The Best One Yet - 🤖 “AI’s brain cells” — Nvidia’s chip surge. Cava’s hummus IPO. Google & Uber’s robo-taxi.

Episode Date: May 25, 2023

The 6th most valuable company on earth? It’s Nvidia — because not all computer chips are equal. We finally have an IPO this year: It’s Cava, the Chipotle of Mediterranean food, and it’s covering the suburbs in hummus. And Google and Uber just teamed up on a self-driving robo-taxi… so we think Tesla should acquire Lyft. Recorded at Spotify Studios LA $NVDA $CAVA $UBER $LYFT $TSLA $GOOG Want merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.com Follow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypod And now watch us on Youtube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So, dude, you know I love the enthusiasm. I love the enthusiasm, but we can't let our adrenaline. Yes. Guys, no. All right, here we go. Three, two. This is Nick. This is Jack.

It's Thursday, the new Friday, May 25th. And today's pod is the best one yet. And why is that, Jack? We are together. Yes, we just got down in L.A. Where are we recording? We are recording live from Spotify Studios and Lodagh. I mean, Jack, look around.

We got slamming salmon lighting. This is lovely. This is a beautiful space. I mean, I feel like Meryl Streep. We're on camera, man. Good thing for the noise cancelling walls, because we are loud right now. You are glowing like Ann Hathaway. Where's the makeup team?

Can we get the makeup team? You ready for the first store? First store. What do we got, Jack? There is one company powering the entire AI movement right now. Yes. Invidia. Invidia.

Yetis, Nvidia stock has doubled because it doesn't sell chips. It sells brain cells. It sells brain cells. And our second story is Kava. We finally have an IPO on the calendar. It's Kava, the Chipotle of Mediterranean food. Here's Kava's secret recipe. Here it is, here it is.

Zag, don't zig. And our third and final story is Google and Uber. Google and Uber just teamed up for self-driving taxes. And this has Jack and I dreaming about Tesla and Lyft. But Yeties, before we hit that fantastic mix. Just a wonderful mix

in Los Angeles, man. Do you know how much time I spend with you next? I mean, Jack, tell me how much time we don't spend with each other. Nick and I spend about 10 hours of every day together so we can whip up these takeaways. Jack is rounding down on that one yeties. Now, the key part to all this, it's the mental game. Yes, we are each other's work wives. Yeah, by the way. And if you've got a work wife or a work husband, you're going to need communication in that relationship. Communication is key. And we're about to give you our three keys to sustaining our mental health. The three changes Jack and I have made for our minds. The first change we made, Nick and I, in

invest in each other by having the hard conversation. Full stop yetis, Jack and I address everything with each other, everything. We talk all the time, not just about the rosy stuff. We also talk about the hard stuff. Every time we share a feeling with each other, honestly, the relationship gets stronger every time. For instance, sometimes I say, hey, Nick, can you stop team me up to do cookie crisps? And I feel bad because I really want that cookie crisp, but now I know, one too many cookie crisps.

I could use one cookie crisps. My quota is up for the month, actually. The second thing Nick and I do, we invest in ourselves with mental health care. For example, I've been doing therapy for four years. And frankly, I wish I'd been doing it for longer. I actually just went yesterday before this flight check. Yeties, I use a meditation app every morning for the last four weeks. And I started going to therapy last year, too, because of Nick's inspiration.

We always talk about this. Therapy, it's preventative care for yourself and for your relationships. And the third thing Nick and I do, you already know this one. We celebrate the wins. We celebrate the wins. Because this trip to Los Angeles, this was a business trip. But we also turned it into a datchel of party. Because there is always a win to celebrate.

Yeties, it is Mental Health Month this month. But besties, it's always mental health month. Let's grab a box of tissues and hit those three stories. Let's jump on the couch, baby. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. Jack Nick.

I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show. Start the show. For our first story, what is powering the artificial intelligence movement right now?

It's not chat GPT. It's actually Nvidia chips. But Nvidia's surge tells us that not all chips are created equal. Invidia, can we explain Nvidia? Because it's a funky name. We got to talk about it. It is a funky name. It's missing a couple of alas.

Yeah, we can you buy one? Well, here's how NVIDIA describes themselves. Invidia is the pioneer of GPU accelerated computing. Yeti's Vidae was founded by Taiwanese American. Jenseng Wang, the Oregon State alum founded the company 30 years ago. Yes. When he was 30 years old, actually, he invented the GPU, the graphics processing unit. The whole GPU.

That is the crucial chip in a PlayStation that brings Sonic the Hedgehog onto the screen. But Yeti's is not just. gaming chips that Nvidia's pumping out these days. No, Nvidia's chips are now used in cars, in data centers, in the Zucks Metaverse. In fact, if you are looking at a screen right now, there's a big chance. An Nvidia chip is behind that screen. The graphics processing unit. But Yetis, here are the big numbers behind Invidia. Invidia's stock has already doubled in this young year. In fact, Nvidia's stock has nearly tripled just since October. Are you ready for this yet? Talk to me, Jack. Invidia.

A company you maybe have never heard of. Invidia. It's the sixth most valuable company in the world. Yeah. It's behind Amazon on the most valuable company's list. Invidia is more valuable than Berkshire Hathaway. It's more valuable than Meta.

It is more valuable than Elon Musk's Tesla. Why? You ask? AI, we said. Yeah, and see, here's how this breaks down. If Chad GPT is the brain of artificial intelligence, then invidia's chips are the brain cells. That's right, because invidia's chips are crucial for the computing of artificial intelligence.

There's actually a wilder stat about Nvidia than that wild stat we just shared about their valuation. One newsletter about artificial intelligence estimates that 95% of the chips used in AI are made by Nvidia. We repeat, artificial intelligence, which many describe as an iPhone moment, one of the great technology advances of all mankind. 95% of it is powered by Nvidia's processing chips. Wow. And Nvidia just announced earnings. The stock jumped another 25% after hours yesterday on crazy unexpected chip demand. Jack and I were preparing the story at a cafe in Los Angeles.

And we literally like, oh, the stocks of 5%. 10%? It can't go higher than 20%. It did. Now the top concern for Invidia right now, it's actually China. Yeah, because if China bans U.S. chips. Which they're thinking about doing. That would shut out Nvidia.

And that would kill one fifth of Nvidia's business. So interestingly, the biggest. risk to invidia right now isn't a business risk is actually a political risk why a i yes so jagg what's the takeaway for our buddies over at invidia not all chips are created equal look yetty's computer chips they're like potato chips not all chips are equal like a tortilla chip is a lot different than a flexible fancy kettle chip and some chips are better than others like advanced chips are unique they can demand a high price while lower end chips are commodities and the price can fall. For example, Samsung makes a lot of chips, but their profit fell by 95% last quarter because those chips just aren't the chips that people want these

days. Because Samsung's chips are not in high demand, the price of the chip Samsung makes fell by 70% in the past year. On the other hand, Nvidia's top of the line chip is known as the DGXA100. We're talking about a $10,000 computer chip from the Vivida. This is the Cadillac of processing Well, that expense of $10,000 chip is required for 95% of AI projects. Nvidia is now the sixth most valuable company on Earth. Because not all chips are created equal. For our second story, we finally have an IPO happening this year, and that IPO is Kava. Kava.

Kava has scaled Mediterranean food by separating the Zieg from the Zag. Hi, but Jack, we gotta kick things off with kind of a sad stat for our investment bank and Yeti's out there. The number of IPOs in America is at a 32-year love. So when Jack and I heard there was an IPO happening, we said, hey, we got to cover this initial public offer. We got to dive into that S-1 document. We got to jump in T-boy style, and we did, and that company is Kava.

Kava is expected to fetch a $1.5 billion valuation with their fast, fast casual Mediterranean change. Jack, how would you explain Kava? They're the Chipotle for Chick-Pee. Could you say they're the sweet green of Baba Ginoosh? Sure. I know, let's go with that. If you enter this restaurant.

It's like an overwhelming Greek grandma met you at the door. There's like too many options here. They're like six different types of hummus on the menu. As you're going through the assembly line of food, they're going to offer you three levels of Horissa spice. Yeah, you get to the end of the cashier and she's like, you're skin and bones, eat up, honey. Oh, you're a vegan? Don't worry, we have lamb. And because of all those options, 80% of the diners customize at Kava.

They build their bowl as they go. This business is similar to Chipotle in like every single way. It is, it is. You just got to like replace the tortilla with the tahini. Right. Not Mexican, Mediterranean. But the real spice around this company yet is, it's not in the Harrisa. It's in the numbers. Kava had 560 million of revenues last year. Yeah. And over the last six years, they've averaged a Kager of 52%.

52% for their annual growth rate. That's the average growth rate over the last six years. That's pretty darn strong. So Jack and I are looking at the numbers here. And the revenues are similar to a sweet green. To sprinkle on some more contacts, the revenues are about 1.20th of Chipotle. The kava the guacin extra, but the falafelous. And there was a fascinating thing Nick and I noticed as we compared Kava to Chipotle and Sweet Green. Here's what we thought was interesting. The fast casual restaurant industry, it thrives in cities. Cities are where people demand both quality and speedy convenience.

So it's no surprise that the majority of Chipotle and Sweet Green customers are in cities. Yeah, they're grabbing a burrito bowl between their work meetings. Okay, but here was the shocker. The majority of Kava restaurants are actually in the summer. There's suburbanites. 80% of Kava's customers live on a cul-de-sac street. 80% are in the suburbs. We're talking more Greenwich, less Greenwich Village.

And the result is that actually, Kava faces less competition in the suburbs. Being in the suburbs, Kava can take more market share, or as we like to call it, more tummy share. In cities, fast casual is a lunch option. Right. So in cities, fast casual restaurants are really just selling lunch.

On the other hand, Kava is in the suburbs so they can sell two meals. Because there aren't as many dinner options in the suburbs, Kava gets 45% of their sales at dinner time. 45%. Jack, what's the hot date in the suburbs these days? A fed a feast over at Kama. Meet me there Saturday night. 8 p.m.

Baklava is optional. Baklava before you relieve the babysitter. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Kava? Separate the ZIG from the Zag. Yeties, most of Kava's competitors are zigging. They're focusing in high traffic urban location. That's the Zieg. The expected traditional route that is consistent with the

trends. But we noticed that even before the pandemic, Kava already had pivoted to suburban locations. That's the Zag. Right. The contrarian non-traditional route that Kava took. And that Zag has paid off as people have moved from urban areas to suburban areas during the pandemic. Yeah, the pandemic caused a migration from cities to suburbs. And Kava's kitchens were waiting with open minivans. It's totally fine if your business is zigging. Sometimes you need to sprinkle in a bold Zag. For our third and final story, Uber, just partnered with Google so you can book a self-driving taxi in Uber. This partnership has us thinking about the perfect next big acquisition. And it's not any of the companies we just mentioned. But Jack, first of all, next Datchel party, we're doing it in

Phoenix. We're going to Phoenix, baby. We're going to Phoenix. I've ever been. I want to go. Yeah, well, one of us has another kid. We're going to go to Phoenix. So that when we Uber around the city, there's going to be nobody behind the wheel. Yeties, all of this is going down in Phoenix. We're talking about a new partnership that involves Uber. The RideHale Company. And Waymo. Google's self-driving car division.

Here's how they describe the partnership. They say it's a multi-year strategic partnership to make Waymo available via Uber starting in Phoenix. Phoenix. Phoenix. The sandbox of young robocars. Phoenix, the heat is dry and the innovation is hot. Because Phoenix is so welcoming to Robocar

companies. Right now you can order a regular Uber there with Todd, who's driving a Prius and has a 4.9 star rating. Or you can hail an Uber that's actually a self-driving Waymo Jaguar with no human driver. That's happening right now. But there is a twist we should point out, right Jack? Yeah, for years, Uber was working on their own self-driving cars, but they had to shut the project down because a woman got killed in an accident in 2017. Well, Waymo kept on testing self-driving cars over in Phoenix. They actually have a really good safety record. They've gone 20 million miles on public roads testing with no accidents. Now, yet he's, here's why Jack and I think you should care about this story.

Here was kind of the shocking thing to us. We have never seen such a corporate evolution from hate to cooperate. Because Uber and Google have been adversaries. In 2017, Google took Uber to court. They sued Uber for stealing their self-driving technology. Were they stealing their technology? They stole our recipe. That's exactly.

Exactly what they did. Uber's employee, Anthony Levindowski, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for 33 counts of IP theft. So yeah, the relationship was salty. But Google and Uber have new CEOs since then, and they've decided to move on. Yeah, they put the Waymo under the bridge. Honestly, this is like Tupac and Biggie getting together and teaming up. Yeah, they've declared a self-driving Robotaxie alliance. They've gone from hate to cooperate. It's like Regina George and Janice. Hugging that out. The Capulets in the Montague. So, Jack, what's the? That's the takeaway for our buddies over at Google and Uber. Tesla will acquire Lyft.

You didn't see that one coming, did you, Yeti? Jack, can you repeat that one? Tesla will acquire Lyft. Follow us here, Yetis. Waymo, they've got a self-driving car, a jaguar with robotic eyes and ears that can see the road and drive you without a driver. But what Waymo didn't have was a connection to people who needed a ride from a self-driving car.

No one downloaded Google's car. Problem. No one downloaded Google's Waymo app, yet you already have the Uber app. And that's why Waymo is partnering with Uber, because of their app. Well, another company that is about to find itself in a similar predicament is Tesla. Elon says they are so close to turning every Tesla on the road into a robotaxy. But not everyone has the Tesla app. On the other hand, everyone does have the Lyft app. And at $3 billion, Tesla could easily acquire Lyft.

Jack, Lyft, it's just sitting there. It is down to a $3 billion valuation. It is ready to become the app of Tesla's Robo fleet. The news was about Uber and Waymo, but it got us thinking about Lyft and Tesla. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Invidia stock jumped 25% yesterday because it's the chip that powers everything AI.

And not all chips are created equal. For our second story, Kava has filed to IPO, following in Chipotle's fast casual footsteps. While everyone else is zgging, Kava sprinkled in a little zad. And our third and final story is Waymo and Uber. Waymo does the self-driving cars. Uber does the ride hell out. And that got us thinking, Tesla should acquire lift.

Now, time for the best fact yet. This one is actually a correction we've got to make, thanks to Raphael from Mexico City, now living in San Diego. This week, we did a story about the Colorado River. We told you about how three Western states are going to drink 15% less water. from that mighty river. One of the biggest economic stories of the year. But Nick and I misstated where that river ends. Yeah, we had to whip out the Magellan maps on this thing.

That river does not end in the Gulf of Mexico. It actually ends in another Gulf with a different name. The Gulf of California. Even though the Gulf of California is not in Mexico. The mighty Colorado River terminates in the Gulf of California. So the river doesn't end in the Gulf of Mexico. It ends in the Gulf of California in Mexico. Which is not confusing at all.

Jack, can you give us one more cookie crisp, please? Yetis, you look fantastic over there. Jack, it is great to be with you in person. We did great today. Let's go at the Dutchley party. Yeti's Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. We're going to be sore.

And before we go, happy birthday to Yeti V-Win. Who's turning 25 on May 25th over in Mesa. Memphis, Tennessee. And congratulations to Ramon and Stephanie. They are E. Lobearing. He headed to Vegas to get married. And Jesper McWing Dang is jumping into entrepreneurship, launching his own consulting business.

Celebrate that win. Congratulations to Nicholas Gordy, who's going to anesthesiology school in Houston. And Hayden Robinson is graduating with a cosmetics degree from FIT. Congratulations to Kyler Evitt, graduating from a business school just outside of Boston. Just outside of Boston. And to anyone else, celebrating something today,

making a tea boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway and Nick and I both own stock of Chipotle. So similar to Chipotle in every way, you just replace the tortilla with a tahini.

Yeah, dude, because I thought that's similar to Chipotle. It is. Everyone customized a Chipotle. It is. Do you know what the breakdown is at Sweet Green? I found it. Oh, I bet you it's much less. What do you think it is?

I bet it's... I bet it's... You think it's a majority on the menu or all? On the menu. You think it's a majority on the menu? the menu. Yes. What are you trying to

like squam me into a position here? No, it's interesting. I think it's the opposite of his common situation. You know I always order on the menu. I know you order on the video. One

harvest bowl. No more? No less. Would you like dressing on the side? What did the chef? If that harvest bowl is missing an ingredient, send it back. Send it back.

If it's got an extra ingredient, send it back. All right, but the spice of this company... Do you want that to be the outtake? Go ahead and ahead. Because that was weird. That was really weird.