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Quest Means Business

Oil Companies Post Huge Profits As War Chokes Supply; Start-Up Aims To Slash Cost Of Making Clean Jet Fuel; Ukraine Accuses Russia Of Hunting Civilians In "Drone Safaris"; SpaceX Beats On Revenue In First Public Earnings Report; Judge Sets March 2027 Trial Date For Paramount Antitrust Fight. Aired 4-4:45p ET

Aired August 04, 2026 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:18]

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: A truly historic day on the markets, records abound -- both the Dow and the S&P closing at all-time highs. The

Dow went up and never looked back. You can thank a solid earnings season for that. Along with yes, yet again, perhaps a deal in the Middle East. You

see there that even the NASDAQ there eking out a 2.6 percent gain. Those are the markets and these are the main events --

Saudi Aramco reports quarterly profits to the tune of $33 billion. President Trump says he for one is not happy with oil companies benefiting

from the war.

SpaceX is about to report its quarterly earnings for the first time, and the stock could certainly use a boost.

David Ellison makes a direct case for the Paramount-Warner Bros Discovery deal. We have breaking news on that as well.

Live from New York. It is Tuesday, August 4th. I am Paula Newton and this is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

And good evening, tonight surging profits come with a dire warning from the world's largest oil company. Saudi Aramco says soaring crude prices have

helped boost its net profit by 44 percent in the second quarter alone, but its CEO warns global inventories are running dangerously low, despite

measures to reroute flows.

In all, the world has lost more than 2.6 billion barrels of oil since the Iran war began, equivalent to nearly a month of normal global crude

production. Aramco CEO says that shortfall would take up to 18 months to replenish once the Strait of Hormuz reopens.

Now, Saudi Aramco's bumper earnings report comes hours after U.S. President Trump said that oil giants are unfairly profiting from the war with Iran.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They are making too much money, okay, based on a shortage, they are making too much

money. I don't like it and I should be the last one to say it because I am a big free enterprise guy. Nobody bigger!

And you know, you are going to see oil when were finished with Iran, you're going to see the prices drop through the floor. But they made too much

money, too much money.

Chevron too much money. ExxonMobil too much -- too much money. When you look at one company where they made 12 times what they made the year

before, they ought to give some of that back to the public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Helima Croft is the Global Head of Commodities at RBC Capital Markets, and she joins us now. I can't imagine what you were thinking when

you heard that from the Oval Office.

I mean, in general, even if you're not looking at one single company, right, these profits are in the here and now. It is not that -- the math

isn't that simple for these oil companies, right? I mean, there is huge capital expenditures. And in other times when the price is low, they carry

that on their balance sheets.

HELIMA CROFT, GLOBAL HEAD OF COMMODITY STRATEGY, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS: No, a hundred percent. I mean, when you have such volatile oil prices, it can be

boom or bust for these companies and President Trump has been the big champion of American energy dominance, U.S. production growth and the

reality is, is that there is a price that incentivizes further investment in drilling.

So I do think it is going to be an interesting dance over the next couple of weeks between The White House and these key oil executives. It is also

really important to understand that for retail gasoline prices like these companies, even though their names might be on retail gasoline stations,

they are independently owned.

And so the question is like, how much are they really involved in setting the price that you pay at the pump when they are not the owners of those

retail gasoline stations?

NEWTON: Yes, and that is such a complicated equation, depending on what kind of refinery capacity there is and what type of gasoline you're buying.

CROFT: Right.

NEWTON: I do want to get to the warning from Saudi Aramco, which I found interesting and I will say necessity here is the mother of invention. You

know, Saudi Arabia has found alternate routes here, including through Egypt.

CROFT: Yes.

NEWTON: The country is right now looking to build a military coalition to protect one of the alternate routes in the Red Sea. Are you confident that

producers can avoid a supply shock? And what I mean to ask you is, look, we all know there are going to be supply constraints in the coming weeks and

months, that's different from actually having a shock.

I mean, but when I look at it, I think they are doing quite well, better than I would have assumed.

CROFT: Well, I think Saudi Aramco really shows the benefits of investing in redundant capacity. I mean they made the investment years ago in the East-

West Pipeline. That is what has enabled Saudi Arabia to export through their port on the Red Sea. That's a big driver of Aramco profits because

they had a workaround.

[16:05:07]

But they made the investment in redundant infrastructure that wasn't used at full capacity. It was the rainy day infrastructure. It is being used

now. The question is if we are coming out of this war and I still think it is a big if at this point, who is going to make the investments in other

pipeline projects? How easy is it going to be to build pipelines that run, you know, across national boundaries?

I mean, Saudi Arabia is lucky because they control both coastlines. It is their own territory. So I think the big scramble post war, if we get to

that point, is going to be who pays for the new offsetting infrastructure? Because as long as Iran is operationally in charge of the Strait of Hormuz,

I think there is going to be a race to try to find alternative routes.

NEWTON: And given all of that, I am wondering what you think will happen to energy prices over the next few months or even years? And I do want to

bring China into this conversation because they have really helped avoid a real spike here.

CROFT: A hundred percent.

NEWTON: They haven't been buying oil in the quantities that many thought that they would in the last six months.

CROFT: I mean, if you ask me what is like the big factor of why we are not at $200.00 oil? Because this is -- make no mistake, the largest physical

supply disruption in history. I mean, Amin Nasser, the Aramco CEO said 11 million barrels a day is being disrupted. Like that's a colossal number.

But the fact that China pared back its imports by four to five million barrels a day, they became the swing consumer and they played a very big

role in balancing the market. And the question is, does China come back as a buyer? We are seeing minor green shoots, you know, from some of the

refineries in China in terms of expanded utilization rates. But that's a big question mark.

When you talk about where prices are going, what is China's appetite at this price point to come back in as a buyer? Because we still think it is

going to be very challenging to un-bottleneck the Strait of Hormuz.

Again, as long as Iran is in charge, that's going to be a question for shipping companies, what is your appetite to go through there? Are you

willing to pay a service fee? Are you willing to risk drones and missiles still? I think some of these companies are going to wait to see if this

situation really stabilizes, or whether it is just a temporary truce.

NEWTON: You know, six months ago, we started in on this, worried about supply in so many commodities, not just oil. I am wondering what happened

to a lot of that anxiety. Is it still out there? I am thinking about things like helium, fertilizer, jet fuel -- all the commodities there. What do you

believe is going to happen with those other things that are so reliant on the strait?

CROFT: These are such great questions. I mean, we are watching what happens with natural gas very closely because Qatar is the largest LNG -- liquefied

natural gas exporter. They've been essentially blocked in. They don't have an alternative route to Hormuz. And so the question is, how quickly could

we get Qatari cargoes moving? Because Europe right now is behind where it should be in terms of building gas storage going into winter and while

Qatari LNG primarily supplies Asia, there is a question if we don't get Qatari LNG back up in sufficient volumes, are you going to have a bidding

war for the available U.S. LNG cargoes?

The U.S. has really ridden to the rescue once again of Europe with its oil and gas exports. If Qatar LNG remains off the market, they will be

competition for those cargoes come winter.

NEWTON: Yes, it will be interesting to see how that plays out again, as you said, that is a market that you can't easily have the redundancy that you

might have in oil markets.

Helima, so good to see you and good to have you on the program.

CROFT: Thank you for having me.

NEWTON: It is such a historic day to have you on. Appreciate it.

CROFT: Thank you.

NEWTON: Now the war in Iran has narrowed the price difference between traditional jet fuel and its alternative Sustainable Aviation Fuel or SAF.

I will call it SAF -- Richard should be here to actually tell me what to call it -- still costs over a thousand dollars more per ton. Let me repeat

that, a thousand dollars more per ton. Now, it is not vulnerable to supply shocks caused by fighting in the Middle East, but its production is still

incredibly limited.

One startup is trying to change that. Lydian says it can make SAF from just carbon dioxide and hydrogen rather than biofuels, and that its approach was

is using the technology costs far less. The company just raised $43 million from Bill Gates Breakthrough Energy Ventures to try and scale up its

production.

Joe Rodden is the co-founder and CEO of Lydian and he joins us now. Good to see you, especially on a day when we are discussing whether or not that jet

fuel is going to come back on the market.

Can you explain the promise of this technology, and do you need the sustained high prices of jet fuel for this kind of resource adoption to

really gain any traction here?

JOE RODDEN, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, LYDIAN: Yes, first of all, thank you for having me, Paula. It is a great question and I think dovetails really well

with the conversation with your previous guest.

[16:10:10]

So first, I would say you talked about investment in the Middle East, that's happening as a response to the crisis in Hormuz. We think about how

our countries that do not export fossil fuels, how are they responding with investments? So we look at China, we look at Europe, the countries that

have been really affected on the negative by this crisis, and we see them investing heavily in alternative fuel production pathways.

So when we think about the long-term pricing of our fuel, you have jet fuel as the underlying commodity, but then you also have unique efforts around

energy security, shorter supply chains. And then, of course, the environmental benefit. So we see about three quarters of the world's global

jet fuel supply is now covered under some type of regulatory policy for climate impact decarbonization.

And so, we want to be the lowest cost solution to meeting all of those -- all of those challenges for our customers. So that's how we think about it.

It is really not one price, it is a supply curve, and it varies in times of crisis, and it varies in different geographies.

NEWTON: I hear you on that, and you yourself just said it is a challenge. By one estimate, Sustainable Jet Fuel will only account for about two

percent of the market of total aviation fuel demand by the end of the decade. I am wondering if you agree with that estimate and how sustainable

fuel will be significant in any way, as we all look to decarbonize, right? And have that guilt free travel on these jets?

I mean, two percent by the end of the decade doesn't seem very significant to me.

RODDEN: Yes, so we are in very early days for alternative fuel supply and I think it is important to remember the scale at which we use fossil fuels

today. It will take time to transition into alternative forms of energy. We tend to think two percent is a little conservative. There are many

countries and airlines and other parties that have more like a 10 percent target by the end of the decade.

What we do know is that today, the number is less than one percent, although it is growing about a hundred percent year-over-year. So we do see

rapid growth in this industry, but no doubt, we have a long way to go and we are very early in the transition here.

NEWTON: And I am wondering if government mandates can help you because, you know, you just said you're early in the transition. You have to scale up.

There is a lot of investment involved and a timeline with the technology. So, is it important to have governments on side with this to say, look, we

are mandating a certain amount of this jet fuel must be sustainable.

RODDEN: Yes, I would say broadly, policy is very important and that policy can take many different forms. So mandates are a common one, but we also

have incentives here in the U.S. which have been very, very -- a very good accelerant to the scale up of SAF.

So they can take many different forms, but certainly it is important to close that price gap over time and government policy kind of can be a big

part of that.

NEWTON: Joe Rodden for us, we will continue to follow this development because as I said, many people would like to have a more guilt-free ride on

that airplane, and we will see if it can develop into the 2030s into something more significant. Joe Rodden for us with Lydian, thanks so much.

Appreciate it.

RODDEN: Thank you. Paula.

NEWTON: Now, we've been following the discussion here, right? We just talked about Saudi Aramco. That company saw its largest ever quarterly

profit of $48.4 billion. That was back in the second quarter of 2022. That was after the war in Ukraine began.

Now more than four years later, the fighting rages on and it seems to have taken a new and even darker turn.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says a new video proves that, "Russia has gone mad" and its soldiers take pleasure in killing and abusing

civilians.

Mr. Zelenskyy says the video shows what he describes as a "drone safari." He accuses Moscow of hunting Ukrainian civilians in the city of Kherson,

calling it a war crime.

CNN's Clare Sebastian is about to show you that video, and we warn you the footage is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At first, it looks like a game. The man, a vegetable seller, tries to duck behind his van, the drone

whining ever closer. But this, Ukraine says, is how Russia likes to spread fear in the frontline city of Kherson.

Unbelievably, the 52-year-old victim survived with injuries and hours later was able to recount his experience.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): My wife started running away and it started circling over the car. I gestured to it. Look, these are

vegetables. But it started charging at me, so I started running around the car. Then we were side by side. It hit me and I just fell.

My back is all torn.

SEBASTIAN (voice over): CNN has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment. Moscow regularly claims it doesn't target civilians.

[16:15:10 ]

(PROTESTERS chanting)

SEBASTIAN (voice over): Three-and-a-half years on from these euphoric scenes, as Kherson was liberated from Russian occupation, daily life in

Ukraine's largest frontline city is increasingly dangerous.

Of the 32 civilians killed here in July, 29 died in drone attacks, authorities say. This from late July, shows a near miss.

Anti-drone nets covering streets now the new normal here and so-called human safaris, Russian drones seeming to hunt down civilians in the open, a

tactic first used at scale in mid-2024, are happening now on a daily basis here, President Zelenskyy said Tuesday.

This, a lucky escape in a war where civilians are paying an ever higher price.

Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: President Trump's controversial pick to lead the Department of Justice is just one vote away from confirmation. How Todd Blanche got the

Republican support he needed. We will have that next on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NEWTON: Donald Trump's controversial choice to be the next U.S. Attorney General has just cleared a major hurdle. Hours ago, the Senate Judiciary

Committee approved Todd Blanche's nomination. A final confirmation vote by the full Senate could happen later this week.

Blanche previously served as Mr. Trump's personal defense attorney, and he won the approval of two Republican holdouts after he said he would rescind

a $1.8 billion fund that would have potentially compensated the President's allies, including January 6th rioters.

With more on all of this, here is CNN's Katelyn Polantz.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, a former lawyer to Donald Trump, he is on his way to

becoming permanently the Attorney General in that job. He has appeared to have received all of the votes he needed to in his Senate confirmation

hearing before the Judiciary Committee today and we are waiting to see him being confirmed by the full Senate.

Now, one of the sticking points in recent days that really threatened to derail Blanche's ability to be confirmed in this job was an anti-

weaponization fund, something of his own making that he and Donald Trump, Blanche, representing the U.S. government and Trump himself signing in May

that was setting up a $1.8 billion pot of money that the U.S. government, through the Treasury Department, could have paid to people who were Trump

supporters, essentially; people who Trump believed were victimized by Democratic administrations, potentially even January 6th rioters.

[16:20:21]

That's the point that senators, including Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, were so opposed to.

Here is a little bit more from Senator John Cornyn at the meeting today.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): The weaponization fund is dead. And, of course, I expect them to live up to that.

My vote to advance Mr. Blanche's nomination goes beyond this document. We need a stabilizing force at the Department of Justice and Mr. Blanche

deserves the opportunity.

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): Ive never liked this 1776 Fund. It made no sense to me, and I thought it was an insult to the police officers and the people

that defended us on January the 6th. It is done. It has been rescinded and I am satisfied.

POLANTZ: Senator Cornyn and Senator Tillis -- Thom Tillis, another Republican on the committee, they were the two holdouts who have now come

to yes, to vote for blanche as Attorney General. Democrats, though in this committee meeting, they tried to highlight a number of other issues that

Blanche has faced as the Acting Attorney General in the political leadership of the Justice Department. He has been essentially running the

day-to-day of the department since the beginning of the administration.

His formal title so far has been Deputy Attorney General, and the Democrats have taken issue with how he has essentially remade the Department of

Justice, a massive overhaul of the work force of the career prosecutors in the department. Many have been fired because of Donald Trump and his

political wishes. There have been retribution cases against political opponents of the President.

There are also issues with what the Justice Department has stood for in expanding powers and protections around the presidency and Trump himself.

Of course, a lot of questionable ethics by the leadership of former personal lawyers to Donald Trump, Blanche included, that all will be things

that the full Senate will need to consider, including Republicans.

The vote could be very tight for Blanche, but he is on the road to confirmation at this time.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Our thanks to Katelyn Polantz there.

Now a top E.U. official is blaming disinformation and criminal smugglers for a rush of migrants last week in Ceuta, Spain. Now the bloc's Interior

Ministers expressed solidarity with Madrid during an emergency meeting. They also called for a stronger response against the smuggling networks.

Spain says nearly all the migrants who entered Ceuta have now returned to Morocco. It estimates that 2,000 of them have remained.

Pau Mosquera is in Madrid for us and has been following this story for several days.

Pau, I want to tell you that I covered this exact story two decades ago, and then as well, any kind of E.U. policy that was consistent and unified

was the problem. Are we getting any closer to having a more unified stand on how to deal with these issues?

PAU MOSQUERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it seems that after the virtual meeting that the 27 Interior Ministers held this morning, they now have a

unified position and this position goes around the asylum and migration deal that they all turned into force just a few weeks ago.

And it seems that during the morning, several European Union partners have changed their mind, changing from that initial criticism that we saw just a

few days ago, Paula, to now recognizing the efforts that Spanish authorities have done over the last few days as to contain the migrant

crisis that the autonomous city of Ceuta just lived a few days ago.

According to the European Commissioner for Interior and Migration, Magnus Brunner, it seems like all the Interior Ministers showed solidarity with

Spain and recognized the efforts that has been done as to protect the external borders from the European Union.

Now besides of that, Paula, they also agreed on strengthening the borders by implementing a five-point action plan which includes to keep preventing

any irregular migrants from getting into the European Union by closely working with the origin countries; also trying to return all the irregular,

irregular migrants to their origin countries as quick as possible; also deploying as many police officers as are needed in the different points of

the European Union, but also to keep working and reinforcing the work against the human trafficking networks.

[16:20:02]

But now, the Spanish authorities have still some work ahead of them, because there are still 2,500 migrants that remain in Ceuta. And that's why

yesterday, some immigration officers got to the autonomous city, asked to start processing the return orders the sooner as they can -- Paula.

NEWTON: Pau Mosquera for us in Madrid, thanks so much. Appreciate that update.

Now firefighters are working furiously in and around Spokane, Washington, to contain three devastating wildfires. Authorities have arrested a man

suspected of starting one of them. The fires have destroyed more than 700 structures and forced nearly 65,000 people to evacuate their homes. Right

now, crews have zero percent containment on the fires and if conditions worsen, thousands more could be at risk.

The Governor of Washington State spoke with CNN just a short while ago. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BEN FERGUSON (D-WA): This all happened in a matter of hours. In other words, individuals woke up in their homes Saturday morning; in a matter of

hours, their homes and neighborhoods were just wiped out. This happened very, very quickly.

Just so your viewers are aware that devastation they see, these are literally neighborhoods in the city of Spokane. It is a city of about

230,000 folks, more than 60,000 had to be evacuated. But these are just neighborhoods right there in the city that have been entirely wiped out.

Truly devastating for many, many neighborhoods there, right in the heart of the city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Now, after strong dry winds kept water bombers grounded for more than a day in Greece, firefighters are starting to get the upper hand on

wildfires that have been ravaging areas outside Athens. Crews are keeping watch for flare ups as anxious residents get their first look at the

devastation caused by those fires.

Journalist, Elinda Labropoulou reports now from Parga, Greece.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELINDA LABROPOULOU, JOURNALIST: Well, the evacuations have been ongoing and especially through the early morning hours. Residents have been talking

about firefighters going door-to-door and asking them to leave within just five minutes. This is because the fire was approaching their homes so

quickly.

Luckily, the evacuation so far have gone smoothly and firefighters are now telling us that they are very close to being able to at least partially

contain these fires. The big mega fire that's burning close to Athens, which has caused all this immense devastation, is now under control.

And the partial control, and it is a fragile situation, is the way that they are describing and this means that, you know, the residents are now

going back looking at their properties, trying to assess what is happening, joining the many this summer that have found themselves in similar

situations.

Greece has also been buying a number of aircrafts. What has happened in this particular case, however, is that the conditions were so extreme that

none of this fire craft has been able to take part in these operations, and this is a more general debate across Europe, places full of high trees,

vegetation that is very fire prone, is a fire hazard, basically and how all this needs to be reassessed and changed.

And finally, in a country where tourism is so much -- such a big part of the economy, really, how much is tourism stressing the resources that could

be going to fire prevention?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Okay, this hour, SpaceX, it has just released its first ever quarterly earnings report as a public company. We will have the numbers for

you right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:43]

NEWTON: Welcome back. We will take a look at those stellar markets for the day. The S&P and Dow closed at record highs after earnings from Caterpillar

and Palantir reassured investors about A.I. driven demand and the fact that it will last.

And SpaceX has just reported earnings for the first time since its blockbuster IPO. The company says revenue came in at $7.8 billion, well

above expectations. Even so, though, the company reported a net loss of $541 million.

Peter Diamandis is a founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation and an investor in SpaceX.

And we welcome you to the program. I mean, look, the loss is not as high as many were expecting. I'm wondering what your reaction is to the earnings

and what does it tell you about the IPO price? I want to point out that the stock is down about 4 percent. Everyone is just waiting for the call to

happen in the next half an hour.

PETER DIAMANDIS, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, XPRIZE FOUNDATION: Yes. Well, the challenge is that Wall Street doesn't know how to really value

SpaceX really. It's not a space launch company anymore. It's four companies put together and each of them is pretty extraordinary. And, you know, I'm

just going to give you the bull case because I'm a huge optimist about the company.

You know, first and foremost, it's a global communications company, right? It's connecting eight billion people at a level like never before. It's

providing global broadband and then direct space to mobile telephony. And data is on the table, right? The total addressable market it has is $1.6

trillion in terms of communications. Right? 10 million subscribers doubling every year. It just became cash flow positive on the Starlink side.

NEWTON: So, so, Peter, I do want --

DIAMANDIS: It's the fastest growing utility.

NEWTON: I do want to stop you there for a minute because to be trite, right? Starlink has always been the star of the show. It can literally

change the course of geopolitics. OK, we're done. But when we get to the other parts of the business, like tell me, what other parts of the business

do you believe SpaceX will deliver on by the end of the decade? I'm not talking about the 2030s.

DIAMANDIS: Sure. Let's jump into that. So the second business it's in is delivering compute, right? The world is starved for compute, and it already

has Google, Anthropic reflection A.I. generating $28 billion of annualized income. Its first three customers. And there are a lot more customers

coming. And you have to understand the time scale that SpaceX, I'll just say it, Elon is able to build out compute hardware on the ground is epic.

You know, Colossus went from zero to 100,000 GPU cluster in 122 days. They doubled it again in 92 days. They're on the verge of building out Starmind,

which is their orbital compute capabilities. They just partnered announced with Nvidia to build out the systems there. And we're talking about not

just a little bit of extra compute. You know, Elon's vision was Starmind, their orbital data centers is to increase the total compute doubling every

year, delivering 100 gigawatts of compute in orbit every single year.

So, you know, if I were going to think about what the biggest potential is, it is as a hyperscaler, it is in delivering this unquenchable thirst for

compute. So then there's the third business, right, which is they're a chip manufacturer.

[16:35:03]

He's laid out his vision for gigafab, you know, a terawatt per year of chips 50 times the current capacity being delivered. And, you know, I've

been with him at his facilities. He's got a very clear plan on how he's going to build gigafab, vertically integrated. And then the fourth business

is launch. And he's brought down the cost of launch by 500 fold when Starship gets operating. These are four independent businesses that for me

is going to build not a $2 trillion company, but a $10 trillion company. And I would never bet against him.

NEWTON: And so we get to really the crux of the issue. Now, look, the IPO went to $135 here. That's where it debuted at. It is going to be lower than

that come tomorrow no matter how it trades. Marginally, though.

Is Elon Musk still the linchpin here, the driver of all? Because that is what makes a lot of people nervous. You can bet on Elon Musk. Some people

do not want to bet on Elon Musk. They're looking at the parts of the whole and thinking it's much more significant.

DIAMANDIS: Yes, I mean, so, listen, Elon is the differentiating factor here, right? There's no question about that. Will the companies, these four

segments of the company survive and continue without him? Sure. I don't see him going away anytime soon. You know, we had these same issues, these same

concerns when Tesla as a company started with this incredible vision and he's overdelivered building $1 trillion company there over and over again.

And for me, the best prediction of a person's future abilities is what they've delivered in the past. Now, you know, the moat that SpaceX has is

it's the only company on the planet that's vertically integrated like this. They own the rockets, the satellites, the ground network, the A.I. compute

layer. Everyone else has to rent part of that. And it's -- for me, it's a beautiful thesis brought together.

NEWTON: Peter Diamandis, thanks for being on the program. We will leave it there and wait to see what happens on this conference call, but we will

certainly keep in mind everything you said as we continue to watch these developments.

DIAMANDIS: OK. But let's be very clear. This is not a short-term bet, right?

NEWTON: Understood.

DIAMANDIS: We're talking about, you know, civilizational infrastructure. Yes. OK.

NEWTON: If Elon Musk is correct, I get it. Thanks so much, Peter. Thanks again.

Now, a federal judge has just set a March 2027 trial date for the antitrust challenge to the merger between Paramount and CNN parent company, Warner

Bros. Discovery. It is, in fact, a blow to Paramount, who had been aiming to complete this major merger by this summer.

It comes as Paramount CEO David Ellison is defending his company's pending takeover. In a guest essay in "The New York Times," Ellison wrote that, as

he sees it, much of the pushback against the merger isn't really about market share and instead about concerns around his plans for this network,

CNN. Ellison says he isn't planning to bend CNN's newsroom to his will, or to be more pointed about that to any will of the Oval Office, no matter who

is president.

Brian Stelter is with us. He just broke the news about this trial date.

I mean, look, eight months, the back of the envelope math tells you this could cost at a minimum $1.3 billion more, but maybe $2 billion more. This

is not what they wanted to hear from the courts.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes. After September 30th, this deal costs about $7 million more per day for Paramount. So that quickly

gets up above a billion and toward the $2 billion mark as these months stretch out. When this lawsuit, when these two lawsuits were filed in mid-

July, Paramount was right on the verge of taking control of Warner Bros. Discovery. It was hoping to have merged the two companies by now, by the

time we're talking.

Of course, a judge put that on pause and Paramount said, OK, fine, let's get to a trial as soon as possible. So Paramount was pushing for a November

trial date. The writers and the state suing were pushing for an April trial date. So the judge, of course, siding much closer with these states and the

writers in this timeline that now starts on March 2nd. So there will be a trial in this dramatic antitrust showdown in early March.

The judge might rule in late March or in April. So we're talking about next spring before Paramount could potentially get a green light to complete

this merger. And if a judge rules against Paramount, then an appeals process will begin and this deal will be delayed and dragged on even

further.

An important time to keep in mind here beyond that March trial date that we just learned about is June, June of 2027. Because right now, the Paramount-

Warner merger agreement expires on June 4th. So Paramount may look to renegotiate that agreement, may look to extend it further. But, you know,

we've covered enough of these deals to know this one happens to involve CNN's parent company.

But we've covered enough of these deals to know the months drag out and these deals become shakier and shakier. The executives, the companies, the

financiers might start to have a harder time holding this deal together as the months drag on.

[16:40:01]

NEWTON: And you put your finger on it right there, Brian. And to remember that this also does involve A.I., Oracle and Larry Ellison, who is David's

father, who is putting up some money about this.

I want to go back to that "New York Times" editorial. David Ellison, by his own admission, has been quiet. He's deciding to speak up now. Why? What

does he have to gain by actually being out there?

STELTER: Right. I think this really speaks to the fact that Paramount executives believe that this lawsuit is politically motivated. Now, what

you hear from Paramount's critics is that this entire deal is politically charged, and that Paramount has cozied up to the Trump administration for a

while in order to get this deal approved.

But what you hear now from David Ellison is that he thinks this deal is really about CNN. Excuse me. He thinks the hold-up is really about CNN. He

thinks these Democratic state attorneys general are trying to delay or stop the deal to keep CNN out of his hands. So he is reiterating his commitment

to CNN's editorial independence.

And one of his allies brought up a really interesting idea today on CNBC. Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood powerbroker, had brought up an idea. He said,

why don't you create an editorial board to oversee CNN and take some of the pressure off?

Now, that is something that Rupert Murdaugh proposed when he was buying "Wall Street Journal." That's something that Reuters has in place right

now, this idea of some sort of editorial committee that would exist to protect CNN's independence.

I am told that Paramount might be interested in that possibility. So listen for that as the months drag on here to see if that bears any fruit. But

certainly, Ellison going public today, trying to make his case in public to try to win people over about this deal. And by the way, Paramount just

reported quarterly earnings this afternoon, taking a bit of a decline to profits, the usual -- the turbulence involving streaming and once again,

Paramount reiterated it believes it will eventually win control of Warner Bros. Discovery.

But as you can tell from this new timeline, that's not going to happen at least until next spring.

NEWTON: Yes, Brian, you brought up so many good points there. We only have about 30 seconds left. I mean, look, this is a global deal here and it

involves so many different facets. The longer this does go on, though, right, at what point does this become a huge risk to the point where they

just say, look, we cannot afford this deal, even if it is a good deal?

STELTER: Right. These deals are kind of like Jenga towers. That game Jenga, where you stack blocks on top of each other, you pull out one block in the

wrong way from the wrong place, sometimes the tower falls apart. But you never know when or how that might happen. So you do have some outside

analysts now wondering if this deal is on shaky ground, but I was struck today by Ellison's comment in "The New York Times."

He said, these lawsuits trying to stop my deal, he says these lawsuits imagine a Hollywood that no longer exists. He says the real challenge now

is from Netflix and from Apple and from Amazon.

NEWTON: Right.

STELTER: He believes he needs to get bigger to challenge those. And so that's the case he's going to make in court. But he can't make that case in

court until next March. And that's another setback for Paramount today.

NEWTON: Yes. And I'll throw another element in there. Everyone, keep in mind, Oracle had its status on debt ranked just above junk. Downgrades are

not good.

Brian Stelter, for us. Thanks so much.

And that is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I'm Paula Newton. Up next. "CONNECTING AFRICA."

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