Squawk Pod: Kalshi’s ‘Midterms Hub’ & SeatGeek & Serval's new I.T. dept. - 07/23/26 | Audio Only

Summary

The episode discusses Alphabet earnings and cooling investor enthusiasm for AI capex, rising oil prices from Iran-US tensions, Kalshi’s midterms prediction market hub and regulatory challenges, Meta’s AI reframing ad, and Serval/SeatGeek’s approach to automating IT support with AI.

• Alphabet revenue beat but profit missed; capex hike generated skepticism unlike prior years.
• Tesla similarly saw its capex spending met with market doubt, signaling a possible sentiment shift.
• Iran strikes on tankers and US escalation kept oil prices elevated.
• Kalshi launched a midterms hub; its board member argued federal preemption over state gambling bans.
• Debate on whether prediction markets influence elections or face manipulation risks.
• Serval, an AI-native IT support platform, touted rapid deployment versus legacy players like ServiceNow.
• SeatGeek cut IT ticket volume by over half using Serval, redeploying engineers to higher-value tasks.
• Meta released an ad recasting AI as human-centric amid growing public fear over job displacement.