MBS at The White House, A ‘Joyless’ AI Boom, & MTV’s Legacy 11/19/25

Squawk Pod

CNBC

Business News, Investing, Business, News

4 • 494 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ahead of the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, President Trump received Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at The White House for a meeting and a star-studded dinner with dozens of business leaders including Tim Cook and Elon Musk. Nvidia’s third quarter earnings are looming over markets this week, particularly after the company’s investment in Anthropic, alongside Microsoft. Chief economics commentator for The Wall Street Journal Greg Ip compares today’s AI revolution to the dotcom bubble of the 1990s. He argues that the energy is different nowadays: it’s “joyless” instead of optimistic, and the public is now more suspicious of innovation. Plus, Tom Freston co-founded MTV and served as CEO of both MTV and Viacom. The veteran media executive discusses his new memoir “Unplugged” and MTV’s legacy in music and storytelling. Eamon Javers - 05:57 Greg Ip - 24:14 Tom Freston - 33:59 In this episode: Greg Ip, @greg_ip Eamon Javers, @eamonjavers Joe Kernen, @JoeSquawk Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Katie Kramer, @Kramer_Katie

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bring in show music, please.
0:04.3	Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer.
0:06.9	Today on Squawk Pod.
0:09.2	The world's most valuable company set to report
0:12.5	what NVIDIA will tell us about the economy,
0:15.3	the artificial intelligence boom, the markets.
0:18.0	But there is a renewed sense of anticipation, excitement.
0:22.6	I think it matters.
0:23.6	I think it's important.
0:24.6	And it's more circular deals, partnering with Microsoft to invest in startup
0:29.6	Anthropic.
0:30.6	A little bit of like a vendor financing kind of scenario.
0:34.6	Tech these days, it's not the boom of the past.
0:38.1	We were all happy in 1999.
0:40.3	We were all going to party like it's 1999, right?
0:43.0	The Wall Street Journal's Greg Ip on Tech Revolutions, Joyful and Joyless.
0:48.3	Yeah, it was kind of crazy, and the bubble did burst, but the mood was very upbeat,
0:52.8	and I don't feel that now.
0:55.0	I mean, I feel that, you know, unless you're like Sam Altman.
0:57.0	Plus, MTV co-founder Tom Freston, the veteran media exec on the music channel's legacy, from the 80s, all the way to modern social media.
1:06.0	It kind of brought in sort of a new visual vocabulary and style to television, a New way of editing and moving things along on a sort of nonlinear basis.
1:14.9	And the rest of today's news that got us squawking.
	...

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