This Week in Startups
00:34:48 · Jason Calacanis, Lon Harris
[00:34:48] S0: Okay. Alright. Let's keep going. What's next on the agenda? [00:34:50] S2: On Thursday, OpenAI published a set of new data center commitments we can't get away from data centers. Just two days after voters rejected the rapid expansion of AI at the polls, reaffirmed its promise to pay the full cost of powering its data centers, says that for centers it owns and operates, it will solicit community input, publish construction plans, and it will avoid NDAs with public officials. A separate policy blueprint encourages lawmakers to enact similar commitments as laws per ballot PD and CNBC. Oh, we already talked about Meta, Microsoft, Google, and Anthropic all have outlined similar commitments. OpenAI told investors back in February it's targeting 600,000,000,000 in total compute spend by 2030. What do you think of this plan? Does any of this move the needle for the public on data centers? [00:35:36] S0: Does any of it move the needle for data centers? I I think it's great to be proactively communicating your plans. And so, yes, I think everything helps getting ahead of this. I'm not sure in this proposal if there's anything revolutionary, but [00:35:52] S2: No.
00:35:52 · Lon Harris, Jason Calacanis
[00:35:52] S2: No. [00:35:52] S0: Right. They have to just... You know, part of leadership is repeating yourself Mhmm. Over and over and over again and meeting with people and listening to people. This is what I've learned about, like, leadership, true leadership. You gotta listen to people. You gotta repeat back to them what they said so they know they feel heard. And then, when you actually have, a statement to make, you gotta repeat yourself. One of the things Trump does over and over again when he's doing these, like, clips, so when he's, like, getting out of the helicopter or whatever, he's doing a stand up with the press, whether they call that a gaggle or something. Yeah. [00:36:23] S2: They do.
00:36:23 · Lon Harris, Jason Calacanis
[00:36:23] S2: They do. [00:36:24] S0: When he does, like, these gaggles, he's like, you know, Iran can't have a nuclear, bomb, and, you know, the war's gonna wrap up, and we can't have Iran having a nuclear bomb. There's no way Iran can have a nuclear bomb. We can't let them have a nuclear bomb. And you're like, bro, you said it four times, and you made five statements, and four of them were the same thing. It's like, yes. Yes. So they just have to say over and over, data centers aren't going to impact your local electrical bill. We use recycled water only. We use much less water than the golf course, and you have seven golf courses there. Of course, we're not going to affect your electrical bill. And we use much less than a golf course, like even just one golf course. We use less than a golf course. And we're going to pay our taxes, and it'll have no impact on your electricity, and certainly no impact on your water far less than a golf course. Of course, and you have seven golf course. And you're just like, Oh my God, it's so annoying. But you know what? As a dad, as a CEO of companies, a leader, man, I know I sound annoying sometime when I do it. I just know if I repeat it three times, the chances of it actually being understood go way up. It's repetition equals people remembering it. So that's what they need to do. They just need to be out there all the time. The leadership needs to be saying it over and over and over again. And, yeah. Man. Great job.
00:37:43 · Lon Harris, Jason Calacanis
[00:37:43] S2: I feel like it is gonna go so far. I really think that it got very tied up in that, that if you were a Republican, you're a pro data center. If you're a Democrat, you hate them, and it's a fascist or whatever. And I think people got swept up in that, and when you really get down to it, it's not really partisan in that way. [00:37:59] S0: There's nothing partisan about it. It's... I mean, if I was gonna build a Walmart in your area, that feels more partisan. You know? It does. [00:38:07] S2: No. For sure. It for sure does. And that's that's what I'd like. [00:38:10] S0: Oh, are you gonna kill Main Street? Right. Are you gonna sell everything? [00:38:12] S2: There's a lot more progressive arguments to be made against the Walmart than there would be, I think, for me, the the data center, but that's Yeah. [00:38:19] S0: I mean, I guess we did have a bit of time where, like, in the nineties where that was, like, a big topic of discussion. It was. Kinda Walmart. [00:38:27] S2: It's where [00:38:28] S0: the data centers at that time. [00:38:29] S2: Well, they were getting public money. Like, the city gave 50,000,000 to Target to build it. You know? Like, it was always that stuff. Like, now there's a whole road the city has to build so you could get to the Sam's Club. That's why am I paying for that? That was always Yeah.
00:38:29 · Lon Harris, Jason Calacanis
[00:38:29] S2: Well, they were getting public money. Like, the city gave 50,000,000 to Target to build it. You know? Like, it was always that stuff. Like, now there's a whole road the city has to build so you could get to the Sam's Club. That's why am I paying for that? That was always Yeah. [00:38:42] S0: That makes no... And and and that's a valid Sure. Criticism of that, 100% all day. I I think looking back on it, the Democrats probably laid down the last two years, didn't fight anything because they knew that Trump... President Trump would not stay focused and that if they just stood out of the way and let him kinda dominate them, that would be a better strategy than fighting them. What do you think? [00:39:12] S2: Well, I mean, I think they [00:39:13] S0: They put up no fight. [00:39:14] S2: I think they recognized there wasn't much that they could do pragmatically other than, you know, a lot of a lot of, people on the far left were calling on them to, like, throw themselves on the railroad tracks metaphorically, like, resign or threaten to resign or do something extreme or, you know, leave the senate floor and stomp out, you know, like, some sort of grand gesture. Because procedurally, there really wasn't much that democrats could do. They didn't have any power in any branch of government. [00:39:44] S0: I think They were o for four.
00:39:44 · Jason Calacanis, Lon Harris
[00:39:44] S0: I think They were o for four. [00:39:45] S2: Yeah. So I think... Yeah. That that was definitely like the Jeffries Schumer philosophy was like, hang back. Let this guy rant and rave and hang himself with all these policies. And I think especially, like, in 2026 when it became clear tariffs are kinda blowing up, Iran war is not going well. It's like, there's no there's no need. We're we're just gonna hang up. Let this happen. And then [00:40:07] S0: Play back. [00:40:08] S2: Yeah. And then when people ask us, be like, well, it's not going well. We'll wait and see. You know? Come vote for us at the midterms. And and, yeah, I think that that plan has has worked out fairly well for them at this point. [00:40:19] S0: What else do we got here on the docket here?