Anthony Pompliano
Ryan Cohen at the Silvia Investor Summit: AI-driven job and demand risks, a results-only approach to shareholder communication, and GameStop
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Research summary
Framing: Anthony Pompliano interviews Ryan Cohen, whom Pompliano describes as the CEO of GameStop [4:34:39]. Cohen's views below are his own, as stated in the session.
◆ AI risks and the future of work
Cohen says the company is using AI heavily: "we're using a lot of it across the entire org" [4:08:44]. He also says he is worried about the technology. He finds it hard not to picture the worst outcome, which he describes as high unemployment [4:09:12].
He lays out a scenario in which people become so fed up with how productive and how much smarter the machines are that they end up attacking them [4:09:29]. He also describes an economic channel: high unemployment would hit consumer demand, which he says could trigger a damaging domino effect [4:10:25].
On capability, Cohen says that for any desk job the machine is already far superior [4:17:34]. For physical work he says the robots are not there yet but are probably less than a few years away [4:17:57]. His open question is what human utility will be once machines do these things [4:18:36].
He says he dislikes universal basic income [4:19:00]. His stated reason is that people do better when they earn than when something is given to them [4:19:11]. Asked how many successful brain-computer-interface implementations he would want to see before signing up, Cohen answers only that he would like some data on successful outcomes [4:20:12]. Pompliano, for his part, says he would want to see probably millions [4:20:28].
◆ How Cohen works and uses AI
Cohen says he now spends all, or a majority, of his time on GameStop [4:11:34]. He says he generally avoids meetings [4:12:38]. He says AI increases his productivity and gives him visibility [4:12:57].
He argues that specialization matters less than it used to. In his view, someone can use AI to identify a root cause in code and be at the same level as the most advanced programmers [4:13:38].
◆ Hiring
Asked how AI changes talent evaluation, Cohen says the best performers are the most motivated [4:14:51]. He says he looks for people with a chip on their shoulder [4:15:12]. He says he is hiring mobile engineers to work directly with him [4:28:16].
◆ Retail investors and the GameStop shareholder base
Cohen pushes back on the framing of retail investors as dumb money. He notes that hedge funds, which are supposed to be the smart money, all underperform the S&P 500 [4:25:00]. He also cautions that it is hard to make stereotypes in general about retail versus institutional investors [4:25:14]. He says GameStop has an incredible shareholder base [4:25:29]. In his account, many shareholders backed the company based on believing in him, which he calls their diligence [4:25:58]. He also argues that retail investors have advantages that institutions lack [4:26:27].
◆ Communicating with shareholders
Cohen's stated approach is: "Judge us by our results and our financial performance." [4:29:16] He says the company has stayed away from storytelling [4:29:20]. He observes that CEOs and CFOs of most public companies spend the majority of their time on investor relations and public relations [4:29:45]. In his view, that time does not make the business more efficient [4:30:15].
He says he has no desire to be liked [4:32:36]. He cites his father as the best operator he has met [4:31:57]. He argues that what people will ultimately like is the business doing well [4:32:48].
◆ Failure and legacy
On taking over GameStop, Cohen says failure was not an option [4:34:51]. He argues that being in a position with no exit hatch is when greatness is achieved [4:35:05]. Asked about his legacy, Cohen says in his own turn that he thinks legacies are overrated [4:36:21]. The brief does not treat that as his complete answer, because the transcript continues with an unresolved turn on the subject that is not relied on here.
Session of the Silvia Investor Summit 2026 livestream. Transcript: Whisper large-v3 with voice-based speaker identification. Every quote is checked verbatim against the transcript and linked to its timestamp in the stream.
Full transcript
[4:08:13] Anthony Pompliano: I'm doing great. I have a lot of questions for you, sir. Are you ready? I'm ready. Any company, regardless of whether they are an AI company or not, can use this stuff internally to become more productive for themselves as a CEO, for their employees, etc. Like, are you guys mandating anything? Are you encouraging the use of this technology in any way?
[4:08:44] Ryan Cohen: Yeah, we're using a lot of it across the entire org. And I'm super fascinated at how quickly the technology is developing. Every single time I think one company is in the lead, another company comes out with a more advanced model.
[4:09:05] ?: I
[4:09:07] Ryan Cohen: get very worried about the technology. It's hard to not imagine the worst outcome in terms of high unemployment. And ultimately, I don't think that the machines... Whatever attack us, but I think ultimately there's a risk that we get so fed up by how productive and how much smarter the robots are than us that we end up attacking the machines and then they attack us and it ends up being man versus machine. Whether that ends up being World War III, I don't know, but I do get a lot of concerns over artificial intelligence.
[4:09:58] Anthony Pompliano: What do you think is the most likely concern you have to actually come into fruition? Is it something that is like physical security or is it more of like cyber? There's hacks, there's like that type of stuff.
[4:10:10] Ryan Cohen: The pace at which the technology is developing and how much smarter the machines are than humans. It really puts us in a position where We have very little utility and ultimately if that leads to high unemployment, that affects consumer demand and obviously that can have a domino effect that is not good. But it's hard for us to compete against the machine. So it's already too advanced. Everything that we can do, the machine is better at.
[4:10:55] ?: So it's interesting.
[4:10:56] Anthony Pompliano: I was talking earlier with Jordi Visser about he's got this theory of like machine time versus human time and the machines are speeding up. And every executive I talk to pretty much is like, I feel like things are moving very quickly here. You mentioned, you know, new models are coming out at a fast pace, etc. How do you think about spending your personal time right now? Like, do you change what you're doing inside the business? Do you change what you're doing, you know, in your time off from the business? Like, how is that evolving with the rise of all this technology?
[4:11:25] Ryan Cohen: Well, everything we're doing at the business is AI for Earth. And it's been that way now for at least the past few quarters. I spent all my time on GameStop at this point, or a majority of my time, and focused on making the business as productive as possible.
[4:11:46] ?: Have you changed anything?
[4:11:47] Anthony Pompliano: Because you would have told me that six months ago, but has anything changed in that time period?
[4:11:52] ?: In terms of my...
[4:11:54] Anthony Pompliano: Time? Let's just say, let's do a day in the life of Ryan Cohen, right? You have a lot of responsibilities. You obviously have employees, you have product, you have to deal with, you know, financing, balance sheet, kind of corporate development type stuff. You got to deal with shareholders, although you don't really do a lot of talking to the shareholders is what I gather. How do you think about spending your time? And then inside of that, I'll give you maybe an example for me. I built a custom piece of software to start to merge together a bunch of information and systems we have. So I can just be more efficient because now, you know, I masquerade as a software engineer and can vibe code stuff. Like, have you built any tools internally? Are you changing what you're doing on a day to day basis?
[4:12:38] Ryan Cohen: Generally, I avoid meetings. I keep my calendar pretty open so that I can work directly with the teams. And I like to avoid all the noise of middle management and work directly with the people that are doing the work. And AI increases my productivity and it also gives me visibility. What's really interesting about the technology is if you would have said to me. A few years ago, what are one of the most valuable skills to have? I would have said being a programmer, being a Java programmer, like the most advanced best coders code in Java. And we're at a point where you don't have to have that level of specialization anymore. That level of specialization, whether it's coding or having zero coding skills. You can use AI to identify a root cause to code, and you're at the same level as the most advanced programmers. That's just absolutely remarkable.
[4:13:55] Anthony Pompliano: In this world, one of the things that I think every CEO or company is trying to figure out is, okay, I want to go and hire someone. I can't give them a written test. Because who knows, they'd be using AI to do all kinds of crazy stuff there. It's a little hard even to give them like a project. One of the things we've done is we've started to implement trials. Like you just come in, you start working with us for four weeks. Let's see how it goes and kind of see if you like us, we like you. Are you productive? Do you fit in culturally, et cetera? How have you changed the hiring process or like the evaluation of talent given that now the talent has, you know, some tools that maybe could make them amazing at interviewing, but then they get inside the business and, you know, aren't all they're cracked up to be.
[4:14:37] Ryan Cohen: The level of specialization required for tasks is no longer becoming a competitive advantage or a qualifier anymore, a prerequisite. So really, the best performers are the ones that are most motivated. They're the hungriest. They're the most responsive. They're available right away. Come in for an interview. They want to work immediately. Those are the things that I look for. Generally, it's people who have a chip on their shoulder. They have something to prove and they just want to win.
[4:15:21] Anthony Pompliano: Do they all want to get paid half cash, half stock? I like that. That's a no comment. Okay. What's something that you're trying to get better at? As an executive, like I find it very fascinating that, you know, people historically have, I think they're fascinated by you. I think they're fascinated by the approach of the business, et cetera. But I think I've gotten to know you well enough at this point where you are constantly trying to improve yourself. So what's like the latest mountain you're trying to climb?
[4:15:55] ?: I want to learn Chinese. You want to learn Chinese? Yes. Okay.
[4:16:01] Anthony Pompliano: Why do you want to learn Chinese if... Were months, if not a year away from some sort of like auto translation, you know, type technology that you don't even need to know a different language, but could speak them
[4:16:12] ?: all.
[4:16:13] Ryan Cohen: There is over a billion people in China. It's an important language to know.
[4:16:19] Anthony Pompliano: Okay. Should we read into a large adjustable market that you and your business may not be in, but potentially could be interested in?
[4:16:30] Ryan Cohen: No comment, but it's... It's an important language to know.
[4:16:35] Anthony Pompliano: You know, Ryan Cohen is the most interesting person to interview because he could just say no comment to every question and it's still entertaining. You know, the guy's got like a he's got a gift here. When you think about the future, we've had a couple of conversations in private of kind of where all this is going. And maybe let me paint you an extreme. Example, and then you tell me kind of how realistic you think that is. I could see a world where I get out of my self-driving car that was part of like a Tesla robo taxi fleet. I go to walk into my house. The door automatically opens because it recognizes my gate and maybe my biometrics. And then as I walk in, all of a sudden, the humanoid robot that cooked me dinner and has been watching my kids helps me, you know, sit down at the dinner table and you just play this example out. And it's like everything is automated. Everything is robotics. Everything is, you know, there's like utopia. Is that kind of how you see this all playing or do you see a different future?
[4:17:34] Ryan Cohen: Yeah, I mean, anything right now that is a desk job, the machine is far superior. Any computer work when it comes to the actual like robots, physical labor, I mean, we're still not there yet. We're probably less than a few years away. And then the robots are going to be better than us at physical work also. So ultimately, it comes down to what is our utility? How do we as humans ultimately end up being productive? And what is the workforce look like? If you look at technological advances in the past, everyone says that we end up rebalancing the workforce and we end up learning other skills. But what I want to understand is what ends up being our utility once the machines are doing all the things that
[4:18:44] ?: you just mentioned?
[4:18:47] Anthony Pompliano: Is there one of those? Machine slash robotics things that you think will have the biggest impact or like you're most excited about?
[4:18:56] ?: Excited about a lot of it.
[4:19:00] Ryan Cohen: But, you know, I don't like the idea of universal basic income. And I don't think that that's good for people's mental state. Like people do a lot better when they're earning as opposed to when something is given to them. So I want to know when it's all said and done. My brain, usually like I go straight to the ninth inning and I want to know, what are we doing?
[4:19:31] Anthony Pompliano: I'm sure you're familiar with the Neuralink technology or like a brain computer interface.
[4:19:37] ?: Yeah, a little bit.
[4:19:38] Anthony Pompliano: How many successful implementations of that technology in a human has to happen before you'd sign up?
[4:19:53] Ryan Cohen: How many would it take before you sign up?
[4:19:57] ?: I'm doing the interviewing, Ryan.
[4:20:01] Anthony Pompliano: You go first and then I'll tell you my answer. And I know you're trying to calculate how many have done already.
[4:20:10] ?: What?
[4:20:12] Ryan Cohen: I'd like to have some data in terms of successful outcomes. So now your turn.
[4:20:22] ?: So you're trying to learn Chinese. I'm just learning corporate bullshit. That's a no comment.
[4:20:28] Anthony Pompliano: I think that it's got to be, for me, probably millions. And I think that it is very different if, you know, I've got hopefully a somewhat functioning brain. I'm not, you know, impaired in any material way. So the like risk reward. It's probably different than let's say, you know, if you had some sort of injury, if you had some sort of medical situation where could it be like a zero to one moment, you know, all of a sudden you could speak better or, you know, something like that. I think it's a different calculation. But for like the average healthy person, I think people are going to want to see probably millions.
[4:21:21] Ryan Cohen: Yeah, I could be in interviews and there's so much stuff I want to say and I have to stop myself from saying it.
[4:21:30] ?: Why? It's a safe place. Nobody's listening or watching.
[4:21:35] Ryan Cohen: Nobody's listening or watching. No, I need like a retard on, retard off button.
[4:21:43] Anthony Pompliano: Look, this is as much as funny as it is, like if you start to think about the processing power of your brain, we, I'm always a fan of, I think Naval Ravikant says like, work like a lion, you know, kind of like go through the day, you're conserving energy. And then in these moments, like it's like a full on sprint. And when you think about that, our brains kind of do that. And whether people are worried about doom scrolling or watching some stupid TV show or just going for a walk and not really thinking about anything, shower time, people get ideas in the shower, whatever, your brain kind of needs the I'm not fully at capacity. I don't know how that works with a brain-computer interface. Is that enjoyable? If you just have a constant stream of intelligence in your brain, maybe you do want an off button, right?
[4:22:32] ?: That would be very helpful.
[4:22:33] Ryan Cohen: My brain sometimes works too quickly. And if I get it into like second or third gear, it ends up being more productive. So I'd like a slow down switch.
[4:22:43] Anthony Pompliano: Okay. So retard on, retard off button. Got it. What goes on in your brain before the computer interface?
[4:22:50] ?: Like what do you think about all day?
[4:22:56] Ryan Cohen: Everything that can go wrong. How to create more efficiency. Anything that can interrupt my plans between now and Judgment Day?
[4:23:11] Anthony Pompliano: What do you think happens on Judgment Day?
[4:23:19] Ryan Cohen: There's a lot of different possible outcomes.
[4:23:23] Anthony Pompliano: Listen, if you're going to bring it up, it's fair game, right? All right, let's talk about public markets and the rise of the retail investor. Most people in this room are what I would call an independent investor or self-directed investor. And one of the things I think is fascinating is not only do they want more control over their finances, but they are changing the way that the market works in a variety of different ways. In one hand, you could argue that you're taking money away from some of these larger players, and so things like votings, proxies, things like that could be swayed. But maybe more importantly is when I talk to... A lot of folks on hedge fund teams, they're now talking about like we're trying to see what people are talking about on X. We're trying to see where the momentum in retail is. And then the institutions are following that energy, which is very different than I think kind of the mainstream narrative of like the retail investor is, you know, dumb money and they're smart money on Wall Street. What do you see that developing into? Like you are probably one of the people closest to this. You've been a big beneficiary of that energy. How does this play out over the next couple of years in your vision?
[4:24:29] Ryan Cohen: What we've seen is there's probably been more cases where retail investors have been right and then retail investors have been wrong. And so like it's exactly what you said. People look at basically retail as being dumb money. And then you look at hedge funds as an example. And I guess. They're supposed to be considered the smart money, but they all underperform the S&P 500 and they have access to arguably more data. They have greater access to management teams and they underperform. So it's really hard to speak and to like make stereotypes in general and like talk about a basket of retail investors versus institutional money. But in general, I mean, if you look at, we have an incredible shareholder base at GameStop. Now, I don't know how many companies that are traded in the S&P 500 have that kind of community that we have. And what's interesting is, you know, you look at a lot of the shareholders and they underwrote GameStop. Basically, just based on believing in me, like that was their diligence, which is admirable, because like an institution would look at it and say, this doesn't make any sense. But they ultimately believed and you look at the financial results of the company today, and it looks a lot different than it did in the past than it did in 2021 and 2020 when the company was losing a lot of money. In a lot of ways, retail investors have a lot of advantages that the institutions don't have because they can invest in a lot of stuff that the institutions won't. And that creates a competitive advantage in itself.
[4:26:41] Anthony Pompliano: So I'm messaging with some people on your team right now. And I told them I thought I was going to get you to explain Judgment Day there for a second. That would have been great. But I want to ask more personal questions. If I was to talk to your team. What would they say your greatest strength and your greatest weaknesses?
[4:27:00] Ryan Cohen: Would have to ask them.
[4:27:04] Anthony Pompliano: You got to give me something.
[4:27:07] Ryan Cohen: You know, I look like words can be very deceiving. So when I look at people, I really try to filter out the words and just look at their actions because some people just have a way with words. Whatever I tell you is what I want you to believe, but it doesn't necessarily mean that that's the truth. So am I the best person to answer that question?
[4:27:39] Anthony Pompliano: Lie to us, Ryan.
[4:27:42] Ryan Cohen: They better not have nice things to say. Otherwise, that means I'm doing something wrong.
[4:27:49] Anthony Pompliano: All right. I saw a tweet that you put out where you were asking for engineers, and you said, work directly with me, but then you said, On site in Grapevine, Texas. Are you living in Texas? Are you living in Florida? Are you living in California or living somewhere remote around the world where you don't want to tell us?
[4:28:08] Ryan Cohen: No, I'm generally in Florida, but I'm all over the place also. And I'm hiring mobile engineers to work directly with me.
[4:28:20] ?: You know anyone?
[4:28:23] Anthony Pompliano: Well, they want to know half cash, half stock. Okay. I mean, if you offer it, then you got to also pay it, right? How many jokes do you think people have made to you about half cash, half stocks in the last six months?
[4:28:38] Ryan Cohen: It wasn't a joke, but there's been a lot of them.
[4:28:43] Anthony Pompliano: It's the greatest non-joke of all time. All right. When you think about corporate communications, another thing that I think you guys have done a great job.
[4:28:51] ?: You do have a communications team. They are very good.
[4:28:55] Anthony Pompliano: You, I think, understand better than most how to communicate directly to the people in this room, communicate directly to shareholders online. Are there any things that you've learned? Like, let's do a little reverse here. You mentor me. What would you tell me as the CEO of a public company on how to communicate with shareholders the Ryan Cohen way?
[4:29:16] Ryan Cohen: Judge us by our results and our financial performance. And so we've stayed away from storytelling. And really focused on the performance of the business. I try not to get distracted, I guess, by noise. If you look at most public company executives, the CEO and the CFO, they spend the majority of their time on investor relations and public relations. When you think about what value that actually adds to the earnings capacity of the business, aside from placating shareholders, and that's the irony is that if you invest a lot of time with shareholders, they're going to like you, but that's not going to make the business more efficient, and it's not going to maximize value for shareholders. So when I think about my time in terms of productivity, the best time that I could spend, It's focusing on like doing real work and actually focusing on the business, whether that's talking to the adhering team, talking to suppliers. But I mean, I think about that's the most valuable commodity we all have is our time. And it's finite and we want to use it as productively as possible.
[4:30:55] Anthony Pompliano: When you're thinking about those financial results, there's obviously many different things that can contribute to that. You can grow revenue. You can cut costs. You can acquire things. There are many stories told about your business, about you, about your approach. Sometimes it is coming from you guys. Other times it's coming from others. Do you just ignore? Kind of all that noise and you just say, look, the results will speak for themselves and you're willing to be misunderstood for periods of time in between. Or do you think that addressing rumors or maybe misstatements is important?
[4:31:32] Ryan Cohen: No, it's definitely the former. And I guess like a lot of people want to be liked. And so it's easy to get distracted by the noise. And so it goes back to your. Original question in terms of like, how would my employees describe me? I hope they don't like me. Like my, my father was the best operator I have ever met. He didn't miss a day of work, clocked in at 6am, 6pm, knew every single SKU, knew his costs, knew his margin, communicated directly with suppliers. Hated people who are doing desk jobs only like the people who are doing physical work. And his employees like them very much. Like his employees really didn't like him. He made his employees cry most of the time because it's business. And if they weren't doing a good job, he wasn't shy about it. So I don't have the desire to like to be liked. I think that when you want to be liked, I mean. Doesn't take you very far in life. Ultimately, what people are going to like is the business doing well. They're going to like the result. So that's what I spend my time on. And how anyone kind of feels along the way doesn't really make a difference.
[4:33:06] ?: Where does that come from, you think?
[4:33:07] Anthony Pompliano: Why do you not care if people like you?
[4:33:21] ?: Because why should I?
[4:33:25] Ryan Cohen: They'll like me if I do a good job.
[4:33:28] ?: You know when you're most liked? You're most liked when you're dead. That's when people really like you.
[4:33:33] Anthony Pompliano: That is true. You know, my father used to always say, there's nothing more fun than winning. So if you just win, then everyone has fun, right?
[4:33:41] Ryan Cohen: Yeah. So when I'm no longer here and I'm six feet under.
[4:33:51] ?: What? It doesn't matter.
[4:34:02] Anthony Pompliano: It's fair. Probably true. What's a failure that you think you've learned from? The great Ryan Cohen, the almighty power. You probably screwed up once or twice.
[4:34:12] ?: What do you think you've learned from?
[4:34:16] Ryan Cohen: Well, I've screwed up many times. I mean, investing in GameStop wouldn't screw up.
[4:34:26] Anthony Pompliano: I'm going to give the quick synopsis, then you tell us the failure you learned from. For those that don't know, Ryan kind of bought into GameStop, thought it was fun. Then somehow they asked him to be on the board. And then they were like, OK, now you're going to be the CEO. And so fast forward, now he's the CEO of GameStop. But that was not his plan to start.
[4:34:44] ?: Yeah, I mean. So that was a mistake.
[4:34:48] Ryan Cohen: I've made a lot of mistakes. But when I end up in a situation like taking over GameStop failure wasn't an option. If it was, I was going to go down with the ship. So when you're in a position where there's no exit hatch, that's when greatness is achieved. That's when you get like maximum. Productivity and results of people is when you're in survival mode and there's no plan B. So I don't know, maybe I subconsciously put myself in situations like that, but that's when you get
[4:35:35] ?: the best results in life.
[4:35:36] Anthony Pompliano: I apologize in advance. You know, a reporter should write in the story right now. Ryan Cohen's biggest failure is investing in GameStop. 100%. My last question for you is, what do you want your legacy to be when you're six feet under?
[4:35:55] ?: Once
[4:35:58] Ryan Cohen: you're dead, people pretend to care for like a few days and then everybody moves on. So my dad would say, you know, you only go around. You only go on the ride once, so you might as well enjoy it. I don't know. I think that legacies are overrated.
[4:36:24] ?: But you're still going to have one. So what do you want it to be? Turning around GameStop.
[4:36:36] Anthony Pompliano: Here lies the man that turned around GameStop. All right. What can people in this room do to help you other than laugh at all your jokes and enjoy your entertaining interviews?
[4:36:52] ?: Bet against us.
[4:36:58] Anthony Pompliano: Here lies the man that turned around GameStop after everyone bet against him.
[4:37:04] ?: Right. Exactly.
[4:37:06] Anthony Pompliano: All right. I appreciate you doing this. I know you've got a very busy schedule, it sounds like. So thanks for taking the time to beam yourself in from Texas, Florida, the moon, wherever you are. We'll do it again soon. Always a pleasure. All right. Bye. I don't think he really cares what anyone thinks. So I don't think any of that is performative. I'm very excited. Chris Cavillo is here. He's going to come up and we're going to talk robotics, AI, lots of new technologies.
[4:37:37] ?: So, Chris, come on up.
[4:08:44] Ryan Cohen: Yeah, we're using a lot of it across the entire org. And I'm super fascinated at how quickly the technology is developing. Every single time I think one company is in the lead, another company comes out with a more advanced model.
[4:09:05] ?: I
[4:09:07] Ryan Cohen: get very worried about the technology. It's hard to not imagine the worst outcome in terms of high unemployment. And ultimately, I don't think that the machines... Whatever attack us, but I think ultimately there's a risk that we get so fed up by how productive and how much smarter the robots are than us that we end up attacking the machines and then they attack us and it ends up being man versus machine. Whether that ends up being World War III, I don't know, but I do get a lot of concerns over artificial intelligence.
[4:09:58] Anthony Pompliano: What do you think is the most likely concern you have to actually come into fruition? Is it something that is like physical security or is it more of like cyber? There's hacks, there's like that type of stuff.
[4:10:10] Ryan Cohen: The pace at which the technology is developing and how much smarter the machines are than humans. It really puts us in a position where We have very little utility and ultimately if that leads to high unemployment, that affects consumer demand and obviously that can have a domino effect that is not good. But it's hard for us to compete against the machine. So it's already too advanced. Everything that we can do, the machine is better at.
[4:10:55] ?: So it's interesting.
[4:10:56] Anthony Pompliano: I was talking earlier with Jordi Visser about he's got this theory of like machine time versus human time and the machines are speeding up. And every executive I talk to pretty much is like, I feel like things are moving very quickly here. You mentioned, you know, new models are coming out at a fast pace, etc. How do you think about spending your personal time right now? Like, do you change what you're doing inside the business? Do you change what you're doing, you know, in your time off from the business? Like, how is that evolving with the rise of all this technology?
[4:11:25] Ryan Cohen: Well, everything we're doing at the business is AI for Earth. And it's been that way now for at least the past few quarters. I spent all my time on GameStop at this point, or a majority of my time, and focused on making the business as productive as possible.
[4:11:46] ?: Have you changed anything?
[4:11:47] Anthony Pompliano: Because you would have told me that six months ago, but has anything changed in that time period?
[4:11:52] ?: In terms of my...
[4:11:54] Anthony Pompliano: Time? Let's just say, let's do a day in the life of Ryan Cohen, right? You have a lot of responsibilities. You obviously have employees, you have product, you have to deal with, you know, financing, balance sheet, kind of corporate development type stuff. You got to deal with shareholders, although you don't really do a lot of talking to the shareholders is what I gather. How do you think about spending your time? And then inside of that, I'll give you maybe an example for me. I built a custom piece of software to start to merge together a bunch of information and systems we have. So I can just be more efficient because now, you know, I masquerade as a software engineer and can vibe code stuff. Like, have you built any tools internally? Are you changing what you're doing on a day to day basis?
[4:12:38] Ryan Cohen: Generally, I avoid meetings. I keep my calendar pretty open so that I can work directly with the teams. And I like to avoid all the noise of middle management and work directly with the people that are doing the work. And AI increases my productivity and it also gives me visibility. What's really interesting about the technology is if you would have said to me. A few years ago, what are one of the most valuable skills to have? I would have said being a programmer, being a Java programmer, like the most advanced best coders code in Java. And we're at a point where you don't have to have that level of specialization anymore. That level of specialization, whether it's coding or having zero coding skills. You can use AI to identify a root cause to code, and you're at the same level as the most advanced programmers. That's just absolutely remarkable.
[4:13:55] Anthony Pompliano: In this world, one of the things that I think every CEO or company is trying to figure out is, okay, I want to go and hire someone. I can't give them a written test. Because who knows, they'd be using AI to do all kinds of crazy stuff there. It's a little hard even to give them like a project. One of the things we've done is we've started to implement trials. Like you just come in, you start working with us for four weeks. Let's see how it goes and kind of see if you like us, we like you. Are you productive? Do you fit in culturally, et cetera? How have you changed the hiring process or like the evaluation of talent given that now the talent has, you know, some tools that maybe could make them amazing at interviewing, but then they get inside the business and, you know, aren't all they're cracked up to be.
[4:14:37] Ryan Cohen: The level of specialization required for tasks is no longer becoming a competitive advantage or a qualifier anymore, a prerequisite. So really, the best performers are the ones that are most motivated. They're the hungriest. They're the most responsive. They're available right away. Come in for an interview. They want to work immediately. Those are the things that I look for. Generally, it's people who have a chip on their shoulder. They have something to prove and they just want to win.
[4:15:21] Anthony Pompliano: Do they all want to get paid half cash, half stock? I like that. That's a no comment. Okay. What's something that you're trying to get better at? As an executive, like I find it very fascinating that, you know, people historically have, I think they're fascinated by you. I think they're fascinated by the approach of the business, et cetera. But I think I've gotten to know you well enough at this point where you are constantly trying to improve yourself. So what's like the latest mountain you're trying to climb?
[4:15:55] ?: I want to learn Chinese. You want to learn Chinese? Yes. Okay.
[4:16:01] Anthony Pompliano: Why do you want to learn Chinese if... Were months, if not a year away from some sort of like auto translation, you know, type technology that you don't even need to know a different language, but could speak them
[4:16:12] ?: all.
[4:16:13] Ryan Cohen: There is over a billion people in China. It's an important language to know.
[4:16:19] Anthony Pompliano: Okay. Should we read into a large adjustable market that you and your business may not be in, but potentially could be interested in?
[4:16:30] Ryan Cohen: No comment, but it's... It's an important language to know.
[4:16:35] Anthony Pompliano: You know, Ryan Cohen is the most interesting person to interview because he could just say no comment to every question and it's still entertaining. You know, the guy's got like a he's got a gift here. When you think about the future, we've had a couple of conversations in private of kind of where all this is going. And maybe let me paint you an extreme. Example, and then you tell me kind of how realistic you think that is. I could see a world where I get out of my self-driving car that was part of like a Tesla robo taxi fleet. I go to walk into my house. The door automatically opens because it recognizes my gate and maybe my biometrics. And then as I walk in, all of a sudden, the humanoid robot that cooked me dinner and has been watching my kids helps me, you know, sit down at the dinner table and you just play this example out. And it's like everything is automated. Everything is robotics. Everything is, you know, there's like utopia. Is that kind of how you see this all playing or do you see a different future?
[4:17:34] Ryan Cohen: Yeah, I mean, anything right now that is a desk job, the machine is far superior. Any computer work when it comes to the actual like robots, physical labor, I mean, we're still not there yet. We're probably less than a few years away. And then the robots are going to be better than us at physical work also. So ultimately, it comes down to what is our utility? How do we as humans ultimately end up being productive? And what is the workforce look like? If you look at technological advances in the past, everyone says that we end up rebalancing the workforce and we end up learning other skills. But what I want to understand is what ends up being our utility once the machines are doing all the things that
[4:18:44] ?: you just mentioned?
[4:18:47] Anthony Pompliano: Is there one of those? Machine slash robotics things that you think will have the biggest impact or like you're most excited about?
[4:18:56] ?: Excited about a lot of it.
[4:19:00] Ryan Cohen: But, you know, I don't like the idea of universal basic income. And I don't think that that's good for people's mental state. Like people do a lot better when they're earning as opposed to when something is given to them. So I want to know when it's all said and done. My brain, usually like I go straight to the ninth inning and I want to know, what are we doing?
[4:19:31] Anthony Pompliano: I'm sure you're familiar with the Neuralink technology or like a brain computer interface.
[4:19:37] ?: Yeah, a little bit.
[4:19:38] Anthony Pompliano: How many successful implementations of that technology in a human has to happen before you'd sign up?
[4:19:53] Ryan Cohen: How many would it take before you sign up?
[4:19:57] ?: I'm doing the interviewing, Ryan.
[4:20:01] Anthony Pompliano: You go first and then I'll tell you my answer. And I know you're trying to calculate how many have done already.
[4:20:10] ?: What?
[4:20:12] Ryan Cohen: I'd like to have some data in terms of successful outcomes. So now your turn.
[4:20:22] ?: So you're trying to learn Chinese. I'm just learning corporate bullshit. That's a no comment.
[4:20:28] Anthony Pompliano: I think that it's got to be, for me, probably millions. And I think that it is very different if, you know, I've got hopefully a somewhat functioning brain. I'm not, you know, impaired in any material way. So the like risk reward. It's probably different than let's say, you know, if you had some sort of injury, if you had some sort of medical situation where could it be like a zero to one moment, you know, all of a sudden you could speak better or, you know, something like that. I think it's a different calculation. But for like the average healthy person, I think people are going to want to see probably millions.
[4:21:21] Ryan Cohen: Yeah, I could be in interviews and there's so much stuff I want to say and I have to stop myself from saying it.
[4:21:30] ?: Why? It's a safe place. Nobody's listening or watching.
[4:21:35] Ryan Cohen: Nobody's listening or watching. No, I need like a retard on, retard off button.
[4:21:43] Anthony Pompliano: Look, this is as much as funny as it is, like if you start to think about the processing power of your brain, we, I'm always a fan of, I think Naval Ravikant says like, work like a lion, you know, kind of like go through the day, you're conserving energy. And then in these moments, like it's like a full on sprint. And when you think about that, our brains kind of do that. And whether people are worried about doom scrolling or watching some stupid TV show or just going for a walk and not really thinking about anything, shower time, people get ideas in the shower, whatever, your brain kind of needs the I'm not fully at capacity. I don't know how that works with a brain-computer interface. Is that enjoyable? If you just have a constant stream of intelligence in your brain, maybe you do want an off button, right?
[4:22:32] ?: That would be very helpful.
[4:22:33] Ryan Cohen: My brain sometimes works too quickly. And if I get it into like second or third gear, it ends up being more productive. So I'd like a slow down switch.
[4:22:43] Anthony Pompliano: Okay. So retard on, retard off button. Got it. What goes on in your brain before the computer interface?
[4:22:50] ?: Like what do you think about all day?
[4:22:56] Ryan Cohen: Everything that can go wrong. How to create more efficiency. Anything that can interrupt my plans between now and Judgment Day?
[4:23:11] Anthony Pompliano: What do you think happens on Judgment Day?
[4:23:19] Ryan Cohen: There's a lot of different possible outcomes.
[4:23:23] Anthony Pompliano: Listen, if you're going to bring it up, it's fair game, right? All right, let's talk about public markets and the rise of the retail investor. Most people in this room are what I would call an independent investor or self-directed investor. And one of the things I think is fascinating is not only do they want more control over their finances, but they are changing the way that the market works in a variety of different ways. In one hand, you could argue that you're taking money away from some of these larger players, and so things like votings, proxies, things like that could be swayed. But maybe more importantly is when I talk to... A lot of folks on hedge fund teams, they're now talking about like we're trying to see what people are talking about on X. We're trying to see where the momentum in retail is. And then the institutions are following that energy, which is very different than I think kind of the mainstream narrative of like the retail investor is, you know, dumb money and they're smart money on Wall Street. What do you see that developing into? Like you are probably one of the people closest to this. You've been a big beneficiary of that energy. How does this play out over the next couple of years in your vision?
[4:24:29] Ryan Cohen: What we've seen is there's probably been more cases where retail investors have been right and then retail investors have been wrong. And so like it's exactly what you said. People look at basically retail as being dumb money. And then you look at hedge funds as an example. And I guess. They're supposed to be considered the smart money, but they all underperform the S&P 500 and they have access to arguably more data. They have greater access to management teams and they underperform. So it's really hard to speak and to like make stereotypes in general and like talk about a basket of retail investors versus institutional money. But in general, I mean, if you look at, we have an incredible shareholder base at GameStop. Now, I don't know how many companies that are traded in the S&P 500 have that kind of community that we have. And what's interesting is, you know, you look at a lot of the shareholders and they underwrote GameStop. Basically, just based on believing in me, like that was their diligence, which is admirable, because like an institution would look at it and say, this doesn't make any sense. But they ultimately believed and you look at the financial results of the company today, and it looks a lot different than it did in the past than it did in 2021 and 2020 when the company was losing a lot of money. In a lot of ways, retail investors have a lot of advantages that the institutions don't have because they can invest in a lot of stuff that the institutions won't. And that creates a competitive advantage in itself.
[4:26:41] Anthony Pompliano: So I'm messaging with some people on your team right now. And I told them I thought I was going to get you to explain Judgment Day there for a second. That would have been great. But I want to ask more personal questions. If I was to talk to your team. What would they say your greatest strength and your greatest weaknesses?
[4:27:00] Ryan Cohen: Would have to ask them.
[4:27:04] Anthony Pompliano: You got to give me something.
[4:27:07] Ryan Cohen: You know, I look like words can be very deceiving. So when I look at people, I really try to filter out the words and just look at their actions because some people just have a way with words. Whatever I tell you is what I want you to believe, but it doesn't necessarily mean that that's the truth. So am I the best person to answer that question?
[4:27:39] Anthony Pompliano: Lie to us, Ryan.
[4:27:42] Ryan Cohen: They better not have nice things to say. Otherwise, that means I'm doing something wrong.
[4:27:49] Anthony Pompliano: All right. I saw a tweet that you put out where you were asking for engineers, and you said, work directly with me, but then you said, On site in Grapevine, Texas. Are you living in Texas? Are you living in Florida? Are you living in California or living somewhere remote around the world where you don't want to tell us?
[4:28:08] Ryan Cohen: No, I'm generally in Florida, but I'm all over the place also. And I'm hiring mobile engineers to work directly with me.
[4:28:20] ?: You know anyone?
[4:28:23] Anthony Pompliano: Well, they want to know half cash, half stock. Okay. I mean, if you offer it, then you got to also pay it, right? How many jokes do you think people have made to you about half cash, half stocks in the last six months?
[4:28:38] Ryan Cohen: It wasn't a joke, but there's been a lot of them.
[4:28:43] Anthony Pompliano: It's the greatest non-joke of all time. All right. When you think about corporate communications, another thing that I think you guys have done a great job.
[4:28:51] ?: You do have a communications team. They are very good.
[4:28:55] Anthony Pompliano: You, I think, understand better than most how to communicate directly to the people in this room, communicate directly to shareholders online. Are there any things that you've learned? Like, let's do a little reverse here. You mentor me. What would you tell me as the CEO of a public company on how to communicate with shareholders the Ryan Cohen way?
[4:29:16] Ryan Cohen: Judge us by our results and our financial performance. And so we've stayed away from storytelling. And really focused on the performance of the business. I try not to get distracted, I guess, by noise. If you look at most public company executives, the CEO and the CFO, they spend the majority of their time on investor relations and public relations. When you think about what value that actually adds to the earnings capacity of the business, aside from placating shareholders, and that's the irony is that if you invest a lot of time with shareholders, they're going to like you, but that's not going to make the business more efficient, and it's not going to maximize value for shareholders. So when I think about my time in terms of productivity, the best time that I could spend, It's focusing on like doing real work and actually focusing on the business, whether that's talking to the adhering team, talking to suppliers. But I mean, I think about that's the most valuable commodity we all have is our time. And it's finite and we want to use it as productively as possible.
[4:30:55] Anthony Pompliano: When you're thinking about those financial results, there's obviously many different things that can contribute to that. You can grow revenue. You can cut costs. You can acquire things. There are many stories told about your business, about you, about your approach. Sometimes it is coming from you guys. Other times it's coming from others. Do you just ignore? Kind of all that noise and you just say, look, the results will speak for themselves and you're willing to be misunderstood for periods of time in between. Or do you think that addressing rumors or maybe misstatements is important?
[4:31:32] Ryan Cohen: No, it's definitely the former. And I guess like a lot of people want to be liked. And so it's easy to get distracted by the noise. And so it goes back to your. Original question in terms of like, how would my employees describe me? I hope they don't like me. Like my, my father was the best operator I have ever met. He didn't miss a day of work, clocked in at 6am, 6pm, knew every single SKU, knew his costs, knew his margin, communicated directly with suppliers. Hated people who are doing desk jobs only like the people who are doing physical work. And his employees like them very much. Like his employees really didn't like him. He made his employees cry most of the time because it's business. And if they weren't doing a good job, he wasn't shy about it. So I don't have the desire to like to be liked. I think that when you want to be liked, I mean. Doesn't take you very far in life. Ultimately, what people are going to like is the business doing well. They're going to like the result. So that's what I spend my time on. And how anyone kind of feels along the way doesn't really make a difference.
[4:33:06] ?: Where does that come from, you think?
[4:33:07] Anthony Pompliano: Why do you not care if people like you?
[4:33:21] ?: Because why should I?
[4:33:25] Ryan Cohen: They'll like me if I do a good job.
[4:33:28] ?: You know when you're most liked? You're most liked when you're dead. That's when people really like you.
[4:33:33] Anthony Pompliano: That is true. You know, my father used to always say, there's nothing more fun than winning. So if you just win, then everyone has fun, right?
[4:33:41] Ryan Cohen: Yeah. So when I'm no longer here and I'm six feet under.
[4:33:51] ?: What? It doesn't matter.
[4:34:02] Anthony Pompliano: It's fair. Probably true. What's a failure that you think you've learned from? The great Ryan Cohen, the almighty power. You probably screwed up once or twice.
[4:34:12] ?: What do you think you've learned from?
[4:34:16] Ryan Cohen: Well, I've screwed up many times. I mean, investing in GameStop wouldn't screw up.
[4:34:26] Anthony Pompliano: I'm going to give the quick synopsis, then you tell us the failure you learned from. For those that don't know, Ryan kind of bought into GameStop, thought it was fun. Then somehow they asked him to be on the board. And then they were like, OK, now you're going to be the CEO. And so fast forward, now he's the CEO of GameStop. But that was not his plan to start.
[4:34:44] ?: Yeah, I mean. So that was a mistake.
[4:34:48] Ryan Cohen: I've made a lot of mistakes. But when I end up in a situation like taking over GameStop failure wasn't an option. If it was, I was going to go down with the ship. So when you're in a position where there's no exit hatch, that's when greatness is achieved. That's when you get like maximum. Productivity and results of people is when you're in survival mode and there's no plan B. So I don't know, maybe I subconsciously put myself in situations like that, but that's when you get
[4:35:35] ?: the best results in life.
[4:35:36] Anthony Pompliano: I apologize in advance. You know, a reporter should write in the story right now. Ryan Cohen's biggest failure is investing in GameStop. 100%. My last question for you is, what do you want your legacy to be when you're six feet under?
[4:35:55] ?: Once
[4:35:58] Ryan Cohen: you're dead, people pretend to care for like a few days and then everybody moves on. So my dad would say, you know, you only go around. You only go on the ride once, so you might as well enjoy it. I don't know. I think that legacies are overrated.
[4:36:24] ?: But you're still going to have one. So what do you want it to be? Turning around GameStop.
[4:36:36] Anthony Pompliano: Here lies the man that turned around GameStop. All right. What can people in this room do to help you other than laugh at all your jokes and enjoy your entertaining interviews?
[4:36:52] ?: Bet against us.
[4:36:58] Anthony Pompliano: Here lies the man that turned around GameStop after everyone bet against him.
[4:37:04] ?: Right. Exactly.
[4:37:06] Anthony Pompliano: All right. I appreciate you doing this. I know you've got a very busy schedule, it sounds like. So thanks for taking the time to beam yourself in from Texas, Florida, the moon, wherever you are. We'll do it again soon. Always a pleasure. All right. Bye. I don't think he really cares what anyone thinks. So I don't think any of that is performative. I'm very excited. Chris Cavillo is here. He's going to come up and we're going to talk robotics, AI, lots of new technologies.
[4:37:37] ?: So, Chris, come on up.