carter you have to be long or want to be long. better to be long the dia or iyn. >> brian sutherland? >> we're in the red for a reason i'm buying call spreads in tesla and will dump some of welcome to "tech check. jim crames is off tonight, so we're bringing you a special edition of "tech check." tech has roared back what looked like a downturn in 2022, perhaps it was a blip. investors were pessimistic rates were rising and it was shaping up to be a nightmare for tech but that never happened. the downstream impact on bay

area real estate but in the stock market, tech has regained, even expanded its leadership the nasdaq is having its best first half in 40 years, up 30% apple $3 trillion market cap nvidia tripled netflix is back. the so-called magnificent seven are responsible for the rally. what now the economic forecast got better rates may have peaked. yet, tech is flat since june 15th are we at the beginning of a new run for check, or is that it is it time for the rest of the market to catch up here is dan, founder and senior portfolio manager. dan, good evening to you and thank you so much for joining us let's start really basic where do we go from here this was the half that denied a lot of folks' expectations.

>> well, you really have a big surge following nvidia's results. go back to the report on may 24th since that period of time, the s&p is up about 70% and nvidia is up 40%. that took the s&p from 4,400 or so and, so, i think, you know, that's driven obviously by valuations and multiple expansions we have earning season coming up that will be really important. if there is any kind of disappointments. because right now everybody is so optimistic on ai. but over this last week, you saw big tech companies report, micron come out and, you see, didn't -- accenture. all three of them the numbers went down even though they all three talked about ai being a big driver for their business. the problem is everything else is slowing down faster than ai

can ramp to offset nvidia is in a bucket all of its own because they have everybody that's not -- >> i also think, dan, of the market pre-nvidia results and post-nvidia results. the ai hype was something that was in the future. but nvidia said it's here and they will be monetizing it this year i wonder how that changes expectations for the other tech giants like microsoft and google that have been part of this hype cycle, but we haven't seen that monetization yet. >> well, and i think that's exactly the problem. you need ai graphics chips and everybody is buying them from nvidia. it is the only place you can get them so you have got this huge surge but for someone like google, for example, because you saw a couple downgrades on that stock very recently, they're talking about, well, this is going to cost them for more search

results and people may not be clicking on as many ads. there is pluses and minuses for these other companies. and investors right now are just saying, wow, nvidia dels revenue went up 30%. i have never seen that in 30 years of large cap tech of being in this business so valuations have really gone up a lot, especially in technology and if you don't have poor numbers going up to match like you saw with accenture, you could see selloffs, as you did with them. to be fair, they weren't big selloffs, but people didn't put them in the leaders category now you have the leaders. >> so it all begs the question, dan, of where do we go from here we have been talking about this all day because we are at that halfway point. have a listen to what what this word of school business professor mentioned to us on air earlier, and then i will ask you

to respond to it. >> tech investors, it is a win-win for them they say, listen, it is a long asset. if we have a recession, you know, tech is mostly immune. and if we have a recession, the fed will stop raising interrate rates. that's really good for our long-live assets that we have. so everyone piling into tech because they say that it is a win-win no matter what happens to the economy. >> and, dan, in addition to that, tech has almost become a defensive play because you look at apple or google or microsoft balance sheet, there is just so much cash there. what do you think? >> it always makes me nervous when people say it is a win-win no matter what happens because that's now it works. go back to the recession in 2008 or '01/'02 because you are at the early stages of the internet what could go wrong?

the nasdaq goes down 78% this is not a win-win for everybody. and valuations is sort of a lynch pin here in my mind where you have some companies growing at a reasonable price. so meta is just above a market multiple oracle also a similar situation. then you have other companies and you brought up apple and it's fantastic it got to $3 trillion, incredible but you are paying over 30 times or 1% to 2% revenue growth last year and this year at least with microsoft, you are getting, you know, much better growth over that period of time, and you are still paying low 30 multiple but with microsoft, you have some pluses and minuses there as well because they're spending a lot to tryto gain share and search but if you look at the latest share data, it is showing they lost share against google. so there is going to be a lot of interesting things going on with how much money you are spending versus what benefits are you actually seeing.

>> yeah. you are referring to those documents that came out of the antitrust case, which we will be diving into later. dan, if you were looking at valuations and things are looking frothy, i find it interesting, you still like nvidia does this go back to nvidia being the exception that it has more room to run and how about apple that is coming out with a vision pro that could create a whole new category this year. >> with vision pro, you have to remember that's maybe 150,000 units. at 3,500, you are talking half a billion revenues apple does 225 million iphones this is barely a half of 1% to revenues to them so if you look at apple, you can pay 30-something times 1% to 2% revenue growth nvidia, you are paying roughly double this is a big difference in terms of revenues for the multiple you are paying. and that's the way i look at it

with all of these names. that's why we like oracle. we like meta we like nvidia as plays on ai. but with everything else, we have a much more skeptical views because the valuations have gone up a lot more than the overall benefit to these companies so things are trying to balance out growth and multiple. >> one final question for you, dan. i know you are a trader and you follow the earnings reports carefully and trim or increase your positions but if you are an average investor, are you holding on to tech for the rest of the year? and i guess is the nasdaq going to end up higher than it is now? >> you know, i thought the rally would peak out at 4,200 on the s&p. it's obviously gone well beyond that by nvidia we have seen this before when valuations can go to levels you never managed possible so anything can happen but i look at it very simply

the s&p 500 at 20 times yields a little less than 5%. you can own a three-month treasury bill. you have a very viable alternative where, at the beginning of last year, three-month t-bills yielded about 0.30%. here you are getting 5.3%. it depends on how risky you want to be. with expectations this high, i would be careful because what you have seen so far, accenture, micron, all very large, important companies. numbers went down after they reported and so did the stocks. >> yep you balanced that fomo with that fear and greed thank you for joining us talk to you again soon. speaking of apple, as we just were, a late, breaking story. goldman sachs is looking to end its credit card partnership with the client and is talking to american express to take over the apple business

anna maria, thanks for joining us you just broke this story less than an hour ago tell us what you know so far this has been a turbulent relationship goldman sachs may not have goaten out of it everything they wanted to. >> what's going on is that there have been several months of discussions playing out between goldman sachs and american express pertaining to whether american express would be interested in taking over the relationship that goldman has with apple this is a very difficult partnership to move, and we should start out by just talking about that in general, when you start out with a co-branded credit card program, that can be challenging to move. but add to the fact that in a relationship between goldman and apple, there is also goldman providing back end support services for apple's recently launched by now pay later program, as well as the recently launched apple savings account

that goldman is housing the deposits for what's been playing out is discussions to essentially see if american express interested in taking over this relationship and this is all happening at a time when goldman is looking to pull further back on consumer lending. >> exactly it feels from this partnership, apple has received all of the benefits but goldman has had to pay in terms this isn't exactly a huge money making business. it's loss making, is that right? so is this further admission that goldman is making missteps in this area, consumer banking >> goldman has definitely been faced with a number of challenging as it pertains to consumer lending, specifically last fall when it moved several of the consumer lending pieces like green sky and its credit card partnership into that unit, it did disclose earlier this year and has been since with earnings that it's incurred

substantial losses from this unit so the relationship between apple and goldman in many ways is complex look, there are a lotof banks that have issues with apple getting bigger and bigger in financial services but part of that is also envy in the fact that apple had chosen to partner with goldman. and i remember when goldman -- when the credit card partnership was announced and it rolled out in 2019, it was a real game changer in the credit card industry at that point because that was the first time that the incumbent banks, the retail banks were faced with a massive bank, in this case a wall street bank getting in on their turf. and goldman had been quite active in competing against those other banks like jp morgan chase, citi, et cetera, for credit card cobranded programs but they're basically at a point right now where they're re-evaluating everything

they talk publicly about it on the consumer lending front. >> it is such a fascinating dynamic playing out, particularly, between big tech and traditional banking. one piece of it. we'll continue to follow it. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. as we head to break, take a look at the top nasdaq performers the usual suspects here, nvidia, tesla, meta. those are all up more than 110% so far nvidia up almost 200%. that's nearly tripling we are just getting started on this cnbc special. tonight, linkedin founder and bc investor on the flood of money flowing into ai. plus, break it up, you two the latest on microsoft and activision in court. and the san francisco surprise a real estate flight that gives

new meaning to the term open office that and more when we return. don't miss our new member offer. >> the idea of doing a club of investors is something that i dreamed up a very long time ago, but now it is for real. join jim cramer.

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♪ welcome back to our "tech check" special money has flooded into ai this week once again, multiple startups became unicorns overnight vaulting to billion dollar plus value weighs, while still having just dozens of employees and in many cases still unproven business models. there is type face aiai this week yesterday announced $100 million in new funding on is billion valuation. now, it launched just four months ago its ceo told me it wasn't even looking for that money >> we were not actively seeking

money. we were doing very well in terms of market. there was significant interest. >> there was also inflection ai this week. the one-year-old startup a $1.3 billion in new funding for a $4 billion valuation. that is a monster round that comes two months after its main product. the ceo says that eye-popping valuation might be justified given how much he says ai will change the world >> this is going to be the greatest leap forward in productivity that our species has ever known, probably more so than the industrial revolution. >> now, the sheer magnitude of deal flow in this space is huge as well. data bricks announced it will pay $1.3 billion to acquire ai startup mosaic that one way to measure that purchase price $21 million per employee, which just underlines

how early we are in these businesses when this money is coming in the door let's take a step back and look at the history the current class of tech giants took years to achieve unicorn status yahoo! steve jobs created apple in 1976 it went public four years later in 1980 at a $1.7 billion valuation. there is amazon. founded in 1994. it only hit $1 billion shortly after it went public three years later. so they were fast, but they were not this fast. our next guest knows a thing or two about this he is behind some of the hottest ai names of the moment, including open ai and inflection ai, which we just mentioned. reed hoffmann, also the co-founder of linkedin thank you for joining us and being with us on this holiday friday you just heard what i was saying there is so much money in the space that for those that say it is getting frothy, you are someone that is still putting a

lot of money how do you respond to them >> well, ai is the new technology it is the steam engine of the mind he is referring to the industrial revolution. it is a similar kind of thing but, you know, within 2 to 5 years, there will be a personal intelligence that's a co-pilot for everything this will transform products and services it will transform industries it is really important with that kind of moment people are like, it is a lot of capitol and it seems like it is moving quickly, that's part of the venture in business when you are betting on the new platform that will be the implication of what we have with computers and phones and the internet and every single electronic device. >> yep and in the venture capital world you hedge a bunch of bets. but i know that you sort of made it your personal mission to talk about the benefits of artificial intelligence but recent polls show a majority of americans are scared of the

technology or at least concerned about it what do you think changes their mind i know you have been doing some work on the ground, but is there a seminal moment or a killer app that is able to sort of show what the opportunities are and take away some of that fear? >> yeah. and in this context, perhaps we should change the context from killer app. >> yes a good app. >> yeah, it's a good app you know, obviously, part of the recommendation is people using these products like go use pie use chatgpt. get some exposure to them. but if you imagine you have a medical assistant on every smartphone you have a tutor for everyone from a three-year-old to a 75-year-old and you see those benefits oh, gosh this search thing is really useful for me, and i can watch new shows and all the rest oh, this is interesting and good for me i think it is the experience because when it is unknown there is fear in it. and that's why you play with it. >> right and many millions are starting

to play within the form of chatgpt and bard a lot of folks were talking about this and the effect it might have on the 2020 presidential election. this may be sort of its biggest test so far. how do you expect it to perform and how do you expect ai and the chat bot to come out. >> i think it is a huge possibility for misinformation we will have hostile actors like the russian internet research agency, which, you know, over the last two election cycles was also trying to spread misinformation and dissension. they will obviously be using tools like this. that will be a challenge i think it is beholden upon us aztecnology platforms and company and so forth to level set that the right way, to try to make these sources of good information. i think that's a game on point of view. but the good news is i think the white house and other folks are paying a lot of attention.

that's one thing they're asking of us and trying to make sure we're on top of the election. >> everyone sort of says they're paying attention to the threat of misinformation and generative ai in this election cycle. do you see work being done what's being done to actually prevent this >> well, i think there is a bunch of discussions so, for example, should you try to create -- it's like all things generative ai have to be watermarked. you have identity certification within media platforms and a bunch of proposals being floated right you now. we need to move on those to make them happen. but the good thing with all this happening through the large tech companies is it's all much more controllable you have that as a feature in this otherwise very, very fast-moving technology. >> who is most likely to step up in the coming year is it the tech companies is it the public sector?

a combination of both? >> i hope a combination of both. mark has been working on responsible ai for decades open ai is really committed. it is one of the things that projects have attracted to it or ones that are like, how do we help humanity and society. the discussion goes beyond that. google is deeply concerned so there is a swath, i think, of focus and interest on this look at it this way. i'm hopeful, but we have to work in order to get there. >> now, another thing that comes up in my conversations here in the bay area is this idea of who will dominate ultimately will it be the big incumbents, the existing big tech players, or is it going to be the startups you are on both sides of this. what do you think will happen. you have a company like tech face ai, another deal i covered this week. they got investment from both microsoft and google's venture arms what is the fate of the space, and who is going to dominate

>> so i think there will be so much productivity and value created that we will see value for both five years ago, i wasn't so sure i was thinking, well, it's -- the provider like microsoft azure and google and others as ways of doing this but actually, in fact, when he was walking me through his initial thoughts of join him in co-founding inflection he was like, no, there is a great bunch of opportunities here in start-ups. over the last two to four years, gray hawk has been tripling down so we're getting it's start-ups as well. >> many of these start-ups, a big cost for them is the sheer amount of compute power needed to run these language models, and that's what sort of happened with open ai right? so is it impossible sort of. what do you think happens to a start-up when they reach a size and scale? do they have to partner with a

big tech company in order to continue to grow the business? >> if their ai business is one of the ones that requires a large scale compute, almost for sure they will have to be using one of the cloud providers now, while microsoft has taken an early lead in building this out, google is very strong amazon is working on it. oracle is working on it. there is a whole stack that enables an ecosystem. one of the things about the discussion of large tech companies, we're seven large tech companies headed to ten, not to three that gives you tons of space even if they go, okay, i have to go rent a large computer from company x, they have a number of options. that means it is out there priced well, you know, all the benefits you get in competition. >> if it's ten large tech companies a few years from now is the existing seven, what we're calling the existing seven plus three new ones or does the whole scope of that, the whole

makeup change? >> well, i think most of the magnificent seven will continue and have positions of strength it is plus three there might be a trade or two. nvidia is usually a value line this whole kind of the ai revolution and the transformation industries. their chips are super important as part of this. but i think that the -- that it's more likely you will see more wave in three you might see a plus seven some of those may be these early stage ai startups. >> well, that would be a big opportunity for us as investors. thank you so much for making the time to chat with us. >> my pleasure. and coming up, microsoft and blizzard wrapping up a week of arguments around their proposed merger we will get the latest that's next. don't go away.

welcome back we are taking a deep dive into all things techs the sector has been far and away the best performer of 2023 the nasdaq rounding its best performance since 1983 you have heard them over and over again nvidia, meta, tesla up microsoft, the heaviest weighted stock in the nasdaq ending the first half up 42%. not bad. that stock has been steadily moving up this week amid five days of hearings over the request for a preliminary injunction against microsoft's bid for blizzard >> nearly 100 pages.

that's reason alone for microsoft not to do this so much juicy information that wasn't previously public that is being put out there. this must be really important for microsoft to push through gaming-wise. >> yeah. and one of those great nuggets we got was that he thinks this could be a $500 billion revenue company by 2030. that's an ambitious goal yesterday was the closing arguments. we heard the judge really question the ftc side about the evidence they brought in, kind of alleging that people -- if microsoft is allowed to do this transaction, they are going to be incentivized, regardless of anything they saido take call of duty away from playstation platforms and move it over to x box and, therefore, people will abandon playstation and move to x box. it didn't sound like the judge was buying that.

this harvard economist said he had all this data and really couldn't back it up. that was a lot of the closing arguments last night, hinged on that data, whether or not it was believable the judge sounded very skeptical. she intimated that last night. we could get a decision as early as next week, but it is not over after that. >> exactly i was going to say it is not just here. it is the uk regulator how does microsoft come out of this how does that hurt or help their position >> the uk side has the same information. they just came to a different conclusion so what's happening in the uk is let's just assume everything goes microsoft's way here in the united states, they still have a time linishe issue because they have until july 19th or they

have to reactivate it to extend it longer because the whole process won't get started in the uk until the end of july that's a couple weeks after that deadline so some possible things they can do they can close that transaction and find a way to carve out the uk and figure out a way to make that work if they win the appeals process. or they have to negotiate new terms of activision and make that offer higher. >> microsoft seems determined, so we'll see how this plays out. thanks very much for bringing us the play-by-play. >> coming up, 3,047. that is the current number of ai startups in the san francisco area the latest on the space and how its rapid growth is impacting the bay area that's up next coming up, mean streets?

where are all the tech ipos? plus space jam a new way to think about office space in silicon valley. and another apple milestone. we tie a bow on the week in tech next on cnbc

welcome back some signs san francisco may not be the apocalypse that everyone says it is silicon valley is spiraling into a doom loop, citing the homelessness crisis and crime rates. at&t west field mall, nordström,

amazon go among the companies that plan to leave downtown san francisco altogether meanwhile, commercial vacancy rates are hitting a record high according to a report with over one-third of offices sitting empty. salesforce ditching its name sake tower and going for a fraction of that valuation on the company's fourth quarter earnings calls, he noted the subleasing environment has become more difficult than expected >> the market has deteriorated, with many companies reducing their real estate footprint. we anticipated we would leave san francisco in mid-2023 now we expect mid-'25. >> the ceo of the people's corporation is finding real estate opportunities in major cities like new york and los angeles, but he is particularly

hopeless about the bay area. >> san francisco is the worse off of all the cities that i mentioned, all those top five cities, and it will be the first to come back. >> one phase the ai boom bringing new life into the city. he believes a major shift is right on the horizon. >> this is the central land. everyone wants to be here. the talent we are hearing around the world, they all want to be here there is no question that this will be the place where this new shift happens. for me, that is the reason for optimism, that is the birthplace for possibly the next biggest shift. >> the next chapter could be less silicon, more cerebral. home to a growing number of ai start-ups and research laps, where coffee shops are full and entrepreneurs are buzzing. that has led to the nickname cerebral valley. kit rogers is taking a closer look. >> reporter: when the pandemic

narrative that everyone was leaving san francisco was in full effect, braden came to town ceo of voice flow which builds conversational ai assistance for companies. the start-up which launched in toronto has raised $24 million and has 55 employees. >> in 2021 when the rents were falling, people were saying they're leaving the city, it actually, for whatever reason, for me it felt like the perfect time to officially move there. we were able to find cheap rent. >> he lives in a collaborative house, formerly known as genesis house where founders can immerse themselves in project, network and have support of like-minded peers and work around the clock. it harkens back to an earlier era of zuckerberg's all night hack-a-thons while some companies have fled in favor of remote work, some founders are moving here to hacker houses to collaborate on

and launch new ventures. the density of talent allows the city to be ahead of the curve on developments in ai open ai being based in san francisco helped to bolster the city's credentials in this sector san francisco start-ups are paying less as a percentage of rent than those in new york due to the depressed real estate market, embracing homework and collaborative headquarters mark reynolds is pursuing a side project in ai after hours. he reams with him and moved to san francisco in 2021. networking events and constant collaboration at group houses make the city feel like it's buzzing once again. >> i like the idea of everyone working together but not even on the same bowl. everyone is very helpful everyone is willing to have conversations. everyone is so unique. i call it a sitcom. >> these founders are quick to

point out that work in ai is happening all over the city. he does say there is a strong existing network of founders there. but the hyper round has also almost become a self-fulfilling prophesy meaning everyone is already there. everyone is talking about it. >> yeah. i have heard the opposite problem in this area there is not even enough supply, right? in a place that's hot for ai start-ups, it can be hard to come across. it reminded me of the crypto boom when you had crypto houses and stuff. the difference here is that ai companies are starting to monetize there will be a lot that goes bust, of course. what is it that you hear from these people that's bringing them back to san francisco not miami, not austin, the other so-called tech hubs. >> it seems like there is a new and renewed excite about being in the city. these events, there was a wood stock of ai event in april at the explore tor yum that had over 5,000 people. i spoke to amber, one of the

early investors that talked about this cerebral valley she was saying most of those people were from in and around san francisco. there is a lot of people coming back here. it feels like you have to be here to get in on this. >> and in the office, this strange phenomenal, right, of everyone working from home >> so they could continue to network, exchange ideas and be a part of this it feels like for these people that ai here is ahead of the curve. whether it is a week or a month ahead. >> yeah. get access to a lot, too thank you so much for being with us after the break, more on the bay area impact of ai with an expert in the commercial real estate space. we'll be right back. a third kid. what if she likes playing golf?

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♪ welcome back before the break, we were talking about san francisco's potential real estate resurrection here with us onset to discuss, from jll, sara, thanks so much for being with us. this is such a polarizing issue. we showed before the break some glimmers of hope, but it feels like every day we get another retailer or operator leaving the downtown core. how do you gauge the situation >> i wouldn't count san francisco out just yet we're starting to see, as you have known in the previous segments ai as a burgeoning industry here. so we're excited about the opportunity. we have over ten companies in

the market in san francisco right now looking for over 800,000 square feet of office space. we think that will be a driving force in the future. >> ai alone can't save the city. there is so many issues in terms of the homelessness problem, crime rates. are you hopeful? and i speak to a lot of traditional tech companies that have moved out of the bay area what needs to happen on the policy side? >> yeah. crime is a problem in every day. we're encouraged by the actions happening right now from the mayor's office and the state of california what we're really looking at is demand and people wanting to be here this is the center of innovation, like i said before we're seeing folks start to come back to the office companies are ramping up their in office requirements >> i was talking to don last week in new york who has some investments here we'll building. he says it is at a point where san francisco is almost intolerable for everyone so for the most progressive

people and voters have lost tolerance. would you agree with that statement? he says that's the reason it will come back people will demand more. you do hear that more and more on the ground. >> yeah. i think san francisco is a resilient market we experienced blips in the road in the past and we will continue to climb out of this we are seeing a lot of positive signs to recovery, and that's in the form of office demand. >> some folks are worried about the rates and default. could that have implications for the broader banking system how vulnerable do you see that being? >> right now we're preparing our clients for interest rate stabilization, which we think will provide a path to recovery. one of the things we're focussing on here in this market is the demand that's happening right now and the number of companies and tenants who are in the market we have four and a half million square feet of office users looking in the market right now, and that's what we think will help us turn the corner. >> is that a recent development?

>> yeah. in the last couple of weeks, we have really seen an increase in demand we believe that will happen. the first two quarters of the year are typically slow quarters for us so we see the second half as picking up. >> thank you so much that is a good overview. >> thanks for having me. up next, tech has been on a tear so where arehe t tech ipos we will discuss that next. stay with us (bobby) my store and my design business? we're exploding. but my old internet, was not letting me run the show. so, we switched to verizon business internet. they have business grade internet, nationwide.

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one of the big questions in markets right now is the state of the ipo market and whether it is back. early signs of a thawing over the past few weeks but tech, the poster child of growth and innovation is still nowhere to be found, including long anticipated names like stripe or arm. >> i think there is a big difference in the business model, right, between arm, which is in the ai space and the chip space. not exactly high tech. >> there hasn't been a venture-backed tecipo since december of 2021 ordinary investors haven't had an opportunity to own some of the new disruptive businesses. if you think valuations became too inflated during the last ipo boom and retailers were left holding the bag or it is an

opportunity to own a piece of the next open ai there is a floated pipeline of unicorns waiting to go public and a rebound that pushed the nasdaq up 30% this year. let's dig deeper into the subject. ari, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me here. >> where are they? >> it's a good question. they are waiting for a market to develop. they're waiting to see economic data that shows that the buyers of their technology are going to be there, that they feel comfortable making long-term orders so they want to know if they go public, they will not go out and have a disappointing forecast that will cause investors to think twice. they raised big amounts of money. >> that helps them longer. >> right they cut costs they have reduced staff. so they have a lot of money in the bank the question is why go public if the valuations aren't going to be comfortable for us. they're not going to get us

excited and we have enough money to keep going. maybe later in the early. >> right supposed to be a bit of glory. but that seems to have been lost a bit. it is hard work. can they really wait on the sidelines and look at a cava, something that is not related to their business is that a good indicator for them does someone have to go? who do you think that will be? >> yeah. cava is one indicator. you have other non-tech companies in the pipeline. you have a ton of secondary offerings to follow on stock offerings in may that showed that there was a lot of demand in the public markets for tech stocks they just weren't necessarily initially public offerings. >> right. >> nobody wants to jump first. nobody wants to be the testing ground to see if investors are truly excited. if you think about the businesses that are best positioned to go public, i hear about data bricks. but talk to people close to those companies and they're not

close. they don't want to take the valuation. they don't want to take the risk and they don't see the advantage to being public now versus waiting a little. >> and the market is so different. in 2021 it was all about growth. in 2023, still largely about profitability, right that's what investors want to see. it is a different calculation there. do you know who is bold, who could maybe go first, he says he will be focussing on getting them public. they want more liquidity to invest in this ai race do you think if arm goes that's a good gauge for some of the other ones waiting in the wings? >> if arm goes and does well, companies will say that's a good gauge. if it doesn't go well, they will either say totally different kind of business, much bigger, not venture backed it is in the privatey space, so maybe not so relevant. either way, though, you know, arm will be indicative of some level of investor demand and their willingness to put money

into bricks. >> on the other side employees of these companies i think i called them dinosaur unicorns they have been private for so long now, longer than typical. what are you hearing from them, from that base that has been sort of waiting for these companies. all they have is paper well. they need these companies to go public before they could have that money in hand. >> the first are the vcs they have a business model, and that is not to keep companies private. it is to get companies public. on the employee side many have been waiting for years for the opportunity to buy a house they need to put their kids through college, they need to pay off debt they don't make a lot of money on the salary side all of their wealth is built into this equity this is the reason they didn't go to work at google or facebook, so there is a ton of pressure coming from that direction. >> such a fascinating dynamic. everyone is waiting, but they're feeling the pressure great piece. thanks for being with us. >> thanks. before we go, let's get

another quick look at the tech sector hitting a 52-week high today. the nasdaq rounding off its best first half performance since 1983 its best first half of all time. the top three performers nvidia, meta, tesla, all up more than 110% in the first six months it's been quite the quarter, quite the year so far, quite the half that does it for this "tech check" special thank you again for watching "last call" starts right now with contessa.

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