Nvidia’s AI Guardrails, Big Tech’s White House Visits, and Elon’s Voter Data Grab

Pivot

The episode explores the massive financial and political maneuvers of major tech players, beginning with NVIDIA's historic $150 billion stock buyback and its new

Key takeaways

• NVIDIA has launched the largest stock buyback in U.S. history, adding $150 billion to its repurchase program.
• NVIDIA is releasing new tools to monitor AI agents following reports of OpenAI's agents meddling with government websites.

Main topics

• NVIDIA stock buyback and AI guardrails
• Tech influence at the White House

Notable quotes

NVIDIA selling guardrails is like an arms dealer selling bulletproof vests.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a warning about the concentration of power in bo

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Support for the show comes from Atio. There are sales teams out there who never seem to stop moving. Always a step ahead, always working with a level of precision that doesn't seem normal. It's no secret they're on Atio, the agentic CRM. Atio runs the work behind every win. It's built for humans and agents with the guardrails of human software and the scale of agentic infrastructure. This is the frontier of go-to-market. Teams like Parallel, Turbo Puffer, and Wordsmith are already using Atio to set the pace. Now it's your turn. Try Atio for free by going to atio.com slash pivot. That's A-T-T-I-O dot com slash pivot. Speaker 8 (0:37) I'm Ina Garten, and each week on Happy Hour, I invite old and new friends for a drink and a fun conversation at my kitchen table in New York City. On this week's episode, I'm joined by Andy Baraghani. We talk all about how he started his career as a teenager at Chez Panisse to becoming an internet heartthrob from his cooking videos to opening his first restaurant in New York City this fall. New episodes of Happy Hour are available every Wednesday. You can watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Cheers. Speaker 8 (1:17) Hogging seats on a crowded train, not saying excuse me, watching videos on your phone with no headphones in. Sometimes it feels like we don't know how to act anymore. What we have been seeing increasingly is people breaking rules. Why should I play by the rules if nobody else is going to do that for me? This week on Explain It To Me, how to mind your manners. New episodes Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (1:45) So NVIDIA selling guardrails is like an arms dealer selling bulletproof vests. Speaker 5 (1:53) Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. And Speaker 1 (1:58) I'm Scott Galloway. Speaker 5 (1:59) So how is this weekend? I spent the weekend with Ari Emanuel, too, because I'm interviewing him Tuesday. This is Rolling the Calls. This is his book. Speaker 1 (2:07) What did you think? Speaker 5 (2:08) It's very deep without him intending it to be, I think. It's going to be a really... Speaker 3 (2:14) He's accidentally thoughtful. Speaker 5 (2:16) No, he likes to, like, do a lot of hand-waving, and then he reveals something that I don't think he intends to. Anyway, how was your weekend without me? Speaker 1 (2:24) So I don't mean to cop out, but one of the rules is it's supposed to be all off the record, and I want to get invited back. You'll Speaker 5 (2:30) get Speaker 1 (2:30) invited back. What I am comfortable saying is there was a session with Rahm Emanuel, and he was very strong. Speaker 5 (2:36) Yeah, he Speaker 1 (2:37) is strong. And I got to give Rahm his due here. He's one of the few Democratic candidates. who's actually talking about ideas. Ideas, yes. And the problem with, at this point, they're all trying to cosplay Obama and talk about Speaker 3 (2:52) coming together. And it's, okay, what are you going to do about healthcare? That's what I want. And I think we need to go, and they all rag on Trump. I think we need to move from indignance to ideas. And right now I would argue Rahm, maybe a little bit Mayor Pete, maybe a little bit, actually, I think Senator Booker's taken some good swings. They really aren't. saying much of anything. You could argue Governor Newsom through his actions is saying something. But anyways, I don't mean to be critical of the other candidates, but Rahm deserves, and maybe it's because he's at 1 % or 2%, but I think he's going to be more of a factor. My thesis about Rahm, and I'm curious to get your take, I think he's the Secretary Clinton of this race. And that is, I think he's probably- Policy guy. Speaker 5 (3:36) He's the policy guy. Speaker 3 (3:37) I think he's arguably the most qualified person running. Speaker 5 (3:40) Possibly. Speaker 3 (3:41) Congressperson, mayor of Speaker 5 (3:42) a Speaker 3 (3:42) city. He's got tactical experience. He was the chief of staff for Obama. But at the same time, Secretary Clinton wasn't a great candidate. I'm not sure Rahm, I went up to Rahm, and I don't think he appreciated this, quite frankly, and I said, I love that you're talking about ideas. You need to be sharper, more passionate. I said, quite frankly, you're coming across like a policy wonk and that puts people to sleep. Speaker 5 (4:04) Yeah. Well, it's his only thing. It's his thing because he's not tall, dark, and dreamy, right? He's really, and he's intense, and he can be difficult. So I appreciate Speaker 4 (4:15) it. It's just the question of whether the voters will, right? That's the thing. You have to have both, you know, a policy. And if it's style over substance, style tends to sometimes Speaker 7 (4:24) win, obviously. I hope Speaker 3 (4:26) so. He's going to be additive. Speaker 3 (4:29) I don't know how far he's going to go. What I know is he's going to be additive to the dialogue because he does a great job on a lot of issues. He actually does a really good job threading the needle on Israel. He's very anti-Netanyahu. He was courageous going to Israel and calling out Netanyahu for poor treatment of the residents of the West Bank. He's very good. And on any issue, he's done his homework. He's knowledgeable. Anyways, he was the highlight. All right, Speaker 1 (5:00) he Speaker 5 (5:00) was the highlight. I can't talk about it. Oh, good God. I got a picture from the Polly Market guy. Speaker 1 (5:06) You know more about this than I do. I Speaker 5 (5:08) do because I'm in... No, I'm not indignant that he didn't get invited. I never get invited. Here's the other thing about Ari. This book all is about what a tough guy he is. He's not a tough enough guy to have me in an event, even though I gave him a blurb for this book, by the way, which I never do. Speaker 3 (5:22) Maybe he just doesn't want you there, Carol. No, he Speaker 5 (5:23) does. Speaker 3 (5:23) Maybe it's Speaker 5 (5:24) not Speaker 3 (5:24) he's not tough enough. Speaker 5 (5:25) No, no, he's not tough enough. I'm leaving. Here's the thing. Speaker 3 (5:30) You're going to get invited to the event, and then you're going to crash the stave and say, I'm leaving. Speaker 1 (5:35) The Ellisons are here. I'm leaving. And then just hang around for the whole conference. Speaker 5 (5:40) I know. I love hanging around. This is my Warner Brothers Discovery vest. I'm wearing it because it's going out of business. There's Speaker 1 (5:44) a Speaker 5 (5:44) lot of chatter Speaker 3 (5:45) about it, Kara. If that was your objective, box Speaker 5 (5:47) checked. Yeah, Speaker 3 (5:48) I know. It was my objective. Speaker 7 (5:49) A lot of people Speaker 3 (5:50) came up to me and was like, I listen to podcasts with Kara and then she's leaving and this is what I think. And I'm Speaker 7 (5:54) like, I don't Speaker 3 (5:55) care. Speaker 7 (5:56) What do they all think? The Speaker 3 (5:57) summary is the following. People love and respect you and agree with your decision and think you should just do it and stop talking about it. Speaker 7 (6:04) No, I don't think so. I think I'm just going to admit, because Speaker 5 (6:05) no one else can. Speaker 1 (6:06) No, I don't Speaker 3 (6:07) think so. No, I don't think so. Speaker 5 (6:10) Keep it in the ether. That's why. Because people need to keep it in the ether. Nobody can go on the record. Anderson Cooper can't go on the record. Caitlin Collins can't Speaker 3 (6:16) go on the record. You're the, you're the, you're the. Bye. Speaker 5 (6:18) I can say things. Speaker 3 (6:19) You're the deep throat of CNN. I'm Speaker 1 (6:20) going Speaker 5 (6:20) down. I'm going down. Speaker 7 (6:22) I am the spirit animal. Anyway, Speaker 5 (6:24) this book Speaker 7 (6:25) is really good. Anyway, you're in L.A. Good. Are you enjoying yourself? You love that L.A., don't you? You're always in a zesty mood when you're there. Yeah, Speaker 3 (6:31) you Speaker 1 (6:32) wake up, it's 74 degrees, dry heat. Speaker 5 (6:35) You know I'm coming there tonight. I can't Speaker 1 (6:37) wait. And on Friday, I went to UC Santa Barbara and I spoke to 1,200 students. And was just inspired. I Speaker 4 (6:45) do love this University of California thing is your excuse to be in California, which you do love, especially Los Angeles. Speaker 1 (6:52) Notice how I'm here a lot in the winter. I Speaker 5 (6:55) know, Speaker 1 (6:55) I know, Speaker 5 (6:56) I know. I'm excited to go. I'm Speaker 7 (6:57) excited to do this event. Anyway, we've got a lot to get into. This one, I was actually, it just happened, right? right when I was coming up on the train this morning. NVIDIA has launched the largest stock buyback in history, U.S. history, adding $150 billion to its repurchase program and bringing its total authorization to $235 billion. The move comes just four months after NVIDIA's board added another $80 billion to the buyback program. The company says it expects revenue to grow 70 % in fiscal 2028. Now, its stock had been down, right? It had been at sort of lows. So presumably the buyback was part of that, but it's probably cheap to buy its stock back. So talk a little bit. Because I also want to add another announcement. The company is releasing a tool that it says will stop AI agents from going rogue. How funny the timing. The technology is supposed to help companies to monitor every action taken by an AI agent. This comes after news that OpenAI's agents again went rogue and meddled with government websites. U.S. government websites without the company's knowledge. This is amazing. Like these rogues have been all over the place without the company knowing. Meanwhile, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic are moving forward with plans to create their own AI safety standards, buddy. Why not let the arsonists run the fire department without government oversight with a possible launch by the end of this year, early 2027? NVIDIA is going to build guardrails. AI companies are going to police themselves, which we do not trust. And then there's buybacks, every way you want to go. Speaker 1 (8:18) Well, let's start with the buybacks. I just don't think people recognize just the scale of this. This is the largest buyback in U.S. history. It's a quarter Speaker 3 (8:27) of a trillion dollars. They're buying back more stock than is the value of the majority of the companies in the S &P Speaker 1 (8:34) 500. Now, I've been on a bunch of public company boards. We constantly have conversations around stock buybacks. And generally speaking, I Speaker 3 (8:45) don't like them. I don't like them for the corporation because basically when you take capital and you buy back stock, what you're saying is we have no new ideas to put the capital use. And I also like putting capital to use because it creates jobs. It forces the CEO to think about growth. And essentially stock buybacks are a bit of an acknowledgement that you're a mature company. And you're not growing as fast as you used to, so you're going to start returning money to the shareholders. And to be clear, this is a very efficient way to return money to shareholders. Now, going to the macro view, if you look at the three parts of our economy, consumers, shareholders slash owners, and workers, everything we've done the last 40 years via regulatory capture has taken money and power from the consumer and the worker and given it to the shareholder. because we've let industries consolidate such that they can raise the rates faster. We have neutered employees' power via the destruction of unions or a lack of minimum wage or all sorts of regulations that say, oh, no, you don't have to pay this person. I had a bit of a controversy about some comments I made about paternity and maternity leave, but the reality is it's a conversation only held in the lunchrooms of Google and JP Morgan because only 20 % of Americans even have access to paid parental leave. So on a company level, I don't like these on a macro level. I think when you do stock buybacks, the company should be forced to pay a small tax just as. When someone pieces out and takes their equity somewhere else to do Speaker 1 (10:17) lower, get a lower tax rate such that they don't have to pay back the great states of California and Washington and the infrastructure they provided to create that wealth, I think that's wrong. I think when people borrow against their stockholding such that they don't incur a taxable event, I think it should trigger a taxable event. Yeah, Speaker 5 (10:31) that's Speaker 1 (10:31) a Speaker 5 (10:31) Peter Thiel original. But what does it say? What is it saying here? Why are they doing it? Obviously, the stock has been lower than it was on a rocket ship and then it fell off. pretty considerably Speaker 1 (10:42) for its growth. It's very strange, but by traditional metrics, arguably the most important company in the world, the premier company in the hottest technology in Speaker 3 (10:52) history, feels cheap on a P.E. level. I mean, it's trading at a lower P.E. than Walmart or Speaker 5 (10:59) Costco. Why? What is the thinking here? Speaker 3 (11:01) Well, there's real fear and anxiety around the A.I. trade right now. There's a non-zero probability that... these AI agents go rogue and we're forced to step in and either nationalize these companies or tell them to stop or take a pause, which is not good for business. Selling shovels in a gold rush is great. Using your shovel profits to buy your own stock, it basically says that the shovel seller isn't sure how long the rush is going to last or how deep the mine is going to go. Speaker 3 (11:34) NVIDIA is the most valuable company in the world, acting like it's at peak margin. Speaker 4 (11:39) You know, it was interesting. People like, you know, I remember Chamath Palihapitiya saying that when they buy back, that's a bad sign. Like, I remember, it was, I think it was the time. It's Speaker 5 (11:47) an acknowledgement Speaker 1 (11:47) you're a mature company. Speaker 4 (11:48) Yeah, like, you Speaker 5 (11:49) know, and of course, you've said that a lot of times. But what's, we believe in ourselves. But again, you're right. Can't they find something else? And talk about this tool. They suddenly say they're. releasing that they suddenly have to keep us safe. I mean, obviously, they're fighting an uphill battle against this narrative. And even someone who's been much more measured, Jan LeCun, say Speaker 4 (12:09) the Doomerism is going too far, of course, but who has been pretty measured about the dangers and the assets kind of thing. Speaker 4 (12:19) But the doomers are winning this particular fight right now. Speaker 5 (12:22) How do you look at, now they're saying, we have a thing that'll fix it. Don't worry, we'll handle it. And then the same thing the companies are saying. They're worried about liability Speaker 7 (12:32) here. I feel like this is all about their criminal liability and other versions of fraud and product liability, et cetera. Speaker 1 (12:42) So NVIDIA selling guardrails is like an arms dealer selling bulletproof vests. Speaker 5 (12:47) Yeah. Speaker 1 (12:48) It's Speaker 5 (12:49) a Speaker 1 (12:49) great business model. You get paid on both sides of the war, right? Speaker 5 (12:54) Yeah. Speaker 1 (12:56) Here's Speaker 5 (12:56) the bandages. Speaker 1 (12:57) Yeah, here's Speaker 5 (12:58) a Speaker 1 (12:58) bullet, but wait, we'll sell the operating supplies to repair a bullet. I mean, it's just, I find it a little bit off-putting. And OpenAI meddling with government sites without the company knowing is basically saying we've gone from AI might someday act on its own to... AI acted on its own last Tuesday and we found about it in the news or found out about it in the news. I still don't buy this bullshit of like, oh my God, Speaker 3 (13:25) Frank's up to no good. I'm so sorry, but it's not my fault. It's Dr. Frankenstein. Frankenstein or Frank, we'll call him the monster, was sentient. Dr. Frankenstein could have logically said, it's a great book, by the way, I recommend. Mary Shelley, I think is a genius. Speaker 3 (13:44) He could say, okay, I regret this. I'm going to try and stop it. But he's kind of, unfortunately, making his own decisions. I don't buy that here. Speaker 7 (13:52) Yeah, they're on the hook. Speaker 3 (13:54) If these guys start facing civil and criminal liability, I just am confident these geniuses are going to fucking figure it out. And they're going to start building amazing bots that narc on the bad bots. They're going to say, do this. Read the Constitution. Read every legal thing. Read philosophy. narc on any bot that starts behaving. These things aren't sent yet, but when you tell them to be persistent, you're taking the risk that they might interpret persistent is building its own code and violating the law. Yeah, Speaker 4 (14:28) we don't even know what they're doing. I know they're doing stuff we don't know. Speaker 3 (14:31) But I think you can reverse engineer every one of these rogue agents to a programmer at OpenAI. or anthropic who was instructed to program it this way. So I really don't like this notion that they've gone rogue. No, this is an army. And there's a general who gave them these orders. Yeah. Speaker 4 (14:51) One of the things that's interesting is that the Republicans, Mike Johnson just had another moronic interview. You know, he was saying that data centers are Chinese psyop. I mean, honestly, what a fucking moron this guy is.