Unrest in Europe & LeBron’s Season Debut 10/20/26

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

You spent millions deploying AI across your organization, but six months in, it still misses basic context. Sound familiar? That's not an AI problem, that's a data problem.

Siloed systems leave your AI blind, while dark data confuses whatever it does see. Everpure unifies your data so your model can see it, understand it and put it to work. No waiting around, no digging for answers. Get real results from your AI at everpuredata.com.

SPEAKER_2 (0:29)

When it comes to trading, we all know that the click is the smallest part of the whole thing. It's the hours before it, the chart work, the notes, the what's my risk, what's my exit stuff. Then there's all the reviewing when it doesn't go exactly how you drew it up. That's what Schwab Trading is built around. Think or swim trading platforms give you the tools to go deeper. The education tailored to your level and a trade desk full of real trading specialists you can talk to day or night. If that sounds like what you've been looking for, go to schwab.com/trading and learn more.

Andrew Ross Sorkin (0:59)

Bring in show music, please.

Katie Kramer (1:03)

Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer. Today on Squawk Pod, unrest in Europe, affordability concerns spreading into the streets in Paris. Michael Froman of the Council on Foreign Relations joins us on the lessons from France.

Michael Froman (1:17)

It's a perfect storm of domestic, political gridlock, an oncoming election with a far right, potentially ahead in the lead, rising cost for debt service.

Katie Kramer (1:28)

Then the business of sports. The new NBA season kicks off tonight. Former sports agent turned professor, Andrew Brandt.

Andrew Brandt (1:36)

The Oklahoma City Thunder, who were in that incredible West Conference final with the Spurs, they seem to be the two best teams still. And I do say that knowing that the Knicks were champions.

Katie Kramer (1:48)

Plus the US, Ukraine and Russia, the big fortunes in AI, and the high-powered chips powering it all.

Andrew Ross Sorkin (1:54)

I think I said NVIDIA.

Joe Kernen (1:56)

After all our discussions.

Andrew Ross Sorkin (1:57)

You and your words.

Joe Kernen (1:59)

Me and my words.

Katie Kramer (2:01)

It is Tuesday, October 20th. Squawk Pod begins right now.

SPEAKER_8 (2:05)

Stand under by in 3, 2, 1, cue Andrew.

Andrew Ross Sorkin (2:11)

Good morning. 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's off today. I want to show you where Energy stands right now. WTI crude $108.18, up over 4% and keeps moving in the wrong direction here. Brent at $111.

You'd think that would actually have a bigger impact, frankly.

SPEAKER_8 (2:38)

It would, but unless you got a lot of X on.

Andrew Ross Sorkin (2:40)

This morning, OpenAI reportedly now wants to secure some more funding before Anthropic goes public. Reuters reporting that OpenAI is looking for investor commitments at a $30 billion fast fundraising round that could value the company at more than $1.4 trillion. The speed of the fundraising round is set to reflect a desire by OpenAI to get out in front of Anthropic since both companies have similar investor bases. Anthropic expects to go public next month, and Reuters reports that SoftBank, Abu Dhabi-based MGX and other current OpenAI backers are in talks to join that funding round. It's interesting, this whole sort of jockeying for position ahead of that IPO, I think there's two issues there, Joe. One is try to suck some of that money into their company before it gets sucked into Anthropic, and the other is to capture whatever kind of valuation they can right now to the degree that you think that Anthropic is going public at a $2 trillion valuation. That $1.4 trillion valuation makes sense. I don't know what makes sense anymore, but if you also thought that Anthropic's valuation might drop, and there's been some talk of that too, that would have an impact on the valuation, of course, that OpenAI would be able to capture ahead of it.

Joe Kernen (3:57)

A lot riding on these things. We're already jittery, aren't we? With some of the bonds.

I guess if you own Exxon, you're psyched.

Andrew Ross Sorkin (4:10)

But you know what though? If you're Eric Schmidt right now, you're really psyched.

Joe Kernen (4:15)

Yeah, right.

Andrew Ross Sorkin (4:17)

You are psyched beyond words.

Joe Kernen (4:19)

Because, well, let's talk about, just want to mention one more time, but do you remember 130? Just a couple of years ago?

What were we doing? Why weren't we as worried? It's like, I don't remember.