Latest / Connecting the Dots / Apple’s AirPods Translation, Larry Ellison’s Influence, and Figure’s IPO

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Apple’s AirPods Translation, Larry Ellison’s Influence, and Figure’s IPO · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarfle Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Welcome everyone to Connecting the Dots
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  from Snarfle Solutions Group. I'm Alex. And I'm
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  Morgan. Great to be here with you all. It is
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  Thursday, September 11th, 2025, and just a gorgeous
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  day here in Sacramento. We're looking at sunshine
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  high of 82 degrees. Really nice. Absolutely perfect,
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  though not quite so calm everywhere else. If
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  you're listening in South Florida, just a heads
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  up, continued heavy rain, maybe some localized
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  flooding through Saturday. Oh, wow. Yeah. And
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  a different story out west, eastern Montana into
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  western North Dakota, looking at potentially
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  strong, even severe furniture storms today. So
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  hail, damaging winds, the whole package potentially.
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  Keep an eye out. Definitely stay safe out there.
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  Quite the mix across the country. Alright, before
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  we dive into the tech headlines, let's do a quick
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  market check. Dow Jones closed yesterday at 45
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  ,970 .16. That's up 393 points, about 0 .86%.
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  Pretty solid day. Yeah, and the week's looking
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  good too, up 1 .19 % since Monday. S &P 500 also
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  gained, closed at 6 ,566 .78. That's up, well,
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  just over 12 points, 0 .19 % for the day and
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  1 .06 % for the week. Okay, and Bitcoin? Bitcoin.
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  Closed at 113 ,998 .1 dealer. Barely moved on
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  the day, up just 0 .03%. But looking decent for
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  the week, up 1 .71 % since Monday. Right, so
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  some steady gains there over the week. Interesting.
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  Definitely. No, switching gears slightly. For
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  my fellow Giants fans, tough result yesterday.
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  Oh no, don't tell me. Yeah, Giants lost to the
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  Diamondbacks 3 -5. Eduardo Rodriguez was tough
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  for them, got the win. Bright spot though, Casey
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  Schmidt went 2 -4. Okay, well, something positive
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  at least. True, true. Gotta find the silver linings,
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  right? There's always the next game. Always.
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  That's the spirit. Exactly. Okay, so that's our
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  quick check -in. Today we're really gonna connect
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  some interesting dots how tech is impacting travel,
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  maybe sports in a way you didn't expect, and
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  even your own finances. We've got three big stories
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  from our Morningstar report, ready to jump in.
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  Let's do it. First up, get this, Apple's new
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  live translation feature for AirPods. You know,
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  the one everyone's talking about. Yeah, sounds
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  amazing. Well, it's hitting a major roadblock
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  in the European Union. Like, millions of people
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  there might not actually get to use it. Wow,
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  okay. That's a big deal right off the bat. So,
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  remind us, what exactly is this feature? So it's
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  for the newer AirPods Pro 3, Pro 2, AirPods 4,
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  and it's meant to be hands -free, real -time
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  translation when you're talking to someone face
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  -to -face. Right, so you just talk normally?
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  And it translates. Pretty much. And if the other
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  person doesn't have AirPods, your iPhone can
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  show them a live transcript. If you both have
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  compatible AirPods, the active noise cancellation
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  apparently helps you focus just on the translation.
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  Sounds pretty seamless. It really does sound
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  like something out of sci -fi. What's needed
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  to make it work tech -wise? Okay, so you need
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  the air pods obviously with the latest firmware
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  But the key is an iPhone 15 Pro or newer one
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  that supports Apple intelligence Apple's on -device
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  AI stuff exactly and it needs iOS 26 which We're
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  expecting around September 15th a lot of the
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  processing happens right on the phone, which
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  is good for speed and you know privacy makes
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  sense What languages are we talking initially
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  starts with English UK US French? German Portuguese
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  from Brazil and Spanish then later Italian Japanese
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  Korean and Chinese. Okay decent start so The
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  EU restriction. What's the specific catch? It's
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  kind of specific. Yeah, the feature is blocked
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  if two things are true one You are physically
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  in an EU country to your Apple account region
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  is set to an EU country both have to apply hmm
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  So it's not just about being the EU. It's about
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  being from the EU essentially, based on your
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  account. Seems like it. Apple hasn't officially
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  said why, but everyone's pointing towards the
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  EU's AI Act and, of course, GDPR. Right, the
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  big data privacy regulation. Makes sense they'd
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  want to look closely at something processing
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  live conversations. Yeah. Consent, data handling.
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  Yeah, regulators probably want a deep dive, and
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  Apple likely wants to be absolutely sure they're
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  compliant before flipping the switch there. Which
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  leads to some odd situations for users, I imagine.
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  Yeah, totally bizarre. Like, think about this.
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  An American tourist in Spain can use it, fine,
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  but a German citizen living and working in France
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  can't. Or, a German visiting the UK can use it
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  there, but a Spanish person visiting Germany
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  can't use it, it's... It feels fragmented. Yeah,
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  that really highlights the whole digital borders
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  issue. A feature meant to connect people globally
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  hits these regional regulatory walls. And it
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  really makes you wonder, you know, is this the
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  future tech that works differently depending
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  on where you are? It's a huge question for travelers
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  for international business. I mean, imagine being
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  an EU resident who speaks, say, German and you
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  want this feature to talk to Spanish colleagues,
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  but you just. can't, even though the languages
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  are supported. It's definitely a clash between
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  tech ambition and regulatory caution. And like
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  some people were saying, this might even be Apple
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  sort of subtly pushing back a warning shot, maybe
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  like, see overregulate and your citizens miss
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  out. But that's interesting theory. Whatever
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  the reason is a complex headache for Apple and
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  potentially frustrating for a lot of users in
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  the EU. Definitely something to watch. Absolutely.
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  OK, let's shift gears from regulatory hurdles
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  to a tech giant absolutely crushing it with AI,
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  plus a really unexpected side story involving
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  its famous founder, story in World 2, Oracle.
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  And Larry Ellison. Yeah, Oracle. You know, sometimes
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  seen as maybe an older tech giant. But wow, have
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  they ridden this AI wave. Larry Ellison and CEO
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  Safferkats have positioned them incredibly well.
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  They're making serious money from this AI tsunami,
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  is some call. And Ellison himself. His personal
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  wealth is just mind -boggling now, right? Oh,
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  completely. He's now the world's second richest
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  person. worth about $301 billion. $300 billion,
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  wow. Just behind Elon Musk, who's at $372 billion.
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  Correct. Though Musk's number has actually dropped
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  by about $60 billion this year, interestingly.
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  Shows how volatile things can be at that level.
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  And Musk, of course, is pushing Tesla hard as
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  an AI and robotics company now, despite some
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  sales issues and the Cybertruck feedback. Plus
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  SpaceX, XAI, he's everywhere. He certainly is.
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  But back to Ellison, this is where the story
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  gets kind of wild. And honestly, pretty relatable
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  in a strange way. It's not about databases or
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  cloud computing. Okay, I'm intrigued. What is
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  it? College football recruiting. Wait, what?
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  Larry Ellison in college football? Seriously.
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  He, along with his wife Joslyn, who is a huge
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  Michigan alum, apparently very passionate. Okay.
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  And get this, Tom Brady, Mr. 7 Super Bowls himself,
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  and Dave Portnoy from Barstool Sports. This group
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  apparently helped underwrite the biggest recruiting
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  flip in college football history. No way! You're
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  talking about Bryce Underwood! The number one
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  high school player? That's the one. Consensus
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  number one recruit was committed to LSU. This
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  dream team alliance reportedly helped put together
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  a $12 million NIL deal to bring him to Michigan
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  instead. $12 million from an 18 -year -old football
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  player before he's even taken a snap in college.
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  That's insane. It is absolutely staggering. Reports
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  suggest Jocelyn Ellison was really the driving
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  force wanting Michigan back on top. But yeah,
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  $12 million. It just shows the kind of influence
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  this level of wealth can have now reaching far
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  beyond tech into, well, college sports. I mean,
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  this completely changes the game, doesn't it?
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  We talk about NIL deals, but this is a whole
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  other stratosphere. It's like tech titans playing
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  real life fantasy football, but with actual universities
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  and enormous sums of money. It really makes you
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  think about the landscape of college athletics
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  now. What does this mean for fairness for the
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  schools that don't have billionaire boosters
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  lining up? And what about the pressure on a kid
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  like Underwood? Exactly. It's not just a sports
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  story. It's about wealth. power, influence, and
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  how it's reshaping institutions we thought we
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  understood. A $12 million NIL deal funded partly
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  by a tech mogul. Just wow. It's a sign of the
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  times, for sure. Yeah. The NIL era is still unfolding,
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  and this is a major plot twist. Definitely a
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  story that connects tech power to a very different
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  part of everyday life for many people. OK, fascinating
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  stuff. Yeah. All right, for our final story today,
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  we're heading back towards the financial world,
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  but with a definite tech spin. Big news in the
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  digital asset space. Figure Technologies, the
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  blockchain lender, just went public. They had
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  their IPO on NASDAQ. Yes, this is a pretty significant
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  one, Alex. Figure raised $787 .5 million. They
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  sold 31 .5 million shares at $25 a pop. OK. That
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  gives the company a valuation around $5 .3 billion.
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  And you could find them on NASDAQ now, ticker
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  symbol FIGR. F -I -G -R. Got it. And the founder
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  is Mike Cagney, right? The guy who co -founded
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  SoFi. That's him. And apparently he's keeping
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  majority voting power, which is also interesting.
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  Okay, so for listeners maybe still, you know,
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  wrapping their heads around blockchain, what
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  does Figure actually do? Like, what's the real
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  -world application here? Good question. So, Figure
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  uses its own blockchain platform called Provenance
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  for things like lending, trading, and investing.
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  They're big in consumer credit, especially home
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  equity loans, H -E -L -Cs. Okay. Home loans.
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  Exactly. They've actually originated over 16
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  billion dollars in TLCs already. Makes them the
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  biggest non -bank player in that specific space.
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  16 billion. That's substantial. It really is.
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  Cagney's whole idea, his vision, is using blockchain
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  to make typically illiquid assets, like loans,
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  more liquid. By putting them on chain, recording
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  them digitally on the blockchain, the goal is
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  to make trading them, managing them faster, cheaper,
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  more transparent. Left paperwork, fewer middlemen.
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  Okay, that makes sense. Taking something complex
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  like loan trading and trying to streamline it
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  with tech, and financially they're doing okay
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  now. Seems like it. They actually turned up their
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  offer in the first half of this year, $29 million.
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  That's a big swing from the same time last year
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  when they had a $13 million loss. And revenues
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  jumped up over 22 % too, to $191 million. Nice
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  turnaround. Yeah, and this IPO comes at a time
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  when we're seeing other crypto -related companies
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  hitting the public markets too, like Circle,
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  Gemini. There seems to be a more, let's say,
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  crypto -friendly mood right now. So connecting
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  the dots for everyone listening, why does this
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  figure IPO matter? I mean, polls still show a
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  lot of people find crypto confusing or don't
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  really get it. Right. And I think that's where
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  figure is interesting. Unlike maybe some purely
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  speculative crypto coins or abstract projects,
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  figure offers something, well, tangible. They're
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  using blockchain for real -world financial services.
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  Like crypto -backed loans. You mentioned home
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  equity. Exactly. And they're even using AI, like
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  Google Gemini and OpenAI Tech, to help underwrite
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  loans faster, process applications more efficiently,
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  all using blockchain for transparency in the
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  background. It's about practical application.
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  So could this be a sign, maybe a step towards
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  blockchain tech becoming more normal, more integrated
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  into the regular banking and lending systems
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  we all use? That's the big question, isn't it?
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  It's this focus on practical use cases, on making
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  existing financial processes better, the key
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  to bridging that gap between the crypto world
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  and mainstream finance. It certainly feels like
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  a move in that direction. Maybe this kind of
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  tangible benefit is what finally helps more people
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  see the potential beyond just, you know, Bitcoin's
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  price swings. Could be. It definitely signals
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  the technology is maturing, moving beyond just
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  hype and towards actual utility in industries
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  like finance. It's a space to watch. Absolutely.
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  So quite a range today. Yeah. And that's our
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  look at today's top tech stories on connecting
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  the dots. We covered Apple's live translation
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  feature hitting those EU regulatory hurdles.
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  Oracle's big AI success story and Larry Ellison's
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  surprising detour into college football funding.
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  And finally, figure technologies bringing blockchain
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  lending to the public markets with its Nasdaq
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  IPO. And each story, you know, really connects
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  back to how tech is changing things for you,
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  how you might communicate internationally, the
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  surprising influence of big tech money, and maybe
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  even how you'll get a loan in the future. We're
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  here to help at Snrfl, so reach out on our website
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  if you have any more questions. That's a wrap
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  on today's top stories. Remember, tech doesn't
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  have to be complicated, and we're here to help
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  connect the dots. If you've got questions or
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  want to learn more, visit us at snarful .com.
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  Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next
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  time.