WHEN: Today, Tuesday, January 21, 2025
WHERE: CNBC’s “Squawk Box” – “Money Movers”
Following are excerpts from the unofficial transcripts of CNBC interviews with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin and Sara Eisen which aired on “Squawk Box” (M-F, 6AM-9AM ET) through “Money Movers” (M-F, 11AM-12PM) today, Tuesday, January 21 for Davos 2025 in Davos, Switzerland.
Interviews included: Coinbase Co-Founder & CEO Brian Armstrong, UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Nasdaq Chair & CEO Adena Friedman, Bridgewater Associates Founder Ray Dalio, General Atlantic Chairman & CEO and Bytedance Board Member Bill Ford, PepsiCo Chairman & CEO Ramon Laguarta, Gap CEO Richard Dickson, Barclays CEO CS Venkatakrishnan, ServiceNow Chairman, President & CEO Bill McDermott and Crowdstrike Founder & CEO George Kurtz.
Links to video of the interviews are included below.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
Interview with Coinbase Co-Founder & CEO Brian Armstrong
ARMSTRONG ON NEW DAY FOR CRYPTO
BRIAN ARMSTRONG: it’s really the dawn of a new day for crypto, and the energy was palpable throughout the room. You have to remember, I mean, the last four years, we really felt like we were being attacked by this administration, then they tried to weaponize the lack of clarity in the rules to really push back even on the good actors, right? There were some bad actors too, to be fair, but they even really tried to go after the good actors, much like us. So the industry is just ready for this new change. They’re ready for clear rules, and that’s our big push next is to try and go get legislation passed in the US to make it even more clear.
ARMSTRONG ON MEME COINS
ARMSTRONG: I think anybody should be able to create a collectible or piece of artwork. There’s lots of different types of crypto commodities. There’s hopefully securities in the future, but these kinds of collectibles or meme coins I think is something that anybody should be able to put out there. As Coinbase, we don’t really try to take a position or recommend any one asset versus another. We really just try to look at what are our what are our minimum listing standards from a compliance and legal point of view, and then we let the market decide.
ARMSTRONG ON BITCOIN VERSUS THE US DOLLAR
ARMSTRONG: Bitcoin, I think, is also critical to US dollar because I think of bitcoin as kind of a check and balance on deficit spending and high inflation. And the way that the dollar is going to preserve its reserve currency status is by not being inflated away, which is the temptation of every fiat that is disconnected from hard commodities. And so if people flee Bitcoin in times of high inflation and uncertainty, it’ll provide that check and balance to extend the dollar indefinitely.
Interview with UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti
ERMOTTI ON TRUMP
SERGIO ERMOTTI: I do hope and believe that this new administration can help address some geopolitical issues that we have out there, that’s the promise that we have been hearing. So I have to say that that would be a welcome movement because being in Ukraine or Middle East has way too many tensions, also with China, hopefully we can see a solution. On the other end, the prospect of tariffs, that may create some microeconomic consequences are also something that may create geopolitical tensions.
ERMOTTI ON DEREGULATION
ERMOTTI: First of all, I don’t believe that we’re going to see a lot of deregulation. What we will see is probably—
SORKIN: You don’t see we’re going to see a lot of deregulation.
ERMOTTI: Not, not deregulation. Probably we won’t see more regulation. We won’t see probably overlapping new regulation that is in conflict with existing regulation, we will probably see more rationalization of existing regulation. So at least for the big banks, I think it’s appropriate. I don’t believe that the bank should be massively deregulated, but what it will be allowed probably is the consolidation in the US, first of all, among the second tier banks, rationalizing a little bit that aspect and that in turn will create opportunities I don’t think that for us, it’s very important that we don’t get new unnecessary regulations rather than—
ERMOTTI ON TARIFFS
ERMOTTI: Tariff will probably not really help inflation to come down. And therefore, you know, I don’t see rates coming down as fast as people believe, so when you look at the current environments, the market seems to believe that way.
Interview with Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan
MOYNIHAN ON REGULATION
BRIAN MOYNIHAN: I believe that if you look at the key thing for businesses generally, including the financial services, the banking business, it’s the regulation question. So if you look at our small business survey that just came out with, if you go back a month or two or three or six months, it was all about inflation, and now that’s come down and regulations is close to that in terms of concerns of business and actually getting employees. It’s kind of interesting it’s surfaced again with all the discussion about what’s going to go on.
SORKIN: In terms of immigration.
MOYNIHAN: In terms of immigration, in terms of availability. So I think real question is, in the end of day, this was a vote about state, let me conduct my life. Let me conduct my business, human people, consumers and businesses, especially small, medium-sized businesses. So the regulation is the number one thing.
MOYNIHAN ON DEALS
MOYNIHAN: The last administration, it was very hard to get a deal done, not only in the banking system, but beyond, and anything over three or four billion dollars drew all this scrutiny, and not everybody has the staying power to wait two years to get a deal through. So I think that’s stuff will happen. From our investment banking teams, they’re out there turning—
SORKIN: Super excited.
MOYNIHAN: Excited about it and the possibility of it.
MOYNIHAN ON CRYPTO
MOYNIHAN: I’d separate out this sort of crypto versus stable assets and digital movement of money, because we already moved the vast, vast majority of our money digitally. Our consumers do. Our companies do. And so the question is, what’s the business practice that you have to have to move another type of currency. So if they would, if the rules come in and make it a real thing, that you can actually do business with, you will find that the banking system will come in hard on the transactional side of it, non-anonymous, transactional, verified, etc. because we have to it’s just another way our customers are going to—
MOYNIHAN: I think if it becomes regulatory, okay, which it wasn’t before and that’s one of the issues, you’ll see the banking system enter with – We have hundreds of patents on the blockchain already. We know how to enter the field. When you get to the investment side and the bitcoin stuff that that’s really a separate question. That’s more on the investment side. From the transaction side, I think you will see the bankers make moves.
MOYNIHAN ON TRUMP
MOYNIHAN: I think the difference is, the feeling is, they’re off to much faster start this time because they they’ve been through it before. They have, they have their executive orders lined up and they have it. So I think there’s a more immediacy the reaction of the international community here saying this stuff is coming at us right away. So we have people looking at all the executive orders. I’m sure every other company here does too, and they’re all thinking, okay, there’s gonna be a lot of stuff coming out. What? What is actually going to cause things to happen? What’s going to be in the future? Because it’s a pronouncement that somebody’s got to do something about it. So I think it’s just a feeling that there’ll be more activity. Pluses, people have their views on pluses or minuses that activity but there’ll be more that will stick to more that will happen, as opposed to discussion, because they are off and running and ready to go.
Interview with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
Interview with Nasdaq Chair & CEO Adena Friedman
FRIEDMAN ON THE US ECONOMIC POSITION
FRIEDMAN: I actually think we sit in a place where we can be very global in the way that we deliver solutions, because of the fact that money flows to continue be – now on listings, we continue to believe that the United States has the deepest pool of liquidity, the most diverse investor base in the world and that is a natural attractor of companies, and I think that will continue, just because of the economic position that the U.S. is in.
FRIEDMAN ON DEI
FRIEDMAN: For Nasdaq, we really continue to look at everything that we do in building the right culture, and we do believe that a place where we feel like people can be themselves and can operate at their highest potential, and have diversity of views, and diversity backgrounds, actually makes us a better company, makes us perform better. So we’re going to continue to operate in that way. And I think that, at the end of the day, these things come and go with different political cycles, but at the same time, I believe that there’s an undercurrent that continues to be supported.
FRIEDMAN ON CRYPTO
FRIEDMAN: As we think about the regulatory landscape that could come, I mean, what is actually quite encouraging is the idea of going from an enforcement regime around crypto to a regulatory – let’s actually write proactive rules that gives everyone an understanding of the rules of the road. And if there is clarity in regulation, it allows regulated markets like ours. We’ve talked about this before. We like operating in regulated markets. If there is clarity in regulation, it allows us to assess what does that mean for us as an operator of market as well. But let’s see how the regulation comes out.
Interview with Bridgewater Associates Founder Ray Dalio
DALIO ON PE RATIOS
RAY DALIO: We have gone pretty far already, and particularly in certain sectors and so on. But the biggest influence is going to be what I’m talking about because if you have those multiples and you have a rise in interest rates, right? Okay, you will have a pop so as we focus on that deficit question. But yes, of course, it’s fragmented. I think that there it’s, of course, led by the sectors that are great sectors, the disruptors, the AI and so on. I don’t think it’s been carried down to the
applications of AI on other words, the uses of AI.
DALIO ON BITCOIN
DALIO: Bitcoin is not a central bank reserve. It’s not going to be bought by alternative governments. Right now—
SORKIN: It might with this strategic bitcoin reserve if it happens.
DALIO: But unlikely only because and it’s so easy to control and follow. You know, it’s not, but I’m not saying yes or no, you know. I’m just saying, think about the value of debt and money. Think about the value of debt and money when debt is money, because throughout history, there’s always the interest rate that you get that’s the temptation and is it enough to deal with that supply demand problem.
DALIO ON GLOBAL LANDSCAPE
DALIO: I think that we are going from a world order in which there were multinational organizations, multilateral to an environment that is more unilateral. In other words, America first and more confrontational, more fighting. And that there was a demonstration of fighting and power so we had wars. We had a war in the Middle East and a war with China in its form and so on. I think that that hurt people, had some hurting and I think maybe it’s enough to demonstrate power. We’re now in a world in which might is right, and there’s a power, and now I think there’s a cautiousness, so I’m hopeful, but it’s right at the brink.
Interview with General Atlantic Chairman & CEO and Bytedance Board Member Bill Ford
Video: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/01/21/general-atlantic-ceo-bill-ford-expect-a-real-renaissance-in-the-ipo-market.html and https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/01/21/bill-ford-on-tiktok-we-can-find-a-workable-solution-that-keeps-chinese-u-s-leadership-satisfied.html
FORD ON IPO RENAISSANCE
BILL FORD: I’m expecting a real renaissance in the IPO market. I think we’re going to see a lot of companies lining up to go public. We’ve got 28 companies actually in our pipeline, ready to go, and now really.
SORKIN: Ready to go?
FORD: Yeah, ready and excited to go public. And I think they’re going to give some great opportunities for public investors and it’s sort of a triple win.
FORD ON GLOBAL INVESTMENTS
FORD: 50% of our investing activity is still outside the US, we still see lots of opportunity. The thing that gets us so excited Andrew is innovation is alive and well, not just in US, but outside as well. We find entrepreneurs everywhere. We just opened our offices in the Middle East last year. We opened up an office in Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, and we have an office in Dubai, and we’re seeing entrepreneurs in that region for the first time. That’s exciting for us
FORD ON TIKTOK
FORD: I can say this that the company is prepared and ready to engage with the Trump administration has been looking forward to the opportunity actually to basically find a solution that complies with the law and meets the security of the United States, but at the same time keeps TikTok available.
FORD: Company matters are company matters decided by the board. And I think there, you know, yes, we have to engage with Chinese leaders and Chinese government and Chinese regulators, just like we have to engage with US government and US regulators to make sure that they’re satisfied that our solution is workable. But at the end of the day, the board has got to decide, you know, what’s the right answer for TikTok US. What’s the right answer for TikTok global. What’s the right answer for Bytedance.
Interview with PepsiCo Chairman & CEO Ramon Laguarta
LAGUARTA ON TRUMP
RAMON LAGUARTA: I think the Trump administration is going to be pro-growth. It’s going to, you know, help consumers feel better. I think consumer confidence is a factor. And also for us as companies, deregulation will help us. Hopefully, you know, there’s a reduction of taxes as well that would help us operate more efficiently in the US.
LAGUARTA ON DEREGULATION
LAGUARTA: I think deregulation in general is good for business. We’re having, we’re having too many bottlenecks for expanding our business in some particular areas from permitting to others. I think reporting is also an opportunity as we simplify our company. So we believe that deregulation will help us be a more efficient company with that, we can invest that money to other parts of the business.
LAGUARTA ON THE STATE OF THE CONSUMER
LAGUARTA: We’re optimistic by the consumer in general, around the world. We’re seeing inflation decelerating in most of the market.
LAGUARTA: However, we’re seeing in the US in particular and some other markets globally bifurcation. We’re seeing part of the consumer base that is doing very well, and they’re obviously spending in services, spending in entertainment, spending in experiences, but we’re seeing other parts of the consumer that is not doing so well.
LAGUARTA ON FOOD INFLATION
LAGUARTA: I think it’s over. It’s over actually, ‘24 was we had much lower inflation. Our raw materials, still labor was a little bit higher. I would say we’re in a place where we can manage this, as we were doing in the past through productivity. We can reduce inflation in our in our cost structures, and therefore we don’t need to increase prices in this and those unaffordable ways. And I think that will help consumers and obviously consumers will get used they’re getting used to new price levels, and we can see in some segments that consumption is picking up as well.
Interview with Gap CEO Richard Dickson
Interview with Barclays CEO CS Venkatakrishnan
VENKATAKRISHNAN ON REGULATION
VENKATAKRISHNAN: There’s a lot of control and regulation that have been placed in the last few years. And we think that will get relaxed. That’s generally good business sentiment and good for business opportunity. And we think those winds are blowing towards Europe and the UK, where you can see governments understanding what’s going on in the US and trying to see what aspects of their own regulation they should ease up on. And we think if they did that, that’s a good idea.
VENKATAKRISHNAN ON EU DEREGULATION
VENKATAKRISHNAN: The reality is that Europe is lagging in growth. The UK is ahead compared to Europe, still not as strong as the United States, but both these economies can use growth, and part of getting that growth is to, you know, to unleash capitalist instincts and what we call animal spirits into their economies, which means a better balance between regulation and opportunity. Nobody is saying that there should be no regulation. Right? Regulations plays an important role in society, whether it’s banks of any other part of society, but you’ve got to get the right balance.
VENKATAKRISHNAN ON US & UK RELATIONS
VENKATAKRISHNAN: I think that there’s a lot in common. We engage and interact with each other across the pond quite a lot and I expect those ties will continue. There may be around the edges questions about this or that but basic strength, the foundation on which this is built is extremely strong.
VENKATAKRISHNAN ON CRYPTO
EISEN: Where are you on crypto services? Do you offer them?
VENKATAKRISHNAN: No.
EISEN: Are you rethinking that?
VENKATAKRISHNAN: No.
EISEN: Why?
VENKATAKRISHNAN: Well, as a bank, we have to consider carefully who the ultimate users are, and whether we can qualify them in terms of all the bank regulations, KYC, AML, and until we are confident that we can do that, we probably won’t.
Interview with ServiceNow Chairman, President & CEO Bill McDermott
Video: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/01/21/servicenow-ceo-regulations-around-ai-needed-to-be-relaxed.html
MCDERMOTT ON SOFTWARE INDUSTRY AND TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
MCDERMOTT: In the software industry, we’re very proud of the work that we’ve done with the first Trump administration, and we’re very confident we can make a difference again. There’s 125 billion per annum invested in IT, and the government. And I think the American citizens under this administration are due and will get a great service. So we’re there to help with ServiceNow. And I think finally, as I talk to the CEOs here internationally, the American Dream is back on the table, and people are excited, you know, they’re really excited that America wants to win, and I am too.
MCDERMOTT ON AI REGULATION
MCDERMOTT: I believe you know strongly that the environment here, no matter who you talk to, whether it’s a CEO from the USA or anywhere else in the world, everybody feels that regulations needed to be relaxed. So I feel very strongly that sensible, proper AI innovation is happening by tech companies, and the guard rails are built into that and I don’t believe extra regulatory interference would give the world a better outcome.
Interview with Crowdstrike Founder & CEO George Kurtz
KURTZ ON SECURING AI
GEORGE KURTZ: We create security using AI, and part of it is also securing AI. And we’ve done some recent acquisitions that have the ability to look at or provide different guardrails around security prompts, data that comes back. And obviously, one of the big things right now is companies are concerned about how much data goes out to some of these AI models, and how that data could be leveraged in nefarious ways. So we have some technologies around that, but that’s an emerging area we’re still in the early innings.
KURTZ ON CROWDSTRIKE OUTAGE
KURTZ: We’ve documented, you know, those issues that we found. We’ve corrected those. And again, we had the conversation with customers, broken bones heal stronger. And I think that’s actually true. They know that’s not going to happen again. We identified the configuration issue, we’ve changed it and we looked at all the processes, we’re going forward.
For more information contact:
Jennifer Dauble
CNBC
t: 201.735.4721
m: 201.615.2787
Stephanie Hirlemann
CNBC
m: 201.397.2838
