All In Podcast Episode 220 Recap and Notes March 2 2025

March 21 2025

• Intro

  • Chamath learning about normal people soda machine
  • Sacks joins
  • Cyan Bannister joins

• Chamath and Friedberg in DC

  • Chamath, Friedberg, Chamath’s wife and Sunny Madra
  • West Wing is disarmingly small
  • Met Elon
  • Happy workforce
  • Met POTUS
  • Scott Bessent episode
  • Howard Lutnick episode
  • Administration seems very transparent
  • Impressed by President’s energy and ability to make decisions
  • Need people with high executive function and have proven it to step into government and trade money for purpose

• Cyan new fund

  • Early stage, seed checks, etc

• Tim Walz Tesla comments

  • Shows Dem is 2 parties

    • With beliefs

      • Communists, Marxists

    • Without beliefs

      • Moderates have no idea what their beliefs are

    • Shows in the results of polling

      

• Google acquires Wiz

  • $32B cash
  • Largest Google deal
  • Clearly new administration has helped with this
  • Dem admin if it came was feared to be anti-M&A and anti-tech so when Google wanted to do this a few months ago - the deal didn’t happen
  • Based on what Lutnick said in the interview - (can conclude that it seems lot of M&A might happen)
    • Providers make stuff for US govt for free - use that as the reference client
    • If its gratis then don’t need approval
  • Design matters and having taste matters
    • Even if others are doing the same thing - if you make something with good design it can create $32B value
  • Google agrees $3.2B breakup fee
  • Bet that they can expand this into their install base
  • Google’s ROIC is about 30%
  • Can use this as a trojan horse into the other clouds
  • Largest security company exit maybe ever

• Fed and interest rates

  • Fed not going to cut as much as expected
  • When rates are low you should borrow for long term, else you’re stuck when rates rise
  • Scott Bessent agrees Fed should be independent of government
  • Unprecedented condition of federal government budget cuts and tariff regime - not clear how Fed can lean on past cases
  • Bond market in the last month has dropped rates so in some ways its hinting at the Fed to cut rates too
  • Fed was complicit in what Yellen did

• Space race

  • SpaceX astronaut rescue
    • Discussed Boeing Starliner program disaster E192 - more money spent on Starliner than on SpaceX - Crew Dragon has had so many successful missions
    • Sad that America abandoned these people for political reasons
    • Astronauts had trouble walking after coming back
  • Firefly lunar landing

    • SpaceX vs China

    • Their rocket seems like a clone of Starship

    • Chinese industrial and manufacturing base is so much superior to America at this time that US has to catch up

      • So its lazy to say China’s lead is due to slave labor - they have amazing automation that is very advanced

    • American decline can be described using this poll

      

    • American left has attacked math, reading, etc and have hamstrung our kids