warfare. It's a lot of stuff Trump don't do do right. But the attacks that we're going through again and then the CEO we talk about them blackout CIA confirmed that the.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Got you all in check.

[Ian Dunlap]

They try to run up on on the lab. You saw it the one don't you? Yeah not a security was not happening like you said.

[Troy Millings]

I mean going for it. The one thing that I guess is really if meta is any indicator happened a few times these. These situations they usually bounce back so that would be a good buying opportunity for Nvidia if you. If you believe in the company long.

[Rashad Bilal]

Term on sale but meta CEO is I'm trying to find a way to say this. He's American born and bred.

[Ian Dunlap]

Okay.

[Rashad Bilal]

Even a lot is we we are spooky hours. Yo I'm so glad I don't work in government. I'm not a political leader shout out to all you work in government with security clearances and you think Jensen is.

[Troy Millings]

Compromised because he's not. He's not.

[Rashad Bilal]

I wouldn't say he's compromised but I'm sure he's been offered some things that may be tempting.

[Troy Millings]

Well you know he's from Taiwan.

[Rashad Bilal]

Allegedly. I know it's true but just for the doctor in deposition risk mitigation allegedly. Because if you think about it, three of our most powerful companies in the United States are not run on Duncan to the brother who always going to go get Duncan. I mean yo, I'm not dying over content. I'm gonna keep telling y'all that. No you wake it up. And all y'all who wake it up on your podcast end up getting released anyway or dismantled or y'all break up.

[Troy Millings]

If y'all thought that if y'all thought that they was going to get left out. Like China's not gonna get left out of this.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh no. It's the, the, it's the number one threat.

[Rashad Bilal]

You think that's part of the reason why Trump playing nice and saying me and Gigi Ping are gonna save the world together.

[Ian Dunlap]

Can Trump figure this out?

[Rashad Bilal]

Really not. Not solo. Going to take an army. It's going to take a village.

[Ian Dunlap]

We'll see. This is. I mean he's not even a week off of announcing a 500 billion dollar spend.

[Rashad Bilal]

Because if they have. Okay, if they have 50,000. How many does Baidu and Alibaba have? Well, talk about turning over the market.

[Ian Dunlap]

Baba. I need to do something with it. Then.

[Rashad Bilal]

They may be waiting Autobots unite day. They may have a plan.

[Ian Dunlap]

Shout out to Jack.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

It'S nasty.

[Rashad Bilal]

Scary times.

[Troy Millings]

Spooky hours out here. All right, what about Nike?

[Rashad Bilal]

Just. I'll take my personal disposition out of it and how they did Kyrie and others. I know it's been on a little bit of a rebound slight for me. Nike is permanently uninvestable until leadership gives a plan like okay and this is what we're going sector by sector. I can just off the top of my head name Tesla, amd. Nvidia. Eli Lilly. Tsm. Like Nike is an outperforming sketcher. You're not with somebody. Come on. It's over with. Like I'm tired of yo. It's gonna make a bounce back. We're over buying the Jordans we couldn't afford as a kid. It's over with. They sorry you milked us for 15 pause for 15 years over the Jordan threes we couldn't get when we was eight. We don't Salehi got Crocs on fire. No.

[Ian Dunlap]

It. You know, they, they've kind of lost their way. Which is why you. They got rid of their CEO and it's. I mean this is the first quarter that this, you know, the new CEO has been in place. But the innovation is the problem is still exists. Right. Like who is. Who's their market.

[Troy Millings]

Right.

[Ian Dunlap]

If sales are going down, if you look at. I told you look at the correlation between Foot Locker sales and look at what Nike's doing.

[Rashad Bilal]

Adidas got you wiped down.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, they've come into a space where they're not the, the. I mean they're still the number one sports provider in terms of overall merchandising. But as far as athletes, I mean New Balance is there Adidas. There's So much competition. Hookah on cloud. They're not the place that you're not automatically looking, like, I need this running shoe. Because people are making better products at a more affordable price. A lot of times they haven't been innovative. They don't have the star athlete. LeBron is on year 22. That's. I mean, yeah, KD, he's on year 19, right? Tiger's gone, Mike is gone. Serena's gone. Like, Kyrie is going. And Edwards is with Adidas. Right.

[Rashad Bilal]

Like, y'all lucky. Kanye don't got distribution with them pods.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Over with the.

[Ian Dunlap]

The basketball guys that you used to rely on to sell apparel. It's not the same. Zion didn't work out. Jason Tatum, people are not gravitating. But, yeah, no pun intended. I think Zion's a great player, but it's not working the same way. And then you lose the biggest stars of this generation. 15 is with Adidas. 15 is. I mean, he's on TV more than anybody. Him and Shohei is with New Balance.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

These are generational talents, generational athletes, generational personalities.

[Rashad Bilal]

No one even wants Nike anymore on the player side, which is crazy to think about. Well, they still is the IBM in that space. Intel of that space. Call a spade a spade. I ain't playing this year.

[Ian Dunlap]

But they have done is something smart. They went into a new avenue, and that's women's sports. Basketball specifically. Sabrina Shu has done well for. For them. Asia's getting her own shoe and Caitlyn is obviously a star. They just announced today that she's getting her own shoe. So they're moving in that lane. That's her growing business. Even that three on three league unrivaled. That's doing numbers, bro. Every Friday, Saturday, Sunday is doing numbers. That. That might be an avenue for them, but it's going to take some time for. For the wnba.

[Troy Millings]

What's that mean?

[Rashad Bilal]

Rashad, come on, don't do it, don't.

[Ian Dunlap]

Do it, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. I know the mean you got. You're gonna do the. The. The.

[Troy Millings]

No, no, it's a meme. It's like. I think it's. I think it's Maddie Johnson. He's like.

[Rashad Bilal]

Over say no way, no how.

[Troy Millings]

No disrespect if you waiting for Sabrina to save the company.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh, she's number three in sales. Nope. It's Kobe. Like, no joke.

[Rashad Bilal]

And they should have been put out the Caitlyn shoe.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, it takes Some time for that. But outside of the Jordan brand, let's like, let's move the Jordan brand. Braun, Kobe, and then Sabrina and Katie.

[Troy Millings]

I mean, that's.

[Rashad Bilal]

I like Sabrina, but if Sabrina number three get.

[Ian Dunlap]

It's. But it's not the women that are wearing it. The men's. If you look at, like, college team.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

They're ordering them both men's and women's. Look at professional athletes, men and women. They're playing in that shoe.

[Troy Millings]

So I test you. You talking about shoes that are. Are getting ordered in bulk from.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's what. That's. That's the makeup.

[Troy Millings]

They're paying these schools to wear their sneakers.

[Ian Dunlap]

Did I get that part?

[Troy Millings]

So even that order in bulk thing, I mean, if I give you a hundred dollars and say, yo, Ian, buy this hoodie for 100.

[Ian Dunlap]

Because guess what? Guess what happens. Guess what happens. Eyeballs are on that. Oh, that's.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, but it's not working. It's a thing called cultural impact. I've never seen nobody wear these sneakers.

[Ian Dunlap]

In public, but that's a part of it, too. How many people are wearing sneakers to now dress in? Right. Like, we used to get fresh with our sneakers.

[Troy Millings]

That's why. And that's why.

[Ian Dunlap]

And they don't have it.

[Troy Millings]

That's why they're suffering.

[Rashad Bilal]

And to that point, they have the biggest competitor. Louis Vuitton. Yeah, bro. The luxury market ate up all yard cachet.

[Ian Dunlap]

Asics ate into the Asics went crazy.

[Troy Millings]

New balances.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, we said that. Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

So the thing about it is that, I mean. Yeah, these numbers.

[Rashad Bilal]

Nike is what, fifth best in that category?

[Ian Dunlap]

Which one? Let's just say, I mean, they still number one because they sell the most. But I mean, loss leader influence is not the same. They don't have that person, man. Tiger, literally. They had to make a division for golf because of Tiger Woods. Right. Like, they had to create a basketball division after they saw success with Jordan. They got Kobe, obviously. And LeBron has held the mantle for a little bit. Not a little bit, a lot. For the past 20 years.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

But, bro, who. Who's the person? I don't know who it is.

[Troy Millings]

That's not gonna work. Those.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

And shout out to Katie.

[Ian Dunlap]

And they brought back then Katie.

[Troy Millings]

That's my guy. But I'm just saying, people don't wear these sneakers.

[Ian Dunlap]

Katie's.

[Troy Millings]

None of them. LeBron's. Katie. People don't wear these sneakers.

[Rashad Bilal]

Didn't work over there.

[Ian Dunlap]

And that was the shoe they wearing. Yeah. Ja is making some. Some waves. I'm telling You, Sabrina, people wearing those shoes. That's right. You, you go to Dick's Sporting Goods. You go any of these, these. It's right there, right in the front.

[Troy Millings]

When you talking about people wearing. I'm in the space as far as like I have a kid that plays basketball. I'm, I'm in the basketball grassroots circle. So I understand like these kids wear sneakers to play basketball in. But what I'm saying is, yeah, Nike became big because it, it got bigger than just sports. Right. Nike was a fashion brand where from jerseys to apparel to sneakers. And I mean the Jordan, the vast majority of people that was wearing Jordans at his heyday, even now, to this day, we're not playing basketball in Jordans. Of course you have fresh. Yeah, that's done. That's over with. That's over with. And that, that you can't, you're not gonna be able to survive at the highest level possible if you're only selling products to athletes. That's not going.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's what I said. They got. But they, that's why you have to have the athlete. Right. Jordan makes it look cool on court. Now you want to look cool outside, off the court. It is.

[Troy Millings]

You've seen Kanye. He wasn't, he's not an athlete.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, Kanye the entertainer Kanye did.

[Troy Millings]

You saw what Travis Scott did. Even with his sneaker.

[Ian Dunlap]

Travis Scott hasn't have us. He has a Jordan.

[Troy Millings]

That's a Jordan and they re rocked it. And that's another thing. Their creativity is at an all time low. They keep, they keep re bringing back the old sneakers and doing all this and, and have me colorways. Can you have the same sneakers?

[Ian Dunlap]

That was, that was an avenue. It was. If it's not gonna be the athlete, maybe it'll be the entertainer. Since they saw what happened with Yeezy and Travis has been great for them. He's been great for them.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. Drake was a miss though. I don't know if the Kevin, but.

[Ian Dunlap]

Like Adidas tried to do that with Bad Bunny. Didn't work.

[Rashad Bilal]

Didn't work at all. Nike, lvmh, Hermes, tj, Max Dior, Chanel, Adidas, Lululemon.

[Ian Dunlap]

Right. For the apparel. That's what I'm saying. Right. There's so many competitors.

[Rashad Bilal]

Everybody on earth is your competition. Like you have a bunch of enemy combatants that have increased crocheting a space. And like you said, when Jordan leaves and then like you said, I don't see people just casually wearing Nikes out anymore.

[Ian Dunlap]

So they bring it, they brought back. So they try to Bring back some of the apparel. Remember the elite socks. Like that was a thing.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

It did away with the least. Not elite socks are back. That was a seller for them. The tech has always been a pretty good thing for them. That still sells pretty well. But I mean, it's tough.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. So the guy who asked me, I appreciate you, but Nike, I, I, they're not even top 10 in that space. You gotta, you gotta go through all the umbrellas of companies that LVMH and Chanel have before you.

[Ian Dunlap]

They're still the biggest. Not top 10. That's crazy. They're definitely.

[Rashad Bilal]

Okay. Definitely not a top 10 stock.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh no, no, no. Not stock.

[Rashad Bilal]

I'm talking about Louie Louie got 400,000, 50,000 GPUs. Lululemon got you wiped down.

[Ian Dunlap]

What Lulham is in the conversations for sure.

[Troy Millings]

Then the hocus facts.

[Ian Dunlap]

I said those companies. But that's Hoka is only, is only running for now. But that's the thing.

[Troy Millings]

A lot of people wear hokas that don't run. They just went, they, they're walking. They like just regular everyday up and down the street sneakers.

[Ian Dunlap]

They're not selling the same amount as Nike. Obviously. We know that. But I'm saying all these little dents into your market, like Dominic Hurts, right. So Hoka a six on On Clouds has done better than all those, all these Adidas, like they punching in on that, on that market and it's like, all right, bro, at a certain point you're gonna, you're gonna perform like you're doing now.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Like when Iron man got jumped in.

[Troy Millings]

Nike been in trouble for a while. They've been in trouble for a while.

[Rashad Bilal]

Since Kaepernick, technically.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. I mean, even before that. I mean they started breaking it. The Jordan brand. Now you gotta try to rely everything on Jordan brand. Now you got, you got the Jordan brand schools versus the Nike schools. Like they would.

[Ian Dunlap]

There was that era of not gonna work of early Durant, Kobe and Braun Kyrie in there. That was, they performed really well during that moment. Yeah, that was a great moment.

[Troy Millings]

But even that, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I mean, it's just the culture, it's a thing called cultural influence. Not to stay on this topic for too long. But nobody's wearing.

[Ian Dunlap]

No, that's not true. That's not true. That's not true.

[Troy Millings]

They wear Kobe's to play basketball.

[Ian Dunlap]

It's 100 true people wear Kobe.

[Troy Millings]

They don't wear Kobe's. They wear Kobe's to play basketball. And it's Become a very nostalgic thing. And it's actually very pricey. And people. I'm just saying, like. Or the sneaker collectors wear them and they put them in a glass box. Every day you see. You see more people wearing Asics joint. Like, people are not wearing to get fresh. They're not wearing.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's different.

[Troy Millings]

Fresh.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's different. Everybody can't get fresh. So, like.

[Troy Millings]

But that's the point. That's. That's what sneaker culture come from. Sneaker culture comes from you getting fresh. David Robinson's.

[Ian Dunlap]

And it's evolved from there. But people just having the shoes.

[Troy Millings]

No, people still getting fresh. But like Ian said, now they're getting fresh with Balenciagas.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

And 15, the average kid does not. Is not gonna have balenciagas. Right. He's gonna have to. His Kobe's is gonna be his sneaker when he playing ball. It's gonna be a sneaker when he wearing. When he going to school. The average kid.

[Troy Millings]

Kobe's to school. I have a kid. Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

I have two kids. I was a teacher. They were Kobe's, bro.

[Troy Millings]

Three Kobe's. He's never wore them outside the basketball.

[Rashad Bilal]

I'm looking at it.

[Troy Millings]

I'm looking at it.

[Ian Dunlap]

I don't know. What I'm saying is that they. They do, bro. All the numbers show that, you know.

[Troy Millings]

Where Kobe's like, getting fresh or they'll wear with just like on some sweatpants. Like.

[Ian Dunlap]

This is what. This is how the kids are dressing, bro.

[Troy Millings]

When Kanye put his sneakers out, you wear the Kanye's to get fresh.

[Rashad Bilal]

They were a staple.

[Ian Dunlap]

When Kanye put his sneakers out, kids couldn't get them.

[Troy Millings]

Any sneaker that he puts out. I'm talking about the road Runners, whatever people. The only thing that he put down, the people that don't get fresh in is like those Croc slippers. They could just wear those, like, flip flops. No, everything else they puts out, you.

[Ian Dunlap]

You put those on, they run them to death.

[Troy Millings]

But I'm saying it' all the time. That's what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that you wear those as just anything. You could just go outside and just wear. They like Crocs. But those other sneakers that he put in, those are fashion items. People get fresh in those sneakers.

[Ian Dunlap]

They are no longer. That's what I'm trying to tell you.

[Troy Millings]

Kanye's.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

What.

[Ian Dunlap]

Which ones pick them? The pirates? The zebras?

[Troy Millings]

Like, how they not. Because people are not winning. They 15 years old. Every. Every item that he's ever come out with has been a staple in fashion.

[Derek Lewis]

No, that's a fact.

[Ian Dunlap]

No, no.

[Rashad Bilal]

Every item that Kanye has not put out as a shoe has not been.

[Ian Dunlap]

Every shoe he's put out desired. And I have them all. That's why I'm saying it. No, it hasn't been. This is a fact.

[Rashad Bilal]

Which ones work?

[Ian Dunlap]

The 350s for sure. Right? That's low top. The zebra ones for sure. The turtle doves. That's the gray one. His first one with the strap. The seven. Those are icons that. The Nike ones. Icons.

[Rashad Bilal]

Did you.

[Ian Dunlap]

Have you seen one person wear the basketball shoe?

[Rashad Bilal]

No.

[Ian Dunlap]

Awkward silence. This is what I'm saying. Not every product works.

[Troy Millings]

You're talking about just misses at the bottom. Everything.

[Ian Dunlap]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let's not change it. Let's not change it. We said every product that he's put.

[Troy Millings]

Out, he's had some.

[Ian Dunlap]

I just named some classic ones.

[Troy Millings]

The percentage.

[Ian Dunlap]

Some of the, the low top joints aren't great.

[Troy Millings]

What's the percentage?

[Rashad Bilal]

350S was fire. 450s was fire.

[Ian Dunlap]

And the Wave Runners.

[Rashad Bilal]

The Wave Runners.

[Troy Millings]

Tough October. What's the 500?

[Ian Dunlap]

Sue, I just said, I said the ones that were the iconic.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Ian Dunlap]

Kanye is. I don't know percentage he has put out iconic things he has not made. I. I don't know the percentage.

[Troy Millings]

There's some Jordans that are not great.

[Ian Dunlap]

Exactly. Again, I didn't say every product he puts out is great. That's what you said. I'm saying no, not every product.

[Troy Millings]

And what's the, what's the deal with the Vix Hitting almost all time? 52 week low.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, we talked about this last Friday. VIX is a measure of volatility in the market. We're got, we've got to a low. Whenever we get to a low, usually a tsunami of some sort is going to. Going to come our way. I think this drop today was just causing the fact of that if we get to the 9 or sub 10 range, that's when we'll start to have issues. But if the VIX is at a low, usually the market is at a high and then it's going to have a reversal like in a month. So keep your eyes on that. If we get below 10, we may do market Mondays, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays. So but for right now, when I was looking at the vix, I'm not surprised that the market reacted the way that it did offer this news. But when the VIX is at a low, it's usually a canary in a coal mine telling you that turmoil is about to happen.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. Closed Friday at 15. Jumped up to 20. 2162 today.

[Rashad Bilal]

Today.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

I told you 25 is when it's like, all right, let's just.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Let's just sit it out. Let's have our money in reserves. If you have some profit to take, let's take some profits and let's wait this thing out. We didn't get to 25, though.

[Rashad Bilal]

The slides were fire.

[Ian Dunlap]

What? I got those too.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Not advised to win if the. If the ground is wet, though, could be dangerous.

[Rashad Bilal]

Gotcha.

[Ian Dunlap]

You got the socks?

[Rashad Bilal]

No, I haven't got those. I'm good. I'm not that. I'll be a laggard on that. I don't need the 20 socks. Yeah. He look happy again. Back in the creative bag.

[Ian Dunlap]

Bully the album, man. We're looking forward to it. That snippet that they put out sounds like he's back on that rapping again. Yeah. So we'll see.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. Shout out to Bum J. Everybody in Chicago helping.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

What do you think about Alphabet Almost at all. Time high. Almost pull back today, but.

[Rashad Bilal]

They'Re trying to call their way back. They would be in that B tier of the AI exposure. I'm still waiting to see a demo of this Willow quantum chip. Google, you're on the clock. It's Willow time. Where is it at? Especially when Deepsea got 72,000Gpus. But I think they're going to claw back. And detective, they build is pretty good on the AI side as well. So. So I keep saying, like we can have all these fears, but the same companies that have been doing well are going to continue to do so. Yeah, they've with presidents changes. Brexit, Covet that was manufactured now that we can talk about it. And they still did incredibly well. So I don't love Google. I think they've misstepped the whole AI race and maybe they got a little bit too comfortable. But they're solid investment. They're liking my beats here.

[Ian Dunlap]

I got. I got them up there a tier. I got them up there. They. So the cloud service is expanding, which is great news for them, obviously. AWS and Azure, they would probably be right there with them.

[Rashad Bilal]

But even aws.

[Ian Dunlap]

No, no, I said aws.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. Okay. We're on the same side. We ain't like the mother chose to be breaking.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. No, no, no. I mean those are the three leaders, right?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

I mean AWS is here, but they're their Their share of the AWS space has come down just a bit.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

So that part of it. But even AI when you look at. And I, I guess this is like computer engineers have rated Gemini the, the number one GBT based on. So the only part, the YouTube thing is still concerning the dominance that it relies on YouTube. It's still, it's still a concern. But I think the AI innovation part is pretty strong. The key going forward is how much of their talent can they keep. And we've seen that for the past five, six years. If you look at the companies who've been building, they usually have a common theme and they probably started at Google. Was it deep fake then? Is that why I keep thinking deep fake?

[Rashad Bilal]

Probably when they had fixed that search.

[Ian Dunlap]

Business too, when they had the original model, it was them. But a lot of the engineers came from, from Google's labs. So yeah, keeping the talent is going to be important.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. But if the, as open air continues to get better, it's going to put more pressure and take more market share away from their search business. So be mindful.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's a fact.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. Yeah, be mindful.

[Ian Dunlap]

The accuracy is better, though.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, I agree.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Okay. Okay. All right. Mark Zuckerberg versus Sam Altman showdown.

[Rashad Bilal]

Who do you think is going to win? It's my question I want to pose to you guys on the political and who will win? I mean, I think it's an interesting race.

[Troy Millings]

I think that Zuckerberg obviously is, is, you know, one of the most powerful people in the world. So he's more powerful than Sam Altman right now. And I think that that masculine CEO shot was directed at him too, because he, he also, he's also gay. So I talked about last week with Tim Cook. That could have been an off brand shot at Tim Cook without trying to seem homophobic because I don't, still don't really know what that means as far as any, they need more masculine energy as far as CEOs when all the CEOs are white men. So I don't know what, what he means by that, but that may have masculine. That may have been a shot at Tim Cook, but it also may have been a shot at Sam Altman.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Without, without taking the homophobic route. So I think that there's issues there. Elon definitely doesn't like them. That's for sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

Does not.

[Troy Millings]

So I mean, he said that Trump said that he hates him. Actually he said one of them, he hates one of the people. So he said, he said that he. Elon Musk actually hates Sam. Oh, and that's what he said.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yep.

[Troy Millings]

And by the way, George Bush II is. Is a way worse president than Donald Trump ever was. He's actually the worst president in American history.

[Ian Dunlap]

Where did this come from?

[Troy Millings]

Because a lot of people forget that.

[Rashad Bilal]

Just want to remind in what way?

[Troy Millings]

Well, he lied about weapons of mass destruction, started a whole war with Iraq for no reason at all, which ended up killing a hundred ,thousand Iraqis and ten thousand American soldiers and put us a trillion dollars in debt. Then started the longest war in American history. And Afghanistan put us in another trillion dollars worth of debt. Ruined Colin Powell's reputation because he made him go in front of the UN and lie. Then we have the biggest financial crisis in American history next to the Great Depression, the Great Recession. That happens on his watch when you have all of these banks that had no regulation at all that just ran it up.

[Ian Dunlap]

Bear Stearns.

[Troy Millings]

And then he bears. And then he bails out all of these banks. His handling of Katrina was atrocious. Flew over, didn't even stop. The list goes on, but that's just a few that come to mind. So he's very much. He's way more dangerous. Dick Cheney, Halliburton. What they. What they was able to do.

[Ian Dunlap]

Dick Cheney's war is what they called it.

[Troy Millings]

Oh, man, this guy's very sure. I know he's, you know, cool with Michelle Obama, but Donald Trump is not as dangerous as. As him.

[Rashad Bilal]

Until Elon puts us in those wars that Rumsell put him in.

[Troy Millings]

To be determined.

[Ian Dunlap]

To be determined.

[Troy Millings]

I would rather have Donald Trump as a president than him. Because, man, that was a.

[Rashad Bilal]

For the record, that's a Ralph Lauren hat, not a MAGA hat. Before y'all get to clipping stuff up. I never saw him have a patriotic hat before. Chill, chill.

[Troy Millings]

There you go. People have. People might not. People might have forgotten history, but George. And when he left presidency, he had the lowest approval rating in American history for any. Any president ever. He's the reason why we got Obama. They wouldn't have been a black president if he. If he didn't perform at such a low level. He opened the door.

[Rashad Bilal]

Very true.

[Ian Dunlap]

I think Trump passed him on the lowest. Or maybe, but one the. Trump and Biden might have passed him on the lowest approval, but today he was for sure. For sure. That just came. Where you just got that from? You just wanted to say that.

[Troy Millings]

No, but because people have been saying that Trump is the worst president. He's dangerous. Look, I might not agree with everything that happens, but we're not going to rewrite history. We're not. That's what we're not going to do. He said he's an interesting. Trump is an interesting.

[Ian Dunlap]

Modified Trump is dangerous and published.

[Troy Millings]

He's interesting character.

[Ian Dunlap]

To my understanding.

[Troy Millings]

George Bush level of danger was different. That was a different level of danger.

[Ian Dunlap]

Two terms back to back.

[Troy Millings]

We still never really got that answer for the Iraq situation. Weapons of mass destruction just make.

[Rashad Bilal]

Oh, we got it.

[Troy Millings]

They just made, they just made that up. Like that's so crazy how you could just make something up. Like it was never proven to be true. And like I said, you, you got 10, 000American soldiers that died. How many soldiers lost their legs, arms, mental illness for no reason. We get attacked by Saudi Arabia's 18 people on the planes were from Saudi Arabia and it was orchestrated from a group in Afghanistan. And then we, and then we attack Iraq.

[Rashad Bilal]

Saddam. Yep.

[Troy Millings]

That's like, that's like Mexicans getting on a board from getting on a plane from America hitting London and then London strikes Argentina.

[Ian Dunlap]

Unfinished business, man. His pops had unfinished business in Iraq. He had to go clean that up.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, but I'm just saying it's just a lot of. It's an unfortunate situation. There's a lot of, you know, a lot of people lost their lives for no reason.

[Rashad Bilal]

Absolutely.

[Troy Millings]

And we was in, we wasn't in debt. That's another thing.

[Rashad Bilal]

We got a surplus coming in.

[Troy Millings]

Clinton balanced the budget. The reason why we're in debt now is because of Bush. And then it's. Now you just, you just, you know, you just add on to it. But we wasn't in debt before that situation. Not like we are. Not like we are now. This is a discipline. You have to, you have to point the blame at him. He starts two wars and has the biggest financial crisis and has to bail out the banks. That's the reason why we're in debt now. 20 years later.

[Rashad Bilal]

You think Al Gore should have stood up or. Nobody bigger than the program. You see how relationship start is how it tell you how the leadership is going to go when Jeb took them votes and threw them in a little alligator swamp.

[Ian Dunlap]

Historic year 2000 was a historic year.

[Rashad Bilal]

Crazy.

[Ian Dunlap]

My first time voting. Yeah, I'll never forget it.

[Rashad Bilal]

I vote right. Right in the Everglades.

[Troy Millings]

Trump wouldn't. Trump wouldn't have done that.

[Ian Dunlap]

What?

[Troy Millings]

None of the stuff I just named. I don't think he would have did it.

[Ian Dunlap]

I don't know.

[Rashad Bilal]

If it wasn't for Trump, we wouldn't be in that Ukraine war.

[Troy Millings]

Oh, no. Poolin said that if. If Trump. Trump was in office, that would have never happened. But that's him playing to. Okay, he likes Trump, but, you know, that's all that political game. But Putin actually said, yo, Trump was in office. This probably would never even happen.

[Rashad Bilal]

That was gross mismanagement on both sides of Biden and Putin, for sure. It's crazy times. Crazy times. Rashad, are you going maga?

[Troy Millings]

Who decides war?

[Ian Dunlap]

Say it now for real.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's the question of the decade. For every president. Who decides war. That's the real. Mm. What can you do?

[Troy Millings]

Not a lot.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, I mean, it's going back to the original part. Obviously, that history lesson is important, but the. The mus. Altman thing.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

I think what's most important is that they still gonna figure out how to do business. Like, they don't even have to like each other. Right. Like, Trump knows that Elon doesn't like Altman. He's still gonna do business with him.

[Troy Millings]

Well, that might have, but as soon.

[Rashad Bilal]

As Elon find a way to cut that boy throat, Elon's all right.

[Troy Millings]

They said that allegedly they cut his access off to Trump this weekend. Allegedly.

[Rashad Bilal]

Allegedly. Allegedly. Similar rumblings.

[Ian Dunlap]

He said he's gonna kick him out of Doge.

[Troy Millings]

I'm just saying, sometimes it does affect relationships.

[Ian Dunlap]

They cut the lights off of Fauci's credentials. They can cut the lights off his, too.

[Troy Millings]

No, no, no. That's a big difference.

[Ian Dunlap]

No, no. I'm saying. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I can't. They can't cut off his business. I said his government credentials.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, cut off Eli. He's funding the government. $200 million. I funded the government. He funded the government. He is the government.

[Rashad Bilal]

You better get my access when I swipe my.

[Troy Millings]

You can't cut off Elon's action to.

[Rashad Bilal]

Go to the east wing or west wing title.

[Ian Dunlap]

Not for his business. For his title.

[Troy Millings]

Whatever Eli wants, he gonna get you.

[Rashad Bilal]

Sometimes you got to weaponize the business to get what you want for. On a relationship side.

[Ian Dunlap]

Weaponize your business. To my understanding.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Friday, when he go gets a swiping, he better be able to walk in there like Olivia Pope used to do. You gotta go see his president. What, you think I donated all his money to not be able to go see him when I want to? Yeah. Okay.

[Ian Dunlap]

Access.

[Rashad Bilal]

Get Michelle and go fund her and run against y'all. You better quit playing.

[Ian Dunlap]

No.

[Rashad Bilal]

Don't care. You gonna get. Get all that old diamond money that them grandparents had.

[Ian Dunlap]

He took his talents over The Europe.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yep.

[Ian Dunlap]

Access to. Not access granted.

[Troy Millings]

Allegedly. Well, we do have a guest. So let's bring our guest up if we can. Okay, yeah, let's, let's. Let's get it. We got Derek Lewis.

[Ian Dunlap]

Hi, gentlemen.

[American Express Representative]

Wanted to introduce you to Derek Lewis. Obviously, I've been speaking about you. That's Troy Millings and Rashad and our friend Ian Dunlap.

[Rashad Bilal]

How are you?

[Derek Lewis]

Absolutely.

[Rashad Bilal]

Get to it.

[Ian Dunlap]

How you doing?

[Troy Millings]

How you doing?

[Ian Dunlap]

How you doing? Chanel.

[Rashad Bilal]

Hi.

[Derek Lewis]

Miss you guys.

[Ian Dunlap]

Likewise.

[Troy Millings]

All right, so we'll just start. Okay. So we have esteemed guest Derek Lewis, legend, author, entrepreneur, entrepreneur, investor. And Big Dave's CheeseSteaks. Opened up 10 franchises. Our guy Derek. And then also this is interesting and a great time because former president of multicultural at PepsiCo. So obviously there's a lot to talk about as far as that is concerned. Keynote speaker, very esteemed resume. So first and foremost, thank you for joining us. Appreciate it.

[Derek Lewis]

Hey, thank you all for having me. And congratulations on the. The book launch. I'm in track and it looks.

[Troy Millings]

Thank you.

[Derek Lewis]

Promising. So big, big ups. I'm in the same. Same cycle. Maybe not as big, but nevertheless, I. I'm enjoying the journey. And congratulations again.

[Ian Dunlap]

Appreciate that. Thank you.

[Troy Millings]

No problem. No problem. So, okay, so we got a lot to talk about. But first I want to talk about, obviously, you know, you were the president of multicultural at PepsiCo. PepsiCo, one of the largest companies in the world. Right. So I will. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this whole attack on dei.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Derek Lewis]

Yeah, yeah, no, fantastic. Great question. And very timely. You know, and that was my last role at Pepsi. For the other, really, 33, 34 years, I was an operating executive president of multiple businesses. At one point, I was running North America operationally, so always in charge of billions and billions of dollars of sales and profit and became a really big anchor, primarily all in the beverage space. And then the last role, because of the work I was doing, certainly on a geographical level, company had asked me to come in and create this new role. That Multicultural business unit role was taking really all the best practices of the things that I was doing in my geographical roles. I was basically linking the business to the college diversity case and driving results from that.

[Troy Millings]

Right.

[Derek Lewis]

Showing how ROI can be achieved by doing it the right way and using an established framework and having discipline with that framework and bringing all my associates along. But the last role was obviously meant to be a North America role. And again, that business unit is still running. I retired at the end of 22 after 35 years. Of service. I wanted to get into other things like being an entrepreneur, like being an author. We can talk a little bit about that, how that came about and then others investment in, you know, private companies, sitting on boards and doing things like that to really fulfill my, what I call my new phase of paying it forward, of being a go giver after being, you know, decades of a go getter. So that's where I'm at in terms of dni. You know, certainly what I'm seeing, it's, you know, not ideal. You know, I'm a little disappointed obviously in some of the way, some of the call it bandwagoning is going on herky jerky, you know, student body left, student body right. Positioning is from some, some of the organizations put a politics aside for a second. You know, it's a drastic change in a lot of cases and it does affect associates. Having said that, my whole life, my book is all about turning struggle, turning adversity, taking challenges and turn them to next level things.

[Troy Millings]

Right.

[Derek Lewis]

So I also, while I believe that yes, there is a challenge amongst us right now as some of these things get pulled back, but that's creating a new opportunity. And the reality is, from my vantage point, being in that space my entire life, I would say that the playbook needed to be refined, needed to be reimagined. I think the playbook historically obviously originated from in the 60s and 70s when there was an awful lot of turmoil as relates to discrimination and rights. A lot of laws were being broken, there was a lot of societal norms being changed at that time. And so that playbook was essential for that period of time just to drive some stability and some entry level access to black individuals at the time. But I think as time moved on, you have to evolve it. I think there's a new playbook now that requires one to be comprehensive, much more comprehensive in nature. Not just looking at a very direct lens of race or gender even or direct cohort. I think it has to be multifaceted across all cohorts. So I think comprehensive is the first CIOs, the next CI we use collaboration. You got to get people in an atmosphere where they're working together, talking about these topics, working on solutions together, not, not competing on solution, not competing on things, but working together on things. And the last C I would use is, you know, really is compassion. You got to have. This is all about people. And so as you make these drastic changes, one way or the other, you are affecting people in their lives and their mindset and their mental health. And so it's important for, I think this new model as it, as it emerges through the leadership of the culture. These are people inside organizations, people that sit in community based organizations, a whole host of people that I think now need to really come together and frame the conversation in a different way, in an evolving way. So it's much more productive, much more progressive. I don't like the quick tactics of bandwagon. Like I said, I think it's weak to have that happen inside of an organization without telling the story on where you're going. So in my mind, if you're going to pull back from something or move away from something, at least for me, have a conversation of where you're evolving to because you're still dealing with the social, you're still dealing with humans, you're still dealing with people lives at stake here. And so careers are at stake. So you know, to me, when you make one step, you should also take that other step to kind of wrap it together, integrate that conversation, to give, still give people hope. You still owe people inspiration. Again, it's all cohorts. You want everybody to win at the table. You don't want an environment where there's winners or losers. We know that model is dated. We know that you can't force things anymore, you can't mandate things anymore. You know, I looked at statistically think about the legacy D and our program has been in place for, you know, five, six decades. Today we stand at what other Fortune 500 companies. I think there are less than 2% black CEOs in the company in those, in those spaces. Right. And so for something to be sort of something that everybody's willing to live and die on, the sword on, it's not producing at the highest or high levels. That was really the sort of, my mind, the ingredient to produce the population, the critical mass. So then therefore, you have to sort of get paid forward in ways that will create more critical mass amongst the leadership ranks, whether you be early career, mid career or certainly the higher C suite career. And so that hasn't transpired. So again, it just to me tells me Playbook was dated. It needs to be modernized, it needs to be future forward and needs to have those three Cs at least as a minimum starting point and bringing the right people to the table.

[Ian Dunlap]

So, so the Playbook is outdated. I think one of the new plays in the Playbook is entrepreneurship. Yes, you've gone from corporate America into entrepreneurship. Talk about the process, the journey and some of those qualities that you're taking over from one avenue to the next.

[Derek Lewis]

I love that. Great question. And I think my, I think it's profound impact. My career has had a profound impact on my ability to step in entrepreneurial world. You got to think about again, I talked about all this, you know, extreme operational experience, ended operational experience that I have strong brand building acumen. You know, we're a company that had a lot of scale, a lot of resources and has some of the most powerful brands not only just in North America, but across the entire world. Talent management, you know, I was in the middle of that as well, you know, and so having the ability to, you know, see things operationally, see things from a brand building strategic perspective, understand the talent navigation process very well, be connected to the communities in that space as well to drive outcomes on the top line. The bottom line, having metrics and scorecards and analysis and insights methink is all critical skills, information that are preparing for my next life. Now as I step in the restaurant space, there's some, there's some newness with that, you know, dealing with putting buildings in the ground and going through construction and things like that. I'm learning my way through it. There's some, certainly some valuable lessons here at the first two restaurants I'm doing that I will not certainly from the lesson standpoint, I'm going to get better at doing some of the things that I did the first round here as we go to second round two, round three, round four because I have 10 units I'm building. I'm also going to be looking at other businesses I may try to get involved with. It's really opened my eyes. This is something I'm really cherishing, I've been cherishing to do for a long, long time. And I'm finally here and I can't believe tell you how excited I am at sort of being, you know, in this space now where I'm controlling my own destiny. I can build this out with the vision I have set for myself and the people that are alongside of me here. But I'm the captain, I'm the quarterback, I'm the head coach. I love all those things and you know, I can't wait to get started. We already have getting started. I can't wait to get the brick and mortars open and continue to expand in the next series of options. From a business portfolio standpoint.

[Rashad Bilal]

For those in the community that are heartbroken by what's happening to dei, what suggestions would you give to be able to get some of that equity back that has been taken from us over the last couple of months.

[Derek Lewis]

I think first it starts with yourself. I think, you know, we don't. Nobody wants to get skip the line passes or have the benefit from mandates and forced behavior and things like that. Those things don't work out well. They could appear to work out well in the short term, but over the long haul they don't work out very well. There's reputational damage and so all sorts of impacts. So I kind of link that to the early conversation. I would really spend time one, on betting on yourself. I think you as an employee, as an associate, as an entrepreneur, as a college student, you pick any realm of life that you're in, you have to own it, so you have to bet on yourself. Two, I think you have to believe in yourself. So you have to install confidence. You have to take some risks. So while you dream big on things and have big aspirations and always constantly looking at setting higher goals for yourself, you have to also have to take risk. You can't play this thing safely no matter what. You have to believe in yourself and instill that confidence and taking chances on things that are going to help you be the best version yourself. And then you have to be yourself. And this is where I preach authenticity. From day one, I've been the same person, same value, same principles going back to my childhood. And I declare for myself at that time is that I'm going to troll my own destiny's life again. I'm going to bet on myself. I'm not going to let anybody else bet on other people can bet on me, but I have to own it. I'm going to bet on myself. I'm absolutely believe I can get it done and do the things necessary to do that, including taking chances and risk. And then three, I'm never going to lose who I am, where I came from, the culture, how important that matters to me. But I'm also strategic enough to know that it's all about the greater good. And so ways that I still am very authentic and true to myself, I can also still contribute and impact the greater good. So to me it starts with that mindset of kind of controlling your own destiny. Then I too, I think you have to focus on driving results, you have to focus on relationships and you have to focus on your reputation, your brand. And to me, those three Rs are the real key to success inside any type of business that you're in, whether you're on your own or you're inside a big corporate structure. You have to drive performance, you have to Build critical relationships and trust and high collaborative skills. And you're also going to have to develop a brand that is. Is valued, that has a sort of high image to it. Those, when they all work together, create the highest level of potential for you. At that point, you're not going to worry about some program being in place. You're not going to worry about. You can now become a leader. You can inspire those around you. You can connect with the cohorts at a much junior level to inspire them, to bring them along. That's what I did throughout my entire career. I didn't get to skip the line pass. I worked my way through each level grinding based on what I just had this conversation with. And there was my job. Once I reached a certain level, I realized that I had access and influence. I started pulling individuals together and started creating this atmosphere of reach one, teach one. And I think that's incumbent upon leaders that do start to make it ignore as you do that in some cases that stall. A lot of people just, they want to worry about getting themselves, not necessarily along for the pack. I was always about the greater good because I realized that once you develop the best athletes in the organization, you're going to get a ride from that as well. The whole company is going to win. Everybody's a winner. I'm all about being around winners. So for me, everybody wins, everybody eats, everybody levels up. It's a great day inside the company or outside the company.

[Troy Millings]

So you, you purchased 10 franchises from I Got Dark Hayes Big Days Cheesesteak. So, you know, that's interesting because A, he's a younger entrepreneur than you and he's also a black entrepreneur. So I think that's great that A, you know, you could work with somebody who's black and then work with somebody who's younger as well. Right. So talk about the process and what was the, the, the steps to actually purchase those, those bulk franchises and what's your, what's your vision for those franchises?

[Derek Lewis]

Yeah, I think it's a great question. So I got to meet Derek when I was in that Pepsi. Well, actually I was an operating president of the south before I stepped into that multicultural. But I met Derek and Pinky at Entrepreneur Summit up at Richard Dennis's place. I was actually a guest speaker one night. He had probably 100 people that were in his fun new voices. Fun, I believe. And so Derek and Pinky were there. They raised their hand like, hey, we're from Atlanta. We're always, you know, getting called by your competitor. We're trying to stay lower with you, but we need your support. So I went back, spoke to them after the summit, told them I would be in Atlanta, I would spend time with them. I had heard of them, but I didn't really know them that well. So I literally flew to Atlanta the next week, spent probably two to three hours with both of them all together, but in their restaurants with themselves and understanding their dream and their vision and sort of where they were headed. Got the taste of opposite of food, walked away a big fan. I sort of pulled them underneath my wing inside the Pepsi structure. Most notably took them around to all the HBCUs doing homecoming tours. I brought them along food trucks, you know, basically under, under, underwrited the whole situation for them so people can sample their food, show that there are entrepreneurs that are rising who also care about the community. And so we made it a, a real full effort, end to end effort around certainly the entertainment activation. Also wanted to make sure they got support as black owned business, Especially coming out of COVID how difficult that was for many of the restaurateurs at the time. And then showed their bias and commitment to the community. It was a full scale display of their skills, their ambition, their dream and their vision. And I got behind them. And so naturally when I retired, Derek and I always, I always thought about putting cheesesteaks in to Orlando because I'm a big cheesesteak guy. I grew up in D.C. but always when I could eat a cheese steak, it was a good day because I didn't get to eat the food a lot. But when I had it, it was, it was an awesome meal. I moved around so much. You can imagine I missed that regional food. So when I moved out to Ohio or, or Phoenix or Portland or Denver, you can't get Philadelphia cheesesteaks out there. Might be a mom and pop here and there, but generally speaking you can't get it. Certainly a scale like you can in the northeast. And so I love his food. I love the brand of food again, I love his purpose. I love everything they were doing. And so I told him, hey look, I'll put one, you know, give me one to do when I retire just for fun so I can go get my own cheesesteaks when I want. And then he and I got a little more serious about it. His vision obviously is to scale, to be that big time operator. I understand his vision, I can help him. His vision. I work in a company all about scale. So I look at this much more. Certainly not only just me being having sort of a franchise or Franchisee agreement. I try to mentor him in terms of helping him with the scale. And so even my little short time inside, there are tremendous opportunities for us to do things greater and bigger, certainly more at scale. And so we continuously talk and work on those things. Meanwhile, I'm obviously going to get a feel for the business, having some restaurants in my portfolio. But our ambition is to scale this thing up, really across the country in many different ways. I created access inside of sports. I'm inside two sports venues already, creating a lot of excitement in town. Again, this is based on some of my previous relationships. I'm a big avid sports fan. I'm very connected to sports. We obviously spent a lot of money at Pepsi in the sports world, so I know that like the back of my hand and bringing that together to create a great fan experience, but also create, you know, synergies with sports teams. So you can do consumer programming inside the stadiums and outside the marketplace. It's just. It's just, you know, what I do. And so we're reaping the benefit of that now. It's only going to build a lot more awareness for us as we kind of move around city to city to city. But so that's how I got into it. I'm having fun with this learning along the way. The next set of boxes open, I'll be much better, much more efficient, you know, at it, because I'm a fast learner as I've been my entire life. And, you know, we're gonna have some fun selling cheesesteaks down there because it's a great brand of food that Northeasterners pick. The ones that live there or visit there probably don't get to get too often when they come down there. And there's locals who, you know, I want to create an atmosphere of fun excitement for them as well.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, mentorship is important. Relationships even more important. I'm sure you were able to lean on some of those, obviously working at PepsiCo. And now as entrepreneur, when you come back into that, the Orlando scene, I know there's some Orlando legends that you're pretty close with as well. But there's another part of impact, and that goes sometimes where you go to school. So talk about the impact that HBCUs have had on you in terms of mentorship and leadership going on into your professional career.

[Derek Lewis]

Look, I mean, I'm a hardcore HBCU guy. You know, I wear. I wear it on my sleeve. I know I'm a Hampton derelict. You graduate. But, you know, I care about all the schools. I did A tremendous amount of work recruiting a lot of schools outside just the, you know, eastern Virginia footprint, where I grew up in D.C. where I grew up, you know, I was responsible for signing the first SWAC deal with Commissioner McClellan. We did that back in 2019. They got an extension now that runs out another six or seven years from now. So I feel great about the impact that I have delivered. It's sort of like walking the talk, right? HBCU student, I got recruited off campus to join a big company. My job to sort again, pay that forward. Bring the recruitment resources there, bring the brand activation resources there, bring entrepreneurs there, where I can, bring the community effort there. And most importantly, again, just elevate. Try to help people understand how important it is for the student experience. We did the first, I think, big brand band commercial ever, the Sonic Boom and the marching 100. We did that commercial, you know, years ago as well. A marketing team. So, you know, there's always going to be a lean in. I'm a trustee at Hampton. I'm very close there. I spend a lot of time in the athletic department. I'm still contributing resources there where I can in other schools. So that's never going to leave me. It's important for people who certainly walk the hallways of HBCUs to really stand up and defend. There's certainly challenges that the schools are having across the board. You know, certainly fundraising is one of those areas that they're having challenges in. So our job is to continuously try to help push that up and navigate through that, bringing expertise, insights, businesses and all resources to the table to help move this along. So, you know, I'm excited to be in the middle of that. Now I have more time to dedicate to it and I'm excited about the future certainly at Hampton University and other schools that I can participate and work with. It's just a pleasure and honor to do it.

[Rashad Bilal]

For those who are watching tonight that look to aspire to do what you're doing, how did you structure some of these brand deals? How did you end up having the partnership or the working arrangement with the Orlando Magic? Because I know some people tonight are going to be excited, but if you were starting over from the beginning or you were one year in, how would you structure or try and arrange some of these brand deals to come to life?

[Derek Lewis]

I think everywhere I approach these brand deals, what had to be a win, win, right? And so I think there's a. There's a lens. We start with the consumer, right? The consumer really is the heart of the matter for an organization, a sports team and for our company and for a brand. Right. So understanding, you know, it starts with the consumer. Then I think you have a cultural component of that and that's obviously your associates, that's the team environment, that's the external partnership environment in terms of suppliers. And so how can you bring people to the table who certainly look like you, that are opportunistic, they can come from, become a small company to a big company and you work with big companies as well and then you want to move obviously to the community side of it, bringing them along as well. So I think my approach always was a multifaceted approach where we focus on the consumer and that consumer is the fan, it's the grocery shopper, it's the online shopper, all the people that are going to be sort of help us with consumption of our brands. Then I think you got to think about the cultural component. How do you link, you know, associates, suppliers, you know, groups of people that work together on the business together. Brand, brand marketers. And I love this community aspect that hey, we can't forget about. What's most important here is the community as well and place we operate, play, work in, bring it there. So when you bring a plan like that, multifaceted, that's fully end to end and connected and integrated and you show the ROI that's on that and how the, the love, the value of partners putting resources together creates more scale and more impact. I think that's a recipe that all partnerships are, are looking for, from, from, for brand companies to come and not just I want to sell my product and you know, get a, get a lot of money or get a lot of sales out of it. But true end to end partnership I think is going to require looking at, looking at it more strategically.

[Troy Millings]

Well, vitally important. Want to thank you for coming on. Before you leave, can you talk about your book? Can you. Yeah, explain, explain that please. Yeah.

[Derek Lewis]

Surviving advance releases tomorrow. I'm thankful that I have a chance to talk to you all about it today. You know, really it's all about. It's a memoir really. It's about my journey. A journey of resilience. Journey, determination and pursuit of dreams. Right. Lessons on living life without compromise. I talked to you about sort of, you know, again, bettering yourself. Believe in yourself and be yourself and starts talking about me as a child when I did not have a lot of resources. I was essentially a dad as a 10 year old and a big brother to two younger siblings in a house of a single parent family. My mom. And so there were inherently a lot of struggles with that. I had a dad who had an abuse problem, substance abuse problem. Also had other habits that he would pull me along into to sort of help him fuel his substance abuse habit. And so there was a lot of trauma that I had when I was a kid. I know. But I always was able just to see through my surroundings that I can live a better life. I can do better than this by my circumstances now. Can't define who I'm going to be, who I want to be as I grow forward. So early on, I locked into that framework. I talked about and just determined and made a term I was going to have a better life for myself and my family. And I paid that forward. I knew it started with getting a great education that I had to be disciplined about that. Also knew what right was wrong from. You'll see that in the book as well. And so I chose the right. Well, I was doing a lot of wrong because I was sort of forced to be doing a lot of wrong. I knew what was right, and I tried early on, saw the signals that you can actually be successful doing right. You just have to work very, very, very hard at it. And you're not going to be an instant overnight success that's going to take many, many years of building blocks to reach those levels. I was locked in on that at a very early age. And I thank God that I had the ability to see that future as a young child. I paid that forward, went to Hampton, had a great experience there. Talk about I pledge Kappa there, which also, you know, I think has really helped fuel my life. I didn't know nothing about fraternities at Von9 when I got there. That was a catalyst for my life. I met my wife there. We've been married for 32 years, ever since. And we've been on our dream mission together at building family, building community, building our careers, you know, and so that was a great, you know, sort of environment for to be in, to really cultivate who I am and made me mature even faster. And then the PepsiCo experience. I was there for 35 years. And so you can see, you know, once I get in, I lock in something I'm in because I'm going to make the best of it. But all starts with me being the best version of myself. This book gives you valuable lessons chapter to chapter. All 25 chapters have stories that are told that ultimately create lessons. A lot of the stories in there aren't all about triumph. Some of them are about failure. Some of them about real sad times and dark times and deaths that I incurred as a young person. So it's, it's just a, again, a pursuit, a journey again of resilience, determination and pursuit of dreams. And I encourage anybody, all ages can read this book and learn something from it. Whether you're a young child or you've just retired and everywhere in between, it's something everybody can get out of it. Hope you all have a chance to look at and read as well. Congratulations. Getting on your book and all this stuff does just to call us to keep our generations growing behind us and keep them strong, healthy and wealthy like you guys be proud of.

[Ian Dunlap]

Appreciate that, man. Where can everybody get it?

[Derek Lewis]

Well, you bought it, so it's available at all online retailers. So you know, your Amazons, your Barnes and Nobles, Walmart's, all, you know, all major book outlets have it and it'll be, it's available now to pre order, but it's available tomorrow. So people order today, tonight. You will get it shipped to you like me tomorrow, if not the next day. And I'd love to hear from you. I'm at Real Derek Lewis on all the social platforms and love to hear from people about the book. And any way I can help inspire lives, I'm here for it. I'm signing up for it. Because that's what, that's what this pay forward, go giver journey is all about.

[Troy Millings]

Appreciate that, brother. Thank you. Thank you. Keep up.

[Rashad Bilal]

Thank you so much, brother.

[Troy Millings]

And yes, well, we'll be in touch for sure.

[Derek Lewis]

All right, my brothers, thank you so much for what you do. Thanks for inspiring.

[Ian Dunlap]

Congratulations again, man.

[Derek Lewis]

Appreciate you. Thanks.

[Troy Millings]

Yes, sir.

[Ian Dunlap]

Another author, man. Congrats on that for sure. Yeah, man. PepsiCo. And ironically enough, we just spoke about that as a dividend. Stock.

[Troy Millings]

For sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh, man. Interesting.

[Troy Millings]

All right, well, another edition of Market Mondays.

[Rashad Bilal]

We're coming to a close.

[Troy Millings]

Show's over. Show's over. Ladies and gentlemen.

[Rashad Bilal]

It happened a lot in podcasting lately. We'll talk Wednesday, blackout, blackout hour.

[Troy Millings]

That blackout hour, 10 o'clock. Don't forget 10 o'clock on Wednesday. And then of course, we have on Thursday, 9:00. Yeah. We have Kiana Watson and the things you need to know before buying a home. Vitally important episode.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes. Stock club call, Friday at 5pm Central.

[Ian Dunlap]

See you there.

[Rashad Bilal]

If I made you money, please put yes in chat. It was two and a half hours last Friday.

[Troy Millings]

And then this weekend we got the mastermind Atlanta.

[Ian Dunlap]

We in your area.

[Troy Millings]

ATL will be in Atlanta.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Troy Millings]

So if you've registered for the Mastermind, we'll see you. We'll see you there.

[Rashad Bilal]

And I started some mess online too. Timbaland.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, man, it is. We got. We got any birthdays? Happy birthday was Kira. Happy 22nd birthday to Kira. That's my man George. Daughter. And happy birthday to size. Spence, what's going on? I know his daughter's birthday is tomorrow. Shout out to everybody that is born in the month of January. And then we got February. He's here, man. February is this weekend.

[Rashad Bilal]

Crazy.

[Ian Dunlap]

It's crazy, right? February 7th.

[Rashad Bilal]

My God. Thomas. Flying.

[Ian Dunlap]

It is my mother in law birthday coming up. Happy birthday, Ms. G. Happy birthday to.

[Troy Millings]

My man Sean and Tyree. They lost their father.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Over the weekend. Rest in peace. For sure. Mr. Morris could do so send my condolences.

[Ian Dunlap]

Absolutely.

[Troy Millings]

To the Morris family.

[Ian Dunlap]

3B forever. You know how we roll.

[Rashad Bilal]

Oh, yeah. Blessing to my guy, Wayne Thompson. He lost his mom a couple weeks ago. Yeah. Go check on your people, man. Like get older. This is a part of getting older. It's not fun.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. It's not. It's not. This is the part of adulthood that it's like, ah, yeah, yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

When you start parenting. Oh, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Troy Millings]

It's a lot.

[Rashad Bilal]

Gotta enjoy every moment.

[Ian Dunlap]

Absolutely.

[Troy Millings]

That's a fact. All right, guys, it's been real.

[Rashad Bilal]

Can we talk Wednesday on how to keep a partnership together? I mean, to cut you off, but.

[Troy Millings]

Oh, yeah, let's do it.

[Rashad Bilal]

There's a lot of breakups happening.

[Ian Dunlap]

I'm like, first of do tell, do tell first.

[Rashad Bilal]

Last of a dime breed.

[Ian Dunlap]

Hey, hey. You saw that guy out in Japan?

[Rashad Bilal]

Who?

[Ian Dunlap]

Capo? Big Jomo.

[Rashad Bilal]

Big Jumbo moving around.

[Ian Dunlap]

Big Jumbo moving around. Shout out to Jim.

[Rashad Bilal]

Shout out to the good brother.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, that's our guy.

[Troy Millings]

All right, guys, it's been real. What's tap in with you. See you on Wednesday, love.

[Ian Dunlap]

Peace.

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