How China’s AI Efficiency Could Gut the U.S. Economy

Summary

Prof G Markets — Episode Summary

Title: How China’s AI Efficiency Could Gut the U.S. Economy
Date: October 27, 2025
Hosts: Scott Galloway ("Prof G") and Ed Elson
Produced by: Vox Media Podcast Network

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode focuses on a seismic shift in the capital markets: China’s rapid advancement in AI efficiency and its potential to disrupt the U.S. economy. Scott Galloway and Ed Elson discuss China's new dominance in open-source AI models, groundbreaking leaps in energy efficiency, and how these developments threaten America’s AI-centric economic strategy. The implications span technology, economics, and geopolitics, with the duo exploring efficiency as a historical lever for business dominance and the broader societal fallout, including rising demand for private security amid growing inequality and unrest.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening Banter & Cultural Notes

(01:25 - 09:06)

• Lighthearted anecdotes about conference presentations and celebrity encounters set the stage and establish rapport.
• Scott recounts meeting Mikel Arteta, Arsenal’s coach:
  • “He could be James Bond. He's very dreamy.” (06:41, Scott)
• Fashion shoutouts for Brunello Cucinelli and Drake’s signal the casual yet sharp tone.

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2. China’s AI Efficiency Leap: The Old Navy Strategy

(09:06 - 20:02)

Ed introduces the episode’s central revelation:

• “The top five open source AI models are all Chinese... Alibaba… cut the number of GPUs... by 82%.” (09:06)
• U.S. AI requires insatiable energy; OpenAI’s projected chip network would consume “a quarter of America’s entire grid capacity.”
• China is making AI “cheaper, faster and more efficient.”

Scott theorizes on China’s broader strategy:

• The U.S. economy is driven by shareholder value; the Chinese economy by control and long-term planning.
• “If you think of America as an adversary... Let's start pumping out a bunch of models that require less electricity, less power, less processing power and are 90% as good.” (13:28)
• This could crater the “AI bet” propping up U.S. tech valuations, leading to “a global recession.”
• Draws a parallel to Old Navy’s business model: “80% of the gap for 50% of the price.” (15:34)
  • “China’s tech sector... is about to Old Navy the shit out of the U.S. economy.”

Ed highlights the catalyst:

• U.S. chip export controls forced China to “get leaner and more efficient.”
• Chinese companies now offer near-parity AI models for ~10% the U.S. price.
  • OpenAI’s GPT-5: $10 per million tokens, Zai’s GLM 4.6: $1.75, Alibaba QwenPlus: $1.20, DeepSeek: $1.10
• “They are doing to AI the same thing they did to electronics, apparel, consumer goods.” (18:00)

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3. The Power of Efficiency in Business History

(21:36 - 24:17)

• Ed uses historical analogies:
  • Ford – assembly line slashed unit cost.
  • McDonald’s – simplified menu/content pipeline.
  • Ikea – flatpacking revolution.
  • Walmart – logistics mastery.
  • SpaceX – reusable rockets cut launch cost by 95%.
• “The most impactful companies were the ones that figured out how to do more with less.” (22:56)
• Suggests America risks falling behind unless it prioritizes efficiency over perceived value.

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4. U.S. vs China: Value Add vs Scale

(24:17 - 32:58)

Scott Galloway’s model (from Bruce Buchanan):

• Three lines: Perceived value (top), Price (middle), Cost (bottom).
• China wins by pushing the cost line down (scale); the U.S. by pushing up perceived value (branding).
  • “America is about value add. China is about scale.” (27:47, Scott)
• Brand premium vs mass efficiency: U.S. has global brands, China has cost-leading mass production.

Ed questions suitability of U.S. tactics in sectors as transformative as AI:

• “Is it imprudent of America to spend their time on perceived value?” (27:15)

Scott’s conclusion: Both models will coexist, but U.S. valuations are uniquely vulnerable if Chinese models eat into global share:

• “All they need to do is show that these companies aren't going to dominate the world... and the stock market goes way down.” (31:23)

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5. The Rise of Private Security Amid Inequality

(35:22 - 53:39)

• Ed spotlights rising executive assassinations and high-profile crimes:
  • “CEO security… went from 17% to basically a third in two years.” (37:23)
  • Residential security demand up 20%, executive travel protection up 300%.
• Scott:
  • “The key to happiness is to be rich and anonymous.” (38:28)
  • “If you want to make money… home security and things like that are gonna boom.” (39:14)
• Anecdote on security being a status symbol (Ibiza story about friend with bodyguards).
• Massive jump in private security: Over 1 million guards in the U.S.—more than high school teachers.
  • “America’s population up 16%, security guard population up 100% in two decades.” (47:03)
• Galloway links this trend to inequality:
  • “This is the erosion of a society... people garner a disproportionate amount of resources... sequester from the rest of society.” (48:23, Scott)
  • “All they need is to take his shit away. That's a form of revolution.” (50:52, Scott)

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6. Investment Opportunities & Security Business

(53:39 - 58:51)

• Ed: It’s tough to invest in private security directly—most firms are private, e.g., Allied Universal.
• Publicly traded options: Brinks, Securitas, ADT.
• Notable story: Scott deterred a break-in at his mother’s home with a fake ADT sign.
• Best security? “A dog. They all say the same thing. We don't go into houses with dogs.” (58:14, Scott)

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7. Streaming Wars & Warner Bros. Sale Drama

(60:51 - 73:38)

• Warner Brothers Discovery stock spikes on rumors of a sale (Paramount, Skydance, Netflix, Comcast rumored suitors).
• Scott’s analysis:
  • “There is only one bidder and his last name is Ellison.” (64:52, Scott)
  • “Zaslav is leaking false information... trying to get the maximum value for his shareholders.”
• Ed: “We’re seeing this stock explosion on not really anything at all... feels manufactured.” (65:53, Ed)
• Scott’s negotiation lesson:
  • “There’s only two things to remember in any negotiation… don’t get emotional… and always show a willingness to walk away… create the illusion of multiple bidders.” (67:54, Scott)

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8. Week Ahead & Predictions

(73:38 - 75:27)

• Major tech earnings (Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft) due, as well as a Fed rate cut likely.
• Scott’s market prediction:
  • “Xi is going to come for the jugular and you're going to see a flurry of open weight LLMs. The Old Navy of AI is about to come from the east, and it's going to have a serious impact.” (73:54, Scott)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Scott Galloway: “I think they are going to spend a ton of money and time and put their most talented scientists… Let's fucking go… let's neuter their AI industry, specifically the valuations, and let's release a ton of near premier quality LLMs open weight that anyone can use for near free...” (15:18)
• Ed Elson: “They are doing to AI the same thing they did to electronics, the same thing that they did to apparel, the same thing they did to consumer goods. It's the same thing again.” (18:00)
• Scott Galloway: “America is about value add. China is about scale… but the digital world, I agree with you, is more about scale.” (27:47)
• Scott Galloway: “This is the erosion of a society… they don’t need cops, they don’t need teachers… they have their own… security. So this separates the people with power from the realities of our society.” (48:23)
• Scott Galloway: “The most effective home security system, hands down… is a dog. 100%. They all say the same thing. We don't go into houses with dogs.” (58:14)
• Scott Galloway: “All they need is to show that these companies aren’t going to dominate the world... The stock market goes way down.” (31:23)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 09:06 – Begin deep dive into China’s AI efficiency, leapfrogging U.S. capabilities
• 13:28 – Galloway lays out "Old Navy" analogy for China’s emerging AI strategy against U.S. big tech
• 18:00 – Chinese AI models cost 10x less than U.S. equivalents
• 21:36 – Historical context for efficiency as primary value creator in global business
• 24:17 – Buchanan's “three lines” strategic value framework
• 35:22 – Segment on rising demand for private security in U.S. corporates
• 47:03 – Surging numbers of private security guards
• 60:51 – Streaming consolidation: Warner Brothers Discovery acquisition talks
• 64:52 – “Only one bidder… Ellison” breakdown, negotiating tactics in M&A

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Conclusion

Scott and Ed paint a compelling, urgent picture of the U.S.–China AI competition, suggesting China’s efficiency drive could undermine America’s tech economy—much as China’s low-cost playbooks have upended other sectors. They fuse macro market insight, history, and street-level social commentary, warning that U.S. overexposure to high AI valuations could prove fatal if China’s “Old Navy” approach to AI succeeds. Meanwhile, social strain and insecurity feed a booming security market—an uncomfortable but investable consequence. The episode ends with actionable market predictions and a wry note on how the most effective security “investment” might just be a dog.

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For anyone who hasn’t listened:
This episode delivers a spirited, data-rich, and often witty analysis of how technological, economic, and social shifts—from China’s AI threat to mounting private security—are shaping the capital markets and everyday life. If you want to grasp the next big global economic risk or understand efficiency as a generational gamechanger, this episode is essential.

Transcript

[Scott Galloway]

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[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

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[Scott Galloway]

Today's number 12 million. That's how many pigs there are in Denmark. Twice the number of human inhabitants. True story. Had someone asked me how many sexual partners I'd had and I started counting them and fell asleep. Get it? Takes a minute.

[Ed]

Got it. I mean, it should be counting sheep, not pigs, right? Right.

[Scott Galloway]

But that's the point that when I'm talking about my sexual partners, I start counting them and I'm counting sheep. Ed.

[Ed]

I got it, but we're talking about pigs here. No.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I couldn't find. I couldn't find a good pig joke. Yeah, I was accused of performing acts of bestiality at the London Zoo, and supposedly they saw me trying to escape while getting into a Jaguar. That's better. We should have led with that one.

[Ed]

Testing the material.

[Scott Galloway]

How are you, Ed? What's going on?

[Ed]

What is going on? Doing some more speaking stuff. Spoke at Aspen Ideas Festival New Jersey, which is a spinoff of the real Aspen Ideas Festival.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm sorry, The Ideas Festival New Jersey.

[Ed]

That's right.

[Scott Galloway]

Wow. I think that's probably the weakest flex you've ever made. Hey, I spoke at the Ideas Festival in New Jersey.

[Ed]

In New Jersey. And then the other side note is that I wasn't. I was. There was. I didn't realize this. There was the main room and I didn't realize while I was speaking, Mark Zandi, who is of course our big guest, he was in the main room and I was off in the side room with Kyla Scanlon.

[Scott Galloway]

So the first time I spoke at south by Southwest, I looked at the schedule and of course they scheduled at the same time Al Gore. And this is back when anyone cared about the environment.

[Ed]

Speak for yourself.

[Scott Galloway]

That's right. You're young, I'm old. I don't care. I'm going to be dead by the time. Yeah, we all have to engage in mass migration and super. Super fires, and I'm not. And they put me in a room that held like 1400 people. And I'm not exaggerating. I think 18 people showed up and like nine of them were from Vox. It was so humiliating. I'm like, should we bother. Should we just go get drinks at this point? When did you do this, Ed? And what was your topic?

[Ed]

We talked about the casino economy, specifically Gen Z's perspective on all of this. And it was me and Kyla Scanlon. We keep on doing events together. We did a really.

[Scott Galloway]

You guys are the voice of Gen Z. You and Kyla?

[Ed]

Exactly. We're sort of the double header. Been on TV together a couple of times, which is great. But yeah, we spoke about Gen Z, we spoke about the casino economy.

[Scott Galloway]

And what is the casino economy?

[Ed]

The gambling and the options trading and the sports betting, et cetera, and the crypto.

[Scott Galloway]

Do you do any gambling or buy options, which is essentially gambling. Do you have any sort of a gambling bug?

[Ed]

No, I don't. I've never been interested in gambling, strangely. Yeah. And I have a lot of friends who love gambling. They love sports betting. They find it fascinating, they find it fun. I've never been interested in it. I've never found it fun. So I guess I'm kind of lucky in that regard because most of them.

[Scott Galloway]

Lose money trying to find, like, what you're. You're like, you're one of those guys. You're like a Stepford wife. Like, I want to stab you with a fork to see if, like, wires come out. Because everything I learned about you so far, you are remarkably, like, well balanced and stable and have a good relationship with your parents and you're very humble and you're living with a woman and you seem to have a nice relationship. And I just don't buy it. Something's going on here. We're going to find out.

[Ed]

You're like having sex with jaguars, going.

[Scott Galloway]

To kids birthdays parties, dressed up as a clown and then taking them home and like killing them and eating them.

[Ed]

I'm the Ed Gein of financial markets.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. Something's going on here, definitely. I don't know what it is.

[Ed]

No, but it's fair. I mean, look, I like partying, I like drinking, but gambling has never been a vice that I've been interested in. I'm really not sure why.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't think I've ever really seen you drink. People don't like to drink around me. People don't like to drink around their boss. They think they're going to get in trouble.

[Ed]

What are you up to? This is one of the first times we've talked a bit more about me than we have you.

[Scott Galloway]

It feels alien, doesn't it? I'm in London where it's starting to get cold and dark and I started to realize I'm really excited to get back to America. So the countdown has already started. And I went to a dinner last night and I met the general manager. Is that what they call the coach of Arsenal? He's a lovely guy.

[Ed]

You met Mikel Arteta?

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I met him.

[Ed]

You met Mikel Arteta last night at dinner?

[Scott Galloway]

I did, yeah. I think I've peaked. It's time for me to leave London.

[Ed]

Right, Just so we're clear, that's the coolest flex you've said on the podcast, probably of the year, at least in my book. Mikel Arteta is very. That's awesome.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, his kids go to the same school as my kids and he and his wife are really lovely.

[Ed]

He's a good looking guy too, right?

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, my God. He's dreamy. Barely. He would start talking and he has.

[Ed]

He's sort of the heartthrob of England.

[Scott Galloway]

And he has this Spanish accent and you're like, what? I don't. I see his lips moving but I can't focus on what he's saying. He's so good looking. He's very dreamy. He could be. He's like a James Bond kind of.

[Ed]

Looking guy and he's an incredible manager. He studied under Pep Guardiola for his age.

[Scott Galloway]

Is he the most successful person in the prem right now? They don't get trophies, but they're always at the top.

[Ed]

Yes, they're top of the table.

[Scott Galloway]

Always at the top of the table.

[Ed]

And he turned around a mediocre team. And turned them into a world class team. That's amazing. So you had a conversation with him. Did he know who you were?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, of course he did. That's why he came. He wanted a chance to meet a professor. No, he had no idea who he was, but he's very friendly. And I asked him, I said, what's it like? What's it like now? He was a player for 17 years or something and then he went right into coaching. And I said, what's it like? What are the young people like today versus, you know, because they're all young men. What are the players like today versus when you were playing? And he said, it's a much more chaotic environment now. This, the money, the fame, the social media, they're just. It's like constantly. There's no rest and no break for them. And I could kind of see that. It's so competitive and their careers are so short lived. And the difference between making the league minimum of whatever it is, £150,000 and making 30 million is not that great. It's like when you get to those levels, the best golfers in the world are on average score four strokes less than the guys who never get their PGA card. So this is all a way of saying I need you just to make a little bit more effort in this podcast. I need you just to go that extra mile. Yeah, I like what you're wearing today. You look very stylish. We're clearly paying you too much. What are you wearing? Let's do a shout out. Let's do. What are you wearing? I'll tell you what I'm wearing today. I'm wearing Brunello Cucinelli, which makes me feel 59 again. And then I'm wearing Viori pants because A, they're a sponsor and B, this douche wear athleisure is so comfortable. I'm turning into a doctor's housewife. I'm on my way to do Pilates.

[Ed]

Pilates and Brunello. That sounds good. Well, they should be. They should be really sponsoring us. If you're going to a shout out, this is. This is Drake's. And again, they should sponsor us as well, which is an English brand that you probably love.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, it's very handsome on you. Well done.

[Ed]

Thank you very much. Okay, shall we talk business?

[Scott Galloway]

Sure. Now is the time to buy. I hope you have plenty of the world.

[Ed]

The top open source AI models used to be American. Now that is changing. Today the top five open source AI models are all Chinese. And that is not the Only story of AI evolution coming out of China. Chinese companies are also showing that they can do more with less. Deep SEQ is using a new format that has allowed their training models to run 30% faster. Meanwhile, Alibaba last week said that its new computing pooling system cut the number of GPUs needed to run its AI models by 82%. So this is quite significant. Scott, following the conversation we had last week about how we're seeing all of this data center demand and we don't really have enough energy to power the data centers, energy costs where data centers are being built have tripled. And as a reminder, if you want to build AI, you need to build the data center that powers the AI. OpenAI wants to build a chip network that would consume 250 gigawatts of energy, which is equivalent to a quarter of America's entire grid capacity. Point being a lot of AI and not enough energy to power the AI. And then we ask this question, okay, well then maybe we need to figure out a way to either get more energy through solar or nuclear, or perhaps drill, baby, drill. Or you figure out a way to make the AI models more efficient. You figure out how to consume less power, how to do more with less. And it appears that China is making some headway on that front. Alibaba just last week announcing this new system. It cuts their GPU usage by 82%. Basically, they can use 200 GPU chips and they'll perform at the same level of 1200 GPU chips. Don't ask me why or how they can do that, but that is what they're saying. And it appears that this may be a trend in China. So Scott, your initial reactions to China winning the efficiency race, or so it appears.

[Scott Galloway]

I was thinking in the editorial call yesterday, we were going over the stories. I kind of got my mind blown thinking about, as I heard you guys talk about AI and the energy requirements and open source, less open weight models. And I've got this. What I think is this, I don't call it revelation, but something that I thought was really exciting and I thought, wow, maybe we do see something here in the Matrix. And that is while everyone's talking about the gating factor is going to be energy and that there's no way that there'll be enough nuclear power coming online to, to quench the thirst of Sam Altman's unbelievable juggernaut called OpenAI. And I thought, well, maybe he's just trying to manifest it. And these big energy projections that are running up the stocks of electric companies and scaring everyone that we're not going to have enough power. I wonder if, well, innovation can come from the other side and that is people can start producing chips and LLMs that just require dramatically less energy. And then the other thing that blew my mind and now I think as I thought about it and slept on it, I think it's actually a pretty decent thesis is that if you look at the US economy, it's run for profits and shareholder value. The life in America is so much better if you're wealthy than if you're middle class and your life in the middle class is so much better than if you're in a low income household that we make a series of incremental justifications every day where it's all about America's now, all about the shit you have or specifically your ability to buy more shit. Our economy and our society is running for profit. The Chinese economy is run for control and also long term geopolitical power. They make 50 and 100 year plans which we would never have the ability to do. And part of that is because we pay the price for having governments, democracies that turn over and sometimes go zig and zag. But what I think is going on or what I think is going to happen is the following. China is really fed up and sees America as their enemy or is sick of America having this sclerotic trade policy that is really damaging them and then saying, you can't have our chips. And they've said, okay, we've had it with these guys, so what do they do? They're much more strategic. And quite Frankly, Xi is 10 times smarter than Trump and also has this incredible weapon in that he's willing to kind of think middle and you know, think kind of medium and long term, which Trump has absolutely no ability to do. And I think what they've decided to do is the following. I think they are going to flood the market with cheap open weight models, AI models. And if I were advising Xi and I said, okay, if you think of America as an adversary or America essentially, America has become a giant bet on AI. Specifically, 40% of their entire market is from the valuations, the exceptional valuations of 10 companies related to, directly related or related adjacent to AI. And if we take down, if those 10 companies go down 50, 70, 90% like they did in the dot com era, they are in a global recession. Trump is out of vogue. We don't even need to stop buying soybeans. They are in a world of fucking hurt. How can we do that pretty easy. Let's start pumping out a bunch of models that require less electricity, less power, less processing power and are 90% as good. And another personal anecdote, my first strategy client, I started a strategy firm called Profit when I was 26 and my first client was the Gap. And they wanted a new brand. And we came up with working with this really intelligent guy named Mark Bucko. Was that a strategy there at the time? We came up with what I thought and ended up being a great strategy. And that was, I just read Peter Drucker's book and he said every major business shift in society is largely reverse engineered to a demographic shift. And as someone who had personal experience with this, I said one of the biggest demographic shifts in America, and this is 1993, is the explosion in single parent homes. And it's almost when we say single parent, we mean a single mother. And single mothers we did some research in some focus groups are very cognizant, self conscious and focused on dressing their kids well because they're insecure and self conscious about the fact they don't have as much money and the dad isn't around and they want the kid to feel good about themselves. And so we identified this segment and it was this fast growing segment. And we said, okay, here's the positioning. 80% of the gap for 50% of the price. And that positioning took Old Navy from zero to a billion dollars faster than any retailer in history. And that is probably if you look at the fastest growing businesses in the world, oftentimes they're that 80% of the biggest airlines, America, Delta and United for 50% of the cost. That's Southwest now the most valuable or was the most valuable domestic airline. I think that the Chinese tech sector under the direction and encouragement of the CCP is about to Old Navy the shit out of the US economy. And they've done it across BYD electric vehicles. They generally, that's their business strategy, whether it's cell phone towers or clothes. But I think they are going to spend a ton of money and time and put their most talented scientists, of which there are a ton to work on the following. Let's fucking go. We've been going for the heart and lungs after red states with these trade policies, whether it's rare earth minerals or canceling our contracts for soybeans. Now let's go for the fucking jugular and let's, let's neuter their AI industry, specifically the valuations and let's release a ton of near premier quality LLMs open weight that anyone can use for near free, that maybe requires much energy, but most likely don't and certainly aren't nearly as expensive. And let's fuck with America's big bet here. Let's make this big bet not pay off.

[Ed]

I think that is exactly what is happening. I would add that part of the reason why this has happened is because of the export controls that we put on chips to China. And this was the deep sea story that we discussed at the beginning of the year where China had less capable and fewer chips to work with because of these export restrictions and it forced them to get leaner and more efficient and work with what they had. That is exactly what they've done. And I think to your point, they are doubling down on that. And I'm just going to go through some of the data that we've seen on how China is winning in this AI efficiency game. So I just talked about Alibaba and their AI model, which is called Quen. They're using 82% less GPU chips because they figured out this system that helps them do that. Again, as I said, I don't know exactly how that system works, but that's what they've told us. Deepseek, they are also optimizing for efficiency. They're using this thing called the FP8 format, which essentially just cuts down the number of the decimal count on all of these long numbers that go into these models, which allows them to reduce the amount of usage of memory and it allows them to run their training models a lot faster. GLM is a model that is produced by this other Chinese AI company called zai. They are also using a lot less energy and all of these efficiencies are being reflected in the costs of these models. So just to go through the costs here, the cost per million tokens, if you're using OpenAI's model, which is GPT5, the cost per million tokens is $10. Compare that to Zai's model, which is called the GLM 4.6 model. The cost is $1.75. For Alibaba's model, QuinnPlus, it is $1.20. For DeepSeq, it is $1.10. Put another way, all of these Chinese models are nearly 10 times cheaper than their equivalents in the US. Now, I'm sure the US models are better and we'd want an AI engineer to come on and confirm that to us. But what is clear is that they are putting exactly as you say, the old Navy strategy, 80% of the value or the quality or whatever you said, for not 50% of the price but for 10% of the price. So they are doing to AI the same thing that they did to electronics, the same thing that they did to apparel, the same thing they did to consumer goods. It's the same thing again. It has reduced the costs dramatically and at the same time and sort of upstream of that reduce the amount of energy required to create these models dramatically. And they seem to be way ahead of the ball on this. And I do agree with your point that this could be, it could gut the American economy which as you say has become incredibly reliant on AI. Now I want to go through in a second just the history of efficiency in the business world, but I will pause there and see if you have any reactions to those numbers.

[Scott Galloway]

So earlier in the year we predicted that the rivers of capital into the US were going to reverse flow. That was mostly sort of right and that is EU stocks have done really well. But also to be fair, American stocks are up 12, 13%. The S& P is up. So clearly the flows of there's still massive flows of capital into the us. The most dangerous own goal over the medium and long term is there really has been a chill placed on the inbound rivers of human capital, the inflow and that is some schools, some colleges are projecting there's going to be 20 to 40% fewer foreign applications. Every talented PhD student and every world class researcher in the world had one thing in common. They had either come through US universities, been trained here or would seriously consider coming to work for our universities. And now what's happened? China's figured this out. China produces 120,000 PhDs every year. That's three times what the US produces in 2024. China's AI research publications the output, the amount of peer reviewed credible research matched the combined output of the US, UK and European Union and now commands more than 40% of global citation attention. And AI, which let's be honest, is very IP and research heavy, technical heavy, they've got more coal in the furnace and they're going to use it strategically to reach that type of scale that you're about to talk about. Talk about the importance of scale in our win winners.

[Ed]

What I would describe versus scale is the importance of efficiency. And if you look back through basically every great company in history and what they were good at and where they innovated, they all basically have one thing in common and that is they were all incredibly innovative when it came to cutting down costs. And we can go Back as far as the invention of the car. I mean, you look at Ford as a great example. Their great innovation was the conveyor belt, the assembly line. And they basically, what they did was revolutionize how you make a car. And what used to take 12 and a half hours of manual labor, they were able to reduce it to just 90 minutes. And because of that, in less than a decade, Ford cut the price of cars in half. And then a decade later, they cut the price of cars in half again to the point where by the 20s, more than one in two cars in the world was a Ford. That's how they did it. They just innovated on let's make it more efficient to build this thing. Not let's make the coolest and sexiest and fastest car in the world. McDonald's, same thing. They reinvented the kitchen assembly line. They reduced the menu to just a few items. They cut the cost of the hamburger in half. They became the biggest restaurant chain in the world. Ikea, another great example. Their big innovation was just how you ship the product. Let's put them in flat, small packages. They shrunk the size of the box by 50%, which cut the logistics costs almost in half. And they can now ship 10 times more furniture than their competitors for the same amount of gas. Now it's the largest furniture retailer in the world. Walmart, another good example too, cutting down logistics costs so they can sell products cheaper than their rivals. SpaceX, a newer example, their big innovation, let's just reuse the rocket, let's make it cheaper and more energy efficient to do this. And they cut the cost of launching stuff into space by more than 95%. And as we've discussed now they have 90% of the space launch market. So I think when we look through history, the most impactful companies, the companies that achieve the most amount of significance and dominance and revenue, it's the companies that figure out a way, how can we do more with less? And I think that is the big question that America now needs to ask itself, Especially when we look over what's happening in China, where China is laser focused on addressing this problem. And I think if you look through history, what you would assume is that they're going to win on AI if they figure that out before we do.

[Scott Galloway]

So there's this great economist at Stern named Bruce Buchanan, and he absolutely blew my mind and gave me a model through which I run almost every strategy in every decision I make economically or in terms of positioning a company. And that is all shareholder value, all stakeholder value is a function of the relationship between three lines. At the very top, perceived value in the middle, the price you're charging, and the bottom line is the cost to produce that product. And companies can only increase stakeholder value by doing one of two things. They either push down the cost line right through scale. That's what we're talking about now. Hamburgers for less money. Putting satellites into space, payload into space at a lower cost per kilogram, assembling a computer for less than anyone else. Dell, right. And then once you push that line down, you can pass on the savings, as Walmart does, and immediately lower the price concurrently. And that creates a gap between the price you're charging and the perceived value which is greater, which should result in more market share, which is how these companies have created hundreds of billions of shareholder value. It's like, oh, my God. So the old ad that was most effective for Walmart was if you start shopping at Walmart, it's like getting a promotion, and that is your quality of life. You're not going to have to buy Budweiser, you can buy Heineken, you can now buy steaks instead of hamburger. It's like you got promoted because of that scale. Because we're able to lower our costs, we're immediately going to pass it on. Lower prices. And the margin, if you will, of perceived value relative to price is greater, more market share. The flip side, and what actually America is, I would argue, better at, is taking the top line of perceived value and pushing it up through branding, through merchandising, loosely speaking, or very reductively, China wins by pushing the bottom line down scale and passing along those price advantages to their customer. And America, generally speaking, has value add products through advertising, strategy, distribution, whatever it might be, scarcity or artisanship pushes the perceived value line up.

[Ed]

I mean, OpenAI appears to be the king of the perceived value in the AI space. I mean, we keep on seeing these benchmarks and in a lot of cases, different models are actually beating GPT when it comes to reasoning and speed, all these things. And yet OpenAI is the premier brand in AI. And I wonder if that is a function of, as you say, maybe they are really good at doing the stuff that Apple's really good at, which is the branding and pushing up the perceived value. But I wonder if, when you're talking about gigantic revolutionary technologies that expand beyond just retail, something like this, something like AI, which is supposed to take our entire economy, the global economy, into an entirely different direction, whether it is imprudent of America to Spend their time on perceived value versus figuring out, okay, how can we deliver this to the most amount of people for the least amount of money possible. That to me seems like the right direction to go with when it comes to AI, especially if this is going to be as transformative as they say it is.

[Scott Galloway]

It's an interesting question, but traditionally the American economy has been about value add as opposed to scale. The Chinese. So think of value add is synonymous with brand value. Name a global brand that's come out of the second largest economy, China.

[Ed]

It's tough.

[Scott Galloway]

Isn't that weird? Think about it. Great, there's great French brands, Louis Vuitton.

[Ed]

BYD I think is probably the sexiest brand coming out of China right now.

[Scott Galloway]

We hadn't heard about that till 24 months ago. Some people say TikTok, some people say Alibaba. But America probably has a. Whether it's Coca Cola or Harvard, America has like hundreds of amazing. We're really good at media, we're really good at creating value add. At the end of the day, our consultants are the most expensive in the world. Right? Our schools are the most expensive in the world. The digital world, I think to your point, has become more about scale. And OpenAI was first zero to kind of, you know, whatever. Zero to what? Is it zero to a million users in like five hours or something? Whereas other technologies have taken months if not years. 0 to 10 billion in revenues faster than anybody else. So these digital products that are frictionless. I agree with you, it's more about scale. But generally speaking, American products are usually considered globally the premium product at a higher price and greater margin.

[Ed]

Just to put a button on this, where do you stand on the US China AI race? I mean, China is winning on energy capacity and energy build out. They're also winning on efficiency. We are probably winning on quality and in some cases scale and brand value. We do have some progress on efficiency. Google's developing these alternatives to the GPU called the tpu. I think you're going to hear a lot about this TPU over the next few months. And they are more energy efficient. They just had this deal with Anthropic. Amazon is working on their training chips which are supposedly more efficient as well. We're getting there, but I think it's safe to say China's winning on efficiency and they're winning on energy. So given that, where do you stand on the race? What's going to happen, do you think?

[Scott Galloway]

My emotional reaction is China's going to beat us? Because I think Donald Trump's Policies are just incredibly sclerotic and short term and just head up your asterisk like nothing before. The biggest own goals in history have been committed in my view. Having said that, I have a tendency, and I think we have a tendency to overestimate the policies of a current administration relative to the underlying economy which just turns on and the US economy. Biggest gears in the world to grind on more. It's like have you seen those TikTok videos of those things that crush metal? Like you put a car into the thing and it starts eating it alive like it's a tomato. I mean it barely even feels it. It's like, oh my God, watch this. What it can do. I mean it can just eat anything. That's like the U.S. economy. The U.S. economy just appears to be so resilient and so powering on. So my answer would be okay, does China win with scale and low cost or does America win in AI with value add? I think the answer is yes. And that is if you want to order a puffy winter jacket. It's going to be hard to get something for less than if you get it from Shein or another company that has manufacturing in Southeast Asia at the same time, people are still going to love north face. The existential threat here is a function of our valuations, and we've been saying this forever, that the cloud cover for the Trump administration right now and the cold comfort that people have in terms of confidence to spend more money, especially the wealthy who the top 10% now account for 50% of the consumer spending, which is basically economies resting on the top 10%. The top 10%'s consumer confidence comes from where the stock market is. And the stock market is up solely, solely because of 10 companies, 77% of that growth. So they don't need to win. All they need to do is show that these companies aren't going to dominate the world. Built into these valuations is an assumption that these 10 companies are going to own all of it. All of it. And so if they still have the niche products, still amazing businesses still get premium margin. Because people want to say I'm on ChatGPT or Claude, I don't want to be on Deep Seek, I don't want to be on it's not great self expressive benefit or if you're an American company, there might be security concerns, fine, but all they need to do is say we're eating into their share. So I don't think there's a winner and a loser here. What I think is both will find their niches if you will, or niche or both will find a market. The problem is is that these companies get cut in half and the stock market goes way down. And when it becomes clear these companies aren't going to have like 97 points of share of the global AI market.

[Ed]

We'll be right back after the break. If you're enjoying the show so far, be sure to give Property Markets a follow. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Scott Galloway]

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[Ed]

We'Re back with Prof. G Markets. Four thieves carried out a daring heist at The Louvre in Paris last week. In just seven minutes, they broke in and stole eight of France's crown jewels, valued at more than $100 million. While that burglary drew international attention for its scale and audacity, it does come amid a string of far more troubling crimes. In the US We've seen several high profile murders in the last year. Political commentator Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September. Over the summer, Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered in their home. And late last year, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered just before the company's annual investor conference. So these incidents raise questions about how institutions, individuals, and even private companies can address safety concerns. As a result, one sector in particular has seen growing investment, and that is private security. So, Scott, we have been talking about this for a while, and we've been bringing up the possibility that in a less structurally sound society that is ailed with issues mostly to do with income inequality, that leads to more crime, that leads to more violence, which in turn leads to a need and demand for security. Now, I just want to go through a couple of statistics here. One, this comes from Goldman Sachs, which surveyed a bunch of companies, public companies, private companies, nonprofit companies, and basically they found that three years ago, 17% of CEOs of the company surveyed, 17% had private security. As of last year, that number had risen to 27%. So it went from 17% to basically a third in two years. A third of companies in America are hiring private security professionals to protect the lives and the safety of CEOs. We've also seen residential security demand skyrocketing. Demand for residential security rose 20% last year also after the UnitedHealth CEO shooting. There's this security company of a big company called Allied Universal, and they said that their executive travel protection business grew by 300%. So it quadrupled right after this. So we are seeing a lot of demand for security, for private security. And you actually called this right after the shooting in December.

[Scott Galloway]

I would imagine the first reaction is we need to keep our executives safe. Those numbers that you quoted around CEO security are about to explode. That's a good business to be in right now, offering executive security.

[Ed]

That is exactly what we're seeing. And we're seeing more and more high profile crime, specifically attacking high profile individuals or high profile institutions. Scott, your reactions?

[Scott Galloway]

I just went to one of these master of the universe conferences where, I don't know, probably 12 of the 30 wealthiest people in the world were there, and there was just security everywhere. And it's a real shame. And I think these people can't just take a walk. And something that always struck me, as my father said to me, he said, the key to happiness is to be rich and anonymous. And that always struck me as very insightful because he said, famous people who are rich and famous, eventually there's an industrial incentive to go after them and tear them down or that they become targets or, you know, they get sued more easily. He said, you want to be rich and anonymous? And I said, how about if I'm famous and not rich? Anyways.

[Ed]

That'S what we're going for on. On this podcast.

[Scott Galloway]

Someone once said to me, oh, your son's so smart, he'll probably be famous. I'm like, as long as he's not infamous. But look, the. When you have guns everywhere, when you have income inequality, when you have people who can go down rabbit holes and get radicalized and go after famous people because they think in some sort of historic act of violence, they're going to regain social capital among a group of people that they think they've lost capital with and they suffer from mental illness and guns everywhere. What I'd be interested in knowing, it's like, okay, this is a market show. How do you make money? Are there public companies or places you can invest that make the supplies or the materials for security? Right. I gotta think home security and things like that are gonna. Are just gonna boom because the number of wealthy people. Just on a lighter note, when I was in Ibiza this summer, I saw a friend of mine, and he had a table up front, and he had these two enormous security guards. And I said to him, I'm like, dude, you're not that famous. You don't need security. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. He's like, it's a chick magnet. It means I'm really important. And I'm like, let me get this. You're doing this for women? He's like, yeah, it's amazing. He's like, everybody thinks I'm super famous. And he goes, but next year. He's like, the gangster move. I'm like, could these dudes be any bigger? And he's like, no, no, no, no, no. The new. This guy's really funny. He's like, the new gangster. Security is to have a hot Israeli woman who worked in the Mossad, and she just has kind of this resting bitch face. And I'm like, oh, my God. So could you be any douche year? You're walking around with huge guys, right? Now, but next year you got to find an Israeli security. That's the new flag.

[Ed]

This guy would like, pay to be on the Epstein list.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, this guy. That's funny. Pay to be on the Epstein list. That's funny. I got to tell him that. I'm going to text him that. That's funny.

[Ed]

I want to hear more about this Master of the Universe conference you went to and all of the security that was there. I assume there are a bunch of tech billionaires in this room and you're observant. You're saying that you saw more security than you've ever seen, is that right?

[Scott Galloway]

It's a strange kind of security though. There's no metal detectors, so we're all staying at the same hotel. But I'm not exaggerating. Every eight feet, if I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and you have your wristband that identify, you're supposed to be there if your shirt was covering your wristband. Some guy in plain clothes that looked like he's been on human growth hormone for the last 20 years got cut after his first season at the New York Giants and has been pretty much just working out his whole life, comes up to me and goes, oh, can I see your. Can I see your wristband? I mean everywhere in the bathroom there were all these guys doing their best to be kind of out of the way and not obtrusive, but everywhere. I remember thinking, yeah, I remember, you know, you have this. I'm like, what if I just like, I wanted to go up and meet one of these guys And I thought I need to walk slowly because I think if I walk a little too fast, I'm gonna get shot towards him, gonna like be tackled and tased. And then if I like, you know, if my wristband isn't present, they're just going to exit. There was so. And you can understand these people. A, they have the money and B, when they see that these horrific events where a guy, the CEO of a publicly traded company who's anonymous is walking down the street in Manhattan and is executed. So I don't know some of it. But anyways, back to the market standpoint. These have gotta be great businesses because they're pretty, I would imagine, pretty high margin. I would imagine there's a lot of people who are looking for work like this. The people who don't want to round up our farmers and our servers. And occasionally a US citizen while wearing a mask would probably rather do private security for a very wealthy person. And by the way, what I would tell Anybody. And this is kind of sad, but it's true. Go to work for wealthy people. And that is there's this cartoon that wealthy people are awful and Monty Burns. I have generally found that really super wealthy people are generous and nice and treat their employees really well. And I just don't buy this notion. I'm like if go. And not only that, if your Boss is making 10 million bucks a year, it's not easy for him to pay you $7.25 an hour.

[Ed]

I think that's the more important point. It's like it would be uncomfortable not to pay you.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, yeah, let's not say it's the character thing. It's just that it's. You can't have people in your home organizing your jewels, you know, and picking up your kid from school to cl. And then, and then, you know, you can't pay your nanny 40,000 bucks a year when you're spending that. You know, when you're spending $100,000 to get to San Tropez. So. And, and also just generally speaking, I have found, yeah, I'll stick by it. Really, really wealthy people get there. Not kids who've inherited money. I can't get over what fucking douchebag some of these rich kids are that I meet. And how out of touch and non empathetic and how, I don't know, they're just so tone deaf as to their privilege and to the fact that yeah, you'd be maybe the number two salesperson at Subaru of West Hollywood if your father wasn't a fucking billionaire. But they're under the impression that it was their grit and character that got them where they are anyways, those people. I generally believe the cartoon is pretty accurate, but the self made billionaires have been put in a room of opportunities constantly that they're not in physically because they're good people. And also I think when you get a little bit older, you get excited about the opportunity to share time and work by giving, you know, by paying people well. But there, you know, and that's what's so disappointing. I'm, I'm, I'm, I was about to go on my socialist rant, but I'm not going to do it. But, but generally speaking, we were talking about there's a lot of opportunities probably for these guys or, and they're usually guys. Unless you're a female former Mossad. I want to hire the K pop Demon hunters to be my security guards. I have a 3D anime following me around. I wonder. I would like to Have. I don't know, who would I like to have as my security guard?

[Ed]

I'd like to have Erling Haaland, I.

[Scott Galloway]

Think Scott Baio or maybe David Hasselhoff. I'd like to get David Hasselhoff like incredibly fucked up and have him just walk around and introduce himself as my security. Or Bette Midler. Bette Midler should be my security. Anyways.

[Ed]

The number of ultra high net worth individuals surged 21% last year. The top 1% owns half of the market cap of the entire S&P 500. The top 19 households own 2% of all household wealth in America. 50 years ago it was 0.1%. So their share of the pie has 20x in the past 50 years compared to the bottom half of Americans who control roughly the same amount. So you got 19 households versus several hundred million households who control the same amount of money. And then you ask the question, like, what's good with all the crime? Like why? Why are people shooting each other in the street? Why are we seeing like Hollywood style heists capturing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of royal jewelry? And I think it's not a stretch to make the connection between what we're seeing with inequality and what we're seeing with crime. And therefore what we're seeing with the demand for executive security and private security. In fact, studies have shown that as the Gini inequality index rises, so too does the number of private security employees per capita. And of course, so too does crime in general. I just want to point you to this stat. There are now more than a million privately employed security guards in the US which is more than the number of high school teachers in America. Compare it to the past two decades. The number of security guards in America has doubled. And for context, you might say, well, the population's grown. No, population has grown only 16% since then. So you've got America's population up 16% and the American security guard population up 100% over the past two decades. So it does appear that we are entering into a sort of, I don't know, post law society where every man for himself and every man needs to get their own former Mossad agent to protect themselves, to protect their home and protect their jewelry. And to your point about, can this be an investment thesis? Which I believe it can. It's a highly cynical investment thesis, but it's a real one and that could be something to discuss. We have a few names that we could mention, but first let's just get your reaction to that number. You know, more than A million security.

[Scott Galloway]

Guards in America, that stat blew my mind. More security guards than teachers. Look, this is the erosion of a society, but it's a continued pattern and that is very talented, hardworking and lucky. People garner disproportionate amount of their resources. They incrementally come up with candidates and ideas to lower their tax rates and make it such that they can sequester from the rest of society with private air travel, private infrastructure, private security. They don't need cops, they don't need teachers. They don't need the faa, they don't need. They have their own. They have their own healthcare. They don't need hospital. Rural hospital systems can be shut down. It doesn't affect them. These huge cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, they don't affect them because they have their own concierge healthcare. They have doctors coming to their house. Oh, teachers don't make enough money, I don't care. I've got my teachers in my private school make plenty of money. Oh, we're making cuts to the police force or fire department, that's okay. I've got my own security. So this separates the people with the power from the realities of our society and makes them less invested in our society. And they keep on just voting for and giving money to people who will cut their taxes because the decline in the civility and social services they're immune from. And I'm not proud of this, but I don't know where to put my money right now. I think the markets are overvalued. So what I've been doing, and I've told you this, I've been buying real estate in what I call 0.1% communities. And when I meet with someone to talk about rental, I'm like, I say this is simple. This house, I'm ultimately going to sell this house. I don't know if it's going to be three years or 10 years or 20 years, but who's it for? It's for a new billionaire. The only thing I'm fairly certain of is in the next 10 to 20 years, the regulatory capture, the income inequality is only going to get worse globally. And as capital becomes more global, they all want to live in the same small number of places and they are price insensitive when it comes to their home. And so that's the best bet I can find right now is that, you know, it's why these, it's what private air travel is surging. And this is the dark side of that. And that is the same pattern emerges at some point people realize that if one man is worth more than the lower 52% of America, the easiest thing to double our wealth, 160 million people, is to take his shit away. And that's a form of revolution. And it keeps happening over and over. But revolutions take on different complexions. And, and I've said this before, the MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter, the execution of a healthcare CEO, these are all forms of small revolutions. And that's not to say that Black Lives Matter and the Me Too movement didn't have righteous components to them. But effectively they weren't going after sexual harass or managing a taco truck. They weren't going after the racist small business owner. They were going after rich people. So there is this populist anger. Mamdami is probably going to win the mayoral race of a city that has a larger GDP than I think all but 12 or 14 countries on the notion of essentially income inequality and unaffordability. People are angry. And the income inequality isn't just about the poor versus the very rich. It trickles up. What do I mean by that? There are so many people of your generation living in New York that play by the rules. They've gone to great. They worked their asses off in high school, they're good people. They got into amazing schools. Their parents borrowed money for them to get through those schools and they worked hard and they got scholarships, they got out, they got great jobs and they still can't fucking afford to live in New York or San Francisco. I mean, they still can't afford. When I moved to New York, granted I had to have two roommates, but I could afford to live in New York making back then I was working at Morgan Stanley, like 50, 55 grand a year. You have to either be in technology with Meta or Google working at JP Morgan, or have rich parents who are putting you through New York and San Francisco. So it's not just poor people deciding to break into a jewelry store or committing crime. It's general dissatisfaction among New York voters who are like, fuck, I've played by the rules. I'm making a great living and I can't live here. But I see this pornographic wealth being shoved in my face 210 times a day. And I see people aggregating the GDP of a Latin American nation who are paying their lowest taxes ever. So this revolution is happening kind of up and down the income ladder. People are dissatisfied who are making six figures right now, like, okay, I was supposed to live a better life than this. The extraction of so much value in capital is going so much, not to the top 10%, but the top 0.1%, that even if you're in the 90th percentile right now, you're starting to feel pissed off.

[Ed]

That's what's so interesting about Mamdani. People are like, why is this message working in New York? Why are people in Manhattan voting for this? It's like even the people who are making good livings feel that the city is unaffordable. That's why it resonates. It doesn't just resonate for the bottom 50, it resonates for the bottom 90. I think it's an. So now we get to the part of the show where we make investment trades based on the collapse of society. So how do you invest in private security? Short answer is it's pretty hard.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, most of it's private, right?

[Ed]

Exactly. Most of them are privately owned. The biggest one is Allied universal. They have 26% market share. They're still private, but they said they're considering an IPO maybe next year or the year after because of course, they're doing very well. There are some publicly traded stocks. There is Brinks. They provide ATM services and armored trucks. There's Securitas on site guarding and remote monitoring services. There's adt, which provides professional home security. We haven't done proper diligence on these companies, but. So these are not. This is not investment advice. Certainly go look into this yourself. But you know, those are a few of the names that are publicly traded if you want to get that exposure. Also there are a lot of private equity firms that are investing in these kinds of security companies, and some of them are publicly traded. Ares, as an example, they invested in this company called Convergent, and they're sort of the global leader in building security. Apollo is a major investor in adt. That is one of those private security companies. So there are some ways to get some distant forms of exposure, and there are some ways to get involved in the public markets, but again, not investment advice. And I'm not saying you should go buy these stocks.

[Scott Galloway]

So when my mom was diagnosed, when her cancer recurred, she went in for her second mastectomy. And while she was in the hospital, somebody broke into her condo. So obviously it was an inside job. Right. That somebody at the hospital knew the names and addresses of people who were undergoing surgery and was providing it to other people to break into their homes knowing that no one would be there, which is pretty depraved but pretty obvious. And My mom had rented out my room. You know, total cliche. The moment I go to college, she rents out my room because she needed the money to this lovely PhD student. And she was home and she heard something and opened the door and saw this guy and screamed and closed the door and the guy ran out of the house and. And my mom was totally freaked out. Like she'd just come home from surgery. The house had been broken into. She was just, you know, as you can imagine, upset, paranoid. And so my answer, being creative and of course a protector, was I went across the street to the Johnsons, who were total, and I stole their ADT sign and I planted it in front of her house that this home is protected by adt. And I'm like, we're fine. Because it's clearly the sign that's good. People off.

[Ed]

I love that.

[Scott Galloway]

Anyways, that was. That's my home security story.

[Ed]

Ed, you're a master of branding from a very young age.

[Scott Galloway]

I'd love to see the data, but these home security systems are ineffective in my view and play on nothing but fear.

[Ed]

And that might be right. And it could be that a lot of these billionaires who are hiring these 12 person security teams, maybe you don't actually need them, but the fact is they're scared and they're worried.

[Scott Galloway]

I know, but what I'm saying is somebody, okay, you have an alarm system, maybe that works fine. But the idea those commercials were like, we see an intruder and this nice lady is like, we're deploying the police now. Okay, folks, if you want it, if you look at the data, you know, hands down, and by the way, people think a good home security is a gun. No. That means you're much more likely to be shot. The moment you get a gun, you're much more likely to be shot because you don't sit there cocked with your gun cocked, waiting for a criminal, right? And generally speaking, criminals aren't there to kill you. They're there to steal your shit. Unless you show up with a gun and then they shoot you. The most effective home security system, hands down. Hands down is what, Ed?

[Ed]

You just want me to get a dog, man.

[Scott Galloway]

It's a dog 100%. They've done all these surveys. They've done all these surveys. People have been incarcerated for home invasion or theft. And they all say the same thing. We don't go into houses with dogs.

[Ed]

I'm going to get a pet Chihuahua.

[Scott Galloway]

If you get a Chihuahua, get one that is exactly 2.2 pounds and name a kilo. I think that is the best dog name I've ever heard.

[Ed]

So this is really an investment trade on buy on dogs. How do we go long dogs?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, actually pet food companies, pet supplies companies have been amazing investments. People will start eating cat food themselves before they cut off their cat's cat food. Seriously, people that's like been in a. It's been a great, a great sector, but I don't know how to invest. I don't know how to invest across this sector. Even like the TSA is all illusion. It's not.

[Ed]

But fear is a powerful thing and it makes makes a lot of money.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. 100%. 100%.

[Ed]

We'll be right back. And for even more markets content, sign up for our [e-mail] subscribe.

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[Scott Galloway]

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[Ed]

We're back with property markets. It was a big week for streaming, and the industry looks closer than ever to consolidation. Warner Brothers Discovery stock jumped more than 9% after the company hinted it was open to a sale. Reports emerged that Paramount has already made 3 offers to buy it, all of which were rebuffed. Meanwhile, CNBC reported that Netflix could be a potential buyer. Netflix also made headlines of its own. Its third quarter earnings missed expectations, but mainly because of a $619 million tax settlement with Brazil but beyond that, that it was a solid quarter. Revenue rose 17% to $11.5 billion. So, Scott, a lot of news in streaming and in entertainment. Another turn in the Warner Brothers saga. Earlier this year they announced they were going to split into two entities. Then we learned they're fielding interest from Paramount, Skydance, AKA David Ellison. And now we learn they are getting, quote, unsolicited interest from multiple parties. They say they are open to a sale. And then we're hearing from CNBC that that among the interested parties are Netflix, also Comcast. Now, you actually highlighted Warner Brothers as one of your top stock picks for 2024. Here's what you said back in January of 2024.

[Scott Galloway]

I think Disney and Warner Brothers Discovery are going to do really well this year. I think they're both going to be put into play. They have become distressed assets. They are now trading at some of their lowest multiples in history. It's not because these guys will do anything that deft or that brilliant. It's because quite frankly, they've just gotten so cheap they're going to attract a lot of sharks. They also are single class shareholder companies, meaning that they're breakable, if you will, that someone can come in and start rattling their cage.

[Ed]

So Warner Brothers has doubled since then and it now looks like it will be acquired by someone. Your reactions.

[Scott Galloway]

So Mark Zuckerberg and Shul Sandberg have made more money while doing more damage to young people than any people in history. But from a shareholder perspective, they deserve every penny money. With respect to shareholder value, the person who added the least value, destroyed a ton of value, took ebitda, cut EBITDA in half and almost fucked up the tax ramifications of their asset, which was Japan, the Japan division of their company. As Marissa Mayer for coming in and fucking up Yahoo, walked away with a quarter of a billion dollars, she's about to be bested by David Zaslav, who has already. He earned somewhere between a quarter and a third of a billion dollars for getting the stock back to where it was when he came up with this idea to merge the two. And I have no doubt that he is quite frankly trying to figure out a way right now to get some crazy golden, I don't know, exit package from this acquisition and for basically selling the company for the same price he convinced shareholders to pay for it when this ill fated dumbass merger was formed several years ago. This is going to happen. They are leaking false information. Comcast is smart. Comcast isn't going to buy this company because the Only people who are willing to spend 24 or $26 a share for this thing is the Ellisons. Because the kid wants to go to the Academy Awards and wants to spend dad's money to be a media mogul. And the father just who made $90 billion in one day, probably says, okay, we're going to sell this, the shitty cable assets and we're going to take Warner and HBO and we're going to AI the shit out of the content side of this and it'll be really interesting and we'll see if we can do something. And my son, who's a good kid, gets to go play in traffic. But the idea they are leaking information, that there's multiple suitors here. Bullshit. This thing makes no financial sense. And there's a reason that the only people involved in these companies are all the children of billionaires. Because no one else that has to answer to shareholders is willing to show up and pay anything, anything close to this price. So Zaslav is leaking rumors that this is a multiple party bidder. There's one bidder and his last name is Ellison.

[Ed]

Yes.

[Scott Galloway]

It'll end up going. They're trying to play the reluctant bride. So they come up to 24 or $26 a share, they will buy the thing. And right now all Zaslav is doing is feathering his bed for a deal that he walks away with a quarter, another hundred to $500 million for basically adding no value. And these are trophy assets. They will. I don't think it's a Machiavellian strategy for the Ellisons to control media. What this will be is an interesting application of AI and potentially taking colliding Warner Brothers and great content and IP with their US division of TikTok. If they get control of that, I totally agree with.

[Ed]

Well, you said two things. One, that they're pretending that there are multiple bidders. I 100% agree with that. I think that's definitely right. The second thing you said is that it will happen, it will get sold. I'm not 100% sure.

[Scott Galloway]

Why is that. What do you think's gonna get in the way of it?

[Ed]

Well, they've rejected the offer three times already.

[Scott Galloway]

That's Reluctant Bride.

[Ed]

Just to play this out. So Warner Brothers says we're open to a sale and here are some bidders that may or may not be involved. And it gets leaked to the press. And then now we're on the podcast talking about, oh, maybe Netflix will buy it, maybe Comcast will buy it, ET Etc, you're Saying Zaslav wants to sell. He wants to create an illusion of an auction. And that's why this is happening. And Netflix isn't actually interested. I completely agree. What is interesting is the fact that the Stock went up 10% on the news. So the market says, oh, my gosh, something's happening. They're open to a sale. And what you're saying is they were always open to a sale. They were dying for a sale, Zaslav specifically. And they're kind of pretending as if something has changed and nothing really changed here, and yet the stock has gone up 10%. So that in and of itself is very interesting that we're seeing this stock explosion on not really anything at all, or at least something that appears to be kind of manufactured. But it does raise this question. Ellison has come to him and he's given him a few offers. He first offered $19 per share, then $22 per share, then $23.50 per share. Zaslav said no every time, supposedly. According to Rich Greenfield, who's a great media analyst, he thinks that Zaslav wants $30 per share. Before all of this was happening, Warner brothers was at 11. So we've gone from 11. We're now looking at $21 per share. And I wonder if he's overplaying his hand here. I wonder if he's getting a little carried away with it. He loves saying no. He goes out and says, no, no. Comcast really wants us. Netflix really wants us. And I wonder if at some point, David Ellison says, you know what, dude? Let's quit fucking around. Netflix doesn't want you. They want ip. They don't want your shitty TV networks. Amazon can't buy you. That's going to be a whole antitrust concern. I'm sick of this game.

[Scott Galloway]

At the end of the day, the really the most important job of an investment banker is to create the illusion of multiple bidders. Companies are bought, not sold. And people say, well, I'll decide to sell. No, you don't get to decide when to sell. People get to decide when to buy. And what you need is when you get a. You have to have a credible inbound opportunity and offer. You give that credible inbound opportunity a chance to take you off the market at what you would call a rich, even irrational price. Otherwise, you're going to investigate other suitors. Fine. They don't want to give you an irrational price up front. You get it. You get a first strike opportunity. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. When I sold my first company to Dentsu. I said, here's a price. It's above market, but if you take it, we won't talk to anybody else and it's yours. They did that great with L2. We had a credible inbound opportunity. I countered at a much higher price. They said, no, we can't do that. I said, fine, but just FYI, we're going to do a market check, go out with a book data room, have people signed Lois. Seven players signed Lois. It's a great business. We got three term sheets, including the existing inbound offer. One was from Gartner, one was from Accenture, and one was from Corporate Executive Board. And I wake up and Accenture basically said, this is so exciting. You're going to love this, Scott. We do business with 400 of the 500 global, the Fortune 500 globally. We want to take your thought leadership and introduce you to everyone from De Beers in South Africa to Samsung. And they were acting as if, what a thrill for you as a professor. You're going to get to molest the globe and share your thought leadership with CEOs all over the world. And I thought, I can't imagine anything I would. Would less rather do than get on a plane again for the rest of my life and be in shitty corporate hotels again, renting my brain to old white guys or old brown guys around the world. I'm just done. I'm done. And they made it sound like I would love that. I'm like. So I went back to him and I said, look, this isn't for me. And then I wake up on Monday morning and there's an announcement that Gardner has acquired Corporate Executive Board. So in about 72 hours, I go from three suitors to one. And I remember that thinking that I have to give them the impression that there are multiple suitors here, otherwise I'm fucked. And basically, I tried to talk my. There's only two things you have to remember in any negotiation. One, don't let emotion get involved. Don't make it about win, lose. You're all good people, and if there's not a fit, there's not a fit. But don't think of it as a win, lose. Two, always show a credible willingness to walk away. Always show a credible willingness to walk away. And the way you can do that or go with another partner is the illusion of multiple bidders, or they get the sense, the tone of your voice, that you're willing to walk. And the only way Gartner closed was I walked. They kept coming back with additional terms and conditions. And at one point I said, I need you to let me out of this exclusive because I'm done. I'm kind of done going back and forth. And then the CEO called me and said, okay, let's close the deal. It's very rare that a deal closes without one party walking away at some point because basically you're sharks bumping each other to see, you know, to kind of bump each other and see if you respond, these guys, in my view, and I don't know the situation, nobody can rationalize to their public shareholders, whether it's Ted Sarandos or the Armstrongs at Comcast, can get on an earnings call and justify anything close to this. So Zaslav is, in my opinion, and his makers are playing a total game. It was at 11 bucks. If all of a sudden Ellison announced they were dropping out, I think this thing goes down 30% and maybe more, and within three months it's back to 11. Maybe not. It's back to 11 because it's still in play, kind of.

[Ed]

I mean, we're saying that there's one bidder, he's pretending that he's got five. And if suddenly people start to connect the dots and say, actually, hold on, this doesn't work, this doesn't work, this doesn't work. There's only one bidder, then suddenly that the transaction in a huge way, and suddenly David Ellison has the leverage.

[Scott Galloway]

If you look at Warner Brothers stock, right, In April of 25 and April of this year, I mean, eight months ago, it was at eight bucks a share, right? In October of 24, it was at 740, by the way, the business was better then. This business gets worse every month because they're in the business of ad supported cable. So when the business was better at seven bucks a share, the only thing that's changed here is there's a kid with a preloaded credit card of $40 billion that showed up.

[Ed]

And Zaslav is saying it's not good enough. He's saying it's not good enough at 23.

[Scott Galloway]

That's the whole point of negotiation. It's never good enough. They're going to play the reluctant bride and pretend that there's other idiots out there willing to pay 24 bucks a share, 26, 30. No, there aren't. And if, if Ellison tomorrow announces, we're out, we're moving on this thing, this thing is down 30%. And most likely, I would bet it's down to 11 or 12 bucks again in three to six months. So they're all and good for them. That's their job. He's trying to get the maximum, he's trying to get the maximum value for his shareholders. It's a trophy asset. There are some assets here that are, are non replicable. I get it. But be clear, there's only one irrational buyer right now and his last name is Ellison.

[Ed]

All right, let's take a look at the week ahead. We'll see earnings from big tech with Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft all reporting. We'll also hear the Federal Reserve's October interest rate decision. Traders are betting on a quarter point cut with near 100% certainty. Scott, any predictions?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, we talked about it earlier. I think that XI is going to come for the jugular and you're going to see a flurry of open weight LLMs. The Old Navy of AI is about to come from the east and I think it's going to have a pretty serious, could have a serious impact on the companies that are totally dependent upon AI projections which could have a big impact on the market. I think that China is, what was it that Tyrion Lannister said about, I forget that character's name. He said this is a very serious man. I think she is very serious and I think they are being very strategic. I think it's no accident they went after the soybeans in red states. And I think that they again, I just makes, if I was advising Xi, this is exactly what I do. Flood the market with cheap AI LLMs that are irresistible to use and these companies don't live up to the already irrational expectations. And all of a sudden GDP growth and the economy in the US goes into recession right away and this guy loses all of his cloud cover for these bullshit sclerotic, irrational geopolitical decisions around tariffs. And I think that's exactly what they're going to do. And he has the power to say to these companies, maybe it's not good for shareholder value, but you're going to come up with an amazing with amazing LLMs and AI models that require less energy and you're going to make them for free.

[Ed]

This episode was produced by Claire Miller and engineered by Benjamin Spencer. Our associate producer is Alison Weiss. Mia Silverio is our research lead. Our research associates are Isabella Kinsel Danchalon and Kristen o'. Donoghue. Drew Burrows is our technical director and Catherine Dillon is our executive producer. Thank you for listening to Prof. G Markets from Profg Media. Tune in tomorrow for a fresh take on the markets.

[Scott Galloway]

Lifetime. You had it. And kind reunion.

[Ed]

As the water.

[Scott Galloway]

And.

[Ed]

The butterflies in love.

[Scott Galloway]

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