1 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:07,960 Speaker 1: Media. Greetings and salutations, traveler. I'm your host ed Xetron 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:15,720 Speaker 1: and this is your better offline monologue for the week. Also, 3 00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:21,000 Speaker 1: blood is running through the stock market as everybody realizes 4 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:23,680 Speaker 1: that once shit I've been saying since twenty twenty four, 5 00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:27,280 Speaker 1: the generative AI costs too much, loses everybody money, and 6 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:29,120 Speaker 1: doesn't have the growth potential to make any of this 7 00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:32,760 Speaker 1: shit worth it. Yet this has been a week for 8 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:36,680 Speaker 1: the more sophisticated haters, with Oracle stock plummeting on the 9 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:38,760 Speaker 1: news that it had to raise another forty five to 10 00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 1: fifty five billion dollars to fund data centers for open Ai, 11 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:45,040 Speaker 1: which timed poorly with a story running that in video 12 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:47,800 Speaker 1: was no longer doing its one hundred billion dollar investment 13 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:50,480 Speaker 1: in open Ai, something you will know was the case 14 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:52,640 Speaker 1: because it was on this podcast months ago and has 15 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:57,040 Speaker 1: been multiple times since. To catch you one. Last September, 16 00:00:57,080 --> 00:01:00,520 Speaker 1: Oracle announced the three hundred billion dollar, five year long 17 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:03,800 Speaker 1: deal to provide compute to open Ai, powered by four 18 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:06,720 Speaker 1: point five gigawatts of compute capacity that at the time 19 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:09,600 Speaker 1: and at this time did not and does not exist 20 00:01:09,959 --> 00:01:12,400 Speaker 1: as far as I can tell, only two hundred megawats 21 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:14,959 Speaker 1: of Stargate Abilene, a project that's been a work in 22 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,399 Speaker 1: progress since twenty twenty four, appears to be complete, and 23 00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:20,319 Speaker 1: to my knowledge as well, there's only like two hundred 24 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:22,640 Speaker 1: megawats of power out there. They need a lot more 25 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:24,240 Speaker 1: than that. That's meant to be a one point two 26 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:29,560 Speaker 1: gigawat center. Not great now. Several other data center projects 27 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:33,320 Speaker 1: are allegedly in the works too, Stargate Shackleford, Texas and Wisconsin, 28 00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:38,240 Speaker 1: Stargate New Mexico, and theoretically at least Stargate Michigan through 29 00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:41,440 Speaker 1: Blue Owl, who invested in basically every Stargate project and 30 00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:45,800 Speaker 1: pulled out of Michigan due to financing conditions. Souring Oracle 31 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:49,320 Speaker 1: had previously raised fifty six billion dollars in bonds and debt, 32 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:52,920 Speaker 1: with thirty eight billion of that specifically yearmarked for Shackleford 33 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:56,600 Speaker 1: and Wisconsin. That debt is payable over four years, with 34 00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:59,640 Speaker 1: two one year extensions and payments for interest only until 35 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:04,200 Speaker 1: construc duction is complete. One little problem, I'm afraid. According 36 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: to Jerome Darling at TD Cohen, it's upwards of forty 37 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:09,720 Speaker 1: two million dollars in megawatt to build a data center. 38 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:12,000 Speaker 1: Completing these data centers is going to cost at least 39 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty nine billion dollars for the four 40 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:17,040 Speaker 1: and a half gigawats an Oracle was and is short 41 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:20,320 Speaker 1: by quite some measure, so it sold twenty five billion 42 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:22,680 Speaker 1: dollars more in bonds and plans to sell another twenty 43 00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:25,959 Speaker 1: billion dollars of stock in an at the money share sale, 44 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:28,920 Speaker 1: literally printing new shares and dumping them onto the market 45 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:32,360 Speaker 1: in intervals set by the bankers behind the deal. Mathematicians 46 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: in the audience have likely run the numbers at this 47 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:36,760 Speaker 1: point and worked out that this is only one hundred 48 00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:38,960 Speaker 1: and one billion dollars, which is less than one hundred 49 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:41,480 Speaker 1: and eighty nine billion dollars. May seem obvious, but I 50 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:44,560 Speaker 1: don't know. The fucking markets don't appear to be able 51 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:47,919 Speaker 1: to count. Now. The other problem Oracle has is that 52 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:50,560 Speaker 1: the only way it can pay these loans off is 53 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:52,520 Speaker 1: if open Ai is able to pay them, and I 54 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:55,160 Speaker 1: need to be clear how difficult that will be. That 55 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:58,800 Speaker 1: three hundred billion dollar, five year long compute deal guarantees 56 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:01,239 Speaker 1: that at least one year will be over eighty billion 57 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:04,560 Speaker 1: dollars in payments. For some context, the entire revenue of 58 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:07,520 Speaker 1: MICROSOFTS as your cloud in twenty twenty five was seventy 59 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: five billion dollars. How does open ai pay that, especially 60 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:14,919 Speaker 1: when Oracles' build capacity but they don't have the money. 61 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: They only allegedly made thirteen billion dollars last year and 62 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:20,720 Speaker 1: lost nine billion dollars on top of that. How the 63 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:22,960 Speaker 1: hell do they pay this? I don't know, but everyone 64 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:25,880 Speaker 1: seems to think they will, or at least they did now. 65 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:27,880 Speaker 1: In video, of course, went out to say that they 66 00:03:27,919 --> 00:03:30,200 Speaker 1: would absolutely be investing a lot of money in open 67 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:34,320 Speaker 1: AI's supposed upcoming round, this one hundred billion dollar one. 68 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:36,760 Speaker 1: Different to this one hundred billion dollar deal they were 69 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:39,920 Speaker 1: talking about. Open ai is currently raising one hundred billion 70 00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:43,720 Speaker 1: dollars allegedly, but in video is only putting twenty billion 71 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:47,320 Speaker 1: dollars in. And Jensen went on CNBC with Jim Kramer 72 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:50,360 Speaker 1: and had the most bizarre conversation I'll link to it 73 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,480 Speaker 1: in the episode notes. He was just saying, oh, yes, 74 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:56,400 Speaker 1: open ai is wonderful, cutting over Jim Kramer's Jim Kramer 75 00:03:56,440 --> 00:03:58,800 Speaker 1: just said they going, well, you know, we love your deal. 76 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:01,080 Speaker 1: Is to base to bash this deal ever, sounding like 77 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:04,520 Speaker 1: Sylvester the Cat, and Jensen is just cutting over him 78 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:07,520 Speaker 1: saying what open a ey is amazing. No drama, no 79 00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 1: drama at all. And let me tell you something. The 80 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: reason he's saying no drama is because open ai also 81 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:16,800 Speaker 1: leaked a thing saying that that Sam Altman and open 82 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: Ai were unhappy with in video chips, it's all so good. 83 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: This is this is the kind of stuff that happens 84 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:27,039 Speaker 1: when things are going well and well. Oracles saw this, 85 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:28,839 Speaker 1: and Oracles saw this back and forth, and they thought, 86 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:30,799 Speaker 1: we need to help, we need to help the markets. 87 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:32,919 Speaker 1: So they put out a tweet and I'm just going 88 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:35,960 Speaker 1: to read it to you. The in video open Ai 89 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:39,120 Speaker 1: deal has zero impact on our financial relationship with open Ai. 90 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: We remain highly confident in open aiy's ability to raise 91 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:46,400 Speaker 1: funds and meet its commitments. Sadly, Oracles, the in video 92 00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: open Ai deal has zero impact on our financial relationship. 93 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:51,120 Speaker 1: T shirt appears to have people asking them a lot 94 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:55,560 Speaker 1: of questions already answered by the shirt jokes aside, that's 95 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:58,240 Speaker 1: the kind of thing that Alex Wilhelm tech reporter said. 96 00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:01,360 Speaker 1: It's bank run language. You don't that will always have 97 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:04,479 Speaker 1: the opposite effect saying, well, it's I said this on 98 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:06,200 Speaker 1: an interview recently. It's like walking into the room and 99 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 1: saying I didn't fucking kill anyone. People are gonna people 100 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 1: are probably gonna ask why you need to bring that 101 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:15,440 Speaker 1: up at this time. The other part of that statement 102 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:18,400 Speaker 1: that got me was we're highly confident in open AI's 103 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:22,200 Speaker 1: ability to raise funds. They're not paying this out of 104 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:26,120 Speaker 1: cash flow, so Oracle is just depending their entire existence 105 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:28,920 Speaker 1: on open AI's ability to raise some venture capitalists, it's 106 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:32,320 Speaker 1: all very good, it's all very very good, and it 107 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:35,560 Speaker 1: all times very very poorly, with a TD Cohen analyst 108 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:38,360 Speaker 1: letter that suggested Oracle would have to fire upwards of 109 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:41,760 Speaker 1: twenty five thousand people and potentially sell its valuable set 110 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:45,600 Speaker 1: SNA healthcare IT infrastructure just to make it through. And 111 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:48,760 Speaker 1: again they paid twenty eight billion dollars with Serna, and 112 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:50,799 Speaker 1: TD Cohen said that would be eight to ten billion 113 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:53,360 Speaker 1: dollars worth of cash flow, again nowhere near one hundred 114 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:58,080 Speaker 1: and eighty nine billion dollars. Look, look, I need people 115 00:05:58,120 --> 00:06:01,279 Speaker 1: to realize that Oracle cannot afford this out. It's committed 116 00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:04,080 Speaker 1: to building ten gigawats of capacity for open Ai, meaning 117 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:05,719 Speaker 1: that on top of the one hundred and eighty nine 118 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:09,160 Speaker 1: billion dollars it needs already. Oracle needs another two hundred 119 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:12,839 Speaker 1: and thirty one billion dollars just to build those data centers. 120 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:15,520 Speaker 1: And on its last earnings, Oracle had a cash flow 121 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: of negative thirteen billion dollars. It's it's not looking very positive. 122 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:25,359 Speaker 1: And yes, Oracle also just bought TikTok, a business that 123 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:28,960 Speaker 1: also but it loses billions and billions of dollars. And yes, 124 00:06:29,279 --> 00:06:32,599 Speaker 1: Larry Ellison's wealth is almost entirely tied up in Oracle stock, 125 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:35,520 Speaker 1: which is currently hurtling towards hell with a velocity reserve 126 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:39,360 Speaker 1: for Thatcher and Reagan, I know you're gonna listen to this, 127 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:40,720 Speaker 1: and I hear from a lot of you. No matter 128 00:06:40,760 --> 00:06:43,400 Speaker 1: how many times I say this, everyone's like, oh, the 129 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:46,440 Speaker 1: two deals are not about it's not about making money. 130 00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:50,400 Speaker 1: It's about political influence. Wow, you're the first fucking person 131 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:52,240 Speaker 1: to tell me that. No one has ever told me 132 00:06:52,279 --> 00:06:55,200 Speaker 1: that other than the first one hundred and fifty fucking people. 133 00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:59,040 Speaker 1: Not an original thought and also not a particularly effective one. 134 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:01,919 Speaker 1: The algorithm on ticketok is already shitting its pants because 135 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:04,760 Speaker 1: Oracle can't stop messing with it because they want to 136 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:08,200 Speaker 1: do the propaganda thing. And guess how TikTok makes money 137 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:11,520 Speaker 1: ads and how does TikTok show ads? Well, they keep 138 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:14,080 Speaker 1: you on the app with the algorithm. How do you 139 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:17,360 Speaker 1: think this is gonna work? I know it all feels 140 00:07:17,360 --> 00:07:19,640 Speaker 1: a little ridiculous, but there really is a future in 141 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:24,200 Speaker 1: which Oracle collapses. Larry Ellison's stock is entirely tied up 142 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:26,200 Speaker 1: in Oracle, and I just did a story called the 143 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:28,680 Speaker 1: Hater's God to Oracle in my premium newsletter that goes 144 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 1: through this. But this is a company in a company, 145 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:34,480 Speaker 1: I'm just keeping it a company in decline, and they 146 00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 1: are really looking quite shaky. And even if they weren't 147 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:40,240 Speaker 1: in decline, the amount of money they're trying to spend 148 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:44,400 Speaker 1: here is genuinely impossible for them to afford. They are 149 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:46,520 Speaker 1: going to have to stress the debt markets the levels 150 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:49,400 Speaker 1: they've never seen, and even then they cannot afford the 151 00:07:49,400 --> 00:07:51,720 Speaker 1: payments unless open Ai can pay them more than anyone 152 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:56,960 Speaker 1: has ever paid for Cloud ever. Ah nah, I'm excited. 153 00:07:57,040 --> 00:08:00,000 Speaker 1: I own to hold stock, and until we know more, 154 00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:10,320 Speaker 1: I really only have one question. Is that good? H