April 29, 2025 • 42 mins
Bloomberg’s Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow dive into the White House calling out Amazon after reports that it would display the cost of US tariffs on products - which Amazon later denied. Plus, Spotify shares fall after giving a muted outlook for profit, and SoFi CEO Anthony Noto says the Trump administration’s regulatory reforms will allow the online bank to offer more products.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, innovation.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Money and power collide in Silicon Valley and beyond.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Ludlow live from New York and San Francisco. This is
Bloomberg Technology coming up. The White House takes aim at
Amazon after a reported play to display the cost of
(00:41):
tariffs on certain products, but the tech giant denies the move.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Plus, Spotify sees a surgeon subscribers in the first quarter,
but shares slide and.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
The SOFI CEO joins us after posting the first quarter
beat and raising guidance, showing resilience amid.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
The economic turmoil.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
But first way check in on these markets, which are
also showing some resilience, said, we're up three tens of percent, but.
Speaker 5 (01:03):
Is it bad news? That is good news.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
We see woefully low consumer sentiment, the worst reading in
terms of consumer sentiment in almost five years. But that
fuels the desire and the hope that the Federal Reserve
might indeed start to cut rates to support the economy.
We're up three tens percent, but some notable names on
the downside, and you're looking at one of them.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Yeah, very quickly NXP Semiconductor. It's a story you may
have missed among everything else. The stock was down significantly,
paired some of the decline to six percent. Two pieces
of news tariffs impact, an uncertain environment, hitting the outlook
and performance in the quarter, key supply to the automotive sector,
but also CEO Sivert's retiring and then promoting from within
(01:45):
one that you want to keep an eye on key
name in the supply chain.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Carring you certainly do.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Meanwhile, let's return to the White House because it is
taking aim at Amazon.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
I just got off the Finn with the President about
iaman Zan's announcement. This is a heartstyle in pull it
a act by Amazon. It's another reason why we are
on shoring critical supply chains here at home to shore
up our own critical supply chain and boost our own manufacturing.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
The comments weighed on shares as the tech giant gears
up to report results on Thursday after the closing bell.
Numa's Kaylee Lines is said to break down the story.
All of this based on reporting coming.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
From another source.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Amazon has since denied that it was ever under consideration
for the main site, that they would make it transparently
clear that what taris add to the price of goods.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Just give us the background, Yeah, Caroline.
Speaker 7 (02:34):
The White House was responding here to a report from
punch Bowl News citing a source familiar with the matter
that suggested Amazon was soon going to post a separate
line item for the tariff charge on its website, akin
to you, for example, what we've since seen Shean or
Temu doing with import charges. Now the US has ended
that demonimous exemption on cheaper goods coming out of China
(02:55):
and Hong Kong. Now Amazon says that that was actually
never under consideration for its website.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
That yes, the.
Speaker 7 (03:01):
Ultra low cost Amazon Hall team did discuss this, but
ultimately it was never implemented on any Amazon property. So
that hostile and political act that Caroline Lovitt referred to
an act that not actually has been taken. And perhaps
Amazon in this way is not yet actually going sideways
with the White House. But the criticism of the company
that Caroline lobbied today did not end there. I would
(03:23):
note she also referred to Amazon as a China aligned
company and referred back to a Reuters report going back
to twenty twenty one about Amazon partnering with a Chinese
propaganda arm. Essentially that Amazon allowed itself to respond to
an edict from Beijing or cooperated with an edict from
Beijing around negative views of a book published by the
Chinese government of speeches from Chinese President Shi jin Ping,
(03:46):
and she really pointed to that as an example of
the China alignment of this company. She also, as we
heard her say there, talked about the importance of turning
away from China buying American and on shoring American manufacturing.
So what this means for the company's relationship with this
White House overall obviously a question now after it has
gone to great links to ingratiate itself with this administration. Remember,
(04:07):
Amazon donated a million dollars to Trump's inaugural committee. Jeff
Bezos himself attended that inauguration, has spent time with President
Trump trying to fortify their relationship, and that relationship the
presidents in Bezos is one that Carolinelevitt said she did
not want.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
To speak to this morning.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
The chairman and of course founder of the business, Katie Linesby,
thank you. Let's turn our attention to another key story,
Spotify shares as slipping off of the company reported operating
profit that fell short of anast estimates that that's even
a subscriber numbers. They grew here to discuss New Meg's
Ashley Common and really felt that there was a lot
of good news that ultimately was outshone by a profit hit.
Speaker 8 (04:43):
Yeah, I think investors are just a little bit jittery.
They're seeing Spotify forecast potentially a miss in their estimates
for gross profit margin as well as monthly active users.
So I think they're just kind of like, is this
going to be the future and the trend or is
this just a one off kind of moment, And Spotify
says this is a one off moment of course.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Actually, the long term Spotify wants you to think about
is a world where they move into podcasts, audio video more,
and they might also raise prices along the way.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Exactly.
Speaker 8 (05:15):
So, over the past couple of years, they've branched into audiobooks.
They're now launching this creator partner program where they're trying
to get essentially YouTubers and video podcasters to put videos
on the service and compensate them based on consumption rather
than advertisements. So they're really trying to pioneer some new
format and diversify away from.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Music bloomber has actually Camen thank you very much. In
other earnings, new shares of so Far are higher after
the fintech company raised its full year forecast. So Far
CEO Anthony Nodo is here with us. Good morning to you,
mister Noto. You know, I think there was a lot
of focus in the quarter on the momentum from the
loan platform business, particularly the interest and demand from private credit.
(05:56):
Talks me more about that, Anthony, and where you see
that business going forward.
Speaker 9 (06:02):
Sure, we had a tremendous quarter in a great start
to twenty twenty five, with thirty three percent year of
your growth in total revenue to seven hundred and seventy
one million dollars, and that was up thirty three percent,
our fastest growth in five quarters. The loan platform business,
as you mentioned, was a key driver of that very
strong results there. We basically get paid a fee by
(06:23):
these asset buyers that want us to underwrite loans against
a specific credit box that they outline. We leverage our
underwriting capabilities, our marketing capabilities, and our servicing capabilities.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
And we get paid a fee for that.
Speaker 9 (06:36):
It's something we started about a year ago. We've already
originated six billion dollars of loans in that particular business,
and in the quarter is about ninety six million dollars
or revenue, so it's almost four million dollars on an
analyzed basis. We expected to be over a billion dollars
or third billion dollar business over the course of time
as the demand for that product continues to increase. One
(06:57):
area that we haven't tapped into yet but that we
will is taking some of the loans that we decline.
We decline about one hundred million dollars of loans a
year and making those available through the loan platform business
as well for those that want a near prime type
of credit asset.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
The other area you want to tap is crypto, right.
You alluded to entering into stable coin markets to us.
Speaker 9 (07:20):
Moll Yeah, We're very fortunate in that we've built. This
is another record quarter for member growth. We're at eleven
million members now. We add an eight hundred thousand members
in the quarter and one point two million products up
thirty four percent, up thirty five percent, respectively. We want
to continue to give our members a full suite of
financial services products. SOFI Money is the largest product that
(07:44):
we have today. It was up forty one percent, the
pilots are up fifty two percent. Our this business are
an acceleration up twenty one percent, and we expect that
acceleration to continue. Crypto would be another asset class to
add to the invest business, allowing people to buy, sell,
and hold crypto coin. It's something we used to do
and it was eliminated because of our bank license. But
(08:05):
now that OCC has put out an interpretive letter that
allows that business to be part of a bank again.
So we'll continue to evaluate the landscape for changing regulatory environment.
But we'd like to not just only offer crypto for buy,
sell and hold, but also have it transcend all of
our businesses, so using blockchain and crypto in the lending area,
the spending area, in addition to our third party technology
(08:29):
platform services offering those types of infrastructure services to financial
service companies.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Anthony, you've got a really optimistic tone, and of course
you'd be, and you raised this on a day when
consumer sentiment is basically the lowest in five years. How
do you have that confidence that consumers are going to
continue to be of demand for you?
Speaker 9 (08:49):
Yeah, we're seeing really strong demand for our goods and services.
Our customer is a higher end customer than the typical
average American about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
household and come and a credit score on average at
seven hundred and fifty. From a FICO standpoint, we're taking
share from the five largest banks in the country, so
we're not as dependent on the cyclical environment for our
(09:11):
growth because we're really a secular grower. That said, you know,
our credit performance has also been very strong, which is
subject to the macroeconomic environment. But we saw in our
fifth quarter in a row of improvement in ninety data delinquencies,
we saw continued improvement our net charge offs. So overall,
the consumer's looking quite strong as it relates to credit
(09:31):
and the demand for our other products like SOFI Money
and Sofi invest I mentioned deposit work quite quite meaningfully
as well. The last data point is debit spending. We're
annuallyzing about fourteen billion dollars of debit spending now from
our installed base and that's been quite strong also.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So you raise your guidance but really only reflecting the
beat in this court are just gone, So why not
raise more broadly? Are you being conservative here?
Speaker 10 (09:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (09:58):
Well, we raised not just for what we beat. We
also raise for the full year, and our guidance for
Q two is above consensus on both revenue and profitability.
You know, we have really strong momentum where we set
on the call that we're going to step on the
gas and accelerate our rate of product introductions and the
iteration on our existing products. We feel like our competitive
position is so strong and the opportunity is so significant
(10:21):
in front of us that we should accelerate our level
of investment and rate of innovation. So we feel great
about it, and we want to make sure we can
get a compound that these great growth rates of over
thirty percent for a.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
While, anthy I like to check out what you're saying
on social media as much as what you said in
the earnings called transcript And you always use the phrase
rapid innovation. Where are the rapid innovations And is that
something you guys are focused on doing in house or
is M and A going to be a part of
your toolkit for the balance of the year.
Speaker 9 (10:50):
All of our products, we want them to be the fastest,
We want them to be the most convenient, to have
the best selection and the best content. So we're continuously
iterating on each one of our products against those four
dimensions in addition to making the products better when they're
used together. As an example of that, we introduced a
subscription product called Sofi Plus. It's the best value in
(11:11):
America for a financial subscription product at over one thousand
dollars of value. You pay ten dollars a month for
and it gives you access to a number of different
benefits that you would now otherwise get if you didn't
use that product. Ninety percent of our existing members have
signed up. Of those that have signed up for the product,
ninety percent are from our existing member base, which says
(11:32):
people want to use more of our products that we offer,
and this product makes it more accessible for them to
be able to get those great benefits and using our
products together. So a really encouraging sign. And against the
people that are already our members that are taking out
Sofi Plus, it's actually triggering them taking out a third
product thirty percent of the time. So pretty strong performance
(11:52):
from that new product, which is an iteration that we're
constantly trying to drive across the five dimensions that I mentioned.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
What's your interpretation of how this administration is looking at regulation,
looking at supporting the crypto industry as it relates to you,
But I think fintech broadly is a bit more under
the microscope, Anthony.
Speaker 9 (12:12):
The early signs in the first one hundred days is
that it is a more favorable environment from a regulatory standpoint.
It's really critical that we can teue to provide a
safe and secure way for our members to use our
financial services products, and that is our priority, regardless of regulation.
So we want to have great NPS scores, We want
to be a trusted household brand name. But it does
(12:32):
feel like the regulatory environment is going to allow us
to offer more products to our members that they need,
you know. As an example, you know, we'd love to
be able to do secure lending off to cryptocurrency, which
I believe it would be a great product, lower cost
of debt for our members, you know, in addition to that,
potentially being able to offer a stable coin that could
have some type of interest bearing element to it and
(12:55):
being used for payments.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Anthony Notto, So far ceo. Good to have you back
with us here on Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Okay, some breaking news crossing the Bloomberg termin or. Russian
President Vladimir Putin is insisting that Russia must take control
of four regions of Ukraine that it doesn't currently fully
occupy as part of any potential agreement to end the
war in Ukraine. This is Bloomberg reporting, citing sources. Remember
(13:24):
that the Administration of the United States has an April
thirtieth target deadline for a ceasefire, as we report, the
demand that the Russians are making deals a blow to
President Trump's efforts to reach that cease fire negotiations. Bloomberg
is reporting at an impass for now, but according to sources,
Putin wanting to take control of four regents in Ukraine.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Caroline.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Now coming up President Trump.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Well, he's also said to offer some taroff relief for
Automaker's ed We'll have more on that next, but let's
just get back to the fintech side of the space.
PayPal are eight ten percent is out of volatile day
of trade. It left it's full y air. Forecast for earnings
unchanged unlike so far because they say they have uncertainty
in the global macro environment, despite of course recording a
(14:09):
pretty strong first quarter.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
This is Bloomberg technology.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
President Trump is set to offer some tariff reprieve for
automakers lifting some levees on foreign parts for cars and
trucks made in the US. The move comes as President
Trump is set to travel to Michigan for a rally
to mark his first one hundred days in office. For more,
let's get out to Detroit and Bloomberg's David Welsh on
Bloomberg Technology. We're probably principally interested in the ev supply chain, David,
(14:44):
But what do we know about this levee reprieve and
how does it impact the automakers you cover?
Speaker 11 (14:50):
So we know so far as that they will do something,
probably to give a reprieve on tariff's on parts, which
is one of the most difficult things for the administration
anyone to calculate. They were going to tariff the non
US content, even of vehicles that qualified for a teriffrey status,
say under USMCA, and then they also are going to
(15:11):
try to do something that it's called de stacking, where
you remove tariffs or you give the automakers a credit
back if they had already paid a tariff on medals
used in a part that was coming across the border.
So I think, for example of say a hood on
a vehicle, if a company was paying a tariff on
that because it's steel of twenty five percent, and another
(15:33):
twenty five percent because it's a part that'd be fifty percent.
So they're trying to eliminate that sort of double charge.
But the bigger one would be if they give relief
on parts. Now, the problem here at is we don't
know the details of it, which is why when General
Motors suspended guidance, they didn't give us new guidance. They
may do that Thursday, but even I don't think they
completely know yet because they need the details. So the
car companies themselves are looking at this and saying, Okay,
(15:55):
we need to know exactly what the administration is going
to do with all of these tariffs before they can
even give any kind of financial projections and understand the
impact on their business.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, briefly, whiplash, we're not seeing much well resolved for
the stocks. We're still underwater on GM, for example, What
more clara are you're expecting to get from any of
these CEOs at this moment.
Speaker 11 (16:15):
I think they really want to know just how much
of the parts themselves will get tariffs, and if there's
also any change to the vehicles themselves. GM still antis.
They bring in some very important vehicles from Canada and Mexico.
GM brings in it's one of its best sellers, entry
level vehicles from Korea, or any of that change. So,
(16:35):
you know, the administration has said that they're for companies
that make products here, they're going to give them a break.
But we don't know exactly what it is yet, and
I think parts is really the big one.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Though Tesla's actually off by one and a half percent
amid all of this news. David Welch, we thank you
very much. I meanwhile, sticking with earnings and just the
broader tech landscape right now, how to invest in it?
Michael Reynolds is with US vice president of investment Strategy
at glen Mead managing four to five point six billion
dollars in assets, and look, the ongoing changes coming from
the administration is exhausting for investors and in CEOs and
(17:05):
anyone to keep track of. How therefore, are you're looking
towards perhaps big tech earnings coming Wednesday Thursday, and how
you price any of it?
Speaker 12 (17:13):
Yeah, so we're looking at tech perhaps for Q one
putting fifteen percent earnings growth on a your ever year basis,
But we're sort of in this situation where investors are
asking them sells, well, does it really matter all that
much what the results are when you know there's really
big changes coming on the horizon when it comes to tariffs,
and electronics aren't really exempt from that. I think a
good analogy for that I've been using is actually a
baseball analogy. You know, just say your pitcher got through
(17:35):
a really tough inning. Well, okay, that's great, We're glad
you did that, but their sluggers up next inning and
you got to get through that. It's that sort of
next piece when there's something on the horizon that really
is a big risk that you want to hear more.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
From these C suites about.
Speaker 12 (17:47):
So we think it's actually more important to be parsing
through the guidance and the statements out of C suites
on what they see for the rest of the year,
rather than the actual results themselves.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
From Q one.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Yeah, for example, Apple likely to get a lot of
pull forward as consumers rush to buy their phones before
perhaps prices went up. What do you think in terms
of the narrative we've got of steering into India in
terms of supply chain. Our CEO is managing to get
ahead of some of these names.
Speaker 12 (18:15):
Look, there's no shortage of businesses being dynamic in the
US and that's something that you see really across the board,
and tech is really behaving that way as well, perhaps
trying to get ahead of some of these supply chain
reconfigurations that's happening in real time, and I think investors
are also thinking through when consumers may actually start to
see these prices start to arrive in the stores with
(18:36):
their tariff impacts, and electronics are probably some of the
first places you could see it because a lot of
our electronics come from abroad and there's actually decent turnover
in terms of inventory. When it comes to electronics, there
is a little bit of a reprieve because we got
that exemption of some electronic parts for tech, which helps,
but it's probably not going to be all encompassing. So
(18:57):
it's actually electronics alongside apperil and toy and games, which
could be one of the first places consumers could start
seeing those higher prices, and it's going to be really
important how they react to that. Are they going to
balk at those prices or are they going to consume
no matter.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
What, Mike, what you just said a moment ago. With
big tech focus on guidance, what happens if big tech
doesn't give us any.
Speaker 12 (19:19):
Well, that's just a really uncertain environment. And uncertainty has
been the name of the game for all of April
for certain, and investors have been repricing I think the
evaluation multiples they've been awarding to the magnificent seven megacab
tech whatever you want to call it, those.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
Have come down a lot.
Speaker 12 (19:37):
But rs by rs mist those are not actually really
within the vicinity of fair value just yet, so you
could start to see a little bit of a risk
premium baked in if investors are still asking a lot
of questions that can't be answered.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Yet we're interested in course of the hyperscalers Amazon kind
of at the core of that. The calculus seems pretty simple,
not so much how much money they make or earn,
but how much money they're willing to commit and spend.
And that applies to Microsoft as well. How closely do
you watch the capital expendages.
Speaker 12 (20:06):
We're watching Capex really closely. One of the big themes
over really the last decade is the market's been punishing
companies that have been really capital intensive and for quite
some time. A lot of these MAGS seven companies really
weren't all that capex intensive. But as you've had a
lot of companies investing in AI, building out data centers,
what have you, we would argue that at the MAG
seven were their own sector, they'd be one of the
(20:27):
most capital intensive in the S and P five hundred
and save maybe utilities in real estate, which are classically
capital intensive. So it sort of makes sense to see
the market sort of repricing these companies on that capex
intensity alone. Because you don't always have a guarantee that
you have the earnings flow through on that investment. It's
always pretty uncertain.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Michael Reynolds, Vice president of investment Strategy, Glenn May, thank
you very.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Much, time for talking tech.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
First up, a judge in Spain's national courts has opened
an investigation to determine whether the countrywide blackout on Monday
was caused by a cyber attack. Spain's grid operator said
the blackout they impacted Spain, Portugal and parts of France,
was not due to any external attack based on preliminary analysis.
(21:20):
Plas Sally Barber has unveiled its latest AI flagship model,
called the Quen three. The company claims that its newest
model rivals for performance of deep seek, including.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
In math and coding.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
It also introduces a mixture of expert model for an
efficient way to mimic human reasoning. And Amazon's first batch
of twenty seven production satellites have reached Low Earth orbit.
Amazon's Kuiper satellites lifted off on Monday, with CEO Andy
Jesse saying they were quote operating as expected just hours later.
It's the first launch of a planned three two hundred
(21:52):
and thirty six satellites that Amazon intends to use to
sell Internet connectivity to rival Elon Musk Starling.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Welcome back to Blue Meg Technology and Caroline Hyde in
New York.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
And I'm Ed lod Low in San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Quick check on these markets end because we're clinging to
gains when it comes to the Nasdaq one hundred and
that as we see some pretty awful consumer sentiment heading overall,
we're seeing a near a five year low. But will
the FED step in? We're up a third, we call
it a tenth of a percent right now. We're looking
at Crypto still managing to outperform. We're at four tenths percent.
We're at ninety eight and ninety four now so clearly
(22:32):
been seen as some sort of haven amid the tariff turmoil.
Move on, having look what's happening in terms of those
earnings that we really do start to digest. I'm looking
ultimately at the over Semiconductor Index which is lower to
the tune of three quarters of percent.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
You call that NXP.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
We of course lose the CEO and he's handing over
the reins even though.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
He's only fifty six years old. He's retiring.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
What does that mean about the place in which the
business is that he leaves as we start to see,
of course, real concern about the uncertainty amid these tariffs.
I'm looking though at Cadence manages to outperform on its earnings.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
We're almost five percent. They beat the raised.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
They also see the Tesla on the downside one and
a half percent off. That's as we see Redburn Atlantic
an analyst coming out saying, I stick by my cell rating.
This company is going to see volumes declines going forwardead Okay.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Let's get back to today's top story.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
The White House denouncing Amazon's reported plan to display the
costs of President Trump's tariffs on products listen to this.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
I just got off the phone with the President about
Amazan's announcement. This is a hearttyle in political act via Amazon.
It's another reason why we are on shoring critical supply chains.
You're at home to shore up our own critical supply
chain and boost our own manufacturing.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
The White House comments come as the tech giant getting
ready to report results Thursday after the closing bell. Actually
the stocks decline much more muted than it had been
at the market open, now down about nine tenths of percent.
Bluemokes Matt Day, who covers Amazon, joins us from with
more and actually in the last twenty minutes, Amazon revived
their statement. Their response to the White House just hit
(24:05):
our inboxes. So let's start with that, Matt. What is
Amazon saying in response to the White House's claim and
give us the full details of the story.
Speaker 13 (24:14):
So Amazon says that they were never considering any sort
of terrify like disclosure on their main retail sites. What
they were considering was they've got a low cost goods
service called Hall. It's very much in the mold of
T mood designer ship things directly from China. They say
they were considering some sort of disclosure they're related to
closing the exemption on duties for a product shift in
(24:35):
that manner, but that they have no plans to do
anything on the main side. And now they're telling us
that they don't plan to and there's no future for this.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
There is no story here despite the reporting coming from
punch Bowl, Matt. But the damage almost already done when
it comes to the narrative that was drawn upon by
the White House administration.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
And it even went as.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Though Caroline Leavitt went further, putting in a well an
old report from Reuter's that was dated well in the
previous administration.
Speaker 13 (25:03):
Yeah, a little bit of a shoot first asked questions
later from the White House for sure on this before
Amazon had cleared this up at all. But this kind of,
you know, validates Amazon's been really quiet on tariffs, you know,
since they've rolled out right not a whole lot of
public statements. You know, we saw CEO Andy Jasse interviewed
about this time a week ago and was asked on tariffs,
and it was sort of vague on the company's plans.
They don't see a whole lot of value being in
(25:24):
the news at all on this and would rather stay
out of it, and you're kind of seeing why this morning.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
I think it's helpful to our audience, Matt, to help
them understand how Amazon dot Com works from the inventory standpoint,
from the vendor standpoint.
Speaker 11 (25:37):
Right.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
So, on April ninth, we reported that Amazon canceled some
inventory orders from China, and you included the reporting that
those cancelations put the tariff exposure back on the vendors themselves.
Just explain how that marketplace works.
Speaker 13 (25:53):
Yeah, So Amazon sells things in two primary ways.
Speaker 14 (25:56):
You know.
Speaker 13 (25:56):
One is they go and grab a bunch of goods
in bulk, like any traditional retailer, Walmart, Target, they'd buy it.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
They import it.
Speaker 13 (26:02):
They also have third party sellers that sell directly that
report that we had, you know. One in other way
is Amazon gids its goods here is it consolidates shipments
and it tells the sellers, hey, listen, just give it
to us at the factory or thereabouts. We'll take it
and we'll import it for you. They told some of
their vendors. You know, listen, you guys are responsible for
this yourselves, essentially putting them on the hook for tariffs.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Bloomberg's Matt Day, Thank you, very much. Let's turn to cybersecurity.
Demand for cloud protection is expected to surge as more
businesses adopt AI capabilities. We discussed that with palle Outworks
Alto Networks acquisition of protect Ai and yesterday's show. The
biggest move in this space, however, is Google's thirty two
billion dollar deal for Wiz.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Joining us.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
To explain the strategy behind it all is raz Herzberg,
chief marketing officer at Wiz, also VP of Products. The
innovation that Wiz came up with was super fast way
of scanning virtual machines, virtual machines cup cloud computing.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
That is what Wiz does.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
What is the benefit to Google in having that technology?
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Is it that Google.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Uses it itself or is it something that gets offered
through GCP. I think that's what people are trying to understand.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
So it's a very good question.
Speaker 14 (27:15):
Like the mission it was from day one from inception,
was helping every organization in the world build securely on
cloud and secure everything they built and around in cloud.
And that means any cloud, right, it means like a yes,
it means as or it also means DCP. And the
mission was a big mission, I mean securing everything organization
is building around the cloud means securing the modern development
stack and Wiz I think the growth Liz had, I
(27:39):
mean it was just found that we started like five
years ago. It's a major rate of growth that I
think proves how critical this mission and this problem is
for modern organizations today. And Google truly shares that mission,
and the mission they share with us is exactly that
securing everything, securing every cloud, no matter what their an
organization uses.
Speaker 5 (27:59):
Is little to enable it.
Speaker 14 (28:01):
I can say that on our side, the logic for
the acquisition was we think we can actually support this
exact mission of helping organizations secure everything much faster using
the partnership with Google and the sense of you know,
being on the bleeding edge of AI technology, which will
enable us to build even faster and help ship that
mission faster.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
There is a process that will play out. All deals
have that there will be regulatory concerns.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
I get that.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Give me the backstory, but how did it come together?
Who came up with this great idea that Google and
Whiz should be one.
Speaker 14 (28:35):
I think it really comes to sharing that mission, you know.
I think the Google team is as committed and as
passionate to really giving organizations freedom to build securely on
cloud and to enable them to remain secure, and so
the partnership is very natural for.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Us in that sense, and freedom is also given RAZ
to continue to serve on other cloud offerings as well.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
How much as a product.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Strategist that you are you thinking about continuing to roll
out for other organizations not just the enterprises at Google Service.
Speaker 14 (29:05):
No, absolutely, and this was also very clear. I think
in the way that Google themselves talked about the acquisition,
the mission is to support as to support Azure, not
also to support GCP. But we are remaining with the
exact same mission then Google shares that exact same view.
So absolutely will continue being the best solution for any cloud.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
And Google Cloud platform perhaps which still like you to
make M and A RAS. What's so interesting is the
way in which you were organically growing.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
We're also inorganically growing.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Are You're still gonna be able to do deals, You're
still gonna be folding in new teams and aquahas.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
So that's a great point.
Speaker 14 (29:41):
Wiz has been very fortunate over the past year and
a half. We've done really three acquisitions. In all three
of those acquisitions, we've been I think we approach it
in a very deliberate way, meaning was acquired companies where
we really believed in the people and the technology, but
then we didn't really we didn't really sell technology versus
Like all three companies kind of joined Wiz and then
(30:03):
stopped what they were doing and rebuild their product and
rebuilt their solutions on top of the native Wiz product.
Because one of the challenges we see in cybersecurity is
actually giving end users, giving security teams, giving developers a
really good product that has a seamless experience. So that's
what we've been doing over the past three years, and
nothing has changed in our strategy. I think we're always
(30:24):
on the lookout for making the product even greater and
for great teams and great solutions in this space.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Rights.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
So you mentioned a moment ago you founded twenty twenty
by usaf Yin and Roy Amy. In my career of
covered companies that have grown very fast, and sometimes too fast,
they stumbled along the way. What is it that you're
is unique to It is like, what is the differentiator?
Is it just the talent pool you hired, Is it
(30:51):
the brainchild of the underlying code base? Just I think
people don't understand how you pulled it off.
Speaker 14 (30:56):
It's a good question. I can share that even internally.
It's some think we think about often, and I think
about often. I think a lot of the secret is
to really get to this level of fast based and excellence.
There's many different things Liz had to execute on almost perfectly,
and it's for sure the tech, but it's also the
go to market strategy. I think one thing that always
(31:18):
drove us from day one was really living the problem
we're solving for. We are a team that lived cloud
security for the past decade and deeply understood the core
core challenges organizations face.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
And also from day one. I mean, Wiz.
Speaker 14 (31:31):
Today is proud to serve more than fifty percent of
the fourtun one hundred companies. Wiz is their solution for
cloud security. It's by partnering with those companies and really
listening to our customers. From day one, our entire focus
is solving for the problems. We wake up all. We
care about the customers their problems, and that has driven
every single decision this company made, including hiring, including go
(31:53):
to market, including pricing everything.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
How do those customers feel right now?
Speaker 4 (31:57):
How willing are they to continue spending on relationships?
Speaker 3 (32:00):
With wiz perfect.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
I mean, we've seen.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
No economic uncertainty, tariff recession. Let's take a beat before
we sign up to a new deal.
Speaker 14 (32:09):
You know, wiz was founded like the months we started
was marked like when COVID hit that March, So that
also seemed like a very bad time to be selling
really anything ever or to start the company. So I
think we've been you know, we're used to it. I
think actually, if there's there's some things that never stop
(32:29):
in some way, and like the technology progression that adoption we
see across AI, there's a lot of incredible things that
they're pushing companies even faster to the cloud and making
them I think look for ways to build securely.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Russ has worked great test some time with you, Cmo
VP of Product trustgy Over at WIZ we appreciate it. Meanwhile,
coming up one hundred days of Trump's second term, well.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
That's also mean one hundred days of DOGE.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
We'll discuss the impact on the tech sector and el
mask as next as blue bed technology.
Speaker 15 (33:08):
You know, i'd say one hundred days in we need
another one hundred days to kind of see where the
policy directives are going. As we've tried to have a
better understanding of how what's talked about so far, particularly
with respect to trade, is ultimately going to be put
in place.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
How it's going to play out.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
Got miss SAXEO.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
David Solomon speaking earlier today with Francin Laqua discussing the
impact of President Trump's first one hundred days in office.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
Let's get the tech perspective, blom megs. Mike Sheppard joins.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Us now the highs the lows the tech since January
the twentieth, Mike, it's.
Speaker 16 (33:38):
Been quite a consequential stretch, CARO for the tech industry,
and they've really been there from day one and January
twenty through a recall, we saw all those high profile
leaders from the industry, from Elon Musk, the Sundar Pichai
to Mark Zuckerberg, to Jeff Bezos and even Tim Cook
with prime seats at the inauguration, and since then it's
(33:58):
taken off. The industry really got a seat at the table.
The President made some early commitments on advancing and revamping
artificial intelligence policy, and he was also able to claim
some credit on big promises of investments in the US
by companies like TSMC and Apple and so forth, and
yet ed, we're hearing all of this concern now surrounding
(34:21):
the industry because of trade, because of tariff's, the uncertainty
economically that it creates overall for the US, and also
the risk it it poses to supply chains and increasing
costs for companies and consumers alike.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
One of the examples was Nvidia pledging to build five
hundred billion dollars worth of goods five hundred billion dollars
worth of AI sales, which the administration incorrectly claimed to
be a five hundred billion dollar investment. Even so, you
mentioned the word policy. Now, tariff's is one thing. You
have people like David Sachs in the White House as
(34:56):
the AI ZAR. Have we got anything codified yet?
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Anything through we really have to go through go for it.
Speaker 16 (35:05):
Yeah, you know, that's a great question because lost in
the shuffle and all the turmoil surrounding tariffs are those
policy efforts that we know are being worked on and
crafted right now on artificial intelligence and also on crypto
policy as well. David Sachs is theis are inside the
White House for both of those areas, and they're crucial
(35:27):
to the industry. How this policy gets defined could determine
what regulations ultimately end up being, not only from a
you know, an agency perspective, but also how Congress may
try to legislate it. But of course, when we talk
about Congress, they have so much on their plates now
also that it's consequential as well for the tech industry,
(35:49):
and that is a big tax package that they are
trying to push through to get done by July fourth
is at least according to Scott Besson, when you talk
to lawmakers, it's a different question. They feel like they
need a little bit more time.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
To be able to pull that all together.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Meanwhile, of course companies trying to navigate all of these changes.
I mean, one who's navigating it today and we reported
on extensively is Amazon, of course getting course in the crosshairs.
They've come back and said this was never going to
happen in terms of identifying tariffs and how much it
would add individual.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
Prices on the site.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
But we hear from CNN that in fact President Trump
has called Jeff Bezos, the chairman of the company, the
founder of the company, to complain. According to CNN, that's
on a post on x about Trump's calls with Bezos.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
How are CEOs just trying.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
To navigate how are previous founders given how much money
they previously gave to Trump in some cases, Well.
Speaker 16 (36:43):
This is such an interesting question now for companies because
they are seeing the risk of what this administration is
trying to bring in policy wise. The Press Secretary of
this morning sent a very clear signal to Corporate America
that disclosing the costs of those terrors would be considered
a hostile political act. It was a shot across the bow,
(37:04):
and they want to make sure that companies are falling
into line with the policy and not working against it
and complaining about it in public. And there are other
ways that the administration has levers to pull one. We
talked about the policy taking shape on AI, but there
are other areas too, And antitrust and competition enforcement is
another area that we have been paying attention to. There
(37:27):
are two major antitrust trials underway right now, one involving
Meta and the other the penalties that could be levied
against Google over chrome and dominance in that area. And
these are two areas where the industry has been trying
to push for a break, but so far not seeing one.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
Bloombergs Mike Shephard in DC, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Now.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Meanwhile, Elon Musk's doge is reaching one hundred and thirty
days since his formal inception. But the Tesla CEO's political
ambitions have cost him nearly one hundred and thirteen billion
dollars in his personal wealth, with Tesla stock falling thirty
three percent since Trump's inauguration. For more, Bloombus Kurt Wagner
joins us, you've been writing about this and done a
(38:08):
hole about how through the lens of Tesla shares it's
been painful for Musk. But if you look at some
of his private companies we break the story Friday night
about Xai potentially raising money, they've had some advantages their cut.
Speaker 10 (38:23):
Yeah, I think there's a lot of interest in being
associated with Elon Musk right now. There has always been
that way, you know ed, but even more so now
that he's close to President Trump, and so we've seen
him out raising for X and Xai, for SpaceX, for
some of these other endeavors. And so I do think
that despite all of the negative consumer backlast we've seen
(38:43):
with Tesla, there's still a lot of interest on the
business side, especially with investors to try and get into
the Elon to orbits.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
What's now confusing people is how much Elon's time will
be dedicated to the White House going forward. The one
hundred and thirty days is what everyone keeps citing in
terms of something tangible, But many closely with Elon will
say no, no, He's going to still be a really
big reasuurce to the White House going forward.
Speaker 5 (39:07):
And what does that mean to his brands.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Not just people close to Elan.
Speaker 10 (39:10):
Elon himself right on the earnings call, I believe he said, hey,
I am leaving. Bots will stick around one to two
days per week as long as the President wants me
to be here. He may even stick around through the
entire administration to make sure that Doge continues to keep doging.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
And so it does feel we.
Speaker 10 (39:27):
Kind of I think refer to it as a soft
exit from government. The mediate felt as much performative for
TESLA investors as anything. Right, tell them, hey, I'm coming back,
give them that news that they're craving, but also reiterate
I'm not necessarily leaving entirely. And I think that's what
you know, we will see.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
I think we will see him continue.
Speaker 5 (39:44):
To stick around ka Wagner, We thank you for the
latest chatchipt users.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Well, you can now go shopping using the chatbo Open
AI and OUTI feature just yesterday and a move to
challenge rivals like of course Google putting bogs.
Speaker 5 (40:04):
Rachel Metz is here with.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
More and technically speaking, you're sort of going to a
different website via the app.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Yeah, but this is similar to what a lot of
companies that offer reviews online are already doing, such as
the Wirecutter, for instance, which is on by the New
York Times. They'll shore review and then there would be
a link and you would click out to the website.
And their Opening Eye is doing a similar thing now
with chat GPT. So if you search for say, I
think if you say, like, show me a nice nude
(40:34):
lipstick for one hundred and twenty dollars, in theory, it
would give you several options. It would give you sort
of a condensed review of them, and then it would
also have on a sidebar links to buy them from
different websites.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
If you do buy that lipstick and you've clicked on
the links through chat GPT. What I found interesting in
your reporting is that Opening I won't collect affiliate revenue
from that transaction. So what's your under standing of the
business model plan going forward?
Speaker 1 (41:04):
I think right now, it's just like a lot of
the things that Opening I does. They test a lot
of things and then they expand them, so it could change.
They could have some ideas for how they want to
make money. I don't know if in the future they
will also not be taking affiliate revenue. That actually surprised
me a bit when I ask them, are you going
to be making money off of this? Because that seems
(41:25):
like a really easy way to make some money, right
It seems like like passive, passive income stream.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
But they did. They did.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
They were very clear that they are not making money
off of affiliate revenue when people so when people buy
a product, and they also the products are showing you
are not ads.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Right Briefly, Rachel, I thought the long term goal was
that my agent's going to go off and buy everything
for me. I'm not even going to have to click
out into a different website for example. Is this just
like a stepping stone.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I think that there's probably going to ultimately be a
bunch of different ways that people are going to want
to buy things. And I think that it is possible
that at some point it'll be much more common for
people to say, I want this kind of thing, go
buy it. You know, I authorise make credit card and
a MasterCard is trying out some ways to do payment
via agents, So we could certainly see that in the
(42:16):
next few years. But I think right now what we're
seeing is just giving people more options to stay.
Speaker 5 (42:21):
In chat GBT.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
Bloomberg's Rachel Metz, thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (42:25):
Indeed, that does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
This is what markets look like right now. Is that
one hundred sort.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
Of muted gains, even though well it's basically flat. Economic angst,
Spotify downs, beat on subscribers, not on profit. There's some
weakness there in Amazon. Our top story of the day
the White House accusing them of hostile acts or report
they deny.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Caro
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, innovation.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Money and power collide in Silicon Valley and beyond.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Ludlow live from New York and San Francisco. This is
Bloomberg Technology coming up. The White House takes aim at
Amazon after a reported play to display the cost of
(00:41):
tariffs on certain products, but the tech giant denies the move.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Plus, Spotify sees a surgeon subscribers in the first quarter,
but shares slide and.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
The SOFI CEO joins us after posting the first quarter
beat and raising guidance, showing resilience amid.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
The economic turmoil.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
But first way check in on these markets, which are
also showing some resilience, said, we're up three tens of percent, but.
Speaker 5 (01:03):
Is it bad news? That is good news.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
We see woefully low consumer sentiment, the worst reading in
terms of consumer sentiment in almost five years. But that
fuels the desire and the hope that the Federal Reserve
might indeed start to cut rates to support the economy.
We're up three tens percent, but some notable names on
the downside, and you're looking at one of them.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Yeah, very quickly NXP Semiconductor. It's a story you may
have missed among everything else. The stock was down significantly,
paired some of the decline to six percent. Two pieces
of news tariffs impact, an uncertain environment, hitting the outlook
and performance in the quarter, key supply to the automotive sector,
but also CEO Sivert's retiring and then promoting from within
(01:45):
one that you want to keep an eye on key
name in the supply chain.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Carring you certainly do.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Meanwhile, let's return to the White House because it is
taking aim at Amazon.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
I just got off the Finn with the President about
iaman Zan's announcement. This is a heartstyle in pull it
a act by Amazon. It's another reason why we are
on shoring critical supply chains here at home to shore
up our own critical supply chain and boost our own manufacturing.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
The comments weighed on shares as the tech giant gears
up to report results on Thursday after the closing bell.
Numa's Kaylee Lines is said to break down the story.
All of this based on reporting coming.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
From another source.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Amazon has since denied that it was ever under consideration
for the main site, that they would make it transparently
clear that what taris add to the price of goods.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Just give us the background, Yeah, Caroline.
Speaker 7 (02:34):
The White House was responding here to a report from
punch Bowl News citing a source familiar with the matter
that suggested Amazon was soon going to post a separate
line item for the tariff charge on its website, akin
to you, for example, what we've since seen Shean or
Temu doing with import charges. Now the US has ended
that demonimous exemption on cheaper goods coming out of China
(02:55):
and Hong Kong. Now Amazon says that that was actually
never under consideration for its website.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
That yes, the.
Speaker 7 (03:01):
Ultra low cost Amazon Hall team did discuss this, but
ultimately it was never implemented on any Amazon property. So
that hostile and political act that Caroline Lovitt referred to
an act that not actually has been taken. And perhaps
Amazon in this way is not yet actually going sideways
with the White House. But the criticism of the company
that Caroline lobbied today did not end there. I would
(03:23):
note she also referred to Amazon as a China aligned
company and referred back to a Reuters report going back
to twenty twenty one about Amazon partnering with a Chinese
propaganda arm. Essentially that Amazon allowed itself to respond to
an edict from Beijing or cooperated with an edict from
Beijing around negative views of a book published by the
Chinese government of speeches from Chinese President Shi jin Ping,
(03:46):
and she really pointed to that as an example of
the China alignment of this company. She also, as we
heard her say there, talked about the importance of turning
away from China buying American and on shoring American manufacturing.
So what this means for the company's relationship with this
White House overall obviously a question now after it has
gone to great links to ingratiate itself with this administration. Remember,
(04:07):
Amazon donated a million dollars to Trump's inaugural committee. Jeff
Bezos himself attended that inauguration, has spent time with President
Trump trying to fortify their relationship, and that relationship the
presidents in Bezos is one that Carolinelevitt said she did
not want.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
To speak to this morning.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
The chairman and of course founder of the business, Katie Linesby,
thank you. Let's turn our attention to another key story,
Spotify shares as slipping off of the company reported operating
profit that fell short of anast estimates that that's even
a subscriber numbers. They grew here to discuss New Meg's
Ashley Common and really felt that there was a lot
of good news that ultimately was outshone by a profit hit.
Speaker 8 (04:43):
Yeah, I think investors are just a little bit jittery.
They're seeing Spotify forecast potentially a miss in their estimates
for gross profit margin as well as monthly active users.
So I think they're just kind of like, is this
going to be the future and the trend or is
this just a one off kind of moment, And Spotify
says this is a one off moment of course.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Actually, the long term Spotify wants you to think about
is a world where they move into podcasts, audio video more,
and they might also raise prices along the way.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Exactly.
Speaker 8 (05:15):
So, over the past couple of years, they've branched into audiobooks.
They're now launching this creator partner program where they're trying
to get essentially YouTubers and video podcasters to put videos
on the service and compensate them based on consumption rather
than advertisements. So they're really trying to pioneer some new
format and diversify away from.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Music bloomber has actually Camen thank you very much. In
other earnings, new shares of so Far are higher after
the fintech company raised its full year forecast. So Far
CEO Anthony Nodo is here with us. Good morning to you,
mister Noto. You know, I think there was a lot
of focus in the quarter on the momentum from the
loan platform business, particularly the interest and demand from private credit.
(05:56):
Talks me more about that, Anthony, and where you see
that business going forward.
Speaker 9 (06:02):
Sure, we had a tremendous quarter in a great start
to twenty twenty five, with thirty three percent year of
your growth in total revenue to seven hundred and seventy
one million dollars, and that was up thirty three percent,
our fastest growth in five quarters. The loan platform business,
as you mentioned, was a key driver of that very
strong results there. We basically get paid a fee by
(06:23):
these asset buyers that want us to underwrite loans against
a specific credit box that they outline. We leverage our
underwriting capabilities, our marketing capabilities, and our servicing capabilities.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
And we get paid a fee for that.
Speaker 9 (06:36):
It's something we started about a year ago. We've already
originated six billion dollars of loans in that particular business,
and in the quarter is about ninety six million dollars
or revenue, so it's almost four million dollars on an
analyzed basis. We expected to be over a billion dollars
or third billion dollar business over the course of time
as the demand for that product continues to increase. One
(06:57):
area that we haven't tapped into yet but that we
will is taking some of the loans that we decline.
We decline about one hundred million dollars of loans a
year and making those available through the loan platform business
as well for those that want a near prime type
of credit asset.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
The other area you want to tap is crypto, right.
You alluded to entering into stable coin markets to us.
Speaker 9 (07:20):
Moll Yeah, We're very fortunate in that we've built. This
is another record quarter for member growth. We're at eleven
million members now. We add an eight hundred thousand members
in the quarter and one point two million products up
thirty four percent, up thirty five percent, respectively. We want
to continue to give our members a full suite of
financial services products. SOFI Money is the largest product that
(07:44):
we have today. It was up forty one percent, the
pilots are up fifty two percent. Our this business are
an acceleration up twenty one percent, and we expect that
acceleration to continue. Crypto would be another asset class to
add to the invest business, allowing people to buy, sell,
and hold crypto coin. It's something we used to do
and it was eliminated because of our bank license. But
(08:05):
now that OCC has put out an interpretive letter that
allows that business to be part of a bank again.
So we'll continue to evaluate the landscape for changing regulatory environment.
But we'd like to not just only offer crypto for buy,
sell and hold, but also have it transcend all of
our businesses, so using blockchain and crypto in the lending area,
the spending area, in addition to our third party technology
(08:29):
platform services offering those types of infrastructure services to financial
service companies.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Anthony, you've got a really optimistic tone, and of course
you'd be, and you raised this on a day when
consumer sentiment is basically the lowest in five years. How
do you have that confidence that consumers are going to
continue to be of demand for you?
Speaker 9 (08:49):
Yeah, we're seeing really strong demand for our goods and services.
Our customer is a higher end customer than the typical
average American about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
household and come and a credit score on average at
seven hundred and fifty. From a FICO standpoint, we're taking
share from the five largest banks in the country, so
we're not as dependent on the cyclical environment for our
(09:11):
growth because we're really a secular grower. That said, you know,
our credit performance has also been very strong, which is
subject to the macroeconomic environment. But we saw in our
fifth quarter in a row of improvement in ninety data delinquencies,
we saw continued improvement our net charge offs. So overall,
the consumer's looking quite strong as it relates to credit
(09:31):
and the demand for our other products like SOFI Money
and Sofi invest I mentioned deposit work quite quite meaningfully
as well. The last data point is debit spending. We're
annuallyzing about fourteen billion dollars of debit spending now from
our installed base and that's been quite strong also.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So you raise your guidance but really only reflecting the
beat in this court are just gone, So why not
raise more broadly? Are you being conservative here?
Speaker 10 (09:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (09:58):
Well, we raised not just for what we beat. We
also raise for the full year, and our guidance for
Q two is above consensus on both revenue and profitability.
You know, we have really strong momentum where we set
on the call that we're going to step on the
gas and accelerate our rate of product introductions and the
iteration on our existing products. We feel like our competitive
position is so strong and the opportunity is so significant
(10:21):
in front of us that we should accelerate our level
of investment and rate of innovation. So we feel great
about it, and we want to make sure we can
get a compound that these great growth rates of over
thirty percent for a.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
While, anthy I like to check out what you're saying
on social media as much as what you said in
the earnings called transcript And you always use the phrase
rapid innovation. Where are the rapid innovations And is that
something you guys are focused on doing in house or
is M and A going to be a part of
your toolkit for the balance of the year.
Speaker 9 (10:50):
All of our products, we want them to be the fastest,
We want them to be the most convenient, to have
the best selection and the best content. So we're continuously
iterating on each one of our products against those four
dimensions in addition to making the products better when they're
used together. As an example of that, we introduced a
subscription product called Sofi Plus. It's the best value in
(11:11):
America for a financial subscription product at over one thousand
dollars of value. You pay ten dollars a month for
and it gives you access to a number of different
benefits that you would now otherwise get if you didn't
use that product. Ninety percent of our existing members have
signed up. Of those that have signed up for the product,
ninety percent are from our existing member base, which says
(11:32):
people want to use more of our products that we offer,
and this product makes it more accessible for them to
be able to get those great benefits and using our
products together. So a really encouraging sign. And against the
people that are already our members that are taking out
Sofi Plus, it's actually triggering them taking out a third
product thirty percent of the time. So pretty strong performance
(11:52):
from that new product, which is an iteration that we're
constantly trying to drive across the five dimensions that I mentioned.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
What's your interpretation of how this administration is looking at regulation,
looking at supporting the crypto industry as it relates to you,
But I think fintech broadly is a bit more under
the microscope, Anthony.
Speaker 9 (12:12):
The early signs in the first one hundred days is
that it is a more favorable environment from a regulatory standpoint.
It's really critical that we can teue to provide a
safe and secure way for our members to use our
financial services products, and that is our priority, regardless of regulation.
So we want to have great NPS scores, We want
to be a trusted household brand name. But it does
(12:32):
feel like the regulatory environment is going to allow us
to offer more products to our members that they need,
you know. As an example, you know, we'd love to
be able to do secure lending off to cryptocurrency, which
I believe it would be a great product, lower cost
of debt for our members, you know, in addition to that,
potentially being able to offer a stable coin that could
have some type of interest bearing element to it and
(12:55):
being used for payments.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Anthony Notto, So far ceo. Good to have you back
with us here on Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Okay, some breaking news crossing the Bloomberg termin or. Russian
President Vladimir Putin is insisting that Russia must take control
of four regions of Ukraine that it doesn't currently fully
occupy as part of any potential agreement to end the
war in Ukraine. This is Bloomberg reporting, citing sources. Remember
(13:24):
that the Administration of the United States has an April
thirtieth target deadline for a ceasefire, as we report, the
demand that the Russians are making deals a blow to
President Trump's efforts to reach that cease fire negotiations. Bloomberg
is reporting at an impass for now, but according to sources,
Putin wanting to take control of four regents in Ukraine.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Caroline.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Now coming up President Trump.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Well, he's also said to offer some taroff relief for
Automaker's ed We'll have more on that next, but let's
just get back to the fintech side of the space.
PayPal are eight ten percent is out of volatile day
of trade. It left it's full y air. Forecast for earnings
unchanged unlike so far because they say they have uncertainty
in the global macro environment, despite of course recording a
(14:09):
pretty strong first quarter.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
This is Bloomberg technology.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
President Trump is set to offer some tariff reprieve for
automakers lifting some levees on foreign parts for cars and
trucks made in the US. The move comes as President
Trump is set to travel to Michigan for a rally
to mark his first one hundred days in office. For more,
let's get out to Detroit and Bloomberg's David Welsh on
Bloomberg Technology. We're probably principally interested in the ev supply chain, David,
(14:44):
But what do we know about this levee reprieve and
how does it impact the automakers you cover?
Speaker 11 (14:50):
So we know so far as that they will do something,
probably to give a reprieve on tariff's on parts, which
is one of the most difficult things for the administration
anyone to calculate. They were going to tariff the non
US content, even of vehicles that qualified for a teriffrey status,
say under USMCA, and then they also are going to
(15:11):
try to do something that it's called de stacking, where
you remove tariffs or you give the automakers a credit
back if they had already paid a tariff on medals
used in a part that was coming across the border.
So I think, for example of say a hood on
a vehicle, if a company was paying a tariff on
that because it's steel of twenty five percent, and another
(15:33):
twenty five percent because it's a part that'd be fifty percent.
So they're trying to eliminate that sort of double charge.
But the bigger one would be if they give relief
on parts. Now, the problem here at is we don't
know the details of it, which is why when General
Motors suspended guidance, they didn't give us new guidance. They
may do that Thursday, but even I don't think they
completely know yet because they need the details. So the
car companies themselves are looking at this and saying, Okay,
(15:55):
we need to know exactly what the administration is going
to do with all of these tariffs before they can
even give any kind of financial projections and understand the
impact on their business.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, briefly, whiplash, we're not seeing much well resolved for
the stocks. We're still underwater on GM, for example, What
more clara are you're expecting to get from any of
these CEOs at this moment.
Speaker 11 (16:15):
I think they really want to know just how much
of the parts themselves will get tariffs, and if there's
also any change to the vehicles themselves. GM still antis.
They bring in some very important vehicles from Canada and Mexico.
GM brings in it's one of its best sellers, entry
level vehicles from Korea, or any of that change. So,
(16:35):
you know, the administration has said that they're for companies
that make products here, they're going to give them a break.
But we don't know exactly what it is yet, and
I think parts is really the big one.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Though Tesla's actually off by one and a half percent
amid all of this news. David Welch, we thank you
very much. I meanwhile, sticking with earnings and just the
broader tech landscape right now, how to invest in it?
Michael Reynolds is with US vice president of investment Strategy
at glen Mead managing four to five point six billion
dollars in assets, and look, the ongoing changes coming from
the administration is exhausting for investors and in CEOs and
(17:05):
anyone to keep track of. How therefore, are you're looking
towards perhaps big tech earnings coming Wednesday Thursday, and how
you price any of it?
Speaker 12 (17:13):
Yeah, so we're looking at tech perhaps for Q one
putting fifteen percent earnings growth on a your ever year basis,
But we're sort of in this situation where investors are
asking them sells, well, does it really matter all that
much what the results are when you know there's really
big changes coming on the horizon when it comes to tariffs,
and electronics aren't really exempt from that. I think a
good analogy for that I've been using is actually a
baseball analogy. You know, just say your pitcher got through
(17:35):
a really tough inning. Well, okay, that's great, We're glad
you did that, but their sluggers up next inning and
you got to get through that. It's that sort of
next piece when there's something on the horizon that really
is a big risk that you want to hear more.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
From these C suites about.
Speaker 12 (17:47):
So we think it's actually more important to be parsing
through the guidance and the statements out of C suites
on what they see for the rest of the year,
rather than the actual results themselves.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
From Q one.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Yeah, for example, Apple likely to get a lot of
pull forward as consumers rush to buy their phones before
perhaps prices went up. What do you think in terms
of the narrative we've got of steering into India in
terms of supply chain. Our CEO is managing to get
ahead of some of these names.
Speaker 12 (18:15):
Look, there's no shortage of businesses being dynamic in the
US and that's something that you see really across the board,
and tech is really behaving that way as well, perhaps
trying to get ahead of some of these supply chain
reconfigurations that's happening in real time, and I think investors
are also thinking through when consumers may actually start to
see these prices start to arrive in the stores with
(18:36):
their tariff impacts, and electronics are probably some of the
first places you could see it because a lot of
our electronics come from abroad and there's actually decent turnover
in terms of inventory. When it comes to electronics, there
is a little bit of a reprieve because we got
that exemption of some electronic parts for tech, which helps,
but it's probably not going to be all encompassing. So
(18:57):
it's actually electronics alongside apperil and toy and games, which
could be one of the first places consumers could start
seeing those higher prices, and it's going to be really
important how they react to that. Are they going to
balk at those prices or are they going to consume
no matter.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
What, Mike, what you just said a moment ago. With
big tech focus on guidance, what happens if big tech
doesn't give us any.
Speaker 12 (19:19):
Well, that's just a really uncertain environment. And uncertainty has
been the name of the game for all of April
for certain, and investors have been repricing I think the
evaluation multiples they've been awarding to the magnificent seven megacab
tech whatever you want to call it, those.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
Have come down a lot.
Speaker 12 (19:37):
But rs by rs mist those are not actually really
within the vicinity of fair value just yet, so you
could start to see a little bit of a risk
premium baked in if investors are still asking a lot
of questions that can't be answered.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Yet we're interested in course of the hyperscalers Amazon kind
of at the core of that. The calculus seems pretty simple,
not so much how much money they make or earn,
but how much money they're willing to commit and spend.
And that applies to Microsoft as well. How closely do
you watch the capital expendages.
Speaker 12 (20:06):
We're watching Capex really closely. One of the big themes
over really the last decade is the market's been punishing
companies that have been really capital intensive and for quite
some time. A lot of these MAGS seven companies really
weren't all that capex intensive. But as you've had a
lot of companies investing in AI, building out data centers,
what have you, we would argue that at the MAG
seven were their own sector, they'd be one of the
(20:27):
most capital intensive in the S and P five hundred
and save maybe utilities in real estate, which are classically
capital intensive. So it sort of makes sense to see
the market sort of repricing these companies on that capex
intensity alone. Because you don't always have a guarantee that
you have the earnings flow through on that investment. It's
always pretty uncertain.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Michael Reynolds, Vice president of investment Strategy, Glenn May, thank
you very.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Much, time for talking tech.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
First up, a judge in Spain's national courts has opened
an investigation to determine whether the countrywide blackout on Monday
was caused by a cyber attack. Spain's grid operator said
the blackout they impacted Spain, Portugal and parts of France,
was not due to any external attack based on preliminary analysis.
(21:20):
Plas Sally Barber has unveiled its latest AI flagship model,
called the Quen three. The company claims that its newest
model rivals for performance of deep seek, including.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
In math and coding.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
It also introduces a mixture of expert model for an
efficient way to mimic human reasoning. And Amazon's first batch
of twenty seven production satellites have reached Low Earth orbit.
Amazon's Kuiper satellites lifted off on Monday, with CEO Andy
Jesse saying they were quote operating as expected just hours later.
It's the first launch of a planned three two hundred
(21:52):
and thirty six satellites that Amazon intends to use to
sell Internet connectivity to rival Elon Musk Starling.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Welcome back to Blue Meg Technology and Caroline Hyde in
New York.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
And I'm Ed lod Low in San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Quick check on these markets end because we're clinging to
gains when it comes to the Nasdaq one hundred and
that as we see some pretty awful consumer sentiment heading overall,
we're seeing a near a five year low. But will
the FED step in? We're up a third, we call
it a tenth of a percent right now. We're looking
at Crypto still managing to outperform. We're at four tenths percent.
We're at ninety eight and ninety four now so clearly
(22:32):
been seen as some sort of haven amid the tariff turmoil.
Move on, having look what's happening in terms of those
earnings that we really do start to digest. I'm looking
ultimately at the over Semiconductor Index which is lower to
the tune of three quarters of percent.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
You call that NXP.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
We of course lose the CEO and he's handing over
the reins even though.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
He's only fifty six years old. He's retiring.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
What does that mean about the place in which the
business is that he leaves as we start to see,
of course, real concern about the uncertainty amid these tariffs.
I'm looking though at Cadence manages to outperform on its earnings.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
We're almost five percent. They beat the raised.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
They also see the Tesla on the downside one and
a half percent off. That's as we see Redburn Atlantic
an analyst coming out saying, I stick by my cell rating.
This company is going to see volumes declines going forwardead Okay.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Let's get back to today's top story.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
The White House denouncing Amazon's reported plan to display the
costs of President Trump's tariffs on products listen to this.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
I just got off the phone with the President about
Amazan's announcement. This is a hearttyle in political act via Amazon.
It's another reason why we are on shoring critical supply chains.
You're at home to shore up our own critical supply
chain and boost our own manufacturing.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
The White House comments come as the tech giant getting
ready to report results Thursday after the closing bell. Actually
the stocks decline much more muted than it had been
at the market open, now down about nine tenths of percent.
Bluemokes Matt Day, who covers Amazon, joins us from with
more and actually in the last twenty minutes, Amazon revived
their statement. Their response to the White House just hit
(24:05):
our inboxes. So let's start with that, Matt. What is
Amazon saying in response to the White House's claim and
give us the full details of the story.
Speaker 13 (24:14):
So Amazon says that they were never considering any sort
of terrify like disclosure on their main retail sites. What
they were considering was they've got a low cost goods
service called Hall. It's very much in the mold of
T mood designer ship things directly from China. They say
they were considering some sort of disclosure they're related to
closing the exemption on duties for a product shift in
(24:35):
that manner, but that they have no plans to do
anything on the main side. And now they're telling us
that they don't plan to and there's no future for this.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
There is no story here despite the reporting coming from
punch Bowl, Matt. But the damage almost already done when
it comes to the narrative that was drawn upon by
the White House administration.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
And it even went as.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Though Caroline Leavitt went further, putting in a well an
old report from Reuter's that was dated well in the
previous administration.
Speaker 13 (25:03):
Yeah, a little bit of a shoot first asked questions
later from the White House for sure on this before
Amazon had cleared this up at all. But this kind of,
you know, validates Amazon's been really quiet on tariffs, you know,
since they've rolled out right not a whole lot of
public statements. You know, we saw CEO Andy Jasse interviewed
about this time a week ago and was asked on tariffs,
and it was sort of vague on the company's plans.
They don't see a whole lot of value being in
(25:24):
the news at all on this and would rather stay
out of it, and you're kind of seeing why this morning.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
I think it's helpful to our audience, Matt, to help
them understand how Amazon dot Com works from the inventory standpoint,
from the vendor standpoint.
Speaker 11 (25:37):
Right.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
So, on April ninth, we reported that Amazon canceled some
inventory orders from China, and you included the reporting that
those cancelations put the tariff exposure back on the vendors themselves.
Just explain how that marketplace works.
Speaker 13 (25:53):
Yeah, So Amazon sells things in two primary ways.
Speaker 14 (25:56):
You know.
Speaker 13 (25:56):
One is they go and grab a bunch of goods
in bulk, like any traditional retailer, Walmart, Target, they'd buy it.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
They import it.
Speaker 13 (26:02):
They also have third party sellers that sell directly that
report that we had, you know. One in other way
is Amazon gids its goods here is it consolidates shipments
and it tells the sellers, hey, listen, just give it
to us at the factory or thereabouts. We'll take it
and we'll import it for you. They told some of
their vendors. You know, listen, you guys are responsible for
this yourselves, essentially putting them on the hook for tariffs.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Bloomberg's Matt Day, Thank you, very much. Let's turn to cybersecurity.
Demand for cloud protection is expected to surge as more
businesses adopt AI capabilities. We discussed that with palle Outworks
Alto Networks acquisition of protect Ai and yesterday's show. The
biggest move in this space, however, is Google's thirty two
billion dollar deal for Wiz.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Joining us.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
To explain the strategy behind it all is raz Herzberg,
chief marketing officer at Wiz, also VP of Products. The
innovation that Wiz came up with was super fast way
of scanning virtual machines, virtual machines cup cloud computing.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
That is what Wiz does.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
What is the benefit to Google in having that technology?
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Is it that Google.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Uses it itself or is it something that gets offered
through GCP. I think that's what people are trying to understand.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
So it's a very good question.
Speaker 14 (27:15):
Like the mission it was from day one from inception,
was helping every organization in the world build securely on
cloud and secure everything they built and around in cloud.
And that means any cloud, right, it means like a yes,
it means as or it also means DCP. And the
mission was a big mission, I mean securing everything organization
is building around the cloud means securing the modern development
stack and Wiz I think the growth Liz had, I
(27:39):
mean it was just found that we started like five
years ago. It's a major rate of growth that I
think proves how critical this mission and this problem is
for modern organizations today. And Google truly shares that mission,
and the mission they share with us is exactly that
securing everything, securing every cloud, no matter what their an
organization uses.
Speaker 5 (27:59):
Is little to enable it.
Speaker 14 (28:01):
I can say that on our side, the logic for
the acquisition was we think we can actually support this
exact mission of helping organizations secure everything much faster using
the partnership with Google and the sense of you know,
being on the bleeding edge of AI technology, which will
enable us to build even faster and help ship that
mission faster.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
There is a process that will play out. All deals
have that there will be regulatory concerns.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
I get that.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Give me the backstory, but how did it come together?
Who came up with this great idea that Google and
Whiz should be one.
Speaker 14 (28:35):
I think it really comes to sharing that mission, you know.
I think the Google team is as committed and as
passionate to really giving organizations freedom to build securely on
cloud and to enable them to remain secure, and so
the partnership is very natural for.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Us in that sense, and freedom is also given RAZ
to continue to serve on other cloud offerings as well.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
How much as a product.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Strategist that you are you thinking about continuing to roll
out for other organizations not just the enterprises at Google Service.
Speaker 14 (29:05):
No, absolutely, and this was also very clear. I think
in the way that Google themselves talked about the acquisition,
the mission is to support as to support Azure, not
also to support GCP. But we are remaining with the
exact same mission then Google shares that exact same view.
So absolutely will continue being the best solution for any cloud.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
And Google Cloud platform perhaps which still like you to
make M and A RAS. What's so interesting is the
way in which you were organically growing.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
We're also inorganically growing.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Are You're still gonna be able to do deals, You're
still gonna be folding in new teams and aquahas.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
So that's a great point.
Speaker 14 (29:41):
Wiz has been very fortunate over the past year and
a half. We've done really three acquisitions. In all three
of those acquisitions, we've been I think we approach it
in a very deliberate way, meaning was acquired companies where
we really believed in the people and the technology, but
then we didn't really we didn't really sell technology versus
Like all three companies kind of joined Wiz and then
(30:03):
stopped what they were doing and rebuild their product and
rebuilt their solutions on top of the native Wiz product.
Because one of the challenges we see in cybersecurity is
actually giving end users, giving security teams, giving developers a
really good product that has a seamless experience. So that's
what we've been doing over the past three years, and
nothing has changed in our strategy. I think we're always
(30:24):
on the lookout for making the product even greater and
for great teams and great solutions in this space.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Rights.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
So you mentioned a moment ago you founded twenty twenty
by usaf Yin and Roy Amy. In my career of
covered companies that have grown very fast, and sometimes too fast,
they stumbled along the way. What is it that you're
is unique to It is like, what is the differentiator?
Is it just the talent pool you hired, Is it
(30:51):
the brainchild of the underlying code base? Just I think
people don't understand how you pulled it off.
Speaker 14 (30:56):
It's a good question. I can share that even internally.
It's some think we think about often, and I think
about often. I think a lot of the secret is
to really get to this level of fast based and excellence.
There's many different things Liz had to execute on almost perfectly,
and it's for sure the tech, but it's also the
go to market strategy. I think one thing that always
(31:18):
drove us from day one was really living the problem
we're solving for. We are a team that lived cloud
security for the past decade and deeply understood the core
core challenges organizations face.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
And also from day one. I mean, Wiz.
Speaker 14 (31:31):
Today is proud to serve more than fifty percent of
the fourtun one hundred companies. Wiz is their solution for
cloud security. It's by partnering with those companies and really
listening to our customers. From day one, our entire focus
is solving for the problems. We wake up all. We
care about the customers their problems, and that has driven
every single decision this company made, including hiring, including go
(31:53):
to market, including pricing everything.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
How do those customers feel right now?
Speaker 4 (31:57):
How willing are they to continue spending on relationships?
Speaker 3 (32:00):
With wiz perfect.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
I mean, we've seen.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
No economic uncertainty, tariff recession. Let's take a beat before
we sign up to a new deal.
Speaker 14 (32:09):
You know, wiz was founded like the months we started
was marked like when COVID hit that March, So that
also seemed like a very bad time to be selling
really anything ever or to start the company. So I
think we've been you know, we're used to it. I
think actually, if there's there's some things that never stop
(32:29):
in some way, and like the technology progression that adoption we
see across AI, there's a lot of incredible things that
they're pushing companies even faster to the cloud and making
them I think look for ways to build securely.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Russ has worked great test some time with you, Cmo
VP of Product trustgy Over at WIZ we appreciate it. Meanwhile,
coming up one hundred days of Trump's second term, well.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
That's also mean one hundred days of DOGE.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
We'll discuss the impact on the tech sector and el
mask as next as blue bed technology.
Speaker 15 (33:08):
You know, i'd say one hundred days in we need
another one hundred days to kind of see where the
policy directives are going. As we've tried to have a
better understanding of how what's talked about so far, particularly
with respect to trade, is ultimately going to be put
in place.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
How it's going to play out.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
Got miss SAXEO.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
David Solomon speaking earlier today with Francin Laqua discussing the
impact of President Trump's first one hundred days in office.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
Let's get the tech perspective, blom megs. Mike Sheppard joins.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Us now the highs the lows the tech since January
the twentieth, Mike, it's.
Speaker 16 (33:38):
Been quite a consequential stretch, CARO for the tech industry,
and they've really been there from day one and January
twenty through a recall, we saw all those high profile
leaders from the industry, from Elon Musk, the Sundar Pichai
to Mark Zuckerberg, to Jeff Bezos and even Tim Cook
with prime seats at the inauguration, and since then it's
(33:58):
taken off. The industry really got a seat at the table.
The President made some early commitments on advancing and revamping
artificial intelligence policy, and he was also able to claim
some credit on big promises of investments in the US
by companies like TSMC and Apple and so forth, and
yet ed, we're hearing all of this concern now surrounding
(34:21):
the industry because of trade, because of tariff's, the uncertainty
economically that it creates overall for the US, and also
the risk it it poses to supply chains and increasing
costs for companies and consumers alike.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
One of the examples was Nvidia pledging to build five
hundred billion dollars worth of goods five hundred billion dollars
worth of AI sales, which the administration incorrectly claimed to
be a five hundred billion dollar investment. Even so, you
mentioned the word policy. Now, tariff's is one thing. You
have people like David Sachs in the White House as
(34:56):
the AI ZAR. Have we got anything codified yet?
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Anything through we really have to go through go for it.
Speaker 16 (35:05):
Yeah, you know, that's a great question because lost in
the shuffle and all the turmoil surrounding tariffs are those
policy efforts that we know are being worked on and
crafted right now on artificial intelligence and also on crypto
policy as well. David Sachs is theis are inside the
White House for both of those areas, and they're crucial
(35:27):
to the industry. How this policy gets defined could determine
what regulations ultimately end up being, not only from a
you know, an agency perspective, but also how Congress may
try to legislate it. But of course, when we talk
about Congress, they have so much on their plates now
also that it's consequential as well for the tech industry,
(35:49):
and that is a big tax package that they are
trying to push through to get done by July fourth
is at least according to Scott Besson, when you talk
to lawmakers, it's a different question. They feel like they
need a little bit more time.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
To be able to pull that all together.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Meanwhile, of course companies trying to navigate all of these changes.
I mean, one who's navigating it today and we reported
on extensively is Amazon, of course getting course in the crosshairs.
They've come back and said this was never going to
happen in terms of identifying tariffs and how much it
would add individual.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
Prices on the site.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
But we hear from CNN that in fact President Trump
has called Jeff Bezos, the chairman of the company, the
founder of the company, to complain. According to CNN, that's
on a post on x about Trump's calls with Bezos.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
How are CEOs just trying.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
To navigate how are previous founders given how much money
they previously gave to Trump in some cases, Well.
Speaker 16 (36:43):
This is such an interesting question now for companies because
they are seeing the risk of what this administration is
trying to bring in policy wise. The Press Secretary of
this morning sent a very clear signal to Corporate America
that disclosing the costs of those terrors would be considered
a hostile political act. It was a shot across the bow,
(37:04):
and they want to make sure that companies are falling
into line with the policy and not working against it
and complaining about it in public. And there are other
ways that the administration has levers to pull one. We
talked about the policy taking shape on AI, but there
are other areas too, And antitrust and competition enforcement is
another area that we have been paying attention to. There
(37:27):
are two major antitrust trials underway right now, one involving
Meta and the other the penalties that could be levied
against Google over chrome and dominance in that area. And
these are two areas where the industry has been trying
to push for a break, but so far not seeing one.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
Bloombergs Mike Shephard in DC, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Now.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
Meanwhile, Elon Musk's doge is reaching one hundred and thirty
days since his formal inception. But the Tesla CEO's political
ambitions have cost him nearly one hundred and thirteen billion
dollars in his personal wealth, with Tesla stock falling thirty
three percent since Trump's inauguration. For more, Bloombus Kurt Wagner
joins us, you've been writing about this and done a
(38:08):
hole about how through the lens of Tesla shares it's
been painful for Musk. But if you look at some
of his private companies we break the story Friday night
about Xai potentially raising money, they've had some advantages their cut.
Speaker 10 (38:23):
Yeah, I think there's a lot of interest in being
associated with Elon Musk right now. There has always been
that way, you know ed, but even more so now
that he's close to President Trump, and so we've seen
him out raising for X and Xai, for SpaceX, for
some of these other endeavors. And so I do think
that despite all of the negative consumer backlast we've seen
(38:43):
with Tesla, there's still a lot of interest on the
business side, especially with investors to try and get into
the Elon to orbits.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
What's now confusing people is how much Elon's time will
be dedicated to the White House going forward. The one
hundred and thirty days is what everyone keeps citing in
terms of something tangible, But many closely with Elon will
say no, no, He's going to still be a really
big reasuurce to the White House going forward.
Speaker 5 (39:07):
And what does that mean to his brands.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Not just people close to Elan.
Speaker 10 (39:10):
Elon himself right on the earnings call, I believe he said, hey,
I am leaving. Bots will stick around one to two
days per week as long as the President wants me
to be here. He may even stick around through the
entire administration to make sure that Doge continues to keep doging.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
And so it does feel we.
Speaker 10 (39:27):
Kind of I think refer to it as a soft
exit from government. The mediate felt as much performative for
TESLA investors as anything. Right, tell them, hey, I'm coming back,
give them that news that they're craving, but also reiterate
I'm not necessarily leaving entirely. And I think that's what
you know, we will see.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
I think we will see him continue.
Speaker 5 (39:44):
To stick around ka Wagner, We thank you for the
latest chatchipt users.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Well, you can now go shopping using the chatbo Open
AI and OUTI feature just yesterday and a move to
challenge rivals like of course Google putting bogs.
Speaker 5 (40:04):
Rachel Metz is here with.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
More and technically speaking, you're sort of going to a
different website via the app.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Yeah, but this is similar to what a lot of
companies that offer reviews online are already doing, such as
the Wirecutter, for instance, which is on by the New
York Times. They'll shore review and then there would be
a link and you would click out to the website.
And their Opening Eye is doing a similar thing now
with chat GPT. So if you search for say, I
think if you say, like, show me a nice nude
(40:34):
lipstick for one hundred and twenty dollars, in theory, it
would give you several options. It would give you sort
of a condensed review of them, and then it would
also have on a sidebar links to buy them from
different websites.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
If you do buy that lipstick and you've clicked on
the links through chat GPT. What I found interesting in
your reporting is that Opening I won't collect affiliate revenue
from that transaction. So what's your under standing of the
business model plan going forward?
Speaker 1 (41:04):
I think right now, it's just like a lot of
the things that Opening I does. They test a lot
of things and then they expand them, so it could change.
They could have some ideas for how they want to
make money. I don't know if in the future they
will also not be taking affiliate revenue. That actually surprised
me a bit when I ask them, are you going
to be making money off of this? Because that seems
(41:25):
like a really easy way to make some money, right
It seems like like passive, passive income stream.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
But they did. They did.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
They were very clear that they are not making money
off of affiliate revenue when people so when people buy
a product, and they also the products are showing you
are not ads.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Right Briefly, Rachel, I thought the long term goal was
that my agent's going to go off and buy everything
for me. I'm not even going to have to click
out into a different website for example. Is this just
like a stepping stone.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I think that there's probably going to ultimately be a
bunch of different ways that people are going to want
to buy things. And I think that it is possible
that at some point it'll be much more common for
people to say, I want this kind of thing, go
buy it. You know, I authorise make credit card and
a MasterCard is trying out some ways to do payment
via agents, So we could certainly see that in the
(42:16):
next few years. But I think right now what we're
seeing is just giving people more options to stay.
Speaker 5 (42:21):
In chat GBT.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
Bloomberg's Rachel Metz, thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (42:25):
Indeed, that does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
This is what markets look like right now. Is that
one hundred sort.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
Of muted gains, even though well it's basically flat. Economic angst,
Spotify downs, beat on subscribers, not on profit. There's some
weakness there in Amazon. Our top story of the day
the White House accusing them of hostile acts or report
they deny.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Caro
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