Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: From Mahard where innovation, money and power Collie in Silicon
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Speaker 3: This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow.
Speaker 4: Live from New York and San Francisco.
Speaker 5: This is Bloomberg Technology coming up. SAP and IT solutions
Speaker 5: provider Carasoft get probed by the US for potential price fixing.
Speaker 6: Open Ai makes a pitch to the White House. This
Speaker 6: is France gets ready for its own AI summit.
Speaker 5: In cybersecurity, startup Whiz is mulling selling shares and a
Speaker 5: twenty billion dollar valuation.
Speaker 4: First, let's get to our top story.
Speaker 5: German software giant SAP, product reseller Carasoft and other companies
Speaker 5: and being probed by the US officials potentially conspiring to
Speaker 5: overcharge government agencies over the course of a decade SAP
Speaker 5: shares as you can see currently training lower on the
Speaker 5: report bloomgs. Jake Bleiberg joins us on the story you
Speaker 5: broke it? What exactly is being investigated here?
Speaker 6: Jake, thank you for having me.
Speaker 7: The investigation is into what is a potential scheme to,
Speaker 7: over the course of ten years, overcharge the US government
Speaker 7: and primarily the Department of Defense for purchases of SAP
Speaker 7: technology through a variety of resellers, including Kerosoft, that total
Speaker 7: up to two billion dollars.
Speaker 6: Jake, what a karasof spokesperson told you is important in
Speaker 6: this story. In the context of a raid that took
Speaker 6: place at Karasoft. They gave you details, but did not
Speaker 6: go as far as to confirm that it related to
Speaker 6: a relationship with SAP. Please explain the reporting absolutely, and
Speaker 6: that is a very important detail.
Speaker 7: Yesterday, FBI and Department of Defense investigators searched Carosoft's offices
Speaker 7: in Virginia. However, we don't know whether or not that
Speaker 7: search is related to this separate civil investigation of Carosoft
Speaker 7: and SAP over the potential price fixing.
Speaker 5: Okay, let's dwell a little bit and also some other
Speaker 5: comments that have been coming. SAP says it's been cooperating
Speaker 5: with the DOJ in terms of the civil investigation since
Speaker 5: the beginning. We understand Eccentia is also involved in this
Speaker 5: in some way. A spokesmerson for that company, a subsidiary
Speaker 5: of Accentia, that's Accentia Federal Services, is responding to an
Speaker 5: administration subpoena as cooperating with the DOJ, and the Justice
Speaker 5: Department didn't respond to requests for comment. What's interesting is,
Speaker 5: of course the money you say, and the amounts that
Speaker 5: are involved here. Ultimately, how will this investigation continue and
Speaker 5: what could be the fine on the back of it.
Speaker 7: Well, so it's a great question. We don't ultimately know
Speaker 7: whether there will be a fine. But what we do
Speaker 7: know is that federal investigators are continuing their work trying
Speaker 7: to understand what happened here, and that they're framing this
Speaker 7: as a potential wrongdoing related to a very large series
Speaker 7: of purchases, hundreds of contracts totaling as much as two
Speaker 7: billion dollars over you know, since twenty fourteen. And again
Speaker 7: I should really emphasize we don't know that anyone will
Speaker 7: ultimately be accused of any wrongdoing, but this is being
Speaker 7: investigated under the False Claims Act, and that allows the
Speaker 7: government to seek or to recover as much as three
Speaker 7: times it's damages plus a penalty. So we're that to
Speaker 7: you know, we're litigation to sort of commence there. The
Speaker 7: government could be looking at a lot of money.
Speaker 6: Blomberg's take by Bay, thank you now a key interview
Speaker 6: with Bloomberg Alphabet CEO sunderpitch Ey says the company's legal
Speaker 6: battles of antitrust could drag on for many years. He
Speaker 6: was commenting on the federal anti trust trial, which the
Speaker 6: Justice Department is alleging Google manipulates the roughly six hundred
Speaker 6: and seventy five billion dollar display advertising market. Pitch I
Speaker 6: sat down with David Rubinstein for an upcoming episode of
Speaker 6: Peer to Peer. Listen to this.
Speaker 3: That case is just getting underway, So I expected to
Speaker 3: take take some time. And you know, but look where
Speaker 3: we can figure out, you know, constructive solutions. I think
Speaker 3: we will where we think it really harms our ability
Speaker 3: to in it on behalf of our users or you know,
Speaker 3: we are going to be vigorous in defending ourselves and
Speaker 3: it's going to take time for it.
Speaker 6: To play out. And just today Google is in turn
Speaker 6: ramping up a legal fight with Microsoft over the lucrative
Speaker 6: cloud market, accusing the US software giant of abusing its
Speaker 6: market dominant. In a formal complaint to the EU's antitrust watchdog,
Speaker 6: Google alleges that Microsoft's licensing terms for Azure cloud services
Speaker 6: restricts customers accessing rival platforms including Google Cloud and Amazon
Speaker 6: Web Services.
Speaker 8: Caro Let's talk open AI.
Speaker 5: It's pitched at the Biden administration on the need for
Speaker 5: massive data centers that could each use.
Speaker 4: As much power as entire cities.
Speaker 5: Framing the expansion is necessary to develop more advanced AI
Speaker 5: models and compete with China.
Speaker 4: In MEGS, Seth Feynman joins us.
Speaker 5: Now, Seth, the context of how massive, we're talking with
Speaker 5: each dentist data center as many as three nuclear plants.
Speaker 9: As many as five nuclear clients. Now, how do you
Speaker 9: power that? Where does that power come from? Is it
Speaker 9: nuclear or other clean andergy resources? Nobody can really say it,
Speaker 9: but it speaks to the tremendous scope of ambition here
Speaker 9: that Sam Moltman and have. We've reported for a lot
Speaker 9: of this year that he's been trying to build up
Speaker 9: a coalition to support infrastructure development in the US and globally.
Speaker 9: This is really the clearest, the most explicit indication we
Speaker 9: have of what he's thinking in the US and abroad.
Speaker 6: It's based on a document the Bloomberg reviewed, right, But
Speaker 6: I do think back to February when we reported and
Speaker 6: I think you edited the story about this idea that
Speaker 6: Sam Outman also went to the US government and said, well,
Speaker 6: I kind of want some green light to take money
Speaker 6: from other investors because we know seth this is going
Speaker 6: to be really capital intensive. What do we know about
Speaker 6: that side of the story.
Speaker 9: Yes, I think there's two different things happening here. At
Speaker 9: One is if they go overseas or they work with
Speaker 9: overseas and Middle Eastern investors, that brings a whole set
Speaker 9: of complications. But the document that we've seen suggests that
Speaker 9: in the US they're thinking about probably issues around permitting
Speaker 9: and streamlining and construction and approval, getting these data centers
Speaker 9: on the grid, and ultimately trying to get all the
Speaker 9: stakeholders from grid operators to data center operators to agree
Speaker 9: on how to build this stuff. And I think what
Speaker 9: they want to see from the US, in no uncertain
Speaker 9: terms as more favorable policies. And I will say that
Speaker 9: some of that seems clear in what the White House
Speaker 9: has said after a meeting earlier this month with Sam Altman,
Speaker 9: the CEO, and Vilia and other AI executives. They are
Speaker 9: putting together task forces and engagement teams and others to
Speaker 9: help begin thinking about that streamlining process. But will they
Speaker 9: move as fast as Silicon Valley likes to move. That's
Speaker 9: very much a question.
Speaker 5: Silicon Valley is already moving the Microsoft deal that was
Speaker 5: done with Constellation, but that.
Speaker 4: Is but one nuclear plant that can be refired back up.
Speaker 5: How many years is this subultimately going.
Speaker 8: To tell you?
Speaker 9: I think that's the question everyone has. Even that facility
Speaker 9: that you're describing could take years to come up online.
Speaker 9: You know, Altman himself is investing in nuclear fission and
Speaker 9: other breakthrough technologies that may never actually come to fruition,
Speaker 9: But it feels like if you can't get it through that,
Speaker 9: how else are you going to get this much power?
Speaker 6: Some Altman's talks about how every other day he meets
Speaker 6: with a government official. This is the most important AI
Speaker 6: company in the world. Probably, so we actually have a
Speaker 6: sense of the people in the White House or in
Speaker 6: federal agencies that are responsible for interacting with him.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think frun and Center for Altman is probably
Speaker 9: Gina Raymondo. I think Doug is his key point person
Speaker 9: that we've heard and seeing him reporting here. But I
Speaker 9: think he's probably dealing with people across government, and I'm
Speaker 9: sure that he's thinking about what would meaning if there
Speaker 9: is a change an administration going forward to continue to
Speaker 9: kind of really smooth over the path towards these kind
Speaker 9: of investments.
Speaker 6: So Bloomberg Cephoeman, who leads our AI coverage, thank you
Speaker 6: very much. Now coming up, China is complicating the electric
Speaker 6: vehicle outlook for Wall Street, with Morgan Stanley changing its
Speaker 6: tune on the auto sector at large and some analysts
Speaker 6: anticipating a stellar quarter for Tesla. And later today I'll
Speaker 6: be heading to Meta Connect where the company is likely
Speaker 6: to show off some new VR and mixed reality technology.
Speaker 6: I'm going to sit down with metas CTO Andrew Bosworth
Speaker 6: or bozz for an exclusive interview. With Metas shares currently
Speaker 6: trading very near to a fresh record high, there's a
Speaker 6: lot more to come. This is Bloomberg Technology, All streets
Speaker 6: changing its tune on US electric car makers. Morgan Stanley
Speaker 6: analyst Adam Jonas cutting his overall auto outlook amid competition
Speaker 6: in China and concerns around the US consumer. He cut
Speaker 6: Rivian to equal weight today and also downgraded GM and Ford.
Speaker 6: On the other side, there's Tesla. At least four analysts
Speaker 6: have boosted their estimates for Testa's third quarter delivery numbers
Speaker 6: which are due next week, all points to signs that
Speaker 6: sales are starting to pick up for Tesla, particularly in China. Caroline, Yeah, and.
Speaker 5: We want to discuss China evs and what, of course
Speaker 5: regulation is happening in Europe with Transporter Environment Senior Director
Speaker 5: Julia chlis Conover. Julia, we hear of some of the
Speaker 5: analyst reactions to Tesla, to Rivian, to EV's. More generally,
Speaker 5: we're also seeing governments react to the worrying from their
Speaker 5: side that EV's are very cheap when they're coming from China,
Speaker 5: and it's because they're subsidized. Just set the con text
Speaker 5: where we's done right now?
Speaker 10: Right Well, I think that's a really big debate, and
Speaker 10: right now in Brussels where I'm based, basically at every
Speaker 10: minute of the day, this is what politicians and everyone
Speaker 10: is discussing. I think the bottom line is is that
Speaker 10: China had a long term vision as well as subsidies
Speaker 10: for over a decade now to build their expertise not
Speaker 10: just in electric vehicles but the entire supply chain. They
Speaker 10: had policies on demand side, on supply side, and on
Speaker 10: this just entire ecosystem. So today they simply have excellent
Speaker 10: high quality technology, dominance of the supply chain, as well
Speaker 10: as problems domestically leading to oversupply that they want to
Speaker 10: sell across the world. I'll just put one fact for
Speaker 10: you which I think really underscores why the current ev
Speaker 10: tariff negotiations in Europe are so important. Almost sixty percent
Speaker 10: of all Chinese IVY global exports are actually go into
Speaker 10: day to Europe while the US market is closed to them.
Speaker 10: That's why the current negotiations in Brussels over the higher
Speaker 10: tariffs are so tense and really really still just heating
Speaker 10: up right now.
Speaker 5: Those duties, those tariffs can be as high as about
Speaker 5: thirty five percent on addition to the ten percent tariffs
Speaker 5: that are already existing.
Speaker 4: The breaking news today.
Speaker 5: Is that we understand the EU and China will continue
Speaker 5: negotiations even as the EU looks to perhaps pass through
Speaker 5: these tariffs as.
Speaker 4: Soon as the beginning of next month.
Speaker 5: Julia, how likely do you think it is that these
Speaker 5: tariffs will go into place?
Speaker 4: And need to go into place?
Speaker 6: So, first of all, whether or not they will go
Speaker 6: into place.
Speaker 10: As we see the situation today, it still seems likely
Speaker 10: that there is no blocking majority of Member states against
Speaker 10: the tariffs. So the vote can take place any day
Speaker 10: now until the end of October, and as of today
Speaker 10: it seems that the additional tariffs would go through. However,
Speaker 10: what we do understand is that there might be a
Speaker 10: clause put into that agreement that the European Commission and
Speaker 10: the Chinese officials can continue negotiating and if they reach
Speaker 10: some sort of deal, either on prices or volumes of inputs,
Speaker 10: this might be reversed. Now that's number one, but number
Speaker 10: two is also important. Do we need those tariffs? And
Speaker 10: when we talk about tariffs on Chinese evs in Europe,
Speaker 10: I think we always forget the other big part.
Speaker 8: Of the picture.
Speaker 10: What is missing is the affordable supply of electric vehicles
Speaker 10: in Europe by European manufacturers. Some of this is planned,
Speaker 10: so about twelve models cheaper models are planned for next
Speaker 10: year that coincide with the next set of European clean
Speaker 10: car regulations, the so called CARCO two standards. So as
Speaker 10: part of the package EV tariffs make sense. If you
Speaker 10: have standards, you have locallyvs and then you have higher
Speaker 10: tariffs if you don't have.
Speaker 6: Supply, let me jump in. Let's talk about that. Package
Speaker 6: tariffs is one factor Earlier today, Bloomberg spoke to the
Speaker 6: ACA Director general basically said there's a perfect storm for
Speaker 6: the EV industry in Europe right now. Just listen to
Speaker 6: what was said.
Speaker 11: I mean, it's all coming together at the same time.
Speaker 11: We sometimes call it the almost perfect storm happening together,
Speaker 11: and we need to deal with that. And I think
Speaker 11: now also with the green transition moving from paper to reality,
Speaker 11: reality starts to hit and we see how difficult it
Speaker 11: is to not just have mandates, regulatory mandates and models
Speaker 11: on the market manufacturers making cars, but also needing a
Speaker 11: market to pull. And that's what we are missing at
Speaker 11: the moment in Europe.
Speaker 6: That's the chief of Europe's biggest autos lobby group saying
Speaker 6: things are very hard right now for our industry. A
Speaker 6: perfect storm. Do you see a perfect storm?
Speaker 10: I do agree that things are really hard. What I
Speaker 10: think we miss in Europe is a comprehensive green automotive
Speaker 10: strategy that would have the vision industrial policy to support it,
Speaker 10: be it investment support, bit trade policy. That is not happening.
Speaker 10: And that's what we're now discussing. Following the famous drug report,
Speaker 10: so that the senior report that was presented in Europe
Speaker 10: on competitiveness. But I do have to say that all
Speaker 10: of this didn't just arrive as a complete surprise. Carmakers
Speaker 10: knew about the EVY targets for years, and we always
Speaker 10: expected the market to stagnate in twenty twenty three and
Speaker 10: twenty twenty four, then to pick up in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 6: Okay, So, Julia, what is the consumer's attitude to electric
Speaker 6: vehicles in Europe?
Speaker 10: When the vehicles are brought at right prices, consumers are
Speaker 10: flocking to buy them. The French social leasing model, where
Speaker 10: smaller affordable evs were made available, was all but subscribed.
Speaker 10: So the demand is there, but it's there at the
Speaker 10: rightly priced vehicles, and that's what we're missing. We are
Speaker 10: missing affordable models. As I said, their planned for next year.
Speaker 10: So we just need to get those models, ramp those up,
Speaker 10: bring them to consumers, and actually see how the market reacts.
Speaker 10: It's too early to judge that today in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 10: when those models are not there.
Speaker 6: Transport Environment Senior Director, Julia Poliskanova, thank you very much.
Speaker 6: The global market for AI related products will hit as
Speaker 6: much as nine hundred and ninety billion dollars in twenty
Speaker 6: twenty seven. That's according to Bain's latest Global Technology Report,
Speaker 6: saying the market will grow forty to fifty five percent
Speaker 6: annually from one hundred and eighty five billion dollars last year.
Speaker 6: The consulting firm says growth will be fueled by bigger
Speaker 6: AI systems and larger data centers to train and run them,
Speaker 6: driven by companies and governments using the technology to boost efficiency.
Speaker 4: Caract, how are they using the technology?
Speaker 5: We're going to discuss that today's AI in action. We're
Speaker 5: speaking with Accelerant. So Global risk Exchange platform for speciality
Speaker 5: insurance market is booked one than four hundred million dollars
Speaker 5: in revenue over the last twelve months. So let's talk
Speaker 5: about that growth. CEO Jeff Redkey is with us. What
Speaker 5: exactly are you doing? You're trying to seek out inefficiencies
Speaker 5: in the insurance market.
Speaker 4: Just explain for us.
Speaker 8: I think that's right.
Speaker 12: So Accelerant is trying to replatform that specialty insurance market
Speaker 12: for the benefit of everyone. Let me unpack that a little.
Speaker 12: Inside that gigantic insurance industry, there are millions of policies
Speaker 12: that aren't quite standard. Something makes them unique. That's the
Speaker 12: specialty insurance market and what we do is unlike the
Speaker 12: traditional insurance industry tech, which is so inflexible that it
Speaker 12: doesn't make sense to sort of adjust and to modernize
Speaker 12: for these specialty products. We are nimble enough that with
Speaker 12: data and technology, we provide the infrastructure that replatforms the
Speaker 12: specialty insurance onto a more modern, efficient platform.
Speaker 6: Jeff. The proof is in the numbers, it always is, right.
Speaker 6: So how does the infusia as for the technology and
Speaker 6: use of the technology translate into sales for you? The
Speaker 6: proof that people are willing to pay for it?
Speaker 12: Well, we mentioned the revenue four hundred and forty four
Speaker 12: million over the trailing twelve months, and that's up over
Speaker 12: sixty percent, So certainly we're pleased with the growth. The
Speaker 12: growth of the business through the platform has been very,
Speaker 12: very strong, as both specialty underwriters as well as the
Speaker 12: risk capital partners adopt the platform and find it incredibly helpful.
Speaker 12: So I think that would be the proof.
Speaker 5: How is AI and machine learning the key to all of.
Speaker 12: This though, Well, it all starts with the data, I think,
Speaker 12: and so week by week over the past six years,
Speaker 12: the Risk Exchange has been squirreling away data, proprietary data
Speaker 12: on policies on claims on exposure and over the course
Speaker 12: of six years that's turned into tens of millions of
Speaker 12: rows of data with over eleven thousand unique attributes. And
Speaker 12: when you point the state of the art, and that's
Speaker 12: always changing. But as you point the state of the
Speaker 12: art models, whether they're machine learning or artificial intelligence models
Speaker 12: at that data, really exciting things start to happen. You
Speaker 12: know where to grow the portfolio of insurance policies, you
Speaker 12: know where to shrink the portfolio of insurance policies, You
Speaker 12: adjust the claims much more effectively. In total, we figure
Speaker 12: that twenty percent, we're picking up a twenty percent improvement
Speaker 12: in the gross margin of the business that transfers through
Speaker 12: the risk exchange because of the machine learning and AI.
Speaker 8: That's significant.
Speaker 5: The funny thing is everyone gets so caught up with
Speaker 5: generative AI, but actually you're just you're not needing that.
Speaker 5: But will that be interwoven in some way? How will
Speaker 5: you see your model progress?
Speaker 12: Do you think the generative piece, if you use that
Speaker 12: as the classic definition, I think that usually has its
Speaker 12: best use in improving other people's the customer experience, Right,
Speaker 12: I'm not sure it'll be about insight for the portfolio.
Speaker 12: So I think it'll be instead of running a query
Speaker 12: about how your portfolio is performing, you just get to
Speaker 12: ask it in natural language, and that should speed things
Speaker 12: up and probably be more enjoyable.
Speaker 8: For the users.
Speaker 6: Jeff, we talked a lot about the AI side of
Speaker 6: the story. I'm kind of actually curious about the specialty
Speaker 6: insurance side of this story, and what does that mean.
Speaker 6: Where I am in California, issues like wildfire or like
Speaker 6: mob theft in the city of San Francisco. Believe it
Speaker 6: or not, is that what we're talking about.
Speaker 12: Here, among other things. So I guess specialty insurance means
Speaker 12: that there's a risk or an insured that in some
Speaker 12: way does not fit into a standard category where a
Speaker 12: standard product with standard rates doesn't fit. So maybe that's
Speaker 12: wildfire exposure. That's a great example, but there are many others.
Speaker 12: Maybe it's a business that's too new, or maybe it's
Speaker 12: a business that's suffered a loss in the past three
Speaker 12: to five years. There are many things which can take
Speaker 12: and insured and put it into the specialty marketplace. The
Speaker 12: underlying notion of the specialty marketplace is you need incredibly
Speaker 12: tailored data sets, and there aren't millions and millions and
Speaker 12: millions of data points about each product. There are many fewer,
Speaker 12: so you have to work harder to make the data
Speaker 12: give up those insights.
Speaker 6: Does that help? Just very quick? Are more things now ensurable?
Speaker 6: Because of this?
Speaker 12: I think more things are insurable, But more importantly, products
Speaker 12: are becoming tailored to the specific needs of various insurance
Speaker 12: so it's much less of a one size fits all market.
Speaker 6: Acceleranc CEO Jeff Radke. Great to have you on the show.
Speaker 6: Thank you. Okay, more news, It's time for talking tech
Speaker 6: and first. Reddit is hiring former Google ad executive Rit
Speaker 6: Roumoff to take on the role of chief revenue Officer.
Speaker 6: This is the social media company looks to push for
Speaker 6: a wider range of ad clients. Reddit it's been investing
Speaker 6: heavily in its ad tech as it looks to compete
Speaker 6: with the likes of Alphabet and Meta Plus. Japanese memory
Speaker 6: chipmaker Kiyoshia is delaying its IPO amid a slide in
Speaker 6: semiconductor stocks. According to sources, the company is now targeting
Speaker 6: in IPO in November or December instead of October and
Speaker 6: could raise about five hundred million dollars. And Uber expands
Speaker 6: its Robotaxi fleet. The ride sharing company will partner with
Speaker 6: Chinese autonomous car company we Ride to offer robotaxis in
Speaker 6: the United Arab emorates. Uber says users in Abadabi will
Speaker 6: be able to book rides later this year.
Speaker 5: Welcome back to Blue Meg Technology. I'm Caroline Hyde in
Speaker 5: New York.
Speaker 6: And Amed Ludlow in San Francisco. All Right, a super
Speaker 6: super well read story on Bloomberg Banking Group NG is
Speaker 6: starting to use AI to price currencies, replacing jobs traditionally
Speaker 6: performed by traders and adding to its global head of
Speaker 6: electronic trading. It performed beyond their expectations. Bloomberg's Alice Watkins
Speaker 6: joins us now and has the story and the details
Speaker 6: interesting because the AI outperforms, it replaces jobs, but there's
Speaker 6: still an element of human oversight. What do you learn
Speaker 6: about what ing is actually doing well.
Speaker 13: For the FX traders at ing, adjusting currency prices for
Speaker 13: volatility was a very time consuming task, so that's why
Speaker 13: they've built this AI model to make things easier for them,
Speaker 13: and it's actually performed a lot better than they were expecting.
Speaker 4: So they were looking at getting.
Speaker 13: Grads on the desk to perform this role, but now
Speaker 13: they're going to use the model instead. It uses reinforcement learning,
Speaker 13: so it pretty much mimics how a human would use
Speaker 13: a trial and error process.
Speaker 4: And so it will get better over time.
Speaker 13: And they're now looking at deploying this technology across other
Speaker 13: asset classes too.
Speaker 5: This is a seven and a half trillion dollar day market.
Speaker 4: How are we seeing other banks leap in on this.
Speaker 5: Because I mean being able to reduce costs, reduce people
Speaker 5: music to the management zieres at least.
Speaker 13: So it really depends on the approval process within a
Speaker 13: bank as to how readily they're going to deploy these technologies,
Speaker 13: and that will vary from firm to firm. So at
Speaker 13: an industry conference at ours app recently, there was quite
Speaker 13: a lot of anxiety about who will ultimately be responsible
Speaker 13: for this AI technology. You know, is it the person
Speaker 13: who built the model, is it compliance? Is it the
Speaker 13: trading team? So sort of sorting that out within the firms,
Speaker 13: it is often seen as the first step before you
Speaker 13: could embrace the technology.
Speaker 6: IMG.
Speaker 13: They said it was a relatively quick process. They built
Speaker 13: the model within three months, tested it for six weeks,
Speaker 13: and then because they've got such strict governance process around
Speaker 13: it that's how they got the approval. So they assured
Speaker 13: me they's still going to be a big red button
Speaker 13: they can press if anything is to go wrong, and
Speaker 13: that there's still be that element of human oversight.
Speaker 6: Bloomberg's Alice Atkins in London, thank you very much. Back
Speaker 6: in the US, AI regulation is top of mind for
Speaker 6: big tech executives, Ruth Porat, president and CIO of Google
Speaker 6: parent Alphabet, spoke to Bloomberg's Eric Shatska about her hope
Speaker 6: to see bipartisan AI policies emerging in the US. She
Speaker 6: spoke at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum yesterday. Listen to this.
Speaker 14: Right now. In the Senate, there's a bipartisan approach around
Speaker 14: an AI framework that Senator Schumern around and others have.
Speaker 8: Proposed, and again it looks at.
Speaker 14: All elements of how do we invest to be competitive,
Speaker 14: how do we prevent working on the downside. So I
Speaker 14: would hope it's a continuation of this and that it
Speaker 14: continues to be bipartisan because it's such a critical issue.
Speaker 5: It's not just corporate leaders. AI is key for world leaders.
Speaker 5: At the United Nations General Assembly as well, President Biden
Speaker 5: issuing a warning on AI risks during his final speech
Speaker 5: and calling for global standard, Biden saying quote, we must
Speaker 5: make certain that the awesome capabilities of AI are used
Speaker 5: to uplift and empower everyday people, not to give dictators
Speaker 5: more powerful shackles on the human spirit.
Speaker 4: We want to talk about this more.
Speaker 5: France is special Envoy for AI, and Bouvrel joins US.
Speaker 4: Now and you are talking with Macron his.
Speaker 5: Special Envoy to discuss AI governance regulation. You've got a
Speaker 5: summit coming up in February where you want not just
Speaker 5: nice to have, but actions to have. Is it governable
Speaker 5: from a world perspective?
Speaker 15: Well, that's a great question. Thanks for having me. We're
Speaker 15: at early stages of AI, and I think this is
Speaker 15: now is the time where we need to put all
Speaker 15: our efforts into this, into looking at how we want
Speaker 15: to govern it, how concrete action can be taken, can
Speaker 15: be skilled, can be catalyzed to get AI to be
Speaker 15: developed in the interest of people. I mean, I very
Speaker 15: much agree with a lot of what has just been
Speaker 15: said recently.
Speaker 8: We need to redouble our.
Speaker 15: Efforts and get heads of states but also civil society, startups,
Speaker 15: large companies, researchers very importantly together to best address those subjects.
Speaker 4: What's the number one concern?
Speaker 15: Well, there's been lots of discussions around AI safety at
Speaker 15: previous summits like at Bleedgsday Park and Saul. We want
Speaker 15: to take a broader approach because we do think those
Speaker 15: are important topics, but we also think we need to
Speaker 15: discuss things like future of work. You had an example
Speaker 15: on that just before, Innovation and culture.
Speaker 8: Of very important topics.
Speaker 15: But most of all, it is what can we do
Speaker 15: to make sure we put into perspective the potential harms
Speaker 15: of misuse and then the benefits and opportunities and help
Speaker 15: steer things in the direction of these very concrete opportunities.
Speaker 15: And when I say very concrete, you can say AI
Speaker 15: is going to benefit help for example, Yeah, but not
Speaker 15: everything in health very specific cases for example orientations, speeding
Speaker 15: up taking care of patients or speeding up drug development,
Speaker 15: but not everything, not replacing doctors or nurses on everything.
Speaker 6: And good morning, miss Strau in France is the private
Speaker 6: sector leader in AI. How closely are you working with
Speaker 6: me Strau in your efforts?
Speaker 15: So first of all, this is a global summit that
Speaker 15: we're preparing, so I'm really keen to work with all
Speaker 15: AI companies and startups like Missprau, but also the ones
Speaker 15: in the US which you know super well, the ones
Speaker 15: like Saka and I in AI in Japan, or alif
Speaker 15: Alfa in Germany. And yes, we work very closely with Mistrial,
Speaker 15: but I'm also very pleased that we have other great
Speaker 15: startups in France like Poolside or h just to name
Speaker 15: a few, So yes, we're working with them.
Speaker 6: I'd like to know about mccorn's attitude towards leadership. How
Speaker 6: important is it for a global leader, a Western world leader,
Speaker 6: to have a firm grasp on artificial intelligence, the technicalities
Speaker 6: of it, the implications of it, and how does he
Speaker 6: feel about that?
Speaker 15: So it's really a subject that he's been deeply interested
Speaker 15: in for years. France had a first report and set
Speaker 15: of recommendations on AI in twenty eighteen, led by Cedric
Speaker 15: villani Are, a field medalist. I just recently co shared
Speaker 15: the second report with economist Philipeagyon. We delivered our recommendations
Speaker 15: in March. This is really something that the French President
Speaker 15: Macron is very interested in and following on quickly, I
Speaker 15: mean strongly and regularly. He's speaking at a number of
Speaker 15: events on the topic. He's listening to people as much
Speaker 15: as he can. Yes, he strongly believes this is important.
Speaker 5: It's all very well for a Western leader, as Ed says,
Speaker 5: to be on top of AI. But what the United
Speaker 5: Nations has been trying to say is there's a whole
Speaker 5: load of other countries who are impacted.
Speaker 4: By this have no seat to the table.
Speaker 5: We look towards your summit, which yet again involves a
Speaker 5: lot of the people who've been in the UK and Seoul,
Speaker 5: and there's a lot of the same G seven countries.
Speaker 5: What about involving Africa, the Global South.
Speaker 8: This is super important.
Speaker 15: We have a bit more time, luckily to prepare our summit.
Speaker 15: The UK and South Korea had to really do things
Speaker 15: quite quickly because we have more time. We really want
Speaker 15: to be as inclusive as possible. We've already sent save
Speaker 15: the dates to more than sixty world leaders. We're really
Speaker 15: opening this up to as many countries as want to come,
Speaker 15: as well as startups, enterprises, civil society organizations. We hold
Speaker 15: the webinar recently with more than two hundred and fifty
Speaker 15: of them from around the world researchers. Of course, France
Speaker 15: has this at heart to really take into account the
Speaker 15: perspectives and interests of countries around the globe. I completely
Speaker 15: agree with you. If AI is only being developed by
Speaker 15: a few actors in a few.
Speaker 8: Countries, we will have failed.
Speaker 15: We really need to involve and everyone and make sure
Speaker 15: we steered it towards towards peoples and the society.
Speaker 6: And look forward. What are the objectives that you're setting
Speaker 6: for yourselves as a result of the summit.
Speaker 15: So we're at the same time very ambitious and also
Speaker 15: very humble and pragmatic. We want to use the dates
Speaker 15: of the Stommach to catalyze to scale, to take specific
Speaker 15: actions that are as pragmatic and concrete as possible. We
Speaker 15: want to have examples of specific use cases in specific
Speaker 15: countries versus a general discussion on science fiction or potential impacts.
Speaker 15: And we also want to have concrete actions on standards
Speaker 15: on introperability, on specific initiatives involving a number of countries
Speaker 15: and private actors and public actors. You'll have to wait
Speaker 15: a little bit until February, but I very much hope
Speaker 15: that you can be there and that we can have
Speaker 15: these concrete actions and results be presented there.
Speaker 6: Please, and you must come back on Bloomberg Technology and
Speaker 6: review the results of that summit. France Special Envoy for
Speaker 6: Ai and Bouvaureaut, thank you very much. Now coming up,
Speaker 6: Wiz is in discussions to sell existing shares at a
Speaker 6: very high evaluation. We're gonna have those details on the
Speaker 6: Bloomberg exclusive.
Speaker 8: Next.
Speaker 6: This is Bloomberg Technology cybersecurity startup Whiz is in discussions
Speaker 6: to sell existing shares and evaluation as high as twenty
Speaker 6: billion dollars. That's all according to sources and Bloombas Katie
Speaker 6: Roof broke the story joins us. Now let's do the basics.
Speaker 6: This is a tender offer. What do we know about
Speaker 6: the terms and the numbers involved?
Speaker 2: Yes, so we can't wind of it really early, so
Speaker 2: it's still being sorted out. But it should be between
Speaker 2: fifteen and twenty billion valuation, which would be a premium
Speaker 2: to the twelve billion that they raised that earlier this year,
Speaker 2: but less than the twenty three billion that they notoriously
Speaker 2: turned down from Google. But you know, that's what's being
Speaker 2: sorted out right now for a tender offer.
Speaker 4: Who's involved?
Speaker 16: The names Katie, so it would be led by g
Speaker 16: squared and then also light Speed and Thrive might be
Speaker 16: involved in this as well, and then potentially some of
Speaker 16: the other existing investors.
Speaker 6: So this is in and of itself particularly curious because,
Speaker 6: as was reported, Google did try to buy Wiz and
Speaker 6: we said no, thank you. We're okay as an independent
Speaker 6: company and a but the broader environment's been difficult. I
Speaker 6: feel like the cadence of deals might be heating up
Speaker 6: a little bit. That's a part of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, there's still plenty of capital available in
Speaker 2: Silicon Valley to invest in these things, and they need
Speaker 2: to put their money to work because the last few
Speaker 2: years there haven't been a lot of late stage growth
Speaker 2: rounds to invest in, and so you know, all the
Speaker 2: money is getting poured into either big AI rounds or
Speaker 2: other hot companies that are doing really well, and so
Speaker 2: this is one of those companies, and.
Speaker 5: It feels as though there must be pressure from well employees,
Speaker 5: early investors.
Speaker 4: This is a liquidity event.
Speaker 2: Katie, Yeah, so yeah, it would be a tender offer
Speaker 2: or secondary where existing shareholders could sell some of their shares.
Speaker 2: We think there also might be a primary round that's
Speaker 2: still being decided, and so that would mean the company
Speaker 2: would also be able to add money to its balance sheet.
Speaker 4: Katie roof. We thank you.
Speaker 5: Now, let's discuss Netflix co CEO Ted Surroundos has been
Speaker 5: considering the use of AI in the creative process. He
Speaker 5: sat down with David Rubinstein to discuss this and the
Speaker 5: company's evolution future of entertainments.
Speaker 4: Take a listen.
Speaker 17: I really mostly think of AI as a create tours tool,
Speaker 17: not a creative tool. So I think creators will use
Speaker 17: it to make to tell better stories. We're not using
Speaker 17: it to tell stories instead of them. And I don't
Speaker 17: think and I don't think we'd be very effective at it,
Speaker 17: or AI would be very effective at doing that instead
Speaker 17: of people.
Speaker 6: You can catch the full interview of Ted Sarandos on
Speaker 6: Peer to Peer Conversations tonight at nine pm Eastern Time
Speaker 6: on Bloomberg Television. Plus in two weeks, tune in for
Speaker 6: David Rubinstein's full interview with Google CEO Cinder Pitch Eye.
Speaker 6: That's on Wednesday, October ninth on Bloomberg Television. We played
Speaker 6: a little bit of that earlier on This is the
Speaker 6: PS five Pro and side Note PS five Pro thirtieth
Speaker 6: Anniversary Edition retro badge. We got hands on with the
Speaker 6: new console, which is PlayStation's most expensive ever six hundred
Speaker 6: and ninety nine dollars ninety nine cents in the US.
Speaker 6: The main update is inside a supercharge GPU with juiced
Speaker 6: up RAM and faster rendering. It boosts the gaming experience
Speaker 6: in four K and offers more gameplay at sixty frames
Speaker 6: per second for the tech officionado or the premium buyer.
Speaker 6: Those are great selling points. Let's see how it compares
Speaker 6: to a standard PS five with games I already own
Speaker 6: on Hogwarts, Legacy ray tracing offers amazing reflections, shadows, and
Speaker 6: crisp distance shots around the castle. The last of US
Speaker 6: Part two was more detailed. You could see further into
Speaker 6: the game's environment. But one big point. I played on
Speaker 6: four K even eight K TVs, and you really need
Speaker 6: that ultra high definition resolution to see any difference at all.
Speaker 6: For the experienced gamer or the average person, it will
Speaker 6: be hard to tell the difference. No doubt, these are
Speaker 6: top top high fidelity vivid graphics, but they kind of
Speaker 6: already were on the PS five and even the PS
Speaker 6: four for some titles. The size of the console is interesting.
Speaker 6: There's more power packed in it, but it's not that
Speaker 6: much different to the prior generation PS five, So gamers,
Speaker 6: could you tell the difference a lot of fun. Micron
Speaker 6: is set to release earnings after the closing bell. Here
Speaker 6: with what to expect on a serious and important technology
Speaker 6: story bloomberg'sy and King. Micron is important, and what's weird
Speaker 6: about it is it has a central role in the
Speaker 6: AI story. When we think about data centers, we obsess
Speaker 6: over in Nvidia and the GPU part, but it's almost proportionate,
Speaker 6: and so that's kind of what we want to hear about.
Speaker 6: Right when is that part going to take off?
Speaker 1: I mean, that was certainly what we were looking at
Speaker 1: three months ago. Is AI? Are they another AI beneficiary?
Speaker 1: This time? I think things are a little bit more nuanced.
Speaker 1: We were kind of disappointed that we didn't have this
Speaker 1: massive explosion in AI, even though the projection was good.
Speaker 1: This time around, it's like, oh, okay, how much is enough?
Speaker 1: And it really depends on the kind of expectation level
Speaker 1: that you're bringing towards it. So, yes, there'll be a
Speaker 1: lot of talk about AI, but smartphones PCs where those
Speaker 1: market are really important as well.
Speaker 5: Just giving us the context of sheer scale of growth
Speaker 5: in because we almost become numb to trillions of dollars
Speaker 5: and almost triple digit growth.
Speaker 4: We're expecting what ninety one.
Speaker 5: Percent increase in revenue here, and that is largely driven
Speaker 5: by the AI focus.
Speaker 1: That's an absolutely perfect point, I think, which illustrates what
Speaker 1: we were just talking about. Sounds amazing. I mean, if
Speaker 1: my salary went up ninety one percent, I'd be very happy.
Speaker 1: But if the other way to look at this, and
Speaker 1: perhaps the more kind of glum Lancashire viewpoint here, is
Speaker 1: that things were down. Things were down a lot last year,
Speaker 1: So being up ninety one percent from where we were
Speaker 1: last year sounds fantastic. Well, maybe that's because we were
Speaker 1: at such a low point. So is ninety one percent
Speaker 1: enough might be the other way to look at it.
Speaker 6: Some basics for our Bloombay Technology audience. Micron makes memory chips.
Speaker 6: Lancashire is a county in England notorious for raining all
Speaker 6: the time, which accounts for Ian's attitude. The important point
Speaker 6: is that Micron has historically been a little bit of
Speaker 6: a crystal ball about the world of electronics and technology.
Speaker 6: Is it still a crystal ball in that respect?
Speaker 1: I mean it is, but there are some dynamics within
Speaker 1: its own market that are also kind of distorting things.
Speaker 1: And typically, as you say, in the past, this was
Speaker 1: a company that's products are essentially commodities. If the price
Speaker 1: is going applical, great, If the prices are going down,
Speaker 1: bad sign right for everybody. This time, though, that is
Speaker 1: more of a technology play, right, who's ahead in a
Speaker 1: specific type of product that goes into these AI systems.
Speaker 1: In the past, Samsung was a massive leader here, somebody
Speaker 1: like Micron or esque Hennix will get squashed. Samsung arguably
Speaker 1: isn't in the lead this time. Micron has a technology play,
Speaker 1: maybe a value play too in how much.
Speaker 5: We're going to want to hear about their own investment
Speaker 5: use of money. We think about Micron, you know, fabricating
Speaker 5: more manufacturing places here in the United States, and there'll
Speaker 5: be questions.
Speaker 4: On that.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. I mean, everybody has had their CHIPSAC
Speaker 1: award announced from the Biden administration, but nobody's actually received
Speaker 1: a check yet. So this is a big thing, right,
Speaker 1: you don't want How hard do you commit to new plants?
Speaker 1: How hard do you commit to filling out new plants?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yes, that will definitely crop up on the call today
Speaker 1: in King we.
Speaker 5: Thank you and the Glum Lancashire attitude.
Speaker 8: We love ed.
Speaker 5: Meanwhile, you're not feeling too glum.
Speaker 8: You're about to.
Speaker 4: Head out to Meta Connect and it's an important interview.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we're going to speak to Andrew Bossworth, the CTO, right,
Speaker 6: and all the things you'd expect them to talk about
Speaker 6: will happen progressing in Lama model on the AI side,
Speaker 6: ray bands and mixed reality headsets. But I just say
Speaker 6: one thing real quick, carry tune in later, because sometimes
Speaker 6: I think we forget these are technology companies and they're
Speaker 6: trying to push the limits of hardware and software, and
Speaker 6: that's where i'd focus today.
Speaker 5: We focus also on basically, as share price that is
Speaker 5: near a record high, Meta has become the AI play
Speaker 5: for many.
Speaker 6: It's so weird because like six years ago, this was
Speaker 6: a social media company, then it was a metaverse company,
Speaker 6: then it was an AI company, but everyone was mad
Speaker 6: about all the money they were spending. Now they're not mad,
Speaker 6: and you look at the share price and the chart
Speaker 6: on your screen. They're being rewarded for this commitment to it.
Speaker 6: I guess the question, without giving it away, is what
Speaker 6: is Meta now? Is it all of those things or
Speaker 6: has it a more narrow focus.
Speaker 5: We wait for that question to be posed to BIZ
Speaker 5: a little bit later. Meanwhile, that does it for this
Speaker 5: addition of Bluemoy Technology.
Speaker 6: ED and I will speak to Andrew Bosworth metas CTO
Speaker 6: later today. Tune in four pm New York time, one
Speaker 6: pm here in San Francisco. A cracking show today. Check
Speaker 6: out and recap on the podcast. You know where to
Speaker 6: find it from the team out in New York and
Speaker 6: the team here in San Francisco. Thank you. This is
Speaker 6: bloombay Technology.