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apple is scraping its multi-billion
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dollar plan to release an electric
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vehicle a not so secret project that was
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in the works for almost a decade the
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company told employees in internal
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meeting this week that the plan notice
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project Titan has been canceled
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surprising the 2,000 person team had
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been working on it according to reports
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many of those employees will now be
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reassigned to Apple's generative AI
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projects um which will be interesting to
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see because they have a lot less data
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than other people because they don't
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collect it um you were excited about the
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idea of an Apple car Scott um I'm I'm
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surprised they canceled it I maybe
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they're working on software Apple's car
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was initially envisioned as an EV to
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compete against Tesla and later a
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self-driving car rival wh which is comes
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from uh Google The Google folks Elon mus
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rejected reacted to Apple's news on X
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posting a saluting emoji and a cigarette
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I don't whatever [ __ ] you um what do you
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think first of all do you consider it a
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failure or they smart to get out of the
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EV game um even though they never said
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they were doing it so look a a a
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strategy in a vision is meant to be
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unifying but not a suicide pact and you
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were right two years ago I predicted
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they were going to build the most
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valuable waiting list in history that
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this made a ton of sense and in order to
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move the needle on what was then a $1.6
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trillion do market cap company they
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would need to go after big game and the
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automobile industry was big I felt that
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Tesla had unearned market cap at 700
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billion or whatever it was then and that
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Apple was just salivating to go after
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some of that but here's the thing when
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the data changes as a good manager you
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have the right and the obligation to
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change your mind and a step back from
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the wrong direction is a step in the
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right direction and you know what Cara
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this was absolutely the right decision
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because in the last 12 months the
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atmospherics have changed dramatically
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and let's just talk about some of those
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the EV Market is plateauing if not
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slowing all the projections are way
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overestimated consumers pivot to EVS
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Toyota's looking like like a genius
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right now CU they did not go all in on E
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hybrid which popular that's right they
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went hybrids Tesla is running up against
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margin compression and then you have um
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you have the company which is probably
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um probably the most important company
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that no one talks about byd is now
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outselling Tesla so Apple Warren Buffett
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has a big stake in that is that right I
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didn't know that yeah but let's look at
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the market versus where it was say just
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even two years ago much less when this
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project was probably approved you have a
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low margin Capital intensive product
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that is subsidized basically every car
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company in the world has either gotten
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Federal loans Tesla or has been bailed
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out GM and Chrysler it's a massively
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subsidized industry which makes it
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incredibly economically inefficient they
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have this enormous competitor with a
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$600 billion market capitalization that
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is doing really well called Tesla
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they have another gigantic lowcost
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competitor that's actually out selling
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Tesla right now and the consumer seems
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to be pulling back from EVs and EV the
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prices of used EVS are plummeting and
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they look at this in in addition what
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has popped up generative Ai and so the
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the key to strategy is strategy is
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decisions that attempt to cut a swath
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between market dynamics and your
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internal competences in order to add
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shareholder value
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and the key to strategy is not what you
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say yes to but what you say no to and
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even Apple has finite resources both
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human and capital and my guess is
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they've said based on this Market which
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quite frankly looks increasingly
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difficult we would rather take I farite
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resources all right I'm gonna let me let
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me give you some thoughts on this okay I
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think EVS yes they have I think they
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over everyone over invested right and so
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I I still think it's the direction it's
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going period I think this is the way
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it's going I just think consumers aren't
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quite ready yet um it's sort of the
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Valley of Death area that happens in but
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a lot of what who got into this car
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makers right car makers got into this
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and started to make are starting to make
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beautiful cars now as they do that I do
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think customers and people have you know
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have don't have worries about charging
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and everything else I do think it's
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going to move you're going to see in 10
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years you know I forget how much of a
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percentage EVS are it'll it'll it'll
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move up it just won't move up this
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quickly that's one CU I cuz I do think
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this is the way things are going these
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these autonomous vehicles not excuse me
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electric vehicles and then eventually
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autonomous vehicles I think that is the
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direction I think SC science fiction has
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been correct about this that we will
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have autonomous electric cars and you
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know in the future when we're dead when
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both of us are dead um so I think that's
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it's just there's so many competitors
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now and now you do have like byd um and
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and which is just roasting everybody
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else and they're and they're coming here
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they're looking at Mexican uh sites to
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build a factory so that they can move
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into this area um so I do think people
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will have a lot more Choice like they do
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with regular cars that's one and so but
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it's a lot less than the investment so
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GM everybody's pulled back but they
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haven't totally pulled back because they
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realize this is the future the second
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thing is um Apple I was always dubious
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as you know about them building the car
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I'm like why don't they just work on the
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software for the car like making the car
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these electric cars work better or he
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you know uh cook Tim Cook never
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acknowledged this car project and
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referred to it uh as work on autonomous
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systems I think they should not abandon
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I think they should abandon building the
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car that was sort of weird to me but um
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but keep at this idea of how to operate
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Transportation Vehicles right it's a
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great area and as to AI I think it's
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very important that they incorporate AI
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into all their products so that you you
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like assistance all that kind ofu stuff
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like I don't they're going to have a
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harder time in the a market because they
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don't collect as much data um but it's a
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better bet for them to focus on making
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these products seamless in a new AI
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environment like my AI my Apple AI talks
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to your Apple AI kind of things um and I
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think that's where they're going to get
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the big push of keeping you in the Apple
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ecosystem I'm not sure you know what I
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think was likely the final nail in the
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coffin when they said okay it's time to
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officially announce this is over is
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rivan the guy left oh yeah if why is
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that well okay rivan's been around a
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decade and a half it's executed really
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well I have an order on it rivan real
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briefly I'm going to get uh that ocean
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foam green rivan I've already outfitted
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it oh cool and I bought a home in Aspen
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and I'm going to drive into town have
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lunch at casu a dinner Cash Cash I'm
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going to be a cliche of a douchebag and
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everyone is going to love me and I'm
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going to put my dogs in the back of the
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rivan anyways I love rivan I think
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they're beautiful they're really popular
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they have executed really well they cost
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about $70,000 this is an incredibly
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difficult business and they probably
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they probably said what's the analog
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here and they're like well the analog's
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Tesla and I was like come on Tesla
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caught got in front of a tsunami when
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the entire industry didn't want to
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acknowledge what was happening they had
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a spokesperson that brought massive
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attention to it government subsidies
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what has happened there is a unicorn on
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top of a unicorn that gives birth to
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unicorns right they said the the analog
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to what we're trying to do here is rivan
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rivan is exec well it's a good looking
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car well interesting one of the signs of
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this was and I remember paying a lot of
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attention this guy named DJ I think it's
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novotney he was sort of one of the early
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car people at Apple he left to go which
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I think I saw him at the music Miami
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Music Festival he's right there with
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Calvin I I like I like Rufus dool and
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Calvin harrism more but he's right up
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there I'm sorry go ahead anyway he went
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to rivan and now he went to rivan and
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that was a big deal now as to rivan it's
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it's interesting one of the people who
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follows Apple Gene monsters said Apple
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should buy revamp like that's how to do
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it like don't get out but actually buy
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it it's actually a really interesting
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that's a really interesting idea do you
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like that that's Jean moner who said
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that um just buying losses at this point
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I'm sorry go ahead car yeah but gets
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them in there I don't know it was that
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was the the alternative I guess it's a
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it's a huge project and they really are
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focused in on um they should be focused
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in properly on integrating AI into their
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systems and also um on on their spatial
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Computing they've got to they got to be
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focused on that more than this but
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buying ribbean could be something I
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don't know could be interesting yes so
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he said Apple's a tech company and tech
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companies by definition need to grow and
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that's the $400 billion question that
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they have here they've got all this
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money um so they he he feels like to
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grow the business you got to get into
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they shouldn't uh because he thinks
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Apple Vision Pro has potential but the
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car they would grow he thinks it
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eventually would grow was an interesting
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you know he thinks they need to be in a
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New Market and that why abandon it stay
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in stay in this market by buying someone
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that's not an apple thing to do they're
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not acquires um it's an interesting idea
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but rivan would have to get their
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financial house in order it's tough to
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buy a company that's losing that kind of
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money right now yeah but they'd get a
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great great stat that that guy who's the
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CEO of rivan's impressive it's a really
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interesting idea if they could get sort
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of to uh or close to break even then I
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think it'd be a great idea for Apple but
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as you said Apple doesn't like to make
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Acquisitions doesn't like to do it they
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don't like they do it but what's the
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last one the headphones what did they
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buy last I can't even remember beets
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didn't they buy beets beets yeah they we
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had them on stage one that was a long
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freaking time ago anyway um it's not
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like them to do that but they could
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be
