Big Tech’s Day of Reckoning, Elon Takes the Stand, and the FCC Targets Disney

Summary

Pivot Podcast Summary

Episode: Big Tech’s Day of Reckoning, Elon Takes the Stand, and the FCC Targets Disney
Date: May 1, 2026
Hosts: Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway

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Overview

This episode dives into a whirlwind week in technology, business, and politics. Kara and Scott break down explosive big tech earnings, legal and political harassment of Disney and late night TV, Elon Musk’s courtroom theatrics against OpenAI, and the latest moves by celebrities—including Taylor Swift—to protect their likeness from AI misuse. The hosts weave sharp analysis, biting humor, and industry insight throughout, highlighting an emerging sense of “reckoning” across tech’s giants and America’s powerful.

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Table of Contents

• Opening Banter & Setting the Stage
• FCC Targets Disney and Late Night TV
• Big Tech’s Day of Reckoning: Earnings Blowout
• Elon Musk v. OpenAI: Messiah Complex on Trial
• Taylor Swift & the Battle Over AI Likeness
• Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
• Predictions & Final Thoughts

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Opening Banter & Setting the Stage

• Kara recaps a trip to San Francisco (01:51) and shares an anecdote about not defining yourself by work.
• Scott riffs on the American custom of asking “what do you do?” (06:25), noting:

  “In the US, people ask, what do you do? In Europe, they ask, where are you from?”

• Both muse on the difficulties of genuine self-presentation in today’s searchable, hyperconnected world.

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FCC Targets Disney and Late Night TV

Key Discussion Points

• The FCC, led by Brendan Carr (“Brenda, who is a moron,” per Kara), is forcing Disney to renew ABC licenses early, citing DEI investigations (07:27).
• The move follows Trump and Melania’s calls to cancel Jimmy Kimmel after jokes at their expense.
• Kara frames this as political harassment:

  “This is a step too far… such a nakedly political… person who is just carrying water for the Trumps.” (07:41)

• Scott notes the irony:

  “Late night TV is dying without the help of Brent.” (08:47)

• Both agree the FCC will lose in court, but Kara sees broader damage:

  “What a harassment of a classic American company.” (08:47 – 09:30)

• Discussion links to broader “fascism” framing and the chilling effect on broadcast/creative industries (09:36 – 13:04).
• Kara: “We get so sucked into their… toxically comical drama. It’s gotta be time to say, you’re in our fucking rearview mirror, old man.” (13:04)
• Scott suggests “ring fencing” Trump coverage—put all his antics in a single, limited segment to end his dominance of the news cycle (14:01 – 16:20).

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Big Tech’s Day of Reckoning: Earnings Blowout

Alphabet (Google)

• 22% revenue growth; $110B Q1 revenue.
• Net income up 81%. Google Cloud up 63%.
• Kara: “What a number.” (21:09)
• Search revenue still strong despite OpenAI threat.

Microsoft

• 18% revenue growth, Azure up 40%. AI business hits $37B run rate—up 123%.
• Capital expenditures (“CapEx”) grow significantly—now $190B for the year.
• Stock dipped after the report; investors wary of high CapEx.

Amazon

• Revenue up 17%, cloud up 28%, advertising up 24%.
• CapEx up, now aiming for $200B in AI investments; free cash flow drops.
• AWS hosting huge AI workloads.
• Stock up 3%.

Meta (Facebook)

• Revenue up 33%, but users dropped—Meta blames Iran, but Kara is skeptical.
• CapEx up to $135B; stock fell 9%.

Scott’s Analysis (22:30–29:53)

• “All of the GDP growth is coming from the CapEx in AI.”
• “America is now a giant bet on AI.”
• All four companies are ‘dissociated’ from the real world; the “ketamine economy.”
• “The people who control our government… have totally disassociated from America’s interests.” (30:14)

Kara’s Perspective

• Broader public anger at tech and finance is rising; the heroes are now seen as villains (32:16).

Segment Summary:
Big Tech is richer and more powerful than ever, betting everything on AI. Investors are anxious about spiraling capital costs, while the public grows resentful of tech’s isolation and impact.

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Elon Musk v. OpenAI: Messiah Complex on Trial (36:49–44:33)

Core Narrative

• Musk claims regret over funding OpenAI, says it’s “not okay to steal a charity.”
• On the stand, Elon loses composure; called “greedy…homophobic piece of garbage” by potential jurors.
• Kara: “He’s shifted to being a greedy hypocrite and started his own company that includes non consensual sexual images… He’s not here to save us.”
• Scott:

  “This is literally the biggest example of seller’s regret in history.” (39:58)

• Musk wanted to control OpenAI as a for-profit; when staff refused, he left and now wants credit/ownership.
• Kara: “Elon is the savior of the world… when he is decimated, he’s responsible for the millions of these deaths… He wants to present himself as it is. Like Thanos…”
• Scott: “To me, this defines messiah complex, full stop.” (42:51)
• Kara relishes the spectacle of SV heads being unmasked in court: “These people… I’m so pleased for people to see them as they are.” (41:27)

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Taylor Swift & the Battle Over AI Likeness (46:51–55:33)

Discussion Points

• Taylor Swift trademarks her voice and image to protect against AI misuse—unprecedented for celebrity IP.
• Scott:

  “Everyone should own their digital twin… People spend a lot of time and energy trying to develop IP… and they should own it.” (48:53)

• Both hosts support stronger protections; artists should be compensated if their likeness/text is used by AI, in parallel to music royalties.
• Kara describes her own “digital twin,” made for a show, and worries about AI’s ability to replicate her without consent.
• Also touches on Scott’s experience with a Google “portrait” AI of himself, and his decision to pull it due to ethical concerns relating to social isolation among young men.
• Strong emphasis on the need for consent, compensation, and artist rights in the AI era.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Kara on the FCC & Trump:

  “What a harassment of an American company, a classic American company… Our good friend and moron Brenda Carr. I’m calling him Brenda, who is a moron. He’s a moron.” (08:47)

• Scott on tech/elite detachment:

  “…if you live in America and you’re in the 0.1%, you are not invested in the wellbeing of America. Why do you care about infrastructure? … You have your own private schools… Why do you care about policing and safety? … The people who control our government… have totally disassociated from America’s interests.” (30:14–31:47)

• On Trump’s Media Dominance:

  “He’s like a Star Wars character or a villain, a Marvel Comics character. He gains power from conflict and from controversy.” — Scott (15:02)

• On Musk:

  “This is literally the biggest example of seller’s regret in history.” — Scott (39:58)
  “To me, this defines messiah complex, full stop.” — Scott (42:51)

• On AI & Digital Rights:

  “Everyone should own their digital twin.” — Scott (48:53)
  “Rapacious information thieves” — Kara quoting Walt Mossberg (49:58)

• Kara’s parting shot at tech moguls:

  “It’s a Pierre don’t care group of people.” (31:52)

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Predictions & Final Thoughts (58:27–end)

1. Kara predicts movies with genuine, human creative energy (“The Devil Wears Prada,” “Hail Mary,” etc.) will dominate post-pandemic box office, as audiences crave authenticity and communal, non-AI stories.

2. Scott predicts Intel is the most overvalued tech stock and poised for a major fall (due to Amazon and Google’s moves in AI chips; Intel trades at an inflated 118x forward earnings).

3. Both marvel at King Charles’ deft diplomatic speech during a recent U.S.-UK event, noting how British royalty “threads the needle” with subtlety in contrast to American bombast (64:54–66:13).

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |---------------------------------------------|--------------| | Opening Banter, Identity & Work | 01:12–07:27 | | FCC v. Disney/Late Night TV | 07:27–16:20 | | “Ring Fence” Trump News Cycle | 14:01–16:20 | | Big Tech Earnings Rundown | 21:09–33:39 | | AI Economy, "Ketamine Economy" | 26:11–33:39 | | Elon Musk–OpenAI Courtroom Saga | 36:49–44:33 | | Taylor Swift/AI Likeness Law | 46:51–55:33 | | Predictions (Movies, Intel, Tech) | 58:27–64:29 | | King Charles/US-UK Moment | 64:50–66:13 |

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Summary

Pivot’s May 1 episode is a fast-moving, irreverent yet incisive tour through the week’s tech news and political drama. Swisher and Galloway use Disney’s battle with the FCC to spotlight weaponized regulation and political intimidation, seamlessly pivot to the staggering numbers driving Big Tech’s “AI reckoning,” and expose the personal foibles and psychology behind Musk’s legal maneuvers. They champion creators like Taylor Swift fighting for their identities in an age of AI, and sound warnings about growing detachment at the top of America’s economic pyramid. Throughout, their banter and biting commentary aim to puncture the egos of America’s most powerful—and leave listeners with both a sharper mind and a smile.

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For listeners: This episode is worth your time for its blend of news, wit, and cultural critique.
You’ll walk away understanding why 2026 feels like a “reckoning” moment—for tech, for the media, for America’s wealthiest, and for the meaning of identity itself.

Transcript

[Scott Galloway]

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[Kara Swisher]

Burn your five pound weights.

[Maria Sharapova]

I'm Robert Arzon.

[Kara Swisher]

I'm an athlete and fitness instructor and I am telling you, unless you have

[Maria Sharapova]

been limited to lighter weights by a

[Kara Swisher]

medical professional, they're honestly inexcusable.

[Maria Sharapova]

You, you need to be lifting heavy

[Kara Swisher]

and I'm talking especially to the women out there.

[Maria Sharapova]

Toned arms.

[Kara Swisher]

What can your body do this week on Project Swagger? What heavy means and rules to bring into your routine?

[Maria Sharapova]

Listen now,

[Kara Swisher]

have you ever pretended you're someone else?

[Scott Galloway]

Pretty much twice a week with you. Kara.

[Kara Swisher]

Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York magazine and the Vox Media podcast network. I'm Cara Swisher.

[Scott Galloway]

And I'm Scott Galloway.

[Kara Swisher]

Scott, I was in San Francisco. I did a lovely event with Gavin Newsom and Anne Lamott, an unusual pair and the crowd was lovely and asked me all about you. In a good way? In a good way. They were asking upon you, can you help him? No. Well, every now and then I get that.

[Scott Galloway]

What was the event?

[Kara Swisher]

My sister in law has a thing called Refugia which helps take these sort of empty public spaces to bring people together and use as native grasses that don't need a lot of water and create things for older and younger people to get together and like, you know, in public schools.

[Scott Galloway]

Where are you now? You're in a hotel now? Where are you now?

[Kara Swisher]

I'm in New York now.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, you're back in New York.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, I'm interviewing. I have three podcasts today and Mickey Sherrill tonight, the governor of New Jersey. I'm also Interviewing the Devil Wears Prada people today, the director and writer. It's getting amazing reviews, just as I said.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, nice.

[Kara Swisher]

But you don't like sequels. But this sequel is good.

[Scott Galloway]

No, I like sequels. I just think Hollywood's running out of. Anyway, you know, when nine of 10 top films are not original IP, I think Hollywood has a lack of investment and creativity problems.

[Kara Swisher]

Let me say this one isn't. This one is worth the wait. It's 20 years and one interesting one. Have you heard about this book by Patrick Radden Keefe? It's about a kid who lived in a pretty upper middle class family, but he had aspirations of more because he was in a private school with a lot oligarchs kids and he pretended he was an oligarchs kid and ended up dead, thrown out a window. Yeah, it's an astonishing story and they're saying it was suicide, but maybe it was a homicide and he got all mobbed up with Russians and various people. It's really something. I read it on the plane.

[Scott Galloway]

It must have been. I would imagine that it took place a while ago though, because most of the Russians had left.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, I don't know. I guess, but I don't know. Have you ever pretended you're someone else?

[Scott Galloway]

Pretty much twice a week with you, Kara?

[Kara Swisher]

No.

[Scott Galloway]

I pretend to be thoughtful and a good person. There's definitely something interesting about the spectrum between. I mean, there's some truth to the fact that you never meet someone, you meet the representative and so I don't like there's a scale. Right. And the same is true of entrepreneurs. At what point are you a visionary or a psychopath? Liar? I think there's a lot of that in society and quite frankly, some of it's a strategy.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, but if you like said you did something else. I've never done that. I'm. I'm exactly the same.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, no, I don't. Not. No, I don't, quite frankly. Not because I'm ethical, but because I'm smart enough to know in a digital world they'll find out.

[Kara Swisher]

It is hard today to do it because everyone's searchable. Right. I mean, anyway.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I don't know, actually, a few times I've said I look good naked, so I'm guilty.

[Kara Swisher]

Who would you say if you could be like, if you could pretend you are someone?

[Scott Galloway]

Like pretend I was him or switch places with them?

[Kara Swisher]

No, just like say, hi, I'm Scott, I'm a blank fireman.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't know, I've never thought about it. Yeah, I've never thought, oh, I wish I was this person. It's taken me a long time to like this one.

[Kara Swisher]

I know. I know. It's interesting. You want to be you. I was on Outward Bound, and when you got there many years ago, in my 20s, they wouldn't. They said, do not say what you do for a living to anybody. Like, so that we don't know. Right. That you talk about anything else but your job. Which is very hard, actually. And I was just in my 20s, so I wasn't that far along, but I was clearly a reporter. And at the end of the. It was like, I don't know, two weeks or ten days or something like that. They said all the jobs of everybody. And we were sitting in a group at the last session and, you know, talking, and we got to really know each other, but you couldn't talk about what you did, which is really hard. And it's actually a really good exercise, I have to say. And they had all the jobs around the. Around the circle. And nobody got anybody's job. Right. Everybody thought someone was. Someone thought I was like a defense lawyer.

[Scott Galloway]

A mechanic.

[Kara Swisher]

No, a defense lawyer. That I was like a killer. A killer lawyer. That's what they thought I was, a killer lawyer.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, you kind of are. That's actually pretty accurate. You know what did not get me laid in 2000s. New York. Oh, roll up to a bar, finally get a wrap going. Order a drink. What do you do? I'm a teacher. Oh, isn't that nice? I gotta go. I gotta find someone who can take me to St. Barts next week.

[Kara Swisher]

I think that's sexy now. I think today it's a cool job,

[Scott Galloway]

what you hear from a lot. What I can spot immediately, though, I ask people what they do all the time. I think it's interesting. I'm not trying to sell or assess their importance. I just find it really interesting. Cause quite frankly, pretty much all I do is work. And that's kind of my identity, which is pathetic. But I find it really interesting. The general difference between our. A difference between the US And Europe is. In the US People ask, what do you do in Europe? They ask, where are you from? But what I find what I'm running into. A lot. A lot of young men come up to me when I'm out in New York, and I'll say, what do you do? And you can always tell that the son of a rich kid. Because they go on for about a minute trying to describe what they do. And it's clear, like, okay, you do nothing and someone else is paying your bills. They talk about some convoluted or they're trying to start a platform for creatives or artists or they're starting a membership club. Or it's like, oh, you have rich parents. Anyways, I can sniff out Nepo babies pretty quickly.

[Kara Swisher]

All right, well, my kids all work hard. They have good jobs. Anyway, let's get to the news. The FCC this story, Scott, has ordered Disney to file early renewal applications for its ABC owned broadcast licenses. These are affiliates in different cities years ahead of the normal schedule. The commission is citing an ongoing investigation into Disney's DEI practices as justification. More notably, it comes days after Trump and Melania renewed a push to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air after he made a joke about Melania being an expectant widow. Disney is pushing back hard. The new CEO is not having it and he's being supported by a range of companies and everything else. This is a step too far for our good friend and moron Brenda Carr. I'm calling him Brenda, who is a moron. He's a moron. And he's just such a nakedly political, although I wouldn't want to say him naked. Speaking of naked political person who is just carrying water for the Trumps, Melania doing this was, you know, fascinating. But you know, Kimmel's just emboldened and has put out a series of things and no one's, no one is putting up with this shit. And they're going to lose. The FCC is going to lose in court. But what a harassment of an American company, a classic American company. What do you think about this?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, I actually saw Kimmel's response. I mean, the reality is late night TV is dying without the help of Brent.

[E Trade Sponsor Voice]

Sure.

[Kara Swisher]

Exactly.

[Scott Galloway]

And in a weird way, it kind of helps. I think Jimmy Kimmel, all the late night people are extraordinarily talented, that is to be quick on your feet, hardworking, come up with new material every night. They're extraordinarily talented people, all of them across the whole spectrum. And I'm actually trying to get Jimmy Kimmel to come be the interview for our propaganda markets live in Los Angeles. And it was Jimmy, call me. So I think it'd be very interesting to have him talk about it. I don't think Jimmy should have. I watched it where he addressed it and said, of course, I think he should just double down and say, I stand by everything I say. He has, it's humor.

[Kara Swisher]

He has. Ensuing skits are very funny. He did. He's done a series okay, this is

[Scott Galloway]

what's going on here. Fascism. So who said they're poisoning the blood of our country? Oh, that was Trump. Who described political opponents as vermin. Who told the squad to go back to where they come from. Who said that Adam Schiff was guilty of a crime that is punishable by death. That's treason. The dehumanization, the delegitimization, the exclusion, the criminalization, the existential threat framing. No individual in public office has done more of this in the world than Donald Trump.

[Kara Swisher]

Can I interject? One of the things that's incredible is that these are the free speech warriors, right? And I'm like, where are. Where's all those folk? Where's the folk at the Free Breast? Where's the folk?

[Scott Galloway]

Where's the comedy's illegal. Remember that one comedy should be legal at all.

[Kara Swisher]

Where's Elon? I know he's busy in court losing his mind, but. Which isn't a very far stop. But at the same time, former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted yet again for making a threat against President Trump by photographing seashells on the beach. That said, I think it's 8,646. 47. Whatever. Whichever president he is, it was funny and he was just doing it. And by the way, a lot of the right had done it to Biden, like 86, whatever number he is. 46.

[Scott Galloway]

I was a waiter. 86 meant we're out of suit.

[Kara Swisher]

That's 86.

[Scott Galloway]

We had a chalkboard that said 86.

[Kara Swisher]

Trump claims it's a mob kill. He claims it's a mob kill name. Cause he lives in the seventies of New York, you know. But this is like his. His approval ratings are underwater. It doesn't work. Cause everyone's heard him talk. And then the culture wars turning up the volume. Seems like, hey, dude, that was last year or two years ago. That worked and doesn't work anymore. Cause I think everyone's. I mean, Disney's pushing back. This is just like an astonishing array of. What I'm more interested in is like Brenda and this guy who's running doj. I thought Pam Bondi sucked, but Todd Bl is trying to compete for suckiest suck up. The enablers of this guy that go for it are really quite astonishing to me even.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, but aren't we just disappointed? I think we always blame our political leaders and he is the culprit here. But I'm shocked there isn't more pushback. I just. People seem to be. I think we've become complacent. I think we've taken a lot of our norms and our rights for granted and that people. I think people are complacent. And I'd like to think that the midterms will show maybe that they're not.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. But I think people with the boating

[Scott Galloway]

maybe errantly assume that things will revert back to normal at some point.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, I don't think they're complacent. There's been a lot of pushback to the Kimmel stuff and the comey stuff. I just think people are like, you know, enough of this fucking asshole. Why is he taking up so much of our brain oxygen on this nonsense?

[Scott Galloway]

It's working. I think it's. I think it's sent a chill across all of cable tv.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, I don't think so. I don't think so. Look how Disney has reacted. They're like, no fucking way.

[Scott Galloway]

I know firsthand from a bunch of producers that the legal cost and the review of stuff has gone way up. And anything that feels on the edge, they say, can we say something else or can we lighten the language? I think this intimidation and this chill is working.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, I don't know. I don't. I don't think so. I don't think it is. I don't think it's going to work, and I don't think works. And you know, these people, like, let me just tell you, Brenda, when you leave office, which you will at some point, I'm gonna follow you everywhere, everywhere you try to get a job. I'm gonna bring up all your terrible things, and I'm gonna make sure people know what you did. I'm gonna make sure people understand who Brenda is, because there's nothing we can do about Trump at this point. I was just thinking, he is in our head so much, we have to, like, remove him from our head. But it doesn't mean ignoring him. It means removing. We get so sucked into there. Ridiculous, comical, toxically comical drama. It's gotta be time to say, you're in our fucking rearview mirror, old man. Old cankle, you know, man of cognitive questionability, like, and move him along. You know, just move him along.

[Scott Galloway]

You brought up an interesting thing, and that is the media just doesn't know how to cover Trump showing up dressed to the nines to have him say he's delegitimate in a windowless ballroom. Okay, clearly the media does not know how to deal with this guy. The idea I like is newspapers and cable news companies all do the following. Instead of having four or five stories and a narrative about what he's done and interviewing people about how ridiculous it is. I think they should have a two minute segment and one page on the back page that are the following. This is what Trump said today. And just really quickly outline it.

[Kara Swisher]

Today he accused Comey with the shells.

[Scott Galloway]

He said this about this person. He said these, these people are animals. He said the shell thing and just do it really quickly. This is what Trump said today and sequester it and you can get it all in one place. Because what happens now is 22 of the 27 minutes, or I'm sorry, 18 of the 24 minutes. Whatever the actual content load is on TV is different stories that involve him.

[Kara Swisher]

I agree.

[Scott Galloway]

And he is like a Star wars character or a villain, a Marvel Comics character. He gains power from conflict and from controversy. And what I'm saying is, what I think they should do is I think they should do the news and they should just take everything Trump and go. He said this, this, this, this and this today. We'll see you tomorrow night. That's it.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. They make segments about it. Yeah, they do. We gotta like, as Jennifer Welch calls

[Scott Galloway]

him, kanks, ring fence it.

[Kara Swisher]

Ring fence him. And be like, you know what I did when I was coming back from San Francisco? I walked into a store and I bought an actual book and I was like, that's enough.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. I thought you posted it.

[Kara Swisher]

I was like, I'm gonna read a book. Not read, not like participate in the social media around him. I mean, sometimes it's fun. And I really have to say, Jimmy Kimmel's actually doing a great job about. He said he's finally brought Melania and Trump together. He's using it as content, which he should do. But in a lot of ways, just laughing at this poor obese old man is, I think, the way to go here. Mock him relentlessly. It's not ignoring it because I think that's a mistake. There's a lot of people telling me I'm just not reading it at all. Which could come off as I'm not engaged.

[Scott Galloway]

You know how on page three of the sun they used to have a naked, hot woman? Page three of every newspaper. This is the shit Trump said. This is what Trump said today. Just list it all. Two minutes every night, national news. Cover the news. Try not talk about what's going on in Iran. Da, da, da. And then last two minutes. This is what Trump said today and does go through it all because he is totally dominating the news cycle. He gets energy from conflict People see it as authentic and leadership. So I'm like, I just get him.

[Kara Swisher]

It's just. There's so many idiot characters. Like that smug piece and that smug deflection of Pete Hegseth. He's smirky. Like literally on his hearings, he's so smirky and stupid. It's really kind of like I don't like these characters anymore.

[Scott Galloway]

Representative Moulton was good. There was some. There was some really good Jason Crow. I'm actually, I feel bad. I'm actually consistently impressed with some of our elected representatives. Oh, I meant to tell you before I forget, I went and did something you would love. Have you heard of Neko or Niko? N E K O? Neko?

[Kara Swisher]

No.

[Scott Galloway]

It's this advanced preventive healthcare concept from the founders of Spotify. So I just want to disclose. I got no compensation for this. That this is not. It's going to sound like an ad.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay.

[Scott Galloway]

You go into this place and they basically take your blood, put all sorts of cuffs on you for blood pressure and measurement. They have all these lasers and scans and then they take. You go into this tube and they take 2,400 pictures of you. But here's the thing, it's amazing. And then they do it all immediately and put you in a room with a doctor and they go through everything visually in a very user friendly. Feels like something out of the movie Gattaca. And I thought, okay, how much? I said I need to pay because I don't want to be seen as. I don't like the whole influencer thing. I'm like, I need to pay. I have the money. Do you know how much it was?

[Kara Swisher]

How much?

[Scott Galloway]

It was £300. Oh, I thought it was going to be £3,000.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, wow. Interesting.

[Scott Galloway]

And you get a baseline of all your good cholesterols, your bad cholesterols, your circulatory health. Everything about it did change my behavior. You know, I have one of these ridiculously expensive concierge things, this thing. And there was a line out the door to get into this thing.

[Kara Swisher]

It's a great. This is what they do in Korea for everybody. Everybody gets it once a year.

[Scott Galloway]

And it's the guys from Spotify and they're. I'm such a huge. They're trying to democratize advanced preventive medicine. It's called Necto.

[Kara Swisher]

I like that idea.

[Scott Galloway]

And you get, and you get a baseline and I mean if it's that inexpensive. They did this thing with 2,400 pictures of, you know, basically you're naked to look at I'm very fair and I'm prone to skin cancers. And they said, all right, you have 2,200 marks. All of them are fine except for these 12. Oh, wow, 300 pounds. Anyways, I was blown away. We should have filmed at this thing. And also, you know what I've discovered by watching your show and going to Necco? I try to run once or twice a week, and I was always. I rode crew. And one time I was in very good cardiovascular health. I push myself running. That's just the way I run. And I time myself and I try and lower my times and I row and I try and get run 100%. I just figured that out. They're like, no, what's it called? Zone 2 or Level 2, where you supposedly can have a conversation but you can't sing. So last night I ran slowly, jogged for 40 minutes. And that's supposed to be the way to do it, but anyways. And unfortunately, they say the same fucking thing to me. I'm like, how did I change my diet? And Dr. Pramala and I asked her if I use her name. She said the same thing. They're like. Well, they're also polite. They're like, you may want to consider drinking a little bit less.

[Kara Swisher]

Yes, I think you may want to do that. I think you may want to do that.

[Scott Galloway]

You may want to consider drinking a little less.

[Kara Swisher]

I feel like I'm affecting you. This is so great. By the way, this week's episode's about loneliness and connection. You'll like it.

[Scott Galloway]

Did you see the data on marriage?

[Kara Swisher]

No.

[Scott Galloway]

Men who are married and women who are married are less likely to get advanced stage cancer. Having someone else in your life nagging you, feeding you well, checking in on you, giving you a reason to live, nagging.

[Kara Swisher]

It ends up.

[Scott Galloway]

It's the ultimate. It's the ultimate chemotherapy. I would have never gotten a colonoscopy if I hadn't been nagged about it. It wasn't something I was excited about.

[Kara Swisher]

Is that me who nagged you or Katie Couric, one of us? Or your wife?

[Scott Galloway]

No, it was. It was. It was my girlfriend at the time. But anyways, you had one recently.

[Kara Swisher]

Can you please go have one?

[Scott Galloway]

I get them every. I get them every 10 year. Oh, and by the way, have you seen. Rectal cancers are skyrocketing among young people. I think it's a pesticide.

[Kara Swisher]

Anyways, we're moving on.

[Scott Galloway]

No, it wasn't a joke. I wasn't going anywh. I saw you seize up.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay, I Just was like rectal cancer. And we're out.

[Scott Galloway]

No, no, no.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay.

[Scott Galloway]

No, no, no, no.

[Kara Swisher]

Because you're going to tell a rectal joke.

[Scott Galloway]

Loneliness.

[Kara Swisher]

I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it.

[Scott Galloway]

Okay, I'm going to. You say read a book. I say go have a beer with a friend. It's worth a beer.

[Kara Swisher]

I agree. But anyway, it's like six beers, Scott. That's the issue. All right, now we've got to get to a rundown of the latest big tech earnings. They're all over. All of these came out at once and it was called Day of Reckoning. First up, Alphabet. The company reported a 22% surge in first quarter revenue, around $110 billion. What a number. Net income was up 81% compared to the same period a year ago. Shares for Alphabet are up 15% year to date. At the time of this taping, Microsoft, the company beat expectations, with revenues increasing 18% year over year. For the quarter, capital spending for the company will reach $190 billion, though this year a 61% increase over 2025. Amazon beat expectations, expanding revenue in its cloud computing segment by 28% year over year. The company announced it expects 200 billion on AI in 2026. And finally, Meta reported lower than expected. Capex missed on user growth, which is interesting. This is the first time which attributed in part to Internet disruptions in Iran. They're blaming Iran? I don't think so. Daily Active People was down over 5% over the fourth quarter. In better news, revenue climbed 33% from a year earlier, making it the fastest growing quarter since 2021. So what jumps out at you about these four companies besides their enormous spending on AI?

[Scott Galloway]

Obviously you say this in the attention economy. It's now the. It's now the ketamine economy where it's dissociated from everything else but AI. And I said yesterday on property markets that I thought these guys were going to blow away their expectations because what do they monetize? They monetize spending around AI. And up until today, or until AI came on, they. The driver was they monetize attention. With everything that's going on in the world, are you less or more glued to your phone? I can't stop looking at my fucking phone like, okay, who did we bomb today? Or what? So let's just go through the earnings, which were nothing short of staggering. Alphabet's revenues are up 22% to 110 billion. They beat consensus. Their consensus was 5. It was 263. They came in at 511 although some of that was an unnatural equity gain. Google Cloud hit 20 billion, up 63% with their backlog doubling search revenue just 460 billion. Jesus Christ. Their backlog to half a trillion dollars. Search revenue, which was supposedly going away because of OpenAI was up 19%. Gemini paid monthly active users is up 40% quarter on quarter Gemini is really

[Kara Swisher]

doing well I would say full year

[Scott Galloway]

CapEx guidance went up. The investors don't like that because as strong as their top line is, everyone's saying we need to spend more money. Their stock was up 8% in after hours. Let's talk about Microsoft. Azure grew faster than anyone expected but they had to boost their capex guidance, which investors don't like. Revenue up 18% to $83 billion. They also beat consensus wildly. Azure grew 40%. The AI business crossed 37 billion annual run rate that's up 123% year on year. Their commercial backlog is up to 2/3 of a trillion 620. Their Q1 capex was 32 billion but it's been raised their full year. Capex they've raised 190 billion well above the 100 and 55 they'd expected. OpenAI committed an additional quarter of a trillion dollars in Azure spend the day before the print but the stock was down 2%. Meta. Jesus. Jesus Christ Kara. Meta revenue was up 33 to $56 billion. Efficiencies of AI earnings of $10.44 although a bunch of it was a tax benefit. Ad impressions were up 19% and their average price per ad was up 12%. Q2 revenue guided to 60 billion which implies 25% growth full year. Capex again this is what investors don't like. They raised to 135 billion from 120 and then also higher component prices and the stock fell 9% after hours. Last one Amazon fastest growth in 15 quarters. But free cash flow collapsed because of their capex again what the analysts love, they're blowing away their top line. What the analysts hate is they're all saying we need to spend more money. Revenue was up 17%. EPS blew away but a lot of that was because of recognition of a gain in anthropic stock from their investment there AWS hit 38 billion, up 28%. Advertising grew 24%. Q1 capex again with the Allen Stone like capex 44 billion full year at 200 billion free cash flow fell C above they're increasing their capex. OpenAI recently committed to consume 2 gigawatts of trainium capacity through AWS. So all of a sudden they're getting into the chip game and the stock rose 3% after. All.

[Kara Swisher]

Right, give me an overall. What does this say to you?

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, my gosh. AI is feeding the world.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

It is living up to its expectations, but the capex required to live up to those expectations, to deliver against the demand is sucking is basically like. Like taking all the juice out of the earnings. The capex requirement to live up to the demand, the infrastructure buildup, when does that stop?

[Kara Swisher]

It's sort of like having a hot spouse that requires a lot of money for you to stay.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, trust me, I know that feeling. What does it require?

[Kara Swisher]

What does it require for that to not.

[Scott Galloway]

Must work hard. That's what I would say to myself. Must work harder.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, they're doing that.

[Scott Galloway]

Must work harder. What does it require?

[Kara Swisher]

When is the spending going to stop?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, when a big customer announces they're reducing their spend, IAI or one of these companies announces. OpenAI basically said that they kind of shit the bed, that their numbers didn't meet expectations. But the bigger guys, these players, are all just on fire. I don't see it slowing down.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. Can I note the OpenAI thing you just referenced? There are internal concerns about the company's spending plans and its user revenue targets. According to the Wall Street Journal, OpenAI missed internal goal of reaching 1 billion weekly active ChatGPT users by the end of 2025. Has seen subscriber defections. I think that's all due to you. The company is also denying there's a rift between Sam Altman and CFO Sarah Fryer over computing resources, and they're, of course, approaching their ipo, although we'll get to their trial next. This trial with Elon, which is also another distraction, but this, they're seeing a lot of bumps as they go into it. So is there like a reckoning moment or. How do you look at it? Just one big customer or.

[Scott Galloway]

That's the name. By the way, I started on my next book. That's the name of it, the Reckoning.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, the Reckoning. Oh, didn't I use the word reckoning? I feel like I inspired that. You liked when I said reckoning last week, but I was talking about the media.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm sure if. Well, let me say, if the book works, if it's a bestseller, it was your idea. I think there's a reckoning coming in America and I think there's a reckoning coming in the markets, but Keep in mind that this AI is now sucking so much oxygen out of the room. I sit in a lot of VC pitches. If you're not an AI company, you can't raise money right now. I mean it is very difficult. And by the way, I'm on the board of an AI company that's growing 4x a year and they're like, that's not enough. Unless you're growing 10x a year as an AI company that's purely software. This company called Rogo, that is, it's a great, great little company that is basically AI for financial institutions. They just closed around at $2 billion, right?

[Kara Swisher]

No, it's not.

[Scott Galloway]

I think it's trading at 100 times revenues or something insane. And they're going to get, they raise $100 million. You literally, if you are not an AI right now and growing, you know, 5, 7, 10x a year, you can't raise money. And it is, in my opinion, it's a kind of a. All of the GDP growth is coming from the CapEx in AI. All of the earnings growth, 77% of the earnings growth is coming from the MAG10. We are becoming, and we've said this before, America is a giant bet on AI. And people are wondering and breakfast with a big tech CEO today. People are really, how is the S and P hitting all time highs with such geopolitical uncertainty and oil at 110 bucks a barrel. And the reality is America is now a giant bet on AI. And in a weird way, the war in Iran kind of helps these guys. First off, none of these guys are affected by.

[Kara Swisher]

None of it tariffs or any of Trump's. They were all at the White House last week with this week with King Charles. Every one of them was there again by the way.

[Scott Galloway]

And then by the way, the high oil prices, that money, the additional cost circulates within our economy. It hurts consumers. But Chevron and Halliburton are making a shit ton of money, right?

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. So it's oil moguls and tech moguls.

[Scott Galloway]

We're a net, that's right. We're a net exporter. And there's a very unhealthy thing and I'm writing a thing called the ketamine economy and that is, I like it. Ketamine supposedly is the powers you dissociate and you can see your issues and your addictions and your problems and forgive yourself and have a better handle on stuff. And people say it's a world breakthrough. The most dangerous thing I think about the world we live in. In America right now is that if you live in America and you're in the 0.1%, you are not invested in the wellbeing of America. Why do you care about infrastructure? You don't care about tsa. You don't care about airports. You don't care about. You go to Teterboro and you're flying your own plane. Do you care about the fact that 40% of third graders can't read? No. You have your own private schools where they spend $75,000 per student. Do you care about policing and safety? No. You live in a doorman building in a neighborhood that is so over policed and has so many cameras, you're just fine. Do you care about the health of Americ? No. You have concierge medical services that give you everything you need. The people who control our government or have a disproportionate influence have totally disassociated from America's interests. And even more frightening is that America, you could argue, has disassociated from the global interest. Do we care about high oil prices? Not really. Do we care about HIV infections in Zambia? Not really. We have two oceans protecting us from chaos seas.

[Kara Swisher]

I'm not so sure.

[Scott Galloway]

You could argue eventually it hits our shores. But right now, the markets.

[Kara Swisher]

No, the market. The rich people. I get it. It's a Pierre don't care economy. Do you know the book Pierre Doesn't Care? I don't Care? It's a wonderful children's thing where he eventually gets eaten by a lion because he doesn't care. He always says, I don't care. But that's what they're like. It's a Pierre don't care group of people.

[Scott Galloway]

We have to figure out economic polic that give the wealthiest people in our nation a vested interest in the success of America.

[Kara Swisher]

Again, you know, who cares? The people. I'm telling you, there's an anger. You can feel it, it's palpable, that they do not hear hope. So they have gone from. They have literally gone from heroes to villains. And let me say, I get it everywhere. I go everywhere from. And it's not, you know, like, oh, it's the, you know, it's the people, you know, the working class. It's everybody who's not like them. And it is angry. It is deeply and profoundly angry. And even more so than Trump. They sort of have. It's all figured in, he's a terrible person. Or if they don't like him. And even. There was just a really interesting story about all the people that voted for him are like, we're very disappointed and we now regret our vote. Which you're sort of like, okay, fine, whatever. But there is a growing anger that I think they do not understand of them being vill and they're behaving like villains. We have to move on. But we'll see where this goes. Because if they're the only ones that benefit and all the other companies don't, there isn't, as you say, a reckoning. It's a great word. It actually is from the Middle English. I'll just read this to you from Narration Accounts Settling accounts and it's about the act of calculating, estimating or settling accounts, often carrying a connotation of judgment, retribution, or facing consequences.

[Scott Galloway]

It's the act of setting accounts and consequences.

[Kara Swisher]

That's right. Scott's gonna have a to give you a reckoning anyway. Let's take a quick break. Speaking of reckoning, when we come back, Elon takes the stand.

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[Kara Swisher]

with a qualifying deposit today.

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[Kara Swisher]

Scott, we're back. Elon Musk took the stand this week in a trial against OpenAI. Let's go through some of the things he said. He was a, quote, fool to provide OpenAI's early funding. He discussed his concerns about AI and not wanting to have a Terminator outcome. He accused OpenAI's lawyer of trying to trick him. When asked why he brought the suit, Elon said it's not okay to steal a charity, warning if he loses it, it would give license to looting every charity in America. By the way, Elon is not charitable at all in any way. FYI, the judge pushed back reminding jurors that Elon's claims and his opinions have no legal value whatsoever. As I pred, a number of prospective jurors had thoughts about Elon, with some calling him a greedy, racist, homophobic piece of garbage and a world class jerk in questionnaires. I think his this has not been good for Elon. One of the things that Ellie said when he gave us that video last week was that these that they're not used to being challenged publicly and he is losing his brain on he looks terrible and he needs to control himself which speaking of ketamine, he cannot, he has no ability to do so. I'm gonna be fair to him. He was the first person who did talk about this Terminator outcome 15 years ago to me or something, maybe 10. And he was the first person to be very worried about it. He shifted becoming Less worried over the various interviews. At first it was Terminator, then you were a house cat. And then we were like ants that are just gonna get covered by a highway, which is mean or anything. But one of the things I would say is he started off that way and then he immediately lost his mind because he tipped out of OpenAI because he thought they couldn't make it. And these emails talk about that. And he signed away his rights. He did give them 38 million, not 100 as he's claimed in other depositions. So he keeps changing the number, which isn't good when you're under oath. But one of the things that is very clear here is that he's shifted to being a greedy hypocrite and started his own company that includes non consensual sexual images and child pornography. So it's not like he's here to save us and he's trying to put himself off as someone who's worried about AI and is fully participating in the damage it does.

[Scott Galloway]

So what I have heard how this went down, very like broad brush actions that kind of give a sense of what went down here, and tell me if you've heard different, is that Sam actually tried to raise $500 million when it was a nonprofit for the nonprofit and was unable to do that. Elon showed up and said, this needs to be a for profit company and I need to control it and own 80% of it.

[Kara Swisher]

After he had given the money. Yes, that's exactly what happened.

[Scott Galloway]

And the people there said, no, we're not up for the for profit. Elon controls part of the game, which is brand.

[Kara Swisher]

He does that on every company. But go ahead.

[Scott Galloway]

So he said, I'm out. And he signed paperwork.

[Kara Swisher]

Yep.

[Scott Galloway]

This is literally the biggest example of seller's regret in history. And then the other fact pattern here about his quote, unquote, trying to pretend he's more noble than he is and he's really worried about AI, who went on to develop an LLM that most experts would say has the fewest guardrails. Elon with xai. So the fact pattern here, the narrative, and this is my prediction, I don't think OpenAI, I said last week I thought they were going to settle. I don't think OpenAI wants to settle. I think their attitude is I think Elon's either going to drop the case or lose.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, it's a jury trial and then the judge decides on the reparate, whatever the remedies are.

[Scott Galloway]

But if they're found, if OpenAI is found not guilty. That's it, then it's over.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, he could appeal. I bet he could appeal. He can always appeal. He's got so much money. I mean, Trump's gonna appeal the E. Jean Carroll thing to the Supreme Court now that he's lost in the Appeals court. The 83 million, I'm shocked.

[Scott Galloway]

He wants to keep bringing that up,

[Kara Swisher]

but he's gonna pay 83 million. He doesn't wanna pay. He'll have to pay that if he. If. If the Supreme Court doesn't bring the money down. Presumably he wants to get it to 10 million. He's gonna have to pay her something.

[Scott Galloway]

Anyways, back to the OpenAI case. Everything I've seen fits this narrative that Elon, once this thing became commercially viable, he wanted it to flip to for profit and he wanted to own it all. And that he legally gave up his ownership and his governance rights.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, well, one of the things he was concerned. He absolutely. And one of the interesting things, I love them being under oath because now I finally. The things I thought were true, like that Larry Page and he got into an argument because he was a doomer for sure back then. And Larry Page called him a speciesist for being concerned. Be overly, overly negative. Which I'm like, yeah, we like the human species. Just. Sorry, you know, these people. These people, I can't tell you, I'm so pleased for people to see them as they are. Right. You know, when someone said greedy, racist, homophobic piece of garbage, I'm like, you see what I'm saying? Like, jerks don't care about people. This whole thing is fantastic because they're under oath and they have to show themselves. And they also have to show how they're trying to present themselves. Like, Elon is the savior of the world. When he is decimated, he's responsible for the millions of these deaths that are gonna happen because of usaid. He's responsible for all manner of stuff that he's been doing on Twitter. And he wants to present himself as it is. Like Thanos in the Marvel movie. Remember how he was trying to present himself as a good person? Thanos has an idea of himself as a hero when he's the villain because he's helping the human race. And he talks about it.

[Scott Galloway]

To me, this defines messiah complex, full stop. He's the guy to turn us into an interplanetary species. Only him. He's the one that should control AI. He's. I just. And I. It's. I'm literally, I'm Jesus Christ.

[Kara Swisher]

Yep. I would agree I don't know. I don't think it's good for him and I don't think him getting agitated. This lawyer actually worked for him at one point and then worked against him. So he's familiar with this firm and he's just losing it on the stand, which is just what he should not do. He should be as calm as cucumber and he can't be. And it'll be interesting. The contrast with I think Sam will be smooth as silver. I think he's not gonna online online. He's kind of sad over on Twitter. Sad Sam and Elon's crazy Elon and by the way, an increase in white supremacist post too. But Sam has got to hold it together during and so does Greg Brockman and so does Satya, which will help anchor OpenAI quite a bit, as you said. You know what I thought about doing, Scott? I thought about going down to the courtroom when I was in San Francisco cause I had some free time and just sitting and waving at just to get him even more riled up.

[Scott Galloway]

Like hey girl, does he show up? Does he go to court?

[Kara Swisher]

No, he's in court. They're all in court. They're all there. They have to go. I guess because I thought about going and just waving at all of them going hey girls, what up? Let's can't we all get along that kind of stuff. But and I didn't. I hung out with Louis. Okay, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Taylor Swift fights back against AI.

[Scott Galloway]

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[Maria Sharapova]

I'm Maria Sharapova and I'm hosting a new podcast called Pretty Tough. Every week I'm sitting down with trailblazing women at the top of their game to discuss ambition, work ethic, and the ups and downs that come on the path to achieving greatness. We'll dive into their stories and get valuable information insights from top executives, actors, entrepreneurs and other individuals who have inspired me so much in my own journey. Follow Pretty Tough wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kara Swisher]

Scott we're back. Taylor Swift has filed a new trademark application for two voice clips in one image that are likely an effort to protect her voice and image from AI misuse. This is something a lot of celebrities are doing, but she she's probably the biggest one. The voice clips are sound trademarks, covering Swift's voice with clips of her saying, hey, it's Taylor Swift. And hey, it's Taylor. Registering a celebrity's spoken voice has not been tested in court. Matthew McConaughey has also trademarked his use of his images and voice in January. It's an interesting strategy. And she did an early, interesting interview with Joe Cosarelli, who I love at the New York times called the 30 greatest living American songwriters. Really wonderful story. It does a range of people and it's really terrific. Let's listen to what she had to.

[Maria Sharapova]

If there's any way we can make confessional songwriting a little bit more of something that isn't like people take that as sort of like you were being messy or whatever. You you have to be fair to everyone then are like, are rap beefs messy or are they confessional? Like, we've got to just like, let's make it a music conversation rather than just like ganging up on the female artists. And I think the more male artists that are messy or emotionally complex or confessional or upset, the happier I am.

[Kara Swisher]

She likes confessional songwriting, Scott. And then thirdly, this Universal deal is gonna trigger something in her contract that's gonna force Universal to pay out all its artists Even if they gave them advances. If it sells. She put it in to protect herself. But it also, the way she wrote it, everybody who is at Universal will have to be pa. So she's getting enormous payouts for all the artists in this possible deal for Universal, which I think will endear her to many artists. What do you think here about any of this? I know you don't like her, but she's a tremendous business person.

[Scott Galloway]

I never said I don't like her music, too. That's not fair to say. I don't like her.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay. Not her music. Excuse me.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. So I'm a fan of erring on the side of protections around people's ip and essentially Google coming in and crawling every media company, people using people's likeness, their voice. I believe Jensen Huang said it, everyone should own their digital twin. And that's not only the physical rendering, but also your voice, your likeness. People spend a lot of time and energy trying to develop IP that they own, that they can decide to give to their heirs or sell their catalog or their likeness or their image or. And they should own it. And so I'm a fan of these cases. And the fact that she's doing it on behalf of other artists is really wonderful. And she's very high profile and people have enormous affection for her. So she's immediately going to get public support for whatever she does. So I'm a fan of this. I'm a fan of how she's handling it. And we need these companies. I think you said it. Or your partner. Well, Mossberg said it. These guys are pickpockets and just going in.

[Kara Swisher]

Rapacious information thieves is what Walt said.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. And now they're feeling likeness. And I think the solution here, again, they'll come up with the illusion of complexity in that is they can calibrate how closely they get to her voice without it triggering an ip. But I think it's pretty simple. I think someone should be representing authors and artists and past celebrities, and they or their heirs or their estate can either license it into a giant pool or not. And then every time it is used and you have an AI, crawl it. Every time an AI takes a sentence from your book or lets someone speak in your voice, you are entitled to x percent music. Artists have been doing this a long time. When you.

[Kara Swisher]

What do they do? Let me ask you. Let me diplome that. When Anne Lamott was on stage with me this week, she talked about how she got the AI to write something in her voice. And she said it was actually Better, but it wasn't her. But they had crawled so, so much of her stuff. So are they making her or a facsimile of her? And what happened to your Google thing that you did? Was it Google when they did the Scott Galloway teacher portrait? What happened? You never said what actually happened. You took it down, right?

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I started working on it a year ago. So I was getting a lot of emails from people, young men and mothers, asking for advice, and I couldn't keep up with it, so I said, upload. And they. A former student of mine who's a Google product manager came and said, we have something called Portraits. We're doing it with a bunch of doctors, we're doing it with a bunch of historians. We upload everything you've ever done, and someone can come to an avatar and ask questions, and it'll give something resembling a reasonable facsimile of the answer you would give. And I said, that sounds great. And I started working on it about a year and a half ago. It took him about six or nine months. And I tested it, and it actually did. If it said, should I get an MBA or not, it asked good questions and gave it a reasonable answer. And then you actually fucked it up for me. You did that interview with those parents of the kid who had committed suicide.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, I made you upset.

[Scott Galloway]

And I thought, okay, am I going to be part of the problem here where I inadvertently sequester young men from asking their parents for advice? Finding real people, finding mentors, finding friends. And it came out. The day it came out, I started testing it and I just felt really uneasy with it.

[Kara Swisher]

So instead of saying, I fucked it up, I showed you a better way to live.

[Scott Galloway]

You illuminated me. You illuminated. You saved me from myself yet again.

[Kara Swisher]

Let's try to work on our words with Kara, okay? Okay. All right, go ahead.

[Scott Galloway]

Better words.

[Kara Swisher]

Better words.

[Scott Galloway]

And then I called, to Google's credit, I called them and I said, I gotta be honest, I just feel really uncomfortable with this. I can see how it might be helpful. But I can also see how some young man doesn't ask a friend or his dad for advice and instead says, well, well, Prof. T said this. And it's just. Anyway, so they took it down. And. And by the way, where is it? I think the. It's. It's gone. It's. You can't find it? Yeah, they took it down.

[Kara Swisher]

We'll see.

[Scott Galloway]

Except when I go. My understanding is they took it down.

[Kara Swisher]

It's in some vault, like a mummy. Okay, go ahead.

[Scott Galloway]

But you can say in the voice of Kara Swisher, please write this thing. And my. My view is they should be able to do that, but only if you have agreed to have your stuff crawled. And the more people who ask say this in the voice of Kara Swisher, you should get a royalty check. Similar to the way artists do it. Music artists do it. When you listen to KROQ Rock of the 80s in the 80s, and they were constantly playing B52 songs, at the end of the year, they would send a check to Warner brothers and the B52s would get a check. I don't. This has been done before.

[Kara Swisher]

It is interesting because I did that Simpsons thing and I got an enormous check the other day and I'm like, they can do it and Hollywood sucks. Right? Like, it's astonishing. And it goes way back when I was with the Google twins, where they were stealing books and were Cara. What is the difference if we take their books? I was like, you shocking shoplifter. And. Or they take television. Their mentality is to take it from you, which is interesting. So I'm glad someone like Taylor Swift. Swift is really pushing back. It'll be interesting to see if it could apply to all of us because I think it will benefit because you are easily. This would work really well if someone just didn't work with you to do it, but just did it. So, anyway, in an upcoming episode of my show, I make one of these. And it's really frightening when you say one of these.

[Scott Galloway]

What is?

[Kara Swisher]

I made the caratar. I'm going to give it to you for Christmas. I made a digital 3D version in a box of me and it looks like me sitting in a chair, like 3D version. And it speaks. It talks like me. It's me. And it's like a facsimile. That's not quite me, but it is. And I'm sending it to you for Christmas. The whole box. It's great. It's gonna be.

[Scott Galloway]

But again, I like the idea of this. As long as you sign up for it, because you might decide, have at it. Or after. If you're like me and you think, once you're gone, I would like my heirs to get a check. Because people say in the voice of Scott Galloway, write about income inequality, whatever it is. Right. So. And I think a lot of artists and a lot of writers and a lot of singers would agree to this. There's a model for it.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, absolutely. Well, we'll see. But you're getting that for Christmas, the Caratar. It's great. You'll have it forever. And it will add to things right up until my dying breath. Anyway, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.

[Maria Sharapova]

I'm Mitch, first two time NWSL Champion, championship MVP, and forward for the US Women's National Team. Before I went pro, I graduated from Harvard with a degree in psychology, which comes in handy more than you think. Any athlete pursuing greatness knows there's a certain mentality you have to have. What people don't know is what that costs. In my podcast, Confessions of an Elite Athlete, I sit down with the best athletes in the world and explore the psychology, mindset and unseen battles on the path to greatness. So take a seat and learn from the Confessions of an elite athlete on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Scott Galloway]

Foreign

[Estad Herndon]

I'm Estad Herndon and this is America. Actually, we're all talking to each other

[Scott Galloway]

to see what did we do wrong? What did we not see?

[Estad Herndon]

I'm in Washington, D.C. this week to interview Ruben Gallego. He's a Democratic senator from Arizona and he's been thinking openly about running for higher office. But he's recently run into some hot water because of his connection to Congressman Eric Swalwell.

[Scott Galloway]

I have to learn from this and I will learn learn from this.

[Estad Herndon]

But you know, for me, it's not a 2028 question. It's about what it means to be

[Scott Galloway]

a better first boss in my office and also a better senator to my constituents.

[Estad Herndon]

This week on America actually, we asked Gallego about predatory behavior in Washington, his plans for immigration reform, and more.

[E Trade Sponsor Voice]

Hi everyone, Kara Swisher here. We just won the Webby Award for the best interview show in news, business and society. And I've had some great guests on my podcast on with Kara Swisher. Here are some you don't want to miss. Tristan Harris, the co founder of the center for Humane Technology, I talked to him about his biggest worry when it comes to development and deployment of AI. Hint, hint. It has something to do with the CEOs and how they stand to profit. I interviewed documentarian Louis Theroux. His latest documentary, into the Manosphere, focuses on the incredible and horrifying influence this group of individuals has, especially on young men and boys. And recently I caught up with Katie Couric, Amy Lacca, and my brother Jeff Swisher to debunk some of the fads and misinformation behind the billion dollar wellness industry. And we talked about the important medical tests that are actually worth your while. All of these conversations are available now. You can find them on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And we've got plenty more lined up for the summer, so be sure to subscribe to on with Kara Swisher to catch them all.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay, Scott, let's hear a prediction. I'm gonna go first. I do think the Devil Wears Prada is tracking to be like a $200 million movie its first week. I think a lot of these movies, whether it's Project Hail Mary, this movie, there's a lot of love for movies that are just well made by Hollywood and good and fresh, that feel fresh. I think people are waiting for human stories. So I think these MO movies are killing it at the box office because people. And they're actually watching it in theaters too. They're not just waiting till it goes to digital. They like the community experience of it. And so it's a really interesting thing that a lot of these are hitting that are very human centered. And I like that. I like that.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I'll see it. So your win is the Devil Wears Prada?

[Kara Swisher]

No. The idea that these movies are gonna dominate, like just after Hail Mary, it's that Prada has the same feeling of Hail Mary. It feels like real people made it. It's like when you eat a meal that's sort of fake, and then you eat a meal that's homemade. It feels like real people made it who thought about it, who care about standards and quality, and it didn't feel like AI made it. I don't know what else to say.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, the rumors of. Of creativity's death at the hands of AI were greatly exaggerated. So there was a moment about 24 months ago where everyone thought all music is going to be generated by AI, that you'll just give it a good prompt, and it'll come up with new songs that are better than Kanye's, and that just didn't happen. The muscle between your brain, the creativity of a young brain, the creativity that still has tremendous moats around it. And even in design. Look at Sora being shut down. The graphics, you get back the design, you get back. The percentage of people in design working at tech firms has actually gone up as a percentage of their employment base. Artists. No AI is going on tour right now, but as far as I know,

[Kara Swisher]

they're not going to Taylor Swift. The situation. They certainly are.

[Scott Galloway]

Where I think you're being a little bit nostalgic is I think the Devil Wears Prada and Hail Mary are great movies and will do well at the box office, but box office is still down 30% post Covid content, original content that breaks through will find a way to monetize and be successful. But this collective nostalgia for the movie theater I pick is going bankrupt where I live in Florida.

[Kara Swisher]

No, I get it. I'm not talking about the movie theater. I'm talking about freshness in movies.

[Scott Galloway]

Fresh, creative.

[Kara Swisher]

Fresh creative. And I'm saying it does actually these movies are showing big pickup in movie theaters. I don't overall downward trend. It's really interesting that people are. These movies are scoring well in theaters. Like that's what I'm saying. Not all of them.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, it used to be that all of that type of long form content rant snaked through a theater and we went to the movies. I remember. I mean, I don't know about you. When I was a kid I used to go to the movies two or three times a week.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. At least once a week. Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. It was just what you did. It's what you did on a date. It's what I did with my mom. It's just what you did. You once. Granted I lived in Westwood and they had the best theaters in the world, but God, I just tried to think the last time I took my kids to a movie. Anyways, I'm glad you liked it. So my prediction is much more boring. So I think so intel is up fourfold and I think it's up. I'm sorry, it's up fivefold. It's quintupled over the last year and I think it's about. My prediction is it's going to the bed because Amazon is now bragging about

[Kara Swisher]

it, as you noted.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I think it's a great short right now. Amazon now sells both GPUs what Nvidia does and CPUs what Intel specializes in. And Amazon's chip revenue is growing 150% every three months. If it were a standalone business, it would be generating 50 billion in annual recurring revenue. That's more than AMD and about as much as intel and OpenAI and anthropic use Amazon's chip for their AI world.

[Kara Swisher]

So Amazon. Interesting. That's interesting.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, it's weird, I think, quite frankly, I think Nvidia has its own has much stronger moats. The vulnerable company here is the one that's the latest meme stock and that's Intel Meta. Anthropic have signed deals to use Google chips called TPUs. TPUs are two times cheaper than Nvidia's GPUs and Intel looks just dramatically overvalued and I think will be the victim of this increased competition. The stock again up fivefold. Get this, intel now has the highest forward PE of any large cap chip store. What is IT trading at? 118 times forward earnings.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh my God, it's such a loser company.

[Scott Galloway]

Why? AMD at 50, Amazon at 32, Nvidia at 26. And at the same time its business is expected to grow slower than peers. Anyways, the most overvalued stock right now.

[Kara Swisher]

Why is it memed? What is the meme? Explain the meme for the people.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, intel was beaten down. Now it has a great story. Now it has the back of a guy who's willing to use the full faith and credit of the government. Everyone thinks the chips are the bottleneck in the AI boom. It's not actually, it's actually power. And the stock's up fivefold. And now again see above, it's trading at a forward earnings of 118 and it's growing slower than everybody else. And Amazon and Google are coming for their lunch. So anyways, my prediction is, is you're going to see this thing is going to look like a giant hill. The escape.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, I love it. That's a good one.

[Scott Galloway]

It's over. And intel is going to be one of the worst performing stocks in the tech sector over the next six to 12 months.

[Kara Swisher]

Trump's going to be mad at you. He's going to come after you instead of Jess. That's really good.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, well, intel has the look of an expectant widow.

[Kara Swisher]

That's really funny. Amazon is doing it as interesting. Although I have to say I've given the heinous of the week award by them leaking that they're gonna make the Apprentice again with Don Junior.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh God, did you see that?

[Kara Swisher]

I know. They're such suck ups. And Jeff was at the King Charles thing. Let me just say you don't have enough. There's not enough budget for a cocaine budget for that.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, that should have been our win. I know King Charles. How good was he?

[Kara Swisher]

We didn't do win, but go ahead, go quickly, do a win. King Charles was fucking fantastic.

[Scott Galloway]

I have to say, no one can thread the needle around a thoughtful, intelligent stab in the heart like the British. And when the King delivers it, you know, I just loved, I loved the King saying, you have often stated that without us we would speak in German. I'd just like to remind you that without us you'd be speaking French.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah,

[Scott Galloway]

he is so good. Whoever wrote his speech a, he delivered it perfectly. He actually studied drama in college. I Just think, I was so happy because I do think he stated what we need to know, and that is the alliance between Britain and the U.S. i would like to think is unshakable. Also, the King has been sick. It's a really nice moment for him. He is always.

[Kara Swisher]

He did a good job. He did his kingly duties.

[Scott Galloway]

I like the monarchy and I always got the sense that he's a really decent man. And so I just loved seeing kind of his time in the sun and just how good he was. I thought that was wonderful.

[Kara Swisher]

He did good. And the thing is, Trump doesn't insult him because he loves the monarchy, so he insulted Trump and he's the only one who got away with it.

[Scott Galloway]

So elegant, though.

[Kara Swisher]

Didn't get away with it.

[Scott Galloway]

So elegant.

[Kara Swisher]

It was, yeah. I don't even think Trump understood, honestly. They just wanted to meet the King. All these people anyway. And those tech people sucking up to the fucking King was just like, oh, my, you guys, you, you are bigger than Britain and you could get a meeting with him anytime. Give money to his climate change thing. Anyway, I love that the Republicans even cheered for climate change, help with climate change, because that's his big. That's King Charles. I keep calling him Prince Charles because he was Prince for so long, but very nice. I love that. Scott. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech, or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com pivot to submit a question for the show or call 85551 pivot. Elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe, this week on Prof. G Conversations, Scott spoke with Ian Bremmer about how the Iran war, fracturing alliances and rising global tensions are reshaping the world order with no clear winners. Let's listen to a clip.

[Estad Herndon]

Whether it's Epstein or whether it's Iran or whether it's the economy or whether it's extraordinary corruption, Trump has gone against all of the things that God has him elected. And I don't. I certainly think, okay, there are some MAGA supporters that act like it's a cult and they'll support him literally no matter what he does. But that's not even all MAGA supporters, not at all. This is not a. These people are not brainwashed automatons. They're not idiots. They ultimately see when their leader is screwing them and it matters to them. And some of those people, they may not vote for Dems, but. But they'll stay home.

[Kara Swisher]

Interesting. He's absolutely right. That's what Estad Herndon said, too. Anyway, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot and make sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week.

[Scott Galloway]

Today's show was produced by Lauren Amen, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin and Todd Weisman. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Dubros, Misavarra and Danchal on the Shock Kuraz, Vox Media's Executive Producer podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine nymag.com pod we'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.