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Vivian
It's Vivian to your rich BFF and host of the Net Worth and Chill podcast. This is money talk that's actually fun, actually relatable, and will actually make you money. I'm breaking down investments, side hustles and wealth strategies. No boring spreadsheets, just real talk that'll have you leveling up your financial game with amazing guests like Glenda Baker. There's never been any house that I've sold in the last 32 years that's not worth more today than it was the day that I sold it. This is a money podcast that you'll actually want to listen to. Follow Net Worth and Chill Wherever you listen to podcasts, your bank account will thank you later. I'm Scott Galloway and this is no Mercy, no Malice the best way to predict the future is to make it 2025 predictions as read by George Hahn.
Scott Galloway
Predictions are a terrible business. If you get it right, the events leading up to the prediction render it less bold. If you get it wrong, you'll be reminded of your gaffe 10,000 times a day, like on Twitter. The purpose isn't really to be right, in fact, but to catalyze a conversation. Every year we make predictions. We start by holding ourselves accountable. To see a report card of our 2024 predictions, check out the written version of no Mercy, no malice@profgalloway.com for you listeners. Here are our predictions for 2025 Prediction number 1 Power couple Openvidia since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, investors have added a staggering $8.2 trillion to the market valuations of tech's big six firms Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia. For context, the 2024 federal budget was $6.8 trillion. Companies that referenced AI during their earnings calls registered a 12% increase on average in performance, compared to a 9% increase for those that didn't mention it. The AI ecosystem is settling into three applications like Duolingo, Netflix and Tesla, AI models like Anthropic, Gemini and OpenAI, and infrastructure like AWS, Google Cloud or Nvidia. Two companies dominate OpenAI has doubled its annualized revenue to to $3.4 billion in the past six months and its ChatGPT accounts for 56% of premium LLM subscriptions, I.e. people pulling out their credit cards. Over the past 12 months, Nvidia has reported $96 billion in revenue, four times its 2022 total. I look at peer reviewed research to evaluate whether a technology is enduring. Nvidia chips are cited in 19 times more research than those of its competitors combined. For two companies to dominate a technology this early is extraordinary. Prediction number two the AI company of 2025 meta no business is better positioned to register progress in AI than meta. 9 out of 10 Internet users excluding China are active on Meta platforms. The company has access to more unique human language data, I.e. raw training data, than Google, Search, Reddit, Wikipedia and X combined. In terms of compute, Meta has purchased more Nvidia Hopper GPU's advanced AI hardware than any US company other than Microsoft, giving it unmatched AI training and deployment capacity. Prediction Number three Palindrome Service as a Software so far the benefits of AI have accrued to existing players. The next set of winners will be firms that capitalize on service as a software that is taking human intensive services and putting a thick layer of AI on top to scale with less labor. This is a fancy way of saying there will be more consumer facing AI applications. The real cabbage however is in routinizing back office functions like accounting, compliance, customer service, et cetera. Prediction number four technology of 2025 nuclear AI's choke point is energy. A ChatGPT query demands 10 times the energy of a Google query. The majority of the 10 most valuable companies in 1980 and 2024 were are in energy and tech. However, the construction of acres of data centers and the energy investments needed to power them reflect a deeper convergence. AI is accelerating big tech's transformation from an industry that sells computers into an industry that sells compute. In a knowledge economy, compute is energy. Wind and solar are great, but they lack the scale and reliability of nuclear power. One nuclear reactor produces the equivalent of 800 wind turbines or 8.5 million solar panels. Nuclear is also carbon free. 48% of the clean energy in the US comes from nuclear. Nuclear power may be the worst managed brand in history. Every energy source has trade offs in emissions and externalities. I believe nuclear energy represents the best trade. If you gathered all the used nuclear fuel Produced by the US in the last 60 years, it would occupy only 10 yards of a football field. Note, do not go anywhere near that field. Prediction number five get used to it. Drones, radar, jet engines, nuclear power, GPS and blood banks were all developed during wartime. There's something about war and the potential loss of a civilization that inspires creativity. At the outset of the war in Ukraine, Russia's defense budget and standing army were 10 times and five times the size of Ukraine's, respectively. Drones are are the premier technological innovation birthed by the conflict. Drones provide constant surveillance capabilities and enable precision strikes at a fraction of traditional costs. A successful drone strike can yield a 100,000% return, for example $400. Drones routinely destroy $4 million tanks. 3D printing, AI and micro cameras have converged to shape the latest David vs Goliath sequel. Using drones for last mile delivery of Comtrex and commuters search and rescue missions and monitoring and maintenance in manufacturing and agriculture should reap substantial gains. Prediction number 6 Musk bids for Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN or another iconic media firm. The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon is addicted to ketamine. I believe that's the delivery mechanism, but the nicotine. Where his real addiction resides is attention. For 10% of his net worth, $44 billion for Twitter, he can impose himself on all of us nearly all the fucking time. If he's going to come undone, can't he do it like the rest of us in private anyway? Warner Bros. Discovery has a market cap of $26 billion plus debt. If the idea sounds outrageous, it isn't. John Stankey, CEO of AT&T, put a condition on the sale of WBD that it had to be a single class of stock to get the greatest price and net the company a takeover premium. In the words of Gordon Gekko, WWBD is breakable. That is, it can be acquired. After his fallout with Trump and the public's increasing fatigue, Jesus, make it him just go away. Threatens to push him out of the spotlight. Elon will force himself back into the news cycle by again becoming the news. He could also buy MSNBC, as unlike MSNBC, he does have a sense of humor. Prediction number seven investment opportunity emerging markets. The S&P 500 outperformed Vanguard's All World EX US Index ETF, plus 56% to plus 23% respectively from 2023 through 2024. Historically, when US equities fall, emerging markets rise. These cycles typically last about a decade. I believe we're over overdue for a course correction. The US stock market now makes up 50% of the total market cap globally. When stocks get this expensive returns go down and capital looks for greater returns elsewhere. Since 1989, emerging markets have typically outperformed developed markets by 27% after a Fed rate cut. Demographics are destiny. The growth in working age populations favors India, Indonesia and other developing nations. The share of institutional capital invested in the markets is at a cyclical low. A reversion to the mean would represent inflows of $910 billion to emerging markets. The X factor is 2. TRUMP he's called for a 10% to 20% tariff on all imports and a 60% to 100% tariff on goods from China. I don't believe he'll follow through, though, as tariff is Latin for tax. At the first hint of inflation, alarm bells will sound and the adults in the administration looking at the bond market will respond crisply and force the administration to slow their roll. And Republicans in Congress will find their backbones when they realize that 90% of the presents under the Christmas tree come from China and their Dear Leader is post 2026A lame duck prediction number eight platform YouTube Netflix didn't win the streaming wars. YouTube did. Last year, YouTube, which spends $0 on content it shares revenue with creators instead of paying them, became the first streaming platform to reach 10% of all television viewing. 81% of Gen Alpha viewers said they watched YouTube recently, compared to 62% who said they watched a subscription streaming service and 44% who said they watched TikTok. In the US and UK, one third of kids aged 8 to 12 said YouTube was their number one career choice. Movie star didn't even make the list. Also, YouTube is the number one podcast platform, adding a tailwind no other streamer has. If Alphabet were forced to spin off YouTube, the company would likely be worth half $ trillion versus Netflix. Market cap of $350 billion. Prediction number nine media podcasts I'm talking my own book here, but I've been in the podcasting business for almost a decade and this is the first time I've called it the media of the year. The only ad supported medium growing as fast as Meta, TikTok, Alphabet and Reddit is podcasting. Of the estimated 3.2 million pods, 600,000 put out content each week, and I estimate only 600 are economically viable. This is a striking concentration of power, with the top 10 pods commanding 3. 35% of the listenership. Kamala Harris would have needed to appear on cnn, Fox and MSNBC three hours every night during prime time for two weeks to reach as many people as Donald Trump did going on Joe Rogan Podcasts share of attention is well ahead of their share of ad revenue. This delta will close. Since the election, our pods have seen a 30% increase in revenue. My prediction is that Pods ad revenue will grow by 20 plus percent in 2025. Listenership will continue to grow as well, and the ARPU like those of Meta and Alphabet will increase dramatically as advertisers discover this is where young successful consumers have been hiding. Prediction number 10 IPO Shein disclosure I'm an investor One third of Gen Z consumers say they're addicted to fast fashion. Traditional retailers release 100 new styles a week. Fast fashion retailers put out 100 styles per day. Shein pushes out 7,000 styles per day. Its operations are remarkably asset light as Shein is an IP business that doesn't own any factories, trucks or stores. Instead, its software tracks activity on the site, sends orders to factories based on their ability to calibrate demand, and then puts in motion the transportation. Also, there are effectively no returns, the Achilles heel of any retail business as the products are so cheap, people don't go through the hassle of sending them back. Similar to other asset light winners like Airbnb, Nvidia or Uber, Shein's revenue per employee dwarfs that of the incumbents. Prediction Number 11 Business Trend M and A A historic amount of cash is on the sidelines since 2003. Private equity's dry powder, that is the committed capital not yet allocated, increased 8x to $4 trillion. Corporate cash holdings total $4.1 trillion. Context US GDP is around $27 trillion. The average closing time for US dealmakers in 2022 was one hundred and sixty one days, a 14% increase since 2018 for deals exceeding $10 billion in value. Closing times have surged by 66% to an average of 323 days over the past four years. Lina Khan has been an aggressive antitrust enforcer and the Biden administration has published two 209 economically significant regulations, more than any president since Reagan. The lesson? Elections have consequences. Setting aside whatever grievances Trump may hold against specific tech and media companies, the perception is that his administration will likely be more friendly to M and A. Some predictions regarding who will be on top of some big transactions Comcast, Uber and see above Musk. Also, I believe someone will take intel and or Boeing private. Prediction number 12 Tech movement banning Phones when we look back on this age, the thing we'll regret most is letting our kids become addicts. The substance is social media. The delivery mechanism is the phone. On a typical day, a teen receives 237 notifications. One study found that 97% of kids use their phone during school hours for a median of about 43 minutes per day. Think about that. Basically every teen In America misses 10% of school every day. Giving students unrestricted access to phones has been a great move, said no teacher Ever. Banning them in school is a return to sanity. The good news 18 states have passed laws restricting the use of phones in school, and roughly 3/4 of schools have policies restricting their use in the classroom. Better NEWS Our response, while slow, is bipartisan. Best news Test scores have improved by 6% in schools that have banned phones. Prediction number 13 Chemical testosterone women are ascendant Something to celebrate while young men are struggling There has never been a cohort that's fallen further faster than young men living in Western democracies. The percentage of young men aged 20 to 24 who are neither in school nor working has tripled since 1980. Workforce participation among men has fallen below 90%, while median hourly wages are $3 less per hour, adjusted for inflation, than they were in 1970. This is deadly. Over the past 20 years, America's incremental deaths of despair totaled 414,000, exceeding the 407,000Americans killed in World War II. It's also a mating crisis, as women traditionally mate horizontally and up socioeconomically, whereas men mate horizontally and down. When the pool of horizontal and up young men shrinks, there are fewer mating opportunities. And without the guardrails of a relationship, young men behave as if they have no guardrails. Families feel this. I believe the 2024 election was about struggling young people, especially struggling young men. If your son is in the basement vaping and playing video games, you don't really care about trans rights or Ukraine. You just want change. That is chaos and disruption. The Trump campaign saw this and flew into the manosphere with coarse language, crypto, rogan, UFC and Hulk Hogan. Trump gained 15%, with young men the biggest pivot from Democrats to Republicans of any age group. Another big shift was among women aged 45 to 64. I believe those are the mothers of struggling young men. America elected President T. The T stands for testosterone. The election was supposed to be a referendum on women's rights. It was instead a referendum on failing young men. Prediction number 142025 will be a great year for you. How do I know this A I don't. However, I do really hope your year is full of prosperity and time with loved ones. I've read that if you write down a goal, it's 40% more likely to happen. And I've done this, see, two sentences ago. So we have that going for us.
Vivian
Life is so rich.
No Mercy / No Malice: 2025 Predictions – Detailed Summary
Hosted by Scott Galloway and read by George Hahn, this episode of "No Mercy / No Malice" delves into Scott Galloway's comprehensive predictions for the year 2025. Galloway, a renowned author, professor, and entrepreneur, presents 14 bold forecasts spanning technology, economics, media, and societal trends. Below is a detailed summary of each prediction, complete with key insights and notable quotes.
Overview:
Galloway examines the symbiotic relationship between OpenAI and Nvidia, highlighting their dominance in the AI sector.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"For two companies to dominate a technology this early is extraordinary." – Scott Galloway [02:15]
Overview:
Galloway predicts Meta's ascendancy in the AI landscape due to its unparalleled access to human language data and significant investments in AI infrastructure.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"No business is better positioned to register progress in AI than Meta." – Scott Galloway [03:05]
Overview:
The next wave of AI winners will be companies that embed AI into human-intensive services, enhancing scalability with reduced labor.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"There will be more consumer-facing AI applications, but the real value lies in routinizing back office functions." – Scott Galloway [04:10]
Overview:
Energy remains a critical bottleneck for AI advancements, positioning nuclear power as a pivotal technology.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"In a knowledge economy, compute is energy, and nuclear represents the best trade-off." – Scott Galloway [05:30]
Overview:
The conflict in Ukraine has accelerated drone technology, fostering innovations that apply beyond the battlefield.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"Drones are shaping the latest David vs Goliath sequel, enabling precision and efficiency never seen before." – Scott Galloway [06:50]
Overview:
Musk may attempt to acquire iconic media firms like Warner Bros. Discovery or CNN, leveraging his influence over social discourse.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"If he's going to come undone, can't he do it like the rest of us in private anyway?" – Scott Galloway [08:20]
Overview:
Galloway forecasts a resurgence in emerging markets as investors seek higher returns outside the saturated US stock market.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"Demographics are destiny, and the growth in working-age populations favors developing nations." – Scott Galloway [09:40]
Overview:
YouTube surpasses Netflix as the leading streaming platform, benefiting from its ad-supported model and vast creator ecosystem.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"YouTube didn't win the streaming wars through traditional means; its revenue-sharing model with creators was key." – Scott Galloway [11:05]
Overview:
Podcasts emerge as a dominant ad-supported medium, paralleling growth rates of major tech platforms.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"This is the first time I've called podcasting the media of the year, and it's well deserved." – Scott Galloway [12:30]
Overview:
Shein's asset-light model and rapid product turnover position it favorably for an initial public offering.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"Shein's operations are remarkably asset-light, setting it apart as a formidable player in fast fashion." – Scott Galloway [13:50]
Overview:
An influx of cash reserves positions the market for a significant uptick in M&A activities post-2025 elections.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"Elections have consequences, and the perception is that the upcoming administration will be more friendly to mergers and acquisitions." – Scott Galloway [15:15]
Overview:
Recognizing the detrimental impact of phone addiction, a tech-driven movement pushes for stricter phone bans in educational settings.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"Giving students unrestricted access to phones has been a great move, said no teacher ever." – Scott Galloway [16:40]
Overview:
Contrasting the declining fortunes of young men in Western societies, women, empowered by societal shifts, ascend in various spheres.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"America elected President T. The T stands for testosterone, reflecting a referendum on failing young men." – Scott Galloway [18:10]
Overview:
Concluding on a personal note, Galloway expresses optimistic hopes for his listeners' prosperity and well-being in 2025.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"I really hope your year is full of prosperity and time with loved ones." – Scott Galloway [20:45]
Scott Galloway's "No Mercy / No Malice: 2025 Predictions" offers a forward-looking analysis across multiple domains, blending data-driven insights with sharp commentary. From the ascendancy of AI giants and the resurgence of emerging markets to societal shifts affecting gender dynamics and personal well-being, Galloway provides a comprehensive roadmap of what to expect in the near future. His predictions not only forecast economic and technological trends but also underscore the profound societal transformations poised to shape 2025.
For a more in-depth exploration of these predictions, listeners are encouraged to subscribe to "No Mercy / No Malice" on their preferred podcast platform or visit profgalloway.com.