PCs Go Agentic

Summary

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WSJ What’s News – "PCs Go Agentic"

Date: June 1, 2026
Host: Luke Vargas
Podcast: WSJ What’s News – AM Edition

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Episode Overview

This episode of WSJ’s "What’s News" covers major global developments ranging from political shifts in Colombia and mounting U.S.–Iran tensions to significant moves in tech and business, most notably Nvidia’s launch of personal computers built to run AI agents ("agentic PCs"). Key economic stories include SoftBank eclipsing Toyota as Japan’s most valuable company and a UN funding crisis. The discussions are insightful, concise, and tightly focused on the most newsworthy events impacting business, markets, and international affairs.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Tensions Flare Between the U.S. and Iran

• [00:35] After Iran shot down an American drone, the U.S. responded by hitting Iranian air defense radars and drone sites.
• Ongoing negotiations continue for a ceasefire and lifting of blockades in the Strait of Hormuz.
• President Trump’s social media remarks fuel speculation on the deal, while hardliners in Iran, the U.S., and Israel remain wary.

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2. Colombia’s Presidential Shock: The Rise of Abelardo de la Esprea

• [01:57 – 02:46]
• Outsider and far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Esprea wins the first round of Colombia’s presidential election.
  • Notable for representing underworld figures, yet campaigning as a law-and-order candidate promising a major crackdown:

    “He actually says he's going to build 10 supermax prisons in Colombia… going to stamp out violence and crime as well as corruption.”
    — Juan Ferrero, 02:15

• A win for Esprea could make him a close ally for President Trump in Latin America, mentioning parallels to Nayib Bukele (El Salvador) and Javier Milei (Argentina).

  “He has expressed admiration for President Trump as well as for some other right wing leaders in Latin America who are also close to the US.”
  — Juan Ferrero, 02:53

• Tension as the government and its candidate refuse to accept the result.

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3. China Clamps Down on Tech Outbound Investment

• [04:14] Beijing formalizes new restrictions on tech/data exports, including bans on indirect transfers (personnel deployments, training, technical guidance).

  “Now the shoe's on the other foot and China is trying to be very careful about how it protects its own intellectual property.”
  — Jonathan Chang, 04:14

• Potential unintended consequence: talented technologists may emigrate before they acquire valuable IP, rather than risk being unable to commercialize it abroad.

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4. UAW Strike at American Axle

• [06:02] Nearly 1,000 workers go on strike at a Michigan GM supplier, halting key parts for top-selling pickups.

  “Time's up—for 18 years these members have built you an empire of profit while getting treated like dirt.”
  — James Arity, UAW coverage, 06:02

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5. Business Moves: Berkshire Hathaway and SoftBank

• Berkshire Hathaway makes a $7B acquisition of home builder Taylor Morrison—Greg Abel’s first major deal as CEO.
• SoftBank surpasses Toyota as Japan’s top company by market value after investing $50B+ in AI data centers—Europe's largest AI infrastructure investment.
• This aligns with Macron’s push for European AI competitiveness versus China.

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6. Headline Story: Nvidia’s ‘Agentic’ PCs Unveiled

• [07:30] Nvidia launches new PCs—laptops and desktops—for running AI agents locally, thanks to new high-power chips.

  “What becomes of our personal computer in a world of agents, agents running natively… our personal AI, sandboxed for security, running continuously, getting work done.”
  — James Arity, 07:48

• Target users: creators, AI developers, and gamers.

• Features: rendering 3D scenes, AI video generation, running large LLMs on-device.

• Market launch: Fall 2026.

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7. UN Approaches Financial Crisis as U.S. and China Withhold Billions

• [08:45–14:06]
• The U.S. owes $4B+, pressuring the UN to cut budgets and overlap. Trump administration wants more cuts—e.g., substituting AI for translators, slashing travel.

  “The Trump administration does not agree fundamentally with what the United Nations is doing… By not paying, they're trying to put pressure… to do less and be more careful…”
  — James Arity, 09:17

• China is also delaying (but likely to pay in full), seeking leverage and asserting itself as the new leading donor.

  “China is throwing its weight around… and it's withholding money, slowing payments in order to put pressure…”
  — James Arity, 10:29

• Combined, U.S. and China account for 42% of the regular UN budget.
• UN could be insolvent by mid-August if neither country pays up, with bleak options for financial rescue.

  “It's a system of, as a senior person at the United Nations described it to me, insanity.”
  — James Arity, 13:15

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Colombia:

  “He actually says he's going to build 10 supermax prisons in Colombia, and he says he's going to stamp out violence and crime as well as corruption.”
  — Juan Ferrero, 02:15

• China Tech Restrictions:

  “Now the shoe's on the other foot and China is trying to be very careful about how it protects its own intellectual property."
  — Jonathan Chang, 04:14

• AI 'agentic' PC future:

  “What becomes of our personal computer in a world of agents... Our personal AI, sandboxed for security, running continuously, getting work done.”
  — James Arity, 07:48

• UN Crisis:

  “The Trump administration does not agree fundamentally with what the United Nations is doing and how it is spending Americans money.”
  — James Arity, 09:17
  “China is throwing its weight around...slowing payments in order to put pressure on the organization to do things China's way.”
  — James Arity, 10:29
  “It's a system of...insanity.”
  — James Arity, 13:15

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• 00:35 – U.S.–Iran escalation, Strait of Hormuz negotiations
• 01:57–03:33 – Colombia’s surprising election: Abelardo de la Esprea’s rise
• 04:14–05:32 – China tech transfer clampdown
• 06:02 – UAW/GM supplier strike
• 06:18–07:48 – Berkshire Hathaway, SoftBank, Nvidia’s agentic PC launch
• 08:45–14:06 – UN liquidity crisis, breakdown of U.S. and China motivations

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Tone and Style

The episode is brisk, fact-driven, and globally aware, echoing WSJ’s signature mix of market insight and international context. Quotes are direct and often encapsulate broader dynamics with sharp brevity—especially around geopolitics, technological disruption, and institutional challenges.

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For Those Who Missed the Episode

This episode maps a fast-changing world: a populist surprising Colombia, major economies getting tactical about influence, and the dawn of “agentic” personal computing—each shift shadowed by deep uncertainty over how power is distributed, technology is leveraged, and institutions survive in a less cooperative age.

Transcript

[Luke Vargas]

Harvard Business School Executive Education delivers a world class learning experience that energizes aspiring and established change makers. Prepare for the next elevation for your organization and for yourself. Learn more at HBS ME Breakthrough. That's HBS ME Breakthrough. Columbia Lurches right as voters back a candidate pledging a major drugs crackdown.

[Juan Ferrero]

This puts the US In a good position to fight drugs here more openly and it would also provide an ally for the US in whatever actions it takes in Venezuela.

[Luke Vargas]

Plus, SoftBank leapfrogs Toyota to become Japan's most valuable company. And Nvidia unveils a next generation of personal computers designed to run AI agents. It's Monday, June 1st. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal and here is the AM Edition of what's news, the top headlines and business stories moving your world. Today, The US And Iran have once again exchanged blows, with the US Hitting air defense radars and drone sites after Iran shot down an American drone. The weekend flare up came as the two sides continued discussions to extend a ceasefire and lift blockages in the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump posted on social media this morning that Iran wants to make a deal, but that lawmakers were complicating negotiations. Iran, American hardliners and Israel are wary of a deal that fails to secure concrete concessions on Iran's nuclear program or control of the strait. In Colombia, far right lawyer Abelardo de la Esprea has won the first round of a presidential election held Sunday in a major blow to both the ruling leftist party and establishment conservatives. The surprise result sets up a high stakes runoff in a few weeks between the government's far left candidate Ivan Zepeda, and and Aspraya.

[Juan Ferrero]

Abelardo della Sprea is a populist. He's an outsider. He's never held public office.

[Luke Vargas]

That's Juan Ferrero, our editor for South America, reporting from Bogota. Juan said that the flamboyant far right lawyer ran an unusual campaign and has a background to match.

[Juan Ferrero]

He's best known here in this country for having represented some pretty well known underworld figures, which makes him kind of an unusual candidate in a country like this, which has been lately buffeted by drug violence and by narco trafficking groups. But what he basically says is that he's going to punish those groups. He actually says he's going to build 10 supermax prisons in Colombia, and he says he's going to stamp out violence and crime as well as corruption.

[Luke Vargas]

And Juan says that a win for Espreya could mean another close ally for President Trump in Latin America with Abelardo

[Juan Ferrero]

de la Sprea, having taken the most votes and really put himself in a position to win the presidency. I think this means that the United States will have a very close ally. He has expressed admiration for President Trump as well as for some other right wing leaders in Latin America who are also close to the US including Najib Bukele in El Salvador and Javier Milei in Argentina. I think that this puts the US In a good position to fight drugs here more openly and it would also provide an ally for the US in whatever actions it takes.

[Luke Vargas]

Since the vote, the Colombian president along with his candidate Ivan Cepeda, have said they don't accept the results. A month after blocking Meta's acquisition of China linked AI startup Manus, Beijing is formalizing restrictions on outbound investments in a bid to keep technology and data in the country. We report that a ban on the unauthorized direct export of state restricted goods, technology services and data is already in effect, with a ban on indirect transfers kicking in in July. That would bar things like cross border personnel deployments, training programs and technical guidance. Our China bureau chief Jonathan Chang has

[Jonathan Chang]

more China for many years benefited from innovation coming out of the west and they faced accusations that they were perhaps underhandedly getting their hands on some technology and innovation from the West. Now the shoe's on the other foot and China is trying to be very careful about how it protects its own intellectual property.

[Luke Vargas]

And John, we clearly saw that in China unwinding that Meta Manus deal, and yet that deal was a bit of an outlier.

[Jonathan Chang]

Yeah, look, there haven't been too many deals yet, but I think Beijing anticipates that there are going to be more of these temptations by Chinese technologists, scholars, scientists, entrepreneurs. I think there's a real sense that as China moves up the curve in terms of innovation that they have more to protect. You know, it may have some unintended consequences because what it may say, if you're a bright young Chinese entrepreneur or scientist, technologist, AI engineer, you may decide that this isn't the sort of environment for you. You may try to even get out of China before you have anything that's of any value. Because once you have something of value, you may find yourself stuck in China and not able to sell outside.

[Luke Vargas]

In markets. News Nearly 1000 workers at GM parts supplier American Axle have gone on strike in Michigan. The work stoppage began just after midnight and is set to stall production of axles for GMs Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, as well as for midsize trucks. United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain announced the strike last night, saying that pay hadn't recovered since 2008, when workers agreed to slash their wages in order to keep the plant running.

[James Arity]

Time's up for 18 years, these members have built you an empire of profit while getting treated like dirt. They've taken wage cuts, benefit cuts. They poured their souls into this plant.

[Luke Vargas]

American Axle didn't immediately respond to requests for comment, while a GM spokesman said that the company is monitoring the situation at its supplier. The strike comes as GM had been trying to take advantage of limited pickup production at rival Ford due to an aluminum shortage. New Berkshire Hathaway boss Greg Abel is making one of his first big moves as CEO, splashing out close to $7 billion to buy home builder Taylor Morrison. While Berkshire has been a selective acquirer in recent years, the company is sitting on a record cash pile, last disclosed to total over $380 billion. SoftBank has ousted Toyota as Japan's most valuable company after its shares soared more than 14% today. That's on news that the tech investor is plowing more than $50 billion into new data centers in France. It's the continent's largest AI infrastructure investment to date and comes as French President Emmanuel Macron has pushed for more data centers in order to help Europe catch up with in China in AI spending. And chipmaker Nvidia is unveiling the first ever personal computers designed for running AI agents. The range of laptops and desktops powered by a newly designed version of its signature AI chips are being targeted at creators, AI developers and gamers, with the company touting their ability to render 3D scenes, generate AI video and run massive LLMs locally.

[James Arity]

What becomes of our personal computer in a world of agents, agents running natively connected to models local or in the cloud, Our personal AI sandboxed for security, running continuously, getting work done.

[Luke Vargas]

The computers will be available starting this fall. Coming up, the UN is in crisis mode as Washington and Beijing withhold billions in funding. We'll get the latest after the break.

[James Arity]

Foreign

[Laura Thoreau]

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[Luke Vargas]

Discover the baird [e-mail] WSJ. The UN is going broke with its two biggest donors in arrears. The institution is facing insolvency by mid August. Journal correspondent James Arity has the story and he joins me now with more. James, as you report, the United States has more than $4 billion currently in overdue bills to the UN. Walk us why Washington isn't handing this money over.

[James Arity]

The Trump administration does not agree fundamentally with what the United nations is doing and how it is spending Americans money. The US is the biggest donor to the UN traditionally. And by not paying, the Trump administration is trying to put pressure on the world body to cut its expenses and to do less and to be more careful about how it's spending the money. And the United nations actually has been cutting its budget by historic proportions. It's reduced its budget for 2026 by 7%. It's laid off thousands, it's closed offices, it's pulled peacekeepers back from war zones. And the Trump administration wants more of that. It feels that there's overlap between some of the major agencies in the United Nations. Among the things that they would like to do is AI translation instead of having physical translators there. They would like to see less business class travel by its top officials and a number of other what they call quick wins that could save the UN money.

[Luke Vargas]

Right. So that's the situation with the us. What's going on with China? Almost half a billion dollars in the hole here.

[James Arity]

China is compounding the UN's liquidity crisis by holding back its money, slow walking its contributions to the organization. Beijing says it's the number one defender of the United nations and the multilateral system and is really jabbing at the US right now by even describing itself as the de facto number one financial contributor. But the fact is China used to pay on time and in full. And while it is probably going to pay in full, it is not paying on time. And that's causing a lot of stress within the organization because China is the number two contributor to the United Nations. Between the US and China, 42% of the regular budget comes from just these two countries. And China has seen its share go from 5% a little more than a decade ago to now a little more than 20%. And the US pays 22% of the UN budget. So China is throwing its weight around now that it's expected to pay more money and it's withholding money, slowing its payments in order to put pressure on the organization to do things China's way.

[Luke Vargas]

Got it. Though I am curious where that leaves the argument we had seen expressed in Washington, particularly under the Biden administration that China was gobbling up influence at international organizations. Maybe that's still true, but do they just not want to be left holding the bag here if the US Just gives up entirely on the un?

[James Arity]

I think that this is one of the things that is making people in the UN question China's motivation, that if they really do see themselves as the big defender, why are they not paying much more quickly to the un? Why are they compounding the liquidity crisis that the organization is having? I think that what we're seeing China do to increase its influence is to just be there all the time, to be in all of the meetings in the back halls of the United nations in order to make sure that the things that China wants politically happen, those include visits by the UN Secretary General to Beijing. Those include making sure that Taiwan has no representative at all in the United Nations. And China also does not want to see the UN funding some of the things that it doesn't like, for instance, human rights investigations. So China is there putting pressure in ways that the US Is not doing. US is acting with blunt force, no money. China is acting quite subtly. People have described to me that it's playing games, that China is playing budget

[Luke Vargas]

games with the U.N. finally, James, it's early June. You report the U.N. could be insolvent by mid August. Is there anything the UN can do before then to possibly right the ship?

[James Arity]

The UN is not a country. It's not a company. A country might be able to borrow money, a company might be able to borrow money. The UN can't do any of that. And it's run by a Secretary general, a prominent person. But in fact, what the UN does is actually decided by its 193 member states, its countries. And they are the ones that decide what it's supposed to be doing in terms of cutting budgets and spending money. And because there are 193 countries, they want to spend money, they don't want to cut it back. And so it's a system of, as a senior person at the United nations described it to me, insanity. It's a very difficult situation that they face by midsummer. They could be insolvent. They could be facing a situation where more cash is supposed to be going out than is actually coming in.

[Luke Vargas]

It was Wall Street Journal correspondent James Arady. James, thanks so much for bringing us this story.

[James Arity]

Thank you.

[Luke Vargas]

And that's it for what's news for this Monday morning. Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer. Our supervising producer was Sandra Kilhoff. And I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.

[Juan Ferrero]

In moments of seismic change through crisis and transformation, it is our real world experience that delivers FTI consulting experts with impact.