GameStop’s wild bid for eBay
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2026
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Big Tech groups are expected to generate the smallest amount of cash in more than a decade this year, and investors are dumping Indian assets. Plus, GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen, has set his sights on his next project: a huge leveraged buyout of eBay.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Big Tech’s $725bn AI spending spree sends cash flows to decade low
Investors dump Indian assets as energy shock sends rupee sliding
Can the meme stock king pull off audacious eBay swoop?
Note: The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts
Today’s FT News Briefing was hosted and edited by Marc Filippino, and produced by Katya Kumkova, Saffeya Ahmed, and Victoria Craig. Our show was mixed by Sam Giovinco. Additional help from Michael Lello and David da Silva. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s Global Head of Audio. The show’s theme music is by Metaphor Music.
Credit: CNBC
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. |
| 0:04.4 | Today is Friday, May 8th, and this is your FT News briefing. |
| 0:08.6 | Big Tech is on a massive spending spree, and investors are dumping Indian assets. |
| 0:14.7 | Plus, can GameStop close a wild deal for eBay? |
| 0:18.7 | The test here is like whether a meme stock king can actually pull off the first meme |
| 0:23.6 | M&A deal in history. |
| 0:26.5 | I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. Big tech companies are burning through cash to invest in AI infrastructure. |
| 0:48.1 | Amazon is expected to spend more than it makes this year. |
| 0:51.1 | Meta and Microsoft will likely also dip into the red later on in |
| 0:54.8 | 26. These three companies in Alphabet are hyper-focused on AI right now, and they could |
| 1:00.3 | hit their lowest yearly free cash flow levels in more than a decade, as according to |
| 1:04.9 | forecasters. Back in 2014, though, their collective revenues were about seven times smaller. |
| 1:11.5 | Tech companies have transformed into some of the biggest investors in AI infrastructure, |
| 1:15.7 | but the spending spree means their resources are strained. |
| 1:19.2 | And analysts say those investments will only start to pay off next year as the AI boom brings in more revenue. |
| 1:31.1 | Four days, boom brings in more revenue. Foreign investors are ditching Indian assets at a record pace. |
| 1:34.9 | That's because the Iran war is driving energy costs up and the value of India's currency |
| 1:40.0 | down. |
| 1:41.1 | The rupee has been hitting historic lows since the conflict began at the end of February. |
| 1:45.6 | Investors have responded by pulling out $22 billion from India. |
| 1:50.6 | Krishna Koshik is our Mumbai correspondent. He's here to give us a sense of how all this is looking |
| 1:55.1 | on the ground. Hi, Krishna. Hi, Mark. So how bad is this energy price surge for India's markets? Yeah, the problem is that |
... |
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