Zak Brown, Mark Messier, & A CEO at Gracie Mansion 5/19/26

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0:42Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC. Member NYSE SIPC. Bring in show music, please. Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer. Today on Squawk Pod. Mr. Mom Donnie goes to Wall Street. Reports the New York mayor is meeting with the CEOs of major banks. We'll hear from Stephen Fulop from the Partnership for New York. For the first time, the mayor feels some real concern around the relationship with the business community. Sports. Live sports. The last big event programming grabbing television and media audiences. Hockey icon Marc Messier's new play. For me, sports is always going to be the most iconic in the moment reality TV.

1:23And it just keeps getting bigger and better. Taking a page from Formula One's success, McLaren Racing's Zac Brown. You've got new sports coming online and then you have the big sports that are kind of adding incremental viewership opportunities, participation opportunities. All that plus the rest of today's news that got us squawking, like the jury's decision in Elon Musk versus OpenAI's Sam Altman. We love the drama and everything else, but couldn't you have known this before going through all this? It is Tuesday, May 19th, 2026. Squawk Pod begins right now. Stand Becky by in three, two, one.

2:05Cue it, please. Good morning and 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. President Trump saying he's going to pause an attack on Iran that was scheduled for today after requests from the heads of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. In a truth social post, the president said serious negotiations were taking place on a deal that won't allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, though the president noted that he's told the military to be prepared to strike on a moment's notice.

2:43Later yesterday, the president said he'd been asked by the Middle Eastern countries to delay planned attacks for only two to three days at this time. So pressure is increasing. We'll see whether it bears fruit. Meantime, the news on the soap opera that was Elon Musk losing his lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. Federal jury in California said Musk waited too long to sue over claims that OpenAI violated an agreement to operate strictly as a charitable nonprofit. The court didn't address whether Musk's claims were valid. Instead, ruling that they were outside of a three-year statute of limitations.

3:20So they didn't really have to actually make a choice about anything else. The jury deliberated for less than two hours. CNBC spoke with attorneys from both sides outside the courthouse in Oakland. He's a formidable adversary, of course, and he hires terrific lawyers, of course, and he is tenacious in his opinions, of course, and his positions. But we find that the persistent application of legal principles and the remorseless search for evidence is what wins cases, even against Elon Musk. I have a one-word reaction. Appeal. On X, Musk calling that decision a calendar technicality, and it'll be very interesting to see whether he appeals, if he appeals, how that appeal would work.

4:02What is the statute of limitations on something like that? Apparently the statute is a three-year statute. Now, maybe there's an argument about when the statute should begin. Potentially you could sort of debate that, but I think this is a hard one at this point. John went in and was talking to the clerk, the court. Yeah. Don't you wish the clerk said, oh, wait a second. Yeah. Too late. Did we need to do this? I mean, we love the drama and everything else, but couldn't you have known this before going through all this? Part of the case was this argument, though. So there was the timing of it. And then there was all of the merits of the actual thing.

4:40Okay, so. This jury decided we didn't have to deal with the merits of anything. I just think you know it's just a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of drama and if they knew the statute of limitations had worn out there would have been no reason to I think Andrew's right though the question of when the statute began that's part of that well maybe just focus on that then and that could have been an hour to argue on both sides of whether it was triable or not or whatever I'm hoping for you I thought the judge was going to have a lot more say in this but in this case she actually does listen to the jury well she didn't have to but I guess she could have said I don't agree with you yeah yeah All right, in the meantime, Blackstone teaming up with Google on an AI cloud business venture.

5:19Blackstone will invest$5 billion in equity to bring large amounts of data center capacity online next year with more planned for the future. The partnership will make use of Google's custom AI chips. In a statement, Blackstone president John Gray said that the venture will help meet what he called the unprecedented demand for compute. You can see Blackstone shares up by about nine-tenths of a percent. Anthropic topped CNBC's latest Disruptor 50 list. One of the reasons is its powerful cybersecurity AI model, Mythos. A Wall Street Journal report says that Anthropic is now telling companies who are testing Mythos that they can share cyber information gleaned from that model with other organizations, provided that that sharing is done responsibly.

6:06In a statement to CNBC, an Anthropic spokesperson said that the company has evolved its confidentiality protections to allow for more information sharing and what it called maximum defensive impact. I assume all of these companies are part of Project Glasswing. That's the project that this has been released under. It grants limited access to companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, a number of financial institutions, and some government security agencies as well, I assume that they can share that information now with each other and not others that haven't already been on. No, no, no. My understanding is it's broader because what was happening, and I heard it from smaller banks around the country, banks in Europe.

6:49There was a whole group of people who were furious about this. Because they weren't allowed in? Because they weren't allowed in. But more importantly, historically, cybersecurity departments at banks, big banks, small banks, banks share a lot of information, especially around open source software, whether they need to get it patched. This required an NDA that was very strict about what could be provided. Project last one, good. Yeah. And so there was a view that because this information couldn't be shared, that there was going to be like a haves and a have nots situation where if you were not part of this group, you were like exposed in a crazy way.

7:22Right. So this is going to begin the process of allowing at least them to know about some of those things. It does not provide them necessarily with access to Mythos itself. Just to know to go fix some of the... But if a cybersecurity, you know, if the cybersecurity department at J.P. Morgan knows about something, they technically now can share that information with, I don't know, name some smaller banks. You're right, that is what this is. I'm just looking up more on this. We fully support our partners sharing findings with each other and companies outside of Glasswing to triage vulnerabilities.

7:52And that's important because there really was a... Well, there was never a specific Glasswing NDA, they say. confidentiality protections were something partners asked for at the outset and were built into the agreements that the partners signed. Interesting. Cheese will be next. Coming up on Squawk Pod, New York Mayor Zorhan Mamdani hit a nerve with business leaders in the financial capital of the world by calling out the richest of the rich. Has the tone changed? Stephen Fulop of the Partnership for New York joins us. It's good that he's doing outreach. It's good we're having these conversations.

8:24and that needs to continue. The real question is what's the next step from a policy standpoint?

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9:22So while others are busy talking, we're busy building. That's Venture Global. That's unstoppable energy.

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10:07You're listening to Squawk Pod. Stand Andrew by, up in Andrew, cue. Welcome back to Squawk Box. New York City Mayor Zoran Mondami meeting with J.P. Morgan's CEO, Jamie Dimon, and Goldman Sachs' CEO, David Solomon. That happened yesterday, and this follows a backlash against wealth tax proposals and a perceived anti-business sentiment after the mayor filmed that video outside of Citadel's CEO, Ken Griffin's home. When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today, we're taxing it. Joining us right now is Partnership for New York City President and CEO, Steve Fulop. Good morning to you.

10:43Good morning. Can you give us a little bit of a readout from what took place at these meetings? So I think it's kind of a tour of getting to know the business people. So we're kind of four or five months in. I think that the Ken Griffin thing actually hit a chord where for the first time the mayor feels some real concern around the relationship with the business community. So he's kind of been proactive starting at the end of April with these sort of meetings. Were these organized by you? Were they organized by him? Were they organized by the banks themselves? What happened? The first meeting was at the end of April with myself and the chair of the partnership, Rob Spire, CEO of Tishman Spire.

11:19And then subsequent, we heard from our members that they were reaching out the following week to Jamie Dimon, David Solomon. The one from Bank of America predated the Ken Griffin thing. It just became more of a sense of urgency, I suppose, to get it on the books because of the narrative there. Has the mayor suggested to you, putting aside the policy on the tax, which we can talk about, that the video itself, which seems to be so central to all of this, was a mistake? Has he said that or no? Or does he believe in the video? When we met with him two days after the video, we urged him to apologize or acknowledge that it was a mistake.

11:55He was reluctant to do that largely because of the narrative that it would have created. But I think if you were in kind of a closed meeting with him, he would recognize that he would have done it differently. I mean, he's pretty clear about that. But, you know, we're here and I don't think, you know, three weeks after the fact you're going to get any sort of public apology. So we are where we are. How much of these conversations about effectively what the video represents underneath the video? or about the actual policy as it relates to taxing the wealthy, taxing the pied-a-terre tax, and the sort of mechanics of that?

12:29So the meetings at this point are more performative. That's probably the biggest concern, right? So it's good that he's doing outreach. It's good we're having these conversations, and that needs to continue. The real question is, what's the next step from a policy standpoint? You know, there's no give or reason for him to kind of move at this point from his posture that the tax policy that he's proposed is good, which is part of the problem for the business community. But there's a bigger narrative here that's problematic. I mean, there's a regulatory policy framework here that's more difficult than anywhere else.

13:01There's a sentiment and tenor that vilifies businesses. So I think it's just more complicated than that. This tone right now is just get to know you. We are thankful that you're here and we want to build a relationship. On the pied -à-terre tax itself, where do you stand? And has the business partnership come out with any kind of proposals on your own that say, look, the way you can actually balance this budget is by doing X, Y, Z, and maybe that doesn't include this pied -à-terre tax or something else? Yeah. So let's talk about the pita-terra tax. I mean, we certainly understand the politics of tax the rich and the Russian oligarchs and the Saudi princes.

13:44But what we've tried to highlight is that you have a lot of companies that have a presence here in New York. CEOs are elsewhere, like Citadel, like Disney, like Mollus, members of the partnership. The CEO spends a lot of time here, has a presence here, have grown companies here, but they are subject to this tax. And what we've said is, is that really the person you want to penalize? Or a good example would be even if you have a house elsewhere in New York, let's say you live in Westchester, Suffolk County, and you have an apartment in New York City, you're subject to that tax. And we would say, should you be penalized on that?

14:14So it was kind of a hasty decision that they had a problem implementing. They did it because of the rhetoric around tax the rich, which is good politics. But at the core of it, the implementation is a real problem. and it sets a tone that is really combative towards the business community. But what is the solve? I mean, I think ultimately you have to say to yourself, there's a problem. There's an actual problem, which is the math doesn't matter. Yeah, is the problem that New Yorkers aren't taxed enough or is the problem that there's too much spending? No, you don't have a revenue problem here because you've grown faster than inflation.

14:44At the core of the problem is you have some entitlement programs that exist in New York that don't exist anywhere else. Like talk about the rental assistance program, FEPs. I mean, the mayor would be here. He would tell you that we're not expanding it. But at the core of the problem is should that program exist at the city level? Of course, it's a vital service. It used to exist at the state level. It's a multibillion dollar program. But that drives the budget. You know, in the private sector, when you start a program, you reassess it at some point down the road. Government and politicians never do that.

15:15So that's really the problem. So you layer one program on top of the other and then you kind of get into the situation that we are today. So, I mean, how do you fix it? You really have to have an honest conversation with no sacred cows. You got to talk about housing in a way that is not beholden to any special interests, whether it be labor unions or advocates on set asides on affordable housing or school reform. reform, same thing. But part of the problem, it seems like, and I've always wondered whether a city has any leverage in these contexts, is there are services that this city has tried to provide on its own that effectively, as you mentioned, I think where you're going with this is, that should effectively be paid for by the state.

15:53You also, by the way, have the MTA. I mean, you have a whole bunch of things going on as it relates to transport and other things that historically you would think should be paid for by the state, but the state doesn't want to pay for it. And if you're living in Albany, you're like, or Syracuse or Ithaca, you're like, I don't want to pay for these people. And so what kind of leverage does the city have or not have over the state? It's historically been if the mayor can be super popular and the governor can be less popular, that's been the leverage. Right. So I would argue that New York City has a unique opportunity, ironically, with Mayor Mondani in the sense that he wasn't elected with any special interests.

16:31Most of them were not with him. So he could effectively be a change agent by saying that we're not beholden to any of those things and some of these programs aren't necessary. There's 49 other states. The overwhelming majority of them do not have the infrastructure and the programs that exist here in New York City layer on top of them. And they don't have the same cost of government. So if you're fair about it, you would ask yourself why. And I think the business community in these meetings, while the mayor is looking for some sort of introduction to have a conversation. The business community's tone is you need to get your costs under control and we need to have a real conversation because people are venturing into other parts of the country because they're more welcome there.

17:12Steve, thank you. I appreciate it. We'll see where all this goes. Appreciate it. Thanks. All right, sports fans, still to come, CEO of McLaren Racing, Zach Brown. He is betting on a new sports media company as valuations grow and grow. We've been hearing about the bubble for a long time. If you look at the franchise value, every time a big franchise is sold, everyone goes, that was a crazy number, they overpaid. And then you look five years later and you go, that was a deal. That company he's invested in, it's called Game 7, and it was co-founded by hockey legend Mark Messier, who, as it happens, played in nine Game 7s throughout his career.

17:52You learn from failure, and ultimately, in the end, you have to put yourself in a position to play your best when the stakes are the highest, and that's what game seven really is about. Squawk Pod will be right back.

18:08Exterior Remodels Inner Monologues. Brought to you by Power. The house looks good. Like, really good. That siding? Stunning. The roof? Elevated. Windows? I mean, wow. The process? Smooth. The neighbors? Jealous. Choose Power Home Remodeling and Remodel how you think about remodeling. Schedule your free quote on windows, siding, roofing, and doors at powerhomeremodeling.com. Power. Our work shows. Never bet against American grit or American energy. Through innovation, Venture Global is not only building some of the largest energy facilities in the world right here in the United States, but delivering American energy at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time.

18:56So while others are busy talking, We're busy building. That's venture global. That's unstoppable energy.

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19:40Welcome back to Squawk Pod from CNBC. You're watching Squawk Box right here on CNBC. I'm Becky Quick along with Joe Kernan and Andrew Ross Sorkin. McLaren Racing CEO Zach Brown announcing a personal investment in sports company Game 7 this morning right here on the set. Joining us is Zach Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing and NHL legend And Mark Messier is here, co-founder of Sports Platform Game 7. Good morning to you. We were talking about Game 7 last night. How did this happen? How did this all come together? Through a mutual friend, but I'm a massive fan of sports. I think sports are unbelievably hot within our culture and what Mark put together with his partners.

20:23I mean, Game 7, we all remember whatever sport it is that you follow the big iconic moments in sports. So I think to be able to take that emotion in sport and bring that into culture and media and licensed merchandise, I think, is a fantastic opportunity. For those who don't know, tell us all about Game 7. Well, we're trying to take the two greatest words in sports and turn it into the greatest brand in sports through content, community, and commerce. We're licensed apparel for this NBA, NHL, WNBA. We've got a content series on Amazon, five iconic Game 7s. And of course, like Zach said, we think that everybody in life has their own Game 7 moment.

21:06You don't have to have the literal sense of a Game 7. And teaching and giving our young boys and girls the tools to excel when the pressure's on the most. What is the biggest portion of the business right now? I would say our merch business right now was doing great. And of course, we're at the perfect time of year. Last night was a Game 7, so all the fans out there can get their sports merchandise through Amazon and eventually through licensing products and food and beverage, and we'll be tapping into a lot of different areas there. Have you been making lots of personal investments in all sorts of sides of sports?

21:41Not lots. I'm very picky and choosy on things that I believe in. I mean, I love sport. You know, we had our own Game 7 a couple years ago, you know, when we won the Constructors' Championship for the first time I mean, in over 20 years, I think we've all seen those sports teams celebrate in the locker room when they've had an unbelievable victory. And that's what we had because our last race came down to the last lap. And so to be able to experience that and then share that with fans in a variety of different ways they can consume it, I think it's an awesome opportunity. Tell us about what's going on in McLaren land right now.

22:17McLaren land is in a good place. We almost won Miami, which would have been our third in a row. Formula One is unbelievable. hot, great here in North America. We're racing Montreal this weekend. Of course, the Indy 500, the IndyCar series. Life is good at McLaren racing. We need to keep winning races. So I saw you guys announced a partnership with Intel. We certainly did. So here's the thing about that. I was thinking, do we all as taxpayers, you know, the U.S. taxpayer has a stake in Intel now, all of us. How did that deal come about? Yes. We have a huge partnership with Dell, and Intel's a huge partner of theirs.

22:55We've got a tremendous amount of technology partners, and the stock's done unbelievably well, so you should be a very happy investor. Are you involved in F1 at all? I'm involved through the friendship with Zach. I've been to a few races now, and I've always been a car guy. Is there a place for Game 7 in that universe? I would like to think so eventually. You know, we just took down the Madison Club at Madison Square Garden. So we got our, you know, our suite in Madison Square Garden. We got the patch on the Rangers jersey. And we're trying to move into different vehicles to really promote our brand.