Why Are Tech Billionaires Flexing Their Generosity All of a Sudden?

Leah, are you excited for all the shares in AI companies

that you and future generations of America are going to get?

I can't wait, Brian.

I mean, I've just been bated breath for this to happen.

The idea of tech companies using wealth

for public good has been an ongoing conversation

for, like, literal decades,

and it's stalled in recent years.

Like, it just 100% has.

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world,

famously is anti-philanthropy, which is very new,

to be clear, from like tech of even a decade ago

that at the very least, you know, you had Bill

and Melinda Gates Foundation, you had like an outpour

of support for like the climate corners of the tech industry

and like dumping money into that.

That's all dried up and I'm not honestly sure

that we've spent enough time talking about that.

A lot of these companies have kind

of relied on like the positive press

from their forebears literally 15 years ago.

And so the idea

that like there's now this whole philanthropic streak of,

as you said, sorts is of note.

It's the idea that like, Oh, okay,

we're actually that unpopular that we need

to weigh in to some respect.

We're gonna take your jobs,

but we're gonna now fund the specific populations,

question mark, whose jobs were taken?

I do think, to your point, it's philanthropy,

but it's philanthropy born of this sense

that we're gonna be the ones to figure out

not only how AI is going to reshape society,

but we're gonna be the ones responsible

for then making sure everybody's okay.

The amount of power that they're sort of trying

to invest in themselves is really astonishing.

We live in an unregulated hellhole.

Like, put it on a t-shirt.

I'm so, like, look, Anthropic is preparing

for a trillion dollar IPO right now.

And I know, like, it's me, so I have to say it,

the midterms are in two weeks.

All anyone is talking about in at least a portion

of these polls is data centers, how unpopular they are,

how unpopular AI is.

The use of AI is a bipartisan issue at this point,

which is fascinating.

We should really be talking about how impressive it is

that, like, these massive companies

have made so many people hate them so quickly.

So it's all this timing,

all of these like, don't look at the man

behind the curtain facade that I just can't get over.