Newsom Orders AI Lab Kill Switch

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  September 18, 2026 at 19:14  |  47:57  |  Bloomberg Markets
Speakers
Varun Sivaram — Founder & CEO, Emerald AI
Rick Davis — Republican Strategist, Partner at Stonecourt Capital
Charlie Pellett — Anchor/Reporter, Bloomberg
Tyler Kendall — Multimedia Editor, Bloomberg
Kailey Leinz — Bloomberg Reporter
Charles Booker — Democratic Nominee for US Senate in Kentucky

Summary

The early edition of Balance of Power covers a busy week in markets, AI policy, and Washington politics. The main investment-focused discussion centers on AI's energy bottleneck and Emerald AI's push for flexible data centers, with partnerships involving NVIDIA, Google, and Digital Realty. A political panel debates AI regulation and the upcoming Trump-Xi summit, while later segments cover the Westinghouse IPO report, midterm races, and Charles Booker's Kentucky Senate campaign.

  • Markets close lower as bond yields rise; semiconductors and bitcoin outperform.
  • Emerald AI CEO Varun Sivaram pitches flexible AI data centers to ease grid strain and speed connections.
  • NVIDIA, Google, and Digital Realty are named as partners or alliance members.
  • Rick Davis says AI remains a global transformational investment despite regulation.
  • Political panel discusses AI regulation, state actions, and the Trump-Xi summit.
  • Westinghouse Electric reportedly seeks a $50 billion-plus U.S. IPO valuation.
  • Midterm coverage focuses on an expanding Senate map and the Kansas race.
  • Charles Booker discusses his Kentucky Senate campaign, tariffs, and healthcare.
Ideas
Varun Sivaram Founder & CEO, Emerald AI 11:01
Flexible AI data centers ease power bottleneck.
Energy is the defining bottleneck for the AI revolution. China has far more spare power capacity for AI than the U.S., and the U.S. cannot connect all planned AI data centers to the grid. Emerald AI's solution is to make AI data centers flexible so they can reduce power consumption during grid stress without harming mission-critical workloads, which can lower utility rates, improve reliability, and speed grid connections. NVIDIA is a major partner, investor, and founding member of the AI Energy Management Alliance; Google has already done a gigawatt of data center demand response and is a founding alliance member; Digital Realty is co-building the first power-flexible AI data center with NVIDIA and Emerald, a 100MW facility in Manassas, Virginia coming online later this year.
NVDA GOOG DLR HIGH
Rick Davis Republican Strategist, Partner at Stonecourt Capital 27:08
AI is a global transformational investment.
Investors with a private-market perspective see AI as a transformational global investment, not just a U.S. or China trade. It is already boosting U.S. productivity, and even fears about extreme AI outcomes underscore how broadly it will change every business. Regulation and political rhetoric may not stop the growth or the investment backlog.
AI-SECTOR HIGH
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This Bloomberg Markets video, published September 18, 2026, features Varun Sivaram, Rick Davis discussing NVDA, GOOG, DLR, AI-SECTOR. 2 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Varun Sivaram, Rick Davis  · Tickers: NVDA, GOOG, DLR, AI-SECTOR