Market sentiment is on a razor's edge, says Roth Capital Partners' Rohit Kulkarni
2025-12-31_14-35 • 3m 16s
David Faber (Co-Anchor)
00:00.000
Let's
talk
about
some
of
that
right
now.
Of
course,
in
particular,
uh
2026,
what
we
can
expect
in
terms
of
that
spending.
Rohit
Kalkarni
is
managing
director
and
senior
research
analyst
at
Roth
Capital
Partners
and
joins
uh
joins
us
now.
Rohit,
good
to
have
you.
Um,
2026
going
David Faber (Co-Anchor)
00:15.920
to
be
more
of
the
same
when
it
comes
to
the
big
picture
in
terms
of
spend
and
return
or
expected
return?
Rohit Kulkarni (Senior Research Analyst)
00:22.600
Hey,
thanks
David.
Happy
New
Year's
Eve
to
both
of
both
you
and
uh
Sarah.
Um,
yeah,
I
think
it's
more
of
the
same,
but
I
think
the
market
sentiment
is
going
to
drive
uh
some
of
uh
the
commentary.
I
think
market
sentiment
is
on
a
on
a
razor's
edge.
If
you
think
uh
you
said
Nasdaq
Rohit Kulkarni (Senior Research Analyst)
00:37.400
was
up
20%
but
for
the
first
time
in
several
years
uh
mega
caps
are
not
outperforming
Nasdaq.
So,
there's
a
question
to
be
answered.
If
you're
spending
hundreds
of
billions
of
dollars,
uh
when
do
the
returns
show
up?
How
do
the
returns
show
up?
And
in
the
meanwhile,
how
does
the
Rohit Kulkarni (Senior Research Analyst)
00:53.480
transition
play
out?
I
think
the
first
half
is
probably
we
will
need
more
answers
to
that
and
uh
by
that
there's
more
explanation
to
do.
I
don't
think
we'll
see
revenue
upside
but
just
cost
discipline
better
cost
discipline
is
what
we
will
expect
either
through
CapEx
commentary
Rohit Kulkarni (Senior Research Analyst)
01:11.840
or
probably
more
layouts
at
some
of
these
large
companies.
David Faber (Co-Anchor)
01:16.280
Right.
But
if
we
were
to
see,
I
mean,
again,
what
we
have
not
seen
and
what
the
market
I
think
has
been
concerned
about
at
least
or
worried
that
we
might
is
one
of
the
big
companies
saying,
"All
right,
we've
spent
too
much.
We're
going
to
pull
back."
We
haven't
seen
that.
Do
you
David Faber (Co-Anchor)
01:29.080
expect
in
2020
26
that
we
might?
Rohit Kulkarni (Senior Research Analyst)
01:32.680
Uh,
that
that
would
be
a
very
spooky
thing
for
a
large
mega
cap
company
to
say.
If
they
they
come
out
so
early,
it's
it's
almost
a
game
of
chicken.
Who's
going
to
be
the
first
person
to
say
that?
I
I
would
be
very
surprised
if
either
of
the
large
hyperscalers
would
would
go
out
Rohit Kulkarni (Senior Research Analyst)
01:48.440
and
say
that
we
are
taking
a
pause.
Uh,
rather
in
my
opinion,
there
would
be
some
extraneous
factors
like
supply
chain
issues,
power
uh
not
being
available
at
the
right
time
at
the
right
uh
place.
Um,
such
as
that
would
be
kind
of
quote
and
quote
excuses
um
that
would
kind
of
Rohit Kulkarni (Senior Research Analyst)
02:06.320
hint
that
there
is
going
to
be
a
measured
capex
coming
up
in
the
pipeline.
But
in
my
opinion,
I
would
just
say
no.
I
It's
It's
going
to
be
very
hard
for
a
company
to
say
that.
Sarah Eisen (Co-Anchor)
02:17.320
So,
how
do
you
know?
How
How
should
shareholders
know
Rohith
if
they
if
they
these
hyperscalers
are
spending
too
much?
If
If
Meta
and
Google
and
Amazon
are
are
are
spending
correctly.
I
think
Amazon's
spending
the
most
and
interesting
Yeah,
Rohit Kulkarni (Senior Research Analyst)
02:33.560
absolutely.
I
think
so
there
are
various
different
specific
metrics
and
variables
that
investors
will
look
at
with
Amazon.
We
We
look
at
cloud
computing.
If
it
accelerates,
probably
they
have
a
longer
leash
of
spending.
Google
has
probably
demonstrated
the
best
innovation
skill
Rohit Kulkarni (Senior Research Analyst)
02:51.080
set.
Meta
is
in
in
in
somewhat
of
a
penalty
box
given
they
have
the
the
the
only
single
kind
of
single
like
pony
if
you
will,
one
trick
pony
that
they
have.
So,
I
think
each
of
these
companies
are
measured
on
a
different
uh
metric.
Uh,
but
accelerating
revenues
in
first
half
is
Rohit Kulkarni (Senior Research Analyst)
03:10.560
something
that
everybody
would
want
to
see
for
them
to
continue
to
spend
uh
into
second
half
of
26.
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