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Federal Trade Commission

also referred to as: ftc

17 statements across 12 episodes · 2 bullish · 13 bearish · 4 people on the record · first statement Jul 3, 2021 by David Sacks · said 82 times in 43 episodes since 2021 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Jason Calacanis (41), Chamath Palihapitiya (21), David Sacks (16), David Friedberg (2), Reid Hoffman (1), Mark Cuban (1)

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0815202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
001.57.5315202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2025 8 mentions in 7 episodes 1 per episode
2024 19 mentions in 9 episodes 2 per episode
2023 35 mentions in 12 episodes 3 per episode
2022 6 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
2021 12 mentions in 9 episodes 1 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Federal Trade Commission, oldest first

Jul 3, 2021 negative
Prediction Held up
Sacks: FTC Chair Lina Khan will not be recused regarding Amazon
“There's no way this is gonna fly. There's no way she's gonna get recused”
David Sacks Jul 3, 2021 ▶ 1:12:17 E38: Bestie brawl, Robinhood's $70M fine & S-1, Delta variant, next gen candidates & more
Nov 20, 2021 bullish
Opinion
Palihapitiya: Amazon does more to unwind monopolies than the FTC
“Amazon is now doing more to actually unwind duopolies and monopolies in markets than the government and the FTC is”
Chamath Palihapitiya Nov 20, 2021 ▶ 1:00:49 E56: Constitution DAO, Rittenhouse trial coverage, private sector efficiency vs the government
Jan 22, 2022 negative
Opinion
Sacks: FTC Chair Lina Khan is shoehorning a union agenda into antitrust
“What they were trying to do there is they were shoehorning a union agenda into clean tech. And I think that's what Lena Horne was doing in that clip. She was shoehorning a union agenda into antitrust law.”
David Sacks Jan 22, 2022 ▶ 39:56 E64: Antitrust standards & enforcement, tech repricing, lab leak obfuscation, E63 reactions & more
Jan 22, 2022 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Sacks predicts FTC regulatory uncertainty will chill Big Tech M&A activity
“I think the reaction of a lot of big tech companies, this is going to be to stop doing M and A until the situation gets clarified because they just don't know you know, targets are target companies are going to want to have huge breakup fees and it's just goin…”
David Sacks Jan 22, 2022 ▶ 39:04 E64: Antitrust standards & enforcement, tech repricing, lab leak obfuscation, E63 reactions & more
Feb 11, 2023 neutral
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Palihapitiya predicts Google losing search market share kills FTC antitrust cases
“Microsoft taking five or 600 basis points of share is the best way to ensure that the FTC has zero credibility in going after Google or anybody else in tech. Those, all of those things I think are DOA.”
Chamath Palihapitiya Feb 11, 2023 ▶ 1:29:09 E115: The AI Search Wars: Google vs. Microsoft, Nordstream report, State of the Union
Feb 17, 2023 negative
Opinion
Sacks: Lina Khan's focus on bigness takes a meat cleaver to tech
“What Lena Khan has done is just go after quote bigness, which just means stopping these companies from doing anything that would make them bigger. The approach is just not surgical enough. It's basically like taking a meat cleaver to the industry.”
David Sacks Feb 17, 2023 ▶ 28:19 E116: Toxic out-of-control trains, regulators, and AI
Feb 17, 2023
Insight
Chamath: Effective corporate regulation requires deep internal business experience
“If you're going to deconstruct companies to make them better, you should be steeped in how companies actually work, which typically only comes from working inside of companies.”
Chamath Palihapitiya Feb 17, 2023 ▶ 26:15 E116: Toxic out-of-control trains, regulators, and AI
May 19, 2023 negative
Opinion
Sacks: Regulators should target anti-competitive tactics instead of blocking mergers
“What I said in the context of tech is that we should focus on the anti-competitive tactics and stop those rather than blocking all mergers.”
David Sacks May 19, 2023 ▶ 59:08 E129: Sam Altman plays chess with regulators, AI's "nuclear" potential, big pharma bundling & more
May 19, 2023 positive
Opinion
Friedberg: FTC's antitrust case against Amgen acquiring Horizon is compelling
“I felt like it was a fairly kind of Compelling case. I'm the lawyer on antitrust and monopolistic practices and the Sherman Act, but this was not sorry, let me just say this was not an early stage biotech risky deal that they're trying to block.”
David Friedberg May 19, 2023 ▶ 55:10 E129: Sam Altman plays chess with regulators, AI's "nuclear" potential, big pharma bundling & more
May 19, 2023 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Chamath: FTC blocking pharma M&A will chill early biotech venture funding
“You're going to see a Paul come over the early stage venture financing landscape, because a lot of these guys that are crossover investors that own a lot of these public biotech stocks that also fund the private stocks will change their risk posture if they ca…”
Chamath Palihapitiya May 19, 2023 ▶ 55:43 E129: Sam Altman plays chess with regulators, AI's "nuclear" potential, big pharma bundling & more
Jul 14, 2023 negative
Opinion
Chamath: FTC under Lina Khan relies on emotionally reactive litigation
“I think the Lena Conn thing is very different. I think this was a nuanced argument that the SEC made that required a highly sophisticated interpretation of securities law, and you're supposed to go to the courts for that. I think what the FTC has been doing is…”
Chamath Palihapitiya Jul 14, 2023 ▶ 36:11 E137: Inflation cools, market rips, Ripple/MSFT beat regulators, NATO summit, cocktails of youth
Jul 14, 2023 bearish
Opinion
Chamath: FTC wastes taxpayer money funding frivolous lawsuits tech giants win
“And I think it just wastes taxpayer money by funding these frivolous lawsuits that then sophisticated organizations like Microsoft and meta just win.”
Chamath Palihapitiya Jul 14, 2023 ▶ 46:31 E137: Inflation cools, market rips, Ripple/MSFT beat regulators, NATO summit, cocktails of youth
Apr 5, 2024 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Sacks: Big tech will struggle to close $50B acquisitions under FTC scrutiny
“It's gonna be very hard for any big tech company to do a fifty billion dollar acquisition of anything, just that given that lean economy, FTC are opposed to bigness in and of itself.”
David Sacks Apr 5, 2024 ▶ 37:57 E173: Google buying HubSpot? FTX depositors not made whole, AI job fears, Ukraine joining NATO
Jun 7, 2024 negative
Opinion
Palihapitiya: DOJ and FTC antitrust investigations into AI are completely premature
“I think the DOJ and the FTC are totally way out of their ski tips on this. This is a totally nascent industry. We don't have any good examples of end user use cases, either in the enterprise or amongst consumers.”
Chamath Palihapitiya Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 19:49 DOJ targets Nvidia, Meme stock comeback, Trump fundraiser in SF, Apple/OpenAI, Texas stock market
Jul 19, 2024 negative
Prediction Held up
Sacks: Lina Khan will not lead the FTC in a second Trump administration
“I don't think that Lena Khan is going to be running that agency in a second Trump administration”
David Sacks Jul 19, 2024 ▶ 1:11:13 Trump assassination attempt, Secret Service failure, Inside the RNC, VC liquidity problem
Aug 30, 2024 negative
Insight
Hoffman: FTC blocking tech M&A quells venture capital investment
“Her theory is you gotta prevent the aggregation of power, so you gotta fight every acquisition of note. And the problem, of course, is that actually quells venture capital investment.”
Reid Hoffman Aug 30, 2024 ▶ 33:04 In conversation with Reid Hoffman & Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
May 17, 2025 negative
Assertion Supported
Friedberg: FTC estimates PBMs extracted $7.3B in excess specialty drug markups
“The FTC has been investigating them and have several open cases between 2017 and 2022. The estimate that these companies generated 7.3 billion dollars in excess profit by marking up prices. On specialty generic drugs.”
David Friedberg May 17, 2025 ▶ 1:34:58 Trump's Big Week: Middle East Trip, China Deal, Pharma EO, "Big, Beautiful Bill" with Ben Shapiro
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