Tariffs with the USTR & Prediction Markets with the CFTC 6/2/26

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (0:53)
Bring in show music, please.

**Cameron Costa** (0:57)
This is Squawk Pod, and I'm CNBC producer Cameron Costa. On today's episode, on the ground in Washington, the team catches up with DC leaders, like US. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

**Jamieson Greer** (1:11)
There's been more nuance to it than people realize.

**Cameron Costa** (1:13)
The tariff strategy so far, and the changes still to come, like in Brazil.

**Jamieson Greer** (1:19)
We're investigating specific unfair trading practices by different countries.

**Cameron Costa** (1:24)
Chairman of the CFTC joins us too, Michael Selig, on how he views his own role in the market of prediction markets.

**Michael Selig** (1:33)
I do believe that the intent of Congress was for the CFTC to exclusively regulate these products and to have discretion over certain areas, sports, gaming, all of that. We have authority to prohibit, potentially, if we choose to use that authority.

**Cameron Costa** (1:50)
Plus, Anthropic is officially going public. Google is selling $80 billion worth of stock to fund its AI build-out. Short seller Andrew Left was found guilty of securities fraud. And Bernie Sanders has a proposal to democratize AI ownership.

**Becky Quick** (2:07)
If we as a country can invest in companies like Intel, why not have a stake in the upside?

**Joe Kernen** (2:14)
And go to Bernie Sanders for any type of economic proposal?

**Becky Quick** (2:16)
No, no, never, never, never, never.

**Cameron Costa** (2:19)
It is Tuesday, June 2nd, and Squawk Pod begins right now.

**SPEAKER_9** (2:24)
Stand Becky by in 3, 2, 1, cue please.

**Becky Quick** (2:30)
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Squawk Box. We are live from the CNBC CEO Council Summit in Washington, DC this morning. Big show for us. I'm Becky Quick along with Joe Kernen and Andrew Ross Sorkin.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (2:42)
AI giant Anthropic has filed confidentially for an initial public offering. That could put it on track now to go public this fall. Multiple reports saying that rival OpenAI also preparing to submit its own IPO filing imminently. Yesterday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman telling David Faber, he didn't think there was a race to go public and his company would do it when it makes sense.

**Sam Altman** (3:04)
I think there is a race to deliver the best technology and build the best business, but going public is a financing event and I don't think that's one that we're focused on the timing of. We'll do it when we think it makes sense.

**SPEAKER_11** (3:16)
But you will do it as well.

**Sam Altman** (3:17)
I assume we'll do it someday.

**Becky Quick** (3:20)
And shares of Google's parents' alphabet are lower this morning. It looks like they are off by about 2.5 percent, $366.80. This comes after the company says that it's selling $80 billion in stock to fund investments in artificial intelligence. That includes $10 billion from Berkshire Hathaway through a private placement. That position for Berkshire Hathaway adds to a position in Google Class A and C shares that Berkshire has been building over the last three quarters. In fact, as of the most recent filings, it looks like they had $21.76 billion in shares of Alphabet. This again adds another $10 billion to that, so just over $31 billion.
Alphabet says that it plans to spend somewhere between $180 and $190 billion on CapEx this year. They upgraded those numbers in April. Before that, they had been saying $175 to $185 billion. And at the time, when they upgraded that CapEx spending number, Sundar Pichai was asked what keeps him up at night. He said, compute power. This is the race to try and make sure they have enough money for compute power.
Google already had $126 billion in cash on hand, according to the most recent filings, so it is a company that has plenty of access to cash. It kicks off a lot of cash, but look, if this is a flex move, if you can go ahead and secure that capital, a good way to do it right now under these terms.