Axios C-Suite: What Jim learned for the week of May 23
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🔥 AI explosion: Nvidia reported $81.6B in revenue Wednesday — up 85% year-over-year. Jensen Huang called it "the largest infrastructure expansion in human history." He's right.
- Noodle on this: Nvidia added $37B in revenue year-over-year in a single quarter. That's like building the entire global empire of Starbucks ($37.2B in '25) from scratch.
- Weekly reminder: AI is the economy.
💣 Executive (dis)order: President Trump killed his own light-touch plan for AI companies to VOLUNTARILY preview future AI models with national security officials before unleashing them publicly.
- Top sources tell us AI moguls in Silicon Valley, with David Sacks as tip of the spear, were in revolt over even the idea of an executive order. We're also told that Trump called up Zuck after the decision.
- The bottom line: The "let 'em cook" faction won this round.
- One takeaway for YOU about how Trump makes decisions: He often can be persuaded by the last person in his ear.
👀 Not-so-World Cup: 80% of hoteliers across the World Cup's 11 U.S. host cities hotels say they're missing occupancy forecasts. They also consistently cite visa barriers — wait times, costs and fears about entering the country — as a top reason, according to a new survey by the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
- What to expect: Packed stadiums. Emptier hotels. Domestic-dominated audiences.
😳 Socialism soars: Socialism is +17 (49% favorable/22% unfavorable) with Democrats nationally, per a New York Times/Siena poll released this week.
- Equally striking is that 93% haven't heard of or don't know what abundance is.
- Consider this my regular reminder to not sleep on Dems nominating an AOC-like figure — or AOC herself!
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