Big Technology Podcast
00:19:09 · Teddy Schleifer
[00:19:09] S1: Yeah. I mean, Texas, think, you know, is like... I saw some stat that it was, 30% of, like, data center development is in Texas. Like, you know, this is this is a a state that has embraced it, and Abbott, you know, has embraced the issue. And he's a powerful, I think, three term governor now, that he's ending its third term. And, you know, that's an earthquake there. Right? I mean, you know, Gina Hinojosa has, like, really tried to use that as a as a millstone around Abbott and has been pretty successful or, you know, she won based in part on that. And, you know, that's why there was so much kind of tech spending and... Or one one reason why there was so much tech spending to try to save Greg Abbott. Mean, Elon Musk gave $5,000,000 to the Abbott campaign in September. And clearly, I mean, obviously, his companies are based in Texas, and there was an effort by the Musk operation to make sure this did not happen. And now it's a sea change in Texas politics. I mean, I started... My first job was in Houston, Texas covering the Wendy Davis campaign in 2014. And, you know, it took twelve years for that to finally pay off and, you know, still sort of feels unbelievable given the PTSD that I think lots of Texas Democrats and lots of Texas based reporters have had Right. About this ever actually happening. To see it actually happen, you know, it's it's cool to witness history.
00:20:36 · Alex Kantrowitz, Teddy Schleifer
[00:20:36] S0: Darlene Graham, Lindsey Graham's sister, she was one that was supported in a major way by this data center Super PAC. Industry super packet that you reported on. Yeah. I don't think she lost in particular because of her perspectives. I think she was asked in one debate, you know, foreign policy questions. She said, I don't really pay attention much to foreign policy or something along that line, but it does seem like she was one of the main candidates they were hoping to get elected, and that's not gonna happen for them [00:21:05] S1: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's always a lot of reasons why people lose lose or or win. And I think one of the one of the challenges about kind of super PACs and political spending in general is, like, people... You know, if everyone who wins is a genius, everyone who loses is an idiot. And, like, the reality is, you know, this is a wave election, and and I don't really know if any of these kind of campaign interventions, like, really worked. You know, whether we could talk about Musk if you want, but I mean, everybody who spends in these races is trying to shift public opinion, and public opinion here was pretty baked, and it didn't quite succeed.
00:21:46 · Alex Kantrowitz, Teddy Schleifer
[00:21:46] S0: Right. Okay. Before we go to break, because I do wanna talk to you about Musk, and I wanna talk to you about the billionaires tax. Yeah. Interesting thing that's happening in the market today that I was somewhat surprised by, but it probably shouldn't have been. Bloomberg has the headline, big tech soars on bet dens will save AI spenders from themselves. So clearly, market believes that the Democrats or whoever it will be will be successful in their attempt to stop AI build outs. This is the Bloomberg story. The shares of US technology giants led the market higher on Wednesday as investors bet that a Democrat controlled Congress will slow the massive spending on artificial intelligence that's eating up free cash flow. Amazon jumped 8.3%. Microsoft, 7%. Alphabet, almost 6%. Meta, 3.6%. I mean, they... This is crazy. Together with Apple, which has avoided heavy AI spending and leaped more than 6%, the five tech behemoths are on pace to add nearly $1,000,000,000,000 in market value on Wednesday, all stemming from this belief that that that the government is gonna make them stop spending on data centers. It's remarkable. Yeah. [00:22:59] S1: I don't know what to say.
00:23:02 · Alex Kantrowitz
[00:23:02] S0: Alright. Okay. Well, I'll leave that as the last point. Okay. It's gonna be very interesting to see what happens on that moving forward. Okay. When we come back, a word about Elon Musk, a word about the billionaire's tax, and then, we'll let get... Teddy get back to his reporting. So I'll be back right after this. When you're at work, you never know when you'll be interrupted. But with the Dell Pro powered by Intel Core Ultra with vPro, no matter what distracts you, your laptop won't. It's battery optimized for the way you work with built in intelligence that quiets distractions when you need to focus. Your laptop will help keep you locked in even when it's bring your dog to work day. Built for those who stay in the flow. That's Dell Pro. Built for you. Dell.com/dell-pro. You know those pieces in your closet that you find yourself wearing on repeat? The sweater that goes with everything, the perfect pair of pants, or the tee you somehow always reach for first. Those are the pieces that make getting dressed easy, and that's what Quince does best. Quince focuses on high quality wardrobe staples made with premium materials, like 100 Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, and merino wool. The styles are timeless, versatile, and designed to become the dependable pieces you reach for day after day. Personally, I'm loving my Mongolian cashmere crewneck sweater from Quince. It's actually unbelievably making me look forward to winter. Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for exclusive offers or go to quince.com/bigtech. Get free shipping on your order and three hundred sixty five day returns. Now available in Canada and The UK too. That's quince.com/bigtech. And when Quince asks you where you heard about them, let them know it was Big Technology Podcast. It's the best way to support the show. This episode is brought to you by Intelligence AI. Is your investment in AI coding tools helping your team ship better software? Intelligence connects your AI spending to code quality and engineering outcomes from individual sessions and pull requests to entire projects. You can see where AI saves time, where it creates rework, and how to improve. And its model router selects the right model for each task based on quality, speed, and cost.
00:25:21 · Alex Kantrowitz, Teddy Schleifer
See how Intelligence AI helps enterprises optimize AI powered delivery with connected visibility into cost, quality, and outcomes at Intelligence dot AI. And we're back here on Big Technology Podcast with Teddy Schleifer, reporter at The New York Times covering billionaires and their impact on the world, tech money, and its effect on politics. A lot going on on Teddy's beat, of course. Teddy, you joined the Times in 2024 just as Elon Musk was spending a fortune getting close to Trump being a major, national political player. You, put your your sort of scorecard up on x last night owned by Elon Musk, of course. You wrote a very overly simplified report card for big money tonight. Elon Musk lost. Republican donors lost. Crypto lost. Billionaires taxed TBD. You also pointed out that Elon Musk had a post on X Tuesday morning, said vote red today, and then that disappeared from his profile. What do you think the impact of this is gonna be on Musk? [00:26:22] S1: Musk spent, you know, nearly $500,000,000. It's the most that anybody's ever spent on an election ever when they were not [00:26:31] S0: running On the midterms.
00:26:33 · Teddy Schleifer
[00:26:33] S1: Yeah. Yeah. That's the most everyone's ever spent on election ever when they were not the candidate themselves. 5 hundreds... $500,000,000 in the midterms. Probably more, but we'll see. You know, this is a dramatic failure for him. I mean, even though I do think it is true that there's a lot of reasons why, you know, Ken Paxton did not win Texas, for instance. Politics is a binary. It's about... You know, campaigns are binary. It's about winning versus losing. And his people lost. You know, Republicans lost. So everybody affiliated with the Republican spending operation lost. And and, you know, it just happens that Musk did more than anyone else. So it's it's a tough it's a tough day to be the the Musk team. I mean, I think they're ultimately gonna have to assess what they wanna do politically going forward. You know, Musk has basically been saying that he wants to play a big role in 2028. He wants to play, you know, that this is a a multi cycle effort, but the fact that he's, like, deleting tweets and, you know, making jokes about his political spending suggests to me that he knows this did not go well. And I think there's gonna be significant pain for him politically going forward. I mean, you mentioned the Ed Markey tweet earlier, but, like, you know, there's gonna be investigations. And obviously, it's not just about Tesla and SpaceX. I mean, like, Musk, you know, oversaw so much gutting of the federal government with with Doge, and Musk could be investigated or or or probed for for that work specifically, which are things... Sort of things that probably would not have happened in a Republican Republican led Congress.