Closing Bell - Closing Bell Overtime: White House Crypto Czar David Sacks; Alphabet Earnings; IBM CEO Exclusive Comments 02/04/25

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

A high-stakes earnings day with deep dives into major tech and consumer names. Sand Hill Global Advisors CIO Brenda Vingiello joins alongside CNBC’s Mike Santoli to break down the market reaction. Alphabet, Snap, and AMD are in the spotlight, with expert analysis from Roth MKM’s Rohit Kulkarni and Susquehanna’s Christopher Rolland. Plus, a key conversation on the U.S. approach to digital assets with White House AI & Crypto Czar David Sacks. Also on the docket: Jon Fortt’s exclusive sound from IBM’s CEO. 

with Morgan Brennan and John Ford. Well, that's the end of regulations. ZDL Hotels and Resorts ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange and Microsoft doing the honors at the NASDAQ. The major averages making a comeback as trade war worries with Canada and Mexico abate, though China tariffs remain top of mind. Tech seeing a strong bounce led by a leap higher for Palantir. That is the scorecard on Wall Street, but the action is just getting started.

Welcome to Closing Bell Overtime. I'm Morgan Brennan with John Ford. And we have got a monster hour of earnings on the way, headlined by Alphabet, AMD, Amgen, Electronic Arts, Snap, Chipotle, and Mattel. We're going to bring you all the breaking numbers and analyst reaction. Plus, White House AI and crypto czar David Sachs will join us exclusively, fresh off a news conference outlining the administration's approach to digital assets,

including regulation and the possibility of a strategic Bitcoin reserve. And an exclusive interview with the CEO of IBM following the company's investor day with new growth targets and the latest on tariffs and government contracts. As we await this wave of earnings, though, let's bring in Sandhill Global Advisors Chief Investment Officer Brenda Vangelo and CNBC Senior Markets Commentator Mike Santoli. Brenda, it's great to have you on. I'm going to start right here with the fact that all the major averages finished higher, particularly small caps, the Russell 2000

and the Nasdaq, which was led higher in part by Palantir. How does it set us up after such a topsy-turvy start to the week where trade was top of mind? Well, I think just even looking over the last couple of weeks, it's been a lot of moving parts. But I think the market is really telling you at this point that it's seeming more like the risk of tariffs maybe isn't as great as we felt it was. And the risk of the U.S. falling behind in AI isn't as great as we thought it might have been last week. On the topic of tariffs, I mean, I really think at the end of the day, the goal, I believe, for this administration is not to cause a recession in Mexico and Canada. And that's what would happen if the tariffs were implemented as they were talked about just a few days ago. But I think it's really more of a negotiating tactic to really force those countries to help the U.S. implement policies that will really

facilitate Trump's agenda of one of economic prosperity and overall safety for the U.S. implement policies that will really facilitate Trump's agenda of one of economic prosperity and overall safety for the U.S. Alphabet results are out. We're going through those results right now. We'll bring them to you momentarily. Stocks lower about 4 percent. In the meantime, we also have Amgen earnings out and Angelica Peebles has those numbers. Hey, Morgan, Amgen beating on the top and bottom line, adjusted earnings of $5.31 a share, beating estimates by about by 23 cents and then revenue of $9.09 billion, coming ahead of $8.88 billion that we expected. Now, the guidance for the full year coming in ahead of estimates are roughly in line on both of those ranges. But one thing I do want to note, the company is saying that the FDA has placed its phase one obesity drug, AMG-513, on clinical hold. The company is saying that discussions are underway with the FDA to reopen the study. But we'll keep an eye on that.

You can take a look. That stock now down about four and a half percent. Morgan. All right. Angelica Peebles, thank you. Alphabet earnings. We told you they're out. Deirdre Bosa has the numbers for us. Hi, Dee. They are indeed. And let me first tell you that Alphabet earnings, we told you they're out. Deirdre Bosa has the numbers for us. Hi, Dee. They are indeed. And let me first tell you that Alphabet shares are falling. They're down about 6% in the after hours. Earnings beat estimates, EPS of $2.15 versus $2.13, which was expected. Revenues, however, missed estimates. We got $96.5 billion dollars, just a slight miss versus ninety six point six billion dollars. I'm also seeing that cloud came in a little bit light. We will continue

to go through those numbers. But at first glance, this looks disappointing, at least at first glance to investors. Stocks now down nearly seven percent, guys. All right. Deirdre Bosa, thank you. Mike, want to get your thoughts on this as we do see shares of Google down almost 7 percent now. It was just last month that we saw those shares touching two hundred dollars. And and then they came off a little bit with deep seek and now falling further. Yeah. I mean, they've obviously had on a longer term basis a pretty decent run and got to rebuild the valuation to a premium to the market. It was cheaper for a while that was the setup. I'd be interested to see more color

on the cloud revenue to see if that's one thing people are focusing in on. Also FX you know is going to be an issue given how strong the dollar was in the fourth quarter a lot of the analyst estimates were kind of currency adjusted or

currency neutral and so you want to see if that's an impact but the market clearly. Finding something about the trajectory perhaps the shortfall in were kind of currency adjusted or currency neutral. And so you want to see if that's an impact. But the market clearly finding something about the trajectory, perhaps the shortfall in revenue growth that it was not happy with. Mike, Google Cloud revenue came in at $11.955 billion, where the street was looking for $12.19 as a consensus. Advertising revenue a little better, $.46 versus 71.70. Brenda,

you're looking at the YouTube number as well, coming in at 10.47 billion here. I mean, I guess you really do want to see cloud strength, but Azure had a little bit of a hiccup and a miss there. Hold on just a sec. Let's get back to Dee Bosa with more on Alphabet. Dee? Hey, John, I think you covered the cloud and the advertising revenue. The only thing I just want to add here, because everyone is looking at this number in a post-DeepSeek world, Alphabet expects to invest about $75 billion in CapEx in 2025. I believe that would be a step up. And again, we talked about this all day. It's unlikely that you're going to see these hyperscalers, these AI, big tech companies

really scale back on their AI spend just now because the stakes have just been risen so much. So again, expecting to invest $75 billion in CapEx this year. All right, DeBosa, thank you. Brenda, Alphabet, if it were trading at this level and the market opens tomorrow, be right back in that range where it's been over the last, let's see, a couple months. You know, it had popped a little bit higher down there. Is this a buying opportunity or are there concerns, you think, in what you see in these cloud revenue numbers and anything in YouTube suggesting that either brand advertising or just the general ad market is challenged in some way, even perhaps from AI? Well, I think what we need to see really is the story here. It's good to see that the

advertising revenue overall was decent for the quarter. That's great news. But I think what the stock market investors really want to understand are all these other areas like cloud going to be able to make up for what we may eventually see more slowing because of competition in traditional search. So I think that's the biggest question that everybody's grappling with here. So I think there's not a lot of room for disappointment in some of those other areas that like cloud that are driving profitability, more profitability here. So I think that is going to be something we're going to need to have more clarity on. really kind of what the engagement is like with AI overviews, whether this and how that product offering is going to evolve over time to perhaps integrate even more ads and drive more revenue dollars for the company. Okay. And at least initially that stock is down about six and a half percent here in overtime. Now let's get to Mattel. Its earnings are out. Courtney Reagan

has those numbers. Court. Hi, John. Yeah. So Mattel is beating for earnings per share, putting up 35 cents adjusted compared to estimates of 20 cents. Revenue is also stronger than expected at 1.65 billion. The street looking for 1.63 billion. Gross margins also stronger than expected, coming in at an adjusted 50.8 percent. Street account was looking for 48.6 percent as that consensus. Guidance, it looks like the revenue guidance range is in line with growth of 2% to 3% for the full year revenue. The street looking for 2.7% and the adjusted earnings of $1.66 to $1.72

is above the street's consensus of $1.58. And we should note that there is a quote in here that says, guidance includes the anticipated impact of new U.S. tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canadian imports announced on February 1st, and the mitigating actions that we plan to take, including leveraging the strength of our supply chain and potential pricing.

So that is interesting. Jeffries does note that Mattel has about a 27% exposure to Chinese manufacturing as a percentage of their total, and 4.6% to Mexico. John? All right, Court. Sounds like something we want to hear more about. And you can when Mattel's CEO breaks down those numbers exclusively with Jim Cramer. It's coming up with Jim Cramer on Mad Money at 6 p.m.

Meantime, electronic arts earnings are out. Steve Kovac has those numbers. Steve? Yeah, John. And shares are up a little bit here despite missing slightly on revenue. Let me go over the numbers because I think this buyback is giving a boost to shares. The EPS is coming in at $1.11, which we can't compare to estimates, but revenues was a miss here at $2.22 billion versus the $2.32 billion expected. And as for

guidance between $1.4 and $1.59 billion, that shouldn't be a surprise after the company revives its guidance down over some weak performance for the soccer game football club. Also announcing here, this is what's probably setting shares up a bit, $1 billion accelerated share buyback. This is part of the $5 billion buyback plan. EA is now expecting a total of $2.5 billion in buybacks for the first year of this buyback plan shares up about half a percent, guys. All right, Steve Kovach, thank you. And Mike, we have been hearing more about buyback plans as we're getting through earnings season, but I do want to go back to Mattel with you because the comments about supply chain adjustments and possible pricing and the stock jumping in response to that, even with guidance better than expected for Mattel, tells us what?

Well, yeah, it tells you that, for one thing, companies have, you know, had some plan to try to maneuver around what they had a best guess about anticipating from tariffs. And it's probably a very long multi-year process for companies like Mattel trying to diversify supply chain. Also, you know, an area that didn't always have pricing power. So it feels like, you know, that they're where they want to be. You know, obviously it's a $6 billion company right now. And, you know, it's obviously sort of a category leader, but somewhat sidelined by other overall consumer trends.

Hold on. Snap earnings are out. Stock is spiking. Julia Boorstin has the numbers. Julia. John, Snap feeding on the bottom line with 16 cents of earnings per share. That's two cents better than expected. The company is citing higher expense discipline, among other things. Revenues of $1.56 billion was pretty much in line, just a hair ahead of estimates of $1.55 billion. And global daily active users, $453 million. That's 2 million ahead of estimates showing consistent user growth over this past year. Earnings guidance did fall short of expectations.

The company is saying that its first quarter adjusted EBITDA will be between $40 and $75 million. That's well below the analyst consensus of $78.5 million. The company is saying first quarter costs will increase around growing their employee base, among other things. First quarter revenue guidance is in a range with a midpoint just above the analyst consensus. You see shares are now up 14 percent on this news. Back over to you. All right. Julia Borson, thank you. We've got Chipotle earnings out as well, and Courtney Reagan is doing double time here. She has the numbers for us. Yeah, making me hungry, Morgan. So Chipotle putting up earnings per share. This is a beat at 25 cents adjusted. The street was

looking for 24 cents, so one penny, but it counts. Chipotle revenue is coming in about in line at 2.85 billion. The comparable sales a little light, up 5.4 percent. The street was looking for those to grow 5.7%. The company does note it was driven by 4% transaction growth. And then the full year comparable sales growth, pretty much in line with expectations, or calling it low to mid-single digits in the street account, is looking for an estimate there of 5.4%. Some interesting commentary here talking about higher food and beverage costs as a percent of revenue, pointing mostly to the higher usage of ingredients as we quote, focused on ensuring consistent and generous portions and

a protein mix shift from the success of the smoked brista. They do also note that there were some higher avocado and dairy costs, but those inflationary inputs were less impactful overall to that higher food and beverage costs than the higher amount of the ingredients, the more generous portions there. Also, it looks like a small increase in labor costs, too, for Chipotle. Back over to you. Okay. Courtney Reagan, thank you. I noticed that, Morgan, in my last burrito from Chipotle. That it was bigger? Yeah. Well, they did have that whole controversy around their portions, which we have talked about. Don't miss Jim Cramer's exclusive interview with Chipotle CEO. That's going to be coming up at 6 p.m. Eastern on Mad Money as well.

Brenda. Oh, go ahead. Yeah. Well, Brenda, thanks for your insights here. Mike, we're going to see you in just a bit. It's been a busy start to the hour, and we are just getting started here in overtime. Up next, in instant analyst reaction to these results we've gotten in from Alphabet and this big spike in Snap and the key points to listen to on those earnings calls. And later, we will talk to White

House AI and crypto czar David Sachs about the administration's just outlined approach to digital assets and more. Overtime is back in two. Welcome back. Lumen earnings are out. The communication services company turning in a strong beat on the bottom line with earnings of $0.09 per share adjusted. That was versus estimates of a loss of $0.05 per share. Revenue also coming in better than expected at $3.33 billion versus estimates of $3.2 billion. You can see those shares are also spiking here in overtime, now up 9%. And AMD results just crossed.

The stock initially spiking up about 4%. We'll bring you those just as soon as we got them. But also Enphase Energy results are out. That stock is jumping after beating estimates on both lines. Here's a breakdown. Earnings coming in at $0.94 per share. That beat estimates at $0.72. Revenue coming in at $383 million versus estimates of $378 million.

First quarter revenue guidance was strong as well. You can see Enphase up 11%. Moving to big tech, Alphabet shares lower right now after missing on the top line. Cloud revenue also coming in a bit below estimates and the company saying it expects about $75 billion in CapEx in 2025. Joining us now is Rohit Kulkarni, Managing Director at Roth MKM. He has a buy rating and $225 price target on Alphabet. Rohit, good to see you. So, you know, looking at these earnings, you're expecting if search revenues were up 12%, YouTube up 11%, then we'd see shares go up. Why do you think we're not seeing that yet? I think the two yellow flags that he pointed out, John,

one is cloud. After Microsoft Azure whiffed on their cloud revenues, Google coming in below the high bar of cloud that we had is a big yellow flag. Also, the second is the margins on Google services. They have been going up and up. First time they came below 40%. So that's the second yellow flag. So I think in this day of efficiency and rising CapEx, where are we in that 25 outlook as far as margins is concerned? CapEx is definitely jumping 50%. So I think YouTube and search are big, big positives, but I think they get washed out by cloud coming under expectations and the capex number. Rohit, stay with us. Hold tight. We're going to get those AMD results that I mentioned. Christina Partsenevelis has them. Christina.

We are seeing a top and bottom line B EPS of $1.09. That's stronger than the street anticipated on $7.66 billion for the fourth quarter. In terms of Q4 gross margins, that came in at 54%, so also a little bit higher than what the street was anticipated. For guidance, Q1 coming in at $7.1 billion higher. Gross margins for Q1, they're anticipating it at 54%,

which is slightly lower than estimates, but nonetheless still in line with what we saw with Q4. And I'd like to point out the data center revenue. Data center revenue came in at $3.9 billion in Q4, so slightly lower than what the street anticipated. But nonetheless, shares are jumping about 4%, as the CEO saying in this press release, it was a transformative year. And really, the market was quite downbeat going into this earnings report. Shares were down about 33% just over the last year versus the SOX ETF down up 8%. So that could be a result as to why you're seeing the stock up much higher right now.

All right. Christina, thanks. Rohit, I want to go back to Alphabet, Google here. As investors are probably wondering what to listen for on this earnings call, is the stock right now trading more, you think, on what the ad results fundamentals are or even cloud or more on this idea of an AI payoff? If there's $75 billion, that Alphabet is going to be able to figure out a way to monetize that and that AI will be more of a tailwind than a search threat. I think we expected the core margins to be higher for them to be able to digest higher spend in AI cloud. So I think if both things go in the wrong direction,

then I think investors will probably want to hear more about efficiency, about payoff, and both. So I think the biggest questions would be, how are AI overviews in search helping you drive more revenues? And how do you see AI infrastructure drive more cloud revenues? So those kind of ROI on all the CapEx that they're doing and planning to do. And of course, we cannot forget DeepSeek and how that probably involves and changes the way some of these companies may or may not invest in data centers going forward. Rohit, stay with us because another name you cover, Snap.

We're going to go back to Julia Borsten for some more details from that earnings release. Julia. Yeah, a little bit more color here looking at that stock spiking in after hours now of about 9%. Snap saying that its number of active advertisers more than doubled year over year as it's added more small and medium-sized businesses. Also saying the addition of two new ad formats, sponsored snaps in promoted places, helps grow the number of two new ad formats, sponsored snaps and promoted places helps grow the number of unique Snapchatters reached by advertising by 30 percent. So they have more advertisers and they're reaching more people. Shares now up about 10 percent. Back over to you. OK, Julia, thank you. Rohit, I want to get your thoughts on Snap. I realize that the last couple

of quarters that we've gotten earnings from this company, it's been a pretty big reaction and it's been to the downside. So were expectations perhaps a little under pressure coming into this print? Yeah, exactly. I think this is a classic case of very muted expectations, investors not expecting anything heroic from the company on these earnings. Going over slightly lowered expectations, that's what they did. The Q1 guide is not encouraging enough, but it's not a complete disaster. So I think, again, it's just a case of low expectations

jumping over them and the stock is reacting to that. This company stays in a very long turnaround mode. There is this shiny star in the future called a TikTok ban. This is what some of the long bullish investors are focused on. But that's uncertainty that is hard to put our fingers around. So given the fact that we get Amazon reporting earnings later this week on Thursday, I guess just going back to Google, Alphabet, and then also what we've heard from others in the hyperscaler space, how does this now set us up for that report? It adds definitely a wrinkle on the expectations for Amazon Cloud, AWS, which is Azure coming in below expectations, Google Cloud coming in below expectations google cloud coming in below expectations um and uh as far as aws the the the expectations are uh 19 growth uh in q4 so that remains to be seen i think uh we'll hear from

uh google today whether cloud demand is uh improving deteriorating or are people pausing i.t spend that is something that will move Amazon shares tomorrow heading into earnings. So that's something we'll listen to. Okay. Raheet Gulkarni, thank you for joining us with shares of Alphabet under pressure and shares of Snap spiking. Now that Alphabet earnings call is getting underway in just about 10 minutes. We're going to bring any headlines as soon as we have them. But President Trump's AI and crypto czar, David Sachs, just hosting a news conference laying out his team's priorities on digital asset regulation, stable coins,

the possibility of a strategic Bitcoin reserve. He's going to join us next in a CNBC exclusive interview to break down the administration's plans for crypto. And later, we'll dig deeper into AMD's results with that stock, which was initially high by about 4 percent, now down 2.5. We'll look at the read-through for the rest of the chip space when Overtime returns. Welcome back. This morning's Jolt's report showed job openings fell in December, but a drop in construction jobs could be a red flag for the overall economy.

Let's bring in Mike Santoli for more. Mike. Yeah, Morgan, sometimes seen as a leading indicator of overall labor conditions. Here is construction job openings going back more than 20 years. You see it's kind of fallen back to levels that were last seen around the time of the covid lockdown. So clearly a relatively weak number here. Maybe it's going to be a noisy number from here on out, given the effect of immigration restrictions on construction, labor force, as well as the rebuilding of the wildfires. You're already hearing about construction crews moving to the West Coast. All that being said, it's something to keep in mind as we gauge how much interest rate sensitivity the overall economy has shown in the fourth quarter as Treasury yields

went higher. Take a look here at a few ETFs that track different parts of construction. That would be home building and infrastructure, as well as a broad commercial and retail construction ETF. Now, they're still up plenty over a two-year basis, about 40 percent, but pretty pronounced breakdowns as yields went higher. So definitely something to keep on the screens as a potential macro bellwether, Morgan. OK, we know you'll be watching it. Mike Santoli, thank you. Coming up, White House AI and crypto czar David Sachs on the Trump administration's priorities for digital assets and the possibility of a Bitcoin strategic reserve. Plus, IBM CEO joins us for an exclusive interview following the company's

investor day. With that stock on a tear since earnings last week, we're going to hear about new growth targets, the impact of tariffs and much more. And earnings calls from Alphabet and Chipotle are just about to get underway. We're going to bring you headlines from those companies' executives as we get them. Over time. We'll be right back. It's time now for a CNBC News Update with Leslie Picker. Hi, Leslie. Hi, Morgan. All 67 victims in the last week, a deadly plane collision

over the Potomac River, have been recovered. That's according to D.C. Fire and EMS officials today after rescue teams worked over the past several days to remove the wreckage from the water. Investigators are still looking into the cause of the collision. The full Senate will vote to decide if Tulsi Gabbard should be confirmed as the next director of the National Intelligence. The Senate Intelligence Committee voted earlier today to back President Trump's pick for the role. During her confirmation hearing last week, Gabbard was closely questioned by senators on both sides of the aisle about her stance on Edward Snowden. And Americans are expected to put in nearly $1.4 billion in legal bets for the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl 59 this Sunday, that's according to a report from the American Gaming Association. The report said it based the projection on historical revenue data and other trends. Sports betting is legal in 38 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. I will not be betting, but I will certainly be rooting for my Kansas City Chiefs. I expected as much, Leslie. Thank you. You and our David Gernon. Yes, yes. The two Kansas, the two Kansas colleagues. Indeed. All right. Well, IBM holding an investor day today with the stock closing at a new all-time high, approaching a quarter trillion dollar market cap. I spoke exclusively with CEO Arvind Krishna today about his targets for the next couple of years.

At least 5% revenue growth with software up 10%. And he says several other advantages. Also, our extremely healthy cash flow, highest percentage we have done that we can remember at $12.7 billion last year, $13.5 billion going forward, gives us a lot of flexibility to be able to reinvest in the business. So you look at software, you look at the growth areas we're in, you look at the tailwinds of AI and other things to come, and that gives us a lot of confidence in what we can do for our investors. Five years ago software was a little over 20 percent of the business. It's now 45 percent

of the business and route to becoming 50 percent of the business. Another 30 percent of the business is consulting. Both of these combined are in high growth areas. We could say software for the world at large is high single digit, maybe low double digit, somewhere there. Consulting is probably in the mid single digit growth for the world. So that says 80% of our business almost is in areas where the market grows. And it is our absolute commitment that we are going to be at market growth rates in these businesses. I asked him about the consulting business, which has been under pressure. He says AI becomes a tailwind. Absolutely. As our clients are facing the need for all these investments, they cut back

on some discretionary labor spending. And we saw that in our business. But if I was to look at our book of business, the signings we just did, as well as what our clients are asking, it's going to be people plus AI for the next many years. That means every one of our consultants is going to be helped by an AI assistant that is doing part of their work and making them more productive and making them faster, lowering risk for the client, and all in all, giving our client a better experience. We also talked about the impact of tariffs and tensor relations between the U.S. and its allies. So that direct impact is smaller, but the overall trade relations between countries are very, very important to us. Now, that said, we did a piece of work.

As you pointed out, these sands keep shifting. Is it now, is it a month from now, is it six months from now? From what we can see, we can keep servicing our clients for now. We don't see any issue in that, but I would actually hope that trade relations between our important partners

keep going in the right direction. A part of Krishna's growth strategy is acquisitions, and it sounds like he's prepared to do larger ones, though he's not saying he will. We just committed $13.5 billion of free cash flow. If I look at that, $6 billion, a bit more, goes towards the dividend, and the rest is now available for,

I'll use the word FinFlex or flexibility. You can spend all of it on M&A. You could also look at a three-year window as I always do and say, so that's over $20 billion of flexibility over three years because you can always borrow forward and then pay back what you do. I wouldn't go more than three

because we want to keep investment grade balance sheet. And so if you do that, that gives us a lot of flexibility. You pointed out the ratio already, 75 to 80% will be in software and the remaining will be in consulting. And we intend to keep that ratio and keep going to keep on reinvesting in the business, making our software portfolio more and more attractive, as well as improving its growth rate. A couple more things here. Arvind told me IBM has now booked a billion dollars worth of quantum business over the years. That's cumulative with hopes to accelerate that. But hey, look at that 40-year chart of IBM. Made me do a double take, Morgan. It has broken out.

It is incredible how much it's moved just recently here. And the quantum piece of it is interesting. So is the consulting piece, because IBM, under the hood, has all of these different businesses. All right, well, coming up, just how likely is it that the U.S. will establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve? We're going to ask Trump administration,

AI and crypto czar, David Sachs, next. Plus, much more on today's overtime earnings action, including an analyst with a buy rating on AMD telling us what he wants to hear from management on that call, which starts at the top of the hour. We'll be right back. Welcome back. President Trump's crypto czar, David Sachs, held a news conference earlier today laying out his plans for digital asset regulation and stable coins. He also mentioned his team is looking into the feasibility of a Bitcoin reserve. Joining us now in an exclusive interview is David Sachs.

He is President Trump's AI and crypto czar. And, David, it's great to have you on Overtime. Welcome. Good to be here. So that's exactly where I want to start with you. And that is the fact that you did talk about the need for this clear regulatory framework. How quickly can you stand this up? Well, I was on the Hill today meeting with the leaders of our House and Senate committees for banking and for finance, and they are very

committed to moving legislation through the House and the Senate this year in order to provide that clear regulatory framework that the digital assets ecosystem needs to sustain innovation in the United States. And so those chairmen, I think, are very committed. President Trump is committed. And I think we can do something here. But as you know, moving legislation through Congress takes time. But I think this is something we could do in the next six months. The feasibility of a Bitcoin reserve, you said that's being studied. It's one

of the first things that's on the table here. What goes into that process? Is that something that would be standalone or is that something that could potentially be tucked into, say, a sovereign wealth fund, which has been the speculation today on the heels of that executive order? I guess it's possible that the sovereign wealth fund could decide that they want to make Bitcoin or digital assets part of its portfolio. You're going to have to ask the incoming commerce secretary, Howard Letnick, about that. The item that President Trump asked our working group on digital assets to study is whether it's feasible to create either a Bitcoin reserve or some sort of digital asset stockpile. And so we're going to be looking at that question. We haven't committed yet to doing it, but it's oneile. And so we're going to be looking at that question. We haven't committed yet to doing it, but it's one of the first things we're going to be looking at.

Hey, David, good to see you. It's John Ford. So I want to zoom out for a moment. There's a huge opportunity here for you, for Silicon Valley, a number of entrepreneurs, investors who are in the Trump administration. I've heard from a number of people in Silicon Valley who are excited about what's possible. I also see a big risk in the sense that the scale of human impact in government is just different. We're seeing it in the reaction to some of what

Elon Musk is doing initially. There's human impact domestically and globally. Is that in your mind at all? Because based on your success or not in these roles, it could affect perceptions of Silicon Valley for a generation or more. Well, I mean, you're getting a little bit outside my lane here, John. But if you're asking me what I think about what Elon's doing, I think it's terrific for the United States and for innovation and for Silicon Valley. We have a federal government right now that runs a two trillion dollar deficit every year and

the country's almost 40 trillion dollars in debt and if you want to ask what is the biggest threat to American prosperity and to continued American leadership and innovation you'd have to say it's our out of control deficit and debt and I think Elon Musk at the director of President Trump is actually doing something to get that spending under control. And I think we should be welcoming it. Yeah, I'm asking less. And thank you for that. I'm asking less about that and more about just the difference in the scale of human impact between working in government and making investments and cuts there versus doing it with software or with hardware where some in Silicon Valley are

more used to operating? Well, I think it's quite amazing to bring software expertise to Washington. I mean, I'm seeing it here in my first few weeks that the systems that the government uses are so antiquated, they're so out of date. And so bringing people from the technology industry to Washington can only be a positive thing. It can only help us update those systems, be more modern, be more efficient. The government needs a lot more of that. And I think one of the things that's really exciting right now is that there is tremendous optimism in Silicon Valley and there's tremendous support for President Trump in Silicon Valley. At this point, I don't know anyone who doesn't support President Trump's agenda and administration in Silicon Valley. And so I think it's actually been terrific to be able to involve a whole lot of new people in government from the technology industry.

And I think it's going to bring a lot of innovation to Washington, which is sorely, sorely needed. On the heels of the 10 percent tariffs, China overnight saying it's going to launch an investigation into Google over alleged antitrust violations. How are you gaming out the impact of trade tensions between the two countries on tech? Is this something that you're advising the president on in terms of the dynamic and how it affects things like technology and specifically AI? China already discriminates against our technology companies. The trade relationship isn't reciprocal at all. So I think that what President Trump did by announcing that 10% tariff is just a partial corrective. And if China wants to respond,

then that's something they're going to have to decide. David, recast for us, if you will, the value of Bitcoin specifically, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in general as we're now in the trump administration era we're in the back half of the 2020s back five years ago plus there was talks about you know using it as a means of buying things now it's more about uh the store of value and the way you know perhaps hedge uh against against inflation in various currencies what do you see as the real value and the reason why the United States government should be paying so much attention to it? Well, I think there's a few different aspects here

when you're talking about digital aspects. So first of all, you got Bitcoin. It was the first digital currency, and it's the original. It's the strongest one. In the parlance of the industry, it's the most lindy, meaning it's been around for over a dozen years now.

No one's ever hacked it. No one's ever cracked the security around it. And so Lindy, meaning it's been around for over a dozen years now. No one's ever hacked it, no one's ever cracked the security around it. And so it is a excellent store of value. So that would be point number one. Bitcoin is run on, as you know, a blockchain. It's basically a distributed ledger, which is essentially a form of decentralized computing. And that platform can be used to create

a lot of other types of products. And so that would be sort of technology area number two is all the innovation that can be built on top of block chains and then I would say a third area that's very interesting is stable coins and this is an area that has already taken off but mostly offshore we want to bring that innovation onshore we want to enable legislation to allow the issuance of stablecoins in the United States. And I think the power of stablecoins is that it could extend the dollar's dominance internationally, extend it online digitally, and create potentially trillions of dollars of new demand for our U.S. treasuries,

which could help support our debt and bring down long-term interest rates. So I think these are all three very exciting areas of digital asset technology. It's super fascinating. I do want to go back to AI for a moment, though, because I know in the wake of the deep-seek revelations, you've done a number of interviews and you have talked about the fact that the U.S. has not lost leadership in AI, but that the Chinese are, as you said in one interview, quote, hot on our heels. How does the U.S. maintain AI dominance? How much of that is going to be tied to things like regulations and export controls? Well, there's a few things. I mean, number one is our companies need to be the most innovative. I

mean, there's no substitute for just, you know, being the companies that develop the breakthrough innovations. And I do think that Silicon Valley in our technology industry is very good at that when they focus on that as opposed to distractions like woke and you know in the early days of AI you had things like woke AI it was clear that they were wasting time on political agendas I think that's been worked out of the system now thanks to President Trump and I do think that our companies are going to focus on innovation you mentioned the export controls I do think that is a way for us to maintain our lead on China.

The fact of the matter is that the leading edge chip companies like Nvidia are American companies, and there's no reason to give access to China for our leading edge chips. And that is potentially a way for us to help maintain our lead over them. Wow, we covered a lot of ground. David Sachs with a black tie on. Wow. We covered a lot of ground.

David Sachs with a black tie on is concise. We appreciate it. David Sachs, great to see you. Thanks, John. We're still ahead. More overtime earnings movers as we await AMD's analyst call. That's at the top of the hour. Overtime will be right back. Up next, a top analyst tells us the top thing investors should be listening for when AMD's

call starts at the top of the hour. He weighs in next. And don't miss a first on CNBC interview with Ford's CEO tomorrow, right here on Overtime, just moments after the automaker reports earnings. Welcome back. Match Group just out with earnings and announcing a CEO change. Zillow co-founder Spencer Raskoff has been named as Match CEO. That's effective immediately, replacing Bernard Kim, who has stepped down as chief executive and a board member. And on results, Match topped estimates on the top and bottom line with earnings per share of 59 cents versus expectations of 54 cents. Revenue of $860 million versus $859 million expected. Revenue guidance, though, that was a bit below expectations. And you can see shares right now are under pressure, down about 7 percent. Well, AMD shares are lower after reporting fourth quarter earnings results moments ago.

Let's bring in Susquehanna senior analyst Christopher Rolland. Christopher was up about 4.5% in the regular trade, up 5% or so initially on results. Now it's down 5% in overtime. Why the whiplash? Yeah, I think initially we all thought it was a clear beat. But when we get into the segmentation, it looks like data center, which is the most important to the AMD story right now, may have missed. So in light of that, I mean, there was already an expectation going into this print that that could be potentially softer as

NVIDIA continues to have such a big lead when it comes to AI. Is this a reflection of the fact that there's choppiness around its new product rollouts, or is it a reflection of something else in this competitive landscape? Yeah, this is an unprecedented ramp of a new AI product. It's really incredible what they've been able to do in really a year here. But what this does say is that the exit rate for this year implies perhaps a little bit slower growth than we would have liked to have seen here. And AI is a key part of this story. So I don't know if it's NVIDIA weighing so much here, but this product just maybe is not getting as much growth and as much traction as Bulls had hoped

for. It's a bit of a head scratcher, Christopher, in the sense that last March, like just 11 months ago, the stock was $100 a share higher, if I'm looking at this correctly. And nobody would argue that AMD isn't successful. What happened then? What does it tell us about the semiconductor market and valuations overall? Yeah, I think it's all summed up in expectations, particularly for MI300. for M. I. three hundred. So there were numbers like eleven or twelve billion in twenty twenty five and my three hundred revenue. And I think the buy side now is about half of that six to seven billion. For the upcoming year and that I think is almost one hundred percent. Of that drop we've seen in the stock price since last March. So would you buy AMD here? Would you buy something else? What do you see as the next compelling investment in the semi space?

We think AMD just on the server side and a few other things like embedded, which is FPGA. And then we're not counting this MI300 AI opportunity out entirely. We do think that these all give the stock quite a bit of optionality. So we do like it from here. We think there is upside. Okay. Christopher Rollins, thanks for joining us with shares of AMD down 5% right now. And Alphabet lower as well, in part because of that miss in Google Cloud revenue. Even though advertising revenue came in stronger, YouTube revenue came in stronger,

but also $75 billion in CapEx for 2025, which seems to be getting a lot of attention. Always challenging to weigh these results and the reaction to them versus expectations. I'd expected sort of some currency impact here in results, but this is a whole different set of things. Now, speaking of currency, very interested in what David Sachs had to say from the White House about not just Bitcoin cryptocurrency in general, but stable coins and how dollar strength over time, dollar dominance over time might be enhanced by that and even U.S. Treasuries. Yeah, that is going to be one to watch and seeing who the who the winners and losers in all of this as the regulations shake out is going to be super fascinating as well. And then, of

course, tomorrow we get ISM, we get more earnings. So we'll continue to watch it. That's going to do it for us here at Overtime. Fast money starts now.