A longer — and more expensive — fire season

Summary

Marketplace Morning Report: "A longer — and more expensive — fire season"

Date: May 20, 2026
Host: Sabri Ben-Achor
Featured Reporter: Caitlin Tan
Expert Guests: Caitlin Trudeau (Climate Central), Jude Beham (Economist, Colorado State University), Jared Delay (Wyoming State Forestry Division), Gil Luria (DA Davidson)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Marketplace Morning Report explores the growing economic and business impacts of an intensifying and lengthening wildfire season in the United States, particularly across the West. The first segment investigates why firefighting costs are soaring, how states are adapting to funding shortfalls, and the local consequences of increased wildfire activity. The latter segment focuses on Google's remarkable financial performance driven by AI, providing insight into the tech giant’s strategic positioning in the artificial intelligence market.

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The Financial Toll of Longer Fire Seasons

[00:59 – 03:32]

• Wildfire Costs on the Rise:

  • The U.S. federal government spends roughly $3B annually on wildfire suppression, and is expected to use up almost all allocated funds each year due to worsening seasons.
  • Recent examples highlight the issue: Nebraska experienced its largest-ever wildfire, and evacuations occurred outside Los Angeles due to another major fire.
  • Quote – Sabri Ben-Achor (Host) [01:00]:
    “Each year the federal government spends about $3 billion fighting wildfires, and this season is off to a rough start. In March, Nebraska had its largest wildfire in state history.”

• Personalizing the Impact:

  • Caitlin Trudeau, of Climate Central, shares her family’s losses and discusses dramatic changes over a single generation.
  • Quote – Caitlin Trudeau [01:32]:
    “My grandfather’s house actually burned down in one of the fires in January. Luckily he was totally fine.”
  • Quote – Caitlin Trudeau [01:42]:
    “Like we didn’t have this when I was growing up. Like it wasn’t a thing that happened all the time.”

• Changing Climate, Changing Risks:

  • Research indicates that some western regions now experience two additional months with high fire risk compared to 50 years ago.
  • Quote – Caitlin Trudeau [01:52]:
    “Days where you have really hot, dry, and windy weather conditions compared to 50 years ago... it basically sets the stage for extreme fire behavior.”

• Rising Suppression Costs:

  • “More fire will just mean more suppression costs.” — Caitlin Trudeau [02:03]

• How States Are Coping:

  • With the federal funding stretched thin and often insufficient, states have become creative:
    • Oregon taxes nicotine pouches
    • California taxes timber sales
    • Wyoming approved $5M to fund two new firefighting crews
  • Quote – Caitlin Tan (Reporter) [02:25]:
    “States are trying to fill the gaps, sometimes creatively…”

• Why State Support Matters:

  • Many firefighters in rural states are volunteers; state-funded crews make it possible for locals to tend to their own jobs and communities.
  • Quote – Jared Delay, Wyoming Forestry [02:40]:
    “Why? The local firefighters can go back home, go back to their normal jobs, because a lot of them are volunteers.”

• Local Losses, Local Stakes:

  • Delay explains the value of prairie grass to ranchers, illustrating the economic and community ramifications.
  • Quote – Jared Delay [03:00]:
    “There may just be grass out there that was burning, but that grass could mean a lot to a rancher and their family.”

• Looking Ahead with Concern:

  • The episode closes this segment on a wary note:
    “The Mountain west is coming off one of the warmest and driest winters in history.” — Caitlin Tan [03:06]

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Google’s AI Leap: Business and Investment Analysis

[04:56 – 08:33]

• Google’s Business Transformation Through AI:

  • Alphabet posted a 22% surge in annual revenue; cloud revenue up 63%; search revenue up 19%.
  • Announced a $5B AI cloud partnership with Blackstone leveraging Google’s specialized chips.
  • Quote – Sabri Ben-Achor [04:56]:
    “There was a time just a few short years ago that Google was behind on AI... That is not how things turned out.”

• Why Google Is Winning at AI:

  • Gil Luria notes Google’s vertical integration: proprietary chips, data centers, advanced AI models (Gemini), access to billions of consumers, market-leading search distribution.
  • Quote – Gil Luria [06:07]:
    “So at some point last year it all clicked that Google has the chips to do AI...and they were able to put all those pieces together and now they’re leading the way in AI.”

• Contrast with the Competition:

  • Other AI market players are more fragmented: Nvidia chips, Microsoft data centers, OpenAI models, third-party wrappers.
  • Quote – Gil Luria [06:40]:
    “If you think about how the other parts of the artificial intelligence market... it’s much more fragmented... In Google, that’s not even an issue.”

• Investment “Circularity” in Tech:

  • Gil Luria explains the circular relationships in investments among tech giants, with Google’s increased value due partly to its stake in Anthropic, but primarily performance-driven.
  • Quote – Gil Luria [07:29]:
    “For Google, it is really mostly that Anthropic relationship that's been a big boom, but it doesn’t explain all of their success...those dollars, that’s not circular. That is consumers and businesses paying to use AI.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Fire as a Normalized Threat:

  • “Like we didn’t have this when I was growing up. Like it wasn’t a thing that happened all the time.” — Caitlin Trudeau [01:42]

• States Supplementing Wildfire Budgets:

  • “States are trying to fill the gaps, sometimes creatively, like Oregon taxing nicotine pouches; California taxes timber sales. And Wyoming just approved $5 million for two state crews that can fight fires.” — Caitlin Tan [02:25]

• Broader Economic Significance:

  • “There may just be grass out there that was burning, but that grass could mean a lot to a rancher and their family.” — Jared Delay [03:00]

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Key Timestamps

• [00:59] Wildfire costs and rough start to fire season
• [01:32] Caitlin Trudeau’s family fire story
• [01:52] Rise in fire weather days, conditions creating extreme fire risk
• [02:25] State creative solutions for covering wildfire suppression costs
• [03:00] Impact of fire on rural ranchers and the value of grass
• [04:56] Transition to Google’s quarterly results and AI resurgence
• [06:07] Google's unique vertical integration in AI
• [07:29] On investment circularity and direct consumer AI spending

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains an urgent yet approachable tone, combining clear economic analysis with humanizing stories from those directly affected by wildfires and tech transformations. The language is straightforward, with a focus on both the numbers and the lived experiences behind the headlines.

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Summary Takeaways

• Wildfire seasons in the American West are not only longer, they're more expensive, straining federal and state firefighting budgets.
• States are adapting with innovative funding mechanisms and by professionalizing wildfire response teams.
• Intensifying fires have immediate and lasting impacts on local families, economies, and industries.
• On the business side, Google reversed fears it would fall behind in AI, emerging as a dominant vertical player due to deep integration across hardware, software, and consumer touchpoints.
• The financial stakes across both disasters and technology underline shifting risks and opportunities shaping America's economic landscape.

Transcript

[A]

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[C]

fighting fire with Money from Marketplace, I'm Sabri Ben, ashore in New York. Each year the federal government spends about $3 billion fighting wildfires, and this season is off to a rough start. In March, Nebraska had its largest wildfire in state history. Right now, a fire outside of LA has forced evacuations. Experts say fire season is getting longer and that costs money. Marketplace's Caitlyn Tan looked into it.

[D]

Caitlin Trudeau's family has lived in Southern California a long time.

[E]

My grandfather's house actually burned down in the one of the fires in January. Luckily he was totally fine.

[D]

That was almost a year and a half ago, but fires are still on Trudeau's mind.

[E]

Like we didn't have this when I was growing up. Like it wasn't a thing that happened all the time.

[D]

Trudeau works for Climate Central, which tracks climate change, and she researches fire weather

[E]

days where you have really hot, dry and windy weather conditions compared to 50 years ago.

[D]

Parts of the west have two more of those hot and windy months, and

[E]

it basically sets the stage for extreme fire behavior. More fire will just mean more suppression costs.

[D]

Jude Beham is an economist at Colorado State University. He says that in 2018 Congress set aside about $3 billion to help, but

[E]

they're starting to use almost all of that each year, too.

[D]

States are trying to fill the gaps, sometimes creatively, like Oregon taxing nicotine pouches, California taxes timber sales. And wyoming just approved $5 million for two state crews that can fight fires.

[E]

Why? The local firefighters can go back home, go back to their normal jobs, because a lot of them are volunteers.

[D]

Jared delay is with the Wyoming State Forestry Division. He says just two years ago, Wyoming had its second worst wildfire season ever, killing wildlife, livestock, burning prairies There may

[E]

just be grass out there that was burning, but that grass could mean a lot to a rancher and their family.

[D]

And he's worried about this summer. The Mountain west is coming off one of the warmest and driest winters in history. I'm Caitlin Tan for Marketplace.

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[C]

There was a time just a few short years ago that Google was behind on AI IT and AI was considered an existential threat to its business model because who needs search when you have AI? That is not how things turned out. Google's parent company, Alphabet, its revenue surged by 22% in a year, according to the latest quarterly report. Its cloud computing revenue exploded by 63%. Even search revenue grew 19%. On Monday, Google and Blackstone announced a deal to create an AI cloud company using using $5 billion billion dollars in equity capital from Blackstone and Google's own specialized chips. So how did Google avoid being left in the dust? Gil Luria is managing director and head of technology research at DA Davidson, is here to talk about it. Hi Gil, thanks for coming on.

[H]

Thanks for having me.

[C]

So Google's parent company Alphabet, it's market capitalization. That's where you take the number of shares and you multiply it by the price. That measure of value is increased by a trillion dollars in a year. Big picture. What has been fueling that growth AI.

[H]

So at some point last year it all clicked that Google has the chips to do AI. They have the data centers to place those chips and host the AI compute. They have the advanced model they call Gemini. They have all the consumers, they have search.

[C]

They.

[H]

And they were able to put all those pieces together and now they're leading the way in AI.

[C]

It sounds like basically they have a finger in every single pie all up and down the whole AI supply chain.

[H]

That's right. And that's very unique because if you think about how the other parts of the artificial intelligence market, it's Nvidia chips going to a Microsoft data center on an OpenAI model and there may be a wrapper around that by perplexity. So it's much more fragmented and all those companies work well together. But in Google, that's not even an issue.

[C]

Speaking of the relationships between all these companies, there is this circularity in the investment between them. You know, the one invests in the other invests in the other vests in the first one. It's just a big circle. To what extent is Alphabet's increase in worth just a factor of that? You know, it invests in anthropic and then anthropic value goes up. So it looks like Google's value goes up.

[H]

That's a piece of it. But for Google, it's probably less than some of the other participants. If you think about Nvidia and Microsoft and Amazon, a lot more of that is them feeding their customers that are feeding them back. For Google, it is really mostly that anthropic relationship that's been a big boom for Google. But it doesn't explain all of their success. Now, to be fair to all of them, they're doing it to get artificial intelligence off the ground to have enough compute to have powerful enough models. And it is starting to pay off. If you look at the results of anthropic and OpenAI combined, they are at more than $60 billion of annualized run rate. That's from no dollar years ago. And those dollars. That's not circular. That is consumers and businesses paying to use AI.

[C]

Gil Luria, managing director and head of technology research at DA Davidson. Gil, thank you so much.

[H]

Thank you.

[C]

In New York, I'm Sabri Venishore with the Marketplace morning Report from 8pm American Public Media.

[A]

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