Meta Uses Data Centers to Avoid Billions in Taxes & Ken Griffin Makes Biggest College Donation in History

Neal Freyman (0:00)

Good Morning Brew Daily Show. I'm Neal Freyman.

Toby Howell (0:03)

And I'm Toby Howell.

Neal Freyman (0:04)

Today, Howe Meta uses data centers to avoid billions in taxes.

Toby Howell (0:08)

Then, Ken Griffin just made the single largest donation to a college in US history.

It's Thursday, October 1st. Let's ride.

Neal Freyman (0:23)

Thank you so much to everyone who voted for us in the Signal Awards Best Business Podcast category.

Thanks to you, we vaulted to the lead and hope to never look back. Speaking of fan votes, Fat Bear Week has wrapped up, and the winner with more than 100,000 votes was the enormous Backpack, who eat out a victory over Bear 910 with a little over 50% of the poll. Now Toby, Backpack has a very interesting backstory. Is there little Fat Bear nepotism at play?

Toby Howell (0:50)

There is. You can't fault Backpack for winning. He's the son of a former Fat Bear champion, Holly, so it runs in his blood. His name has a very cute origin story too. He used to climb on his mom's back when he was little, as she swam, hence the name Backpack. A worthy champion, another great year. I'm still on over my boy, Chunk though, who won the last year at an estimated weight of 1200 pounds. Got eliminated in the first round of this year. I feel like people were just looking for a different narrative and Backpack was the one that took up the mantle.

Now, a word from our sponsor, Roku Ads Manager. Neil, a $5,000 reward sounds pretty nice. What did she say?

Neal Freyman (1:31)

I think it depends on what it's a reward for. If $5,000 is my reward for eating some weird bug, I'm in. But if it's for getting a misspelled tattoo, I'd probably pass.

Toby Howell (1:41)

All the specific. But the $5,000 I'm talking about is for advertisers. Right now, they can get a $5,000 match on their first spend on Roku Ads Manager.

Neal Freyman (1:51)

Roku is the top smart TV operating system in the US with 100 ad supported streaming channels. So I'd say that $5,000 is a worthwhile reward.

Toby Howell (2:00)

To cash in on the offer, use code Brew5k at advertising.roku.com/mbd.

That's code Brew5k at advertising.roku.com/mbd.

Not since the trade of star safety Minka Fitzpatrick has a Pittsburgh to Miami move made this many waves. Ken Griffin, the founder of Citadel, is donating $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University to help fund a new expansion campus in the Sunshine State. The $3 billion is the single largest gift ever donated to a US university and serves as a further example of how all in on Miami Griffin is. The Florida native founded Citadel, the market maker and trading firm in his Harvard dorm room before eventually headquartering the firm in Chicago. But in 2022, following COVID, he moved Citadel's HQ to Miami and is now trying to beef up South Florida's educational infrastructure, earmarking $2 billion of the gift to build out an entirely new satellite campus that will serve about 3,500 students. Though the gift is philanthropic in nature, Citadel will benefit. The firm has recruited heavily from Carnegie Mellon in the past, so the new campus acts as a talent pipeline in its backyard. Griffin has reason to be optimistic that a university of Carnegie Mellon's level can help spur a transformation for Miami, because it's worked for Pittsburgh, who has gone from a declining steel town to a major tech hub, thanks to Carnegie Mellon's presence there. Neal, a big gift and an even bigger bet that Miami can metamorphosize into a high-tech and high-finance butterfly.

Neal Freyman (3:32)

Yeah, despite all of the hype over the past few years, Miami still has that reputation as being a place for billionaires, second homes, and just a transient workforce where maybe people go there when maybe they're a little younger, and they leave for other cities because they're just better job opportunities. I'm reminded of the succession line, I love you but you're not serious people. With this $2 billion gift and putting Carnegie Mellon in Miami in Winwood, which is this arts district, pretty cool place, that Ken Griffin is trying to create a more sustainable job pipeline with a lot of smart younger grads going to Miami for college and then working and staying in Miami. He said, I believe that all great American cities are anchored by great universities and Carnegie Mellon will bring a great university here to Miami, complimentary to other universities here in the region. There is Miami there, there's FIU, but something with the stature of Carnegie Mellon and the ability of Carnegie Mellon to generate startups and generate really smart people in AI and robotics. The industries of the 21st century thinks this will be a game changer.