Knicks-onomics, OpenAI’s S-1, & Apple’s Siri AI 6/9/26

0:28Your data lives everywhere. portfolios. It's kind of like making a sandwich. It's as simple as picking your stocks and ETFs, sort of like your meats and other topics, and managing it as one big juicy investment.

0:44Now that's pretty good. Learn more at fidelity.com slash baskets. Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokers Services, LLC. Member NYSC SIPC. Bring in show music, please. This is Squawk Pod, and I'm CNBC producer Cameron Costa. On today's episode, OpenAI joins Anthropic and SpaceX in the race to IPO. But some companies, like Perplexity, are committing to further out. I'm hearing from a whole number of bankers about a number of companies that were thinking about going public in 2027 that are now thinking about filing confidentially or otherwise before the end of the year.

1:29Senate Majority Leader John Thune on the push to pass the reconciliation bill that funds immigration enforcement. Now all that's left is the House. We had to do it with Republican-only votes. It got a little complicated along the way, but we were successful in defeating all the poison pill amendments that would have taken it down. And the Knicks in four dream might be over, but New York City is still riding the fandom wave. Director of the sports business program at WashU in St. Louis, Patrick Risch. Quite a time for the sports economy in New York. Those conversations, plus Apple's Siri AI overhaul and President Trump's confidence in a U.S.-Iran deal.

2:13It is Tuesday, June 9th, and Squawk Pod begins right now. Stand Becky by in three, two, one. Cue, please. Good morning, everyone. 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 Kernan and Andrew Ross Sorkin. And Andrew, that confidential filing, don't know why they call it confidential when they then turn around and tell everybody what they've done. Well, let's talk about that filing, because OpenAI did file confidentially with government regulators for an IPO. The actual filing itself is confidential insofar as we don't know what's inside of it.

2:55The chat GPT maker did say we recently submitted a confidential S1. We expect it to leak. So we're just announcing it. We have not decided on timing yet. It may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company, but it's a complicated set of tradeoffs. And this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best. The company has been gearing up for public listing as soon as the fourth quarter, source telling CNBC that OpenAI planned to execute a tender offer that would allow employees to sell shares at the firm's latest valuation of$852 billion.

3:29That news coming a week after Anthropoc confidentially filed for its IPO. And now, of course, just days before SpaceX goes public. So a bit, I think, of putting down a marker, Becky, and just saying, look, we may or may not do this, this gives them at least the latitude and opportunity to try to do it. But as they said, and I think we've reported, there's a lot of sort of house cleanup and other things that I think they want to do before they get to that moment. Probably want to have the opportunity to go out if it looks like the market window is closing at any point, if they want to rush on that.

4:06I would guess you want to be around with SpaceX and all of the other talk that we've got of these big IPOs that are coming. They probably don't want to miss out on that opportunity if they need it. Exactly. I mean, that's the I think there's a big question, by the way, I'm hearing from a whole number of bankers about a number of companies that were thinking about going public in twenty twenty seven that are now thinking about filing confidentially or otherwise before the end of the year. I think there's a view that somehow the window is open right now. And we'll see what the reaction ultimately of the SpaceX IPO is.

4:40But that may either make the window even more wide open because it'd be such a success or potentially close that window if it isn't. Shifting gears, we're going to talk about Iran now. President Trump says a deal to end the Iran war could be reached within days. CNBC's Dan Murphy joins us now from Abu Dhabi. Dan, good morning. Good morning, guys. Well, let's start with the money is moving this morning. Becky just flagged this, but we are seeing oil giving back some of yesterday's war premium this morning as the president talks up a deal. President Trump once again declaring a deal with Iran is close, saying he's now in the final throes of an agreement and that the U.S.

5:20will be able to declare total victory soon. But we have heard this before. The president has spent much of the past few months really insisting that a deal was moments away in social media posts and in public appearances and elsewhere. By one count, he's claimed a deal is close on 37 separate occasions now. This time, he went a little further, though, on oil, claiming the Strait of Hormuz could reopen within two or three days once a deal is signed. If that happens, of course, it would be a genuine release valve for crude. Here's the president speaking earlier. We have ongoing negotiations in Iran and with Iran that hasn't stopped.

6:02and we could have at least an idea by one or two days from now, but I think it's going well. President Trump speaking there. The president was also asked about an incident involving an American Apache helicopter near the street of Hormuz. According to the New York Times, it wasn't immediately clear whether the aircraft suffered mechanical trouble or was shot down by Iran. The president said that the pilots were fine and that a report would be released soon. It's just an important reminder of how dangerous the situation still is and how quickly this could escalate again. So what now? Tehran's foreign ministry has told CNBC it will resume its strikes if Israeli forces keep attacking Lebanon.

6:47Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, also saying the war against Iran and Hezbollah has not yet ended. But there has been at least a pause in the fighting to build on. Markets still really in watch and wait mode to see when this deal to end the fighting comes forward. And if we are going to see maybe a path forward with Iran and when that might actually land. Nobody really pricing in peace completely until we know what this is ultimately going to look like. Let's back over to you. I'd say, well, let's check the oil markets to see, you know, that's where the rubber meets the road. But the oil market, there's times, Dan, I don't think the oil market knows any more than we know.

7:30And it almost seems like they're traders. They're around the world, obviously. And it's a collation of all their thinking. But if nobody really knows, then I don't even know in this case whether you can just say the market is telling us that's where you can find the truth. I think, you know, with the equity markets, they seem to sniff out economic activity and earnings and everything else. But I don't know, commodities, I don't have a high degree of I mean, I like it when we're below 90, but I don't know if that means the deal is any closer. Right. Is it a deal? Is it a preliminary framework? Is it an MOU?

8:11I think the markets are probably signaling that either way, it seems to be a work in progress. The president says, he wants a deal to top Obama's JCPOA. So the details really matter here. I think we need to see what this looks like before markets can genuinely price in de-escalation. Of course, oil has come off its highs through the peak of this conflict over the course of the last 100 days or so, now trading at much more acceptable levels for the White House. But of course, This White House would like to see oil much lower. I think the question of exactly what happens next when we see the pen actually hitting the piece of paper on the deal is probably the biggest thing that traders are watching right now.

8:56Yeah. And then we have how many different groups that we really, you know, who knows what Hezbollah is going to do? And then who knows what, you know, Israel's response to Hezbollah would be and what Iran's response to Israel's response to Hezbollah would be. And in Iran, there's obviously there's hardliners. There's people that are involved in negotiations that are less hardline, I guess. And it's just so many moving parts and so many things can, you know, the slightest thing can throw, you know, a couple of missiles here or there. And we're back to the drawing board. We've got a long way to go.

9:34Put it that way. Yeah. Well, let's get that straight up. All right. Thank you, Dan. Apple using its Worldwide Developers Conference to roll out a long-awaited overhaul of its Siri assistant. The more conversational Siri will be branded Siri AI. Apple also unveiling the next generation of its Apple intelligence technology built on models that were developed with Google. Privacy was a very big theme. Apple emphasizing that user data processed by Apple intelligence won't be stored by or accessible to the company. The software updates will launch along with new software that's coming this fall. But Siri AI won't be available in Europe and in China because of regulatory issues.

10:16Now, Apple shares fell during CEO Tim Cook's keynote address. They ended the day down about 2 percent. And that seems to be par for the course. I don't know if you guys just look over the years, for whatever reason, prior to these big announcements, the stock sometimes takes a nice little run up and then dips in the aftermath. But then the sales outpace whatever people feel about the actual technology itself. But I thought it was interesting. Did you guys watch? I only saw bits and pieces of it. I didn't watch the whole thing live. No. it's pretty i mean it's pretty cool a lot of it's on device uh it can pick through your uh text messages it can pick through your photos you can say hey i can't remember uh you know last week i was somewhere can you show me a picture of you know my daughter or this or that and we'll just go find it or hey do you remember when somebody mentioned to me about some restaurant i can't remember the restaurant and then we'll go find the text message that was sent to you six months earlier.

11:22I mean, it's kind of closer to what it was supposed to be many, many years ago. Some of it's still somewhat limited. And it's going to be very interesting to see whether people use that in place of things like ChatGPT or Claude, because they do have their own app now. And so you can partially be chatting with it the same way you would be through a chatbot, or you can talk to it like you could currently. I haven't used Siri in years. In fact, if I set my phone down in my car the wrong way and I hear her, it's like, oh! So that's not a bad response to have when I hear Siri. Not a good response. That was good.

12:02But maybe, yeah. Give her another shot. I'm going to give her another shot. It's not nice to be closed-minded like that. AI firm Perplexity planning to go public in 2028, regardless of how the market receives the listings of Anthropic and OpenAI Perplexity CEO spoke with CNBC. He said he believes it's important for the AI industry that SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI have strong market debuts, adding he thinks that those IPOs will go well. SpaceX is expected to be in trading on the Nasdaq on Friday. and that should be interesting. Yeah, I wonder, why lock in that you're going to wait until 28? You don't know what market conditions will be.

12:49You don't know how soon you might need money if costs ramp up earlier. I mean, I literally thought about checking that and whether it was a fat finger, you know what I mean? Trying to hit a six and hit an eight or a seven. Yeah, it seems like an odd... Take your word for it, yeah. Cheese will be next. Coming up on Squawk Pod, the reconciliation bill's journey through the Senate. Now it's the House's turn to vote on funding for immigration enforcement. Plus, the elections underway around the country with Senate Majority Leader John Thune. The fact that it takes days, literally days, to be able to count votes in a state like California when there are other states around the country who do that very quickly and get an outcome and a result.

13:33It's incompetence, if nothing else. A History of the United States in 100 Objects is a brand new podcast from 99 % Invisible and BBC Studios. Each week, we're looking at a different object from across American history with a unique story to tell about who we've been, what we've built, and what we've allowed ourselves to forget. Some of these objects are well known, many are not, but all of them carry the story of how we got to this moment. Find a history of the United States in 100 objects on the 99 % Invisible Feed, wherever you get your podcasts.

14:31time learning to trade brilliantly. Learn more at swap.com slash trading. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is? With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top-rated pros, see price estimates, and read reviews all on the app. Download today. Welcome back to Squawk Pod from CNBC. The$70 billion reconciliation bill passed the Senate after an 18-hour voterama on Friday.

15:09And now it's moving through the House, where voting is set to begin today. The legislation would fund ICE and the Customs and Border Protection through 2029 if it passes. Also on the D.C. radar, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that's expiring this Friday, the Senate vote to confirm, or not, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and the elections around the country, like in Maine and in Texas. Here's Joe. Join us now on the latest from Capitol Hill and all the news, Senator John Thune of South Dakota. He serves as Senate Majority Leader. Leader Thune, thanks for joining us this morning.

15:46Good morning, Joe. Finally did it. And it's even called a voterama, isn't it? Yeah, right. The Voterama. What would you call the journey to finally get immigration enforcement funded? What would you call it and how do you explain it? And what did either side get out of that? What would you call it? It was a long. I mentioned Grateful Dead yesterday. What a long, strange trip it's been. It is indeed that, Joe. And, you know, the marathon at the end, the voter Rama, which went on for, I don't know, 15, 18 hours, something like that, is at the end of every reconciliation process. But unfortunately, we had to use that because Democrats wouldn't fund ICE and CBP through the normal appropriations process.

16:36So we had to do it with Republican only votes. It got a little complicated along the way, but we were successful in defeating all the poison pill amendments that would have taken it down. And this week, hopefully, the House will vote on it, put it on the president's desk, and we'll get those important law enforcement agencies funded. But it is really unfortunate we had to resort to this. I mean, the Democrat mantra now is defund the police, open borders. And we're seeing more evidence of that this week as they block now the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization, which is a critical tool that our intelligence agencies use to keep Americans safe.

17:14Yeah, there's a lot of nuance and ramifications, and I want to stick with this immigration topic. There are some senators that are actually talking about Mark Wayne Mullen's plan, which seems drastic and Democrats' hair is on fire about the possibility of not allowing DHS and CBP employees in Sanctuary City International airports. I mean, we're talking about some major cities, Senator Boston, Chicago, Denver, L.A., Philadelphia. There are some support. I don't know if you've weighed in on whether that would be something that you would be that you think is necessary at this point. I've heard it suggested, Joe.

17:58Obviously, I think there is a high level of frustration at the sanctuary city policies and what they are doing to a lot of our major cities in this country. And I think the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Mullen, obviously are coming up with ideas that they think would help at least incentivize a lot of these cities to start behaving in a way that doesn't give sanctuary to criminal illegal aliens in this country. That's one idea that's out there, a number of them that are out there. But frankly, I think the sanctuary city policy coupled with defund the police, coupled with open borders.

18:30These are just Democrat policies right now that are anti-law enforcement and frankly are dangerous with respect to a lot of America's biggest cities and ensuring that those communities and those streets are safe and secure for people who live there. So, you know, we've got to do something about sanctuary cities. Whether that's an approach that makes sense, I haven't given a lot of consideration to that yet. I think it's probably there are a lot of issues that have to be addressed. But I do think there are. It's one among many ideas that are designed to at least disincentivize a lot of these big cities in this country to continue these policies that are that are giving, you know, safety and home to a lot of criminal illegal aliens.

19:15And Senator, we we've been talking about voter integrity in reference to, you know, what's happened in California. And I don't know. I know there's a lot of other fraud that goes on out there. So I don't know what went on with the voting process. They have a bizarre system to try to count for all the votes. But you saw what the president said. You see some of the stuff. Maybe it's conspiracy theories online. But should there be a question in Americans minds about about that? And I feel your pain, Leader Thune, with the SAVE Act. Because if if you don't have the votes, you can't do it. But you're not going to get any Democratic support on that.

19:58What is the problem with what is their position as to why that doesn't make sense to show voter I.D.? And I can think of some good reasons why you wouldn't want to if you were a Democrat. But this isn't the way that it should be done. How do we strengthen our notion that voting has integrity in this country? Right. Well, and I think that's a question for the Democrats who blocked voted against the very simple issue of voter ID, which we've put on the floor now a couple of different times. We've had the entire Save America Act on the floor a couple of times, too. But we've had the specific rifle shot vote, if you will, on whether or not you have to show a photo to vote in this country.

20:45And every single Democrat voted against it. And it does beg the question. And you see a state like California, and Joe, you always hear about states being the laboratories of democracy. And if there are lessons learned from some of these states like California, it's that this is a really stupid way to run elections. Because it undermines the confidence and trust that people in California and across the country have in those elections. Now, frankly, you have to prove if there was cheating, and clearly that's something that you would have to do in California or anywhere else for that matter. But the fact that it takes days, literally days, to be able to count votes in a state like California when there are other states around the country who do that very quickly and get an outcome and a result, it's incompetence if nothing else.

21:28And whether or not there was actual rigging is something that had to be proven, but clearly this is a system in California that doesn't work and doesn't inspire confidence and trust in voters. Senator, the motor voter law, California, AB60, automatically registers citizens to vote when they get a driver's license and undocumented immigrants get AB60 driver's licenses. It's supposed to be screened out that they're not able to be registered to vote, but already We know in the past, at least 100 ,000 erroneous voter registrations got through. In California, I don't think we'll allow a federal audit at this point to know what's going on.

22:11Are you going to be, is there any way to get in there and actually know what's happening in California? We know about Medi-Cal and how you can sort of, I think the big, beautiful bill tried to get to close some of those loopholes. but there's things going on in California that the federal government is not even allowed to really look at. Right and part of the Save America Act Joe is not just ID show to ID to vote because a driver's license like you said could do that but also showing actual citizenship to be able to register to vote to get on the rolls in the first place. So those are both safeguards that would help safeguard our elections in this country all of which as I said before Democrats in the in the Senate have block voted against.

22:53But you have to, if California, and I think that, you know, anytime there's a federal nexus, yes, there'd be federal oversight. In most cases, at least, we have reserved the right to manage and run elections to the individual states. But California clearly has a system that does not work, as is evidence and demonstrated every time there's an election in California, and it drags on for days on end, and voters, you know, the vote comes in and voters across California and across the country are skeptical and question the outcome and the results there. They've got to fix their process. But to the degree that there is a role for federal oversight, obviously, we would take a look at that.

23:32Yeah. I don't know if you've weighed in. I wanted to ask you myself and you feel free to answer or any way you're likely, which you do, obviously. But the whole situation in Texas with John Cornyn and I know that you know, that probably in your view that he might have been a better candidate. I don't know. I'm not going to put words in your mouth. And then just overall, the Senate, it is the betting odds have flipped back to the Republicans slightly at this point. But there's a situation in Maine. There's a situation in Texas. Can you just comment on all those issues, Senator? Right. Well, it's an even-numbered year, and we've had an election every even-numbered year going back 250 years now.

24:22So you're going to have a lot of these fights in different states, and clearly the map in the Senate this time, it puts the Senate up for grabs, if you will, but we feel confident. We've got quality candidates in all the key states where we're going to have competitive races. We intend to make sure that they're well resourced. And if they are, in spite of the political and economic headwinds that we might be facing, I think our candidates can do well and we can preserve and protect our majority of the United States Senate. We're even focused on winning some seats in their Democrat held seats right now, Joe.

24:54And so you've got to be playing offense a couple of places. And we've got a couple of states on the map where we're doing that. But, you know, at the end of the day, it's going to be up to the voters. But I would argue that the Senate is the firewall. And if you want to get any judicial nominees, executive branch nominees across the finish line in the next two years, the Trump administration, you have to have a Republican majority in the United States Senate. And so I think as people go to vote this year, they'll be voting a lot of issues and pocketbook issues will be a big part of that. Those issues always are front and center for voters.

25:26And we need to make sure that we're talking about and addressing those. But I also think safe streets, you know, borders that are safe and, you know, neighborhoods that are safe is going to be a big issue. And that's one, as we talked about earlier, on which the Democrats are completely out of step with the American people. Senator, I don't know whether, you know, what you think of a Senator Paxton. And I mean, he's going to be the nominee. I guess you do support him. But if there was criticism of him, then people say, well, the Republicans just, you know, They want to make sure they keep that seat so they'll back Paxton.

26:02Is that the same as what's happening in Maine? Democrats want that seat so badly, I think they'd twist themselves into a pretzel to support anyone they ran up there with what we've seen recently. Is that analogous, what's happening in Texas, what's happening in Maine? Well, to my knowledge, Ken Paxton doesn't have Nazi tattoos or sympathetic to Nazis. I think there is a clear, obviously, distinction there. And the voters in the state of Texas are going to have to decide who they want there. We want Ken Pax in there. We think keeping Texas red is good for the country. It preserves the majority in the United States Senate.

26:44State of Maine, the voters there are going to have to make a decision. They've got a primary today, but this guy has a ton of liabilities. And a misogynist Nazi, if that's what the Democrat party in this country wants to endorse and subscribe to, they've got a candidate for that. But we think that Susan Collins will win re-election there based upon her record of accomplishment and the way that she represents and serves the people of Maine. Each of those states are different, going to be treated differently. But I'm confident we win in Texas, and I'm also confident we win in Maine. How much money do you plan to spend defending each of those seats?

27:20Well, Becky, you know, a couple of things about that. Obviously, we identified early on. We knew we were going to be in Maine. Texas is a different scenario, obviously, and we're certainly hopeful that the president and his allies will weigh in heavily in the state of Texas. It's a very expensive state, but the Democrat nominee down there is a far-left liberal on so many levels and completely, I think, out of step with certainly a majority of voters in the state of Texas. He will have to be defined through the course of this election. That's going to take resources. But there are lots of folks out there who are going to be invested in retaining a Republican majority of the United States Senate.