Two Stories from Mis-Fortune

Corporate Chiefs scream regularly "we need predictability", "show us the rules" as they get giant tax breaks, direct government subsidies and loan guarantees.  That does not apply to everyday people.

Many TechGods have their roots in Ayn Rand and consider themselves libertarian, minimal government, maximum freedom.  Their companies do the very opposite, providing tech services to an intrusive federal government for significant revenues (dollar sums).

“Capitalism was the only system in history where wealth was not acquired by looting, but by production, not by force, but by trade, the only system that stood for man’s right to his own mind, to his work, to his life, to his happiness, to himself.” -Ayn Rand

Google's CEO wants everyday people to adapt to the rapidly changing world around them.  How?  Everyday people can't get laws to protect their kids from harmful social media or brain rotting AI.  Everyday people can't tell the difference between a person online and a bot, as those distinctions are not required.  

Google's founder Eric Schmidt coached Stanford MBA students to violate intellectual property law in creating their own AI company. 

 

Everyday people get to do disruption while billionaire cheats go the White House and get laws passed to their personal economic advantage. 

OpenAI's Sam Altman has a service that proves you are human.  He just needs your biometrics and permission.  World ID comes with its own currency (which applications use to pay for services).  

From an application’s perspective, there will only be one World ID fee – the sum of the credential fee and the protocol fee. The World ID fee will be charged when an application (identified via a unique app id) requests a World ID proof.

These pinheads need to remember one thing about everyday people.  We vote.

TechGods, CryptoBros, private equity underwriters (PEU), family offices, sovereign wealth funds and other corporates have had their way for decades.  They have taken and taken and taken.

When this cabal removes the game plan for surviving day to day, a decent paying job, they have gone too far.  

Trump II wants everything scorched for the sheer joy he gets in watching things burn and people harmed.  The Reds in Congress kow-tow to their Creep in the White House.  The Blues are beholden to the Corporate class (as are the Reds when Trump II is not twisting their nuts in a vise for his viewing pleasure).  

The people doing the harm (TechGods and PEUs) are facilitated by our political system and together they give not a sodden flip about everyday people.  Society knows as TechGods increasingly show up as villains in movies and television shows.

Independent voters have gotten the message.  The political Red team is as popular as smallpox, which could well make a comeback under Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Trump II.  

Here is my take as to what Sundar Pichai meant:

"We, as in us TechGods" will have to work through social disruption.  Those everyday people will have to un-employ their way through social disruption.  

Thanks, Google CEO.  Next time, stick a sock in it.  It likely tastes better than those "AI wipes."

Unwell Trump Sics Bessent on Fed Governors

When he's not napping Trump II can deliver blistering take downs of a seemingly endless scroll of people.  The Kranky Old Guy in the White House hates the Fed.  Trump II needs willing sycophants to carry out his savage whims.   

Every Goldfinger needs an Odd Job or Pussy Galore.  Trump has Stephen Cheung, who resembles Odd Job.  I wouldn't call Scott Bessent Pussy Galore but he willingly debases himself on a regular basis for Trump II.

Making up new rules for independent positions and applying them retroactively is bizarre.  A residency requirement?  Does it have to be a Red state within the district?  Might it need to be a certain sized home square foot wise?  How about solar panels?  Are those disqualifying?  

Kranky Trump and Skanky Bessent, that's a bad combination at least for an independent Fed.  Surely, Congress and Wall Street will push back on this nonsense.  Congress?  Congress...  CONGRESS!!!!

OpenAI Invests in Thrive Holdings a Year After Investing in Thrive AI Health

This story is about three Thrives, Thrive Capital, Thrive Holdings and Thrive Health AI.  

Years ago Thrive Capital invested in OpenAI.  Yesterday, OpenAI announced it invested in Thrive Holdings, a division of Thrive Capital that intends to leverage AI in two areas that employ many U.S. citizens, accounting and IT.

Joshua Kushner founded Thrive Capital, a private equity underwriter (PEU), over fifteen years ago.  His brother Jared Kushner of Affinity Partners reportedly invested in Thrive Capital.  Josh's PEU has been an early equity holder in many companies started by people recognized today as TechGods.  

OpenAI is Thrive Capital's top investment according to TRACXN.  And now OpenAI has an equity stake in Thrive Holdings.

Reuters reported:

Thrive Holdings is a vehicle created by Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital to focus on buying traditional businesses in an AI-roll up play. Founded this year, the firm has raised over $1 billion to acquire service providers across the country, such as accounting and IT firms, aiming to overhaul their operations using AI to boost efficiency. 

The collaboration will focus on AI application in professional services, particularly through reinforcement learning. This research technique uses feedback from domain experts to continuously train and improve the AI models for highly specialized functions. 

Thrive Holdings will own the intellectual property and products created through the joint effort. OpenAI, in addition to its equity, gains insights from seeing its models tested and refined in real-world enterprise environments

Most people do not have a personal accountant or their own IT department but citizens might recall damage done by PEU rollups in hospital emergency rooms, specialty medical practices, dental offices, HVAC service companies, veterinary offices, and hospices.  

Many are trying to use AI in their work and finding the output less than satisfactory as it (workslop) requires much rework.  85% accuracy is a poor standard, made worse by hallucination (something made up out of nowhere by AI).  

Anuj Mehndiratta, partner at Thrive Capital who oversees Thrive Holdings, said the deal was necessary after it ran into "research problems much sooner" while deploying AI models. The firm found that "off-the-shelf" solutions were insufficient for complex, domain-specific tasks in its portfolio companies.

AI was insufficient for performing quality accounting or IT work.  Once again, accountants and IT professionals have to train their replacement.  It's no longer the foreign H-1B worker that will do their job for much less.  It's Thrive Holdings-OpenAI collaboration, now asking professional staff in rollup companies to train their AI replacement.

OpenAI's Sam Altman might have just the tonic for stressed out accountants and IT professionals, Thrive AI Health.  

Thrive Holdings rollup workers can leave their stressful office and enjoy hyper-personalized AI health coaching, courtesy of Thrive AI Health, brought to you by OpenAI Startup Fund (sounds like a PEU) and Arianna Huffington.  

Your AI health coach (OpenAI) can help reduce the stress from having to train that problematic AI (also OpenAI) in accounting or computer coding.  Got it.  No real people involved, except those accepting the fees/profits.

Just what society needs more of from TechGod products.  We already have reduction of appropriate boundaries, addiction, erosion of interpersonal skills and self esteem, loneliness, decline in cognitive function, exposure to the worst of humanity manipulating tech for harmful and even criminal pursuits.

Accounting and IT are professions with knowledge bases that are broader than one company.  They require analytical skills and judgement.  Thrive Holdings and Open AI are coming for independent accounting and IT firms.  Are you ready to be rolled up and rolled out the door after training your replacement?  

That's what happens when PEUs and TechGods get together.  Your employer becomes their sandbox in which to play.  And you become the grain of sand.  

Update:  My wise friend sent me these quotes (from the Making Hay substack):

“Let us accept truth, even when it surprises us and alters our views.” -George Sand 

French romantic novelist (actual name Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil, but her pen name clearly ties in more closely with today’s topic)

“Capitalism was the only system in history where wealth was not acquired by looting, but by production, not by force, but by trade, the only system that stood for man’s right to his own mind, to his work, to his life, to his happiness, to himself.” -Ayn Rand

(birth name: Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; married name: Alice O’Connor; pen name rhymes with “Sand”)

The Substack article regarded an oilfield frac sand company, thus the references to Sand and Rand.   In the small world camp I recently did a piece on Carlyle's comparing AI to the shale boom.  In it I mentioned the risk to life driving in the direction of the oil field from 18 wheelers hauling frac sand and oilfield chemicals.  The weight tore up roads which then needed repairs.  Add young men texting while operating a super heavy big rig to the mix and things were dangerous.  On a regular basis people were killed in road accidents.  People said it smelled like money to them.

Update 12-3-25:  PEUs rolled up doctor practices in an area such that they could control clinical volumes through incentives and manipulate physician compensation in an area/region.  The bounty went to the PEU not the doctor or provider and patients suffered.  Elected officials did little to nothing.  

AI is worse in that it is an outright thief, appropriating individual knowledge as well as that of a whole profession, and giving no credit much less fair long term pay or equity for those making/creating the AI professional model.  The bounty will go to OpenAI and Thrive Holdings, TechGods & PEUs.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and their new TechGod/CryptoBro brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.

"All Pin-head" Godcast: White House TechGods' Budget Insertion

NYT reported on the many conflicts of interest White House Crypto/AI Czar David Sacks has in his current role.  They include:

1)  "offered astonishing White House access to his tech industry compatriots and pushed to eliminate government obstacles facing A.I. companies"

2)  "recommended A.I. policies that have sometimes run counter to national security recommendations"

3)  "positioned himself to personally benefit. He has 708 tech investments, including at least 449 stakes in companies with ties to artificial intelligence that could be aided directly or indirectly by his policies"

4)  "public filings designate 438 of his tech investments as software or hardware companies, even though the firms promote themselves as A.I. enterprises, offer A.I. services or have A.I. in their names"

5)  "raised the profile of his weekly podcast, “All-In,” through his government role, and expanded its business"

DOGE did not save money because it spent federal resources to insert AI into government operations.  

Genesis Mission is the next phase, where publicly funded research, knowledge and content will be scraped up by TechGods into their various AI systems/products.  

If they didn't want to pay intellectual property rights holders, TechGods surely won't pay Uncle Sam for sellable content.  

Trump II has found a true partner in David Sacks and his fellow TechGods.  

Like Trump, they will usurp anything and everything while destroying much in their path.

Fellow destroyer Steve Bannon even speaks out against the TechGods.  

"Mr. Sacks was a quintessential example of ethical conflicts in an administration where “the tech bros are out of control.”

Cut the money and these parasites will find another host.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod/CryptoBro brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.

Trump Pardons Another PEU

Trump II's "Just Us" Department continues to release convicted fraudsters based on the instructions of their big boss.  In this case Trump pardoned at least one private equity underwriter (PEU) who'd defrauded more than 10,000 investors.

 

DOJ documents included:

For more than six years, more than 17,000 investors (collectively, the “Investors” or “Limited Partners”) in the managed private funds (or, as defined herein, the “Partnerships”) of GPB Capital Holdings, LLC (“GPB Capital”), have been waiting to receive returns of any kind on their investments. 

Distributions and returns of capital were abruptly halted in 2018 amidst numerous investigations of GPB Capital and its former Chief Executive Officer, David Gentile (“Gentile”), and several of his associates. 

The investigations led to criminal charges and convictions of Gentile, Jeffry Schneider (“Schneider”), and Jeffrey Lash (“Lash”), the commencement by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) of the instant enforcement action (the “Action”), and multiple other enforcement actions by state agencies.

The bad behavior occurred during Trump I.  It included:

Gentile and the other individual defendants diverted monies from Portfolio Companies to themselves through shell companies; Gentile collected millions of dollars in stipends and fees for work for which he was already otherwise being paid; Investors’ money was improperly used to enrich Gentile and his family; Gentile had a Portfolio Company purchase him a Ferrari for personal use; and Gentile received tens of millions of dollars in undisclosed acquisition fees.

David Gentile spent twelve days in prison for his crimes.

Trump II wants seniors to invest their 401(k) funds in private equity, private credit, crypto and alternatives.  Here's how GPB Capital Holdings marketed the firm:

Our company is a global asset management firm. We are a private equity firm specializing in acquisition of middle market companies. We are focused on developing institutional quality, income generating solutions for investors. 

Who wouldn't bite on that?  Even auditors got fooled and had to pay restitution.

Is Trump II making a target rich environment for his freshly pardoned friends?  One could deduce that very thing.  

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod/CryptoBro brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.  

Update 12-1-25:  As for who Trump II serves, please consider the following:

More than 1,000 people submitted statements attesting to their losses, according to prosecutors, who characterized the victims as "hardworking, everyday people," including small business owners, farmers, veterans, teachers and nurses. 

"I lost my whole life savings," one wrote, adding, "I am living from check to check."

My wise friend wrote:

By pardoning Gentile, the Trump administration made it a moot point to go after people skimming off others assets for personal gain and enrichment. 

If you're a prosecutor even if you prove wrongdoing what's the point?  Instead of raising the bar on white collar crime we will remove the bar.

Therefore party on and no need to fear. Hopefully, lack of trust grinds the market to a halt.

Update 12-3-25:   Bloomberg reported on a prior Trump pardon of Eli Weinstein.  Weinstein went back to committing fraud while never attempting to make restitution to prior victims.

Trump pardoned Blue Rep. Henry Cuellar before his scheduled trial in April 2026.  That follows his pardoning of a Tennessee state legislator and his chief of staff for fraud.  

Carlyle Compares AI Race to Shale Boom: Aaarrgghhh!

World Oil reported:

The eye-popping amounts Big Tech is shelling out on artificial intelligence resembles shale’s golden age of spending before a price crash wiped out $2.6 trillion in equity, Carlyle Group Inc.’s Jeff Currie says.

Energy and technology are two of the most important pillars of the economy, leaving other key sectors including finance and health care “useless” without the other two, the veteran commodity market forecaster wrote in a research note Tuesday. 

“The shale boom was arguably the most notorious ‘growth at all costs’ capex cycle in the modern era, where energy industry-wide capex reached 110-120% of cash flow at its peak,” Currie said. “So for technology spending to reach energy industry levels should raise a lot of questions.” 

Much of the investment from tech companies is going toward chips and data centers to build up computing resources to support AI development. AI compute can be measured in dollars per hour, much like oil is traded in dollars per barrel, Currie wrote. 

Confidence in future AI computing prices stabilizing around the $1- to $2-per-hour range “echoes the same confidence that the US shale producers had in $100/bbl oil that drove their spending far above cash flow,” he wrote.

U.S. oil producers were able to only keep drilling debt on their balance sheets during the early days of the shale boom, while entering into long-term contracts with special-purpose vehicles that would take on the burden for additional capex to build pipelines. That finance structure is reminiscent of the AI boom today, he said.

“Big Tech AI appears to be using the exact same playbook that the energy industry used as these arrangements clearly rhyme with today’s AI datacenter SPV arrangements,” Currie said. “We cannot forget about the land grab, or the ‘race for positioning’ as the oil patch called it, which mirrors the AI ‘land rush.’”

Our part of West Texas lived through the shale boom and subsequent bust.  Current drilling is more reminiscent of the bust phase despite Trump II's call for "drill baby drill."  Lots of oilfield equipment sits parked and "man camps" are one third full.

We are in the AI subsidy phase as local governments plan to provide cheap electricity and water to already provided inexpensive land outside San Angelo city limits.  

City government and the Chamber of Commerce are facilitating "data center site development tied to renewable energy access."

Our Interim Economic Development Executive Director is also an Assistant City Manager and plans to retire soon.  It's not clear his future plans but Michael Dane is in a key position to monetize his public service experience in the private sector should he keep "facilitating."  

City Manger Daniel Valenzuela also plans to retire in October 2026.  That would mean the top two people who negotiated any AI data center deal will not be around to see how it worked out.  

We lived through the Shale Boom when local hotel rooms went for NYC rates, restaurants and roads were packed and driving in the direction of the oil field was a life threatening experience (as big truck drivers texted amid road work).  

Skybox Data Centers needs access to lots of water and electricity and so far the city has been mum on any economic development proposals, although they are surely underway.  The City sold Skybox the land which sits outside city limits.  There has been no talk of annexation to date.  

Citizens have funded water infrastructure via high water bills and special capital charges.  It would be tragic for Skybox or its future tenant/renter/user to pay only marginal water costs, even worse if heavily discounted.  

The Hickory Aquifer Project has the ability to pump 10.8 MGD to San Angelo and has the equipment in place to treat a total of 8 MGD.

Ricky Perry's Fermi Amarillo AI project, known as Project Matador, plans to use 2.5 million gallons a day but will expand to 10 MGD.  

Should Skybox's project have a similar arc, their data center would occupy nearly 100% of the Hickory Water production.  What percent of the costs, operating, capital and infrastructure, might they actually pay?  

The Carlyle Group kicked off PEUReport in 2007 with their ability to sell 50 airport operations to Dubai Aerospace just months after the Dubai Ports World uproar.  The politically connected private equity underwriter (PEU) located in Washington, D.C. to tap government wallets and directly influence laws and regulations.  Their founders became "policy making billionaires."

Carlyle's current political challenge is getting U.S. government approval to sell Crown Bioscience, a San Diego based clinical research organization (CRO) to affiliate Adiconn, a Chinese lab/CRO.  I believe they can thread that needle.

Texas Governor Rick Perry gave Carlyle $35 million to add 3,000 jobs at Vought Aircraft Industries in Dallas.  By the end of the incentive period Vought had cut 35, that was $1 million per job lost.  

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod/CryptoBro brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.  

Note:  I have been amazed by the intersection of my three blogs, PEUReport - harms done by private equity, StateoftheDivision -local San Angelo issues and ArisFreedomSwitch - politics in general.  I could cross post most pieces on a daily basis.  That's how intertwined things have become.

Update 11-30-25:  One Virginia state legislator won his election because of his promise to fight datacenters.

SWFs & PEUs: Lots of News

Private Equity Insights reported:

China Investment Corp. is close to completing the sale of about $1bn in US private equity stakes, marking one of the largest sovereign-wealth disposals in the secondary market this year, according to sources cited by Bloomberg. 

Paris-based Ardian is said to be among the final bidders for the portfolio, which includes positions in funds managed by Carlyle, Hellman & Friedman, and Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe. 

CIC relaunched the process after pausing an earlier attempt to sell similar stakes in vehicles run by Carlyle, KKR, and TPG.

The sovereign fund’s sale comes amid a broader wave of secondary activity. Singapore’s GIC has been exploring a $1bn disposal of private equity fund stakes in Blackstone, Apollo, and TDR Capital.

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF) are essentially a government sponsored private equity underwriter (PEU). Both have been in the news lately.  The Ukraine-Russian peace plan arose from Russia's SWF according to Red Team Rep. Mike McCaul.  

Saudi SWFs were front and center during the Crown Prince's recent visit to the White House.  PEUs with Saudi money have a lead role in Middle East Peace (Jared Kushner of Affinity Partners)..

Apparently, there is nothing a greed and leverage boy cannot do.  Actually, there is.  They can't seem to return funds to investors such that they don't need to dump their stakes in the secondary market.  CIC committed $350 million to Carlyle funds in 2013.  CIC made additional Carlyle investments in 2016 & 2017.

If PEUs fail at the most basic part of their job (returning money to investors), why would we expect them to be good at diplomacy or youth sports team management, much less healthcare or the kajillion other things government leaders are charging them with?  

Riddle me that....

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod/CryptoBro brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.