Prof G Markets
00:23:28 · S0, S1
[00:23:28] S0: Support for the show comes from Morgan Stanley's podcast, Hard Lessons. Some investing lessons will become clear after you see how a call plays out. On Hard Lessons, iconic investors sit down with Morgan Stanley leaders to go behind the scenes on the critical moments, both successes and setbacks that shaped who they are today. Hear from iconic investors, including Stan Druckenmiller, John Gray, Rick Reeder, and Gene Hines as they revisit the calls that worked, the ones that didn't, and the moments that changed their thinking. You'll hear in their own words how they built conviction, what happened when certain calls didn't play out as expected, and what they learned from those moments. Watch or listen to hard lessons wherever you get your podcasts. [00:24:09] S1: This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed Sponsored Jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.
00:24:09 · S1, S5
[00:24:09] S1: This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed Sponsored Jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. [00:24:38] S5: Are you tired of hearing about business, tech, and finance from The Bros? We are the Tiger Sisters, a top business podcast with the Vox Media Podcast Network. Tiger Sisters releases every Monday, and we decode money, power, and love. And who doesn't love all those things? We are the Internet's Wall Street and Silicon Valley big sisters. Tune in every Monday for late night sister talk meets boardroom strategy. Check out Tiger Sisters on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Tiger fam.
00:25:14 · Ed Elson
[00:25:14] S3: We're back with Prof G Markets. Democrats pulled off a blockbuster sweep Tuesday night. And according to the exit polls, voters were focused on an issue that is somewhat new in America, and that is data centers. Voters approved more than 30 local measures to restrict data centers, while only one measure passed to ease restrictions. 56% of voters called AI and data centers a crucial or major factor in their choice at the polls. As a result, the tech market made some enormous moves. Neo clouds like CoreWeave, Oracle, and IREN all ended the day deep in the red. However, big tech companies like Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta added nearly a trillion dollars in market value. So what is next for the AI build out after the Democrats take over? Here to break this down, we're speaking with Alex Bores, New York State Assembly member, author of the RAISE Act, and founder of Who Decides. Alex, thank you for joining us on Prof G Markets. So this has been... We knew this was gonna be an issue going into this election. AI, data centers, this has been your issue. You've written legislation on it. This is really what you're known for. I don't think people expected it would be this big of an issue. And also so unanimous, your reactions to to what we saw in these midterms, specifically, on the data centers.
00:26:47 · Alex Bores, Ed Elson
[00:26:47] S6: I, myself, am blown away by exactly that how unanimous it was. I think there were 41 local referenda on data centers, and some of votes are still being counted. But I think there's only one where the pro building data center side of that initiative won. I mean, from coast to coast, people were expressing that they want there to be more guardrails. They want there to be more restrictions. And of course, no conversation about the impact on data centers and AI from Tuesday is complete without looking at the Texas governor's race, where a long shot bid by Gina Hinojosa, who ran strongly on rolling back data centers and putting a moratorium on data centers, took out Greg Abbott, who had been the biggest champion of data centers until maybe the few months of the campaign where he saw the political wins and and turned the other way. And so that by itself, Texas being one of the biggest markets, biggest opportunities for growth in data centers, that switch could really have national and and even international implications. [00:27:52] S3: Did that issue define that race? And and did it define other races? I mean, I'd look at Sherrod Brown in Ohio. His his sort of move was calling Husted, quote, the face of data centers in Ohio, and it seemed like that became, like, a a big issue. But, I mean, that was one of the biggest upsets is, you know, also taking governor in Texas. No one thought that was gonna happen. Is that a data center story?
00:27:52 · Ed Elson, Alex Bores
[00:27:52] S3: Did that issue define that race? And and did it define other races? I mean, I'd look at Sherrod Brown in Ohio. His his sort of move was calling Husted, quote, the face of data centers in Ohio, and it seemed like that became, like, a a big issue. But, I mean, that was one of the biggest upsets is, you know, also taking governor in Texas. No one thought that was gonna happen. Is that a data center story? [00:28:18] S6: It's a huge part of the story, and it goes beyond just data centers. I think data centers were dominating the conversation three, four months ago. But by election day in most of these places, it had evolved to be a broader conversation about AI itself, about who gets to set the rules, about whether this is something that democracy still can express, if that's local communities on data centers, or if that's states being allowed to pass their own laws on our AI, or whether they'll be banned from doing so as industry has tried to pass federally. So the fact that there were people running who were made clear that they were going to stand up to entrenched interests, that they were gonna try to empower the American people was a resounding message, and and whether that was on data centers or broadly on regulation on AI. [00:29:06] S3: What do you think voters are most concerned about when it comes to the data centers? I I feel like there's a whole swath of things that people have expressed, but, I mean, what what ranks highest, do you think?
00:29:06 · Ed Elson, Alex Bores
[00:29:06] S3: What do you think voters are most concerned about when it comes to the data centers? I I feel like there's a whole swath of things that people have expressed, but, I mean, what what ranks highest, do you think? [00:29:17] S6: It's tough to separate out the different pieces of it, but there's a debate about whether it is AI itself or just the data center. There... There's lots of things that are just local concerns with the data center. People express a lot of concern about water usage. So in The US, that's pretty highly regulated and we've seen much better behavior than what we've seen in other countries. But the energy prices that might spike because of it, even when a data center is promising to bring its own energy, if it puts a lot more demand on the components that generate energy, that could raise prices for your local utility that's doing it as well. So whether people will truly get their bills frozen or or reduced because of a data center has become a big issue. But there was really interesting polling that showed if you ask people if... How they felt about a data center versus how they felt about an AI data center. Data centers by themselves were still underwater, but an AI data center was another 20 points underwater. Just that it was tied to AI made a big difference. And so you saw OpenAI saying that they are going to try to rebrand data centers as AI compute campuses. I mean, campus sounds fun, but they're still tying the AI into it in a way that I think won't alleviate the very real concerns and fears that Americans have.