TBPN - Big Tech turns to mining, Thinking Machines loses top executives, NYC Sauna Wars heat up | Diet TBPN

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

Diet TBPN delivers the best of today’s TBPN episode in 30 minutes. TBPN is a live tech talk show hosted by John Coogan and Jordi Hays, streaming weekdays 11–2 PT on X and YouTube, with ea...ch episode posted to podcast platforms right after.Described by The New York Times as “Silicon Valley’s newest obsession,” the show has recently featured Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Mark Cuban, and Satya Nadella.TBPN.com is made possible by:Ramp - https://Ramp.comAppLovin - https://axon.aiCognition - https://cognition.aiConsole - https://console.comCrowdStrike - https://crowdstrike.comElevenLabs - https://elevenlabs.ioFigma - https://figma.comFin - https://fin.aiGemini - https://gemini.google.comGraphite - https://graphite.comGusto - https://gusto.com/tbpnLabelbox - https://labelbox.comLambda - https://lambda.aiLinear - https://linear.appMongoDB - https://mongodb.comNYSE - https://nyse.comOkta - https://www.okta.comPhantom - https://phantom.com/cashPlaid - https://plaid.comPublic - https://public.comRailway - https://railway.comRamp - https://ramp.comRestream - https://restream.ioSentry - https://sentry.ioShopify - https://shopify.comTurbopuffer - https://turbopuffer.comVanta - https://vanta.comVibe - https://vibe.coFollow TBPN:https://TBPN.comhttps://x.com/tbpnhttps://open.spotify.com/show/2L6WMqY3GUPCGBD0dX6p00?si=674252d53acf4231https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/technology-brothers/id1772360235https://www.youtube.com/@TBPNLive

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Starting point is 00:00:01 Tesla is sharing that they made a ton of progress on their lithium refinery, and then simultaneously AWS did a deal with Rio Tinto to buy a bunch of copper. Not that much copper, we'll get into how much, but they're sort of underwriting a new chemical process for refining copper. And it's also just sort of interesting that, you know, Mark Andreessen published the Software is Eating the World Story back in 2011. And I think even the folks in tech who took that seriously were saying, saying, oh yeah, of course, well, that just means that...
Starting point is 00:00:34 I didn't take it seriously, I took it literally. I took it literally, yeah. But the people that took it seriously were thinking, okay, well, you're going past just the first wave of the internet, the newspapers on websites, that type of stuff. And yes, we're going to get the Uber's. We're going to get more and more tech companies that are consumer facing or business facing.
Starting point is 00:00:55 And you might see some transformation in legal services, financial services, logistics, airlines will be using apps to let you book but we're now in the era where the tech companies are starting to vertically integrate so deep that they own the mines and they own the refineries and it's not just that they're actually building software for the mining technology eating the world yeah yeah and it's it's a new layer of a vertical integration that sort of just crept up on me because it wasn't an issue until the AI boom really necessitated math
Starting point is 00:01:31 massive industrial scale buildouts, new industrial policy, which admittedly can't turn on a dime, but we're now two, three years into the chat GPT boom, into the AI boom. The data center buildouts are getting bigger. We're seeing bottlenecks all over the place, whether it's chip shortages or energy shortages. And so, you know, the companies like Tesla, AWS, a lot of other folks are really looking deep into the supply chain all the way into the ground, into literally eating the world. Because I see mining as sort of terraforming. I see it in some ways as literally eating the world, like you said. Amazon's buying the first new copper produced in America in over a decade.
Starting point is 00:02:12 It's a very exciting project. And Tesla now has a Texas facility that can convert raw or directly into battery-grade lithium hydroxide. It's a more efficient process. We can get into that. Tesla originally broke ground on this lithium refinery operation in May of 2023. It feels like they were sort of quiet about it, But now they're getting a lot louder. Obviously, the narrative around China controlling 90% of rare earth extraction and rare earth elements
Starting point is 00:02:40 has been in the news. And this is sort of their response. Finery is the first spodjamine to lithium hydroxide refinery in North America. We're deploying a new technology platform that is inherently much more environmentally friendly and cleaner. It's a simpler process. It's not that big of a facility. And this should be able to create enough lithium for 500,000 vehicles a year, EVs a year, maybe a million a year, I've heard. Now, Tesla is shipping 1.65 million, so this won't be 100%, but you copy, paste this two, three times,
Starting point is 00:03:16 and you got enough coverage for all, for the entire Tesla fleet. Take it through a kiln and cooler. From there, we take it through an alkaline leech and additional purification steps, take it into crystallization and produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide. Our process is more sustainable than traditional methods and eliminates hazardous byproducts and instead produces a co-product named Analsime used in concrete mixes. From breaking ground in 2023 to running rock through the kiln in 2024 to start a full integrated plant startup now in 245. He's just like, yeah, it's been it's been great working
Starting point is 00:03:53 for Elon. Hi, I love it. It's been relatively relaxed here. Yeah, yeah. The, you know, we sleep in the factory. In this case it's just dirt, but sleeping in the dirt, surprisingly comfortable. This refinery really enables us to have access to the critical minerals for energy storage, for battery manufacturing. Good text and music.
Starting point is 00:04:13 And it enables us to accelerate Tesla's mission by regionalizing supply chains for battery minerals and materials, by providing jobs, by cutting emissions from the transportation network that's required for those supply chains. It really allows us to usher in energy independence for North America. Who would have thought that Texas would be the home of EV domination? I know. Narrative violation. California really dropped the ball. Tesla shipping 1.65 million.
Starting point is 00:04:40 That was a little lower than the previous year. I think they were up at 1.7 million. But you get a couple of those facilities and it should be enough to cover everything that they need. There's been a whole bunch of news around rare earth minerals generally. Last year, a company called iconic or ionic mineral technology. made a large discovery of 16 different types of minerals in Utah late last year. This was in December. As we do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It has been funny. There have been rumors about this, but they found a huge deposit of of all these different minerals. Amazon's partnership with Rio Tinto is a little bit different. They're not fully vertically integrated like Tesla is,
Starting point is 00:05:18 but they are partnering with Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto had been working on a new method of refining low-grade copper deposits. So basically like there's a fair amount of copper in the ground, but there's a lot of dirt, a lot of other stuff that you have to process out. That can be very expensive, but because of the data center expansion exploding, the price of copper has I think nearly doubled in the past two years. Copper is not the main ingredient to an AI data center, a token factory, but it is important because the biggest data centers use tens of thousands of metric tons of copper to move electricity around, so you need wires, there's copper in circuit boards, there's
Starting point is 00:05:56 wire in the, there's copper in the transformers that move electricity around, and there's tons of miscellaneous electrical components all over a data center that need copper. So this particular AWS Rio Tinto deal is only 1,400 metric tons over four years. I don't even think that's enough for a single AWS data center, but it's allowing Rio Tinto to underwrite this sort of risky new process methodology that if it works and they get the price down on this new process, then they can apply that to tons more copper reserves that's locked up in, you know, messy ore that otherwise would be uneconomical to refine. Seventy percent of the global supply of copper is currently locked away in ore
Starting point is 00:06:44 that's not economical to refine into actual copper right now. So if this new process technology works, you effectively triple the amount of copper, you triple the supply, and so price should fall. It's doubled. You triple the supply. Maybe price comes down. Good news for anyone who's in the copper market. Rio Tinto, some quick backstories, one of the world largest and oldest mining corporations with a history that spans over 150 years. Name is inspired by the Rio Tinto in southwestern Spain, but the founding, again, goes back to the mid-19th central. Spanish government was facing financial crisis and they started selling off their older mines and so crazy story of just like a very old company you know continuing to be
Starting point is 00:07:33 a key player and an entirely new tech trend yeah also for lithium ion they do some stuff there they had one investment that I think they wrote down then they spun another one up they've been back and forth X-free's broke the Texas lithium ion lithium refinery down a little bit more it's the first in North America to convert the raw or or into battery-grade lithium hydroxide, skipping intermediate steps in the long-term, probably more economical. It went from groundbreaking to first production in just 19 months, an unheard-of timeline at this scale. The process is cleaner, no hazardous waste, a useful byproduct that can be turned into concrete. The single refinery can supply lithium for over 500,000 EVs per year and directly challenges China's 60% grip on global lithium refining.
Starting point is 00:08:17 Elon chimed in and said it sounded like, I saw a note. another number that was maybe closer to a million, but either way, you do two or three of these and you're good. As we predicted in our annual predictions episode at the start of the year, unless someone shows up with superconductivity or carbon nanotubes, copper is the only game in town, and AI is a huge demand driver for a very under-resourced material. So he's taken a victory lap with his thesis on copper. And speaking of AI, there is turmoil in the trade wars, in the talent wars. Breaking Thinking Machines has terminated its CTO, Barrett Zoff. Due to unethical conduct, according to two sources familiar with the matter,
Starting point is 00:08:56 CEO Mira Muradi announced the news in all hands with employees today. Sumith Chintala will be taking over his CEO, and Mira posted as well, confirming the news, she said. We have parted ways with Barrett. Sumith will be taking the new CTO of Thinking Machines role. He is a brilliant and seasoned leader who has made important contributions to the AI field for over a decade, and he's been a major contributor to our team. We could not be more excited to have him take on this new responsibility. And Alex Heath actually has some new news.
Starting point is 00:09:31 He broke 30 minutes ago. He says, more thinking machine employees are in the process of joining OpenAI after three of the startup co-founders rejoined yesterday. Of course, the Thinking Machine co-founders had previously been at OpenAI. Not great. I think potentially more controversial news was that Thinking Machines has branded squat racks at the office. Ryan Peterson posted a photo. A lot of people took this as somewhat of a red flag, right? People say, you know, the sort of common guidance is don't make merch until you're generating some real revenue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you take that further, it's like maybe you shouldn't have.
Starting point is 00:10:11 What was Ryan doing to get this photo? It seems like he just walked by. journalist mode here. Do you see this? He's like he's not. So if you zoom in, you can see these things look fantastic. Well, well, Ryan, you're outside. You're outside the thinking machines branded Jim. Yeah, I'm somewhat, uh, they're in somewhat envious. Uh, these things look fantastic. I'm kind of mad that that we didn't get the branded plates, uh, plates. Uh, but this coming out while losing, you know, half of your family. It has to be weird. I mean, how much of the It was $2 billion at $12 billion, something like that. It's got to be so weird to start a company and on day one have enough money for a custom gym.
Starting point is 00:10:55 That's just unheard of. Like normally you start your company in the garage and maybe there's a weight in the corner. You can lift or kettlebell. One dumbbellbell. Not even two. One kettlebell or something. But to just come in and say, yes, we're taking Class A office on day one, hiring a massive team, bringing on six or seven co-founders. Atlas was saying, like, the other red flag is, where are the, where are the 45?
Starting point is 00:11:19 I think, I think, I'm going to assume they're just not in sight, you know, like you can't see them, right? They would be, they would be mounted, they would be mounted lower, right, on the rack. In case you forgot, Andrew Tolik left thinking machines in Q4 of last year. Yeah. Zuck had been trying to poach him. Yeah. And, and offered, uh, increasing amounts of money. The sense is that Andrew was like, you know, I can't be bought.
Starting point is 00:11:43 He needed. But he needed the money. He needed, he needed, he needed, he, he had a shopping cart filled with Chrome Hearts, Supreme. And he was like, wow, like my next outfit's going to run me 500 mil. I got to get a new job. I can't afford it. I can't afford my lifestyle. Maybe it was a case of lifestyle inflation.
Starting point is 00:12:02 They talk about that. Tyler, do you remember the final amount that Meta paid it was like, because I always appreciate. There were a lot of rumors. It was in the billions. Like my, in my head, it was like, Andrew was like, yeah, like, I'm really like on that you would make such a big offer, Zach, a billion dollars. But unfortunately, like, I'm mission-driven.
Starting point is 00:12:20 There's really no price that I would take to leave the company that I started. And Zach's like, two billion. Well, so I think all the rumors were actually from the summer when there was like the all of the talent words going on. So first, I think it was just one billion. And then there were rumors of three and a half.
Starting point is 00:12:39 And that being turned down. But then later in the year, then he initially went. OK, so people kind of assume that the room rumor is true because he eventually made the move. Yeah, but I mean, it's not necessarily higher than three and a half, right? Because now we're seeing more people leave. Like, why are they leaving? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:54 So at one of my buddies who works at a big lab, he was saying at that time, Thing Machines has like the best team, like any of the big labs. There was already immense amount of pressure and like a really, really, really high expectations. I'm thinking machines around what they put out first. I don't think these people leaving, maybe it makes it harder to delay. right on those expectations but the expectations are still sky high I did feel like kind of rough messaging very very rough messaging right you know pushing this like unethical conduct angle people at open AI have obviously their bias but they've
Starting point is 00:13:32 denied it some quick thoughts on Barrett Zoff and Metz and show whole show and holts going back to open AI Barrett was the vice president post training at open AI before he left for thinking machines he left opening I in September of 2024 Barrett would have probably initially had options for about 10 to 30% of thinking machines. That's insane. They had six co-founders. I got that beat so high.
Starting point is 00:13:55 Post-training was one of the more valuable skills that launched, I suppose. Okay. The seed round was $2 billion at $12 billion. So this would mean that he would have options now for around 8 to 25% of the current company. This seems all hypothetical here. There were rumors back in November that thinking machines was in talks to raise at $50 to $60 billion, so this puts his equity at $4 billion. to 15 billion valuation. Thinking machines could probably exit somewhere at between 30 and 60 today.
Starting point is 00:14:22 Who has that money? I don't know. Maybe Nvidia buys them or something. At least at some point in that over the next two years, I think the most likely acquires would probably be Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Amazon, and NVIDIA, okay, large-cap company that wants to build a frontier model. Barrett would have been just over his one-year cliff, so assuming he was not fired for cause or thinking he doesn't want to litigate,
Starting point is 00:14:44 he still has about one to three and a half million. How does that math work? I don't know. It's called thinking machine now, because there's only one left. No, there are three left, so it's still plural. Reading into this, I mean, there's gotta be some real excitement on Open AI
Starting point is 00:15:00 has just been outflows, outflows, outflows, getting some of these superstars back on board. It's gotta be good for MIRMAN. So is this what the elves and Valinor? Do we know what Rune was posting about? because we learned that Rune posts, the elves have left for Valinor every two years apparently. Okay, well, he posted it once before, yeah,
Starting point is 00:15:20 in 2024, about in January 22nd. Yes, yes. So now, he posted this like on the 12th, so three days ago. I think most people have now taken it to mean, to be about this, right? People leaving thing machines going back to Open AI. But I think there's a couple ways you can look at it, right?
Starting point is 00:15:40 So if you look at it in the context of the last Tommy said this. It was the exact same quote, the elves I love for Valnor. Like, okay, what is Valanor in Lord of the Rings, right? Valnor is where elves go, so they don't like diminish, or like they don't like kind of fade away. So it's, okay, what does that mean? Like maybe it's, you're just basically securing like massive wealth. Or the other way to read that is like you go to, you go to like one of these newer labs and you could be a superstar, but your your abilities could fade away with time, right? Because you just don't have the scale or the resources. Yes. So, I think in the 2024 context, Valenor actually was the Neo Labs, right?
Starting point is 00:16:17 Because you can basically go start a company, be the co-founder, you guys raise at 12 billion, you're just like, let's go, like, yeah, they're just secured insane amount, like massive bag. Yeah. But then now, uh, now opening eyes now Valenor, right? They're sending aside 50 billion just for pay packages. Sure, sure, sure. If you go back, I mean, you're doing pretty well. It's pretty safe, right? You don't, you don't have this start. up, you know, you're not sure if it's going to work or not. Everyone's focused on the AI wars, not enough attention going to the sauna wars.
Starting point is 00:16:50 The real heated rivalry is at the bathhouse. Yes. From bathhouse to other ship to alter a wave of bathhouses in New York City are popping up just blocks apart. Okay. Igniting a war of Zen. This is especially relevant to the TVPN team because we've been in somewhat of a sauna war ourselves, which we'll get into at some point in the story.
Starting point is 00:17:11 The Flatiron District in Manhattan has been a center of Nouveau wellness for around 15 years with its many boutique fitness classes, gyms, acupuncturists, and stretching and recovery centers now wave of bathhouses that offer dry heat and cold plunges face off in a few blocks. There is bathhouse on West 22nd with other ship two blocks away, an altar set to open this winter. You could walk between all three and mere minutes. Williamsburg has its own cluster, right, parallels. It's like a super cluster. Welcome to the Sona Wars where dedicated bathhouses compete with members clubs like West Village's Continuum, at which costs $40,000 per year that has a bathhouse setup in the financial district co-working space, WSA's wet lounge as well.
Starting point is 00:17:54 Co-working space with a wet lounge, not something you hear about every day. The fitness chain TMPL has a whole subway ad campaign entirely around their bathhouse facilities featuring women in swimsuits reclining in a suggestive way that one doesn't really find in sanas in real life. And of course, the Russian and Turkish baths in the East Village, which is the sort of place newcomers are brought to see a slice of the real New York City. It's usually teeming with people, some getting waxed by bushels of oak leaves in a treatment called Plazza and has two owners who rotate weeks of ownership. That's interesting. It's no frills and even a little gritty. For those who are used to conveniences such as booking ahead, there's none of that to be found. They do have a nod to modernity with an active TikTok account featuring guest endorsements recently highlighting Uma Thurman wrapped in a Peshmina in calling it one of the greatest best New York institutions.
Starting point is 00:18:50 The first time I went to 10th Street Bass was in 2007. I love the authenticity and how it made you feel. I would find my way back there when I felt depleted, underslept, whatever it might be. I would come out for. feeling great, says James O'Reilly, who is one of the founders of the co-working space, Neuhaus. His latest project is the new Lorbe Baving Club. This is where you go if you want to cultivate lore in your life, I guess, founded alongside restaurateur, Adam Elzer, lore takes some inspiration from the Russian and Turkish bath, as well as the communal sweat traditions of Europe and Asia, and drops it into a 6,200 square foot space finished in Travertine and White Oak in Noho. The bath world is quite a scene.
Starting point is 00:19:30 One where skin care brands such as Farrell Williams' human race send out a press release to announce their temporarily supplying lore locker rooms with their signature 7D gel sets. What is the 7D gel set? Tyler. I have no idea. Other chip is hosting comedy nights. Alter will be selling bathing suits that are custom made in Brazil and has hired a lighting designer who has worked with Billy Eilish. It is a sauna boom reminiscent of the glut of boutique fitness studios that flooded the market
Starting point is 00:19:58 in the wake of the success of Soul Cycle. It used to be that you would go to a gym, and it was outrageous to go to an expensive group class, says Jafari, but now there are 99 boutique fitness concepts in a four-mile radius. Still, there are not as many as the peak days pre-pandemic. Not every boutique fitness studio survive, let alone thrive like Solid Corps and Tracy Anderson. Competition is always something we are aware of, says Emily Bent, other ships co-founder and director of marketing. The saturation in North America for bathhouses is not even close to what it is,
Starting point is 00:20:28 in Europe. We're starting an industry and rising tides and all that. While the message from founders blist out on 180 degree heat is one of bringing together community and good vibes, the reality can be cutthroat. Consider the case of Bathhouse, probably the most well-known of the businesses and the second wave of New York City's sauna culture. Co-founders opened their first location in Williams Williams in Williams in 2019 and a second in Flatiron in 2024, both featuring sauna steam rooms, warm pools, and cold plunges. Goodman and the founders saw the companies more is more approach through the model of working on large event production. You think like an experience designer, so going to bathhouse is not a monolithic experience, but more of a choose-your-own-adventure.
Starting point is 00:21:08 When it first opened, Bathhouse was jokingly called the Bitcoin Bath House as they used the heat generated from mining to warm the tubs. We got to talk about meta because they just laid off 1,500 people in their metaverse division. Obviously, 1,500 people is a ton. That's a lot of people. But they still have 14,000 people working on reality labs. So there's a question about, like, what exactly will they be doing? How much does this represent a shift?
Starting point is 00:21:37 The reality labs team work on a bunch of different stuff. And it started as sort of the Oculus acquisition, a VR headset, that all of a sudden it was meta-ray bands, which is, you know, mostly just a camera, certainly not a VR headset. But it feels like it's sold many more units. I actually don't know the precise numbers. I'm super curious how many of those 1,500 people will end up working in VR in their next door. Somewhere else?
Starting point is 00:22:04 Yeah. Oh, interesting. Can the industry really absorb that many people? A year after the name change in pivot, the journal reported that the company's flagship Metaverse product called Horizon Worlds was failing to catch on with users. It had less than 200,000 monthly active users. so-called worlds were never visited by anyone at all. I still believe meta is a fantastic name. Yeah. Do you think Salesforce should rename? I wanted to ask many off that yesterday. If he's ever just going to go force. Metal force. Just force. Metal force
Starting point is 00:22:36 would be a good name. Meta's been ramping up AI, spending on AI, pushing its capital expenditure to 72 billion last year with plans to accelerate that spending this year. It's also doled out offers worth tens of millions, tens and hundreds of millions of dollars to AI researchers and engineers and recently acquired a Singapore-based AI startup called Manus for more than two billion. Companies Rayban smart glasses equipped with AI have also started to take off. The company sold more than two million pairs and has delayed the rollout of its newest glasses in Europe as it struggled to keep up with demand in the US. The sort of Ben Thompson takeaway from this was that even though Mark Zuckerberg has effectively complete control
Starting point is 00:23:14 over meta and can rename the company and move very aggressively and acquire big companies, At the end of the day, he does respond to shareholders, and the shareholders have been watching the reality labs losses pile up billions every year. And at some point, if you have a new sort of big money pit initiative that's AI, and you're going to spend tens of billions there, you have to sort of make a sacrifice or at least like show the shareholders that you're refocusing on the new thing. I wanted to go back briefly to the son of thing. Sure.
Starting point is 00:23:49 I didn't get a chance to give a take. I am extremely bullish on Americans starting to sweat more. Because the evidence is so clear that if you use this on every day, you will probably extend your health span, lifespan. It's heavily, heavily studied because of how popular it's been in the Nordics for like decades and decades. So very bullish on sweating. One of the things that's interesting, though, is that New York is like the center of consumption,
Starting point is 00:24:20 Right? People have tiny apartments. So they're just constantly consuming, right? Food, you know, exercise, shopping, et cetera. But I don't think it's representative of the way that the Americans will sweat broadly, because you can get a sauna for like a couple grand. And so all these bath houses are like a few hundred dollars. And so I think for some people, they want the social experience.
Starting point is 00:24:43 Whereas for me, I don't like the, I'm not really like that into the- You don't like talking in the sauna? I do like talking in the sauna. I do like talking in the sauna. We've obviously had our sauna wars, our sauna wars. I guess we were talking too loudly in the sauna the other day because this guy just absolutely snapped.
Starting point is 00:25:00 He was a bit of an angry elf. But anyways, like most consumers are going to be looking like, I can go and buy a sauna for $2,000. And I have space for it because I have a two-car garage and a backyard and maybe a pool. And like for the average American, Yeah, it has a little bit. Last time I lived in an apartment, this was like six or so years ago.
Starting point is 00:25:25 Sure. I had a whole cold plunge that I snuck into my apartment. No way. I had a two bedroom loft. You had a sauna too? No, no, I had a two bedroom. I had a two bedroom loft. And one of them I just put a, it was just like a cold plunge on a wooden floor.
Starting point is 00:25:41 That's insane. And I had a sauna. Of course, I don't think you're allowed to bring like a mini swimming pool into your If it leaks, you're going to destroy the whole. Actually, they did eventually tell me I had to get rid of it because there was a leak in the building and they went in to look You have to understand as you you know for other ship in these companies like you have to go I think into dense areas where people don't have a lot of space and have salinas because a lot of people are gonna look and say either have one in my gym Or I can you know people can go and just even if they don't have like two grand you can use a firm and like you're effectively paying a couple hundred bucks a month for like a private Right experience yeah in other news Beijing
Starting point is 00:26:19 has told Chinese firms to stop using CrowdStrike. If you didn't have a reason to start using CrowdStrike, this is a pretty good one. Is this the TVPN effect? They saw us run a couple ads over in Beijing. And they were like, yeah, they're too powerful. Too powerful. They're too powerful.
Starting point is 00:26:35 Apparently, this is already very tiny business for CrowdStrike, so not super impactful. But in other news, OpenAI's number one hater in the entire world. Nick. back on the timeline. He was the Hater, Open AI Hater of the year last year. Yeah. He's probably, he's really gunning for it again this year. His camera roll is all just pictures of Sam Malman. It's double-plexed. His camera rolls just all Sam Altman photos for sure. Open AI and Sam
Starting point is 00:27:04 Altman backing a new bold take on fusing humans and machines. It's called Merge Labs. We've heard about this before. We talked to Rob Taves. They now have $252 million in the bank and an all-style All-Star crew. Sam Altman wrote in 2017, a piece called The Merge. I'll read in a short, a few paragraphs from it. He said, more important than that, unless we destroy ourselves first, superhuman AI is going to happen. Genetic enhancement is going to happen. Brain machine interfaces are going to happen. It is a failure of human imagination and human arrogance to assume that we will never build things smarter than ourselves. The merge can take a lot of forms. We could plug electrodes into our brains where we could all just become really close friends with a chat bot.
Starting point is 00:27:48 But I think a merge is probably our best case scenario of two different species. Both want the same thing and only one can have it. In this case, to be the dominant species on the planet and beyond, they're going to have a conflict. Imagine if Dolphins, imagine if Benioff has been working with the dolphins to secretly help them merge, and they're like in a crazy dolphin human race to see who can merge first. Because it sent dolphins basically created sales wars. and just like generate B2B SaaS product ideas constantly.
Starting point is 00:28:19 Billionaire Rams owner Stan Kronki becomes America's biggest private landowner. Let's do for Stan. Let's stand. Are you Stan Stan? I guess he's listening to the show. I'm a Stan Stan Stan Stan. Buying nearly one million acres of New Mexico ranch land. Farmland investing becomes increasingly popular, especially now that, you know, maybe somebody comes in and wants to build the data center on your farm and pay, you
Starting point is 00:28:44 know, 10 times what you paid for it. At 2.7 million acres, Cronkies holdings are larger than Yellowstone National Park or the equivalent roughly 2 million football fields. According to the trade publication, Singleton Ranch's transaction is the largest land purchased in the U.S. and more than a decade. Land is back. Back on the menu. Let's go. Speaking of land, Greenland is in the news, of course. Dylan says this is the equivalent of affordability. in Greenlandic politics, and he shares a screenshot here. It's a quote from a Greenlander who says, I hunt whales and seals.
Starting point is 00:29:23 In the United States, they think whales and seals are cute and shouldn't be hunted. That's what I'm afraid of. Don't bring your fear of hunting. Don't bring, oh, whales are cute. I like this. I like this. He's looking for a carve-out.
Starting point is 00:29:37 He's looking for a carve-out. Let me keep hunting my whales. Let me keep hunting my seals. Truth-nook? What if he's selling the blubber out the backdoor to power data centers. We got flashbangs. We'll throw a flashbang in the ocean.
Starting point is 00:29:49 All the whales will be doing this. I think I'm against whale hunting. You're just so majestic. Magestic. That's a synonym for cute. But seals. You're the problem. Oh, you don't like seals.
Starting point is 00:30:00 I have deep beef with seals. Growing up surfing in the cold waters in Northern California, seals will like mess, would mess with me. I'd be out alone surfing. In Northern California, water is very sharky. Yeah. And these things are the dogs of the sea. So they'll run up and they would just slam into me.
Starting point is 00:30:19 And all of a sudden, I think I'm getting attacked by a shark. And then I'd just be in the water by myself beefing with a seal. This is an incredible skill issue for you. Oh, seals annoying me. Oh, I need, I need, I need seals to be hunted. It's fine. Hang out with the seals. Let the seals mess with you.
Starting point is 00:30:35 They're the dogs of the sea. Thank you so much for tuning in. Have a wonderful. Have a great rest of your day. We'll see you very soon. Goodbye.

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