00:00Ed, the unexpected twist happening in Alaska as the plane landed for refueling Jensen Wang, getting on the plane.
00:07Why is this such a big deal, given everything happening with NVIDIA in China?
00:13Yeah, I mean, it's a big deal if you answer through how the markets interpreted it,
00:17because it either puts NVIDIA closer to being able to access a market that they see as a $50 billion
00:24opportunity.
00:26But in fact, the thing that most interesting, right, is that there are two competing dynamics.
00:31American technology companies being able to sell their technology into China.
00:36But at the other hand, you know, the Chinese government blocking their domestic companies from accessing that technology, right?
00:44They want to support domestic champions.
00:46And so, you know, NVIDIA has had some really interesting share reaction since Jensen Wang was photographed on the runway
00:52at the Alaska fuel stop.
00:53But so, too, have the moves in Chinese AI stocks, you know, and the idea that if they were to
01:01get access to better generations of NVIDIA GPU,
01:05they would be able to advance their own work in AI.
01:08And so, like, all of those things are happening in parallel through the markets that are lent.
01:12So a lot at stake, no doubt about it, right, for Jensen to be there.
01:16I think, do you think it was kind of odd?
01:18Is it odd that he jumped on late?
01:19Is it odd that he maybe wasn't planning to go initially?
01:22What is your read on this?
01:24Well, I guess it's like, what do we really know?
01:27You know, the president posted on Truth Social.
01:30You guys may have covered that post throughout the hour.
01:33But, you know, if you were to go with what the president said, then it seems like the plan was
01:38for him to always to be there.
01:40You know, Jensen had said earlier this year that if he were to be invited, he'd be honored to go.
01:45And then, you know, what we know is that he was at the Alaska fuel stop and boarded Air Force
01:50One.
01:51And Elon Musk was at the Alaska refuel stop and boarded Air Force One.
01:55And Elon Musk posted on X.
01:57By the way, for those that don't know, Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla and also the CEO of
02:01SpaceX and the world's richest person.
02:03And according to a post he put on X, it was just him and Jensen Wong that were on Air
02:08Force One.
02:09And the rest of the delegation, I guess, had to slum it on their own jets.
02:13I don't think I don't know.
02:15I think they're OK.
02:17Like if you're going to travel to China and you're the executive of one of these companies, like you're probably
02:21going to get like a, you know, live flat seat on the private jet.
02:24Ed, I don't know.
02:24Yeah, I mean, you know, as a student of history and particularly American history, you know, you guys mentioned why
02:32this is a historic milestone in the context of President Trump visiting mainland China.
02:38You know, in administrations past, they would take very different types of people.
02:43Yeah.
02:43Security expert from the security agencies, academic experts in China and its economy.
02:50Very heavy concentration this time with technology CEOs.
02:54Yeah.
02:55Right.
02:55And if we think about what's happening in supply chain, what's happening in access to the market, how we start
03:00this conversation, it's fascinating.
03:03Yeah.
03:03You know, Ed and Carol, it reminds me of that first foreign trip that President Trump took last year where
03:09he brought all the executives to the Middle East and struck all those deals with those tech companies.
03:14Like we know, right?
03:16Like what they hope to happen.
03:17Hey, you've been a busy individual as you are always.
03:21We always wonder, does he ever sleep or see his family?
03:24Because you work so much.
03:26I know.
03:26I know.
03:28Having said that, your scoop on Anthropic today, looking in early talks with investors to raise at least another $30
03:35billion in fresh financing, according to those familiar.
03:39Google has committed to invest.
03:41Amazon is investing, too.
03:43This is an aside.
03:44Is the capital raise for this company never ending?
03:47And why is it of so much interest to everybody?
03:51Well, I mean, first of all, bath time and bedtime first, always ahead of breaking news.
03:56Good.
03:57So the situation is like Anthropic looks like it's taking this very seriously now.
04:01$30 to $35 billion raise, $900 billion valuation.
04:04And the situation was like two or three weeks ago, investors kicking Anthropic's door down, saying, please take our money,
04:11and Anthropic rebuffing them because they felt they didn't need to.
04:14And I think kind of what's changed based on our reporting is they've got to a valuation, which I think
04:18is pretty far beyond $900 billion they're comfortable with.
04:22Now, interesting, the dynamic that you know, Google and Amazon just invested a lot of cash, but at a $350
04:30billion valuation.
04:31So we don't know if they're participating in this very quick follow-on round, but there will be an element
04:38of dilution for those that did participate in one and don't participate in the other.
04:44But what we do know is existing investors largely is who Anthropic's talking to.
04:49We don't know who's leading this round, but it could close in the month of May.
04:52So it shows how quickly things move.
04:54Hey, real quick, we're going to talk about Anderil just in 10 seconds.
04:57But is this the last fundraise before an IPO for Anthropic?
05:00No, I think that completely in line with Anthropic, Anderil sees great opportunity to fund through private markets.
05:09There is no great pressure to go public.
05:11Anderil believes that it's democratic to give people access to the company through an IPO one day.
05:16But the capital, the private markets provide the cash right now.
05:20So that's the state of play.
05:21$61 billion valuation confirmed overnight.
05:23But to be fair, I broke the story in March.
05:26So it was just kind of confirmation of that.
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