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KS Kara Swisher Kara Swisher Technology journalist who has covered the internet business since 1994.

“The truth is that this is the first time regular Americans ever wielded leverage over Silicon Valley. For decades, they've been powerless, powerless to monopolization, regulatory capture, and unprecedented societal control. Now Silicon Valley needs the American people's permission for something, not just something, but the very thing they bet the farm on. And the American people's answer is a simple no.”

Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway) · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · November 2026

“The truth is that this is the first time regular Americans ever wielded leverage over Silicon Valley. For decades, they've been powerless, powerless to monopolization, regulatory capture, and unprecedented societal control. Now Silicon Valley needs the American people's permission for something, not just something, but the very thing they bet the farm on. And the American people's answer is a simple no.” — Kara Swisher, Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway)

Context

Kara Swisher is reading aloud a Threads post by Ed Elson about the data center ballot measures, saying it explains why AI stocks are falling. The words are Elson's; Swisher read them on air and called the post great.

Transcript

Pivot (Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway) Around 59:11 into the episode
Kara Swisher

Yeah. And it's

Speaker 2

…the future, and they're spending a trillion dollars on capex. By the way, that's great for the economy. And if they're taking the risk with their companies and their balance sheets to pump a trillion dollars into the economy, we want some of that juice. Every statement. I think what they're worried

Kara Swisher

…which I thought was great. You've trained him well, and he's now much smarter than you. Of the more than 40 data center proposals on U.S. ballots this week, only one passed. Americans resoundingly reject them. This is partly why AI stocks are tanking. We can debate whether data centers are good or bad for the local community. There are genuine pros and cons, but that might be besides the point. The truth is that this is the first time regular Americans ever wielded leverage over Silicon Valley. For decades, they've been powerless, powerless to monopolization, regulatory capture, and unprecedented societal control. Now Silicon Valley needs the American people's permission for something, not just something, but the very thing they bet the farm on. And the American people's answer is a simple no. This is a dramatic shift in power, a dynamic Silicon Valley never experienced before. It'll be fascinating to see how it plays out, which I think was great. I think that pretty much says it. So speaking of that, I do. I'm sorry,

Speaker 2

can I just, I know you're going to get angry at this. You know who's been amazing at saying no and making everyone feel awesome? What? Europe. And by the way, Anthropic, founded six years ago in America, would be already one of the three most valuable companies in Europe. And here's the thing. We…

Kara Swisher

As long as it's not decided on by seven of the same men in a room with Trump. I'm sorry. No, I know you love this idea of good

Speaker 2

governance. Absolutely. Have at it.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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