June 21, 2025 • 38 mins
Watch Alix and Paul LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.
Hosts: Paul Sweeney and Alix Steel
On this podcast:
- Michael Polsky, Founder and CEO of Invenergy, discusses the fate of solar and wind in the U.S.
- Chris Gadomski, BNEF Lead Nuclear Analyst, discusses BNEF’s outlook for nuclear development.
- Theresa Condor, Spire Global CEO, discusses how AI and satellite data are redefining weather forecasting.
- John Boyd, Founder & President of the National Black Farmers Association, discusses challenges faced by U.S farmers.
- Laura Modi, (Pronounced: "Mow-di") CEO and Co-Founder of Bobbie, discusses the infant formula Made in America Act.
- Cid Wilson, CEO of Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, discusses advancement programs, conferences, research initiatives, and the importance of DEI.
Bloomberg Intelligence, the research arm of Bloomberg L.P., has more than 400 professionals who provide in-depth analysis on more than 2,000 companies and 135 industries while considering strategic, equity and credit perspectives. BI also provides interactive data from over 500 independent contributors. It is available exclusively for Bloomberg Terminal subscribers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Bloomberg Intelligence with Alex Steel and Paul Sweeney.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The real op performance has been in US corporate high yield.
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Are the companies lean enough? Have they trimmed all the facts?
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The semiconductor business is a really cyclical business.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Breaking market headlines and corporate news from across the globe.
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Do investors like the M and A that we've seen?
Speaker 4 (00:21):
These are two.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Big time blue chip companies.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Window between the peak and cunt changing super fast.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Bloomberg Intelligence with Alex Steele and Paul Sweeney on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's based Bloomberg Intelligence Show. We dig inside the big
business stories impacting Wall Street and the global markets.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Each and every week we provide in depth research and
data on some of the two thousand companies and one
hundred and thirty industries our analysts cover worldwide.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Today, we'll look at how AI and satellite data are
redefining weather forecasting.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Plus June is Pride Month. Then will highlight pass segments
on topics related to equality.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
But first we begin with the energy section.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
We recently looked at the company in Energy. In Energy develops, builds, owns,
and operates power generation and energy storage projects in the
America's Europe and Asia.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
The company recently announced the successful commissioning of a solar
energy plant in Ohio, which will be run under a
power purchase agreement with.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Microsoft, and back in December, Meta Platforms announced it's signed
four contracts with in Energy for seven hundred and sixty
megawats of clean energy.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
For more on in Energy and the challenges it's facing,
we were joined by the company's founder and CEO, Michael Polsky.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
We first asked Michael, just how hard it is to
get agreements with hyperscalers right now?
Speaker 5 (01:28):
These are large scale agreements, so it's not easy to
just walk in and these are big deals. So first
of all, we have to make sure that both sides
so that we agree on that. You know, suppliers have
sufficient supplies and buyer satisfy bio requirements is what is
also important that certain reliability standards are being mad and
(01:52):
most importantly, the price has to be appropriate for a
buyer to agree to buy this.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Michael, is the Trump administration making your business, the development
of your business, the expansion of your business easier more difficult?
Noble impact? Yet what have you seen?
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Clearly the administration send very right sign President announced Energy emergency,
which I believe there is an energy emergency because we
have to build. There is increased demand and we have
to build more supplies and more supplies we have to build.
If we build like we used to do it, it
would take too long. So it's really an emergency. So
we try to in energy, we try to build as
(02:31):
much supply as possible. What is also very important, not
just supply, but transmission. I mean, one of one of
our biggest developments right now and what we believe is
critical to meet sort of this emergency is to build
more transmission lines. I always like to say that, you know,
(02:52):
if we build more trucks without roads, we're not going
to deliver goods.
Speaker 6 (02:55):
So in order for.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Electrons to move, we need transmission lines. And if we
have mission then we can shorten time to interconnect facility.
We have to be able to move power from where
it's produced to where it's used, and I think we can.
We can really build infrastructure a lot faster here and
with a lot more impact.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I mean, to your point, go Goldmen Sachs talking about
how power is already tight in the Northeast. There was
a report that said the development of data centers to
the largest US grid, and PGM is raising costs by
almost ten billion because we just can't build it out
fast enough. What's the biggest hurdle to reimagining transmission.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
I think there are multiple. One is obviously permitting because
it takes forever permit.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
And supposedly that's all going to be fixed. Now has
that all been fixed?
Speaker 5 (03:42):
I mean it's in the process. Obviously there are there
are good announcements. We have to see as a business,
we have to see how it's going to be im implemented,
because implementation is very important. But it's not just permitting.
I think transmission has to be appropriately paid for and
right now, particularly for low on this transmission, we don't
have a metadology in this country how to pay for transmission.
(04:04):
So there is a lot of you know, intention to
build and the only really transmission being built the one
that recovered by utilities or rtos through the rate payer.
You know, the moment you touch something that is not
typically normal, then it's very difficult. So we have to
really come up with appropriate methodology to value transmission and
(04:26):
allocate the cost of transmission. I think, in my opinion,
for this administration for Department of Energy that should be
really one of the most important tasks to build our infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I did read a book The Grid, so it took
me a whole summer to get through it, and it
was not an easy read. But I think I have
some understanding of it. What's your sense overall of power
grid in the United States? How good is it, how
bad is it? How much investment does it need?
Speaker 7 (04:53):
You know?
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Obviously, you know there are there are a lot of
discussions about greater right now the world being used like
an antiquated all not reliable, which is which is true
in many ways because most of our gride has been
built thirty forty years ago, and and there are a
lot of change since then. I mean, for example, we
(05:14):
used to have very centralized way of generated electricity from
very large cold nuclear you know sometimes gas power plants.
Now we have a lot more decentralized generation. Number one.
Another issue is that we have our weather pattern has changed.
I mean now we have a lot more you know
in claimant weather. We have ice storms, what we've seen
(05:36):
in Texas, we have we have floods, we have other
weather events, which shows that generation itself is susceptible. We
cannot make hundred percent sort of guaranteed generations. So how
to deal with this? We have to create connect like
(05:57):
I like to call larger geographies, so power can move
from here to there, just like coroans. Right, if we
only go from here to there on one road and
that's something to happened with that road, then we cannot
avoid that, then all the traffic will be stopped for days.
We can avoid this, so we we have to have transmission.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
So based on that, you said the sort of financing
this transmission is key. How would that work? I get
it for the you know, regulated utilities, but if you
want a transmission line across multiple states, how could the
financing work to make sense for an independent player like you?
Speaker 5 (06:31):
This is a fundamental problem here, right. We know we
in the United States we talk about the reliability, we
talk about national security, but for example, we develop in
large transmission line and which dramatically increase reliability. But then
you go to the rtos like myso and ask them
to value reliability, and they just don't value this because
(06:55):
neither they know how to do it or they simply
don't want to do it. So this is a fundamental
problem that you know when you have when you build transmission.
For example, in our case Grain Belt Express, it's eleven
billion dollar project. We have to have revenues associ in
order to finance this, and if nobody wants to pay
for anything, it's really hard. So I think it's it
(07:16):
should be a priority for the government to really establish
revenue streams for transmission.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Thanks to Inventergy founder and CEO Michael Polsky.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Each week we look at research from Bloomberg ne EF
previously known as New Energy Finance.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
They're the team at Bloomberg that tracks and analyzes the
energy transition from commodities to power, transport, industries, buildings, and
agricultural sectors.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
This week we looked at BNF's outlook for nuclear energy.
Within the last month, President Donald Trump announced four executive
orders aimed at revitalizing nuclear energy in the US.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
For more, we spoke with Chris Gadomski, b n e
F Lead nuclear analyst, and.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
We first asked Chris if the Trump administration's recent nuclear
policies are actually going to work.
Speaker 8 (07:55):
You know, there's a big difference between policy push and
market pull. Policy push is probably very very effective for
renewable technologies, but when you think about building nuclear power plants.
That's a pretty substantial decision that the utility CEO has
to make, and it's something that the hyperscalers are looking
(08:16):
at very seriously. So you can set the stage for
having these very favorable policy initiatives. But whether or not
the utility executive who's only in charge, who's running the
utility for only seven eight years, decides, hey, I'll build
a couple of large reactors, that's a pretty daunting thing
for him to do, especially given an experience here where
we spend thirty four billion dollars building two point two
(08:39):
gigots of capacity in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Do we need the big plants that we're all used
to or do we need this modular thing That technology
looks interesting to me.
Speaker 8 (08:49):
It certainly is, and we'll probably see small module reactors
operating in Canada by the turn of the decade. I
was going to say, turn the centu oh wit decade,
and we'll probably see shortly thereafter some in Michigan as well,
three hundred megawatt reactors. The advantage of this is that
(09:10):
to go from first of a kind cost to end
of a kind cost for small major reactors, you need
to sort of it get some experience behind just set
up by manufacturing facilities and sort of each one becomes
progressively cheaper. And so it's much easier to do that
with a small modu reactor than it is with a
large reactor because it's a very very difficult decision and
(09:32):
onerous position for utility executive to say, I'll build a
very very large capital improvement here. That's going to take
seven to ten years.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
So it's very daunting, which is why with the hyperscalers
that's a question mark, right, because they need power yesterday,
so they're not going to wait seven years for a
plant to be built. And that's like the good case
scenario is seven years.
Speaker 8 (09:53):
Right for the large reactors, certainly, I mean it took
Vogel four years of licensing and ten years of construction,
so you pay twenty five thirty percent of that, you know,
the Department of Energy suggests thirty percent decline in the cost.
Hopefully that will reduced the time to construct. But I
think that the way to go is the smaller mojor
(10:13):
reactors because they're more flexibility. Another big concern for hyperscalers
is they want reliability, and large reactors small reactors all
have episodes occasionally, and if you have a thousand megawatt
reactor the size to what the Westinghouse eighty one thousand,
and you'll lose that You're in a position you have
to scramble to replace that power. If you have three
(10:34):
or four three hundred megawatt reactors and one of them
goes down for maintenance or so, it's easier to bridge
that gap three hundred. So it's a it's an interesting
dilemma that all the utilities the hyperscalers are facing.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Is there any reason that the US could not model
what Canada is doing here? Is that just a regulatory issue?
Speaker 8 (10:57):
You know, regulatory issue. The US has the gold standard
in nuclear regulations, and the Trump administration would like to
sort of make it easier to license some of the reactors.
And it's a very very daunting thing when you when
a company that newse Scale is the only company that
has licenses technology of late and they spend, according to
(11:18):
the CEO, five hundred million dollars in the process took
forty four months. That's a pretty big roadblock for these vendors.
New vendors who are trying to introduce innovative technologies.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Okay, could we see something like the SMR so the
small modular reactors behind the meter at a hyperscaler so
basically not connected to the grid, its own small little
SMR that's hooked up to like a meta facility.
Speaker 8 (11:43):
There's a lot of discussion about doing that. One of
the problems with nuclear reactors is that you need to
have some sort of it's preferable to be hooked to
the grid, and one reason is safety is that in
case something goes wrong, you need some source of power
to keep the island. So that's something that's been kicked around.
People are thinking about exploring that. But you know, a
(12:06):
large reactor of three hundred megawats plus is probably going
to be connected to the grid. Some of the smaller
reactors in the fifty to one hundred mego lot may
be a different story. But that issue about having access
to the grid to cool it in case something goes
wrong is important.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Our thanks to Chris Kadomski be any lead nuclear analyst.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Coming up, we'll look at the challenges faced by black
US farmers.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
You're listening to Bloomerg Intelligence on Bloomberg Radio, providing in
depth research and data on two thousand companies and one
hundred and thirty industries. You can access Bloomberg Intelligence via
b I go on the terminal on Paul.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Swinging an a Malex Steel and this is Bloomberg.
Speaker 9 (12:42):
Out here in the middle of all these acres. It
can feel like you're the only person on earth. And
sometimes that's how it feels when you're going through tough times, trouble, sleeping,
your mind racing. So what do we do We get help?
There are people in our community who are here for us.
Sometimes just talking to someone can make all the difference
(13:03):
in the world. Find more information at Love your Mind
Today dot org. That's Loveyourmind Today dot org. Brought to
you by the Huntsman Man twelfth Institute and the AD Council.
Speaker 10 (13:12):
This is the Bloomberg Green Report. Damage related to climate
change costs the United States nearly one trillion dollars over
a twelve month period that ended May first. That is,
according to a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis. The spending represents three
percent of the gross domestic product. Disaster recovery accounts for
a big share of the climate change related spending. The
(13:34):
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the back to back
hurricanes Helene and Milton caused one hundred and thirteen billion
dollars in damage and in another sixty five billion for
the Los Angeles wildfires. The report, titled the Climate Economy
twenty twenty five Outlook, says the biggest drivers of the
trend in the US are insurance premiums. They've doubled since
(13:58):
twenty seventeen. Increased climate costs from insurance premiums, power outages,
disaster recovery, and uninsured damage are responsible for more than
a third of US GDP growth since two thousand. Jeff Bellinger,
Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
You're listening to Bloomberg Intelligence with Alex Steele and Paul
Sweeney on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
We recently looked at the company spire Global, which trades
under Nasdaq ticker spir.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
It's a space power, data and analytics company that offers
access to data sets and insights about Earth, oceans, and atmosphere.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
We are recently joined by spiro Global CEO Teresa Condor,
and she discussed how it's AI and satellite data are
redefining weather forecasting.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
First, ask Teresa, what the broad potential is for this
kind of satellite market.
Speaker 11 (14:45):
What is interesting about what we do The satellites are
very small, about the size of a little bread really
going around there, very tiny, and they're packed with a
bunch of different sensors, and those sensors collect in our
satellite case radio frequency information that then lets us help
customers make better decisions about what to do. So some
(15:05):
examples of things are a collection of atmospheric weather data
that then goes into weather forecasting that allows companies utility companies,
for example, make better decisions about how they should protect
their grid in the event of extreme weather such as
a hurricane. In other cases, you can use satellite surveillance
data and tracking around the aviation sector and aircraft to
(15:27):
help have better efficient operations around airports and the movement
of aircraft, and a whole host of other applications, including
defense related applications.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Who do you guys compete with?
Speaker 11 (15:38):
So that's always a difficult question because we're present in
multiple different markets. Whether you think of whether in climate,
you think of aviation, you think of space reconnaissance, and
so we'll have certain different competitors in each of those spaces.
Since you mentioned Planet Lab earlier, I'll have to say
that planet is not usually a company that is considered
a competitor because they're taking pictures, they're doing imaging versus
(16:01):
what we do is this collection of electronic information and
radio frequency data.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
So you both send data to customers from your satellites,
but the type of data and how you collect the
data is then.
Speaker 11 (16:12):
Different exactly and the type of use cases and the
relevance of it. So you'll have customers that want both
types of data that are complementary.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
What kind of stuff are you noticing right now, like
what is some themes some broad stuff that you're telling
your customers.
Speaker 11 (16:26):
So I think there's a lot of interest in defense
and intelligence applications of satellites and in particular the type
of RF type of technology that we have. Naturally, this
comes out of the current geopolitical situation. You have a
lot of stuff going on in the United States right now,
and at the same time, really since February, you've had
rest of world governments looking at increasing their defense budgets,
(16:49):
having less expectation of reliance on the United States to
defend them in terms of crisis. So there's a lot
of interest in how the rest of world can develop
their capabilities.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
We have customers around the world. Is the domestic us
we do we have customers around this? Is the US
government a customer?
Speaker 11 (17:05):
The US government is also a customer.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Are the big one of the line share or you
it's pretty diversified.
Speaker 11 (17:10):
We're actually quite diversified both between commercial company customers as
well as a government and that can be civil agencies
who buy our weather, weather, atmospheric data sets. And it
can also be defense and intelligence and that's US and
rest of world. So it's pretty well diversified.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
We've had companies ranging from McDonald's to I don't know
what say AI is revolutionary revolutionizing their business. How is
AI impacting the satellite business?
Speaker 11 (17:37):
So AI is also an important in term and topic
in the satellite sector. There's a couple of areas where
we find it interesting. The first is in weather forecasting,
where we're doing AI based weather forecasting, specifically when we
talk about sub seasonal forecasts, so going thirty forty five
days in the future, where normal forecasting models aren't usually
(17:57):
very good. The other areas are when it comes the satellites,
are the processing of data and the ability to use
AI to process them automatically and on orbit so you
don't have to download all the data sets, as well
as in the operations of the constellation overall, because if
you have many, many satellites in orbit in various various
orbital planes with lots of different sensors on them, having
(18:20):
AI ability to manage that network is something quite interesting.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
I was going to say, you also had a contract
with Space Force, right, Did I read that right?
Speaker 11 (18:28):
There was one that was just recently announced with Chase
Force contract.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
How cool is that?
Speaker 10 (18:33):
I know?
Speaker 3 (18:34):
So how easy is it to come to deals with contracts?
I would think that your services are highly needed right
now as companies are trying to figure out where to
build stuff, for example, or how to allocate their supply chains.
Speaker 11 (18:50):
So I think demand is very strong right now for
both satellite data sets as it relates to climate or
to better understanding increased weather variability. And there is also
increasing demand what I mentioned on the defense and the
intelligence side, and in particular as more and more countries
look to how they build out their own sovereign capabilities,
(19:13):
and this is where we have the strength in building
both in Europe as well as in the United States.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Our thanks aspiring Global CEO, Teresa Condor.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
June is Pride month. So on Bloomberg Intelligence, we've been
highlighting segments on topics related to equality.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
In this segment, we spoke to John Boyd, founder and
President of the National Black Farmers Association.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
John discussed the challenges faced by black US farmers, and
we first asked him to break down what his organization does.
Speaker 12 (19:39):
We offer technical assistance and outreachs two one hundred and
fifty one thousand members in the United States. We've been
around since the early eighties, and we were organized to
help eradicate discrimination that government agencies and state federal levels.
And we've been doing this kind of work for a
(20:00):
very very long time. And I spearheaded the black farmer's
lawsuits won in settlement in nineteen ninety nine and the
other settlement on December eighth, twenty ten by former President
Barack Obama that paid out one point two five billion
dollars to twenty eight thousand black farmers who faced an
(20:24):
experienced discrimination at the hands of the United States Department
of Agriculture. So we've been around a very very long time.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
So John, how is that journey going? I mean, how
clearly it wasn't great when you started the association. What
kind of grade would you give give it now?
Speaker 12 (20:37):
Well, I think we really went back decades here in
progress with the administration. They came in and done away
with anything that began with the word equity and diversity
and justice and eliminated those positions at the United States
Department of Agriculture, and we still haven't received our five
(20:58):
billion dollar payout for discrimination. And also the also land
in federal inventory that I've been after for many many years,
and it was disheartening to learn that the administration was
bringing white farmers in from South Africa offering them a
(21:20):
fast path to citizenship. And also we learned that they're
going to offer these farmers land out of federal inventory
that came from black farmers and land from the Department
of Interior that came raising land that was primarily leased
to Native Americans. I was disheardened that the President said,
although he was doing away with DEI or anything that
(21:42):
was race related, and then brought in white farmers too,
the United States solely based on race. So he's saying
he wants to have everything equal and do away with
the race stuff. But then he brings in white farmers
from South Africa and once to offer them a fast
past the citizenship. And I'm one hundred and ten percent
(22:03):
opposed to it.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Well, you know, John, it's also hard because being a
farmer's hard in general, Like hard enough, you're dealing with crops,
hard weather, You're dealing with things completely out of your control.
Speaker 12 (22:14):
And then it hardest occupation known to man. People is farming.
And I could work twenty four hours in a day
and never catch up. And you know, we have to
deal with the act of mother nature, like you said,
floods and tornadoes and hurricanes and droughts, and disbelieve it
(22:37):
or not, is the first year and a very very
long time that I'm farming without a farm operating loan
here in my own country, where the bank said and
the government said, you know, we're not going to extend
credit to you because your input costs and the low
price is due to the President's terrorists created some of
(22:58):
the lowest prices. And in a very very long time,
if you factor in the input costs and the low
commodity costs, weet five dollars of bushee corn and four
dollars and something of bushel, and so it being severing
around ten dollars of bushel. People, these are very very
low prices. And every time the president says the word tariffs,
(23:21):
he scares the bejeebas out of the markets, and the
prices plummet. And you know, many Americans don't know that
farmers or price takers. We're not price givers. So my
price is based on the market that the president can
plays with when you know, when he gets ready, it
(23:41):
affects the very first people that voted for him, overwhelmingly
is farmers in this country are the very first population
that's taking a black eye from the president because of
these low prices that we just don't have any control LEVELM.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Do you think the grains that will be included in
trade deals, which then in essence could help Well, I
hope so.
Speaker 12 (24:04):
And you know, I'd like to equate it back to
the president's first presidency, and I believe it was in
twenty eighteen where we were I was actually selling soybeans
almost a sixteen eighty cents a bushel, and when the
President imposed tariffs the first time on this presidency, the
(24:27):
price plummeted because China basically stopped buying them, all the
way down to six dollars a bushel from sixteen dollars
eighty cents. So we don't have anything to compare it
to in a positive aspect. They didn't work the first time,
and right now, as I'm sitting here talking to you,
I'm in a very precurious situation. You know, no farm
(24:49):
operating loan, a shaky market, and for the future of
agriculture right now, things are looking grim.
Speaker 7 (24:56):
People.
Speaker 12 (24:57):
We just don't have the new markets that the President
said they were working to put in in place, and
you know the egg Department. Instead of making things better,
they're saying that they want to close offices. So the
administration says that they're going to help farm is by payments,
but they're closing farm all right.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Thanks to John Boyd, founder and president of the National
Black Farmers Association. Coming up on the program, a conversation
on DEI with the CEO of Hispanic Association on corporate responsibility.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
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by Beaver. It scans barcodes and tell consumers whether a
product is Canadian. Dip says it's the chastest growing app
he and his business partner have developed, garnering thirty five
thousand downloads in just two weeks. His app's popularity reflects
(27:08):
growing anger at Canada's biggest trading partner, the US, as
President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs, made fifty first state jabs,
and referred to the country's prime minister as Governor Trudeau.
Furious Canadian consumers have turned into vindictive shoppers. Experts warn
this trend could have significant economic implications for US businesses
(27:30):
big and small. In Canadian grocery stores, US grown produce
is wilting on the shelves. Canadians are scaring wineless over
dinner to avoid ordering California wines, and more and more
Canadians are canceling vacations to the US. And that's the
Bloomberg Small Business Report.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
This is Bloomberg Intelligence with Paul Sweeney and Alex Steele
on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
June is Pridemont so on Bloomberg Intelligence, We've been highlighting
segments on top related to equality.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
In this segment, we looked at Bobby the only female
found it, and mom led organic infant formula company In
the US, the industry has historically been dominated by male executives.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Laura Maudi is the CEO and co founder at Bobby.
Laura mother for was a high powered executive at Airbnb
before surprising everyone around her to leave her position for Bobby.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
We had the pleasure of speaking with Laura and we
first asked her about the biggest struggle right now in
the baby formula industry.
Speaker 14 (28:27):
The biggest struggle I think right now is you know,
you'll remember the formula shortage in twenty twenty two. There
has been a very concentrated effort to make sure that
we diversify and break up the concentrated market and the
only way to do that is to invest in more
domestic manufacturing. I think the last time I spoke to
(28:48):
you guys, I mentioned that we have co created a
bill that really allows and incentivizes more domestic manufacturing for
infant formula, and right now is that is the number
one focus.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
The infant formula made an America Act of twenty twenty five.
Talk to us about that.
Speaker 14 (29:06):
So again, like I said, this is on the back
of the shortage and what we recognized was nothing will
change if nothing changes when it comes to the footprint
of infant formula manufacturing. So this bill incentivizes new players
to up level and to break ground and build infant
formula manufacturing here in the US.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
How expensive is it?
Speaker 14 (29:31):
It's very expensive. It's very expensive, but maybe nothing like
other investments that are being made right now in manufacturing.
It takes around three years and it could be anywhere
from you know, sixty two, one hundred and fifty million
dollars to get a basic footprint in place, and sometimes
even more. And given how long it takes to be
(29:52):
able to get more manufacturing up and running, this is
why we can't wait for another crisis. The investments have
to happen now. And what this bill is is and
it's finally gotten bipartisan support. I don't actually believe there's
anything more bipartisan than investing in how our next generation
is fed and building the resiliency of this market. I
(30:14):
am just hoping that this bill gets introduced as something
that gets passed sooner rather than later.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Just remind us, Lara, where do Americas Where do we
source most of our infant formula these days?
Speaker 14 (30:28):
Yeah? Look, most of it, most of it is sourced domestically.
But what we did do is that we allowed some
international formulas, some foreign formulas to come into the country
on the back of the shortage. We essentially have imported
our way out of a crisis, and that is still happening.
(30:49):
So over the last few years, we've gone from less
than one percent of infant formula being made and sourced
in the US to now over ten percent of American
babies are on formula coming in from overseas. And the
big push that I'm trying to have is high quality
formula should be able to be sourced and made here
at America for American babies.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Yes, but because it's expensive to say, build the plans here, etc.
Can we get that at a price point where like
you can stand business and make money, but also it
can be available to all different types of families.
Speaker 14 (31:24):
The push I would have on that is it takes
more than the private sector to be able to make
that happen. And we're talking about infant formula. This is
where we need something like this bill to be put
in place to help bring down the costs because what
they are is it's a production tax credit, which means
that for every can, for every production run we make,
(31:45):
there's tax credits given back so that we can bring
those costs down. And it's really important that we make
those investments today. Otherwise what we're doing is we're waiving
the white flag as a country and saying America is
unable to do it. So we're going to allow other
countries to feed our babies. Fast forward in seven ten years,
we could be in a much bigger crisis if we're
(32:07):
allowing on other countries to feed our babies.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
D just give us the latest updates for your company, Bobby.
Speaker 14 (32:14):
Well, we've been pushing a lot of innovation. I think
the one thing we can't lose sight of is that
the quality of infant formula deserves its utmost attention on
an ongoing basis. So we recently launched the first USDA
organic whole milk infant formula made at our facility in Ohio,
and we're going to keep watching the way science evolves,
(32:36):
and when the scientists say that there's new updates that
need to happen, we're going to be making those changes
to our product. And my entire focus as a mother
is to keep innovating and up leveling the nutritional requirements
of formula for American babies.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Do you a want of competition right now?
Speaker 14 (32:57):
There is competition. There is competition, and it's health the
competition because we need we need choice, and this is
probably one of the only products in the market that
doesn't have enough options. It doesn't have enough choice. And
I believe, I speak for many parents that when you
walk down the formula aisle of a retailer today's it
(33:19):
can often be an empty, sad and lonely aisle. You're
feeding your babies, and it shouldn't be so, I believe
and I hope that with something like the Domestic Manufacturing Bill,
it actually introduces more competition. We need to see more
bobbies on shelf, and that competition will force all of
us to up level the standards.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
All right.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Thanks to Laura Maudi, CEO and co founder of.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Bobby, we continue with our June Pride Month conversations on
topics related to equality.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
In this segment, we spoke to Sid Wilson, the CEO
of the Hispanic Association, on corporate responsibility.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
We discussed corporate responsibility and the importance of diversity, equity,
and inclusion. We began the conversation by asking sid what
his organization does.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
The Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, we've been around for
almost four forty years. Our mission is to advance Hispanic
inclusion in corporate America. I've been in my CEOO for
eleven years, and before that, I was twenty one years
on a wall Street. I was on Equity resarch channelist.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Okay, so you're talking to your team here.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
He's reformed.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
So today DEI in some ways is now a dirty
word in corporations in the United States. How do you
combat that?
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Well, brush you combat it with facts. The reality is
that DEI is not a word, It's an acronym. It
stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. The opposite of that
is is homogeneity, inequality, and exclusion. So when we talk
to companies, we talk about the facts that that diversity,
equity and inclusion is not only the right to do,
(34:45):
it's also good business. Now, whether you call it diversity,
equity and inclusion or do the work of it, you
know you're seeing some of them that are continued to
find ways to do the work of staying under the
Executive Order radar, but recognizing that without diversity equity and
(35:05):
inclusion companies will have a very difficult time competing for customers,
competing for talent, and competing for to be the brand
of choice.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
This reminds me the change and perception of DEIS kind
of reminds those of us on Global Wall Street of
another kind of phenomenon, which was ESG and type of
investment refocused on environment, sustainability, governance, those types of things
that seems to at least in this country taken a
back seat. How about rest of world? How does the
(35:38):
rest of world think about diversity DEI in general?
Speaker 4 (35:43):
When you talk to leaders around the world, particularly in Europe,
they feel that what's happening in the US is extremely
unusual because they know that the path to a successful
business or operation is through having a strong and robust
and intentional diversity, equity and inclusion initiative at all levels,
(36:06):
especially the C suite of the BORCED because we remember that,
you know, sometimes the argument about against THEI is they
claim that it comproises merit, which we know that is incorrect.
What it does is it why ends the scope for
merit based opportunities. The problem though, was in the C suite,
as you know, if you're at the C suite. You're
the c SPE because you're qualified, You're the CC because
(36:28):
you're sponsored, and sponsorship is still has implicit bias, and
that's where you continue to see a lack of representation
for women and people of color.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
I mean absolutely, how do we combat that at a
time when federal policies, particularly on the education level, are
getting rolled back.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
So let me first address the education components. Is that
colleges and universities will still need to look for ways
how they can attract diverse student bodies. You know, no
university is going to want to have, let's say, an
all white male student body and think that that's normal.
Speaker 7 (37:09):
It's not.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
And when you look at the pipeline into the workforce,
particularly technology, whereas whereas all of us know, there is
a shortage of workers going into those tech fields. And
so with that, it means that you not only need
to make sure that you're looking at what you look
what you need to hire, but also looking at even
the immigration policies, because immigration policy that the current administration
(37:33):
has is completely counter to killing the jobs that are
needed in the US to help the economy grow.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Sid maybe thirty seconds left, what's kind of the the
agenda for your organization over the next six or twelve months.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Well, our agenda is to continue to talk to as
many CEOs as possible. We're proud that we we interact
with more fortune five hundred one thousand CEOs than any
other Hispanic organs whole country. And we know that those
direct conversations make a big difference to give companies the
guidance understanding of how they can use diversity, equity inclusion
(38:10):
in this current environment to now we navigate through this
maze that they're having to addressed, but also how they
can still win with diversity, equity and inclusion.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Right thanks to Sid Wilson, CEO of the Hispanic Association
on Corporate Responsibility.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
That's this week's edition of Bloomberg Intelligence on Bloomberg Radio,
providing in depth research and data on two thousand companies
and one hundred and thirty industries.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
And remember you can access Bloomberg Intelligence through b I
go on the terminal. I'm Alex Steel and I'm Paul Sweeney.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Today's top stories and global business headlines are coming up
right now.
This is Bloomberg Intelligence with Alex Steel and Paul Sweeney.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The real op performance has been in US corporate high yield.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Are the companies lean enough? Have they trimmed all the facts?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The semiconductor business is a really cyclical business.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Breaking market headlines and corporate news from across the globe.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Do investors like the M and A that we've seen?
Speaker 4 (00:21):
These are two.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Big time blue chip companies.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Window between the peak and cunt changing super fast.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Bloomberg Intelligence with Alex Steele and Paul Sweeney on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's based Bloomberg Intelligence Show. We dig inside the big
business stories impacting Wall Street and the global markets.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Each and every week we provide in depth research and
data on some of the two thousand companies and one
hundred and thirty industries our analysts cover worldwide.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Today, we'll look at how AI and satellite data are
redefining weather forecasting.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Plus June is Pride Month. Then will highlight pass segments
on topics related to equality.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
But first we begin with the energy section.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
We recently looked at the company in Energy. In Energy develops, builds, owns,
and operates power generation and energy storage projects in the
America's Europe and Asia.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
The company recently announced the successful commissioning of a solar
energy plant in Ohio, which will be run under a
power purchase agreement with.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Microsoft, and back in December, Meta Platforms announced it's signed
four contracts with in Energy for seven hundred and sixty
megawats of clean energy.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
For more on in Energy and the challenges it's facing,
we were joined by the company's founder and CEO, Michael Polsky.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
We first asked Michael, just how hard it is to
get agreements with hyperscalers right now?
Speaker 5 (01:28):
These are large scale agreements, so it's not easy to
just walk in and these are big deals. So first
of all, we have to make sure that both sides
so that we agree on that. You know, suppliers have
sufficient supplies and buyer satisfy bio requirements is what is
also important that certain reliability standards are being mad and
(01:52):
most importantly, the price has to be appropriate for a
buyer to agree to buy this.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Michael, is the Trump administration making your business, the development
of your business, the expansion of your business easier more difficult?
Noble impact? Yet what have you seen?
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Clearly the administration send very right sign President announced Energy emergency,
which I believe there is an energy emergency because we
have to build. There is increased demand and we have
to build more supplies and more supplies we have to build.
If we build like we used to do it, it
would take too long. So it's really an emergency. So
we try to in energy, we try to build as
(02:31):
much supply as possible. What is also very important, not
just supply, but transmission. I mean, one of one of
our biggest developments right now and what we believe is
critical to meet sort of this emergency is to build
more transmission lines. I always like to say that, you know,
(02:52):
if we build more trucks without roads, we're not going
to deliver goods.
Speaker 6 (02:55):
So in order for.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Electrons to move, we need transmission lines. And if we
have mission then we can shorten time to interconnect facility.
We have to be able to move power from where
it's produced to where it's used, and I think we can.
We can really build infrastructure a lot faster here and
with a lot more impact.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I mean, to your point, go Goldmen Sachs talking about
how power is already tight in the Northeast. There was
a report that said the development of data centers to
the largest US grid, and PGM is raising costs by
almost ten billion because we just can't build it out
fast enough. What's the biggest hurdle to reimagining transmission.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
I think there are multiple. One is obviously permitting because
it takes forever permit.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
And supposedly that's all going to be fixed. Now has
that all been fixed?
Speaker 5 (03:42):
I mean it's in the process. Obviously there are there
are good announcements. We have to see as a business,
we have to see how it's going to be im implemented,
because implementation is very important. But it's not just permitting.
I think transmission has to be appropriately paid for and
right now, particularly for low on this transmission, we don't
have a metadology in this country how to pay for transmission.
(04:04):
So there is a lot of you know, intention to
build and the only really transmission being built the one
that recovered by utilities or rtos through the rate payer.
You know, the moment you touch something that is not
typically normal, then it's very difficult. So we have to
really come up with appropriate methodology to value transmission and
(04:26):
allocate the cost of transmission. I think, in my opinion,
for this administration for Department of Energy that should be
really one of the most important tasks to build our infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I did read a book The Grid, so it took
me a whole summer to get through it, and it
was not an easy read. But I think I have
some understanding of it. What's your sense overall of power
grid in the United States? How good is it, how
bad is it? How much investment does it need?
Speaker 7 (04:53):
You know?
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Obviously, you know there are there are a lot of
discussions about greater right now the world being used like
an antiquated all not reliable, which is which is true
in many ways because most of our gride has been
built thirty forty years ago, and and there are a
lot of change since then. I mean, for example, we
(05:14):
used to have very centralized way of generated electricity from
very large cold nuclear you know sometimes gas power plants.
Now we have a lot more decentralized generation. Number one.
Another issue is that we have our weather pattern has changed.
I mean now we have a lot more you know
in claimant weather. We have ice storms, what we've seen
(05:36):
in Texas, we have we have floods, we have other
weather events, which shows that generation itself is susceptible. We
cannot make hundred percent sort of guaranteed generations. So how
to deal with this? We have to create connect like
(05:57):
I like to call larger geographies, so power can move
from here to there, just like coroans. Right, if we
only go from here to there on one road and
that's something to happened with that road, then we cannot
avoid that, then all the traffic will be stopped for days.
We can avoid this, so we we have to have transmission.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
So based on that, you said the sort of financing
this transmission is key. How would that work? I get
it for the you know, regulated utilities, but if you
want a transmission line across multiple states, how could the
financing work to make sense for an independent player like you?
Speaker 5 (06:31):
This is a fundamental problem here, right. We know we
in the United States we talk about the reliability, we
talk about national security, but for example, we develop in
large transmission line and which dramatically increase reliability. But then
you go to the rtos like myso and ask them
to value reliability, and they just don't value this because
(06:55):
neither they know how to do it or they simply
don't want to do it. So this is a fundamental
problem that you know when you have when you build transmission.
For example, in our case Grain Belt Express, it's eleven
billion dollar project. We have to have revenues associ in
order to finance this, and if nobody wants to pay
for anything, it's really hard. So I think it's it
(07:16):
should be a priority for the government to really establish
revenue streams for transmission.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Thanks to Inventergy founder and CEO Michael Polsky.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Each week we look at research from Bloomberg ne EF
previously known as New Energy Finance.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
They're the team at Bloomberg that tracks and analyzes the
energy transition from commodities to power, transport, industries, buildings, and
agricultural sectors.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
This week we looked at BNF's outlook for nuclear energy.
Within the last month, President Donald Trump announced four executive
orders aimed at revitalizing nuclear energy in the US.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
For more, we spoke with Chris Gadomski, b n e
F Lead nuclear analyst, and.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
We first asked Chris if the Trump administration's recent nuclear
policies are actually going to work.
Speaker 8 (07:55):
You know, there's a big difference between policy push and
market pull. Policy push is probably very very effective for
renewable technologies, but when you think about building nuclear power plants.
That's a pretty substantial decision that the utility CEO has
to make, and it's something that the hyperscalers are looking
(08:16):
at very seriously. So you can set the stage for
having these very favorable policy initiatives. But whether or not
the utility executive who's only in charge, who's running the
utility for only seven eight years, decides, hey, I'll build
a couple of large reactors, that's a pretty daunting thing
for him to do, especially given an experience here where
we spend thirty four billion dollars building two point two
(08:39):
gigots of capacity in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Do we need the big plants that we're all used
to or do we need this modular thing That technology
looks interesting to me.
Speaker 8 (08:49):
It certainly is, and we'll probably see small module reactors
operating in Canada by the turn of the decade. I
was going to say, turn the centu oh wit decade,
and we'll probably see shortly thereafter some in Michigan as well,
three hundred megawatt reactors. The advantage of this is that
(09:10):
to go from first of a kind cost to end
of a kind cost for small major reactors, you need
to sort of it get some experience behind just set
up by manufacturing facilities and sort of each one becomes
progressively cheaper. And so it's much easier to do that
with a small modu reactor than it is with a
large reactor because it's a very very difficult decision and
(09:32):
onerous position for utility executive to say, I'll build a
very very large capital improvement here. That's going to take
seven to ten years.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
So it's very daunting, which is why with the hyperscalers
that's a question mark, right, because they need power yesterday,
so they're not going to wait seven years for a
plant to be built. And that's like the good case
scenario is seven years.
Speaker 8 (09:53):
Right for the large reactors, certainly, I mean it took
Vogel four years of licensing and ten years of construction,
so you pay twenty five thirty percent of that, you know,
the Department of Energy suggests thirty percent decline in the cost.
Hopefully that will reduced the time to construct. But I
think that the way to go is the smaller mojor
(10:13):
reactors because they're more flexibility. Another big concern for hyperscalers
is they want reliability, and large reactors small reactors all
have episodes occasionally, and if you have a thousand megawatt
reactor the size to what the Westinghouse eighty one thousand,
and you'll lose that You're in a position you have
to scramble to replace that power. If you have three
(10:34):
or four three hundred megawatt reactors and one of them
goes down for maintenance or so, it's easier to bridge
that gap three hundred. So it's a it's an interesting
dilemma that all the utilities the hyperscalers are facing.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Is there any reason that the US could not model
what Canada is doing here? Is that just a regulatory issue?
Speaker 8 (10:57):
You know, regulatory issue. The US has the gold standard
in nuclear regulations, and the Trump administration would like to
sort of make it easier to license some of the reactors.
And it's a very very daunting thing when you when
a company that newse Scale is the only company that
has licenses technology of late and they spend, according to
(11:18):
the CEO, five hundred million dollars in the process took
forty four months. That's a pretty big roadblock for these vendors.
New vendors who are trying to introduce innovative technologies.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Okay, could we see something like the SMR so the
small modular reactors behind the meter at a hyperscaler so
basically not connected to the grid, its own small little
SMR that's hooked up to like a meta facility.
Speaker 8 (11:43):
There's a lot of discussion about doing that. One of
the problems with nuclear reactors is that you need to
have some sort of it's preferable to be hooked to
the grid, and one reason is safety is that in
case something goes wrong, you need some source of power
to keep the island. So that's something that's been kicked around.
People are thinking about exploring that. But you know, a
(12:06):
large reactor of three hundred megawats plus is probably going
to be connected to the grid. Some of the smaller
reactors in the fifty to one hundred mego lot may
be a different story. But that issue about having access
to the grid to cool it in case something goes
wrong is important.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Our thanks to Chris Kadomski be any lead nuclear analyst.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Coming up, we'll look at the challenges faced by black
US farmers.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
You're listening to Bloomerg Intelligence on Bloomberg Radio, providing in
depth research and data on two thousand companies and one
hundred and thirty industries. You can access Bloomberg Intelligence via
b I go on the terminal on Paul.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Swinging an a Malex Steel and this is Bloomberg.
Speaker 9 (12:42):
Out here in the middle of all these acres. It
can feel like you're the only person on earth. And
sometimes that's how it feels when you're going through tough times, trouble, sleeping,
your mind racing. So what do we do We get help?
There are people in our community who are here for us.
Sometimes just talking to someone can make all the difference
(13:03):
in the world. Find more information at Love your Mind
Today dot org. That's Loveyourmind Today dot org. Brought to
you by the Huntsman Man twelfth Institute and the AD Council.
Speaker 10 (13:12):
This is the Bloomberg Green Report. Damage related to climate
change costs the United States nearly one trillion dollars over
a twelve month period that ended May first. That is,
according to a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis. The spending represents three
percent of the gross domestic product. Disaster recovery accounts for
a big share of the climate change related spending. The
(13:34):
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the back to back
hurricanes Helene and Milton caused one hundred and thirteen billion
dollars in damage and in another sixty five billion for
the Los Angeles wildfires. The report, titled the Climate Economy
twenty twenty five Outlook, says the biggest drivers of the
trend in the US are insurance premiums. They've doubled since
(13:58):
twenty seventeen. Increased climate costs from insurance premiums, power outages,
disaster recovery, and uninsured damage are responsible for more than
a third of US GDP growth since two thousand. Jeff Bellinger,
Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
You're listening to Bloomberg Intelligence with Alex Steele and Paul
Sweeney on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
We recently looked at the company spire Global, which trades
under Nasdaq ticker spir.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
It's a space power, data and analytics company that offers
access to data sets and insights about Earth, oceans, and atmosphere.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
We are recently joined by spiro Global CEO Teresa Condor,
and she discussed how it's AI and satellite data are
redefining weather forecasting.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
First, ask Teresa, what the broad potential is for this
kind of satellite market.
Speaker 11 (14:45):
What is interesting about what we do The satellites are
very small, about the size of a little bread really
going around there, very tiny, and they're packed with a
bunch of different sensors, and those sensors collect in our
satellite case radio frequency information that then lets us help
customers make better decisions about what to do. So some
(15:05):
examples of things are a collection of atmospheric weather data
that then goes into weather forecasting that allows companies utility companies,
for example, make better decisions about how they should protect
their grid in the event of extreme weather such as
a hurricane. In other cases, you can use satellite surveillance
data and tracking around the aviation sector and aircraft to
(15:27):
help have better efficient operations around airports and the movement
of aircraft, and a whole host of other applications, including
defense related applications.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Who do you guys compete with?
Speaker 11 (15:38):
So that's always a difficult question because we're present in
multiple different markets. Whether you think of whether in climate,
you think of aviation, you think of space reconnaissance, and
so we'll have certain different competitors in each of those spaces.
Since you mentioned Planet Lab earlier, I'll have to say
that planet is not usually a company that is considered
a competitor because they're taking pictures, they're doing imaging versus
(16:01):
what we do is this collection of electronic information and
radio frequency data.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
So you both send data to customers from your satellites,
but the type of data and how you collect the
data is then.
Speaker 11 (16:12):
Different exactly and the type of use cases and the
relevance of it. So you'll have customers that want both
types of data that are complementary.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
What kind of stuff are you noticing right now, like
what is some themes some broad stuff that you're telling
your customers.
Speaker 11 (16:26):
So I think there's a lot of interest in defense
and intelligence applications of satellites and in particular the type
of RF type of technology that we have. Naturally, this
comes out of the current geopolitical situation. You have a
lot of stuff going on in the United States right now,
and at the same time, really since February, you've had
rest of world governments looking at increasing their defense budgets,
(16:49):
having less expectation of reliance on the United States to
defend them in terms of crisis. So there's a lot
of interest in how the rest of world can develop
their capabilities.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
We have customers around the world. Is the domestic us
we do we have customers around this? Is the US
government a customer?
Speaker 11 (17:05):
The US government is also a customer.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Are the big one of the line share or you
it's pretty diversified.
Speaker 11 (17:10):
We're actually quite diversified both between commercial company customers as
well as a government and that can be civil agencies
who buy our weather, weather, atmospheric data sets. And it
can also be defense and intelligence and that's US and
rest of world. So it's pretty well diversified.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
We've had companies ranging from McDonald's to I don't know
what say AI is revolutionary revolutionizing their business. How is
AI impacting the satellite business?
Speaker 11 (17:37):
So AI is also an important in term and topic
in the satellite sector. There's a couple of areas where
we find it interesting. The first is in weather forecasting,
where we're doing AI based weather forecasting, specifically when we
talk about sub seasonal forecasts, so going thirty forty five
days in the future, where normal forecasting models aren't usually
(17:57):
very good. The other areas are when it comes the satellites,
are the processing of data and the ability to use
AI to process them automatically and on orbit so you
don't have to download all the data sets, as well
as in the operations of the constellation overall, because if
you have many, many satellites in orbit in various various
orbital planes with lots of different sensors on them, having
(18:20):
AI ability to manage that network is something quite interesting.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
I was going to say, you also had a contract
with Space Force, right, Did I read that right?
Speaker 11 (18:28):
There was one that was just recently announced with Chase
Force contract.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
How cool is that?
Speaker 10 (18:33):
I know?
Speaker 3 (18:34):
So how easy is it to come to deals with contracts?
I would think that your services are highly needed right
now as companies are trying to figure out where to
build stuff, for example, or how to allocate their supply chains.
Speaker 11 (18:50):
So I think demand is very strong right now for
both satellite data sets as it relates to climate or
to better understanding increased weather variability. And there is also
increasing demand what I mentioned on the defense and the
intelligence side, and in particular as more and more countries
look to how they build out their own sovereign capabilities,
(19:13):
and this is where we have the strength in building
both in Europe as well as in the United States.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Our thanks aspiring Global CEO, Teresa Condor.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
June is Pride month. So on Bloomberg Intelligence, we've been
highlighting segments on topics related to equality.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
In this segment, we spoke to John Boyd, founder and
President of the National Black Farmers Association.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
John discussed the challenges faced by black US farmers, and
we first asked him to break down what his organization does.
Speaker 12 (19:39):
We offer technical assistance and outreachs two one hundred and
fifty one thousand members in the United States. We've been
around since the early eighties, and we were organized to
help eradicate discrimination that government agencies and state federal levels.
And we've been doing this kind of work for a
(20:00):
very very long time. And I spearheaded the black farmer's
lawsuits won in settlement in nineteen ninety nine and the
other settlement on December eighth, twenty ten by former President
Barack Obama that paid out one point two five billion
dollars to twenty eight thousand black farmers who faced an
(20:24):
experienced discrimination at the hands of the United States Department
of Agriculture. So we've been around a very very long time.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
So John, how is that journey going? I mean, how
clearly it wasn't great when you started the association. What
kind of grade would you give give it now?
Speaker 12 (20:37):
Well, I think we really went back decades here in
progress with the administration. They came in and done away
with anything that began with the word equity and diversity
and justice and eliminated those positions at the United States
Department of Agriculture, and we still haven't received our five
(20:58):
billion dollar payout for discrimination. And also the also land
in federal inventory that I've been after for many many years,
and it was disheartening to learn that the administration was
bringing white farmers in from South Africa offering them a
(21:20):
fast path to citizenship. And also we learned that they're
going to offer these farmers land out of federal inventory
that came from black farmers and land from the Department
of Interior that came raising land that was primarily leased
to Native Americans. I was disheardened that the President said,
although he was doing away with DEI or anything that
(21:42):
was race related, and then brought in white farmers too,
the United States solely based on race. So he's saying
he wants to have everything equal and do away with
the race stuff. But then he brings in white farmers
from South Africa and once to offer them a fast
past the citizenship. And I'm one hundred and ten percent
(22:03):
opposed to it.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Well, you know, John, it's also hard because being a
farmer's hard in general, Like hard enough, you're dealing with crops,
hard weather, You're dealing with things completely out of your control.
Speaker 12 (22:14):
And then it hardest occupation known to man. People is farming.
And I could work twenty four hours in a day
and never catch up. And you know, we have to
deal with the act of mother nature, like you said,
floods and tornadoes and hurricanes and droughts, and disbelieve it
(22:37):
or not, is the first year and a very very
long time that I'm farming without a farm operating loan
here in my own country, where the bank said and
the government said, you know, we're not going to extend
credit to you because your input costs and the low
price is due to the President's terrorists created some of
(22:58):
the lowest prices. And in a very very long time,
if you factor in the input costs and the low
commodity costs, weet five dollars of bushee corn and four
dollars and something of bushel, and so it being severing
around ten dollars of bushel. People, these are very very
low prices. And every time the president says the word tariffs,
(23:21):
he scares the bejeebas out of the markets, and the
prices plummet. And you know, many Americans don't know that
farmers or price takers. We're not price givers. So my
price is based on the market that the president can
plays with when you know, when he gets ready, it
(23:41):
affects the very first people that voted for him, overwhelmingly
is farmers in this country are the very first population
that's taking a black eye from the president because of
these low prices that we just don't have any control LEVELM.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Do you think the grains that will be included in
trade deals, which then in essence could help Well, I
hope so.
Speaker 12 (24:04):
And you know, I'd like to equate it back to
the president's first presidency, and I believe it was in
twenty eighteen where we were I was actually selling soybeans
almost a sixteen eighty cents a bushel, and when the
President imposed tariffs the first time on this presidency, the
(24:27):
price plummeted because China basically stopped buying them, all the
way down to six dollars a bushel from sixteen dollars
eighty cents. So we don't have anything to compare it
to in a positive aspect. They didn't work the first time,
and right now, as I'm sitting here talking to you,
I'm in a very precurious situation. You know, no farm
(24:49):
operating loan, a shaky market, and for the future of
agriculture right now, things are looking grim.
Speaker 7 (24:56):
People.
Speaker 12 (24:57):
We just don't have the new markets that the President
said they were working to put in in place, and
you know the egg Department. Instead of making things better,
they're saying that they want to close offices. So the
administration says that they're going to help farm is by payments,
but they're closing farm all right.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Thanks to John Boyd, founder and president of the National
Black Farmers Association. Coming up on the program, a conversation
on DEI with the CEO of Hispanic Association on corporate responsibility.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
You're listening to Bloomberg Intelligence on Bloomberg Radio, providing in
depth research and data on two thousand companies and one
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Bloomberg News Now Context changes everything.
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There's danger out there. It lurks on highways and quiet
neighborhood streets. It's more likely to kill you than a
shark and more terrifying than the biggest snake. Distracted driving
claims lives every day. Every notification swipes, social post, video
or selfie while driving risks your life. So while you
might think public speaking or the zombie apocalypse is scary,
(26:37):
what's really terrifying and even deadly is distracted driving. Ice Forward,
Don't Drive Distracted Brought to you by Nitze and the
Ad Council with.
Speaker 13 (26:46):
The Bloomberg Small Business Report. I'm John Tucker. Christopher dip
is a Montreal based engineer who's developed an app called
by Beaver. It scans barcodes and tell consumers whether a
product is Canadian. Dip says it's the chastest growing app
he and his business partner have developed, garnering thirty five
thousand downloads in just two weeks. His app's popularity reflects
(27:08):
growing anger at Canada's biggest trading partner, the US, as
President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs, made fifty first state jabs,
and referred to the country's prime minister as Governor Trudeau.
Furious Canadian consumers have turned into vindictive shoppers. Experts warn
this trend could have significant economic implications for US businesses
(27:30):
big and small. In Canadian grocery stores, US grown produce
is wilting on the shelves. Canadians are scaring wineless over
dinner to avoid ordering California wines, and more and more
Canadians are canceling vacations to the US. And that's the
Bloomberg Small Business Report.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
This is Bloomberg Intelligence with Paul Sweeney and Alex Steele
on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
June is Pridemont so on Bloomberg Intelligence, We've been highlighting
segments on top related to equality.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
In this segment, we looked at Bobby the only female
found it, and mom led organic infant formula company In
the US, the industry has historically been dominated by male executives.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Laura Maudi is the CEO and co founder at Bobby.
Laura mother for was a high powered executive at Airbnb
before surprising everyone around her to leave her position for Bobby.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
We had the pleasure of speaking with Laura and we
first asked her about the biggest struggle right now in
the baby formula industry.
Speaker 14 (28:27):
The biggest struggle I think right now is you know,
you'll remember the formula shortage in twenty twenty two. There
has been a very concentrated effort to make sure that
we diversify and break up the concentrated market and the
only way to do that is to invest in more
domestic manufacturing. I think the last time I spoke to
(28:48):
you guys, I mentioned that we have co created a
bill that really allows and incentivizes more domestic manufacturing for
infant formula, and right now is that is the number
one focus.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
The infant formula made an America Act of twenty twenty five.
Talk to us about that.
Speaker 14 (29:06):
So again, like I said, this is on the back
of the shortage and what we recognized was nothing will
change if nothing changes when it comes to the footprint
of infant formula manufacturing. So this bill incentivizes new players
to up level and to break ground and build infant
formula manufacturing here in the US.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
How expensive is it?
Speaker 14 (29:31):
It's very expensive. It's very expensive, but maybe nothing like
other investments that are being made right now in manufacturing.
It takes around three years and it could be anywhere
from you know, sixty two, one hundred and fifty million
dollars to get a basic footprint in place, and sometimes
even more. And given how long it takes to be
(29:52):
able to get more manufacturing up and running, this is
why we can't wait for another crisis. The investments have
to happen now. And what this bill is is and
it's finally gotten bipartisan support. I don't actually believe there's
anything more bipartisan than investing in how our next generation
is fed and building the resiliency of this market. I
(30:14):
am just hoping that this bill gets introduced as something
that gets passed sooner rather than later.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Just remind us, Lara, where do Americas Where do we
source most of our infant formula these days?
Speaker 14 (30:28):
Yeah? Look, most of it, most of it is sourced domestically.
But what we did do is that we allowed some
international formulas, some foreign formulas to come into the country
on the back of the shortage. We essentially have imported
our way out of a crisis, and that is still happening.
(30:49):
So over the last few years, we've gone from less
than one percent of infant formula being made and sourced
in the US to now over ten percent of American
babies are on formula coming in from overseas. And the
big push that I'm trying to have is high quality
formula should be able to be sourced and made here
at America for American babies.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Yes, but because it's expensive to say, build the plans here, etc.
Can we get that at a price point where like
you can stand business and make money, but also it
can be available to all different types of families.
Speaker 14 (31:24):
The push I would have on that is it takes
more than the private sector to be able to make
that happen. And we're talking about infant formula. This is
where we need something like this bill to be put
in place to help bring down the costs because what
they are is it's a production tax credit, which means
that for every can, for every production run we make,
(31:45):
there's tax credits given back so that we can bring
those costs down. And it's really important that we make
those investments today. Otherwise what we're doing is we're waiving
the white flag as a country and saying America is
unable to do it. So we're going to allow other
countries to feed our babies. Fast forward in seven ten years,
we could be in a much bigger crisis if we're
(32:07):
allowing on other countries to feed our babies.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
D just give us the latest updates for your company, Bobby.
Speaker 14 (32:14):
Well, we've been pushing a lot of innovation. I think
the one thing we can't lose sight of is that
the quality of infant formula deserves its utmost attention on
an ongoing basis. So we recently launched the first USDA
organic whole milk infant formula made at our facility in Ohio,
and we're going to keep watching the way science evolves,
(32:36):
and when the scientists say that there's new updates that
need to happen, we're going to be making those changes
to our product. And my entire focus as a mother
is to keep innovating and up leveling the nutritional requirements
of formula for American babies.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Do you a want of competition right now?
Speaker 14 (32:57):
There is competition. There is competition, and it's health the
competition because we need we need choice, and this is
probably one of the only products in the market that
doesn't have enough options. It doesn't have enough choice. And
I believe, I speak for many parents that when you
walk down the formula aisle of a retailer today's it
(33:19):
can often be an empty, sad and lonely aisle. You're
feeding your babies, and it shouldn't be so, I believe
and I hope that with something like the Domestic Manufacturing Bill,
it actually introduces more competition. We need to see more
bobbies on shelf, and that competition will force all of
us to up level the standards.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
All right.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Thanks to Laura Maudi, CEO and co founder of.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Bobby, we continue with our June Pride Month conversations on
topics related to equality.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
In this segment, we spoke to Sid Wilson, the CEO
of the Hispanic Association, on corporate responsibility.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
We discussed corporate responsibility and the importance of diversity, equity,
and inclusion. We began the conversation by asking sid what
his organization does.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
The Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, we've been around for
almost four forty years. Our mission is to advance Hispanic
inclusion in corporate America. I've been in my CEOO for
eleven years, and before that, I was twenty one years
on a wall Street. I was on Equity resarch channelist.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Okay, so you're talking to your team here.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
He's reformed.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
So today DEI in some ways is now a dirty
word in corporations in the United States. How do you
combat that?
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Well, brush you combat it with facts. The reality is
that DEI is not a word, It's an acronym. It
stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. The opposite of that
is is homogeneity, inequality, and exclusion. So when we talk
to companies, we talk about the facts that that diversity,
equity and inclusion is not only the right to do,
(34:45):
it's also good business. Now, whether you call it diversity,
equity and inclusion or do the work of it, you
know you're seeing some of them that are continued to
find ways to do the work of staying under the
Executive Order radar, but recognizing that without diversity equity and
(35:05):
inclusion companies will have a very difficult time competing for customers,
competing for talent, and competing for to be the brand
of choice.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
This reminds me the change and perception of DEIS kind
of reminds those of us on Global Wall Street of
another kind of phenomenon, which was ESG and type of
investment refocused on environment, sustainability, governance, those types of things
that seems to at least in this country taken a
back seat. How about rest of world? How does the
(35:38):
rest of world think about diversity DEI in general?
Speaker 4 (35:43):
When you talk to leaders around the world, particularly in Europe,
they feel that what's happening in the US is extremely
unusual because they know that the path to a successful
business or operation is through having a strong and robust
and intentional diversity, equity and inclusion initiative at all levels,
(36:06):
especially the C suite of the BORCED because we remember that,
you know, sometimes the argument about against THEI is they
claim that it comproises merit, which we know that is incorrect.
What it does is it why ends the scope for
merit based opportunities. The problem though, was in the C suite,
as you know, if you're at the C suite. You're
the c SPE because you're qualified, You're the CC because
(36:28):
you're sponsored, and sponsorship is still has implicit bias, and
that's where you continue to see a lack of representation
for women and people of color.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
I mean absolutely, how do we combat that at a
time when federal policies, particularly on the education level, are
getting rolled back.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
So let me first address the education components. Is that
colleges and universities will still need to look for ways
how they can attract diverse student bodies. You know, no
university is going to want to have, let's say, an
all white male student body and think that that's normal.
Speaker 7 (37:09):
It's not.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
And when you look at the pipeline into the workforce,
particularly technology, whereas whereas all of us know, there is
a shortage of workers going into those tech fields. And
so with that, it means that you not only need
to make sure that you're looking at what you look
what you need to hire, but also looking at even
the immigration policies, because immigration policy that the current administration
(37:33):
has is completely counter to killing the jobs that are
needed in the US to help the economy grow.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Sid maybe thirty seconds left, what's kind of the the
agenda for your organization over the next six or twelve months.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Well, our agenda is to continue to talk to as
many CEOs as possible. We're proud that we we interact
with more fortune five hundred one thousand CEOs than any
other Hispanic organs whole country. And we know that those
direct conversations make a big difference to give companies the
guidance understanding of how they can use diversity, equity inclusion
(38:10):
in this current environment to now we navigate through this
maze that they're having to addressed, but also how they
can still win with diversity, equity and inclusion.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Right thanks to Sid Wilson, CEO of the Hispanic Association
on Corporate Responsibility.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
That's this week's edition of Bloomberg Intelligence on Bloomberg Radio,
providing in depth research and data on two thousand companies
and one hundred and thirty industries.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
And remember you can access Bloomberg Intelligence through b I
go on the terminal. I'm Alex Steel and I'm Paul Sweeney.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Today's top stories and global business headlines are coming up
right now.
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