Rich Habits Podcast - AMD & Anthropic's Partnership, Robinhood's "Platinum" Card & Vanguard's New Fund

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome back to the rich habits radar, our Friday episode of the Rich Habits podcast, where every Friday morning, we're coming at you with the biggest headlines impacting you and your money. This episode is brought to you by VCX, the public ticker for private tech. My name's Austin Hankwitz. I'm joined by my co-host, Robert Croke, and the three things sitting at the top of our rich habits radar this week, include OpenAI gearing up for a eventful IPO, AMD and Anthropics' new partnership announcement, and updates on Trump's tariffs. Be sure to stick around to the end where we chat about Robin Hood's new platinum card.

Starting point is 00:00:32 And I'm not getting it. I don't know about you, Robert, but it is interesting. We'll talk about it. Robert, let's stick into our first story. Sure, yeah. Story number one, OpenAI is gearing up for an IPO sooner than later. We've all seen it in the headlines. And OpenAI added two new independent board members,

Starting point is 00:00:50 David Belles, the founder and CEO of New Bank, the largest digital bank in Latin America. and Robin Vince, the CEO of Bank of New York Mellon, Vince is joining the audit committee, and these are not AI people. These are Wall Street people, and they tell you exactly what this is all about, getting the house in order for an IPO

Starting point is 00:01:10 that could come as soon as later this year. So, Robert, let's put some numbers around why they need adults in the room. OpenAI just raised their projected spending on computing power to around $750 billion through 2013. that is up from $600 billion earlier this year. And remember, that $600 billion is sort of a walkback. Sam Altman originally told people the company was going to spend $1.4 trillion on compute between now and the end of the decade, which was so alarming that their CFO, Sarah, quietly went behind

Starting point is 00:01:44 the backs of management to reassure investors that real numbers will not be $1.4 trillion. It'll be closer to $6 or $700 billion. But now we're seeing that creep back up. Yeah, I love your take of adults in the room because we see all the hell. headlines about Sam and I think it's important for everyone to understand they are putting the right team around him to make sure the guidance is correct. So here's where it gets interesting. Open AI just committed $20 billion to a brand new data center project called Project Camilla in Effingham County, Georgia, 3.2 gigawatts of power from Georgia power between 2028 and

Starting point is 00:02:17 2032. This is the first site where OpenAI is the leading designer and developer. At every other site, it's Oracle, AWS, they're renting that power. Now they want to own. And to build it, they've hired Brett and Mayo, one of the architects of Elon Musk's Colossus supercomputer over in Memphis, Tennessee. Brent Mayo left XAI earlier this year. He reports to Ude Ruta Rizu, who was just promoted to chief technology officer of the computing capacity, who also worked on Colossus. So we got Brett and Uday, who both used to work for Elon to go build out their Colossus massive data center. over in Memphis, but now they're being pulled over to Sam Altman's Open AI team to build this one out, which I think is just like the most Open AI thing ever.

Starting point is 00:03:03 Steal from Elon and other people, it's interesting. Definitely. Open AI's CFO Sarah Fryer has privately told company leaders she's worried the company can't actually pay for all of this if revenue doesn't grow fast enough. And the revenue picture is not great for sure. Open AI has been growing more slowly than anthropic while burning way more cash. And Sam Altman still owns. zero equity in the company, which is almost unheard of for a CEO about to take a company public. So, Robert, for people listening right now that might want to be, you know, adding an open AI to their IPO watch list later this year, what does it mean for them and their money?

Starting point is 00:03:39 It means this is a very important IPO setup in tech right now, and it's a mess. You've got a company projecting $750 billion in compute spending, a CFO who's worried they can't afford it, a CEO with no equity and mounting conflict of interest. scrutiny and revenue growth that's falling far behind its biggest competitor. For your portfolio, the direct beneficiaries of Open AI's spending spree are clear. Invita for the GPUs, Oracle for the cloud contracts, Amazon for the AWS deal, but the bigger questions investors need to ask is this. What happens when this company goes public and Wall Street finally gets to see a full set of financials? Because Austin, right now, we're watching a company spend three quarters of a trillion

Starting point is 00:04:21 on a bet that AI revenue will eventually catch up to the AI infrastructure costs. And the bank analysts, the same ones who just put AI CAPEX as their number one systemic risk in the B of A fund manager survey are going to tear those numbers apart when they become public. Yeah, but I think the board additions are smart, right? Velesnes, consumer fintech at scale. And I think that's very much where chat GPT is headed. Didn't chat GPT just come out with like their chat GPT money or something like that, right? Right. So like getting this product in the hands of as many people as possible, they just added a board member that's done that, right? New Bank.

Starting point is 00:04:57 Vince spent 26 years at Goldman Sachs running a $52 trillion custody bank. So when you think about IPO and getting the right people in the room for a successful IPO, they're definitely trying to do that. But adding that governance doesn't fix the fundamental tension, which is Sam Altman wants to spend so much money that does not yet exist. And Sarah, their CFO is like, maybe we should not be doing. that, right? So like, it's a little, you know, kind of back and forth there between them. So something that I'll certainly be watching as the months go by. Something that I'm also watching, Robert, is Anthropic. Anthropic just made two major moves this week that tell you the company is doing everything they can to win this AI race and maybe the IPO before Open AI. Who knows. But they're definitely trying to think outside the box, play some, play some chess while everyone

Starting point is 00:05:46 else plays checkers. So let's start talking about here, this AMD and Anthropic deal. So AMD and Anthropic, they signed this deal worth tens of billions of dollars for these AI servers. Under those terms, Anthropic will purchase up to two gigawatts of AMD's latest generation chip, the MI450, starting in the first half of 2027. AMD's investing $5 billion directly into Anthropic as deployment milestones begin to hit. So this is AMD's first investment into the company. Circular financing. Did someone say that right? I think I heard that echo in the podcast sphere here.

Starting point is 00:06:21 Yeah, but I agree with you. Anthropics been doing it right. They're definitely playing the long game and I think they're doing a really good job. And let's look at the facts. They've been compute star for months. Demand for Claude exploded so fast that they had to throttle back users and rate limit their own API. People were seeing outages. Business couldn't get enough capacity. So Anthropic went on a shopping spree and I think they did it at the right time. Yeah. Earlier this year, they signed new deals with GPU for their TPU access with Amazon, for the Traneum chips. They took over SpaceX's Colossus 1 Data Center in Memphis, right? That's 220,000 Nvidia GPUs. Now they've got AMD. So Anthropic, to your point, Robert, is building this very much diversified supply chain for their chips and their AI infrastructure. AMD CEO, Lisa Sue, put it pretty straightforward here.

Starting point is 00:07:12 She said, you can't just wake up one morning and say, I want a gigawatt of compute tomorrow. You have to plan 12, 18, 24 months in advance. this stuff. And that's exactly what this is, right? Anthropic is locking in capacity through 2007 and beyond, just like they've done again for the Googles, the Amazon's, and space, anywhere they can see that compute, they're going to lock it down because they've got the demand for it. And here's the most important part people will miss. AMD is also in talks to provide a financial backstop for Anthropics future data center leases. This is a growing pattern. Google already backstop some of Anthropics data center deals to help them access TPs.

Starting point is 00:07:51 News. Large tech companies with investment-grade credit ratings are essentially co-signing the leases of AI startups that can't raise capital if favorable terms on their own. So the chip companies are so desperate to win these AI customers that they're not just selling hardware. They're financing the entire operation. We've all heard it, circular finance. Everyone's lending to each other. I think it's great for the overall growth of the sector, but time will tell. And here's where it gets even more interesting, Austin. On the same day Anthropica now, announced it's doubling its spending on the 2026 midterm elections to $40 million. They committed another $20 million to public first action, a political group pushing for government-imposed safeguards on AI models and transparency requirements for developers. Yeah, that puts Anthropic now directly at war with OpenAI's political operation.

Starting point is 00:08:44 Because on one side, to your point, Robert, you got the Anthropic-supported public first action, backed by Anthropic and their CEO who personally donated. at a million dollars. And that again is for that AI regulation. But then on the other side, you have the leading the future coalition here. So public first action coalition, leading the futures on the other side, that's funded by Open AI and Andreessen Horowitz, who are pushing for industry friendly rules with fewer and fewer barriers. Right. So more AI, more stuff, more can get done. Leading the futures raised about 75 million. Public First says they've raised about 80 million. So these groups are spending millions now on advertising in dozens of primaries across the country to help persuade voters into thinking like, hey, maybe I should vote for this specific person because they believe in AI regulation. Or I should vote for this person because with more regulation, you know, China's not regulating and China's going to go win this AI race.

Starting point is 00:09:36 If we regulate, so let me go vote for someone that doesn't want the regulation, right? It's just there's a lot of this kind of propaganda getting shared right now. And it just goes to show it's not organic, right? The companies that clearly have a profit interest in one thing or another getting figured out are the ones making the donations to these different types of coalitions. If it's the leading the future from OpenAI or Public First Action from Anthropic and their CEO, it's like they want something to get done or they wouldn't be putting money in the pot here. Yeah, I think public first is the way to go, in my opinion,

Starting point is 00:10:09 because the last thing we want to see is this being completely regulated by the government. And then all of a sudden it's a lobbying war to who will. and, you know, you mentioned these loose fit rules, we definitely need guidance in AI and we need to understand the complexities of it as a whole. But having someone that is, you know, bipartisan, I guess you would say, that's not connected to it all or not benefiting it directly from it all, I think is better. And in a New York congressional primary, public first backed state lawmaker Alex Boris, who was co-authored the New York's AI safety bill. Leading the future spent millions to oppose him, which is interesting.

Starting point is 00:10:46 has finished second, but lost to another pro-regulation candidate. So the regulation side won anyway. Yeah, we'll see how that shakes out. I lean toward the government can't do anything right. And the last thing we should trust the government with is to think that they can understand and regulate a brand new technology. And, I mean, you go look at what just happened a couple months ago with the White House labeling Anthropic, this national security risk.

Starting point is 00:11:11 They shut down two of the models over security concerns. Anthropic is, of course, suing them for that. critics say that Anthropic wants to weaponize regulation to hurt their competitors. I think that's probably the case. Anthropic is the big fish. Anthropic is literally stealing so many ideas and applications. Think Claude Design. Think Claude Science. Like all the different types of, you know, their competitors that are running on their APIs. They're taking that proprietary data and then building their own products with it.

Starting point is 00:11:38 And then they're saying, oh, no, you should go regulate the industry. So now as they regulate them as a whole, Anthropic has either so much. money that they can navigate those regulations compared to the other AI startups out there or AI companies that exist that don't have that same experience in money and war chest to navigate regulations. So they get regulated out of the industry and go bankrupt, which means Anthropic now is turning into duopoly monopoly. So I actually disagree with you, Robert. I think less regulation right now. I think the what's it called leading the future is the way that this should go. Because if you have these big fish that are really leaning toward regulation, they want regulation,

Starting point is 00:12:13 and they then get to say, yeah, we can help write that regulation for you. You know, they're the ones that are asked for the regulation. Of course, they're going to be the ones that have this favorable terms. And then once they regulate their competitors out of existence, Anthropics are only one standing, I guess next to a duopoly with Open AI. While all that to be said, Anthropics are saying, no, it's the safety concerns. We're genuine about it. We think AI safety, which, like, don't be wrong, I have safety is like very, very real and very,

Starting point is 00:12:38 very, very important. But, you know, it's just hard to take that seriously for a company that is literally like taking and stealing proprietary information. That's why Alex Karp went on CNBC, you know, going on this rampage, talking about like, we've had so many people that are coming to us, like we're using Anthropics API, but we don't feel safe using it anymore

Starting point is 00:12:55 because they're taking all of the information, the proprietary information we're using when it comes to running our business to go create their own businesses, right? So it's just, it's very interesting. And I just don't know if the government is at a point now, only three years into this, two and a half, three years into this new technology.

Starting point is 00:13:12 Despite, you know, the AI czar, you know, being David Sacks, who's co-founder of PayPal and being someone who very much understands, you know, artificial intelligence, like, despite those types of things, like, I just don't know the solution, but I don't know if that solution should be, let's just regulate, regulate, regulate, regulating, regulate, regulating, forcing AI startups and AI companies that want to be on the bleeding edge of bioscience and cancer research and, you know, all these are the different things that we know AI can do to then just get regulated out of existence. Wasn't it in New York State, Robert, that didn't they come out with something that said essentially you can't ask,

Starting point is 00:13:42 you know, AI for medical advice because it's not a real doctor. It's like, that's the dumbest thing I ever heard in my life. People, of course, should have access to medical, you know, information and the ability to do that research themselves. But, like, that's the regulation that hurts people. So, like, I just think it's nuts. Yeah, I love that take, Austin. And I think it's really smart because I feel like there needs to be regulation.

Starting point is 00:14:02 But if it's all in the government's hands, it's going to take years. It's going to slow down innovation. And it's really going to hurt the U.S. as a whole. So I don't know the answer either. And you're probably right. it's better to put it in the government's hands, but maybe there's a world where separate committee can be put together to be able to handle all this

Starting point is 00:14:20 and then at least present it to the government because I automatically, my brain goes to the fact that the Clarity Act still hasn't gotten approved, still isn't finished in crypto. And crypto's been around for 10, 12 years, and we're still trying to figure out how to lay the groundwork there, and we can't get both parties to agree on that either. So I don't have the answers either.

Starting point is 00:14:41 I just want it to be handled correctly. So we see all of this innovation stay inside of the U.S. economy because I think everyone's crushing it right now, but we definitely have to have those guardrails of protection. So I know that was really long-winded, but I appreciate your insight there. What does this mean for you and your money?

Starting point is 00:14:59 Let's break that down. Before I break that down, yes, and it's cool to see last week, the CEO of Google DeepMind came out with, it titled A Framework of Frontier AI in the dawning of a new age, which is essentially them trying to build their own, you know, FINRA of sorts, right, a regulating body that all of these frontier AI labs and all these hyperscalers, it's not regulated by the government, but it's like regulated by every single

Starting point is 00:15:24 person that participates in this game. It's like, let's all look each other in the eyes and say, can we all agree that this is what we're going to be doing and this is not what we're going to be doing. And we will be doing these things and these are the benchmarks. Here's how we're like, you know, the processes and the protocols. And we can all agree upon that without like actual legislation being passed to slow us all down. So I think that's really cool that that's taking place. And that took place, you know, July 14, I think it was last week. So regulation's cool when it's like regulation's going to help people, like the FAA, right?

Starting point is 00:15:54 It's like, of course we need, can't just build airplanes and let people ride on them. Right. We have to have some sort of regulation. I agree. But, you know, it's just when one or two people or one or two of these businesses that are trillion-dollar businesses, right, have all of the cookies, all the poker. chips, right? They've got everything they need to, like, regulate their competition out of existence. It's just, I just don't agree with any of that. So what does this anthropic deal with AMD and their

Starting point is 00:16:19 midterm spending mean? It means that they're simultaneously diversifying their chip supply across four different architectures that Robert was alluding to. They're getting ships from companies to finance that infrastructure and they're spending tens of millions of dollars, $40 million to help shape the regulatory environment that their competitors operate inside on. So they're not. They're just competing, right? They're playing chess while their competitors are playing Candyland. Now, for your portfolio, here's what that means. AMD, really exciting. I am up 364% on my AMD position, which is incredible. Hope you guys are part of the Rich Abbots Network when we talked about AMD, you know, 18, 24 months ago. Lisa Sue, she's been clawing for that market share from

Starting point is 00:17:01 Nvidia and AI for two years now. And landing Anthropic is, you know, a really big deal. It's a major validation for that company, but don't sleep on Nvidia either. Robert and I talked about, you know, Nvidia was trading like $194, $195 a share recently. I was like, dude, I gotta go jump in on this. What's going on? This is the cheapest valuation in years. Like I just, these chip companies, like the market right now, it seems like Robert is like trying to, trying to figure out like the difference between like good semiconductor companies that are durable and have like long-term profit potential. And then like the semiconductor companies that whose profits are cyclical. And that's what we saw with the SOX, right, the SOX index, the semiconductor index, you know, it was up 112,

Starting point is 00:17:40 115% in like two and a half months period of time from the depths of, I think was March 30 all the way through the top in like mid June. And so that was when all these investors said, hey, like, let's just go buy semiconductors. We're all so excited. It's going to be great. But then you start to realize that semiconductor profits are very cyclical in nature and investors were treating them as permanent. And so now as the SOX comes down, I think it's down 20, 30%, individual names inside of that index, Intel, Marvell, Applied Materials, MTSI, like all these names, they're down 25, 35, 45% from their highs. And so I think that is the market saying, okay, wait a second. There are names like ASML holdings, like an NVIDIA, like an AMD, like a micron, like a, you know, Taiwan simile that are really cool.

Starting point is 00:18:21 We want to have them and want to own them because those are durable profits that are going to, you know, experience these tailwinds. But these other names, just because they have the word semiconductor in the title of their corporate name or they have, they mentioned semiconductor. their earnings call. Maybe those aren't the names that should be trading at these, you know, exuberantly high valuations, historically speaking, because their profits aren't as durable as we had thought. Yeah, I love that take. And I agree with you 100%. You and I deal with it every day in the Rich Habits Network where people are asking, what's the next Nvidia trade, what's the next Palantir trade? What's the next Micron trade? Meanwhile, we're looking at Invidia and we're buying more of it as we're online filming going, man, this is still so cheap and we love Amazon and we still

Starting point is 00:19:03 really like some of these stocks that have been around for years and years. And I think it's just people are too quick to move on from some of these companies like Nvidia that are just really in the heart of it all and really do have a long, bright future ahead of them. And the biggest takeaway for me about Anthropic itself is this is a company that went from one billion in annualized revenue to roughly 30 billion just in the last 15 months. And they're not waiting for the market to come to them. They're locking up chips, financing infrastructure, and spending. spending tens of millions to write the rules of the game. And when this company eventually IPOs, and it will this year,

Starting point is 00:19:39 it's going to be one of the most consequential listings in market history. The question for investors is whether all of this spending translates into durable, competitive advantage. Couldn't agree more, Robert. And I just saw online, actually, Anthropic is remembered to be doing $75 billion in annualized revenue right now, which is absolutely bonkers, if you ask me. So Austin, let's get into story number three. The tariff truce is over, and this time, Trump has a new playbook.

Starting point is 00:20:08 For the last five months, businesses in America got something rare. Quiet on the tariff front, and that's about to end. Let's back up. In February, the Supreme Court struck down most of Trump's second-term tariffs, ruling he overstepped his authority using a 70s emergency law to impose these levies. Trump immediately replaced them with a temporary 10% tariff on nearly all U.S. imports, but that duty is legal. limited to 150 days, and that clock runs out today, Friday the 24th, as we film this episode. So what happens next? U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer went on CNBC on Tuesday this week and said that a new tariff action is coming. So here's what we know. First, the replacement tariffs. So

Starting point is 00:20:51 the administration is shifting the legal foundation from emergency powers to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which is widely seen as the more legally bulletproof. way to do this. They opened a tariff investigation in 60 different economies earlier this year in the preliminary findings proposed at 10% tariffs on over a dozen trading partners, Canada, Mexico, EU, all that, plus a 12.5% tariff on more than 40 nations, including China, India, Japan, and South Korea. So all that said, the tariffs would probably cover 99% of U.S. trade in, unlike these temporary measures that were taken place beforehand, Section 301 tariffs can stay. in place indefinitely. So that's what they're trying to figure out here, right? Let's go from

Starting point is 00:21:36 emergency power to something that can keep tariffs implemented indefinitely here across 40 different nations covering 99% of U.S. trade. Like, holy smokes. And before the Supreme Court ruling, the average UF tariff rate was about 17%. So under the temporary measures, it dropped to around 11%. And once the new Section 301 tariffs are fully in place, trade analysts expect we go right back to that 17% tariff. Drew DeLong, a former State Department official now at Kearney, says many companies have been kind of lulled to sleep on the tariff front for the last five months. And you need to know if those companies are in your portfolio because if those tariffs start

Starting point is 00:22:15 come back up, you better be ready. But let's talk about Canada, Robert. On Monday, and here's why it's important because it comes back to tariffs, same topic, but now Canada with tariffs. Monday, Trump announced an additional 50% tariff on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, wine, hockey sticks, cement, dairy, well, things like energy, potash, fish, and critical minerals are exempt from those tariffs. The stated justification is that Canada is discriminating against American products, specifically Canadian policies requiring companies

Starting point is 00:22:47 to invest in auto production in Canada rather than the U.S. in bands that several Canadian provinces now imposed on American liquor. Who doesn't want Jack Daniels? You've Canadians are missing out on Jack Daniels. Come on, baby. And 20 billion out of the 383 billion in total Canadian exports to the U.S. may sound small, but the legal mechanism Trump used is what has trade lawyers paying so much attention. He invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, an obscure provision that has never been used before to impose tariffs. Yeah, it gives the President power to levy duties on countries discriminating against U.S. companies, and it's a lot more flexible than Section 301. one that we were just talking about. No month-long investigations required, no public comment,

Starting point is 00:23:34 nothing. It's just presidential discretion. And Ryan Majeris, a former Commerce Department official, said it could attract serious legal challenges, but in the meantime, the tariffs go into effects in 30 days if nothing changes. So Jack Daniels, Yelmus, I mean, come on, Robert, got to get it. Can you imagine the behind-the-scenes meetings of Trump yelling at his legal team saying, go find me another law that we can, you know, implement to beat these guys. We got this. And they're just finding these laws from 100 years ago saying, this one could work. Let's try that.

Starting point is 00:24:06 I can't even imagine the research of how they're trying to beat the system that America created, you know, and it's just so crazy to think. But Canada's economy is already feeling it. Before this latest round, Canada's central bank projected growth would be 1.5 percentage points lower this year due to those tariffs, leaving projected GDP growth, just 1.1%. And Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he and Trump would accelerate trade talks in the coming weeks ahead of the August 19th deadline when the new tariffs would kick in. And Robert, this one's pretty funny. He just threatened steeper duties on Canada over the wildfire smoke that was coming across. I know I've got a couple uncles in Wisconsin. I've got friends in New York. I mean, they were going through it. On Truth Social, he said, we're holding Canada

Starting point is 00:24:50 responsible for not properly maintaining their forests. He told reporters that after speaking with Carney at Sunday's World Cup final, maybe they should pay us some damages or something. Maybe we should do some tariffs because of these wildfires. My goodness. For most Americans, the bottom line is this. Federal Reserve economists have estimated that Trump tariffs raise core goods prices by about 3.4% through February, pushing overall core inflation up by about 80 basis points. So what does this all mean for you and your money, Robert? I would say there's three things to watch. The temporary 10% tariff expires. And we've find out exactly what replacement 301 levies look like. If the average U.S. tariff rate jumps back

Starting point is 00:25:31 towards that 17%. That's a meaningful headwin for any company with a global supply chain, and it flows straight through to their consumer prices. Also, Trump is using these tariffs to force the USMCA renegotiation, and the August 19th deadline creates a window for a deal. If they reach one, the tariffs could get pulled. If they don't, you're looking at 50% duties on a targeted list of Canadian imports on top of everything else, and we know the markets don't like uncertainty. And if Trump can successfully use that obscure 1930s trade law to impose tariffs unilaterally without investigation or comment period, that changes the calculus for every trading partner and every multinational. It means tariffs can come at any time for any stated reason within 30 days

Starting point is 00:26:16 notice. That kind of uncertainty is the thing that makes CFOs delay capital investments and hiring decisions and causes so much unrest in the markets. Yeah, the companies that benefited from calm, no tariff, just like, you know, what we've had for the last four or five months now, I think retailers, automakers, anyone importing from, you know, countries on that 60 economy list that we were alluding to, they might get repriced in the markets in the Fed, which has already been threading the needle on inflation, just got handed another variable that they can't control, which is, you know, tariffs cause everything to go up in price. So it's going to be interesting. Robert, but we've got some very exciting radar points that we're going to share with you in this episode.

Starting point is 00:26:57 I've got three, Robert's got three. But before we jump to our radar points, Robert, let's give a shout out to this episode sponsor. Yes, definitely. Support from the show comes from VCX, the public ticker for private tech. For generations, Americans have moved the world forward through their ingenuity and determination. And for generations, everyday Americans could be a part of that journey through perhaps the greatest innovation of all, the U.S. stock market. It didn't matter whether you were a factory worker in Detroit or a farmer in Omaha. Anyone can own a piece of the great American companies, but now that has changed. Today, our most innovative companies are staying private rather than going public, and the result is that everyday Americans are excluded from investing and getting left further and further behind,

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Starting point is 00:28:12 your radar points? I would love to. I'm going to start off with Republicans released the new crypto bill text with Trump blessed ethics provision included and Senate GOP leaders are eyeing a floor vote as soon as next week. We can't wait for that one. We need to see this thing get moving. And Senate Republicans on Wednesday circulated a landmark cryptocurrency bill unveiling the changes to the so-called Clarity Act ahead of a potential floor vote next week. And the new language, which needs bipartisan support to pass the Senate, does not currently have sign-offs from the Democrats and we need that. The bill would overhaul a wide range of federal financial regulations to incorporate crypto trading and finally lay the groundwork.

Starting point is 00:28:55 The 616 page draft includes a White House approved ethics provision that would put in place new rules related to how federal officials can engage with digital assets and get us on the right track in the crypto situation. My second radar point I thought was off kilter a little bit for me, but very important to share. Warren Buffett's called Bill Gates-Ebstein ties, distaste. and pulls out of the Gates Foundation. Warren Buffett spent two decades as the single largest benefactor of Bill Kate's philanthropy, the Gates Foundation, having donated about $48 billion. And earlier this month, he walked away due to concerns that the Gate Foundation's ties to the

Starting point is 00:29:34 convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is a relationship that Buffett had recently called distasteful and wanted nothing to do with it. I really wanted to get that in there because I think that case kind of just disappeared. And it's great to see, people like Warren Buffett doing something about it. And my last one today is also a little bit about the crypto space, but also how it relates in the AI sector. Sandy Call, head of digital assets and innovation at Franklin Templeton, has a message for anyone who thinks invidious stock covers the AI exposure, and she states, it doesn't. Call published a paper Tuesday stating the agentic AI software that acts, pays and decides on your behalf without checking

Starting point is 00:30:14 with you at every step, will run on crypto rail. not Wall Street ones. Franklin Tebleton currently manages around 1.8 trillion in assets. And she states blockchain will be pivotal in allowing agentic AI to realize its potential for customer transactions, and the growth of agentic AI is likely to become the killer use case that drives blockchain adoption, the asset manager said. I like those. First is the, you know, what you talk about with ethics provision included in the new, you know, crypto bill text. I saw that, after that came out on Polly Market, the odds now of the Clarity Act getting signed plummeted from 49% just in, you know, last week two days ago, all the way now down to 37% up from 31%.

Starting point is 00:31:01 So we'll see if the Clarity Act gets signed, but I don't know what's going on over there. And Warren Buffett calling Bill Gates Epstein ties distasteful. I think that's the kindest way I've ever heard anyone describe what Epstein and Bill Gates and everything. I distasteful is a very kind way to put what happened there. So, uh, interesting you included that one, but I, I'm, I'm glad that we're not funding that anymore. No, for sure. All right, Robert, so I got my three radar points here with number one being Robin Hood's new credit card. Number two being Amazon cutting jobs at their AGI unit, business unit.

Starting point is 00:31:34 And my third point being Blackstone and Vanguard wanting to get you in on these private equity deals. So let's kick off with Robin Hood. Robin Hood launched this premium credit card back. in March in customers immediately called them out because the perks that they offered think like platinum card things like that had too many catches tied to the perks so you get a door dash credit but only $10 if you spend more than 50 you get a free or a ring membership but you still have to go pay $300 to buy the ring so Robin hood went back and they tried to fix it all and I think they maybe did travel credit went up to $1,000 of like again travel credit there if you buy through the

Starting point is 00:32:11 card door dash credits now have no strings attached or as whoop is in. So we'll see what happens. But at $695 a year, again, cheaper than that MX Platinum at $895 a year in the Chase Sapphire Reserve card at $795 a year. Robin Hood says that over 50,000 people have already signed up for the wait list at this. Maybe we'll see. I got the Robin Hood gold card. I'm getting my 3% cash back. I have absolutely no reason to want to go spend $700 to go have a different Robin Hood card. So I'm going to stick with my gold card and get that 3% cash back and invest it into the markets every single time. Now let's talk about Amazon laying off an undisclosed number of employees and their artificial general intelligence business unit organization,

Starting point is 00:32:56 the team building their Nova Foundation models. Company says it's sharpening focus on AI initiatives that matter most, which is just corporate jargon for some bets aren't panning out the way we thought. This comes on top of now that 16,000 corporate layoffs that Amazon already made back in January. The pattern across big tech is pretty clear right now, spend more on AI infrastructure, spend less on people. You know, that's kind of been the theme. And we'll probably continue to see that theme, unfortunately. Last way to our point here, Blackstone, Vanguard, and Wellington Management are launching two new funds this week that give everyday investors access to private equity, private credit, real estate, and infrastructure investments, assets that were historically

Starting point is 00:33:40 locked behind institutional walls. One fund blends public. and private assets. The other is just all privately held companies and assets related to that. Now, the catch is you can only cash out during quarterly windows. Fees run between 1 to 2.5% much higher than the 0.1% or even half a 1% you see with Vanguard's VLOs of the world. But Vanguard is going to pitch this as that the private markets now are just too big to ignore. Jack Bogle said to buy the whole haystack and the haystack now includes these private markets. So timing is notable. These launched right after investors fled other private credit funds, Blue Owl, a great example of that earlier this year, forcing caps on their withdraws. Blackstone's

Starting point is 00:34:26 president's message is you're trading liquidity for premium returns. It's a good, good trade in the past. We're going to keep doing it. Let's see what happens. So I don't know. I'm not jumping in on any of these funds, but maybe it's something we do more research on, Robert. I love those radar points. And just think, $695 a year. Let's do the math real quick. They've already got to that 50,000 sign-up. So right out of the gate, they've got $35 million in revenue just from launching a new wrinkle on their credit card. So it's amazing how these companies with these massive bases of audience can just make millions of dollars out of thin air. So I really love that. But what a great episode, a lot going on in the markets. Love doing these Friday episodes

Starting point is 00:35:05 to keep everyone abreast of what's going on and what our brains think about all this. And yeah, I'm just super excited about it and really great radar points. appreciate that. I completely agree. 695. Yes, it's cheaper than that platinum card by Amazon, but like, that's still so much money. I just, let me stick to my free card, get my 3% cash back. Everybody, thanks so much for tuning into this week's episode of the Rich Habits Radar. If you want more of Robert Nostin, consider joining the Rich Habits Network, where you can not only join us for weekly live streams that take place every Tuesday and Friday, but you can also invest alongside of us into different startups and pre-IPO companies. We're actually doing a fundraise right now

Starting point is 00:35:46 for a pre-IPO company that we think is really interesting. We've already raised like half a million dollars on it in just 24 hours, which is really cool. So if we want to go check out the Rich Habits Network, please go do that. Link in the show notes below or just search Rich Habits Network on Google. And get excited because we've got Charles Payne on the podcast coming on Monday. So we'll see you for Monday's episode with Charles Payne. My day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink. Pre-Kay drop off. Then straight to the gin.

Starting point is 00:36:38 Back home to meal prep before heading to the fire station for my shift. When the three alarm comes in, I'm ready. Celsius. Live, fit, go. Grab a cold, refreshing Celsius energy drink at your local retailer. Or locate now at celsius.ca. Enjoy Celsius responsibly. Designed for occasional energy boost, not as part of your daily diet.

Starting point is 00:36:58 Please adhere to recommended serving limits. Let's.

Rich Habits Podcast - AMD & Anthropic's Partnership, Robinhood's "Platinum" Card & Vanguard's New Fund

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