OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman issues a call to amp up cybersecurity in the age of AI. Brockman addresses recent leadership departures at OpenAI, the open-weight model debate, and AI safety standards. Keller Cliffton, CEO of drone delivery company Zipline, discusses his company’s scaling deal with Uber. Together, the companies aim to notch one million drone deliveries a day. Berkshire Hathaway added $17 billion to its Alphabet stake, making the Google parent Berkshire’s third-largest holding. Plus, Congressman for Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) has sparked heated pushback from the likes of Mark Cuban and Bill Ackman with his pitch for taxing billionaires. Greg Brockman - 15:45 Keller Cliffton - 37:53 In this episode: Greg Brockman, @gdb Becky Quick, @BeckyQuick Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Cameron Costa, @CameronCostaNY Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman: Now Is the Time to Act 8/17/26

Squawk Pod

[SPEAKER_01] Bring in show music, please.

[SPEAKER_02] This is Squawk Pod and I'm CNBC producer Cameron Costa. On today's episode, OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman on this critical moment in AI.

[SPEAKER_01] Compute is really becoming the new oil, the new limited resource of the AI age.

[SPEAKER_02] And Brockman's call of warning about what's coming in cybersecurity.

[SPEAKER_01] Now is the time to act. Now is the time to say it will no longer be sufficient. And this has to be prioritized, I think, as a top level priority in every single company. And we're seeing it.

[SPEAKER_02] Then what's coming in the skies? Drone delivery company Zipline has just inked a deal with Uber to reach a million drone deliveries a day. CEO Keller Clifton joins us.

[SPEAKER_03] When you make this kind of delivery way faster, way less expensive, less traffic, less pollution for our neighborhoods, people significantly change their buying behavior.

[SPEAKER_02] Plus, President Trump's foreign policy and an online debate about billionaire taxes gets heated. Politicians, investors and entrepreneurs are weighing in.

[SPEAKER_05] There was a whole bunch of FU's involved in this conversation.

[SPEAKER_02] I reached out to Mark Cuban actually. It's Monday, August 17th, 2026. And Squawk Pod begins right now.

[SPEAKER_01] Stand Becky by in three, two, one. Cue it, please.

[SPEAKER_04] Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on CNBC. We are live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Becky Quick along with Andrew Ross-Sorkin. Joe is off today. Berkshire Hathaway bulking up on Alphabet shares. According to Berkshire's latest 13F filing, it bought $17 billion worth of Alphabet stock in the second quarter.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman: Now Is the Time to Act 8/17/26

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman: Now Is the Time to Act 8/17/26

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.