Ann Barry
Appearances
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Critical taking. We'll keep watching this one.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
I haven't watched it yet. Is that a terrible thing to do?
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
There's so much good TV. And I'm completely the target for TV-driven destinations. I watched Shogun. Did you watch Shogun?
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Devour Shogun. I could not book a flight to Japan fast enough after watching Shogun. So look, I get it. I get it. I'm a TV tourist too.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
I mean, if the Four Seasons is listening and they happen to want to do a promotional partnership with Morning Brew, I think Toby and I would be very open to having that conversation.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
I think that's right. And when are they going to fix their food offering? Do you know what I mean? You're not a fan? I'm not a fan. Every time I walk in there, it looks good, it tastes terrible. I think Starbucks, fix your food, and then you're on to your new chapter. Let's go on to our next headline, Toby. Lester Holt, the legendary newscaster and anchor of NBC's Nightly News, is stepping down.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Holt has been a mainstay for the evening programme since 2015, but announced he plans to step away from the desk this coming summer. NBC executive Janelle Rodriguez called Holt, quote, the beating heart of his news organization, highlighting his steadying voice during the early days of the pandemic in 2020. At the time, the show was averaging 12 million viewers a night.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Even though broadcast TV audiences have declined in recent years, nightly newscasts can still draw 20 million viewers on a good evening. Toby, look, trust can be the most valuable asset a news program can have. Lester Holt's been a trusted face for NBC for years. Is it going to be hard to replace Holt, or is this just the end of an era now for news?
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Fancy. Was it a real one with all the bells and whistles or this is more of an espresso vibe?
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Hasn't this been happening in sports for years, like tennis with the line calls? Hasn't this been happening in basketball? Why is this new news?
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Okay, Toby, that's actually amateur hour. All the soluble compounds are already extracted, so you're using a waste product at that point.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
I think right there I just got a window into how Toby plays sports. Like right there, like the strategic timeout, the high leverage point in the game. It's important. It's your goal for your tennis. I think everyone, we just figure out how Toby plays mind games in his athletic pursuit.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Great show today, Toby, and we'll see you all tomorrow.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Well, once you do figure out your espresso-making game, Toby, maybe there's a LinkedIn ad campaign in your future to promote your product.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
So for our first story, we have got Apple betting big on the future of American innovation as it announced plans to spend $500 billion in the US over the next four years. Included in that investment is also hiring an additional 20,000 people to help bolster its AI projects.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
The tech giant also announced plans to open a 250,000 square foot factory in Houston that they will develop with partners to make servers and power Apple intelligence. The announcement comes as tech companies try to make good with the Trump administration with tariffs from China looming.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Now, if you remember, the Trump administration did put out there a 10% tariff on all Chinese goods earlier this month. Now, the 20,000 employees that Apple plans to hire in the U.S. will be focused on research, engineering and software and AI development, the company says.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Meanwhile, in other Apple news, it is set to defend its DEI programs against critical investors during its shareholder meeting amid other major corporations axing its diversity pledges. Toby, there's an awful lot to unpack here, but it looks like CEO Tim Cook is deciding to spend dollars on building infrastructure on American soil to play ball with Uncle Sam. What are you thinking about this one?
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
And I'm Anne Barry.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Yeah. So I think I feel like President Trump is definitely taking a victory lap on this one. But there are some parts of the street, Wall Street, Toby, that's asking, is this really a response to that or is just kind of a logical business step? So when we take a huge step back, there's been a huge movement with tech companies to try and, for example, get their chip manufacturing back to the US.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
And Apple, a half a trillion dollar bet, investing big in America.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
We've seen a ton of the big players talk about it. We've seen folks like Microsoft talking about investing more in the US, partly national security concerns, but partly also because, you know, in a world where there's so much uncertainty, it feels as though people want to build in their own backyard. But I don't know. I feel like Apple's all over the headlines at the moment. I was really stunned.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
But to the positive, I was really excited. by part of this announcement is to create an academy in Detroit to train small and medium-sized businesses in implementing AI. And I just thought that to me feels like a really solid investment in Michigan.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Good morning, everyone, and happy Tuesday. Three men who were accused of stealing a golden throne worth $3.5 million back in 2019. A standing trial in England this week, but it's not your typical golden throne because the throne in this instance refers to a toilet or, in my country's parlance, the loo. The loo.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
You know, I looked at this and I asked myself, well, why is, how did we get here? And I went back, I went down the rabbit hole, Toby, you know, I'm a complete data nerd and I'm also a markets person because Brew Markets is the franchise I look after here. I asked myself why.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
That was a year ago. And since then, the S&P 500, the NASDAQ markets were up over 20% in 2024. So I look at today and say, how is it that spending is so dependent on the wealthy in America? I'm like, because the wealthy just got even wealthier. because they're investing.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
And I think that separation between spending, investing, saving, wealth creation, I mean, the divide is just getting bigger and bigger. Fascinating. Why?
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Yes, six years ago, thieves broke into an English country mansion where Winston Churchill was born and swiped the 215-pound, 18-carat gold conceptual art piece in just under five minutes. At the time, the gold was valued at $3.5 million, but was insured for $6 million. Not your typical splash and grab, Toby.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Well, I'll get to your question of is this a bad thing. I think we could agree that socially it's not a good thing to have this degree of inequality. So I just want to sort of go on the record and sort of say that. I do think there's risk to having this kind of concentration. And, you know, there are a couple of data points I found really interesting.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
Walmart, did you see that recently, Toby, came out and said, we've got like 87% of folks earning over $100,000 are now shopping at Walmart. And I guess that would be a good thing if it means that you can see lower prices in places like that, which inures to the benefit of lower income folks. But I don't think we're necessarily seeing that because inflation's kept on going up, right?
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
And just to build on that with one last thought, like back in, you know, several years ago when I was investing, the conventional wisdom was, to your point, luxury will always do well because the rich will always figure it out. They'll be fine. The other place that people would invest was at places like Dollar General, like the dollar stores.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
And so, you know, two years ago, I went and invested a bunch of money in the dollar stores thinking this bifurcation is going to play out. They've done terribly. To your point, we've seen the bankruptcies, but also Dollar General, folks like that, the share prices have not performed well.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
That old model of the poor are going to, you know, the less wealth you're going to get in certain places just hasn't panned out. It's been that hard for people. So I think really worth keeping an eye on to see how this inequality sort of pans out from an economic perspective. Let's move on. Let's change gears a little bit, Toby. Let's talk about Greenpeace, which is our next story.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
We've got a pivotal trial taking place in North Dakota that could jeopardize the existence of the environmental group Greenpeace USA. There's some real context here which is worth going over. The company behind the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline energy transfer.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
tried to sue Greenpeace in federal courts back in 2017, alleging that the group's protesters who camped near construction sites for months cost the company $300 million. Now, the federal court ended up dismissing the case, but Energy Transfer filed a similar suit in state court, and that's where we are today with the trial.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
The issue underlying all of this sits with a small section of the pipeline that crosses near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation, where tribe members argue they were not consulted in the planning process and that the construction poses a pollution risk to sacred sites and to its water supply. Now, it should be noted that energy transfer disputes all of these claims.
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
But Toby, this battle's had real messiness around it. Police and protesters have clashed. Protesters say they were pepper sprayed, and police officers say protesters threw rocks at them. The outcome of the trial, which again is focusing on energy transfer, saying all of this cost us in terms of this project,
Morning Brew Daily
Apple Bets $500B on the US & Rich People Are Powering the Economy?
could have serious implications, not only on the fossil fuel industry, ensuring what they're capable of doing, but also the environmental industry. I think the punchline here, when I really looked at the So Watered, the story is, if energy transfer wins, Greenpeace could be out of existence.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
That's really interesting. I went back and I grabbed the Pew Research Center. And not only to your point, Toby, does it look like religion's not sort of disappearing in recent years as quickly as people thought. Spirituality doesn't really seem to have gone anywhere. If you take a look at this...
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
That percentage for those aged 18 to 24 is 82%. So even if religion has a different importance by different age group, this idea of spirituality seems to be constant throughout.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Can you imagine it turns into real life, null by name, null by nature? No fun at all. So Toby, I'd like to introduce my very own segment, which is Anne's Analysis, where I take a look at a number and zoom into the story behind it. And so to kick this off, my number is $1 million. And that's the amount a growing number of Argentine soccer players have been signing for. Why is this big?
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Well, a couple of years ago, Argentina would have had at most maybe 10 players making a million dollars or more. Now there are more than two dozen players signing big contracts. So if my math's correct, that's double the amount. Some have pointed at this influx of star players to Argentina's president, Javier Millet.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Since he started in office 15 months ago, he's been on an all-out push to cut down the government's deficit. He's been on an all-out push to cut down the government's deficit, which has brought some stability to the peso.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Now, if you recall, prior to his term, Argentina dealt with climbing unemployment, rising poverty, sky-high inflation, and was on the brink of economic disaster in the country for a long time.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
But now its central bank estimates that the peso is the strongest it's been in years, so much so that after factoring in its double-digit inflation rate, it's actually strengthening sharply against the dollar. So with inflation under control, a number of superstar soccer players have been lured home to Argentine clubs.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
And frankly, a dollar there goes a little bit further than a dollar goes in Europe or in the United States, which is other places they could play. So, Toby, are you moving to Argentina to play soccer?
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
soccer players, stability of the peso, inflation, and trade deficit. Who knew that that $1 million number could represent so many things?
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Well, this relationship between the ownership of the media outlet and... what it allows that publication to say is an age-old problem. This isn't the first time. It won't be the last, I imagine. It's sort of been around as long as media assets have been privately held. So we'll see. As you said, Toby, a lot of journalists have spoken up against this. There have been some high-profile resignations.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
It's kind of like grocery shopping with a list. Sure, it tells you what to buy, but more importantly, it stops you from wandering into the sweet treat aisle. Just keeps you focused.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
What I'm going to be watching is what happens to the subscriber numbers.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Next headline, Toby, is Eli Lilly announcing that it will invest $27 billion to build four new U.S. manufacturing sites to meet the demand of its weight loss drugs. The move brings Eli Lilly's total U.S. manufacturing investments to over $50 billion in recent years, making it, quote, one of the largest pharmaceutical expansion investments in U.S. history. That's CEO David Ricks.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Eli Lilly also released higher doses of its marquee weight loss drug Zepbound at a lower price to reach more patients who are paying with insurance. This announcement comes at a time when companies across all kinds of industries are building goodwill with President Trump, who has emphasised bringing back manufacturing to the US and reducing the reliance on foreign supply chains.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Toby, so what does this mean for GLP-1 drugs?
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Or in my case, a two pound bag of Kit Kats that just happened to find its way into my shopping cart.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
I remember that story. I can't quite remember, but wasn't the, wasn't it still able to transmit? Do you remember this?
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Great show, Toby. See you all tomorrow.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
LinkedIn ads, great for efficiency, bad for satisfying your sweet tooth. If you're interested in testing out LinkedIn ads, LinkedIn will give you $100 credit on your next campaign. Just go to linkedin.com slash MBD. That's linkedin.com slash MBD. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads. Now let's welcome you in with our first story on NVIDIA.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
The AI chip company reported its fourth quarter earnings yesterday where sales grew 78%, bringing NVIDIA's full fiscal year revenue to a whopping $131 billion. It also gave Wall Street a much-needed sigh of relief when it forecasted it'll be able to continue its historic run driven by AI well into 2025. Shares ticked up 2% in after-hours trading.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Now, while this report may come to some as no surprise, the lead-up to the report had had many on edge who wondered how Nvidia would fare with the sudden emergence of Chinese AI company DeepSeek, that was able to develop AI models apparently at a fraction of the cost of Western counterparts.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
This led investors to question whether as many NVIDIA chips would be needed as previously expected, because at the heart, Toby, of NVIDIA's continued success, it really hinges in large part on Blackwell, which is the company's next generation of AI chips expected to bring in several billion dollars more of revenue, with 2025 being a massive production year.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
So, Toby, seems like at the moment, not so much to worry about at NVIDIA compared to where folks were worried beforehand. But tell me what you thought about this. Demand and production seems alive and well. How did you interpret this?
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
And NVIDIA earnings, another bumper report, but will it be enough to keep investors happy?
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
And it is all about the future. I remember you and I talked about the watch parties. Last year, whenever NVIDIA delivered amazing results, the share price response still seemed to be just about what the forecast was. It was always forward looking.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Just in terms of the importance, Toby, of NVIDIA to all investors, just one thing that I saw that this fact really struck me, the NVIDIA share price was up about 170% in 2024. Wow. That gain made up over 20% of the S&P 500's overall return for the year. So the significance of the company is just really striking.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
He's also, just final thought, been popping some seeds for the future as well. There was one little nugget in there, automotive and robotics. Jensen Huang's called it physical AI. Came in at $1.7 billion of revenue for 2024. A little teeny tiny part of the $130 billion overall. But Jensen Huang has been saying, watch this space.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Good morning. Happy Thursday. Now, a new method for ranking the most dangerous animals in the world just dropped called the Crespo scale. A paper published by author David Crespo ranks animals based on two main factors, population size and mortality rate.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Wow. Learn the rhythm of your life really struck me as you said that. This is sort of a co-pilot for everyday living. The pricing on this was sort of struck me. The service will be $19.99 a month or free for Amazon Prime members. So that feels sort of compelling in terms of trying to get people to take it up. One thing that Alexa has struggled with in the past, Toby, do you remember all this?
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
It's privacy. People not knowing that they really want a device picking up everything it says and in their own home and sort of every room you sort of don't leave it behind. So it has stayed a major issue, this issue of voice data, particularly in an age where things like voice driven deep fakes have caused alarms in the cybersecurity world. So, you know, take up on this is going to be really key.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
It does exclude humans and domesticated animals, ranking instead the other creepy, crawly and tooth-filled terrors on a scale of one to five, where five is considered very high danger. So what are some of the fives on the Crespo scale? Well, depending on where you live, mosquitoes, Russell's vipers, blood flukes and feral dogs. Some of the animals you really got to keep an eye out for.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
So are you going to pay another $20 a month for this?
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Really also a way to try and cover some of the cost of AI development. I mean, not cheap. Back to our conversation on NVIDIA and the chips and the investment that everyone's putting behind it. Moving on to our next story, the mobile app marketing company Applovin has been getting no love.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Two short sellers released slamming reports, causing company shares to sink down nearly 20%, though it did make up some ground after the report came out, closing the day down just about 12%. Now, prior to these reports, the market was excited about Apploving expanding beyond the mobile gaming advertising, where it's really had its strong history, to e-commerce brands and elsewhere.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
But some were left wondering if maybe the company was being overvalued. The short sellers Fuzzy Panda and Culper Research questioned the credibility of the expansion, saying Apploving has been misrepresenting the benefits of its AI advertising platform and force-feeding app installations onto phones to inflate its revenue numbers.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Now, in a post on the Fuzzy Panda website, we've got it in front of me, they said Applovin's Axon model was, quote, the nexus of a house of cards built on fraudulent advertising tactics. Applovin CEO Adam Faroge denied those claims, saying, quote, it's disappointing that a few nefarious short sellers are making false and misleading claims aimed at undermining our success.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
Now, if we remember, Applovin stock shot up over 700 percent in 2024, making it one of the year's best performers. But Toby, whenever short sellers go after a company like this, eyebrows do get raised with people asking, is there no smoke without a fire? Do they have a legitimate claim here?
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
So Toby, what better way to start your Thursday than to have to think of feral dogs?
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
For sure. And when I took a look, I mean, this report's really long. I was holding up this really chunky wadge of paper where I printed out the Fuzzy Panda report. One of the things it talks about is app loving. It suggests it's just waiting to get the ire of Meta. It basically accuses app loving of just reverse engineering Meta's data and saying it's only a matter of time before Meta takes up.
Morning Brew Daily
Nvidia Calms DeepSeek Nerves & Amazon Juices Alexa With AI
and tries to protect its valuable data. So, you know, that really, if there's any legs to it, and we don't know, emphasis, we don't know yet, this is just, you know, a report that was out there, then, I mean, talk about waking the sleeping giant.