Chamath Palihapitiya Goes All In on AI, SPACs, IBM, & Politics 7/14/26

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Your data lives everywhere, on-prem, in the cloud, across apps. Bring it all together with Everpure, the platform that acts like a living system, delivering the latest in data performance, security and innovation without ever slowing you down. Sophisticated enough to anticipate your ever-changing data needs, yet simple enough to feel like second nature. Tame your data chaos with Everpure and make storage and data management the simplest part of your business. Visit everpuredata.com to learn more.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:27)
Trading at Schwab is now powered by Ameritrade. Unlocking the power of Think or Swim, the award-winning trading platforms loaded with features that let you dive deeper into the market. Visualize your trades in a new light on Think or Swim desktop with robust charting and analysis tools. All while you uncover new opportunities with up-to-the-minute market news and insights. Think or Swim is available on desktop, web and mobile to meet you where you are. It's built by the trading obsessed to help you trade brilliantly. Learn more at schwab.com/trading.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:00)
Today on Squawk Pod, we're going all in with Chamath Palihapitiya. First, a sea change in technology companies' value.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (1:09)
If two or three companies are going to generate two, three, four hundred billion dollars a year and it's doubling and tripling every year, where is the rest of this money going to be made?

**SPEAKER_4** (1:18)
The AI optimists versus the doom and gloomers, what Chamath has to say about Anthropix Dario Emode.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (1:24)
Let him scream in the sandbox about how the sky is falling. Let him do it. What I and many other people will tell you, after decades of being in this industry, the sky is not falling.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:34)
Plus, the evolution of the investor. The SPAC king admits his incentives were misaligned in the SPAC boom of 2021 Once a donor to the Democratic Party, Palihapitiya has had a change of heart and wallet when it comes to President Trump.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (1:49)
He's fantastic, great person, unbelievable person, very smart on top of it, open-minded.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:55)
The California billionaire on California billionaires. Our own Robert Frank joins the conversation.

**Robert Frank** (2:01)
The total billionaire wealth in California is about $2 trillion. Six people account for more than half of that.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (2:08)
The state of California will accomplish nothing.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:12)
It is a very busy Tuesday, July 14th, 2026 A super-sized Squawk Pod begins right now.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (2:22)
Good morning and welcome to Squawk Box right here on CNBC. We're live at the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Andrew Ross Sorkin along with Joe Kernen. Becky is on assignment this morning, but we've got a lot going on this morning.

**Joe Kernen** (2:33)
There's somebody else here, but first we're going to talk about the future.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:38)
Today on the podcast, a fresh headline that starts off our discussion with venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya and underscores the speed at which the AI revolution is upending the status quo. IBM shares plunged double digits early this morning after the legacy American technology company once known as Big Blue, released preliminary second quarter results that fell way short of expectations due to weakness in the software and infrastructure business. Why? Demand for memory chips that power artificial intelligence. Our Joe Kernen noted the stock slide this morning in a market discussion with CNBC contributor Stephanie Link, and that's where we'll start.

**Stephanie Link** (3:16)
I think it's going to increase going forward.

**Joe Kernen** (3:17)
Sorry to interrupt, but IBM, it may not be what it used to be in terms of Bellwethers, but when you get a $40 move on a warning, when's all that? Companies haven't warned lately. Yeah, they warn of better than expected results in this new world, but IBM is warning, and it's had a big run-up, which it hasn't had in a while, but it is down to day.
There is a letter from the CEO to investors, and the company sees second quarter revenue, $17.2 billion software revenue up 5%, consulting revenue flat, and adjusted earnings per share of $2.93, and infrastructure revenue actually down 7%, also gross margins down 70 basis points. What do you think, Seth?

**Stephanie Link** (4:10)
Well, I own it, so I'm not happy about it, and it's a shock. So this now means, it probably reinforces that AI and what is it doing to software, and that's the scare that people have had, and that's one of the reasons why software in general hasn't done so well. Software at 5%, I mean, oh my goodness, it was supposed to be at least double digits, maybe even into the teens, and so that's very disappointing.

**Joe Kernen** (4:37)