In this episode of Get the Check, Anika, Maya, and Priya discuss the Super Bowl, focusing on the brands running ads and Robinhood’s attempt to offer Super Bowl sports contracts through Kalshi. The hosts also dive into Stargate, a $500 million AI infrastructure initiative led by SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. Finally, they cover Apple Invites, Apple's new version of Partiful.

The hosts predict that tech companies like Ramp will dominate this year’s Super Bowl ad space. They also debate Perplexity’s strategy of skipping a traditional Super Bowl ad and instead running a giveaway where users can win $1 million by asking five questions in the app. Next, they discuss Robinhood’s attempt to partner with Kalshi on Super Bowl event contracts, which the CFTC shut down after Robinhood had already rolled it out to 1% of their users. Despite this, Kalshi will still allow users nationwide to bet (wait, sorry, we mean trade!) the outcome of the game. The hosts break down Robinhood and Kalshi’s partnership, weighing the pros and cons of Kalshi using Robinhood as a brokerage versus being their own. They also discuss what a potential Trump-led CFTC could mean for event contracts. Plus, they share how Kalshi’s social media intern just earned a $6,900 bonus (hint: it has to do with Elon).

The conversation then shifts to Stargate, an initiative aiming to position the U.S. as the global AI superpower and create over 100,000 jobs. While the initiative has raised concerns over its environmental impact, particularly CO2 emissions from new data centers, efforts are underway to make the centers more sustainable. The hosts also debate the government’s role in regulating AI safety and ethics, especially in light of Trump reversing Biden’s AI executive orders and implementing his own.

Finally, the hosts discuss Apple Invites, a new app that rips off Partiful. While they acknowledge that Partiful still has the stronger product, they argue that Apple Invites exposes Partiful's lack of a technical moat and a clear path to profitability.

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00:00 Super Bowl ads

06:26 Robinhood attempts Super Bowl events contracts

36:12 The Stargate project  

49:53 Company that wouldn’t get our check: Partiful