Pivot

GameStop's eBay Bid, AI and the Midterms, and Senate Prediction Market Ban

with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway
5 May 2026 8 min read 1h 27m
TL;DR

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen's $55.5 billion eBay acquisition bid is pure market manipulation with no real financing—it's designed to pump the meme stock rather than create actual value. Meanwhile, AI super PACs are spending hundreds of millions to shape midterms while a Senate ban on prediction markets shows Congress finally drawing a line on insider betting.

Key Moments
Scott Galloway
“This is just so stupid and such a waste of oxygen. It doesn't pass the most basic smell test.”
Opening critique of GameStop's eBay bid announcement
Andrew Ross Sorkin (via tape)
“You have $9 on your balance sheet. Arguably, if you're if you're providing effectively all of your stock and then and then the cash that gets you to 20 you have this letter from TD. That's another 20. We're now at 40, but we're still off by call it 16.”
Ross Sorkin exposing the math doesn't work during GameStop CEO interview on CNBC
▶ 8:00
Scott Galloway
“A board of directors is supposed to be fiduciary. Is there one? I mean that's a fair point. But this should never have even been allowed. Real acquisitions, the real work is done behind the scenes.”
Critique of GameStop's board for allowing unrealistic acquisition bid
▶ 11:40
Scott Galloway
“Rich people don't need government. I don't I I I have benefited enormously from standing on the shoulders of other people and taxpayers, assisted launch, University of California, rights, rule of law, the SEC, all these things I've benefited from. Now that I have wealth, I don't need the government. The people who need government the most are the most vulnerable among us.”
Speaking about abortion access and mifepristone ban, connecting to broader inequality issues
▶ 17:30
Scott Galloway
“I think that the entity or the part the touch down or the the visible object or the cudgel, whatever you want to call it, is going to be data centers. And what's interesting about AI is that your approval of AI the the two brands that have in-registered the greatest brand destruction have been the US abroad over the last few years.”
Analyzing where AI regulation battles will be fought in midterms
▶ 25:40
About the show
›
Pivot is a podcast from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network hosted by Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. The show covers tech, business, and politics with sharp analysis and insider perspective. This episode tackles GameStop's absurd eBay bid, AI regulation heating up the midterms, and why prediction market bans are overdue.
Takeaways
1
GameStop's bid is pure stock pump manipulation Cohen lacks the financing (only $9B cash vs. $55B needed) and strategic rationale to acquire eBay. The goal is to create hype, get retail traders excited on Reddit, and trigger stock gains that unlock his $35B compensation package if GameStop reaches $100B valuation. This is naked market manipulation masquerading as M&A strategy.
2
AI PACs are outspending every other lobby Pro-AI groups (led by Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI) have pledged ~$250M to influence midterms—comparable to pharma's $380M in 2022 but with far less public scrutiny. They're creating grassroots-looking campaigns while facing counter-messaging from tech billionaires like Chris Larsen supporting AI regulation candidates. The battleground is data centers and energy costs, not abstract safety principles.
3
Senate prediction market ban exposes insider betting risk Senators can now legally bet on outcomes they help shape—a clear conflict of interest that Congress just unanimously banned for itself. The move acknowledges that prediction markets are essentially unregulated gambling pools where a small percentage of sophisticated traders extract value from retail participants, making them ethically incompatible with government service.