Semafor
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Search complete. 95 mentions across 60 episodes found for "Semafor".
Sep 17, 2026
Michael WearHOST
The bill has emerged after talks between Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, and Senators Chris Coons and, uh, Maria Cantwell, both Democrats.
Michael WearHOST
The news outlet Semafor reports that Democrats aren't sure if it can pass before the midterm elections, although Coons said he believes half of the Democratic caucus would likely vote in favor of the bill.
Michael WearHOST
A spokesperson for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said, quote, "Leader Schumer knows Congress should, uh, act to bring clarity and certainty to NIL, appreciates Senator Cantwell's leadership on the bill, and is continuing to talk to members as the bill moves toward the floor." Also in the news, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said yesterday that she supports making Canada the first associate member of the European Union.
Michael WearHOST
She said in a speech that the EU should coordinate with other democracies in, quote, "an openly hostile world." The EU currently has 27 members spread across continental Europe.
Mark HalperinHOST
This is confusing.
Mark HalperinHOST
The secondary print pool is Axios, and the new media pool is Semafor.
Mark HalperinHOST
First of all, you gotta know the difference between Axios and Semafor, but Kevin, why would Axios get to be normal pool and Semafor new media? They're pretty much the same, aren't they?
Larry O'ConnorHOST
Yeah.
Kevin WallingHOST
They're pretty-
Mark HalperinHOST
Uh, 7:00 he's got one of those Rose Garden dinners.
Mark HalperinHOST
We'll try to find out who's in the, uh, audience for that.
Mark HalperinHOST
Uh, and that's open to the press pool, so whoever's for Semafor and Axios will be there.
Cecilia RikapSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
And by doing it, you can eventually get access to that technology earlier, so you can adopt it earlier, as Microsoft did with OpenAI, but you eventually may also be able to make extra profits if the company you invested in is successful and starts developing a business.
Paris MarxHOST
In early 2023, Microsoft invested another 10 billion into OpenAI, but Semafor reported months later that a significant portion of that investment wasn't in cash, but credits for Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform, what OpenAI needed to train its models and run its business.
Paris MarxHOST
The company is reportedly losing $5 billion a year but can continue to operate because of the support of powerful and deep-pocket benefactors like Microsoft.
Paris MarxHOST
On top of that, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have effectively raided the talent at Inflection AI, Adept AI, and Character AI respectively, to the degree that regulators are investigating them.
Catherine RampellGUEST
That's exactly what you did.
Catherine RampellGUEST
A- apparently, just as an aside, part of the reason he might have been, like, calling out Bloomberg specifically by name, Semafor had a good article about this, is that he has been pissed at Bloomberg for reporting, I don't know if it was a year ago, about how he had two primary residences.
Catherine RampellGUEST
Uh, in the same way that, like, Trump is going after Lisa Cook and some other people for supposedly lying on their mortgage documents, which they've denied.
Catherine RampellGUEST
Bloomberg had a story, like, a year ago about how he was doing the same thing, and he threatened them, according to Semafor, and said, like, "If you, if you publish this story, uh, I'm not gonna go on Bloomberg again."
Tim MillerHOST
The Free Speech Administration acting again.
Catherine RampellGUEST
Exactly, yeah.
Neal FreymanHOST
So they are just left completely hanging.
Neal FreymanHOST
One lobbyist told Semafor, "The amount of money the crypto industry spent on lobbying firms for such a staggering defeat would have been better spent curing cancer." We close out every Wednesday show with Suggestion Box, where Toby and I each share a recommendation to get you over the hump of the week.
Neal FreymanHOST
My rec is operating a no-shoes-in-the-house policy.
Neal FreymanHOST
Look, I'm far from a no-shoes absolutist and often find it snobby when someone makes you de-shoe before you enter their home, but I read this Time article that might make you think twice before trampling around the living room in your sneakers.
Stephen K. BannonHOST
Uh, I wanna, um...
Stephen K. BannonHOST
I got Andy Brown now from Semafor in London.
Stephen K. BannonHOST
Uh, Andy, you put up a piece, and let's put it up on the, uh, on the screen from Denver.
Stephen K. BannonHOST
Uh, guys, you can put it up.
11 MINS LATER
Stephen K. BannonHOST
Anyway, Andy, hang on for one second.
Stephen K. BannonHOST
I, I wanna hold you just for a couple of minutes on the other side.
Stephen K. BannonHOST
Andy Brown, read the piece in Semafor.
Stephen K. BannonHOST
It is particularly important you read this piece prior to the state visit of, uh, of Xi.
John CooganHOST
Kalshi declined to comment, while a Commerce pers- spokesperson said the department, quote, "Has never once asked Kalshi to take down this market or any other market." Interesting.
John CooganHOST
So, uh, the Commerce spokesperson said, "This story is false," [chuckles] to Semafor, so lots of people going back and forth.
John CooganHOST
Uh, it's unclear why the commer- why Commerce is worried about the nascent market, which aims to do for AI computing what oil futures do for crude, let buyers and sellers of compute lock in prices and give traders a way to bet on where those prices go.
John CooganHOST
One potential reason floated to Semafor by market participants is that compute futures could be manipulated to show a sharp drop in the cost of older chips, which might destabilize AI stocks and debt markets.
John CooganHOST
Some of these markets are thinly traded, which could lead to volatility even without bad actors.
John CooganHOST
So you're trying to wipe out situational awareness.
John CooganHOST
The market trades down for a couple days.
John CooganHOST
You clean up, and then you buy back in or something like that.
John CooganHOST
Kalshi declined to comment, while a Commerce pers- spokesperson said the department, quote, "Has never once asked Kalshi to take down this market or any other market." It's interesting.
John CooganHOST
So, uh, the Commerce spokesperson said, "This story is false," to Semafor, so lots of people going back and forth.
John CooganHOST
Uh, it's unclear why the commer- why Commerce is worried about the nascent market, which aims to do for AI computing what oil futures do for crude.
John CooganHOST
Let buyers and sellers of compute lock in prices and give traders a way to bet on where those prices go.
John CooganHOST
I thought that they could have a decent chunk of the market, but I thought a lot of it might just go to insurance companies and reinsurance companies and sort of like the traditional financial rails that do these types of deals.
John CooganHOST
But, uh, nev- nevertheless, it's going away, and let's figure out why.
John CooganHOST
One potential reason floated to Semafor, uh, by market participants is that compute futures could be manipulated to show a sharp drop in the cost of older chips, which might destabilize AI stocks and debt markets.
John CooganHOST
Some of these markets are thinly traded, which could lead to volatility even without bad actors.
Brian McCulloughHOST
Meta estimates that less than point one percent of all glasses sold have been tampered with.
Brian McCulloughHOST
Meta's vice president of wearables, Alex Himel, recently told Semafor, "With no camera, Luna would avoid some of the privacy concerns associated with camera-equipped smart glasses while still allowing users to interact with Meta's AI through microphones and speakers, much like the Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta smart eyewear, which have the Meta AI chatbot built in.
Brian McCulloughHOST
The absence of a camera could also make the glasses less conspicuous in settings where people may be sensitive to being recorded." End quote.
Brian McCulloughHOST
[upbeat music] Sources are telling the FT that OpenAI and Anthropic staff felt blindsided by Dario Amodei's and Sam Altman's recent calls to slow the frontier.
Tonya EvansHOST
As of last Monday afternoon, none of the seven had issued a statement on the final text.
Tonya EvansHOST
The first to speak was Senator Warner, who told Semafor there's been some movement, but in his words, quote, "I don't think the ethics provision is near enough." And watch Senators Gallego and Alsobrooks today because their arc tells you everything about how this bill got here.
Tonya EvansHOST
Both voted clarity out of the Banking Committee in May.
Tonya EvansHOST
Both then conditioned their floor votes on ethics language.
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