Nvidia’s Investable Chips, the VA Governor, & AI Gone Rogue 8/11/26

0:00This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Join host Keith Lansford for this information-packed daily market preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions, and key results and statistics that may impact your trading. Download the latest episode and subscribe at schwab.com slash marketupdatepodcast or find Schwab Market Update wherever you get your podcasts. Something amazing is happening. This agency is experiencing a cyber attack, but no one is panicking. That's because CDW government secured, optimized, and future-proofed their data with a Dell Technologies Power Store solution.

0:42It increases cyber resiliency and improves end-to-end performance. For a secure, scalable solution that doesn't require more physical space, Dell Technologies and CDW government make amazing happen. Find out more at cdwg.com slash dellfederal. Bring in show music, please. Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer. Today on Squawk Pod. The governor and the nearly$70 billion merger. Virginia's Abigail Spanberger taking the rare step of intervening in the sale of Dominion Energy to an out-of-state company. For a merger this size, wholly unprecedented in Virginia's history, it is important that Virginians know that there is someone advocating for their priorities throughout the entirety of the process.

1:31And it is primary day in a few states, the moderate Democrat on the political landscape. Anyone who's running for office should be telling voters what it is that they are for, what it is they intend to do, who they are as people, what experience they bring to bear. The AI race between the U.S. and China playing out in hacks. Sriram Krishnan, former White House advisor for AI, joins us. I think this is a great moment for open source. The hugging face as a company used a Chinese open source model to defend themselves because it turns out that closed models refused to help them. Plus, the newest asset class, chips.

2:10The latest in the Mideast with CNBC's Dan Murphy. Well, the question for energy markets this morning is really whether the situation in the strait is just the new normal. Elon Musk's big payday and the president's great escape into a catering cart. The entire purpose of taking him off the plane was because you believe that somebody is going to hit the plane. Right, right. And you're putting all those other people in danger. It's Tuesday, August 11th, 2026. Squawk Pod begins right now. Stand and your bye in three, two, one. Good morning. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on CNBC. We're live at the Nasdaq market site in Times Square.

2:51I'm Andrew Ross Sorkin, along with Melissa Lee. Joe and Becky are off today. We've got a lot going on. NVIDIA partnering with six asset management giants on a$500 billion financing push that aims to turn compute infrastructure into Wall Street's newest asset class. NVIDIA signing memorandums of understanding with Apollo Global, Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield Asset Management, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to set up financing platforms for NVIDIA's customers. The effort aims to mobilize more than$500 billion in third-party capital for hyperscalers, frontier AI labs, and enterprises to build data centers and acquire NVIDIA hardware.

3:26Here's NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang in a roundtable discussion with Becky. We used to build chips that we sell, and these are technology components that people buy and use. But now NVIDIA's AI factory platform is really an investable asset, an infrastructure asset. Here's the take from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. I actually see this as also an opportunity for those who are over invested in equities. They're going to be moving into this asset class too. So this is just going to be expanding the opportunities to invest in a high credit quality investment with long term returns. Thanks that the project reminds him of the creation of mortgage-backed securities in the 1970s, he called it imperative that the U.S.

4:17maintain its AI lead. Meantime, President Trump responding to Iran's demand for war reparations with its own call for compensation from the Islamic Republic. CNBC's Dan Murphy joins us now with more from Abu Dhabi. Dan. Andrew, good morning to you. Well, the question for energy markets this morning is really whether the situation in the strait is just the new normal. The Wall Street Journal reporting golf producers are now increasingly resigned to the idea of Iran retaining significant leverage over the strait. The alternative, of course, being another round of U.S.-Iran fighting that puts their economies and energy infrastructure at risk.

4:56I've spoken with shipping industry representatives this morning who say tolls and fees are still a non-starter for the industry. And that's also a view being shared by Gulf and Arab leaders that I've spoken to over the last few months as well. And then, of course, President Trump, who has seemingly shifted from military strikes to economic pressure tactics now, also insisting overnight that the U.S. is firmly in control of Hormuz. But Andrew, as you say, these negotiations are getting more complicated, not less. Iran now demanding sanctions relief and compensation for war damage before the strait fully reopens.

5:35President Trump, you can see here, pushing back on Truth Social, saying it's Iran that should compensate the United States. And compensation will now be part of all future negotiations. So we're watching that really closely. And then, of course, there's another development this morning that shows just how serious the security threat has become. We're now learning that during the NATO summit in Turkey last month, U.S. officials secretly moved President Trump off Air Force One after receiving what was described as a credible Iranian threat against the president. Now, Trump publicly boarded Air Force One on July 8th, but according to reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times, he was then removed from the other side of the aircraft using a catering vehicle and transferred to a military plane.

6:28Air Force One, which still had journalists and some White House staff still believing the president was aboard, then flew to the UK as a decoy. Trump actually flew there secretly on the other aircraft. This is an extraordinary story coming out here. Not exactly your standard executive travel rebooking here, but an extraordinary play by the talented folks over at the Secret Service. And on a more serious note, evidence as well, Andrew, of just how direct the security risks between the two countries have now become. Let's back over to you. Dan, so many questions. Let's just go more on the straight first before we get into the Air Force One story.

7:11In terms of the folks on the ground in the region, what do they want or what do they think is even realistically possible at this point? And what do they make of the succession of claims that we've heard over and over again from the administration here in the U.S. that a deal is, you know, on the one yard line? I think first and foremost, number one on top of that list, Andrew, in terms of demands from the region right now is an end to this conflict. And of course, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. This is critical to economies here in the Gulf. And Gulf and Arab leaders have really rallied to ensure that the Strait of Hormuz reopens toll and fee free because it's not just their exports that need to get back to the global markets.

8:00It's also the future of that waterway itself. Yes, these leaders have been investing heavily in alternative supplies, pipelines, for example, to bypass Hormuz. But there's a real risk that if Iran has some degree of leverage over Hormuz moving forward, then that would, of course, impact them economically. And then the other thing on top of the list, Andrew, is real work, at least from the United States and other partners, to ensure that Iran can't wage warfare on them moving forward. That means addressing Iran's missiles, addressing its drones, and of course, addressing the nuclear program long term.

8:36But this back and forth that we are seeing between the United States and Iran is really wearing thin on these leaders right now. They've seen enough of this. And obviously, they would like to see this come to a conclusion sooner rather than later. And Dan, on the well, we can talk about it back here at home on the Air Force One story. It is a remarkable feat for the Secret Service to have, you know, accomplished this in one on one end. And then on the other end, when you do think about the fact that the plane was used as a decoy with members of the White House, journalists and others in it is quite another.

9:17and I think there's a whole group of people who are still trying to wrap their heads around that. For example, here in the U.S., the helicopter that the president takes historically has had one, if not two decoys in every instance. But those decoys have a minimum number of people, meaning the least amount of people possible on the planes. It's not that they put staff on the planes. They have one or two pilots, and that is the end of the story because it's being used as a decoy for those reasons. This is a completely different story that I think raises all sorts of other questions, if you will.

9:55Look, even more complicated, given the fact that it also involves the gifted Qatari plane as well. The reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times suggests that there wasn't a security issue involving that aircraft. It was the specific threat being leveled towards the president from the Iranians. But of course, it also underpins the needs of the Secret Service here and the complexities of introducing that gifted airplane when it comes to the president's own personal travel arrangements. Right. Dan, I want to thank you. Appreciate it. What kind of issues were you referring to? Look, I think when you if, in fact, the plane was a target or he was a target on that plane, should we know right away?

10:40No, it's not even that you should know right away. You should not, therefore, have other members of the White House staff be decoys, journalists and others be on the plane that you think is the target of an event. The entire purpose of taking him off the plane was because you believe that somebody is going to hit the plane. Right, right. And you're putting all those other people in the future. We use decoy helicopters on his way to the White House every single time. If you ever look, there's a formation and there's oftentimes two, in some cases, three helicopters that go up practically at the same time.

11:15So that depending on who's looking, you're not sure which is the helicopter. But the other two helicopters don't have, you know, huge staffs on them. Right. It's done in part because they have the least number of people you could put on a plane. So if you thought that the plane was going to be attacked, you put nobody on the plane or you put a pilot or two on the plane and they usually know that they are the decoy. That's a very different scenario. I think those are all good points. New York Mayor Zoran Mandani is taxed on the high value second homes, hitting a roadblock. A Staten Island judge pausing the rollout of the pied-a-terre tax after a group of New York City homeowners sued over the implementation.

12:00Residents say the city is making them prove they shouldn't be taxed rather than verifying that itself. Judge barred enforcement of the tax for now. The city intends to appeal. A hearing has been scheduled for the end of the month. I think most lawyers will tell you this is a technicality. This is not a decision on the merits of the tax itself and more on the implementation of how it's being done. So if you have a pied -à-terre, chances are you will be paying the tax. It could give them a little more time to figure out what they do with the pied -à-terre. Yes. Now, an issue we've discussed before on Squawk, the potential for SpaceX to buy Tesla and what it could mean for Elon Musk's massive pay incentives.

12:43Now, the Wall Street Journal has a fascinating piece today. It's a piece of analysis of how Musk's pay package could work in such a context. The contract, they say, includes a line that declares that half the performance targets are effectively accomplished if Tesla is acquired or taken over. The other targets based on Tesla's market value could then be met or missed based on the final deal price. The journal piece says that Musk could achieve all the milestones if Tesla was acquired at a deal price of$8.5 trillion. That's around eight times the current market cap. So it can't really get there.

13:20We're still talking about both of these companies. I think$1.8 billion is where SpaceX is right now. Market cap of Tesla is$1.3. But, of course, I think the point that they were trying to make is, you know, the board put in these provisions originally intended as metrics for operational success. It wasn't, I think, built. I mean, there was a financial metric component, but I don't think this was necessarily envisioned, though the piece seems to imply that they think that the board envisioned something on this issue in terms of a merger, because there is this some language that seems to capture some of this.

14:03It'll be very interesting to see if there's a deal, when there's a deal. I imagine there will be a deal at some point. But then the question is, I actually thought he'd probably end up giving up a lot of the sort of upside on the compensation piece for Tesla. And in exchange, one of the things he got out of SpaceX was the control piece. And what he always wanted was the control around AI. And that's what he's been very, very focused on. He's talked about it and been vocal about it. But I always thought it was much more about that than the actual money piece. But we'll see. At a certain point, money is not motivating him.

14:39Right. Right. I mean, to your point, the power over AI. That's always been my sense. I hope I'm not proven wrong on that. You're a trillionaire, and how much more do you strive for? How many yachts can just ski behind you? He's not doing any of that. He's sleeping on the floor still. Tees will be next. Coming up on Squawk Pod, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger. She's getting involved in a massive energy merger impacting her state. And the new trend of state leaders speaking out against the data center boom. Do you want one in your backyard? If there are new transmission infrastructure needs because of data centers coming to a particular area, the cost of that construction, that infrastructure needs to be borne by those data centers.

15:23We'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Join host Keith Lansford for this information-packed daily market preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions, and key results and statistics that may impact your trading. Download the latest episode and subscribe at schwab.com slash marketupdatepodcast podcast or find Schwab Market Update wherever you get your podcasts. When you partner with CDW, you get more from technology with AI-powered devices that turn complexity into clarity.

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16:58You're listening to Squawk Pod from CNBC. Up and enter, cue. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger is stepping into the regulatory fight over the proposed$67 billion sale of Dominion Energy to Florida-based NextEra Energy. The governor joins us this morning. Good morning, Governor. This is, may I say, a bit of a shift and an interesting one insofar as increasingly it appears that states are getting much more involved in transactions, potentially blocking them or other things. We've been talking a lot about this Paramount Skydance merger, but we're starting to see the federal government on one end, but states' rights and state governments taking on a new role.

17:40I'm curious what you think of that, but also how you think about that in the context of this particular transaction. So thank you so much for having me on. What I have taken action on here in Virginia is as the SEC, Virginia's State Corporation Commission, reviews the proposed merger of Virginia's Dominion Energy with Florida's next era, it is extraordinarily important that the people of Virginia, our small businesses, our community members, have a voice in this process. And so that's why I've taken the legal step of intervening in this case, and that will ensure that I'm a party to the case and that I can raise questions, that I can bring priorities forward and, frankly, be a part of the discussion as the SEC moves through the case, reviewing the case, ultimately making a decision.

18:31To be clear, I'm not trying to dictate the decision, but I do want to ensure that the things I know are most important, affordability of our electric bills, Virginia jobs, and our energy future here in the Commonwealth, are top priorities in the overall review. And how this fits into any larger trends that I can't necessarily speak to. But I will say that here in the Commonwealth, for a merger this size, wholly unprecedented in Virginia's history, it is important that Virginians know that there is someone advocating for their priorities throughout the entirety of the process. So in an unprecedented circumstance of an unprecedented style merger, that's why I'm taking this step.

19:12In your decision to take this step, Governor, how big of a piece was the impact of data centers and the data center's potential impact on higher electric bills for your constituents? So I think it's certainly part of the equation, in part because data centers are present across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Certainly they're utility users. But I think more importantly is the fact that over the past couple of years, as we have seen energy bills continue to rise in the Commonwealth of Virginia, it's something that legislatively I have been working on. Every bill related to lowering the cost of energy that I had as a governor's bill passed through the General Assembly.

19:54I signed them into law. You know, bills meant to really complement and work in concert to address real needs of so many Virginians. But the reality is there are so many unknowns when a Florida-based company is going to come in, buy a Virginia-based company, our largest energy provider, a state-regulated monopoly here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And I want to ensure that there are real clear guarantees that, frankly, as the SEC is reviewing this, their mandate is to balance the needs of businesses and customers and citizens. And I want to ensure that if there is to be financial benefit for these two companies to their shareholders, then there must also be financial benefit, clear benefit to the people of Virginia, the citizens and rate payers.

20:40Governor, I also wanted to ask you, and this gets to the sort of larger data center story around the country. We're seeing lots of states pushing back on data centers in part because of electricity prices and the like. Just yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta announced a new fund that will be used to effectively pay communities, sometimes firemen, policemen, others in markets and in spaces, communities that they are building these data centers. And I'm curious whether you think that's going to be a trend, whether you think that's going to be a welcome trend more broadly from a political perspective, or do you think it's not going to be enough?

21:15So I think that Virginia has been, will continue to be a national leader in the requirements that we are putting on data centers that wish to come to the Commonwealth. And ideally, we can set a national standard for our expectations of any large business that comes to a community, what it is that they're bringing to bear. Certainly, so many of our communities have required community benefits agreements. And there are quite a few, whether it's conservation programs, funding to schools and localities, where we have seen localities put certain requirements in place or make certain requests of those large investors, in this case, particularly data centers.

21:53But importantly, part of the larger conversation that certainly exists in Virginia and elsewhere relates to energy consumption and energy-related infrastructure. structure. It's why Virginia created the first of its kind energy consumption tax, again, demonstrating national leadership on how it is that we can ensure the data centers pay their fair share. Importantly, I pushed for the SEC and through the comments process, and ultimately the SEC ruled that for transmission allocation costs, those costs will go to the data centers, not to local rate payers in a particular region. If there are new transmission infrastructure needs because of data centers coming to a particular area, the costs of that construction, that infrastructure needs to be borne by those data centers.

22:36Importantly, in legislation I signed just at the end of June as well, we put certain parameters in place related to noise pollution and water-related technology. And there's much more to do because in this broader conversation, I intend to ensure that Virginia continues in our position of leadership because we can set a high nationwide standard for the expectation that we have for any large energy user, any large investor that wants to come to a community, ensuring that our local communities know what they can ask for, know what standards they should be setting, but importantly, ensuring that the state is doing so as well at a statewide level and ideally setting an example for the rest of the nation.

23:15Have you had any conversations? I'm just curious with Governor Hochul or Governor Abbott about their latest actions, trying to sort of just halt the development of data centers in their state. And what would you tell them? I mean, what were some of the lessons that you've learned in the state of Virginia in terms of, obviously, there are a lot of pros in terms of the jobs created, et cetera, being in the forefront of leadership with the next technology. But there have been cons as well. I think when you're evaluating any type of investment coming to one state, it is important to recognize the potential investments in terms of jobs, dollars brought to a community, but also what it is that you might be giving up and then what sort of standards can be set.

23:58And so certainly we see increasingly local Virginia communities that really, truly recognize that they can ask for so much in terms of job guarantees. And we're doing that, frankly, at the state level in order to be a part of that process. the jobs that we expect, the investments that we expect. But frankly, there's more that can be done into the future in standard setting. We've taken initial steps as it relates to requirements related to water-related technologies. This is a space where technology evolves very, very quickly. And I want to ensure that anyone, frankly, whether it's a data center or manufacturing plant, coming to Virginia intends to use the highest and best-in-class technology to preserve, conserve our natural resources and demonstrate clear respect for the communities that have welcomed them.

24:49Governor, while we have you, a political question for you. Wisconsin's got a primary today. Big question in terms of what's happening with the Democratic Party right now. Progressives on one side, establishment Democrats on the other. We've seen a real sort of move afoot. And I'm curious what you make of it as someone sitting in your seat. Well, certainly, you know, I have a 2025 race, so I was just on the ballot less than a year ago. And in Virginia, we had primaries for our congressional seats just last week. And all of the candidates I endorse came through their primaries as the nominees. We have four to five seats that I believe we can and will flip from the Republican-held members of Congress holding those seats currently.

25:40And the people that we nominated in the Commonwealth of Virginia, they're very different candidates, but they are all candidates who are deeply attuned to the needs of their communities, who are talking about the issues that their localities, that their community members are talking about and who have plans for what it is that they are going to do to push back, frankly, against the chaos coming out of Washington, whether it's the doge cuts that impacted so many Virginians that still were feeling the repercussions of, whether it's the war with Iran that has driven up gas prices and input costs for community members and for farmers, whether it's H.R.

26:171, where elements of that bill are starting to hit our communities. The larger question, though, Governor, is do you see the Democratic Party as a big tent that is open to all comers from what might be described as a mainstream or establishment Democrat? at the same time that increasingly there's there is it seems to be a move left on the progressive side and how that ultimately shakes out? I think I think the Democratic Party is a big tent party. We've always been a big tent party. I think the important piece is that anyone who's running for office should be telling voters what it is that they are for, what it is they intend to do, who they are as people, what experience they bring to bear, and clearly communicating that.

27:02I don't think that we are seeing— But, Governor, for example, you're not somebody who's been a defund the police person. No, never. You've never argued in favor of Hamas, for example. And I won by 15 points last year. I know you did. But the reason I'm asking this is because there are now people in the Democratic Party who have been openly advocating on behalf of Hamas, who've openly advocated to defund the police. And the question is whether mainstream Democrats like yourself should be speaking out against them or should be embracing them. So I will say this as as the chief executive for the Commonwealth of Virginia, where communities across the board expect their governor to work to keep them safe, to work to strengthen our schools, to work to make life more affordable.