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January 23 2026 (from NotebookLM) Part 1: Brian Armstrong (CEO, Coinbase) – Crypto Trends & Regulation Political Climate & Regulation ◦ Davos Atmosphere: Shifted from "ESG/DEI" focus to "brass tacks" business and deal-making, largely attributed to the "Trump effect". ◦ US Administration Shift: The Biden administration was viewed as unlawfully hostile to crypto. The Trump administration is seen as pro-business/crypto, creating a legal path for the industry and aiming to make the US the "crypto capital". ◦ Global Competition: China is paying interest on CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), creating pressure for the US to repatriate capital. Banking & Stablecoins ◦ Adoption: 5 of the top 20 global banks use Coinbase for crypto infrastructure. Some banks view crypto as an "existential" threat (similar to Amazon vs. Barnes & Noble), while others see opportunity. ◦ "The Genius Act" (Legislation):...

January 22 2026 The State of the AI Race & US Leadership Current Standing: The U.S. is currently leading the global AI race. David Sacks notes that American companies continue to innovate with better models, chips, and data centers. Strategic Pillars: Michael Kratsios outlines three pillars of the U.S. strategy: Innovation: Maintaining a lead over competitors. Infrastructure: Building the necessary physical support (data centers/energy). Export: Sharing American technology with the world. Policy Shift: The speakers highlight a shift from the previous administration. President Trump’s approach promotes "permissionless innovation," contrasting with the Biden administration's executive order and "diffusion rule," which added hundreds of pages of regulations that treated AI as a highly regulated industry,,. Infrastructure, Energy, and Economics Demand vs. Bubble: Sacks dismisses fears that AI infrastructure is a bubble comparable to ...

January 22 2026 (notes from NotebookLM) Guest Context: Sarah B. Rogers Role: Rogers serves as the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy. While traditional diplomacy involves government-to-government relationships, her role focuses on the relationship between the U.S. government and foreign publics. Modern Focus: Her portfolio has evolved with the internet to address the "information ecosystem," dealing with "disinformation," and managing the tension between American free speech values and foreign regulations. The Conflict: U.S. Free Speech vs. European Regulation Rogers and the hosts discuss a widening divide between the U.S. (focused on the First Amendment and individual conscience) and Europe (focused on "technocratic regulation" and safety). 1. The United Kingdom: The Online Safety Act (OSA) Scope: The OSA imposes age-gating and requires platforms to assess risks for "upsetting" content, even if it is legal in the U.S.. Enforceme...

 January 21 2026 Satya gave up his green card to get his wife to come to the US with him AI and knowledge workers Delegation Evals are important for AI products Bullish on AI - the pie will grow You are not a platform until the revenue on top of your platform is a multiple of your revenues - h/t Bill Gates Diffusion of AI is important - its not just good for the US - it means more value is created worldwide Azure is Microsoft’s biggest business Its all about serving tokens Thinks models will be like Databases from decades ago Databases didn’t remain just SQL, you got document dbs, NoSQL dbs, open source, etc Same will happen with models Predicts each firm will have its own model Important to keep hiring people

January 16 2026 All In invited to Davos Sacks and Jason will be there Iran Inflation is out of control recently Fluid situation - too early to comment Microsoft Hyperscaler Datacenter plans Locals will not foot the bill for higher electricity prices Maybe soon companies will provide more amenities to local communities - easing the pressure more One idea is to have industrial and commercial power usage in the US increase cost so residential could be free (residential is right now half of industrial + commercial) - so residents get free, but commercial costs go up so they can reduce their costs by investing in their own infrastructure - so a market force is created and its decentralized Jason and Chamath pitching their off the grid solution (talking their book?) with having residential have storage + panels OpenAI compute deal with Cerebras Andrew Feldman has done a great job BTA - Billionaire Tax Act 10 states ban asset taxes Only Texas explicitly bans wea...

January 15 2026 FDA Commissioner In San Francisco for JPM Health Conference Hospital Price Transparency Sociology of Medical Dogma FDA wastage 2000 HR people before he got there 1500 IT people before he got there 20000 employees total before he got there Previous commissioner’s first priority was to fight misinformation - new priority is to deliver better care and healthier food Accelerating drug approvals Eliminating/reducing animal trials Animal testing might not help - in fact can hurt Computational models can fix it Might want to introduce continuous trials Planning to allow use of Bayesian statistics Safety-ism has hurt people by delaying access to medication Surprises Each of the centers had their own silos - a guy would move documents from 1 center to another because of lawyer requirements 1 guy was the ink guy on the fax machine All cleaned up Food pyramid Everyone knows it was backwards - was wrong - childhood obesity was off the charts Too much...

January 14 2026 Bob Sternfels - McKinsey Hemant Taneja - General Catalyst CEO AI disruption McKinsey hiring changing - more client facing, less non-client facing Kids need to learn how to ask the right questions instead of just focusing on solving hard math problems Robotics and automation will carry the day Jason giving giant infomercial for Tesla Optimus

January 12 2026 First ever ad read - Paypal Open by Friedberg Palisades fire recap 1 year ago 6837 structures destroyed - ~5000 homes As of Nov 2025 only 1 home has been rebuilt Carolla lives in Malibu - saw the fire breakout as it happened - evacuated later that night Early life in construction - familiar with the issue Has encountered a lot of bureaucracy over the years California Coastal Commission and other departments make it hard to build - permitting process is insane Diagnosis Blames what he calls Gyno fascism - safetyism and environmentalism They hide behind the shield of safety and don’t think about the second order effects of making everything “safer” Blames Barbara Ferrer for shutdown Shows how teachers unions are very powerful Rochelle Walensky had to walk back her covid shutdown comments Why are they allowed to elect politicians? Shows how absurd it is that the LA Times would endorse a political candidate - then how can you trust their reporting on...

January 9 2026 CA Exodus Sacks in Austin, Texas Moved in December Austin office for Craft Ventures Chamath started the process in December - nothing decided yet Sacks’s broker helping Chamath find a place A lot of people are hedging their bets Larry Page going to Florida maybe Chamath claims $0.5T net worth of his friends have left Even Reid Hoffman thinks the proposed wealth tax is insane This is not going away - the leftists want it to go through The problem is the fraud - fix the fraud first then decide on taxes Sergey also probably left CA is also levying more taxes based on super voting - this is why the Google founders likely left Seizing assets tax - does it get on the ballot and does it go through Friedberg - No, and so No Mamdani and Cea Weaver communist rhetoric going up Collectivism over individualism Seize people’s property Predictions show Template Last year Friedberg Gavin Jason Chamath This year Friedberg Jason Chamath Sacks ...

Jan 8 2026 AirForce One stories Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Last year look back on experience coming in Outcome driven - working hard and failing is failure, not working and succeeding is success In department - cut 52000 → 40000 people Government has typically many specialists, not generalists - Secretary’s job is to put those together Scope BIS - Bureau of Industry and Security Tariffs Import/Export assist model (Boeing closely follows them for example) NTIA - Telecom, Spectrum, 6G?, AI GDP published - use the census, business census Publish on the blockchain Patent office NOAA - Oceans and Atmosphere Now there is Office of space commerce Tariffs Trade deficit is not buying stuff from a supermarket Its actually them owning you 1985 US owned more of the world - $148B 2026 they own more of us - $26T Trade deals Japan Hard to open them up culturally, economically, socially, technically (all of them) So slapped 25% tariffs Japan auto industr...

December 22 2025 Budget Deficit - goal was 3% Came down from 1.8T to 1.78T (estimated was 2.0T which would have been much worse) 40% of government spending occurred in the 4th quarter of 2024 during Biden administration trying to convince voters to their side Projecting $200-$300B contraction Year nominal growth of 6% Hoping to get it down to mid 5s Tariffs Alan Greenspan did a great job in the 90s and during Clinton years economy was roaring Folks were even worried there wouldn’t be enough government debt to service some financial actors SF Fed with 150 years of data shows that tariffs are disinflationary and do not cause inflation (see study) Tariff policy is part of national security Fentanyl imports dropping by putting pressure on China Trump retaliated to Chinese rare earth tariffs with his own tariffs Chinese won’t stop producing because of tariffs - their economy is based on volume Current tariffs is to cause a rebalancing of the economy - over time it shou...