Unknown (4:35)

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Brian McCullough (4:43)

Core Weave says it has agreed to acquire Bitcoin miner Core scientific in a $9 billion all stock deal set to close in Q4 2025 to expand its AI data center capacity. Quoting Bloomberg Core Scientific has been one of the top bitcoin mining companies that build large scale data centers and use energy intensive computers to mint the original cryptocurrency the miner went bankrupt amid a plunge in digital assets, but emerged out of it in January of last year after Bitcoin saw a sharp rebound and started the pivot to AI. The company became one of the main data center infrastructure providers for CoreWeave, leveraging some of its existing data center capacities and access to large amounts of power. Coreweave made a prior advance last year when it offered to buy Core scientific for about $1 billion. At the time, the company has also announced a series of 12 year contracts under which Core Scientific will deliver about 200 megawatts of infrastructure to host CoreWeave's operations. Shares of Core Scientific have soared on its contracts with the AI firm as well as CoreWeave's attempt to acquire the miner. The stock is up 110% since Bloomberg reported in June 2024 that CoreWeave made the earlier billion dollar offer. The deal will give CoreWeave access to about 1.3 gigawatts of power from Core Scientific's data center fleet. A gigawatt is akin to the capacity from one nuclear reactor and can provide electricity to roughly 750,000 houses. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Oracle and OpenAI struck an agreement for 4.5 gigawatts worth of data center capacity, end quote. Now I'll say again that it seems to me the people with money seem to feel that we are nowhere near the end of demand for AI capacity. Now I know the definition of a bubble popping is that everybody thinks the horizon is endless and everything is going to the moon until the very moment that everyone doesn't, all at the same time. That could still happen, but I mean as of right now it's not just tech. This is rising. A lot of boats Grok this from the FT quote. US Industrial companies are pivoting into the data center market to boost growth, seeking a share of the hundreds of billions of dollars flooding into the sector as part of the artificial intelligence boom. Gates Industrial and Generac are part of a coterie of publicly listed companies that are increasing efforts to build and sell specialist equipment, which includes backup power generators and cooling pumps designed for so called hyperscalers such as Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft. Honeywell, a $153 billion North Carolina based industrial giant that produces products from airplane engines to warehouse robots, is also trying to tap the fast growing data center market with its cooling solutions. We're seeing supersonic growth on the back of AI and in general over the past three the price that you can get from the data center customer has been stronger than the price elsewhere, said Chris Snyder and analyst at Morgan Stanley. It comes after other US listed groups such as Caterpillar, Cummins and Johnson Controls have capitalized on the data center boom at a time when economic uncertainty and trade barriers erected under US President Donald Trump have weighed on spending by customers in manufacturing and the commercial real estate market. Spending on data centers has proven resilient, with analysts anticipating that more than $400 billion will be spent on the build out of the infrastructure in the current FISC year, according to Gartner. Hyperscalers make up more than three quarters of this expenditure, with spending predicted to grow next year. Vimal Kapoor, Honeywell's chief executive, told investors during a recent earnings call the company was focused on pivoting into higher growth verticals such as data centers. Those segments are growing regardless of the current conditions, he said. Honeywell has in the past 18 months started to focus on providing controls for hybrid cooling systems to data centers and has experienced double digit growth in sales of their new hybrid controller for data centers and similar applications. Colorado based Gates Industrial, a manufacturer of equipment for the heavy duty trucking industry, has in the past year started to push into the market, designing pipes and pumps used to circulate coolant around server racks, a key component at a time when Nvidia's most advanced Blackwell chips for AI model training and applications mandate liquid cooling.

Unknown (8:50)

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Brian McCullough (8:58)

The Information says that TikTok plans to launch a new app version on September 5, ahead of the US's September 17 divest or ban enforcement deadline. Apparently, all US users will be required to switch to this new app. The company has developed a plan to launch the new TikTok app, known internally as M2, to US app stores on September 5, according to two people familiar with the knowledge of the matter. The existing TikTok app is known internally as M. Under the plan, TikTok users will eventually have to download the new app to be able to continue using the service. Although the existing app will work until March of next year, the effort to migrate the app's 170 million US users to a new app comes as the Trump administration says it is getting close to an agreement for the sale of TikTok's US operations, allowing the app to continue operating in the US. Under that deal, a consortium of non Chinese investors, including Oracle, is expected to buy TikTok's US business, while the app's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is expected to retain a minority stake. The Chinese government has to approve any deal, however, which remains the biggest hurdle. It's highly unusual for an app with a large following to ask users to download a separate new app, and the move would risk losing users. But a new TikTok app could potentially help address some of the data security concerns about the app. One of the people with knowledge of the situation said it couldn't be learned whether building a new version of TikTok for US users was something the Trump administration or the investors involved in the deal had explicitly required. The next deadline for the US to enforce the ban law is September 17, less than two weeks after the new TikTok app is set to launch. On the day of the anticipated Launch, the existing TikTok app will be removed from the app stores and users will be directed to the new version, though it's unclear how that nudge will be communicated. The existing app is slated to be shut down in the US in March 2026, though timelines could change. One of the people with knowledge of the situation said the project to build a new version of TikTok is a massive engineering undertaking, and getting all of TikTok's users in the US to move over to a new app, bringing their profiles with them could pose technical issues in practice, the person said. While no deal to sell TikTok has been made official yet, Trump has suggested that an announcement is imminent. Late Friday, he told reporters on Air Force One that the US Was close to a deal for a group to buy TikTok's US operations and that the administration would start talking to Chinese authorities in the next week, a person familiar with the matter said. The group of investors involved in the deal has been finalizing the legal and financial details with ByteDance in recent months, and the group expects it will be announced when the Chinese government approves the sale, though it's not clear when that will happen. An earlier plan to announce the deal in April was thrown off after Trump imposed steep tariffs on China.

Unknown (11:36)

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Brian McCullough (11:45)

If you're not investing for your retirement, what's holding you back? Today's episode is sponsored by Acorns. Acorns is a financial wellness app that makes it easy to start investing for your retirement, because the sooner you start, the more of a chance your money has to grow. You don't need to be an expert. Acorns recommends a diversified IRA portfolio that can help you weather all of the market's ups and downs. You don't need to be rich. Acorns lets you get started with the money you've got right now. You'd be surprised at what just $5 a day could do, plus sign up for Acorns Gold and you'll get a 3% IRA match on new contributions in your first year. That's extra money for your retirement on Acorns. Saving money is actually easy to do if you just do it on the regs. Sign up now and join the over 1 million all time customers who have already saved and invested over $2.2 billion for their retirement with Acorns. Head to acorns.com ride or download the Acorns app to get started. Paid non client endorsement compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns Tier one compensation provided investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors LLC and SEC Registered Investment Advisor View Important disclosures@acorns.com ride as a small business owner, you don't have the luxury of clocking out early. Your business is on your mind 24 7, so when you're hiring you need a partner that works just as hard as you do. That hiring partner is the same one I've used my entire career. It's LinkedIn jobs when you clock out, LinkedIn clocks in. LinkedIn makes it easy to post your job for free, share it to your network and get qualified candidates that you can manage all in1place. LinkedIn's newest feature can help you write job descriptions and then quickly get your job in front of the right people with deep candidate insights. Either post your job for free or pay to promote, because promoted jobs get three times more qualified applicants. And at the end of the day, the most important thing to your small business is the quality of candidates. And with LinkedIn you can feel confident you're getting the best. Based on LinkedIn data, 72% of small and medium businesses using LinkedIn say that LinkedIn helps them find high quality candidates. Find out why more than two and a half million small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring today. Post your job for free@LinkedIn.com ride that's LinkedIn.com ride to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Found a bit of a long read over the weekend that I wanted to share with you. I don't know if you remember this, but in 2013, Google had an effort to build Motorola smartphones in the U.S. fortune spoke with former Google staff and others to detail why that effort failed as President Trump pushes Apple to make iPhones in the U.S. again, it is a long read, but the gist is this. Through its acquisition of Motorola Mobility In 2013, Google launched the Moto X, a customizable Android phone assembled in a Fort Worth, Texas plant. Executives framed the project as a patriotic moonshot promising faster delivery, local jobs and a symbolic challenge to Apple's China centric supply chain. The Moto X stood out with features like voice control and bespoke finishes, including wood backings and personalized engravings. Google hoped customization combined with US Production would create a competitive edge. No? The strategy quickly hit economic and logistical roadblocks. Labor costs were higher and production challenges required importing skilled engineers from around the world. But basically, despite early excitement and a visit from Texas Governor Rick Perry, the phone's sales lagged far behind expectations. Only 900,000 units sold in Q1 of 2014 compared to Apple's 26 million iPhones. Basically, Made in the US was not something that got people to buy. Google slashed the Moto X's price, trimmed staff at the plant, and by early 2014 sold Motorola to Lenovo for $2.9 billion. The Fort Worth factory closed months later. Former insiders now point to low sales and flawed assumptions, not US assembly, as the real culprits for the failure of the effort. But let me quote this last bit. Adding thousands of workers on short notice to speed up production of a device, getting more sales than anticipated would be next to impossible to do in the US In China, it's routine. If there was a ramp that went super well, the ability to flex that workforce is insane, randall said about China. The ability to scale down that workforce is also insane. Also, there are relatively few US based suppliers that could produce enough electronic components for millions of phones, and expanding the pool would likely take years.

Unknown (16:20)

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Brian McCullough (16:28)

Finally today, from the Checking in on the Health of the Silicon Valley Ecosystem file, it seems like unicorns might be cautiously back. An analysis of Crunchbase and PitchBook data reveals that in 2025 so far, more than 36 tech startups hit greater than a $1 billion valuation, thereby becoming unicorns, including seven in June, six in May and four in April. Quoting TechCrunch While most are AI related, a surprising number are focused in other industries like satellite space companies like Orbital and blockchain based trading site Kalshi. Actually I'm going to quote from a few of the non obvious ones like I'm not going to mention Mira Moradi's Thinking Machines, which was like the largest seed deal in history if you'll recall, not focusing on some of the AI ones because look at this, SaaS is coming back. Even consumer plays are coming back. Teamworks, this sports software company last raised a $247 million Series F, valuing the company at $1.25 billion. According to PitchBook, the company founded in 2006 has raised more than 400 million DOL in funding to date from investors including Seaport Capital and general catalyst. Gecko 1.62 billion this company makes data gathering robotics that crawl, climb, swim and fly. Founded in 2013, the company last raised a $121 million Series D, valuing the company at $1.6 billion, according to PitchBook. Kalshi $2 billion the popular prediction markets company founded in 2018 last raised and $185 million Series C valuing the company at $2 billion, according to PitchBook. The company has raised more than $290 million in funding to date. Olipop $2 billion this popular probiotic soda company last raised a $137.9 million Series C at a $1.96 billion valuation. It was founded in 2018 and has raised $243 million to date. $1 billion this restaurant marketing software company founded in 2018 last raised a $120 million Series C, valuing the company at $one billion per PitchBook. The Bot Company $2 billion this robo a $150 million early stage round valuing it at $2 billion, according to pitchbook. The company, which was founded in 2024, has raised $300 million to date in funding.

Unknown (18:44)

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Brian McCullough (18:52)

Nothing more for you today. Talk to you tomorrow.