🍰“AI’s 5-Layer Cake” — Nvidia’s epic explainer. LEGO’s verb’ing. Nio’s battery-swap cars. +End of Athleisure

0:28This is Nick. As for stock markets, well, they climbed again on Tuesday as oil prices fell. Markets remain soothed by the president's comments on Monday that the war on Iran will soon end. And Jack, I am soothed by your voice as you share with us the three fantastic stories for today's show. For our first story, how did Lego just have their best year ever during a trade war? How? By launching two new Lego sets every day. Because Lego learned a lesson from college sports. For our second story, China's electric car company, NIO, is so advanced, they don't charge batteries, they swap them. True story, because NIO is now 10 times bigger than Rivian and 100 times crazier than Tesla.

1:09And our third and final story, NVIDIA's CEO, Jensen Huang, just wrote a rare blog post about how you should understand AI. Here's what he said, AI is like a five-layer cake. So Jack and I are taking a bite out of each and every layer to share it with you. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, what a mix for the venue with a live show, Jack. Nick, what is the millennial uniform? Well, Jack, I'm not seeing Brooks Brothers and J.Crew. I'm seeing Viore and a hint of aloe. It's athleisure. It is. The default wardrobe for berries, brunch, or getting on an airplane. And we see you, Bastie.

1:40Lulu leggings with the Athleta hoodie and maybe, just maybe, an outdoor voices sweat-wicking tea. But here's the plot twist. Fabletics, Kate Hudson's athleisure brand, is pivoting to denim. I'm sorry, pause the pod, Jack. A workout wear brand is launching jeans? Yes, and this may signal the end of the athleisure trend. Gird your stretchy loins. Because denim growth is accelerating, but athleisure growth is decelerating. You see, Eddie's customers just ain't Netflix and chilling like they used to. And you can see it in Lululemon stock price. Lulu is down 67 % in two years. I'm feeling it right now in Lululemon stock price, Jack.

2:12Soft clothes are out, hard ones are in. Comfort is cold, Carhartt is hot. And we don't think Fabletics is the last athleisure brand that's going to be slipping into something less comfortable. I mean, Jack, could Lululemon maybe collab with Levi's? Nike Skims could pivot to Nike Stiffs. Jack and I also think Aloe should just acquire JNCO. That JNCO. You know what we're talking about. So today's full on Spotify. Do you wear more athleisure, less athleisure, or the same as five years ago? Drop your phone in the comments and Jack and I will hit our three stories.

2:51even think they need to practice 50 that's a fat tip t-boy city on your at list if you know you know because we ready to go we can't wait no more so just start the show

3:05start the show first a quick word from our sponsor

3:15top hats baseball hats von dutch hats we have so many hats on this podcast honestly we're not great at all of them. No, we've been avoiding hiring someone to wear those hats instead of us, especially the Von Dutch one, because hiring and training can take forever. Well, proud to say that we are hiring right now at T-Boy, and this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Because sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95 % more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs. So besties spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes, less stress, less time, more results.

3:46When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of the show will get a$75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com slash podcast. So just go to indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. That's indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. So yet he's Jack's instituted a new business model for his Airbnb hosting. And Jack, what is it? Here it is. Host equals guest.

4:20Yes. I funnel all my revenue from being a host on Airbnb into one bank account and use that same bank account to book travel for myself. And basically it's Jack's host guest bank account for when he hosts and when he's a guest somewhere else. When I lived in the city neck, every time my apartment was available on Airbnb, it would get booked like that. I mean, think about how often are you away from home? You got the bridesmaid, you got the shower, You got the bachelorette. You got the wedding. That's three weekends away just for one wedding right there. Plus, you got to visit your mother. Naturally.

4:49Well, that's a lot of potential hosting that you could be doing on Airbnb. Let someone else stay at your place while you're away. Take that host money and spend it when you're a guest somewhere else. Have a business model like me. If you want to travel more, hosting more is a great way to make it happen financially. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host.

5:11For our first story Despite trade wars, market wars, and real wars Lego just had its best year ever in 2025 Lego is fascinating They're winning because they're playing offense and defense at the same time But besties, as you may or may not know We actually did a whole deep dive episode on the origin of the Lego On The Best Idea Yet, our weekly show The episode opens with Lego helping the Allies in World War II I mean, what a story They're also the world's biggest tire company. Just really tiny tires. Yeah, small, small, small tires. But there's nothing small about the Lego business of the last year, is it, Jack?

5:47Sales rose 16%, which is twice as fast as the rest of the toy industry. Besties, Lego's now doing 13 billion bucks in revenue. That is 30 % more than Hasbro and Mattel. Combined. They're putting up double-digit growth numbers over Lego like a young Furby. This Denmark-based, family-controlled business is still not public. True story. So if you want to buy stock, you're straight up missing out. You're S-U-M-O sumo. But in the meantime, it looks like Barbie stopped playing with Ken and is now hanging out with a set of Legos. But how was 2025 the biggest year yet for the world's smallest toy? Well, yet, he's Jack and I jumped in T-boy style for their twice-annual earnings, and it turns out Lego has been on the offense.

6:29Get this. They launched 860 new Lego sets last year. Yeah. The most ever. Jack, can you sprinkle on more context, please? That's more than two new Lego sets per day. What is that? I can't even process. We picked a random day from December. They launched a Golden Retriever puppy Lego set, a trio of top Pokemon Lego set, and a Lego set of the NASA Artemis rocket. And yes, all of them were triple-digit price profit puppies. Now, Nick and I think we need to retire the word Kedult. I mean, at this point, the Kedult term doesn't even work. It's their core customer because Lego is now an acceptable midlife hobby.

7:05Puzzling, knitting, Lego-ing. They're all acceptable things to do on a Saturday night when you're staying in. And strategically, they brought in the audience. So Lego's now catering to women with a new partnership with MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York. You can buy a$200 Vincent van Gogh Starry Night Lego set. But then they've also gone deeper with men with a new F1 partnership this year. The Ferrari pit crew set, 300 bucks. Nice gift for your man's fifth year anniversary. Wait, that was weird. No, isn't that weird, Jack? Lego, they're treating business the way Jack and I see it, like a movie studio.

7:39They're making some things rated G, some things rated PG-13, even some rated R sets. They're doing rom-coms, they're doing action. They're just approaching making anything as Legos. Now, kids still want the big starter set bucket of Legos, but the adults want their super niche passion statement set to build and then put on their bookshelf. But Jack, I gotta pause the pod here for a sec. Here's the shocker. Lego is the most international business in the industry, man. How is it thriving with tariffs taxing every part of their business? Well, besties, Jack and I noticed that Lego learned a lesson that we learned back in college sports.

8:14As a backup second string, third string quarterback and a potential ready to go second string face off lacrosse guy. Time for the takeaways. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at LEGO? Offense wins games, but defense wins championships. You know, Yetis, those record-high 860 new LEGO sets that they launched last year, that was LEGO on the offense. That's LEGO keeping their foot on the pedal to stay ahead of the competition. The offense. But what you didn't see was the defense, the logistical investments that set up the offense for success. Because LEGO opened their sixth factory on their third continent last year.

8:50Wow. And this year, they're spending$1.5 billion to build their seventh factory right here in the state of Virginia. That's defense. That's localized production. And it's key to reducing shipping costs, avoiding tariffs, and becoming a job creator for each region that it sells into. Which keeps you on the good side of all the politicians who are setting the tariff rates. So the way Jack and I see it, the offense is the new Picasso Lego set. The defense is the distributed production of all the Legos. Like in sports, offense gets all the stats and the MVP awards and all the praise and all the highlights.

9:20But the defense does the grunt work that deserves the credit, too. Vestas, you notice how there's only been two defensive players to ever win the NFL MVP? And only two defensive players to ever win the Heisman. Yeah, defense just doesn't get the same glory as the offense. Still, Lego knows what coaches know, too. Offense wins games, but defense wins championships. For our second story. While Tesla's car sales are past its peak, NIO's car sales in China are exploding. NIO should be a wake-up call to America. We're giving it. If we coddle our car industry forever, our Lincolns will become lemons.

9:57Wait till you hear what NIO's doing. But besties, to start by sprinkling on some context, back in 2019, NIO was a new stock trading on the New York Stock Exchange for just$1.50. We covered that IPO on this podcast. We did. It was founded by China's Elon Musk, and the pitch was, this is Tesla, but for China. Tesla, but with Chinese characteristics. And that's why the Robinhood investing crowd pumped the stock up to$60 during the pandemic. Although NIO stock has floated back down to$5 today. But we still think you need to pay attention, because NIO has passed Tesla, in our opinion, in terms of innovation.

10:32Because besties, NIO just announced they sold 125 ,000 electric cars just last quarter. Jack, can you sprinkle on more context? That's only a third as many cars sold as Tesla, but it's 10 times more cars sold than Rivian. And Tesla's sales have fallen for two straight years, while NIO's growth has nearly doubled last quarter to 72%. Now, we said a second ago that NIO is more innovative than Tesla, in our opinion. We did. We know that's a big statement today. It was bold. It was bold, Jack. But NIO is revolutionizing the car experience in ways not just new, but ways that aren't even possible here in the States.

11:06We're talking Star Wars-level stuff. Like Jack, you know in every Star Wars movie, they visit a new planet and like there's a new hoverboard everyone uses? That's like NIO. We're not even embellishing this. For example, NIO announced last month that they had completed their 100 millionth battery swap. Okay, I'm sorry. Pause the pod. I'm fascinated. Battery swap. Swap. In China, you don't have to charge your NIO's battery. You can swap your NIO's battery. That's right. Since 2018, NIO has built 3 ,800 battery swapping stations with 1 ,000 more coming this year. For context, Tesla has about 3 ,000 supercharging stations in the U.S.

11:42So, NIO has more battery swapping stations than that. Again, Jack, we got to dive in T-boy style to this. What is the swap exactly? Okay, so each battery swapping station has regular chargers. Yes. Although high-end NIOs can charge in just five minutes. Yeah, that is six times faster than any other U.S. electric car can charge. But if you don't have five minutes to charge your NIO, let's say you only have two and a half minutes, Jack, then you can swap your depleted battery for a fully charged one. It's like Jiffy Lube. You roll into this room and then the floor opens up to remove and replace your battery in just two and a half minutes.

12:15Imagine if you could replace your iPhone's battery like that with a fully charged battery. That's what they're doing with Neos in China. It's like a chassis switcheroo. It costs 25 bucks and you're out in just 150 seconds. $25, two and a half minutes, you're out of there? That's the same experience with pumping gas here in the US. In fact, NIO has turned this into a new industry. Basically, Bass Battery as a Service. You buy the car, but you don't actually buy the battery. No, no, no. You subscribe to your NIO battery. It's actually sold by a different company within NIO. You see, the battery is by far the most expensive part of an electric car.

12:51It is. So you can subscribe to a small battery because you live in the city and don't take long trips, and then swap out a big battery for that one summer road trip you're taking this year. You're going to Tahoe? Honey, we're swapping batteries in two minutes. Now, add it all up and China treats the battery with the respect that America gives to the engines. Yeah, China has basically put the battery on a pedestal. But we should point out a huge caveat. Although NIO just had its first profitable quarter ever, they've never had a profitable year. Yeah, NIO actually lost over 2 billion bucks last year.

13:25And that's the huge tension we face when it comes to Chinese competition. It's subsidized by the government. So it doesn't matter how much money they lose at all. What China wants is to win industries at any cost. And what she wants, she gets. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at China's NIO? You can't protect your children forever. They need to face the real world. Hey, Eddies. The reason these crazy tech innovations are new news to you, well, it's because they're barred from the United States. And that reminds us of fiat. Fiat. After World War II, Italy shielded their national car company from foreign competition.

14:00Hey, che facciamo? What is going on here, Jack? They didn't want Germans, Brits, and Swedes putting Italians out of a job. Well, that's why the United States has banned Chinese cars from being imported here to America as well. It's to protect American car-making jobs. But here's the problem. Fiat decayed. It kind of became a bad car over the last century. Fiat went from Italian pride to Italian disgrace. Yeah, I rented one for our honeymoon and went zero to 60. Eventually. So that is what we're saying is competition is the blood that runs through the veins of capitalism. China's competition, it's unfair.

14:34Chinese electric vehicles, they benefit from massive state subsidies. True. But we must find a balance. We can protect our car industry in the short term, but we must invest in the long term because that Chinese competition is coming someday. Because what China's doing right now with electric vehicles, it's mogging American electric vehicles. And it even is putting Tesla to shame. Meanwhile, America is at risk of letting our Fords become fiat. We're going to drive to a commercial break. Let us know what you think in the comments. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. Monarch. When I had student debt, I tracked my progress on an Excel spreadsheet I manually updated each month.

15:13Oh, I was Jack a spreadsheet jockey because when he was paying off his student debt, Monarch didn't exist yet. Well, one year ago, I proudly killed that spreadsheet I'd been building for 12 years. RIP spreadsheet. Because Monarch is a way better solution. All your financial accounts are linked to Monarch. Every credit card, checking account, brokerage account, even our mortgages, live balances updated in real time. I'm still paying down my mortgage and Monarch gives me the visibility and tools to do it. You can use it too. Create savings buckets and financial goals in Monarch. Set yourself up for financial success this year.

15:44Are you familiar with the Sankey diagram? I had no idea what it was, Jack. Well, once you see it, you can't unsee it. It's brilliant. And Monarch visually shows you what you're spending. And we did not make up that term. Your investment portfolio, Monarch compares it to the S &P 500 for you. Set yourself up for financial success in 2026 with Monarch, the all-in-one tool that makes proactive money management simple all year long. Use code TBOY at Monarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50 % off your first year at Monarch.com with code TBOY. NetSuite by Oracle. Yetis, on our show, you know, we love to sprinkle on some context.

16:16Because news doesn't mean anything if you don't have a sense of history, the competitive situation, etc. Yada, yada, yada. Well, it's the same with AI. If your AI tool doesn't know anything about your biz, then it's not going to be the best one yet. That's why we're pumped to promote NetSuite by Oracle. It's helping over 43 ,000 businesses figure out how AI can work for them. NetSuite is actually the number one cloud ERP connected to your entire enterprise. It has your data on financials, HR, inventory, commerce, and CRM. To be honest, it's probably going to have to sprinkle on context about your business to you.

16:46It's that intelligent. That connected data is what makes your AI smarter. So it doesn't just guess, it knows. This isn't another bolted on tool. It's AI built into the system that runs your business. So whether your company has millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you stay ahead. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get your free business guide, Demystifying AI, at netsuite.com slash tboy. The guide is free to use at netsuite.com slash tboy. NetSuite.com slash TBOI. For our third and final story, NVIDIA's Jensen Wong just drew a map of the AI industry that you need to understand.

17:23Because AI is like a five-layer cake, with each delicious layer driving different elements of our economy and our stock market. I'll pull out of the oven and we'll explain it to you. But besties, to start this story, let's go back to September of 2020. Jack, what was happening then? That's when NVIDIA's CEO published a blog post that, boy, do I wish I had read. Who's got creating a premier company for the age of AI? The reason we wish we'd read it is that that was two years before ChachiBT launched, and yet NVIDIA was talking about becoming an AI company. Back then in 2020, if you invested$1 ,000 in NVIDIA stock, it would be worth$15 ,000 today.

18:01So this week, when NVIDIA's CEO published the first blog post since then, six years ago, we won't be fooled again. We read it so many times. We read this one. And here it is. AI is a five-layer cake. That's the title. And here's the first sentence from Jensen Wong, the legendary leather-bound CEO of NVIDIA. He's not a leather-bound notebook. But he's a style. He's a leather-bound CEO. It's a vibe. He said that AI is one of the most powerful forces shaping the world today, not just the economy. It is not a clever app or a single model. It is essential infrastructure, like electricity and the internet.

18:35So besties, grab some sprinkles, buttercream, and a plate, because we are slicing up Jensen Wong's five-layer cake analogy on AI. Because there are stock market winners in each and every layer. All right, Jack, let's grab your apron. At the top of this AI cake is the applications, and what is that exactly? This is how we humans interact with AI today. Yeah, besties, think of like the chatbot, Salesforce's Einstein, Waymo's self-driving cars. These are the applications of AI in the real world that consumers interact with. But beneath the applications are the models, the LLMs that have been trained on huge amounts of data to get smart.

19:10That's the second layer of the cake. You got OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Meta. They're the players actually in the top two layers, the model and the application. The third layer is where things get physical, the infrastructure. Yeah, and the third layer you see Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services. They all build cloud-connected data centers to house and operate chips. Which brings us to the fourth layer, the chips. Yeah, the chips. NVIDIA and AMD design them, TSMC manufactures them, and they fill up all those data centers. And boy, do they get hot when they're humming. Oh, you got to bring them out of the oven because on the bottom layer of this five-layer AI cake is the energy.

19:47Artificial intelligence, not possible without huge amounts of electricity. So those are Jensen's five layers, and we think you need to understand them because, man, this industry is just too important not to understand. You got energy under the chips, under the infrastructure, under the models, under the applications. It's like a five-tier wedding cake. And what's so wild about this is that baking this five-layer cake requires workers of all different kinds. I mean, Jack, it requires electricians, plumbers, and pipe fitters. And concrete pourers. But it also requires tech workers, physicists, PhDs.

20:17Our best white-collar and blue-collar workers are building out this technology stack. But, Jensen, if you are listening and we believe that you are, we would actually propose a six-layer-tier AI cake. The natural resources. for both the chips and the electricity. The natural resources are like the, I don't know, the icing on top. Yeah, but I guess not on top. It would be like the cake plate underneath. Yeah, yeah, because it's below the electricity is the natural resources. This is the reason why President Trump wants to acquire Greenland, for the rare earth metals and the other rocks and resources that are critical to AI.

20:47So AI, it takes raw materials from the bottom and converts them all the way up to intelligence at scale. And now, the craven magnolia, preferably the banana cake, with the chocolate chips. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the five-layer cake of AI? To grasp where we are in this AI revolution, we're going to quote Winston Churchill. Okay, so Jack just finished this book on Winston Churchill. Jack, why don't you take it from here? It was actually on FDR. Supporting role Winston Churchill. In 1942, after the Allies finally had their first major victory in World War II, Winston Churchill grabbed the radio microphone and addressed the nation.

21:23And what did he say? What did he say? He said, this is not the end. It's not even the beginning of the end But it is The end of the beginning Okay, first of all, I like how the accent developed over the course of the quote Second of all, yes, you do get the award Third, we think that this captures where we are in the AI revolution We're at the end of the beginning End of the beginning Because AI is scaled, but it's still nascent Businesses are being created with AI But they're also being destroyed by AI We don't know who the winners of AI will be yet We just know who's winning right now Just like Winston and the Allies in 1942.

21:57So the reason we wanted to read Jensen's cake post is that AI is the defining economic force of the generation. And according to Jensen, we've spent hundreds of billions of dollars to stack it out so far, but there's trillions still to come. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Ceviche Wednesday? Lego enjoyed a record 2025. It's growing not from kids, but from adults. It's all because offense wins games, but defense wins championships. Second, NIO is doing things with EVs that would blow your mind, like battery swapping and battery subscriptions. So we can't coddle Ford from Chinese competition forever, or Ford could end up like Fiat.

22:34And our third and final story is Jensen's first blog post in six years. It says that AI is a five-layer cake. So where are we in the baking of that cake? Well, this is not the end. It's not even the beginning of the end. But it is the end, or the beginning. Good job accenting halfway through the sentence. Yes, yes, yes. But besties, this pod's not over. We'll fight them in the barn. We'll fight them on the AI. That's good. That sounded like Gary Oldman. That's what I was going for. Besties first. KPMG put out a shocking survey that reverses the narrative on AI and your job. Get this. Just 9 % of CEOs surveyed by KPMG plan to cut jobs this year due to AI.

23:16They're not cutting jobs because of AI? What's going on? CEOs apparently are not seeing the ROI on their AI investments yet. One day AI's taking our jobs, the next day it's not taking our jobs. We're all figuring out what the future is in real time. Maybe AI isn't like corporate Osempic. Maybe it's more like corporate Botox. Again, it's only the end of the beginning. And speaking of AI, second, we've got Meta, which just acquired Maltbook, the viral social network designed for AI chatbots to become friends with their other AI chatbots. Now, this deal brings Maltbook's two founders onto Meta's AI payroll.

23:51And that's what this was all about. Similarly, last month, OpenAI hired the founder of OpenClaw, another AI startup. Zuck and Altman are like, hey, we're impressed what you did with that AI thing. Come work for us. We'll pay you$10 million a year. Not too shabby. And finally, Timothee Chalamet is the top pick to win an Oscar this year. But there is one problem, and the problem is the ballet. In an interview with Matthew McConaughey, Timothee Chalamet said that opera and the ballet are dead arts. Having just seen the Nutcracker, I can't believe he said this, Jack. Chalamet lost 2 million followers on Instagram because he trash-talked the ballet.

24:28And his mom, like, was in the ballet. Ballet sales actually rose after he said that quote. He came out and apologized, but still. And now you can't even get a ticket to the Metropolitan Opera. Now, time for the best fact yet, which, because we just landed in D.C., was sent in from Kevin Goodwin on Spotify. Washington, D.C., does not have a J Street. Yeah, it's a funny thing we noticed when we were looking around. Jack was like, H, I. I'm sorry, Sesame Street. We need to borrow a vowel. City planners apparently thought that the letter J looked too similar to the letter I. Which is also why there's no I train on the New York City subway, Jack.

25:05Yetis, you are looking fantastic, especially if you want to buy one of the final 20 tickets we just dropped for our live show tonight in D.C. Snatch those tickets. Link in episode description. The show is at 7.30 in the Arlington Draft House. Okay, in the meantime, Jack, we got to go crush some crab cakes and go on voice rest? Yes. Yeah, to both. Yeah, at least we'll see you at the show tonight.

25:34And before we go, a happy 150th birthday to AT &T. This is the 150th anniversary of the first ever phone call with Alexander Graham Bell. Watson and Kim down in Hoboken. She is celebrating the best birthday yet. And Jack, she'd like a cookie crisp. Go! Cookie crisp. And a happy 30th birthday to Colin down in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who is engaged to the best fiancee yet. Happy birthday to Irwin, the Florida Gator in Guatemala. Go Gators. And Samira down in Greenville, South Carolina, is turning seven on March 12th, but listens on the way to school every day. and we are so pumped for your birthday, Samara.

26:10Happy 35th birthday to Krista O 'Connell, who's celebrating tonight at our live show. I see you over there, Krista. And Joe Buckheit, the best dad yet, is from Naples, Florida, but is going to our live show next month in New York City. We can't wait to see you there, Joe. Happy anniversary to Denise and Cesar. 11 years together since meeting in Pacifica. They're now married. And happy one-year anniversary to our buddy Nick Marino. One year since he was on Jeopardy. What is the one-year anniversary of that? I'd like to buy an out. And finally, a congratulations to the Fordham Women in Business who have their 27th annual Big Business Conference.

26:45And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the win. And voice-over. This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix, Ford, and Amazon. Nick owns stock of Lululemon and Nike. And we both own stock of Spotify.

27:03Blood donation is now more inclusive. More people are able to donate blood with the American Red Cross through FDA guidelines that eliminate eligibility questions based on sexual orientation. The Red Cross celebrates this historic change and welcomes those who may be newly eligible to donate blood. There's a place for everyone in the mission of the Red Cross. The Red Cross is committed to achieving an inclusive blood donation process that treats all potential donors with equality and respect while maintaining the safety of the blood supply. Join us and help save lives. To learn more and make your appointment to donate blood, visit redcrossblood.org slash LGBTQ.

27:42That's redcrossblood.org slash LGBTQ.