WEBVTT - Meta Boosts Capex to $65B 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:09.680 Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news from the heart of 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:15.480 where innovation, money and power collide in Silicon Valley and beyond. 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:41.560 This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow. 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:37.199 Live from New York. I'm Caroline Hyde. 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:41.680 And I'm Mike Sheppard and Washington. This is Bloomberg Technology. 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.280 Coming up metas all in on AI with plans to 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.440 boost capital expenditure to up to sixty five billion dollars 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.080 in twenty twenty five, plus a choppy start to chip 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.559 earnings with global semi stocks falling after Texas Instruments is 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.080 the latest to underwhelm and what'll be joined by Frank 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.000 McCourt on the future of TikTok in the US and 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:01.920 his bid for the social media platform. At first, we 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:04.800 check in on these markets, Mike, which are still treading 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:05.679 near record highs. 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:07.560 The NASAC is up almost two percent with the course 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:07.959 of the week. 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:10.560 But we draw down a little bit as we of 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.080 course see the weight of some chip stocks causing a 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.760 little anxiety. Look at his industrial automotive end markets that 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.920 still prove wheak. Texas Instruments again falling on from s 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:22.839 k Heinix, which had a little bit of an underwhelming 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:26.360 earnings report as well. They're seeing the smartphone weakness, but 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:29.560 AI still really managing to drive forward. Broadcom is on 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:32.320 the higher side when it comes to the socks. Why's 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:34.520 broad come up because of our nex stock. Let's have 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:36.840 a look at what's happening with Meta today, because they 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:39.959 see from Mark Zuckerberg almost front running his own earnings 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.200 report next week to say that they are committed to 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:47.080 spending on AI, data centers, people, infrastructure, and indeed we're 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:48.680 starting to see it up nineteen percent. 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:49.880 We're at a record high for Meta. 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.200 Let's get out to Kurt Wagner for more, because this 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:56.040 is all about upping its capital expenditure to whopping sixty 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:56.600 five billion. 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:00.200 Yeah, and that's about fifty percent more than what we 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.720 saw in twenty twenty four, which was a big amount 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:04.639 thirty eight to forty billion, and a lot of people 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.120 a year ago, Caroline, were sort of worried is Meta 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:10.399 overspending here? Right? And here they are jumping up even higher. 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:12.760 I mean, I think you hit it right there, which 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:15.000 is that this is an AI play, right, This is 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.680 data centers, these are GPUs, this is you know, trying 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:21.959 to keep pace with Open AI and Microsoft and Google 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:24.400 and all these other companies that are investing so heavily. 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:26.639 It's been a huge focus for Mark Zuckerberg over the 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:29.040 last couple of years and clearly will continue to be 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:29.920 in twenty twenty five. 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:34.000 Kurt. We've seen some investors express concern about whether there 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:37.280 is an overspend in AI, but today they seem to 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.080 be giving a little bit of grace to Meta. Why 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:41.360 is that in metas case? 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.480 Well, I think this is the most exciting technology that 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:45.760 Meta could be investing in. 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:45.960 Right. 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:47.880 If you're a meta investor and you say, hey, what 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:50.560 would you rather do have Mark Zuckerberg put twenty billion 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:54.800 dollars into AI or twenty billion dollars into you know, 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:55.760 the metaverse? 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:56.000 Right? 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.000 And obviously those things are related. A lot of the 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.240 A technology will ultimately power the metaverse. But my point 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.959 simply being is that I think this is the avenue 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:07.520 where investors are okay with overspending. 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:07.720 Right. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:11.000 Even Mark Zuckerberg told our own Emily Chang last summer, Hey, 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:12.880 a lot of us are going to overspend, but that 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.400 is a better outcome than waking up ten years from 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:18.480 now and realizing you missed the boat on this whole thing. 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:22.000 Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner, Thank you. And it was a big 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.320 week for chip stocks as President Trump announced Project Stargate 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:29.280 to help boost AI infrastructure, but weakness in traditional memory 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:32.799 markets is limiting that euphoria. For more, we're joined by 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:37.040 Peter Elstrom of Bloomberg. Thank you, Peter. Peter, we are 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:40.400 seeing that this AI wave is not lifting all boats. 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:42.240 Can you talk a little bit about what happened with 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.000 sk Heinex and Texast Instruments for example, and then more broadly. 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:50.200 Yeah, Ska Honicks is a Korean company that doesn't get 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:52.760 that much attention, doesn't get the kind of attention that 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:56.520 Nvidia does, but it's very related to them. In Vidia 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.800 makes the AI accelerators and Ska Honicks makes the memory 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.280 that are paired with those accelerators to be able to 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:04.839 run these AI models. So it's a pretty good bill 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:07.040 weather of what's going on in the AI market now. 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:10.080 It's earnings results, by almost any measure, were quite strong. 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.320 Revenue was of seventy five percent, their operating profit was 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:16.719 up twenty fold, but it wasn't enough for investors. The 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.719 shares actually declined about three percent yesterday. There's been some 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.160 softness in that market, and that sort of sent some 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.400 concerns throughout the market, including here into Europe and into 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.120 the US yesterday. It just goes to show how high 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:30.640 the expectations are in this market. You would think that 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.520 sixty five billion dollars in spending on AI will get 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:35.720 you something of a rally in stocks, but that's not 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:36.560 what we're seeing so far. 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.640 Yeah, any Broadcom really managing to garnering any love from 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.240 that because it's a supplier to Meta so too is 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:44.480 in video that's on the downside, and maybe that's more 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.080 in line with what we're seeing with Texas instruments. It 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.320 underwhelms on its numbers, but it's the end markets of autos, 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.200 of industrials of actually maybe where we'll see some tariffs 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:54.400 being hit from China too. 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.640 Yeah, there are different kinds of concerns around Texas instruments. 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.040 They play a bit more into the traditional markets, as 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:03.720 you say, into the auto market in particular. We could 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.480 have teriffs impact some of those in markets. It's not 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:08.600 clear exactly how that's going to spend. And also Trump 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.400 has been talking about rolling back some of the subsidies 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:13.599 for evs, which take a lot of these ships too. 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.920 So there's some softness and some more traditional size parts 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.839 of the chip market here that may be impacting Texas 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:23.919 instruments and overall just raising concerns about whether some of 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:27.840 these valuations have gotten ahead of themselves from AI into 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:28.919 some of these other areas. 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:33.400 Peter Elstrom manering the tech with the politics. 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.640 We thank you so much on all things chip. President Trump. 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:40.239 They're speaking as he boards Air Force one in Nashville, 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:44.359 North Carolina, visiting. Of course family is affected by Hurricane Helen. 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:47.719 But he spoke much more about Federal Emergency Management Agency, 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:51.200 wanting them to see less involvement in hurricane recovery and 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:54.080 more state involvement when it comes to these sorts of 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:55.040 natural disasters. 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:57.640 Also speaking about OPEC, the view. 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:00.520 On cutting oil prices, and indeed he was speaking that 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:03.039 a little bit about some of the immigration policies, and 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:07.320 indeed once again criticizing some of the water policies in California. 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:12.000 He pans to visit California next and regarding those LA wildfires. 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:14.880 But Mike, we have much more on President Trump's policies. 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:18.560 We do, and he has these big ambitions for the 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:21.640 US to become an AI superpower. As we heard him 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.680 talk about at Davos yesterday. This is touching off a 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.880 global tech race, and we're joined by Michelle guid To, 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:32.120 the CEO of the Kroc Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue, 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.600 to talk us through it. Michelle, we have seen this 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.839 week the Stargate venture announced and then Meta today talking 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:42.719 about a big investment in AI and in data centers. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.640 Those are all private sector initiatives. Are they going to 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.520 be enough to keep up with what rivals like China 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.760 in particular, are doing with state driven investment? 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:53.680 Yeah? 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:55.719 Thanks, thanks for that. Mike. Well, I think what we're 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:58.680 seeing in the first five days of the second Trump 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:03.600 administration is America First also means innovation first, and as 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:05.440 you pointed out, there is a lot of momentum with 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:09.080 private sector companies now stepping up their game to invest 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:11.960 in the future of the United States becoming what the 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:16.200 President has said will be the world capital of artificial intelligence, 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:20.400 the world capital of cryptocurrency. And that's really important because 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.400 China wants to hold that title. And China is also 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:25.840 pouring a lot of its own government money, billions and 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:31.040 billions of dollars into building out data centers, building out infrastructure. 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:34.560 They're building eight new massive data hubs. They're approving ten 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:38.680 nuclear power plants every year. They have a national initiative 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.520 called Eastern Data Western Compute. So to see private sector 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:47.000 companies United States all of a sudden really cranking up 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:49.720 their investment in this strategic capability for the United States 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:50.360 as good news. 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:54.520 Michelle, You've talked in the past about the importance of 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:59.240 democratic allies working together in this area of tech. Yesterday, 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.760 also at Davo's, we heard Donald Trump talking about tariffs 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:06.600 and differences over regulation with the European Union. How does 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:09.720 that complicate joint efforts to say counter China. 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.760 Well, you know, with trusted allies and partners, you can 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.400 also be really honest and they are honest conversations going 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.000 on about what it takes to work together and to 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:24.040 be effective economically, to be effective technologically in order to 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:28.720 compete against China. And the innovation first approach is really 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.360 interesting because the opposite of that, the alternative to that, 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.520 is a regulatory first approach. We've seen what happens with that. 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:35.600 Just look at Europe. 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:38.320 The report that Mario Dragi release just a few months 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.760 ago outlined how painful it's become for Europe. They have 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:45.679 to pay eight hundred billion dollars a year just to 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:48.640 catch up in terms of tech competitives. In fifty years, 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.400 they haven't created a single company that's got greater than 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.080 one hundred billion dollar market cap. All of their unicorns, 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.600 a third of their unicorns are fleeing the EU. So 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.559 we have to change that because the Europeans, our friends 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:03.960 in the Indo Pacific, Latin America, all across the world 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:05.680 are really important partner. So we need to be on 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:07.800 the same page in terms of how we power innovation 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:11.320 at the same time we are powering oternational security. 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.960 Michelle, it's interesting that the previous administration, in the last 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.320 days of the Biden administration, did put some pretty tough 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.840 focus on Nvidia, for example. Then it's a bitity to export, 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.559 particularly to China. How much might that hinders some of 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.480 the very successful companies here in the United States with 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:30.120 the ongoing geopolitical tension. 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:35.600 Yeah, I think we'll see some developments with the new 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:38.400 Trump administration on where they're going with export controls. Well, 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:41.240 remember that started under the first administration was carried forward 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:42.720 by the Biden administration. 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:44.040 We'll see where that goes. 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:46.599 But I think you can tell that this administration is 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:50.480 very focused on innovation and national security at the same time. 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.680 So we've got a bolster us and allied innovation and 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:56.640 leadership so that we win and our values are represented 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:59.880 in technology. At the same time, we can also protect 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.520 national security. And as President Trump said in his inaugural address, 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:06.200 America can do the impossible. It's what we do. And 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:08.960 to balance those two things with our allies. I think 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:10.600 we're headed on a trajectory toward that. 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:11.520 But it takes time. 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:14.640 These one hundred billion dollars of investment up to five 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:18.080 hundred billion dollars can't go into the ground immediately to 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:21.040 start getting data centers up and running. It takes years, 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:24.600 and yet we might see an impact on goods coming 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:26.240 from China in months. 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.200 Is that a key issue? Is that a national security risk? 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:34.439 Well, I think this administration has signaled that this all 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:36.640 needs to happen as fast as possible. They've used the 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:41.520 word unleash many times, unleashing American energy, unleashing American innovation, 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:45.480 declaring an energy emergency in order to really catalyze and 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:47.920 accelerate what we're doing there, We're going to need so 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:52.000 much more energy to power these data centers that power ai. 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:55.319 Open Ai and Goldman Sacks I think had estimate it. 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:59.199 We're going to need fifty gegawatts of new incremental energy. 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:00.080 In order to do that. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.640 We're dusting off all nuclear power plants, so you're right, 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:05.840 that has to happen really fast. And the great part 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:08.000 is that we've got private sector companies now on board 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:09.560 that are going to turbo charge our effort. 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:12.240 Chere, Geida, It's always great to have you on the 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.160 crowd Institute for Tech Topoonmacy at Perdu, we thank you. 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:16.040 Coming up. 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:18.280 Look, open ai is joining a growing number of tech 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:20.880 companies bending on so called AI agents. We're going to 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.240 talk about what Operator is capable of and some of 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:40.560 the concerns. This is blue Meg technology. Let's turn to 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.199 the latest product out of open Ai, the startup launching 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:44.640 its AI agent. 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:47.480 Of course, this is all regarding Operator. 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:50.240 Apparently it can put you flights, plan your grocery orders, 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.360 even complete purchases for users. We're joined now by bloomgg's 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.480 Rachel Metz, who I'm told is wearing some lipstick that 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:57.760 Operator already. 0:11:57.400 --> 0:11:57.800 Bought for you. 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:02.880 This is correct. I used Operator yesterday to do a 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:04.880 whole bunch of different things, just trying it out really 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:07.000 quickly to sort of put it through its paces. One 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:10.000 of the things I did well, actually it relates to you. 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.000 You were wearing a nice neutral shade of lipstick a 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:14.240 few days ago that I happened a spot and I 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:17.240 asked Operator to pick out a neutral lipstick shade for 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:20.920 me from Sephora and purchase it. And it did, And 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:22.319 then I went to Sephora and picked it up and 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:23.000 I'm wearing it now. 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:29.520 Rachel. Investors have been looking for this breakthrough functionality with AI. 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:31.360 Are we getting any closer with this? 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:34.720 I think it's still a little bit tricky to tell, 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:36.840 but it is very clear that they're putting a lot 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.880 of time and resources into trying to figure out new 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:42.760 ways that they can integrate these tools into people's lives. 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.880 Operator is meant to be pretty general purpose, as you 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:48.760 might have noticed from the way they were positioning it. 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.280 You mentioned caroline, grocery orders. I think you might have 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.400 mentioned planning flights. These are all like different things that 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:58.080 the average person can totally envision doing themselves that they 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.040 might not like doing posted to some of the other 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.040 agent type software that's already out there that's more inward 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:07.480 things like coding. I feel like we're definitely seeing this 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:10.280 the idea of this at least being spread as more 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:12.880 of a mass market thing, even though operator is only 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:15.360 available to a small number of Opening Eyes users who 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:17.520 want to pay two hundred dollars a month for it 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:19.280 as part of a larger service. 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.200 Almost beta testing as it does tend to do. Rachel Metz, 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:24.080 great to have you, and I like the way that 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:26.480 you encompass that there is competition how there as well. 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:36.800 Welcome back to Blue Meg Technology and Caroin Hide in New. 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:39.560 York and I'm Mike Sheppard and Washington. 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.640 Quick check on these markets, Mike, because we are at 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:44.920 near record highs and that's that one hundred is up 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:46.640 almost two percent on the week we just pulled back. 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:49.480 It's chip stocks that are in focus as we underwhelm 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:52.000 on Texas instruments following skhinex's numbers. 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.320 But Bitcoin up two point eight percent. 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:56.640 Remember a flurry of executive orders that I know you've 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.040 been watching, and came among them yesterday was the AI 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:01.760 and the crypto order. Maybe we get some sort of 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:04.079 overall bitcoin reserve, but it's not. 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:05.840 A bitcoin reserve, it's a digital asset. 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:07.559 Reserve and Bitcoin took a bit of a hit yesterday, 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:08.960 but we're back at one hundred and six thousand. 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.240 Move on, individual names you need to keep an eye on. 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.760 We've had started the earning season and Verizon is among them. 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.600 We're currently seeing it up one one point two percent, 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:19.600 as they managed to beat in terms of almost half 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.480 a million being added for new phones. Tesla up a 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.760 quarter of percent. They're having to put over and over 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:30.080 the air update to basically technically recall Chinese cars, but 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:32.560 here in the US they're doing model wise. New ericson 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.880 down thirteen percent on the back of telecoms equipment not 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:36.760 selling as expected. 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:41.560 Mike Carol, Let's turn to TikTok. Now this is such 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:44.520 a big issue in Washington. We're joined by Frank McCord, 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:48.320 executive chairman of McCourt Global and founder of Project Liberty, 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:51.560 which had made a formal offer to acquire the social 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:55.080 media giant less than two weeks ago, not long before 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:58.120 the band deadline. Frank, I wanted to start with the 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:03.160 reprieve that President Donald Trump signed hours after taking office. 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.720 How has that complicated efforts by you and other bidders, 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:09.560 perhaps to get byt dance to come to the table 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:11.320 to talk about a sale. 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.920 Well, I really hasn't complicated anything from our perspective, Mike, 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:20.840 we just continue to, you know, chug along and we're prepared. 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:21.360 Here. 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.800 We're hanging around the hoops, so to speak, waiting for 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.400 Bike Dance to make a decision, and if it takes 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.200 a little bit more time, so be it. But you know, 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:32.600 we feel we're in a really unique position to buy 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:36.560 us TikTok. We're the only ones that actually put a 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:40.680 bid in and submitted to the Department of Justice before 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:45.600 the original deadline and where we were ready to roll 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.240 but for a signature from BYT Dance. So we continue 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:51.680 to be ready. We have more and more conversations. There's 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:54.600 more and more excitement around this. We had a fabulous 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:57.000 couple of days in Davos where there was great, great 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:01.080 excitement around the project. So yeah, I remain optimistic and 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.240 I think we just have to give BYT Dance time 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:06.520 to sort this out, but I believe they will. You're 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.480 buying us TikTok without the Chinese technology is the way forward. 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:14.880 What if you heard back from Byte Dance in response 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:17.880 to this offer, Have they been engaging much at all 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:21.000 and would President Donald Trump be in position to perhaps 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:24.800 help you get them to really get the discussions going. 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:31.040 Well. My hope is that President Trump can be you know, 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:35.840 a deal maker here and help get this deal done 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:41.840 by convincing by Dance to actually sell us TikTok and 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:43.920 not shut it down. I mean, those are the two 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:50.360 choices here, and by Dance themselves have been pretty silent. 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:53.000 I mean, they've acknowledged receipt of our offer, but I 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.480 think quite frankly, they're they're digesting everything. I think their 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:59.600 hope originally was relief from the Supreme Court, which they 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.840 did not get, as you well know. And now I 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:05.639 think they're in a new reality and so they're confronted 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:10.080 with a shutdown or a sale, and we believe that 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:13.360 a sale is the best way forward. It will keep 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.480 the app lit up and as I say, without the 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:18.200 Chinese technology, why not sell? 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:22.040 Who have you been talking to? Where's the excitement in Davos? 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:27.760 It's interesting. We had a little house called Future House 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:32.159 that on the promenade, and the promenade was lined with 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:39.080 different AI products being marketed and so forth. It was 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:44.160 the theme really of Davos this year. And Caroline our house, 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.679 Future House had a long line outside. 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:49.439 Of people who want to invest with you, though, Frank, 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.639 you speaking to mister Bees, for example, because he's joined 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:53.960 another consort him, it. 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:58.760 Seems well, mister Beasts has joined all consortiums, so he's 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:02.919 interested in keeping his his options open. I've talked to Jimmy, 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:05.960 others have talked to Jimmy. You've read the reports that 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.240 he has not aligned with a single bidder, But put 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:13.160 that aside. I think the people that were really interested 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:16.080 in of course, they're interested in seeing what will happen 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:18.400 with TikTok. But as I've said over and over again, 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:22.040 this is an opportunity to actually reimagine how the Internet 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:26.359 works and give people ownership and control of their identity 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:30.320 and their data and their relationships. And that's very exciting 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:33.880 to people, and including by the way, TikTok influencers. 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.639 And that is what sets you apart the fact that 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:41.160 you're building to a new tech stack basically, and a 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:44.159 decentralized one at that. Frank, what does it mean to 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.520 potentially work with the US government? Would you want to 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.240 have the US government also buying? In fact talking to 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:52.800 the US government. We're just going to have to listen 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:54.879 in to President Trump. Just one moment, Frank sit with us. 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:57.879 We were just asking you if you'd work alongside Trump. 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:01.440 He's thinking about potentially in the US the government owned 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:02.240 a piece of TikTok. 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.760 Well, yeah, we absolutely want to work alongside President Trump, 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.399 and I think he could be very, very helpful. I 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:14.800 do think ultimately the US TikTok is going to be 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:20.560 in the hands of the private sector and totally disentangled 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:24.720 from the Chinese technology. I think that's really clear in 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:30.080 the legislation and was made doubly clear. You know on 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:32.679 pages five and six of the Supreme Court decision that 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:37.480 their Congress is looking for a complete disentanglement. And that's Caroline, 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:39.520 which puts us in a unique position because we have 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:41.520 the tech stack. We've been building it for the last 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.080 five years to move the user base and the data 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:45.800 onto This is. 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:47.480 A story that will evolve. We thank you so much 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:49.920 for your patients. Coming on from Rome, Frank mcort, executive 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:51.879 Chairman of the Court Global and founder of Project Liberty. 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:54.840 We hope we will come back as the negotiations continue. 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:58.080 Let's talk about how this is impacting TikTok users and 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:00.359 the brands that use it. Rachel tipographs founder and CEO 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:03.680 make Macks, an e commance marketing platform for multi channel brams. 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:07.160 What did they make of a sudden going black? Did 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:09.720 brands pull away from spending on TikTok? It's been wild. 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:14.400 January eighteenth, ten pm, New York Time, we saw TikTok 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:17.840 brand traffic go to zero percent. It stayed that way 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:22.879 for fifteen hours. Traffic started to come back January nineteenth, twelve, 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:26.600 fifteen pm, and for about two business days it held 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:29.879 at zero point five percent of our traffic. In the 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:33.680 last two business days it has risen. It now represents 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:37.040 around fifteen percent of our total traffic. I've been coming 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:38.359 on the show now for two years. 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:39.040 You've heard me. 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.480 Say TikTok typically is thirty five percent of our traffic. 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:46.200