OpenAI’s “Cyber Incident,” A Saudi Nuclear Deal, & AT&T CEO 7/22/26

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**Joe Kernen** (0:58)
Bring in show music, please.

**Katie Kramer** (1:02)
Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer, today on Squawk Pod, a possible nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia.

**Joe Kernen** (1:10)
I understand the president's rationale. I'm just suggesting that I think they're Republicans who don't think this is the right decision, and I think there are people in Israel right now who don't think this is the right decision.

**Katie Kramer** (1:20)
The future called, AT&T CEO John Stankey on how we connect and competition for consumers.

**John Stankey** (1:27)
Inside hospitals, on university campuses, in stadiums, in tall buildings, all those things are expectations of customers today that it works wherever you go.

**Katie Kramer** (1:38)
Then a warning about the good intentions of artificial intelligence, religious leaders are speaking up. Evangelical Christian Reverend Walter Kim joins us.

**Walter Kim** (1:47)
What we need to pursue is an approach that involves various sectors of society to provide guardrails, not a break to innovation by guardrails.

**Katie Kramer** (1:59)
Plus, case in point, AI too smart for its own good. OpenAI's models are better hackers than expected.

**Joe Kernen** (2:06)
Every time you say Hugging Face, I don't know, I laugh. Reminds me of Huggy Bear.

**Becky Quick** (2:10)
It reminds me of McLovin.

**Joe Kernen** (2:11)
Yeah. Remember Huggy Bear?

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (2:12)
Yeah, I do.

**Joe Kernen** (2:13)
No way.

**Katie Kramer** (2:15)
It is Wednesday, July 22nd. Squawk Pod begins right now.

**Joe Kernen** (2:20)
Stand Becky by in three, two, one. Cue, please.

**Becky Quick** (2:26)
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Squawk Box. Right here on CNBC, we are live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Becky Quick, along with Joe Kernen and Andrew Ross Sorkin. And here we go. Crude oil prices are rising. This comes after the 11th consecutive night of US strikes against Iran. Speaking at a foreign ministers meeting in the Philippines last night, US. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington remained committed to diplomacy, but accused Iran of violating the agreement over the Strait of Hormuz. He said the problem we're having right now is that they are not serious about talks.
As a result of all of this, you can see the WTI this morning is up by another 4.7 percent, $88.32.
Brent is trading up by 4.6 percent and $95.23 a barrel.

**Joe Kernen** (3:18)
President Trump has now formally approved an agreement with Saudi Arabia that will provide the country with a civilian nuclear program and potentially open the door to uranium enrichment. That's going to The Wall Street Journal, citing administrative officials. The 30-year deal is estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars, and it would involve American companies building uranium enrichment facility if a joint U.S.-Saudi study determines it is warranted. The deal is expected to be submitted to Congress for review in the coming days. Blocking it would be tough, as it would require a joint resolution and a two-thirds majority vote if it was necessary to try to override a potential presidential veto.
There's some folks in Israel that are not particularly happy about this decision. There are folks on both sides of the aisle about-

**Joe Kernen** (4:09)
At least happy about it. Those are the two rivals that, and this is totally, I understand exactly why we're doing it.

**Joe Kernen** (4:18)
Oh, I understand the president's rationale. I'm just suggesting that I think they're Republicans who don't think this is the right decision, and I think there are people in Israel right now who don't think this is the right decision because ultimately, as you talk about Iranian enrichment, and you talk about nuclear proliferation.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (4:37)
Nuclear? Yeah, they're friends for now.