WEBVTT 1 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:14.075 Friends, hello, and welcome to Never Post, a 2 00:00:14.075 --> 00:00:16.475 podcast for and about the Internet. I'm your host Mike 3 00:00:16.475 --> 00:00:21.115 Rugnetta. This intro was written on Tuesday, 02/24/2026 at 4 00:00:21.115 --> 00:00:27.355 03:04PM eastern, and we have a just in time show for you this 5 00:00:27.355 --> 00:00:30.560 week. In this episode, I chat with Jeffrey Parkin of 6 00:00:30.560 --> 00:00:36.400 rogue.site and Rory Carroll of alloymag.com about how the chip 7 00:00:36.400 --> 00:00:40.000 shortage caused by the construction boom in AI data 8 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.965 centers will come not just for the PC market, but also video 9 00:00:43.965 --> 00:00:47.485 games, automobiles, and countless other consumer 10 00:00:47.485 --> 00:00:49.565 industries. How did this happen? 11 00:00:49.565 --> 00:00:53.805 Why is there no easy way out? And how should you as a consumer 12 00:00:53.965 --> 00:00:57.370 be thinking about these things? But first, we're gonna take a 13 00:00:57.370 --> 00:00:59.690 quick break. You're gonna listen to some ads unless you're on the 14 00:00:59.690 --> 00:01:02.650 member feed. And when we return, we're gonna talk about a few of 15 00:01:02.650 --> 00:01:04.810 the things that have happened since the last time you heard 16 00:01:04.810 --> 00:01:05.530 from us. 17 00:01:07.370 --> 00:01:11.615 Baby, can't you see? I'm calling. A guy like you should 18 00:01:11.615 --> 00:01:17.775 wear a warning. It's dangerous. I'm falling for six stories this 19 00:01:17.775 --> 00:01:18.335 week. 20 00:01:19.695 --> 00:01:23.695 New Mexico has passed the first statewide Internet affordability 21 00:01:23.695 --> 00:01:27.280 law in The United States. This month, governor Grisham signed 22 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:30.480 into law legislation that will allow the state to provide up to 23 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:34.800 $30 a month to households to subsidize an Internet connection 24 00:01:34.800 --> 00:01:39.475 with a statewide cap of $45,000,000 annually. On 25 00:01:39.475 --> 00:01:42.835 01/01/2022, the Federal Communications Commission 26 00:01:42.835 --> 00:01:47.795 launched their affordable connectivity program or ACP, 27 00:01:47.795 --> 00:01:52.835 which according to its own dashboard, set aside a total of 28 00:01:51.270 --> 00:01:58.550 $14,200,000,000 and spent 715,000,000 per month to help 29 00:01:58.550 --> 00:02:02.710 American households pay their Internet bills. That program was 30 00:02:02.710 --> 00:02:09.015 discontinued on 06/01/2024 after funding rollout and adoption 31 00:02:09.015 --> 00:02:13.255 issues. No federal assistance program is planned to take its 32 00:02:13.255 --> 00:02:17.015 place, so New Mexico is the first state to take the issue up 33 00:02:17.015 --> 00:02:17.575 itself. 34 00:02:22.190 --> 00:02:25.870 TikTok is doing just fine. The platform's US operations were 35 00:02:25.870 --> 00:02:28.910 recently taken up by a new conglomerate of owners. You can 36 00:02:28.910 --> 00:02:31.865 see our previous news episode for details on that. And 37 00:02:31.865 --> 00:02:36.585 following that transition, its user base remains at around 95% 38 00:02:36.585 --> 00:02:41.225 of what it was beforehand, reports Censor Tower. CNBC 39 00:02:41.225 --> 00:02:45.065 writes quote, early narratives of a mass user exodus prompted 40 00:02:45.065 --> 00:02:48.750 by service outages and censorship concerns now appear 41 00:02:48.750 --> 00:02:49.870 overstated. 42 00:02:49.870 --> 00:02:53.070 And they continue later, the average daily time spent by 43 00:02:53.070 --> 00:02:56.430 American users on the platform has since returned to around 44 00:02:56.430 --> 00:02:59.790 eighty minutes after dipping to an average of seventy seven 45 00:02:59.790 --> 00:03:03.535 minutes during the week of the reported disruptions, end quote. 46 00:03:03.775 --> 00:03:06.815 TechCrunch reports that, quote, competing video apps like 47 00:03:06.815 --> 00:03:11.135 Upscrolled and Skylight Social saw rapid user adoption as some 48 00:03:11.135 --> 00:03:14.300 looked for TikTok alternatives, end quote. But according to 49 00:03:14.300 --> 00:03:17.740 widely shared usage data, many people who left appear to have 50 00:03:17.740 --> 00:03:23.180 returned within days. Hey. Hey. 51 00:03:25.020 --> 00:03:28.455 Whatever happened to Tmall? The international shoddy goods 52 00:03:28.455 --> 00:03:31.575 retailer had a meteoric rise alongside competitors like the 53 00:03:31.575 --> 00:03:34.855 TikTok shop, but has faced recent challenges as regulators 54 00:03:34.855 --> 00:03:38.775 in Turkey, the EU, and Poland have set their sights on the 55 00:03:38.775 --> 00:03:42.550 site according to rest of world magazine. The retailer is being 56 00:03:42.550 --> 00:03:45.270 investigated for misleading advertising, undisclosed 57 00:03:45.270 --> 00:03:48.390 subsidies from the government of China, and monopolistic 58 00:03:48.390 --> 00:03:52.790 practices amongst other charges. Since 2024, Tmall's parent 59 00:03:52.790 --> 00:03:57.495 company, PPD Holdings, has posted a $45,000,000,000 revenue 60 00:03:57.735 --> 00:04:03.495 loss down from around 60 to 15,000,000,000. In the coming 61 00:04:03.495 --> 00:04:06.535 year, the expiration of several de minimis duty exemptions 62 00:04:06.535 --> 00:04:09.735 around the world threatens their bottom line even further. 63 00:04:12.290 --> 00:04:17.650 The content algorithm on x has real world political impacts. A 64 00:04:17.650 --> 00:04:20.290 new study in the journal Nature found that people subjected to 65 00:04:20.290 --> 00:04:23.570 an algorithmic feed on Elon Musk's social network were more 66 00:04:23.570 --> 00:04:27.330 likely to adopt conservative political positions quote, 67 00:04:27.595 --> 00:04:31.355 particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of 68 00:04:31.355 --> 00:04:34.555 criminal investigations into Donald Trump, and views on the 69 00:04:34.555 --> 00:04:38.155 war in Ukraine, end quote. People would follow 70 00:04:38.155 --> 00:04:41.780 algorithmically promoted, quote, conservative activist accounts 71 00:04:41.860 --> 00:04:44.820 and would continue following them even after algorithmic 72 00:04:44.820 --> 00:04:48.340 service was discontinued. People involved in the study, however, 73 00:04:48.340 --> 00:04:53.540 did not exhibit shifts in self reported effective polarization, 74 00:04:53.540 --> 00:04:56.420 which is measured via questions about, quote, life satisfaction, 75 00:04:56.855 --> 00:05:00.855 partisanship, and fueling thermometers for Democrats and 76 00:05:00.855 --> 00:05:03.735 Republicans. Meaning, though their attitudes may have 77 00:05:03.735 --> 00:05:06.935 shifted, they were themselves unaware of the shift. 78 00:05:06.935 --> 00:05:08.055 You got more? 79 00:05:08.055 --> 00:05:11.575 No. Goldman Sachs has just launched an AI free 80 00:05:11.575 --> 00:05:16.740 index fund. SPXX AI lets you quote invest in the S and P 500 81 00:05:16.740 --> 00:05:22.500 benchmark index minus all things AI, reports Axios. This as 82 00:05:22.500 --> 00:05:26.115 discussion of the so called AI bubble reaches increasingly many 83 00:05:26.115 --> 00:05:32.195 corners of financial speculation and well, the economy. Funds 84 00:05:32.195 --> 00:05:36.275 like SPXx AI allow investors the security of a highly diversified 85 00:05:36.275 --> 00:05:39.340 index while isolating their exposure to what they may feel 86 00:05:39.340 --> 00:05:42.380 is the risky bet of robots that generate pictures of monkeys in 87 00:05:42.380 --> 00:05:43.180 bikinis. 88 00:05:43.260 --> 00:05:46.300 Goldman refers to the stocks which make up the fund as quote, 89 00:05:46.700 --> 00:05:54.585 old economy stocks. Polymarket has partnered with Substack, 90 00:05:54.745 --> 00:05:57.145 getting a start on what is quickly shaping up to be the 91 00:05:57.145 --> 00:06:00.985 nightmare blunt rotation of platforms. The partnership will 92 00:06:00.985 --> 00:06:04.025 allow, quote, Substack users to integrate Polymarket's 93 00:06:04.025 --> 00:06:07.580 prediction data directly into their content, end quote. 94 00:06:07.580 --> 00:06:10.700 According to a thehill.com story that reads a bit like a press 95 00:06:10.700 --> 00:06:13.900 release, if I'm being honest. Substack claims a fair number of 96 00:06:13.900 --> 00:06:16.460 their top newsletters are already making use of the 97 00:06:16.460 --> 00:06:19.260 prediction market platform's data to write about current 98 00:06:19.260 --> 00:06:23.255 events, with Polymarket going so far as to say journalism is 99 00:06:23.255 --> 00:06:26.215 better when it's backed by live markets. 100 00:06:26.695 --> 00:06:29.175 For those not in the know, Polymarket and other related 101 00:06:29.175 --> 00:06:32.055 platforms like Kalshi allow people to place money on the 102 00:06:32.055 --> 00:06:35.920 outcome of everyday events, most regularly sports related, But in 103 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:39.520 practice, the quote markets range from wagers on the 104 00:06:39.520 --> 00:06:43.680 likelihood of Jesus' return to The US striking Iran. Polymarket 105 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:48.240 and its adherents claim these quote markets provide insight 106 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:51.975 into newsworthy events and the unfolding of culturally moments 107 00:06:51.975 --> 00:06:55.735 thanks to the wisdom of crowds. Something anyone who has spent 108 00:06:55.735 --> 00:06:58.135 even ten minutes online will know is complete bullshit 109 00:06:58.135 --> 00:07:02.775 outside the walls of Wikipedia and maybe, let's say, 60% of 110 00:07:02.775 --> 00:07:04.055 Reddit on a good day. 111 00:07:04.055 --> 00:07:04.775 My lady. 112 00:07:04.775 --> 00:07:08.990 And finally, artificial intelligence needs 113 00:07:09.550 --> 00:07:14.350 Taiwan. The single biggest threat to the world economy, US 114 00:07:14.350 --> 00:07:19.070 treasury secretary Scott Besson said at Davos last month. The 115 00:07:18.605 --> 00:07:23.565 single biggest point of single failure is that 97% of the high 116 00:07:23.565 --> 00:07:30.285 end chips are made in Taiwan, end quote, and everyone wants 117 00:07:30.285 --> 00:07:36.870 them. No industry more so than tech who has made a run on the 118 00:07:36.870 --> 00:07:40.390 world's supply of various semiconductor products from 119 00:07:40.390 --> 00:07:45.590 processors to RAM to storage in their haste to build AI data 120 00:07:45.590 --> 00:07:49.485 centers. And this is the case most notably in The US and 121 00:07:49.485 --> 00:07:53.405 China, two countries currently locked in a heated rivalry. 122 00:07:54.765 --> 00:07:57.885 The soothsayers for the American economy, which is now not much 123 00:07:57.885 --> 00:08:00.525 more than a pile of consumer goods balanced atop a few AI 124 00:08:00.525 --> 00:08:03.520 data center toothpicks, have grown increasingly wary of 125 00:08:03.520 --> 00:08:06.880 China's technological advances, going so far as to consider it a 126 00:08:06.880 --> 00:08:10.640 matter of national security to quote, implement countrywide 127 00:08:10.640 --> 00:08:14.320 controls on key choke point semiconductor manufacturing 128 00:08:14.320 --> 00:08:18.375 equipment and subcomponents, end quote, so that they cannot make 129 00:08:18.375 --> 00:08:21.895 their way into the country. They are also aware that China could, 130 00:08:21.895 --> 00:08:26.375 at any moment, blockade Taiwan and cut off the world's supply 131 00:08:26.375 --> 00:08:30.980 of advanced semiconductor technology. As such, The US has 132 00:08:30.980 --> 00:08:34.660 been attempting to broker a trade deal with Taiwan. One 133 00:08:34.660 --> 00:08:37.460 aspect of which would involve the country assisting in opening 134 00:08:37.460 --> 00:08:41.955 facilities in The United States with US commerce secretary 135 00:08:41.955 --> 00:08:45.875 Howard Lutnick claiming the country would move 40% of its 136 00:08:45.875 --> 00:08:50.115 capacity stateside. Taiwan's vice premier Chen Lichen, 137 00:08:50.115 --> 00:08:53.795 however, described this outcome as simply not possible. 138 00:08:53.795 --> 00:08:57.160 Not only because, in her words, it's impossible to allocate 139 00:08:57.160 --> 00:09:00.760 based on production capacity, but also because The US doesn't 140 00:09:00.760 --> 00:09:05.640 currently have the labor pool to support the industry and TSMC, 141 00:09:05.880 --> 00:09:09.320 Taiwan's largest and most accomplished chip manufacturer 142 00:09:08.985 --> 00:09:12.665 who contracts with Apple and Nvidia among others is one of 143 00:09:12.665 --> 00:09:17.625 the island nation's biggest deterrents against China who 144 00:09:17.625 --> 00:09:22.185 relies on their output for its own tech sector. Global reliance 145 00:09:22.185 --> 00:09:26.380 on Taiwan's manufacturing has been called its silicon shield 146 00:09:26.380 --> 00:09:30.540 against Chinese aggression. The upshot here is any capacity to 147 00:09:30.540 --> 00:09:35.900 build chips in The US is years and maybe decades away, but 148 00:09:35.900 --> 00:09:39.715 there is a looming a chip shortage now. One that's about 149 00:09:39.715 --> 00:09:43.955 to touch upon nearly every major industry, a broad swath of 150 00:09:43.955 --> 00:09:49.075 consumer goods ranging from video games to cars. How did we 151 00:09:49.075 --> 00:09:50.115 get to this point? 152 00:09:50.115 --> 00:09:54.195 What can we expect from the next couple years, and how should we, 153 00:09:54.600 --> 00:10:01.480 as mere consumers prepare? After a short break, me, Jeffrey 154 00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:41.335 Parkin, and Rory Caroll discuss. Joining me are Jeffrey Parkin, 155 00:10:41.335 --> 00:10:44.695 co owner and founder at the independent video game news and 156 00:10:44.695 --> 00:10:48.690 criticism site rogue.site. Jeffrey, thanks for being here. 157 00:10:48.690 --> 00:10:49.490 Thank you. 158 00:10:49.490 --> 00:10:52.130 And Rory Carroll, co founder, publisher and 159 00:10:52.130 --> 00:10:54.690 editorial director at the independent car culture site 160 00:10:54.690 --> 00:10:58.290 alloymag.com. Rory, appreciate it. 161 00:10:58.290 --> 00:10:59.330 Hey, thanks for having me. 162 00:10:59.795 --> 00:11:02.835 So here on Neverpost and your respective 163 00:11:02.835 --> 00:11:06.035 sites, we've covered a lot of these headlines. Demand for 164 00:11:06.035 --> 00:11:09.795 memory and storage space has skyrocketed caused by the 165 00:11:09.795 --> 00:11:13.210 construction boom in AI data centers. And this means that 166 00:11:13.210 --> 00:11:15.770 those things are gonna be harder and harder to get a hold of for 167 00:11:15.770 --> 00:11:18.170 consumers, which means that their prices are gonna 168 00:11:18.170 --> 00:11:21.130 skyrocket. And this is something that folks, if they want to have 169 00:11:21.130 --> 00:11:25.210 direct experience of this right now, they can go to newegg.com 170 00:11:25.210 --> 00:11:29.365 or their computer retailer of choice, search for, let's say, 171 00:11:29.365 --> 00:11:35.205 RAM sticks or an SSD and, you know, brace themselves. In some 172 00:11:35.205 --> 00:11:38.725 scenarios, there are prices that are four to five times higher 173 00:11:38.725 --> 00:11:41.765 than they were as recently as about a year ago. 174 00:11:42.330 --> 00:11:46.650 But the thing that I think has gone a little bit underreported 175 00:11:46.650 --> 00:11:50.010 in a lot of this is that this is also the case for entire 176 00:11:50.010 --> 00:11:54.170 industries, two of which, we're gonna discuss with you guys, 177 00:11:54.170 --> 00:11:58.625 experts in them respectively, right now, video games and 178 00:11:58.625 --> 00:12:02.785 automobiles. So my first question for the both of you is 179 00:12:02.785 --> 00:12:07.505 just, when manufacturing and distribution of these things is 180 00:12:07.505 --> 00:12:12.065 working as expected, like, on a normal Thursday, like, what 181 00:12:12.065 --> 00:12:16.680 should this process look like for video games and for cars? 182 00:12:16.680 --> 00:12:19.720 Like, who is supplying the components for what purpose and, 183 00:12:19.720 --> 00:12:21.400 like, how do they get to where they need to go? 184 00:12:21.480 --> 00:12:23.640 I'm actually gonna jump in first because 185 00:12:23.640 --> 00:12:28.845 video games, especially consoles, work on a really weird 186 00:12:28.925 --> 00:12:34.525 cadence. The PS five and the newest Xbox, the series x, came 187 00:12:34.525 --> 00:12:40.045 out in 2020. So there's this huge boom in manufacturing and 188 00:12:40.045 --> 00:12:43.890 releasing them, and then it dies off over the next roughly eight 189 00:12:43.890 --> 00:12:48.770 years or so. Ideally, like we saw with the Switch two, there's 190 00:12:48.770 --> 00:12:53.010 all of the purchasing of these semiconductors and microchips 191 00:12:53.010 --> 00:12:56.050 and RAM and everything else that go into the consoles that you 192 00:12:56.050 --> 00:13:01.595 buy, and then they just maintain their stock as necessary. And 193 00:13:01.755 --> 00:13:07.275 the reason that this has come up for us recently, it's about time 194 00:13:07.275 --> 00:13:10.875 to be talking about the next generation of video game 195 00:13:10.875 --> 00:13:16.470 consoles, like the PS six and whatever bizarre amalgamation of 196 00:13:16.470 --> 00:13:18.790 letters Microsoft comes up with. 197 00:13:19.270 --> 00:13:24.630 The news with all of the AI data centers buying up everything is 198 00:13:24.630 --> 00:13:28.545 that those big companies, Sony and Microsoft, are probably 199 00:13:28.545 --> 00:13:33.665 going to have to push out their next launch. 200 00:13:33.745 --> 00:13:36.785 And so are they buying huge supplies of these 201 00:13:36.785 --> 00:13:41.905 components for launches and then, like, smaller amounts as 202 00:13:40.850 --> 00:13:42.370 demand dwindles. 203 00:13:42.450 --> 00:13:43.890 That is my understanding of it. 204 00:13:43.890 --> 00:13:44.770 Yeah. Got it. 205 00:13:44.770 --> 00:13:48.770 I know, like, cars come out every year. So I 206 00:13:48.770 --> 00:13:51.010 imagine that the process is a lot different. 207 00:13:51.010 --> 00:13:53.250 Well, it's actually not super different. I 208 00:13:53.250 --> 00:13:55.795 think, like, cars do come out and there's a new model year 209 00:13:55.795 --> 00:14:00.355 over year, but really cars are on a five or ten year cycle. So 210 00:14:00.355 --> 00:14:03.075 what you'll usually get is the introduction of a new model, 211 00:14:03.155 --> 00:14:05.795 which is like, generally speaking, a whole new 212 00:14:05.795 --> 00:14:09.020 architecture, a whole new, you know, from the wheels up new 213 00:14:09.020 --> 00:14:12.140 car, then you'll get four or five years later, you'll get a 214 00:14:12.140 --> 00:14:15.980 refresh, which is like, okay, maybe with new headlights, new 215 00:14:15.980 --> 00:14:19.180 exterior design, some new technology inside, and then 216 00:14:19.845 --> 00:14:22.485 you'll push that another five years before you kind of get to 217 00:14:22.485 --> 00:14:25.205 a new model. Sometimes it lasts longer than that. Sometimes it's 218 00:14:25.205 --> 00:14:26.965 a little bit shorter than that depending on how things are 219 00:14:26.965 --> 00:14:27.525 selling. 220 00:14:27.925 --> 00:14:32.085 But that's generally the the schedule. So, you know, the auto 221 00:14:32.085 --> 00:14:34.520 auto industry is not super different from any other 222 00:14:34.520 --> 00:14:38.200 industry in that this stuff gets planned, you know, ten and 223 00:14:38.200 --> 00:14:42.040 fifteen years out. And, like, historically, you know, back 224 00:14:42.040 --> 00:14:44.840 back in the old old days, you used to you'd build cars in this 225 00:14:44.840 --> 00:14:48.520 similar cycle. You'd stock up on all the parts that you're going 226 00:14:48.520 --> 00:14:52.465 to need for the entire production run of the car or or 227 00:14:52.465 --> 00:14:55.265 you'd you'd have them being built kind of simultaneously. 228 00:14:55.745 --> 00:14:58.465 And just like every other industry kind of in the last 229 00:14:58.465 --> 00:15:01.105 twenty, thirty years, everybody has gone to this, like, just in 230 00:15:01.105 --> 00:15:04.490 time where it's like stuff should ideally be being produced 231 00:15:04.490 --> 00:15:07.290 and shipped to you exactly the moment you need it. 232 00:15:07.290 --> 00:15:10.330 So you should not have any stock. You should not because 233 00:15:10.330 --> 00:15:12.970 all this all the obviously, like, stock and warehousing 234 00:15:12.970 --> 00:15:15.850 stuff cost money. That's all additional costs. So, like, 235 00:15:16.045 --> 00:15:19.965 ideally, with anything else, you're getting stuff as it is 236 00:15:19.965 --> 00:15:24.045 needed the second it is needed on the assembly line. So that's 237 00:15:24.045 --> 00:15:26.445 kind of like the ideal situation. 238 00:15:26.525 --> 00:15:30.220 Obviously, the car companies, they've had this happen before. 239 00:15:30.220 --> 00:15:34.140 This exact thing happened for different reasons in 2021, and 240 00:15:34.140 --> 00:15:37.820 it was a huge catastrophe for everybody. And they've spent the 241 00:15:37.820 --> 00:15:42.215 last, you know, five years or so figuring out how to prevent this 242 00:15:42.215 --> 00:15:44.855 from happening again. Everyone took this very seriously, and 243 00:15:44.855 --> 00:15:47.575 everybody has taken a lot of kind of affirmative steps to 244 00:15:47.575 --> 00:15:51.495 prevent it from happening. There are some real difficulties in 245 00:15:51.495 --> 00:15:52.615 solving this problem. 246 00:15:52.775 --> 00:15:52.935 I 247 00:15:53.175 --> 00:15:55.015 and that you know, Rory, you said something 248 00:15:55.015 --> 00:15:58.100 that gets to the next question that I wanna ask, which is, 249 00:15:58.340 --> 00:16:01.940 like, this is a lesson that I have learned maybe a few times 250 00:16:01.940 --> 00:16:07.780 since the pandemic began, which is, all of this comes from one 251 00:16:07.780 --> 00:16:11.700 place or, like, a relatively small number of places, and 252 00:16:11.700 --> 00:16:17.505 there's no plan b? Like, it's just so shocking to me that 253 00:16:17.505 --> 00:16:21.025 consumer electronics, AI data centers, video games, and 254 00:16:21.025 --> 00:16:25.905 automobiles are all being supplied by the same relatively 255 00:16:25.905 --> 00:16:28.520 small number of manufacturers. 256 00:16:28.680 --> 00:16:32.680 No. Yeah. There are big names that supply 257 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:39.400 everybody, and it's really specific manufacturing. Like, 258 00:16:39.400 --> 00:16:43.945 even a company as big as Samsung says that it'll take two years 259 00:16:43.945 --> 00:16:46.265 before they can get another plant up and running. 260 00:16:46.265 --> 00:16:46.745 Well, 261 00:16:46.745 --> 00:16:49.785 yeah. There there are big structural issues with 262 00:16:49.785 --> 00:16:52.425 spinning this stuff up. And I think too, I I mean, I think 263 00:16:52.425 --> 00:16:54.425 this is this is something that's kind of plaguing the auto 264 00:16:54.425 --> 00:16:57.940 industry generally in The States. You know, if you ask a 265 00:16:57.940 --> 00:17:01.140 car executive if you have asked a car executive anytime in the 266 00:17:01.140 --> 00:17:03.700 last twenty years what they want from the government, they will 267 00:17:03.700 --> 00:17:06.740 tell you it's stability. It's like, they don't care what the 268 00:17:06.740 --> 00:17:07.380 standards are. 269 00:17:07.380 --> 00:17:10.100 They don't care what the emission standards are, any of 270 00:17:10.100 --> 00:17:12.645 that stuff. Mean, they do. But, like, the big thing that they 271 00:17:12.645 --> 00:17:16.245 want is to be able to on this ten or twenty year cycle predict 272 00:17:16.325 --> 00:17:20.085 what's going to happen. And I think the answer to a problem 273 00:17:20.085 --> 00:17:22.325 like this in the sixties and seventies would have been, we 274 00:17:22.325 --> 00:17:25.205 will just build our own semiconductor facility. We will 275 00:17:25.205 --> 00:17:26.245 just build our own. 276 00:17:26.485 --> 00:17:29.450 And that may take us a few years, but we're confident that 277 00:17:29.450 --> 00:17:32.010 coming out of the other end of it, it'll be a good investment 278 00:17:32.010 --> 00:17:34.970 and we'll have control over our own supply chain and yada yada. 279 00:17:34.970 --> 00:17:38.730 That's obviously not the response you're getting now. I 280 00:17:38.730 --> 00:17:42.145 think a lot of that is this instability where it's like 281 00:17:42.545 --> 00:17:47.345 you're gonna face these kind of transient issues for a period of 282 00:17:47.345 --> 00:17:50.625 time. The world is going to change change very drastically. 283 00:17:50.625 --> 00:17:53.025 You don't wanna be stuck with the factory that's at lower 284 00:17:53.025 --> 00:17:54.465 capacity or working at low capacity. 285 00:17:55.070 --> 00:17:59.390 And it's like you can't trust the state or you can't trust the 286 00:17:59.390 --> 00:18:03.310 the government to to be asking you to do the same things from 287 00:18:03.310 --> 00:18:05.790 administration to administration, which is like a 288 00:18:05.790 --> 00:18:08.510 very strange I mean, it's to me, like, as a as a watcher of the 289 00:18:08.510 --> 00:18:11.955 car business, watching the government act in kind of 290 00:18:11.955 --> 00:18:15.475 defiance of the car business, like, very strange. Like, that's 291 00:18:15.475 --> 00:18:17.395 a that's never happened to me before. I've never seen that 292 00:18:17.395 --> 00:18:20.195 happen in my lifetime. Or it's happened, like, Clean Air Act. 293 00:18:20.195 --> 00:18:20.755 You know what I mean? 294 00:18:20.755 --> 00:18:26.830 Like, big momentous. But but this is, day to day, hey. We 295 00:18:26.830 --> 00:18:28.830 understand that's what you need to be competitive globally, but 296 00:18:28.830 --> 00:18:30.510 we're not giving it to you. Like, that's never happened 297 00:18:30.510 --> 00:18:33.950 before. It's difficult to imagine any other response for 298 00:18:33.950 --> 00:18:38.350 an automaker but to just hoard whatever they can get from their 299 00:18:38.350 --> 00:18:39.230 suppliers today. 300 00:18:39.230 --> 00:18:42.115 What else would you do except buy as many chips as you can, 301 00:18:42.115 --> 00:18:45.155 which is the same response that every other manufacturer is 302 00:18:45.155 --> 00:18:45.635 having. 303 00:18:45.715 --> 00:18:49.555 I actually wanna step back for a second because 304 00:18:49.795 --> 00:18:53.235 as somebody who knows how to turn on a car and not much else, 305 00:18:53.760 --> 00:18:58.240 my first reaction in seeing that, like, the PS six is 306 00:18:58.240 --> 00:19:01.680 running up against car manufacturing was kinda 307 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:05.840 confusion. Yeah. And I have since come to realize, like, 308 00:19:05.840 --> 00:19:10.895 it's not just the in dashboard displays that this is affecting. 309 00:19:10.895 --> 00:19:14.895 Can you, Rory, talk about where these chips are even going and 310 00:19:14.895 --> 00:19:16.015 what they're used in? 311 00:19:16.175 --> 00:19:20.015 Oh, yeah. I think that, you know, the the most new 312 00:19:20.015 --> 00:19:24.630 cars these days will have more than a thousand of these chips. 313 00:19:24.950 --> 00:19:29.670 Some of them have way more than that. But I think what we're 314 00:19:29.670 --> 00:19:32.710 looking at in a a modern car, I think people are, like, very, 315 00:19:32.710 --> 00:19:36.390 very apt to say, like, a car is a computer on wheels these days. 316 00:19:36.390 --> 00:19:39.065 And it's I think, like, that actually undersells it quite a 317 00:19:39.065 --> 00:19:43.305 bit because the amount that you're asking a car to do, a 318 00:19:43.305 --> 00:19:46.665 modern car, just to move down the road as far as, like, 319 00:19:46.665 --> 00:19:48.985 computing demand is crazy. 320 00:19:48.985 --> 00:19:52.340 I mean, the the easy stuff, like, okay, who's you know, how 321 00:19:52.340 --> 00:19:55.620 are you controlling the infotainment screen in a a car 322 00:19:55.620 --> 00:20:00.340 in the eighties? Your HVAC, so heat and cold and all that stuff 323 00:20:00.340 --> 00:20:03.540 would be controlled by a series of cables. That's all digitally 324 00:20:03.540 --> 00:20:07.355 controlled now. How do you open your gas cap door? There's that 325 00:20:07.355 --> 00:20:11.995 that kind of stuff, but there's also the actual behavior of the 326 00:20:11.995 --> 00:20:15.115 car is is very heavily controlled by computers. 327 00:20:15.115 --> 00:20:19.460 So I think, like, as cars have gotten larger, the cars have in 328 00:20:19.460 --> 00:20:23.060 turn gotten heavier. Batteries, especially like modern cars with 329 00:20:23.060 --> 00:20:27.220 with hybrid batteries or EV batteries, got very heavy. And 330 00:20:27.220 --> 00:20:30.420 in order to keep the car, like, moving down the road safely, 331 00:20:31.025 --> 00:20:33.585 that requires a ton of computing power. So you have sensors that 332 00:20:33.585 --> 00:20:35.425 are reading your wheel speed. You have sensors that are 333 00:20:35.425 --> 00:20:36.865 reading brake temperature. 334 00:20:36.865 --> 00:20:40.065 You have sensors that are reading comparing all that stuff 335 00:20:40.065 --> 00:20:44.705 together and then making the actual suspension or brakes in 336 00:20:44.705 --> 00:20:49.290 the car behave a certain way to either maintain your comfort or 337 00:20:49.290 --> 00:20:52.090 to maintain traction on the road. So it's like I mean, 338 00:20:52.090 --> 00:20:54.570 there's there's this is like a longer discussion, but I I had 339 00:20:54.570 --> 00:20:58.170 this super long discussion with Porsche a few months ago. Their 340 00:20:58.170 --> 00:21:01.245 their cars have gotten, as all cars have, have gotten heavier 341 00:21:01.245 --> 00:21:04.445 and heavier and heavier. Over the last ten years, as they know 342 00:21:04.445 --> 00:21:06.685 this, they they recognize the cars are getting heavier. So 343 00:21:06.685 --> 00:21:11.005 they have now three separate suspension technologies that are 344 00:21:11.005 --> 00:21:14.045 designed to mask the weight of the car for the driver. 345 00:21:14.045 --> 00:21:18.920 So the car in real time is sensing where it is in the road 346 00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:21.480 and then in some cases, like it's being suspended from a 347 00:21:21.480 --> 00:21:26.520 helicopter adjusting the pitch Woah. And the dive of the car to 348 00:21:26.520 --> 00:21:29.400 erase the sensation that you would have of a very heavy car 349 00:21:29.505 --> 00:21:32.785 diving under braking. There are all these knock on effects that 350 00:21:32.785 --> 00:21:37.985 make these cars infinitely more complicated and heavier and 351 00:21:37.985 --> 00:21:39.985 technically better. Like they are faster, they're more 352 00:21:39.985 --> 00:21:41.985 efficient, they're, you know, they're yada yada yada. Like 353 00:21:41.985 --> 00:21:43.505 they do all this other stuff. 354 00:21:43.745 --> 00:21:47.820 The cars are being asked to defy physics. They're being asked to 355 00:21:48.220 --> 00:21:51.260 deliver performance and efficiency that, like, should 356 00:21:51.260 --> 00:21:53.980 not be possible. And, like, that's how you end up with 3,000 357 00:21:53.980 --> 00:21:57.500 sensors in the car. It's like or 3,000 chips. Like, that's how it 358 00:21:57.500 --> 00:21:57.740 happens. 359 00:21:57.825 --> 00:22:00.625 The car is not a not necessarily a computer on 360 00:22:00.625 --> 00:22:05.105 wheels, but a data center on wheels, and therefore, the the 361 00:22:05.105 --> 00:22:08.865 competition there is maybe makes a little bit more sense. I'm 362 00:22:08.865 --> 00:22:12.800 curious. I would love to ask you to a question that I don't you 363 00:22:12.800 --> 00:22:15.040 might not know the answer to, but I'm curious if you've come 364 00:22:15.040 --> 00:22:18.480 across a justification in the reporting that you've done so 365 00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:22.240 far, which is like, is there a business case for chip 366 00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:26.320 manufacturers to supply data centers almost exclusively? 367 00:22:27.015 --> 00:22:30.855 Because it seems like there's so much of a downside, you know, 368 00:22:30.855 --> 00:22:35.655 just maybe societally or, you know, with in their relationship 369 00:22:35.655 --> 00:22:40.215 with other industries. Like, are they being paid more per chip by 370 00:22:40.695 --> 00:22:41.975 Sam Altman and crew? 371 00:22:42.470 --> 00:22:46.070 The answer is and I'm gonna try to avoid, 372 00:22:46.070 --> 00:22:49.350 like, angry phrases like short termism here, 373 00:22:49.350 --> 00:22:50.070 but Sure. 374 00:22:50.310 --> 00:22:53.990 Data center hyperscalers like Meta, Google, 375 00:22:53.990 --> 00:23:01.895 Amazon are buying 70% of the supply of these semiconductors 376 00:23:01.895 --> 00:23:06.375 at this point, there's absolutely no reason not to sell 377 00:23:06.375 --> 00:23:07.015 to them. 378 00:23:07.015 --> 00:23:07.335 Mhmm. 379 00:23:07.335 --> 00:23:10.650 If they're building half $1,000,000,000,000 380 00:23:10.650 --> 00:23:14.970 worth of data centers this year, why wouldn't you get in on that? 381 00:23:15.050 --> 00:23:19.930 Yeah. And that's exactly what we saw with Micron just a few 382 00:23:19.930 --> 00:23:26.925 months ago. Micron, shut down their consumer RAM supply to 383 00:23:26.925 --> 00:23:30.685 focus exclusively on high bandwidth memory for data 384 00:23:30.685 --> 00:23:31.245 center. 385 00:23:31.325 --> 00:23:33.885 I think this whole thing is a really interesting I 386 00:23:33.885 --> 00:23:37.725 think, like, this is one of the fun things about cars generally, 387 00:23:37.725 --> 00:23:41.000 but it's like you get all these great illustrations of kinda 388 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:44.680 like what the limits of the system are. You know, you have 389 00:23:45.560 --> 00:23:48.440 all of these companies acting in their own short short term self 390 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:51.720 interest because they're all responsible to their 391 00:23:51.720 --> 00:23:55.505 shareholders on a quarter by quarter basis, and they're all 392 00:23:55.505 --> 00:23:59.505 so well optimized. They all know exactly what kind of a shortage 393 00:23:59.505 --> 00:24:02.625 they can survive and what kind of where they can get extra 394 00:24:02.625 --> 00:24:06.305 supply when they need to. Like, this they they know so much, but 395 00:24:06.305 --> 00:24:11.150 there's so little incentive for anyone to make a long term 396 00:24:11.150 --> 00:24:14.830 investment in anything. Even if they know down the road, it 397 00:24:14.830 --> 00:24:16.350 would it would help them or whatever. 398 00:24:16.670 --> 00:24:21.550 The risk or the the fear of of being kind of hung out on a big 399 00:24:21.550 --> 00:24:25.175 investment is it keeps people from making those long term 400 00:24:25.175 --> 00:24:29.175 decisions. And I think, like, you run up against these, and I 401 00:24:29.175 --> 00:24:30.935 think, like, all of manufacturing in The United 402 00:24:30.935 --> 00:24:32.855 States and all these kind of big companies in United States are 403 00:24:32.855 --> 00:24:38.960 running up against these, like, very hard limits to what this 404 00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:42.080 economic system will do. Yeah. Which is really, really 405 00:24:42.080 --> 00:24:46.080 fascinating. I mean, it's it's it'd be fun to watch if it 406 00:24:46.080 --> 00:24:46.800 wasn't like 407 00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:47.120 Us. 408 00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:48.480 Your four zero one k. Yeah. 409 00:24:50.135 --> 00:24:52.695 It makes me think of, you know, like, I see in 410 00:24:52.695 --> 00:24:57.095 reporting, you know, Apple is able to say that they are gonna 411 00:24:57.095 --> 00:25:00.295 be able to continue manufacturing phones and laptops 412 00:25:00.295 --> 00:25:03.415 and, you know, a bunch of their a bunch of their goods without 413 00:25:03.800 --> 00:25:07.400 having to increase prices or not having to increase them too much 414 00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:10.680 because they were able to secure these long term supply deals 415 00:25:10.680 --> 00:25:14.280 with all of these manufacturers. And I'm assuming it's just the 416 00:25:14.280 --> 00:25:16.440 case that, like, they are able to do that, and they're able to 417 00:25:16.440 --> 00:25:18.760 do that with confidence and at the scale that they can because 418 00:25:18.760 --> 00:25:22.785 they are Apple. And that as big as the video game industry and 419 00:25:22.785 --> 00:25:26.545 the automobile industry are, they just aren't Apple, and so 420 00:25:26.545 --> 00:25:30.065 they aren't doing long term deals. You know, they're they're 421 00:25:30.065 --> 00:25:32.785 doing the sort of just in time production like you described, 422 00:25:32.785 --> 00:25:33.905 Rory. Is that that's the case? 423 00:25:34.080 --> 00:25:35.120 Yeah. It's a buying power 424 00:25:35.120 --> 00:25:35.600 thing. Yeah. 425 00:25:35.600 --> 00:25:37.120 A good year selling cars in The United 426 00:25:37.120 --> 00:25:38.800 States is, like, 15,000,000 cars. 427 00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:42.640 Yeah. And that's that's slightly less than the 428 00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:47.405 Switch two is sold Yeah. Since last July, I think. 429 00:25:47.405 --> 00:25:49.805 So it's just orders of magnitude of 430 00:25:49.805 --> 00:25:50.445 difference. 431 00:25:50.445 --> 00:25:52.845 A really good comparison that I had to look up 432 00:25:52.845 --> 00:25:59.050 because I just didn't know. NVIDIA's Next AI card, like the 433 00:25:59.050 --> 00:26:05.050 entire card that you plug into a server rack, has about 30 times 434 00:26:05.050 --> 00:26:10.570 as much RAM in it as a standard computer or or a PS five for 435 00:26:10.570 --> 00:26:15.395 that matter. So Yeah. A single card that goes into those giant 436 00:26:15.395 --> 00:26:20.035 server racks at a data center of which there are hundreds of 437 00:26:20.035 --> 00:26:24.675 server racks. So suddenly, it's these numbers are 438 00:26:24.675 --> 00:26:26.115 incomprehensibly huge. 439 00:26:26.540 --> 00:26:28.620 Yeah. And there there is a really interesting I 440 00:26:28.620 --> 00:26:30.940 mean, again, another interesting kind of case study. You know, 441 00:26:30.940 --> 00:26:35.260 the the CHIPS Act under the Biden administration was one of 442 00:26:35.260 --> 00:26:38.460 these kind of, like, efforts by the federal government to kind 443 00:26:38.460 --> 00:26:42.965 of address this issue. And they they ended up passing a bill and 444 00:26:42.965 --> 00:26:46.005 getting a bunch of money appropriated. The kind of 445 00:26:46.005 --> 00:26:50.885 intervening whatever it's been four or five years since getting 446 00:26:50.885 --> 00:26:54.760 these facilities up and running has been massively difficult and 447 00:26:54.760 --> 00:26:55.320 complicated. 448 00:26:55.320 --> 00:26:58.440 And I think, like, the Biden administration towards the end 449 00:26:58.440 --> 00:27:01.160 was kind of scrambling to get this money spent and ended up 450 00:27:01.160 --> 00:27:03.800 giving up on a bunch of, like, labor and environmental 451 00:27:03.800 --> 00:27:05.880 protections that they had promised to get this stuff 452 00:27:05.880 --> 00:27:10.265 through. Getting them built is one thing. It's very expensive 453 00:27:10.265 --> 00:27:12.905 compared to places elsewhere in the world where you'd build 454 00:27:12.905 --> 00:27:17.625 them. The United States does not have the labor force for this, 455 00:27:17.625 --> 00:27:19.865 like people who aren't accustomed to doing this. And 456 00:27:19.865 --> 00:27:22.870 then also their supply chain getting these materials 457 00:27:22.870 --> 00:27:23.430 delivered. 458 00:27:23.430 --> 00:27:27.910 Like, this is a very mature industry elsewhere in the world, 459 00:27:27.910 --> 00:27:32.310 in China specifically, and like it is very, very difficult 460 00:27:32.310 --> 00:27:36.335 without a moonshot level kind of investment and kind of some very 461 00:27:36.335 --> 00:27:38.255 strong handed public policy 462 00:27:38.415 --> 00:27:38.575 Yeah. 463 00:27:38.655 --> 00:27:41.775 To imagine, like, moving something like that to 464 00:27:41.775 --> 00:27:42.735 The United States. 465 00:27:42.815 --> 00:27:46.175 I'm curious if there is you know, the story of 466 00:27:46.175 --> 00:27:50.415 artificial intelligence over the last couple years has been it's 467 00:27:50.020 --> 00:27:55.220 being taken up by increasingly many industries, released the 468 00:27:55.380 --> 00:27:59.460 upper level management and the c suite of various actors within 469 00:27:59.460 --> 00:28:04.180 those industries insisting that it be implemented or used at 470 00:28:04.180 --> 00:28:07.265 certain points. And I'm curious if you have a sense of if there 471 00:28:07.265 --> 00:28:11.745 is now, like, inter industry drama, for lack of a better 472 00:28:11.745 --> 00:28:15.265 phrase. Like, is the automobile industry looking at the tech 473 00:28:15.265 --> 00:28:17.905 sector? Is video games looking at tech and being like, dog, 474 00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:21.400 like, what the fuck? You know, like, we I thought we were in 475 00:28:21.400 --> 00:28:24.280 this together, and now, like, like, this makes everything so 476 00:28:24.280 --> 00:28:25.000 much harder. 477 00:28:25.320 --> 00:28:27.320 Like you said, it's the c suite. Like, 478 00:28:27.480 --> 00:28:31.640 everybody up top is talking about how AI is gonna change 479 00:28:31.640 --> 00:28:36.195 everything, and the people who are actually doing it don't 480 00:28:36.195 --> 00:28:41.155 care. Like, don't use it, don't want it. We focus a lot on indie 481 00:28:41.155 --> 00:28:44.595 games just because there are more of them and they're more 482 00:28:44.595 --> 00:28:47.630 interesting to talk about sometimes. But you're starting 483 00:28:47.630 --> 00:28:52.670 to see, like, made by a human in in game descriptions, and, like, 484 00:28:52.670 --> 00:28:54.350 no AI was used. 485 00:28:55.070 --> 00:28:58.190 At the same time, you're starting to see pushes for 486 00:28:58.190 --> 00:29:03.565 disclosures because there are, Steam Next Fest starts today. 487 00:29:03.565 --> 00:29:06.925 There's a bunch of demos of people promoting their games, 488 00:29:07.165 --> 00:29:13.000 and even Steam is starting to push for, not require, a 489 00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:17.880 disclosure for how AI was used. And I saw my first one today 490 00:29:18.280 --> 00:29:22.040 that was AI was used in the coding of this game. 491 00:29:22.040 --> 00:29:24.120 You know, the car industry has been really funny, 492 00:29:24.120 --> 00:29:27.215 especially over the last, like, twenty, thirty years because the 493 00:29:27.215 --> 00:29:29.855 people now who are like in charge of car companies are like 494 00:29:29.855 --> 00:29:32.815 in their fifties and sixties. And they all have like this kind 495 00:29:32.815 --> 00:29:36.175 of scar tissue from from the Internet and then from social 496 00:29:36.175 --> 00:29:39.135 media and like where it's like they felt like they got left 497 00:29:39.135 --> 00:29:44.730 behind. And so the result of that has been over this last, 498 00:29:44.730 --> 00:29:49.130 say, ten, twenty years of kind of like the technology flim flam 499 00:29:49.210 --> 00:29:52.865 era of like building and selling technologies that don't really 500 00:29:52.865 --> 00:29:56.305 have a use case. They've been very eager to get wallet 501 00:29:56.305 --> 00:29:59.825 inspected by the Silicon Valley set. And to to their credit, I 502 00:29:59.825 --> 00:30:04.145 mean, I think, like, everybody watched Tesla's stock valuation 503 00:30:04.145 --> 00:30:07.105 go to $400 or $600 or whatever it was. 504 00:30:07.570 --> 00:30:12.130 And GM who made $12,000,000,000 in a profit last year is, like, 505 00:30:12.130 --> 00:30:15.010 at 60. And I think a lot of their board members are saying 506 00:30:15.010 --> 00:30:18.450 like, hey. Why isn't it not like that for us? And the answer to 507 00:30:18.450 --> 00:30:21.410 to that for a lot of these companies has been to get very 508 00:30:21.410 --> 00:30:26.715 heavily invested in the next bleeding edge tech around, like, 509 00:30:27.435 --> 00:30:30.075 design and around manufacturing, but also around, like, 510 00:30:30.075 --> 00:30:33.835 autonomous cars and ride sharing and and all this other stuff. I 511 00:30:33.835 --> 00:30:38.070 think, like, right now, we're seeing most of those companies 512 00:30:38.070 --> 00:30:40.390 feeling like they've been burned by that. 513 00:30:40.390 --> 00:30:43.030 I don't think there's, a like you said, I don't I don't think 514 00:30:43.030 --> 00:30:45.510 there's, like, a rivalry thing happening. I don't think the 515 00:30:45.510 --> 00:30:47.990 auto industry is under any illusions about, like, being on 516 00:30:47.990 --> 00:30:49.350 the same team as any other industry. 517 00:30:49.825 --> 00:30:50.385 Yeah. Sure. 518 00:30:50.385 --> 00:30:53.265 But I I do think that this this has felt a little 519 00:30:53.265 --> 00:30:57.825 bit more cautious. I mean, like, I watched companies dump tens of 520 00:30:57.825 --> 00:31:00.305 millions of dollars into having a virtual storefront in the 521 00:31:00.305 --> 00:31:04.240 metaverse, like, three years ago or whatever or, like, do NFT 522 00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:08.080 stuff a few years ago. They seem to be a little bit closer to 523 00:31:08.080 --> 00:31:11.360 hedging, I think, on this thing than they have, which is good. 524 00:31:11.360 --> 00:31:12.800 Like, that's Yeah. That's smart. 525 00:31:12.800 --> 00:31:14.880 That's a that's like an indication of having learned a 526 00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:18.555 lesson. Yeah. As someone who is screaming when car companies 527 00:31:18.555 --> 00:31:21.595 were opening up metaverse dealerships, this is like a 528 00:31:21.595 --> 00:31:22.555 welcome development. 529 00:31:22.875 --> 00:31:25.115 It has always felt like I grew up when 530 00:31:25.115 --> 00:31:28.315 computers were in a computer room, and that's the place where 531 00:31:28.315 --> 00:31:31.640 you went. But it's always felt like there's this disconnect 532 00:31:31.640 --> 00:31:36.920 between real world, like, your car in the driveway stuff and 533 00:31:37.480 --> 00:31:42.295 entertainment and electronic stuff is over here. And in 534 00:31:42.295 --> 00:31:49.655 writing about this and living in 2026, that disconnect between 535 00:31:49.975 --> 00:31:53.815 the computer room and the driveway just doesn't exist 536 00:31:53.815 --> 00:31:58.000 anymore. Yeah. There's what, three, four companies that make 537 00:31:58.000 --> 00:31:58.800 this stuff 538 00:31:58.880 --> 00:31:59.200 Yeah. 539 00:31:59.200 --> 00:32:01.760 At a at a handful of factories in the 540 00:32:01.760 --> 00:32:02.320 world. 541 00:32:02.320 --> 00:32:04.240 There are a few of these companies making the the 542 00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:08.985 chips, but it's like there's one supplier for the machine that 543 00:32:08.985 --> 00:32:11.625 actually writes the thing. It's like, that's nuts. Like, that's 544 00:32:11.625 --> 00:32:16.585 crazy. Fifty years ago, you would build excess capacity. In 545 00:32:16.585 --> 00:32:19.305 the current situation, it's like everything is running on this 546 00:32:19.305 --> 00:32:22.745 kind of bare minimum up and down the board, not just cars and not 547 00:32:22.745 --> 00:32:26.640 just chips, not just like, everything across the board is 548 00:32:26.640 --> 00:32:30.000 running on this bare minimum, like, the all of global 549 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:32.560 electrical infrastructure or at least like North American 550 00:32:32.560 --> 00:32:35.440 electrical infrastructure, which is like, okay, what's the 551 00:32:35.440 --> 00:32:39.185 minimum amount of money we can invest and still make a return 552 00:32:39.185 --> 00:32:39.585 on this? 553 00:32:39.585 --> 00:32:41.265 I mean, how ironic is it? Right? That it's 554 00:32:41.265 --> 00:32:44.945 like you look at how you might ameliorate some of these 555 00:32:44.945 --> 00:32:47.505 problems and you start to think about the resources that would 556 00:32:47.505 --> 00:32:51.030 go into doing that. And it's not like they don't exist. It's just 557 00:32:51.030 --> 00:32:53.430 they're all tied up in the bank accounts of tech billionaires 558 00:32:53.430 --> 00:32:58.870 who are investing in, you know, AI data centers and and the 559 00:32:58.870 --> 00:32:59.510 like. 560 00:32:59.670 --> 00:33:03.030 That money could be working in the economy, the 561 00:33:03.030 --> 00:33:03.990 broader economy. 562 00:33:03.990 --> 00:33:05.525 I mean, it's funny to think about what's 563 00:33:05.525 --> 00:33:08.885 going into making AI data centers and, you know, did they 564 00:33:08.885 --> 00:33:12.245 just skip a step? Should they have first sat down and been 565 00:33:12.245 --> 00:33:14.805 like, well, first, we need some factories. Let's get some 566 00:33:14.805 --> 00:33:16.690 factories first and then Yeah. 567 00:33:16.690 --> 00:33:18.290 I mean, there's there's no money in doing that. 568 00:33:18.290 --> 00:33:19.490 You're not gonna get to euro. 569 00:33:19.490 --> 00:33:19.890 Nope. 570 00:33:19.890 --> 00:33:21.970 But again, it's like a that's a just a weird 571 00:33:21.970 --> 00:33:24.930 expression of the the system now. It's just like, wow. That's 572 00:33:25.410 --> 00:33:27.090 these contradictions are getting heightened. 573 00:33:27.090 --> 00:33:30.175 Yeah. Surely, that's not a bad sign. I'm 574 00:33:30.175 --> 00:33:33.535 curious, like, for you guys, like, what is there stuff that 575 00:33:33.535 --> 00:33:36.095 people should, like, look out for? Like, what's gonna happen 576 00:33:36.095 --> 00:33:40.735 next? What is the attitude a consumer should have at the 577 00:33:40.735 --> 00:33:40.975 moment? 578 00:33:41.770 --> 00:33:45.610 A good question. I mean, the the price shift will 579 00:33:45.610 --> 00:33:49.290 be slower in cars than it will be anywhere else because sales 580 00:33:49.290 --> 00:33:52.410 are so sensitive to price. I think, like, you know, you'll 581 00:33:52.410 --> 00:33:57.655 see massive swings in profitability based on a $2,500 582 00:33:57.655 --> 00:34:01.255 or $1,500 cash incentive on the hood of a car the hood of a 583 00:34:01.255 --> 00:34:05.335 $50,000 car. Like and the margins on them are very, very 584 00:34:05.335 --> 00:34:08.930 small. So I think, like, you know, now if you're a consumer, 585 00:34:08.930 --> 00:34:10.690 it's not a time to freak out. 586 00:34:11.090 --> 00:34:14.130 If you can stomach the super high interest rates that you'll 587 00:34:14.130 --> 00:34:17.970 pay for a new car right now, it's fine to still do. And I 588 00:34:17.970 --> 00:34:21.835 would also say, like, twenty years ago, the response to a 589 00:34:21.835 --> 00:34:25.835 situation like this or the response to 2021 would be go buy 590 00:34:25.835 --> 00:34:31.435 a used car. Used car prices have come down a little bit since the 591 00:34:31.995 --> 00:34:35.310 early twenty twenties, but they're still very strong. I 592 00:34:35.310 --> 00:34:38.270 mean, the idea or the the time when you go buy a good car for 593 00:34:38.270 --> 00:34:42.670 $2 or $2,500 and have it last you a while is that's 594 00:34:42.750 --> 00:34:45.790 increasingly difficult to do. I mean, I think, like, table 595 00:34:45.790 --> 00:34:47.310 stakes now is, $10 and up. 596 00:34:48.115 --> 00:34:51.315 So there's not a there's not a hack to work your way around it. 597 00:34:51.315 --> 00:34:54.195 It's kind of like, unfortunately, if you need a car 598 00:34:54.195 --> 00:34:57.315 to get around and live your life, they kind of have you. So 599 00:34:57.315 --> 00:34:59.875 it's it's gonna be a minute before this starts impacting new 600 00:34:59.875 --> 00:35:01.875 car prices and and affordability, which is, like, 601 00:35:01.875 --> 00:35:04.720 also, know, there are no cars available in The United States. 602 00:35:04.720 --> 00:35:08.320 New cars under $20,000. The average sale price is over 603 00:35:08.320 --> 00:35:09.360 $50,000. 604 00:35:09.360 --> 00:35:13.040 So there's a whole separate affordability conversation to be 605 00:35:13.040 --> 00:35:16.320 had. So, yeah, you're kinda screwed, I guess, is the is my 606 00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:17.360 positive answer to that. 607 00:35:17.785 --> 00:35:22.185 Yeah. I I actually kinda have the same 608 00:35:22.185 --> 00:35:27.145 reaction of you're kinda screwed because what started this entire 609 00:35:27.145 --> 00:35:35.150 conversation was in October, I built myself a gaming computer, 610 00:35:35.390 --> 00:35:40.030 like, from scratch just to prove I could that would compete with 611 00:35:40.030 --> 00:35:46.625 a modern console, and I did it for just over $800, and I was 612 00:35:46.625 --> 00:35:50.305 really proud of it. It it works great. This is this is great. I 613 00:35:50.305 --> 00:35:54.385 checked my shopping list just a couple of days ago, and it's 614 00:35:54.385 --> 00:35:57.345 over $1,400. 615 00:35:57.425 --> 00:36:03.260 So it's gone up by 75% in four months. Electronics, consumer 616 00:36:03.260 --> 00:36:07.180 electronics, gaming is all about the latest and greatest, but, 617 00:36:07.500 --> 00:36:11.500 like, I think the answer really is, if you've got something 618 00:36:11.500 --> 00:36:14.795 that's good enough, keep using it. Yeah. You don't need the 619 00:36:14.795 --> 00:36:20.555 latest and greatest, because it's it's going to be a a huge 620 00:36:20.555 --> 00:36:25.915 disconnect through this year and probably well into next year 621 00:36:26.075 --> 00:36:26.235 Yeah. 622 00:36:26.315 --> 00:36:30.200 Before anything gets sorted out. It's just not 623 00:36:30.200 --> 00:36:34.440 the time to upgrade. Yeah. Which is a larger conversation about 624 00:36:34.760 --> 00:36:38.840 planned obsolescence and the disposability of all our 625 00:36:38.840 --> 00:36:42.280 electronics, but kinda time to hold off on upgrades, I think. 626 00:36:42.695 --> 00:36:44.695 Yeah. If you can hang on to your car, keep 627 00:36:44.695 --> 00:36:47.255 driving. I mean, even if this chip thing wasn't happening, 628 00:36:47.255 --> 00:36:49.735 just the interest rate thing is, like, reason enough to just keep 629 00:36:49.735 --> 00:36:52.615 driving whatever piece of shit you're driving. That that's my 630 00:36:52.615 --> 00:36:53.175 advice. 631 00:36:53.255 --> 00:36:56.520 K. Don't freak out. You're kinda screwed, but 632 00:36:56.520 --> 00:36:58.680 hang on to your piece of shit as long as you can. 633 00:36:58.680 --> 00:37:01.240 That's my advice for life is hang on to your 634 00:37:01.240 --> 00:37:02.200 piece of shit. 635 00:37:04.760 --> 00:37:07.640 Jeffrey, Rory, thank you so much for joining us 636 00:37:07.640 --> 00:37:10.520 to chat about this stuff. This has been fascinating. 637 00:37:10.520 --> 00:37:11.720 Glad to be here. Thanks for having me. 638 00:37:11.925 --> 00:37:13.445 Yeah. Thanks for having us. 639 00:37:13.445 --> 00:37:15.365 Jeffrey, where can people find you on the 640 00:37:15.365 --> 00:37:15.845 Internet? 641 00:37:15.845 --> 00:37:20.325 I write at rogue.site. Several other 642 00:37:20.325 --> 00:37:25.605 coworkers and I from one of the big name places started it as 643 00:37:25.605 --> 00:37:29.810 our independent site. It's about video games and kind of 644 00:37:29.810 --> 00:37:34.530 everything around it, and it's kinda where I write angry news 645 00:37:34.530 --> 00:37:35.730 pieces lately. 646 00:37:35.730 --> 00:37:37.570 Hard to write anything else at this 647 00:37:37.570 --> 00:37:38.770 point. Yeah. Yes. 648 00:37:39.515 --> 00:37:40.635 Rory, what about you? 649 00:37:40.715 --> 00:37:44.715 Alloymag.com. It's a new car site, new approach. I 650 00:37:44.715 --> 00:37:47.755 think if you go check it out, it's it's unlike anything that's 651 00:37:47.755 --> 00:37:53.035 being done in in cars anywhere else. And then we're on blue sky 652 00:37:52.600 --> 00:37:57.480 at alloy underscore mag. I am personally on blue sky at 653 00:37:57.640 --> 00:37:59.320 rory_carol. 654 00:37:59.560 --> 00:38:02.040 And I think, yeah, that's those are all good places to find me. 655 00:38:02.040 --> 00:38:04.760 If you need to find more than that, then text me or something. 656 00:38:04.760 --> 00:38:05.320 Text me. 657 00:38:05.320 --> 00:38:07.815 What's wrong with you? What else do you need? And 658 00:38:07.815 --> 00:38:09.735 we'll put links to all those things in the show notes. Thanks 659 00:38:09.735 --> 00:38:11.015 again, fellas. Really appreciate it. 660 00:38:11.015 --> 00:38:11.735 Thank you. 661 00:38:11.815 --> 00:38:12.295 Thank you. 662 00:38:51.710 --> 00:38:54.110 That is the show we have for you this week. We 663 00:38:54.110 --> 00:38:57.470 are gonna be back here on the main feed next week on or around 664 00:38:57.470 --> 00:39:04.030 Thursday, March 5. For $4 from craigslist.org in the Brooklyn 665 00:39:04.030 --> 00:39:14.635 area, you can currently purchase. Okay, let's see, a 666 00:39:15.035 --> 00:39:18.635 rapid mac cooker, world's fastest and easiest way to cook 667 00:39:18.635 --> 00:39:23.710 mac and cheese, A glass teapot warmer that you put a candle in 668 00:39:23.710 --> 00:39:26.350 the middle of, it looks like, and you put the teapot on top of 669 00:39:26.350 --> 00:39:27.870 it. This looks dangerous. 670 00:39:28.110 --> 00:39:33.985 A, what is described as an adorable sphere metal box useful 671 00:39:33.985 --> 00:39:38.625 for anything, jewelry, keys, change, candy, etcetera. On the 672 00:39:38.625 --> 00:39:43.105 top of it, it says in French, a little sugar, a vintage Walt 673 00:39:43.105 --> 00:39:47.825 Disney World's Epcot silver coated smoked glass mug stein. 674 00:39:49.080 --> 00:39:51.000 Okay. Listen. I'm not gonna lie. 675 00:39:51.000 --> 00:39:55.240 I'm not like a Disney person, but this thing slaps. It's just 676 00:39:55.240 --> 00:40:01.160 a big silver mug. You can get a savarin tin coffee can, one 677 00:40:01.160 --> 00:40:06.415 pound tin that looks like something that you would find on 678 00:40:06.415 --> 00:40:13.455 the ground in a Fallout game or pink fleece pants with Furby on 679 00:40:13.455 --> 00:40:18.610 them for some reason Or or you could get a month of membership 680 00:40:18.610 --> 00:40:22.770 at neverpo.st and support your local internet news theory and 681 00:40:22.770 --> 00:40:27.410 criticism podcast that is actively working to keep us away 682 00:40:27.490 --> 00:40:32.565 from the future that Fallout depicts. Neverpo.st, become a 683 00:40:32.565 --> 00:40:35.525 member today. And everybody keep your hands off that Epcot Stein. 684 00:40:35.525 --> 00:40:46.360 It's mine. Neverpost's producers are Audrey Evans, Georgia 685 00:40:46.360 --> 00:40:49.320 Hampton, and the mysterious doctor first name last name. Our 686 00:40:49.320 --> 00:40:52.520 senior producer is Hans Buto. Our executive producer is Jason 687 00:40:52.520 --> 00:40:55.800 Oberholzer. Show's host, that's me, is Mike Rugneva. 688 00:40:59.815 --> 00:41:03.975 So we commissioned a document about sustenance in the city's 689 00:41:03.975 --> 00:41:08.695 pores, metaphors of food and skin for when the water rises. 690 00:41:09.520 --> 00:41:14.400 Wired the desirable apartments, caves in units, strange hotels, 691 00:41:14.480 --> 00:41:20.960 possible domesticities before the water rises. Commissioned a 692 00:41:20.960 --> 00:41:24.985 report detailing repose densities for stones from a 693 00:41:24.985 --> 00:41:32.185 point of view superior to where the anger rises. Excerpt of risk 694 00:41:32.185 --> 00:41:36.690 management song by Lindsay Turner. Never Post is a 695 00:41:36.690 --> 00:41:40.130 production of Charts and Leisure, and it's distributed by 696 00:41:40.130 --> 00:41:40.930 Radiotopia.