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Podcast Episode

James Murdoch & Vox Media, SpaceX IPO Predictions, and Bezos Gets Defensive

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Kara and Scott unpack James Murdoch’s acquisition of Vox Media’s podcast network and New York Magazine, and what it says about the future of digital media and Pivot. Then, they break down SpaceX’s eye-popping IPO filing, and why the numbers may not add up. Plus, Jeff Bezos defends his tax rate, Mark Cuban teams up with Trump on drug prices, and Nvidia’s massive earnings. Watch this episode on the ⁠⁠Pivot YouTube channel⁠⁠.Follow us on Instagram and Threads at ⁠⁠@pivotpodcastofficial⁠⁠.Follow us on Bluesky at ⁠⁠@pivotpod.bsky.social⁠⁠Follow us on TikTok at ⁠⁠@pivotpodcast⁠⁠.Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or email pivot@voxmedia.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI Summary

Kara and Scott examine James Murdoch’s move to buy Vox Media’s podcast network and New York Magazine, using the deal to think through where digital media is headed and what it could mean for Pivot’s world. They also dig into SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO filing and question whether the headline numbers really hold up. Rounding things out, they touch on Jeff Bezos’ response to criticism over his tax rate, Mark Cuban’s unusual alliance with Trump on drug pricing, and Nvidia’s huge earnings report.

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XAI burned $9 billion in one quarter, or $100 million daily.▲ Hide transcript
Well, let's just talk about SpaceX, the best business. It's growing 20% a year and is trying to go out at 100 times revenue. When Google went public, it was growing 240% a year and went out at 10 times revenues. So just back to XAI. XAI is losing money on the way to losing more money. And in Q1-2026 alone, the net loss of $4.3 billion on $4.7 billion in revenue. Total CapEx, $10.1 billion in 90 days, $7.8 billion of that for AI. Cash on the balance sheet cratered from $25 billion to $16 billion in just three months. They burned $9 billion in cash in a single quarter. That's $100 million a day. That's not investing in the future. It's the future building you in advance. Right. This anthropic thing is critical. Do you think he's moving into being the infrastructure player rather than the AI player here? No it him having spent too much CapEx thinking that XAI his AI would need it And he woke up and realized he didn It like this has happened to me a million Every time I start a company I raise too much fucking money I go get a giant office base in Soho And before I know it I renting it out to a bunch of shitty startups to try and recoup some of the capital. That's what happened here. Total debt on the balance. But thank goodness for that, right? Presumably from the anthropic money. Yeah. Total debt on the balance sheet is $29 billion. So just for context, that's more debt than it's on the Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and American Airlines combined with all their planes. And those, they carry passengers. SpaceX has Starship, which has cost over $15 billion in development and is still on its 12th test mission. So look, the bottom line, you're being asked to pay $1.75 trillion for a great satellite internet company, a rocket business that loses money, an AI product losing $6 billion a year and falling further behind its competitors that has $29 billion in debt and a CEO who, and this is my favorite part of the filing, purchased $131 million of his own recalled Cyborg trucks with company cash. He's propping up Tesla, propping up Tesla. That's right.
Captured: May 24, 2026135sSource: file-groq-sc
I’d take the IPO shares, then dump them on day one.▲ Hide transcript
Does it go out at $1.8 trillion? I wouldn't be surprised if the bankers try and manufacture scarcity and it gets a small pop. But I think by the end of the year, it's well below a trillion dollars. There's just no, there's no way to justify this thing as a cash incinerator. And also certain components of the business feel very we-working, the fact that as they grow, they burn more cash. There's no operating leverage. Even with this anthropic deal, because that's all he can sell. It's like he's selling the chairs or something, right? Yeah. He built out infrastructure that he doesn't need because his AI is not growing the way he thought. Right. Exactly. And he's got it. He's got this colossus. And of course, he's facing lawsuits all over the place because he's going to buy more of these methane engines. And trust me that they're going to put a stop to that eventually. So how would you do it here? People are listening. What would you do here? I won tell you what to do because I have been wrong about Tesla I thought Tesla was a sell in 2017 and it gone up 8x No you were right but you were wrong about what people would do I think we have to squarely say I was wrong So what I going to do is if someone called me and no one going to call me but if Elon Musk called me and said, do you want allocation in the IPO? I would probably say, sure, and I'd sell it on the first trade. They will manufacture scarcity. Goldman and everybody will tell him, okay, this is what it looks like. Put out press releases saying you're 30 times oversubscribed. It'll get a pop and then get out because, again, an amazing business can be a shitty investment even at some valuation. And a shitty business can be an amazing investment at a certain valuation. This is an amazing business surrounded by businesses that are not scaling where he's trying to play catch up and at a valuation that makes just abso-fucking-lutely no sense. GLOMING XAI in here was a way to save his ass, his own ass, correct? So it the cheapest form of capital he could find by attaching it to an amazing business such that he could try and catch up And even the business even the amazing business on its own which is doing 16 billion in top line revenue and 8 billion in EBITDA This is starlink. Yeah. Give it 25, you know, give it 100 times EBITDA, it's worth 800 billion. 100 times EBITDA is, you know, no one trades at that. But you not only are trying to get it out at 1.7 to 2 trillion, you've attached onto it all of these businesses that look to have negative leverage. So, look. And he's using the business to help Tesla out by buying shitty cyber trucks. Well, that was the most eye-popping thing in the whole thing. I know. I agree. Was that it reminded me of, and this is the argument against when governments decide to start cosplaying business. The Irish government or the UK government said DeLorean is the future and they gave them a bunch of loans And then these pictures came out of a ton of DeLorean sitting in a warehouse in Ireland unsold So the worst product, arguably the worst tech product, either maybe than the Oculus or Siri, the worst tech product of the last decade is hands down the Cybertruck. So he went out, a bunch of them recalled, and he used money from this organization to buy back Cybertrucks. You're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to say, okay, Tesla has a turd of a product and we're going to take a write down and you just take your pain. Elon brings a level of awareness, magic. People have done investing with him. He is an unbelievable visionary. But, you know, this goes to something broader, and that is this is all part of an entity that will cement where I believe we are now, and that is I finally believe we are squarely in 1999. Yeah, I would agree.
Captured: May 24, 2026241sSource: file-groq-sc

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