Palantir and Nvidia competing with OpenAI, OpenAI giving 5% ownership to the government, Etched exits stealth with $1B pipeline

<p>If you’ve also been getting distracted by the world cup in the office like the hosts have, you can further distract yourself by also trading the World Cup on Kalshi. Sign up at <a href="http://kalshi.com/sign-up?referral=getthecheck">kalshi.com/sign-up?referral=getthecheck</a> and get $10 when you trade using our code.</p><p>This week the pod breaks down Palantir&#39;s new AI partnership with Nvidia, the reported plan for OpenAI to hand the US government a 5% stake (for free??), and if Etched&#39;s chip is vaporware or has $1B in credible customer pipeline already.</p><p>They start with Palantir and Nvidia&#39;s plan to build sovereign AI on Nvidia&#39;s open Nemotron models, letting customers train and fine tune on top of Palantir while keeping the actual model weights. Most people don’t know this but Nvidia has models. Alex Karp went on a CNBC tour making the case that using closed frontier models costs you more than you think, not in dollars, but in the data you give up. The pod is split on how good that argument actually is (most enterprises already run zero data retention), but they agree Karp&#39;s real move was picking a very public fight with OpenAI and Anthropic. Palantir&#39;s stock ripped 9% on the news.</p><p>Next, the pod gets into OpenAI&#39;s reported plan to give the US government a 5% stake, worth roughly $42 billion at its $852 billion valuation. An idea that started as Bernie Sanders (with AOC&#39;s backing) floating 50% ownership. The hosts say either Sam Altman got scared of Bernie (probably not) or knows he needs Trump’s favor pre-IPO. They dig into whether this is an effective wealth redistribution tactic, using Alaska&#39;s oil dividend fund as the closest comparison. Some how Maya and Anika end up in an argument about open source models by the end of this segment even though that was supposed to be more relevant to the first story haha.</p><p>Finally, the Get the Check segment covers Etched, the chip startup founded by Harvard dropouts and Thiel Fellows that just exited stealth after four years, $800 million raised, and over a billion in signed contracts, but nothing actually shipped yet. Maya says it’s all hype and she wouldn’t invest…not that they said she could. Maya keeps coming back to Nvidia&#39;s CUDA lock in as the real moat nobody&#39;s cracked.</p><p>Follow the pod on Instagram and X @getthecheckpod.</p><p>00:00 The ideal number of PTO days01:46 Hot take on why people mix Priya and Maya up03:14 The world&#39;s most controversial company teams up with the world&#39;s biggest company05:03 What the Palantir Nvidia partnership actually does05:44 Alex Karp&#39;s controversial CNBC appearance13:34 Why Palantir stock is ripping again after 52 week lows14:59 OpenAI is reportedly giving 5% to the government for free??17:01 The real reason OpenAI is doing this voluntarily17:44 What Trump supporters will think19:35 What Alaska&#39;s wealth fund teaches us about public wealth funds22:19 Maya and Anika debate what a good wealth fund would look like26:33 Get the Check segment: Etched34:53 Why CUDA lock in kills every chip startup</p>