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Knicks-onomics, OpenAI’s S-1, & Apple’s Siri AI 6/9/26
00:39:45
OpenAI has officially joined the IPO race with its confidential S-1 filing, but fellow AI lab Perplexity is planning to go public in 2028, . After the Senate’s vote-a-rama to pass the reconciliation bill that funds immigration enforcement, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) discusses the DC agenda and elections in Texas and Maine. Apple has unveiled Siri AI at its Worldwide Developers Conference, and CNBC’s Dan Murphy reports on President Trump’s confidence in a deal with Iran. Plus, the Spurs may have beat the Knicks in Game 3, but Washington University in St. Louis sports business director Patrick Rishe underscores the importance of the playoffs for NYC’s economy. Murphy - 04:53 Thune - 15:49 Rishe - 36:15 In this episode: Dan Murphy, @dan_murphy Joe Kernen, @JoeSquawk Becky Quick, @BeckyQuick Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Cameron Costa, @CameronCostaNY
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- [00:00]
Joe Kernan
Your data lives everywhere on prem in the cloud across apps. Bring it all together with Everpure, the platform that acts like a living system, delivering the latest in data performance, security and innovation without ever slowing you down. Sophisticated enough to anticipate your ever changing data needs, yet simple enough to feel like second nature. Tame your data chaos with Everpure and make storage and data management the simplest part of your business. Visit everpuredata.com to learn more.
- [00:27]
Becky Quick
Trading at Schwab is now powered by Ameritrade, bringing you an expanding library of education with even more ways to sharpen your trading skills. Access new online courses, insightful webcasts, articles, engaging videos and more, all curated just for traders. Plus guided learning paths with content designed to fit your unique interests and no sifting to find exactly what you need so you can spend your time learning to trade brilliantly. Learn more@schwab.com trading bring in show music please.
- [00:59]
Joe Kernan
This is Squawk Pod and I'm CNBC producer Cameron Costa. On today's episode, OpenAI joins Anthropic and Space X in the race to IPO. But some companies like Perplexity are committing to further out.
- [01:14]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
I'm hearing from a whole number of bankers about a number of companies that were thinking about going public in 2027 that are now thinking about filing confidentially or otherwise before the end of the year.
- [01:27]
Joe Kernan
Senate Majority Leader John Thune on the push to pass the reconciliation bill that funds immigration enforce. Now all that's left is the House.
- [01:36]
Senator John Thune
We had to do it with Republican only votes. It got a little complicated along the way, but we were successful in defeating all the poison pill amendments that would
- [01:45]
Joe Kernan
have taken it down and the Knicks in four. Dream might be over, but New York City is still riding the fandom wave. Director of the sports business program at Washu and St. Louis, Patrick Risch.
- [01:59]
Patrick Risch
Quite a time for the sports economy in New York.
- [02:03]
Joe Kernan
Those conversations plus Apple's Siri AI overhaul and President Trump's confidence in a U.S. iran deal. It is Tuesday, June 9th and Squawk Pod begins right now.
- [02:16]
Senator John Thune
Stand back. You buy in three, two, one, please.
- [02:22]
Joe
Good morning everyone. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on cnbc. We are live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Becky Quick along with Joe Kernan and Andrew Ross Sorkin. And Andrew that confidential filing. Don't know why they call it confidential when they then turn around and tell everybody what they've done.
- [02:40]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Well, let's talk about that filing because open I did file confidentially with government regulators for an ipo. The actual filing itself is confidential insofar as we don't know what's inside of it. The ChatGPT maker did say we recently submitted a confidential S1 we expected to leak. So we're just announcing it. We have not decided on timing yet. It may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it's a complicated set of trade offs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best. The company has been gearing up for public listing as soon as the fourth quarter. Source telling CNBC that OpenAI plan to execute a tender offer that would allow employees to sell shares at the firm's latest valuation of 852 billion. That news coming a week after Anthropic Confidentially filed for its IPO and now of course, just days before SpaceX goes public. So a bit, I think of putting down a marker, Becky, and just saying, look, we may or may not do this. This gives them at least the latitude and opportunity to try to do it. But as, as they said, and I think we've reported there's a lot of sort of house cleanup and other things that I think they want to do before they get to that moment.
- [03:57]
Joe
Probably want to have the opportunity to go out if, if it looks like the market window is closing at any point, if they want to rush on that, that I would guess you want to be around with Space X and all of the other talk that we've got of these big IPOs that are coming. They probably don't want to miss out on that opportunity if they need it.
- [04:13]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Exactly. I mean, that's the. I think there's a big question, by the way. I'm hearing from a whole number of bankers about a number of companies that were thinking about going public in 2027 that are now thinking about filing confidentially or otherwise before the end of the year. I think there's a view that somehow the window is open right now and we'll see how what the reaction ultimately of the SpaceX IPO is. But that that may either make the window even more wide open because it'd be such a success, or potentially close that window if it isn't
- [04:48]
Becky Quick
shifting gears. We're going to talk about Iran now. President Trump says a deal to end the Iran war could be reached within days. CNBC's Dan Murphy joins us now from Abu Dhabi. Dan, good morning.
- [04:59]
Dan Murphy
Good morning, guys. Well, let's start with the money is moving this morning, Becky just flagged this, but we are seeing oil giving back some of yesterday's war premium this morning as the president talks up a deal. President Trump once again declaring a deal with Iran is close, saying he's now in the final throes of an agreement agreement and that the US Will be able to declare total victory soon. But we have heard this before. The president has spent much of the past few months really insisting that a deal was moments away in social media posts and in public appearances and elsewhere. By one count, he's claimed a deal is close on 37 separate occasions. Now this time he went a little further, though, on oil, claiming the Strait of Hormuz could reopen within two or three days once a deal is signed. If that happens, of course, it would be a genuine release valve for crude. Here's the president speaking earlier.
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Becky Quick
We have ongoing negotiations in Iran and with Iran that that hasn't stopped and we could have at least an idea by one or two days from now. But I think it's going well.
- [06:09]
Dan Murphy
President Trump speaking there. The president was also asked about an incident involving an American Apache helicopter near the street of. According to the New York Times, it wasn't immediately clear whether the aircraft suffered mechanical trouble or was shot down by Iran. The president said that the pilots were fine and that a report would be released soon. It's just an important reminder of how dangerous the situation still is and how quickly this could escalate again. So what now? Tehran's Foreign Ministry has told CNBC it will resume its strikes if Israeli forces keep attacking Lebanon. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also saying the war against Iran and Hezbollah has not yet ended. But there has been at least a pause in the fighting to build on markets still really in watch and wait mode to see when this deal to end, the fighting comes forward and if we are going to see maybe a path forward with Iran and when that might actually land. Nobody really pricing in peace completely until we know what this is ultimately going to look like. It's back over to you.
- [07:16]
Becky Quick
Yeah, I'd say, well, let's check the oil markets to see, you know, that's where the rubber meets the road. But the oil market, there's times, Dan, I don't think the oil market knows any more than we know. And it almost seems like they're traders, they're around the world, obviously, and it's a, you know, a collation of all their, of all their thinking. But if nobody really knows, then I don't even know in this case whether you can just Say the market is telling us that's, that's where you can find the truth. I think, you know, with the equity markets, they seem to sniff out economic activity and earnings and everything else. But I don't know commodities, I don't have a high degree of, I mean, I like it when we're below 90, but I don't know if that means the deal is any closer.
- [08:05]
Dan Murphy
Right. Is it a deal? Is it a preliminary framework? Is it an mou? I think the markets are probably signaling that either way, it seems to be a work in progress. The President says, you know, he wants a deal to top Obama's jcpoa. So the details really matter here. I think we need to see what this looks like before markets can genuinely price in de escalation. Of course, oil has come off its highs through the peak of this conflict over the course of the last 100 days or so now trading at much more acceptable levels for the White House. But of course, this White House would like to see oil much lower. I think the question of exactly what happens next when we see the pen actually hitting the piece of paper on the deal is probably the biggest thing that traders are watching right now.
- [08:54]
Becky Quick
Yeah. And then we have how many different groups that we really, you know, who knows what Hezbollah is going to do? And then who knows what, you know, Israel's response to Hezbollah would be and what Iran's response to Israel's response to Hezbollah would be. And in Iran there's obviously there's hardliners, there's people that are involved in the negotiations that are less hardline, I guess. And it's just so many moving parts and so many things can, you know, the slightest thing can throw, you know, a couple of missiles here or there and we're back to, you know, back to the drawing board.
- [09:30]
Dan Murphy
We got a long way to go, put it that way.
- [09:33]
Becky Quick
Yeah, well, get that straight open. All right, thank you, Dan.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
Apple using its Worldwide Developers Conference to roll out a long awaited overhaul of its Siri Assistant. The more conversational Siri will be branded Siri AI. Apple also unveiling the next generation of its Apple intelligence technology built on models that were developed with Google. Privacy was a very big theme. Apple emphasizing that user data processed by Apple Intelligence won't be stored by or accessible to the company. The software updates will launch along with new software that's coming this fall. But Siri AI won't be available in Europe and in China because of regulatory issues. Now Apple shares fell during CEO Tim Cook's keynote address. They ended the day down about 2% and that seems to be par for the course. I don't know if you guys just look over the years for whatever reason prior to these big, big announcements, the stock sometimes takes a nice little run up and then dips in the, in the aftermath. But then the sales outpace, whatever, whatever people feel about the actual, the actual technology itself. But I thought it was interesting. I don't know. Did you guys watch?
- [10:45]
Joe
I, I only saw bits and pieces of it. I didn't watch the whole thing live.
- [10:50]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
No, it's pretty, I mean it's pretty cool. A lot of it's on device. It can pick through your text messages, it can pick through your photos. You can say, hey, I can't remember, you know, last week I was somewhere, can you show me a picture of, you know, my daughter? Or this or that and we'll just go find it or hey, do you remember when somebody mentioned to me about some restaurant, I can't remember the restaurant. And then we'll go find the text message that was sent to you six months earlier. I mean it's, it's, it's kind of closer to what it was supposed to be many, many years ago. Some of it's still somewhat limited and it's going to be very interesting to see whether people use that in place of things like ChatGPT or Claude, because they do have their own app now and so you can partially be chatting with it the same way you would be through it through a chatbot or you can talk to it like you could.
- [11:45]
Becky Quick
Currently I haven't used Siri in years. In fact, if I set my phone down in my car the wrong way and I hear her, it's like, oh, so that's, that's not a bad response to have. When I hear. Not a good response, but maybe, yeah, give her another, give another shot, give her another. It's not nice to be close minded like that. AI firm Perplexity Planning to go public in 2028 regardless of how the market receives the listings of Anthropic and open air. Perplexity CEO spoke with CNBC. He said he believes it's important for the AI industry that SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI have strong market debuts, adding he thinks that those IPOs will go well. SpaceX is expected to be in trading on the NASDAQ on Friday and that should be interesting.
- [12:41]
Joe
Yeah, I wonder why, why lock in that. You're going to wait till, you know, you don't know what market conditions will be. You don't know how, how soon you might need money if costs ramp up earlier.
- [12:52]
Becky Quick
I mean, I literally thought about checking that and whether it was a fat finger. You know what I mean? Trying to hit a six and hit an eight. Yeah. Or a seven.
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Joe
Right. Yeah. It seems like an odd thing.
- [13:02]
Becky Quick
Take your word for it. Yeah.
- [13:03]
Joe
Okay.
- [13:06]
Senator John Thune
Cheese will be next.
- [13:07]
Joe Kernan
Coming up on the reconciliation bill's journey through the Senate. Now it's the House's turn to vote on funding for immigration enforcement. Plus the elections underway around the country with Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
- [13:21]
Senator John Thune
The fact that it takes days, literally days, to be able to count votes in a state like California when there are other states around the country who do that very quickly and get an outcome and a result. It's incompetence, if nothing else.
- [13:36]
Becky Quick
At Venture Global, we think about what
- [13:39]
Patrick Risch
can be done, not what's usually done through innovation.
- [13:43]
Becky Quick
Venture Global is not only building some
- [13:46]
Patrick Risch
of the largest energy facilities in the world right here in the United States, but delivering American energy at a fraction
- [13:53]
Becky Quick
of the cost and a fraction of the time. So while others are busy talking, we're busy building.
- [13:59]
Senator John Thune
That's Venture Global.
- [14:01]
Patrick Risch
That's unstoppable energy.
- [14:07]
Joe Kernan
My community gives me the confidence to
- [14:09]
Joe
ask myself, what would you like the power to do?
- [14:13]
Joe Kernan
So every time I'm on the pitch,
- [14:15]
Joe
I play for more than myself.
- [14:17]
Patrick Risch
Oh, what a tackle from Naomi Girma.
- [14:21]
Becky Quick
Absolutely brilliant.
- [14:22]
Joe
Bank of America champions U.S. women's national
- [14:25]
Joe Kernan
team member Naomi Girma and everyone who
- [14:27]
Joe
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- [14:36]
Joe Kernan
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- [14:48]
Dan Murphy
Hmm.
- [14:48]
Joe Kernan
That's music to my ears. I can only talk.
- [14:52]
Senator John Thune
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- [15:09]
Joe Kernan
welcome back to Squawkpod from CNBC. The $70 billion reconciliation bill passed the Senate after an 18 hour votorama. Now it's moving through the House, where voting is set to begin today. The legislation would fund ICE and the Customs and Border Protection through 2029, if it passes. Also on the D.C. radar, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance act that's expiring this Friday, the Senate vote to confirm or not, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the elections around the country like in Maine and in Texas.
- [15:43]
Joe
Here's Joe.
- [15:44]
Becky Quick
Joining us now on the latest from Capitol Hill and all the news, Senator John Thune of South Dakota. He serves as Senate Majority Leader. Leader Thune, thanks for joining us this morning.
- [15:56]
Senator John Thune
Good morning, Joe.
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Becky Quick
Finally did it. It's even called a Votorama, isn't it? Votorama. What would you call the journey to finally get immigration enforcement? What would you call it? And how do you explain it and what did either side get out of that? What would you call it? It was a long, strange. I mentioned Grateful Dead yesterday. What a long, strange trip it's been.
- [16:28]
Senator John Thune
It is indeed that, Joe. And you know, the marathon at the end, the Votorama which went on for, I don't know, 15, 18 hours, something like that, is at the end of every reconciliation process. But unfortunately we had to use that because Democrats wouldn't fund ICE and CBP through the normal appropriations process. So we had to do it with Republican only votes. It got a little complicated along the way, but we were successful in defeating all the poison pill amendments that would have taken it down. And this week, hopefully the House will vote on it, put it on the president's desk and we'll get those important law enforcement agencies funded. But it is really unfortunate we had to resort to this. I mean, the Democrat mantra now is defund the police, open borders. And we're seeing more evidence of that this week as they block now the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance act reauthorization, which is critical, a critical tool that our intelligence agencies use to keep Americans safe.
- [17:25]
Becky Quick
Yeah, there's a lot of nuance and ramifications. And I want to stick with this immigration topic. There are some senators that are actually talking about Mark Wayne Mullen's plan, which, which seems drastic, and Democrats hairs on fire about the possibility of not allowing DHS and CBP employees in sanctuary city international airports. I mean, we're talking about some major cities, Senator. Boston, Chicago, Denver, L.A. philadelphia. There's some support. I don't know if you've weighed in on whether that would be something that you would be that you think is necessary at this point.
- [18:06]
Senator John Thune
I've heard it suggested, Joe. Obviously, I think there is a high level of frustration at the sanctuary city policies and what they are doing to a lot of our major cities in this country. And I think the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Mullen obviously are coming up with ideas that they think would help at least incentivize a lot of these cities to start behaving in a way that doesn't give sanctuary to criminal illegal aliens in this country. That's one idea that's out there. A number of them that are out there. But frankly, I think the sanctuary city policy coupled with defund the police, coupled with open borders, these are just Democrat policies right now that are anti law enforcement and frankly are dangerous with respect to a lot of America's biggest cities and ensuring that those communities and those streets are safe and secure for people who live there. So you know, we've got to do something about sanctuary cities. Now whether that's an approach that makes sense, I haven't given a lot of consideration to that yet. I think it's probably there are a lot of issues that have to be addressed, but I do think there are, it's one among many ideas that are designed to at least disincentivize a lot of these big cities in this country to continue these policies that are, that are giving, you know, safety and home to a lot of criminal illegal aliens.
- [19:25]
Becky Quick
And Senator, we, we've been talking about voter integrity in reference to, you know, what's happened in California and I don't know, I know there's a lot of other fraud that goes on out there. So I don't know what went on with the voting process. They have a bizarre system to try to, to count for all the votes. But you saw what the President said, you see some of the stuff. Maybe it's conspiracy theories online, but should there be a question in Americans minds about, about that? And I feel your pain, Leader Thune, with the SAVE Act. If you don't have the votes, you can't do it, but you're not going to get any Democratic support on that. What is the problem with, what is their position as to why that doesn't make sense to show voter id? And I can think of some good reasons why you wouldn't want to if you were a Democrat. But this isn't the way that it should be done. How do we strengthen our notion that voting has integrity in this country? Right.
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Senator John Thune
Well and I think that's a question for the Democrats who block voted against the very simple issue of voter ID which put on the floor now a couple of different times. We've had the entire Save America act on the floor a couple of times too, but we've had the specific rifle shot vote, if you will, on whether or not you have to show a photo to vote in this country. And every single Democrat voted against it. And it does beg the question. And you see a state like California and Joe, you always hear about states being the laboratories of democracy. And if there are lessons learned from some of these states like California, it's that this is a really stupid way to run elections because it undermines the confidence and trust that people in California and across the country have in those elections. Now, frankly, you have to prove if there was cheating, and clearly that's something that you would have to do in California or anywhere else for that matter. But the fact that it takes days, literally days to be able to count votes in a state like California when there are other states around the country who do that very quickly and get an outcome and a result, it's incompetence, if nothing else. And you know, whether or not there was actual rigging is something that have to be proven. But clearly this is a system in California that doesn't work and doesn't inspire confidence and trust in voters by the voters.
- [21:49]
Becky Quick
Senator, there's a. The motor voter law. California AB 60 automatically registers citizens to vote when they get a driver's license. And undocumented immigrants get AB60 driver's licenses. It's supposed to be screened out that they're not able to be registered to vote. But already we know in the past at least 100,000 erroneous voter registrations got through in California. I don't think will allow a federal audit at this point to know what's going on. Are you going to be. Is there any way to get in there and actually know what's happening in California? We know about Medi California and how you can sort of. I think the big beautiful bill tried to get to close some of those loopholes, but there's things going on in California that the federal government is not even allowed to really look at. Right.
- [22:41]
Senator John Thune
And part of the Save America Act, Joe, is not just ID show to ID to vote because a driver's license, like you said, could do that, but also showing actual citizenship to be able to register to vote, to get on the rolls in the first place. So those are both safeguards that would help safeguard our elections in this country. All of which, as I said before, Democrats in the Senate have block voted against, but you have to if California. And I think that, you know, anytime there's a federal nexus, yes, there is a. There'd be federal oversight in most cases at least. We have reserved the right to manage and run elections to the individual states. But California clearly has a system that does not work, as is evidenced. And demonstrated every time there's an election in California and it drags on for days on end and voters, you know, the vote comes in and voters across California and across the country are skeptical and question the outcome and the results there, they've got to fix their process. But to the degree that there is a role for, you know, federal oversight, obviously we would take a look at that.
- [23:42]
Becky Quick
Yeah. I don't know if you've weighed in. I wanted to ask you myself and you feel free to answer or any way you like, leader, which you do, obviously. But the whole situation in Texas with, with John Cornyn and I know that you know that probably in your view that he might have been a better candidate, I don't know. I'm not going to put words in your mouth. And then just overall, the Senate it is, the betting odds have flipped back to the Republicans slightly at this point. But there's a situation in Maine, there's a situation in Texas. Can you just comment on all those, all those issues, Senator? Right.
- [24:23]
Senator John Thune
Well, it's a, it is an even numbered year and we've had an election every even numbered year going back 250 years now. So you're going to have a lot of these fights in different states. And clearly the map in the Senate this time, it puts the Senate up for grabs, if you will. But we feel confident we've got quality candidates in all the key states where we're going to have competitive races. We intend to make sure that they're well resourced. And if they are, in spite of the political and economic headwinds that we might be facing, I think our candidates can do well and we can preserve and protect our majority of the United States Senate. We're even focused on winning some seats. They're Democrat held seats right now, Joe. And so you've got to be playing offense a couple of places and we've got a couple of states on the map where we're doing that. But, you know, at the end of the day, it's going to be up to the voters. But I would argue that the Senate is the firewall. And if you want to get any judicial nominees, executive branch nominees across the finish line in the next two years in the Trump administration, you have to have a Republican majority in the United States Senate. And so I think as people go to vote this year, they'll be voting a lot of issues and pocketbook issues will be a big part of that. Those issues always are front and center for voters and we need to make sure that we're talking about and addressing those. But I also think safe streets, you know, borders that are safe and you know, neighborhoods that are safe is going to be a big issue. And that's one, as we talked about earlier, on which the Democrats are completely out of step with the American people.
- [25:52]
Becky Quick
Senator, I don't know whether, you know, what you think of a Senator Paxton and I mean, he's going to be the nominee. I guess you do support him. But if there was criticism of him and people say, well, the Republicans just, you know, they want to make sure they keep that seat so they'll back paxt then is it, is that the same as what's happening in Maine that Democrats want, you know, they want to, they want that seat so badly, I think they twist themselves into a pretzel to support anyone they ran up there with. What we've seen recently, is that analogous what's happening in Texas? What's happening in Maine?
- [26:31]
Senator John Thune
Well, to my knowledge, Ken Paxton has not have Nazi tattoos or sympathetic to Nazis. I think that is a, there is a clear obviously distinction there. And the voters in the state of Texas are going to have to decide who they want there. We want Ken Pax in there. We think keeping Texas red is good for the country. It preserves the majority in the United States Senate, state of Maine, that voters there are going to have to make a decision. They've got a primary today, but this guy has a ton of liabilities and you know, a misogynist Nazi is. If that's what the Democrat Party in this country wants to endorse and subscribe to, they've got a candidate for that. But we think that Susan Collins will win re election there based upon her record of accomplishment and the way that she represents and serves the people of Maine. Each of those states are different, going to be treated differently. But I'm confident we win in Texas and I'm also confident we win in Maine.
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Joe
How much money do you plan to spend defending each of those seats?
- [27:31]
Senator John Thune
Well, Becky, you know a couple things about that. Obviously we identified early on we knew we were going to be in Maine, Texas, a different scenario obviously. And we're certainly hopeful that the president and his allies will weigh in heavily in the state of Texas. It's a very expensive state. But the Democrat nominee down there is a far left liberal on so many levels and completely, I think out of step with certainly a majority of voters in the state of Texas. And he will have to be that will, he will have to be defined through the course of this election. That's going to take resources but there are lots of folks out there who are going to be invested in retaining a Republican majority in the United States Senate. We will be specifically focused, as I said, on a number of states that we have identified where we've got competitive races and of course Maine being one of those. But we're hoping that there will be others who step in and help in places like Texas.
- [28:23]
Becky Quick
Senator, I can't remember exactly how many votes Kevin Warsh got the first time around. I mean, you're going to do you think Todd Blanche is possibly could get confirmation? You won't get any Senate, you won't get any Democrats. You know that you think you've got enough Republicans for that for him to become permanent aggressive?
- [28:45]
Senator John Thune
Well, the one thing that we will ensure and he worked closely during with us during reconciliation, he's obviously, you know, he's experienced, he's been serving there. And obviously we will ensure that he gets a fair process. Senator Grassley chairs the Judiciary Committee. He would have to come through that committee, you know, for to be reported out to the floor and then the confirmation vote on the floor would follow. And obviously we will ensure that he has a fair process. He'll have to make his arguments. And I think the one thing that, you know, obviously people are paying a lot of attention to is this question around the weaponization fund and the questions that he's answered around that already will, I would expect, will continue to be a factor through the course of the confirmation process. But clearly experienced and qualified. And as I said, he's somebody that many of us have worked with. And so we will ensure that he gets a fair shot and and a confirmation if he comes out of the committee, a vote on the floor. Now, how many votes he gets on the floor is a remains to be seen. But my expectation is we wouldn't bring him to the floor unless we thought we could win.
- [29:50]
Becky Quick
And just real quick, will there will you be behind another reconciliation bill if Speaker Johnson pushes one?
- [29:58]
Senator John Thune
We are obviously open to that, Joe. You know, Clearly a reconciliation 3.0 is something that's been considered and talked about. There have to be a specific reason for doing it and you have to ensure that you've got 218 in the house and 50 votes in the Senate for it. These have become increasingly hard as we've gotten into this year and a few of these primaries have gotten behind us. There are votes that are harder to get now in the Senate on some of these things, but we did fend off a lot of really bad poison pill amendments last week on the last reconciliation bill. What happens on the next one remains to be seen, but we are, we're not ruling it out. Let me put it that way. Open to it, but also recognizing it has some, some serious challenges ahead of it if we get another reconciliation bill on the floor of the Senate.
- [30:44]
Becky Quick
Great. Senator, thanks for all your time this morning and hope to see you again in the near future.
- [30:49]
Senator John Thune
Good to be with you all. Thanks, Jill. See you.
- [30:51]
Becky Quick
Okay.
- [30:54]
Joe Kernan
Coming up on Squawk Pod, the New York Knicks. The spurs may have prevailed in game three, but the real winner of the playoffs that would be New York City itself. Director of the Sport Sports business program at WashU in St. Louis, Patrick Risch is up next.
- [31:08]
Patrick Risch
It's impacting the stock value of Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. It's impacting spending at restaurants, hotels in New York City. And I'm in Los Angeles. I was at a sports bar last night, and there are a lot of Knicks fans.
- [31:21]
Joe Kernan
We'll be right back.
- [31:23]
Becky Quick
At Venture Global, we think about what
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Patrick Risch
can be done, not what's usually done through innovation.
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Becky Quick
Venture Global is not only building some
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Patrick Risch
of the largest energy facilities in the world world right here in the United States, but delivering American energy at a
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Becky Quick
fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time. So while others are busy talking, we're busy building.
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Senator John Thune
That's Venture Global.
- [31:49]
Patrick Risch
That's unstoppable energy.
- [31:53]
Joe Kernan
I'm honored to make history and to make my community proud.
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Becky Quick
What a brilliant tackle from Naomi Kamari.
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Joe
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Patrick Risch
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Patrick Risch
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Senator John Thune
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Patrick Risch
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- [32:43]
Joe Kernan
Welcome back to Squawk Pod with Joe Kernan, Becky Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Here's Andrew.
- [32:49]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
The San Antonio spurs, reigning on New York's parade as the NBA Finals return to Madison Square Garden for the final first time in 27 years. It was quite the game. The Knicks dropping game three at home. The final score, 115 to 111. Spurs star really just killed it. Contributing 32 points, the Knicks now lead the series two to one. Uh, with game four set for tomorrow night. And we should mention the last night's crowd, uh, filled with high profile Fans, including President Trump, who became the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game. There he is. Lots of traffic in New York, lots of folks running around. And unfortunately the idea of this happening all in four games. Becky. And winning in New York doesn't seem like it's in the cards anymore.
- [33:43]
Becky Quick
If you just say, if you just say Victor, people know who you're talking about. Andrew. So you could have just said Victor. Yeah, he's a gamer.
- [33:52]
Joe
Victoria. This is her best performance in this part of the series.
- [33:56]
Becky Quick
32 points.
- [33:58]
Joe
He made three back to back mistakes at the very end of game two, but this one, he came back and he was.
- [34:04]
Becky Quick
I don't know if you called that shot a mistake though. I mean he missed the shot.
- [34:08]
Joe
He missed the.
- [34:08]
Becky Quick
Well, it was like pretty far out.
- [34:10]
Joe
Yeah, it was from far out, but it was okay. Look, he made the pass. That was a bad pass. And then he.
- [34:15]
Becky Quick
I wish the guy would have turned
- [34:16]
Joe
around and found Brunson immediately. And that put Brunson on the line and let him to score two. He missed the last shot, so it wasn't a mistake.
- [34:21]
Becky Quick
But, but the, the reason they were back in was because of that impassioned sideline.
- [34:26]
Joe
True. When he gets fired up, it's, it's, it's something to see. And look, the, the Knicks got some bad calls last night. I only watched the first time I
- [34:33]
Becky Quick
heard they got bad calls the, the previous game too. M. That, that I didn't see as
- [34:39]
Joe
many bad calls the previous game. I watched all of game two.
- [34:42]
Becky Quick
I watched half of you saw some last night.
- [34:44]
Joe
I watched the first half of last
- [34:45]
Becky Quick
night before at 9 o', clock, didn't
- [34:47]
Joe
it, it was 8:30.
- [34:48]
Becky Quick
Did it start at 8:30 a little later?
- [34:50]
Joe
Maybe 8:40.
- [34:51]
Becky Quick
Mess around.
- [34:52]
Joe
But it, it look they, they played incredibly well, I have to say. I just want the best team to win because I like a lot of the players on both, both these teams, Brunson and Cat. And by the way, Cat was pretty unbelievable because the Knicks coach last night was saying it was all these bad calls that did it. Cat said it was the turnovers, that it was their own fault that they didn't do what they did in the last 13 games. And you know, that takes a lot to stand up and say something like that.
- [35:17]
Becky Quick
I saw something on Twitter. You can hear the ref too. And one of the, I think Mike
- [35:23]
Joe
Brown said, Mike Brown said it was the three.
- [35:25]
Becky Quick
He said to the ref, he goes, you called it a foul and then you called it traveling. And the ref goes, yeah, you got me. There, right? Yeah, I miss that. But they're human too.
- [35:38]
Joe
They are. And look, it's been an unbelievable run with both these teams. We'll see what happens with this. But Andrew, you're right. They're not going to win it in four. Be able to win here in New York. I think as basketball fans, I'd rather see it stretch on longer.
- [35:50]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
That's what we wanted.
- [35:51]
Joe
Yeah, exactly. You want a real series. Big Apple is the big winner. New York City Mayor Zoram Mamdani estimates that the Knicks post season run may generate as much as $465 million for the city. Joining us right now is Patrick Risch who is director of the sports business program at Wash U St. Louis. He's also the founder and CEO of Sports Impacts. That's a consulting and analysis firm. Patrick, it's not just New York City that's a big winner here, but because of the teams that are involved, because of the personalities that are involved, there's a lot riding on this. How do you kind of value this overall?
- [36:32]
Patrick Risch
Well, certainly it's great for the NBA. The NBA walks away the biggest winner. I feel they're in a great wave of momentum right now with some of the great stars in the sport. But we're seeing, we're being reminded after decades of not having the Knicks be in their front running for a championship that when New York is involved, it certainly piques the interest. It's impacting the stock value of Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. It's impacting spending at restaurants, hotels in New York City. And I'm in Los Angeles. I was at a sports bar last night and there are a lot of Knicks fans here in Los Angeles. So you're seeing this impact. There are a lot of New Yorkers all across the country. So there's a, an impact. There's a wave all across. But the biggest winner, Becky, in my opinion is really the NBA. It just continues to fuel the fire of this, this, this place where we now are, where basketball is the number two sport in this country behind the NFL.
- [37:25]
Joe
Yeah, it probably helps that to have the spurs have knocked off Oklahoma City. Right. To not have the same repeat team back in this as well.
- [37:35]
Patrick Risch
Well, Becky, not only that, but of course if you compare last year we had the Thunder versus the Indiana Pacers, two small. And we want to see the best teams there and they were the best teams last year. However, it absolutely makes a difference when you have a large market team, whether it's New York, whether it's LA, whether it's Chicago in the Finals, you're seeing a 90% increase in viewership already this year compared to last year, the Highest rating since 2018. And then the sports betting activity, Becky, this is the interesting thing. So we haven't seen numbers out yet, specifically with the handle, the total action on these particular games, but you know that with New York involved and also the fervor of this could be the first championship since 1973, that the numbers are going to be larger. Interesting enough, Becky, is because both of these teams, the Knicks and the spurs, were not heavy favorites to get to this point in the season. The bookie in the book making market in Vegas, their futures market is probably going to take a huge hit because these teams were major underdogs. Even to get to this point, it
- [38:39]
Joe
is kind of amazing. The ads strike me as being super bowl worthy. Some of these ads have been pretty fantastic. And I think Disney has sold out out of inventory for quite a while now.
- [38:49]
Patrick Risch
Absolutely. Again, it just goes to show you, when you have this exogenous factor, like a team, especially a large market team, a team, quite frankly, that's been, to use an athletic term, dog for years. And Dolan has been the subject and the brunt of many jokes of sportscasters and sports pundits and fans alike. Because being in the largest market where you're able to pay one of the higher payrolls and you haven't seen the success for this to now turn around the way it has to get over some of the hurdles, they're not there yet, but I think there's this enthusiasm which will impact the finances of the team going forward because the success this year will lead to higher ticket prices next year. Probably be able to get better corporate partnership deals next year because of the increased enthusiasm around Knicks basketball.
- [39:36]
Joe
And does that same glow? You said the NBA is the biggest winner here. Does that glow last for them as well in order to try and get better deals when they go up for television rights again?
- [39:48]
Patrick Risch
Well, absolutely. And again, these things are always fickle. You know, the Knicks are the third largest franchise value in the league, around 9.6 billion, according to the most recent estimates. One and two, warriors and Lakers, warriors and Lakers. And part of the reason why the warriors are where they are is because, of course, they have this tremendous run of four championships in six years. But on top of that, they have a newer venue. But when you have a situation where you've got that momentum, you don't want to put too much stock in. Okay? If the Knicks win the championship, their franchise value goes up by 30% may not do that, but you're going to see higher ticket prices next year, greater corporate partnership dollars and for the NBA, Becky. Absolutely. They want to cash in. They see the numbers, right. They see the higher ratings, they see the betting activity, which is a sign of greater interest when you see those metrics. They absolutely want to do what they can to now play up those, those factors. The Knicks will be on more primetime games next year regardless of the outcome of these finals.
- [40:50]
Joe
I guess what people really want to see is a real series though. It's probably good news that the spurs won last night to make sure that this isn't a four game sweep. Ticket sales before last night's games in Madison Square Garden. Those nosebleed seats had originally been going for $10,000. I saw one sold for $6,000 yesterday. So ticket prices came down. Maybe they go back up on the idea that this is real series.
- [41:18]
Patrick Risch
Becky. I tell you what, if this goes to six or seven games, everything goes up. The secondary market prices go up, the sports gambling goes up and obviously the ratings go up again. Everyone wins. The NBA wins, local restaurants in New York. Seeing more fans spend money, win, it's going to be very exciting. And boy, what a great series so far. There's back and forth. I was just thinking to myself, in the sports betting market you have this in game betting and the betting action is taking place during the game and the wild fluctuations and swings of how the dollars are coming down because of the swings in the game action where the spurs have had double digit leads in every game, only for the Knicks to wipe that away. It's got to be fascinating and breathtaking and a little bit getting a little bit antsy if you're the bookmakers watching these games.
- [42:09]
Joe
Yeah. It has been interesting to see who's in the crowd, all star lineup for every single one of these games.
- [42:18]
Patrick Risch
Absolutely. You know, every time I see Timothee Chalamet, I laugh. I go, this kid looks like he's a teenager. Right. Ben Stiller looks like he could be his dad. I think he could be his dad. Right. But at any rate, no, it's been great fun, great theater. And what a time for New York City. Right. Obviously with the World cup right around the corner and they're going to be hosting games there where the economic impact of visitor doll coming in to the city to watch those games is going to be something else. So quite a time for the sports economy in New York.
- [42:48]
Joe
All right, Patrick, thank you.
- [42:52]
Joe Kernan
That's squawk pod for today. Thank you. For listening. Squawk Box is hosted by Joe Kernan, Becky Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin weekday mornings on cnbc starting at 6am Eastern. To get the best parts of that tea TV show right into your ears, please follow Squawk Pod wherever you're listening now. We'll meet you right back here tomorrow. Have a great day.
- [43:14]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
We are clear.
- [43:16]
Senator John Thune
Thanks guys.
- [43:26]
Becky Quick
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