Speaker 1: From Bahard where Innovation, Money and power Collie in Silicon
Speaker 1: Vallet NBN. This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and
Speaker 1: Ed Ludlow.
Speaker 2: Lie from New York and San Francisco. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 2: Technology coming up. Ubisoft jumps on buy out reports as
Speaker 2: Tencent and its founders I'm taking Assassin's Cream maker private.
Speaker 3: And the EU votes to impose tariffs up to forty
Speaker 3: five percent on Chinese electric vehicles.
Speaker 4: We discussed the trade tensions.
Speaker 2: And Meta unveils an AI video generator as it's AI
Speaker 2: pushmak Zuckerberg the world's second richest position.
Speaker 5: But first we go to our top stock story.
Speaker 6: Ed.
Speaker 3: Yes, French video game maker Ubisoft actually in the thirty
Speaker 3: minutes left in European trading in Paris, the stock on
Speaker 3: track for its biggest jump on record one day jump.
Speaker 3: Bloomberg reporting in the last ninety minutes according to sources
Speaker 3: that ten Cents, the Chinese technology company and the Guimo family,
Speaker 3: the founding family behind Ubisoft, the French video game might
Speaker 3: make a are considering a buyout of the company. There
Speaker 3: are a number of factors behind that. Let's get right
Speaker 3: out to our Paris bureau and bloom Bloomberg's Benoir Buttelo,
Speaker 3: who broke this story with colleagues. It's been under pressure, right,
Speaker 3: this is about stabilizing Ubisoft. What do we know from sources,
Speaker 3: what's on the table here?
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 7: So it's a reflection that the biggest investors yourself right now,
Speaker 7: the Guimo family, the funding family, and also shareholder ten
Speaker 7: Cent are having at the moment because that follows a
Speaker 7: rough time for the company and they had issued profit welling. Recently,
Speaker 7: they've been disappointed by the release of an important game,
Speaker 7: Star Wars game, and they delayed another important game as
Speaker 7: since scret shadows to next year. That has sent the
Speaker 7: shares plunging. The company has lost half of its market
Speaker 7: value this year. So they are also activist investors at
Speaker 7: the moment asking for either take private or sale of
Speaker 7: the company. So this is all happening in this context.
Speaker 7: One of the options they consider, as we report, according
Speaker 7: to our sources, is take private joint take private of
Speaker 7: the company. There are also other options being considered and
Speaker 7: that are on the table.
Speaker 5: Ultimately, ten Cents an interesting name.
Speaker 2: We know they're already an investor alongside the Gemo family,
Speaker 2: but would Chinese buyers be able to get their hands
Speaker 2: on a prized French.
Speaker 5: Treasure, they would do it.
Speaker 4: So they are in a concert. They are in a
Speaker 4: close collaboration with the more family.
Speaker 7: They made a deal two years ago and they invested
Speaker 7: actually in the family holding. There are five Givemo brothers
Speaker 7: and also the extended family and Tencent already bought less
Speaker 7: than half of their family holding, so they are they're
Speaker 7: sort of intertwined. Uh and Tencent has been investing in
Speaker 7: European video games company. Obviously ubi Soft is interesting for
Speaker 7: them because of the ips they have. Assassins Creed, a
Speaker 7: hugely popular game. Ubisoft has been developing a mobile version
Speaker 7: of the game, especially for tencent Chinese Chinese market, and
Speaker 7: also Raymond Rabbits. And it's one of the rare big
Speaker 7: independent studios, let's say, in the world. So so yeah,
Speaker 7: they sort of are close to the Gimo and evaluating
Speaker 7: the situation. That was an important investment for them, and
Speaker 7: they're figuring out the situation.
Speaker 3: So Eve Gimo is the CEO of Ubersoft, And you're
Speaker 3: absolutely right, Like the new Assassin's Creed Shadows coming Rayman,
Speaker 3: so many people watching Bloomberg Technology excuse me, it would
Speaker 3: have grown.
Speaker 4: Up playing rayman.
Speaker 3: I don't understand that though he's the CEO, the family
Speaker 3: is part of the buyout. According to sources, just explain
Speaker 3: the basics of how the company is structured in the governance.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so they founded the Gimo brothers, they found the
Speaker 7: ubis off almost forty years ago and they are still
Speaker 7: very much in control of the company and they have
Speaker 7: the five brothers are at the board of the company.
Speaker 7: But if Gimo is now sixty four and they made
Speaker 7: that deal with ten Cent to sort of protect the
Speaker 7: company from buyout in twenty twenty two, at least it
Speaker 7: was seen as such bi analysts and it's it's sort
Speaker 7: of limiting what ten Cent can do. There are different timelines,
Speaker 7: but ten cents cannot have a bigger than ten percent stake.
Speaker 5: For example, the Gimo.
Speaker 7: Familia still still has a majority of the voting rights.
Speaker 7: Ten Cent has no vital voting rights. So it was
Speaker 7: really a deal that was seen as killing speculation around
Speaker 7: the company. But obviously times have a little changed recently
Speaker 7: and they wonder if it would be a good moment
Speaker 7: to make that move.
Speaker 5: Manoir, We thank you Benwell Berfalo there.
Speaker 2: Now let's have a quick check on these markets because
Speaker 2: it is soft moving a lot, but actually the market's
Speaker 2: steadily higher at the moment after what was a blowout
Speaker 2: jobs report. We're just seeing the US hiring topped all estimates.
Speaker 2: So what does that mean for rape bets when you've
Speaker 2: got nonfarm payrolls coming in at two hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: four thousand in September and indeed some inflationary pressure people
Speaker 2: diving back the rate kept bets on the federal reserve
Speaker 2: and that's that, though managing to be about eight tenser percent.
Speaker 5: The bomb market is where the big moves are.
Speaker 2: Let's go to see BIS Chief investment Officer Anna rathbun
Speaker 2: so much to discuss whether it's M and A tach
Speaker 2: privates and whether it's just ultimately the fundamentals. We start there.
Speaker 2: This job market on fire? Do we still support big
Speaker 2: tech investments?
Speaker 1: Good morning, labor market is on fire, But we have
Speaker 1: to remember it is one month release, so we can
Speaker 1: take it at a base value because it's great and
Speaker 1: let's celebrate it, but we can't extrapolate it way too
Speaker 1: far because in totality there are definitely weaknesses. I believe
Speaker 1: Reuters came out with some report about and the Challengers
Speaker 1: report about losing tech jobs, right, Does that mean I
Speaker 1: don't support tech investments? No, because I do think that
Speaker 1: part of the tech job's loss is correction on over
Speaker 1: hiring for AI. This is happening all over the world,
Speaker 1: especially with Samsung coming out with some layof announcements. Tech
Speaker 1: investments I would still support because I know a lot
Speaker 1: of people think it's a bubble, but it's opposed to
Speaker 1: be a bubble when you have something this innovative. This
Speaker 1: is sort of part for the course, so I think
Speaker 1: it's still worth it to go along for the ride.
Speaker 1: But in the short term I do understand the concern,
Speaker 1: but long term it's still an investment.
Speaker 5: Let's just dwell on that for a moment.
Speaker 2: In terms of the overall data, I think it was
Speaker 2: what was it ed the Challenger data showing that half
Speaker 2: of all the tech layoffs and tech layoffs have been
Speaker 2: behind most of the layoffs this year, half of them
Speaker 2: are because of artificial intelligence head.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then there's a difference, or you've got to
Speaker 3: distinguish between layoffs that are announced and layoffs that are enacted.
Speaker 3: I also just want to like spend a second on
Speaker 3: the moment and how wild jobs. Dating is on social
Speaker 3: media in particular. And I don't know what your life
Speaker 3: is like before coming on Bloomboat Technology, but you'd think
Speaker 3: that this was a once in a lifetime moment if
Speaker 3: you go on X Bloomboat Joe Wisenthal going, this is
Speaker 3: what we wake up for why we all go on.
Speaker 4: To social media?
Speaker 5: I mean he does do that every single job exactly.
Speaker 3: Is that if you're a technology investor, is that what
Speaker 3: it's really like when you get economic data like this?
Speaker 8: Well, you know, maybe maybe not.
Speaker 1: It's not like that for me. So we're long term investors.
Speaker 1: So it is exciting, and I do participate in some
Speaker 1: of the excitement in the short term. But again, like
Speaker 1: if we're if I'm looking at AI, I'm looking at
Speaker 1: the long term potential, This one job number is just
Speaker 1: not going to really do anything for me, right, So
Speaker 1: yes and no, I do participate, but it doesn't affect
Speaker 1: what I do.
Speaker 2: If it doesn't affect ultimately what you're up to, let's
Speaker 2: think about what it affects in terms of market sentiment
Speaker 2: for big tech and indeed the opportunity to see consolidation.
Speaker 2: We've seen themes of M and A, whether it's out
Speaker 2: of die need and distress like we saw ultimately in
Speaker 2: the PayTV deals earlier this week, we now hear of
Speaker 2: reports that companies that have been really beaten up from
Speaker 2: a market cap perspective and now being allyed to take private.
Speaker 5: It's not going to be something we see even as
Speaker 5: rates come down.
Speaker 1: Well, the rates have to come down considerably, and you know,
Speaker 1: talking about the job market today, there's a lot of fear.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the market's repricing itself from fifty
Speaker 1: basis point total for the rest of the year to
Speaker 1: seventy five, and I think it's it's gonna matter how
Speaker 1: far we go down. The FED should still cut because
Speaker 1: I don't think the M and A market can be
Speaker 1: healthy at this rate. There's a lot of liquidity, people say,
Speaker 1: but there's liquidity for certain people, not enough liquidity for others.
Speaker 1: It's not like, you know, you can't paint with a
Speaker 1: single brush here. So for the market to be healthy again,
Speaker 1: for there to be healthy level of M and A activity,
Speaker 1: especially in the IPO market, I think the FED has
Speaker 1: to continue cutting. And I don't think today's jobs number
Speaker 1: is going to change the course of what the FED
Speaker 1: has started.
Speaker 3: We must look I guess forward to the rest of
Speaker 3: the year where we have a presidential election here in
Speaker 3: the United States. Does that impact the technology investor, even
Speaker 3: if you're a long term investor, when you take into
Speaker 3: account policy antitrust regulation in this.
Speaker 1: Country, Yeah, I would watch for a one party rule
Speaker 1: because any law that is passed in through Congress. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of fear about AI. What we saw in
Speaker 1: California about you know, and and it became a free
Speaker 1: free speech issue. But there are a lot of these
Speaker 1: fears about you know, what can be passed through in
Speaker 1: terms of deep fakes and AI et cetera.
Speaker 4: These things.
Speaker 1: If we don't do it right, it can actually turn
Speaker 1: into something that can be a regulate regulation that can
Speaker 1: actually hinder innovation. So I think this is doesn't matter
Speaker 1: which party it is right, but certainly if you have
Speaker 1: one party rule, it would definitely increase the probability of
Speaker 1: something like that getting passed.
Speaker 2: Save It's Chief Investment Officer, Anna Rathbun, Thanks as always
Speaker 2: for your time. Meanwhile, coming up, the EU preparing for
Speaker 2: tarofs up to forty five percent on Chinese made electric vehicles.
Speaker 2: That says Europe risks a broader trade conflict with China
Speaker 2: and what are you looking at?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm looking at EV's as well.
Speaker 3: Rivian is down six percent off its session lows, but
Speaker 3: it has cut its production outlook to forty seven thousand
Speaker 3: to forty nine thousand EV's this year. It had been
Speaker 3: fifty seven thousand. Why a specific supply chain issue they're
Speaker 3: not disclosing. That became more acute in recent weeks. And
Speaker 3: that's their two consumer models and the van they make
Speaker 3: for Amazon, and the streets concerned.
Speaker 4: I'm digging into it.
Speaker 3: And by the way, if you're a Rivian employee that's
Speaker 3: out there, you know something, phone me. I think a
Speaker 3: lot of people want to know what's going on here.
Speaker 3: It's a Rivian problem rather than an industry problem.
Speaker 4: This is Bloomberg technology.
Speaker 3: The European Union is voted to impose tariffs as high
Speaker 3: as forty five percent on electric vehicles from China. Here's
Speaker 3: how European Commission spokesperson Betrayed all off Gil explain the reasoning.
Speaker 9: We do not and we never have wanted to impose
Speaker 9: tariffs in this case for the sake of imposing tariffs.
Speaker 9: What we want is to remove the injurious subsidization, the
Speaker 9: effect of the injurious subsidization that are painstakingly detailed, wto
Speaker 9: compatible and thorough investigation identified.
Speaker 3: Let's discuss with Transport and Environment Senior Director Julia Poliskanova
Speaker 3: up to forty five percent tariff on Chinese built and
Speaker 3: imported electric vehicles. Your reaction and analysis of that number.
Speaker 8: So overall, we do think that today is a good
Speaker 8: day for European industrial policy. It means there's one single vision,
Speaker 8: That means we are serious about trying to create the
Speaker 8: business case for local manufacturing in Europe. We believe that,
Speaker 8: and I certainly already see in some of the data
Speaker 8: that some of the Chinese companies will still be doing
Speaker 8: really well. They have a good product. We still will
Speaker 8: see those brands on the European market, but they will
Speaker 8: likely be producing here rather than importing it from China.
Speaker 5: Julia, I push back.
Speaker 2: On the one single vision a little bit sly because
Speaker 2: when you look at how the vote went out, Yes,
Speaker 2: ten came out and supported France here among them, but
Speaker 2: twelve abstained and a whole number actually voted against, for
Speaker 2: example Germany. How much behind the scenes work is there
Speaker 2: now to try and iron this out that they don't
Speaker 2: have to be imposed.
Speaker 8: I think they're ultimately given the amount of pressure that
Speaker 8: there has been against the terrorists, amount of negotiation, and
Speaker 8: the fact that the largest European country have actually voted against.
Speaker 8: Given all this, the fact that teriffts went through does
Speaker 8: actually mean that behind the scenes there must be an
Speaker 8: agreement that even though we continue negotiating, we are going
Speaker 8: with the tariffs. So it means Europe did decide that
Speaker 8: the case for local manufacturing is more important than the
Speaker 8: risk of retaliation from China.
Speaker 3: Julia Transport Environment call themselves the leading advocates for clean
Speaker 3: energy and transport in Europe, and this morning you published
Speaker 3: research that basically said these tariffs alone will not save
Speaker 3: the EV industry in Europe.
Speaker 4: If there is not a refocus.
Speaker 3: I think is fair to say on broader COE two
Speaker 3: targets and other climate targets. What else is it that
Speaker 3: you're calling to be done alongside the imposition of these tariffs.
Speaker 8: So tariffs only makes sense in tandem with a broader,
Speaker 8: stronger climate policy that would push carmakers to actually manufacture
Speaker 8: locally football electric vehicles as long as the wide industrial
Speaker 8: policy would. So we need to onshore battery manufacturing. For example,
Speaker 8: the battery input tariffs into Europe is one percent, while
Speaker 8: a lot of local companies are struggling. So we also
Speaker 8: need stronger defense measures there. We need to ramp up
Speaker 8: charging stations, make it easier for people to charge, for example,
Speaker 8: simplify the way we connect to the grid. So there's
Speaker 8: a number of measures that all have to come together,
Speaker 8: and alongside them, tariffs really help because they give a
Speaker 8: chance to the European electric vehicle industry.
Speaker 2: What's interesting is ultimately local analysts over in China saying
Speaker 2: this is going to have a minor impact on the
Speaker 2: Chinese ev names because when all taken in its totality,
Speaker 2: their market share just isn't that significant to Europe. So
Speaker 2: how impactful will this be on imports from Giele from BYD.
Speaker 8: So actually we see that today, given that the US
Speaker 8: market is closed automately to to Chinese manufacturers, and given
Speaker 8: the huge over supply and over capacity, to the European
Speaker 8: market is very important. Some data shows that up to
Speaker 8: sixty percent today of all global evy experts from China
Speaker 8: go to Europe, the EU, but of course also the
Speaker 8: UK and Norwich. So it is a significant market. That's
Speaker 8: why I think Europe shouldn't be so scared of retaliation.
Speaker 8: Of course it's the risk, but China also needs Europe,
Speaker 8: and ultimately, as I said before, we will see the
Speaker 8: Chinese brands in Europe, but they will manufacture here, they
Speaker 8: will build batteries here, and hopefully wild the Europeans benefit
Speaker 8: from them in terms of it and value.
Speaker 2: We really appreciate you sticking with a story throughout for
Speaker 2: US Transport Environments Senior Director Julia ris Canova sticking with China.
Speaker 2: Shanghai CSI three hundred index continues to surge. Investors see
Speaker 2: government stimulus creating an opportunity for firms. Let's discuss all
Speaker 2: of this and sustainability of the rally. Remergs Isabelle Lee
Speaker 2: twenty six percent ten days.
Speaker 5: Is this going to continue?
Speaker 10: It's really spectacular. We've seen a wave of buying we've
Speaker 10: never seen before or at least in decades. We have
Speaker 10: economists capitulating, we have black Rocks now actually buying in
Speaker 10: after being long a bear, but who knows. We have
Speaker 10: Regiev Jane, he's the PM of a twenty five or
Speaker 10: so billion dollar em and he's saying that this rally
Speaker 10: will be fleeting. We have the more economists saying that
Speaker 10: this reminds them somewhat of the twenty fifteen bear crash,
Speaker 10: So it really I mean, if you rally this fastened,
Speaker 10: this deep, where will this go? And we have Goldman
Speaker 10: sac saying that, Okay, obviously this increases the optimism in
Speaker 10: the market, but it remains another question whether the Beijing
Speaker 10: will actually implement any of the stimulus.
Speaker 5: So it's really wait.
Speaker 10: And see now, and they will get back from their
Speaker 10: goals and we Calliday next Tuesday. So I think that's
Speaker 10: really the determinant.
Speaker 3: Where does China's technology sector fit within this narrative. We've
Speaker 3: been touching on it with you this week because there
Speaker 3: is US investor interest in some of those names. But
Speaker 3: does the same kind of broader philosophy apply.
Speaker 10: I think with a Chinese tech sector, it's kind of
Speaker 10: like the US tech sector. It's a little bit independent because,
Speaker 10: if you must recall, the Chinese government approaches that segment
Speaker 10: very differently in the past couple of years. They've doubled
Speaker 10: down on it, then they east on it, and that's
Speaker 10: why you see this kind of optimism. But for this one,
Speaker 10: it goes beyond that. It's really the whole economy they're
Speaker 10: definitely trying to really boost the sentiment, and this is
Speaker 10: why it happened before the holiday, because they have a
Speaker 10: tendency to do that so that people feel good when
Speaker 10: they're off for that week or so, so that they spend.
Speaker 10: And you have data from city groups saying that spending
Speaker 10: is indeed robust. So I think that's a different approach.
Speaker 10: But overall this seems to be more of a coordinated
Speaker 10: measure and there's buy in from the government. This is
Speaker 10: why banks, like again Goldman Sachs is saying that maybe
Speaker 10: this is different, but it still remains to be seen before.
Speaker 10: Now we have really ETFs having their best global flows
Speaker 10: and we have a lot of that coming from ETFs
Speaker 10: link to China.
Speaker 3: In beks Isabellie super smart reporting focused on tech.
Speaker 4: Really appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Meta it's announced it'll start to actually integrate an AI
Speaker 2: movie generator similar to open Ai, Sora It's apps maybe
Speaker 2: sometime in the next year.
Speaker 5: Belue Most Kurt Wagner joins us for more.
Speaker 2: Again, the focus on our AI is relentless over a
Speaker 2: Meta it has been.
Speaker 11: Right, I mean, it's been this story for Mark Zuckerberg
Speaker 11: in this company for the whole year for sure, But
Speaker 11: even just last week, Caroline, You'll remember we were talking
Speaker 11: about Oriyan, these augmented reality glasses, you know, the ray band,
Speaker 11: metas their AI powered smart glasses. Now they're coming out
Speaker 11: with you know, video generated AI product. So this has
Speaker 11: been a very steady stream of updates from them. That's not,
Speaker 11: you know, a coincidence. Of course, this has been what
Speaker 11: Mark Zuckerberg has been talking about for a long time now,
Speaker 11: and now we're seeing some of the results of all
Speaker 11: that topic.
Speaker 3: It is a steady stream, and it is interesting because
Speaker 3: you and I spent two days at Meta last week
Speaker 3: and this wasn't shown to us, and now they've put
Speaker 3: it out this morning. But I guess what I'd reflect
Speaker 3: on is that they are doing all things with open
Speaker 3: source being at front center. You have a sort of
Speaker 3: consumer facing technology which you can access through the ray
Speaker 3: bands or through the application. Then there is the sort
Speaker 3: of more enterprise and industry leading stuff. Where does the
Speaker 3: video tech fit in? Are they going off to developers
Speaker 3: for example?
Speaker 11: So the idea is to eventually make this a consumer product.
Speaker 11: It will be integrated into their apps with the hope
Speaker 11: that people will then create more video edit more of
Speaker 11: their own videos to make them more fun or different
Speaker 11: and increase sharing. At the same time, they're getting this
Speaker 11: in the hands of some filmmakers. They wouldn't tell us
Speaker 11: which ones, but they say they're out partnering with the
Speaker 11: film industry because they want this to be a complimentary thing, right.
Speaker 11: The last thing they want is to be seen is
Speaker 11: going after the movie houses or being a threat to them.
Speaker 11: They want to work with them. So it's a little
Speaker 11: bit of a consumer thing, but also something that they're
Speaker 11: trying to get in the hands of people who do
Speaker 11: this for a living.
Speaker 2: They've also got to be worried about fake images and
Speaker 2: ultimately how they show this as AI.
Speaker 11: Yeah, and this is a big reason that they haven't
Speaker 11: rolled it out in the product just yet, that they're
Speaker 11: still figuring out some of the safety elements of this.
Speaker 11: You know, part of the feature here is you could
Speaker 11: actually upload a picture of yourself, Caroline and say make
Speaker 11: me into this movie or put me into this movie,
Speaker 11: and it'll do it. You can imagine the consequences if
Speaker 11: you're uploading photos of someone else, right, and you're putting
Speaker 11: them in compromising situations, in appropriate situations. So they are
Speaker 11: trying to figure out the safety elements of this as
Speaker 11: they are going. It's a good sign I think that
Speaker 11: they haven't rolled this out broadly if they haven't figured
Speaker 11: that out yet, So you know, we'll take that as
Speaker 11: perhaps a meta growing up a little bit from a
Speaker 11: year's past.
Speaker 4: Go to my Instagram.
Speaker 3: I use that tool of uploading myself and making something
Speaker 3: from it, and yeah, you need an imagination. Blue Bes
Speaker 3: Kurt Wagner, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Bluemog Technology. I'm Caroline Hyde in New
Speaker 2: York and.
Speaker 4: I met love Loow in San Francisco.
Speaker 5: Let's just check out on.
Speaker 2: These markets on the weak ed because this week has
Speaker 2: felt rather long. If you just cast your mind back
Speaker 2: to the geopolitical tension we were facing at the start
Speaker 2: of the week, the sell off that we had on Tuesday.
Speaker 2: We manage somewhat of a bounce back on the nasat
Speaker 2: one hundred, but we're still lower on the course of
Speaker 2: the five trading days. Then we get the mega jobs
Speaker 2: data print today much ahead of basically everyone's expectations.
Speaker 5: More than two are a thousand jobs.
Speaker 2: Added, and we actually managed to sustain a little bit
Speaker 2: of buying on the equity front, even though we start
Speaker 2: to dial back on those rate cup bets, move on
Speaker 2: and have a look at what's.
Speaker 5: Happening on the individual names.
Speaker 2: Was leading from a points perspective is large part in Tesla,
Speaker 2: even though we see that the EU is voting to
Speaker 2: put forty five percent tariffs on certain Chinese car makers.
Speaker 2: Now Tesla of course makes a lot of the cars
Speaker 2: in China that ships to the EU, but many feeling
Speaker 2: that they won't be so pointed at Tesla. Maybe there's
Speaker 2: a bit of a relief rally on our hands, or
Speaker 2: maybe we're just buying for the sake of buying. We're
Speaker 2: looking at also Ubisoft up thirty two percent. Now this
Speaker 2: is the ADRs traded in the US. They were higher
Speaker 2: over in France as well.
Speaker 5: This is Ubizoft.
Speaker 2: Potentially is a take private target from Tencent and the
Speaker 2: Guimo family. Reports coming from Blueberg. Lastly, I finishing what's
Speaker 2: happening on the downside. Rivia new reported of course said
Speaker 2: that production being cut back and curtailed it hits the stock.
Speaker 5: What have you got?
Speaker 3: Another name that's looking at our country of origin, Robin
Speaker 3: Hood is exploring an entry into the British market. Is
Speaker 3: the fintech giant continues to hunt for growth beyond the
Speaker 3: United States. A few months ago, Robinhood rolled out commission
Speaker 3: free trading for more than six thousand US listed stocks
Speaker 3: to UK customers. Now is considering adding UK stocks to
Speaker 3: the list. Bloomberg's Francine Lacroix caught up with Robinhood's CEO
Speaker 3: of lad Tenev about the expansion.
Speaker 12: The first priority is making all of the great functionality
Speaker 12: that we became known for in the US available to
Speaker 12: UK customers. So margin investing in particular is in the
Speaker 12: coming weeks.
Speaker 4: There's been a huge demand for.
Speaker 12: Options as well, options on US equities because that's just
Speaker 12: hard to come by here in the UK market. So
Speaker 12: we really feel like we can differentiate with US offerings.
Speaker 12: But of course we're looking ahead to multi currency wallet
Speaker 12: support and local execution, including the London Stock Exchange at all.
Speaker 5: It's exciting. So in what kind of timeframe?
Speaker 1: I mean, so margin in a couple of weeks, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then every couple every couple of months, something something more.
Speaker 12: That's the idea. Yeah, every couple of months. I mean,
Speaker 12: we have a long backlog of things and we're continuing
Speaker 12: to build new things. So we've talked a little bit
Speaker 12: about new asset classes that are likely going to come
Speaker 12: to the US first, like futures trading. But really we
Speaker 12: think Robinhood can offer a differentiated service for UK investors
Speaker 12: who want exposure to broader global markets.
Speaker 5: Robinhood's senior lad Tene.
Speaker 2: And while the US is leading the charge in terms
Speaker 2: of deployment of artificial intelligence, according to KKR's global head
Speaker 2: of Digital Infrastructure, he told Ballymokes David Weston that a
Speaker 2: similar playbook is being applied in Europe and Asia Pacific.
Speaker 2: Bus scale of America's data is a clear strategic element
Speaker 2: for growth.
Speaker 5: Take a listen.
Speaker 13: So US is definitely, at least from our perspective, well
Speaker 13: ahead in terms of the deployment of AI. But just
Speaker 13: to try to quantify the scale of it, US data
Speaker 13: center market is about a fifteen gigle ad market growing
Speaker 13: to forty gigabats. European market is about six gigo AID
Speaker 13: market that's likely going to triple or quadruple over the
Speaker 13: next four or five years to twenty gigabytes. And then
Speaker 13: Asia Pacific x China is on a similar trajectory. So
Speaker 13: the scale is really different between US and those other markets.
Speaker 3: You can catch more of this interview on how to
Speaker 3: overcome data center hurdles a mid growing demand tonight on
Speaker 3: Wall Street week at six pm Eastern Time. But data
Speaker 3: center hurdles not the only challenge to the deployment of AI.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's internal struggles within the AI companies themselves. Take
Speaker 3: open Ai. The startup's been roiled by an exodus of
Speaker 3: top executives and much of its original brain trust. The
Speaker 3: company today bears little resemblance to its earlier self. This
Speaker 3: is its CEO, Sam Altman, is increasingly concentrating power. I
Speaker 3: want to bring in Bloomboa's Rachel Metz, who had the
Speaker 3: deep dive. And I guess a picture says a thousand
Speaker 3: words is the most appropriate idiom, because if you put
Speaker 3: the pictures of the faces of all the people that
Speaker 3: started open ai one against the other, you cross out
Speaker 3: those that have gone and those that are left, it's
Speaker 3: just three people and one of them's on a sabbatical.
Speaker 4: What have you learned?
Speaker 14: Yeah, I mean there were a lot of people at
Speaker 14: the start of this company. There were actually eleven of them,
Speaker 14: and now we're down to sort of three. We have
Speaker 14: two people actively working at the company. Sam Altman. Of
Speaker 14: course and Voyjexamember and Greg Brockman is currently on leave
Speaker 14: until the end of the year. So it's been a
Speaker 14: big change. I mean, and they're C suite as well
Speaker 14: has also changed and evolved. They changed over a lot
Speaker 14: of people and a lot of people have left, and
Speaker 14: then they've also expanded the number of people that they
Speaker 14: have in their C suite over the past year. What
Speaker 14: I really wanted to do with this story was just
Speaker 14: kind of look at how things have changed over time
Speaker 14: and sort of where all the power is going at
Speaker 14: this company.
Speaker 2: Does the power residing in fewer hands mean they are
Speaker 2: able to iterate to innovate faster because it doesn't feel
Speaker 2: as though anything's been stopped in terms of the tidal
Speaker 2: wave of new innovations coming from open Ai despite the
Speaker 2: internal struggles.
Speaker 14: Yeah, so a lot has changed both internally and sort
Speaker 14: of like from the outside looking in at the company
Speaker 14: over the past year since Sam Altman, the CEO, was
Speaker 14: briefly ousted and then returned, they had a lot of
Speaker 14: staff changeover. Also, just the number of employees there is
Speaker 14: more than double what it was late last year. It's
Speaker 14: at about seventeen hundred people at this point, So you
Speaker 14: see these changes, and then you also see more people
Speaker 14: are reporting to Sam. I mean he said that publicly,
Speaker 14: so there's a bit of a flattening of the organization there.
Speaker 14: And then they are pushing out these products, one after
Speaker 14: the other after the other. There was one yesterday. Actually
Speaker 14: they just keep coming, so you know, the push towards commercialization.
Speaker 14: There is an internal consolidation and the power, and it
Speaker 14: just shows that this company is really trying to move
Speaker 14: toward making more money, becoming a larger company, becoming more
Speaker 14: of like a corporate technology company.
Speaker 5: Rachel Matt's busy life. We appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, coming up, we're going to be joined by Vinodekosla
Speaker 2: on open AI's internal changes. But it's massive funding round
Speaker 2: and of course the future impact on society.
Speaker 5: This is really the technology.
Speaker 3: Open Ai just closed its latest round and it was
Speaker 3: a historic one. In today's VC Spotlight, we're joined by
Speaker 3: the founder of Coastal Adventures, which has a history with
Speaker 3: open Ai.
Speaker 4: Of its own. It wrote the first check into.
Speaker 3: Open ai and is participating in this round as well.
Speaker 3: Vino Kosler joins us now, and that's where I want
Speaker 3: to start. We've discussed many times. You wrote the first
Speaker 3: check into open Ai. What was the rationale behind participating
Speaker 3: in this round And we've gone over the numbers, how
Speaker 3: big they are, and why it is historic.
Speaker 6: Well, the reason to put spate is because I'm pretty
Speaker 6: optimistic about the impact that I can have in all
Speaker 6: parts of society. It's very, very large over the next
Speaker 6: ten or fifteen years. So if you're a long term investor,
Speaker 6: as I am, it makes sense.
Speaker 3: You have a fiduciary duty to your LPs and you
Speaker 3: are a long term investor. And as always I always
Speaker 3: put on social media that you're coming on the show,
Speaker 3: and many people in the Bloomberg Technology audio and say
Speaker 3: ah does denote coastless sense that an IPO is coming
Speaker 3: for open Ai, and so he's got into this round
Speaker 3: in preparation for that.
Speaker 6: We haven't discussed an IPO. The structure today isn't set
Speaker 6: up for an IPO.
Speaker 5: Let's talk about that structure.
Speaker 2: Have you been discussing turning into a b court, deciding
Speaker 2: to be more for profit?
Speaker 6: Well, Sam has publicly discussed changing the structure without talking
Speaker 6: about the specifics, and that's probably all I can say.
Speaker 6: I think it's a good idea for this company to
Speaker 6: set up to be set up.
Speaker 15: To raise more money when needed.
Speaker 6: I think the way perspective on opening I is over
Speaker 6: the last two years crap twenty years of rapid growth
Speaker 6: in revenue into two years.
Speaker 15: When you have that kind of growth from.
Speaker 6: Almost no revenue to billions of revenue as has been reported,
Speaker 6: you want to be set up and you will need
Speaker 6: to consume capital, especially in data centers and some other
Speaker 6: training centers, etc. So the perspective you should take is
Speaker 6: twenty years of growth in a normal startup in two
Speaker 6: years and rapid growth you would expectancye changes.
Speaker 5: Internal as well.
Speaker 2: How have you felt about the fact that the founding
Speaker 2: team that you first invested in looks very different now
Speaker 2: from the team that leads the business apart from Sam.
Speaker 6: Well, I think the team looks different, but it's very
Speaker 6: strong technical team and what has been happening is streamlining
Speaker 6: it for rapid movement. As you know, the company has
Speaker 6: been producing products at a blitz kind of pace. Very
Speaker 6: few competitors have been able to keep up with the
Speaker 6: wide range of products in pretty significant capability that the
Speaker 6: company has dwell up. And I think the key in
Speaker 6: this race is to beat the competition, not worry about others.
Speaker 6: And frankly grow revenue very rapidly, and which is usage
Speaker 6: very rapidly.
Speaker 3: Then last month you wrote in your blog a piece
Speaker 3: titled AI Dystopian or Utopian.
Speaker 4: I read it. It's a long.
Speaker 3: Read, but in conclusion you see a path to AI
Speaker 3: unlocking wealth that is basically held by less than a
Speaker 3: billion people being extended to nearer to seven eight billion
Speaker 3: people through AI. That the bit that was missing from
Speaker 3: the piece I felt is how does open AI get
Speaker 3: us there?
Speaker 4: You are very focused on open AI, I guess.
Speaker 3: As a leader in getting human access to artificial technology,
Speaker 3: artificial intelligence technology.
Speaker 4: Forgive me.
Speaker 6: Well, what I spoke to in this piece is AI
Speaker 6: in address some of the critics concerns about the dystopian
Speaker 6: thing that might happen, and I'm not saying there's no risk,
Speaker 6: but I address all of them fairly specifically, and then
Speaker 6: talk about the abundance it can provide. It's the most
Speaker 6: important tool we've had in human history for creating abundance
Speaker 6: and creating a fairer, more equitable, more well off society.
Speaker 6: The company that wins in AI will lead this race.
Speaker 6: I suspect more than one player will be participating, so
Speaker 6: it's not just open ay, But I'm very very bullish.
Speaker 6: Open Ai is executing extremely well on product, which is
Speaker 6: what matters, and on revenue growth. So I'm excited for
Speaker 6: openI as being a leader, but probably one of the
Speaker 6: leaders in this.
Speaker 5: Race to be a leader.
Speaker 2: Do you think Sam should take equity himself in the company.
Speaker 6: That's for the board to decide. I do think Sam
Speaker 6: deserves something for what he's done, but it's.
Speaker 15: Not his highest priority. As far from his highest priority.
Speaker 3: You know, what is your assessment so far of Sarah Fryer?
Speaker 3: My understanding standing speaking to some of your peers and
Speaker 3: colleagues in industry, is that she prepared a pretty straightforward
Speaker 3: presentation that tried to educate those that didn't have as
Speaker 3: clear an understanding of the path forward and business model,
Speaker 3: and actually a lot of investors got it. They looked
Speaker 3: at the presentation and went, Okay, we're on board with this.
Speaker 4: What was your reaction to her and to that, Well.
Speaker 15: I've known Sarah for a long time.
Speaker 6: I was on the board of Square now Blocked when
Speaker 6: she was cfour there, so I've had a long relationship
Speaker 6: with Sarah. She You're exactly right, she prepared a chrisp
Speaker 6: It was simple, straightforward said here's where we are today,
Speaker 6: Here's where we expect to be a year from now.
Speaker 15: Much more than that is not that predictable.
Speaker 6: Interest compelling Obviously its compelling to me.
Speaker 15: Otherwise we wouldn't have invested.
Speaker 2: And what's interesting is you say, look, it won't be
Speaker 2: the only one, but you want it to be the
Speaker 2: leading player. There was some consternation Veno that within the
Speaker 2: documentation there was a push that anyone who backs open
Speaker 2: Ai can't back its competitors in the future.
Speaker 5: Is that normal?
Speaker 2: Is that something that you want to see in such documents.
Speaker 6: You know, in very large bets, this is pretty normal,
Speaker 6: and it isn't a requirement.
Speaker 15: It's not a legal commitment.
Speaker 6: It's a mutual understanding, and we operate a lot on trust.
Speaker 6: So investors committed to get behind Opening Eye and not
Speaker 6: its competitors.
Speaker 15: And that's pretty no word.
Speaker 4: Especially at this skill, Venod.
Speaker 3: I'd like to end our conversation by just talking about technology.
Speaker 3: Every day I have a conversation with chat GPT four
Speaker 3: to oh voice input, or I talked to Meta AI
Speaker 3: through the ray bands, and sometimes my wife looks at
Speaker 3: me baffled, and or in the street in San Francisco
Speaker 3: or my colleagues here in the bureau. And I say
Speaker 3: all that to ask the question of when you think
Speaker 3: the tipping point is that the large body of people
Speaker 3: out there either understand how they're supposed to be using
Speaker 3: this daily or believe that they should be using it daily.
Speaker 15: Well, they now put my email address on my business.
Speaker 6: Card in the eighties and had a dinner with my
Speaker 6: business school friends. They laughed at me all nine. So
Speaker 6: I'm familiar things. I'm bearing the AirPods, which would have
Speaker 6: seemed strange. So people do adjust. It's some people are
Speaker 6: just faster. I think what the question you have to ask,
Speaker 6: is chat cibuty useful to you? And it's extremely useful
Speaker 6: to me in a wide range of casts. And yeah,
Speaker 6: it's generally useful to me very broadly. Even my Tesla
Speaker 6: driving is incredibly valuable to me. So that's all AI,
Speaker 6: And so focus on what's useful, not the perception of it,
Speaker 6: and in the end it will spread everywhere if it's
Speaker 6: actually useful to more people.
Speaker 2: Quick last on what's your favorite thing currently to use
Speaker 2: chat shibut for.
Speaker 6: Oh wide range from following scientific stuff. I participated in
Speaker 6: a scientific meeting where I didn't have a background. It
Speaker 6: was extremely useful in interpreting things that were being said
Speaker 6: for me.
Speaker 15: I also used it to design my garden.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there we go. Well, if the orchids are anything
Speaker 2: to go by, it's pretty great garden. No, Kosler, we
Speaker 2: appreciate it. Founder A Coasler Ventures, Japanese also make a
Speaker 2: Toyota when it's boosted its investment in Joby Aviation by
Speaker 2: five hundred million dollars, bringing its total investment in the
Speaker 2: air taxi manufacturer to eight hundred and ninety four million dollars.
Speaker 2: Here to discuss is Joben ever Joby Aviation CEO, who's
Speaker 2: had a.
Speaker 5: Busy few days. You're getting male money.
Speaker 2: You're putting your aircraft in Grand Central in New York
Speaker 2: so people can see it, understand how it works, what
Speaker 2: it's like to sit inside. What does the Toyota partnership
Speaker 2: bring you? What nuts and bolts are they actually doing
Speaker 2: behind the scenes with you.
Speaker 16: So Toyta's an incredible investor. They've been with us for
Speaker 16: seven years now, first Toyota Ventures, then Toyda Motor Corporation,
Speaker 16: and that when they did the investment in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 16: They send engineers that are working shoulder to shoulder with
Speaker 16: our team in California. That's been an absolute game changer.
Speaker 16: Last year we agreed to a part supply agreement with Toyota,
Speaker 16: where Toyta's making incredible, really high quality parts for aircraft,
Speaker 16: parts for our motors, and actuators for our battery systems.
Speaker 16: They've been incredible, and now with this next five million
Speaker 16: dollar investment, they're leaning in even more.
Speaker 4: And one of the.
Speaker 16: Key things we have this dream of taking this and
Speaker 16: making it something accessible to everyone. And Toyta is known
Speaker 16: around the world for making incredible cars with spectacular reliability
Speaker 16: and safety.
Speaker 5: But why won't the chairman get in one of Toyota?
Speaker 5: Like how much are you.
Speaker 2: Managing to convince him and others that this is the
Speaker 2: safe and very real way to travel.
Speaker 16: We are really excited about that, and he's really excited
Speaker 16: about that. He asked me every time I meet with him,
Speaker 16: when can I get in and fly?
Speaker 3: Okay, Joe Ben, I'm super interested in the future of
Speaker 3: this industry in Japan and the adoption there.
Speaker 4: I think you're supposed to next.
Speaker 3: Month even demo some tech right do you see it
Speaker 3: superseding United States for ev toll?
Speaker 16: We see spectacular lean in from countries around the world,
Speaker 16: the regulators around the world. Just this morning you heard
Speaker 16: the FA administrator say that he expected certification as early
Speaker 16: as next year and that this technology was going to
Speaker 16: have as large an impact as cell phones and automobiles
Speaker 16: have had on our lives. And so just having lean
Speaker 16: in from regulators like that from JCAB in Japan is
Speaker 16: just a dream come true. I've been working on this
Speaker 16: for more than fifteen years, and the momentum we're seeing
Speaker 16: in this industry has never been greater.
Speaker 3: Toyotes is going to do lithium ion out of Greensboro,
Speaker 3: North Carolina.
Speaker 4: Are they going to supply you? You're going to buy
Speaker 4: lithium ion for them.
Speaker 16: The investments that Toyda's make making in North Carolina are
Speaker 16: just spectacular. The advances they're making in batteries are phenomenal.
Speaker 16: They've been investing in hydrogen propulsion, which is going to
Speaker 16: be the next age for aviation propulsion. So across the board,
Speaker 16: we could not dream of a better supplier than the
Speaker 16: world's number one automotive company, Toyota. I'd also like to
Speaker 16: highlight that last night we had uber Ceo Dara in
Speaker 16: Grand Central Station with US, and it is just spectacular
Speaker 16: to have the number one automotive company, the number one
Speaker 16: ride sharing company, and the number one airline with Delta,
Speaker 16: who's also one of our investors and strategic partners. Jobe
Speaker 16: is just continuing to deliver day after day and year
Speaker 16: after year, and it's so wonderful to have incredible partners
Speaker 16: like we do alongside us.
Speaker 5: I ask again, when will I be in it?
Speaker 16: So we brought our aircraft here to New York this
Speaker 16: last fall, and we're able to show the community not
Speaker 16: just how fast and efficient this new mode of transportation
Speaker 16: will be, but also how quiet it is. Is critical
Speaker 16: to opening up new takeoff and landing locations, so we're
Speaker 16: working with the port authority here to get verteports permitted
Speaker 16: at JFK Loguardia Newark and to be able to build
Speaker 16: these best in class experiences. We're looking forward to providing
Speaker 16: trips to upstate New York and connecting the entire region.
Speaker 5: All eyes on the regulators.
Speaker 2: Then, joe Vin Vivette, we thank you Job Aviation CEO
Speaker 2: that does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 4: Grecap on the pod. You know exactly where to find
Speaker 4: it from New York and s. This is Bloomberg Technology,