December 19, 2024 • 42 mins
Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde discusses Micron's big stock move lower as the company reports a weak chips outlook. And, Elon Musk wields political power, influencing a potential US government shutdown. Plus, Apple scraps its hardware subscription plans.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
From the Heart where Innovation, money and power Collie in
Silicon Valley, Nbon.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlove.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Live from New York.
Speaker 5 (00:33):
As the Blomberg Technology coming up, Micron planets after reporting earnings,
and AI just couldn't make up for the smartphone and
PC cheap weakness. Plus Elo Musk wielding his political power
as the US now risks a government shutdown. We discuss
as impact on the next stopgap bill, and Apple holds
its plans for an iPhone hardware subscription service. This and
(00:54):
much more on Apple News later this hour. But first
weche can on one key stock. It is down more
than seventeen percent and it is having its worst day
since March twenty twenty. Micron really slumping on the back
of its numbers, and we get straight to it the why,
the how, as you see that it eradicates most of
its gains year to date.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
We go to Blue meg Intelligence analyst Jake.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Silverman first, whose report lays out that the outlook missed
by twelve percent and week a smartphone PC in auto
bit demand.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
This is it.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
We were all really excited about high bandwidth memory for
AI applications, but really it comes back to you and
me not buying more phones.
Speaker 6 (01:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (01:33):
Well, look, there was definitely an inventory correction to some
extent for fiscal two Q and this was starting to
happen earlier this year. Actually we're starting to see this
in June, July, August, and the reason primarily was to
build the inventory ahead of price increases that did occur
but now are starting to impact the company's demand.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
I see.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
So Sanja Marotra is really trying to set and spell
out that the second half it's going to turn around.
We're actually going to see maybe even a growth of
the PC market of some five percent in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 7 (02:04):
But what spurs that, Well, there's typical seasonal demand, so
we would hope to see seasonal growth in the second
half regardless. But there's also the opportunity where there's content
expansion within AIPCS AI smartphones, So there's an opportunity there.
Whether or not that occurs, I think that still remains
to be seen, but there's still optimism that there can
(02:24):
be growth in the second half of the year versus
the first half.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
So look, as we're try and get our head.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Around the actual demand for AI in the consumer radiator department.
In the data center, it is then, what four hundred
percent growth in terms of their AI demand and sales.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Why is that not bringing in enough revenue yet?
Speaker 6 (02:42):
Though?
Speaker 7 (02:43):
Well, so, they do have a number of products that
are really impacting data center and demand. So high bandwidth
memory is probably the most talked about, but it's actually
still the most nascent for them. It's really not generating
the bulk of the growth yet.
Speaker 6 (02:56):
So they still have other products.
Speaker 7 (02:58):
Like high capacity DRAM modules, stems, LPDDR five. They're really
for servers, both AI and traditional compute. Traditional compute was
actually a bit better than had been previously anticipated. But
on the other hand, there's also data center SSDs, which
seemed to be moderating near term, where they had been
experiencing some pretty tremendous growth beforehand and had been benefiting
(03:21):
a lot from share gains as well well.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
With meg Intelligence analyst Jake Silvan breaking down what is
a pretty painful day in HQ in Voise, Idaho. But
now let's go out to an investor in the scene.
Kim forest Cio of Boca Capital Partners thirty five million
dollars in assets under management, and Kim, you'll take on
what is a absolute punishment on the stop today.
Speaker 8 (03:43):
Absolutely, Well, I've been doing this for her number of years,
since nineteen ninety nine. And well I was a sales
side analyst and a biside analyst than a PM then
chief investment officer of my own firm. That being said,
this is not my first day at this rodeo and
Micron in particular, and all the memory kind of companies
(04:05):
seem to have this boom bust cycle, and the boom
and bust can be really close to each other, as
evidenced by the price chart of Micron.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
So what's an investor to do? Well? Some people would
like to be able.
Speaker 8 (04:19):
To trade this know when to go in low, you
know when the high is God bless you on that.
I think what you have to do is look at
Micron and say it has terrific growth. There are very
few players in this space. There's maybe six or seven
companies that are competitors, and for the most part, sometimes
(04:43):
bad things like this happen, but sometimes good things happen too.
And to be able to trade around that around these
events where there's a sudden shortfall in demand, but it
will be made up. I think it's more of a
buying opportunity than getting out now. The other thing is is,
if you look at that chart, some people bought it
at much higher prices this year, and it could be
(05:06):
tax lost selling going on that's really driving the price
down today.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
So there's a seasonality element to all of this. It's
interesting if you go to analyst recommendations at the moment,
a lot of people cut their price targets, but still
you've got thirty seven buys on this stock, You've only
got one cell, and the overall consensus for price target
it's still at one hundred and thirty five. You've got
room to run up from an eighty five dollars.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
But how does Sanjay Morotra.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Get us there in terms of what he needs to
signal now to the market.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
How much can he.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Say, look, put aside China, put aside my exposure to
the consumer, I'm all in on AI.
Speaker 8 (05:42):
Well, I think he made the case that he's all
in on AI right, Like they have the products that
AI wants and needs. AI for many reasons, has saved
this market, right. I mean in video and meta certainly
have driven it. But the real issue here is the
AI people are buying stuff and building out their data centers,
(06:06):
and I don't know that that's going to stop in
any you know, definable time.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
And I did you sorry just so, But in that Kim,
did you get that sort of easing of any anxiety,
whether or not it was closely held or far away
that we might be at some pivot point where the
demand does start.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
To ease up.
Speaker 6 (06:25):
Sure?
Speaker 8 (06:26):
I mean, well, here's here's what investors really have to understand.
Micron is a very small world in which all of
its clients are either all on or all off, or
so it seems.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
And if you remember when we were.
Speaker 8 (06:41):
Building out regular cloud database or cloud data centers, it's lumpy.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
And what I mean by that is you're either.
Speaker 8 (06:49):
Building out or you're not, and all of a sudden
it can stop. And whenever several companies that have been
building out data centers stopped, you know, the providers get clover.
That's just the nature of this, and we don't know
when it's going to stop. So investors have to be
aware that we're not going to be spending in perpetuity to.
Speaker 9 (07:10):
Build out AI.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
There will be a day.
Speaker 8 (07:13):
When people take a pause and actually have to you know,
reap the rewards of building this product and you know,
having people pay for the.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
Service these mega clusters at a moment though that we
seem to be seeing is not a signal of us
pulling back anytime soon. But does macro policy, does a
new administration in any way dampen the spirits or only
accelerate them?
Speaker 8 (07:35):
Kim, It doesn't seem so, because the companies that are
building these data centers out have enough money from what
they're doing now. They don't need to be able to
say in the future, I'll be able to you know,
in some very definable timeline, I need to get my
money back. So they are going to be building these
things out because they have the cash flow. And I'm
(07:56):
talking to about Microsoft, Google and Meta, their regular businesses
are providing the capital to build out data centers.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
So you said this potentially could be a buying moment
for Micron. What about the chip space more broadly, because
everyone's been suddenly in on this focus on software trade.
Speaker 8 (08:16):
Right, Well, I think it's great, Like at some point
software has to come back to winning.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
I used to be a software engineer and I.
Speaker 8 (08:23):
Would love to be able to like buy a good
software company that I think will grow again in perpetuity.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
I like moneymaking machines.
Speaker 8 (08:32):
Microsoft has been that, although it had a lull in
the you know, twenty ten to twenty fourteen range something
like that. But yeah, software is great, but hardware is
what is driving me crazy right now, because it seems
there is no lack of demand and I think the
software will follow.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
Now.
Speaker 8 (08:52):
A lot of people are Momentum investors, and I worry
about Nvidia about that because Broadcom's kind of taken all
or Era out of the room for Nvidia.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Kim Forest just dampening our animal spirits when it comes
to some of the key trades that have been in
this here, Kim, we so appreciate it. Boca Capital Partners
wishing you happily holidays, just cio there. Meanwhile, look, the
Biden administration has cemented a deal to give sk Heinex,
course another high bandwidth memory maker, close to four hundred
and sixty million dollars in grants and five hundred million
in loans. This is to support a facility in Indiana
(09:25):
which will focus on packaging chips sent to the US
from sk Heinex plants in South Korea.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
The deal is a key part of.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
US efforts to build a domestic semiconductor supply chain. Now
coming up, Elon Musk's influence in Washington being felt already
as he helps kill a stop gap funding bill. More
on that next, this is blue Meg Technology. The last
(09:55):
minute government funding bill has been scrapped by House Speaker
Mike Johnson after urged lawmakers and President elect Trump to
risk a government shutdown rather than accept for post stop
gap bill.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Room mergs Mike Shephard joins us for more.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
And if anyone had potentially been doubting or questioning the
influence of being on Musk, that proved wrong.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Here those doubts were erased. And in resounding forum yesterday
it was almost like on cue. We saw Elon Musk
use the power of his x ex social media platform
to gin up opposition and amplify it very quickly and
within ours. President elect Donald Trump and Vice President elect JD.
(10:35):
Vance chimed in and said that day two oppose this
spending deal, which have been negotiated for weeks, if not months,
to try to revert a government shutdown that will come
as soon as Saturday morning if lawmakers can't go back
to the drawing board and put together something on the fly,
which looks really unlikely right now.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
Republicans saying that that phone has been ringing off the
hooks on the back of this call to arms.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
To call your lawmaker, hasn get it taken off.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
He's shown his political clout, but behind the scenes, he's
also building a team, taking expertise from those he knows
already and indeed attending every meeting that seems to be
going on.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
In mar Laga.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Well, you're right, Caroline, because what we've also seen is
Musk using this bully pulpit of X to also give
wing to this venture that Donald Trump appointed him and
Vivek Ramaswami, one of Trump's campaign.
Speaker 9 (11:24):
Rivals, to lead.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
That's the Department of Government Efficiency. Now keep in mind
it's not really a department. It wasn't an agency created
by Congress. But its goal is to do kind of
what they're asking for in their social media communications yesterday,
and that is cut down the size of government, reduced spending,
reduced the scope of government. And this entity, if you will,
(11:46):
lack of a lack of a better run, we'll call
it that. It is still taking shape, but we do
know that they are hiring. Thanks for really great scoop
by our colleagues yesterday, we already know that they have
hired about ten people. And Elon Musk has into an
executive from the boring company and a former Trump Chief
technology officer in his administration the prior administration, to lead
(12:09):
the hiring push. They've been talking to candidates. They're looking
for software engineers, including folks with artificial intelligence expertise, and
the idea is that they would apply that to the
vast reams of government data, perhaps to try to figure
out what are the efficiencies that could be gained.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
I want to where that talent comes from, because of
course he's been busy hiring an XAI in that department too.
Mike Shepard a joy to have him here in New York.
Let's just talk a little bit about lev space more
broadly as well, because Tesla is in early talks. We
understand the city of Austin about rolling out a fleet
of autonomous vehicles.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
As early as next year.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
In emails acquired by Bloomberg, Tesla employees have been communicating
with the Texas city, so it's at least May to
establish safety expectations for the vehicles. The emails go on
further saying that Tesla has not yet finalized its decision
for an Austin deployment. Let's stick on Tesla, Let's stick
on EV landscape, Let's stick on all things in La
Mosque as well, and how all of this is set
(13:04):
to change under the twenty twenty five percent and Electrump administration,
and maybe we see some of those EV incentives wound down,
even a possibility of fast tracking autonomous driving too. We've
got a perfect person, Steve Westley's with us Wesley Group
managing partner, who used to be on the border of
the EV giant as well as your key player in
California politics, and therefore this is the perfect dimension to
discuss this with you. How are you thinking the EV
(13:26):
landscape changes come January twentieth, Well, look.
Speaker 10 (13:29):
Let's look at the big picture first.
Speaker 11 (13:32):
So people are saying EV growth is slowing down, nonsense.
One out of five of all cars sold globally in
twenty twenty four will be electric or hybrid. So we're
living in an EV world and it's just moving faster.
That's twenty five percent year over year growth, seventeen million
evs sold, globally, US Canada a solid growth about twelve percent,
(13:52):
China red hot at forty percent. The big stories is
you talked about are kind of tesla versus byd.
Speaker 10 (13:59):
Who's going to be global leader?
Speaker 11 (14:01):
And then there's this other issue of US versus China
and how are terrorists going to affect this? And what
people have to remember US has already slapped terriffs on
any Chinese car sold in the US.
Speaker 10 (14:13):
But that's firstly none.
Speaker 11 (14:15):
You've got to ask the question of what happens at
the Chinese slap one hundred percent terriffs on US cars
or automakers.
Speaker 9 (14:22):
Selling cars that happened.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Do you think there's a high risk even for a tesla?
Speaker 10 (14:26):
Oh?
Speaker 11 (14:26):
Look, whatever, there are terrifts slapped on by one country
or another, you've got to expect the other country to respond.
The big question is is that cars that are already
made in that country are just cars that come so
from the US going to China.
Speaker 10 (14:40):
But the pastline's the same.
Speaker 11 (14:42):
There's a lot more US automakers selling cars into China
than vice versus.
Speaker 10 (14:47):
So the US needs to be careful at in this one.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
And yet we have seen vibes or whether it be
real political clout driving testa share price up into the right.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Ever since the results of the election, has any.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Of this China US tension been priced in, do you think,
Steve Well?
Speaker 11 (15:05):
I think people don't have their arms around it quite yet.
So you've got to look at the Tesla share price.
Seventy six percent growth since January one of this year.
That's astonishing. The big question is can Tesla keep it up?
And I think it's going to be tough without getting
some new products into the market. Tesla's auto growth this year,
you know, after roaring sales growth in twenty twenty one
(15:29):
and twenty twenty two of fifty one percent and seventy percent,
this year it's darn year flat. So Tessa's got to
get this new lower cost car into the market. There
are new rumors that there's going to be a new
sub thirty thousand dollars model Q coming sometime in twenty
twenty five, but we've got to make sure that that's real,
(15:49):
so investors have to look at it. I think twenty
five is going to be a make or break year.
It could see new heights if you can see a
lower cost car coming out and full self driving improve
but it can also sink if they don't get a
new car to market sales stay flat.
Speaker 10 (16:06):
That's going to scare people.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Now as an investor, though, Steve, as an investor, how hard.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Has it been to read the tea leads?
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Because we're trying to understand as to whether they're just
going to cut costs of current models on the market
and get us to some sort of sense of affordability.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Because Elon just signals.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
Time and time again he's more interested in the robotaxi
side and the full sife driving side.
Speaker 10 (16:28):
It's incredibly hard.
Speaker 11 (16:29):
I mean, share price going up seventy five percent when
sales are flat.
Speaker 10 (16:34):
I don't think anybody's ever seen anything like that before.
Speaker 11 (16:37):
What's going on kind of a bet on full self
driving and probably a bigger bet on Musk's relationship with
President Trump. What no one's talking about is very quietly,
the energy vision looks like the saving grace for Tesla
seventy five percent year over year growth.
Speaker 10 (16:54):
The other thing investors have to get their.
Speaker 11 (16:56):
Arms around is auto companies aren't just auto companies anymore.
They're also or energy companies too, and it's a whole
new world.
Speaker 10 (17:03):
You've got to pay attention.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
I got to pay attention to the politics involved in it.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
This week, of course we saw that again California is
really going to be focusing in on in shoring, EV adoption,
Steve where you sit. But also we've got a news
story around the potential unionization let's call it subtly being
done over with Rivian.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
We understand the UAWS reached a.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
Kind of secret deal with Rivian to make unionization easier
as and when it becomes a profitable company.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
How much you think.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
That's a key area the labor side of things to
the EV space.
Speaker 11 (17:32):
Well, look, the labor side's huge because labor costs are
going up. This is one of the things that's plagued
GM and Forward for years. And what's interesting is must
it's great at pulling out all the stuff, making things
go faster than any of the automaker, but he still
has to deal with unions. And he may be the
well dis guy in the world, but that's not going.
Speaker 10 (17:52):
To impact.
Speaker 11 (17:54):
How well with union battles German workers potential the outline
strike soon precisely when he's trying to catch up for
a Q four sales. So it's going to be interesting
to see can Tessela's auto sales increase this year. You
can I show your over year growth. Gosh, that's going
to be a tough one to sell to shareholders.
Speaker 10 (18:15):
We'll see.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
And you are a long time shareholder and an influential
one of that, Steve Wesley. We thank you of the
Wesley Group time now for talking tech.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
First up.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
Apple has halted its project building out an iPhone hardware
subscription service it's acording to sources, the idea was to
make owning an iPhone like subscribing to an app, with
consumers paying monthly fees to get a new phone each year.
Apple has since disbanded and reassigned the team to other projects. Plus,
the European Commission is pushing Apple to further open up
its iPhone operating systems to rivals. Commission instructed the tech
(18:53):
giant on Wednesday to rework iOS so that devices like
smart watches, earbuds, headsets from rivals more compatible with the
Apple ecosystem, and Apple is close to getting Indonesia to
lift its ban on iPhone sixteen sales, this after the
country's president gave his approval for a one billion dollar
investment from the tech giant.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Again, according to sources.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Indonesia First Band remembers sales with the flagship device last month,
saying Apple failed to comply with its domestic content requirements.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Get stuck into all of these Apple related stories. I
want to known Mark German with.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Us, and Mark just talk to us a little bit
more about what's happening with Indonesia because this is a
big one eighty and they played hardball.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
In a one.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
So Apple and Indonesia have been going back and forth
for weeks now since the launch of the iPhone sixteen. Right, Obviously,
Apple wants to get the device in as many countries
as possible. Indonesia is important to Apple because that's a
potential growth market for them. Right, they are making a
big bush across Southeast Asia and not being able to
get it in one of the biggest countries there is
(19:57):
a really big deal for them, and so they've been
making different offers and what they finally landed on is
investing one billion dollars into a facility there that would
produce essentially twenty percent of air tags. AirTags, obviously, is
that fun little device we're all gearing up to include
in our luggage for the holidays. Right, It's not Apple's
most popular product, but it's an important one, and it
(20:18):
sounds like it was enough to get the job done.
Apple is gearing up to release a new air tag
in the middle of next year with much better range,
better privacy, So that is going to be a cool
thing for Indonesia to be able to produce that product
potentially or further generations of that device.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Let's stay global on the Apple front when you're looking
at the EU news as well, because this compatibility argument
has been going on for a while. Ultimately, whatever the
EU forces does it become global in nature.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
The EU wants to crack open the iPhone completely. They
want to essentially make it Android. They want to make
it so users could be a bunch of cowboys and
do whatever they want to the device.
Speaker 12 (20:58):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Apple, on the other hand, wants this closed ecosystem with
a privacy centric design and a clean user interface.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
They don't want.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
People to be able to open up their device to
work with third party earbuds and watches and headsets as
well as.
Speaker 6 (21:12):
It works with Apple products.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
And so the EU put out a list of several
things it wants Apple to adopt and allow third parties
to use at a deeper level, things like air drop
file sharing, things like airplay video beaming from the device
to other products, things like opening up underlying Wi Fi protocols.
Speaker 6 (21:29):
And Apple is.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Pushing back on that by using Meta as an example
and showcasing fifteen data categories that Meta wants access to
and physitioning Meta as this anti privacy company and trying
to show consumers and the European Commission, right the regulators
in the EU, what could potentially happen to Apple device
customers if these programs are opened up to the extent
(21:52):
that they want them to be opened up.
Speaker 5 (21:54):
That Apple Meta rivalry really continues to play out when
it comes to politics. Margam, thank you, welcome back to
blow Meg Technology. I'm Caroline heid in New York. We
also want to be going into the story that is TikTok.
(22:14):
Today marks exactly one month until a possible ban in
the United States, but now with the Supreme Court excepting
to hear TikTok's challenge to that law, well, the social
media app has a glimmer of hope. Alexander Levine joins
us Now it's Today's Tech Daily. It is a big
viewership on this story.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
And it's a big twist. It's a big twist.
Speaker 13 (22:36):
I think a lot of people are looking at this
as a huge game changer in the eleventh hour, and
I think we need a caution to just say that
this could very well just be the Supreme Court doing
what the Supreme Court has always set out to do.
And we need to remember that this is the first time,
if the band goes through, that a social media app
will have ever been banned in this country. And so
(22:57):
this could very well just be the Supreme Court, you know,
recognizing how important these issues are and wanting to really
set their record straight before a shutdown happens, and also
before the administration changes hands, because a.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Lot of people have said, well, the Supreme Court, large
part of them, have been selected by previous president and
now President elect Trump, and maybe that would bend towards
whatever his views on.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
The social media app have been.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
Of course, he says there's a soft place in his heart,
for a special place in his heart for the app.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
But these are lawmakers at the.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
End of the day, and people who going to be
assessing on the merits of the law.
Speaker 13 (23:31):
Absolutely, you know, the justices are going to rule as
they may. I think there's a lot of speculation given
Trump and where Trump is seeming to come down on
this now versus where he used to stand about how
the justices may rule.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
But I think we really don't know.
Speaker 13 (23:46):
And the Supreme Court, we don't know what the Supreme
Court is going to do. We don't know that this
actually means that TikTok is going to be able to
withstand being banned. But it is a really remarkable timeline
when you look at the fact that we're one month
from the band.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
That was supposed to take effect.
Speaker 13 (24:01):
The argument will be January tenth, and then the law
is set to take effect in your nine days later.
So if anything, it's just worth pointing out that the
Supreme Court is moving exceptionally fast and unusually fast on
this one issue.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
So people who assess the law now have the ball.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
But what I'm interested in is also we've got to
remember it's not just a ban.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
They could divest.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
We kind of come off that narrative because TikTok wants
us to think that this is.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Either a ban or nothing. If we had anything.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
About potential suits about Withever, we would see its funnle.
Speaker 13 (24:32):
Absolutely, we know that this is sort of the next
phase of the saga. So Bite Dance has said they
will not sell their most prize asset in the US.
Beijing has also said that Beijing's export rules basically say
that Chinese companies cannot sell their algorithms like the one
that is central to TikTok in the US, and that's
made it so popular here. But American, potentially American bidders,
(24:54):
people who have deep enough pockets, are already lining up.
We have some reporting coming on that very soon later today,
and I think it's important to realize that people are
not going to take no for an answer here. When
you've got over half of the American population at this point,
more people than voting than voted in the last election
using the platform, these bidders are really trying to line
(25:15):
themselves up at the front of a competitive pack for
who may be the person or the company to take
over the US iteration of the platform. If by Dance
feels a squeeze in this sort of eleventh hour with
all of the legal you know, the legal path coming
to an end, they want to be sort of the
ones at the front of the pack.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Well, look out for that next story publishing later today.
Alexandre Levine All Things TikTok. Amazon meanwhile is delaying the
return to office for thousands of employees due to lack
of space. The company told some personnel working in at
least seven cities, including Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, here in New
York as well that the return dates will be pushed
back until.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
March even April, according to sources.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
The company spokesperson said the vast majority of employees will
have desks starting on January second.
Speaker 11 (26:01):
Now.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
This week, the Biden administration also announced the overhaul of
H one B visa eligibility standards. It's a move that
expands who can receive the work visas and gives more
flexibility and clarity. The revision comes a mid concern that
the upcoming Trump administration.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
May change course. We've got a perfect voice, Simeon to
catch founding partner.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Of One Way Ventures, a VC firm that backs immigrant
founders in the United States and Canada, and the pre.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
Seed at the seed stage. So just this.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
News, this clarity on who can apply for H one
B visas and ideally be fast tractive.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Indeed, you've been allowed one in the past. Does this
make a difference to your companies.
Speaker 14 (26:39):
Yeah, I mean, I think more H one B visas
and simple final process is certainly going to.
Speaker 9 (26:45):
Make it easier for people to hire.
Speaker 14 (26:47):
The immigrants and occasionally for immigrants to start companies as well.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
Yeah, And what was interesting is in the news on
the H one B visa overhaul some people are calling
it is that entrepreneurs in particular are going to be
a to apply if you've got a majority holding in
a company.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
That you're building.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
How much have we seen entrepreneurs those building within North
America dependent on these sorts of accesses to living in
the United States.
Speaker 14 (27:13):
Well, yeah, I mean I think if there's more path
to being able to start a company, it's going.
Speaker 9 (27:21):
To have more companies started.
Speaker 14 (27:22):
In particular, I think it's relevant to students that complete
the education here and some of them may in fact
be deterred from starting a company without simplified visa process.
Speaker 5 (27:35):
There was certainly clarity given for students so that they
don't see a hole in their ability to be staying
in the United States if they're going to be finding
a job or building a business here. We're just looking
at the founders that you do indeed back most of them.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Being immigrant founders. Why focus on that demographic.
Speaker 14 (27:54):
Well, our fund, you know, we only invest in immigrants.
We are immigrants. We know that collectively immigrants. If you
take immigrants from any country to the US, they're not
just like slightly better at building businesses. They are responsible
for the majority of the value generated from new companies.
Speaker 9 (28:18):
Most of the unicorns that.
Speaker 14 (28:19):
Are billion dollar, multi billion dollar success stories are in
fact started by immigrants, like fifty five percent of them,
people who personally themselves made the journey and came here.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Why why is that some sort of causal link or
correlation link that people who have been driven and motivated
to move and to come are going to be well
more weighted to being successful.
Speaker 9 (28:45):
Well, there's a number of reasons.
Speaker 14 (28:46):
I think it's not a question of the countries they're
from being full of people who are better at starting things.
It's the people who make the journey, right. The experience
of coming to a new country, like learning a new langue,
which it's predictive of how much grit you have, how
much perseverance you have. It's almost like, you know, your
own immigration is like a startup because you're going into
(29:11):
that unknown. You have to have some kind of vision,
some kind of belief that you can do it, but
before you have real evidence, and when you commit to
doing that, you often.
Speaker 9 (29:22):
Don't really have a way back, right, Like.
Speaker 14 (29:25):
It's very hard to come back and admit that, like
nobody really wanted you in America and it didn't work out,
Like people around you don't necessarily believe that that's what
you should do. You're sort of abandoning your existing network, right,
And so the people who've done that and had to survive, right,
had to learn the culture of the language, figure everything
(29:46):
out from scratch, building your network. When they've done that once,
they're more likely to be able to figure out how
to disturb a big business, which you know, a big
company has its own language right, its own culture in
a way in any startup in order to has to
be able to overcome it. So having done it once
already on your own immigration, it's more likely that you
(30:06):
will get there.
Speaker 9 (30:07):
And you're not going to give up along the way.
Speaker 14 (30:09):
You're not going to have as many alternative when things
get hard.
Speaker 9 (30:12):
It's not so.
Speaker 14 (30:13):
Easy to get a cushy job right because you have
the network.
Speaker 9 (30:17):
Right.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
What's interesting, though, is you think about the leaders of
the Magnificent Seven, the CEOs, many of them immigrants.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Elon Musk himself, who has got.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
The ear of the next elected president. Most of the
time it feels like himself, an immigrant, didn't have to
change languages, but certainly came here and built a number
of incredibly successful companies. But what does the next administration
look like to you? Do we see a pushback against
immigration in some way?
Speaker 9 (30:45):
Well, you know, it's hard for me to tell.
Speaker 14 (30:47):
I personally believe that all the immigrants, even folks without
an education, should be generally welcome, not illegally, right, they
should be a pathilm to be illegal, of course, and
I think it's just tremendous benefits the country to have
these select few people who willing and able to make
the journey. You know, we want to welcome them, But
(31:10):
like I said, there's other reasons why they might do well,
like having another culture, another language.
Speaker 9 (31:16):
It makes it more likely.
Speaker 14 (31:17):
That you'll figure out some new new culture, some new thing.
Speaker 9 (31:21):
And of course immigrants.
Speaker 14 (31:23):
Tend to be able to build technology offshore. Often there
are places you can get engineers cheap, are far away,
when normally a startup couldn't really do that in the beginning,
because you want to be close to the customers. You
want to be like a real team. You don't outsources.
You want to have people on your core team from
the beginning that build it. But when you are an immigrant,
with those connections, it's very likely you'll be able to
(31:44):
find people somewhere else where a salary is a lower
and where that could actually feel like they're really part
of your group. You can make that connection. And of course,
but you're missing and we're all certainly missing a lot
of things that it takes.
Speaker 9 (31:57):
To be successful.
Speaker 14 (31:58):
And so we as a fund are immigrants ourselves, but
we came here as kids, right, so we're kind of
like a bridge. We understand a little bit more about
the culture of building a business in America, and we
are able to see like these unusual qualities that make
someone potentially able to build a really big business, right,
that level of ambition and vision and thoughtfulness and perseverance,
(32:19):
and so we kind of help them unlock We find
the missing pieces.
Speaker 9 (32:23):
Sometimes it's a question.
Speaker 14 (32:24):
Of storytelling or or just building a network, right, and
so that's what we specialize in. I just want to say,
like people like Illan Musk or Sergey Brinn who build
this big businesses It sounds sometimes to people like it's
kind of an exception, but it's not.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
It's truly the majority of the big business. It's over half.
I started by people like that.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
Samon to catch. We leave it on a great statistic.
Founding partner of One Way Ventures, thank you. Coming up,
we'll hear from Salesforce CEO, many of on tech policy,
on Trump.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Where the Time magazine is to sale. This is al
big technology Perplexity.
Speaker 5 (33:12):
So an AI start up building a search product to
compete with Google. It's just close to five hundred million
dollars round of funding that triples the company's valuation to
nine billion all. According to sources. The round was led
by institutional venture partners and completed earlier this month. Perplexity
declined to comment. Let's bring in the person who brought
us the news blue bag. Surean gafari for more. And
I might be numb because I look at one hundred
(33:35):
and fifty seven million dollar valuation over an open AI.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
But put it in context, what does nine billion dollars mean?
Speaker 15 (33:41):
That's still a gigantic valuation.
Speaker 16 (33:42):
If you think about just in June, perplexity valuation was
one third of this. It's tripled so, you know, I
think that sorry, it's not one third of it, but
it is tripled since June. So I think that, you know,
we're seeing a very strong investor demand still to get
in on the AI market. I don't think that, you know,
some people are wondering, will they I bubble burst?
Speaker 15 (34:02):
Are we going to see investor demand cool off?
Speaker 16 (34:04):
I think startups like this growing this quickly show that
the demand is still very, very high.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
Perplexity has been well used by consumers. They've got a
fair share of legal issues to be contending with at
the moment, and I'm interested as to how the growth
actually is looking. Did you get any hints of where
the fifteen million active uses has gone since March?
Speaker 6 (34:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 16 (34:27):
You know, they are saying that the number of searches
that people do on Perplexity, and remember, their sort of
competitive edge is that they're trying to be the best
in giving people real time information and you know, good
for kind of analysis and summaries, and they're saying that
they're seeing.
Speaker 15 (34:42):
People query a lot more.
Speaker 16 (34:43):
They're seeing very strong growth in the past several months.
They've also been rolling out some more kind of customized
search options for people who want financial data or who
want let's say sports data that's real time.
Speaker 15 (34:57):
So they are growing and I think that's why we're
seeing this investor demand increase.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
And being levi'sjudial venture partners, we'll see how the growth continues.
Sharing Gafari, thank you for the news. Meanwhile, let's talk
Sales Force CEO Mark Benioff says the company's work in
AI is the most exciting technology he's ever worked on,
but that doesn't mean he's giving up his stake in
Legacy Media recently spoke with me Megs Andrie Hordan about
the future of Time magazine its recent decision to name
(35:23):
President lect Donald Trump as Person of the Year.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
I think you know that when I bought Time Magazine,
I said that I wouldn't endorse any political candidate, and
I stopped all funding of all political candidates.
Speaker 6 (35:35):
But I think you also know that this week.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Time Magazine did say that President Trump is our Person
of the Year, and I couldn't be more excited about that.
I mean, everything you've seen from the story, from the
cover to the story itself, it's the biggest story we've
ever done in the history of Time, and this is
really speaks to a moment I believe in the political
landscape where we really have to have a beginner's mind,
(36:00):
that every possibility is ahead of us, and I think
it's only in the expert's mind that we realize that
we might have the constraints that we need to kind
of put aside. So I'm excited for the future. I
hope that agents in AI are a critical part of
achieving the next level of efficiency and capability inside not
(36:20):
only our government, but every government. And I believe very
strongly that we need to use these kinds of technologies
to achieve a balanced budget, which I think is a
bypart is an issue that all of us can agree on.
Speaker 17 (36:34):
Yes, it is, and they are looking to jojify the government,
bring experience industry people in that work with AI and crypto.
Would you consider working alongside the administration if they ask
you to maybe join something like a task force.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Well, I don't really have the ability to answer that
because nothing has been proposed to me except I'm highly
conflicted as a media owner and it makes it incredibly
difficult for me to operate administration. Administrations change, but at Salesforce,
we believe strongly our values don't change, and we're mostly
focused on operating our business. That said, when governments and
(37:10):
presidents ask us to help them to make their countries
more effective, more efficient, and more capable, especially in regards
to artificial intelligence, we will always say yes.
Speaker 17 (37:22):
Well, there are reports out there. Now you've led me
to this that maybe you're even looking at selling Time magazine.
So say you did sell Time magazine, you can comment
on whether or not those reports are true. Would you
consider offering up all your expertise in efficiency to you know,
the DOGE Task Force and to the incoming administration.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Listen, I think that every American should do whatever they
can to make America successful, and every American should do
whatever they can to make the President of the United
States successful. This is of course our country and our
leadership team. So if called on I of course I
would do whatever I can to support them.
Speaker 9 (38:02):
But the reality is there is.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
No deal on the table to sell Time, and it's
extremely important that we do have fair and balanced journalism.
And that's why I'm very proud to be an owner
of Time Magazine.
Speaker 5 (38:13):
Sales will see and Mark Benioff there speaking of bluemgg's
Amory Horden, Today's big take is heart hitting. It's about
a lawsuit arguing that Snapchat has helped dealers sell children
deadly counterfeit drugs, and that lawsuit could change the Internet
(38:35):
as we know it. Bloomberg's Olivia Carvill is here with
yet another groundbreaking story, and the context is always as painful.
Since twenty twenty, drug overdoses this is what shocked me,
driven by fentanel has become one of the leading causes
of death among kids among teenagers.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
Killing more than sixteen hundred people.
Speaker 5 (38:51):
But all social media platforms in some way are implicated
by this.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
But why has Snapchat singled out so much?
Speaker 12 (38:57):
That's right, I mean, drug sales can be found all
social media platforms. I think what differentiates Snapchat here and
why law enforcement, lawyers, even teenage users of the platform
are kind of singling out Snapchat is the platform was
really built on the idea of disappearing messages. It thrives
on that evanescence, which means that if you send a
(39:18):
message within twenty four hours, it has gone. And unfortunately,
you know, while the company wasn't designed for this, what
has happened is that teenagers like using the platform when
they don't want their parents to know what they're doing
and drug dealers like using the platform because evidence of
their crimes is immediately deleted by default very quickly.
Speaker 5 (39:38):
In the story, the extent of use for drug sales
becomes clear. We understand that Snapchat has removed two point
two million pieces of drug related content, just as twenty
twenty three they've locked more than seven hundred thousand dealer accounts.
But we want to focus on Snapchat's response here because
Jacqueline Buscher has responded to your piece and the Global
had a platform safety saying that we're be committed to
(40:00):
fight against the fundamental epidemic.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
How are they fighting against it?
Speaker 12 (40:05):
They're actually doing quite a lot, and the company points
out that it wants to become the most hostile place
on the Internet for drug dealers. They have fine tuned
machine learning classifiers so AI technology to really detect any
drug related content as soon as it's uploaded to the platform.
That's resulted in them removing two point two million pieces
of content and twenty twenty three alone that were flagged
(40:28):
as being connected to drugs in some way. It also
allows them to deactivate or lock the accounts of anyone
for suspicious activity where it looks like they might be
selling drugs through the platform. They also have strengthened their safeguards.
I guess you could say their features or their recommendation
engine that enables users to connect with one another. Often
(40:52):
drug dealers have used this to try and build out
their network to find more buyers. And the company really
strengthens its safeguard when it comes to teen users with
it recommendation engine, trying to limit the amount of strangers
that it's connecting teenagers to combat the Fenoinnel crisis.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
Meanwhile, Michael Brewer, whose story you talk about so eloquently
in this story, is still going to court and we
understand that this could have broad reaching effects for section
two thirty and we will continue to discuss it with
you in the future. Once again, go and check out
the big take. It's an amotive one with Olivia Carvill.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
We thank her. We're going to take it.
Speaker 5 (41:30):
Back to the markets now because there is a big
sell off underway for one particular name and many of
you are exposed to it.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
Mike run off by sixteen percent.
Speaker 5 (41:37):
Chip maker here in the United States, biggest maker of
memory currently off by sixteen percent worse days since March
twenty twenty as their forecast did not live up to expectations.
It's about weakness in PC and in smartphone chips in particular,
that does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Don't forget to check out our podcast.
Speaker 5 (41:55):
You can find it on the terminal as well as Apple, Spotify,
and iHeart this is a Bloomberg
Speaker 16 (42:00):
You think Co
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
From the Heart where Innovation, money and power Collie in
Silicon Valley, Nbon.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlove.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Live from New York.
Speaker 5 (00:33):
As the Blomberg Technology coming up, Micron planets after reporting earnings,
and AI just couldn't make up for the smartphone and
PC cheap weakness. Plus Elo Musk wielding his political power
as the US now risks a government shutdown. We discuss
as impact on the next stopgap bill, and Apple holds
its plans for an iPhone hardware subscription service. This and
(00:54):
much more on Apple News later this hour. But first
weche can on one key stock. It is down more
than seventeen percent and it is having its worst day
since March twenty twenty. Micron really slumping on the back
of its numbers, and we get straight to it the why,
the how, as you see that it eradicates most of
its gains year to date.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
We go to Blue meg Intelligence analyst Jake.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Silverman first, whose report lays out that the outlook missed
by twelve percent and week a smartphone PC in auto
bit demand.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
This is it.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
We were all really excited about high bandwidth memory for
AI applications, but really it comes back to you and
me not buying more phones.
Speaker 6 (01:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (01:33):
Well, look, there was definitely an inventory correction to some
extent for fiscal two Q and this was starting to
happen earlier this year. Actually we're starting to see this
in June, July, August, and the reason primarily was to
build the inventory ahead of price increases that did occur
but now are starting to impact the company's demand.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
I see.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
So Sanja Marotra is really trying to set and spell
out that the second half it's going to turn around.
We're actually going to see maybe even a growth of
the PC market of some five percent in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 7 (02:04):
But what spurs that, Well, there's typical seasonal demand, so
we would hope to see seasonal growth in the second
half regardless. But there's also the opportunity where there's content
expansion within AIPCS AI smartphones, So there's an opportunity there.
Whether or not that occurs, I think that still remains
to be seen, but there's still optimism that there can
(02:24):
be growth in the second half of the year versus
the first half.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
So look, as we're try and get our head.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Around the actual demand for AI in the consumer radiator department.
In the data center, it is then, what four hundred
percent growth in terms of their AI demand and sales.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Why is that not bringing in enough revenue yet?
Speaker 6 (02:42):
Though?
Speaker 7 (02:43):
Well, so, they do have a number of products that
are really impacting data center and demand. So high bandwidth
memory is probably the most talked about, but it's actually
still the most nascent for them. It's really not generating
the bulk of the growth yet.
Speaker 6 (02:56):
So they still have other products.
Speaker 7 (02:58):
Like high capacity DRAM modules, stems, LPDDR five. They're really
for servers, both AI and traditional compute. Traditional compute was
actually a bit better than had been previously anticipated. But
on the other hand, there's also data center SSDs, which
seemed to be moderating near term, where they had been
experiencing some pretty tremendous growth beforehand and had been benefiting
(03:21):
a lot from share gains as well well.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
With meg Intelligence analyst Jake Silvan breaking down what is
a pretty painful day in HQ in Voise, Idaho. But
now let's go out to an investor in the scene.
Kim forest Cio of Boca Capital Partners thirty five million
dollars in assets under management, and Kim, you'll take on
what is a absolute punishment on the stop today.
Speaker 8 (03:43):
Absolutely, Well, I've been doing this for her number of years,
since nineteen ninety nine. And well I was a sales
side analyst and a biside analyst than a PM then
chief investment officer of my own firm. That being said,
this is not my first day at this rodeo and
Micron in particular, and all the memory kind of companies
(04:05):
seem to have this boom bust cycle, and the boom
and bust can be really close to each other, as
evidenced by the price chart of Micron.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
So what's an investor to do? Well? Some people would
like to be able.
Speaker 8 (04:19):
To trade this know when to go in low, you
know when the high is God bless you on that.
I think what you have to do is look at
Micron and say it has terrific growth. There are very
few players in this space. There's maybe six or seven
companies that are competitors, and for the most part, sometimes
(04:43):
bad things like this happen, but sometimes good things happen too.
And to be able to trade around that around these
events where there's a sudden shortfall in demand, but it
will be made up. I think it's more of a
buying opportunity than getting out now. The other thing is is,
if you look at that chart, some people bought it
at much higher prices this year, and it could be
(05:06):
tax lost selling going on that's really driving the price
down today.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
So there's a seasonality element to all of this. It's
interesting if you go to analyst recommendations at the moment,
a lot of people cut their price targets, but still
you've got thirty seven buys on this stock, You've only
got one cell, and the overall consensus for price target
it's still at one hundred and thirty five. You've got
room to run up from an eighty five dollars.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
But how does Sanjay Morotra.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Get us there in terms of what he needs to
signal now to the market.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
How much can he.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Say, look, put aside China, put aside my exposure to
the consumer, I'm all in on AI.
Speaker 8 (05:42):
Well, I think he made the case that he's all
in on AI right, Like they have the products that
AI wants and needs. AI for many reasons, has saved
this market, right. I mean in video and meta certainly
have driven it. But the real issue here is the
AI people are buying stuff and building out their data centers,
(06:06):
and I don't know that that's going to stop in
any you know, definable time.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
And I did you sorry just so, But in that Kim,
did you get that sort of easing of any anxiety,
whether or not it was closely held or far away
that we might be at some pivot point where the
demand does start.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
To ease up.
Speaker 6 (06:25):
Sure?
Speaker 8 (06:26):
I mean, well, here's here's what investors really have to understand.
Micron is a very small world in which all of
its clients are either all on or all off, or
so it seems.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
And if you remember when we were.
Speaker 8 (06:41):
Building out regular cloud database or cloud data centers, it's lumpy.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
And what I mean by that is you're either.
Speaker 8 (06:49):
Building out or you're not, and all of a sudden
it can stop. And whenever several companies that have been
building out data centers stopped, you know, the providers get clover.
That's just the nature of this, and we don't know
when it's going to stop. So investors have to be
aware that we're not going to be spending in perpetuity to.
Speaker 9 (07:10):
Build out AI.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
There will be a day.
Speaker 8 (07:13):
When people take a pause and actually have to you know,
reap the rewards of building this product and you know,
having people pay for the.
Speaker 5 (07:21):
Service these mega clusters at a moment though that we
seem to be seeing is not a signal of us
pulling back anytime soon. But does macro policy, does a
new administration in any way dampen the spirits or only
accelerate them?
Speaker 8 (07:35):
Kim, It doesn't seem so, because the companies that are
building these data centers out have enough money from what
they're doing now. They don't need to be able to
say in the future, I'll be able to you know,
in some very definable timeline, I need to get my
money back. So they are going to be building these
things out because they have the cash flow. And I'm
(07:56):
talking to about Microsoft, Google and Meta, their regular businesses
are providing the capital to build out data centers.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
So you said this potentially could be a buying moment
for Micron. What about the chip space more broadly, because
everyone's been suddenly in on this focus on software trade.
Speaker 8 (08:16):
Right, Well, I think it's great, Like at some point
software has to come back to winning.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
I used to be a software engineer and I.
Speaker 8 (08:23):
Would love to be able to like buy a good
software company that I think will grow again in perpetuity.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
I like moneymaking machines.
Speaker 8 (08:32):
Microsoft has been that, although it had a lull in
the you know, twenty ten to twenty fourteen range something
like that. But yeah, software is great, but hardware is
what is driving me crazy right now, because it seems
there is no lack of demand and I think the
software will follow.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
Now.
Speaker 8 (08:52):
A lot of people are Momentum investors, and I worry
about Nvidia about that because Broadcom's kind of taken all
or Era out of the room for Nvidia.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Kim Forest just dampening our animal spirits when it comes
to some of the key trades that have been in
this here, Kim, we so appreciate it. Boca Capital Partners
wishing you happily holidays, just cio there. Meanwhile, look, the
Biden administration has cemented a deal to give sk Heinex,
course another high bandwidth memory maker, close to four hundred
and sixty million dollars in grants and five hundred million
in loans. This is to support a facility in Indiana
(09:25):
which will focus on packaging chips sent to the US
from sk Heinex plants in South Korea.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
The deal is a key part of.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
US efforts to build a domestic semiconductor supply chain. Now
coming up, Elon Musk's influence in Washington being felt already
as he helps kill a stop gap funding bill. More
on that next, this is blue Meg Technology. The last
(09:55):
minute government funding bill has been scrapped by House Speaker
Mike Johnson after urged lawmakers and President elect Trump to
risk a government shutdown rather than accept for post stop
gap bill.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Room mergs Mike Shephard joins us for more.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
And if anyone had potentially been doubting or questioning the
influence of being on Musk, that proved wrong.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Here those doubts were erased. And in resounding forum yesterday
it was almost like on cue. We saw Elon Musk
use the power of his x ex social media platform
to gin up opposition and amplify it very quickly and
within ours. President elect Donald Trump and Vice President elect JD.
(10:35):
Vance chimed in and said that day two oppose this
spending deal, which have been negotiated for weeks, if not months,
to try to revert a government shutdown that will come
as soon as Saturday morning if lawmakers can't go back
to the drawing board and put together something on the fly,
which looks really unlikely right now.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
Republicans saying that that phone has been ringing off the
hooks on the back of this call to arms.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
To call your lawmaker, hasn get it taken off.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
He's shown his political clout, but behind the scenes, he's
also building a team, taking expertise from those he knows
already and indeed attending every meeting that seems to be
going on.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
In mar Laga.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Well, you're right, Caroline, because what we've also seen is
Musk using this bully pulpit of X to also give
wing to this venture that Donald Trump appointed him and
Vivek Ramaswami, one of Trump's campaign.
Speaker 9 (11:24):
Rivals, to lead.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
That's the Department of Government Efficiency. Now keep in mind
it's not really a department. It wasn't an agency created
by Congress. But its goal is to do kind of
what they're asking for in their social media communications yesterday,
and that is cut down the size of government, reduced spending,
reduced the scope of government. And this entity, if you will,
(11:46):
lack of a lack of a better run, we'll call
it that. It is still taking shape, but we do
know that they are hiring. Thanks for really great scoop
by our colleagues yesterday, we already know that they have
hired about ten people. And Elon Musk has into an
executive from the boring company and a former Trump Chief
technology officer in his administration the prior administration, to lead
(12:09):
the hiring push. They've been talking to candidates. They're looking
for software engineers, including folks with artificial intelligence expertise, and
the idea is that they would apply that to the
vast reams of government data, perhaps to try to figure
out what are the efficiencies that could be gained.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
I want to where that talent comes from, because of
course he's been busy hiring an XAI in that department too.
Mike Shepard a joy to have him here in New York.
Let's just talk a little bit about lev space more
broadly as well, because Tesla is in early talks. We
understand the city of Austin about rolling out a fleet
of autonomous vehicles.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
As early as next year.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
In emails acquired by Bloomberg, Tesla employees have been communicating
with the Texas city, so it's at least May to
establish safety expectations for the vehicles. The emails go on
further saying that Tesla has not yet finalized its decision
for an Austin deployment. Let's stick on Tesla, Let's stick
on EV landscape, Let's stick on all things in La
Mosque as well, and how all of this is set
(13:04):
to change under the twenty twenty five percent and Electrump administration,
and maybe we see some of those EV incentives wound down,
even a possibility of fast tracking autonomous driving too. We've
got a perfect person, Steve Westley's with us Wesley Group
managing partner, who used to be on the border of
the EV giant as well as your key player in
California politics, and therefore this is the perfect dimension to
discuss this with you. How are you thinking the EV
(13:26):
landscape changes come January twentieth, Well, look.
Speaker 10 (13:29):
Let's look at the big picture first.
Speaker 11 (13:32):
So people are saying EV growth is slowing down, nonsense.
One out of five of all cars sold globally in
twenty twenty four will be electric or hybrid. So we're
living in an EV world and it's just moving faster.
That's twenty five percent year over year growth, seventeen million
evs sold, globally, US Canada a solid growth about twelve percent,
(13:52):
China red hot at forty percent. The big stories is
you talked about are kind of tesla versus byd.
Speaker 10 (13:59):
Who's going to be global leader?
Speaker 11 (14:01):
And then there's this other issue of US versus China
and how are terrorists going to affect this? And what
people have to remember US has already slapped terriffs on
any Chinese car sold in the US.
Speaker 10 (14:13):
But that's firstly none.
Speaker 11 (14:15):
You've got to ask the question of what happens at
the Chinese slap one hundred percent terriffs on US cars
or automakers.
Speaker 9 (14:22):
Selling cars that happened.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Do you think there's a high risk even for a tesla?
Speaker 10 (14:26):
Oh?
Speaker 11 (14:26):
Look, whatever, there are terrifts slapped on by one country
or another, you've got to expect the other country to respond.
The big question is is that cars that are already
made in that country are just cars that come so
from the US going to China.
Speaker 10 (14:40):
But the pastline's the same.
Speaker 11 (14:42):
There's a lot more US automakers selling cars into China
than vice versus.
Speaker 10 (14:47):
So the US needs to be careful at in this one.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
And yet we have seen vibes or whether it be
real political clout driving testa share price up into the right.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Ever since the results of the election, has any.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Of this China US tension been priced in, do you think,
Steve Well?
Speaker 11 (15:05):
I think people don't have their arms around it quite yet.
So you've got to look at the Tesla share price.
Seventy six percent growth since January one of this year.
That's astonishing. The big question is can Tesla keep it up?
And I think it's going to be tough without getting
some new products into the market. Tesla's auto growth this year,
you know, after roaring sales growth in twenty twenty one
(15:29):
and twenty twenty two of fifty one percent and seventy percent,
this year it's darn year flat. So Tessa's got to
get this new lower cost car into the market. There
are new rumors that there's going to be a new
sub thirty thousand dollars model Q coming sometime in twenty
twenty five, but we've got to make sure that that's real,
(15:49):
so investors have to look at it. I think twenty
five is going to be a make or break year.
It could see new heights if you can see a
lower cost car coming out and full self driving improve
but it can also sink if they don't get a
new car to market sales stay flat.
Speaker 10 (16:06):
That's going to scare people.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Now as an investor, though, Steve, as an investor, how hard.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Has it been to read the tea leads?
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Because we're trying to understand as to whether they're just
going to cut costs of current models on the market
and get us to some sort of sense of affordability.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Because Elon just signals.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
Time and time again he's more interested in the robotaxi
side and the full sife driving side.
Speaker 10 (16:28):
It's incredibly hard.
Speaker 11 (16:29):
I mean, share price going up seventy five percent when
sales are flat.
Speaker 10 (16:34):
I don't think anybody's ever seen anything like that before.
Speaker 11 (16:37):
What's going on kind of a bet on full self
driving and probably a bigger bet on Musk's relationship with
President Trump. What no one's talking about is very quietly,
the energy vision looks like the saving grace for Tesla
seventy five percent year over year growth.
Speaker 10 (16:54):
The other thing investors have to get their.
Speaker 11 (16:56):
Arms around is auto companies aren't just auto companies anymore.
They're also or energy companies too, and it's a whole
new world.
Speaker 10 (17:03):
You've got to pay attention.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
I got to pay attention to the politics involved in it.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
This week, of course we saw that again California is
really going to be focusing in on in shoring, EV adoption,
Steve where you sit. But also we've got a news
story around the potential unionization let's call it subtly being
done over with Rivian.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
We understand the UAWS reached a.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
Kind of secret deal with Rivian to make unionization easier
as and when it becomes a profitable company.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
How much you think.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
That's a key area the labor side of things to
the EV space.
Speaker 11 (17:32):
Well, look, the labor side's huge because labor costs are
going up. This is one of the things that's plagued
GM and Forward for years. And what's interesting is must
it's great at pulling out all the stuff, making things
go faster than any of the automaker, but he still
has to deal with unions. And he may be the
well dis guy in the world, but that's not going.
Speaker 10 (17:52):
To impact.
Speaker 11 (17:54):
How well with union battles German workers potential the outline
strike soon precisely when he's trying to catch up for
a Q four sales. So it's going to be interesting
to see can Tessela's auto sales increase this year. You
can I show your over year growth. Gosh, that's going
to be a tough one to sell to shareholders.
Speaker 10 (18:15):
We'll see.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
And you are a long time shareholder and an influential
one of that, Steve Wesley. We thank you of the
Wesley Group time now for talking tech.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
First up.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
Apple has halted its project building out an iPhone hardware
subscription service it's acording to sources, the idea was to
make owning an iPhone like subscribing to an app, with
consumers paying monthly fees to get a new phone each year.
Apple has since disbanded and reassigned the team to other projects. Plus,
the European Commission is pushing Apple to further open up
its iPhone operating systems to rivals. Commission instructed the tech
(18:53):
giant on Wednesday to rework iOS so that devices like
smart watches, earbuds, headsets from rivals more compatible with the
Apple ecosystem, and Apple is close to getting Indonesia to
lift its ban on iPhone sixteen sales, this after the
country's president gave his approval for a one billion dollar
investment from the tech giant.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Again, according to sources.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Indonesia First Band remembers sales with the flagship device last month,
saying Apple failed to comply with its domestic content requirements.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Get stuck into all of these Apple related stories. I
want to known Mark German with.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Us, and Mark just talk to us a little bit
more about what's happening with Indonesia because this is a
big one eighty and they played hardball.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
In a one.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
So Apple and Indonesia have been going back and forth
for weeks now since the launch of the iPhone sixteen. Right, Obviously,
Apple wants to get the device in as many countries
as possible. Indonesia is important to Apple because that's a
potential growth market for them. Right, they are making a
big bush across Southeast Asia and not being able to
get it in one of the biggest countries there is
(19:57):
a really big deal for them, and so they've been
making different offers and what they finally landed on is
investing one billion dollars into a facility there that would
produce essentially twenty percent of air tags. AirTags, obviously, is
that fun little device we're all gearing up to include
in our luggage for the holidays. Right, It's not Apple's
most popular product, but it's an important one, and it
(20:18):
sounds like it was enough to get the job done.
Apple is gearing up to release a new air tag
in the middle of next year with much better range,
better privacy, So that is going to be a cool
thing for Indonesia to be able to produce that product
potentially or further generations of that device.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Let's stay global on the Apple front when you're looking
at the EU news as well, because this compatibility argument
has been going on for a while. Ultimately, whatever the
EU forces does it become global in nature.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
The EU wants to crack open the iPhone completely. They
want to essentially make it Android. They want to make
it so users could be a bunch of cowboys and
do whatever they want to the device.
Speaker 12 (20:58):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Apple, on the other hand, wants this closed ecosystem with
a privacy centric design and a clean user interface.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
They don't want.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
People to be able to open up their device to
work with third party earbuds and watches and headsets as
well as.
Speaker 6 (21:12):
It works with Apple products.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
And so the EU put out a list of several
things it wants Apple to adopt and allow third parties
to use at a deeper level, things like air drop
file sharing, things like airplay video beaming from the device
to other products, things like opening up underlying Wi Fi protocols.
Speaker 6 (21:29):
And Apple is.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Pushing back on that by using Meta as an example
and showcasing fifteen data categories that Meta wants access to
and physitioning Meta as this anti privacy company and trying
to show consumers and the European Commission, right the regulators
in the EU, what could potentially happen to Apple device
customers if these programs are opened up to the extent
(21:52):
that they want them to be opened up.
Speaker 5 (21:54):
That Apple Meta rivalry really continues to play out when
it comes to politics. Margam, thank you, welcome back to
blow Meg Technology. I'm Caroline heid in New York. We
also want to be going into the story that is TikTok.
(22:14):
Today marks exactly one month until a possible ban in
the United States, but now with the Supreme Court excepting
to hear TikTok's challenge to that law, well, the social
media app has a glimmer of hope. Alexander Levine joins
us Now it's Today's Tech Daily. It is a big
viewership on this story.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
And it's a big twist. It's a big twist.
Speaker 13 (22:36):
I think a lot of people are looking at this
as a huge game changer in the eleventh hour, and
I think we need a caution to just say that
this could very well just be the Supreme Court doing
what the Supreme Court has always set out to do.
And we need to remember that this is the first time,
if the band goes through, that a social media app
will have ever been banned in this country. And so
(22:57):
this could very well just be the Supreme Court, you know,
recognizing how important these issues are and wanting to really
set their record straight before a shutdown happens, and also
before the administration changes hands, because a.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Lot of people have said, well, the Supreme Court, large
part of them, have been selected by previous president and
now President elect Trump, and maybe that would bend towards
whatever his views on.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
The social media app have been.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
Of course, he says there's a soft place in his heart,
for a special place in his heart for the app.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
But these are lawmakers at the.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
End of the day, and people who going to be
assessing on the merits of the law.
Speaker 13 (23:31):
Absolutely, you know, the justices are going to rule as
they may. I think there's a lot of speculation given
Trump and where Trump is seeming to come down on
this now versus where he used to stand about how
the justices may rule.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
But I think we really don't know.
Speaker 13 (23:46):
And the Supreme Court, we don't know what the Supreme
Court is going to do. We don't know that this
actually means that TikTok is going to be able to
withstand being banned. But it is a really remarkable timeline
when you look at the fact that we're one month
from the band.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
That was supposed to take effect.
Speaker 13 (24:01):
The argument will be January tenth, and then the law
is set to take effect in your nine days later.
So if anything, it's just worth pointing out that the
Supreme Court is moving exceptionally fast and unusually fast on
this one issue.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
So people who assess the law now have the ball.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
But what I'm interested in is also we've got to
remember it's not just a ban.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
They could divest.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
We kind of come off that narrative because TikTok wants
us to think that this is.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Either a ban or nothing. If we had anything.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
About potential suits about Withever, we would see its funnle.
Speaker 13 (24:32):
Absolutely, we know that this is sort of the next
phase of the saga. So Bite Dance has said they
will not sell their most prize asset in the US.
Beijing has also said that Beijing's export rules basically say
that Chinese companies cannot sell their algorithms like the one
that is central to TikTok in the US, and that's
made it so popular here. But American, potentially American bidders,
(24:54):
people who have deep enough pockets, are already lining up.
We have some reporting coming on that very soon later today,
and I think it's important to realize that people are
not going to take no for an answer here. When
you've got over half of the American population at this point,
more people than voting than voted in the last election
using the platform, these bidders are really trying to line
(25:15):
themselves up at the front of a competitive pack for
who may be the person or the company to take
over the US iteration of the platform. If by Dance
feels a squeeze in this sort of eleventh hour with
all of the legal you know, the legal path coming
to an end, they want to be sort of the
ones at the front of the pack.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Well, look out for that next story publishing later today.
Alexandre Levine All Things TikTok. Amazon meanwhile is delaying the
return to office for thousands of employees due to lack
of space. The company told some personnel working in at
least seven cities, including Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, here in New
York as well that the return dates will be pushed
back until.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
March even April, according to sources.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
The company spokesperson said the vast majority of employees will
have desks starting on January second.
Speaker 11 (26:01):
Now.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
This week, the Biden administration also announced the overhaul of
H one B visa eligibility standards. It's a move that
expands who can receive the work visas and gives more
flexibility and clarity. The revision comes a mid concern that
the upcoming Trump administration.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
May change course. We've got a perfect voice, Simeon to
catch founding partner.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Of One Way Ventures, a VC firm that backs immigrant
founders in the United States and Canada, and the pre.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
Seed at the seed stage. So just this.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
News, this clarity on who can apply for H one
B visas and ideally be fast tractive.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Indeed, you've been allowed one in the past. Does this
make a difference to your companies.
Speaker 14 (26:39):
Yeah, I mean, I think more H one B visas
and simple final process is certainly going to.
Speaker 9 (26:45):
Make it easier for people to hire.
Speaker 14 (26:47):
The immigrants and occasionally for immigrants to start companies as well.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
Yeah, And what was interesting is in the news on
the H one B visa overhaul some people are calling
it is that entrepreneurs in particular are going to be
a to apply if you've got a majority holding in
a company.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
That you're building.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
How much have we seen entrepreneurs those building within North
America dependent on these sorts of accesses to living in
the United States.
Speaker 14 (27:13):
Well, yeah, I mean I think if there's more path
to being able to start a company, it's going.
Speaker 9 (27:21):
To have more companies started.
Speaker 14 (27:22):
In particular, I think it's relevant to students that complete
the education here and some of them may in fact
be deterred from starting a company without simplified visa process.
Speaker 5 (27:35):
There was certainly clarity given for students so that they
don't see a hole in their ability to be staying
in the United States if they're going to be finding
a job or building a business here. We're just looking
at the founders that you do indeed back most of them.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Being immigrant founders. Why focus on that demographic.
Speaker 14 (27:54):
Well, our fund, you know, we only invest in immigrants.
We are immigrants. We know that collectively immigrants. If you
take immigrants from any country to the US, they're not
just like slightly better at building businesses. They are responsible
for the majority of the value generated from new companies.
Speaker 9 (28:18):
Most of the unicorns that.
Speaker 14 (28:19):
Are billion dollar, multi billion dollar success stories are in
fact started by immigrants, like fifty five percent of them,
people who personally themselves made the journey and came here.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Why why is that some sort of causal link or
correlation link that people who have been driven and motivated
to move and to come are going to be well
more weighted to being successful.
Speaker 9 (28:45):
Well, there's a number of reasons.
Speaker 14 (28:46):
I think it's not a question of the countries they're
from being full of people who are better at starting things.
It's the people who make the journey, right. The experience
of coming to a new country, like learning a new langue,
which it's predictive of how much grit you have, how
much perseverance you have. It's almost like, you know, your
own immigration is like a startup because you're going into
(29:11):
that unknown. You have to have some kind of vision,
some kind of belief that you can do it, but
before you have real evidence, and when you commit to
doing that, you often.
Speaker 9 (29:22):
Don't really have a way back, right, Like.
Speaker 14 (29:25):
It's very hard to come back and admit that, like
nobody really wanted you in America and it didn't work out,
Like people around you don't necessarily believe that that's what
you should do. You're sort of abandoning your existing network, right,
And so the people who've done that and had to survive, right,
had to learn the culture of the language, figure everything
(29:46):
out from scratch, building your network. When they've done that once,
they're more likely to be able to figure out how
to disturb a big business, which you know, a big
company has its own language right, its own culture in
a way in any startup in order to has to
be able to overcome it. So having done it once
already on your own immigration, it's more likely that you
(30:06):
will get there.
Speaker 9 (30:07):
And you're not going to give up along the way.
Speaker 14 (30:09):
You're not going to have as many alternative when things
get hard.
Speaker 9 (30:12):
It's not so.
Speaker 14 (30:13):
Easy to get a cushy job right because you have
the network.
Speaker 9 (30:17):
Right.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
What's interesting, though, is you think about the leaders of
the Magnificent Seven, the CEOs, many of them immigrants.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Elon Musk himself, who has got.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
The ear of the next elected president. Most of the
time it feels like himself, an immigrant, didn't have to
change languages, but certainly came here and built a number
of incredibly successful companies. But what does the next administration
look like to you? Do we see a pushback against
immigration in some way?
Speaker 9 (30:45):
Well, you know, it's hard for me to tell.
Speaker 14 (30:47):
I personally believe that all the immigrants, even folks without
an education, should be generally welcome, not illegally, right, they
should be a pathilm to be illegal, of course, and
I think it's just tremendous benefits the country to have
these select few people who willing and able to make
the journey. You know, we want to welcome them, But
(31:10):
like I said, there's other reasons why they might do well,
like having another culture, another language.
Speaker 9 (31:16):
It makes it more likely.
Speaker 14 (31:17):
That you'll figure out some new new culture, some new thing.
Speaker 9 (31:21):
And of course immigrants.
Speaker 14 (31:23):
Tend to be able to build technology offshore. Often there
are places you can get engineers cheap, are far away,
when normally a startup couldn't really do that in the beginning,
because you want to be close to the customers. You
want to be like a real team. You don't outsources.
You want to have people on your core team from
the beginning that build it. But when you are an immigrant,
with those connections, it's very likely you'll be able to
(31:44):
find people somewhere else where a salary is a lower
and where that could actually feel like they're really part
of your group. You can make that connection. And of course,
but you're missing and we're all certainly missing a lot
of things that it takes.
Speaker 9 (31:57):
To be successful.
Speaker 14 (31:58):
And so we as a fund are immigrants ourselves, but
we came here as kids, right, so we're kind of
like a bridge. We understand a little bit more about
the culture of building a business in America, and we
are able to see like these unusual qualities that make
someone potentially able to build a really big business, right,
that level of ambition and vision and thoughtfulness and perseverance,
(32:19):
and so we kind of help them unlock We find
the missing pieces.
Speaker 9 (32:23):
Sometimes it's a question.
Speaker 14 (32:24):
Of storytelling or or just building a network, right, and
so that's what we specialize in. I just want to say,
like people like Illan Musk or Sergey Brinn who build
this big businesses It sounds sometimes to people like it's
kind of an exception, but it's not.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
It's truly the majority of the big business. It's over half.
I started by people like that.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
Samon to catch. We leave it on a great statistic.
Founding partner of One Way Ventures, thank you. Coming up,
we'll hear from Salesforce CEO, many of on tech policy,
on Trump.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Where the Time magazine is to sale. This is al
big technology Perplexity.
Speaker 5 (33:12):
So an AI start up building a search product to
compete with Google. It's just close to five hundred million
dollars round of funding that triples the company's valuation to
nine billion all. According to sources. The round was led
by institutional venture partners and completed earlier this month. Perplexity
declined to comment. Let's bring in the person who brought
us the news blue bag. Surean gafari for more. And
I might be numb because I look at one hundred
(33:35):
and fifty seven million dollar valuation over an open AI.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
But put it in context, what does nine billion dollars mean?
Speaker 15 (33:41):
That's still a gigantic valuation.
Speaker 16 (33:42):
If you think about just in June, perplexity valuation was
one third of this. It's tripled so, you know, I
think that sorry, it's not one third of it, but
it is tripled since June. So I think that, you know,
we're seeing a very strong investor demand still to get
in on the AI market. I don't think that, you know,
some people are wondering, will they I bubble burst?
Speaker 15 (34:02):
Are we going to see investor demand cool off?
Speaker 16 (34:04):
I think startups like this growing this quickly show that
the demand is still very, very high.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
Perplexity has been well used by consumers. They've got a
fair share of legal issues to be contending with at
the moment, and I'm interested as to how the growth
actually is looking. Did you get any hints of where
the fifteen million active uses has gone since March?
Speaker 6 (34:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 16 (34:27):
You know, they are saying that the number of searches
that people do on Perplexity, and remember, their sort of
competitive edge is that they're trying to be the best
in giving people real time information and you know, good
for kind of analysis and summaries, and they're saying that
they're seeing.
Speaker 15 (34:42):
People query a lot more.
Speaker 16 (34:43):
They're seeing very strong growth in the past several months.
They've also been rolling out some more kind of customized
search options for people who want financial data or who
want let's say sports data that's real time.
Speaker 15 (34:57):
So they are growing and I think that's why we're
seeing this investor demand increase.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
And being levi'sjudial venture partners, we'll see how the growth continues.
Sharing Gafari, thank you for the news. Meanwhile, let's talk
Sales Force CEO Mark Benioff says the company's work in
AI is the most exciting technology he's ever worked on,
but that doesn't mean he's giving up his stake in
Legacy Media recently spoke with me Megs Andrie Hordan about
the future of Time magazine its recent decision to name
(35:23):
President lect Donald Trump as Person of the Year.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
I think you know that when I bought Time Magazine,
I said that I wouldn't endorse any political candidate, and
I stopped all funding of all political candidates.
Speaker 6 (35:35):
But I think you also know that this week.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Time Magazine did say that President Trump is our Person
of the Year, and I couldn't be more excited about that.
I mean, everything you've seen from the story, from the
cover to the story itself, it's the biggest story we've
ever done in the history of Time, and this is
really speaks to a moment I believe in the political
landscape where we really have to have a beginner's mind,
(36:00):
that every possibility is ahead of us, and I think
it's only in the expert's mind that we realize that
we might have the constraints that we need to kind
of put aside. So I'm excited for the future. I
hope that agents in AI are a critical part of
achieving the next level of efficiency and capability inside not
(36:20):
only our government, but every government. And I believe very
strongly that we need to use these kinds of technologies
to achieve a balanced budget, which I think is a
bypart is an issue that all of us can agree on.
Speaker 17 (36:34):
Yes, it is, and they are looking to jojify the government,
bring experience industry people in that work with AI and crypto.
Would you consider working alongside the administration if they ask
you to maybe join something like a task force.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Well, I don't really have the ability to answer that
because nothing has been proposed to me except I'm highly
conflicted as a media owner and it makes it incredibly
difficult for me to operate administration. Administrations change, but at Salesforce,
we believe strongly our values don't change, and we're mostly
focused on operating our business. That said, when governments and
(37:10):
presidents ask us to help them to make their countries
more effective, more efficient, and more capable, especially in regards
to artificial intelligence, we will always say yes.
Speaker 17 (37:22):
Well, there are reports out there. Now you've led me
to this that maybe you're even looking at selling Time magazine.
So say you did sell Time magazine, you can comment
on whether or not those reports are true. Would you
consider offering up all your expertise in efficiency to you know,
the DOGE Task Force and to the incoming administration.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Listen, I think that every American should do whatever they
can to make America successful, and every American should do
whatever they can to make the President of the United
States successful. This is of course our country and our
leadership team. So if called on I of course I
would do whatever I can to support them.
Speaker 9 (38:02):
But the reality is there is.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
No deal on the table to sell Time, and it's
extremely important that we do have fair and balanced journalism.
And that's why I'm very proud to be an owner
of Time Magazine.
Speaker 5 (38:13):
Sales will see and Mark Benioff there speaking of bluemgg's
Amory Horden, Today's big take is heart hitting. It's about
a lawsuit arguing that Snapchat has helped dealers sell children
deadly counterfeit drugs, and that lawsuit could change the Internet
(38:35):
as we know it. Bloomberg's Olivia Carvill is here with
yet another groundbreaking story, and the context is always as painful.
Since twenty twenty, drug overdoses this is what shocked me,
driven by fentanel has become one of the leading causes
of death among kids among teenagers.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
Killing more than sixteen hundred people.
Speaker 5 (38:51):
But all social media platforms in some way are implicated
by this.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
But why has Snapchat singled out so much?
Speaker 12 (38:57):
That's right, I mean, drug sales can be found all
social media platforms. I think what differentiates Snapchat here and
why law enforcement, lawyers, even teenage users of the platform
are kind of singling out Snapchat is the platform was
really built on the idea of disappearing messages. It thrives
on that evanescence, which means that if you send a
(39:18):
message within twenty four hours, it has gone. And unfortunately,
you know, while the company wasn't designed for this, what
has happened is that teenagers like using the platform when
they don't want their parents to know what they're doing
and drug dealers like using the platform because evidence of
their crimes is immediately deleted by default very quickly.
Speaker 5 (39:38):
In the story, the extent of use for drug sales
becomes clear. We understand that Snapchat has removed two point
two million pieces of drug related content, just as twenty
twenty three they've locked more than seven hundred thousand dealer accounts.
But we want to focus on Snapchat's response here because
Jacqueline Buscher has responded to your piece and the Global
had a platform safety saying that we're be committed to
(40:00):
fight against the fundamental epidemic.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
How are they fighting against it?
Speaker 12 (40:05):
They're actually doing quite a lot, and the company points
out that it wants to become the most hostile place
on the Internet for drug dealers. They have fine tuned
machine learning classifiers so AI technology to really detect any
drug related content as soon as it's uploaded to the platform.
That's resulted in them removing two point two million pieces
of content and twenty twenty three alone that were flagged
(40:28):
as being connected to drugs in some way. It also
allows them to deactivate or lock the accounts of anyone
for suspicious activity where it looks like they might be
selling drugs through the platform. They also have strengthened their safeguards.
I guess you could say their features or their recommendation
engine that enables users to connect with one another. Often
(40:52):
drug dealers have used this to try and build out
their network to find more buyers. And the company really
strengthens its safeguard when it comes to teen users with
it recommendation engine, trying to limit the amount of strangers
that it's connecting teenagers to combat the Fenoinnel crisis.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
Meanwhile, Michael Brewer, whose story you talk about so eloquently
in this story, is still going to court and we
understand that this could have broad reaching effects for section
two thirty and we will continue to discuss it with
you in the future. Once again, go and check out
the big take. It's an amotive one with Olivia Carvill.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
We thank her. We're going to take it.
Speaker 5 (41:30):
Back to the markets now because there is a big
sell off underway for one particular name and many of
you are exposed to it.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
Mike run off by sixteen percent.
Speaker 5 (41:37):
Chip maker here in the United States, biggest maker of
memory currently off by sixteen percent worse days since March
twenty twenty as their forecast did not live up to expectations.
It's about weakness in PC and in smartphone chips in particular,
that does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Don't forget to check out our podcast.
Speaker 5 (41:55):
You can find it on the terminal as well as Apple, Spotify,
and iHeart this is a Bloomberg
Speaker 16 (42:00):
You think Co
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