Is This $250M AI Company Fake?

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Investing, Business

4.8 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Polsia (AI Slop spelled backwards) just announced a $30M raise at a $250M valuation with one human employee. David thinks it's less a company, more performance art. Plus: Uber, Microsoft and NVIDIA all admit AI compute is too expensive, and Tether is launching what looks like a CBDC with the government of Georgia. Enjoy! TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:28) Polsia (06:22) Nexo Ad (06:57) Polsia (Cont.) (16:10) Nexo Ad (17:04) Polsia (Cont.) (18:29) AI Compute Costs (27:15) Tether FOLLOW THE SHOW › David — https://x.com/dcanellis › The Breakdown — https://x.com/TheBreakdownBW SPONSORS › NEXO Nexo is the premier digital wealth platform. Receive interest on your crypto, borrow against it without selling, and trade a range of assets. Now available in the U.S with 30 days of exclusive privileges. Get started at http://nexo.com/breakdown Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to the Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ DISCLAIMER As always, remember this podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely their opinions, not financial advice.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It is Tuesday, May the 26th. This is The Breakdown. I'm your host, David Canellas, as always.
0:05.4	Hope you had a great long weekend if you were lucky enough to have one. And if you're in Europe,
0:08.7	I hope you're surviving the heat wave. There's some quick stories for you this morning.
0:11.3	We're looking at Pulse here. The AI company with just one employee, the founder, Ben Serra,
0:17.9	just raised $30 million at a $250 million valuation.
0:21.4	I'm just not buying it.
0:23.2	I think it's a little bit of performance art, but we're going to be taking a look at this.
0:26.6	We're also going to be looking at, yeah, all these tech companies saying that compute tokens too expensive.
0:33.8	The economics of AI are just not worth it for companies like Uber and Microsoft, at least right now,
0:39.7	in certain contexts.
0:40.8	We're looking at that.
0:42.3	Also might check in on Tether launching an official stable coin for Georgia.
0:48.9	So a stable coins and CBDC is essentially the same thing.
0:52.3	They could be moving forward.
0:54.2	So enough jibba jabba.
0:56.3	This is the breakdown. Let's get to it.
1:04.6	This episode is brought to you by Nexto.
1:07.0	Step into a new era of digital wealth.
1:09.2	Earn interest on your digital assets.
1:10.8	Borrow against them without selling and trade all in one platform. Get started at nexus.com slash breakdown. Nothing said on the breakdown is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only and any views expressed by anyone on the show are opinions, not financial advice. Host and guests may hold positions in the company's funds or projects discussed. So first let's look at this this pulsar starter, pulsier, which is of course,
1:30.5	AI slop backwards. The idea here is that it is basically like an operating system for
1:38.3	AI, AI agents to launch a company, run a company while you sleep. So you have an AI that is your co-founder
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 18 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Blockworks, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Blockworks and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.