Podcast appearances and mentions of Michael Dell

Josh Singh, sales director at Turning Point Technology Services Josh Singh didn’t arrive at Dell Technologies World simply as a partner – he arrived as someone who spent nearly eight years on the vendor side, in Dell sales roles, before crossing over to Turning Point as the company’s sales lead. That dual perspective shapes everything about how Turning Point operates. The Vancouver-based solution provider, founded in 2012, runs exclusively on Dell in the data center – a deliberate, all-in single-vendor bet that Josh frames not as a constraint but as a competitive advantage. Nearly half of the team is ex-Dell, which means when a customer needs an answer fast, Turning Point knows exactly who to call inside Dell’s notoriously complex internal matrix. That navigational fluency, Josh argues, is the kind of differentiation that doesn’t show up in a spec sheet but shows up every time there’s urgency. Turning Point recently formalized that depth by opening what Dell designates as its first official solution center in Canada, in their Vancouver office, giving the team and their clients hands-on access to the full portfolio – including the GB10 for deskside AI development. On AI, Josh’s read is that the “AI factory” framing was right directionally but too large a first step for most of the Canadian market. Dell’s move toward more modular, consumable AI infrastructure – starting at one or two servers, proving a use case, then scaling – is what actually unlocks adoption for SMB customers. Small wins first, then the appetite for something bigger. On security and resilience, Josh drew a clear line: backup is the last line of defense, and if that last line gets hit – or gets frozen by a ransomware insurance claim – you’re rebuilding from scratch. Dell’s Data Domain and its proprietary DDBoost protocol, alongside Veeam, form the core of what Turning Point puts in front of customers who need to actually recover, not just theoretically recover. And rounding it out: the supply chain disruption, compounded by Broadcom‘s reshaping of the virtualization market, is forcing Canadian organizations to plan differently – more external awareness, more budget flexibility, earlier commitment. That’s a challenge across the industry, Josh notes. But for partners who can guide customers through it, it’s also an opening. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last sixteen years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. We’re continuing our series from Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas. This week, we’re deep on the partner perspective. Today’s guest brings a point of view you don’t usually get. Nearly a decade inside Dell Technologies, followed by a move to the partner side – specifically to a partner that has made one of the most deliberate, all-in single-vendor bets you’ll find in the Canadian channel. Josh Singh leads the sales team at Turning Point Technology Services, a Vancouver-based solution provider founded in 2012 that operates exclusively on Dell in the data center. Not mostly Dell, not primarily Dell – exclusively. In a channel where diversification is almost reflexively treated as risk management, Turning Point went the other way, and they did it right at the beginning of Dell’s channel investment cycle, which turned out to be good timing. Josh brings to that an unusual lens. He spent almost eight years in Dell’s sales roles, where he learned early that the channel was the key to his success, and that knowing how to navigate Dell’s internal matrix is an advantage that translates directly into faster, better outcomes for customers. Roughly half of Turning Point’s team is ex-Dell. They recently opened what Dell designates as its first official solution center in Canada, right there in their Vancouver office. We talked about what it actually means to make the single-vendor bet and why it’s holding up. How the AI adoption conversation is changing for SMB customers who weren’t ready for the Dell AI Factory, but might be ready for something smaller. The security and data resilience story, and why backup shouldn’t be confused with business continuity. And what the supply chain situation, plus Broadcom’s disruption of the market, is doing to how customers have to plan. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Josh Singh. Josh, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. I’m sure it’s been a busy week. Josh Singh: It has been a busy week, and thanks for having me. Robert Dutt: I guess to open it up, I want to start with a question that frames the perspective that you have at an event like this. Turning Point made the explicit call to go all-in on Dell on the infrastructure side, as I understand. A lot of partners diversify, carry multiple vendors, pick and choose their spots. What’s the logic behind that bet? What does a week like this one – where Dell’s making a lot of big moves around AI and the direction of the partner program and all that – feel like for a shop that’s tied its future to the Dell story? Josh Singh: Very good question. I’ve been asked this numerous times, and it’s clear you’ve done your research on us. As you said, Robert, we are 100% Dell-exclusive in the data center. We do have other technologies that are complementary to Dell to give our clients an end-to-end ecosystem of technology, but we have doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down on Dell in the data center. Turning Point was formed in 2012. Three founders – Lee, Sean, and Lauren – they came from a value-added reseller that sold a multitude of technologies. What they found out at the time was Dell had a portfolio that covered the end-to-end, especially in the data center. They branched out, all three of them from [Seven Group – verify company name], and they formed Turning Point. They just realized that Dell was at the beginning of their partner program. You’ll see a legacy fabric still embedded in some aspects of Dell Technologies where they still are partial to selling direct, but they have put a large amount of emphasis and investment in the channel over the last fifteen years. Turning Point was formed at the very beginning of that cycle. Since then, we have had no regrets. Dell has really come to the table as a really solid partner for us, allowing us to offer our clients the end-to-end data center strategy with Dell Technologies. Robert Dutt: Your lens is unique too in that you have some time at Dell EMC – a viewpoint that a lot of partners don’t have in terms of having seen both sides of that fence, especially around the same vendor. What does that vendor-side time teach you about what Dell actually needs and wants from partners, and the reality of what Dell values in a partner? Josh Singh: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I spent almost eight years at Dell in various sales roles. I learned very quickly, and early on in my Dell sales career, that the channel was the key to my success. The core reason why is I’m one individual. I have a solutions engineer, I have some overlays, and we manage a pretty large territory. I found that if I could just introduce a channel partner into the mix, I could lob it over the fence, play quarterback a little bit, get enough updates from the channel partner so I can update my leadership – because that’s really important. But I was able to scale my business significantly when I started to work with the channel. Actually, Turning Point was one of those channel partners that I worked very closely with. So it’s a bit of a full circle moment for me to come back and I lead the sales team at Turning Point. Robert Dutt: I have to imagine the Dell team is happy to have you, because clearly you’ve got that lens for exactly what they are looking for from you as a partner. Josh Singh: Yeah, you know, every vendor has their own methodology and go-to-market culture. And so it does help. Actually, almost half of Turning Point’s team is ex-Dell Technologies employees. So that really gives us a unique perspective on how Dell wants to sell, how to update Dell, what’s important to them – what’s important to each level in the organization, from the sales rep to the manager, to the director, to the senior director, to the president. So we understand what is important to Dell Technologies. And also, for our customers, it’s really important to pick the right technologies. But as we all know, this world is moving so fast and our customers need answers, and they need us to be on their requests in a really time-sensitive way. And so, typically with most vendors, you know your account executive and that individual is the key to the organization. When you come from Dell, you all of a sudden know how to navigate the matrix of Dell. And so when a customer has a question, you know exactly who to call. You can pick up the phone and get that answer in a much more time-sensitive way than navigating the matrix of Dell, which can be large and daunting. Robert Dutt: So the secret sauce is as simple as spending more than half a decade inside the company itself. Josh Singh: Simple. Yeah, easy peasy. Robert Dutt: Big week for AI infrastructure here, and the Dell AI thesis – in so much as they’ve for a while been pulling on the idea of running AI models on-prem and on their infrastructure – was really amplified this week. Between that, desktop agentic AI, and the whole server and storage announcements underneath that, how does what was announced here resonate with what you guys are doing now and what your customers are asking for in terms of technology and how it’s delivered? Josh Singh: Yeah, no, that’s a really good question. So I’ve been at Dell Technologies World almost every year, and I’m finding a big difference in the talk tracks this year. AI was a concept, it was a lot of buzzwords, it was a lot of fluff, to be honest with you as well. Everyone’s trying to chase what AI means to them. But I think this year is the first year where I started to see concepts materialize into practicality, whether it comes to data locality or infrastructure, or really how to go to the next steps of adopting AI. The Canadian market is more pragmatic in their approach to adoption of technology – a little laggard, but not in a negative way, just a bit more conservative. And so what Dell Technologies World enables me and us to do is learn from people actually deploying AI in a much more meaningful and scalable way, for us to then be able to go back to Canada and start to talk about potential use cases, potential outcomes – because it is a very daunting topic, AI, sometimes it can be very overwhelming. So Dell Technologies World allows us to take some key facts about AI, bring them back into our local market, and then help them through that journey. And also, we’re meeting a lot of experts here as well. So it’s not just that we take these concepts and go back to Canada and try to do it ourselves – we’re really supported by the Dell channel ecosystem as well, to help our clients evolve in their AI journey. Robert Dutt: What are the ideas that you’re hearing that specifically are making you think, “All right, this is going to change something in how we do business internally, or this is something I have to take to customer X, customer Y, customer Z,” because it maps to what they’re thinking about or where they should be thinking? Josh Singh: Yeah. I think Dell, when they first wanted to address AI, they came out with the Dell AI Factory, and that was the message. So for a lot of Canadian organizations – which are largely SMB – adoption of an AI Factory is not consumable. It’s too large. They need to prove the model out. And then as soon as they get some small wins and successes, then they can scale out, because the smallest AI Factory was large for them. And this is what we noticed, actually, in the last twelve months. So what Dell is doing now is making it a bit more economical, a bit more consumable – in the AI data platform, starting at one server, maybe two servers, a little PowerScale, and then using that to prove out a use case. And then once we prove out a use case, our customers say, “Hey, there’s really something to this AI thing that everybody keeps talking about.” Now they can really start to invest in a much more scalable, larger way. So I think what Dell has released – very small products with the GB10 all the way up to that massive AI Factory – I mean, you saw when Michael Dell came out with Jensen, and he came out on stage and showed the entire portfolio of AI with a small little itty-bitty – not quite Raspberry Pi size, but not too far from that. Robert Dutt: Really, yeah. Josh Singh: And then having Jensen talk about the next model and how much more powerful that next model is – 100x, 100x, 100x, all the way up to that big AI Factory. So I think it just allows us to be a bit more practical in AI adoption rather than, “Mr. Customer, you have to adopt an AI Factory and that’s how you’re going to achieve AI.” So yeah. Robert Dutt: Has some of the stuff they’re talking about – deskside AI, and specifically deskside agents – when you talk about a GB10 and the lower end of that, and even for more casual users, they would make the case down to the AI-enabled PC – how does that kind of map with how your customers are approaching AI, given that they aren’t going to be going out and buying even a bottom-end, full-on AI Factory experience as a day-one thing? Josh Singh: Yeah. So at Turning Point, we have our data center – it’s actually a solution center. Dell has multiple across the world. There was none in Canada. So actually, with Dell leadership, we opened up Dell’s first solution center in Vancouver in our office. There was a big unveiling with the president of Dell Canada, all Dell leadership came out, and we stood up our solution center in conjunction with Dell. So in that solution center, we have every piece of technology that Dell has – from PowerStore to PowerScale to ObjectScale. And we recently adopted the GB10 so we’re able to actually learn it, use practical use cases that actually help Turning Point, and then we can actually know how to speak to our customers as an adopter ourselves of the GB10 and some of the use cases. So anything from OpenClaw to using different language models and trying to help business productivity in that manner. We serve customers in almost every single vertical. So we are working with healthcare – we’re doing some work right now with healthcare and looking at different use cases when it comes to X-rays and things like that. And then we also work with legal, looking at contractual ways to actually pull out data from thousands or millions of contracts to find commonalities to help an organization improve their operational efficiency. So we’ve got our system in our solution center and we’re actually going through those use cases ourselves so that we can better serve our customers. Robert Dutt: Given that you’ve got that data center and you’ve got that – choose your own analogy, eat your own dog food, drink your own champagne – approach to things, how have you guys approached AI internally, and what have you learned from how you’ve done that over the last year or two? Josh Singh: So it’s a good question. Admittedly, we are a little bit at the beginning of that journey as well. So at Turning Point, as well as many of our customers, we were a bit overwhelmed with what AI meant. And so we have a practice when it comes to consultation to navigate what AI means for them. We do specific workshops to get a client to understand what they want out of AI and to conceptualize what AI is capable of doing. Now we’re really getting into how product is going to help that. So this is the next iteration of our AI journey to help our customers – going over and beyond the consultative nature of how AI works and models and inferencing and all those buzzwords that customers understand but don’t really understand. And then we’ll take whatever is the output from that workshop, and now with our solution center, we’re looking to actually take the results of that and try to replicate it using product and technology and actual outcome. Robert Dutt: How often do you find that the outcome of the workshop – “this is what AI would do best for you” – maps with what they came in thinking AI would do best for them? Josh Singh: It’s fascinating to see, actually, because in a lot of SMB organizations, there is no AI data scientist, there is no AI leader. So it’s essentially decision by committee. And that committee could be a storage admin, a network admin, a compute admin, an application admin, all the way up to leadership, cybersecurity, of course, for governance and compliance. So seeing the different perspectives in these AI committees is really interesting – to watch the customer look at each other and each individual have their own expertise and go, “Oh, that’s interesting. Oh, that’s interesting. Why did I know you viewed the world through the lens of this?” And so coming in with these workshops, it’s typically not one outcome. It’s actually allowing a conversation between these committees at our customer organizations to really help push what AI means for each of those individuals. And then they branch out, actually not with Turning Point but internally, to foster more discussion. And then we come back in and help prod and push in certain areas with our AI knowledge. But really, it’s more contextual. It’s not really about language models and things like that. It’s more about blue sky – like, what do we want to do? And what’s success for you, and what’s success for you, and what’s success for you? You’ll notice that success for each of these individuals is very different. So it’s been fascinating for us to watch. Robert Dutt: It’s funny how often some of these things do – for all the technology behind it – come down to breaking down internal silos. Josh Singh: Yes, yes, yeah. It’s a big part of our job. We help bridge technology to business, to legal, to cybersecurity, all the way up to business goals. So it’s really – it’s an honor to work in this industry and see those conversations play out. Robert Dutt: We saw some fairly significant changes to the partner program and the rollout of the Modern Partner Platform – in terms of the agentic AI stuff that’s rolling into the partner portal and the partner experience, deal registration improvements, a whole bunch of things – especially where you guys are at as a boutique, exclusively Dell-focused operation on the data center side. What did you see in there that really caught your interest – “okay, that’s going to make my life better”? And in a more art-of-the-possible mode, what do you think AI appearing in partner platforms is going to mean in the long run in terms of what you can do, and what you can get from the overall experience you have with key vendors like Dell? Josh Singh: Yeah, good question. So they haven’t fully rolled out the One Dell Way platform yet – they’re chipping away at it. First is with CSG on the client side, and they’re starting that internally. So we haven’t actually seen the result of a lot of that change yet. But I do know theoretically what the plan is for that, and I think it’s going to be really advantageous for us. We are seeing a little bit of the benefits right now where human intervention – as vendors start to consolidate a bit more in sales and back office – the role of the sales rep is changing. There are a lot of tasks that that sales rep now has to do. And so they can sometimes be the bottleneck of operational efficiency. Let’s talk about deal registration, for example: they will get an email, and if they’re busy in meetings, by the time they get to that email and press OK, it could be twenty-four, it could be forty-eight hours, it could be seventy-two hours if that person’s out of town. So then you have to chase – and with how fast IT is moving with our customers, we can’t afford to wait that long. So we’re starting to see a bit more intelligence and automation in how deal registrations are approved. It is a bit of a complicated topic because the channel relies on Dell’s ability to recognize who our accounts are, who our loyal customers are. And so there have been some conflicts since then. But I do see that Dell is on it and they are working it out. And I do love the transparency and honesty from Dell in owning up where mistakes were made and correcting them in the field. So I am seeing some AI adoption when it comes to the partner program, but it’s not fully rolled out yet. So I am looking forward to seeing what they come out with. Robert Dutt: In terms of future state – whether it’s stuff that they’re already discussing or stuff that’s just possible but not yet on the roadmap – what would be the most impactful for you and your organization to move to a more automated, more agentic motion with a key vendor like Dell? Josh Singh: Yeah. I’m sure you’ve heard of Dell Sales Chat. It’s basically their version of GPT, but it references all of Dell’s information – presentations, documents, white papers, service briefs, and things like that. So the Dell rep just types in a query into Dell Sales Chat, and an answer comes out while referencing all Dell documentation. What I really want to see is Dell enabling that for the channel. And so I’ve talked to Dell leadership – specifically people that own this product – and that is the plan. And so I’m really, really excited for that, because especially when we respond to RFPs in public sector, it’s a very time-consuming endeavor. And so for us to be able to type in queries on very specific questions that public sector has about technology would be really valuable. And I do know that there are compliance and governance issues as well. The labeling of documentation has to be accurate – otherwise, the channel would get access to potentially confidential data from Dell Sales Chat. But that’s the biggest thing that I’m waiting for Dell to offer the channel. Robert Dutt: Cool. I wanted to talk a little bit about security and data resilience, because that was another theme here at the event – an area where you guys have a fair bit going on with vCISO and MDR, cyber recovery, all that kind of stuff. Basically, how does the Dell cyber resilience narrative from this week connect with what you’re already doing? Does it strengthen the story you’re telling clients? Does it give you new opportunities? How are you viewing the message here? Josh Singh: Yeah. So I actually come from the security and resilience team at Dell – that’s my most recent role there. So it’s near and dear to me and my heart, and I am seeing a lot of product updates when it comes to security. That’s really exciting for me to see, actually. So Dell has a security and data platform in Data Domain, and there are other partners in the ecosystem like Druva and others. There are some partnerships with CrowdStrike and other MDR companies. And that’s what I really appreciate about Dell – they did have Secureworks for a period of time, which got spun off, but I do appreciate Dell constantly looking at where their gaps are from a technology perspective and then partnering up with other vendors to complete the end-to-end strategy. As I mentioned, each individual product in the technology portfolio – they are releasing a lot of security updates and functionality embedded in PowerStore, more in Data Domain when it comes to immutability and things like that, and PowerScale anomaly detection in each of the different products, end-to-end encryption with secure [HPAs – unclear; possibly “HBAs” or “APIs” – verify]. So there’s a lot of attention right now when it comes to security. And to come back to AI – AI is really cool and it can create a lot of really cool outcomes. That’s if you’re wearing a white hat. If you’re wearing a black hat, it can be equally exciting for them as well. And so Dell has to keep up now with not just asking what are the positive outcomes that can drive more efficiency and unlock human progress, but what are the black hats going to be doing with AI, and how do we respond? Robert Dutt: I was sharing a detail this week that backup infrastructure is kind of a primary target for attacks. Curious – does that kind of match with what you’re seeing? And how do you, especially with customers who are newer to you or just going through the process, help them reconcile what they think they’re protecting with their backup versus what they actually have in terms of protection? Josh Singh: Yeah, this is – I mean, every backup vendor says the same thing. This becomes really difficult, actually, to undo a lot of the conditioning from a lot of the backup vendors. I joined DPS – which is now the SRP, the Security and Resiliency Platform, at Dell – for a very specific reason. I actually used to also work for Secureworks. And I realized that talking to people about managed security services was resonating at the time. But the answer was always, “Hey, we just go back to our backup target and we restore, we recover, we’re up and running within a couple of hours.” So I thought, I could spend the same amount of time with a different team and a different product and achieve much more success, because that’s what most organizations are relying on. So they really rely on backup. Now, backup should not be confused with business continuity. Backup is the last line of defense – and it really is the last line of defense. So when you have a last line of defense, you need to make sure that that is locked down. If you don’t trust your last line of defense, it doesn’t really matter what you do on top of that. You can spend millions of dollars per year operationally on subscriptions and monitoring and things like that. But if you don’t trust your last line of defense, you are hooked. And so Dell’s backup product, Data Domain, is the most secure, purpose-built backup appliance out there in the market – hands down. It’s not even a comparison, from my perspective – and it could be a biased perspective – against other competition and other vendors that also play in the same area. There are just so many features in Data Domain when it comes to immutability and governance and compliance and DDBoost, which is a proprietary protocol – it’s not CIFS, it’s not NFS. A bad actor can scan a CIFS or NFS directory so easily and then just encrypt it. So while we do work very well with PPDM – which is Dell’s backup software – we also use Veeam as well. And so the Veeam-to-Data Domain story is very powerful, and it’s really good for the SMB market as well. So we’re constantly looking at the market and seeing what’s compatible, what plays well with Dell products, and we’re introducing that into our ecosystem as well. Robert Dutt: All right. To wrap it up – sitting where you sit as a partner who’s made a pretty significant single-vendor bet on Dell, what’s the one thing from this week that you sit back and go, “Yeah, that validates the decision”? And also, was there anything that gives you pause – that makes you go, “Okay, I need to learn more about that before I’m sure that we’re aligned”? Josh Singh: Yeah. I mean, I can’t deny that we haven’t been forced to think about more vendor adoption. And as every company needs to iterate and evolve and stay on top of industry trends, we need to constantly be surveying other technologies. And we do. We look at NetApp all the time. We look at Pure. We look at HPE constantly. And what we’ve noticed is we don’t need to take on a different vendor. And especially – one thing I will say about Dell, and I’m not sure if this is an answer to your question, but I do have to mention this – Dell’s supply chain is second to none. So we’re in this world right now which is shifting aggressively to shortages and components and things like that. And that’s where Dell’s really shining right now – in their ability to go to different geographic areas and fast-track product from other areas. So that’s just one thing that I have to plug Dell for: very impressive about what they’re doing there. But from a Dell perspective, they’re constantly innovating. All the thought leaders of the world – in different companies and different partners and vendors – they’re all here. And so if we have that big bet on Dell and they’re constantly innovating and adding new partnerships and are at the forefront of innovation, then that means we are too. And if we are, then we don’t need to look anywhere else – and we’re going to double down on the bet. Robert Dutt: To go back to what you were saying about the supply chain situation – it’s no doubt wild times trying to get infrastructure for everyone on the planet right now. And we hear pretty clearly from Jeff Clarke the idea, the message to customers: put your hand up early – really early, if you can – because that’ll give you the best chances of getting what you want when you want it. If you’re thinking two years out or something, how are you approaching timelines and guidance to customers on – okay, so you want to be here at some point – speccing that out in light of the uncertainty of availability, the uncertainty of price, all the fun stuff that’s going on right now? Josh Singh: We’re living in that world right now and it’s changing the way customers have to respond to their stakeholders in their organizations. Back in the day – and by back in the day, I mean six months ago – a customer needed compute and they would buy compute and they would get it within three weeks, likely two. Now we’re looking at two months, three months, sometimes six-month delays, depending on if they need very specific components. So it is a little bit like the COVID days, where there was a big push to remote connectivity. Now customers are looking at public cloud again in a bigger way because they need immediate resources. So what we’re trying to do as an organization is say, “Yes, you could go to the cloud – that is an option. It always has been an option and always will be an option. But is that the right thing for your organization economically, from a security perspective, from a latency perspective?” There are so many more considerations, especially in the Canadian market with data sovereignty. And so the shift of parts shortages – and this wouldn’t be a current interview unless we talked about Broadcom and the changes they’ve made in the market as well. These two very big changes in our market are now affecting the way that organizations have to respond to their stakeholders and the immediacy of resources. So planning now is critically important. The way that customers are now trying to secure budget within their organizations is changing, because they need to be a bit more adaptable and flexible to what’s externally offered. Previously, it was internal operational methodologies on how they adopted technologies. Now they’re being affected by the external. So they have to be a bit more flexible and adaptable as to how they need to support their growing environment – by way of data, by way of compute resources, and especially AI. Now that I need GPUs and memory and CPUs, which are now in shortage, it is a very big challenge. But it’s not a Dell challenge, it’s a customer challenge. It’s happening across the entire industry. So that’s a good thing for us. If it was a Dell challenge, then we’d have a challenge ourselves and be in a bit of a corner. But it’s a global challenge right now that we are constantly seeing changes to. And I suspect we’ll continue to see changes for the rest of the year. Robert Dutt: It’s wild times when you hear folks who are very intelligent on these things saying this is going to be a multi-year kind of cycle. I guess AI giveth, AI taketh away. Josh Singh: Yes, yes. And geopolitics – we’ve got some leaders in the world right now that are making decisions that are affecting our geopolitical climate as well, which is then downstream affecting IT. So it’s interesting times. Exciting times. And I think we’ll look back on today just like we looked back on COVID – we’ll get through it. We’re all in it together. Robert Dutt: Here’s hoping the war stories end up good at the end of the day. Josh Singh: That’s right. Robert Dutt: Thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Josh Singh: Thanks very much, Rob. I appreciate it. Thank you. Robert Dutt: There you have it, Josh Singh from Turning Point Technology Services. I’d like to thank Josh for his time in Las Vegas. The full-circle element of his story – spending years inside Dell, working alongside Turning Point as a channel partner, and then joining the company he was selling through – comes through clearly in how he talks about the business. And I think that perspective showed throughout the conversation. A few things I’d like to take away from this one. First, the single-vendor bet argument. A lot of partners hedge on vendor relationships as a form of risk management, but Turning Point went the other way. And the case Josh makes is essentially that depth beats breadth – that knowing how to navigate a large vendor’s internal matrix quickly is itself a competitive advantage for customers. When someone needs an answer today, knowing exactly who to call inside Dell and getting it done in hours instead of days is a real differentiator. Doesn’t show up in a product spec, but it does show up in the relationship. Second, the AI adoption ladder. The AI Factory is the right concept, but maybe too large a bite for most of the Canadian market. What’s changing now – and what you heard Josh describe with the solution center and the GB10 pilots – is AI becoming consumable at the entry level. Small win, prove the model, scale it up. That’s how it actually gets adopted in the mid-market and SMB space, and the partners who figured out how to structure that journey are the ones who are going to win those accounts. And third, backup is the last line of defense, not the first. Josh put it plainly: if you don’t trust your last line of defense, it doesn’t really matter what you spend on top of it. And if your backup infrastructure gets hit with a ransomware attack – which is increasingly the whole point of the attack – and you’ve filed an insurance claim on top of that, you can’t touch it until the insurance company is done with their analysis. You’re building from scratch. That air gap, clean recovery point is the whole game. Not a nice-to-have. If you’re enjoying the show, please follow or subscribe wherever you listen. We’re on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, the usual suspects. And if you have a moment to leave a rating or review, please do. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

Earl Gosick, CTO at ESTI Consulting Services Earl Gosick has been attending Dell’s annual event since the EMC World days, and the ESTI Consulting Services co-founder brought to this year’s Dell Technologies World a perspective grounded in 35 years of building deep technical expertise on the Prairies. ESTI, the Saskatoon-based solution provider that won Dell’s Data Centre Solutions Excellence Award for Canada last year, runs a pure-play Dell infrastructure practice with particular depth in storage and data center design. Earl also sits in Dell’s CTO Connect program – a small, invitation-only group of partner technologists with early visibility into Dell’s product roadmap and a real voice in shaping it. His framing for the week: AI is fundamentally a data story, and data stories are storage stories. The push toward on-premises AI infrastructure – from deskside devices up through the newly announced Exascale and Rackscale solutions – is being driven as much by data governance requirements and token economics as by raw performance. Organizations that don’t control their data, Earl argues, can’t truly control their AI outcomes. On cyber resilience, he made a point worth underlining for anyone running managed services: ransomware insurance changes the recovery equation in ways clients don’t always anticipate. When a claim is filed, infrastructure gets frozen for forensic analysis. Recovery speed from a clean, air-gapped golden image – built with technology partners like Index Engines – isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the whole game. And to close: Saskatchewan and Alberta may be poised to become Canada’s next significant data center hubs. With regulated power, guaranteed energy supply, and a provincial government that has now seen a CoreWeave-scale facility successfully built in the province and is actively pursuing more, Earl sees a real and growing opportunity – and ESTI is already working to support it. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In the Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor at ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. We’re continuing our series of conversations from Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas. This week, we’re shifting from the Dell executive perspective to the partner perspective, and today’s guest has been making the trip to this event since the EMC World days. Earl Gosick is co-founder and senior consultant at ESTI Consulting Services, a Saskatoon-based solution provider that just celebrated 35 years in business and took home Dell’s Data Centre Solutions Excellence Award for Canada last year. Earl also sits inside Dell’s CTO Connect program, a small, invitation-only group of partner technologists who get an early look at where Dell’s roadmap is actually heading – and, importantly, a real opportunity to push back on it. Earl’s a storage specialist at his core, and that turned out to be a useful lens at a conference that was fundamentally about AI infrastructure. Because if you pull on that AI thread long enough, it leads you back to data, and data always leads you back to storage. We talked about what the Exascale and Rackscale announcements mean for real customer deployments, why the cyber resilience conversation is as much about recovery speed as backup integrity, and a genuinely interesting thread about why Saskatchewan and the broader Canadian Prairies may be sitting on one of the most underappreciated data centre opportunities in North America right now. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Earl Gosick. Earl, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Earl Gosick: I appreciate you having me here. It’s always nice to talk about what we’re doing with Dell. Robert Dutt: No doubt, and you guys are doing a lot. I understand this is by no means your first DTW rodeo. Earl Gosick: No, I’ve been coming since the EMC World days, and I’ve never – I missed a year through COVID, that was about it. Robert Dutt: Well, I guess we’ll allow you that. So you’ve got this background here, you do the CTO Connect with Dell. What’s different about this year, if anything? What’s the tone or the energy that tells you something about where the industry is at right now, and not necessarily just where Dell would like it to be going? Earl Gosick: I think the driving factor of today is really the supply constraints. You can see what AI is doing and the effect that’s having across the board on every product that has memory or CPU or flash drives in it – which is everything in technology. So that’s really setting the tone. But it also shows how effective AI is as a market driver, and what people think is going to come out of that technology – which is, I think, very important for people to understand. It’s ubiquitous technology that’s going to drive a lot of change in our industry. And we’re seeing a leading edge of that. And if this is the leading edge, there’s some pretty exciting things coming, I suspect, and it’s going to do some pretty important and probably quite wonderful things for our clients. Robert Dutt: We heard from the main stage the idea of encouraging customers to get their hand up early – to get those orders, or even an inkling of where things are going for orders, in as early as possible – and that that will, in effect, Jeff Clarke was suggesting, get folks the best possible results. What’s the guidance you guys are providing your customers around that whole issue, and thinking about availability and pricing of hardware in this current super-fun environment? Earl Gosick: Our position does align with what we’re hearing from Dell when we’re dealing with Dell Technologies, so we try and pass on the messages as transparently as we can, understanding there are supply constraints coming. And we have to deal with those in the only way we have, and that is to figure out what we need. Let’s plan early. Let’s plan the budgets we have for the year, and we can make some estimates about what’s going to be happening six months from now – but they’re estimates, and they’re going to be higher. So it’s probably going to be cheaper for you to have technology that’s sitting on the floor unused for a few months and waste through some support potentially, as opposed to delaying the purchase for three months. So if we know what we’re going to buy, we should operate in a manner that allows us to order those technologies as soon as possible and make sure you’re not waiting for something that delays your business initiatives. Robert Dutt: You guys won the Data Centre Solutions Excellence Award last year for Canada. Take your victory lap. Tell me – what is it you guys are doing in the data centre space that earned that, and what does winning the award tell you about where your practice is focused? Earl Gosick: I hope it helps demonstrate our success. So what ESTI likes to do as a business – our business model is really to build highly competent experts all the way from solution architecture to implementation of those technologies at the customer site. That takes a lot of effort on our behalf, and so it’s nice to get a reward that says we’re doing the right things. Because if you can build a strong rapport with a client who trusts your experts in their field, that creates long-term relationships – which is what both ESTI and Dell are after, and what our clients want. Robert Dutt: You’re a storage specialist at a conference that has been at its core all about AI infrastructure. But at the same time, you go back to when it was – you said – EMC World, all about storage. The more I heard this week, the more it feels like the AI story is really a data story, and data stories are storage stories to at least some degree. How are you seeing that translate in terms of what your customers are actually asking about, or what they’re going to be asking you about? Earl Gosick: It’s significant. You’re right. In order for any type of artificial intelligence to derive a useful data product out the end, it’s built on the data that you have. So customers are coming to the realization that they have to store everything. So it is driving a lot of demand for storage. It’s driving storage in different ways and they just keep everything. Then there’s another product that comes after that, which is cleaning that data – building the data pipelines. When I talk about storage, it’s really about data, and AI is a data-driven product. So it’s doing great things for the storage industry. But the clients understand that they do have to have the data – it has to be there, it has to be available. And then when they build these data products, they have to protect those data products. They’ve got to make sure they’re secure. So it’s driving a lot of initiatives on both sides of the fence that are good for all of us. Robert Dutt: Especially with new or newer customers, or customers who are looking to expand what they’re doing with AI – and acknowledging there’s going to be a range from folks who have had the religion since day one and folks who’ve just been randomly shoving stuff digitally wherever they can. Where do you find those newer customers are at, generally speaking, in terms of sophistication of data management and data governance and all that kind of fun? Earl Gosick: Unfortunately, I’d like to say there’s a median in there. There is not. Everybody is at a different stage in that cycle for them. So you really have to be a little bit cognizant and ask the questions to find out where they’re at before you can really sort of hold their hands and walk them down the road. Many people who started that journey early – you can learn from them. And so they’re going to tell us to start and do something, and you may fail, there may be some things, but you’re going to learn something from that. The second time will be more successful. Then you take that information, you pass it on to the newer people who are trying to get quick value from those investments they’re making on the AI front. So it could be things about how to connect those various data sources because they’re spread everywhere, to how do they build, or select which ones they put their money and their efforts behind. And so you take from the ones that have been doing this for a while, you pass that information on to the ones that are starting on this journey, and you connect the dots. You provide value and make pain go away wherever you can. And customers appreciate that. Robert Dutt: And that sounds like that’s where you’re kind of bridging that gap that exists and trying to bring customers to the level they need to be at to get something out of this. Earl Gosick: Absolutely. Like I said, everybody’s on a journey at a different stage of that journey. And so you have to communicate well to understand where they’re at and what they’re trying to achieve. Once you know that – we don’t always have the answers, but we leverage great partners like Dell who do have somebody that knows the answer. And so building this sort of ecosystem of potential partners to bridge that gap is great. And Dell does that not just from us and the partner community, but their partner community as well, to support all the component pieces that go together to build these pretty highly complex solutions in some cases. Robert Dutt: Of all the announcements, all the stuff that we heard on the main stage and elsewhere this week, what kind of caught your attention – your major aha moment – the thing that’s going to be interesting going back to your business or going back to your customers with new opportunities or the ability to do something better, faster, more? Earl Gosick: So as we talked about, I am a storage guy. So I look at something like Exascale. They’ve been talking about this for a couple of years now in the CTO cycles that I’ve been to. To see that product sort of come to fruition, where you have something and you can just put a personality on that module and build something out – I think that could be very game-changing, especially for AI. They might want to do a lot of things with file storage today, object storage tomorrow. Being able to build up a cluster and put a personality on it that meets the needs of the day – I think that could be quite interesting. That Rackscale solution you saw on the stage with Michael Dell and Jensen the other day – for the larger clients, something like that could be quite interesting. I mean, we’re building these large data centers right now and trying to fill them. Rackscale infrastructure that helps with power and energy and doing a lot of powerful things is going to probably be a game changer for a lot of people. Robert Dutt: One of the things that struck me here is what I want to call the AI agnosticism, as long as you’re doing it on Dell infrastructure – that Dell is talking about here, ranging from, if you’ve got really basic needs, run it locally on your AI PC, moving up a bit there’s the GB10, which is more of a deskside machine, up to the big old box that Jensen signed on stage. How does that map with what you see in terms of customer needs for AI, and what do you think of that kind of approach to structuring both the data center and broader AI processing across the enterprise? Earl Gosick: I think as we touched on earlier, everybody’s on a different stage in that journey. So if you’ve got a guy that’s working at his desk and he’s trying to do some cool things, but he doesn’t have access to a million tokens – that little GB10 you put on the desk beside him and he’s going to do some development, he’s going to learn some wonderful things. Then as you move up the stack in your journey, you’ve got some big clients who are going to do small proof-of-concept type scenarios where they might want a smaller box and then move up that stack. I think it’s important to have a product that covers a diverse range of those people because nobody’s in that one sweet spot – they’re all over the map. Having that full technology set supports wherever they happen to be in their life cycle. Robert Dutt: You touch on tokens, and Jeff Clarke’s presentation was really deep into tokenomics and the kind of the trap there. I’m curious how that maps with what you’ve seen in customers as they’ve started to explore AI. Are they seeing these same challenges, and how are they thinking about it? Earl Gosick: Tokens are the buzzword of the day, but they’re out there for a reason. Everybody has finite resources to put towards the solution they’re trying to build. They may or may not know what that solution is – they’re working towards something, they need tokens to achieve that. What I find interesting is the people who are very early into the game of AI and building solutions around that – it doesn’t take them long before they’re like, “I’m out of tokens. I need to do some stuff.” So it just comes back to the fact that there are only so many resources to solve the needs you have, and you only have so many tokens, and you’ve got to learn to live within what you can get your hands on. And that’s driving the economy, whether it’s at a data center level or at an internal level for any business. Robert Dutt: And does that in turn drive – which I believe is Dell’s thesis here – does that in turn drive the interest in building out infrastructure in-house, so that the relative incremental cost of those additional tokens goes way down because it’s bought and built versus rented? Earl Gosick: Yeah. I think there’s a step along that AI journey where people have potentially outgrown what they can do in the cloud in an economic fashion. We see the supply constraints are driven by CPU and memory usage. If you look at what the cloud hyperscalers offer, when you get into highly intensive memory and CPU, it starts to get very expensive. A lot of storage, a lot of bits and bytes moving back and forth – very expensive. All those things are prevalent in AI. You’re moving a lot of data back and forth, you’re touching a lot of things, you need a lot of memory at times. So once you get to a point where you’re doing useful things with your AI and building generative models, no matter what you do with inferencing, it starts to get really expensive. Then it becomes a time where you can move those things into a data center you control. You can get some economics from it and you can get some sovereignty out of it. A hyperscaler outside of your control can turn things off – they can’t do that when it’s your data center. So you’ve got a lot of control as well as the economics behind how you’re achieving the outcomes you’re looking to achieve. Robert Dutt: I used a word which is actually where I wanted to go next, which is sovereignty. When we’re talking about data center infrastructure and moving bits around and enterprise storage, how is data sovereignty trending among your customers, especially folks who have regulatory concerns and that sort of thing? Earl Gosick: Being a Canadian company, predominantly, we have a larger focus on sovereignty and data sovereignty and sovereign solutions than maybe you’ll see south of the border here. And we find our friends in the European Union are a little bit different – they’re ahead of us even. But it’s a really big concern, especially when you have any type of government agency that you’re dealing with, or anybody that really has intellectual property that they’re looking to protect. They’ve learned that open AI models may expose things – even if it’s just from how they’re creating their algorithms. But if the data gets out there, it’s a concern. They’re protecting their assets as well. These AIs are delivering very useful outcomes for them. They need to make sure they own those outcomes and that they can actually reach them when they need them. So part of data sovereignty is not just the sovereign part of your data, but it’s the actual access to your data. We’re learning things from not just the AI piece but from ransomware – all of a sudden your data goes away. The same thing could happen with a hyperscaler for some people. Sovereign IT solutions are going to be, I think, increasingly important moving forward. Robert Dutt: On that note, you mentioned ransomware, and data resilience and protection is another area I wanted to touch on. We heard the figure that 97% of cyber attacks are now specifically targeting backup infrastructure – because of the old line about, I forget the particular bank robber’s name, but why do you rob the banks? Because that’s where the money is. Why do you go after the backup? Because that’s where all the data is. Does that match with what you’re seeing, and if so, how does that change how you’re designing and recommending data protection for your customers? Earl Gosick: It is absolutely changing people’s realization of how they need to protect their data. This one doesn’t matter if it’s AI or your regular business practices – your data has value, whether it’s to support applications that are running your critical business or you’re building AI products that you need to protect. That has value and you need to access it. What we’re seeing more and more – and we’ve built a really strong practice around this – is building things like cyber vaults and using Dell’s technology partners like Index Engines, where they come in and they can quickly identify threats inside your environment and act on those. Because these guys loiter around for potentially months at a time. They know how to get to your backups. They know they’re not getting paid if you can recover. So they’re going to do everything they can to try and disrupt that. They have AI engines just like ours, but they have a lot of money and they don’t have the constraints about how they use their AI. I mean, these people are criminals, so they act in a method that makes them money. We’re going to be facing even more potential threats in the future, and some of those are going to be AI-driven. We’re going to have to react at AI speeds. There are changes coming, but certainly people are learning to build protection mechanisms that are air-gapped and can respond very quickly to threats. Robert Dutt: When you’re sitting in front of a client who thinks they’re covered – they’ve got a backup solution, they’ve got someone who’s responsible for it – what are the most common gaps that you find between what they think they have and what they actually have? Earl Gosick: I think for many clients, they don’t really understand how disruptive it’s going to be if they run into a ransomware attack. If you’re a client that may have ransomware insurance, for example, and they get hit – you have to tell them, “Do you understand you’re not going to be able to touch any of that infrastructure? Because your insurance company is going to want to do some analysis on that to see how the threat came in.” That infrastructure is dead and gone. You’re starting from scratch. You need a golden image – you need something you know nobody has touched. Protecting the data is only the first piece. Rebuilding from that data, and how fast you can do that – that’s the very critical component. That’s where an air-gapped cyber recovery solution like Dell Cyber Recovery is critical, because you can understand what data to recover and you can recover quickly. Having the data there – that’s the great first step and that’s where you should start. But following that, that is only the first step. Robert Dutt: Your client base is different from a lot of partners I talk to. Given where you sit and who you’re focused on – not necessarily organizations that are under the same kind of pressure or have the same kind of resources to pursue AI – how do you translate and filter what you hear at a conference like this, where a lot is focused towards big enterprise, to a message that makes sense for your customers and scales to their needs and appetites? Earl Gosick: That’s one I think isn’t really that difficult – it’s not as difficult as you would think. Because everybody has the same problems. They run into the same problems. How they build solutions to those problems might change on the scale, but you just have to understand and recognize that everybody’s having the same problems. You can articulate and communicate to them that you’re not the only one that has this. We can resolve this problem at a large scale, but we don’t have to. You came back to it earlier when we talked about the product sets, from small to large – you just pick the right one to meet the solution that these guys have. How you solve that problem of the day doesn’t necessarily change for a really, really large client versus a very, very small client. It’s really just the scale of the end solution and the architecture that’s put together to solve the need. Robert Dutt: From a Titanium partner’s seat, what did the program changes that we saw rolled out – the agentification of the program, some of the incentive shifts – tell you about where Dell sees growth opportunity, and how does it align with where you’re already going or where it might take you? Earl Gosick: I think you can see very easily that Dell is putting a large focus around AI and what it can do for them to streamline their business and be successful. We, like any other company we deal with, are doing the same thing. What they’re doing with their Dell One program, and having a single operation from lead generation down to quoting and pricing and follow-up – it matches what we’re doing on the back end and trying to automate that. Because as long as we can automate that process and reduce the friction in those programs and dealing with Dell, we can spend that time focusing on our clients’ needs. You see Dell, I think, leveraging the same technologies to do that. And if we’re smart business people today, we’re looking to the people around us who are being successful and trying to do what they’re doing in a sense. That’s true for us and our clients. Leveraging AI and seeing how that’s being successful for our partners is driving what we’re all doing – to drive automation and simplification through the processes that are just painful every day that we have to do better at, to support our clients. Robert Dutt: I’m guessing you guys are pretty far down this road already because you’re pretty much a pure-play Dell on the infrastructure side, as far as I understand. But when a company like Dell rolls out these incentives focused on expanding customer footprints – getting a Dell storage customer into Dell PCs or any of the other solution lines – just curious if that moves the needle for you in terms of the incentive, or is it already baked into what you’re doing? Earl Gosick: It’s baked into what we’re doing. In the end of the day, you are trying to build a rapport with a customer based on being a trusted expert. You’re not going to flip your technologies around based on what’s going to get somebody a little bit more money. You’ve got to do the right thing for the customer today and every time you deal with them. The advantage of dealing with Dell is they typically tie their incentives to the product that they are investing in today – that they see the future growing into. So they usually coincide. They understand the pain points of the year, and the incentives usually match the requirements of the day as well. So they’re really good at that. And then they usually have a lot of tools to support that initiative of IT transformation, whatever it is for that time and place in our industry. Robert Dutt: You mentioned earlier you’re on the CTO Connect program – pretty small room, an exclusive group. Tell me about what that relationship looks like on the inside of the room, and the value that an organization like ESTI gets from sitting in there. Earl Gosick: I guess I’ll put it this way. We deal with some technology providers – predominantly Dell. Dell puts us in a room, they tell us what they’re doing for the next year or two, and they ask us if they’re on the right track. That’s telling to me – they care and they listen. They talk about the technologies that we’re going to see upcoming, so it’s helpful for us to talk to our clients about where the industry is headed. But they do sometimes say, “We’re going to do this,” and the room says, “Oh, no, you can’t do that. Our customers love this,” or, “We like this for this reason.” And they say, “Oh, okay.” And we have a dialogue about those things. So I think that’s one of the most important things that comes out of CTO Connect – we hear about industry trends, but they also ask us our opinion on whether they’re on the right track, and then they listen to that opinion. I think that’s telling for any company you deal with – one that engages not only with their clients, but with their technology partners. It’s one of the things I really like about CTO Connect. Robert Dutt: You guys just turned 35 or so, as I understand, as an organization. That’s a long time to be running a consultancy in any market – and markets move, vendors come and go. What’s the philosophy behind building something that durable in a market that changes so fast, and especially in an area of the country that doesn’t necessarily get as much headline attention from vendors as a Toronto or a Vancouver or a Montreal? Earl Gosick: I think it comes back to what I stated earlier around building strong and capable expertise across the board – and that’s building relationships with the clients, building relationships with partners like Dell to solve the solutions of the day. Our clients respect that because they know they can come back to us again and again and we’ll do the right thing together. So that’s really the crux of it. Our business model is a little different in that we support a little bit more of an entrepreneurial aspect to our business. When young, capable people come on board and they build differentiating products, they get a seat at the table – and that’s critical for ESTI and the way we operate. But it’s really about looking at modern technology solutions and being agile to support those ever-changing technologies. It makes our industry exciting. You’re never doing the same thing every day. And as long as you can recognize the fact that you won’t be doing the same thing tomorrow and you just have to find a way to deal with it – that’s how we thrive in our company, and in working with Dell as well. Robert Dutt: All right, so let’s close with asking you to do a little bit of the impossible, given that pace of change. What’s one thing that you’re thinking about today, but maybe not totally all-in on at this point, that you think is going to be shaping the business for ESTI and your customers when we’re sitting here at DTW 2027? Earl Gosick: Well, that’s a really hard question. On the investment side, we do look at some of the technologies today – and as we talked about, AI is big for us. We need to build services that our clients don’t have. So we spend a lot of focus on where they have skills and where they don’t. We’re going to build a lot of expertise around cleaning data, building data pipelines and that kind of stuff, to focus on the needs our clients are asking us to help them solve. So that’s kind of an easy one because everybody sees that going forward. Beyond that – we’re making a strong effort in Saskatchewan and Alberta to build a sort of data center economy to support a lot of these data centers that need to be built. We already have access to power infrastructure to support those things. That’s going to drive a little bit of a change in our operating model just to support our local governments as they try and take advantage of the differentiators we have. That’ll drive some change for ESTI. And then as we expand across the rest of Canada, different geographies have different requirements as well. So lots of change, lots of new people coming on board all the time – interesting but dynamic. Robert Dutt: That will be an interesting thread to pull on. I remember going to an event – God, it must have been 15 years ago now – talking about how Canada really should be a data center powerhouse. When you consider we have power, clean power in relative abundance, we have cold, which turns out to be important – it sounds like maybe there’s an opportunity to realize some of that with what you guys are doing and what governments are starting to look at more seriously. Earl Gosick: They are. Also, right outside my hometown, they just announced a very large data center which is going to house some infrastructure from CoreWeave – and we’re going to see more of that, I think, because that process went very well. I sat in on a conference a couple of weeks ago where it was government and industry getting together to talk about why they were successful, what they bring to the table. Saskatchewan is unique because they have regulated power, energy, and land. They can guarantee, “We will give you power, we can guarantee you’ll get LNG.” Those types of things are very important for anybody trying to build a data center – it’s the critical piece. And with the government having control over all of those, they can guarantee them. That’s where I think Saskatchewan is going to have a real differentiator to support that technology, and the government is well aware of that fact now. They’re going to want to do more of these things. And then our neighbors in both Alberta and Manitoba are sort of on board as well. Certainly Alberta has done a few key data centers to support AI and those are going to continue to happen. We’re sometimes slow to move because it’s government. But once they realize the differentiators they have and what it can do for the market, I think there’ll be some traction there. Robert Dutt: Should be interesting times, and sitting where you’re sitting sounds like a big opportunity. Earl Gosick: Absolutely. I think it’s a big opportunity for all of us – supporting your community around you as well as building a thriving business. Robert Dutt: Earl, I appreciate you taking the time once again. I hope this has been a good DTW for you. Earl Gosick: It’s been a great discussion and a good DTW, so thanks a lot for having me. Robert Dutt: There you have it – Earl Gosick from ESTI Consulting Services. I’d like to thank Earl for his time last week in Las Vegas. Thirty-five years building deep technical expertise from Saskatoon, in a vendor relationship game that tends to reward proximity to the bigger centres – that’s not an accident, and it came through in the conversation. A few things I’ll take away from this one. First, the AI-is-a-storage-story framing. Every AI product ultimately requires data to be collected, governed, moved, and protected. That’s not news to Earl, but it’s a useful reframe for anyone still trying to connect their existing practice to the AI conversation. The hardware gets the headlines. The data work actually gets the contracts. Second, on cyber resilience – the ransomware insurance point Earl raised is worth sitting with. The moment a client files a claim, that infrastructure gets frozen while the insurance company figures out how the breach happened. Your ability to recover doesn’t just depend on whether the backup is intact – it depends on whether you built a clean, air-gapped golden image that nobody has touched. That’s the conversation. And if you’re not having it with your clients, maybe someone else is. And third, keep an eye on Saskatchewan. Regulated power, guaranteed energy supply, and a provincial government that has now seen a CoreWeave-scale data center get successfully built in the province and wants more of them. Earl thinks that’s just the start of something, and I’m inclined to agree. If you’re enjoying the show, please follow or subscribe wherever you listen. We’re on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and most of the usual podcast directories. And if you have a moment to leave a rating or a review, that really does help folks in the channel find the show. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

Reajustan la lista de los más ricos del mundo. El auge de la inteligencia artificial provoca movimientos en el índice de millonarios de Forbes a inicios de junio. Mientras Elon Musk se consolida en el primer puesto con una fortuna estimada en 835.000 millones de dólares, Larry Ellison (Oracle) y Michael Dell desplazaron a Mark Zuckerberg tras registrar subidas patrimoniales históricas gracias a sus infraestructuras de IA.

May was a good month to be a billionaire, as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq climbed by 5% and 8%, respectively, boosting the fortunes of the world's ten richest people to $2.9 trillion combined as of June 1 at 12 a.m. Eastern time. As a group, they're $220 billion richer than they were a month ago. No one had a better May than Larry Ellison, who is back in the top five after adding a staggering $71 billion to his fortune (which is now an estimated $276 billion). For that, Ellison can thank red-hot demand for AI. The software giant he cofounded and runs as chairman and chief technology officer is building multiple gigawatt-scale data centers across the U.S. and, on May 1, announced an agreement with the U.S. Department of War to deploy its AI tools on classified networks for government warfighting, intelligence and enterprise operations. Oracle stock, of which Ellison owns around 40%, climbed 40% in May. Hot on Ellison's heels is Michael Dell, the month's second-biggest gainer after adding $67 billion as the AI boom continues to lift his Dell Technologies, too. The tech giant reported banner earnings on May 28, smashing expectations and disclosing a 757% year-over-year surge in annual AI server revenue—helping drive the stock up 33%, its best trading day ever. In all, Dell stock jumped more than 100% in May. Both Ellison and Dell edge past Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, who drops to No. 7—despite getting $7 billion richer, as shares of the Facebook parent company climbed just 3%, underperforming the broader market and Zuck's billionaire competitors amid huge AI capital expenditures and employee layoffs at Meta. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman cover Daniel's acquisition of Enterprise Technology Research, IBM's historic $15 billion single-day commitment spanning quantum and open-source security, Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8, and the heaviest single earnings night of the season featuring Dell, Marvell, Salesforce, Synopsys, Snowflake, HP, and Micron crossing $1 trillion in market cap. The handpicked topics for this week are: Anthropic Releases Claude Opus 4.8: Six Weeks After 4.7 Anthropic dropped Opus 4.8 just six weeks after 4.7, claiming it surpasses GPT-5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro on agentic coding, knowledge work, and computer use. Benchmark improvements across the board: agentic coding up from 64.3% to 69.2%, knowledge work from 1753 to 1890, agentic computer use from 82.8% to 83.4%. Three new features ship alongside it: Dynamic Workflows for multi-subagent orchestration inside Claude Code, Effort Control for managing token spend, and mid-task system messages via the API. Fast mode is now 2.5x faster and 3x cheaper. Pat's honest take: what it says on paper is good, particularly on tool triggering and citation precision, but he has lost significant trust in the company and is watching closely. (The Decode)   IBM Commits $10 Billion to Quantum: The Largest Single Quantum Bet in History IBM announced a $10 billion commitment over five years targeting a large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029, landing the same day as the $5 billion Project Lightwell announcement for a single-day IBM strategic commitment of $15 billion. Pat has been calling 2029 to 2031 as the realistic commercial quantum window and calls this the strongest single corporate financial signal yet that the timeline is real. Daniel's framing: IBM wants to be the NVIDIA of quantum, and with a $10 billion commitment, it's sending a flare to the entire industry that pure-play quantum companies cannot compete at this balance sheet level. (The Decode)   IBM and Red Hat Launch Project Lightwell: $5B to Secure Open-Source Software IBM and Red Hat committed $5 billion and a global force of 20,000 engineers to secure open-source software for enterprises through frontier agentic AI, anchored by 11 of the largest US and Canadian banks including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Mastercard, and Visa. Pat's read: this is the productization answer to Anthropic Mythos. Mythos found the vulnerabilities. Lightwell is the industrial-scale patching and validation layer enterprises can actually buy on a subscription. Daniel adds that IBM is flexing its engineering talent base as a premium strategic asset, a direct counter to the narrative that AI replaces engineers. (The Decode)   Anthropic Project Glasswing: 23,000 Vulnerabilities Found Across 1,000 OSS Projects Anthropic's Claude Mythos scanned more than 1,000 widely deployed open-source projects and surfaced approximately 23,000 candidate vulnerabilities, with 1,094 confirmed as critical severity. The Cyber Verification Program now gates the strongest cyber-capable Claude variant behind vetted defenders only. While the tool creates real value, the surface of attack will likely grow as fast as any tool built to defend it. (The Decode)   Anthropic in Talks to Run Claude on Microsoft Maia 200 CNBC and The Information reported Microsoft is in active negotiations to supply Anthropic with its custom Maia 200 inference chip, which would make Anthropic the only frontier lab simultaneously running production workloads on four distinct silicon stacks: NVIDIA, AWS Trainium, Google TPU, and Microsoft Maia. Pat's context: Maia 200 delivers 30% better tokens per dollar than the latest Azure fleet per Satya Nadella, and this deal would be Maia's first major external deployment. Daniel's read: what can be built will be sold right now, and Anthropic chasing every available compute source is simply the structural reality of growing at 80x when you planned for 10x. (The Decode)   The Flip: Is AI CapEx Too Expensive to Earn Its Return? Pat takes the affirmative. With $725 billion in hyperscaler CapEx tracking for 2026, likely $1 trillion next year, memory has become the choke point making it even more expensive, and open-source models have closed enough of the quality gap for most enterprise tasks that the premium of frontier APIs is increasingly hard to justify. A recent Signal65 white paper shows on-prem payback at 18 months. Daniel's counter: Dell just booked $24 billion in AI orders in a single quarter. Agentforce crossed $1 billion ARR at 169% growth. NVIDIA guided to $91 billion. Only 20% of enterprises are using AI and only 2% of consumers. Both hosts admitted off the flip their notes looked nearly identical. (The Flip)   Micron Crosses $1 Trillion Market Cap Micron became the 12th US company ever to cross $1 trillion in market cap, surging 19% on May 26th as UBS raised its price target to $1,625, implying a $1.8 trillion market cap. Samsung's Q1 memory ASP jumped 146% year over year. DRAM spot prices spiked 55 to 60% quarter over quarter. Daniel has been pounding this call since sub-$100 and calls it a cycle elongated beyond anything seen in the 27 prior memory cycles, driven by HBM capacity reallocation away from consumer DRAM creating structural shortage. (Bulls and Bears)   Dell Technologies Q1 FY27: The Biggest Enterprise AI Infrastructure Print of 2026 Record $43.8 billion revenue, up 88% year over year, crushing the $35.7 billion consensus by $8 billion. AI-optimized servers at $16.1 billion, up 757% year over year. $24.4 billion in AI orders booked in a single quarter. FY27 AI server revenue guide raised from $50 billion to $60 billion. Non-GAAP EPS of $4.86 beat the $2.96 consensus by 64%. Stock up 18% after hours. Pat's framing: Dell was very clear about what they were going to do. Rack engineering, sales, and service. The basics. And they executed the basics at an extraordinary level while building a special relationship with NVIDIA who views Dell as a market maker for both enterprise and NeoCloud. Daniel's add: play nice and win. Michael Dell navigated the political landscape brilliantly and pulled the entire Dell brand along with him. (Bulls and Bears)   Marvell Technology Q1 FY27: Record Revenue, Data Center at 76% of Mix Record $2.418 billion revenue, up 28% year over year. Data center at $1.833 billion, up 27% year over year, now 76% of total revenue. Q2 guide of $2.7 billion at midpoint accelerates growth to 35% year over year. Operating cash flow a record $638.8 million. Daniel went on TV and said it's "written in the stars," arguing the market had misunderstood this one for too long by conflating its custom AI ASIC story with the full breadth of its connectivity and networking portfolio. Pat's closing: the shorts are eating it now and the custom AI ASIC versus merchant GPU debate is finally settling into the right answer, which is both in lockstep. (Bulls and Bears)   Salesforce Q1 FY27: Agentforce Crosses $1 Billion ARR Revenue $11.13 billion, up 13% year over year. Non-GAAP EPS of $3.88 crushed the $3.12 consensus by 24%. Agentforce ARR crossed $1 billion, up 169% year over year, with 28.6 trillion tokens processed, up 152% quarter over quarter. 50% of Agentforce bookings came from existing customers expanding. Daniel flagged the $25 billion accelerated buyback funded by new debt as an interesting signal worth watching. Pat's bottom line: it's not perfect, but certainly no "SaaSpocalypse" in those numbers. (Bulls and Bears)   Synopsys Q2 FY26: First Full Quarter With Ansys Integrated Revenue $2.276 billion, up 42% year over year, beating consensus. Non-GAAP EPS of $3.35 beat $3.15. FY26 guide raised to $9.665 billion midpoint. Daniel's framing: every chip runs through Synopsys tools, and the Ansys addition makes it the full-stack co-design platform Jensen Huang keeps talking about. Synopsys is not just the pick and shovel of current AI silicon. It is the pick and shovel of quantum, robotics, and space as well. (Bulls and Bears)   Snowflake Q1 FY27: Strongest Sequential Dollar Growth in Company History Product revenue $1.33 billion, up 34% year over year, the strongest sequential dollar growth in Snowflake history. Net revenue retention 126%. FY27 product revenue guide raised to $5.84 billion. Natoma acquisition announced for secure agentic enterprise connectivity. New $6 billion multi-year AWS commitment. Daniel's closing: proprietary unique data is the real moat of the agentic era, and that data has to live somewhere. It is going to go to platforms like Snowflake. (Bulls and Bears)   HP Inc. Q2 FY26: Eight Straight Quarters of Growth With AI PCs at 44% of Shipments Revenue $14.4 billion, up 9% year over year, the company marks its eighth consecutive quarter of top-line growth. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.86 beat the prior guide. Personal Systems at $10.2 billion, up 13%, with 30% operating profit growth. AI PCs jumped from 35% to 44% of shipments quarter over quarter, with HP guiding to 60 to 70% next fiscal year. FY26 EPS guide raised. Pat's note: they still need a permanent CEO, which would help investors sleep better at night. Daniel's add: the real explosive moment for device companies comes when AI moves to the edge and enterprises shift from expensive frontier model consumption to on-device inference. (Bulls and Bears)   Everpure Q1 FY27: Record Revenue, Rebrand Complete Record revenue of $1.1 billion, up 35% year over year. Product revenue $577 million, up 55%. Subscription ARR at $2 billion. FY27 guide raised to $4.41 to $4.51 billion. Pure Storage officially completed its rebrand to Everpure. Daniel's emerging thesis: the agentic era has focused enormous attention on memory and compute, but after the inference runs, the data has to sit somewhere. Storage has not seen its full inflection yet and Everpure is well positioned when that wave arrives. (Bulls and Bears)   The Decode Anthropic Releases Claude Opus 4.8 May 28  https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/28/anthropic-releases-opus-4-8-with-new-dynamic-workflow-tool/ IBM Commits $10B Over Five Years to Quantum Computing the Same Day as $5B Project Lightwell, Bringing IBM's One-Day AI https://www.barrons.com/articles/ibm-stock-quantum-computing-aafbb1eb IBM + Red Hat Announce Project Lightwell  https://newsroom.ibm.com/2026-05-28-ibm-and-red-hat-commit-5-billion-to-redefine-the-future-of-open-source-in-the-ai-era Anthropic Project Glasswing / Claude Mythos Finds 23,000 Potential Vulnerabilities Across 1,000+ Open-Source Projects https://www.securityweek.com/anthropic-mythos-detected-23000-potential-vulnerabilities-across-1000-oss-projects/ Anthropic Negotiating to Run Claude on Microsoft's Maia 200 AI Chips  https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/21/anthropic-microsoft-maia-200-ai-chip.html OpenAI + Anthropic Walk Back the AI Jobs Apocalypse Ahead of IPOs https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/ai-chiefs-walk-back-job-193605798.html https://x.com/RiskCentre/status/2059397756016611668 The Flip Is AI Capex Becoming Too Expensive to Earn Its Return — and Will the Result Be a Forced Shift to Open-Source and Smaller Use-Case-Specific Models, or a Continued $725B+ Hyperscaler Buildout That Vindicates the Capex on Productivity Gains? FOR:  The shift is to open-source + smaller use-case-specific models with better token economics, not away from AI https://x.com/danielnewmanUV/status/2059822712122400975 DeepSeek 75% permanent price cut + Anthropic Claude Code restriction reversal https://www.buildfastwithai.com/blogs/ai-news-today-may-26-2026 $190B Microsoft capex + $725B+ aggregate hyperscaler capex with no analog ROI yet  https://www.buildfastwithai.com/blogs/ai-news-today-may-26-2026   AGAINST:  Salesforce Agentforce ARR crossed $1B this quarter on 28.6T tokens processed  https://www.stocktitan.net/sec-filings/CRM/8-k-salesforce-inc-reports-material-event-3b8ead2852bb.html Lenovo +105% AI revenue, +84% Q4; Dell $43B AI backlog: the AI infrastructure flywheel is converting capex to revenue today https://investor.marvell.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1023/marvell-technology-inc-reports-first-quarter-of-fiscal-year-2027-financial-results NVIDIA $91B Q2 guide + $1T Blackwell+Vera Rubin CY25-CY27 reaffirmed  https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/20/were-raising-our-price-target-on-nvidia-after-another-knockout-quarter-and-guide-.html DeepSeek + Chinese price war is a Chinese export-controls story, not a US economic ceiling story https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/21/anthropic-microsoft-maia-200-ai-chip.html   Bulls & Bears Micron (NASDAQ: MU) Crosses $1 TRILLION Market Cap for the First Time https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/26/micron-stock-trillion-market-cap.html Dell Technologies Q1 FY27 ACTUALS  https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/28/dell-q1-earnings-report-2027.html Marvell Technology Q1 FY27 ACTUALS https://investor.marvell.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1023/marvell-technology-inc-reports-first-quarter-of-fiscal-year-2027-financial-results Salesforce CRM Q1 FY27 ACTUALS  https://investor.salesforce.com/financials/quarterly-results/ Synopsys SNPS Q2 FY26 ACTUALS https://investor.synopsys.com/events-and-presentations/events/event-details/2026/Q2-Fiscal-Year-2026-Earnings/default.aspx Snowflake SNOW Q1 FY27 ACTUALS  https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260527027931/en/Snowflake-Reports-Financial-Results-for-the-First-Quarter-of-Fiscal-2027 HP Inc. HPQ Q2 FY26 ACTUALS https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/hp-q2-earnings-call-highlights-230459161.html Everpure (NYSE: P, formerly Pure Storage) Q1 FY27 ACTUALS  https://investor.salesforce.com/financials/quarterly-results/ Synopsys SNPS Q2 FY26 ACTUALS https://investor.synopsys.com/events-and-presentations/events/event-details/2026/Q2-Fiscal-Year-2026-Earnings/default.aspx Snowflake SNOW Q1 FY27 ACTUALS  https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260527027931/en/Snowflake-Reports-Financial-Results-for-the-First-Quarter-of-Fiscal-2027 HP Inc. HPQ Q2 FY26 ACTUALS  https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/hp-q2-earnings-call-highlights-230459161.html Everpure (NYSE: P, formerly Pure Storage) Q1 FY27 ACTUALS https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/everpure-announces-first-quarter-fiscal-2027-financial-results-302783502.html

Story of the Week (DR):BP ousts chair over ‘serious' governance, oversight concerns MMThe board said the decision was unanimous. In a statement, Amanda Blanc, BP's senior independent director, described the board as having been caught off guard by what it found: "The board has been surprised and disappointed to learn of governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable and has taken decisive action."The oil giant's board removed Albert Manifold from his roles as chair and director this week, effective immediately. He faced a contingent of investor opposition at BP's recent annual meeting.Internal leaks and a whistleblower report point to a pattern of "aggressive," "verbally abusive," and "bullying" behavior toward multiple colleagues, alongside accusations of withholding info from the board and leaking privileged data.Ousted BP Chair Hits Back at ‘Lies' About His ConductThe boardroom turmoil at BP deepened after its ousted chair, Albert Manifold, claimed allegations about his conduct were “lies”.In a new and lengthy statement, Manifold disputed reports about his conduct, saying: “At no point in my tenure as chairman of BP has anyone raised with me any issue about my conduct or my relationship with my colleagues.”He also described media reports that he wanted to exert control of the FTSE 100 company like an executive chair as “nonsense”. Manifold said he had “many other commitments” and had only spent 13 days in BP's London office so far this year.“What I do not accept is that lies can be told about me, nor that anyone should be allowed to hide behind anonymity when commenting on my time at BP.”Manifold conceded he may have “pushed hard and challenged people directly” amid his “determination to drive change on costs, performance, the balance sheet and shareholder communications”.However, he disputed reports from the company about his behaviour, adding: “There is a considerable distance between driving an organisation with urgency and the characterisation of my conduct that is now being put about.”He said such “accusations” had not been previously made about his behaviour during his 40-year career. He added that he “called out … unnecessary or excessive expenditure” but felt not everyone shared his priorities.Manifold said he turned down many of the benefits traditionally enjoyed by top executives, which he called a “culture of entitlement”, including chauffeur-driven cars, being flown by private jet or taking advantage of corporate hospitality: “I had no interest in having a dedicated chauffeur-driven limousine at my beck and call on the occasions that I was in London. I, like most people, walked, took taxis, trains, etc. I had no interest in taking private aviation nor in availing myself of corporate tickets for sports events. I made my own coffee, bought my lunch in the local cafe. I sat in a small office, eschewing the grand corner-office privilege of previous chairmen.”Ian Tyler has been named interim chair, BP said, with the board set to begin a formal process to identify a permanent successor: "The Board and leadership team have deep conviction in the strategic direction we have laid out, and the company is moving at pace to deliver it."This marks BP's fourth abrupt top-tier departure in three years, following the rapid exits of previous chair Helge Lund and chief executives Bernard Looney and Murray Auchincloss.BoardIan Tyler Interim Chair 2025Meg O'Neill CEO 2026Kate Thomson CFO 2024 (Interim in 2023)Dame Amanda Blanc Senior Independent Director 2022Dave Hager 2025Tushar Morzaria 2020Hina Nagarajan 2023Satish Pai 2023Dr. Johannes Teyssen 2021Manifold took up the chairmanship just last October. At last month's annual general meeting, just 81.8% of shareholders backed his electionAmong the most consequential decisions of Manifold's short tenure: pushing out former CEO Murray Auchincloss and overseeing the selection of Meg O'Neill to succeed him — a hire that marked the first time BP had recruited an external CEO and the first time a woman had led one of the oil industry's largest players.Dell wins a $9.7 billion Pentagon software deal after donating to Trump accountsDell stock skyrockets 32%, heads for best day ever as AI server revenue soarsMichael Dell added $35.8 billion to his personal fortune in a single day.Michael Dell pledged $6.25 billion to Trump AccountsThis greatly helps with $100M Dell ($4M personally for Michael) had to pay in 2010 for its Intel Cookie jar Scandal: Dell was telling investors that its high profits were due to amazing management and great computer sales. In reality, a massive chunk of their profits came from secret exclusivity payments from Intel so that Intel could shut out their competitor AMD.SpaceX's Unconventional Corporate Arrangements Favor Elon MuskDanish pension fund rejects SpaceX IPO over valuation and governance concernsStandard Chartered CEO apologises for ‘lower-value human capital' remarksStandard Chartered CEO Bill Winters triggered a massive PR firestorm by describing the bank's plan to replace back-office staff with automation as replacing "lower-value human capital" with financial investmentStandard Chartered is cutting roughly 7,800 jobs—representing about 15% of its global back-office corporate support roles—over the next four years to make room for AIJPMorgan's Jamie Dimon downplayed the viral backlash against Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters—calling it an "inartful" slip-of-the-tongue from a friend.Tyson Foods hands CEO role to directorIncoming CEO Jeffrey K. Schomburger is Lead Independent Director (2016-)Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Ride-Share Drivers in Massachusetts Formally Unionize MM DRDR: Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner stands by ad accusing Red Sox private equity owners of ruining the teamDR: Supreme Court lets Vermont's Meta lawsuit proceed, opening door to 50-state legal waveThe Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a push to avoid a lawsuit alleging that Facebook and Instagram harmed young users, a decision that comes as social media companies increasingly face legal scrutiny.Meta had argued that it can't be sued in Vermont court because neither the company nor the app design has specific ties to the state. Vermont countered that the sites' large number of teen users gives its courts jurisdiction.DR: New Hampshire data center developer withdraws plans hours before opponents were to pack town meetingMM: The world's largest data center was supposed to run on 100% natural gas. Utah's Republican governor says ‘never.'Must include solar, geothermalMM: Labor union participation is on the rise even as U.S. companies spend $1.7 billion annually to halt union formation MM DRAssholiest of the Week (MM):Index funds should just quit pretending DRExxon wins shareholder backing for legal move to Texas71.3% supportWe know ~22% of that is BlackRock, Vanguard, and State StreetWe can GUESS that ~13% of that is retailEstimated 40% of shares are retail28% voted prior to retail vote capture plan by ExxonIf we GUESS that maybe only 10% of retail voters adopted vote plan when they sent it out at the end of 2025, and if we GUESS that half of them were non voters, we can figure that maybe 33% of retail voted this go around - giving management ~13% of the vote before the vote startedWhich means individuals with no idea and index funds voted 35% in favor - and the rest of investors voted 36% in favorYOUR INDEX FUNDS HATE YOUR VOTING RIGHTSThrow in that the SHP to add more options to retail voting plan - which included an option to default vote AGAINST management - only got 23.5% support, and we know that BLK/Vanguard/SS voted against it and retail voted with management, the real vote in favor: 36% - EXACTLY THE NUMBER OF REAL INVESTORS THAT VOTED AGAINST REDOMESTICATIONThis is unlikely a coincidence - ACTUAL INVESTORS with ACTUAL KNOWLEDGE like rights, but index funds and uneducated retail could fucking care lessSafe Harbor Financial Expands Board of Directors with Appointment of Tyler Klimas and Sean TonnerTwo dudes added to an all dude board overseeing weed banking at a non dual class company… because women don't do banks or weed I guess? Investors, what say you?Last year, they said “we don't care” - 97% in favorMeanwhile, in the UK…Investors tell BP to fix shareholder rights and governance after chair removalTech bros should quit pretendingMeta commits additional funding to Oversight Board through 2028$13m - Zuck owns a $300m yacht and spent $13m for a bunch of well meaning reporters, academics, and human rights experts to help him decide what to do about horrible human behavior on his platformsWhen they decide, he listens… 42% of the timeHere's one they listen to: from September 2025, decided in April 2026 (inside a year!), and Instagram post listed the reasons dating someone in a wheelchair is great, and a comment said it was also good because they can't run away. Meta left the comment up, but the board found it in the appeals and said it should come down - and Meta took it down under its bullying policyMeanwhile, for AI driven fake content for war and conflict, Meta is considering it… OpenAI Foundation is committing $250 million to help workers navigate AI disruptionOh, thank god, we're savedMarc Andreessen Sputters Incomprehensibly at Question About How AI Will Actually Benefit Humankind"I mean, look, so it, it is, alright — I mean, alright I'm gonna give you the deepest of all pitches, I'm gonna give you the, the — okay."Just stop pretending it's for “humankind” and not for YOU TO MAKE TRILLIONSThe NY Post and “baby naming expert”New York's most popular baby names trend towards 'traditional' as reaction to woke Mayor Mamdani: expertLiterally everything in this headline is incorrect - and so is this quote from “baby naming expert” Taylor A. Humphrey: ““Mayor Mamdani is so divergent from tradition and I do wonder if that played some part in Gen Z parents moving back towards more traditional heritage,” adding that Mamdani was campaigning, and in the spotlight for much of 2025.”The data is very inconvenient for this narrative - 77 of the 100 names are exactly the same from 2023, and here are the different “new traditional” names according to Taylor:Archer, Arthur, August, Beau, Bennett, Brooks, George, Lincoln, Parker, and Rowan replacing names like…Abraham, Austin, Eli, Hunter, Ian, Jonathan, Jordan, Kai, Ryan, and ZacharyAdeline, Clara, Daisy, Delilah, Eden, Georgia, Iris, Kennedy, Margot, Parker, and Sloane replacing names like… Anna, Ariana, Ashley, Autumn, Bella, Hailey, Jade, Rachel, Rose, Sarah, and SavannahAlternate theory using spurious data, because yes, this is what I spend my time doing:I looked at all 2023 NY state names vs. all 2025 NY state names and compared them to the number of corporate board directors with those names at those times - I can show that the name changes are definitely positively for sure related to the rise or fall of that name on corporate boards because parents are increasingly focused on who runs their companies. The biggest growth was in the name Zoe (ZOHRAN! Not made up!) from 2 active directors to 7 in 2025! In the top 10 of names includes… Amir!!! From 18 to 22 names!Second biggest drop - the decidedly unwoke, “traditional” name Oliver, down 22%Headliniest of the WeekDR: New Website Detects Apocalypse If Billionaire Jets Start Fleeing en MasseMM: Kevin O'Leary slams people who want work-life balance: ‘I hope they work for my competitors'Who Won the Week?DR: BP Bully Albert Manifold's now famous coffee maker. Or maybe Michael DellMM: Illinois state house of reps, lead by Daniel Didech, much to the annoyance of state senator Bill Cunningham who introduced SB 3444 to exempt AI companies from liability for mass death, passed one of the strongest laws in the country to force third party audits of AI companies, and it passed 110-0PredictionsDR: Based on the survey which reveals that 99 Percent of CEOs Are Preparing to Lay Off Workers and Replace Them With AI Within Two Years, it is revealed that the 1% of CEOs who are not preparing to lay off workers and replace them with AI understood AI to mean Actual IntelligenceMM: OpenAI's upcoming S-1 filing reveals that, not to be outdone by Musk's SpaceX insecurities, Sam Altman gives himself dual class shares worth 300 votes and 99% voting power, has a classified board, incorporates in Nevada, has mandatory arbitration clauses and a minimum lawsuit threshold of 100% of the stock ownership, and the first board member is Illinois state senator Bill Cunningham

Corruption Central has new address: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. From Trump's Weaponization slush fund to international negotiations including Trump Towers and sketchy stock trades and Crypto deals, this next gift should come as no surprise: Dell wins a $9.7B Pentagon deal — weeks after Trump publicly urged people to “go out and buy a Dell” and after Michael Dell's family pledged $6.25B to seed the administration's “Trump accounts.” We'll check out the contract (a five‑year Core Enterprise Technology Agreement to supply Microsoft licensing, cloud subscriptions and on‑prem software). We'll drill down into the Pentagon's claim the award followed a competitive process and will save roughly $422M a year, and we'll examine why timing — stock purchases, public praise, and Dell's ties to the Trump administration are now prompting ethics and conflict‑of‑interest scrutiny. We'll roll this story past Michael Shure and Mo Kelly as we lay out the top Stories of the week in ‘This Week in Politics.' Fingers crossed Albert finds a good gator story this week but whether it's meth, machetes, or mayhem, Friday Fabulous Florida never disappoints. Quick set change… and ou tcomes the rainbow. The Culture Blaster Michael Snyder will slide right in to give us the best advice on movies and streaming options worth your time.

– The episode opens with a short introduction from Donald Trump praising “one of the most successful business leaders… Michael Dell” and his “really exciting announcement.” – Brett Butt follows with a nostalgic anecdote about growing up before the Internet and World Wide Web, and remembering early video games like Pac-Man, Asteroids, Wizard of War, Scrambled, and Defender. He jokes about wishing for something people now have. – Mike Dell then introduces himself (“Like Dell's World… That's me”) and frames the episode as covering two major topics: technology (how tech works and is used) and personal updates. He notes customer service issues he'd complained about previously have not improved. – Personal updates: – He reports attending multiple recent funerals: mentions having been to “three funerals in the last six months, or two,” and that he's about to go to another in Detroit that weekend. – He names specific losses: Todd Cochran, founder of Blubrry, who passed “late summer, early fall”; his wife's best friend Mary in Grand Haven, who died of lung problems and was younger than them; and his uncle Bill Busby, who turned eighty-eight at a recent party, helped start Motorola Semiconductors, was a US Air Force veteran (crew chief on a B-57 or B-58), and then passed away Monday morning. He says he and his nearly 98–99-year-old grandmother will be traveling to Detroit for that funeral. – Health update: Mike had a torn retina in his right eye, underwent emergency surgery, had to be face-down post-op while a bubble/oil was placed in the eye. At his second post-op checkup the doctor said things are looking good; vision in that eye is blurred by the oil bubble while the other eye is 20/20. He expects the oil to be removed and vision to clear later. He says this grounds him for about six weeks. – He mentions a lingering low-level cold over the past month. – Recent events and work: – He attended Military Creator Con in Arlington, Texas (several hundred participants, veterans/active military/spouses), where he saw Jamie Jay, Christopher Lochhead, Gordon Firemark (podcast lawyer), and others. The event ran long days and was busy but enjoyable. – At Blubrry he's been promoted to VP of Operations, overseeing teams and day-to-day work; Barry (another cofounder) is now CEO. He encourages podcasters to contact him for help, states he uses Blubrry hosting and the PowerPress plugin, and plugs Blubrry's services. – Technology and AI: – He discusses AI-generated content broadly: YouTube's proliferation of AI-narrated slideshow-style or AI-generated videos; his guilty pleasure of “AI Karen stories” on YouTube (which he knows are AI and mostly fiction). – He references a MacRumors article reporting YouTube will automatically label AI videos even if creators don't, and applauds the move, predicting many viewers will prefer non-AI content when labeled. – He raises concerns about AI in podcasting: AI-voiced podcasts and companies generating massive amounts of AI podcast content. He names a company, Inception PointAI, that reportedly generated a lot of AI podcast content and moved from Spreaker to Megaphone/Spotify; he says such AI content can hallucinate and produce factually untrue information, and that some AI podcasts present content as true. – He describes his own measured use of AI: he uses AI for transcripts and some artwork that he then tweaks, and he tried a cloned AI voice for one episode a few years ago but it didn't sound right. He notes telltale patterns of AI-written scripts and advises never to ask AI for its opinion. – He touches on scams: modern scam emails are harder to spot because language models clean up grammar; he warns about requests for immediate payment, iTunes/gift cards, or crypto as signs of scams. – Advertising and social media observations: – Criticizes YouTube mid-roll ads that interrupt videos, and the perceived decline in value of TV ads—locally seeing many online gambling ads in Michigan. – Observes AI activity on Facebook: AI agents entering groups to start conversations (sometimes inane or provocative) and AI-generated video shorts (e.g., airplanes doing impossible things). He dislikes Facebook's prompts to read more on Threads and says he doesn't want more social media accounts. He mentions being on LinkedIn, using X a little, and participating on Reddit, and says he plans to use a flip phone when he retires. YouTube Will Now Automatically Label AI Videos Even When Creators Don’t – Podcasting industry and advice: – Clarifies his use of “podcast” to mean generally audio (though he acknowledges podcasts can be video) and emphasizes that podcasting is a distribution method open to anyone. – Contrasts highly produced, broadcast-style podcasts (teams of producers and sound designers) with indie, authentic podcasts (one person talking into a microphone from a shed). He values indie authenticity and accessibility. – References a report by Tom Webster of Sounds Profitable noting people seek authentic-sounding podcast audio. He warns the industry is bifurcating between highly produced shows and indie creators. – Gives practical advice: podcasting is inexpensive and accessible (buy a microphone, record, compress to MP3, upload to hosting or WordPress to create an RSS feed). Suggests inexpensive cover art via Fiverr and mentions Blubrry hosting around fifteen dollars. Warns that podcasting generally won't replace a day job quickly—monetization takes time and consistency. – Lists three elements for podcast success: consistency, authenticity, and having content that is interesting/informative/compelling (he stumbles on phrasing but leaves the point authentic). He notes technology barriers are lower now; you don't have to be a geek. – Explains distribution parity: small indie shows can sit beside big shows like Joe Rogan in directories; one can succeed without becoming huge. His personal goal is to have a place to speak freely rather than chase large monetization. – Plans and format changes: – He says they will restart the Podcast Insider show with a revamped, more conversational format with two or three hosts discussing industry trends (e.g., trend toward video). – Discusses video: video has always been part of podcasting but is getting more prominent; video production is harder (lighting, appearance, editing). Blubrry is working on a video product to better support creators. – Mentions his short-form series “Cup of Traverse City” (daily, five minutes) which he took a month off from and tried to restart; he intends for it to be five days a week, five minutes, when resumed. – Reiterates he podcasts when it's fun and will take breaks when needed. – Closing: – He notes he has been talking for forty-five minutes, asks listeners if they're still subscribed and what they think about technology trends (is tech “going off the deep end” or is he being a curmudgeon?), invites feedback via email (mike at mike dell dot com), and signs off saying “Catch me later.”

– The episode opens with a short introduction from Donald Trump praising “one of the most successful business leaders… Michael Dell” and his “really exciting announcement.” – Brett Butt follows with a nostalgic anecdote about growing up before the Internet and World Wide Web, and remembering early video games like Pac-Man, Asteroids, Wizard of War, Scrambled, and Defender. He jokes about wishing for something people now have. – Mike Dell then introduces himself (“Like Dell's World… That's me”) and frames the episode as covering two major topics: technology (how tech works and is used) and personal updates. He notes customer service issues he'd complained about previously have not improved. – Personal updates: – He reports attending multiple recent funerals: mentions having been to “three funerals in the last six months, or two,” and that he's about to go to another in Detroit that weekend. – He names specific losses: Todd Cochran, founder of Blubrry, who passed “late summer, early fall”; his wife's best friend Mary in Grand Haven, who died of lung problems and was younger than them; and his uncle Bill Busby, who turned eighty-eight at a recent party, helped start Motorola Semiconductors, was a US Air Force veteran (crew chief on a B-57 or B-58), and then passed away Monday morning. He says he and his nearly 98–99-year-old grandmother will be traveling to Detroit for that funeral. – Health update: Mike had a torn retina in his right eye, underwent emergency surgery, had to be face-down post-op while a bubble/oil was placed in the eye. At his second post-op checkup the doctor said things are looking good; vision in that eye is blurred by the oil bubble while the other eye is 20/20. He expects the oil to be removed and vision to clear later. He says this grounds him for about six weeks. – He mentions a lingering low-level cold over the past month. – Recent events and work: – He attended Military Creator Con in Arlington, Texas (several hundred participants, veterans/active military/spouses), where he saw Jamie Jay, Christopher Lochhead, Gordon Firemark (podcast lawyer), and others. The event ran long days and was busy but enjoyable. – At Blubrry he's been promoted to VP of Operations, overseeing teams and day-to-day work; Barry (another cofounder) is now CEO. He encourages podcasters to contact him for help, states he uses Blubrry hosting and the PowerPress plugin, and plugs Blubrry's services. – Technology and AI: – He discusses AI-generated content broadly: YouTube's proliferation of AI-narrated slideshow-style or AI-generated videos; his guilty pleasure of “AI Karen stories” on YouTube (which he knows are AI and mostly fiction). – He references a MacRumors article reporting YouTube will automatically label AI videos even if creators don't, and applauds the move, predicting many viewers will prefer non-AI content when labeled. – He raises concerns about AI in podcasting: AI-voiced podcasts and companies generating massive amounts of AI podcast content. He names a company, Inception PointAI, that reportedly generated a lot of AI podcast content and moved from Spreaker to Megaphone/Spotify; he says such AI content can hallucinate and produce factually untrue information, and that some AI podcasts present content as true. – He describes his own measured use of AI: he uses AI for transcripts and some artwork that he then tweaks, and he tried a cloned AI voice for one episode a few years ago but it didn't sound right. He notes telltale patterns of AI-written scripts and advises never to ask AI for its opinion. – He touches on scams: modern scam emails are harder to spot because language models clean up grammar; he warns about requests for immediate payment, iTunes/gift cards, or crypto as signs of scams. – Advertising and social media observations: – Criticizes YouTube mid-roll ads that interrupt videos, and the perceived decline in value of TV ads—locally seeing many online gambling ads in Michigan. – Observes AI activity on Facebook: AI agents entering groups to start conversations (sometimes inane or provocative) and AI-generated video shorts (e.g., airplanes doing impossible things). He dislikes Facebook's prompts to read more on Threads and says he doesn't want more social media accounts. He mentions being on LinkedIn, using X a little, and participating on Reddit, and says he plans to use a flip phone when he retires. YouTube Will Now Automatically Label AI Videos Even When Creators Don’t – Podcasting industry and advice: – Clarifies his use of “podcast” to mean generally audio (though he acknowledges podcasts can be video) and emphasizes that podcasting is a distribution method open to anyone. – Contrasts highly produced, broadcast-style podcasts (teams of producers and sound designers) with indie, authentic podcasts (one person talking into a microphone from a shed). He values indie authenticity and accessibility. – References a report by Tom Webster of Sounds Profitable noting people seek authentic-sounding podcast audio. He warns the industry is bifurcating between highly produced shows and indie creators. – Gives practical advice: podcasting is inexpensive and accessible (buy a microphone, record, compress to MP3, upload to hosting or WordPress to create an RSS feed). Suggests inexpensive cover art via Fiverr and mentions Blubrry hosting around fifteen dollars. Warns that podcasting generally won't replace a day job quickly—monetization takes time and consistency. – Lists three elements for podcast success: consistency, authenticity, and having content that is interesting/informative/compelling (he stumbles on phrasing but leaves the point authentic). He notes technology barriers are lower now; you don't have to be a geek. – Explains distribution parity: small indie shows can sit beside big shows like Joe Rogan in directories; one can succeed without becoming huge. His personal goal is to have a place to speak freely rather than chase large monetization. – Plans and format changes: – He says they will restart the Podcast Insider show with a revamped, more conversational format with two or three hosts discussing industry trends (e.g., trend toward video). – Discusses video: video has always been part of podcasting but is getting more prominent; video production is harder (lighting, appearance, editing). Blubrry is working on a video product to better support creators. – Mentions his short-form series “Cup of Traverse City” (daily, five minutes) which he took a month off from and tried to restart; he intends for it to be five days a week, five minutes, when resumed. – Reiterates he podcasts when it's fun and will take breaks when needed. – Closing: – He notes he has been talking for forty-five minutes, asks listeners if they're still subscribed and what they think about technology trends (is tech “going off the deep end” or is he being a curmudgeon?), invites feedback via email (mike at mike dell dot com), and signs off saying “Catch me later.”

En el Radar Empresarial de hoy ponemos la atención en SK Hynix, que, igual que Micron, ha logrado entrar en el grupo de compañías valoradas en más de un billón de dólares. La empresa surcoreana se ha beneficiado del impulso de la inteligencia artificial y de las mejores previsiones de firmas financieras. Ese contexto explica el avance en el Kospi, donde protagonizó una de las subidas de 2026. Este año, sus acciones acumulan un crecimiento cercano al 250% aproximadamente. La compañía se ha convertido en una pieza esencial dentro del sector de memorias, considerado de los próximos meses. Una de las razones principales es su estrecha relación con Nvidia, ya que es único proveedor de memorias HBM para la tecnológica estadounidense. Estos componentes permiten gestionar volúmenes de datos con velocidad, algo imprescindible para los desarrollos vinculados a la inteligencia artificial. Con ese liderazgo, SK Hynix controla el 57% del mercado de HBM y el 32% del segmento DRAM. El aumento de la demanda de semiconductores y la escasez de suministros han elevado la importancia estratégica de fabricantes como SK Hynix En apenas dieciséis meses, la empresa pasó de 100.000 millones de dólares a superar el billón de capitalización Sin embargo, la compañía reconoce los riesgos en la industria Su presidente, Chey Tae-won, advirtió hace meses que la falta de obleas de silicio podría provocar un desequilibrio hasta 2030 y generar una diferencia entre oferta y demanda 20%. Las advertencias de SK Hynix coinciden con las de otros directivos del sector tecnológico Michael Dell aseguró que la demanda de memoria inteligencia artificial podría multiplicarse por 625 durante años el director ejecutivo de Micron, Sanjay Mehrotra, explicó en CNBC que la memoria se ha convertido en un recurso imprescindible Según el ejecutivo, los sistemas de inteligencia artificial necesitan más capacidad y un rendimiento superior para desarrollar todo su potencial y sostener el crecimiento esperado del sector tecnológico

Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman return from Dell Technologies World to unpack Google I/O's Gemini-as-operating-system moment, the Blackstone-Google TPU joint venture nobody saw coming, NVIDIA's $81.6 billion quarter with a $91 billion guide, and debate whether or not the "SaaSpocalypse" is finally over. The handpicked topics for this week are: Google I/O 2026: Gemini Becomes the Operating System. Google I/O repositioned Gemini from a product to the operating layer for everything Google does, and the numbers backed it up. 900 million monthly active users, 3.2 quadrillion tokens per month, a 7x jump year over year. Pat's headline: this is about widening distribution, not just model quality. Gemini 3.5 Flash, Antigravity 2.0, Gemini Spark, and Android XR glasses all extend Gemini into surfaces that no competitor can replicate. Daniel's read: the token-cost reckoning is coming, and when enterprise subsidies end, models that can deliver value at a lower cost per token will become the ground zero of the next era. (The Decode) Dell Technologies World 2026: AI Factory Goes Agentic, 1,000 New AI Server Clients. Pat and Dan were both on the ground in Las Vegas and called it the most consequential Dell event in years. Michael Dell and Jensen Huang co-keynoted to launch the next-generation Dell AI Factory with liquid-cooled PowerEdge XE9780 servers, Dell Deskside Agentic AI, and a multi-model ecosystem including Google Distributed Cloud with Gemini 3.0, on-prem OpenAI Codex, and Grok. 1,000 new AI server clients in a single quarter is the cleanest leading indicator of enterprise demand heading into Dell's Q1 print. Pat's biggest takeaway: OpenShell as a control plane for agents spanning from the GB10 all the way to the PowerEdge rack has been the missing orchestration piece. Daniel's read: large enterprises are going to build hybrid AI architectures and want to deliver tokens at the lowest possible on-prem cost, and Dell is ready. (The Decode) Blackstone and Google Launch a $5B TPU Joint Venture. Pat called it the biggest story of the week and the one that went most under the radar. For the first time, a hyperscaler has released its proprietary AI silicon to a third-party distribution entity. The $5 billion deal, up to $25 billion with leverage, targets 500 megawatts of capacity online by 2027. Daniel's framing: Google decided its custom silicon is worth more as a commercially distributed asset than as a captive moat. Pat's note: the proprietary nature of TPU infrastructure means retrofitting existing data centers will require real work, but the sovereign angle gives the JV a natural first market. (The Decode) AMD Helios, $10B Taiwan Investment, and the MI450 Anchor Customer Rumor. AMD dropped a $10 billion Taiwan ecosystem investment alongside confirmation that Helios rack-scale is on track for multi-gigawatt customer deployments beginning 2H 2026. A Citi rumor surfaced Anthropic as the anchor MI450 customer, to be formally announced at AMD's Advancing AI Day in July. Pat's read: Lisa Su has made a commitment and she almost never falls through. The analysts who said AMD would not ship anything in the second half of 2026 are going to be very wrong. (The Decode) OpenAI Guaranteed Capacity: Sam Altman's Moment. OpenAI launched multi-year compute commitment contracts the same week that Anthropic was struggling with capacity outages. Pat called it brilliant and said it makes Sam Altman look like a genius. It's the inference-era analog of cloud reserved instances: guaranteed availability at a locked price for one, two, or three years. Daniel added context: Anthropic's annualized ARR growth is nearly double OpenAI's and is about to lap them, so the model war is far from over. But for enterprises that need reliability, OpenAI just made the most compelling enterprise trust argument of the week. (The Decode) Sovereign AI Crosses $30 Billion at NVIDIA, 14% of Revenue. NVIDIA disclosed sovereign AI as a segment-level line for the first time, at $30 billion in FY26, 3x the prior year. Pat has been tracking sovereign for years and calls this the clearest possible signal that it has moved from marketing term to structural revenue category. Daniel's point: outside of the four or five hyperscalers doing all the major buying, sovereign is where the incremental demand is coming from and it is very real. (The Decode)  The Flip: Is the SaaSpocalypse Over? Daniel took the affirmative and came in loaded. Every earnings report across CrowdStrike, Cloudflare, ServiceNow, Intuit, Salesforce, Atlassian, Notion, and monday.com shows companies growing with the AI tailwind. His core argument: there was a reason SaaS emerged 20 to 30 years ago. Companies do not want to be in the software business. Vibe-coded flat-file apps with no security, no governance, no data lineage look great in a kitchen demo and fall apart at enterprise scale. The SaaSpocalypse is over and he is tired of talking about it. Pat's counter: BofA slapped Salesforce with an Underperform at $160, 8% below where it trades. Snowflake is down 35% year-to-date. A senior Dell executive told him Dell will not buy another SaaS system and is tripling internal software creation. The growth question is real even if the terminal value is not zero. Both agree the tape will tell the real story. (The Flip) NVIDIA Q1 FY27 Results. Record $81.6 billion revenue, up 85% year over year. Data center at $75.2 billion, up 92%. Non-GAAP EPS of $1.87, up 140%. Q2 guide of $91 billion crushed the $86.8 billion consensus by $4 billion at the midpoint. $80 billion buyback authorized, dividend raised 25x. The stock went down after hours for the fifth consecutive time following a massive beat and raise. Pat's read: NVIDIA may be worth $8 to $9 trillion on paper at a sector-average multiple and 75% gross margins held. Daniel's framing: this is the best company in the world, possibly tied with Google, and it is becoming the Apple of this era. He sees a long safe journey of continued growth vs. speculative dollars chasing quantum and space names that can double in a week. (Bulls and Bears) Intuit: Earnings Beat, Revenue Miss. A 17% workforce cut, raised guidance, and $8 billion buyback were authorized. Pat's emerging thesis: these companies are cutting people to afford tokens. Intuit comes at a moment when OpenAI's ChatGPT finance plugin via Stripe is building an intelligence layer that could sit on top of Intuit's products without displacing them directly, at least not yet. (Bulls and Bears) Lenovo: Record $21.6 billion quarterly revenue, up 27% year over year. The company's fastest growth in five years. AI-related revenue is up 84% year over year to 38% of total company revenue. ISG returned to full-year operating profit with a $21 billion AI server pipeline. Pat and Dan both read Lenovo's results as NVIDIA tea leaves, a leading indicator of enterprise AI server demand that directly validates what Dell said on stage about 1,000 new AI server clients. (Bulls and Bears) Analog Devices: Record $3.62 billion revenue, up 37% year over year. EPS up 67%. Q3 guide of $3.9 billion crushed consensus by $270 million. Data center up 90%, industrial up 56%, comms up 79%. The $1.5 billion Empower Semiconductor acquisition adds integrated voltage regulator technology that can reduce AI data center power consumption by 10 to 15% while shrinking the power footprint by up to 4x. Daniel's closing point: you can't build AI servers without players like Analog Devices and Lattice Semiconductor. These essential node companies aren't boring, they're foundational. (Bulls and Bears) Check out all of our Dell Technologies World coverage linked in the show notes including our sit-downs with Michael Dell, Jeff Clark, and key customers. Be part of our community. Hit that subscribe button and see you at Computex.   The Decode Google I/O 2026 — Gemini Becomes the Operating System: 900M MAU, 3.2 Quadrillion Tokens/Month, Gemini Omni, Antigravity 2.0, Gemini Spark, and Android XR Glasses https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/sundar-pichai-io-2026/ Dell Technologies World 2026 — AI Factory Goes Agentic: Michael Dell + Jensen Huang Unveil PowerEdge XE9780, Dell Deskside Agentic AI, and a Multi-Model Ecosystem; Dell Adds 1,000 AI-Server Clients in the Quarter https://www.dell.com/en-us/blog/dell-technologies-world-a-bright-and-beautiful-road-ahead/ Blackstone + Google Launch $5B (Up to $25B w/ Leverage) JV to Sell Google TPUs Outside Google Cloud — First Time a Hyperscaler Has Released Its Custom Silicon to a Third-Party Distribution Channel; 500 MW Online by 2027, Benjamin Treynor Sloss as CEO https://www.blackstone.com/news/press/blackstone-announces-joint-venture-with-google-to-create-new-tpu-cloud/ AMD Announces $10B+ Taiwan Ecosystem Investment — Helios Rack-Scale Platform With MI450X GPUs and Venice EPYC on TSMC 2nm Targeting Multi-Gigawatt Deployments 2H 2026; the Clearest Second-Source Signal Yet https://ir.amd.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1286/amd-announces-more-than-10-billion-in-taiwan-ecosystem-investments-to-accelerate-ai-infrastructure OpenAI Launches Guaranteed Capacity — Multi-Year Compute Commitments Turn Inference Capacity Into a New Enterprise Asset Class https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/19/openai-announces-new-guaranteed-capacity-offering-for-customers-to-secure-compute.html The Sovereign AI Government Investment Wave — NVIDIA Discloses ~$30B Sovereign-AI Revenue (14% of Mix); UAE, Saudi, Japan, Australia, France All in Motion This Week https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/analog-devices-q2-earnings-beat-153000996.html   The Flip: Is the SaaSpocalypse Officially Over — or Is BofA's Split Call (ServiceNow Buy, Salesforce Underperform) the Real Signal That Platform AI Monetization Is Going to Be Bifurcated, Not Universal? FOR:  BofA Reinstates Coverage of ServiceNow, Salesforce — Barron's (May 18) https://www.barrons.com/articles/servicenow-salesforce-stock-price-ai-7b109396 Embedded workflow + system-of-record stickiness still wins citing ServiceNow Q1 2026 financial results https://newsroom.servicenow.com/press-releases/details/2026/ServiceNow-Reports-First-Quarter-2026-Financial-Results/default.aspx Intuit Q3 revenue up 10%, cuts 17% of staff — SEC 8-K filing (May 20) https://www.stocktitan.net/sec-filings/INTU/8-k-intuit-inc-reports-material-event-b23073259896.html   AGAINST:  BofA Slaps Salesforce With Underperform Rating, $160 Price Target — 24/7 Wall St (May 18) https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/05/18/bofa-slaps-salesforce-with-underperform-rating-160-price-target-is-the-ai-story-falling-flat/ BofA resets Salesforce price target to Underperform — TheStreet (May 19) https://www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/bofa-resets-salesforce-stock-price-target-to-underperform-at-160 Snowflake -35% YTD heading into May 27 print is the canary that platform stickiness is being repriced https://eciks.org/4640-22295-snowflake-set-to-report-q1-earnings-may-27-with-ai-strategy-in-focus OpenAI Guaranteed Capacity + Dell on-prem Codex create a credible path to displace seat-based SaaS https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/19/openai-announces-new-guaranteed-capacity-offering-for-customers-to-secure-compute.html Bulls & Bears NVIDIA Q1 FY27 ACTUALS https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/20/nvidia-nvda-earnings-report-q1-2027.html Intuit Q3 FY26 Actuals https://investors.intuit.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1312/intuit-reports-strong-third-quarter-results-and-raises-full-year-revenue-guidance Lenovo Q4 FY26 ACTUALS https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/22/lenovo-shares-jump-15percent-on-record-earnings-as-ai-revenue-nearly-doubles.html Analog Devices Q2 FY26 ACTUALS https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/analog-devices-q2-earnings-beat-153000996.html  

Anthony Tanoury, senior director of distribution at Dell Technologies Distribution doesn’t get a lot of editorial love. It’s easy to treat it as the background infrastructure of the channel – the warehousing, the credit lines, the logistics layer that keeps product moving. But as anyone who’s been paying attention knows, that picture is well out of date. At Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas this week, In the Channel sat down with Anthony Tanoury, Dell’s senior director of distribution, to talk about what distribution actually looks like in 2026 – and the conversation ranged from supply chain strategy to AI-assisted deal registration to the shifting economics of the partner ecosystem. The headline number: Dell moved approximately ten thousand partners to a distribution-led buying model last year. Partners who previously purchased direct from Dell now route exclusively through distribution. The more interesting data point is what happened next – those partners are growing faster than the ones who remained on a direct model. Tanoury attributes it to the enablement depth that distributors can offer at a scale that Dell simply can’t replicate directly. On the Modern Partner Platform rollout – one of the bigger announcements at DTW this week – the conversation came down to speed. Deal registration that today takes two to three days is being redesigned, with AI-assisted automation in the pipeline to bring that down to two to three hours. The plumbing involves integrating Dell’s systems tightly with distributor platforms, streamlining the multi-system, multi-email-thread process that currently slows everything down. And when asked for the single most underutilized resource available to partners through distribution, Tanoury didn’t hesitate: the AI accelerator programs that distributors have built to help partners get started in the AI practice space. With every partner asking “where do I begin,” the answer may already be sitting in the distributor’s enablement catalogue. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor at ChannelBuzz.ca and your host for the show. We’re continuing our coverage from Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas this week, and I wanted to close the series of Dell execs with a conversation that I think will resonate with pretty much anyone who moves Dell product – which, let’s be honest, is a lot of you. Distribution is one of the topics that often gets taken for granted. It’s the plumbing, it’s the logistics, it’s the credit line. Except that’s not really what distribution is anymore, and Anthony Tanoury has about as good a vantage point as anyone to explain why. He spent 30 years in the industry on both the vendor and distributor side of the table, and he’s now Dell’s senior director of distribution, which means he’s the person responsible for making the relationship between Dell and its distributor partners actually work at scale. This week at DTW, Dell announced some significant changes to how it’s thinking about its partner ecosystem, and distribution’s right at the center of that. We talked about the evolution of distribution from warehouse and financing shop to AI enablement engine, what it actually means for partners that Dell moved 10,000 of them to distribution-led buying last year, and what the promise of deal registration in hours rather than days actually requires to make real. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Anthony Tanoury. Anthony, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it.Anthony Tanoury: Thanks for having me. Robert Dutt: To kick things off – the definition of distribution, and the definition from distributors themselves of what they do, has changed so dramatically over the last few years, as you’ve been party to on both sides of the fence, vendor and distributor, with your background. Sitting where you are now as senior director of distribution, how do you define the core value proposition for your distribution partners today compared to the way it may have looked a few years ago if you were in the seat, or in a previous seat managing distribution? Anthony Tanoury: Yeah, I think 30 years in distribution – dating myself here. The idea of a distributor was warehousing, finance, so on. Really, the way that that’s evolved – and still evolving, because not everyone fully understands distribution and the value of distribution – but it’s really become the engine for all of us OEMs to really dive deep into the mid-market, and as lead generation for all of us. So SMB, mid-market, and then really leveraging their enablement platforms for our partners. So as an example, this week here at Dell Technologies World, we’ve launched our full AI portfolio. And really at the end of the day, it’s a platform to build off of. And our distributors, through our partners, are really enabling those partners – especially in the mid-market. The enterprise partners have hired data scientists and so on. And those mid-market and SMB partners, they need our help. And we really rely on our distributors, who have AI accelerator programs and can really take a partner through the journey of how to look at AI, how to start, and then how to implement and really get started in this space. We’ve met with multiple partners at this show and we’ve had our partner advisory boards. And that’s the number one takeaway when we’re talking to our partners: “How do I get started?” And I think Jeff Clarke and Michael Dell talked about that on stage – it’s really, we’ve got the platform to build off of, and then really rely on our distributors to go enable all of our partners out there to have those conversations, and then to build the proof, the POCs for us with their customers and take it to the next step. Robert Dutt: Let’s talk about this moment in time and managing distribution right now. Whenever I think of running a hardware vendor, running distribution, or being on the purchasing side of the solution provider right now – boy, that’s an interesting challenge – with the supply chain issue, with the pricing issue, with all of that. I guess it boils down to, from your perspective: how are you leaning on distribution differently to help you guys and your partners ultimately, especially the smaller ones, handle this issue of availability, of supply chain, of capacity, as we’ve seen the component price challenges across the industry? Anthony Tanoury: Yeah, so that’s not unique to Dell. We’re all challenged with the supply chain challenges, and it’s really about having a consistent message to our partner community, to our customers, on how – or why – to partner with Dell in these times. And our distributors have really leaned in with us right now and are getting that message out to our partners that “Dell’s got a plan. Here’s the plan.” And this is how we want you to message that and relay that to your partner community. So as an example, I did a keynote speech at one of our large partner events recently, and my talk track was based on how to navigate those supply challenges with us. I spent a lot of time on that, and had multiple partners come up afterwards, catching me outside. And the comment was, “That’s what we need to hear. That’s our challenge today, and you’re tackling that head on.” So to get back to your question from a distribution perspective – they enabled me to take that message to them, and then they’re expanding on that to their 20,000 partners in their ecosystem. Robert Dutt: As you bring up an interesting thread there – I don’t have time obviously to go through the whole keynote, but the elevator pitch, boiled-down version of it – what’s the advice to partners on tackling it from where you sit and from where Dell sits? Anthony Tanoury: Yeah, really leaning in with us and going deeper with your customers. And so that’s where you’re going to work with Dell and get priority allocation – looking long-term versus short-term, “I just need this product in the next week to get through this phase.” Now, let’s look at a long-term solution together and let’s plan two years out. Let’s plan longer in some cases, and then we’ll take it from there. Robert Dutt: And that’s something we heard also from Jeff Clarke in Q&A – that idea of build out those long-term plans, put your hand up as early as you can. Because it sounds like if you’ve got your hand up early, you’ve obviously got the best chance of getting that list fulfilled. Anthony Tanoury: Yeah, whether it’s a customer or a partner – I mean, that’s a true partnership and we’ll lean in when customers want to lean in with Dell. Robert Dutt: I wanted to touch on the changes that are coming to the partner program, specifically as it involves your interactions with distribution. The Dell portal is getting redone and the Dell program is getting redone with the modern partner platform rolling out this year. You guys are baking agentic AI into your partner platform. Meanwhile, your distributors are doing the same thing with their partner platforms. I’m curious – obviously very early in the game – but how are you and your distribution partners thinking long-term about how those various platforms interact with each other, in terms of delineating who covers what base, when it comes to serving the partner and what you may be able to do down the road as a result of having those platforms? Anthony Tanoury: Yeah, so the key is cutting down on SLAs. How do we take getting pricing out to a partner, out to a customer, from two to three days down to a matter of hours, right? And we’ve worked closely with all of our distributors over the last year or two, because our partners rely on our distributors’ platforms. And how does that integrate with ours? But the key is speed. How do we do things faster? And that is, as you stated, embedding AI into that. And so again, can’t get too far ahead, because we’re still going down this path and things sometimes get pushed out. But we’ve been working on this for a long time with them. We’ve had a lot of meetings with them here. We’ve gone deep into their platforms. They’re all rolling out new platforms as well. So making sure we’re doing it all at the same time, and together, has been key. Robert Dutt: One area I did want to double-click on there. One of the big promises of the new platform is deal-reg approval in minutes, AI-generated demand signals, those kinds of things. As Dell is accelerating its own systems, how does distribution plug into that? How does the distributor help manage and act on those AI-driven demand signals and facilitate a faster quote-to-deal-reg? Anthony Tanoury: Without getting too deep into deal-reg, there are a lot of nuances there. But yes, today where you’ve got multiple partners of record and you’ve got multiple partner IDs – simplifying that down to one or two partner IDs versus 20 today that we have – and then with deal registration, having partner of record is key in that mix, and we do have that today. But the distributors are really where it starts. So a partner comes to the distributor, says, “Hey, I need pricing on this and I want deal registration.” Today it might take the full SLA – the two to three days we just talked about – to get deal registration approved, with multiple systems flowing back and forth. In the future – and when I say future, we’re close, we’ll get there – is having that one stream go, starting from the distributor, through AI, plays into that, where it’ll do the work of looking in and making sure: here’s the partner of record. Is there a partner on record? Does the end user qualify? And without multiple people, multiple email streams going back and forth, it locks it in. And so now you’ve got an answer back in two to three hours versus two to three days. Robert Dutt: A lot of MSPs prefer to consume technology as a service, because it’s kind of in what they do – the name’s kind of on the tin – and bundle that with vendors like Microsoft or security or what have you. How are you working with distributors to make APEX and infrastructure solutions seamlessly consumable within distribution, and particularly on their marketplace? Anthony Tanoury: Yeah, so that’s a good question. So there’s APEX, right? We have Dell APEX, and our competitors have their own, but we have Dell APEX. But our distributors also have their own versions of APEX, or as-a-service models. And at the end of the day, we leverage theirs just as well as we do our own. And it depends on the customer, depends on the contract situation, but there are multiple vehicles to get an as-a-service deal done today that didn’t exist a year ago, didn’t exist two years ago, right? And then there’s – moving to another topic, and really the same topic – device as a service, right? And that was something we’ve been talking about for a few years now and hasn’t really taken off, but that’s all part of this now. Because the device at the edge is co-mingled now – especially in the new AI world – with your server infrastructure. So it could all become part of a recurring revenue stream for MSPs. Robert Dutt: And I think it makes potentially hardware more compelling to the MSP. When you’ve gotten that tie-in – I know it’s early days and it’s a way off from being fully operationalized – but what you’re talking about, and what Jeff Clarke was talking about today about basically acting as the arbiter, sort of an open orchestration layer, saying “all right, this particular bit is best handled in the infrastructure and the data center, this particular bit is best handled right here on the machine sitting by the desk side.” Anthony Tanoury: Absolutely. Robert Dutt: We’ve heard a lot this week about the focused accounts incentive, rewarding partners for selling across lines of business. And it’s kind of a cliche almost, in that vendors such as yourselves who have multiple lines of business are always looking for great ways to get partners to sell across those businesses. And certainly incentives are a classic way of doing that. How are you using distribution to train, enable, and facilitate partners making that leap across the portfolio – especially as this seems to be something that Denise Millard and the team are putting a lot of the wood behind? Anthony Tanoury: Yeah, so you mentioned the partner program – and that’s really what we leverage with the push coming from distribution. You typically focus where you can earn the most dollars. And so we’re putting the dollars on driving all lines of business for us. So today you may have a lot of infrastructure-focused partners – like MSPs, they don’t want to sell the client the edge device. But again, with AI driving from both ends now, it’s become an imperative that they don’t ignore the edge devices anymore. So really leveraging distribution both ways. We’ve got CSG partners that don’t sell storage and infrastructure, and then we’ve got partners that are trying to move in that direction. And then we’ve got other partners saying, “Hey, I’ve got to get on board too,” that are in the infrastructure space and have got to move in the other direction. And that’s where we leverage distribution – they have multiple enablement engines, all of our distributors, to enable those partners to do that. So for us – and again, to the partner program – we’ve announced some changes here at this event, with our partner advisory board meeting coming up. Partner programs, you want to keep them simple, predictable for partners, with tweaks along the way. And AI is one of those tweaks where we’ve got to pull the levers in different directions to get partners and distributors moving in that motion. So yeah, it’s an exciting time to be at Dell with this opportunity in front of us. Robert Dutt: That’s a big tweak – or more accurately, a big series, whole family, whole universe of tweaks to be made. But you don’t want to pull a whole program apart. You’ve got partners that have invested and distributors that have invested in that program. So you’ve got to make sure you do those incremental tweaks when you need them, but not blow up the whole program. Anthony Tanoury: Absolutely. Robert Dutt: You mentioned off the top the classic framing of distribution as the warehouse and the bank kind of structure. Let’s touch on the bank side of things a little bit there. In light of everything that’s going on today, in light of the infrastructure refresh opportunity that’s out there, the constraints in the marketplace – financial engineering is probably more critical than ever. Dell Financial Services is doing a lot of heavy lifting, but how do you view the role of the distributor when it comes to PO financing, terms, bridging the financing gap for complex projects, and helping partners manage this whole multiple-balls-in-the-air situation? Anthony Tanoury: You can’t look at a partner just through the lens of what they do with Dell. The business they have with Dell – partners procure from many places. We love them to only sell Dell for us, but they have other options, other solutions, other areas of the business that we’re not focused on. They procure through distribution. Distributors have huge businesses with a lot of these partners. They have financial terms through the distributors that maybe we can’t offer them through Dell – and leveraging our partner programs to deliver extended terms in this environment. With the supply shortages and lead times getting pushed out, really leveraging distribution with terms that we can’t give them today. There are multiple levels, and they have much higher credit lines with the distributors than maybe we have with them. And then going back to the as-a-service model – really leveraging distributors who have all those options in place for them today, that maybe they don’t have with us. Robert Dutt: When you’re looking at distribution, what’s the one metric you look at first to judge whether a distributor is meeting the bar – is delivering net new value to Dell? Anthony Tanoury: New partner recruitment, right? Multiple lines of business – not just focused in one area of our business, but selling across all lines of business. Then we rely on distribution. We just moved 10,000 partners last year over to distribution-led. Where those partners could procure direct from Dell in the past, now they can’t, and they buy strictly through distribution. Those are our authorized partner community – and potentially in the future, expanding that to other levels of our business and offloading them to distribution. Dell is a more channel- and distribution-friendly company than we get credit for. I think that doesn’t always get seen, and we’re moving that way. Robert Dutt: How did that process go, and any learnings from moving those 10,000 partners that may inform what you do in moving the next group, if there is a next group to be moved? Anthony Tanoury: Exactly, a lot. A lot of that is in data transfer and making sure that the distributors have the right data to target those partners and give those partners the service they need. The distributors all had to ramp up their infrastructure to support those partners – credit line facilities with those partners – because they didn’t do business with those partners before. Onboarding some of those partners as net new to distribution, who had never bought from distribution before. And then again, really letting those partners know the value of distribution. Since we’ve moved those partners over, those partners that have embraced distribution are growing faster than the partners that haven’t. It’s sometimes a lot easier to get that additional support, that additional attention from a disti, than it is to try to navigate that directly. In some cases, they can support them better than we can, and it’s proven out in the last year. Robert Dutt: What’s the single most underutilized resource that you guys have through distribution, in terms of what partners are using? Anthony Tanoury: I would say the AI accelerator programs I spoke about earlier. That’s key. Going back to the enablement piece – I just don’t think a lot of partners understand the value. They come to these events, they make the statements, “Hey, we need help here. We need to leverage distribution for that help.” Especially when you come to a Dell Technologies World, or you go to one of our competitors’ or peers’ events. Our distributors have that enablement piece for you to get started, that you need to leverage, because it’s not just a point-solution type of conversation, it’s broad. Really leveraging them to help. Robert Dutt: Along the same lines, but a little bit different – obviously we’ve touched on the idea of cross-selling, and the idea that, surprise surprise, Dell would like partners to sell more of the portfolio, better together, all that kind of stuff. For an MSP or VAR whose primary look at Dell to date has been selling end devices – laptops, desktops, et cetera – sourced through distribution, what do you see as the most likely next logical step to expand that relationship? To get thinking across lines? What are some of the common threads for the best ways to approach that? Anthony Tanoury: Yeah, that’s a tough question. Common ways to approach how to sell across lines of business – take it back to the customer level. Your customer is buying these products, and they may be buying them from somebody else or they may be buying them online, depending on the size of the organization, so on. Again, the service model – going back to it, it’s another service revenue stream that they can leverage. But I think when you look at the distributors, they have a lot of talk tracks with the partners on how to do that, and frankly do it better than we do. So that’s why we really leverage them. When we say, “Hey, we want to sell more of our client and peripheral devices,” we start with distribution. We start with the partner community, and it’s paid off. I think it’s just – really, don’t leave revenue on the table. We’ve been saying it for years and I think it’s starting to resonate, and leveraging distribution to push that message forward. And I think partners are starting to catch on. Robert Dutt: All right, great insights. Anthony, I thank you for taking the time. I’m sure it’s been a busy week for you here. Thanks for joining us. Anthony Tanoury: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Robert Dutt: There you have it, Anthony Tanoury from Dell Technologies. I’d like to thank Anthony for carving out some time in what I’m sure was a very busy week on the show floor here at DTW. Few things from the conversation that I thought were worth pulling out. First, the 10,000 partners that Dell moved to distribution-led buying last year – that’s not a small number, and the fact that those partners are outgrowing the ones who haven’t yet made that transition should be a data point for anyone still on the fence about how they structure their Dell relationship. Second, when Anthony named net new partner recruitment as his primary metric for judging distributor performance – not revenue, not attach rate, net new – that tells you something about where Dell thinks its distribution channel still has room to grow. And third, if you haven’t looked at the AI accelerator programs your distributor is running, that came up twice as the single most underutilized resource available to partners right now. Probably worth a phone call. I’d like to thank you as always for listening to the show. Please follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts – Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, most directories. Ratings and reviews are always appreciated as well. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

Dell CEO Michael Dell and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang say supply chain constraints are still the biggest bottleneck to AI growth, even as demand surges worldwide, including in China. Speaking with Bloomberg News' Ed Ludlow at Dell World in Las Vegas, Huang says demand in China is “incredible” and expects the market to open further over time.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join our champion program: mark@themomentumcompany.comAttend a Thriving Leader event: https://thriving-leader-2026.lovable.app/Instagram: @the.momentum.companyLinkedIn: /momentum-companyIn this episode of The Intentional Agribusiness Leader, Mark sits down with Tim Bucher, CEO and co-founder of Agtonomy, for a powerful conversation at the intersection of agriculture, technology, and leadership.Tim defines intentional leadership in a way that cuts through the noise:Pause. Think.In a world that rewards speed, the most effective leaders create space—however small—to process, evaluate, and respond with clarity. That simple act of thinking is what separates reactive leadership from intentional leadership.Tim's journey is anything but typical.Raised in agriculture, he built his own farming operation at a young age while simultaneously building a career in Silicon Valley—working alongside leaders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Michael Dell. For decades, he kept those two worlds separate.Until now.With Agtonomy, Tim has brought agriculture and technology together to solve one of the industry's biggest challenges:Labor.Agriculture is facing a shrinking workforce, rising costs, and increasing pressure to get more done with less. Agtonomy is addressing that challenge through what Tim calls physical AI—intelligence embedded in machines that can perform real-world work.Not just data.Not just insights.Work.By integrating AI into existing equipment, Agtonomy enables one operator to manage multiple machines at once—turning a one-to-one labor model into a one-to-many system. The result is increased efficiency, improved safety, and a meaningful shift in how work gets done on the farm.A key theme throughout the episode is this:Growers don't need more data.They need help getting the job done.That distinction matters.While much of the recent focus on AI has centered around digital tools and information, the next wave of innovation is physical—machines that can think, adapt, and execute in real environments.The conversation also addresses the concern many people have around automation:Will it take jobs?Tim offers a different perspective.In industries like agriculture, the problem isn't too many workers—it's not enough. With an aging workforce and fewer people entering the field, the only path forward is innovation.Not replacement.Adaptation.The episode also explores lessons from some of the most iconic leaders in tech. Tim shares how leaders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Michael Dell each operated with a clear mantra—design, software, cost—that guided their decisions and aligned their organizations.Clarity at the top creates alignment throughout.Tim's own mantra?“Show me.”In industries like agriculture, results matter more than ideas. The fastest way to build trust is to prove that something works in the real world.The episode closes with a powerful reminder:We are living through another industrial revolution.Not mechanical— but technological.And the leaders who will shape the next 100 years aren't the ones resisting it.They're the ones willing to pause, think, and build what comes next.Listen if you are:Trying to understand how AI will impact agricultureLeading through labor shortages or operational challengesInterested in automation, robotics, or ag technologyNavigating change in a rapidly evolving industryCommitted to becoming a more intentional, thoughtful leader

Donald Trump prepara una reforma fiscal que puede provocar la mayor redistribución voluntaria de riqueza en la historia de Estados Unidos. Bill Gates ha donado 60.000 millones en acciones de Microsoft a su fundación; Warren Buffett otros 60.000 millones de Berkshire Hathaway; Michael Dell acaba de comprometer 6.250 millones para 25 millones de niños. Lo que la reforma pretende cambiar es el canal: permitir que las grandes fortunas donen acciones revaluadas directamente a las cuentas individuales de menores estadounidenses, con la misma exención fiscal que hoy disfrutan las donaciones a fundaciones. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eric Arcese, vice president of global partner marketing at Dell Technologies Dell Technologies vice president of global partner marketing Eric Arcese joins In The Channel ahead of Dell Technologies World, and his central message for Canadian partners is worth sitting with: the AI Factory is Dell’s story, but the seams around it belong to the channel. Arcese describes looking at the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA topology slide at a recent Dell Tech World and seeing the “gaps, the seams” – the services, the data work, the outcome-level integration – as the real opportunity for partners. As enterprise AI adoption moves beyond hyperscaler buildouts into mid-market and commercial customers, those gaps are where Canadian MSPs and VARs have natural advantages: proximity to the customer, industry intimacy, and the ability to make the technology real. On the VxRail-to-Dell Private Cloud transition, Arcese frames the shift around the economics of AI – disaggregated infrastructure lets customers independently scale GPUs, storage, and networking for specific workloads. Hypervisor choice is preserved across Red Hat, Microsoft, VMware, and others, and partners building Dell Private Cloud practices can access up to 10% incremental incentives. The AI PC conversation moves past the usual productivity pitch. With over 500 million PCs still running Windows 10 and enterprise fleets averaging three to five years old, the refresh is as much a security imperative as a performance one – a stronger entry point for MSPs already in the endpoint security conversation with their customers. The episode closes with a preview of the Global Partner Summit at Dell Technologies World, May 18-21 in Las Vegas. Demand signals replacing traditional leads, AI-assisted quoting and deal registration, a “modern partner-centric transaction ecosystem” – the “simple, predictable, profitable” mantra is getting operational substance. The details come in May. Read Full Transcript Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca, and your host for the show. Dell Technologies World is coming up in May, and for the Dell partner community, it’s the biggest event on the calendar – the place where the direction for the partner program gets set for the year ahead. As we head toward that, there’s a lot for Canadian resellers and MSPs to be thinking about. The partner program has been evolving. The shift from VxRail to Dell Private Cloud is still very much unfolding. The AI infrastructure opportunity is reshaping what customers expect and what partners are expected to deliver. The question of where a Canadian MSP or VAR actually fits into all of that – that’s a real and pressing one. To help me make sense of it, I sat down with Eric Arcese, Vice President of Global Partner Marketing at Dell Technologies. Eric’s been in the industry for over 25 years, with roots going back to the EMC era, so he’s been watching and shaping how the Dell partner ecosystem operates for a long time. We talked about where partners fit in the AI story, the VxRail transition, the AI PC refresh, and what you can expect from the Global Partner Summit in May. Let’s get right into it, my chat with Eric Arcese. Robert Dutt: Eric, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Eric Arcese: Thanks, Robert, for having me. Robert Dutt: You’re the Vice President of Global Partner Marketing at Dell. Can you give me a sense of what that actually means day-to-day? What are you responsible for, and what does the Dell partner community look like from where you’re sitting? Eric Arcese: Well, the partner community has been a tremendous growth engine and a critical and existential part of our go-to-market in everything that we do. We have partners around the world, we have some of our very best in Canada, and our partners really bring our technology to life with our shared customers around the world. We can’t do what we do in the market without the phenomenal partners that we have. In my role leading global partner marketing, that is to make sure that our story resonates, that we’re bringing that value proposition to life for our partners. They have choices, just like customers do, each and every day – who they’re going to invest in, who they’re going to work with, what they’re going to focus on learning, how they’re going to enable their sellers, their pre-sales folks. And we want to make sure that our partners feel really good about working with us, building businesses with us, developing practices with us, and ultimately growing with us in the markets that they serve for the customers that we collectively support. I love what I do. I’ve been in tech for over 25 years, here at Dell for over 25 years as well, and I could not think of a place I would rather be. Supporting our very best partners in Canada and around the world, and all that we do – that’s a little bit about what I do. I work very closely with my team around the world, and with our regional marketing folks as well, to make sure that that last mile of what we deliver for partners is well-aligned and adds value to partners in the ecosystem. So that’s a little bit about what I do, Robert. Robert Dutt: I feel like 2026 is a bit of an inflection point for the partner community writ large, and the definition of a Dell partner seems broader than it’s ever been. You’ve talked about partners moving beyond reselling into being architects, advisors, ecosystem builders – all that kind of good stuff. What do you see as the state of the Dell partner community right now, and how have you seen that picture change over recent months, and I guess the last year or two? Eric Arcese: Robert, you and I have both been in tech for the last couple of decades, and there have been different chapters, different inflection points. What we’re seeing now is a moment like we’ve never seen before. This is obviously all driven by AI, but it puts infrastructure, solutions, integrations, and outcomes at the forefront of everything that our partners deliver and everything our customers are demanding. So we’re in this moment that’s existential in tech and everything that we do, where we need to accelerate time to value with infrastructure. And when it really dawned on me, Robert – it was a couple of years ago, at a Dell Technologies World; you might have been there too. We had this announcement, and we called it the AI Factory with NVIDIA. And we had a picture on a slide – like so many of you have seen, with a chevron – data coming in on one side, use cases and business outcomes on the other, but layered through all of that, you had services, AI, software, infrastructure. And there were gaps when I saw this slide, and I was thinking to myself: the gaps, the seams, that’s where the opportunity lies for our partners around the world. Dell is the infrastructure provider of choice. We are the leader in everything that we provide – right from commercial PCs, to storage, to servers, AI servers – and stitching it all together through the topology upon which we develop those outcomes creates a huge opportunity for our partners. So that’s what gets me really excited about the moment. We’re meeting the moment. Our technology is meeting the moment, our partners are meeting the moment, and we’re working each and every day with those partners to deliver real AI-driven outcomes around the world. And some customers get it – and those that don’t, won’t be here very long. So there is this urgency, and we see that in our demand across the board. And I won’t go into earnings from last year, but you’ve probably seen that the year that we just posted, we’re seeing that come to life in every market. We’re seeing that in Canada, no doubt about it as well. It’s hard not to get excited about it. This is a very special time indeed. Robert Dutt: So the AI Factory – definitely been a centrepiece of the story for the last couple of years, as you point out. When I look at it from the perspective of my audience – from the MSP or the VAR serving mid-market and SMB customers – the massive GPU cluster buildouts feel like they’re kind of happening somewhere else. Can you help me fill in the story for the regional partner who isn’t doing hyperscale deployments and where they fit into the AI infrastructure story at this point? Eric Arcese: It’s a great question. I think that’s a little bit of the elephant in the room, right? The first couple of years, it’s like – yeah, you’re reading about these multi-billion-dollar deals, but where are they happening? And those deals were happening at the hyperscale level. The next question is: when is there enterprise AI adoption? When does a traditional enterprise customer really start embracing AI at every level? And you know what? We’re seeing that now. The trajectory of that growth is accelerating, and it’s terrific to see. To your point, Robert, those first couple of quarters, first year or two – the question was: what about enterprise adoption? And that’s where our partners are incredibly well positioned to make it real. What are the outcomes? What are the use cases? What are the business processes we’re going to focus on to bring that infrastructure to a place where it’s adding real value? The people in that workflow who make that real – that’s our partners. Dell’s partners. Because our partners in Canada are incredibly intimate with the industry, the customer, the use cases, the business priorities – whether it’s in the public or private sector. We’re providing that infrastructure at Dell Technologies, but our partners are making it real because they have that intimacy. They’re pressing the flesh, they’re working with customers each and every day, they know what those priorities are, and they can reconcile where those investments need to be made to help accelerate time to value. So with all of that comes a massive services and consulting opportunity. It’s not just the infrastructure – it’s the value-added services that our partners are building upon that infrastructure. And we’re seeing some terrific practices getting built with our partners around the world. When we work together, we win together, and we’re seeing that each and every day. Robert Dutt: Can you make that just a little bit more concrete for me? What are the consulting-type services you see partners bringing to bear right now – especially for that partner serving, let’s say, a 500-person financial services firm? Just to set an example of a mid-market-type opportunity where there may be an AI Factory angle, but it’s not the hyperscale wheelhouse. Eric Arcese: You know, if you think about it – four or five years ago, you and I would be having this conversation and it would be about a cloud-first model, and then we’d probably evolve into hybrid cloud, using public or private cloud based on the right workload. Now the way we think about it, it’s not a cloud-first model. It’s more around data. It’s the data model. Making sure we have the right data on the right workload, because if you plug an LLM or any AI-driven workload or a GPU behind suboptimal data, you’re going to get suboptimal outcomes. So when we think about where a partner is going to focus – irrespective of the industry, whether it’s public sector, banking, telco, manufacturing – I think starting with a real inventory of what that data topology looks like, and what the business outcome is that we’re looking to achieve. And no matter what industry the customer is from, one quickly realizes they’re all in the data business. Our partners can, number one, do a great assessment of where that critical data is and where it’s living. And number two, marry that data to the right business outcome in terms of what they’re trying to deploy. So I think it really starts with the data, and building practices that understand the workload, the industry, the vertical, and the data – that is key. And that creates a lot of opportunity. We talk about servers, storage, client, PCs, and networking all the time, but that is where that data is going to live, and we’re going to build that AI practice off of it. That initial assessment – where an AI practice starts – all begins with data, Robert. It’s really having that data-informed conversation. And then a lot of this is a change in mindset, in terms of what you’re doing with that data and what the expectations are. Robert Dutt: All right. From one reference architecture to another – talk about the transition from VxRail to Dell Private Cloud. Michael Dell’s been pretty direct about the direction. And I know you have roots going back to EMC, so it might be a bit personal. But for a partner who’s built a real practice, a real business, around VxRail over the last decade – what does that transition actually look like, and where do you see the services opportunity opening up as customers make that move? Eric Arcese: Robert, it’s such a great question. Because for years we talked about converged infrastructure, hyperconverged infrastructure – packaging, which made a lot of sense. You package a pre-architected and engineered system and you deliver it, to drive an accelerated business outcome. Time to value of infrastructure. The industry, with our partners, built a multi-billion-dollar business and a new market that was very well received. Then you wake up a couple of years later and now we’re talking about disaggregated infrastructure with Dell Private Cloud. And one may wonder: wait a second – we thought it was all about putting it all together and delivering it with speed. What’s changed? And I had to ask myself the same question, Robert. What’s changed? Well, the economics of AI have changed. The centre of gravity in terms of what is needed for these AI outcomes has been driven by a huge development – and that development is the GPU. The GPU is the accelerator of all the processing. And sometimes you need more GPU investment than you would need in storage, than you would need in client. You still need them across the board. So when you think about that economic backdrop of AI, the economics lend themselves to a more disaggregated infrastructure where you can dial up storage, server, networking, depending on what is needed for that specific workload, LLM, or AI platform that you’re rolling out. Also – customers want choice. They don’t want to be locked into one hypervisor. Maybe they want to work with Red Hat. Maybe they want to work with Microsoft. Maybe they want to work with VMware – they’re a VMware shop. Maybe they want to work with Nutanix. Allowing customers to have that choice empowers them, but it also creates opportunity for our partners, to your point, Robert. Because our partners are ultimately going to help our shared customers navigate those choices and reconcile those priorities from a hypervisor perspective, to optimize whatever application they’re rolling out. So it’s really about customer choice. And for me, the coolest thing to see is how quickly this has evolved. We’re doubling down on customer choice. Partners earn up to 10% incremental incentives. We’ve really built a program to drive profitable practices around Dell Private Cloud and strengthen and deepen those relationships. So we’re seeing this real shift from pre-packaged hyperconverged infrastructure to disaggregated infrastructure that’s truly optimized and tailored to Dell Private Cloud. Very exciting to see, Robert. Robert Dutt: Pivoting to the device side of things – the AI PC refresh is a significant cycle for the channel right now. For the Canadian VAR or even an MSP selling into the commercial market, what’s the marketing story that you’re giving them to make that conversation land? Especially with customers who are already stretched on IT budgets and might be looking at that three-year-old PC and saying, “good enough to get me through another year.” Eric Arcese: It might be. But it probably isn’t. And it’s not just the productivity benefits you’re going to see with an AI PC – it’s the security requirements that we’re all going to need. Because AI is terrific for the good, but it has also empowered the bad actors to get to where we work every day. Last year was all about the tech refresh from Windows 10 to Windows 11. We still have over 500 million PCs running Windows 10, and enterprise fleets averaging three to five years of age. So customers definitely need to act on that – to bring that AI capability to the edge, but also to meet the security requirements we need to protect that edge from reaching into the core. We started naturally in the data centre in our conversation today, Robert, but that edge – where are you working every day? What are you touching every day? It’s your PC. That’s your workforce. That’s what’s in front of you, whether at work or at home. And there’s just a tremendous opportunity there for our partners. We’re the number one commercial PC provider in the world, and it starts with what’s in front of you each and every day. We’re excited about that opportunity. That hasn’t gone away. We had a terrific CES, and there’s just more greenfield opportunity for our partners in Canada to win with Dell’s PC portfolio. Robert Dutt: Bouncing around a little bit from topic to topic here – you guys made some program changes for 2026, as most vendors are wont to do from time to time. The Titanium incentives probably being the most visible of them, but there’s also this broader “simplified, predictable, profitable” philosophy underneath it. From a marketing standpoint, what’s the message you most want partners to internalize about what Dell is committing to this year? Eric Arcese: One of the things I love about partner marketing, Robert, is the work is never over. And you can appreciate that – you’ve been in the channel just as long as I have. The work of creating a simple, predictable, profitable motion for our partners really never ends, because everything we talked about just keeps evolving. We want to make sure we have a simplified motion – taking friction out of the system. We want to make sure it’s predictable: you know what you’re going to get, you know how we’re going to engage with you. And it’s profitable: you want to make sure that you’re making money working with Dell Technologies in Canada. So we’re doing a lot around demand signals – how do we accelerate what used to be a lead, which is now a demand signal, the outcome of many different predictive analytics and data points on the markets that we serve with our partners. We want to make sure we’re simplifying that lead management and fostering seamless collaboration in that motion. We also want to make sure that from a deal reg perspective, we are managing opportunities together and protecting where our Canadian partners have invested. We want to do all of that to accelerate engagement, simplify processes, and empower our Dell sellers with a smarter and streamlined motion. And then quoting and buying – we want to make sure we are priced to win across the board, and we’re building a modern, partner-centric transaction ecosystem that connects product discovery to order management in one end-to-end platform. You’re going to be hearing more and more about that in the months to come. I think you’ll be at Dell Technologies World with us, so I’m excited to share more there. That mantra of simple, predictable, profitable – that work never ends. We’re seeing the fruits of our labour here and the success we’ve had in Canada over the last couple of years. And we’re really proud of the work that we’ve done. We’re very grateful and humbled by so many amazing partners in Canada that have really doubled down on Dell across the board, across the portfolio. Because when you have a great program that rewards the right investment, and you have wonderful people – I love the alliteration of portfolio, program, people – there’s nothing you can’t do. When we work together, we truly are winning together in Canada. Robert Dutt: To your point that it never ends – it just keeps evolving. You rightly pointed out we’re not too far away from Dell Technologies World, and the Global Partner Summit is a big part of that. There’s been some preview of a new integrated partner experience that sounds like it goes beyond a typical program update. Without asking you to scoop your own announcements – although if you want to, please feel free. Eric Arcese: Ha – I’ll be good. I’ll do my best. Robert Dutt: What’s the problem you’re aiming to solve for partners with this platform approach? What’s the philosophy behind what we’re likely to see roll out in the near future? Eric Arcese: What we talked about – meeting the moment – it is a truly special time. And we want to make sure our partners have the speed to deliver what we collectively need to for our shared customers, and the scale to do it across every market, across every part of our portfolio, across every partner type. What you’ll see at Dell Technologies World – as you always do – is the product of investments we’ve made over not just the year, but over years. From a portfolio perspective, programmatically, you’re going to see how when partners invest and build their practices and businesses on Dell, they will be rewarded. And then you get to spend time with our people who support our partners in Canada and around the world. Not to mention, we have a great time in Vegas, as one always does. So it’s the place to be. We’re a couple of weeks out and we’re seeing the excitement and anticipation building. We have a lot to share at our Global Partner Summit at Dell Technologies World. Robert, I believe you’re planning on being there – we’re looking forward to seeing you and spending time with you as well. And we’re going to have a great representation not just of Canadian partners but the Canadian customers we work so hard serving each and every day. It’s going to be a blast, as it always is. Robert Dutt: You touched a while back on some of the day-to-day operational things that partners tell me they feel the most friction on – not specific to Dell, but across the industry. Deal reg, quoting, lead sharing, the need to do all of that faster at higher scale. Is the vision here to make those kinds of operational experiences meaningfully more autonomous and self-serve? Is AI in the partner platform something partners will feel starting in May, or is that still on the horizon? Eric Arcese: Well, I prefer drinking your own champagne to eating your own dog food – so I’ll go with the bubbly analogy there. But we have very much been, for years now, investing in a very big way in our partner business and the platforms that support those partners. We want to make sure that we’re using an AI-first approach across the board in everything that we do – to take friction out of the system, and to have an AI-first mantra in all we do when it comes to empowering our people and our partners. I look at the AI that we’re investing in to support our partners as a real force multiplier. How do you get the power of the portfolio to our customers? How do you enable our partners to know that portfolio? How do you make sure that when you’re quoting and ordering, you’re doing that in the most efficient way – so that customers aren’t waiting, they’re getting the right configuration at the right time, for the right workload, at the price that makes the most sense, and we’re delivering value? We want partners to be able to deliver that value, because when they do, they grow – and when they grow, it’s good for our partners, it’s good for Dell, and ultimately we’re driving more outcomes for the customers we serve. So you’ll see a lot of that AI in what we deliver from a product perspective, but definitely in how AI supports things like syndicated content, quoting and buying, and all of the programmatic platform upon which our partnerships are built. Robert Dutt: My last question – you touched on 25 or more years in this industry, through the EMC years, through the Dell-EMC merger, and now we’re into the AI chapter. For a partner who’s navigating all of this right now – the infrastructure shifts, the AI opportunity, the evolution of the program – what’s your read on the best opportunity over the next 12 months? Where would you be pointing partners in terms of where to focus? Eric Arcese: Well, if you’re a partner thinking about which relationships you’re going to invest in – with Dell, you have a leader in commercial PCs, a leader in storage, a leader in services. You have the industry heavyweight in infrastructure. And not only that – in a world where we’re seeing some very complicated supply chain dynamics globally, you have the world’s best supply chain supporting you. You have a proven leader that’s committed to partnering in all that we do. And you have tremendous people in Canada there to support you each and every day. So I always think of it this way: if you’re building a business, who are those partnerships you want to create? You want one hand to shake that’s accountable to you, that’s invested in you, that’s committed to you – so that you can deliver on what you’ve promised your customer. With Dell, you have that. And we’re really proud of where we are in the market. This AI moment that we’ve all been afforded is going to create tremendous opportunity – and I couldn’t be more excited about it. Not just for the partner businesses we support, but for the outcomes and problem statements that we’re going to be able to address that we haven’t even fathomed yet. Transformative outcomes across every industry we serve, both public and private. So I’m really excited, Robert. And if I’m a partner, those are the types of things I’m thinking about and why working with Dell is a great bet. And hopefully we’ll all be making that bet in Vegas in May at Dell Technologies World – because that’s what you do in Vegas. You make bets. But it’s an easy one to make with Dell Technologies every day. Robert Dutt: Great point to leave it on. I look forward to catching up at Dell Technologies World and hearing more of the story there. Eric, thanks so much. Eric Arcese: Thanks so much, Robert. I really enjoyed our time together. Much appreciated. There you have it – Eric Arcese from Dell Technologies. I’d like to thank Eric for his time, and of course, thank you for listening today. If I had to pull three things out of the conversation for the Canadian partner to sit with, here’s what I’m thinking. First – the AI Factory framing. Eric described looking at the AI Factory topology slide and seeing the gaps, the seams between the components, as the partner opportunity. The hardware is Dell’s story. The services layer, the data work, the integration, the outcomes – that’s where partners play. If you’re trying to figure out what the AI infrastructure wave actually means to your practice, that’s a useful lens. Second – the VxRail transition. If you’ve built a practice around VxRail, Dell’s message is: the path forward is clear. The hypervisor choice you’ve made is preserved. The economics of the new platform make sense, and there are meaningful incentives to help you build out a Dell Private Cloud practice. The transition is underway and getting ahead of it matters. Third – the AI PC refresh is a security story as much as a productivity story. There are still around 500 million PCs running Windows 10, many of them three to five years old, sitting at the edge of the network while AI is making the threat landscape more sophisticated. For MSPs already in the endpoint security conversation with their customers, that’s a more powerful entry point than “it’s a faster laptop.” And of course – Dell Technologies World, May 18th to 21st in Las Vegas. The Global Partner Summit is the anchor event for partners, and based on what Eric was hinting at around the integrated partner experience and changes to quoting and deal registration, it’s worth watching closely whether you’re going or not. If you found this useful, follow or subscribe to the In The Channel podcast wherever you get your podcasts – we’re on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and most major directories. A rating or review is always appreciated if you’ve got a minute – it genuinely helps. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

Plus, the suspect in a 24 hour standoff in Denton County, is now behind bars, Texas can hang the 10 Commandments in every public school classroom, tech pioneer Michael Dell just donated $750 million to the school he dropped out of when he was 19 years old, and more!

Ethan Starr is a researcher and author of Billionaire Trivia, who spent years studying over 250 American billionaires, uncovering the surprising personal stories, pivotal moments, and unconventional paths behind their extraordinary wealth.Episode Sponsor: Fiscal AI is a modern data terminal that gives investors instant access to twenty years of financials, earnings transcripts, and extensive segment and KPI data—use my link for a two-week free trial plus 15% off: ⁠https://fiscal.ai/talkingbillions/⁠3:00 — Ethan's upbringing in Amherst, MA — a small college town with no super wealthy residents, shaping his careful attitude toward money.5:00 — The human side of billionaires: "Here's something that money can't fix" — Ethan on billionaires who've lost a child, showing no amount of wealth can shield from tragedy.8:00 — The self-made myth examined: Howard Schultz grew up in public housing; his father's injury and lost health insurance inspired Starbucks' employee benefits. "If you don't make mistakes, you're not trying hard enough."11:00 — Childhood traits of future billionaires: Jeff Bezos's intense focus, Michael Dell's obsession with shortcuts, Bill Gates reading books at dinner. Yet "I don't think there are any specific childhood traits that consistently predict who's going to become a billionaire."15:00 — Getting fired as a launchpad: Bernie Marcus dropped his lawsuit, co-founded Home Depot. Bloomberg's $10M severance funded Bloomberg LP. "To make billions, you have to own a business."19:00 — The power of pivoting: one billionaire switched from running an airline to leasing planes; Daniel Lubetzky created KIND Bars from a snack he wished existed.22:00 — Naming and luck: Google was originally "BackRub." Mark Cuban's broadcast.com sale to Yahoo for $5.7B at the dot-com peak.25:00 — Being unreasonable: Eli Broad's philosophy. Todd Graves limits Raising Cane's to five menu items while Michael Dell offered infinite customization — both unconventional, both successful.27:00 — Collector psychology and obsessive focus: Spielberg and Lucas collected Norman Rockwell paintings as fellow storytellers.30:00 — The space race: Bezos, Musk, Isaacman — pushing frontiers but risking everything, including their lives.38:00 — Political ambitions: Bloomberg as NYC mayor; billionaires deploying management skills in public service.42:00 — A world without billionaires: Ethan's take on wealth redistribution vs. wealth creation, and the slowing giving pledge.48:00 — Future billionaires: high-margin businesses, software, consumer products. "Start a business that can serve a lot of customers."52:00 — Defining success beyond money: "Success is making a positive difference" — Ethan's tribute to his fifth-grade teacher who left a lasting legacy.

Bank of American CEO Brian Moynihan joins CNBC for his first interview after reporting results. Then, during the CNBC Invest in America Forum, Apollo CEO Marc Rowan and Treasury Secretary Bessent weigh in on concerns about private credit and whether they think there are systemic risks. Plus, IBM Vice Chair Gary Stern and Michael Dell with a warning about overinvestment in data centers. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Follow Forbes Talks  Who are the top 10 richest people in the world? 1. Elon Musk  2. Larry Page  3. Jeff Bezos (up from No. 4)  4. Sergey Brin (down from No. 3) 5. Mark Zuckerberg  6. Larry Ellison  7. Jensen Huang (up from No. 8)  8. Michael Dell (up from No. 13) 9. Rob Walton (up from No. 11)  10. Bernard Arnault (down from No. 7) March wasn't the best month to be a billionaire, as both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq sank by nearly 5% amid the Iran war. Nine of the world's ten richest people enter April poorer than they were at the beginning of March. As a group, their fortunes fell by more than $100 billion combined to a total of $2.5 trillion, as of April 1 at 12 a.m. Eastern time.  Even more notable is the shake up at the top, as only four members of last month's top 10 held onto their same ranks including the world's richest person Elon Musk and no. 2 Sergey Brin. Despite their ranks holding steady, Musk and Page were two of five top 10 members who lost at least $20 billion in the past month. Musk's fortune fell by $22 billion to $817 billion. He's still more than three times as rich as his runner-up, Page, whose fortune sank by $20 billion to $237 billion.  The biggest loser was Frenchman Bernard Arnault of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, who dropped from No. 7 to No. 10, as his fortune sank by $28 billion, to $142.5 billion. Another big loser was Spanish fast fashion mogul Amancio Ortega, who tumbled from No. 10 to No. 14, as his fortune plunged by $20 billion, to $128 billion. Warren Buffett also fell out of the top 10, sliding from No. 9 to No. 11, as his net worth fell by $7 billion to $142 billion. Walmart heir Rob Walton lost $3 billion but nevertheless jumped into the top 10 for the first time in at least three years. The other new face in this month's top 10 (and the only gainer) was PC mogul Michael Dell, who climbed from No. 13 to No. 8, as his fortune inched upward by $2 billion to $143.1 billion.  Jeff Bezos also moved up, to No. 3 for the first time since October, as his fortune dipped by a relatively modest $1 billion to $223 billion. He swapped places with Google cofounder Sergey Brin, who dropped to No. 4 for the first time since January, as his net worth fell by $18 billion to $219 billion.  Forbes has been tracking the world's billionaires since 1987. In March 2026, we found 3,428 of them for our annual list. Below are the 10 richest people on earth as of April 1, 2026 at 12 a.m. Eastern time, according to Forbes. Stock prices fluctuate routinely, so these net worths typically change on a daily basis. Forbes tracks the daily changes on our Real Time list of billionaires. Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeswealthteam/article/the-top-ten-richest-people-in-the-world/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(0:00) Travis Kalanick: Officially exiting stealth mode, what he's been working on (5:52) How to automate the physical world, markets to go after (11:00) Return to self-driving: Tesla, Waymo, and the autonomous race (16:17) Leaving Los Angeles for Austin, the decline of truth and justice in California (25:51) Actuators, robot hands, "Capital as a weapon," Middle East SWF impacted by Iran War (36:00) Michael Dell: Dorm room to $140B in annual revenue, why Texas attracts founders (43:46) Dell's $50B AI infrastructure bet (1:03:50) Invest America: Michael Dell's $6.25B gift - A 401k from birth for 25M kids This podcast was recorded LIVE at Arena Hall in Austin, Texas. Thanks to our partners for making this event possible!: EY: Austin vibes meet AI innovation. Thanks to EY for co‑hosting with us at #SXSW. Discover what executives are saying about AI transformation in the latest AI Pulse Survey. https://ey.com/en_us/insights/emerging-technologies/pulse-ai-survey Forge Global: We're proud to highlight our partners at Forge Global, who are helping the world's most innovative private companies and their teams gain #liquidcourage on their terms. Learn more here: https://forgeglobal.com/who-we-serve/private-companies/ De'Longhi Athena Polymarket

Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, and Darío Gil, US Department of Energy under secretary for science, talk about working together on the build-out of a national AI infrastructure. Dell also comments about Anthropic's dispute with the Pentagon over using AI tools. They speak to Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of 10X Growth Strategies, host Preethy Padmanabhan sits down with Dr.Vivek Mansingh — technologist, entrepreneur, author, and former Silicon Valley leader — to unpack what meaningful success truly looks like beyond titles, money, and conventional achievement. Drawing from a career that spans Silicon Valley, Bengaluru, startups, and leadership roles alongside icons such as Steve Jobs, John Chambers, and Michael Dell, Dr. Vivek reflects on the principles that shaped his journey — from aspiring big and becoming number one in his field, to understanding why professional success alone is never enough. The conversation centers around ideas from his award-winning book Achieving Meaningful Success, where he introduces frameworks such as the “Wheel of Goals” and the importance of balancing professional ambition with health, relationships, spirituality, and inner growth. Through personal stories, he explains how some of life's most defining decisions came not from career milestones, but from choosing family, purpose, and long-term fulfillment. The episode also explores the power of mentors, books, role models, and lifelong learning — including lessons drawn from leaders such as Ratan Tata, N. R. Narayana Murthy, Rahul Dravid, and John Chambers, all featured in Dr. Vivek's interviews on excellence, leadership, and grounded success. A thoughtful conversation for anyone trying to build ambition without losing balance — and success without regret. ⸻ 00:00 – Introduction & Dr. Vivek's Career Journey 02:00 – From India to Silicon Valley 05:00 – What “Meaningful Success” Really Means 08:30 – The Wheel of Goals: Beyond Career Alone 11:00 – Mentors, Role Models & Becoming Your Best Self 16:30 – Books, Learning & Continuous Growth 19:00 – Thinking Big: Setting Bold Goals 23:00 – Steve Jobs, Excellence & Professional Achievement 25:00 – Family, Relationships & Life Priorities 30:30 – Why Goals Matter in Life 31:30 – Lessons from Extraordinary Leaders 34:30 – Book Awards, Giving Back & Final Advice 37:00 – Closing Thoughts

Is success in business simply about having the right idea, raising the perfect amount of money, or having the right connections? According to our guest today, David Senra, it's none of those. It's about obsession. David Senra has read 400+ biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs, studying how they actually built their companies. On his podcast Founders, he distills the lives of iconic builders into actionable frameworks. He also hosts in-depth conversations with living founders on his new show David Senra — from Daniel Ek to Michael Dell to Todd Graves — extracting the mental models you only earn after decades in the arena. In this wide-ranging conversation, we break down: • Why history's greatest entrepreneurs hire for spikes, not well-rounded resumes • Why durability is a first-rate virtue — and most businesses die of indigestion, not starvation • How Steve Jobs worked barefoot at Atari — and why Nolan Bushnell kept him anyway • Why George Lucas bet unapologetically on himself • How Sam Zell tortured himself into greatness — and why he chose freedom over money • Why Michael Dell says he works “all the days” • The founder archetypes framework — and why founder-problem fit beats founder-market fit • Why Todd Graves hasn't changed his menu in 30 years — and built a $20B chicken empire • How Rick Rubin became a reducer, not a producer — and why ruthless editing creates timeless work • Why belief comes before ability — non-negotiable for builders If you want to think like Jobs, Bezos, Zell, or Munger, this episode will permanently change how you approach focus, entrepreneurship, and building something that lasts. Turn attention into revenue with https://beehiiv.link/nt66tb. Use CODIE30 for 30% off your first 3 months. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code BIGDEAL at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/bigdeal Follow David Senra: Founders Podcast: https://www.founderspodcast.com New Show (David Senra): Available on all platforms Instagram: @founderspodcast ___________ 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:42 The Lonely Founder Life: Why Entrepreneurs Need Founder Friends 00:01:04 Marriages and Relationships of History's Greatest Entrepreneurs 00:03:07 Is Entrepreneurship a Trauma Response? 00:05:26 Hiring for Spikes: The Steve Jobs Employee Philosophy 00:10:12 George Lucas and the Power of Unapologetic Self-Investment 00:12:39 Longevity Over Everything: Building Companies That Last Decades 00:18:37 Do You Have to Be Obsessed to Win? 00:19:35 The Inner Monologue Shift: From Negative to Positive Fuel 00:35:48 Keep Your Circle Small: The Sam Zell Approach to Relationships 00:42:03 Personal Standards and the Yardstick for Quality 00:47:30 Sam Zell's Life Philosophy: Freedom, Focus, and the One True Luxury 00:50:29 Start, Scale, Sell Is a Trap: Find Your Last Business 00:52:36 Complexity Is the Killer: The Sam Walton Bureaucracy Battle 00:59:15 Simplify to Amplify: Raising Cane's, Papa Bagels, and the Power of One Thing 01:07:13 Founder Problem Fit: Know Your Archetype 01:25:17 AI, Electricity, and Thin Horizontal Enabling Layers 01:30:50 Mute the World and Build Your Own: The Daily Design Philosophy 01:34:59 The Power of Simple Obsession ___________ MORE FROM BIGDEAL

What if your 11% success rate means you're absolutely crushing it? In this episode, Paul Kirchoff shares how he helps small growth businesses and their leaders accelerate success through EPX Global, a breakthrough AI-centric acceleration platform and ecosystem. As an avid entrepreneur, investor, and global adventurer, Paul is the founder and CEO of EPX Global, where members around the world drive faster business success, max out amazing experiences, and push individual performance to new levels. Paul is also the Founder and CEO of DominoOne, an impact accelerator and crowdsourced problem-solving platform. Paul built two marketing software/agency companies and multi-billion dollar business units at Dell Computer Corporation as an early employee. He's a member of the 113-year-old Explorers Club, DJs electronic music, wrote a corporate thriller novel (giving proceeds to cancer research), and made a film about racism. Paul is developing frontier-level expertise in operationalizing artificial intelligence across the enterprise in every department. Paul reveals two relationships that transformed him in ways nobody has ever answered this question before: a Mongolian eagle hunter he met in the far eastern corner of Mongolia, an older gentleman who had zero knowledge of America, spoke no English, and lived in a yurt with horses and golden eagles as pets, teaching Paul about authentic human connection beyond labels and systems, which became the core culture he built into his technology platform where single moms are valued equally with astronauts; and a police officer who arrested him at 32 after a casual happy hour (though Paul was sober), leading to community service at a center for the deaf and blind where he spent weeks rewinding VHS tapes while listening to thought leaders teach cutting-edge SEO and digital marketing, which gave him the advanced knowledge to start his marketing agency that became successful and sold 13 years later, ultimately leading to his trip to Mongolia and the realization he needed to build EPX Global.   [00:04:00] What Paul Does at EPX Global Tech veteran CEO with many startups, sold companies, shut down companies Early employee at Dell Computer Corporation before anyone in Austin knew who Michael Dell was Built EPX Global as AI-centric ecosystem for small growth businesses and their leaders Heavy artificial intelligence expertise helping companies accelerate success, health, and experiences [00:05:00] Making Everything Go Faster Helps accelerate time to best performance unique to genetics on health side Helps companies accelerate success with AI, connections, and knowledge Makes sure people don't forget to dance under the Milky Way because life is short [00:06:00] Living in Service of Others Used to be financial goals and status symbols when younger, none of that matters now Addicted to a blank sheet of paper, gifted to solve or invent anything Respect for fellow humans (all a unit of one on their own unique journey) Living in service of others by replicating himself with technology [00:07:00] Building a Top Marketing Agency Built and sold one of top demand generation agencies in world Controlled front page of Google, Facebook called asking how they converted traffic Always on cutting edge of deploying technology in marketing (technical + psychology) [00:08:20] AI Systems for Every Business Size Wanted to build AI systems for small businesses (missing factor for 10x resources) Also doing business transformation consulting for billion-dollar companies Helping bigger companies go from where they are to AI-first operations [00:09:20] The 60% Revenue Increase Every Month Networking ecosystem connects people to solutions for health, happiness, business, capital People battling depression got connected to biohacking guys, transformed their lives One client company 60-70% higher revenue every single month with zero change to headcount [00:11:00] Being the X Factor AI systems deployed handle support, become AI salesperson, become AI marketing team Small businesses can grow beyond traditional chains with 10x resources All about being X factor in people's lives or facilitating X factor with someone else [00:14:00] The 11% Success Rate Discovery Expert guest on platform said his success rate is 14% (very successful guy) Paul did the math on his own attempts, came out to 11% success rate Entrepreneurs put enormous pressure on themselves, need different perspective [00:16:00] Trust in an AI World Real meaningful relationships becoming more and more valuable with AI Building networking assistant governed by user (uses your reasoning to find value) Human connection and that magnetic field around our hearts makes us who we are [00:19:40] When Social Media Became Entertainment Facebook, Instagram, TikTok devolved into micro entertainment channels (not networking) Feeds filled with ads and sponsored posts, no actual networking EPX Global has no ads, every connection based on merit of what you want [00:20:20] Photorealistic Fake Content AI video (Sora, Veo) can create photorealistic content that's completely fake Consumer backlash coming for authenticity in connections Business will embrace AI efficiency (hyper-efficient usually wins) [00:23:00] Two People, No Names Never anyone Paul looks up to or admires or wants to be like who affected his life Been blessed to meet incredible people (Pope, Richard Branson's Island, etc.) Two people come to mind that transformed everything Both people Paul has no idea where they are or their names [00:24:20] Far Eastern Mongolia Was entrepreneur working 14 hours a day for decade plus, one-trick pony success Knew needed to desperately change something, chose adventure Took group to far eastern corner of Mongolia to ride horses with eagle hunters Met older gentleman in yurt who had zero knowledge of America or United States [00:25:40] The Man with Golden Eagles Man spoke zero English, wore fox neck tie, had pet golden eagles (40 pounds) Paul realized this is furthest from his life as tech guy (opposite side of life) Both excited to meet each other as new friends with zero in common [00:27:00] Single Moms and Astronauts Brought that spiritualness and core value into network he built Despite super achievers (swimming oceans, skiing Everest, gold medals), none of that matters Single mom raising five good kids might be more impressive than astronaut [00:27:40] The Saturday Night Traffic Stop At 32, coming out of casual happy hour, got pulled over Told officer honestly: "I had two drinks over last hour, I'm clearly fine" Officer said he seemed like nice guy but made him do sobriety test Got arrested and taken downtown (was actually sober, officer kept saying he was nicest person) [00:28:40] Community Service for the Deaf and Blind Offered to do community service to get charge expunged Chose center for deaf and blind, job was rewinding VHS tapes in warehouse Asked supervisor if he could listen to music, supervisor said yes [00:29:20] SEO Lessons in His Ears Instead of music, put in thought leaders teaching SEO and digital marketing For weeks on end, hours a day, learning cutting-edge techniques from pioneers After that, was so advanced in knowledge that led to starting agency Agency became successful and powerful, sold it 13 years later [00:30:00] The Chain of Events If officer hadn't arrested him, wouldn't have had that learning experience Wouldn't have had confidence to start agency that got him burnt out Wouldn't have gone to Mongolia and realized need to build network [00:31:00] In the Canyon Before the Summit At the time was devastated, seemed horrible (younger without perspective) Now incredibly grateful it happened When in the canyon, you're about to go to the summit [00:32:20] When Identity Gets Wrapped Up Greatest risk to mental health is when identity tied to something other than happiness If identity wrapped up in labels (AI whisperer, top guy), devastated when things go wrong Separate identity from accomplishments to stomach any ups and downs [00:38:00] The Leader in the Back AI exercise: meditate on what you look like as future leader Paul's image: crowd moving down valley, Paul in the back (slightly bigger) Leader in back can move crowds (not showing off Maserati or boat) [00:39:00] A Multitude of Miracles However someone gets through life (good/bad parents, heartbreak, etc.) shapes them Everyone made it to this one moment in time (mathematically massive miracle) When you respect everyone like that, you operate without ability to judge or be judged [00:39:40] Operating Without Fear When you don't judge or feel judged, you operate without expectations Without expectations means without fear of future negative ramifications Can be yourself, be present, love everybody, still compete   KEY QUOTES "I did the math and my success rate is like 11%. And I feel like I'm fairly successful, right? I've learned to not really give a shit about what your definition of success is." - Paul Kirchoff "There's zero in common, zero knowledge about each other. And it was one of the most remarkable moments because it shows you this level of connection that's possible when you drop labels and systems and passports and everything else." - Paul Kirchoff "If that guy wouldn't have arrested me, I wouldn't have started an agency, wouldn't have gotten burnt out, wouldn't have gone to Mongolia, and wouldn't be on this call today." - Paul Kirchoff CONNECT WITH PAUL KIRCHOFF 

PODCAST LAS NOTICIAS CON CALLE DE 29 ENERO DE 2026 - Finalmente hay acuerdo para que Ramonita tenga casa - El Nuevo DíaAprobado el cable submarino de RD a PR - El Nuevo Día Nacen menos, emigran más, pero no hay prelación de temas - El Nuevo Día Pelea por reforma contributiva llega al saludo protocolar - El Vocero Gobernadora presenta plan de 11 billones para vivienda, hospitales, escuelas e inversión de desarrollo social - El Vocero Consumidor boricua no confía en recuperación según índice de la Cámara de Comercio e Inteligencia Económica - El Vocero FED no baja la tasa de interés en última reunión - CNBCAlcaldes pueden ayudar con LUMA para arreglar sistema de alumbrado - El Nuevo Día Preparadores de planillas siguen como si no se fuera a aprobar la reforma - El Nuevo Día Tesla decide dejar de producir la línea premium del S y X para moverse a producir robots - FTTrump se pone en posición de ataque contra Irán y manda portaaviones a preparar ataque - NYTFT reporta que Open Ai busca 100 billones en nueva ronda de conseguir fondos Constructores dicen que construir en PR cuesta 30% más por impuestos - Metro Trump tiene reunión con Israel y Arabia Saudita para ver lo que harán con Irán - Axios Trump va a depositar en la cuenta de menores y niños, sale anuncio de las cuentas Trump en el Superbowl - AxiosTodavía La Casa Blanca no confirma si las cuentas Trump aplican a PR, las de Michael Dell sí según Comisionado residente - END, WAPA Médicos advierten de la ley del concebido no nacido - El Nuevo Día Trump le dio tarjeta de oro a Nicky Minaj sin cargo algunoEl dólar vuelve a bajar de valor - Bloomberg Sigue creciendo la propagación del sarampión en South Carolina - Axios Inglaterra y Canadá vuelven a hacer negocios con China - Economist Demócratas piden prohibir que agentes de ICE no usen sus cámaras, que no puedan usar máscaras y que no puedan hacer operativos random - NYT¿Listo para una carrera donde cada detalle cuenta?El Bachillerato en Ciencias con concentración en Ciencias Forenses de EDPUniversity te prepara para ser un experto en el campo forense.Los graduados de EDP se convierten en profesionales capaces de explicarhallazgos complejos con precisión científica y legal, y comunicar resultadosforenses de manera efectiva para su uso en los tribunales.No esperes más, y ¡matricúlate! en EDP University, Saber es PoderIncluye auspicio 

In this episode of the Finish Big Podcast, Host Mark Dorman sits down with serial entrepreneur Dee Vaidya. Born in Bombay and raised in Pune, Dee's journey spans continents, industries, and decades — from rubber and plastics to electronics, Dell manufacturing, geospatial intelligence, and building a $50M+ government contractor before a successful exit. From starting with just $5,000 and a dream in Mary's family home, to winning a $200M global geospatial intelligence contract for the U.S. government, Dee's story is a masterclass in resilience, reinvention, and long-term thinking. This is a powerful conversation about immigration, entrepreneurship, family, culture, federal contracting, scaling, and giving back. Mark and Dee discuss: Early Roots & Education – Growing up in India, IIT Bombay, and following his father's entrepreneurial path. Family & Partnership – Building businesses with Mary and raising three children through multiple relocations. Reinvention – Moving from rubber & plastics into electronics, then into digital mapping and defence work. The Dell Years – Building PCs for Michael Dell in the early days of Dell Computer. Technographics Growth – From a small acquisition to a $50M+ company and 400+ employees. Geospatial Intelligence – Mapping the world for defence, navigation, and national security. Advisors & Mentors – The impact of Don Noble and building a world-class advisory team. The Exit – Selling Technographics to CACI and navigating a complex data room process. Giving Back – Launching the Wayne County Economic Forum to bring world-class speakers to Wooster. Life After Exit – Golf, table tennis, community leadership, and staying active. Connect with Mark Dorman: Succession Plus US LinkedIn: Mark Dorman LinkedIn: Succession Plus Facebook: Succession Plus (330)-416-9271 mdorman@succession.plus About the Guest: Dee Vaidya is a serial entrepreneur who has built, scaled, and sold multiple businesses across manufacturing, electronics, and geospatial intelligence. Born in India and educated at IIT Bombay, the University of Akron, and Purdue University, Dee moved to the U.S. to pursue entrepreneurship and the free-market system. He is best known for founding and growing Technographics, a geospatial intelligence company that won a $200M global contract and grew to over 400 employees before being sold to CACI. Dee is also the founder of the Wayne County Economic Forum and a recipient of the Wooster Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors Award for his contributions to the community.  

This week we talk about social networks, propaganda, and Oracle.We also discuss foreign adversaries, ByteDance, and X.Recommended Book: Rewiring Democracy by Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. SandersTranscriptIn 2021, TikTok, a short-form video platform that's ostensibly also a social network, though which leans heavily toward consuming content over socializing, was ranked the most popular website by internet services company Cloudflare, beating out all the other big tech players, including search engine juggernaut, Google.It was a neck and neck sort of thing, with Google taking the lead some days that year, but 2021 was definitely TikTok's time to shine, as it was already popular with young people and was starting to become popular with the general public, of all ages and across a huge swathe of the planet. It even beat Facebook as the most popular social media website that year, despite, again, being mostly about consuming content rather than interacting—that was actually a prime motivator for Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, to redirect its own apps in a similar direction, shifting its focus from communication and interaction between users toward the creation of binge-able content, and feeding users more of that content in a feed optimized for time-losing levels of consumption.2021 was also the first full year that TikTok was coming under scrutiny from the US government. In the preceding year, 2020, then first-term president Donald Trump said he was considering banning the app because it was becoming so popular, with young people in particular, and because it was owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance it represented a potential national security threat.So the idea was that because Chinese companies are forced, by their very nature, to do what the Chinese government tells them—that's just how things work over there—and to do so on the down-low if that's what the governments demands, and to lie about having to do what the government tells them to do, if the government tells them to thus lie, it doesn't matter that ByteDance's leadership swore up and down to the world that the company will never use its popularity, and the data it soaks up from all its users as a result of that popularity, to help the Chinese government, the Chinese military, or Chinese intelligence services.It of course will have to do that, and if it doesn't, its leaders could be black-bagged and disappeared in the night—because again, that's just how things work over there. So the Trump administration decided to make TikTok a sort of bogeyman, representing Chinese companies in general, and to some degree the presence of China in the US and throughout the Western world, and said, nope, we're not gonna let this thing continue to operate over here.It's worth remembering, too, that by 2021 the world was enmeshed in the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in China, and which Trump and his administration were ardently attempting to tie to the Chinese government—calling Covid the Chinese Flu, and even worse things, as part of that effort.So this move against TikTok and its parent company, while based on genuine concerns about the ownership of the company and how and where the data being collected by said company is handled, it should also be seen as a political maneuver, allowing Trump, during the 2020 election run-up, to look like he was taking a big stand against a big foreign threat, China.What I'd like to talk about today is a deal that was proposed way back then by the Trump administration, as a potential way out for TikTok and ByteDance, allowing it to continue operating in the US despite threats to shut it down, now that said deal, or a version of it, seems to have finally come to fruition—and what we know about the shape of the resulting new, US-based version of TikTok.—On January 18, 2025, TikTok stopped worked in the US. It voluntarily suspended all services in the country in the lead-up to the implementation of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which was passed by the US congress and signed into law by then-president Joe Biden in April of 2024. This law gave social networking services controlled by ‘foreign adversaries' 270 days, with the possibility of a 90-day extension, to divest themselves so that they're no longer considered foreign adversary-owned.This law was almost exclusively aimed at TikTok, and the idea was that TikTok, in the US, would no longer be able to legally function following that deadline if it was still owned by China, which for the purposes of this law has been labeled a foreign adversary.ByteDance could keep TikTok in the US going if it sold a majority, controlling stake of its US-based assets to non-adversary owners, but otherwise it would have to shut down.Interestingly, though Trump was the original source of concerns about TikTok and its Chinese ownership during his first administration, when he stepped back into office in January 2025, he signed a new executive order that delayed the enforcement of this Biden-signed law, and then delayed it still-further, three more times after that, saying that he wanted to give American investors the time to negotiate controlling interest of US TikTok, rather than banning it.Those efforts eventually bore fruit in the shape of a new controlling entity called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, which is made up of a bunch of non-Chinese investment entities, including US software behemoth Oracle, an Emirati investment firm called MGX, a US investment firm called Silver Lake, and a personal investment company owned by Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Technologies. There are other, smaller investors also involved, but the red thread that runs through almost all of them is that they're big Trump supporters and funders, funneling a lot of money into Trump's campaigns, and his family businesses.So six years after the initial legal salvo was fired at TikTok in the US, the local assets are now controlled by non-Chinese investors, though the original Chinese owner, ByteDance, still owns just under 20%, compared to about 15% apiece for Oracle, MGX, and Silver Lake.The new company's board is majority-run by those investors, too, which means it's majority-run by ardent Trump supporters. We don't yet know what effect this will have on content within the app, but under full Chinese ownership, topics related to democracy, Tianamen Square, and the LGBTQ community, among others, were significantly downgraded in the algorithm, ensuring they were seldom shown to anyone, which in turn disincentivized content that those owners didn't like while incentivizing content that was pro-China, and pro-Chinese government priorities.It's considered to be likely, by analysts who watch these sorts of maneuverings, that the same will be true of this new entity, but for and against subject matter that the Trump administration is for and against. Which raises the possibility that the new US TikTok, while superficially the same as the previous US TikTok, will slowly go the way X, formerly Twitter, has gone under Elon Musk, which was dramatically pushed in a new direction under its own owner, focusing on his political and ideological priorities and punishing users who spoke against those priorities.TikTok could become more or less an extension of the Trump-verse, in other words, and could thus become something more akin to Trump's own network, Truth Social, or other right-leaning and far-right social networks, like conservative YouTube-clone, Rumble, rather than something less ideological, or maybe I should say less overtly politically ideological, like Meta's Facebook, Threads, and Instagram.Users have already noticed some changes to US TikTok after the change in ownership, though, including what sorts of data are collected.TikTok's new privacy policy, which all users have to agree to before using the app, now that the platform has changed hands, says that TikTok will be using precise location tracking, keeping tabs on exactly where users are located via their device's GPS. That's compared to the app's previous approximate location-tracking effort, which used SIM card and IP address data to understand general proximity—it still uses that data, too, but now, rather than knowing what neighborhood you're probably in, it may also know what room in your house you're scrolling from.The new US TikTok also tracks users' interactions with AI tools, including their prompts, outputs, and metadata attached to said interactions, which includes details about where users are when they're using such tools, and what time they used them.They also collect gobs of marketing data from outside sources, and based on the users' activity within the app. So things you buy, websites and other apps you visit and use, and conversations you have will all be sucked up and agglomerated into a profile that's then used to show you targeted advertising. This isn't unique to US TikTok, but the company does seem to intend to make use of more such data, and to combine it with that other stuff it's now collecting, to increase the price it can charge for ads, because they'll be a lot more specifically targeted than before.Some users are beginning to comb through the new user agreement with a fine-toothed comb, noticing, in addition to those aforementioned major changes, that the company also reserves the right to collect information about your physical and mental health, to use identifying information in the videos and images you might share, and information gleaned from people and their identifying characteristics in images and videos, and to collect biometric data, which usually means eyes and faces and walking gate and things like that, to differentiate and track people across such content. They can keep tabs on your sex life, sexual orientation and gender, your drug usage, your ethnic and racial origins, your citizenship and immigration status, your financial situation and information—all sorts of stuff is collected, and they say in the privacy policy and user agreement that they intend to do gather and store and cross-reference this kind of information whenever possible.Again, much of this isn't novel, as social platforms are gobbling up all sorts of stuff about their users all the time, mostly to refine their ad placements because that allows them to charge advertisers more for better-targeted placements, over time.That said, because of the nature of the group that now owns US TikTok and which is making executive decisions about it, including, potentially, how this data is shared, including with the US government and its many agencies, there's a chance we might see an exodus of sorts from the still younger-than-average user base of this network, because there is a nonzero chance it could become a tool in the Trump administration's utility belt for tracking down people they don't like and spreading messages that are favorable to them and their ideological aims; so basically what was happening under the previous ownership, but for the current US administration's priorities, rather than those of the Chinese government.Show Noteshttps://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/tiktok-surpasses-google-popular-website-year-new-data-suggests-rcna9648https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/technology/tiktok-deal-oracle-bytedance-china-us.htmlhttps://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-new-privacy-policy/https://archive.is/20260123005655/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-23/tiktok-seals-deal-to-create-us-venture-with-oracle-silver-lakehttps://www.axios.com/2026/01/23/tiktok-deal-trump-app-banhttps://www.theverge.com/tech/866868/tiktok-usds-new-owners-algorithm-explainedhttps://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/22/5-things-to-know-about-the-tiktok-deal-00743316https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/business/media/tiktok-us-terms-conditions.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTokhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump%E2%80%93TikTok_controversyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efforts_to_ban_TikTok_in_the_United_Stateshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protecting_Americans_from_Foreign_Adversary_Controlled_Applications_Act This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

Tim Bucher, CEO and cofounder of Agtonomy, joins Amir to break down what physical AI looks like when it leaves the lab and shows up on the farm. Tim shares how his sixth generation farming roots and a lucky intro computer science class led to a career that included Microsoft, Apple, and Dell, then back into agriculture with a mission that hits the real world fast.This conversation is about building tech that earns its keep, delivers clear ROI, and improves quality of life for the people who keep the food supply moving.Key takeaways• Deep domain experience is a real advantage, especially in ag tech, you cannot fake the last mile of operations• The win is ROI first, but quality of life is right behind it, less stress, more time, and fewer dangerous moments on the job• Agtonomy focuses on autonomy software inside existing equipment ecosystems, not building tractors from scratch, because service networks and financing matter• One operator can run multiple vehicles, shifting the role from tractor driver to tech enabled fleet operator• Hiring can change when the work changes, some farms started attracting younger candidates by posting roles like ag tech operatorTimestamped highlights00:42 What Agtonomy does, physical AI for off road equipment like tractors01:45 Tim's origin story, sixth generation farming roots and the class that changed his path03:59 Lessons from Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Michael Dell, and how Tim filtered the mantras into his own leadership05:53 The moment everything shifted, labor pressure, regulations, and the prototype built to save his own farm09:17 The blunt advice for ag tech founders, if you do not have a farmer on the team, fix that11:54 ROI in plain terms, one person operating a fleet from a phone or tablet14:29 Why Agtonomy partners with equipment manufacturers instead of building new vehicles, dealers, parts, service, and financing are the backbone17:39 The overlooked benefit, quality of life, reduced stress, and a more resilient food supply chain20:18 How farms started hiring differently, “ag tech operator” roles and even “video game experience” as a signalA line that stuck with me“This is not just for Trattori farms. This is for the whole world. Let's go save the world.”Pro tips you can actually use• If you are building in a physical industry, hire a real operator early, not just advisors, get someone who lives the workflow• Write job posts that match the modern workflow, if the work is screen based, label it that way and recruit for it• Design onboarding around familiar tools, if your UI feels like a phone app, training time can collapseCall to actionIf you got value from this one, follow the show and share it with a builder who cares about real world impact. For more conversations like this, subscribe and connect with Amir on LinkedIn.

Steve sits down with Nick Hopwood, CFP, founder and president of Peak Wealth Management, for another edition of No Lazy Money,  focused on discipline, planning, and real-world investing. They look back at Cisco finally hitting a new high more than 25 years after 2000, what the lost decade taught investors, and where money actually worked when the S&P 500 went nowhere. Hopwood also lays out what investors should do if the market drops 10% or more in 2026, weighs in on Ray Dalio joining Michael Dell, and delivers a critical reminder: this is the last call for 2025 tax planning, including QCDs, donor-advised funds, tax-loss harvesting, and Roth conversions. Visit PeakWM.com/Gruber for a free Social Security analysis. Stop letting your money get lazy!

OpeningHolidays! . Cats and Dogs and Family. Happy Holidays. New Cat named Timmy. Pure trouble and pure JOY! Coinbase Fraud. Called with automated message asking if I attempted to change my “email contact”. If “no” they said press #1 or otherwise hangup. So I press 1. Some dude is on the line. Says he needs my first and last name to help. I ask him, “how do I even know if you're real…How do I know you're Coinbase?”. He hangs up!!! OMG! Startup InvestingRule #1: Be comfortable losing all the money. Might sting, but should not cause you to lose sleep!MarketsInvestments for our kids!  Brad Gerstner and Michael Dell at White House. Fed Regulation of AI. To prevent a 50 state patchwork, onerous system. Bernie Sanders and other Dems calling for a “halt” on AI and Datacenters!!Markets S&P 500AppleApple head of AI retiring. Apple could partner with Gemini. Also, tech is getting so good that Apple will offer privacy! NetflixNetflix back in pole-position. I think this is “Good”Turnkey studio and ICONIC space. IP. Harry Potter, DC Comics, Game of Thrones, Matrix, Sopranos, Succession, Lord of the Rings. BarbieHBO! TeslaTesla AI ChipsTesla AI Chip and Advanced Engineering from Elon. Elon tweeing/xing tried and trying to help legacy automakers, but they want a pilot program that starts in like 5 years!This video of Optimus jogging is insane. Should double the market cap! TSLZSpaceXWhen Starship is launching several times a day in a few years, SpaceX will be ~99% of all Earth payload mass to orbit, even if the others triple their current launch rate. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1994518037614268565?s=51&t=YUkdoBz4yNifBaQlQUp3-gDrugsDrug TradePolitics https://open.spotify.com/episode/65oG0YARECbXnFCbv2PTZpDavid Sacks is a highly successful business person that is serving our government well and we should all be thankful.From Chamath on the Topic. Tim Waltz Fraud. String on X and And another oneCalifornia Budget Crisis - Wealth Tax200 billionaires are on Zillow right now! RecommendationsMolly's Game (interview on All-In). Movie: The Spy Who Dumped Me. Bill Gurley on ferrisSean RYan Show with Tobi Ludke and JockoEthan Hawk

We have Mike Monaghan on the show today and covering the “Birth of an ETF.” He’s going to talk about the Founders ETF and its new launch. We’re also going to talk a little bit about what it takes to get an ETF up and running. From a compliance perspective, remember, there’s no guarantee of future performance. https://youtu.be/o-m3PYHKXqk?si=qBaHkJpUt7xgdpjG Transcript of “The Birth of an ETF” 00:00 The Founders ETF Frazer Rice (00:00.986)Welcome back, Mike. Michael Monaghan (00:02.616)Frazer, it’s great to be back. Frazer Rice (00:04.4)You are at an interesting point in time right now. You’re about to start up Founders ETF and I think you’re about to get trading authorization to get going. Maybe tell us a little bit about the process to set up an ETF. Then we’ll dive into the strategy a little bit. Michael (00:21.25)Yeah, absolutely right. We should start trading on the SIBO Thursday, so two days from now. And we’ve launched our first fund, the Founders 100, that owns the 100 best founder-led companies. I’d be happy to go through some of the process that it takes to set up an ETF. Frazer Rice (00:40.014)Love it. ETFs are the main way to go now in terms of getting an inveestment cvhicle up and running. What has your experience been around? The Popularity of the ETF Structure Michael (00:52.014)Yeah, so ETFs have become the primary investment vehicle for a few reasons. Let’s outline those reasons. Then we can go through some of the steps that it takes to set up an ETF. So on the advantage side of an ETF, they’re typically a bit lower cost than traditional mutual fund products. Importantly, they’re tax advantaged. So there’s no gains or losses that occur during the normal ETF growth phase. Everything that happens within the ETF is done with what’s called an authorized participant. So you do exchanges. And so there’s no capital gains that are assigned to the investors. As long as they hold the ETF, a tax trigger only occurs when they actually sell the ETF. Finally, it’s a great way to get exposure to the market. So whether you want to own a broad market index, one of the legacy indexes, or a vehicle like ours. That gives you in one single trade, rather than having to guess who’s going to win. Is Nvidia going to win or Palantir who’s going to win? You can own a hundred of the best winners in the market in one single stock ticker. In our case, FFF. Frazer Rice (02:07.364)So let’s dive into that theme a little bit. As you said, it’s the top hundred founder led companies. First and foremost, public I assume, private, you’re not diving in those waters. Public vs Private Michael (02:20.59)Correct. So these are the hundred best publicly traded founder led stocks. And we generally fish from the 200 largest founder led publicly traded stocks. So a lot of these are names and founders that are very well recognized. Whether it’s Elon at Tesla or a Mark at Metta, Larry at Oracle, Rich Fairbanks at Capital One. These are all very well known founders. They’re great entrepreneurs who are leading highly scalable, very high performing publicly traded stocks. 02:53 Understanding Founder-Led Companies Frazer Rice (02:53.914)So let’s define founder a little bit. Obviously we have sort of the cult of personality around high-end CEOs. It sounds like you’re identifying companies that have been founded. The people who are running them not only founded them, but they scaled them. They have now gotten them to a level of maturity. That’s different from the typical public company that we find in the S &P 500. Definition of Founder Michael (03:19.104)Yeah. So first let’s define a founder. Then let’s talk about why we think the founder led companies outperform a traditional S&P company. We define the founder as being a chief executive leader. It could be chief executive officer, could be chief technology officer. Sometimes that say a scientific or medical company, would be the chief scientific or chief medical officer. And that person conceived and founded the company, took it from zero to one. It’s their imprint that has guided it over its 10 or 20 or 30 year period. That’s taken it from a small private company to a venture backed company to a large publicly traded company. And so the idea being the person that founded it continues to run it to this day. We talk about the fact that we own an Nvidia that Jensen still runs. But we don’t own Intel. We own Meta because Mark still runs it, but we don’t own Google. We own Dell computer because Michael Dell still runs it. But we don’t own Apple. We own Capital One because Rich Fairbank still runs it, but we don’t own American Express. Investment Process Frazer Rice (04:25.86)Got it. So lots of things to get into here. How does it a company get on your radar screen? And then ultimately, how does it get off of it? Michael (04:35.806)Great question. the getting on the screen is fairly mechanical. We look at the 200 largest by market capitalization founder led stocks. So we look at all U.S. listed. So it could be listed on the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ, but it has to be U.S. listed. We then look at the 200 largest. And from there, we select the 100 best using a quantitative factor model. So I’m have a Sanford Bernstein background and so do some of the folks here. And so for folks who are familiar with Bernstein’s research, we use a Bernstein factor model to pick the best, the hundred best names out of the 200 largest. That’s how they get on our radar. And to get off is quite simple if they retire. So if a CEO announces he’s retiring, per the prospectus, we have 90 days to sell the stock. once we, so for example, Mr. Buffett recently stepped down from Berkshire Hathaway. And so we sell Berkshire Hathaway on his announcement and no longer own the stock. Frazer Rice (05:38.0)things like corporate mergers or divestitures or maybe even a reclassification of stock where the founder stays on in some capacity but their decision making has been reduced. How do you analyze that? 05:54 The Investment Strategy Behind the ETF Michael (05:54.326)Yeah, so there is some human overlay judgment calls here and the founder has to be an executive officer leading the company. So they can’t just run a division. They can’t just be chairman of the board. They have to be the executive in charge of running the company. Frazer Rice (06:14.0)And if for, I guess one of the exits possibly would be if, and I don’t know if this is even possible, but if NVIDIA were to take over Meta and there isn’t room for Jensen and Mark in the same suite, how do you analyze something like that? Michael (06:34.253)So in the business combinations where you have two founder-led companies or a non-founder-led company swallowed up by a founder-led company, as long as an original founder remains, it remains in the portfolio. So we’ve had some stocks that had, say, three to four co-founders. And as long as one of those co-founder remains, it remains in the portfolio. Voting Shares Frazer Rice (06:58.352)So one of the things that’s a bee in my bonnet is the concept of having shares where, in a sense, they’re super majority or voting components and then shareholders that have less decision making authority to act as a check and balance around the company. Is that something you’re not really that worried about or is it something that may be a factor that’s important later on? Michael (07:24.525)So we actually think that’s one of the opportunities that this exists. Like one of the things that we haven’t talked about yet is why is all this alpha there? Why is this uncaptured alpha there for us to go get? And we think historically in the past, active money managers have sometimes shied away from these founder led companies because to your point, Frazier, oftentimes the founder has managed to have super voting control, 10 to one shares, 101 shares. So they completely control the company. And some of these larger active money management complexes have said, well, we as the shareholder, we need to be able to have a vote and we’re going to underown these stocks. We have the opposite view. We think these founders are special. So we think that by the time a Mark or a Elon has driven their company into the public markets, they’ve showed that they know how to set the vision, ruthlessly execute and generate value for the shareholders. Concerns? And so we’re not concerned by super voting structures. Oftentimes those are the stocks that we want to own because it’s the founder that’s in control and setting the direction of the business and generating high returns for the shareholders. We view it as you either believe in them and you own the stock or you don’t believe in them and sell the stock. We’re not interested in other people’s getting on the board and monkeying with the decisions of the founders. Frazer Rice (08:30.255)Is this it? What is it about the founders, especially for those that go from zero to one, then to scale, and then to shepherding a mature business? What makes them better and what drives the alpha that you’re trying to seek? In terms of putting together a portfolio of these types of companies? 09:01 The Importance of Founders in Business Michael (09:02.891)Yeah, so the great ones tend to be a bit irreverent. They tend to be highly visionary. They tend to be charismatic communicators and relentless in their execution ability. They’ve got a great ability to pivot if a change needs to be made. And rthe moral authority to set a tone to generate very high rates of return. We see it sort of over and over and over in these founder led companies. And if you look at some of the studies that we’ve done. There’s a study that Bain Capital, Bain had done years ago in combination with Harvard Business Review, founder led companies tend to outperform non-founder led companies in say the S &P 500 by 3X. So it’s this personality type of high vision and high execution tends to drive outsize returns. And it’s a bit of a self-selecting process. What makes Founders Unique? If you think about it by the time any of these founders that we own or talk about have got to the public market. They first had to identify an opportunity to go after. They had to develop a great product by listening to their customers. And they’ve shown that they can scale all the way from a series A round, B, C, D, all the way investing and generating high rates of return in the private markets. Transitions of Founders to Executives They get to the public markets, continue to do that. And now you get a little bit of an effect of a echo of that, of now all of sudden you’re in the public markets. If you get enough scale, you have this highly effective business. Now you’re getting relatively cheap capital that you’re feeding into your business through the public markets. And now you continue to grow. Frazer Rice (10:42.096)Just to summarize at least what I’m hearing is that they’ve gotten to the point of becoming public. They’ve been able to say no to losing control in exchange for either putting some liquidity back in their pocket or otherwise moving on. And so they’ve almost ratified their vision and message and they keep going. And by the fact that they’re public, there’s enough liquidity for everyone else out there in terms of their investments. So it ends up being a win-win. Michael (11:11.157)I think so. That’s what we see. Frazer Rice (11:13.316)So one thing that I’ve been sort of reading about and thinking about is the concept that the number of public companies is becoming less, well, it’s decreasing, and that many people are able to stay private for longer. Do you worry that your universe is going to get too small to provide sort of a canvas for your ideas here? 12:02 Market Trends and Future Outlook Michael (11:37.549)Let’s talk about three phases of that. We don’t, we actually see the data showing that there’s more and more opportunities within founder led. So let’s look at history and then let’s move to the future. So historically, probably about the time you and I joined the securities business, they would actually take the, to your point, they would take the founder, they would kick out this charismatic founder. They would put in some mid-level proctor or GE middle level manager to be the you know, the suit in the room to take the company public. And that was sort of in the late nineties and people figured out that wasn’t such a good idea. So if you actually look at the chart, there’s more and more founders staying and leading their public, their, their publicly traded companies. That’s number one. Number two. Yes. We have seen some companies stay private, obviously Stripe, SpaceX, but we are now seeing, for example, SpaceX coming to the public markets. Eli is talking about coming next year. so we, we haven’t seen it so far impact the pool with which we can fish in. And as I mentioned, that’s what we saw historically. Public Markets and the Future In the future, think, Frazer, I think we’re going to start to see a conversion of public and private markets, meaning these private mega cap companies have liquidity. And I think that you’ll see more and more ability to trade those stocks almost in public liquidity. So I think these two markets are converging. So I think that Not only do we have plenty of founders in the traditional public markets, I think that the liquidity and the big privates is going to converge to a public market style shortly anyway. Frazer Rice (13:13.232)You’re in a curious time as far as launching an ETF around this concept. I know a lot of people are wary of Mag-7 and ultra valuations and issues related to that. How do you respond to that concept that a lot of the growth has taken place in seven, maybe seven out of the hundred that you’ve chosen? Debunking the Mag-7 (to the Mag-3) Michael (13:33.356)Yeah, so that’s a misconception. We see Mike Saylor get on TV and wave his arms around it, but it’s not really true. First of all, what’s interesting, if you tear apart the Mag-7, it’s actually the Mag-3. The outperformance in the Mag-7 has come from Meta, Tesla, and NVIDIA. So it’s not just the Mag-7, it’s a founder led. And now you say, well, that’s a small sample set. Let’s look at a bigger sample set. So if you look at the NASDAQ 100, for example, It’s actually the 20 founder led companies have driven most of the outperformance over the last 25 years. And what I’m about to tell you about the S &P 500 probably won’t surprise you. It’s the 37 founder led companies that have driven most of the outperforming the S &P 500. So the outperformance is coming from founders, not from any specific part of the market. And one of the things that we think is great about this ETF is to avoid concentration. 14:50 Risk Management I know you’re really familiar with the concept of active share and that’s how different you are than the S &P 500. We have an 85 % active share to the S &P 500. So if you own the founders 100 ETF, you have much different exposure to the market than say the S &P 500. And so we think it helps reduce some of that concentration. We’ve done some things to make sure that we are diversified. First of all, we do own 100 stocks. Diversification So really good diversification across that. And then number two, while we run a market weight portfolio, we cap. No stock can be bigger than 7 % of the portfolio, so we don’t get out of balance at any point. So we think that we mitigate some of those concentration risks and we allow people to invest in innovation without being over concentrated to any one name, say the MAG-7, for example. So we think that we’re giving our investors really good exposure to innovation through the founders, but not exposing them to pre-existing market concentrations. And then finally remind everyone It’s not the MAG-7, it’s not the NASDAQ-100, it’s not the S &P-500, it’s the founders within each of these are what are driving the outsized performance in those analytical groups. Frazer Rice (15:36.218)So from a diversification standpoint, obviously not everything in one name, the 7 % cap you described, do you have sector concentration guidelines as well? Michael (15:45.749)We don’t have sector concentration guidelines, but if you look at the nature of the portfolio, we were fairly well diversified. We’re slightly overweight tech and financials versus say the S &P, but we own healthcare stocks, own consumer stocks, we own energy stocks. So we’re giving you a broad exposure to the market. Leverage Frazer Rice (16:05.924)Let’s talk about leverage for a second. I know a lot of people are trying to juice returns by piggybacking off of other people’s money on that front. Does that have a place in your ETF? Michael (16:17.004)So there’s no leverage in the ETF. We sort of believe in get rich the slow way. I like to tell people that it’s very hard to make money in the stock market over the short term, but it’s not particularly difficult over the very long term. think Mr. Munger and Mr. Buffett used to talk about this. the idea being, leverage can impact you in times that are not favorable. So we believe in just owning the stocks unlevered, let them compound over very long periods of time. And we think that by doing that, we and our shareholder, we think our shareholders can generate wealth over very long periods of time. Taxes Frazer Rice (16:54.98)So tax efficiency, the concept of holding period, does that play into your process at all? Michael (17:04.316)So remember within the ETF, as long as you’re managing your trading properly within the ETF, there’s no tax implications inside of it for your shareholders. Your shareholders only would be impacted at selling. So assuming they hold the stocks for over a year, any gains would be long-term capital gains treatment. Frazer Rice (17:27.024)And when you’re describing the investor profile that you’re looking to attract here, who is this for? Michael (17:35.916)Yeah, so the person that, you we really think it’s appropriate for you if you have a five year or more holding period and you want to have long-term capital appreciation. You know, if your goal is to be exposed to the best minds and public securities, that’s the founder led companies, and you want to compound your wealth over a very long period of time and have a high probability of outperforming the traditional broad market indexes, this ETF is designed for you. 17:59 Investor Profile and ETF Positioning Frazer Rice (18:04.705)And as you’re sort of outlining that profile and for those people who are trying to figure out where this fits in from an equity allocation perspective, you’re in charge in many ways of the spoke of a hub and spoke component of people are really sort of looking at indexes as the base of their equity portfolio. What are you looking for? What kind of benchmarks do you sort of measure yourself against? Michael (18:35.007)Yeah, so we think this is absolutely a core holding. So if you’re looking to build out you or your client’s portfolio, we think this should sit at the core. It is on the growth side, so it’s core growth. We think that it is a one-for-one replacement for, the NASDAQ 100. Or, for example, somebody holding the triple Qs. We think this is a better holding than the triple Qs. So we benchmark ourselves against them and against the S &P 500. Ee look at beating those two broad market indexes, generating better risk return for our investors. Frazer Rice (19:13.019)For those listeners that are out there and want to find out more, what’s the best way that they can either get a hold of you or maybe even better, do you have a ticker symbol ready that people can discover? FFF and Contact Information Michael (19:25.215)Yeah, absolutely. So the ticker is FFF. So that’s the FFF ETF that we’ll trade on. And investors can find that at their favorite brokerage firm, whether they’re Schwab customers, Interactive Brokers customers, Fidelity customers, trades under one ticker, just like a stock. Frazer Rice (19:44.365)And let’s take, we have a few minutes to go here, which is great. Your experience in terms of establishing the ETF, maybe a couple of some of the touch points when you went from vision to execution here, what was the process? Michael (20:00.106)Yeah, so ETF has a few basic processes that are regulated under the 1940 Securities Act. And so a lot of those rules are set up to protect the end investors. So for example, the securities live within a trust. So we set up our own trust. Some people use a mingled trust. We thought it was better for our end investors to have our own trust that we set up that has an independent trust board that oversees to make sure that we’re executing our strategies as we’ve outlined in the prospectus to make sure that we’re Doing the best we can for our investors. You’ve got to set that up There’s a few firms that do the plumbing for the for the ETFs would say US Bank is probably the largest player. So US Bank provides our our fund custody and fund administration and then there’s just a few other vendors in the space that sort of help with all the plumbing to make sure that the ETF runs smoothly. So it’s probably a six month process if you stay really focused to get all of that set up. 20:58 Navigating the ETF Launch Process Frazer Rice (21:03.313)You get that set up, how do you approach the Schwabs and the Fidelitys and the other platforms to make sure that people can access, buy, sell, whatever they want to do with your ETF? Michael (21:14.347)Yeah, that’s a great question. So the online brokerages typically put you on the platform as soon as you’re listed on a major US exchange. So you’ve got to get listed on NASDAQ, NYSE or CIBO. We chose CIBO. So again, on the traditional online brokers, you’re there day one. And then the big wire houses, JP Morgan, Goldman, Morgan Stanley, BAML, they typically have a few hurdles that you’ve got to get through, whether it’s daily trading liquidity assets under management. And over time, as you run the wickets through their process, you’re added to those platforms. Macro Issues? Frazer Rice (21:48.721)We live in a political age and a time when there’s just chaos everywhere, different types of rules in order to allocate capital. If you’re an investor trying to guess what’s happening politically, et cetera, that are difficult, you must be positive as far as the environment for founders to find success in this country and beyond. Is there anything that you’re looking for to make sure that those conditions hold? Michael (22:18.225)Yeah, we don’t really look at the macro or political backgrounds. think over very long periods of time, U.S. innovation outperforms. so we sort of we think that, again, one of the great things with investing in founders is they keep adapting as the background changes behind them. So we think over very long periods of time, the U.S. has great economic growth. And for those people that have worried about little blips along the way, we think the founders are the absolute best at mitigating those blips. Frazer Rice (22:48.334)I like to say you bet against America at your own peril and it sounds like from a founder perspective it’s still a great place for them to locate their businesses and grow them here. Michael (23:01.042)Absolutely. 23:50 Final Thoughts and Contact Information Frazer Rice (23:02.971)Just to reiterate, FFF is the ticker symbol for people to find it. any other contact points for people to find you if they’re interested in what you’re putting together. Michael (23:15.613)Yeah, so we have a great website at FounderETFs.com. can go check out there or anyone’s happy to email me, just michael at FounderETFs.com. Happy to chat with anyone who has interest about the portfolio, the strategy, or what we’re building. Frazer Rice (23:32.197)Well, great to have you back on, Mike. Thank you for putting up with my attempt at looking like Steve Jobs. It’s 25 degrees in New York here, and I am the stupid one who’s not in California or somewhere warm. appreciate you taking the time to be on and talking about your new product. Michael (23:48.011)Yeah, it was great to be on here. Really a huge fan of your podcast and just the level of guests that you’re able to interview and help educate your viewers. Frazer Rice (23:56.849)Mike, thanks for being on. Michael (23:59.061)Thanks a lot, Frazer. https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Actually-Intelligent-Decision-Making-1-ebook/dp/B07FPQJJQT/ Previously with Mike Monaghan ETF EDUCATION ARTICLES ON ETF.COM

Trump just announced Trump Accounts — a $1,000 government-seeded investment account for newborns — and it might be the most impactful financial policy in decades. Zach Abraham of Bulwark Capital Management breaks down how Trump Accounts work, why compound interest beats Social Security, how parents and grandparents can contribute, and how this could create generational wealth for American families. We also explain why the left is melting down over private investment, Michael Dell's massive contribution, and why this program could finally teach kids real financial literacy instead of government dependency. If you care about inflation, retirement, investing, Social Security reform, and your kids' future, this is a must-listen. Get back to basics with Bulwark's Know Your Risk Portfolio Review—don't put it off, go to https://KnowYourRiskPodcast.com today.Subscribe and stay tuned for new episodes every weekday!Follow us here for more daily clips, updates, and commentary:YoutubeFacebookInstagramTikTokXLocalsMore Info

On this week's Defense & Aerospace Report Business Roundtable, sponsored by Bell, Dr. “Rocket” Ron Epstein of Bank of America Securities and Richard Aboulafia of the AeroDynamic advisory consultancy join host Vago Muradian to discuss a week on Wall Street; the House's version of the National Defense Authorization Act; implications of US efforts to push Ukraine to ceasefire that now appears to include Kyiv giving up on NATO membership in exchange for Western security guarantees; outlook for the SCAF next-generation air program as French, German and Spanish defense ministers meet in advance of meeting next week between President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Friedrich Merz; the GCAP consortium's invitation that Canada join Britain, Italy and Japan in developing a family of next generation air systems; Boeing closes its $8.3 billion acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems as the company's Air Force One program is delayed another year to mid 2028 and the Federal Aviation Administration reviews the proposed angle of attack alert system for 737 Max 10 jets; SpaceX prepares its IPO the company could be working $800 billion; and JP Morgan Chase hires Berkshire Hathaway's Todd Combs and recruits veteran advisers including Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell, Ford CEO Jim Farley, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and retired Gen. Dave Petreaus to oversee bank's $1.5 trillion Security and Resilience Initiative investment fund.

Kara Tsuboi covers today's top tech stories. Michael Dell makes one of the largest donations to go directly to the American people. One of the fastest-growing college majors is now artificial intelligence. The esports champion of Excel is crowned in Las Vegas.

President Trump just unleashed a game-changing "Day of Giving" with Trump Accounts—tax-deferred investment funds for every American child, seeded by a massive $6.25B Dell pledge! Watch how this pro-family powerhouse builds wealth, empowers families, and crushes midterms for Republicans. MAGA economics in action—turning newborns into future millionaires! #TrumpAccounts #DayOfGiving #America #USA #MillionaireSubscribe to Doug's YouTube Channel: @TheRightSideDougBillings Contribute! Set up a monthly recurring donation at: www.DougBillings.usSupport the show

Buy tickets to the IPO Tour (our In-Person Offering)Feb 25th in Austin, TX: https://tickets.austintheatre.org/13274/13275 Mar 11th in Arlington, VA: https://www.arlingtondrafthouse.com/shows/341317 Apr 8th in New York, NY: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0000637AE43ED0C2June 3rd in Los Angeles, CA: https://www.squadup.com/events/the-best-one-yet-liveCostco sued the Trump admin demanding tariff refunds… but it's also a marketing move.Estée Lauder hired Google to sell perfume online… and deliver an ROI on AI.Michael Dell is giving $250 to 25 million American kids… and it'll change kid-gifting forever.$COST $EL $DELLBuy your TBOY Yeti Doll here: https://tboypod.com/shop/product/economic-support-yeti-doll NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today's top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today's Headlines: Republican Matt Van Epps narrowly won Tennessee's special election, which is… not exactly a flex for the GOP given the district. Meanwhile, Trump went on a full midnight Truth Social bender — 150 posts of pure nonsense — including a retweet of Kristi Noem calling for a “full travel ban” on basically whoever she feels like. He kept the chaos going at a two-hour Cabinet meeting where he bragged about his cognitive test, nodded off, and let Noem announce immigration crackdowns in Minnesota's Somali community. Pete Hegseth used his time to deny ordering the killing of survivors of U.S. boat strikes and promised more strikes off Venezuela, as a Signalgate review is set to be released. Kash Patel didn't fare much better in the news cycle, a leaked 115-page report from FBI veterans called the bureau under him a fear-soaked disaster run by a guy who once refused to leave a plane until someone found him a properly patched FBI jacket. In more anit-immigration adjacent news, Brooke Rollins is threatening to pause SNAP funds for states refusing to share immigrant data. Sabrina Carpenter, however, wants zero association with ICE after they used her music in a raid montage. And like we all knew would happen, Senate Republicans appear to have abandoned the plan to extend Obamacare subsidies before premiums spike in January (shocking). Finally, billionaire Michael Dell and his wife are tossing $6.25 billion into “Trump accounts” for kids, while Treasury kicks in $1,000 for children born during Trump's term, and Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff spent four hours in the Kremlin with Putin discussing their ever-mutating “peace plan.”  Resources/Articles mentioned in this episode: NBC News: Tennessee House Special Election 2025 Live Results: Matt Van Epps Wins, NBC News Projects The Independent: Trump goes on late-night social media rant demanding Democrats who spoke out on military justice be jailed NYT: Kristi Noem Recommends New Travel Ban After National Guard Shooting Axios: ICE coming for Minneapolis after Trump targets Somalis CNN: Fact check: Trump delivers long list of false claims at Cabinet meeting Axios: Scoop: Pentagon's internal "Signalgate" review sent to Congress Yahoo: Kash Patel Justifies Jacket Meltdown by Saying He Wanted a Kid's Size Axios: SNAP benefits at risk as states resist Trump immigration data demands AP News: Sabrina Carpenter and Franklin the Turtle publisher condemn Trump administration's use of their work AP News: Chances dwindling for renewal of health care subsidies, risking premium spikes for millions WaPo: Dell CEO pledges $6 billion to ‘Trump accounts' for American children Axios: Witkoff and Kushner met Putin for five hours on Ukraine plan Telegraph: Putin: We're ready for war with Europe Morning Announcements is produced by Sami Sage and edited by Grace Hernandez-Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The real scandal in the Hegseth narco-terrorist strikes? Democrats are more furious about U.S. strikes on drug boats poisoning America than an Afghan national ambushing National Guardsmen in D.C. – exposing their depravity. Stefanik blasts Speaker Johnson for blocking deep-state reforms; Trump teases 2028 bench including Vance and Rubio; DOT threatens Minnesota's highway funds over fake Somali trucker licenses; Minneapolis mayor vows to shield Somali fraudsters from feds; Michael and Susan Dell pledge $6.25B to seed 25M kids' Trump investment accounts; Colorado dad heroically shoves armed burglar down stairs to protect sleeping children; and Scott Jennings nails why 2026 must laser-focus on domestic wins to avoid leftist court-packing nightmare.   The AM Update, Aaron McIntire, Pete Hegseth narco strikes, Afghan ambush, Somali fraud Minnesota, Trump accounts children, Michael Dell donation, home invasion Colorado, Elise Stefanik Mike Johnson, Scott Jennings 2026, deep state reform, Steve Deace Show

December 3, 2025Download the app HEREwww.TheDailyMojo.com"Ep 120325: Christmas Past  | The Daily MoJo"In 2025, Matt Van Epps wins a race in Tennessee, sparking humorous discussions about Michael Dell's wife and a $6.25 billion investment in children's accounts. A lighting ceremony for a 53-foot silver bell tree in Nevada features a fourth grader's essay contest win. The dialogue covers political engagement, health checkups, and skepticism about vaccines. The New Century Global Center in Chengdu is highlighted, along with aviation issues and societal reflections.Phil Bell's Morning Update - Great job, Tennessee! HEREOur affiliate partners:EMP Shield - Figuring out the odds of a devastating EMP attack on the United States is impossible, but as with any disaster, the chances are NOT ZERO, and could happen any day. This decade has proven that the weird and unexpected is right around the corner. Be prepared - protect your home, vehicle, even your generator - with EMP Shield. You'll save money and protect what's important at the same time!ProtectMyMoJo.com Be prepared! Not scared. Need some Ivermection? Some Hydroxychloroquine? Don't have a doctor who fancies your crazy ideas? We have good news - Dr. Stella Immanuel has teamed up with The Daily MoJo to keep you healthy and happy all year long! Not only can she provide you with those necessary prophylactics, but StellasMoJo.com has plenty of other things to keep you and your body in tip-top shape. Use Promo Code: DailyMoJo to save $$Take care of your body - it's the only one you'll get and it's your temple! We've partnered with Sugar Creek Goods to help you care for yourself in an all-natural way. And in this case, "all natural" doesn't mean it doesn't work! Save 15% on your order with promo code "DailyMojo" at SmellMyMoJo.comCBD is almost everywhere you look these days, so the answer isn't so much where can you get it, it's more about - where can you get the CBD products that actually work!? Certainly, NOT at the gas station! Patriots Relief says it all in the name, and you can save an incredible 40% with the promo code "DailyMojo" at GetMoJoCBD.com!Romika Designs is an awesome American small business that specializes in creating laser-engraved gifts and awards for you, your family, and your employees. Want something special for someone special? Find exactly what you want at MoJoLaserPros.com  There have been a lot of imitators, but there's only OG – American Pride Roasters Coffee. It was first and remains the best roaster of fine coffee beans from around the world. You like coffee? You'll love American Pride – from the heart of the heartland – Des Moines, Iowa. AmericanPrideRoasters.com   Find great deals on American-made products at MoJoMyPillow.com. Mike Lindell – a true patriot in our eyes – puts his money where his mouth (and products) is/are. Find tremendous deals at MoJoMyPillow.com – Promo Code: MoJo50  Life gets messy – sometimes really messy. Be ready for the next mess with survival food and tools from My Patriot Supply. A 25 year shelf life and fantastic variety are just the beginning of the long list of reasons to get your emergency rations at PrepareWithMoJo50.comStay ConnectedWATCH The Daily Mojo LIVE 7-9a CT: www.TheDailyMojo.com Rumble: HEREOr just LISTEN:The Daily MoJo ChannelBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-daily-mojo-with-brad-staggs--3085897/support.

President Vladimir Putin warns Europe that Russia is ready for war after U.S. talks stall on a Ukraine compromise. Trump pardons an ex-Honduran president convicted for drug trafficking. Michael Dell donates more than $6 billion to Trump's savings accounts for American children. And India backpedals on a controversial app mandate after outrage over surveillance concerns. Plus, Trump calls Somalis in Minnesota "garbage".  Listen to Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Find the Recommended Read here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rise up, patriots—@intheMatrixxx and @shadygrooove fire up Season 7, Episode 229, "Trump Accounts, Invest in America Act; Tim Walz Under Investigation," breaking down President Trump's game-changing Trump Accounts program that drops $1,000 into an S&P 500-linked investment account for every American newborn starting Independence Day 2026, supercharged by Michael & Susan Dell's massive $6.25 billion gift to fund 25 million more kids—building real generational wealth while making Social Security obsolete. Then they expose the exploding Minnesota fraud scandal where billions in taxpayer dollars allegedly vanished into Somali community schemes under Tim Walz's watch, cheer Kash Patel's FBI takeover (25K violent felons arrested, 35% spike in spy busts, 6K kids rescued, DEI gutted), and call out “doom and gloom” grifters like General Flynn for attacking Trump's winning agenda. Razor-sharp facts, zero emotional manipulation—only the proofs you need to fight back. The truth is learned, never told—the constitution is your weapon. Tune in at noon-0-five Eastern LIVE to stand with Trump! Trump Accounts, Invest in America Act, Trump 2026, Michael Dell donation, Minnesota fraud, Tim Walz investigation, Kash Patel FBI, Somali fraud, America First, generational wealth, DEI purge, General Flynn criticism, MG Show, @intheMatrixxx, @shadygrooove, One Big Beautiful Bill mgshow_s7e229_trump_accounts_invest_america_walz_investigation Tune in weekdays at 12pm ET / 9am PST, hosted by @InTheMatrixxx and @Shadygrooove. Catch up on-demand on https://rumble.com/mgshow or via your favorite podcast platform. Where to Watch & Listen Live on https://rumble.com/mgshow https://mgshow.link/redstate X: https://x.com/inthematrixxx PODCASTS: Available on PodBean, Apple, Pandora, and Amazon Music. Search for "MG Show" to listen. Engage with Us Join the conversation on https://t.me/mgshowchannel and participate in live voice chats at https://t.me/MGShow. Social Follow us on X: @intheMatrixxx https://x.com/inthematrixxx @ShadyGrooove https://x.com/shadygrooove Follow us on YouTube: MG Show (intheMatrixxx) https://youtube.com/c/inthematrixxx ShadyGrooove https://www.youtube.com/c/TruthForFreedom Support the show: Fundraiser: https://givesendgo.com/helpmgshow Donate: https://mg.show/support Merch: https://merch.mg.show MyPillow Special: Use code MGSHOW at https://mypillow.com/mgshow for savings! Wanna send crypto? Bitcoin: bc1qtl2mftxzv8cxnzenmpav6t72a95yudtkq9dsuf Ethereum: 0xA11f0d2A68193cC57FAF9787F6Db1d3c98cf0b4D ADA: addr1q9z3urhje7jp2g85m3d4avfegrxapdhp726qpcf7czekeuayrlwx4lrzcfxzvupnlqqjjfl0rw08z0fmgzdk7z4zzgnqujqzsf XLM: GAWJ55N3QFYPFA2IC6HBEQ3OTGJGDG6OMY6RHP4ZIDFJLQPEUS5RAMO7 LTC: ltc1qapwe55ljayyav8hgg2f9dx2y0dxy73u0tya0pu All Links Find everything on https://linktr.ee/mgshow Intermission Music Lemurian Shores (with Lucentia) (~432 Hz) by Spheriá | https://soundcloud.com/spheriamusic Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

P.M. Edition for Dec. 2. Blue Origin is gaining momentum in its quest to land astronauts on the moon. WSJ's Micah Maidenberg discusses the company's challenge to Elon Musk's SpaceX. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defends the September strike that killed survivors of an initial attack on the alleged drug boat, but says he didn't see the second strike. Plus, Michael Dell and his wife Susan Dell donate $6.25 billion to expand the Trump administration's plan to provide savings accounts for young children. Sabrina Siddiqui hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our news wrap Tuesday, the Trump administration is preparing an immigration enforcement operation that would primarily target hundreds of undocumented Somali immigrants in Minnesota, Michael Dell pledged a $6.25 billion donation to the Trump administration with the funds designated for investment accounts for children and Pope Leo completed his first trip abroad as pontiff. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Michael Dell joins from the White House first on CNBC after pledging over $6B to partially fund investment accounts for 25 million American children. He also discusses the broader AI trade and demand. Argent Capital's Jed Ellerbroek and Innovator ETFs Tim Urbanowicz break down today's market action. Pure Storage CEO Charles Giancarlo joins after earnings—the stock fell in Overtime but he makes the case for strong demand. Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu on Boeing best day since April and if the bottom if in for the stock.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I've started a new show where I have conversations with the greatest living Founders. The show is called David Senra. It will be on a separate podcast feed from Founders.  So it is very important that you follow David Senra on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you're listening to this so you don't miss future episodes. Nothing is changing with Founders. I will never stop making Founders.

David Senra is the host of the Founders podcast. For the past nine years, David has intensely studied the life and work of hundreds of history's greatest entrepreneurs. His new podcast, David Senra, showcases conversations with the best-of-the-best living founders and extreme winners.This episode is brought to you by:Cresset family office services for CEOs, founders, and entrepreneursOur Place's Titanium Always Pan® Pro using nonstick technology that's coating-free and made without PFAS, otherwise known as “Forever Chemicals”AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplementTimestamps:[00:00:00] Who is David Senra?[00:01:11] Brad Jacobs: Roll-up king and positive-driven billionaire founder.[00:02:26] Rare positive archetypes: Ed Thorp, Sol Price, Brunello Cucinelli.[00:06:04] Michael Dell as another exception; fear of failure and motivation.[00:06:47] Negative self-talk, excellence, and its ripple effects.[00:08:26] Jensen Huang story: “Why do you suck so much?”[00:08:54] Inspiration from Dan Carlin's Hardcore History.[00:10:00] Derek Sivers: unconventional, philosophical entrepreneur.[00:11:04] Learning equals behavior change, not memorization.[00:11:48] Jeremy Giffon insight: biographies as substitute mentors.[00:12:37] Reading biographies as one-sided conversations.[00:13:16] The chain of influence.[00:14:09] Podcasting as “relationships at scale.”[00:14:28] Coping with trauma and breaking cycles.[00:20:18] Note-taking process: books, Post-its, ruler, Readwise.[00:29:27] OCD tendencies and love of doing things the hard way.[00:31:04] Comparing our reading/re-reading workflows.[00:35:04] A family falling out and the randomness of student housing.[00:38:58] David's introduction to my work during his MySpace-era college years.[00:40:07] Podcasting influences: Jocko Willink, Kevin Rose's Elon Musk interview.[00:44:14] Five-and-a-half years of obscurity before breakthrough.[00:46:50] Graphtreon and experiments with subscription models.[00:49:25] Patrick O'Shaughnessy's endorsement sparks growth.[00:51:23] Sam Hinkie and Patrick connections fuel momentum.[00:52:19] Transition to ads and joining Patrick's network.[00:55:17] Edwin Land: patron saint of founders and Steve Jobs' influence.[00:57:02] Lessons from Sam Zell, Jay Pritzker, and William Zeckendorf.[00:58:48] Need a generous, well-connected person? You can't go wrong with Rick Gerson.[01:03:04] Edwin Land's philosophies: Differentiation and doing to excess.[01:04:30] Entrepreneurial archetypes and conflicting advice.[01:06:00] Daniel Ek as an alternative founder archetype and mentor.[01:10:59] Further founder archetypes and contrasts.[01:13:41] What is an anti-business billionaire?[01:19:55] Advice from “shark” Michael Ovitz about the value of truth in one's inner circle.[01:22:30] The hands-on approach of practical founders who live for the love of their business.[01:23:28] Doing one thing relentlessly.[01:23:51] “This can't be my life” as a powerful motivator.[01:26:57] Low introspection as a common trait among founders — and its implications about human nature.[01:30:15] Robert Caro: The only writer David believes should be allowed to write thousand-page biographies.[01:32:40] James Dyson's persistence vs. the risk of blind stubbornness.[01:34:22] Todd Graves (Raising Cane's) as an example of relentless focus on one idea.[01:35:41] Separating fact from fiction in biographies/histories.[01:41:55] Considering trainable vs. non-trainable attributes in potential role models.[01:46:11] Perusing Charlie Munger's library.[01:49:35] Dealmaking lessons on Eddie Lampert's superyacht.[01:55:34] The smartest person David knows.[01:56:55] David's obsessive craftsman approach to podcast creation.[01:58:51] Why David decided to begin a second podcast.[02:01:21] The economics of trust.[02:03:40] The benefits of cultivating a purposeful aloofness about current events.[02:07:11] Using the pulpit of publicity for good, not evil.[02:09:57] New show frequency/dynamic and how David plans to balance the burden of running two shows.[02:13:30] Teamwork with essence of turtle.[02:15:40] Adapting the Rockefeller “secret allies” strategy to podcasting.[02:17:56] Chris Hutchins: The mad scientist of podcasting?[02:18:30] Working with Rob Mohr and Andrew Huberman of SciComm.[02:20:54] Why David focuses on 24-hour cycles over long-term planning.[02:24:54] Does David worry the extra workload will disrupt his lifestyle?[02:30:18] What makes one potential guest more interesting to David than another?[02:34:34] Making an impact vs. happiness.[02:36:32] Playing the status game when your heart's not in it is for suckers.[02:44:23] Travel observations and the rarity of truly unique experiences.[02:46:26] Books as philosophical operating systems.[02:48:39] Parting thoughts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Donate (no account necessary) | Subscribe (account required) Join Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA Operations Officer, as he dives into today's top stories shaping America and the world. In this Monday Headline Brief of The Wright Report, we cover Charlie Kirk's memorial service and its powerful messages of faith and forgiveness, Trump's crackdown on Harvard and Berkeley, fresh threats from al Qaeda inside the U.S., Trump's push to retake Bagram air base, TikTok's murky new ownership deal, Argentina's fight against socialism, and what's ahead this week on the Wright Report. Quick hits to launch your week with the facts shaping America and the world.   Charlie Kirk Memorial in Arizona: Erika Kirk vowed, “No one will ever forget my husband's name — and I will make sure of it.” She forgave the assassin, telling the crowd, “That man… I forgive him.” Trump honored Kirk as a man of grace but joked, “Charlie did not hate his opponents. That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponents, and I don't want the best for them.”   Trump Hits Harvard and Berkeley: The White House placed Harvard on a federal watchlist restricting access to $550 million in funds, citing civil rights violations and leftist violence. UC Berkeley handed over names of 160 students and staff after pressure to expose antisemitic and radical faculty. Bryan says this is Trump waging the fight “where it belongs — in their pocketbooks.”   Al Qaeda Plot Inside the U.S.: The National Counterterrorism Center warns AQ operatives from Yemen are in multiple American cities. Rumors suggest they may pose as police or medics during future attacks. Bryan urges vigilance: “While we may be done with Radical Islam — it is not done with us.”   Trump Demands Afghanistan Return Bagram Air Base: The president warned the Taliban, “Bad things are going to happen” if the U.S. is not given control of the base, citing the need to monitor China's nearby nuclear sites. Kabul insists “not one inch” will be ceded.   TikTok's U.S. Ownership Deal: Fox's Murdoch, Oracle's Larry Ellison, and Dell's Michael Dell will sit on TikTok's new U.S. board, with one seat reserved for a Chinese official. Trump insists user data will be controlled on U.S. soil, but skeptics warn Xi will not give up his propaganda tool without concessions.   Argentina's Milei Meets Trump: With inflation down from 250 percent to 34 percent, Milei still faces socialist backlash at home. Trump may use the U.S. Exchange Stabilization Fund to provide a financial lifeline. Bryan warns, “Never underestimate a death cult. Marxists don't get tired of fighting.”   Looking Ahead This Week: Trump promises revelations about autism and Tylenol, a bailout for struggling farmers and truckers, and big updates on immigration, Biden's mental decline, and global conflicts from Gaza to the Pacific.   "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32     Keywords: Charlie Kirk memorial Erika Kirk forgiveness, Trump joke Charlie Kirk opponents, Harvard federal funds restriction, UC Berkeley antisemitic faculty names, al Qaeda AQAP U.S. cities plot, Trump Bagram air base Taliban threat, TikTok U.S. ownership Murdochs Ellison Dell, Xi Jinping propaganda TikTok, Argentina Milei Trump Exchange Stabilization Fund, Trump autism Tylenol link, U.S. farmers truckers tariff bailout, Biden mental decline cognition