David Sacks

🚨MAJOR INTERVIEW: Jensen Huang joins the Besties! The @nvidia CEO joins to discuss: -- Nvidia's future, roadmap to $1T revenue -- Physical AI's $50T market -- Rise of the agent, OpenClaw's inflection moment -- Inference explosion, Groq deal -- AI PR Crisis, Anthropic's comms mistakes -- Token allocation for employees ++ much more! (0:00) Jensen Huang joins the show! (0:26) Acquiring Groq and the inference explosion (8:53) Decision making at the world's most valuable company (10:47) Physical AI's $50T market, OpenClaw's future, the new operating system for modern AI computing (16:38) AI's PR crisis, refuting doomer narratives, Anthropic's comms mistakes (20:48) Revenue capacity, token allocation for employees, Karpathy's autoresearch, agentic future (30:50) Open source, global diffusion, Iran/Taiwan supply chain impact (39:45) Self-driving platform, facing competition from active customers, responding to growth slowdown predictions (47:32) Datacenters in space, AI healthcare, Robotics (56:10) OpenAI/Anthropic revenue potential, how to build an AI moat (59:04) Advice to young people on excelling in the AI era

"Data centers are draining our water" is the new "plastic straws are destroying the ocean." It's a hoax, and many people pushing it know it's not true. At AFPI (@A1policy) we wrote a piece breaking down the numbers: 1) Data centers use very little water > Somewhere between 0.2% and 0.5% of U.S. freshwater consumption > 15x less water than we lose each year to leaky pipes > The biggest data center of 2024 uses less water than 3 square miles of farmland (America has 1.3 million) 2) Local water impacts are small, too > In one of the country’s most “water stressed” counties, data centers are 0.12% of its water use (golf courses are 3.8%) 3) This hasn’t stopped lawmakers from fearmongering about data centers > 5 senators, including Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey, wrote a letter to the admin complaining about data center water use > Lawmakers have introduced legislation and called for data center moratoriums because of fake water use claims. Denver might enact one soon 4) Data centers are one of America’s greatest strengths > Huge local tax revenues > The AI data center boom has created tremendous economic growth > Wages in construction and the trades have skyrocketed (construction up >30% because of data centers) We end by suggesting some ways to accelerate the data center buildout, while protecting local communities' interests. Full piece here: americafirstpolicy.com/issues/the-dat…

“The Effective Altruist movement has a structural problem when it comes to conservative America. Its donor class is all Bay Area progressives... Its policy agenda, which calls for sweeping AI regulation and content governance, reads to most conservatives as exactly what it is: a censorship power play dressed up in safety language. To move that agenda… the movement needed a vehicle that didn’t look like it came from them.”

After more than a decade of uncertainty, this interpretation will provide market participants with a clear understanding of how the SEC treats crypto assets under federal securities laws. This is what regulatory agencies are supposed to do: draw clear lines in clear terms.

@jacobin @BayAreaCurrent 🤣

Silicon Valley is openly embracing antidemocratic and reactionary ideas. Far from being isolated to tech billionaires, such ideologies are now commonplace in Bay Area tech culture: jacobin.com/2026/03/tech-f… (via @bayareacurrent)

This is a smart strategy. Thanks to President Trump, the U.S. is energy independent. The countries that actually depend on Gulf oil should apply pressure to reopen the strait.

@curtis_yarvin Curtis has been collected.

Generally, the people at the top aren’t sociopaths either. They’re just inside a giant machine they didn’t create. They see everything through the machine’s screen. How else would it work? But once you allow for this—and they for the reverse—they’re easy to get along with

🚨 POD UP: Besties are back! Bestie Brad Gerstner (@altcap) fills in for @friedberg -- Economic fallout of Iran War, oil shocks, inflation -- Impact on midterms, Dems now favored to sweep -- Off ramps and escalation scenarios -- Anthropic/OpenAI scaling faster than any company ever -- AI's PR nightmare, why Americans don't trust it -- WA passes "Millionaire Tax" as Howard Schultz bails for Miami (0:00) The Besties welcome Brad Gerstner! (3:48) Economic fallout of the Iran War, escalation scenarios, impact on midterms (19:18) Off ramp strategies, Gulf state involvement, the China angle (27:05) Anthropic and OpenAI scaling revenue faster than any company ever (46:11) AI's PR disaster, open source's future (1:07:51) Washington passes "Millionaire Tax," Howard Schultz bails for Miami

The @theallinpod features Under Secretary of War Emil Michael. Excellent interview across many topics, but especially on the Department of War’s situation with Anthropic. Emil’s explanation makes it clear Anthropic is operating outside the norm for DoW contracts. The contract they negotiated (previous administration) included terms that made it difficult for the Department to use the system outside Anthropic’s guardrails. At times it sounds like Dario is effectively acting as Secretary of War— seeking control over allowed uses that could restrict DoW planning and operations. Emil explains, quite logically, why those restrictions are not workable. The Department now has to consider other frontier providers (Google, xAI, and OpenAI), something he clearly does not want to do since Anthropic is already embedded in existing systems. He also makes it very clear the decision is not political. It has nothing to do with donations to Trump or any “pay-to-play” dynamic. His reasoning is straightforward: if the outcome were political, why spend months negotiating in good faith to fix a flawed contract with Anthropic?

Anthropic vs the Pentagon: The Inside Story by Emil Michael The Full Timeline ❓Backstory: Why Anthropic? – Anthropic benefited from Biden’s AI executive order, was designated as an early winner – They smartly used this designation to sell into military and intelligence agencies, with forward-deployed engineers (Palantir style) – Became deeply integrated into DoW workflows, far ahead of other frontier model competitors 📜Tensions Rise Over Restrictive ToS – Anthropic's contracts had a long list of prohibited use cases, incl. certain war-game scenarios – Emil found this incompatible with DoW's mission, pushed for an "all lawful use" standard 🇻🇪Trigger Point: The Maduro Raid – After the Maduro raid, an Anthropic exec contacted Palantir, asking if their software was used, implying a potential ToS violation – This alarmed DoW: what if a guardrail or refusal triggered mid-operation, putting soldiers at risk? – Also raised insider threat concerns: what if a rogue developer poisoned or manipulated the model? 🧠Core Issue: Anthropic’s Own “Constitution” – Emil’s core objection: Anthropic has its own "constitution" and values, which is NOT the US Constitution – This, combined with a restrictive ToS, means the DoW could be subject to the ideological preferences of a private CEO 📊Rival Model Comps: – xAI: Fully on board for all lawful use cases across all networks, maximally truth seeking – Google: Have all lawful use on non-classified networks, working on infrastructure buildout for classified – OpenAI: Cooperative, Sam Altman even tried to broker a deal to help Anthropic 🍿Sam Altman’s Role: – Asked Emil to not designate Anthropic as a supply chain risk – Tried to negotiate blanket terms that Anthropic would find acceptable – Did this while being trashed by Dario 🚨Supply Chain Risk Designation: – Emil said it was protective, not punitive – Reasoning: If Anthropic's model has policy bias baked in, DoW doesn't want it embedded at defense contractors – The concern is that ideological bias could compound across the defense supply chain

EXCLUSIVE: Department of War AI Chief On How The Anthropic Deal Collapsed When Emil Michael (@USWREMichael) took over the Department of War’s AI portfolio last August, he discovered the Biden admin had been “asleep at the wheel” when it came to top military contracts. “I was like, ‘Holy cow,’” Michael said of Anthropic’s contract, “There’s 25 pages of terms and conditions of things I can’t do.” For example: as written, the contract would not allow Anthropic to plan any kinetic strikes, generally considered a central activity of war. “This is a contract that should be made with GEICO Insurance, not with the Department of War,” he told us. A renegotiation ensued. What followed, in Michael’s words, were “three months of knockdown, drag-out negotiations” which involved Michael imagining every possible future wartime scenario that would require a carveout in Anthropic’s terms of service, and asking them for approval. Anthropic was also quite slow: “It’s not like mano a mano negotiation, me and Dario,” Michael says. “It’s like every time we discuss something, he has to take it back to his politburo of co-founders and their ethics panel.” Then, after an Anthropic exec reached out to Palantir to ask for classified info about how Claude was used to capture Nicolás Maduro — allegedly implying they could pull the plug on a military raid if they disagreed with how AI was used (which Anthropic denies) — Michael and the DOW concluded the company was a supply-chain risk. Many speculated that the Pentagon was punishing Anthropic for ideological differences. But Michael feared that certain ideological differences could, in fact, harm or undermine the performance of DOW products, potentially threatening soldiers’ safety. “I can’t have a gun not work because they decide they don’t like guns,” Michael says. That’s “putting real lives at risk. It’s no joke, right?” Anthropic’s unreliable behavior led Michael to believe they may have never really wanted to reach a deal. Still: he’s open to renegotiating if Anthropic can prove they’re acting in good faith. “I have a responsibility to the Department of War, and if there was a way to ensure that we had the best technology, I have no ego about it.” he said. “I mean, look, I’m a deal guy.” Full story in Pirate Wires 👇

EARLY DROP FOR A BIG EPISODE! 🚨 US Under Secretary of War Emil Michael joins to break down the two biggest topics: the Iran War and Anthropic vs the Pentagon -- War with Iran: The Bigger Picture -- USA's new approach to warfare -- Pentagon vs Anthropic: How it went down -- Valuing Anthropic after the Pentagon fallout -- State of the US defense tech market ++ MUCH more @USWREMichael (0:00) The Besties welcome Under Secretary of War Emil Michael (2:30) US war with Iran: Bigger picture and why now? (13:16) Trump's new approach to warfare, AI, drones, rules of engagement (28:39) Israel's role in the conflict, relationship with the US, Iron Beam (37:24) Oil prices, Trump's maritime insurance play (41:19) Pentagon vs Anthropic: Why Anthropic was labeled a supply-chain risk (1:02:03) How to value Anthropic after its supply chain risk designation (1:11:14) State of the US defense supply chain, the defense tech industry, DARPA, and China's military

This is rent seeking, plain and simple

Today President Trump obtained a pledge from America’s leading tech companies that new data centers would not increase electricity prices for residential consumers. These companies (including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI) signed the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” under which they agree to cover the costs of all new power generation required for their data centers, ensuring such costs are not passed onto American households. This is a much better approach to affordability than Bernie Sanders’ total ban on new data centers, which would halt the construction boom currently driving wage growth and job growth for blue-collar workers. In fact, the Ratepayer Protection Pledge will lower electricity prices when AI companies pay for grid upgrades and sell their excess power back to the grid. Since the beginning of his second term, President Trump has championed the idea of letting our leading AI companies become power companies, and now this idea is becoming a reality thanks to his leadership and the commitments of these strong American companies. The right approach to data centers is not to stop progress altogether, but rather to protect residential rate payers from price increases, while making it easier to stand up new power generation.

.@POTUS signs a proclamation announcing the Ratepayer Protection Pledge to ensure American AI dominance, while also ensuring that Americans aren't stuck with higher electric bills as a result

Whoops

Overheard in Silicon Valley: "Every single person who was in favor of government control of AI, is now opposed to government control of AI."

Ben Thompson with the best take on DOD v. Anthropic, which is basically: if you don't want the government to treat your technology like nuclear weapons, stop comparing your technology to nuclear weapons. Hype Tax.