Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Bloomberg Tech is alive
Speaker 1: from coast to coast with Caroline Hyde in New York
Speaker 1: and Edla Low in Sent Francisco.
Speaker 2: This is Bloomberg Tech coming up.
Speaker 3: Headlines out on a call between US President Trump and
Speaker 3: Chinese President Jijingping about a framework agreement for TikTok's US operations.
Speaker 2: We will break it down.
Speaker 4: Plus Apple rolling out its new iPhone designs in stores today.
Speaker 4: We'll discuss what the customer and the stock reaction is.
Speaker 3: And we sit down with FCC Commissioner and A Gomez
Speaker 3: to discuss the suspension of the Jimmy Kimmel Show and
Speaker 3: much more. iPhone seventeen on sale today. Caro went down
Speaker 3: to the store. We'll get the details in video. We're
Speaker 3: watching because we have not had any headlines out of
Speaker 3: that conversation with President Trump and Jijingping. Whether we in
Speaker 3: video is discussed or not, but that's what the market's watching,
Speaker 3: and I.
Speaker 2: Throw oracle up.
Speaker 3: We have had a headline out of that call. It
Speaker 3: is from China's news agency Jinhoar and it says that,
Speaker 3: according to Jijingping, China is prepared to respect the wishes
Speaker 3: of the companies that are involved in the TikTok deal.
Speaker 3: It has been reported that Oracle is part of the
Speaker 3: coalition and it's trading at a record high, but we
Speaker 3: do not have confirmation on the specifics, Caro. We're just
Speaker 3: watching that because it's the publicly traded name.
Speaker 4: Indeed, there are following headlines coming out from that readout
Speaker 4: of the call. She has asked for the US to
Speaker 4: refrain from taking unilateral trade measures, a cleif clear focus
Speaker 4: there for on tariff measures. She on TikTok, saying they
Speaker 4: welcome business talks following market rules, and she also saying
Speaker 4: on TikTok that the Chinese government respects the wishes of companies.
Speaker 4: Perfect person to discuss all of this is Bloomberg Senior
Speaker 4: Tech editor Mike Sheppard, who joins us from Washington. What
Speaker 4: do you make of the readout, Oll, Carol.
Speaker 5: We're still looking at this readout as it comes in
Speaker 5: and as we're trying to interpret its meaning. We are
Speaker 5: not seeing a clear cut signal that China has given
Speaker 5: its blessing to this framework agreement that was unveiled by
Speaker 5: Chinese negotiators and US negotiators after two days of talks
Speaker 5: in Madrid.
Speaker 2: There were very few details.
Speaker 5: On that accord at the time, but our reporting has shown,
Speaker 5: as Ed has pointed out just now that Oracle, as
Speaker 5: well as and recent Horowitz and silver Lake Capital Management,
Speaker 5: would be among the US buyers of TikTok's US operations
Speaker 5: should approval actually come down from the Chinese side. Donald Trump,
Speaker 5: for his part, of course, is eager to see see
Speaker 5: this deal go through. He wants TikTok to stay viable
Speaker 5: in the US. He credits it with his election comeback victory.
Speaker 5: But we have not heard from the President yet.
Speaker 3: Chet more headlines than another red headline on the Bloomberg terminal.
Speaker 3: G has asked the US to avoid undermining the outcomes
Speaker 3: from recent talks. I think that's a signal politically right.
Speaker 3: And remember these headlines are from a readout from China's
Speaker 3: state news agency. We also have another headline on TikTok.
Speaker 3: China would like to see the company's find resolution to
Speaker 3: the TikTok issue, according to G Again, Mike, we're following
Speaker 3: this in real time, but we're learning about China's attitude.
Speaker 3: We still don't have the concrete details of what the
Speaker 3: structure of a US TikTok is.
Speaker 5: Well, that's right, and it also doesn't sound like China
Speaker 5: is giving its full thumbs up there. It sounds like
Speaker 5: Hi Jimping is signaling that there are still some objections
Speaker 5: and that maybe something came up during the call with
Speaker 5: President Donald Trump that gave China pause. We did even
Speaker 5: hear from Trump yesterday a bit of a non committal tone,
Speaker 5: not quite a full walk back of what we heard
Speaker 5: at the beginning of the week following this framework agreement
Speaker 5: between the two sides on trade but especially on TikTok,
Speaker 5: but he was saying we'll see those were his exact
Speaker 5: words in a Fox interview, and let's use signal from
Speaker 5: the president that there may be more work to do.
Speaker 5: So we're still waiting to hear what the US version
Speaker 5: of events is and whether they think that they are
Speaker 5: any closer or perhaps further away when it comes to talks.
Speaker 5: It does sound like there are a lot of business
Speaker 5: issues still to resolve, including from the Chinese point of view.
Speaker 6: Ed.
Speaker 5: Remember this is key to understand. China does not want
Speaker 5: to sell TikTok. It wants to see byte dance hold
Speaker 5: on to this, and if it is sold, it wants
Speaker 5: to keep control of the algorithm and not see its
Speaker 5: company byte Dance is considered a real star in the
Speaker 5: Chinese tech universe. It does not want to see it
Speaker 5: diminished in any way, so there has to be a
Speaker 5: hefty price paid for this, and it also does not
Speaker 5: want to see the valuable algorithm transferred in any way
Speaker 5: to US owners.
Speaker 4: We're just going to try and bring up a chart
Speaker 4: because Oracle is still triading higher, but only by a
Speaker 4: percentage point. Now it is actually pulled back from its
Speaker 4: highs directly on the readout coming from the Chinese state
Speaker 4: press right now. Now, of course, Oracle's name in the
Speaker 4: mix for any sort of coalition of companies that were
Speaker 4: looking to be buying TikTok's US unit. Now we can
Speaker 4: see that it's just come off of its highs. So
Speaker 4: it looks as though, as you interpret, Mike, then indeed
Speaker 4: this doesn't feel like a done deal yet, and indeed
Speaker 4: that we are still trying to get the intricacies of
Speaker 4: what China says it likes to see companies to find
Speaker 4: resolution to TikTok issue. Of course, we need the US
Speaker 4: interpretation of all of this next steps, Mike. Therefore, because
Speaker 4: we were hoping that maybe other things were being considered
Speaker 4: in their pohlm call, not just TikTok, but in video
Speaker 4: them anymore.
Speaker 7: Well, that's right.
Speaker 5: There are a host of trade issues between the two
Speaker 5: sides to resolve, and I'm glad you brought up in
Speaker 5: video because the question of export controls that have restricted
Speaker 5: the chip maker's ability to sell its AI products in
Speaker 5: China have been a major sticking point between the two sides.
Speaker 5: We've seen Jensen Wong really advocate here in Washington over
Speaker 5: the past nine months for a relaxation of the US
Speaker 5: export controls, but he's also run into some headwinds in China,
Speaker 5: which is also moving to discourage Chinese companies from buying
Speaker 5: the company's chips. So there is a lot at stake,
Speaker 5: and it's unclear whether Donald Trump used this call to
Speaker 5: try to go to bat for Jensen Wang and Nvidia.
Speaker 5: The President has signaled his openness to the idea of
Speaker 5: perhaps selling a downgraded version of the new Blackwell line
Speaker 5: of AI chips in China, but again, that is a
Speaker 5: multi step process in terms of relaxing those export controls,
Speaker 5: and it's unclear whether this would factor into the conversation.
Speaker 5: Jensen Wong, for his part, certainly would like it to.
Speaker 5: They're feeling the sense of urgency in China where Huawei
Speaker 5: is really moving ahead by leaps and bounds when it
Speaker 5: comes to developing its AI chips and finding ways to
Speaker 5: deploy them in a way to better compete with Nvidia,
Speaker 5: as we just saw yesterday.
Speaker 4: Kara, Mike Shephard, we thank you for the breakdown instant analysis.
Speaker 4: Let's get more instant analysis for you. Sam Sak, Senior
Speaker 4: fellow at the New America Institute who has worked on
Speaker 4: Chinese technology policy for over a decade, So your viewpoint
Speaker 4: and expertise crucial.
Speaker 2: Hair.
Speaker 4: It feels as though maybe a deal isn't done. How
Speaker 4: do you interpret what really the outcome of a phone
Speaker 4: called can be sad.
Speaker 6: The pathway to a deal, and I don't just mean
Speaker 6: a TikTok deal, but a broader US China trade deal
Speaker 6: is strewn with obstacles. Both sides clearly want something that
Speaker 6: they can deliver. But let's break it down what's in
Speaker 6: the way. China realizes that they have real leverage here
Speaker 6: and they're not going to give into this easily. They
Speaker 6: know that Trump wants to take home something to his
Speaker 6: audience at home. The second thing is that there are
Speaker 6: hawks all over Congress in the administration who also work
Speaker 6: very hard to ban TikTok, only to see Trump look
Speaker 6: to trade it away. And they've raised hell about the
Speaker 6: idea that there are supposed national security concerns that are
Speaker 6: going to go unresolved about data access, about online content.
Speaker 6: So there's a real sort of complex web of issues
Speaker 6: that both leaders are going to have to work through
Speaker 6: to bring home the political win for their respective constituents.
Speaker 2: A political win.
Speaker 4: Thus far, had been signaled to the market that a
Speaker 4: US part of TikTok would form as a different app.
Speaker 4: Entirely the users one hundred and seventy million of them
Speaker 4: would migrate to a different app as reporting goes, and
Speaker 4: would be controlled by US investors. But how hard is
Speaker 4: that sort of a pill for China to swallow? There
Speaker 4: had been reports, of course, that China or byte Dance
Speaker 4: would license the underlying algorithm. Why has TikTok become like
Speaker 4: the lynchpin to so much more in US China relationship.
Speaker 6: The algorithm for a long time was the secret sauce.
Speaker 6: It was something that byte Dance was able to do
Speaker 6: far more effectively than its peers. But keep in mind
Speaker 6: this saga with TikTok has been playing out for about
Speaker 6: five years now, and so at what one time was
Speaker 6: seen as ahead of the game in getting users hooked
Speaker 6: on the app, the flywheel effect of then collecting more
Speaker 6: of their data. It's no longer really as cutting edge
Speaker 6: as I'd say it was five years ago when this
Speaker 6: first became an issue. But that doesn't mean that Beijing's
Speaker 6: going to let it go so easily. This is a
Speaker 6: Chinese brand that has succeeded globally beyond China's markets at
Speaker 6: a time when that's key to China's asserting influence in
Speaker 6: the world, and they're at the beginning of being able
Speaker 6: to field companies that market that consumers out China outside
Speaker 6: of China actually want. So they're not going to just
Speaker 6: give this over easily to the US, as much as
Speaker 6: they want to secure a deal as well. Also, they
Speaker 6: have big wants still on the table. They want export
Speaker 6: controls lifted. Mike mentioned about the Nvidia chips. Maybe they're
Speaker 6: holding out to see what exactly they can exert from Trump.
Speaker 3: Sam, I'm going to go back to the news because
Speaker 3: we are literally digesting what is a readout from China
Speaker 3: State News Agency and According to that read out, President
Speaker 3: g says that the Chinese government will respect wishes of
Speaker 3: companies in the context of TikTok, that on TikTok, they
Speaker 3: welcome business talks following market rules, and the final headline
Speaker 3: is that China likes to see companies find a resolution
Speaker 3: on the TikTok sale. We yet to get the readout
Speaker 3: from the United States side, but as somebody that's looked
Speaker 3: at Chinese technology policy, both from within the US government
Speaker 3: and from the private sector, is this a positive signal
Speaker 3: she's making or is it a negative signal, a warning.
Speaker 6: That She's administration has not changed its position. They're saying
Speaker 6: that now, but actually the reality is they've been saying
Speaker 6: that for a long time. I don't think that they
Speaker 6: care that much about TikTok, to be honest, but I
Speaker 6: think they know that Trump cares about it, and they
Speaker 6: see this as the lynchpin to opening up a broader
Speaker 6: set of asks beyond TikTok, export controls, tariffs lifted, they
Speaker 6: want access to the US market for more investment. There's
Speaker 6: a litany of things, and then it becomes it becomes
Speaker 6: a game of chicken. Who's going to blink first? And
Speaker 6: China knows they have something here.
Speaker 4: Sam Sachs from the New America Institute, fascinating to have
Speaker 4: you on amid the breaking news. We thank you. Coming up,
Speaker 4: we're going to be breaking down the week there was
Speaker 4: and tech markets we're still at record highs empowers. Martin
Speaker 4: Norton joins them that next this Bloomberg Tech breaking news.
Speaker 4: Some headlines coming across the Bloomberg terminal that Chinese President
Speaker 4: She is asking for the US to avoid undermining outcomes
Speaker 4: from recent talks. Mex Tyler Kennell joins us. Now from
Speaker 4: the White House, we've had to read out from the
Speaker 4: Chinese state press regarding that phone call between she and Trump.
Speaker 4: Now we await Trump's reaction. What do you make of
Speaker 4: the headlines? Right exactly?
Speaker 8: Caroline and her White House official tells us that we
Speaker 8: will get at the White House formal response and a
Speaker 8: post on truth social So our eyes at the moment
Speaker 8: are peeled on President trump social media feeds. But as
Speaker 8: you read that main headline here that Chinese state media
Speaker 8: is reporting that Jijingping says that the US should avoid
Speaker 8: undermining any recent progress in the talks, but that also
Speaker 8: the US should refrain from taking any sort of restrictive
Speaker 8: trade measures, and there's a few different angles and threads
Speaker 8: that we could really dig into when it comes to
Speaker 8: that idea that it appears that Jijingping is trying to portray,
Speaker 8: including that we saw really both sides ramping up the
Speaker 8: pressure ahead of those talks in Madrid earlier this week,
Speaker 8: including for example, the US adding some twenty three Chinese
Speaker 8: companies to its entity list over the weekend. You were
Speaker 8: talking in your earlier segment about this idea around the
Speaker 8: messaging of export controls, and we've also seen the US
Speaker 8: really harden its rhetoric when it comes to so called
Speaker 8: secondary tariffs against China, urging our allies to impose them
Speaker 8: over their imports of Russian energy supplies. We have to
Speaker 8: keep in mind put this into the context that our
Speaker 8: reporting has long showed that China has been upset, has
Speaker 8: been dismayed at this idea that they have been treated
Speaker 8: differently from other trading partners.
Speaker 9: That's why you'll recall it.
Speaker 8: Was so significant when that thirty four percent so called
Speaker 8: reciprocal tariff came back down to ten percent, but of
Speaker 8: course we still have twenty percent tariff related to fetanyl
Speaker 8: still on the table. And it's actions like those that
Speaker 8: perhaps will see some sort of movement on as we
Speaker 8: wait the readout on the White House's side. Now, as
Speaker 8: you well know, and we're discussing, the focus of today's
Speaker 8: call appear to be really on any sort of movement
Speaker 8: around TikTok. But when it comes to these other trade concessions,
Speaker 8: our analysts at Bloomberg Economics point out, we really haven't
Speaker 8: gotten many signs up to this point that there has
Speaker 8: been movement on that because most of these talks have
Speaker 8: really been about keeping that de escalation in place. Caroline
Speaker 8: and ed. Yesterday, President Trump suggested that he is considering
Speaker 8: extending that tariff truce deadline it's set to expire on
Speaker 8: November tenth. That comes just weeks after a potential face
Speaker 8: to face meeting. This call was largely seen as perhaps
Speaker 8: setting the stage for them that we're eyeing could potentially
Speaker 8: take place next month end of October in South Korea
Speaker 8: on the sidelines of the APEX summit.
Speaker 3: I've been both Tyler Kendall at the White House, Thank
Speaker 3: you very much. It's really hard to interpret carry the
Speaker 3: market response here. The S and P five hundred has
Speaker 3: paired what we're modest gains to basically trade flat, and
Speaker 3: yields have ticked higher since we got those headlines. We
Speaker 3: were waiting for this this phone called. Martin Norton is
Speaker 3: chief investment strategist at Empower and joins us now for more.
Speaker 3: I mean that trade headline is the main one both
Speaker 3: that g is calling on the President of the United
Speaker 3: States not to go back on what was discussed in talks.
Speaker 3: And you heard Tyler's reporting there as a market participant,
Speaker 3: where you braced and ready to move this morning, or
Speaker 3: did we get what we expected?
Speaker 10: You know, we're in a kind of a world where
Speaker 10: there's a bit of a shoving match, and I think
Speaker 10: it's largely to be expected. There's not a massive clarity
Speaker 10: around what this could look like, and it's continued back
Speaker 10: and forth at this point in time.
Speaker 9: I think what we're seeing more broadly is the.
Speaker 10: Degree to which geopolitics is entering and becoming another source
Speaker 10: of volatility for the markets, something that impacts individual companies
Speaker 10: and the market more broadly. And the news is sudden
Speaker 10: and it catches folks off.
Speaker 3: Guard, it does yep, sorry, ed you go no, no, no,
Speaker 3: I just wanted to point out the other red headline
Speaker 3: right because the news is just flying through the terminal
Speaker 3: as we speak. The other one is that President g
Speaker 3: Marta says that he wants the United States to refrain
Speaker 3: from taking unilateral trade measures. Again, we're trying to interpret
Speaker 3: a readout from China State News Agency, But what is
Speaker 3: your interpretation of that comment.
Speaker 10: I mean, it certainly seems like there are bigger things
Speaker 10: at play right now. I think the reporting that you
Speaker 10: all have just shared showing that, yes, TikTok is something
Speaker 10: that's a primary concern, but there are other primary concerns
Speaker 10: as it relates to the broader trade relationship, and right
Speaker 10: now both sides are trying to find these points of
Speaker 10: leverage to determine what can be pushed to gain kind
Speaker 10: of the greatest advantage in this conversation.
Speaker 9: So it seems like we're kind of listening into.
Speaker 10: One part of the conversation, but it's part of a
Speaker 10: much broader discussion that's been going on and continues to
Speaker 10: go on.
Speaker 4: Madre, it's interesting timing that JP Morgan Asset Management has
Speaker 4: put out this thought that actually what Trump's geopolitical risk
Speaker 4: right now is the AI story, and if we get
Speaker 4: a bad set of numbers, of any earnings look weak
Speaker 4: in some of these AI stars. That's where the market
Speaker 4: volatility really comes from. But actually the whole story around
Speaker 4: semiconductors is so intertwined with geopolitics as well, So how
Speaker 4: do you distinguish the two?
Speaker 10: Right, It's a pretty fascinating time. I mean, we're looking
Speaker 10: at company after company that seems to be very in
Speaker 10: tune to what the Trump administration wants, and I think
Speaker 10: it underscores this idea that AI isn't just a form
Speaker 10: of secular growth for companies and for the economy, but
Speaker 10: it's something that is akin to the space race in
Speaker 10: terms of sovereign interest, and so I think it adds
Speaker 10: this whole another dimension that we have to consider as
Speaker 10: we think about those sources of volatility. I think one
Speaker 10: consideration here is what does demand look like if we're
Speaker 10: looking at a more bifurcated world where potentially US and
Speaker 10: China aren't necessarily buying from each other as much as
Speaker 10: they are jocking with each other when it comes to AI.
Speaker 10: I'm not sure that necessarily changes the whole AA narrative.
Speaker 10: We know that there's massive, massive amounts of demand even
Speaker 10: here just domestically, but I think it's a whole new
Speaker 10: dimension that we have to consider as we take a
Speaker 10: look forward and try to project expectations, and.
Speaker 4: We try to stum up the fact that we're up
Speaker 4: sixteen percent year to date and then as that one
Speaker 4: hundred and we're a record highs So with all the
Speaker 4: underlying risks, should you be buying into this market?
Speaker 10: You know, in my mind at this juncture, we're at
Speaker 10: a point where it makes some sense to rebalance, to
Speaker 10: take some profits. We've had this tremendous run since April eighth,
Speaker 10: where we've seen a lot of these companies recover or
Speaker 10: even something like the Mags, even which had a much
Speaker 10: bigger hit in the first part of the year due
Speaker 10: to Deep Seek, even that area of the market is
Speaker 10: beginning to look pracy now. Companies have delivered, the earnings
Speaker 10: has been there, the investment in the future that Capex
Speaker 10: has been there. We're seeing demand from the hyperscalers based
Speaker 10: on AI workflows.
Speaker 9: So there's a lot of positives to point to.
Speaker 10: But it really wouldn't take much something coming out of
Speaker 10: left field like we saw with Deep Seek to maybe
Speaker 10: have people pull.
Speaker 9: Back a bit.
Speaker 10: And I think when we think about these innovation periods.
Speaker 10: It shouldn't be a straight line higher that would defy reality.
Speaker 10: It ought to be something that has fits and starts
Speaker 10: and moments of doubt. So I think when we're at
Speaker 10: a period where it feels somewhat euphoric, it's time to
Speaker 10: position for a potential moment of doubt.
Speaker 4: Not an alton of EmPATH. Great to have you on
Speaker 4: amid these moments of doubt you are looking currently it
Speaker 4: pictures of the Apple store in New York and Fifth Avenue.
Speaker 4: Earlier today, the company was rolling out several new iPhones
Speaker 4: signs that kind of the biggest overhaul that we've seen
Speaker 4: since twenty twenty. I was there as the Apple CEO,
Speaker 4: Tim Cook, walked around the store. There were NBA players there,
Speaker 4: and there were influencers, and there was me trying to
Speaker 4: get a moment with Tim Cook talking about perhaps some
Speaker 4: of the issues they had with getting enough iPhone pros
Speaker 4: into people's hands on the day. Of course, we're knowing
Speaker 4: that some of the timelines being pushed back, but it's not.
Speaker 9: Just the cue.
Speaker 4: The enormous queue that I saw lining the streets of
Speaker 4: New York, but that was replicated in London, wasn't It
Speaker 4: was over in Asia as well.
Speaker 2: Yep, it was.
Speaker 3: And it's interesting because you followed the clock around the world.
Speaker 3: Let's bring in Bloomberg's consumer tech editor Dana Wolman, and
Speaker 3: let's start on that piece. We have the information from
Speaker 3: Asia into Europe, now the United States. What's the reaction
Speaker 3: to iPhone seventeen launch day?
Speaker 11: So definitely some long lines in all the major markets
Speaker 11: where reporters have visited stores, and a relatively few of
Speaker 11: the customers who we interviewed mentioned the iPhone Ra, which
Speaker 11: is the skinny iPhone that got so much media attention
Speaker 11: ahead of the launch. It turned out that most of
Speaker 11: the customers who we interviewed were looking for the iPhone
Speaker 11: seventeen Pro or the Pro Max, which makes sense given
Speaker 11: that these phones are for pro users, power users and
Speaker 11: early adopters and tech enthusiasts are precisely the sort of
Speaker 11: people who might feel motivated to line up in front
Speaker 11: of a store around dawn the day of a launch.
Speaker 4: It's interesting that in the eye of the storm is
Speaker 4: of course the supply chain that Apple has largely based
Speaker 4: in China. We are getting more breaking news of the
Speaker 4: readout coming from the Trump She talks on the phone
Speaker 4: with President Trump, putting on Social that he's just completed
Speaker 4: a very productive call with President she. But I'm interested
Speaker 4: in more broadly, how you're seeing the supply chain impact, Dana.
Speaker 4: What's happening on the ground with the sales of the
Speaker 4: iPhone pro and how quickly or not we're able to
Speaker 4: get them in our hands, and some of the issues
Speaker 4: perhaps scratching of them over in China.
Speaker 11: So far, not many shocks in terms of delays or
Speaker 11: shipment times. Shipment times have slipped by a couple weeks
Speaker 11: in certain markets for very popular models. Nothing that seems
Speaker 11: too extraordinary. The iPhone error has been delayed in China,
Speaker 11: seemingly over the eSIM, which is not a widely used
Speaker 11: technology in China, and the iPhone is the only of
Speaker 11: the iPhone models that exclusively uses that as opposed to
Speaker 11: a physical sim being an option.
Speaker 3: Okay, Bloomberg's Dana Woman, thank you very much. We have
Speaker 3: more breaking news from the call between President Trump and Gijingping,
Speaker 3: posting on truth Social, President Trump says that he has
Speaker 3: agreed to meet with Jijiping and that meeting would take
Speaker 3: place at the APEX Summit. Caroline, my understanding is the
Speaker 3: APEX Summit is October thirty one November one. On TikTok,
Speaker 3: Trump says that they made progress on the approval of
Speaker 3: a TikTok deal. Trump adds that he appreciates the TikTok approval.
Speaker 2: We're continuing to.
Speaker 3: Get a lot of headlines, but not seeing any immediate
Speaker 3: market action or anything that contradicts some of the statements. Cara,
Speaker 3: if you want to jump in on what we had earlier,
Speaker 3: maybe we'll go back to break.
Speaker 2: And we'll see what the markets are doing.
Speaker 4: Oracle, I'm still training at about one point four percent high
Speaker 4: on the back of that meant to be cause a
Speaker 4: part of that consortium buying TikTok. But the key news
Speaker 4: is that they have agreed to meet again next month.
Speaker 12: And I read some places that the networks were ninety
Speaker 12: seven percent against me again, ninety seven percent negative, and
Speaker 12: yet I won easily.
Speaker 7: It were all seven spake stays. I've going to have
Speaker 7: won everything.
Speaker 12: And if they're ninety seven percent against, they give me
Speaker 12: Holy Bard publicity oppress, and then they're.
Speaker 2: Getting a license.
Speaker 12: I would think maybe their license should.
Speaker 7: Be taken away.
Speaker 3: That was President Trump saying US Broadcast Network should face
Speaker 3: scrutiny over their licenses if they're too critical of him.
Speaker 3: His comments came not long after Jimmy Kimmel's show was
Speaker 3: put on indefinite hold by Disney following reactions to comments
Speaker 3: the comedian made accusing Republicans are trying to gain political
Speaker 3: points from the killing of GOP activist Charlie Kirk. Bloomberg
Speaker 3: reporting that Kimmel met with Disney executives yesterday. According to sources,
Speaker 3: the soonest the show could return is September twenty second.
Speaker 3: I want to get out to Bloomberg's media reporter, Hannah Miller.
Speaker 3: Let's start on what we know in the news, which
Speaker 3: is that meeting between kim l and Disney.
Speaker 2: What are the details we need?
Speaker 13: Yeah, so we know they're discussing the fate of his
Speaker 13: show and whether there will be an apology or not.
Speaker 13: You know, Kimmel might be made to go on air
Speaker 13: apologize for his comments, and that might be something he
Speaker 13: doesn't want to do.
Speaker 4: Meanwhile, as we wait for the reaction of the host himself, Hannah,
Speaker 4: you've been putting out from really strongly who heard in
Speaker 4: reporting talking about basically the war that President Trump is
Speaker 4: having with the media. Set the context for us.
Speaker 13: Yeah, the Trump administration has a very contentious relationship with
Speaker 13: the media. We can see that in lawsuits, settlements, federal
Speaker 13: cuts to funding for public broadcasting. You know, it's been
Speaker 13: battle after battle, and a lot of what's happening here
Speaker 13: is that many of the news organizations being targeted have
Speaker 13: business stakes at play, and that's sort of being weaponized
Speaker 13: against them here.
Speaker 4: Bloom Megs Hannah Meller, it's a really thoughtful piece. Please
Speaker 4: go and read it. Let's get you another viewpoint now.
Speaker 4: Anagomez is the sole Democratic commissioner at the FCC, one
Speaker 4: of three commissioners that are currently on the FCC. Been
Speaker 4: there is twenty twenty three. You've put out a very
Speaker 4: strongly worded statement following what seemed to be Jimmy Kimmel's
Speaker 4: show being put on ice indefinitely, and you really talk
Speaker 4: about it having been led to a shameful show of
Speaker 4: cowardly corporate capitulation by ABC that has put the foundation
Speaker 4: of the First Amendment in danger. So you think this
Speaker 4: is a corporate responsibility at this moment.
Speaker 14: What we are saying is this administration use whatever levers
Speaker 14: of power it has in order to bring broadcasters to
Speaker 14: heal and the news media as you mentioned. They have
Speaker 14: sued The New York Times, they have sued the Wall
Speaker 14: Street Journal, they have gone after ABCNBCCBS, and they are
Speaker 14: pressuring companies to change how they report the news and
Speaker 14: what their content is in direct violation of the First Amendment,
Speaker 14: which guarantees a freedom of speech. And what happens every
Speaker 14: time we see this cowardly corporate capitulation is a further
Speaker 14: frame of a foundation of our democracy, and that's freedom
Speaker 14: of speech and freedom of the press.
Speaker 4: Now and what we understand to have occurred is that
Speaker 4: Disney moved after local stations had perhaps pushed back. This
Speaker 4: is all erupted after well, the head of the Commission,
Speaker 4: SEC Chair Brennan Carr, joined a podcast and really articulated
Speaker 4: perhaps what could happen because of the words of Jimmy
Speaker 4: Kimmel on thet his broadcast, but also what he said,
Speaker 4: we can do this the easy way or the hard
Speaker 4: way on that Benach on some podcast when it seemed
Speaker 4: to be talking about the next stop TEGNA deal. Is
Speaker 4: that how you interpret it, is that how the market
Speaker 4: and the media should be interpreting what SEC Chair Brendon
Speaker 4: car is trying to make it.
Speaker 14: I think It's really important to note that the FCC
Speaker 14: does not have the authority, the constitutional right, nor the
Speaker 14: ability to take action against broadcasters because of their content.
Speaker 14: We have very limited media regulation, usually designed to protect
Speaker 14: children programming and things like that, but we cannot retaliate
Speaker 14: against broadcasters for legal content. And this is all legal content.
Speaker 14: So what threats are meant to do is to get
Speaker 14: the companies to alter their practices in order to cover
Speaker 14: this administration in the way that they want. And that
Speaker 14: is what these corporations need to keep in mind every
Speaker 14: time they capitulate. They are our democracy.
Speaker 3: Commissioner Gomez, I'm grateful for you coming on the program
Speaker 3: and what you just said about the remit and authority
Speaker 3: of the FCC. The basics that our audience want to
Speaker 3: understand is why is the FCC involved here. It is
Speaker 3: a panel or a committee, right that debates issues, usually
Speaker 3: proposed by the chair in the public forum or in
Speaker 3: written communications, and then you vote on the passing of
Speaker 3: measures or actions and stop me when I'm wrong on that.
Speaker 3: But you outlined what the authority of the FDC is
Speaker 3: not in this case. What is your role in this
Speaker 3: situation between Disney, Jimmy Kimmel and the comments that he made.
Speaker 14: So the FCC, as you note, does meet as a
Speaker 14: commission and it votes to adopt rules or to issue licenses.
Speaker 14: But a lot of the actions that you're seeing from
Speaker 14: this commission right now, particularly when it comes to trying
Speaker 14: to bring media to heal, is being done at the
Speaker 14: staff level. And what's so dangerous about that is where
Speaker 14: we initiate investigations until those investigations actually get to a
Speaker 14: final commission decision, there is no judicial review to ensure
Speaker 14: that the FCC doesn't overstep its bounds, which is exactly
Speaker 14: what we're doing right now. And you mentioned the next
Speaker 14: Star transaction, which is actually not currently before the FCC,
Speaker 14: but will be filed before the FCC. The FCC has
Speaker 14: been using any time a party comes in to seek
Speaker 14: a transfer of a license or some type of permission
Speaker 14: from the FCC to pressure them to alter their practices,
Speaker 14: directly affecting the First Amendment and getting them to voluntarily
Speaker 14: commit to making changes to how they report the news
Speaker 14: or whether they have diversity, equity and inclusion practices, which
Speaker 14: themselves have a strong basis in the First Amendment.
Speaker 3: Commissioner invited the chair mister Carr onto this program as well,
Speaker 3: and I wanted to be to be known that that's
Speaker 3: the case.
Speaker 2: There is an.
Speaker 3: Example or case study that our audience wants us to
Speaker 3: ask you about, and that is, if mister Carr and
Speaker 3: the President wanted to initiate the revocation of a station's
Speaker 3: license based on that station airing of the Kimmel comments,
Speaker 3: for example, what needs to happen? Would there need to
Speaker 3: be an outside complaint filed to the FCC then you
Speaker 3: review it. Just explain that that scenario.
Speaker 14: Please, yes, So revocations of licenses are extremely rare. We
Speaker 14: do have rules about under what circumstances we might revoke
Speaker 14: a license, and it is a very high standard because
Speaker 14: it is such a serious thing to do. That is
Speaker 14: why the broadcasters fear so much any type of action
Speaker 14: by the FCC. Yes, we can initiate an investigation based
Speaker 14: on a complaint that is filed. We can also initiate ourselves.
Speaker 14: But let me be clear, there is no basis for
Speaker 14: revoking any licenses because of the Jimmy Kimmel content or
Speaker 14: because of normal editorial decisions from a broadcaster. The last
Speaker 14: time I can think of that we revoked a license
Speaker 14: was for failure to air a particular broadcaster for more
Speaker 14: than a year.
Speaker 3: Well Commissioner in Caroline, I'm sorry to jump in here.
Speaker 3: You know, there are many Republicans and non Republicans who
Speaker 3: feel that Kimmel's comments pushed went past the line, they
Speaker 3: crossed the line and mischaracterized in the public domain the
Speaker 3: motivations of the shooter in the Charlie Kirk case, and
Speaker 3: the FCC takes that into account or it does not.
Speaker 14: So we have to keep in mind that Jimmy Kimmel
Speaker 14: show is satire.
Speaker 7: It is not news.
Speaker 14: It is not itself trying to inform the public about
Speaker 14: a particular newsworld the event. And what some of these
Speaker 14: people are claiming is that what Jimmy Kimmel said was
Speaker 14: news distortion. That really does not meet the standard for
Speaker 14: news distortion. So if a complaint were filed, the commission
Speaker 14: would have to look at it and make a decision
Speaker 14: about whether any rules were violated. I can tell you
Speaker 14: today there were no violations under the law or with
Speaker 14: these facts.
Speaker 4: Have any complaints been filed?
Speaker 14: I believe a complaint was filed today. There is a
Speaker 14: partisan legal group that has been filing complaints against all
Speaker 14: the media companies getting more and more outlandish in their complaints,
Speaker 14: normally for news distortion. They're the same ones that filed
Speaker 14: the complaint against sixty Minutes for the Kamala Harris interview.
Speaker 14: They're the same ones that filed a complaint against NBC
Speaker 14: because of Saturday Night Live, the sutn Night Live showing
Speaker 14: with Vice President Harris. So they're a partisan organization that
Speaker 14: just keep filing these complaints and the FCC has not
Speaker 14: acted on all of them. They are very numerous. I
Speaker 14: would say we get at least once a week.
Speaker 4: I think it's right to put in the context that
Speaker 4: last year Disney indeed did pay fifteen million dollars to
Speaker 4: settle a defamation laws who brought by President over comments
Speaker 4: that one of its hosts had already made. There have
Speaker 4: indeed been several settlements, and as Hannah Miller Reportrait put
Speaker 4: in their story, then often there are deals in m
Speaker 4: and A involved. Is that the interpretation that we should
Speaker 4: make at this moment that deals in some way hinge
Speaker 4: upon settling of such cases and concerns.
Speaker 14: I think that the administration will use the deals to
Speaker 14: pressure companies one way or another, whether it's to settle
Speaker 14: lawsuits or to give up their rights as organizations. When
Speaker 14: the FCC approved the Paramount Skybance deal, for example, the
Speaker 14: parent company of sixteen of CBS, Paramount agreed to install
Speaker 14: what I call a truth arbiter, an ambudsman reporting to
Speaker 14: the president of Paramount, who will field complaints about media
Speaker 14: bias for example. That is really chilling because that is
Speaker 14: exactly the type of interference and the freedom of the
Speaker 14: press that is not healthy for our democracy and for
Speaker 14: our discourse. So yes, I think this administration will weaponize
Speaker 14: any transaction. Anytime you see a party coming before the FCC,
Speaker 14: you are going to see some kind of a demand
Speaker 14: to bring them to heal and to change how any
Speaker 14: broadcaster reports on this administration to make it favorable to
Speaker 14: the administration and not otherwise.
Speaker 3: FCC Commissioner Anagomez, we appreciate your time joining us on
Speaker 3: Bloombo Tech. Thank you very much, Caroline. I just want
Speaker 3: to go to shares a. Disney very quickly. In the
Speaker 3: course of that conversation, the stock actually hit a session
Speaker 3: low of two percent, now down one point nine percent.
Speaker 2: We did report just before the.
Speaker 3: Conversation with the Commissioner about the meetings that are taking
Speaker 3: place between Disney executives and Jimmy Kimmel. One of the
Speaker 3: ideas or questions being an apology or not. We also
Speaker 3: have to go back to the breaking news because we've
Speaker 3: got a full readout from the President on the conversation
Speaker 3: with Jijing ping productive call. He says they made progress
Speaker 3: on issues including trade, fentanyl, the need to bring the
Speaker 3: war between Russian and UK to an end, and for
Speaker 3: this program bling big tech, the approval of the TikTok deal.
Speaker 3: He agreed with President Ji that they would meet at
Speaker 3: the APEX summit in South Korea. I believe that's October
Speaker 3: thirty one through November one, and that he would go
Speaker 3: to China. This is the bit we didn't get to
Speaker 3: yet that he says in his true social pros the
Speaker 3: President he will go to China early next year. The
Speaker 3: call a very good one. They will be speaking by
Speaker 3: phone again, and the President says, in his words, we
Speaker 3: appreciate the TikTok approval and both look forward to meeting
Speaker 3: at APEX. That's the one the market was waiting for
Speaker 3: this week.
Speaker 4: It is a lot of people who are investors in
Speaker 4: semiconductor shares, for example, in video, will it be able
Speaker 4: to continue to sell it to China. Coming up, we're
Speaker 4: talking exactly that about AI Magnetar's senior managing partner, David S.
Speaker 4: Ninemans with us. He's going to talk about the investing buildout,
Speaker 4: the AI build out, the scale of that magnetor of
Speaker 4: course a key investor in Careweed stick with us this
Speaker 4: Bloomberg Tech.
Speaker 3: AI is hungry for power, and so is everything else,
Speaker 3: from computing and transportation to industry. Energy demand is reaching
Speaker 3: historic levels, and batteries are emerging as the backbone of
Speaker 3: modern infrastructure, enabling reliable, low cost storage at scale.
Speaker 2: JB.
Speaker 3: Strawball's CEO of Redwood Materials, which deploys these strategic resources,
Speaker 3: spoke to Bloomberg's Judy Fine at Bloomberg NIF yesterday in Houston.
Speaker 15: Energy storage is evolving in batteries in particular, are evolving
Speaker 15: to play I think an incredibly central part of the
Speaker 15: story for the e of data center energy availability, but
Speaker 15: for the grid overall, and increasingly, I think people are
Speaker 15: beginning to sort of see that that opportunity where if
Speaker 15: you can have the flexibility that energy storage provides, that
Speaker 15: gives you the chance to have access to more energy
Speaker 15: from the grid, and it also gives you a chance
Speaker 15: to manage and adjust the transience from some of these
Speaker 15: new loads, especially AI training loads.
Speaker 4: Let's talk more about infrastructure now, but let's talk about
Speaker 4: the data center side of it. Davis Snydeman's here with
Speaker 4: us seeing a managing partner at Magnetar Global head of
Speaker 4: Alternative Credit and fixed Income. Magneta has called twenty billion
Speaker 4: dollars in assets under management, key investor in AI compute
Speaker 4: provider Core Weave, And you've just come off the heels
Speaker 4: of an investor day. It's a twenty year anniversary. And
Speaker 4: how much is the demand from your investors to get
Speaker 4: more into AI data center, to get more into compute
Speaker 4: and the way in which you finance it.
Speaker 16: Yeah, First, thank you again for having me. I've always
Speaker 16: love to come on the show. You know, we, like
Speaker 16: you said, we had our twenty year investor day yesterday
Speaker 16: and just to take you into the room, I think
Speaker 16: we had six different companies present on six different industries,
Speaker 16: everything from you know, healthcare finance to restaurant finance and
Speaker 16: then like you said, AI infrastructure and our newest investments
Speaker 16: in energy. And you know, for us, the way we
Speaker 16: invest the formula has always been the same, it's really
Speaker 16: by being value added to our portfolio companies.
Speaker 4: And so, how are you value added to a cool weave?
Speaker 4: How are you thinking about financing the GPU the compute
Speaker 4: they need to go out and buy to fill their
Speaker 4: data centers for example.
Speaker 7: That's right.
Speaker 16: So for us, it's it's really about thinking about the
Speaker 16: asset first, right, understanding the value of that asset, understanding
Speaker 16: the customer contracts, and then helping the companies unlack value
Speaker 16: from there.
Speaker 7: But you know, I think what you know, AI.
Speaker 16: Infrastructure, We talked about it a reasonable bant yesterday and
Speaker 16: it really comes down to, you know three things. It's skill,
Speaker 16: it's scale, and it's scarcity. So I'll start with scale,
Speaker 16: Like when we started investing in core Weave, we were
Speaker 16: talking about one hundred GPU clusters and we thought that
Speaker 16: was going to be difficult. You know, now they're putting
Speaker 16: one hundred thousand GPU into clusters and they're going to
Speaker 16: do million GPU into clusters, and so the scale is
Speaker 16: just massive.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 16: Then you go to the skill, and what you can
Speaker 16: compare it to is it's like an F one car
Speaker 16: instead of you know, your family sedan. This is really
Speaker 16: really hard to do. So companies like core Weave, they're
Speaker 16: one of the few in the world that can actually
Speaker 16: do this. And then to your question, is the scarcity.
Speaker 16: People say there's not enough GPUs and they're not enough power,
Speaker 16: But the issue is the demand.
Speaker 7: The demand is just off the charts today.
Speaker 16: Every company we talk to, you know, our entire channel
Speaker 16: check just as everyone needs more more GPUs.
Speaker 3: David, can we talk about how magnetol muff in on
Speaker 3: any project. The headlines that cross the Bloomberg on a
Speaker 3: weekly basis at the moment are about the great scale
Speaker 3: AI neocloud infrastructure projects. But you have like legacy finance
Speaker 3: coming in hard strategic partners because the size of the
Speaker 3: check to get the project off the ground is getting
Speaker 3: bigger and bigger and bigger.
Speaker 7: That's right, and it's a great question.
Speaker 16: You know, a lot of a lot of the capital
Speaker 16: that's come into private credit has been this one size
Speaker 16: fits all. You know, let's make sure the mandate fits
Speaker 16: into insurance company type of money.
Speaker 7: You know, that's just not what we do.
Speaker 16: What we do is we go in and we want
Speaker 16: to be value added to partners and help unlock value.
Speaker 16: So we want to sit with management teams and talk
Speaker 16: about how to lower their cost of capital over time,
Speaker 16: and that's why they bring in a magnetar.
Speaker 3: David, where and what is the next call week for you?
Speaker 16: You know, for us, it's a diversified portfolio approach, so
Speaker 16: we're always thinking about downside first, so we're going to
Speaker 16: look at the assets and kind tracks, but then it's
Speaker 16: how do we help unlock value? And so even yesterday
Speaker 16: that a tourist energy, a tensor wave. But these are
Speaker 16: the companies that are up and coming right now, and
Speaker 16: you know they spoke very eloquently about their businesses yesterday.
Speaker 2: David.
Speaker 3: Is there an opportunity for you? And are you literally
Speaker 3: going to participate in what was announced from the United
Speaker 3: Kingdom this week all the heavy infrastructure investment from America's
Speaker 3: biggest technology companies.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 16: For us, we're looking across all projects and again, if
Speaker 16: we're not really value added and helping lower the cost
Speaker 16: of capital, that's not where our skill set lies best.
Speaker 16: And so for us, it's really getting involved with management
Speaker 16: and helping them make decisions given the data that we
Speaker 16: have inside of our firm.
Speaker 4: There's almost a care wave just launched in the UK
Speaker 4: and scale I mean again a cryptomnor that pivots into compute.
Speaker 4: Are they the sort of companies that are interesting?
Speaker 7: Sure?
Speaker 16: I remember having dinner with n Scale call it six
Speaker 16: months ago in Chicago at Morton's. That's right, that those
Speaker 16: are exactly the type of companies that are interesting. And
Speaker 16: for us, we have to really make sure that we're
Speaker 16: thinking about our capital and we're thinking about our investors
Speaker 16: and making the appropriate allocations just for.
Speaker 4: Our audience that is savvy on financing and is savon
Speaker 4: ai data centers, how do you lower the cost of financing?
Speaker 16: So it's it's really about the customer mix and the
Speaker 16: asset mix, and so we're really trying to think about,
Speaker 16: you know, how we take a customer mix. So if
Speaker 16: you have all non investment great customers, that's a much
Speaker 16: that's a much more difficult portfolio to finance. Now you
Speaker 16: want to have non investment investment customers because they grow
Speaker 16: very quickly. So now we have to think about the
Speaker 16: mix of customers underlying your portfolio and help you make
Speaker 16: those allocation decisions. I think that's how we can get
Speaker 16: involved with the companies themselves. We can be value added
Speaker 16: and really unlock value for them over time.
Speaker 3: David's not have been managing partner at Magne's Health Capital.
Speaker 3: Great to heavy back on the program.
Speaker 2: Thank you know.
Speaker 3: Coming up, Google brings Gemini throughout the Crome browser.
Speaker 2: Got more in that story.
Speaker 10: Next.
Speaker 2: This has been by tech.
Speaker 4: Time now for Talking chech. First up, Google brings Gemini
Speaker 4: throughout the Chrome browser for users in the United States,
Speaker 4: just two weeks after dodging an anti trust case that
Speaker 4: could have broken up the company. It will also be
Speaker 4: integrating Gemini with other Google apps like Calendar, YouTube, and maps.
Speaker 4: Mimi Chami will deploy an over the air software fixed Directify,
Speaker 4: a problem in its advanced driver assistance technology installed in
Speaker 4: almost forty percent of the Su seven electric sedans int
Speaker 4: his Soul Now. The recall comes nearly six months after
Speaker 4: a fatal crash involving a standard version SU seven sedan
Speaker 4: that in its autopilot function turned on, and Softbak's Vision
Speaker 4: Fund is considering cutting as much as twenty percent of
Speaker 4: its staff, according to a source. Now, the reduction extends
Speaker 4: years of cutbacks at the Vision Fund as the unit
Speaker 4: shrank in importance next to growing appetite for big ai
Speaker 4: bets from founder Masayoshi's son ED.
Speaker 3: That does it for this edition of Blaeburg Tech Cara
Speaker 3: and what an addition it has been.
Speaker 2: What a week it has been.
Speaker 3: We broke the headlines from the call between President Trump
Speaker 3: and China's Ujingping. That was what the market was waiting for.
Speaker 3: Don't forget check out the podcast. This was an episode
Speaker 3: worth recapping. You know where to find it on.
Speaker 2: The Bloomberg platforms Bloomberg dot.
Speaker 3: Com, the Terminal, and online at Apple, Spotify and iHeart.
Speaker 3: From San Francisco and New York, this is Bloomberg Tech