Meta’s AI Promise, Microsoft’s Disappointing Beat & Why Google Should Spin Youtube

Summary

Prof G Markets Podcast Summary
Episode: Meta’s AI Promise, Microsoft’s Disappointing Beat & Why Google Should Spin Youtube
Release Date: November 4, 2024
Hosted by Scott Galloway and Ed Mylett
Vox Media Podcast Network

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Introduction

In this episode of Prof G Markets, hosts Scott Galloway and Ed Mylett delve into the latest developments in the capital markets, focusing on the earnings reports from major tech giants—Google, Microsoft, and Meta—and explore strategic moves such as Google's potential spin-off of YouTube. The discussion also touches on Reddit's impressive financial performance, Eli Lilly's challenges with its GLP1 drugs, and Elon Musk's ambitious AI venture, Xai. The hosts provide insightful analysis, backed by data and their expert perspectives, making complex financial news accessible and engaging.

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Global Economic Landscape

[02:37] Ed Mylett:
Ed begins by contextualizing Russia's hefty fine of $20 decillion dollars imposed on Google for blocking its News channels. He starkly compares this figure to the global GDP of $100 trillion, highlighting the absurdity and emphasizing that such penalties are not grounded in economic reality.

[07:31] Scott Galloway:
Scott elaborates on the U.S. GDP growth of 2.8% in Q3, noting that while it may seem modest, it outpaces growth rates in other developed nations like Japan (0.3%), France (1.1%), and Canada (1.3%). He underscores that this growth rate suggests the U.S. economy could double in size approximately every 25 to 27 years, showcasing robust economic resilience.

[07:31] Ed Mylett:
Ed adds that with inflation down to 2.1%, the U.S. has managed to control inflation more effectively than many other developed countries, reinforcing the strength of the American economy. He advocates for Vice President Kamala Harris, suggesting that the positive economic indicators make a strong case for her candidacy.

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Reddit’s Stellar Performance

[05:07] Ed Mylett:
Ed highlights Reddit's breakthrough into profitability for the first time, boasting $350 million in revenue for Q3—a 68% increase year-over-year. The platform also reached nearly 100 million daily users, propelling its stock to soar over 40%.

[09:55] Ed Mylett:
He praises Reddit's strategic use of AI for multilingual content translation, effectively expanding its total addressable market by making content accessible in multiple languages. This move not only enhances user engagement but also significantly boosts revenue potential.

[10:23] Scott Galloway:
Scott concurs, emphasizing the importance of scaling globally through AI. He notes that Reddit's algorithm changes, particularly the "Hidden Gems" update by Google, have favored authentic user-generated content, further elevating Reddit's visibility and search rankings. As a result, Reddit has become the sixth most Googled term in the U.S., driving substantial organic growth.

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Eli Lilly’s GLP1 Drug Challenges

[14:41] Ed Mylett:
Ed discusses Eli Lilly's struggles with its GLP1 drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound, which have not met revenue expectations. While the CEO attributes the shortfall to supply chain issues, analysts, including those from Barclays, argue that such constraints account for only about 20% of the revenue drop, indicating deeper issues.

[15:22] Scott Galloway:
Scott speculates that the emergence of compounded GLP1 alternatives, which are more affordable and accessible, may be eroding demand for Eli Lilly's branded drugs. He suggests that aggressive marketing by these upstarts and their effective use of new media channels could be siphoning customers away.

[16:49] Scott Galloway:
Scott emphasizes the critical need for Eli Lilly to ramp up its marketing efforts. He points out that despite strong product offerings, insufficient brand awareness—compared to competitors like Ozempic and Wegovy—is hindering sales. He advocates for increased advertising budgets to enhance public recognition and drive demand.

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Elon Musk’s AI Venture: Xai

[19:00] Ed Mylett:
Ed shifts the discussion to Elon Musk's AI startup, Xai, which is seeking a $40 billion valuation. Originally intended as a competitor to ChatGPT with a focus on "truth-seeking," Xai's AI product, Grok, has faced challenges in gaining traction and user engagement.

[20:17] Scott Galloway:
Scott critiques Xai’s lofty valuation, comparing it unfavorably to established players like OpenAI and Anthropic. He questions whether Xai's strategy of building its own data centers offers a sustainable competitive advantage, suggesting that Musk's brand may be inflating the company's perceived value beyond its actual market position.

[22:53] Ed Mylett:
Ed highlights the competitive landscape, noting that Xai's ambition to own the entire AI supply chain—from data centers to model development—sets it apart. However, he remains skeptical about whether Xai can sustain its high valuation amidst intense competition and operational challenges.

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Big Tech Earnings: Google, Microsoft, and Meta

[26:53] Ed Mylett:
Ed provides a comprehensive overview of the recent earnings reports from the Magnificent Seven tech companies. Google and Microsoft both reported cloud revenue growth above 30%, surpassing expectations. Google's stock responded positively, whereas Microsoft's stock declined due to a cautious revenue growth forecast for the next quarter.

[28:53] Scott Galloway:
Scott adds that Meta's earnings, while strong in revenue and profits, disappointed investors with slightly weaker user growth and increased AI expenditures. This caused Meta's stock to dip by 3% despite a 19% revenue increase.

[31:38] Ed Mylett:
Ed underscores YouTube's dominance in the streaming market, with combined ad and subscription revenue surpassing $50 billion in the past four quarters—outpacing Netflix's $37 billion. He suggests that YouTube, if spun off as a separate entity, could potentially achieve a market cap exceeding $500 billion, making it a formidable standalone company.

[34:53] Scott Galloway:
Scott critiques the capital expenditure (CapEx) strategies of major tech firms, likening their investment races in AI to a "capital as a weapon" scenario. He argues that excessive spending on AI may not always translate to sustainable growth, drawing parallels to the overextended stimulus during the COVID pandemic.

[35:19] Ed Mylett:
Ed emphasizes that companies like Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon account for a significant portion of Nvidia's sales, positioning Nvidia as a crucial player in propping up the stock market through these tech giants' CapEx investments.

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Shifts in the Advertising Landscape

[42:39] Scott Galloway:
Scott discusses the monumental shift from traditional media to digital platforms, emphasizing that podcasting is emerging as a powerhouse in the attention-based economy. He predicts that podcast advertising revenues will surge by over 25% in 2025, driven by their increasing consumption and effective monetization strategies.

[45:53] Ed Mylett:
Ed expands on the decline of legacy media, such as newspapers and traditional broadcast television, highlighting how advertising dollars are increasingly flowing to digital content creators on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. This shift not only benefits individual content creators but also solidifies the dominance of major digital platforms in the advertising space.

[48:27] Scott Galloway:
Scott underscores the critical importance of commanding attention in today's economy. He points out that podcasts, despite their growing popularity, still present a significant opportunity for advertisers due to the underutilization of their attention and revenue potential.

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Predictions and Final Thoughts

[51:22] Scott Galloway:
Scott ventures a bold prediction regarding the upcoming election, forecasting that Vice President Kamala Harris will secure a decisive victory in January 2025 despite current market odds favoring Trump at 2 to 1. He attributes this optimism to economic growth and a collective desire to stabilize political tensions.

[54:59] Ed Mylett:
Ed reflects on the shift in advertising focus, emphasizing the benefits that smaller, digital-savvy content creators derive from the increasing ad revenues. He criticizes mainstream media's reluctance to adapt, arguing that the true winners are the digital platforms and their content creators who effectively harness the power of social media.

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Notable Quotes

• Scott Galloway [02:56]:
  "A GDP number doesn't mean a lot unless it has a benchmark. So just some benchmarks here..."

• Ed Mylett [07:31]:
  "In addition, we have this new inflation data that just came out it's down to 2.1%. In other words, inflation has officially been dealt with."

• Scott Galloway [16:49]:
  "It's interesting. I agree with you. I usually don't like the idea of typically when I walk into a brand and they say they want to show me a brand campaign... I think they need to fire up the ad budgets."

• Ed Mylett [22:34]:
  "And more importantly, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon account for roughly 40% of Nvidia's sales."

• Scott Galloway [34:53]:
  "The ultimate business strategy has become capital as a weapon. Mark Zuckerberg goes, we have access to cheap capital. So I'm going to outspend you."

• Ed Mylett [51:22]:
  "I'm predicting that Vice President Harris is going to win the election. The gambling markets say that it's 2 to 1 in favor of Trump."

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Conclusion

This episode of Prof G Markets offers a thorough examination of the current state of major tech companies, the shifting dynamics in advertising, and the broader economic indicators shaping the market. Scott Galloway and Ed Mylett provide nuanced insights into how companies like Reddit are capitalizing on technological advancements and market trends, while also critiquing the excessive capital expenditures of giants like Meta and Microsoft. Their analysis underscores the importance of strategic marketing, brand awareness, and the ability to adapt in an ever-evolving economic landscape. Additionally, their bold election predictions and observations on the media shift highlight the interconnectedness of politics, technology, and market performance.

For those seeking to navigate the complexities of the capital markets with actionable insights, this episode serves as a valuable resource, distilled from expert commentary and real-time financial analysis.

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Notable Resources Mentioned:

• WatsonX by IBM: AI deployment platform
• Polestar 3: Electric SUV by Polestar
• GLP1 Drugs: Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound
• Xai (Elon Musk’s AI Startup): AI competitor to ChatGPT
• YouTube vs Netflix: Comparative revenue analysis

Timestamps Reference:

• Economic Overview: [02:37] - [07:31]
• Reddit’s Performance: [05:07] - [10:23]
• Eli Lilly’s Challenges: [14:41] - [16:49]
• Xai Discussion: [19:00] - [22:53]
• Big Tech Earnings: [26:53] - [38:29]
• Advertising Shifts: [42:39] - [51:05]
• Predictions: [51:22] - [54:59]

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Note: All timestamps correspond to the transcript provided and may vary slightly in the actual podcast episode.

Transcript

[Scott Galloway]

Think scaling AI is hard. Think again. With WatsonX you can deploy AI across any environment above the clouds, helping pilots navigate flights and on lots of clouds, helping employees automate tasks on prem so designers can access proprietary data and on the edge so remote bank tellers can assist customers. WatsonX works anywhere so you can scale AI everywhere. Learn more@ IBM.com WatsonX IBM let's create think scaling AI is hard. Think again With Watson X you can deploy AI across any environment above the clouds, helping pilots navigate flights and on lots of clouds, helping employees automate tasks on prem so designers can access proprietary data and on the edge so remote bank tellers can assist customers. Watson X works anywhere so you can scale AI everywhere. Learn more at IBM.com watsonx IBM let's.

[Ed Mylett]

Create support for this show comes from Polestar. Polestar is an electric performance car brand that is focused on innovation for both cutting edge technology and design and their all electric SUV. Polestar 3 is for those unwilling to compromise, for those who believe they shouldn't have to choose between the spacious comfort of an SUV and the agile handling of a sports car. For those who need an intuitive infotainment system and a dashboard designed with minimalism in mind. Polestar 3 is for drivers who who won't settle for anything less. Book a Test drive for Polestar [e-mail].

[Scott Galloway]

Today'S number 20 decillion dollars. That's how much Russia has fined Google for blocking its News channels. On YouTube, a sexual predator, a racist and a Russian spy walk into a bar. Ed, the bartender says, what can I get you? President Boom. A little election humor there. We're going to have U.S. election. We'll count some votes, says James Carvell. That guy's got to be like 110the LLC. That guy, I like him. Do you like him? Do you like James Carvell?

[Ed Mylett]

I think I prefer your impression of him. I think that's sort of my highlight so far.

[Scott Galloway]

I appreciate that. It must be bonus season. Someone's being someone's kissing someone's ass. Hello. Pucker up, you little podcast co host bitch. Today we're discussing earnings from Google, Microsoft and Meta. But first, here with the news is Profg analyst Ed Elson. Ed, what is a good word? How are you?

[Ed Mylett]

I'm doing very well. I didn't know that 20 decillion was a number, but I looked into it. It's 20 trillion times a trillion times a billion. And the global GDP is 100 trillion. So that should put it into perspective. Just shows you the Russians have their Head screwed on straight. What I'll say about that?

[Scott Galloway]

That's actually what our producer Claire requested as a bonus for managing young, irresponsible podcasters.

[Ed Mylett]

That's right.

[Scott Galloway]

We can't quite get there. This is a profitable business. But no, I had never heard the term decilian either. Where are you, Ed?

[Ed Mylett]

You're in New York, I'm in New York, as always.

[Scott Galloway]

Wait, we're past Halloween. I need more banter. Pretend I'm interested in your life. What are you doing for Thanksgiving?

[Ed Mylett]

I haven't made a Thanksgiving plan yet.

[Scott Galloway]

I know what that's like. It's okay, little soldier. Things will get better.

[Ed Mylett]

I could go back to London, but it's kind of weird to celebrate Thanksgiving in London. It's not.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, yeah, they don't have Thanksgiving. We left them.

[Ed Mylett]

Yeah, exactly. What are you doing for Thanksgiving? Are you going to celebrate now? You live in London.

[Scott Galloway]

No, I'm doing my world tour. I'm back. I got back to London yesterday, and in two weeks I head to New York for a speaking gig, then to Los Cabos for Baja Summit, where I'm speaking and talking about vertical farming and doing mushroom chocolate at night and listening to some DJ who supposedly is hot. And then I go to Vegas or I go to LA for another writer's room because I don't know if you've heard them working on an original scripted drama for Netflix.

[Ed Mylett]

So what do you do in the writer's room? Do you kind of, like, sort of shout over them at sort of things they're doing wrong or how does it work?

[Scott Galloway]

No, it's the guy, the showrunner and the lead writer will say, well, what do you think, Scott? And I'll say, no, they would never say that. Even though I'm not listening. I just. I pretend that what they're saying is unrealistic.

[Ed Mylett]

Okay, so I'm kind of on the right track.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm supposed to be the person that puts you in the room, that makes it feel authentic. And I'm supposedly the person that understands these people, which is kind of comical, but, yeah, it's fun.

[Ed Mylett]

It sounds very fun. You don't actually have to do the writing. You just kind of, like, opine on what's happening. It sounds.

[Scott Galloway]

You know me, I don't like to actually work. There's no real work involved in this whole Prop G enterprise. For the Prop G. It's actually a lot of fun. I get to envision scenes, and I'm working with this really talented guy named Scott Burns and Media Res and all these super talented people. So, you know, so far, so far we're in the honeymoon period. We'll see.

[Ed Mylett]

Sounds like the best job ever.

[Scott Galloway]

All right, enough of that shit, Ed. Stop delaying. Get to the news.

[Ed Mylett]

Well, before we get started, just a quick reminder to subscribe to Profg Markets on its dedicated feed. Type in Profg Markets wherever you get your podcasts hit follow and tune in to our interview with Anthony Scaramucci on Thursday. That interview will only be available on the dedicated feed. And now let's start with our weekly review of market vitals. The S&P 500 declined, the dollar fell, Bitcoin rose, and the yield on 10 year treasuries increased. Shifting to the headlines, US GDP grew 2.8% in the third quarter. That was slightly slower than the previous quarter and just below expectations. However, economists were largely encouraged by the growth driven by strong consumer spending on goods. Reddit turned a profit for the first time ever, with revenue reaching almost $350 million in the third quarter. That's up 68% from year earlier. The company also reached nearly 100 million daily users, and those strong earnings sent shares up more than 40%. Shares in drug maker Eli Lilly fell more than 6% after its third quarter profit, and revenue missed analyst expectations. The company also reported disappointing sales of its weight loss and diabetes drugs. And finally, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup Xai is in talks for a funding round that would value the company at $40 billion. That's nearly double the valuation from round. Your thoughts? Starting with this national economic data. GDP growth in America 2.8% in Q3.

[Scott Galloway]

A GDP number doesn't mean a lot unless it has a benchmark. So just some benchmarks here. Japan's annual GDP growth was up 0.3%, so we're growing nine times faster than Japan. France up 1.1% and Canada up 1.3. I mean, this is just the economy here. It's just really striking to listen to these kind of person on the street interviews about how people feel about the economy. It's so obvious that there's kind of a vibe session, as Kyla Scanlon called it. Or people again, have this habit of crediting their character and their grit for their raises and blaming everyone else or blaming the government for whatever price hikes there are. But our growth is impressive. And 2.8% may not seem a lot, but what that means is about every 25 or 27 years the size of the American economy would double.

[Ed Mylett]

In addition, we have this new inflation data that just came out it's down to 2.1%. In other words, inflation has officially been dealt with. Meanwhile, you look at other developed nations that have struggled with not only higher inflation than we had, but also longer inflation. So it sort of makes the case. Well, not sort of. It does make the case for Kamala Harris. If you believe that Kamala Harris is just a continuation of the current administration and if you care about the economy, then this is a big reason to vote for Kamala Harris. But if you've made this point before, she should be making a way stronger argument about how she's sort of the economy vote. If you care about the economy, you should be voting for Kamala Harris. It hasn't really resonated, but for those of us that care about statistics, that care about data, what the data is actually telling us, and when you look at the US compared to other nations that have struggled with problems way worse than ours, you know the answer is pretty clear statistically speaking. Kamala Harris should be your answer.

[Scott Galloway]

I so badly want to be head of comms for like 11 days for the Harris campaign.

[Ed Mylett]

I've heard people saying you should be by the way.

[Scott Galloway]

I just think she should have in her back pocket. Every time someone starts complaining about the economy or saying the economy is saying, okay Sean Hannity, there's 190 sovereign nations. You're an intelligent guy. What economy globally is stronger than ours right now? Name it. Instead they always go to this democratic self hate of I know things are tough out there and we have work to do. It should be, bitch, we are on fucking fire. Get your head out of your ass. Anyways. Okay, Reddit, why don't I listen to my own advice? I bought some stock here, but not enough. I believe the stock is now at about triple where it priced in its IPO about two months ago.

[Ed Mylett]

Can I ask how much you bought?

[Scott Galloway]

You can ask.

[Ed Mylett]

May you answer.

[Scott Galloway]

I think I bought about $3 million worth of stock, but I pared some of it so I don't own nearly as much as I'd hoped, but I've done very well. But it popped so big the first day I trimmed some of my holdings and I just didn't listen to myself. I knew this thing. I still think it has more room to run anyways, it's revenue up 68% year on year. Daily users is up 47%. They're going global. They're being really smart. They've translated their posts via AI into French, Spanish, Portuguese and German. And it's intern national daily active unique visitors increased 44%, which was huge.

[Ed Mylett]

And it's just such a simple innovation. It's such a great use case for AI, just simply translating the language of your content. But it's so, so effective. It essentially just 10x's your total addressable market. And that is what we're doing, or at least we're trying to do it. We're using AI to translate this podcast into Spanish and Portuguese at the moment.

[Scott Galloway]

Walls JD Vans parese una desas illustraciones en los cartones de leche que muestra and comos.

[Ed Mylett]

But I think this is something that everyone in content should be looking at. How can we figure out a way to just overnight flip a switch and make this all available to the 8 billion people across the entire globe? It's just a really quick and nice way to just skyrocket your total addressable market. So that would be the first thing that I would, I would commend Reddit on the second key driver of their growth. Actually was not intentional, but it's very interesting. And that is Google recently changed the way it ranks search results. So they made this update called the Hidden Gems update. And what they've done with the algorithm is they're now preferencing what they call authentic content, which is the content that is generated by users content that you find on forums and on chat rooms. And so as a result, you will find that Reddit is showing up more and more when you search things on Google. It's also appearing higher in your rankings. And here's a great stat. Reddit is now the sixth most Googled word in the us so it's this great combination of this intentional play with AI. But also the market dynamics are shifting to Reddit's benefit and it's just translated to this explosion in the business and in the stock. So incredible quarter for Reddit.

[Scott Galloway]

But when you were talking about flipping a switch and accessing a global market using AI, and again the operative term there was flip a switch and go global. You sound like me in our all hands last week where at that point the person who runs the company, Catherine Dillon, said, bitch, you translate this shit into Farsi and try and find the equivalent of ZipRecruiter in Iran to advertise. It's not quite flipping a switch is.

[Ed Mylett]

What the pushback I got, it's flipping a million switches.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. And someone actually has to build the switch and manage it while I just, you know, the podcast hosts say flip a switch and let's go global.

[Ed Mylett]

This is strategy versus operations.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. This is the Difference between being front of house and back of house. Right. So I interviewed the CEO at their annual advertiser event and they have big, they have big advertisers in the room. I saw the CMO of Mars. They had the biggest media agencies there. It feels to me a little bit like kind of, I don't know, Meta or Pinterest or Snap in the early days. One of the reasons I'm going to kind of kiss the ass of the CEO that he seems like a nice man is I bet my prediction is they're going to have an amazing party at Cannes in the next one or two years. They're going to decide we need to be stroking the hair of people who we are putting out of business and bring them to some great party and get Dua, Lipa or Bad Bunny or somebody. Anyways, we're going to the Reddit beach party. That's what I take away from all of this.

[Ed Mylett]

I can't wait. I'm waiting for my. My invite. Let's move on to Eli Lilly. As many of our listeners probably know, Eli Lilly sells Zepbound and Mounjaro, which are these GLP1 drugs. They are the alternatives to Ozempic and Wegovy. And it's not selling as much as people had thought, or at least that Wall street had thought. And the obvious question is, of course, why? What is going wrong? Now, what's interesting is that the CEOs answer to that question was that there isn't a problem with demand, but there is a problem with supply. So supposedly the suppliers of the inventory for these drugs, those suppliers cut down on their stock and it affected Eli Lilly's ability to get the drugs out. But as a Barclays analyst pointed out, if that's true, that could only have accounted for around 20% of that drop off in revenue. In other words, there must be something else afoot here. Something else is going wrong in The Eli Lilly GLP1 drug story, and it can't just be this sort of chokehold on inventory. And certainly Wall street doesn't believe that story either. So I have a few thoughts of my own as to what might be going on, but I will throw it back to you. What do you think could be the problem at Eli Lilly that the CEO did a bad job of explaining or at least won't tell us?

[Scott Galloway]

I wonder if we keep hearing about all these compounded GLP1 producers being able to sell. I don't know if you call it off market, but there's a bit of a glitch in the matrix or a loophole where if a product is sold out, you can build almost like a generic version of it that costs much less. I got to think that that's denting demand a little bit. And I would think that not only that, you have a lot of these kind of upstarts are sort of scrappy and maybe don't take this institutional approach, but are great marketers and understand new mediums. So I wonder if it's some of the new guys or these compounded GLP1 producers maybe slowed their growth. What are your thoughts?

[Ed Mylett]

I was thinking that too. And if you look at himss, which we have discussed before, they have been getting into the GLP1 game. Yes, the compounded version, their revenue increased 52% last quarter and a large part of that was their weight loss drug business. And there are several other companies that are offering these compound alternatives. It's sort of becoming a growing space and I think it is possible that this duopoly that we've seen on Semaglutide that has been owned by Novo Nordisk and by Eli Lilly, it could be a little more fragile than we think. The other thing I think is worth mentioning, which one of our team members, Jessica Lang, pointed out, and it's a the simple but important point is when you think of GLP1s, Manjaro and Zepbound do not come to mind. The two names that come to mind are Ozempic and WeGovy. And so it could be just a simple brand recognition problem that these products just aren't present in the public discourse enough. If you've been watching the World Series recently, you will likely have seen this WeGovy ad over and over, this new WeGovy jingle that is probably stuck in a lot of people's heads right now. So I think the other explanation here could be a very simple issue. It's just a marketing problem and a brand awareness problem. We know what Zepbound and Manjaro is because we study this stuff for a living. But for the average American, just think ozempic and wegovy and you probably don't even know what GLP1 is either.

[Scott Galloway]

It's interesting. I agree with you. I usually don't like the idea of typically when I walk into a brand and they say they want to show me a brand campaign and they're going to spend money on advertising, I usually say, well, if you're spending a lot of money on advertising, usually you have somebody who wants to hang out with really cool, interesting people. Which ad Agency people are. Or you're out of ideas because the companies with the best products don't need a lot of brand marketing. In this case, I think an awareness campaign. Exactly. Around what you said around Zepbound and Mounjaro. Awesome. Mounjaro's awesome. If I came back and in my next life as an MMA fighter, I want to be called Mounjaro. I think that's a badass name. It's a really cool name. Munjaro. So anyway. But I agree with you. I think they need fire up the ad budgets. Yeah. Get some awareness out of there. There's so much money on the line here. Also, supposedly there's a lack of scarcity that finally there's enough production here to meet demand. I wonder what's going to happen, though, when it reaches into the markets it should be in. I'm just such a huge fan of this technology. Speaking of which, let's bring this back to me. Ed. I'm doing this NAD treatment. Have you heard of this?

[Ed Mylett]

Only from you mentioning it last week.

[Scott Galloway]

Ed. That's it.

[Ed Mylett]

I'm fine.

[Scott Galloway]

I'll leave no decillion dollar bonus for you.

[Ed Mylett]

I'll make my way out.

[Scott Galloway]

Just Claire's getting a decillion dollars. Anyways, this NAD stuff is really, really powerful. But I wonder if it has a similar compound as GLP1, because I have noticed I'm losing my taste for the sauce and I don't. I'm going to fit right into Baja Summit. I told you about Summit last year. They all take drugs, but they don't drink. I would bet. Going back to Eli Lilly. I apologize. I'm all over the place. This fucking NAD was supposed to give me focus. Maybe it isn't working. I think this is probably a buying opportunity. I think anyone in this market with two great brands or one great brand. Monjato and zepbound. That's a terrible. You're bound for Zep. Zep Bound. That sounds awful. That's like some rock climber started some bad ropes company or something. I think other than the CEO making lame excuses, I'd say on this one, kind of buy the dip.

[Ed Mylett]

Our final headline is Xai, which Elon. This is Elon's AI company, which he is supposedly trying to raise around at a $40 billion valuation. Just a reminder of what this company is. So people may remember. The premise of this company was to create a competitor to ChatGPT. That was, quote, more truth seeking. So for a while, Elon was calling it kind of jokingly truth GPT. He saw how successful ChatGPT had become and he wanted to make a competitor that was also less woke. Pretty much. So XAI did build that product and the product is called Grok. Many people may have heard of it and it's available to all paid users of the X platform, formerly known as Twitter. I've used it, it's fine. There was a period where it tried to be anti woke and funny and it felt like a not very funny guy who's trying to just crack jokes at every second. It wasn't a great product.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, it's the Tony Hinchcliffe of LLMs.

[Ed Mylett]

It's exactly right. And they fall flat. So I'll get your reactions to XAI in this funding round. There are a few more details we can go into, but what are your thoughts on this round?

[Scott Galloway]

So I think this is Musk's next opportunity to turn $40 billion into 10. My sense is this is now a distant fourth or fifth in the LLM market and he did some sleight of hand trying to give take the rights to the data, I think of Twitter and spin out xai and he got a disproportionate amount of the firm. I would have gone apeshit crazy if I was a shareholder in Twitter. But Il Grok right now is a distant fourth, fifth or sixth trying to trade at the same valuation as Anthropic, and that's the analog here. And I would imagine that Anthropic has dramatically more traffic revenues, better technology, et cetera. And what they keep leaking is that Jensen Huang did say that it's easily the fastest supercomputer on the planet. XAI has built its own data center. But I'm not sure if that ends up being much of a competitive advantage.

[Ed Mylett]

Anyways, I think that's an important point. Is that a competitive advantage? And when I look at xai, it's like there are three main differences that make it different from other AI companies. The first is that Elon Musk is leading. So that's a big deal. It means you can raise a bunch of money. The second is, as you said, they're building their own data centers and that's what sets it apart from OpenAI. OpenAI does not own any data centers. Instead they essentially rent their compute from Microsoft and that's why they have that partnership. And then the third big difference is that XAI is built building its own frontier models and that's where it's similar to OpenAI, but not similar to a company like Perplexity, which is building models on top of the models that are built by other companies like OpenAI. So in other words, their sort of strategic differentiation is that they want to own everything that they create. They want to be a truly independent AI company, which is a little rare these days because it's developed into this massive supply chain where you have the chip manufacturers selling to the data centers and the data centers selling the compute to the model makers and the model makers selling their models to the app makers. It's a big supply chain, and Xai has decided we're just going to own all of it ourselves.

[Scott Galloway]

I just don't know if Xai is going to have the capital. They're starting from less than zero versus everybody else. And they want to raise at the same valuation as the number two or the number three player anthropic. So I have a bias because I'm not a fan of Musk, but on just a straight valuation standpoint, this feels to me like a bad deal.

[Ed Mylett]

I mean, it sounds like the Elon Musk premium, but it's why. Why he still deserves a premium like this to me is beyond me. The fact that he's destroyed 80% of the market value of Twitter, that was his last venture, I mean, it's. It's crazy.

[Scott Galloway]

It's loco. He's gotten moonjado on us.

[Ed Mylett]

We'll be right back after the break with a look at big tech earnings. If you're enjoying the show so far, be sure to give Prof. Gmarkets a follow wherever you get your podcasts.

[Scott Galloway]

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[Ian Mitchell]

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[Scott Galloway]

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[Scott Galloway]

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[Scott Galloway]

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[Scott Galloway]

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[Ed Mylett]

Support for the show comes from Polestar Innovation is at the heart of every Polestar car and their SUV. Polestar 3 is no different from the intuitive infotainment system to its head turning design. Polestar 3 is for drivers unwilling to compromise. That means merging a spacious, comfortable interior with the torque and handling of a sports car. Now you can go from 0 to 60 in as little as 4.8 seconds and get an EPA estimated range of up to 315 miles per charge. Polestar 3 even allows the driver to optimize the powertrain between performance and range mode, depending on your drive's needs. Experience an uncluttered dashboard showing you everything you want to know and nothing you don't. The innovation doesn't stop there because you can just have Google turn on your favorite podcast and be immersed in 3D sound by Bowers and Wilkins. Polestar has put in the time designing and refining Polestar 3, and that means the time you spend in it will be the best time of your day. Book a Test [e-mail].

[Scott Galloway]

Think scaling AI is hard. Think again. With Watson X, you can deploy AI across any environment above the clouds, helping pilots navigate flights and on lots of clouds, helping employees automate tasks on prem so designers can access proprietary data and on the edge so remote bank tellers can assist customers. WatsonX works anywhere so you can scale AI everywhere. Learn more@ IBM.com WatsonX IBM let's create.

[Ed Mylett]

We'Re back with profg markets. Most of the Magnificent Seven reported earnings last week, bringing AI demand and spending into sharper focus. Google and Microsoft both reported cloud revenue growth above 30%, beating expectations. But while Google stock rose, Microsoft's fell as the company advised its overall revenue growth would slow in the current quarter. Meanwhile, Meta's stock also fell after the company missed expectations on user growth and warned that its AI expenditures would continue to increase in 2025. So I think let's just start here a Lot of tech earnings telling slightly different stories. Let's just start with what Wall street thought about these earnings. So for Google, Wall street was very happy. Revenue grew 15%, cloud revenue skyrocketed and the stock rose 4%. And I think the main story with Google is there was nothing that you could really fault the company for in that earnings report. Everything was going well. Microsoft and Meta, on the other hand, Wall street was not so happy with. And it's a very similar story that we've seen before in tech, which is the top and bottom lines were very strong. They beat expectations at both companies. But there was just one tiny little pimple on the earnings report for both of them. And for Microsoft, it was that their guidance was a little bit soft, not as strong as Wall street wanted. And for Meta, the user growth was slightly weaker than expected. 3.29 billion active users versus 3.31 billion expected. I should remind you, that's daily active users. So it's still pretty incredible. As a result, Microsoft stock fell 4% and Meta stock fell 3%. So I think the summary with these earnings here is that it's very strong overall, but again, incredibly high expectations for these companies. Let's just start with your headline reactions to the tech earnings that have come in this week.

[Scott Galloway]

What you said was really appreciate and insightful a few months ago, and that is the expectations are now that you're going to blow away expectations. So Meta, actually their revenue and earnings beat expectations increasing 19 and 35% respectively. But investors were disappointed by weaker than expected daily active user growth. And also, I think the thing that freaked everybody out is when Zuckerberg wasn't threatening to spend tens of billions of dollars in mixed reality headsets. He was promising and he did it. And he kept spending well beyond any evidence that this was working. And when Zuckerberg says, no, we're going in on AI and get ready, folks, hold onto your hats. It kind of spooked, I think as investors a little bit, just because relative to the earnings and the revenue beat the revenue and earnings were amazing here. And at the same time, let's go to the other end of the spectrum. Everyone's sort of waiting and anticipating SNAP to start a death rattle. And even though their sales jumped 15%, not as much as the other guys, their stock was up 10%. Because the expectation people are sort of, when people listen to a Meta call, they're waiting to see just how fucking amazing it is. When people listen to a SNAP earnings call, they're kind of a little nervous. Like is this the quarter that Snap announces that Meta is just putting them out of business. And the expectations here have gotten so crazy. And I know I'm jumping around a lot, but let's talk a little bit about Microsoft. They also beat revenue and earnings expectations. The Stock was off 4% in after hours trading on weaker guidance. Good CEO's sandbag guidance. You always want to, in my opinion, under promise and over deliver. And when you start getting desperate or you're worried about losing your job, you start over promising and under delivering. Their total revenue increased, get this, at 16% off a huge number. That means that they found another eight or $10 billion per quarter in incremental revenue. And also the revenue mix is getting more solid because their cloud offering Azure revenues were up 33%. And that is a business with incredible margins. And 12 points of growth came from AI services. So in sum, this was just, I just, this was just striking. And the only thing that, the only wrinkle here or the thing I would offer that I noticed, and we've been talking about this a lot, is that if I were to ask you what is, what comes to mind when I think of the, when I ask you, well, who is the leader in the streaming market? Who comes to mind?

[Ed Mylett]

Well, you know, you know my real answer, but I think the average person would say Netflix.

[Scott Galloway]

That's right. And yeah, but it isn't right. It's YouTube. And YouTube's combined ad and subscription revenue over the past four quarters has surpassed $50 billion. So Netflix is at 37 billion over the same period over the last four quarters. So YouTube is a bigger streaming network, bigger revenue. I'd be curious what the growth rate is there. I'm not sure they break it out, but if you applied the same multiple to YouTube, you'd have a half a trillion dollar market cap company. And I wonder if there's opportunity for Alphabet to cut a deal with the doj and among other things in their remedy trial, say, look, what if we spin YouTube? But across all of these folks, whether it was Reddit, which looks like it's becoming a truly big tech company, Meta, all of them, Snap showing that we're still here. Snap's like, hey, don't forget us. We're still here, we're still growing, we're still doing really well. And the other guys, the big guys, the Alphabets, the metas of the world are just, you know, still on fire.

[Ed Mylett]

Yeah, a lot, a lot there. We'll start with YouTube. I just want to reemphasize that number. You said $50 billion in revenue in the past four quarters compared to Netflix at 37 billion. With the same multiple, YouTube would be a half a trillion dollar company in market cap. It'd probably be higher given the margins and given the growth rate. But if it were broken up into its own company, which you have just suggested, I just want to point out it would be one of the top 20 most valuable companies in the world. It would be more valuable than Oracle, it would be more valuable than MasterCard, it would be more valuable than Johnson Johnson. And yes, of course it would be more valuable than Netflix. So I am, I mean, we've discussed why we believe YouTube is basically the most underrated asset in the market right now. I think this should really drive it home for people. It's something that people don't seem to talk about that much. And I think to your point, it's a little bit of the conglomerate tax. It sort of gets lost in the noise because of all of the other things that Google is doing. But this is just a juggernaut in the entertainment space. I am just fascinated by this business of YouTube and they continue to crush it. One of the other things you pointed out there is the idea that meta, they spent really big on the metaverse and it freaked everyone out and now they're spending really big on AI. And so the numbers are Meta is raising its CapEx forecast for 2024 to between 38 and $40 billion. And that is slightly freaking the market out. They don't love how much that expense line is going to grow. Having said that, though, all the other tech companies are doing it. So over at Google, their capex rose 62% from a year ago to $13 billion. Microsoft is doing it too. Microsoft's capex doubled from last year to $20 billion. And this is just for the quarter.

[Scott Galloway]

The ultimate business strategy has become capital as a weapon. Mark Zuckerberg goes, we have access to cheap capital. So I'm going to outspend you. I mean there's kind of three or four. No one can keep up with these guys except each other. The biggest companies in the world that aren't big tech can't make these types of investments any longer. They're spending more money on, you know, on GPUs and Exxon spent on oil exploration at their peak.

[Ed Mylett]

I mean, so just some data here. Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet will spend more than $150 billion on CapEx in 2024. And more importantly, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon account for roughly 40% of Nvidia's. Sales. So what we're seeing here is a dynamic where Nvidia is pretty much propping up the stock market. We've all kind of identified that. And Nvidia's entire top line is being propped up by the Capex spend of Microsoft Meta Alphabet and Amazon. So in a way that Capex number is the most important number in the entire global stock market right now. We should all care a lot about how much they're spending. But as you mentioned, the competitive aspects to this, the idea that they're all ramping up spending, I wonder to what extent this is becoming a little bit of a big dick contest where if you're, if you're Mark Zuckerberg and you're seeing, you know, you're seeing Sundar Pichai invest billions and billions into this space and you've decided to get into the space too. I wonder to what extent they're just going to start outbidding each other not because it necessarily makes sense for the business, but because they don't want to be caught out and they don't want to look to the world like the loser or like the coward who wasn't down to double down on AI. And you know, maybe I'm not giving them a enough credit but I could certainly see if I were in their position how I could get caught in that dynamic. Google's doing it, Microsoft is doing it, so we better do it too.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, I think correctly, in hindsight it looks like the stimulus plan during COVID that the Fed and the White House overdid it. They spent more money than was needed. And Janet Yellen, when faced with that question that did you overdo it? She said, we decided. She said, yeah, we probably did. But at the time the analysis was it's much riskier to underdo it than overdo it. And I think that's how these guys are approaching AI and that is if they overdo it, they spend too much. That's not the same risk as being the company, one of the big tech companies that had all of the assets, all of the ip, all the customer interface, but got bested and saw their stock lag everyone else's because they underinvested in what appears to be the most seminal technology trend of the last 20 years. So I got to imagine that they're like, okay, we need 10 billion. The range of requisite Capex to meet our plans is somewhere between, I don't know, call it 20 and 30 billion. You got to think, the CEO says with a stock at an all time high with access to cheap capital. I'm not going to be the CEO that missed on AI. You say 20 to 30 billion? Here's 32.

[Ed Mylett]

We'll be right back. And if you're enjoying the show so far, hit follow and leave us a review on Prof. Gmail.

[Scott Galloway]

Think scaling AI is hard? Think again. With Watson X you can deploy AI across any environment above the clouds, helping pilots navigate flights and on lots of clouds, helping employees automate tasks on prem so designers can access proprietary data and on the edge so remote bank tellers can assist customers. Watson X works anywhere so you can scale AI everywhere. Learn more at IBM.com Watson x IBM.

[Ed Mylett]

Let'S create support for the show comes from Polestar Innovation is at the heart of every Polestar car and their SUV. Polestar 3 is no different from the intuitive infotainment system to its head turning design. Polestar 3 is for drivers unwilling to compromise. That means merging a spacious, comfortable interior with the torque and handling of a sports car. Now you can go from 0 to 60 in as little as 4.8 seconds and get an EPA estimated range of up to 350 miles per charge. Polestar 3 even allows the driver to optimize the powertrain between performance and range mode, depending on your drive's needs. Experience an uncluttered dashboard showing you everything you want to know and nothing you don't. The innovation doesn't stop there because you can just have Google turn on your favorite podcast and be immersed in 3D sound by Bowers and Wilkins. Polestar has put in the time designing and refining Polestar 3 and that means the time you spend in it will be the best time of your day. Book a test [e-mail].

[Claire Miller]

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[Ed Mylett]

We'Re back with profg markets. So Meta's revenue jumped 19% to $40.6 billion. That's its record revenue staggering number. And you mentioned earlier about revenue mix, you know the point that Microsoft has done a really good job of diversifying its revenue, which makes it that revenue a little bit more stable. They're able to weather a storm. That's a a great reason to diversify your revenue. Just want to point out this one stat about Meta. 96% of their revenue still comes from advertising. So they're not in a very strong position from a longevity perspective. But it sort of highlights just what a juggernaut this advertising business is. The fact that this company is one of the top 10 most valuable companies in the world. And it's, it's all just from all of that advertising. You talked about how they've been getting into AI which has been massively increasing their ability to accumulate users and also monetize those users. I'm just amazed that Meta is worth this much and making this much money and it's still just a pure play ad business. I just thought that was quite fascinating.

[Scott Galloway]

I mean these companies combined probably have ad driven revenue growth of somewhere between, I don't know, 20 and 40 billion dollars in incremental ad growth. And I had dinner the other a week ago with this iconic broadcast anchor. And this is someone who likely, I don't know what this person makes, but I imagine it's tens of millions of dollars, household name outstanding at what they do.

[Ed Mylett]

You have to tell us.

[Scott Galloway]

No, I can't. I can't in this instance because we're good, good friends and I don't like to prostitute my relationships.

[Ed Mylett]

I'm imagining it's Anderson Cooper and I'll just let you not comment.

[Scott Galloway]

What I will say is it wasn't Anderson Cooper. I have a second friend. I have a second friend now in the media ecosystem. Anyways.

[Ed Mylett]

Oh, Tucker Coulson. Got it. Okay.

[Scott Galloway]

Me and Tucky, yeah, we fisted each other and we were screaming out the ghost of Rick Santorum. I don't know where I got that name. That's an image that's an image anyways. And he said that every contract renewal that's coming up across the biggest anchors, the biggest stars in broadcast television, the conversations are going something like this. As you know, it's a stressed ecosystem. We know you are making 10 million a year. Now we're going to pay you three and a half. And it's directly correlated to these earnings because the economy is growing 3% a year and all of these companies are growing 18%. Ad spending is not up 18%. This has become a bit of a zero sum game. And that is say ad spending is up because it's a strong economy. Say, okay, fine, it's up 5%. Ad spending isn't up 15. So that incremental 10% is coming from somewhere else. And I can tell you where it's coming from. It's coming from, generally speaking, ad supported media, that isn't one of these guys. And so whereas if you hosted the ultimate morning show program, right, and they were just printing money, they could pay HODA, you know, 7 or 10 million a year. And now they're like, hoda, we love you. But revenues are down 30%, profits are down 60%. We're going to pay attuma. And it's like, fuck that. I'll just go drink white wine all day. You know, also, just more generally speaking, I have spoken to two individuals. You know, I like to think I'm trying to be good about my word and I'm coaching young men. I've heard, I've had two men reach out to me and asked to speak to me. And they've both been men who are my age who are both very successful in the media market. And they've either quit or been laid off. And they have no idea what to do right now because the motion picture and television market in Los Angeles, and generally speaking, the media market is really strained. If you're not working for one of a handful of companies that are just killing it. And it strikes me that these folks haven't connected the dots. There is real pain on the other side of these references, revenue numbers. And that is it is a terrible time to be a CBS or an mtv. Does anyone even remember what MTV is? Or newspaper. Newspaper revenue is off 80% in the last 30 years. You know, billboards drive time. If it wasn't for the election, local news stations would be just gone.

[Ed Mylett]

Yeah, that's a great point. And you think about the other beneficiaries of that revenue growth. Where is that advertising going? It's going to the people who are creating content on Instagram and on TikTok and on YouTube. Those are the beneficiaries. Granted, they're not getting multimillion dollar contracts, but the reason you're seeing those millions getting shaved off of the Anderson Coopers of the world is because, frankly, it's going to the Scott Galloway's of the world and people a lot less famous than you, people who are creating content on Instagram, who are making videos, who are commentating on things in the news. There are thousands, probably millions of these people out there who are making a living and who are making real money by creating on the digital platforms. And what I just can't wrap my head around is how those people continue to not be taken seriously by the mainstream media. It's been almost like mainstream media just sort of covers their eyes and pretends like they're still in their heyday. While what's happening is we're seeing the social media companies having this explosion in growth, and meanwhile, legacy media is completely drying up.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, it's really so election night, and I'm bragging right now, but I was asked to appear on a variety of cable networks, right? They want to bring in. They go for 12 hours straight. They have a lot of time to fill. So they're like, oh, bring in the guy on young men. Just tell him not to tell dick jokes, right? So almost every network called and said, do you want to come on? And election night, and the one I chose, I'm going on Amazon with Brian Williams. And that's kind of telling, right? It used to be you go on CNN or Fox or CBS or abc, because those are the high prestige. Now I'm like, no, I'm going with the new guy. And today on Pivot, we interviewed Margaret Brennan, who I just think is so talented and sober. And as I was listening to Margaret, I thought, she's gonna get hired by YouTube or Amazon, and she's going to be positioned with the right technology in the right format in one of these mediums. And she's going to drive so much more economic value for the parent company and herself. And even our little podcast, we just started posting our videos on YouTube. We're now making 40 or $50,000 a month in incremental ads from YouTube just by putting our stuff on YouTube, not.

[Ed Mylett]

To mention all the stuff that's happening on Instagram, where you'll post an Instagram reel and it'll go viral and then you'll get speaking engagement requests. I mean, the flywheel is up and running. It's flying yeah, in social media, one.

[Scott Galloway]

Of the things I've learned over the last 10 years, we're in an attention based economy, full stop. If you can command attention, you can get revenue. Otherwise the person running the firm should be let go. And what you want to find is companies where there's a delta between the two. So newspapers used to get 30% of the advertising and they were getting 10% of the attention. You knew they were in trouble. And the web was getting 30% of time and had 8% advertising. You knew those two were going to true up. Right now the greatest delta in terms of attention to revenues is podcasting. Total consumption is up 15 or 20% and revenues are solid and growing, but they're nowhere near the attention. And in addition, I think if you collapse that with the following, and that is because there are very few ways or increasingly fewer ways for an advertiser to reach you, you're the great white rhino for advertisers. And that is at the age of 26, you're what I would affectionately refer to as stupid. And that is you're in your mating year. So you'll spend 150 bucks on that stupid Crew Net shirt you're wearing. You'll join Soho house, you'll spend $7 on coffee.

[Ed Mylett]

You, on the other hand, would never do any of these things. Things.

[Scott Galloway]

No, no, I'm much more down to earth, Ed. I'm much more. By the way, did I tell you about the Global Express? I flew back here from Miami. Anyways, the. I'm not nearly as superficial as you, Ed. Anyways, but advertisers love young people because they're stupid and they're in their mating years. So they will spend a ton of money on high margin products trying to attract a mate. They are the ultimate target. And the problem is MSNBC's average viewer is aged 70. MTV is like 52 or 54. And you or your cohort is listening to podcasts. So you not only have growth and attention, but you have growth and attention across a group that is increasingly difficult for advertisers to reach. So I think you're going to see in one of my predictions, I'm doing predictions act. I think that podcast revenue is going to grow faster than every digital platform's revenues. Maybe with the exception of TikTok who align claim their numbers are lower. But I think you're going to see next year revenues, ad revenues grow 25% plus. I think 2025 is going to be the year of podcasts busted open by these election or Candidate interviews, attention and advertisers are figuring out the media landscape is dramatically shifting under our feet.

[Ed Mylett]

Let's take a look at the week ahead. We'll see the Fed's interest rate decision for November. We'll also see earnings from Palantir, Novo, Nordisk, Airbnb and Paramount. I doubt we will care about any of that because we'll have bigger fish to fry tomorrow. Scott, your predictions.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, look, it's the election, Ed. I'm predicting that Vice President Harris is going to win the election. The gambling markets say that it's 2 to 1 in favor of Trump. You correctly pointed out that that might be skewed because of these markets over index young men who are much more biased towards Trump. A lot of people think these markets are being manipulated to send a signal of confidence around the Trump campaign. I also want to recognize I have huge confirmation bias here. I'm very emotionally caught up in this. I could not get over, I was happy to get back to London. I don't know if you've noticed it and maybe you don't notice it when you're in boiling water, but I cannot get over how tense things are. I wonder. And again, confirmation bias here that people are just fucking exhausted and think how can I take some of this temperature down and distinct of the policies distinctive, whether perfect is not on the menu. I think a lot of people are going to go, I'd just rather not go back to that shit. Anyways, my prediction, simply put, is that it's not only going to be a Harris win, but I think it's going to be a decisive win. And all of the odds and all of the data say that that's unlikely. But anyways, in sum, I'm predicting that in January of 2025 we're going to inaugurate Vice President Harris.

[Ed Mylett]

People forget how much it sucked. Not from a policy perspective, but from just a day to day discourse perspective. Having that guy plastered over the news, people freaking out about him 24 7. Every single conversation is about politics and about how the US is in decline and whether or not you believe any of that is true. Are you really down for that? To just dominate your life all day, every day for the next four years. That to me is just that was the big nightmare of the Trump presidency is how I just we could never escape him and we had four nice years of some kind of boring politics and I really hope that we can have four more of.

[Scott Galloway]

My favorite thing about Senator Bennett, I did a fundraiser at my place for him and he said. They said, what would you be like as president? Someone asked him. He's like, I'm going to be the president you never hear about. And I thought, Jesus Christ, wouldn't that be refreshing? I absolutely love that he said, I want to be the president you don't think about. I'm going to do the job. I'm not going to say incendiary things. I'm not as charismatic as some of these other people. I'm just going to be the guy that gets the job done. Anyways, I hope that the guy that gets the job done is a she. And I really hope that when I move back to the US it feels less tense, less anxious that we keep this economy going, that young men recognize that their default operating system should be one of protection and that I genuinely do believe that women are under threat here and that men don't recognize how much this could affect us. So I'm hoping, I'm hoping and trusting that some of these things enter people's brains as they enter the voting booth. And I'd also just like to highlight, I acknowledge that a lot of people don't come to this podcast for politics. I endorsed Harris in my newsletter, no mercy, no malice. We had the greatest number of unsubscribes we've ever received. And as I've said before, there's no point in having economic security and people who love you unconditionally if you can't speak your mind. And also to all the people who unsubscribed, I just want to tell you a full refund is coming your way. Why don't you read us out, Ed?

[Ed Mylett]

This episode was produced by Claire Miller and engineered by Benjamin Spencer. Our associate producer is Alison Weiss. Mia Silverio is our research lead, Jessica Lang is our research associate, Drew Burrows is our technical director, and Katherine Dillon is our executive producer. Thank you for listening to Profg Markets from the Vox Media Podcast Network. Join us on Thursday for our unpack on the election with Anthony Scaramucci, only on the Profg Markets feed.