Morning Brew Daily - Nvidia To Make AI Supercomputers in Texas & Goldman Sachs Cashes In for Q1

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

Episode 561: Neal and Toby dive into Nvidia’s announcement to build its first-ever American-made AI supercomputers in Texas and the history of manufacturing in the US. Then, Goldman Sachs equities traders have been riding the wave to record revenue during the markets’ volatility from the trade war. Plus, Katy Perry, Gayle King, and an all-female space crew take a tour around space in Blue Origin’s 11th mission in the last 4 years. Meanwhile, Toby looks at the trend of restaurants putting caviar on everything. Also, Hollywood has been banking on franchises and sequels to bring life into the box office, which has left original movies struggling to attract movie-goers. Finally, robotaxi riders are leaving love notes for future riders. Cute.  Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Visit https://planetoat.com/ to learn more! Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here: https://link.chtbl.com/MBD Watch Morning Brew Daily Here: https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow 00:00 - Coachella Tickets  02:50 - Nvidia Goes in On Texas  09:00 - Goldman Sachs Revenue 11:30 - Blue Origin's All Female Crew 16:45 - Toby’s Trends: Caviar 20:00 - Original Movies Struggle 23:40 - Headlines  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many employees can't afford a hefty medical bill that pops up out of the blue, but it happens. And employees who are financially stressed are, understandably, more likely to be distracted at work, costing their employers greatly in lost productivity. Luckily, AFLAQ plans help with out-of-pocket expenses not covered by health insurance and can be offered at no direct cost to businesses. Learn more at aflac.com slash morningbrewerdaily. That's aflac.com slash morning brew daily. Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Fryman.

And I'm Toby Howell. Today, Blue Origins, All Women's Space Flight with Katie Perry, made history, controversy, and memes. Then remember to peel the made-in-America sticker off your new supercomputer. Invidia announced yesterday, it'll start making AI chips in the U.S. of A. It's Tuesday, April 15th. Let's ride. Good morning and happy Tuesday. Neil, my Instagram feed has been filled with Coachella goers this past week as 100.

of thousands flock to the California desert to rub shoulders with Timothy Salome and spend $650 a pop on a ticket. And if you're thinking to yourself as your fingers tap through yet another story of Lady Gaga said, dang, do all my friends got it like that? The answer is probably no, they do not got it like that. According to a Billboard report, more than half of all general admission attendees bought their tickets through payment plans this year. Back in 2009, when the festival first launched its payment plan program, 18% of attendees used it.

Now that number is around 60%. Recession indicator, Neil, just bad money management, or worth it? Well, the first thing to know about this is Coachella is not the only music festival that gets a majority of its tickets through these payment plans, Lollapalooza Electric Daisy Carnival, Rolling Loud, all sell a majority of their tickets using some kind of payment plan system. And then to your question of whether these people are financially illiterate, I think the opposite. I think they're finance experts because back in college, I did learn a few things. And one of them was the time value of money. A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow.

So if you can get an interest-free plan to keep money now instead of spending it now, that is savvy. Assuming you can pay it off, it is savvy, Neil. Look at you, Neil, encouraging people to live in the moment. Now a word from our sponsor, Planet Oat. Neil, you know what makes the foundation of a good relationship? I think it's compatibility. Having the same hobbies, interest, goals. You got to be on the same page.

Sage advice for sure, but I add one more thing in there. You have to also make each other better. It's why Planet Oat has the best relationship with your morning brew. Not only is it compatible with a nice cup of Joe or a bowl of cereal, but it also elevates the entire experience. Rich, creamy, smooth, and delicious. it brings out the best in everything, whether you're blending a smoothie or drinking it straight from the glass.

They even have an unsweetened version with zero grams of sugar. And just for good measure, it's also an excellent source of calcium. Gives a nice boost to a relationship. Don't settle for less than perfect. Pick something that will make your life better. Visit planetoat.com for more. Own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari.

In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly, big board buck slot machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at Sandman, is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package, the biggest prize in Yamava's history. Club Serrano members can earn daily instant prizes and secure a spot in the finale May 29. Don't pass go and own it all, only at Yamava, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You win? Details at Yamava.com must be 21-20.

Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. The most viable chip maker on Earth just made a very pro-American manufacturing move. Invidia announced yesterday that it's bringing over a million square feet of AI chip manufacturing to U.S. soil, ramping up operations in Arizona and Texas. The company's next-gen blackwell chips are already in production at TSM's FABS in Phoenix, while new supercomputer factories are being built in Houston and Dallas.

Within four years, Nvidia says it's directing $500 billion worth of AI infrastructure spend towards the good old USA. But beneath the bold promises of bringing manufacturing back, made in USA is easier said than done. The U.S. lost its manufacturing dominance decades ago, not just because of globalization, but because Americans got wealthier, started spending more on services, and lost their knack for mass production. Factory employment peaked in the 1950s, but today only one in 10 private sector workers are in the sector, while only one in five Americans think their life would be better off working in a factory, according to a Kato Institute, UGOV's survey.

Still, as NVIDIA announcement shows, high-value manufacturing and industry, like chip fabrication and aerospace engineering still has an avenue to thrive here. The FT writes that when measured by value added per worker, U.S. manufacturing actually ranks first amongst the major economies above China, which is why the push to reshor manufacturing is more complicated than it seems. No one wants to force the return of a labor-intensive industries through tariffs, especially if it hurts services or raise prices. But, Neil, NVIDIA's move does show what modern onshoreing can look like. Manufacturing and American manufacturing has certainly been a hot topic of discussion in the past few weeks

as Trump launched this trade war in a bid to reshore manufacturing to the United States. His Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik was sort of the forefront of this push when he said that his ambition was an army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little little screws to make iPhones. That kind of thing is going to come to America. Critics kind of seized on that comment and says that that is not sort of what American industry should be doing now. That's not what I want to be doing now in that Cato Institute study that you, that you cited. Many, the vast majority of Americans said America would be better off if more Americans worked in manufacturing. About 80% said that, but just over 20% said I would be better off if I worked

in a factory. And that sort of the chasm that we have or this nostalgia that we have over this golden age of American manufacturing. Right now, far fewer Americans work in manufacturing. We do it pretty well what we do, but it's just a smaller share of the overall economic pie, but that nostalgia still holds. Yeah, and it's just hard to compel, you know, these companies to set up factories in America just by raising import duties. One, because the cost of moving production to the U.S. is very high. You need labor for solutions. all, which is more expensive in the United States. You also need, you know, a lot of capital to build these billion-dollar factories. Dan Ives, famous Wed Bush analyst that we cite a lot,

estimated that Apple would need at least three years and $30 billion just to shift a tenth of its supply chain from Asia to the U.S. So that is one other force that is kind of, it's a major headwind because you need just so much time, you need so much money. Invita is saying that it's willing to, you know, put the time in, put the money in, but it doesn't work for every company up and down the supply chain. And even critics of Trump's tariff policies would say, you know, I think it's pretty good if we have certain manufacturing operations here, things for national security like chips, AI supercomputers. So they'll say, yeah, maybe we don't need to make iPhones here because that is a global trade that is mutually beneficial for both the United States

consumers and Chinese producers and Apple large because it reduces their cost. But certain industries, we should re-shore. And I think Nvidia is probably a good example of the types of industries that we'd want to do here. They command higher wages. But you're right. The problem is there aren't enough workers here or there aren't enough skilled workers here to work in the current manufacturing jobs that are out there or those high value

added in February 2025. There were 482,000 open jobs in manufacturing. So there are jobs. People are just not seeking them out. Deloitte in an analysis from last year said that there would be 1.9 million unfilled jobs in manufacturing by 2033. So if you're a manufacturer and you're looking at across the globe where you're going to set up your shop, if you're looking at the United States, you're saying, okay, well, maybe that labor pool doesn't exist. And that TSMC, this big Taiwan semiconductor company, has had,

problem setting up its Arizona factory because of that lack of skilled workers. All this stock market volatility may not have been easy on your stomach, but it's been the ride of a lifetime for Goldman Sachs. Equity's traders at the Wall Street Bank posted their highest quarterly revenue on record in Q1 as chaos grip markets over President Trump's stop and start tariff policies. Equity trading revenue rose 27% from a year earlier to $4.2 billion in the first three months of the year. And remember, the quarter ended before, for Liberation Day on April 2nd before one of the most volatile weeks in stock market history last week. So the good times for Goldman are likely rolling on. Even though the market rollercoaster

is good for business, CEO David Solomon warned it wasn't so good for the economy. He said this uncertainty around the path forward and fears over the potentially escalating effects of a trade war have created material risk to the U.S. and global economy, he said. Adding the prospect of a recession has increased with growing indications that economic activity is slowing down around the world. Solomon said that he was hopeful that feedback from companies, investors, and consumers would result in the White House changing course to an approach that would lead to more economic certainty and long-term growth. Toby, it makes for an interesting dynamic for banks.

It's the best of times, but also possibly the worst of times because they would be hit hard in a downturn. Yeah, you want a little bit of uncertainty because Goldman acts as a middleman in trade. buying from one party, selling to another. And so the more uncertainty means more trades, which means more spreads, which means more revenue for them. When markets are calm, people trade less. But then when Trump shakes up trade policy, traders are constantly repositioning here,

buying protection, rotating sectors, hedging exposures. So that chaos leads to pretty record trading volumes, which is good fees for Goldman. So you're right. It's this weird balance between you do need a little bit in there, but you don't want too much. And, you know, Goldman is not the only bank that's seeing a huge equities boom. J.P. Morgan reported last week, 48% increase in stock trading revenue. Morgan Stanley up 45% year over year in stock trading revenue. So it is providing a tailwind across this entire industry.

Investment banking, which is when you underwrite deals and IPOs, is a different story. Goldman's on 8% drop in the quarter there. It seems like deal flow has pretty much dried up or is on pause for now. They're not, they meaning big bank CEOs, are not completely writing off kind of their investment banking activities division, though, on Friday Morgan Stanley CEO, Ted Pick, so that he believes deals are on pause, not delete. So they're holding out hope that, you know, this paralysis that is currently gripping the industry is not going to be a long-term thing. It's just going to be a short-term thing. And then in the meantime, I think they're happy to reap these fees from increased volatility in their trading departments. Yesterday morning, Katie Perry went up to space and back again before you logged on to your first work meeting.

The pop star, alongside a star-studded all-female crew that included Gail King and Lauren Sanchez, traveled to space aboard a Blue Origin rocket, becoming the first spaceflight of only women since 1963. The crew took off from Blue Origins launch site in West Texas at 9.30 a.m. Eastern, traveled above the Carman Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space 62-mile. above the Earth's surface and returned just over 10 minutes later. They experienced about four minutes of weightlessness and a few moments of Katie Perry serenating them with a zero-g rendition of what a wonderful world. Hundreds of thousands of people joined the live stream to watch the historic flight,

and there were a few celebs at the launch site as well. Oprah was there to support her friend, Gail King, and Jeff Bezos was there too, which is probably a good thing because Blue Origin is his private space company, and that's really what we want. to talk about. This was Blue Origin's 11th human flight since 2021, and it's built a reputation and received criticism for serving as a vehicle for celebrity space joy rides. Toby Blue Origin is certainly God tier at creating buzz, but is there any substance behind this? I mean, the memes yesterday were fantastic. You have to admit, Katie Perry getting off the spacecraft and kissing the

earth, holding a daisy up, you know, singing up there, serenading her fellow crew members. That obviously generated a lot of the headlines. I also saw some of this was rubbing people the wrong way. One, because making a big deal out of it at all was something that people are like, we don't need to do that anymore. You know, the first female flight, all female flight was 62 years ago. Eileen Collins was the first female shuttle commander 26 years ago. Peggy Whitson became the first female commander of the International Space Station 18 years ago. She's also the record holder for most time spent in space. So a lot feel that women, real astronauts have obviously been pushing the boundaries far more than this Blue Origin fight. So why did we need to make such a big deal out of this?

But then also a lot of astronauts saw merit in the flights that Blue Origin is making. A retired astronaut, former ISS commander Terry Verch, told time that space tourist flights, like Blue Origins New Shepherd, are positive in so many ways. They support the burgeoning commercial space industry. And they allow more humans to see our beautiful planet from outer space. Let's talk about the burgeoning space tourism industry. I don't know if it's burgeoning because it has gotten stopped and starts and, you know, Virgin Galactic, which is a pioneer in this space. Its stock price, it went public in 2020.

Its stock price is down 99%. Its Q for revenue was just over $400,000 and that missed estimates. It's charging $250,000 to $450,000 per spaceflight. Blue Origin did not disclose how, you know, it's ticker. prices or how many people paid. It said that some people paid. Some people did. I wonder if Lauren Sanchez, who is Bezos's fiance paid. But this part of the space sector, I think, has generated a lot more buzz than actual dollars in cents. Meanwhile, Blue Origin has a freight business. You know, this is its passenger business. It has a freight business that is probably

going to do a lot better and will be a lot more lucrative. It launched its first new Glen rocket for the first time into orbit in January. It's hoping to do that again a few months from now. And That's contracting with NASA to help to go to the moon and Mars. So space tourism, I think a tiny minnow in this overall space economy pie. But I think worth it for the memes, Neil, worth it for the memes. Up next, we have Toby's trends. Wireless can feel like a world of traps, but not with visible. It's one-line wireless with unlimited data and hotspot.

Powered by Verizon for $25 a month, taxes and fees included. Plus, for a limited time, new members pay just $20 a month for one year on the Visible plan. Using the code Fresh Start. Refresh your wireless with Visible. Tap the banner to switch today. Terms apply, limited time offer subject to change. See Visible.com for plan features and network management details. It's time to refresh your yard during spring backyard days at the Home Depot.

Get low prices guaranteed on propane grills starting at $179, like the next grill 3-burner gas grill. or get $50 off the select Weber Spirit Grill and bring big flavor to your backyard. Then set the scene with Hampton Bay string lights that bring it all together. Shop spring backyard days for seven days at the Home Depot. Now through May 6th. Exclusion supplies to homedipo.com slash price match for details.

If you're tired of paying for overpriced eggs from chickens, may I interest you in overpriced eggs from a different species? Maybe some that have been cured in salt and come from a sturgeon. Yes, today I want to talk about, the rise of slimy, briny caviar on today's edition of Toby's trends. Caviar is having a bit of a moment finding itself on dishes far beyond the scope of crem fresh and crackers. Despite its air of luxury, caviar has gotten a lot more affordable recently. Accurate data is a little hard to come by, but the average price for a kilogram of imported

caviar was around $240 in 2020, down from 440 in 2014, according to a European Fish Observatory. reason for this, China. Today, most of the little fish balls that cross your palate come to the U.S. from farms in China, where government support, plentiful waterways, and cheap labor have pushed down prices. Retailers say that they can snag a kilogram for as low as $400 now. Compare that to a U.S. producer, Marshallburg Farms, who supplies caviar to a luxury hotel who says its break-even cost is $1,000 to $1,200 a kilo. But thanks to this flood of cheaper eggs, restaurants have started getting fancy with the ingredient. Koka-Dak, a Korean fried chicken restaurant in New York City,

slaps a healthy dollop on top of a McDonald-style chicken nugget, while you can get a $68 sour cream and onion dip in Nashville adorned with the fancy orbs. Neal, it's all combined to push this once unattainable symbol of luxury into the mainstream dining experience. I don't know if that's a good thing for caviar, though, because the interesting thing about luxury goods like this is that they become less desirable as the price point goes.

down. I mean, Aramez handbag, right? If it's cheaper, then you're probably like, well, I don't know if I want it because it's more of a mass market thing. So it's very interesting study in pricing strategy. If you're a restaurant owner and you are now able to get caviar on the cheap, it's how you present that in your menu and what your price point is to, you know, sort of maximize, you know, you have a bountiful amount of caviar that maybe you don't use to. How do you deploy that in the most strategic way? And I think even though caviar is cheaper now, diners are willing to still play a premium because they're really not thinking about it that much in their minds.

They still think caviar equals luxury. So they're like, of course it's expensive here if menu prices are high. And also, despite this, you know, big ascendancy of Chinese caviar coming into United States, a lot of importers don't really directly specify the country of origin. And then also, if you go to a retailer website, this is very funny. you can see that caviar was harvested in the immaculately clean waters of the thousand islands lake, which doesn't explicitly mention China, but it actually is just referring to a lake in China. So there's just creative ways that importers get around saying that this was imported from China

by making it seem like the luxury good that it has been for so long. Also, I just think it's fun how chefs are playing around with it because Koka-Dak on the chicken nugget is very interesting. there's another place in New York City that puts it on little hot dogs, so a little hot dog in caviar combo. And then another restaurant was just serving straight up bumps of it, straight off your hand for $20. And they're like, this is a great Instagram sensation for us. People post it. It's fun. It's more like marketing for us. We don't care if we make a profit or not on it. We just want to bring people in with this allure of caviar. It's a very Instagramable food. In economics, revealed preference theory states that you should look at what

people buy rather than what they say they want to buy to learn about human behavior. And we are seeing that play out crystal clear at movie theaters. Everyone complains about how Hollywood makes too many sequels and not enough originals. But if this year's box office is any indication, people don't want to watch the originals. Drop and the amateur two movies based on fresh ideas flopped hard at the box office this weekend, bringing in $7.5 million and $15 million domestically. The Wall Street Journal reported.

This severe underperformance follows miserable box office halls recently by other originals such as Mickey 17, Nova Kane, Fly Me to the Moon, and Red One. Meanwhile, movies based on well-known IP are killing it. A Minecraft movie, for instance, brought in another $80 million at theaters this weekend, bringing its global total to $550 million. Toby, we say we don't want sequels or familiar stories, but turns out that's exactly what we want. Any follow up? I mean, going through this story and looking at the movie names, I'm part of the problem because I have never heard of the new thriller drop or Disney's spy movie The Amateur. These are names that just never even crossed my marketing consciousness.

And a lot of it is really hurting theaters too because right now the movie industry is struggling to come out of its pandemic slump. Box office revenue first three months of the year was the lowest it has been, excluding the pandemic since 1996. So again, I understand the pinch that movie studios are in right now because all of us are saying we do not want another Marvel movie. Give us something new. And then they give us something new. And then we don't go and see the movie.

So it is this kind of catch 22. And again, I'm totally part of the problem because I'm not seeing the drop. I'm not going to see the amateur. So maybe I got it hard on yourself. It's not your fault. You do what you want. But luckily this summer, I guess luckily there are a lot of or unluckly, there are a lot of sequels coming through the pipe. We have a new Superman movie.

There's another Jurassic World movie. There's another Mission Impossible. And then in the family film arena, there's the live action remake of how to train your dragon. There's the SpongeBob movie, another one, and a new Smurfs. So they're rolling out the sequels. I mean, they know that during the summer people want to see these familiar blockbusters. Three movies that I do want to call out, though. Apple studios bet big on F1, which is this very immersive take on the F1,

sport with Brad Pitt as a race car driver. You've seen them kind of trapezing around the paddock in real races. So that's a big original bet. And then you also have sinners from Warner Bros. starring Michael B. Jordan. That's a big bet from Ryan Coogler, which I think has the possibility to go well. And then one final kind of, it's not necessarily an original movie, but it's also not a sequel. And that's Thunderbolts from Marvel, which is focuses on this very, little-known superhero IP. And I think maybe that is the path forward, find unique original stories

within these very well-known universes, almost like an original, but with enough familiarity to bring people in. So maybe that is kind of like this undetermined third category that could bring people back to the movies. Okay, let's sprint to the finish

with some final headlines. The Trump administration in Harvard University have taken the gloves off in a high-stakes battle over $9 billion in funding. Yesterday, Harvard President Alan Garber said the university refused to agree to a list of government demands to combat anti-Semitism on campus, saying that the list went far beyond its original purpose and amounted to direct government regulation of the, quote, intellectual conditions at Harvard, such as fundamentally changing its governance and admissions processes.

No government, regardless of which party is in power, should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and what areas of study and inquiry they can pursue, he said. The Trump administration responded to this defiance hours later by saying it would freeze $2.2 billion in multi-year grants to Harvard. It said earlier it was reviewing up to $9 billion in federal grants and contracts to Harvard. The school had played nice for weeks until now setting up a major legal showdown. Even though Harvard is making headlines right now, this is not the first higher education versus Trump administration fight that we've seen. After the Trump administration said it was freezing $400 million in federal funding to Columbia, The school agreed to a variety of conditions.

Those involved banning mass, expanding campus please powers, and then also appointing a senior vice provost to oversee their Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies Department. So this was obviously Harvard is just a big name, big brand, and $9 billion at the line is why this is making headlines. But the higher ed versus current administration showdown is something that we're going to see continue to play out. If you're trying to hire for your startup or find a date,

you could log onto a dating app or fire up LinkedIn, or you could do it the old-fashioned way, handwriting a note and leaving it in a self-driving car. Waymo people are using Waymo to try and source talent and love these days. One startup founder was out visiting SF and thought the center console of her self-driving ride was the perfect place for a little guerrilla marketing. Looking to hire senior software engineers to work at an AI

slash music project she scrawled on a piece of paper. The mixing of futuristic tech and good old fashion hustle resonated. Someone posted the note on X. It got nearly 400,000 views. And as a result, the founder has 60 resumes waiting in her inbox to comb over. Neil, this mixing of approaches aggressively analog communication mixed with aggressively future-looking transportation seems to have resonated with people. Yeah, I mean, Waymoes are turning into community bulletin boards. And I think it is fun and cute and clever now.

you just wondered since it went so viral if these cars are going to become, you know, one giant trash heap, which is possible. Waymo says that it endorses this for now. It says it's proud to be driving mobility both personally and professionally, but it's unclear how long they're going to be admitting this. And I mentioned that it's also people looking for love. Another guy, a bachelor, left a note in the backseat of his Waymo saying that, hey, I'm a 26-year-old, I'm single. I work in tech, but I don't make it my whole personality. Here's my name and number. And he got a lot of replies as well.

So I think right now we're in the honeymoon stage of like, oh, this is like a fun little gorilla marketing. I'm glad that you're putting yourself out there. But yeah, if we start seeing it kind of used and abuse, I think Waymo's going to crack down on people leaving these handwritten notes. Finally, the WMBA draft was last night, which means that the Page Becker's era has officially arrived to the surprise of no one. the Yukon star was taken number one overall by the Dallas Wings, kicking off her professional

career after amassing an all-time collegiate resume. In 2021, Becker's was the first freshman to wins the Naismith trophy, the highest individual award in college basketball. Then she battled through injuries, but Beckers took the Huskies to four final fours when she was healthy, and last season she averaged nearly 20 points to bring home one more championship to the storied program. What's next? She enters a league that is very much in its Caitlin Clark era. after a season where every team's highest attendance came when Clark rolled into town. The fever star wanted the wings to get out ahead of Becker's madness. You know, honestly, they should move every game to American Airlines,

the arena where the NBA's Dallas Mavericks play, Clark said, because I think Paige has that type of draw. You know, the first time these two match up, it's going to be appointment television. It's going to be great. And the WMBA, after a record viewing season last year, is just reloading with another major star. so they're super excited and good for them.

Becker's has the potential to be a superstar. She already has been in college. She was the first college athlete to have her own Nike player edition shoe. She was the first college athlete to sign a name image likeness deal, NIL deal with Gatorade. So she has a large presence and she will have a massive amount of marketing power as she goes to the pros. Let's wrap it up there. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us and have a wonderful

Tuesday. For any questions, comments, or feedback, send an email to Morning Brew Daily at Morningbrew.com. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milliron is our executive producer. Raymond Loo is our producer. Our associate producers are Olivia Graham and Olivia Lake. Garrett Beck is on audio. Hair and makeup is looking for love in a robo taxi.

Devin Emery is our president and our show's production of Born and Brew. Great Saturday, Neil. Let's run it back tomorrow.