April 30, 2025 • 46 mins
Bloomberg’s Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow discuss the drop in Super Micro’s shares after the server maker preannounced results that fell well short of analysts' estimates. Plus, Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter discusses the future of robotics and competition with Tesla. And Grab CFO Peter Oey explains why the Southeast Asian delivery company raised its earnings forecast.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news from the heart of
where innovation, money and power collide in Silicon Valley and beyond.
This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
We are live from New York. This is Bloomberg Technology
and Markets. They stumble off. The worst contraction in US
GDP since twenty twenty two suggests the economy is at
risk of buckling under the way of President Trump's tariff.
This haulting a week long recovery inequities. We're down on
the S and P five hundred, We're down on NASBA
one point six percent ed. And you're looking at some
(00:54):
of the individual names that drag us low US.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Yeah, let's start with super Micro. This is a severe decline.
Prelim third quarter results show softness. What super Micro is
saying is that customers are delaying orders. We're showing you
in video on the screen because the question the market's
asking itself is how much is super Micro a proxy
for in Vidia demand?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Why?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Super Micro takes in Video's technology and packages it into
a server, And there's evidence that customers may be holding
off of obsolete chips waiting for the new stuff or
we've got a bigger picture demand problem. And video is
also in the headlines, of course, because it's CEO is
on Capitol Hill. Bloomberg's Amory Horden just spoke to Invidia
CEO jensenmong earlier this morning.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
Listen to this.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
In order to produce five hundred billion dollars worth of
AI infrastructure requires enormous amounts of investment from a lot
of different partners, and so we've brought on shore many
partners to help us do that, and we're going to
have to build our own factories.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
In order to do that.
Speaker 7 (01:49):
What's your message and conversation can be like today with
the President when.
Speaker 8 (01:52):
It comes to tariffs.
Speaker 6 (01:55):
Or our football I'm going to count on the fact
that the administration that has a good plan and from
our perspective, we would like to have policies that support
and help accelerate the development of artificial intelligence in this
new industry.
Speaker 7 (02:10):
Do you think they're going to have an edit of
the diffusion rule that was under the bienn administration, basically
placing all these different countries in different buckets.
Speaker 6 (02:17):
Well, I'm not sure what the new diffusion rule is
going to be, but whatever happens to be it becomes
it really has to recognize that the world has changed
fundamentally since the previous diffusion rule was released. We need
to accelerate the diffusion of American AI technology around the world,
(02:38):
and so the policies and the encouragement from the administration
really needs to be behind that.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
In Vidia CEO Chasin Hwang, they're along with our own
ann Marie Horden. Look, let's stick with the AI sector.
Go back to super micro sinking. As we heard from
ED after pre announcing results that fell well short of
balanced estimates, and as a server maker said, some customers
are delaying their purchasing. Intelligence analyst Wu Jinhoe joins us
now and.
Speaker 8 (03:02):
Look amsts to interview.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
This is pretty specific to the new and Video Blackwell
chip transition, right.
Speaker 9 (03:09):
Yeah, hey Caroline, so it seems to be specific to
the Nvidio black Well. I will tell you that customers
are waiting for the leaders generationships. We saw this not
only a super Micro, but we also saw with HPE
when they missed their expectations last quarter. So you know,
customers are essentially delaying these these these deals and just
(03:31):
moving on to the black loss.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I think we're Jim, what we heard from the interview
of Jensen Hangji. Just then, is long term goals right
for the manufacturing of accelerated computing in this country in
the short term, help our audience understand in video's commitment
to a new generation of chip every year and annual cadence,
and how difficult that is for the server assemblers like
super Micro, who have to be the go to market
(03:56):
channel for that company.
Speaker 9 (03:58):
Yeah, and then that's that's a good question, and it
is actually somewhat problematic to some of the server manufacturers.
I will tell you a couple of things. The server
manufacturers do have a couple of years of lead time
in terms of the product roadmaps, so there is some
preparation in terms of preparing for those chips. Now, now
(04:19):
the issue is the customers may not have that level
of visibility in terms of assembling all of these together,
because every generation of chips add on to a new
level of complexity. If we think about the H one
hundred series, the Hoppa series, you didn't have to have
as much cooling unecessary. Now as we move into Blackwell,
(04:40):
you're going to have to have a cooling to support
one hundred and forty killer watts per RAQ and if
once we get into the next generation of chips, we're
talking about six hundred kilowats paract. So it's more of
an infrastructure problem, but also not only an infrastructre problem,
but also an architecture problem that the customers need to
deal with.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
The last time I spake to Jensen last month, he said,
I'm the only CEO on the planet that will tell
you what I'm doing for the next five years, and
all my suppliers upstream downstream can follow suit. I think
that's your point. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Wu Jinho. Great to
have you on the program. Turning to more earnings, Microsoft
reports results after the bell, and investors are expected to
pay close attention to the company's data center spending.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
For more.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
We're joined by Rebecca wednerman CEO and principle of Valuaye.
That's the link right that Jensen Vwang Vinvidia says, here's
my technology for the next five years. In the short term,
we look at the capital expenditures of the hyperscalers and
see if they're willing to plan to spend on that
technology in advance.
Speaker 10 (05:38):
Rebecca absolutely ed great to be here, Thanks for having me.
We have to look at what they're willing to spend,
but also look at what customers are willing to spend
to drive that AI demand so they can actually generate
revenues from it.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And when they're thinking about spending, we had a commitment
from Alphabet sticking to its seventy five billion. Microsoft has
been there saying we're spending more than eighty billion, but
there have been so many courts Rebecca that they might
be ending leases. We've had TD Cowen and others. What
if you listened to what's noise what's reality?
Speaker 10 (06:09):
Well, I think Carol, and we have to look at
the profit and margin picture.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
Right.
Speaker 10 (06:14):
If customers aren't willing to spend on consumption for AI
demand is not maybe what Microsoft expected it would be,
they're building out capacity in a way that's not supported
by revenues. And at the same time, if we look
at terrorf uncertainty, you know, there's a lot of things
that go into building out data centers that are expensive
beyond just in video chips and those kind of things
(06:35):
have got to be considerations as well as we think
about the overall data center class structure.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I'm really interested in that. So we're expecting what eleven
percent growth in revenue for Microsoft for this fiscal quart
to Rebecca, but where are you seeing the weakness and
ultimate demand for their AI products? Where are we likely
to see that they're spending a lot but people aren't
buying a lot when it comes to the Copilot offering,
and that's being offered to the enterprise.
Speaker 8 (06:58):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 10 (06:59):
I think if you loot copilot. There have been a
lot of challenges with adoption and really a lot of
challenges with Microsoft being able to prove the value of
what they deliver with Copilot. You know, I think they
did themselves a disservice putting copilots out there in the
beginning that weren't necessarily ready for prime time. Customers tried
them once, didn't get the results they expected, and they're
hesitant to go back. So now, without that broader picture
(07:21):
of enterprise data grounding Copilot, Microsoft's struggling with their own
AI to get it out there and get customers paying
for it.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I find this fascinating. Like Caroline, I think we share
this in common.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I grew up using Microsoft software. It's what was available
on my Dell desktop at home, and as I've got older,
I have options I'm now a Mac user and I
use OS. And the thing that I'm always reminded of
is that Microsoft has spent many years selling software you
can otherwise get for free somewhere else. So we're focused
on their capital expenditures, but I still don't see the
(07:55):
other side of it. The idea that you can look
at Copilot and say, I'm going to pay at the
enterprise level was just me personally for that and get
good value? Is that kind of what you're saying here, Rebecca, Yeah, I.
Speaker 10 (08:06):
Think we're seeing customers say, when I can go out
to chat GPT on my own, right, why am I
paying Microsoft for that capability? If it's not grounded in
enterprise data? And if you in contrast at some of
Microsoft's competitors in the enterprise software space, you've got your Oracles,
your Service, and now your salesforces where they're saying it's
not just what's on your desktop that's important for Copilot
(08:28):
or for any sort of AI agent, but what's in
those enterprise data sources you're helping to create more context,
to give better answers, to give better recommendations, to really
have more intelligent AI.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
What we're forgetting about is that Azure is the number
two player in cloud. And so if everyone is out
there spending on AI through the application layer like Salesforce,
all those names, doesn't Microsoft just win anyway?
Speaker 10 (08:53):
Well? Absolutely, I mean Microsoft wins when it's competitor's AI win. Right.
If you look at the folks that are running on
Azure today, whether it's Service Now or Genesis day Force,
tons of folks are those spending that their customers are
spending on their AI or driving up Azure credits.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Where is therefore the weakness that we might see in
this particular quarter and the guidance going forward, the small
exposure to hardware.
Speaker 11 (09:21):
We think about the gaming side, but.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Ultimately tariffs, is it going to be an economic a
macroeconomic impact that we want to hear from Satya that
we want to hear from Amy as well. When we
think about the CFO perspective, I think.
Speaker 10 (09:33):
The macropipiece is going to be really big Caroline, because
as we think about overall slowing of enterprise purchases that's
already happening right, The question is how long is it
going to last? And how much can the innovation that
Microsoft is driving in AI in areas help it to
catch up in terms of sort of capturing the imagination
of customers. And when we're all risk averse and hesitant
(09:55):
about making decisions, it's tough to spark that imagination.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Spin that forward with Amazon, right you know, it's it's
fast and furious. For forty eight hours, AWS is the
number one player in cloud computing. All of the logic
you've just outlined. What do you expect to be your
conclusion by Friday morning.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
Of this week? Sorry, you know my cool question, but
have a go.
Speaker 10 (10:19):
Well, you know, if I had the perfect answer, I
wouldn't be on the show, and I'd be somewhere else
on a boat, But you'd always be on this show.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
You'd always be coming back on giving us your expertise,
no matter how many billions you have on that boat.
Speaker 10 (10:33):
That's right, you know, I think we're going to see
in general, slowly growth. Amazon has some different pieces towards
growthfolio that are very compelling for customers that are looking
at cost cutting measures, that are looking at streamlining and rationalization.
Right now, Amazon has a lot to offer in that area.
You know, we see Microsoft Azure. I think we'll still
(10:53):
see pretty strong growth there, but it's going to slow
over the next couple of quarters. And I think what
we'll see this week is sort of the beginning of
that sign of if you don't have a compelling cost
cunning rationalization proposition, like we saw, for example, from Service
Now last week, you're going to struggle. It's as one
of the big players.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Rebecca's great to have you on, even if you're not
on a boat. Rebecca Wetterman, see principal at Valoir. We
appreciate it. Now coming up Snap, it wants the headwinds
impacting its AD business more on the details next. We're
down by fifteen percent. This is Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 11 (11:36):
Look Snap's numbers.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
They actually narrowly beat expectations from analysts for the first
quarter in terms of revenue, but they declined to issue
a sales forecast for the current period and they say
they're navigating macroeconomic headwinds.
Speaker 11 (11:49):
It's all about the ad business.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
We're seeing the worst drop since August twenty twenty four
on the stock Emarketers. Senior analyst Minne Smiley is with
us for more. And it looks like Chinese retailers, for example,
are already holding back spending on Snap haats.
Speaker 12 (12:02):
Yes, exactly, there are already holding back spend, and I
think in their earnings call they did say that that's
partly why they're you know, delaying issuing any guidance.
Speaker 8 (12:09):
They are worried about that.
Speaker 12 (12:11):
And I think just overall, the issue with Snap is
it it's one of those businesses where when we start
to see these advertiser pullbacks, you know, pullbacks and spend
pauses and spend, platforms like Snap end up taking a
hit first.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
You know, advertisers want to put their.
Speaker 12 (12:23):
Money into Meta, into TikTok, into Google, into platforms that
are just more you know, bigger, more proven, and so
I think we're already seeing Snap feel the impact.
Speaker 8 (12:32):
But you know, pretty early on.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
It's why it's in our calendar, right because apart from Google,
we always talk about how well Snap goes first and
then we extrapolate out to Meta in its platforms. I
haven't used Snap since high school, frankly, but Caro's intro
summed it up perfectly, like, you don't give guidance, that's
a market thing. The platform is growing, Yes, what can
you tell us about your reaction to that and where
you see it doing well against those other platforms?
Speaker 8 (12:56):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 12 (12:57):
I mean, all in all Snap had a good quarter.
I mean all of its major metrics. You know, it
saw user growth, it saw ad revenue and growth. It's
our revenue growth, which really speaks to the fact that
it has done a good job of investing in its
ad platform over the past few years. Its subscription business
remains small, but it's becoming a meaningful portion of revenue
for the company. So yes, they are seeing growth, but
I think we're now seeing that growth maybe kind of
(13:18):
have within a silo in Q one. I think for
the remainder of the year, things might get shaky for
them as they kind of balance, you know, all the
economic uncertainly we're facing. But you know, the actual core
business does show some some pretty healthy signs.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
We've been asking our investor in markets guests for about
a week what happens if a technology company doesn't issue guidance,
your stock goes down fifteen percent. You know what I'd
love to help our audience understand is tariffs, trade, uncertainty,
advertising market.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Why did the advertisers care?
Speaker 8 (13:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 12 (13:51):
I mean, I think for for a lot of people,
when they see advertisers spend becoming, you know, starting to
pull back, it's a sign of bigger bigger concerns, bigger
issues to come because a lot of marketers, you know,
for a lot of these companies, one of the first
things they're going to pull back is marketing when they
start to see signs of a shaky economy, periods of instability,
and especially you know when we talk about tariffs, companies
that might be hit harder by tariffs, you know, maybe
(14:12):
they have manufacturing in China or whatnot. You know, those companies, retailers,
you know that maybe rely heavily on other countries.
Speaker 8 (14:20):
They're they're going to have an impact.
Speaker 12 (14:21):
And AD spend always does to kind of take one
of the first hits when you look across the whole company.
Speaker 8 (14:26):
And so so yeah, these platforms.
Speaker 12 (14:28):
AD revenues are bread and butter, and we talk about
Snap specifically. They're lucky in that they're you know, because
they have their subscription subscription business, they are able to
diversify a little bit. But again, I think it all
the represents about ten percent of their business right now,
so of course they're very concerned about AD revenue.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
What blows my mind is that Snap has almost a
billion users, right but they have a first quarter net
loss of one hundred.
Speaker 11 (14:52):
And forty million dollars. Just where is the money going?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
What leavers do they have to pull to be a
long term competitor that actually is profitable.
Speaker 12 (15:00):
Yes, I mean they definitely are running into some issues
when specifically when you talk about user growth, they are
seeing user growth here every year, but when you look
at their key markets, when you look at North America,
they actually posted declines. I think it went from one
hundred million two to ninety nine. So they are seeing
some concerns there around you know this, you know the
market of the North America, that is their most profitable market,
(15:23):
but it's saturated.
Speaker 8 (15:24):
They're really struggling to grow there.
Speaker 12 (15:25):
And these and these markets where they are seeing user growth,
those are the markets where they're not monetizing as well.
Speaker 8 (15:29):
So they definitely have, Like I said.
Speaker 12 (15:31):
They had a good quarter, but they have some big
long term challenges ahead of them.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Let's say that there's still a question mark about TikTok
in the United States, does Snaps stand to benefit from
that whatever happens with that platform they have that they.
Speaker 8 (15:44):
Do stand the benefit and they have benefited already.
Speaker 12 (15:46):
I mean, I think the uncertainty around TikTok, of course,
it's its future.
Speaker 8 (15:49):
Is still in flux. But I think just this general.
Speaker 12 (15:51):
Uncertainty that's been happening over the past few years has
benefited all these other platforms. That being said, I don't
think Snap will be one of the main beneficiaries we're
going to see. So that money go to YouTube, you know,
go to YouTube shorts, go to Instagram, Instagram reels, even Facebook.
I think Snap, yes, they will benefit, but not so
much that it'll really kind of, you know, save their
entire business by any means.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
Okay, what are you watching for with Meta? What do
we need to know? Oh?
Speaker 8 (16:14):
Wow?
Speaker 12 (16:14):
I mean in some ways, Meta is actually a similar
story to Snap in some ways in that you know,
I think we're expecting a good quarter. They're going to
post advertising growth. You know, they're going to kind of
buy all their major metrics. We're going to see growth.
But between the anti trust try all their facing here
in the US, between tear ups, and especially for Meta,
I mean, they will be impacted by Chinese retailers like
She and Timu pulling back on D spend.
Speaker 8 (16:34):
That's going to hit them pretty hard, we expect.
Speaker 12 (16:37):
And so yeah, they they're probably going to post a
good quarter, But I think there's going to be some
some issues people will be paying attention to for sure
in the quarters to come.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
EMOCS the senior analyst mind the Smiley Greats having on
the show, Thank you righte Hailing and food delivery company
GRAB Holdings raised it's all year earnings forecast, boosting sentiment
that the sector could be more resilient amid global trade
wars for more delighted to say, we're joined by Peter
(17:07):
Owey Grab CFO.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
I'm here in the United States.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Grab is Southeast Asia and everyone that I talked to
talks about your scale across those different nations and your
use of AI, particularly to manage operating costs. That's the
boring stuff, Peter. What is it you're able to do
in those markets and those Southeast Asian companies at scale
that's helping you perform like this?
Speaker 13 (17:31):
Yeah, we had a very strong Q one results, record revenues,
a record number of transacting users on our platform, and
also a growing profitability in our business today. And what's
unique about our business is that the scale that we
built is around adoptability of our products and it's a
super app. So what does that mean? We have multiple
products that's on one single app it cell, whether it's
(17:55):
all forms of deliveries, whether it's food delivery, whether it's
grocery delivery. You've got transport two wheels, three wheels, four wheels,
and that's our taxi services also on our platform.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
And we also have fintech also.
Speaker 13 (18:07):
Where there is low appurance payments business also, and it's
unique in Southeast Asia where all these products are interrelated
and they're all working through one ecosystem. We're seeing more
traction before on our platform than ever before. Part of
product is around affordability, and we continue to push that
affordability as we expand the user base.
Speaker 11 (18:30):
Okay, so let's talk about affordability.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Is that coming through the new products, because actually you're
trying to increase spending from your users. You're doing well,
whether you're doing family accounts, whether you're offering.
Speaker 11 (18:40):
People to pull some of their deliveries for example. Peter,
that's right.
Speaker 13 (18:45):
Yes, we're actually adding more products, but those products are
also catering for segments of users on our platform there
might be a little bit more pro sensitive. That's why
we have about a third of our transactions today are
coming from these more affordable suite of products. In transport
or own deliveries, or we also have the more the
premium side also, which are really important for those who
(19:06):
are less price sensitive, who are less more they wanted
a food much quicker, for an example, and that's also
so it's a combination of this product mix that's really
important and we need to give customers choice and that's
what we've been doing more and more over the last
two years in our business.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
It's even so we have a trade war, what are
the indirect economic impacts of tariffs on those Southeast Asian markets?
And on the financing side loans, what are you doing
to insulate yourself.
Speaker 13 (19:36):
Yeah, we've built a business where we feel and we
believe that it's counter sickly goal. What does that mean
If you look at the type of service that we
do today, people still need to eat, and we have
also an ability where we can bring cook food home
or we can also get grocery into their homes. So
at the same time at an affordable price, people still
(19:58):
need to go to work, they still need to commute
from point at a point B, and we're making services
more affordable also at the same time. So we feel
that whether it's an economic downturn or whether the economy
is doing well. The services that we have today are
relevant for these consumers and also with fintech. Also, payments
also is still very prevalent, whether it is in any
(20:20):
economic cycles. People need still need to pay for things,
whether to pay their bills. So it's an important part
of this ecosystem that we continue to harness.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Peter and mentioned that potential protection of yourself via taking
out loans. Now you were taking out alone, we understand
to the tune of about two billion to help finance potential
deal go to How is that M and A going
in this current environment.
Speaker 13 (20:46):
Well, can't command caroline on the speculation of those M
and A. What we are focusing where especially Indonesia where
it's a very important market for US. It's about three
hundred million people and it's a very critical market. What
we are seeing in Indonesia is a continuing growth. Actually,
if we look at the number of users quorter on quarter,
we continue to expand that business margin also is expanding,
(21:09):
so we can do it on Indonesia. Then we are
making selective m and as in the first quarter we
made a number of small M and a's which are
more around ecosystem and that's really important also as again
as we bring more products and services, more capabilities to
our user base.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Its briefly the cost control you've got, how much is
that because of AI?
Speaker 13 (21:31):
I would say it's very hard to measure with its
pinpoint is specifically to AI. What we are measuring is
more the productivity output that we can harness from using
AI internally. Here a grab for an example, behalf of
our engineers today are using some sort of AI assists
for them to be able to do their work more efficiently.
(21:52):
I would say that one measurement also is the number
of headcount that we are increasing also in our organization,
which actually have slowed down because of some of these
automation and some of these AI agents that would be
labeled to deploy email organizations. So measured this productivity p.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Dewey, I've grabbed. Great to have some time with you
a long day. Appreciate you coming on. Welcome back to
Blueberg Technology. I'm Caroline Hider, New York and I met.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Love Loow right alongside her.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
The market story for the technology sector is anxiety about economics. Really,
data out of China on the manufacturing side not great
on US levies and you see the US listed shares
of Chinese tech companies lower. Another name that I've got
to point out, Tesla. Morgan Stanley is out with a
note that the tie up between Waimo, the autonomous driving
arm of Google, and Toyota is quote legit competition for Tesla,
(22:49):
the stock under a little pressure there, and we go
back to Nvidia Caro because Jensen one's on Capitol Hill.
But also the read through and downward pressure that came
from super Micro, one of its key manufacturing partners in
the server design space.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
It is, and let's just stick with all things in video,
but also all things President Trump. Because marking one hundred
days ed in office as a rally in Michigan was
taken out yesterday, he doubled down on his tough stance
on immigration and the impact of Tara's on China's quote
unfair trade now moves that sent ripples through the tech industry,
of course, from supply chains to AI development. Now in
Vidio CEO Jensen Wang, as you mentioned, ed just joined
(23:24):
from Washington. He's sounded confident on the administration's tarast stance,
but sounding the alarm when it comes to China's AI strength.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
China is not behind anybody who's in you. China's right
behind us. I mean they're more very very close. But
remember this is a long term. This is an infinite race.
There is no you know, in the in the world
of life, there is no those you know, there's no
two minute here, end.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Of the quarter.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
There's there's no such thing. And so we're going to
compete for a long time.
Speaker 11 (23:55):
Murgs.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Mike Shepherd joins us now a warning for the administration
that China is close behind.
Speaker 14 (24:00):
Well, that's right, and it's one that he'll be able
to deliver to the President in person this afternoon in video,
of course, is one of the featured companies at an
Investing in America meeting with the President later this afternoon.
It's a part of the one hundred days in office
celebration that is really extending over a few days, as
(24:20):
Trump tries to look back at some of the successes he,
in his view, has already had since taking office in January,
and looks ahead to some more of the policy areas
where they would like to gain ground. AI certainly is
one of them. We're waiting this AI blueprint from David
Sachs and others and We're also looking to see how
the administration will act in a key area of concern
(24:40):
for Jensen Wong, and that is those export controls on
AI chips, especially the ones that his company makes.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Caro probably is Mike Shepperd keeping us on us out
of Washington, d C.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Let's get back to what is a top story and
news overnight of China's President Gee's visit to a tech incubator,
which sent some robotics stocks soaring. Then there was a
slump in Chinese manufacturing data in the face of US
tarrist that's also putting more focus on supply chains four
key domains like robotics. Here in North America, competition in
(25:11):
robotics is heating up, and some of that's coming from
long standing robotics names like Boston Dynamics. Like's say, the
company's CEO, Robert Plater, joins us. Now, Robert, welcome to
Bloomberg Technology. Let's actually just start with basic data and facts.
Where is Boston Dynamics today in its production of robots?
Speaker 5 (25:29):
Where does it take place? And what does the supply
chain look like?
Speaker 15 (25:34):
Thanks for having me ed so, Boston Dynamics is building
three products right now and two of them are in
the market. Spot was our initial product, and we have
about two thousand of those robots out with customers. We've
launched a second product stretch, which is a warehousing robot,
and that's having success with big players like DHL, and
our third product will be humanoids. We are manufacturing all
(25:57):
of these in the United States and to deploy them
internationally as well as in the United States.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Robert I always like to go to our audience on
social media and say, the following CEO is coming on
the show, what would you ask them? And based on
what you just said, the first customer was if you
are approaching a new customer, how would you go about
a new task, What does the teaching process for the
specific form facts of robot look like? And how long
does it take to go from sort of inception to
deployment in that industrial use case.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
That's a great question.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
Thank you. I didn't think of it any with someone
else's go ahead.
Speaker 15 (26:32):
AI has definitely changed the game here and it's accelerated
the rate at which you can teach.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Robots new tasks.
Speaker 15 (26:39):
But much of the AI that you need to make
humanoids successful is still to be built. What we found
practically is that when you introduce a new robot like Spot,
which we introduced in twenty twenty, it took us until
about twenty twenty three before you really were starting to
nail the applications that customers wanted and they generated value
for them. So it's not an overnight activity. It's really
(27:02):
learning about the customer problem and building a solution, not
just a prototype robot.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Let's talk about whether the solution of Optimus over at Tesla.
Speaker 11 (27:13):
Is that a competitive threat for you right now?
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Robert, how realistic do you think the timeframes are on
that from Elon?
Speaker 15 (27:19):
Well, you know, Elon I think exaggerates often. He's got
history of doing that, but he's also proven the ability
to invent the future. So we take Tesla and Optimists
very seriously. They also share an advantage that Boston Dynamics has,
which is we're attached to a major automotive manufacturer and
that creates a unique opportunity for us, but also for
(27:42):
Tesla to not only build a scale, but deploy at
scale and basically have consume your own robots.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
I mean, you've got a collaboration with Hyundai for example.
You've also got partnerships long standing within Video and others.
Just how resilient to those partnerships and do those end
customers seem at this economic moment.
Speaker 15 (28:00):
Robert, Well, I think the partnership with Hyundai is going
to be really amazing because they can be both our
manufacturer and largest consumer. We can if we need to
adjust manufacturing of automotives to make robots more successful, there
we can do so, and that will really be key
to achieving success. So I think the whole world is
(28:23):
seeing the opportunity for this new generation of robots to
expand significantly, and so I think there's just a lot
of promise in this industry right now.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
Robert.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
The critical line of questioning I get for you, and
maybe the criticism is that Boston has been at this
a long time, and the skepticism is that you haven't
moved beyond prototype phase. You've just said in the opening
of this interview that actually you have. Would you go
as actually bear with Robert, I'm afraid to say, We've
got to leave it here for a second. The President
is hosting a cabinet meeting in Washington, DC, and the
(28:57):
right people.
Speaker 16 (28:58):
Working at Congratulations by the way, into tom for two
months in a row. We have set the all time
records for the lowest number of illegal border crossings ever recorded.
The number of illegal boat crosses released into the United States.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Is down ninety nine point nine percent. That is usually
one hundred percent.
Speaker 16 (29:22):
So I think it's an amazing tribute, and Christy, congratulations.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
And Tom and everybody else.
Speaker 16 (29:27):
It's an amazing job actually, and it was done very quickly.
We officially designated trend de Iragua MS thirteen and the
Mexican drug cartels is foreign terrorist organizations and we're expelling
these monsters from our country rapidly and working with the
Department of Justice.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Pam, You're doing fantastic. Your people are amazing.
Speaker 16 (29:50):
We're having some judge problems and everybody's reading some judges
that don't like, you know, killers, murderers being thrown out
of the country. So I don't know what their problem is,
but we have a little difficulty. We won on the
basis of a great border and of getting criminals out
of our country. That was why we won every swing state.
(30:12):
We won by millions of votes. We won everything, every metric,
We won by a lot. It was a massive victory
and we won I think largely because of this issue.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
I put this issue, it's number one issue, and they
don't want us to do what we're supposed to do.
Speaker 16 (30:28):
And I don't think that can be I hope the
Supreme Court is going to fully understand what's going on.
We have to get the criminals out of our country,
and that's the basis under which we won the election.
Core gdpked and this is you know, you brobably saw
some numbers today and I have to start off, I
say that's Biden, that's not Trump, because we came in
(30:49):
on January just a quarterly numbers, and we came in
and I was very against everything that Biden was doing
in terms of the economy, destroying our country in so
many ways, not.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Only at the border.
Speaker 16 (31:03):
The border was more obvious, but we took over his
mess in so many different ways.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
Core GDP removing.
Speaker 16 (31:11):
Distortions from imports, inventories, and government spending was up close
three percent when you edit, we had numbers that despite
what we were handed, we turned them around, and we
were getting them really turned around. Gross domestic investment was
a whopping twenty two percent. Now that is a number
that people are coming in at numbers. For instance, I
(31:33):
just walked in IRN sam sub Is now because of
the tariffs, they're going to build massive facilities in the
United States.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
If we didn't do the tariffs, they wouldn't be doing that.
Speaker 16 (31:44):
So it takes a little while to get those facilities built.
But they're coming in with big, big numbers. They're all
coming in with big numbers. We have more moneys being
spent than any at any time in the history of
our country. We're up to close to eight trillion dollars,
I think I can say, and really it's going to
be a lot higher than that. Those are just the
(32:04):
ones that we know about. Eight trillion.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
I'm not going to say, but I don't think.
Speaker 16 (32:09):
I'm not sure if Biden did a trillion for four years,
one trillions, but we're eight trillion for two months, because
let's give us a pass. On the first month, we
were sort of getting a little bit used to things.
But after two months we have eight trillion dollars. There
has never been a number like that, and that includes
chip companies, car companies, every form of manufacturing, high tech companies.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Nobody's ever seen anything like it.
Speaker 16 (32:36):
So eight trillion dollars, I can talk about gross domestic product,
gross domestic investment. I can talk about a lot of things,
but to me, the biggest numbers the kind of numbers
that are and these people are coming in. Our Secretary
of Commerce spent the weekend he went down to Arizona
to see what was happening with the chip the biggest
(32:58):
chip company in the world, and he said, Howard, he said, you've.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Never seen anything like it. You want to just describe
what you saw.
Speaker 17 (33:06):
So they're investing one hundred and sixty five billion dollars
in eleven hundred acres in Arizona and they're building the
highest tech chip manufacturing semi conductors and four thousand employees.
You know American trade craft, right, technicians doing every kind
of work. The classic foundation of America is building it.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
They have fourteen thousand people. They're expecting forty thousand people to.
Speaker 17 (33:32):
Build the rest of their plants and to employ twenty
thousand people for the rest of time.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
And it is old driven. You never saw a site
type and this is.
Speaker 17 (33:40):
Old driven by your tower policies, no chance to be
happening with having.
Speaker 16 (33:45):
It's going to be about forty percent of the chip
market from that one section. And this is the biggest
chip maker they have ninety nine percent of the market.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
They come from Taiwan.
Speaker 16 (33:55):
And unlike the Chip Act, which was done by Biden,
where they hand everybody billions of dollars, the thing they
don't need is money. They got plenty of money. What
they need is an incentive to come in and the tariffs.
They're building because of the tariffs. If without the tariffs,
and I'd like to say they're building because of November fifth,
the election and the tariffs.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
But I'm going to building more blunder.
Speaker 16 (34:15):
They're building because of the tariffs, and November fifth gave
them the tariffs. So it's amazing when you look and
these are not companies that go out and say, well,
we're going to build, we have to go get our financing.
Let's go like we would in New York. Everybody would look.
You know, you'd get a building site and then you'd
look around for money, you look around for financing for
(34:37):
six months, you'd get your financing, you'd build your building.
The market would be good, you'd make money. The market
would be bad, it wouldn't be so pretty. You'd have
to negotiate.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Bab bab bob.
Speaker 16 (34:47):
This is different. These people have so much money they
don't know what to do. They are asked, howard did
they finance it? No, they do it through cash, and
they stay that site. And they just started, you know,
they just announced it like a month ago and they've
already started.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
He said, I've never seen a sight like it's so big.
Speaker 16 (35:04):
So you know, you're talking about a fifty essentially a
fifty billion dollar building.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Now, if you built a.
Speaker 16 (35:09):
Warehouse for fifty million dollars, that's a big warehouse gotten,
but a fifty billion dollar building, that's a lot.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
They're building.
Speaker 16 (35:17):
The electric they're building, They've become a utility, and I'm
giving him the right to become. They're going to build
their own electric They're going to build their own electricity,
which they need tremendous amounts of electricity.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
They're gonna build it themselves.
Speaker 16 (35:29):
Anything they have looked, you know, left over, they'll hook
that into the grid. But the grid is old and
they're unreliable, and bad things can happen to grids. I said,
if you want, you can hook into the grid, but
that's a little bit risky, or you can build your
own electricity.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Have become your.
Speaker 16 (35:45):
Own utility, and they, I think in all cases, are
deciding to do that.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
So it's very exciting and we have a lot of
things going.
Speaker 16 (35:55):
We took over on January twenty of these are quarterly reports.
We took over on January twentieth. The tariffs haven't kicked
in yet. I know that, and I don't want this
to happen, but I know that China is doing very
poorly right now. I just saw some reports coming out,
and I don't want that to happen to China.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
I like the.
Speaker 16 (36:13):
President a lot. President she, I don't want it to happen.
I was actually sanden to hear it. But they are
getting absolutely hammered in China. And you know, they're sending boats,
the biggest boats in the world, carrying cargo like nobody's
ever seen before. These are the biggest boats in the world,
biggest cargo ships in the world, and they're coming and
(36:35):
they're turning around in the Pacific Ocean. They're doing a
big u turney going back because they don't want to
do this because one hundred and forty five percent tariff.
But at a certain point, I hope we're going to
make a deal with China. We're talking to China, but
their factories are closing all over China because we're not.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Taking their product. We don't want their product.
Speaker 16 (36:54):
Unless they're going to be fair with us, and that
includes intellectual property and other things. There are a lot
of things far beyond just by sell. So we'll see
what happens. But you know I was not because somebody said, well,
were you happy? I said, I am not happy. I
want you on it to do well. I want every
country to do well, but they have to treat us
fairly also.
Speaker 18 (37:13):
So with that, I think we're going to maybe go
around and we have some letters where the secretaris and
people around the table are making statements about how they're
doing and what's happening. And I could start with Pete
on the left, because he's my least controversial person.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
At the world. I don't know how good he is.
So we'll go around the table and you can hear it.
Speaker 16 (37:38):
And these are cabinet meetings where they're very open and transparent,
and I can guarantee you Biden didn't do this.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
He didn't do this. Go ahead, be well, mister president.
I think we're controversial because we're over the target.
Speaker 19 (37:50):
And like so many things, mister President, you inherited a
demoralized military.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
It couldn't recruit.
Speaker 19 (37:56):
It was perceived as weak after what happened in Afghanistan
and elsewhere because of Joe Biden, and what we have
seen since your election and the inauguration has been nothing
short of a recruiting renaissance.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
Decades.
Speaker 20 (38:09):
It has been been decades since we've seen this kind
of recruiting in the.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force.
Speaker 20 (38:15):
The men and women of America want to join the
United States military led by President Donald Trump, and the police,
by the ways, and fire.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
I always mentioned the fire, but the police and fire.
Speaker 16 (38:26):
But the police and fire likewise are I mean they
have waiting lists now and six months ago as a
disaster of.
Speaker 20 (38:33):
Truly historic we can barely absorb the volume and retention
as well, men and women in the military who don't
want to get out now that they have a real commander,
a chief. We're reinforcing standards. We're going to be fit,
not fat in our formations. Welcome back all the COVID
The folks that were forced out because of the COVID mandate,
(38:53):
ripped woiteness.
Speaker 4 (38:54):
Out of the military, Star DEI trans.
Speaker 20 (38:57):
And it's Fort Benning and were bragg again at the
DoD We're rebuilding the military SERP.
Speaker 4 (39:04):
The Golden Dome is well under way. F forty seven.
Reassuring allies and deterring enemies.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
We found nearly President Trump in a cabinet meeting. We
leave it on Peter hag Seth, of course, talking about defense,
but so much said when it comes to the GDP figure,
for example, and Trump blaming perhaps the decline that we've
seen the worse since twenty twenty two, on what he
inherited from the Biden administration, talking about core GDP actually
being up, taking a while to get domestic facilities built.
Speaker 11 (39:31):
He went to Howard Luckneck.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Of course, the comments secretary talking about the TSMC investment
in Arizona, Key and Tech. Also is the fact that
tarifs haven't yet kicked in, he says, And they know
that China is currently doing very poorly, but he wants
China to do well. Let's get the analysis me leg
Kayly Lions is joining us. And what's so interesting about
that core GDP number that he says, I'm assuming he's
trying to reflect the final sales of domestic purchases or
(39:53):
GDP based excluding inventory or international trade. But this is
all about international trade implications acts.
Speaker 21 (40:00):
That's exactly right, Caroline, and he referred to that surge
we saw in imports, which of course detracted from GDP
as just being a distortion, kind of echoing what we
heard from his trade advisor Peter Navarro that said, this
is the best negative GDP print he's ever seen because
it shows that countries want to sell to the US.
Although another way of reading the data, of course, is
that US companies are d really trying to get everything
(40:21):
they can from other countries in before the tariffs fully
take effects. So clearly the White House trying to spin
this as still being the Biden economy, or, as President
Trump said earlier, the Biden stock market, although he has
now passed a hundred days in office. As he makes
his way though calling on different sec secretaries in the
Cabinet around the table, it'll be interesting to hear from
the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besson, in particular around what we
(40:41):
just heard from the President on China, a suggestion that
he does want to make a deal and that talks
are happening. The White House has repeatedly said this, even
though China maintains that no negotiations have actually begun, so
we'll see if we get a status update from beston
on that or on other deals. Keeping in mind of
course that uh, the ninety day window is rapidly shrinking,
and they are trying to bring on short investment to
(41:02):
the United States in that time, or at least get
commitments from companies. He was referring to that as domestic
facilities taking a while to be built. But the TSMC
call out in particular interesting to hear from the Commerce
Secretary and the President because those are actually investment pledges
that were initially made during the Biden administration. TSMC received
money from the Chips Act in order to build those
(41:23):
facilities in Arizona. And yes, a new facility has just
broken ground, so an expansion of what we saw during
the Biden years, but it is still worth noting where
that investment initially came from, so we may hear more
about that. Keeping in mind as well that President Trump
is expected to speak from the White House again later
today four pm Eastern Time for a speech that's being
built about investment in America.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Katie lines, we appreciate it wrapping up for us. Meanwhile,
we've got plenty more happening in Washington, and A Marie
Hoddan has just been chatting with Palanis CTO Shom Sanka
early today as part of the Helen Valley Form. Now
it's a summit focused on how tech com bolston national
security in the US manufacturing. He discussed his perspective on
the military industrial complex under Trump administration.
Speaker 11 (42:04):
Just take listen.
Speaker 22 (42:05):
I think this is an opportunity to really fix a
lot of the problems that have built up over the
last thirty or so years since the end.
Speaker 5 (42:11):
Of the Cold War.
Speaker 22 (42:12):
If you go back to what it was like, what
did the industrial base look.
Speaker 8 (42:15):
Like when we were winning World War Two?
Speaker 22 (42:17):
In the early Cold War, it was actually a very
different economic structure. Chrysler built cars and missiles. We had
a Deputy Secretary of Defense that was the co founder
of HP. Bill Perry was the co founder of a
Silicon Valley startup before he became Secretary of Defense. So
it's a return to the functioning cross pollination of innovation
(42:37):
that's always existed and been in the bedrock of how
the American economy worked.
Speaker 7 (42:42):
Fifty percent of pallanteers revenue comes from government contracts. Do
you expect that level to stay the same? Will accelerate
under the Trump administration.
Speaker 22 (42:50):
I think it's been that way for a pretty long time. Obviously,
we started entirely government. The commercial sector is bigger. It's
growing very, very rapidly. But I think there's something quite
healthy about having this diversified R and D base where
everything we're learning and inventing in the very dynamic American
private sectors actually benefiting our national security and broader functioning
of government. You know, we were able to develop and
(43:12):
deploy the operation Warp speed supply chain in two weeks
because actually two years prior, we had solved a very
structurally similar problem for VP and oil and gas. And
you really cannot connect those dots prospectively. You can only
see that retrospectively. And that's exactly what happened with SpaceX.
You know, when I was a kid growing up in
the shadow of the Space Coast, it used to cost
fifty thousand dollars a kilogram to get to orbit on
(43:32):
the Shuttle with Starship heavy reuse. It's now ten to
twenty bucks. I'm not missing any zeros there, you know.
It's just wild innovation that comes from that cross palmination.
This happened with Intel and in the late sixties, ninety
six percent of Intel's revenue actually came from the Apollo program.
It was effectively a government contractor. But actually Bob Noys,
the inventor of the transistor, the CEO of Intel, he
(43:54):
always had a vision that integrated circuits were going to
be in every consumer device, and he invested in that
capability and in the seventies and eighties that enabled us
to build a salt breaker, which meant that we didn't
have to match the Soviets weapon for weapon. We could
actually build smarter weapons and have many fewer of them
that we could afford and still have deterrence.
Speaker 7 (44:13):
So even if your government revenue comes down, it's because
you're making money elsewhere in the private sector.
Speaker 22 (44:18):
Yeah, And to be clear, I don't think the revenue
is going to come down, It's just that they're going
to be differential growths here.
Speaker 5 (44:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
That was Palenteer CTO Scham Sanka along with Bloomberg's A
Marie Horden Cary.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
I'm coming up investors, I Big Tech Earning said, we
got Meta, we got Microsoft. They're reporting after the bell
plenty more on those ahead. That's Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 3 (44:45):
Turning back to earnings investors eagerly awaiting big tech names
Meta and Microsoft after the bell and carry like it's
really a simple equation for Microsoft AI costs capex. It's
a good story to follow because that's how anyone cares
about really and.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Are they sinking to about eight billion? What happens in
the next year, And what's so interesting is the geopolitical implications.
You just spotted a Microsoft blog today saying we're still
expanding our data center footprint in Europe.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
Right They're going to add data centers across sixteen countries,
they said in this blog post. With the timing of
it's like very curious. I said to the guests earlier,
We've all used Microsoft software, m paid for it for
a long time. And now investors maybe a little bit
of going like okay, investment. Yeah, but showed me a
bit of like the end result of all of this.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
And where have analysts and investors reorientated their numbers going
into this.
Speaker 11 (45:30):
Of course this quarter is not the real tell. It's
going to be next quarter.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
But Microsoft has sixty five buys on it zero cell.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
Yeah, it's still like the darling of whatever it is
that's happening in AI. Like Meta also interesting, maybe even
more straightforward as a story like Google. Yeah, we track
the capital expenditures. It's a big operator of data centers itself.
But is its core AD business able to sustain the spending?
Speaker 2 (45:51):
And what about the implications that snapped the read across
Already sheen already Temu bringing back their spending on ads
in real time, Will Mark Zuckerberg will seasonally signal that
for the current quarter we're already in, not just the
backward looking quarter that they've achieved.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
And very quickly then you remember that in twenty four
as I was time to go again with Apple and
Amazon relentless.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Ye brace yourself. And I'm so pleased that he sat
right next to me here in New York. Meanwhile, that
does it for this edition of Blue Meg Technology. Don't
forget to check out our podcast. Find it on the
terminal as well as online on Apple, Spotify, and iHeart
from New York for the next couple of days.
Speaker 11 (46:27):
This is Blue Meg Technology.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news from the heart of
where innovation, money and power collide in Silicon Valley and beyond.
This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
We are live from New York. This is Bloomberg Technology
and Markets. They stumble off. The worst contraction in US
GDP since twenty twenty two suggests the economy is at
risk of buckling under the way of President Trump's tariff.
This haulting a week long recovery inequities. We're down on
the S and P five hundred, We're down on NASBA
one point six percent ed. And you're looking at some
(00:54):
of the individual names that drag us low US.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Yeah, let's start with super Micro. This is a severe decline.
Prelim third quarter results show softness. What super Micro is
saying is that customers are delaying orders. We're showing you
in video on the screen because the question the market's
asking itself is how much is super Micro a proxy
for in Vidia demand?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Why?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Super Micro takes in Video's technology and packages it into
a server, And there's evidence that customers may be holding
off of obsolete chips waiting for the new stuff or
we've got a bigger picture demand problem. And video is
also in the headlines, of course, because it's CEO is
on Capitol Hill. Bloomberg's Amory Horden just spoke to Invidia
CEO jensenmong earlier this morning.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
Listen to this.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
In order to produce five hundred billion dollars worth of
AI infrastructure requires enormous amounts of investment from a lot
of different partners, and so we've brought on shore many
partners to help us do that, and we're going to
have to build our own factories.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
In order to do that.
Speaker 7 (01:49):
What's your message and conversation can be like today with
the President when.
Speaker 8 (01:52):
It comes to tariffs.
Speaker 6 (01:55):
Or our football I'm going to count on the fact
that the administration that has a good plan and from
our perspective, we would like to have policies that support
and help accelerate the development of artificial intelligence in this
new industry.
Speaker 7 (02:10):
Do you think they're going to have an edit of
the diffusion rule that was under the bienn administration, basically
placing all these different countries in different buckets.
Speaker 6 (02:17):
Well, I'm not sure what the new diffusion rule is
going to be, but whatever happens to be it becomes
it really has to recognize that the world has changed
fundamentally since the previous diffusion rule was released. We need
to accelerate the diffusion of American AI technology around the world,
(02:38):
and so the policies and the encouragement from the administration
really needs to be behind that.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
In Vidia CEO Chasin Hwang, they're along with our own
ann Marie Horden. Look, let's stick with the AI sector.
Go back to super micro sinking. As we heard from
ED after pre announcing results that fell well short of
balanced estimates, and as a server maker said, some customers
are delaying their purchasing. Intelligence analyst Wu Jinhoe joins us
now and.
Speaker 8 (03:02):
Look amsts to interview.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
This is pretty specific to the new and Video Blackwell
chip transition, right.
Speaker 9 (03:09):
Yeah, hey Caroline, so it seems to be specific to
the Nvidio black Well. I will tell you that customers
are waiting for the leaders generationships. We saw this not
only a super Micro, but we also saw with HPE
when they missed their expectations last quarter. So you know,
customers are essentially delaying these these these deals and just
(03:31):
moving on to the black loss.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I think we're Jim, what we heard from the interview
of Jensen Hangji. Just then, is long term goals right
for the manufacturing of accelerated computing in this country in
the short term, help our audience understand in video's commitment
to a new generation of chip every year and annual cadence,
and how difficult that is for the server assemblers like
super Micro, who have to be the go to market
(03:56):
channel for that company.
Speaker 9 (03:58):
Yeah, and then that's that's a good question, and it
is actually somewhat problematic to some of the server manufacturers.
I will tell you a couple of things. The server
manufacturers do have a couple of years of lead time
in terms of the product roadmaps, so there is some
preparation in terms of preparing for those chips. Now, now
(04:19):
the issue is the customers may not have that level
of visibility in terms of assembling all of these together,
because every generation of chips add on to a new
level of complexity. If we think about the H one
hundred series, the Hoppa series, you didn't have to have
as much cooling unecessary. Now as we move into Blackwell,
(04:40):
you're going to have to have a cooling to support
one hundred and forty killer watts per RAQ and if
once we get into the next generation of chips, we're
talking about six hundred kilowats paract. So it's more of
an infrastructure problem, but also not only an infrastructre problem,
but also an architecture problem that the customers need to
deal with.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
The last time I spake to Jensen last month, he said,
I'm the only CEO on the planet that will tell
you what I'm doing for the next five years, and
all my suppliers upstream downstream can follow suit. I think
that's your point. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Wu Jinho. Great to
have you on the program. Turning to more earnings, Microsoft
reports results after the bell, and investors are expected to
pay close attention to the company's data center spending.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
For more.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
We're joined by Rebecca wednerman CEO and principle of Valuaye.
That's the link right that Jensen Vwang Vinvidia says, here's
my technology for the next five years. In the short term,
we look at the capital expenditures of the hyperscalers and
see if they're willing to plan to spend on that
technology in advance.
Speaker 10 (05:38):
Rebecca absolutely ed great to be here, Thanks for having me.
We have to look at what they're willing to spend,
but also look at what customers are willing to spend
to drive that AI demand so they can actually generate
revenues from it.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And when they're thinking about spending, we had a commitment
from Alphabet sticking to its seventy five billion. Microsoft has
been there saying we're spending more than eighty billion, but
there have been so many courts Rebecca that they might
be ending leases. We've had TD Cowen and others. What
if you listened to what's noise what's reality?
Speaker 10 (06:09):
Well, I think Carol, and we have to look at
the profit and margin picture.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
Right.
Speaker 10 (06:14):
If customers aren't willing to spend on consumption for AI
demand is not maybe what Microsoft expected it would be,
they're building out capacity in a way that's not supported
by revenues. And at the same time, if we look
at terrorf uncertainty, you know, there's a lot of things
that go into building out data centers that are expensive
beyond just in video chips and those kind of things
(06:35):
have got to be considerations as well as we think
about the overall data center class structure.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I'm really interested in that. So we're expecting what eleven
percent growth in revenue for Microsoft for this fiscal quart
to Rebecca, but where are you seeing the weakness and
ultimate demand for their AI products? Where are we likely
to see that they're spending a lot but people aren't
buying a lot when it comes to the Copilot offering,
and that's being offered to the enterprise.
Speaker 8 (06:58):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 10 (06:59):
I think if you loot copilot. There have been a
lot of challenges with adoption and really a lot of
challenges with Microsoft being able to prove the value of
what they deliver with Copilot. You know, I think they
did themselves a disservice putting copilots out there in the
beginning that weren't necessarily ready for prime time. Customers tried
them once, didn't get the results they expected, and they're
hesitant to go back. So now, without that broader picture
(07:21):
of enterprise data grounding Copilot, Microsoft's struggling with their own
AI to get it out there and get customers paying
for it.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I find this fascinating. Like Caroline, I think we share
this in common.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I grew up using Microsoft software. It's what was available
on my Dell desktop at home, and as I've got older,
I have options I'm now a Mac user and I
use OS. And the thing that I'm always reminded of
is that Microsoft has spent many years selling software you
can otherwise get for free somewhere else. So we're focused
on their capital expenditures, but I still don't see the
(07:55):
other side of it. The idea that you can look
at Copilot and say, I'm going to pay at the
enterprise level was just me personally for that and get
good value? Is that kind of what you're saying here, Rebecca, Yeah, I.
Speaker 10 (08:06):
Think we're seeing customers say, when I can go out
to chat GPT on my own, right, why am I
paying Microsoft for that capability? If it's not grounded in
enterprise data? And if you in contrast at some of
Microsoft's competitors in the enterprise software space, you've got your Oracles,
your Service, and now your salesforces where they're saying it's
not just what's on your desktop that's important for Copilot
(08:28):
or for any sort of AI agent, but what's in
those enterprise data sources you're helping to create more context,
to give better answers, to give better recommendations, to really
have more intelligent AI.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
What we're forgetting about is that Azure is the number
two player in cloud. And so if everyone is out
there spending on AI through the application layer like Salesforce,
all those names, doesn't Microsoft just win anyway?
Speaker 10 (08:53):
Well? Absolutely, I mean Microsoft wins when it's competitor's AI win. Right.
If you look at the folks that are running on
Azure today, whether it's Service Now or Genesis day Force,
tons of folks are those spending that their customers are
spending on their AI or driving up Azure credits.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Where is therefore the weakness that we might see in
this particular quarter and the guidance going forward, the small
exposure to hardware.
Speaker 11 (09:21):
We think about the gaming side, but.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Ultimately tariffs, is it going to be an economic a
macroeconomic impact that we want to hear from Satya that
we want to hear from Amy as well. When we
think about the CFO perspective, I think.
Speaker 10 (09:33):
The macropipiece is going to be really big Caroline, because
as we think about overall slowing of enterprise purchases that's
already happening right, The question is how long is it
going to last? And how much can the innovation that
Microsoft is driving in AI in areas help it to
catch up in terms of sort of capturing the imagination
of customers. And when we're all risk averse and hesitant
(09:55):
about making decisions, it's tough to spark that imagination.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Spin that forward with Amazon, right you know, it's it's
fast and furious. For forty eight hours, AWS is the
number one player in cloud computing. All of the logic
you've just outlined. What do you expect to be your
conclusion by Friday morning.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
Of this week? Sorry, you know my cool question, but
have a go.
Speaker 10 (10:19):
Well, you know, if I had the perfect answer, I
wouldn't be on the show, and I'd be somewhere else
on a boat, But you'd always be on this show.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
You'd always be coming back on giving us your expertise,
no matter how many billions you have on that boat.
Speaker 10 (10:33):
That's right, you know, I think we're going to see
in general, slowly growth. Amazon has some different pieces towards
growthfolio that are very compelling for customers that are looking
at cost cutting measures, that are looking at streamlining and rationalization.
Right now, Amazon has a lot to offer in that area.
You know, we see Microsoft Azure. I think we'll still
(10:53):
see pretty strong growth there, but it's going to slow
over the next couple of quarters. And I think what
we'll see this week is sort of the beginning of
that sign of if you don't have a compelling cost
cunning rationalization proposition, like we saw, for example, from Service
Now last week, you're going to struggle. It's as one
of the big players.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Rebecca's great to have you on, even if you're not
on a boat. Rebecca Wetterman, see principal at Valoir. We
appreciate it. Now coming up Snap, it wants the headwinds
impacting its AD business more on the details next. We're
down by fifteen percent. This is Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 11 (11:36):
Look Snap's numbers.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
They actually narrowly beat expectations from analysts for the first
quarter in terms of revenue, but they declined to issue
a sales forecast for the current period and they say
they're navigating macroeconomic headwinds.
Speaker 11 (11:49):
It's all about the ad business.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
We're seeing the worst drop since August twenty twenty four
on the stock Emarketers. Senior analyst Minne Smiley is with
us for more. And it looks like Chinese retailers, for example,
are already holding back spending on Snap haats.
Speaker 12 (12:02):
Yes, exactly, there are already holding back spend, and I
think in their earnings call they did say that that's
partly why they're you know, delaying issuing any guidance.
Speaker 8 (12:09):
They are worried about that.
Speaker 12 (12:11):
And I think just overall, the issue with Snap is
it it's one of those businesses where when we start
to see these advertiser pullbacks, you know, pullbacks and spend
pauses and spend, platforms like Snap end up taking a
hit first.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
You know, advertisers want to put their.
Speaker 12 (12:23):
Money into Meta, into TikTok, into Google, into platforms that
are just more you know, bigger, more proven, and so
I think we're already seeing Snap feel the impact.
Speaker 8 (12:32):
But you know, pretty early on.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
It's why it's in our calendar, right because apart from Google,
we always talk about how well Snap goes first and
then we extrapolate out to Meta in its platforms. I
haven't used Snap since high school, frankly, but Caro's intro
summed it up perfectly, like, you don't give guidance, that's
a market thing. The platform is growing, Yes, what can
you tell us about your reaction to that and where
you see it doing well against those other platforms?
Speaker 8 (12:56):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 12 (12:57):
I mean, all in all Snap had a good quarter.
I mean all of its major metrics. You know, it
saw user growth, it saw ad revenue and growth. It's
our revenue growth, which really speaks to the fact that
it has done a good job of investing in its
ad platform over the past few years. Its subscription business
remains small, but it's becoming a meaningful portion of revenue
for the company. So yes, they are seeing growth, but
I think we're now seeing that growth maybe kind of
(13:18):
have within a silo in Q one. I think for
the remainder of the year, things might get shaky for
them as they kind of balance, you know, all the
economic uncertainly we're facing. But you know, the actual core
business does show some some pretty healthy signs.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
We've been asking our investor in markets guests for about
a week what happens if a technology company doesn't issue guidance,
your stock goes down fifteen percent. You know what I'd
love to help our audience understand is tariffs, trade, uncertainty,
advertising market.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Why did the advertisers care?
Speaker 8 (13:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 12 (13:51):
I mean, I think for for a lot of people,
when they see advertisers spend becoming, you know, starting to
pull back, it's a sign of bigger bigger concerns, bigger
issues to come because a lot of marketers, you know,
for a lot of these companies, one of the first
things they're going to pull back is marketing when they
start to see signs of a shaky economy, periods of instability,
and especially you know when we talk about tariffs, companies
that might be hit harder by tariffs, you know, maybe
(14:12):
they have manufacturing in China or whatnot. You know, those companies, retailers,
you know that maybe rely heavily on other countries.
Speaker 8 (14:20):
They're they're going to have an impact.
Speaker 12 (14:21):
And AD spend always does to kind of take one
of the first hits when you look across the whole company.
Speaker 8 (14:26):
And so so yeah, these platforms.
Speaker 12 (14:28):
AD revenues are bread and butter, and we talk about
Snap specifically. They're lucky in that they're you know, because
they have their subscription subscription business, they are able to
diversify a little bit. But again, I think it all
the represents about ten percent of their business right now,
so of course they're very concerned about AD revenue.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
What blows my mind is that Snap has almost a
billion users, right but they have a first quarter net
loss of one hundred.
Speaker 11 (14:52):
And forty million dollars. Just where is the money going?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
What leavers do they have to pull to be a
long term competitor that actually is profitable.
Speaker 12 (15:00):
Yes, I mean they definitely are running into some issues
when specifically when you talk about user growth, they are
seeing user growth here every year, but when you look
at their key markets, when you look at North America,
they actually posted declines. I think it went from one
hundred million two to ninety nine. So they are seeing
some concerns there around you know this, you know the
market of the North America, that is their most profitable market,
(15:23):
but it's saturated.
Speaker 8 (15:24):
They're really struggling to grow there.
Speaker 12 (15:25):
And these and these markets where they are seeing user growth,
those are the markets where they're not monetizing as well.
Speaker 8 (15:29):
So they definitely have, Like I said.
Speaker 12 (15:31):
They had a good quarter, but they have some big
long term challenges ahead of them.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Let's say that there's still a question mark about TikTok
in the United States, does Snaps stand to benefit from
that whatever happens with that platform they have that they.
Speaker 8 (15:44):
Do stand the benefit and they have benefited already.
Speaker 12 (15:46):
I mean, I think the uncertainty around TikTok, of course,
it's its future.
Speaker 8 (15:49):
Is still in flux. But I think just this general.
Speaker 12 (15:51):
Uncertainty that's been happening over the past few years has
benefited all these other platforms. That being said, I don't
think Snap will be one of the main beneficiaries we're
going to see. So that money go to YouTube, you know,
go to YouTube shorts, go to Instagram, Instagram reels, even Facebook.
I think Snap, yes, they will benefit, but not so
much that it'll really kind of, you know, save their
entire business by any means.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
Okay, what are you watching for with Meta? What do
we need to know? Oh?
Speaker 8 (16:14):
Wow?
Speaker 12 (16:14):
I mean in some ways, Meta is actually a similar
story to Snap in some ways in that you know,
I think we're expecting a good quarter. They're going to
post advertising growth. You know, they're going to kind of
buy all their major metrics. We're going to see growth.
But between the anti trust try all their facing here
in the US, between tear ups, and especially for Meta,
I mean, they will be impacted by Chinese retailers like
She and Timu pulling back on D spend.
Speaker 8 (16:34):
That's going to hit them pretty hard, we expect.
Speaker 12 (16:37):
And so yeah, they they're probably going to post a
good quarter, But I think there's going to be some
some issues people will be paying attention to for sure
in the quarters to come.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
EMOCS the senior analyst mind the Smiley Greats having on
the show, Thank you righte Hailing and food delivery company
GRAB Holdings raised it's all year earnings forecast, boosting sentiment
that the sector could be more resilient amid global trade
wars for more delighted to say, we're joined by Peter
(17:07):
Owey Grab CFO.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
I'm here in the United States.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Grab is Southeast Asia and everyone that I talked to
talks about your scale across those different nations and your
use of AI, particularly to manage operating costs. That's the
boring stuff, Peter. What is it you're able to do
in those markets and those Southeast Asian companies at scale
that's helping you perform like this?
Speaker 13 (17:31):
Yeah, we had a very strong Q one results, record revenues,
a record number of transacting users on our platform, and
also a growing profitability in our business today. And what's
unique about our business is that the scale that we
built is around adoptability of our products and it's a
super app. So what does that mean? We have multiple
products that's on one single app it cell, whether it's
(17:55):
all forms of deliveries, whether it's food delivery, whether it's
grocery delivery. You've got transport two wheels, three wheels, four wheels,
and that's our taxi services also on our platform.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
And we also have fintech also.
Speaker 13 (18:07):
Where there is low appurance payments business also, and it's
unique in Southeast Asia where all these products are interrelated
and they're all working through one ecosystem. We're seeing more
traction before on our platform than ever before. Part of
product is around affordability, and we continue to push that
affordability as we expand the user base.
Speaker 11 (18:30):
Okay, so let's talk about affordability.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Is that coming through the new products, because actually you're
trying to increase spending from your users. You're doing well,
whether you're doing family accounts, whether you're offering.
Speaker 11 (18:40):
People to pull some of their deliveries for example. Peter,
that's right.
Speaker 13 (18:45):
Yes, we're actually adding more products, but those products are
also catering for segments of users on our platform there
might be a little bit more pro sensitive. That's why
we have about a third of our transactions today are
coming from these more affordable suite of products. In transport
or own deliveries, or we also have the more the
premium side also, which are really important for those who
(19:06):
are less price sensitive, who are less more they wanted
a food much quicker, for an example, and that's also
so it's a combination of this product mix that's really
important and we need to give customers choice and that's
what we've been doing more and more over the last
two years in our business.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
It's even so we have a trade war, what are
the indirect economic impacts of tariffs on those Southeast Asian markets?
And on the financing side loans, what are you doing
to insulate yourself.
Speaker 13 (19:36):
Yeah, we've built a business where we feel and we
believe that it's counter sickly goal. What does that mean
If you look at the type of service that we
do today, people still need to eat, and we have
also an ability where we can bring cook food home
or we can also get grocery into their homes. So
at the same time at an affordable price, people still
(19:58):
need to go to work, they still need to commute
from point at a point B, and we're making services
more affordable also at the same time. So we feel
that whether it's an economic downturn or whether the economy
is doing well. The services that we have today are
relevant for these consumers and also with fintech. Also, payments
also is still very prevalent, whether it is in any
(20:20):
economic cycles. People need still need to pay for things,
whether to pay their bills. So it's an important part
of this ecosystem that we continue to harness.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Peter and mentioned that potential protection of yourself via taking
out loans. Now you were taking out alone, we understand
to the tune of about two billion to help finance potential
deal go to How is that M and A going
in this current environment.
Speaker 13 (20:46):
Well, can't command caroline on the speculation of those M
and A. What we are focusing where especially Indonesia where
it's a very important market for US. It's about three
hundred million people and it's a very critical market. What
we are seeing in Indonesia is a continuing growth. Actually,
if we look at the number of users quorter on quarter,
we continue to expand that business margin also is expanding,
(21:09):
so we can do it on Indonesia. Then we are
making selective m and as in the first quarter we
made a number of small M and a's which are
more around ecosystem and that's really important also as again
as we bring more products and services, more capabilities to
our user base.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Its briefly the cost control you've got, how much is
that because of AI?
Speaker 13 (21:31):
I would say it's very hard to measure with its
pinpoint is specifically to AI. What we are measuring is
more the productivity output that we can harness from using
AI internally. Here a grab for an example, behalf of
our engineers today are using some sort of AI assists
for them to be able to do their work more efficiently.
(21:52):
I would say that one measurement also is the number
of headcount that we are increasing also in our organization,
which actually have slowed down because of some of these
automation and some of these AI agents that would be
labeled to deploy email organizations. So measured this productivity p.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Dewey, I've grabbed. Great to have some time with you
a long day. Appreciate you coming on. Welcome back to
Blueberg Technology. I'm Caroline Hider, New York and I met.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Love Loow right alongside her.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
The market story for the technology sector is anxiety about economics. Really,
data out of China on the manufacturing side not great
on US levies and you see the US listed shares
of Chinese tech companies lower. Another name that I've got
to point out, Tesla. Morgan Stanley is out with a
note that the tie up between Waimo, the autonomous driving
arm of Google, and Toyota is quote legit competition for Tesla,
(22:49):
the stock under a little pressure there, and we go
back to Nvidia Caro because Jensen one's on Capitol Hill.
But also the read through and downward pressure that came
from super Micro, one of its key manufacturing partners in
the server design space.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
It is, and let's just stick with all things in video,
but also all things President Trump. Because marking one hundred
days ed in office as a rally in Michigan was
taken out yesterday, he doubled down on his tough stance
on immigration and the impact of Tara's on China's quote
unfair trade now moves that sent ripples through the tech industry,
of course, from supply chains to AI development. Now in
Vidio CEO Jensen Wang, as you mentioned, ed just joined
(23:24):
from Washington. He's sounded confident on the administration's tarast stance,
but sounding the alarm when it comes to China's AI strength.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
China is not behind anybody who's in you. China's right
behind us. I mean they're more very very close. But
remember this is a long term. This is an infinite race.
There is no you know, in the in the world
of life, there is no those you know, there's no
two minute here, end.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Of the quarter.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
There's there's no such thing. And so we're going to
compete for a long time.
Speaker 11 (23:55):
Murgs.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Mike Shepherd joins us now a warning for the administration
that China is close behind.
Speaker 14 (24:00):
Well, that's right, and it's one that he'll be able
to deliver to the President in person this afternoon in video,
of course, is one of the featured companies at an
Investing in America meeting with the President later this afternoon.
It's a part of the one hundred days in office
celebration that is really extending over a few days, as
(24:20):
Trump tries to look back at some of the successes he,
in his view, has already had since taking office in January,
and looks ahead to some more of the policy areas
where they would like to gain ground. AI certainly is
one of them. We're waiting this AI blueprint from David
Sachs and others and We're also looking to see how
the administration will act in a key area of concern
(24:40):
for Jensen Wong, and that is those export controls on
AI chips, especially the ones that his company makes.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Caro probably is Mike Shepperd keeping us on us out
of Washington, d C.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Let's get back to what is a top story and
news overnight of China's President Gee's visit to a tech incubator,
which sent some robotics stocks soaring. Then there was a
slump in Chinese manufacturing data in the face of US
tarrist that's also putting more focus on supply chains four
key domains like robotics. Here in North America, competition in
(25:11):
robotics is heating up, and some of that's coming from
long standing robotics names like Boston Dynamics. Like's say, the
company's CEO, Robert Plater, joins us. Now, Robert, welcome to
Bloomberg Technology. Let's actually just start with basic data and facts.
Where is Boston Dynamics today in its production of robots?
Speaker 5 (25:29):
Where does it take place? And what does the supply
chain look like?
Speaker 15 (25:34):
Thanks for having me ed so, Boston Dynamics is building
three products right now and two of them are in
the market. Spot was our initial product, and we have
about two thousand of those robots out with customers. We've
launched a second product stretch, which is a warehousing robot,
and that's having success with big players like DHL, and
our third product will be humanoids. We are manufacturing all
(25:57):
of these in the United States and to deploy them
internationally as well as in the United States.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Robert I always like to go to our audience on
social media and say, the following CEO is coming on
the show, what would you ask them? And based on
what you just said, the first customer was if you
are approaching a new customer, how would you go about
a new task, What does the teaching process for the
specific form facts of robot look like? And how long
does it take to go from sort of inception to
deployment in that industrial use case.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
That's a great question.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
Thank you. I didn't think of it any with someone
else's go ahead.
Speaker 15 (26:32):
AI has definitely changed the game here and it's accelerated
the rate at which you can teach.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Robots new tasks.
Speaker 15 (26:39):
But much of the AI that you need to make
humanoids successful is still to be built. What we found
practically is that when you introduce a new robot like Spot,
which we introduced in twenty twenty, it took us until
about twenty twenty three before you really were starting to
nail the applications that customers wanted and they generated value
for them. So it's not an overnight activity. It's really
(27:02):
learning about the customer problem and building a solution, not
just a prototype robot.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Let's talk about whether the solution of Optimus over at Tesla.
Speaker 11 (27:13):
Is that a competitive threat for you right now?
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Robert, how realistic do you think the timeframes are on
that from Elon?
Speaker 15 (27:19):
Well, you know, Elon I think exaggerates often. He's got
history of doing that, but he's also proven the ability
to invent the future. So we take Tesla and Optimists
very seriously. They also share an advantage that Boston Dynamics has,
which is we're attached to a major automotive manufacturer and
that creates a unique opportunity for us, but also for
(27:42):
Tesla to not only build a scale, but deploy at
scale and basically have consume your own robots.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
I mean, you've got a collaboration with Hyundai for example.
You've also got partnerships long standing within Video and others.
Just how resilient to those partnerships and do those end
customers seem at this economic moment.
Speaker 15 (28:00):
Robert, Well, I think the partnership with Hyundai is going
to be really amazing because they can be both our
manufacturer and largest consumer. We can if we need to
adjust manufacturing of automotives to make robots more successful, there
we can do so, and that will really be key
to achieving success. So I think the whole world is
(28:23):
seeing the opportunity for this new generation of robots to
expand significantly, and so I think there's just a lot
of promise in this industry right now.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
Robert.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
The critical line of questioning I get for you, and
maybe the criticism is that Boston has been at this
a long time, and the skepticism is that you haven't
moved beyond prototype phase. You've just said in the opening
of this interview that actually you have. Would you go
as actually bear with Robert, I'm afraid to say, We've
got to leave it here for a second. The President
is hosting a cabinet meeting in Washington, DC, and the
(28:57):
right people.
Speaker 16 (28:58):
Working at Congratulations by the way, into tom for two
months in a row. We have set the all time
records for the lowest number of illegal border crossings ever recorded.
The number of illegal boat crosses released into the United States.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Is down ninety nine point nine percent. That is usually
one hundred percent.
Speaker 16 (29:22):
So I think it's an amazing tribute, and Christy, congratulations.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
And Tom and everybody else.
Speaker 16 (29:27):
It's an amazing job actually, and it was done very quickly.
We officially designated trend de Iragua MS thirteen and the
Mexican drug cartels is foreign terrorist organizations and we're expelling
these monsters from our country rapidly and working with the
Department of Justice.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Pam, You're doing fantastic. Your people are amazing.
Speaker 16 (29:50):
We're having some judge problems and everybody's reading some judges
that don't like, you know, killers, murderers being thrown out
of the country. So I don't know what their problem is,
but we have a little difficulty. We won on the
basis of a great border and of getting criminals out
of our country. That was why we won every swing state.
(30:12):
We won by millions of votes. We won everything, every metric,
We won by a lot. It was a massive victory
and we won I think largely because of this issue.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
I put this issue, it's number one issue, and they
don't want us to do what we're supposed to do.
Speaker 16 (30:28):
And I don't think that can be I hope the
Supreme Court is going to fully understand what's going on.
We have to get the criminals out of our country,
and that's the basis under which we won the election.
Core gdpked and this is you know, you brobably saw
some numbers today and I have to start off, I
say that's Biden, that's not Trump, because we came in
(30:49):
on January just a quarterly numbers, and we came in
and I was very against everything that Biden was doing
in terms of the economy, destroying our country in so
many ways, not.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Only at the border.
Speaker 16 (31:03):
The border was more obvious, but we took over his
mess in so many different ways.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
Core GDP removing.
Speaker 16 (31:11):
Distortions from imports, inventories, and government spending was up close
three percent when you edit, we had numbers that despite
what we were handed, we turned them around, and we
were getting them really turned around. Gross domestic investment was
a whopping twenty two percent. Now that is a number
that people are coming in at numbers. For instance, I
(31:33):
just walked in IRN sam sub Is now because of
the tariffs, they're going to build massive facilities in the
United States.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
If we didn't do the tariffs, they wouldn't be doing that.
Speaker 16 (31:44):
So it takes a little while to get those facilities built.
But they're coming in with big, big numbers. They're all
coming in with big numbers. We have more moneys being
spent than any at any time in the history of
our country. We're up to close to eight trillion dollars,
I think I can say, and really it's going to
be a lot higher than that. Those are just the
(32:04):
ones that we know about. Eight trillion.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
I'm not going to say, but I don't think.
Speaker 16 (32:09):
I'm not sure if Biden did a trillion for four years,
one trillions, but we're eight trillion for two months, because
let's give us a pass. On the first month, we
were sort of getting a little bit used to things.
But after two months we have eight trillion dollars. There
has never been a number like that, and that includes
chip companies, car companies, every form of manufacturing, high tech companies.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Nobody's ever seen anything like it.
Speaker 16 (32:36):
So eight trillion dollars, I can talk about gross domestic product,
gross domestic investment. I can talk about a lot of things,
but to me, the biggest numbers the kind of numbers
that are and these people are coming in. Our Secretary
of Commerce spent the weekend he went down to Arizona
to see what was happening with the chip the biggest
(32:58):
chip company in the world, and he said, Howard, he said, you've.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Never seen anything like it. You want to just describe
what you saw.
Speaker 17 (33:06):
So they're investing one hundred and sixty five billion dollars
in eleven hundred acres in Arizona and they're building the
highest tech chip manufacturing semi conductors and four thousand employees.
You know American trade craft, right, technicians doing every kind
of work. The classic foundation of America is building it.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
They have fourteen thousand people. They're expecting forty thousand people to.
Speaker 17 (33:32):
Build the rest of their plants and to employ twenty
thousand people for the rest of time.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
And it is old driven. You never saw a site
type and this is.
Speaker 17 (33:40):
Old driven by your tower policies, no chance to be
happening with having.
Speaker 16 (33:45):
It's going to be about forty percent of the chip
market from that one section. And this is the biggest
chip maker they have ninety nine percent of the market.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
They come from Taiwan.
Speaker 16 (33:55):
And unlike the Chip Act, which was done by Biden,
where they hand everybody billions of dollars, the thing they
don't need is money. They got plenty of money. What
they need is an incentive to come in and the tariffs.
They're building because of the tariffs. If without the tariffs,
and I'd like to say they're building because of November fifth,
the election and the tariffs.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
But I'm going to building more blunder.
Speaker 16 (34:15):
They're building because of the tariffs, and November fifth gave
them the tariffs. So it's amazing when you look and
these are not companies that go out and say, well,
we're going to build, we have to go get our financing.
Let's go like we would in New York. Everybody would look.
You know, you'd get a building site and then you'd
look around for money, you look around for financing for
(34:37):
six months, you'd get your financing, you'd build your building.
The market would be good, you'd make money. The market
would be bad, it wouldn't be so pretty. You'd have
to negotiate.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Bab bab bob.
Speaker 16 (34:47):
This is different. These people have so much money they
don't know what to do. They are asked, howard did
they finance it? No, they do it through cash, and
they stay that site. And they just started, you know,
they just announced it like a month ago and they've
already started.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
He said, I've never seen a sight like it's so big.
Speaker 16 (35:04):
So you know, you're talking about a fifty essentially a
fifty billion dollar building.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Now, if you built a.
Speaker 16 (35:09):
Warehouse for fifty million dollars, that's a big warehouse gotten,
but a fifty billion dollar building, that's a lot.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
They're building.
Speaker 16 (35:17):
The electric they're building, They've become a utility, and I'm
giving him the right to become. They're going to build
their own electric They're going to build their own electricity,
which they need tremendous amounts of electricity.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
They're gonna build it themselves.
Speaker 16 (35:29):
Anything they have looked, you know, left over, they'll hook
that into the grid. But the grid is old and
they're unreliable, and bad things can happen to grids. I said,
if you want, you can hook into the grid, but
that's a little bit risky, or you can build your
own electricity.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Have become your.
Speaker 16 (35:45):
Own utility, and they, I think in all cases, are
deciding to do that.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
So it's very exciting and we have a lot of
things going.
Speaker 16 (35:55):
We took over on January twenty of these are quarterly reports.
We took over on January twentieth. The tariffs haven't kicked
in yet. I know that, and I don't want this
to happen, but I know that China is doing very
poorly right now. I just saw some reports coming out,
and I don't want that to happen to China.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
I like the.
Speaker 16 (36:13):
President a lot. President she, I don't want it to happen.
I was actually sanden to hear it. But they are
getting absolutely hammered in China. And you know, they're sending boats,
the biggest boats in the world, carrying cargo like nobody's
ever seen before. These are the biggest boats in the world,
biggest cargo ships in the world, and they're coming and
(36:35):
they're turning around in the Pacific Ocean. They're doing a
big u turney going back because they don't want to
do this because one hundred and forty five percent tariff.
But at a certain point, I hope we're going to
make a deal with China. We're talking to China, but
their factories are closing all over China because we're not.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Taking their product. We don't want their product.
Speaker 16 (36:54):
Unless they're going to be fair with us, and that
includes intellectual property and other things. There are a lot
of things far beyond just by sell. So we'll see
what happens. But you know I was not because somebody said, well,
were you happy? I said, I am not happy. I
want you on it to do well. I want every
country to do well, but they have to treat us
fairly also.
Speaker 18 (37:13):
So with that, I think we're going to maybe go
around and we have some letters where the secretaris and
people around the table are making statements about how they're
doing and what's happening. And I could start with Pete
on the left, because he's my least controversial person.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
At the world. I don't know how good he is.
So we'll go around the table and you can hear it.
Speaker 16 (37:38):
And these are cabinet meetings where they're very open and transparent,
and I can guarantee you Biden didn't do this.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
He didn't do this. Go ahead, be well, mister president.
I think we're controversial because we're over the target.
Speaker 19 (37:50):
And like so many things, mister President, you inherited a
demoralized military.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
It couldn't recruit.
Speaker 19 (37:56):
It was perceived as weak after what happened in Afghanistan
and elsewhere because of Joe Biden, and what we have
seen since your election and the inauguration has been nothing
short of a recruiting renaissance.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
Decades.
Speaker 20 (38:09):
It has been been decades since we've seen this kind
of recruiting in the.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force.
Speaker 20 (38:15):
The men and women of America want to join the
United States military led by President Donald Trump, and the police,
by the ways, and fire.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
I always mentioned the fire, but the police and fire.
Speaker 16 (38:26):
But the police and fire likewise are I mean they
have waiting lists now and six months ago as a
disaster of.
Speaker 20 (38:33):
Truly historic we can barely absorb the volume and retention
as well, men and women in the military who don't
want to get out now that they have a real commander,
a chief. We're reinforcing standards. We're going to be fit,
not fat in our formations. Welcome back all the COVID
The folks that were forced out because of the COVID mandate,
(38:53):
ripped woiteness.
Speaker 4 (38:54):
Out of the military, Star DEI trans.
Speaker 20 (38:57):
And it's Fort Benning and were bragg again at the
DoD We're rebuilding the military SERP.
Speaker 4 (39:04):
The Golden Dome is well under way. F forty seven.
Reassuring allies and deterring enemies.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
We found nearly President Trump in a cabinet meeting. We
leave it on Peter hag Seth, of course, talking about defense,
but so much said when it comes to the GDP figure,
for example, and Trump blaming perhaps the decline that we've
seen the worse since twenty twenty two, on what he
inherited from the Biden administration, talking about core GDP actually
being up, taking a while to get domestic facilities built.
Speaker 11 (39:31):
He went to Howard Luckneck.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Of course, the comments secretary talking about the TSMC investment
in Arizona, Key and Tech. Also is the fact that
tarifs haven't yet kicked in, he says, And they know
that China is currently doing very poorly, but he wants
China to do well. Let's get the analysis me leg
Kayly Lions is joining us. And what's so interesting about
that core GDP number that he says, I'm assuming he's
trying to reflect the final sales of domestic purchases or
(39:53):
GDP based excluding inventory or international trade. But this is
all about international trade implications acts.
Speaker 21 (40:00):
That's exactly right, Caroline, and he referred to that surge
we saw in imports, which of course detracted from GDP
as just being a distortion, kind of echoing what we
heard from his trade advisor Peter Navarro that said, this
is the best negative GDP print he's ever seen because
it shows that countries want to sell to the US.
Although another way of reading the data, of course, is
that US companies are d really trying to get everything
(40:21):
they can from other countries in before the tariffs fully
take effects. So clearly the White House trying to spin
this as still being the Biden economy, or, as President
Trump said earlier, the Biden stock market, although he has
now passed a hundred days in office. As he makes
his way though calling on different sec secretaries in the
Cabinet around the table, it'll be interesting to hear from
the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besson, in particular around what we
(40:41):
just heard from the President on China, a suggestion that
he does want to make a deal and that talks
are happening. The White House has repeatedly said this, even
though China maintains that no negotiations have actually begun, so
we'll see if we get a status update from beston
on that or on other deals. Keeping in mind of
course that uh, the ninety day window is rapidly shrinking,
and they are trying to bring on short investment to
(41:02):
the United States in that time, or at least get
commitments from companies. He was referring to that as domestic
facilities taking a while to be built. But the TSMC
call out in particular interesting to hear from the Commerce
Secretary and the President because those are actually investment pledges
that were initially made during the Biden administration. TSMC received
money from the Chips Act in order to build those
(41:23):
facilities in Arizona. And yes, a new facility has just
broken ground, so an expansion of what we saw during
the Biden years, but it is still worth noting where
that investment initially came from, so we may hear more
about that. Keeping in mind as well that President Trump
is expected to speak from the White House again later
today four pm Eastern Time for a speech that's being
built about investment in America.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Katie lines, we appreciate it wrapping up for us. Meanwhile,
we've got plenty more happening in Washington, and A Marie
Hoddan has just been chatting with Palanis CTO Shom Sanka
early today as part of the Helen Valley Form. Now
it's a summit focused on how tech com bolston national
security in the US manufacturing. He discussed his perspective on
the military industrial complex under Trump administration.
Speaker 11 (42:04):
Just take listen.
Speaker 22 (42:05):
I think this is an opportunity to really fix a
lot of the problems that have built up over the
last thirty or so years since the end.
Speaker 5 (42:11):
Of the Cold War.
Speaker 22 (42:12):
If you go back to what it was like, what
did the industrial base look.
Speaker 8 (42:15):
Like when we were winning World War Two?
Speaker 22 (42:17):
In the early Cold War, it was actually a very
different economic structure. Chrysler built cars and missiles. We had
a Deputy Secretary of Defense that was the co founder
of HP. Bill Perry was the co founder of a
Silicon Valley startup before he became Secretary of Defense. So
it's a return to the functioning cross pollination of innovation
(42:37):
that's always existed and been in the bedrock of how
the American economy worked.
Speaker 7 (42:42):
Fifty percent of pallanteers revenue comes from government contracts. Do
you expect that level to stay the same? Will accelerate
under the Trump administration.
Speaker 22 (42:50):
I think it's been that way for a pretty long time. Obviously,
we started entirely government. The commercial sector is bigger. It's
growing very, very rapidly. But I think there's something quite
healthy about having this diversified R and D base where
everything we're learning and inventing in the very dynamic American
private sectors actually benefiting our national security and broader functioning
of government. You know, we were able to develop and
(43:12):
deploy the operation Warp speed supply chain in two weeks
because actually two years prior, we had solved a very
structurally similar problem for VP and oil and gas. And
you really cannot connect those dots prospectively. You can only
see that retrospectively. And that's exactly what happened with SpaceX.
You know, when I was a kid growing up in
the shadow of the Space Coast, it used to cost
fifty thousand dollars a kilogram to get to orbit on
(43:32):
the Shuttle with Starship heavy reuse. It's now ten to
twenty bucks. I'm not missing any zeros there, you know.
It's just wild innovation that comes from that cross palmination.
This happened with Intel and in the late sixties, ninety
six percent of Intel's revenue actually came from the Apollo program.
It was effectively a government contractor. But actually Bob Noys,
the inventor of the transistor, the CEO of Intel, he
(43:54):
always had a vision that integrated circuits were going to
be in every consumer device, and he invested in that
capability and in the seventies and eighties that enabled us
to build a salt breaker, which meant that we didn't
have to match the Soviets weapon for weapon. We could
actually build smarter weapons and have many fewer of them
that we could afford and still have deterrence.
Speaker 7 (44:13):
So even if your government revenue comes down, it's because
you're making money elsewhere in the private sector.
Speaker 22 (44:18):
Yeah, And to be clear, I don't think the revenue
is going to come down, It's just that they're going
to be differential growths here.
Speaker 5 (44:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
That was Palenteer CTO Scham Sanka along with Bloomberg's A
Marie Horden Cary.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
I'm coming up investors, I Big Tech Earning said, we
got Meta, we got Microsoft. They're reporting after the bell
plenty more on those ahead. That's Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 3 (44:45):
Turning back to earnings investors eagerly awaiting big tech names
Meta and Microsoft after the bell and carry like it's
really a simple equation for Microsoft AI costs capex. It's
a good story to follow because that's how anyone cares
about really and.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Are they sinking to about eight billion? What happens in
the next year, And what's so interesting is the geopolitical implications.
You just spotted a Microsoft blog today saying we're still
expanding our data center footprint in Europe.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
Right They're going to add data centers across sixteen countries,
they said in this blog post. With the timing of
it's like very curious. I said to the guests earlier,
We've all used Microsoft software, m paid for it for
a long time. And now investors maybe a little bit
of going like okay, investment. Yeah, but showed me a
bit of like the end result of all of this.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
And where have analysts and investors reorientated their numbers going
into this.
Speaker 11 (45:30):
Of course this quarter is not the real tell. It's
going to be next quarter.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
But Microsoft has sixty five buys on it zero cell.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
Yeah, it's still like the darling of whatever it is
that's happening in AI. Like Meta also interesting, maybe even
more straightforward as a story like Google. Yeah, we track
the capital expenditures. It's a big operator of data centers itself.
But is its core AD business able to sustain the spending?
Speaker 2 (45:51):
And what about the implications that snapped the read across
Already sheen already Temu bringing back their spending on ads
in real time, Will Mark Zuckerberg will seasonally signal that
for the current quarter we're already in, not just the
backward looking quarter that they've achieved.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
And very quickly then you remember that in twenty four
as I was time to go again with Apple and
Amazon relentless.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Ye brace yourself. And I'm so pleased that he sat
right next to me here in New York. Meanwhile, that
does it for this edition of Blue Meg Technology. Don't
forget to check out our podcast. Find it on the
terminal as well as online on Apple, Spotify, and iHeart
from New York for the next couple of days.
Speaker 11 (46:27):
This is Blue Meg Technology.
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