Speaker 1: From the heart of where innovation, money and power collive
Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley and beyond. This is Bloomberg Technology with
Speaker 1: Emily Jay. I'm Emily Jack in San Francisco, and this
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg Technology. Coming up in the next hour, an
Speaker 1: alleged attack by Russia on civilians, including children, at a
Speaker 1: train station being used for evacuations. The European Commission promises
Speaker 1: war sanctions and financial aid. We'll have the latest. Let's
Speaker 1: get this party started. We'll also get you the latest
Speaker 1: from Tesla's cyber rodeo in Texas, where Elon Musk inaugurated
Speaker 1: his newest factory. That's next, and the toll of China's
Speaker 1: lockdowns on its population and its economy. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: what it means for China's competitive advantage in tech and
Speaker 1: more later this hour. I want to turn now to
Speaker 1: the war on Ukraine. A horrific attack on civilians that
Speaker 1: left at least fifty people dead, including children. Russian troops
Speaker 1: reportedly bombed a train station that had become a hub
Speaker 1: a critical hub for evacuations. Joining US now, our Washington
Speaker 1: correspondent Emory hoardered and Anemory seems like widespread condemnation here
Speaker 1: from the international community. Yes, certainly, as we've seen these
Speaker 1: horrific scenes. We should note that Russia says this was
Speaker 1: they were not responsible for this, but all fingers are
Speaker 1: pointing to Moscow when it comes to this missile attack
Speaker 1: on a train station. Emily, as you say, this is
Speaker 1: where civilians are using to evacuate from eastern Ukraine, in
Speaker 1: the dawn Bass region specifically because you do have Russia
Speaker 1: changing course and really focusing their troops on eastern and
Speaker 1: southern Ukraine. So a number of capitals around the world
Speaker 1: are drawing condemnation at Russia for for this attack, including
Speaker 1: in Washington. The President United States took to Twitter and
Speaker 1: had this to say. He said, the attack on the
Speaker 1: Ukrainian train station is yet another horrific atrocity committed by Russia,
Speaker 1: striking civilians who are trying to evacuate and reach safety.
Speaker 1: He went on to say, as many leaders have that
Speaker 1: they will continue their security assistance and weapons deliveries. And
Speaker 1: we should also note Ursula vander Lyin of Europe was
Speaker 1: in Kiev herself today and she said Russia should expect
Speaker 1: rolling sanctions. So let's talk about those sanctions. What further sanctions.
Speaker 1: Could we see out of this, I mean, what is
Speaker 1: their left to sanction at this point? It's a great question.
Speaker 1: So we have the European package they finally pretty much
Speaker 1: signed on the dotted line, and the biggest component of
Speaker 1: their fifth package coming from the EU is a ban
Speaker 1: on Russian coal imports. So on one hand, it's not
Speaker 1: a lot of money Ursula vunder Lyon put it about
Speaker 1: four billion dollars, but it does start to target something
Speaker 1: that for many European countries was going to be off limits,
Speaker 1: and that's Russian fossil fuels. Then you have the Polish
Speaker 1: ambassador saying today in Brussels, we already preparing work to
Speaker 1: target Russian oil, Russian natural gas as well as nuclear fuel.
Speaker 1: This Emily is still the lifeblood and the lifeline Putin
Speaker 1: has left in terms of the money he's able to
Speaker 1: get from those sales. Boombrom Economic says about three billion
Speaker 1: dollars this year alone they will make on sales of commodities.
Speaker 1: Now we're also following the aftermath of this cyber attack,
Speaker 1: again reportedly from Russia on Finland as they weigh NATO membership,
Speaker 1: talk to us about the significance of this. So This
Speaker 1: comes at a time when really we're seeing the polling
Speaker 1: shift in days in Finland about whether or not and
Speaker 1: they've always kind of played this keep the door open
Speaker 1: of what if they were to join NATO, And as
Speaker 1: they are discussing this out in the open, especially in
Speaker 1: UH finished media as well as Zelenski, the President of
Speaker 1: Ukraine is addressing UH Finnish lawmakers, do you have this
Speaker 1: cyber attack on a number of their government websites. I
Speaker 1: was literally just talking to it. I was just looking
Speaker 1: at my phone seeing what his final response was a
Speaker 1: Finnish official who said they actually are used to these
Speaker 1: types of cyber attacks and also they are preparing for more,
Speaker 1: and potentially this is something they need to be preparing
Speaker 1: for as they discuss whether or not they should join NATO.
Speaker 1: Russia has made it clear Putin does not want Finland,
Speaker 1: does not want Sweden in the NATO alliance. All right,
Speaker 1: bloombergs Emory Harden, thank you so much for all of
Speaker 1: those updates. I do want to switch heres now and
Speaker 1: get to a story we've been covering all week, and
Speaker 1: that is elon Musk. Thursday night, the Tesla CEO held
Speaker 1: a rodeo event at the opening of his newest factory
Speaker 1: in Austin, Texas. Let us deliver al first Tesla cars
Speaker 1: made in Texas at this opening, which felt more Hollywood
Speaker 1: than Silicon Valley. Must announced the production plans around three
Speaker 1: products that have fallen well behind his original schedule, joining
Speaker 1: us now Bloomberg, Shan O'Kane, who was at the event
Speaker 1: in person and Sean looked like a lot of enthusiasm
Speaker 1: there from the attendees, including I think I saw a
Speaker 1: video of people crying, Yeah, you're right. There is a
Speaker 1: lot of There are a lot of fans and owners there,
Speaker 1: but also a lot of employees who I think, we're
Speaker 1: really happy to see the hard work that they've put
Speaker 1: in over the last couple of years come to fruition
Speaker 1: with these first model wied that were built at this factory,
Speaker 1: and honestly just the factory itself. The fact that they
Speaker 1: were able to get this up so quickly in such
Speaker 1: a short amount of time is really something that we
Speaker 1: don't really see too often here. It's something Tesla did
Speaker 1: in China with its factory there. But so I think
Speaker 1: that was all of those things played into overwhelming some people.
Speaker 1: So does Tesla need this factory to keep up this
Speaker 1: tour and pace. Yes, frankly, I mean they still have
Speaker 1: some room to grow in China, and that's been a
Speaker 1: huge boon to them. The China factory is really the
Speaker 1: main reason why they've been able to grow their valuation
Speaker 1: and grow their uh, their deliveries honestly as much as
Speaker 1: they have over the last two years. But they are
Speaker 1: nearly a capacity at the factory in Fremont, California, which
Speaker 1: Elon Musk has said that they plan to try to
Speaker 1: find a way to expand, although it will be tough
Speaker 1: for them to do that. They don't have a lot
Speaker 1: of land there. Um. One thing they do have here
Speaker 1: in Texas is a lot of land. They bought far
Speaker 1: more land than even this massive factory is taking up
Speaker 1: right now, and so they have a lot of room
Speaker 1: to grow. And even the graphic that he showed last
Speaker 1: night of the factory and their plans for it includes
Speaker 1: i would say probably about a quarter of it for
Speaker 1: future products. So even though they are planning to make
Speaker 1: up to model wise a year at this factory, there's
Speaker 1: going to be a lot more room to produce even
Speaker 1: more here if they can get these new models like
Speaker 1: the Cybertruck and anything else that Elon Musk has a
Speaker 1: sleeve out of the design studio and into production. Elon
Speaker 1: Musk has may have it of throwing these launch parties.
Speaker 1: I've been to some of them at the Fremont Plan.
Speaker 1: But what does he get out of an event like
Speaker 1: this is is this just you know, his version of marketing? Yes,
Speaker 1: simply yes. But there are a couple of different angles
Speaker 1: that I think they play with events like this. One
Speaker 1: of them is simply really just sort of appeasing the
Speaker 1: people here who have been following along and really helped
Speaker 1: facilitate this happening in the first place. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of kudos thrown out to local government officials. Austin's Mayor,
Speaker 1: Steve Adler had been invited, although I don't think he
Speaker 1: attended because he came down with the COVID nineteen over
Speaker 1: the weekend. They were Travis County officials. There um a
Speaker 1: lot of local schools and workforce development groups who are
Speaker 1: helping fill the sort of recruiting pipeline into the factory.
Speaker 1: So it really sort of helps acknowledge all of the
Speaker 1: work that those people have put into it, while also
Speaker 1: setting them up for a good relationship moving forward. Uh,
Speaker 1: and then on top of that, it's really just, you know,
Speaker 1: this is part of what feeds the beast of Tesla.
Speaker 1: You get these sort of quarter the events or maybe
Speaker 1: once or twice a year, and they sort of feedback
Speaker 1: into the excitement. Even though he didn't really say too much,
Speaker 1: that was all that news worthy compared to some of
Speaker 1: the other speeches given in the past. Meantime, a different
Speaker 1: reaction to Elon Musk at a different company, and that
Speaker 1: is Twitter. We're hearing that some Twitter employees not happy
Speaker 1: about Elon Musk joining the board, certainly not crying in
Speaker 1: jubil Asian Um CEO Pagara says he's going to address
Speaker 1: the issue next week, potentially with an a M A
Speaker 1: with Elon Musk himself. What are you hearing about this?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's from what we've understand about the reaction
Speaker 1: that the Twitter employees has had, it's, you know, in
Speaker 1: some ways, it's kind of nice to see because we
Speaker 1: don't see people say no to Elon a lot, at
Speaker 1: least within his orbits. I mean, people obviously have strong
Speaker 1: opinions about him and negative opinions about him, but within
Speaker 1: the companies that he runs and among the sort of
Speaker 1: executive ranks that he operates. We don't see a lot
Speaker 1: of pushback, at least publicly, and so to hear that
Speaker 1: the employees of Twitter, we're sort of standing up a
Speaker 1: little bit and saying, hey, you know, Elon's behavior is
Speaker 1: very sort of public behavior on this platform, and it's
Speaker 1: not really been in line with sort of the values
Speaker 1: that par has been expressing he wants Twitter to carry forward.
Speaker 1: And so they have some concerns about what that means
Speaker 1: and what it means for the platform's future to have
Speaker 1: someone on the board and controlling so much of the
Speaker 1: company who seems to be able to operate outside the
Speaker 1: bounds of what they really want to allow on the platform. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: certainly a lot of unanswered questions. They're Bloomberg, Shaan, Okaine,
Speaker 1: thank you. I'm here in my apartment in Shanghai in
Speaker 1: the last day, suppose the last day of my lockdown,
Speaker 1: but it looks like it's going to be extended. And
Speaker 1: my biggest concern right now is food. Um running short
Speaker 1: of everything, And I want to give you a little
Speaker 1: peekin sign my refrigerator. Mean, it looks so bad, but
Speaker 1: I got I got tell you a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: is pretty old. Um, we've got milk care. The exploration
Speaker 1: data is April one, The Brent's expliration date is March
Speaker 1: thirty IF and today is April six. Thank god, I
Speaker 1: still have a little bit of wine because I think
Speaker 1: I'm going to need it. So the biggest concern right
Speaker 1: now for a lot of people is how to get food. Um.
Speaker 1: For us, um, we have to order online through this
Speaker 1: one grocery app called Dingdo my Chid. Basically in the evening,
Speaker 1: usually after nine pm, you go into the app and
Speaker 1: see what's available. As you can see a lot of food,
Speaker 1: meat and vegetables already gone. The big problem seems to
Speaker 1: be we can't get groceries delivered to our apartment because
Speaker 1: there's a lack of drivers delivering food in general because
Speaker 1: of the lockdown, The number of cases continues to rise
Speaker 1: in Shanghai and Jialing Province. Both areas are struggling with
Speaker 1: the economic and personal ramvoications of the lockdowns, with food shortages,
Speaker 1: a lack of medical care, and shut up main factoring
Speaker 1: plants bringing misery to residents. Chan remains a hotspot for
Speaker 1: the current flair, despite in definitely extending a swooping lockdown
Speaker 1: of its toy. Five million people originally intended to be
Speaker 1: carried out on two parts. The rising number of infections
Speaker 1: led to a continuation of the restrictions in the eastern
Speaker 1: proportion of the city that were initially expected to be
Speaker 1: lifted last week. So one question that I'm getting asked
Speaker 1: is why didn't I, uh why and I stocked up
Speaker 1: on more food? Well, well, first, as you know, we
Speaker 1: were told that my face A lockdown would last from
Speaker 1: Friday through Tuesday, and it's already Wednesday. Didn't know that
Speaker 1: it was gonna be extended. Obviously I could have gotten
Speaker 1: more meat and vegetables, but even before the lockdown it
Speaker 1: was kind of hard to find. You know. I still
Speaker 1: have a lot of instant noodles, spam and the odd carrot,
Speaker 1: the odd carrot, bloombergs allen one there under lockdown, Like
Speaker 1: many across Shanghai and Greater China, they submist hearts government
Speaker 1: measure to contain the country's latest COVID outbreak. It's left
Speaker 1: people struggling to eat, get food, essential supplies, and it's
Speaker 1: putting even more pressure on an already stressed supply chain.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about all of this and more with on
Speaker 1: your man Well, executive director of the Aspen Security Forum.
Speaker 1: On you, that's just one example of the human toll
Speaker 1: this is taking. What's your take on this at scale?
Speaker 1: What this means for China, what this means for its economy? Yeah,
Speaker 1: nice to see you, Emily. It means that China's zero
Speaker 1: COVID policy is coming apart at the seams. You know,
Speaker 1: you saw Q four of one. The growth rate for
Speaker 1: Chinese economy was about four percent. That's not as high
Speaker 1: as they wanted This year. They think they're going to
Speaker 1: grow at five point five percent. But if they keep
Speaker 1: having these extreme lockdowns, and I thought Alan's story was harrowing,
Speaker 1: I don't think you achieved those kinds of growth rates. Now,
Speaker 1: we know lots of American firms who are delivering food
Speaker 1: to their employees for exactly that reason. And of course
Speaker 1: it just hits all of the supply chains again, the lockdowns,
Speaker 1: the road closures, they're affecting factories as well. Tesla and
Speaker 1: Volkswagen for instance, they've suspended work at factories there. Do
Speaker 1: you see this having a long term impact on China's
Speaker 1: ability to attract global businesses global manufacturing. Yeah, maybe not
Speaker 1: in the in the long term, but certainly in the
Speaker 1: medium term. You know, it's very hard to run a
Speaker 1: business in China if every couple of months it's going
Speaker 1: to get shut down again. You talked about the factories.
Speaker 1: You know, Shanghai Disneyland is closed again, Fox, con Union,
Speaker 1: Microns on. All of these suppliers to big American tech
Speaker 1: firms are once again shut down, which makes it really hard.
Speaker 1: And I think it just accelerates the tech decoupling you
Speaker 1: see already with Western firms increasingly saying, well, maybe we
Speaker 1: should look to the rest of Asia, or we should diversify,
Speaker 1: not entirely away from China, but we need to hedge
Speaker 1: our bets a little bit. And I think this is
Speaker 1: going to accelerate that trend. There's already been a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure on Chinese tech companies because of the crackdown
Speaker 1: by the Chinese government on tech companies in particular. We've
Speaker 1: seen the Chinese government perhaps trying to dial some of
Speaker 1: that back, saying they're going to give US regulators more
Speaker 1: information about these companies. But do you see this having
Speaker 1: a more sustained impact on China's tech world and its competitiveness.
Speaker 1: It does. It has a huge impact, but not just
Speaker 1: the lockdowns. It's sort of everything is swinging in the
Speaker 1: direction of decoupling. I mean, you saw these huge crackdowns
Speaker 1: on Chinese tech last year. You and I talked about them,
Speaker 1: you know, um delisting people telling people they can't do
Speaker 1: business in the United States under certain circumstances. And then
Speaker 1: of course it's coming from the U S to You
Speaker 1: mentioned the new SEC rule, which basically says, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're a Chinese company, you've got to follow US
Speaker 1: accounting principles. Uh, they've got three years now to comply.
Speaker 1: But other than that, if you don't comply, we're going
Speaker 1: to delist you. So you just see this trend happening
Speaker 1: in every direct and I think Emily will continue. Now
Speaker 1: we still haven't seen a distinct steer from China and
Speaker 1: its position on Russia, and of course China's under a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure from the international community. What do you
Speaker 1: expect to happen there and how do you expect that
Speaker 1: to influence the US relationship with China and China's relationship
Speaker 1: with the rest of the world. Yeah, it's it's such
Speaker 1: a good question. It's been really interesting to see because
Speaker 1: I think Shijin Ping and his team were surprised by
Speaker 1: how brutal and gruesome Putin's invasion of Ukraine has been,
Speaker 1: and there was vacillating for a week or two. Now
Speaker 1: the politics of China has come out solidly in favor
Speaker 1: of Russia. If you look at what's censored on the
Speaker 1: Chinese Internet, anything pro Ukraine is censored and taken down immediately.
Speaker 1: All of the Russian propaganda gets through. So on the
Speaker 1: political side there with the Russians. On the business side,
Speaker 1: not so much. I mean, so far, we've heard anecdotally
Speaker 1: that all of the big Chinese tech firms are complying
Speaker 1: with Western sanctions on China, as are the big Chinese banks,
Speaker 1: even though their government is saying, hey, you should be
Speaker 1: doing what you can to support the Russians. I mean
Speaker 1: a perfect example is d D, the big taxi service,
Speaker 1: the sort of uber of China, announced right away they
Speaker 1: were closing in Russia, and then after pressure from the
Speaker 1: Chinese government, they started back up their Russian operation. So
Speaker 1: what do you think this means quickly for the longer term? Then,
Speaker 1: you know, is it is it status quo for China's
Speaker 1: relationship with the rest of the world, or could we
Speaker 1: see a shift? Yeah? I think China will stay just
Speaker 1: below the level where they're going to be subject to
Speaker 1: secondary sanctions from the US and Europe, and so they'll
Speaker 1: keep playing this game. They'll probably buy a little bit
Speaker 1: more oil from Russia. They'll try to help their Russian
Speaker 1: friends as much as possible without really running a foul
Speaker 1: with what the rest of the world wants. Because if
Speaker 1: you remember, Emily, this is the year that hijin Pain
Speaker 1: wants to be voted forever leader of China, so he
Speaker 1: needs things to be fairly calm, at least until the fall.
Speaker 1: All right, Anya want Manuel always appreciate your analysis and insights. Here,
Speaker 1: executive director of the Aspen Security Forum, Thank you. Amazon
Speaker 1: employees in Bessemer, Alabama, voting night against forming a union.
Speaker 1: That result is now being challenged. A labor group claims
Speaker 1: Amazon interfered with the election by prohibiting employees from talking
Speaker 1: about the union during work hours or posting about it.
Speaker 1: Joining us now Bloomberg's Spencer soaper Spencer, what exactly is
Speaker 1: this labor union expressing here? Yes, so they they're saying
Speaker 1: that Amazon was inconsistent with its rules, that it it
Speaker 1: allowed anti union employees to discuss you know, their uh
Speaker 1: reasons for not wanting the union in work spaces, and
Speaker 1: that they could display anti union literature, but that similar
Speaker 1: things done by employees or on the pro union side
Speaker 1: were discouraged and prohibited. Um, and that some people were
Speaker 1: even fired, you know, for for being pro union. So
Speaker 1: that's the beef on the union side. Even though Amazon
Speaker 1: appears to have won this, there's still several votes, you know,
Speaker 1: several hundred votes that were disputed that that could be
Speaker 1: counted and could uh potentially tip the tide of the
Speaker 1: election the other way. And so in to preempt that,
Speaker 1: Amazon actually filed its own own objections as well, basically
Speaker 1: saying a lot of similar things as the union, so
Speaker 1: or just in a lot of illegal manoeuvering. Right now,
Speaker 1: this vote was already a do over. I mean, how
Speaker 1: likely is it there could be another do over? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a that's a great question. How many How long
Speaker 1: is this gonna go on? Um? So time will tell,
Speaker 1: especially uh if those challenge ballots um make a difference,
Speaker 1: because that first vote was quite decisive, I mean, the
Speaker 1: the union lost handily. Um. But the National Labor Relations
Speaker 1: Board said, look, Amazon, you played dirty pool. We gotta
Speaker 1: do it over and now the gap is narrowed significantly.
Speaker 1: So okay, I think the first thing, wat hang on
Speaker 1: contested ballots, change things, Spencer. We're just getting a headline
Speaker 1: that Amazon has challenged the union win in the New
Speaker 1: York election. Remember the result was reversed and that's election
Speaker 1: that happened the very same day in New York. Now Amazon,
Speaker 1: Amazon is challenging that quickly. What does that mean? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it was expected. Um, there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot of legal maneuverings and things are moving very fast
Speaker 1: right now. But Amazon is basically trying to argue that
Speaker 1: the turnout was very small in in that election, and
Speaker 1: that a majority of workers did not vote for the union.
Speaker 1: That really you had a small, a small voter turnout,
Speaker 1: And they're alleging that the National Labor Relations Board actually
Speaker 1: tarnished this proces tess by getting a little bit too
Speaker 1: deeply involved and workers may have felt like the like
Speaker 1: the government was actually advocating for the union. Wow. So
Speaker 1: now we're looking at both folks being challenged, but for
Speaker 1: different reasons. Bloomberg Spencer, soaper who covers Amazon for a Spencer,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you will keep us up to date. Thank you,
Speaker 1: scared dragon God said, actually, Juan, there, it is the
Speaker 1: SpaceX Falcon nine rocket taking off at eleven seventeen a m.
Speaker 1: Eastern Time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in
Speaker 1: its first private mission to the International Space Station. Let's
Speaker 1: bring in our own ed Ludlow now who attended the launch,
Speaker 1: to talk about just how big a milestone this is
Speaker 1: in the private space race, and bring us the details
Speaker 1: from the ground. How's the crew right, you know, it
Speaker 1: was just another flawless execution by SpaceX, the cruel. Well,
Speaker 1: after about two hours aboard the capsule in that orbit
Speaker 1: or the orbits were path they took off their space
Speaker 1: suits them and they had their first space meal. But
Speaker 1: as you know, it's a twenty hour trip from here
Speaker 1: in the KPE up to the International Space Station. They're
Speaker 1: due to dock at around nine thirty a m. Eastern
Speaker 1: time on Saturday. And everything went as planned, you know,
Speaker 1: as you know, I sat here in the thunder and
Speaker 1: lightning on Thursday night, but the weather really clear cleared up,
Speaker 1: some high pressure brought coal dry air into the equation
Speaker 1: and space X were able to lift off on schedule
Speaker 1: the Friday morning. So let's talk about what's going to
Speaker 1: happen on the I S S. So they're gonna meet
Speaker 1: Russian astronauts. Yeah, yeah, I mean this has been the question, right.
Speaker 1: The backdrop is the tensions between the United States and
Speaker 1: Russia because of the war in Ukraine, and there are
Speaker 1: three Russian cosmonauts aboard. I spoke to a number of
Speaker 1: NASRA fish who who officially have told me that if
Speaker 1: the Russians invited the private astronauts for dinner, they could
Speaker 1: go across the that side of the I S S
Speaker 1: and have dinner. But there's bigger issues here. Here's what
Speaker 1: Bill Nelson, administrator of NASA, had to say. Even with
Speaker 1: the terrible things that Vladimir Putin is putting on the
Speaker 1: Ukrainian people, I expect the professional relationship between astronauts and
Speaker 1: cosmonauts to continue. The point that Bill Nelson made there
Speaker 1: is the same that CAFFE leaders made on Thursday, that
Speaker 1: whatever is happening down here on Earth, in space, there's
Speaker 1: peace and there is a professional relationship between NASA and
Speaker 1: Russia's space agency ros Cosmos. And frankly, none of the
Speaker 1: officials I spoke to thought that that was going to
Speaker 1: change in the nearter So give us the bigger picture here,
Speaker 1: and ed axiom isn't just about sending rich people to space,
Speaker 1: though they did confirm with US yesterday and they sink
Speaker 1: at past million dollars. What are a bigger ambition to Yeah,
Speaker 1: your spawn m you know, part of this Axiom plan
Speaker 1: is to send their own private International Space Station module up.
Speaker 1: That module attaches to the existing International Space Station and
Speaker 1: they develop it and upgrades over time. Because as you know,
Speaker 1: the I S S has a shelf life. It's due
Speaker 1: to be deep decommissioned in one and then de orbited
Speaker 1: to crash into the ocean somewhere here on planet Earth.
Speaker 1: So this is about NASA passing the bat on to
Speaker 1: the private sector. Cost NASA four billion U S dollars
Speaker 1: a year to maintain an upgrade I S S. And
Speaker 1: what they want to do is have the private sector
Speaker 1: take on that burden, that cost burden, but also the
Speaker 1: development upkeep burden. So in the future we have private
Speaker 1: or commercial space stations in lower orbit. That frees up
Speaker 1: money for NASA to do other things in And as
Speaker 1: you know, the big priority for NASA is the Moon
Speaker 1: and then Mars, and what about space sex itself. We
Speaker 1: just saw elon Musk and Naguri, a Tesla factory in Austin.
Speaker 1: He's very busy, it seems, with his new Twitter board membership.
Speaker 1: You know, what does this mean for for the SpaceX
Speaker 1: part of Elon Musk's empire, you know, the the Action
Speaker 1: mission and being here at the Kennedy Space Center over
Speaker 1: the last few days has been interesting because SpaceX is
Speaker 1: not preoccupied with these kind of smaller objectives in their
Speaker 1: eyes of getting folks to and from Earth to and
Speaker 1: sactional space station. You know, they have these contracts with NASA.
Speaker 1: They were just awarded more nations by MASSA. But as
Speaker 1: you know, Elon Musk has his sites set on Mars.
Speaker 1: They're developing the next generation of launch system in Starship.
Speaker 1: They hope to test an orbit or test of Starship
Speaker 1: at some point in the next six months, and their
Speaker 1: ambitions are greater than that. But in the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is another example of SpaceX dominating the market for launch
Speaker 1: to orbit. You know, they account for eight of the
Speaker 1: payload that is sent from Earth into space. Right now,
Speaker 1: we talk a lot about Russia and China as space
Speaker 1: superpowers alongside the United States. Really it's SpaceX that dominates
Speaker 1: this market. And alongside satellite launch with Starlink and taking
Speaker 1: satellites with third parties, they're making money off this. We
Speaker 1: think this is a good money maker for them. And
Speaker 1: as we know from your interview on Thursday, right, Axiom
Speaker 1: is sold out for a X two x three and
Speaker 1: they're probably going to be sold out pretty soon for
Speaker 1: a X four. So it's an interesting dynamic for SpaceX
Speaker 1: that has much bigger picture designs. All right, Ad Ludlow
Speaker 1: on the ground in kick Canaveral, Florida, and thank you
Speaker 1: so much for your coverage from there and for the
Speaker 1: launch throughout the day time for our crypto report now
Speaker 1: and Bitcoin ending the week on a down note, trading
Speaker 1: lower for the fifth consecutive day, even as Bitcoin one
Speaker 1: of the crypto industry's biggest conferences, is drawing to a
Speaker 1: close in Miami. I want to bring in our crypto contributor,
Speaker 1: Sali Bostic now for more Snali, what's your read on this? Well,
Speaker 1: there's a few things here, Emily, and we've been talking
Speaker 1: about it all year. What is the catalyst? What is
Speaker 1: going to drive bitcoin higher than not only this year,
Speaker 1: but where it was last year. We have five straight days,
Speaker 1: as you said, of declines. We are back down to
Speaker 1: forty two thousand, six hundred or seven hundred dollars or so.
Speaker 1: Remember throughout March we got a little higher than that.
Speaker 1: We did get to forty seven thousand, touch forty eight thousand,
Speaker 1: but you know, we are above forty so we have
Speaker 1: hit kind of a floor here. There's not that same
Speaker 1: fear of things really going much lower. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of conversations about legitimizing the asset, more companies using the
Speaker 1: Lightning network. That was a huge story this week. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it's not just about
Speaker 1: the same people who are picking up bitcoin the Lightning
Speaker 1: network at a marginal rate. This is going to be
Speaker 1: about countries and companies adopting Bitcoin at a much bigger
Speaker 1: rate as the asset class stars to mature. All right, Shanali,
Speaker 1: stay with us. I want to bring in our next
Speaker 1: guest who is actually joining us from Bitcoin two in
Speaker 1: Miami block Stream CEO Adam Back. Adam, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us. You've been a player in this industry
Speaker 1: for such a long time, and I'm so curious what's
Speaker 1: the mood there after the many many years you've been
Speaker 1: in the crypto industry. And how much do you think
Speaker 1: is changing in this moment. Well, it's a much bigger
Speaker 1: conference for bitcoins than I've seen before. I think something
Speaker 1: like people present very big venue, high production values. Say,
Speaker 1: it's introducing bitcoin to many more attenders and a wider audience.
Speaker 1: You're working on something new and interesting with block and
Speaker 1: powered by Testla Solar, a new mine. Talk to us
Speaker 1: about you know, what are the details where it will
Speaker 1: be located, what you'll be doing there, and what it
Speaker 1: means from an energy perspective. Right, So it's a joint
Speaker 1: projects between block Stream and block formerly known as Square
Speaker 1: and Tesla is building the solar infrastructure and also providing
Speaker 1: the Tesla Bigger Pack which is a battery, so it's
Speaker 1: actually solar and battery so that it runs, you know,
Speaker 1: not just during the day. And what that means for
Speaker 1: the energy infrastructure is that it's a first step for
Speaker 1: us to prove about the thesis that a number of
Speaker 1: people have put forward and we thought we would go
Speaker 1: from theory to practice and actually build it alongside the
Speaker 1: block and that is that um bitcoin mining can actually
Speaker 1: help make new power projects, nubrem power projects more cost effective,
Speaker 1: make them more profitable and effort easier to finance and
Speaker 1: physically build the energy infrastructure for the future. Adam, how
Speaker 1: do you feel about the ability of bitcoin to become
Speaker 1: more energy efficient, especially as the merge comes for theorium
Speaker 1: and the ethereum is really so focused on energy efficiency. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's actually mistake in the sense that if
Speaker 1: we look back to gold historically, um society looks for
Speaker 1: hard money, and what what made gold a good money
Speaker 1: was the relative scarcity and this sort of inherent cost
Speaker 1: of extracting more mining more that comes with scarcity, and
Speaker 1: so something which doesn't have any inherent scarcity effectively becomes
Speaker 1: similar to a share in a company managed by some
Speaker 1: officers of the company, or like a fear currency like
Speaker 1: US dollar or the Euro, which is managed by a
Speaker 1: monetary policy committee. So I think it's very difficult to
Speaker 1: imagine that kind of currency, you know, the old coins
Speaker 1: and so forth, reaching global acceptance as a as a
Speaker 1: new digital gold. You know. I'm also curious you mentioned
Speaker 1: your work with a block I'm wondering what you think.
Speaker 1: We interviewed also Elizabeth Stark of Lightning Lads. Jack Dorsey
Speaker 1: is a backer there for her her for her company
Speaker 1: and I'm wondering what impact do you think Jack Dorsey
Speaker 1: overall is going to have on the adoption of bitcoin
Speaker 1: across the world. Well, it's pretty interesting. I think sometime
Speaker 1: last year he made the observation that he thought the
Speaker 1: most important and useful place for him to use his
Speaker 1: time on Earth is with bitcoin, and so you know,
Speaker 1: promptly he stepped down let's see of Twitter and actually
Speaker 1: devoted his energies to two bitcoin. So I think that's
Speaker 1: very positive. I want to double down, Adam on your
Speaker 1: thoughts on a Theoryum, your work was in that original
Speaker 1: white paper written by Satoshi Nakamoto all those many years ago.
Speaker 1: If you're not bullish on etherorium, then how do you
Speaker 1: see the crypto market actually playing out? Like where are
Speaker 1: we in the next ten years? Um? Well, I think
Speaker 1: bitcoin is the investival asset class, and the other sort
Speaker 1: of smart contract cryptocurrencies of which there are many competing um,
Speaker 1: are more like startups or services and not not really
Speaker 1: an esset class. I think personally that the utility token
Speaker 1: concept is is mispriced and that the value, the fundamental
Speaker 1: value of those tokens should be much lower. So there's
Speaker 1: a an investor called John Feffer, who wrote an analyst
Speaker 1: report on this topic and just just looked at the
Speaker 1: business economics from an x KKR investor perspective of such
Speaker 1: chains and the fundamental business value of the utility tokens
Speaker 1: and concluded that they should be sort of just in
Speaker 1: time boughts. What doesn't make sense economically to keep inventory.
Speaker 1: So I think the valuations are sort of out of
Speaker 1: kilter with the fundamental value and sort of driven sort
Speaker 1: of kept afloat by speculation basically. Interestingly, also want to
Speaker 1: talk more about the energy efficiency aspect of this, because
Speaker 1: the Tesla Magapac is powering a bitcoin mining facility at
Speaker 1: a box stream mining site. What impact do you think
Speaker 1: Elon Musk will have on the future of bitcoin moving forward? Well, well,
Speaker 1: I think he's famously a quiet bitclin I believe he
Speaker 1: said himself and through a number of his companies, So
Speaker 1: he's certainly a big holder and long time holder. And
Speaker 1: you know, we're excited to um bring Tesla into into
Speaker 1: the mining space via the acquisition of the Mega Pac
Speaker 1: and the the installation by Tesla of the solar arrays. Adam,
Speaker 1: I'm creous what you make of the evolving relationship of
Speaker 1: Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey given you know Ellen, you know,
Speaker 1: both of them playing a big role in the crypto community,
Speaker 1: crypto Twitter huge community, and Elon Musk now joining the
Speaker 1: board of Twitter with Jack Dorsey support as the largest shareholder. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, actually I'm quite positive on Elon joining Twitter's
Speaker 1: board because there was some unfortunate incidents during the last
Speaker 1: few years with Twitter's kind of content mediation deep platform
Speaker 1: NG and that kind of thing got pretty controversial, and
Speaker 1: I think Ellen's views on on that direction that's similar
Speaker 1: to my own. So I'm hoping for him to be
Speaker 1: a positive improvement, uh to Twitter. Adam, you mentioned earlier
Speaker 1: about the valuations that we're seeing in bitcoin today artificially
Speaker 1: held to where it is right now. So where do
Speaker 1: you think it goes to the end of the year
Speaker 1: and what we'll take it there? Um, Well, it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of surprising to me in a sense that it's
Speaker 1: already not a lot higher because the many of the
Speaker 1: on chain metrics and the news flow you know, throughout
Speaker 1: the year are sort of bullish indicators. You know, the
Speaker 1: number of coins net coins moving off exchanges, which indicates
Speaker 1: large buyers buying and storing the number of coins left
Speaker 1: on exchange to be the pool of potentially bought coins,
Speaker 1: the news flow of new ETFs in various countries, new
Speaker 1: financial institution providing bitcoin rely it's financial instruments. Um, so
Speaker 1: there's a lot of kind of positive news flow. And
Speaker 1: I think that, uh, you know, the current bitcoin price
Speaker 1: ranges to do with similar factors that affect the wider
Speaker 1: market I Ukraine and the COVID's economic effects. And say,
Speaker 1: for Blocks Room CEO Adam Backed, pleasure to have you
Speaker 1: as always along with our very own Shinnelle BOSSI thank
Speaker 1: you both well. Also to come out of the Bitcoin conference,
Speaker 1: billionaire entrepreneur Peter Tele called Warren Buffett, Jamie Diamond, and
Speaker 1: Larry Fink members of a finance gerontocracy. He said they're
Speaker 1: opposed to a revolutionary youth movement quote unquote that embraces bitcoin.
Speaker 1: To'll blame the finance titans for the digital currencies failure
Speaker 1: to hit a hundred thousand dollars or get even close.
Speaker 1: For the third year in a row, Apple will hold
Speaker 1: its Annual Developer Conference w w DC virtually. That means
Speaker 1: developers and Apple watchers will need to tune in online
Speaker 1: to watch the introduction of iOS sixteen, Watch OS nine,
Speaker 1: t v O S sixteen, Mac OS thirteen, and other
Speaker 1: new software and services. The one new wrinkled this year
Speaker 1: is that Apple will allow a small number of students, developers,
Speaker 1: and members of the press to watch the keynote videos
Speaker 1: from Apple headquarters. Still, all developer sessions and other aspects
Speaker 1: of the conference will be online only. Despite its virtual nature,
Speaker 1: I'm still expecting a fairly jampacked conference. I'm expecting a
Speaker 1: fairly significant update with iOS six teen, code named Sydney,
Speaker 1: including changes to notifications. There also should be major fitness
Speaker 1: tracking and health upgrades for the Apple Watch. But for
Speaker 1: those expecting some major iOS design overhaul, the last being
Speaker 1: about a decade ago with IO seven, I wouldn't hold
Speaker 1: my breath at least for this year. Apples also likely
Speaker 1: to launch some new Max in the w WDC timeframe,
Speaker 1: and this may include a major revamp to the Maple Gair.
Speaker 1: In fact, that new Air will be the biggest upgrade
Speaker 1: to the product in its history. Apple has a history
Speaker 1: of announcing new Max at the conference, including when it
Speaker 1: introduced the transition from Intel to Apple Silicon two years ago.
Speaker 1: I'm also still expecting Apple to hold off on showcasing
Speaker 1: it's mixed reality headset hardware until later this year or
Speaker 1: next year at the earliest. Still, maybe we'll see a
Speaker 1: preview of some new A R and VR software to
Speaker 1: get the show rolling him Mark Erman, This is power On.
Speaker 1: Don't forget. You can subscribe to Mark's weekly power On
Speaker 1: newsletter Bloomberg dot com. Well sell robin Hood. That is
Speaker 1: the message from Goldman sacks. It comes less than a
Speaker 1: year since robin Hood's much hyped I p O, which
Speaker 1: was led by Goldman. The news caused the stock to
Speaker 1: sink even lower, down more than from its post ip
Speaker 1: O record high. For more on what it all me as,
Speaker 1: I'm joined by Bloomberg's Anti Massa. So why is Goldman,
Speaker 1: of all companies saying cell now? So it's a bit
Speaker 1: of an awkward situation because Goldman did lead the robin
Speaker 1: Hood i p O. But Goldman's analysts have downgraded now
Speaker 1: the stock um to a cell from neutral. And what
Speaker 1: they said is that the path to profitability is looking
Speaker 1: pretty fraught for robin Hood and it would take a
Speaker 1: lot for this company to achieve profitability by So what's
Speaker 1: changed since the I p O? Has something gone wrong.
Speaker 1: The retail trading environment has changed a lot. Even in
Speaker 1: the past year. We saw an enormous boom in retail
Speaker 1: trading that happened over the course of the pandemic and
Speaker 1: really escalated during the game stop run up that happened
Speaker 1: in early one. That was all happening in the lead
Speaker 1: up to Robin Hood's I p O, which happened in
Speaker 1: July of last year. What's happened in the intervening months
Speaker 1: is retail trading activity has continued to taper off, and
Speaker 1: now retail trading is making up more like sevent of
Speaker 1: equities overall market volume, where you saw it higher more
Speaker 1: like two percent in those feverish days of the MEME
Speaker 1: stock run ups. So robin Hood's contending with this question
Speaker 1: of how it will earn money beyond just sheer transaction volume,
Speaker 1: or if Robin Hood saying the growth is going to
Speaker 1: come from I know they've been talking up crypto. In fact,
Speaker 1: they've actually been doing that since the I p O
Speaker 1: building out crypto products. Could that be it? Yeah? What
Speaker 1: one thing that Robin Hood has pitched, as many fin
Speaker 1: techs have, is the idea that it can become more
Speaker 1: like a financial supermarket for its customers, offering much more
Speaker 1: than just mirror trading and moving into new areas including
Speaker 1: retirement accounts, crypto expand its crypto offering, as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: and it has been making strides towards some of those goals.
Speaker 1: So just this week, robin Hood did open up its
Speaker 1: crypto wallets product. It had a waitlist going and it's
Speaker 1: beginning to offer that product now, and it is working
Speaker 1: towards those other some of those other pitched products such
Speaker 1: as UM retirement accounts. But the big question remains whether
Speaker 1: robin Hood customers want all those products from robin Hood specifically,
Speaker 1: or whether they might be getting those services from other
Speaker 1: apps UM and it's a it's a big part of
Speaker 1: robin its growth strategy to sell their customers on more
Speaker 1: than trading all day. Now, the robin Hood bulls that
Speaker 1: are still out there talk about gen z and the
Speaker 1: future of a rising generation that's going to be investing more.
Speaker 1: Could that be robin hood savior quickly? It It could be,
Speaker 1: but it really depends right now. They're very dependent on
Speaker 1: trading volumes and they want to diversify away from that.
Speaker 1: But the question remains whether they can and whether the
Speaker 1: customers will come when they deliver those new products, all right,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg's Annie Massa on Robin Hood's struggles. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: Annie for that analysis.