Gene Munster, Deepwater Asset Management managing partner, joins 'Closing Bell' to discuss ChatGPT's advertising plans, what themes will continue through the year and much more.

The release of Open AI's ChatGPT has accelerated the development of artificial intelligence and warnings about its impact on society.

Rise of AI

Gene Munster, Managing Partner at Deepwater Asset Management, discussed the potential for both Alphabet (Google) and OpenAI to develop substantial advertising businesses within the artificial intelligence sector. He highlighted that changing consumer behavior, with increased reliance on chatbots and search engines, positions both companies to benefit from the evolving digital landscape.

Munster also noted that the AI infrastructure market, particularly for inference, is rapidly expanding, with capital expenditure growth forecasts rising above previous expectations. He predicted that small-cap technology companies could outperform larger firms if the trend continues, while remaining optimistic about the performance of major players like Apple and Google.

Alphabet and OpenAI can both have massive ad businesses within AI

Let's bring in Gene Munster, Managing Partner at Deepwater Asset Management. First of all, Gene, any reaction to Chad GPT's advertisement plans here? Yeah, Kelly, I'm trying to always figure out who's the winner and who's the loser in this. And like, is this bad for Google? I think Google is gonna do well in 2026. But my first reaction was around figuring out the winner and the loser. And I think that this can be one of those rare cases when both companies can win. Both companies can have massive businesses, advertising businesses within AI, agentic commerce, and the reason why is that consumer behavior is changing. Essentially, what we've seen from Google's results over the past six months is that people, talk about those 800 million monthly active open AI users, 2.5 billion search users, these people are having a better understanding that they can find out more by using a chatbot or search. And so, if you're gonna put a matrix together in terms of time spent, I haven't done this, but if you look at just where we spend our time throughout the day, that piece where we're searching for information, whether through traditional Google search or through a bot, is increasing. And so, I think this is a case where companies like OpenAI and Google are both winners. It's gonna be a fun storyline, and I'm sure create some wonderful debate, but I think they're both gonna win. Look, your point intuitively makes sense because we're so early on. Just this morning, I asked it what earrings I should wear with this dress. Actually, I took a picture of the dress and a picture of the jewelry box. I like it. And I disagreed with its choice, but it made, you should have seen the chaos of this spread, and it was able to identify. It said, oh, I think you should wear the gold hoops, and blah, blah, blah, too boring. Anyway, so if that's all the case, and you mentioned that the AI trade has passed two hurdles and that it seems to still this tide be lifting all boats here. I mean, there are some firms like your Denny Research, which have underweighted, certainly the Mag 7. What do you think is the third hurdle this year? And are you sticking with tech broadly or more specifically? So I think that the third hurdle, it gets more coming up more recently. Of course, we had the good news from TSMC. We had the good commentary from NVIDIA at CES, but the third is gonna be about CapEx guidance. Just a quick view on that. It was 30% growth is what the hyperscalers, analysts were expecting hyperscalers to grow in 2026, 30% growth. That was the expectation a few weeks ago. That's now inched up to 34%. And so that's moving higher. That's the next hurdle, of course, at the end of this month. But just a couple quick thoughts. First, in terms of the kind of what's going on, the bigger picture, why I think that we'll get good news later this month. I think those CapEx numbers are gonna be probably plus 40% is investors are making a fundamental mistake when they think about this AI infrastructure build out. The conversation is wrapped around the idea of infrastructure for training. And the reality is that the inference market, Jensen talks about this, but we have an affiliate company, Intelligent Alpha, which uses a lot of these models. We see how long these models are thinking. That inference market last year in 2025 was five times as big as the training market. Over time, this could be hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of times bigger. So this party is gonna continue longer as far as kind of the small versus large cap piece. I made a prediction earlier, stand by it, this is back in December, that small cap's gonna outperform. We have an ETF, LLUP, which focuses on those small cap. You saw it this week, AMD up 14% on that TSMC news. And why is that? Why is that? Just because the gains have kind of run their course for the big guys? That's one piece to it. But if you just look at, if you're a believer, ultimately it comes down to, do you believe that this infrastructure piece that comes back to that inference, if you believe that that's the case, just mathematically, these smaller companies should have higher, greater earnings revisions. And so, still a big believer. I think Apple's gonna be a wonderful performer in the first half of the year, Google for the year. But I think this small cap trade, it happened last year, I think it's gonna continue throughout this year.

The United States on Thursday said Iran halted 800 executions of protesters under pressure from President Donald Trump, after Gulf allies appeared to pull him back from military action over Tehran's deadly crackdown on demonstrations.

Tehran

U.S. claims Iran halts executions of protesters amid crackdown

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado met with President Donald Trump on Thursday at the White House. She presented Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal, which was seen as a peace offering to win his support.

Washington

Venezuela Strikes

Venezuelan opposition leader presents Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize

A U.S. Senate delegation is meeting with Danish officials on Friday to defuse the standoff between President Donald Trump and Denmark over Greenland. Denmark sent soldiers to Greenland and they will be joined by military units from various NATO allies.

Nuuk

NATO troops head to Greenland amid Trump's threats

NASA says it could be just weeks away from launching astronauts on a flight around the moon for the first time in more than half a century. Final preparations are underway at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the Artemis II moon rocket is expected to roll out to the launch pad on Saturday.

Cape Canaveral

Final preparations for Artemis II launch underway

A South Korean court on Friday (January 16) sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison on charges that included obstructing attempts by authorities to arrest him following his failed bid to impose martial law in December 2024.

Seoul

Five years' jail for South Korea's Yoon in first martial law penalty

US President Donald Trump is threatening to use military force against Americans after clashes between protestors and law enforcement in Minneapolis. The city has been on edge since the fatal shooting of a protester, Renee Good, by an ICE officer.

Minneapolis

Trump threatens to use military against Minneapolis protests

The U.S. and Taiwan clinched a trade deal that cuts tariffs on many of the semiconductor powerhouse's exports, directs new investments in the U.S. technology industry and risks infuriating China.

U.S., Taiwan strike deal on tech tariffs risking China's ire

The United Nations Security Council has held an emergency meeting to discuss the deadly anti-establishment protests in Iran at the request of the United States. President Donald Trump has refused to rule out military action on Iran over the killing of protesters. Tehran has vowed to retaliate if that happens.

Iran, U.S. clash at UN over protests as calls grow for restraint

Tensions are soaring in Minneapolis as protesters face off against federal agents. As Matt Gutman reports, it comes after a Venezuelan migrant was shot by an ICE agent after allegedly trying to flee federal officers.

Tensions flare in Minneapolis after second shooting by ICE agent

Ali Shaath, the Palestinian former government official chosen to administer Gaza under a U.S.-backed deal, has an ambitious plan that includes pushing war debris into the Mediterranean Sea and rebuilding destroyed infrastructure within three years.

Tel Aviv-Yafo

U.S. backs Palestinian civil engineer to administer Gaza

The U.S. has announced the launch of the second phase of President
Donald Trump's peace plan in the Gaza Strip, which will involve moving from a ceasefire to demilitarization.

Jerusalem

Middle East Conflict

Gaza deal's second phase to begin

CBS News met with fighters from an armed and outlawed Iranian opposition group in the mountains of northern Iraq who said the protests in Iran have given them hope. They believe the regime can be toppled "if the people who are demonstrating on the street get international help."

Iranian opposition group says protests give hope to topple regime

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday a "state of emergency" will be declared in the energy sector, after relentless Russian strikes on heat and electricity supplies during freezing winter temperatures.

Kyiv

Ukraine Invasion

Ukraine: Zelensky declares energy emergency after Russian strikes

Military personnel from several NATO countries including Germany, France, Sweden and Norway headed to Greenland on Thursday as Denmark and its allies prepared ⁠for exercises to try to assure US President Donald Trump over its security as he pushes to acquire the island.

Several European countries and NATO allies send troops to Greenland

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI said late on Wednesday it imposed restrictions on all users of its Grok AI chatbot that limit image editing after the service produced sexualized images that sparked concerns among global regulators.

California

Musk's xAI curbs Grok image editing after concerns

Protests in the U.S. city of Minneapolis as another person's been shot by an immigration officer.

Protest erupts in Minneapolis after ICE agent shoots man during raid

The United States has completed its first sale of Venezuelan oil, generating around $500 million, a US official said Wednesday, the first major energy transaction since Washington’s dramatic intervention in Venezuela earlier this month.

United States completes first sale of Venezuelan oil

Denmark says fundamental disagreements remain with the US over the future of Greenland. President Donald Trump has said he wants to take over the territory 'one way or another', arguing anything short of full American control is unacceptable.

Greenland, Denmark say Trump set on ‘conquering’ territory after meet

Republicans in the Senate killed a resolution on Wednesday that would have put limits on President Trump's ability to take action in Venezuela. Vice President JD Vance had to step in to break the 50-50 tie.

Senate Republicans kill war powers effort to limit Trump on Venezuela

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted foreign ministers from Greenland and Denmark as President Donald Trump continues to insist on a U.S. takeover of Greenland.

Vance and Rubio meet with officials from Greenland and Denmark

At least 30 people were killed when a construction crane collapsed onto a moving train in northeastern Thailand, at the site of a planned high-speed rail project intended to eventually link China with much of Southeast Asia.

Sikhio District

At least 30 people killed in Thailand train derailment

Tehran has warned neighbors hosting U.S. troops that it would hit American bases if Washington strikes, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, as Iran seeks to deter Donald Trump's threats to intervene on behalf of protesters.

Iran warns neighbors it could hit U.S. bases if Washington strikes

As Prime Minister Mark Carney heads to China to ease trade tensions, President Donald Trump reiterated that the U.S. doesn’t need Canadian goods or the CUSMA. Carney was also urged by Ontario’s premier to not back down on tariffs for Chinese EVs.

Ottawa

Trump says he doesn’t need Canadian goods or the CUSMA

United States President Donald Trump says he has cancelled all meetings with Iranian officials and has told protesters to “take over your institutions” amid Tehran’s crackdown.

Trump cancels Iran meetings, urges protesters to take on institutions

Around 2,000 people including security personnel have been killed in protests in Iran, an Iranian official said, the first time authorities have acknowledged the high death toll from an intense crackdown on two weeks of nationwide unrest.

Iran official says 2,000 killed in nationwide unrest

Former President Bill Clinton is refusing to appear before the House Oversight Committee to testify as part of its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. CBS News congressional correspondent Nikole Killion has more.

Bill Clinton skips Epstein deposition on Capitol Hill

Former Corsican nationalist leader Alain Orsoni, who also served as the president of soccer club AC Ajaccio, was shot dead in Corsica on January 11 during his mother’s funeral. He was 71. Alain Orsoni was one of the leaders of the Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC) in the 1980s. He later founded and led the Movement for Self-Determination (MPA).

Vero

Ex-Corsican nationalist leader Alain Orsoni killed at mother's funeral

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who needs to have a graft conviction overturned to seize her best chance at the French presidency, risks seeing her life's work upended if she loses her appeal. It comes after a French court last year barred her from running for office for five years over a European Parliament fake-jobs scam involving her and other officials from her National Rally party.

Paris

Marine Le Pen's appeal in EU fund embezzlement case opens in Paris

British regulators are investigating X for lewd AI images generated by Grok, the AI arm of Elon Musk's social platform. Michael Goodyear, an associate professor at New York Law School, joins CBS News with more.

London

UK investigating Musk's X over Grok's AI-generated images

As U.S. President Donald Trump weighs a response to Iran's deadly crackdown on nationwide protests, Iranian leaders say they are still keeping communications open with the Americans. But on January 12, large pro-government rallies took place across Iran, and the U.S. was clearly framed as the enemy and instigator of the protests.

Alphabet and OpenAI can both have massive ad businesses within AI

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Rise of AI