Speaker 1: From the heart of where innovation, money and power collide
Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley and beyond. This is Bloomberg Technology with
Speaker 1: Caroline Hyde.
Speaker 2: And Ed Ludlow live from New York. This is Blomberg Technology.
Speaker 2: Coming up.
Speaker 3: CEES kicks off in Las Vegas today with a keynote
Speaker 3: speech from Nvidia.
Speaker 2: We'll have the latest on what to expect.
Speaker 3: Plus, Disney and Fubo TV agreed to combine their online
Speaker 3: TV businesses live TV, creating the second biggest digital PATV
Speaker 3: provider and sending Fubo shares soaring and a lawsuit a
Speaker 3: ledgers TikTok's video livestreams facilitated the exploitation and.
Speaker 2: Grooming of miners. Details later this hour.
Speaker 3: First, we have some breaking news regarding the Federal Reserve.
Speaker 3: Bar Michael Barr is going to be stepping down as
Speaker 3: FED Vice Chair for Supervision, a key move that we
Speaker 3: want to bring in one Michael McKee here because, by
Speaker 3: I said, the risk of a dispute over the position
Speaker 3: could be a distraction. New administration in the White House
Speaker 3: means new change leadership in the FED.
Speaker 4: Yeah, new regulatory era in the AT four banks and
Speaker 4: other institutions. Because of course the trumpet incoming Trump administration
Speaker 4: is going to be very much less so, so Michael
Speaker 4: Barr is stepping down February twenty eighth and he will
Speaker 4: serve until a successor comes.
Speaker 2: There are other resignations we need to pay attention to.
Speaker 3: Michael Meeky, Thank you, Canadian Prime Minister trust and Trudeau
Speaker 3: speaking in Ottawa.
Speaker 2: Let's listen in.
Speaker 5: To strengthen and grow the middle class. Why we rallied
Speaker 5: to support each other through the pandemic, to advance reconciliation,
Speaker 5: to defend free trade on this continent, to stand strong
Speaker 5: with Ukraine and our democracy, and to fight climate change
Speaker 5: and get our economy ready for the future. We are
Speaker 5: at a critical moment in the world. Canadia a shaq
Speaker 5: matti mus and tomi minestra, a spire para resilience, generosity,
Speaker 5: character is sibia. On to Canadia siskim and motif a
Speaker 5: shak jou privilege, the survey, the post, the piedo, milkns
Speaker 5: chmus batsu, pusila, class man. Some mobilize on to Canadian
Speaker 5: for soutnir lison, a pandemic, fire, progress, reconcilia. They found liberation.
Speaker 5: Not in the Lucraine. The democracy h in plutic I
Speaker 5: prepari now Traversonalmond. My friends, is you all know I'm
Speaker 5: a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told
Speaker 5: me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians. I
Speaker 5: care deeply about this country, and I will always be
Speaker 5: motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians.
Speaker 5: And the fact is, despite best efforts to work through it,
Speaker 5: Parliament has been paralyzed for months after what has been
Speaker 5: the longest session of a minority parliament in Canadian history.
Speaker 5: That's why this morning I advise the Governor General that
Speaker 5: we need a new session of Parliament. She has granted
Speaker 5: this request and the House will now be prorogued until
Speaker 5: March twenty fourth. Over the holidays, I've also had a
Speaker 5: chance to reflect and have had long talks with my
Speaker 5: family about our future. Throughout the course of my career,
Speaker 5: any success I have personally achieved has been because of
Speaker 5: their support and with their encouragement. So last night over dinner,
Speaker 5: I told my kids about the decision that I'm sharing
Speaker 5: with you today. I intend to resign as party leader
Speaker 5: as Prime Minister after the party selects its next leader
Speaker 5: through a robust nationwide competitive process. Last night I asked
Speaker 5: the President of the Liberal Party to begin that process.
Speaker 5: This country deserves a real choice in the next election,
Speaker 5: and it has become clear to me that if I'm
Speaker 5: having to fight in in all battles, I cannot be
Speaker 5: the best option in that election. Michel Settee come Vucevi starfighter.
Speaker 3: Justin Trudeau there the Prime Minister of Canada, of course,
Speaker 3: now handing in his resignation as the leader of his party.
Speaker 3: There is an official suspension of parliament now in Canada
Speaker 3: until March the twenty fourth.
Speaker 2: We will return to all of.
Speaker 3: The moves when it comes to politics in Canada. But
Speaker 3: the announcement there that Canada will perode parliament until March
Speaker 3: to twenty fourth, and indeed Trudeau's Canada Parliament will be
Speaker 3: suspended and he announces his resignation after nine years in power.
Speaker 3: He says he'll stay as Prime Minister until a new
Speaker 3: Liberal leader is chosen.
Speaker 2: His resignation announcement not the only one. This time.
Speaker 3: We returned to Michael McKee and the Federal Reserve because
Speaker 3: Michael Barrs.
Speaker 2: Stepped down as FED Vice chair for Supervision. But he's
Speaker 2: not resigning from the Federal Reserve. Just this Vice chair position.
Speaker 4: Yeah, which makes a very interesting situation for the FED
Speaker 4: because there is no opening on the FED Board of
Speaker 4: Governors until January of twenty twenty six, when Ariona Cougler's
Speaker 4: term expires, and it's basically been thought she won't be replaced.
Speaker 4: But the incoming president won't have the opportunity to pick
Speaker 4: a different new vice chair for regulation. He could only
Speaker 4: pick from those who are on the board now. The
Speaker 4: best guess is that if you were going to choose
Speaker 4: somebody from that board, it would be Mickey Bowman, because
Speaker 4: she's been the sort of community bank representative, she's been
Speaker 4: a banking official. She is a Republican, so she fits
Speaker 4: some of the characteristics that the president would want. But
Speaker 4: does Donald Trump want Mickey Bowman as vice chair or
Speaker 4: is he going to leave the position vacant for right now?
Speaker 4: And the other key thing about this is the FED
Speaker 4: says it will take no new actions for bank regulation
Speaker 4: until his successor is confirmed, and that would seem to
Speaker 4: indicate that Basil three, the endgame proposal that has been
Speaker 4: sort of the big focus on Wall Street is if
Speaker 4: not dead on life support.
Speaker 2: At this point, we'll get to some of the stock
Speaker 2: reactions on the banks.
Speaker 3: But is that going to be the big market move really,
Speaker 3: that's going to be what's digested here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the Fed was supposed to re announce in January
Speaker 4: or February their latest BUZZL three work up, because they
Speaker 4: pulled it back to do some revisions, and now apparently
Speaker 4: that's not going to happen.
Speaker 2: We keep an eye on what's happening in the markets.
Speaker 3: Yields till about three basis points to the higher side.
Speaker 3: That more based on tariff perceptions and whether or not
Speaker 3: they're going to be pulled back or indeed put in
Speaker 3: force as Trump had discussed before. We'll get to that
Speaker 3: a little bit later, but for now you'll see two
Speaker 3: year yields on the downside, thirty eight yields have been
Speaker 3: inching higher up four basis points. And we're keeping a
Speaker 3: close eye on the bank stocks and the back of
Speaker 3: Michael Barr's resignation as the vice chair of the FED
Speaker 3: when it comes to supervision, Michael mckeey, thank him. Let's
Speaker 3: get back to the tech markets for a moment as well,
Speaker 3: because that we're at record highs on certain names Nasdaq
Speaker 3: app or another one point seven percent on the NAZAK
Speaker 3: one hundred, the big benchmark, what drives us higher.
Speaker 2: The points being pushed higher by one.
Speaker 3: In video, we are at a new record high for
Speaker 3: in video at the moment, we want to go to
Speaker 3: some other key market moves of the day. Fubo TV
Speaker 3: extraordinary move for this particular company, as we once again
Speaker 3: see the beginning of twenty twenty five kickoff to an
Speaker 3: m and a frenzy and consolidation within media. This is
Speaker 3: all about how you're going to be consuming your sports
Speaker 3: live TV online. We're getting the second biggest player when
Speaker 3: you combine Disney and Fubo to be taking on and
Speaker 3: really only second to YouTube TV. Fubo up one hundred
Speaker 3: and ninety percent. Will delve into that later in the show.
Speaker 3: Microsoft and an interesting story it came on Friday, the
Speaker 3: fact that they're going to be spending eighty billion dollars
Speaker 3: in AI data centers. Many saying that, look, this is
Speaker 3: why we've got tech rallying on the day. More broadly,
Speaker 3: more commitment to AI infrastructure. Microsoft up two percent and
Speaker 3: in Vidia in a new record high. We're up five percent,
Speaker 3: and that's because we're expecting a keynote at about six
Speaker 3: thirty pm at Pacific time, that is nine thirty pm
Speaker 3: New York time at later today from one Jensen Huang.
Speaker 3: Let's get out to Ian King for more. In of course,
Speaker 3: at CEES we're about to unfold.
Speaker 2: What do we expect from Jensen in particular.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean we don't know yet. There are going
Speaker 6: to be briefings and then he's obviously going to hit
Speaker 6: the stage later today. What we've seen are some leaks
Speaker 6: of a new GPU architecture that's going to becoming that's
Speaker 6: basically for the PC market. So used to be their
Speaker 6: pride and joy, but now it's kind of a minor thing.
Speaker 6: And you'll remember that we reported a long time ago
Speaker 6: now that this will be the year that Jensen and
Speaker 6: in video would directly get into the PC market, into
Speaker 6: the CPU market.
Speaker 3: And not the only one, Quillcom introducing new chips designed
Speaker 3: to power PCs as well. It's all about the AIPC unfold.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, this is the big hope for both
Speaker 6: the PC makers and the guys that supply them that hey,
Speaker 6: this is something exciting, this is a new way to
Speaker 6: use your PC, and that everybody will rush out to
Speaker 6: trade in their old machine. And basically every chip maker
Speaker 6: out there is saying, hey, we've got the best solution
Speaker 6: for this particular way of doing things.
Speaker 3: In you've got to be clued into what is writing
Speaker 3: on the Tech Daily today is a brilliant piece all
Speaker 3: about the important conversations that are going on outside the
Speaker 3: main floor of Las vegas Ian King in San Francisco
Speaker 3: for us, thank you so much for the look ahead
Speaker 3: to CES and of course that keynote from Nvidia's CEO
Speaker 3: tonight and it's the talk of the town. In fact,
Speaker 3: Jim Bianco from Bianco Research had this to say about
Speaker 3: the company and it's CEO just earlier today on Bloomberg Surveillance.
Speaker 7: Well, first of all, everybody should care about Jenson Wang
Speaker 7: because he is the most important person in twenty twenty
Speaker 7: five to everybody's returns, no matter what market you are
Speaker 7: investing in right now, because Nvidia is the driver of everything.
Speaker 2: Let's get more investor analysis.
Speaker 3: Joann fini It is a partner and portfolio manager of
Speaker 3: Advis's Capital Management.
Speaker 2: All on ten to Hooks the six thirty pm Pacific time.
Speaker 8: Absolutely, Caroline, Clearly Jensen will have a lot that he
Speaker 8: can talk about and share with with his investor base.
Speaker 8: And because he has a lot of good stories to tell.
Speaker 9: The AI demand is not debating.
Speaker 8: In fact, that news from Microsoft last week shows how
Speaker 8: much more there is to be spent. And you know,
Speaker 8: Jensen's talk will likely also hit plenty of other companies
Speaker 8: that are more and more involved now in rolling out
Speaker 8: AI applications, whether it's in robotics or autos or digital
Speaker 8: twins or elsewhere.
Speaker 3: Just talk about how in video itself can own that.
Speaker 3: What's been so phenomenal is the way in which you're
Speaker 3: sort of getting virtually vertical integate gration. They can offer you,
Speaker 3: of course the hardware, but he's rightly selling you the
Speaker 3: software like a.
Speaker 2: One stop shop.
Speaker 3: How does he continue to iterate that into the era
Speaker 3: and era of well apps and of course agents.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so, you know it has been a long time coming,
Speaker 8: the development of the Nvidia specific songlfware for you know,
Speaker 8: building computational models called Kuda. You know, he's been working
Speaker 8: on that for decades and it's now fully integrated into
Speaker 8: the hardware. And that creates a really deep moat, which
Speaker 8: is why it's awfully hard for other companies to break
Speaker 8: into this space. Not that we won't see them. We're
Speaker 8: going to see AMD, We're going to see more and
Speaker 8: more in house, but it creates a really strong platform
Speaker 8: for Nvidia, and we expect tonight that he'll talk more
Speaker 8: about how he's going to roll out more data centers
Speaker 8: to run AI models for other folks. So he's not
Speaker 8: going to be content I think to stick just with
Speaker 8: the hardware and the software. I think he wants to
Speaker 8: get into services to some extent, and it's not been
Speaker 8: something that Nvidia has shied away from in the past,
Speaker 8: that is competing with its customers.
Speaker 3: What new you hoping to see when it comes to
Speaker 3: applications When it comes to robotics, you just mentioned it
Speaker 3: for example.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so you know Cees is always full of dreamware
Speaker 8: as well as reality and.
Speaker 2: So it's always fun to see what small and.
Speaker 8: Large companies roll out. But you know, robotics is clearly
Speaker 8: an area for growth that's more near term. We already
Speaker 8: see plenty of robotics, but they need to become smarter,
Speaker 8: They need to become more physically adept and graceful, and
Speaker 8: we think AI can really help in sensing the environment
Speaker 8: and responding to it. But another area that's a little
Speaker 8: bit more overlooked is digital twins. This is when you
Speaker 8: build a model to replicate something in the real physical world,
Speaker 8: and you use that model to save on costs to
Speaker 8: improve design, whether that's a product, whether it's a building,
Speaker 8: whether it's infrastructure, and we think AI can really inform
Speaker 8: and make that a whole lot more efficient and improve designs.
Speaker 8: We own a company called Bentley Systems, for example. It
Speaker 8: provides software for management and development of construction and projects
Speaker 8: in the infrastructure space. So that's an example of a
Speaker 8: company that could be a growing beneficiary of the infiltration
Speaker 8: of AI into that area.
Speaker 3: We love how you bring up individual names, and of
Speaker 3: course you do have exposure to video, but you also
Speaker 3: mentioned AMD, there is the Amazon and even.
Speaker 2: Broadcom in your portfolio.
Speaker 3: Who else wins when it comes to what has just
Speaker 3: been the n video ride, Well, you know clearly.
Speaker 8: And NAMD, you know, providing those chips. Broadcom we have
Speaker 8: owned for a very long time, and as they continue
Speaker 8: to acquire and build new capabilities, we think that's going
Speaker 8: to continue to be a really strong player in this
Speaker 8: space and has a lot more room for the valuation
Speaker 8: to improve. And beyond that, you know, look in new
Speaker 8: applications in healthcare for example, you know companies that provide
Speaker 8: new ways to monitor personal health, so software leveraged to healthcare,
Speaker 8: new medical devices from for example, Medtronic that will bring
Speaker 8: more and more smarter analytics. And then in industrials, you know,
Speaker 8: whether it's that infrastructure build or you know, software to
Speaker 8: oversee agricultural.
Speaker 9: Developments, that sort of thing.
Speaker 8: So you know, there are a lot of opportunities. We
Speaker 8: do like those big names Microsoft, Amazon, because not only
Speaker 8: does it have Amazon Web services, but online retail is
Speaker 8: still gaining share. So there's still you know, a lot
Speaker 8: of opportunities out in the tech space for continued growth
Speaker 8: this year.
Speaker 3: Advice's capital management partner Joann Feeney, brilliant to have your
Speaker 3: take on the trends and the individual companies as well.
Speaker 2: Coming up, we're gonna be talking.
Speaker 3: Trump's tariff position, the President elect denying reports of the
Speaker 3: potential pairing back of.
Speaker 2: His tariff plans.
Speaker 3: More on that next, but first we return to another
Speaker 3: key leader who today resigns his position as Liberal Party leader,
Speaker 3: Justin Trudeau. The Canadian Parliament will be suspended it on
Speaker 3: March the twenty fourth. Go to Life, Go for more.
Speaker 2: Lister Blomberg Technology, did I the conver.
Speaker 10: You spoke about the Liberal Party as an institution and
Speaker 10: the internal battles right now. But I'm wondering if you
Speaker 10: feel that another leader will have more success than you
Speaker 10: will at beating preclium.
Speaker 3: Today, the Washington Post reported the President elects Trump's are
Speaker 3: said to be looking at tariff plans that could be
Speaker 3: applied to every country, but.
Speaker 2: Only covering critical imports.
Speaker 3: Trump has denied those reports through your post on True
Speaker 3: Social saying it's quote incorrect and that he won't be
Speaker 3: pairing back his tariff policy. Let's get out to blue
Speaker 3: Bags Mike Shepherd for more and just where are we
Speaker 3: on the latest of the tariff debate.
Speaker 11: Well, it's unfolding still, Caroline. This is one of the
Speaker 11: biggest questions surrounding the incoming Trump administration's economic policy, together
Speaker 11: with his plans to cut taxes and his plans and immigration,
Speaker 11: and these are areas that would affect key industries, especially tech,
Speaker 11: and yet we don't have a clear picture from what
Speaker 11: we saw in this back and forth between the Post
Speaker 11: and then Trump today. No matter what, industries are going
Speaker 11: to be looking at what the tariffs could mean for them,
Speaker 11: and it's really two key areas. One it would be
Speaker 11: the increased costs of any inputs that they have in
Speaker 11: their production lines. And the other thing that they will
Speaker 11: be worried about is possible retaliation by US trading partners.
Speaker 11: It could mean that US products, for instance, anything made
Speaker 11: by Apple or other name brand American companies could be
Speaker 11: hit or targeted in retaliation in response to anything that
Speaker 11: Trump does. Now, it's important to note Trump still doesn't
Speaker 11: take office for another two weeks, and this will take
Speaker 11: shape over a matter of months, not just in the
Speaker 11: span of the time between now January twenty.
Speaker 3: Mike shefferd it's going to be our daily dose until
Speaker 3: that time, an onwards.
Speaker 2: We thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, let's talk about politics and take a little bit more.
Speaker 3: One person within Trump's sphere, you know, Musk is now
Speaker 3: under scrutiny by senior UK politicians.
Speaker 2: This after the Tesla boss.
Speaker 3: Made a series of inflammatory remarks accusing Prime Minister Kastama
Speaker 3: of complicitly involved in a decades old scandal over child
Speaker 3: sexual exportation gangs. Max Schaffkin, a blombag BusinessWeek joins US
Speaker 3: fund more and look, this is following a barrage of
Speaker 3: posts on his own social media platform x where he
Speaker 3: has been calling for prior Minister kiss Stama to be imprisoned.
Speaker 3: He's been urging with the release of Tommy Robinson, who
Speaker 3: is a far right leader, and ultimately stirring up even
Speaker 3: the surprising move away from Nigel Farage.
Speaker 2: He's the leader of the UK Reform Why is he
Speaker 2: getting so involved? Well, I think two things are going on.
Speaker 12: One and probably the most important thing is Elon Musk
Speaker 12: is stirring the pot on social media. This is somebody
Speaker 12: who likes to be a provocateur. He basically goes wherever
Speaker 12: there's heat. You know, we saw this during the twenty
Speaker 12: twenty four election, where he's sort of spreading you know,
Speaker 12: unfounded conspiracy theories, backing questionable figures. Really the same playbook
Speaker 12: we're seeing, you know in the UK.
Speaker 2: The difference is, of course that.
Speaker 12: Elon Musk lives in the United States and has sort
Speaker 12: of more explicitly engaged politically. Here we have a guy
Speaker 12: who's not really doesn't have a ton of business interests
Speaker 12: in the UK getting involved, you know, initially backing Nigel
Speaker 12: Farage's party, now coming out against Nigel Farage. It really
Speaker 12: feels like a combination of again stirring the pot, but
Speaker 12: also perhaps having a real disagreement with kerstar Or over
Speaker 12: some of these speech rights. Of course, X has had
Speaker 12: you know, some back and forth with the British government
Speaker 12: over you know, how he should regulate misinformation and that
Speaker 12: sort of thing.
Speaker 2: Kis Dama now speaking back.
Speaker 3: He had been relatively silent, but now he says there's
Speaker 3: a line that has been crossed, particularly when it came
Speaker 3: to the safety of one of his own MPs.
Speaker 2: Just Phillips all.
Speaker 3: Regarding previous roles in the Crown Prosecution Service that when
Speaker 3: he was leading, but away from the intricacies of really
Speaker 3: what's going on in the UK, how does it affect
Speaker 3: Ino must relationship with Trump going forward and the administration there,
Speaker 3: because as we reported, these UK senior figures are coming
Speaker 3: out and saying this is bad for US UK relationship.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean it's I do think people realize people
Speaker 12: in the UK realize that Elon Musk and Donald Trump
Speaker 12: are two different people. There may be a close relationship,
Speaker 12: but you know, of course Trump is going to make
Speaker 12: his own policy, and of course historically Trump has kind
Speaker 12: of cultivated ties with extreme figures who would sometimes come
Speaker 12: out and stir the pot and almost gives Trump a
Speaker 12: weapon perhaps in dealing with UK politicians. That said, you know,
Speaker 12: Tommy Robinson is a very extreme figure, a far right figure,
Speaker 12: and I think it's you know, the sort of back
Speaker 12: and forth with Farraj shows that it's possible that Musk
Speaker 12: may have crossed the line. Maybe he didn't quite know
Speaker 12: what he was stepping into.
Speaker 3: We'll see how this continues to unfold. Max trafckn all
Speaker 3: things elon Ink. You've got to check out the podcast
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 2: We thank you.
Speaker 3: Disney and streaming provider Fubo TV are nearing a deal
Speaker 3: to combine their online live TV businesses. Now we understand
Speaker 3: that Disney is going to be folding in its Hulu
Speaker 3: plus live TV business into Fubo, creating a new venture
Speaker 3: that will be owned seventy percent by Disney and the
Speaker 3: rest by Fubo. It continues to be listed on publicly
Speaker 3: traded benchmarks and Lucas Shaw is here too get into
Speaker 3: what is actually a pretty complex deal. But the key
Speaker 3: takeaway is Venue, which is the new sports offering, is
Speaker 3: going to be able to go ahead.
Speaker 13: Yeah, Bubo had sue to block the debut of Venue,
Speaker 13: which is a joint venture between Disney, Fox and Warner Brothers. Discovery.
Speaker 13: They said it was a sign of the anti competitive
Speaker 13: nature of these big companies because Venue was going to
Speaker 13: offer a bundle of live sports channels in a way
Speaker 13: that these companies wouldn't let Fubo do. The lawsuit proved
Speaker 13: to be pretty effective for Fubo, right, they won the
Speaker 13: first injunction or they want an injunction to stop it.
Speaker 13: And now they're essentially getting acquired for a bunch of money.
Speaker 3: Bunch of money that sends shares rocketing my one hundred
Speaker 3: and ninety percent the six point two million that they're
Speaker 3: likely to now offer.
Speaker 2: How big is that?
Speaker 3: What does it mean in terms of how they can
Speaker 3: survive the on and off switch of subscriptions around the
Speaker 3: sporting dary.
Speaker 13: Yeah, so both Fubo and Hulu's live TV service are unprofitable.
Speaker 13: To my knowledge. Fubo reports its numbers, Hulu Live Tv doesn't.
Speaker 13: Six point two million makes it the second biggest among
Speaker 13: the digital only PATV companies. It makes it, I think,
Speaker 13: kind of number five or six total. You still have
Speaker 13: YouTube TV, Comcast, Charter and the satellite companies ahead of it.
Speaker 2: Oh M and A.
Speaker 3: The watchwork for twenty twenty five, and it kicks off
Speaker 3: strong with this particular deal. Lukashaw all in on the
Speaker 3: consideration around convergence. Welcome back to Blue Meg Technology. I'm
Speaker 3: Caroine Hid in New York. A quick check on these markets.
Speaker 2: We are higher.
Speaker 3: Substantially on the nasat one hundred, were up by one
Speaker 3: point seven percent, and it's basically your magnificent seven that
Speaker 3: lead us higher to the tune of Nvidia up to
Speaker 3: a new record high. But you've got Microsoft, Amazon, some
Speaker 3: of the key names in the biggest points contributors to
Speaker 3: the upside. We're all in on AI and infrastructure, and
Speaker 3: we look ahead to Jensen Wang and his keynote has
Speaker 3: six thirty pm Pacific time later today. Bitcoin also on
Speaker 3: file risk assets on the higher side, and we're up
Speaker 3: four percent. One hundred and two still offer that record high,
Speaker 3: but we've certainly been clawing back some of those prem
Speaker 3: year's eve losses by coin one hundred and two thousand.
Speaker 3: But let's dig into a company that isn't traded, TikTok
Speaker 3: and it's darker side.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 3: There's a lawsuit from the state of Utah alleging that
Speaker 3: TikTok has long known its popular video live streams it
Speaker 3: encourages sexual content including streams exploiting and quick grooming miners,
Speaker 3: and that TikTok also discovered through an internal investigation it's
Speaker 3: feature called TikTok Live facilitated money laundering and it allowed
Speaker 3: users to sell drugs and fund terrorism. That's bring in
Speaker 3: Bloomberg's Alex Levine for more Alex. That all of this
Speaker 3: is after we finally get more detail on a lawsuit
Speaker 3: brought by Utah and other states, but it's been relacted.
Speaker 2: We get to see the details. What did you learn?
Speaker 14: Well, to your point, all of this really is it
Speaker 14: has taken a lot of time for this to come
Speaker 14: to light. I reported on TikTok Live and some of
Speaker 14: the issues that you've stated back in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 14: we're now in early twenty twenty five, and so it is,
Speaker 14: you know, it is the platform is much bigger now,
Speaker 14: it is much more far reaching. There are much more,
Speaker 14: you know, much younger of a demographic on the platform.
Speaker 14: But what the internal investigation found, which was unredacted in
Speaker 14: this newly filed complaint on Friday, is that TikTok was
Speaker 14: very aware of a lot of the issues that we
Speaker 14: had reported on on TikTok Live back in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 14: except that the issues were much larger and much there
Speaker 14: was much more scale to the issues than we were
Speaker 14: even aware of. So they found that there were hundreds
Speaker 14: of thousands of miners who were not supposed to be
Speaker 14: using the TikTok Live future at all, who were not
Speaker 14: only using it but also using it making money off
Speaker 14: or making money off of it, and they were essentially
Speaker 14: being asked by adults to perform sexual acts racy acts
Speaker 14: in exchange for virtual gifts that can be cashed out
Speaker 14: for real money.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: In a response, TikTok says, this lawsuit ignores a number
Speaker 3: of proactive measures that TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support
Speaker 3: community safety and well being. They have taken measures since
Speaker 3: your first incredible reporting that we think about that was
Speaker 3: bringing it to light in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: But is it enough?
Speaker 3: Has enough steps been taken for Utah and other states
Speaker 3: to feel like this is okay now?
Speaker 14: I think the timing of these lawsuits filed both in
Speaker 14: June by Utah and then in September by a bunch
Speaker 14: of other states that cited similar issues with TikTok Live
Speaker 14: shows that it is not enough, especially against the backdrop
Speaker 14: of what we are now seeing with the national security issues.
Speaker 14: You know, TikTok is going before the Supreme Court in
Speaker 14: this unprecedented hearing this Friday, and that is over national
Speaker 14: security issues and the fact that TikTok may be banned
Speaker 14: over those national security issues. But I think the child
Speaker 14: safety issues far predated that, and in fact, the fact
Speaker 14: that they are so prevalent on the platform, which this
Speaker 14: unredacted complaint has now shown, makes the national security concerns,
Speaker 14: I would say even even more concerning.
Speaker 2: And as you mentioned, this is a massive week for TikTok.
Speaker 3: We've got Friday the Supreme Court, we might be hearing
Speaker 3: the details of whether or not indeed they do think
Speaker 3: that well freedom of speech outweighs access to TikTok.
Speaker 2: Llor not absolutely. It's a huge week for TikTok.
Speaker 14: I think that everyone is very much looking to the
Speaker 14: Supreme Court to see are they going to up hold
Speaker 14: this law that is about to take effect or will
Speaker 14: they stay the law, which means hit pause on it
Speaker 14: while considering what they want to do with it. But
Speaker 14: I think the fact that Trump's inauguration is just over
Speaker 14: a week later is going to complicate things and it's
Speaker 14: going to make it a very bumpy couple of weeks
Speaker 14: for the company no matter how this plays out.
Speaker 3: And we're just glad that you're there to report on
Speaker 3: all of it. Alexandra Levine, We thank you. Now let's
Speaker 3: just keep the discussions going on TikTok it's potential ban,
Speaker 3: and as you mentioned, the Supreme Court set to consider
Speaker 3: the constitutionality of the law on an expedited timeline, arguments
Speaker 3: scheduled for a special session on January tenth.
Speaker 2: Now, we want to be talking with a key voice
Speaker 2: on all of this.
Speaker 3: Ivan Sharony is CEO for Route Security, a data protection
Speaker 3: intelligence software company who is testified, of course before the
Speaker 3: House Commerce Committee in the past, to explain how TikTok accesses,
Speaker 3: how it disseminates personal data, and just remind us, ultimately, Ivan,
Speaker 3: how it does.
Speaker 15: That's an excellent question, thank you, Carlin. Number one, how
Speaker 15: does it? It's obviously through its app and secondly is
Speaker 15: through a lot of something called data trickers that are
Speaker 15: embedded into all kinds of websites Americans use every day.
Speaker 15: So that's how they can access information, collect informations on
Speaker 15: Americans that actually never even use TikTok app in their life.
Speaker 3: What's also interesting is the way in which you've been
Speaker 3: trying to access and continuing to understand that those, yes,
Speaker 3: you might have the app, you might therefore be vaguely
Speaker 3: aware of some of the issues or risks that are
Speaker 3: at play. But even if you don't have the app,
Speaker 3: you continue to monitor basically how pixels or more prevalent,
Speaker 3: even in things like Google Classroom, TikTok has been. Can
Speaker 3: you understand can you help us understand how you performed
Speaker 3: that and ultimately what it means for the prevalence of
Speaker 3: TikTok across us people's data.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 15: Absolutely. What is really concerning, what we've found is that
Speaker 15: even over the last twelve months since TikTok was there's
Speaker 15: so much scrutiny. What we've found is that the presence
Speaker 15: of TikTok, for example, on a healthcare website had actually
Speaker 15: increased by about thirty five percent in the last year,
Speaker 15: rather than decreasing. And what is concerning is that those
Speaker 15: pixel structures that are all over the websites that we
Speaker 15: all use on every day, that they're collecting a lot
Speaker 15: of information, whether it's like wood websites you use would
Speaker 15: you enter into the websites where you're coming in, and
Speaker 15: all kinds of information that is collected can potentially be
Speaker 15: used for all kinds of nefarious reasons, whether it's for
Speaker 15: targeting individuals or groups of people, or even potentially speculating
Speaker 15: here teaching AI systems to be even more precise on
Speaker 15: targeting American So it's a very very concerning on how
Speaker 15: much data is being collected everywhere by TikTok on people
Speaker 15: who never even use the app.
Speaker 3: So if ultimately the presence of TikTok trackers are going
Speaker 3: up into the right of thirty five percent versus last year,
Speaker 3: how impactful we will be removed moving an app if
Speaker 3: it's affecting people who don't have the Apple Tool.
Speaker 15: Yeah, So it's definitely very loaded topic and a question.
Speaker 15: So presumably if it is banned, the step one will
Speaker 15: be obviously to remove the app it self from the
Speaker 15: app stores, from Apple, Google and everywhere else is available. Secondly,
Speaker 15: it's also removing it from all Americans websites, so making
Speaker 15: sure that it's not collecting information on Americans outside of
Speaker 15: the app as well. And thirdly, which will be an
Speaker 15: ongoing task to ensure that it will never come back,
Speaker 15: and frankly speaking, it's not just TikTok. There's a lot
Speaker 15: more other information being collected by other companies associated to
Speaker 15: China on Americans in addition to to TikTok as well.
Speaker 3: So iven just give us out of one to ten
Speaker 3: how hard it would be too?
Speaker 2: It sounds easy. You just remove it from the app store,
Speaker 2: you get rid of it on websites. But technically speaking,
Speaker 2: how effective do you think this can be?
Speaker 15: It can be definitely very active. Probably a really good
Speaker 15: illustration here is something that is happening in the payment
Speaker 15: security in this credit cards being governed. You know how
Speaker 15: you're paying online and how the security of your credit
Speaker 15: card information is being governed. And what payment security is
Speaker 15: doing is they've introduced something called the New Standard PCI
Speaker 15: for which now ensures and mandates companies on a weekly basis.
Speaker 15: It verifies that no unauthorized software, big pixel structors, anything else,
Speaker 15: any software technology pieces are collecting credit card information without authorization.
Speaker 15: So a similar approach can definitely help prevent TikTok or
Speaker 15: other spying or you know, a data collection being down
Speaker 15: Americans without authorization.
Speaker 3: I mean, of course, the Supreme Court matter is a
Speaker 3: matter of law and interpretation, and there is politicking amongst
Speaker 3: you know whether or not January the nineteenth will be
Speaker 3: pushed out to post a new administration in the White House.
Speaker 3: But can you set if you were having the air
Speaker 3: of one Donald Trump right now, how would you articulate
Speaker 3: how risky this is for everyday Americans?
Speaker 15: How risk it is. It has already been publicly admitted
Speaker 15: and found and disclosed that information collected by TikTok was
Speaker 15: already used against Americans, whether it was spying on journalists
Speaker 15: and other cases that have been already reported in in use.
Speaker 15: So it is already happening, and is it happening on
Speaker 15: a larger scale very likely. So in terms of the
Speaker 15: impact data being collected and shared potentially with the adversarial country,
Speaker 15: is it a risk in my personal opinion, yes, it
Speaker 15: is a very high risk.
Speaker 3: Well, certainly your evidence gave sway when you gave it
Speaker 3: on the House as well, Ivan SARENI, we thank you
Speaker 3: so much for youo for security on all things TikTok. Meanwhile,
Speaker 3: coming up, how Microsoft is using its venture fund to shape.
Speaker 2: The future of AI.
Speaker 3: We've got Michael Stewart, managing partner of N twelve here
Speaker 3: that's next to rebtechnology. Microsoft it's making a major AI investment,
Speaker 3: announcing it will spend eighty billion dollars on data centers
Speaker 3: over the next year. The company wrote previously that not
Speaker 3: since the invention of the electricity has the United States
Speaker 3: had the opportunity it has today to harness new technology
Speaker 3: to invigorate the nation's economy. Now, Microsoft is also investing
Speaker 3: in AI through its venture capital fund M twelve, calling
Speaker 3: it the defining technology of our times. Please therefore to
Speaker 3: welcome Michael Stewart, managing partner of M twelve, who has
Speaker 3: been at this AIML hardware software investment for a long time. Michael,
Speaker 3: and we're pleased to have you. So, where are other
Speaker 3: than the AI applications? I want to just dig into
Speaker 3: that idea of data centers and the commitment of money
Speaker 3: towards it. Where are innovations happening within the data centers?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 16: So, uh, the the the demand that we're gonna see
Speaker 16: for AI as as some of these applications start to
Speaker 16: roll out this year and the next year, is is
Speaker 16: gonna really accelerate. And it's key not just to have
Speaker 16: an AI that's available, but it's also performance, affordable, secure,
Speaker 16: and and in in In doing that, it's not just
Speaker 16: about building out more GPUs, more data centers, but actually
Speaker 16: increasing the quality of the AI output to be UH
Speaker 16: suitable for enterprise use. In that and in that sense,
Speaker 16: what we're seeing right now is building out kind of
Speaker 16: the foundation for a lot of different places for technologies
Speaker 16: to plug in to make this AI better for for
Speaker 16: its customers.
Speaker 3: I wanna talk optimizing of applications, but can you go
Speaker 3: to the optimizing of AI infrastructure right now and where
Speaker 3: you think some of the most exciting moves forward have.
Speaker 16: Been Efficient chips are are are clearly an opportunity to
Speaker 16: address not just the uh the space and the racks
Speaker 16: that we have to put, you know, in the data centers,
Speaker 16: but also the power that goes into them. And you
Speaker 16: know that's one of our portfolio companies, d Matrix that
Speaker 16: makes an innovative in memory compute architecture for AI inference.
Speaker 16: The compute and memory are are are kind of combined
Speaker 16: into one in a new architecture that also uses chiplets
Speaker 16: or heterogeneous integration to flexibly maximize the performance of the
Speaker 16: silicon that you need in.
Speaker 3: A given card, and that in many ways affects the
Speaker 3: energy usage as well power needed And I know energy
Speaker 3: innovation is another key area of yours, Michael, but taught
Speaker 3: us there for about how we're going to use it.
Speaker 3: In twenty twenty five, all I hear is agents, agent, force, agentic.
Speaker 2: No matter how you term it, is it all about agents.
Speaker 16: I'm not gonna sound too different from that. I'm a
Speaker 16: strong believer that this year, the quality of the AI models,
Speaker 16: the architecture of the agentic applications, they're going to get
Speaker 16: better and better and attract more attention from companies that
Speaker 16: want to use them to address their own.
Speaker 9: Costs and scaling needs. And we're seeing this come in
Speaker 9: two directions.
Speaker 16: Startups that are creating agents or platforms for agents and
Speaker 16: selling them as services, a sort of SaaS model. The
Speaker 16: other is the use of the AI itself in these
Speaker 16: small companies. Is is something to really start to look at.
Speaker 16: These founders are building the companies with an AI first
Speaker 16: mindset that's really quite different. But it's also going to
Speaker 16: inspire and stimulate larger companies to take note at the
Speaker 16: efficiencies enabled and adopt this into their own uh their
Speaker 16: own infrastructure.
Speaker 3: But I feel like the larger software players have already
Speaker 3: got the memo and you're seeing the likes of sales
Speaker 3: Source go all in your who knows where, of course,
Speaker 3: Microsoft be able to push forwards with its co pilots.
Speaker 2: How are you seeing the opportunity of the.
Speaker 3: Startups to be able to innovate faster or in a
Speaker 3: more niche manner.
Speaker 16: And fast, you know, as you use word fast, velocity
Speaker 16: is the absolute definitive trend of this era. Everything's moving faster,
Speaker 16: Companies getting form faster, funded faster, growing revenue faster, and
Speaker 16: agents as they mature and as they become part of
Speaker 16: the everyday makeup of these companies themselves, are you know,
Speaker 16: at the same time the product but also the organizing
Speaker 16: principle of these companies. And I think that's a different
Speaker 16: way to look at this from where we expect to
Speaker 16: see SaaS revenues build up over time as it happened
Speaker 16: in the in the prior couple of years software investing contexts.
Speaker 16: To today, the companies are able to accomplish far more
Speaker 16: with a much smaller team, reach revenue targets far greater
Speaker 16: than we had expected, and I think they're going to
Speaker 16: be profitable much sooner than we had otherwise thought possible.
Speaker 3: Fast doesn't always bode well for deep analysis and doing
Speaker 3: your corporate governance tease trust and as dotted, how are
Speaker 3: you ensuring that the return on investment that it seems
Speaker 3: to be evident is actually happening and it's actually going
Speaker 3: to be resigned that these companies aren't just scaling very
Speaker 3: quickly over a quarter, but they're going to maintain that
Speaker 3: user base for the next year and the next year.
Speaker 16: ROIS is the key theme here is like, if you
Speaker 16: are a founder and you are creating an AI product,
Speaker 16: this isn't just about creating a white paper that your
Speaker 16: customer might read to see where the ROI could plausibly
Speaker 16: occur in their organization. This is really an opportunity for
Speaker 16: those founders to go out and drive those pilots themselves.
Speaker 16: The customers will see these savings hit their bottom line,
Speaker 16: thereby driving more consumption of AI. And I think that
Speaker 16: kind of virtuous cycle is a really big difference from
Speaker 16: prior eras of a where the savings might come in
Speaker 16: a defrayed expenses or defrayed capex point of view. Here
Speaker 16: it's about getting higher return on capital, higher return on
Speaker 16: the company's operations. And I think as a startup you
Speaker 16: really have to get serious about the intellectual honesty of it,
Speaker 16: and your customers must agree with you. Those those startups
Speaker 16: that are able to accomplish that are going to grow
Speaker 16: ten times faster than the norm.
Speaker 3: Well, we know that you'll takes one to know one,
Speaker 3: or you're a guy with more than forty patterns of
Speaker 3: your own, so appreciate your time. Michael Stewart, managing partner
Speaker 3: of M twelve. Of course Microsoft VENTUREM. Meanwhile, it's time
Speaker 3: for talking tech first up in video partner on High
Speaker 3: It's posted a fast than expected fifteen percent revenue growth,
Speaker 3: that is as the company rides a sustained demand for
Speaker 3: AI infrastructure. The company, also known as Fox Gone sow
Speaker 3: December revenue rising forty two percent, which really did beat
Speaker 3: anast expectations, and expects significant sales growth in the fiscal
Speaker 3: first quarter two plus. TDK, the main supplier of iPhone batteries,
Speaker 3: says it plans to roll out an improved version of
Speaker 3: its product to help mobile devices keep up with the
Speaker 3: rising power demands view guests at ai now. The Tokyo
Speaker 3: based company says it will begin mass production of its
Speaker 3: third gen batteries in the late summer and Samsung is
Speaker 3: expanding its AI reach, adding.
Speaker 2: A new suite of features to its line up.
Speaker 3: A premium TVs now the Electronic strand is set to
Speaker 3: introduce Vision AI. It's allowing information to be displayed of
Speaker 3: what's on the screen. Other features include a built in
Speaker 3: AI processor to analyze content whose colors and contrast, and
Speaker 3: optimized audio Tube. Today, we bring you the latest from
Speaker 3: an exclusive Bloomberg BusinessWeek interview as with the Open Ai
Speaker 3: CEO Samalman. In it, he discusses his infamous Forda firing,
Speaker 3: how he runs open ai now, his plans for the
Speaker 3: Trump must presidency, and of course, his relentless pursuit of AGI.
Speaker 3: Here for more Bloomberg Smart million Who's part of what
Speaker 3: is very deeply reported out Q and A. So it
Speaker 3: starts with all like, what were the key dinners, What
Speaker 3: were the key moments him sam Oltman discussing the time
Speaker 3: that he sat down with Elia really started to think
Speaker 3: about building AGI.
Speaker 2: What for you was the biggest like jaw dropping moment
Speaker 2: of the interview?
Speaker 7: Uh?
Speaker 17: I mean, I think the thing that surprised me the
Speaker 17: most is when he's given like the opportunity to talk
Speaker 17: about what what are your what are your big ambitions?
Speaker 9: What what do you want to solve?
Speaker 17: He talks about fusion energy like that that's that that's
Speaker 17: the one thing that he I mean, you know, obviously
Speaker 17: he's focused on creating super intelligent supercomputers and artificial general
Speaker 17: intelligence and all these uh, you know, wacky ideas that
Speaker 17: they're working on in open AI. But he's got this
Speaker 17: big investment in fusion energy, which is like sort of
Speaker 17: a kind of a scary.
Speaker 9: Concept to a lot of people.
Speaker 17: That and and also one that like is it is
Speaker 17: it even really going to work? Has science really proven
Speaker 17: that fusion energy is like going to solve all of
Speaker 17: our energy shortage issues?
Speaker 9: But like energy is a big kind of need for AI,
Speaker 9: which you know sucks up so much electricity.
Speaker 3: Well, he's not afraid to be way ahead and trying
Speaker 3: to solve the unsolvable. He really details how back in
Speaker 3: twenty twelve he's sort of a heretic for even discussing AGI,
Speaker 3: and people didn't want to talk about it with him.
Speaker 3: But what does he ultimately think that this is all
Speaker 3: for the greater good? Is there a utopian idea here
Speaker 3: as to why we need nuclear fusion, why we need AGI?
Speaker 17: Yeah, I mean there's also a lot of ways that
Speaker 17: any of those things could go wrong, but he is
Speaker 17: I think you'll see it in the tone of the interview,
Speaker 17: and you'll you'll find it when you read this.
Speaker 9: It's it's a long read, so, but I think.
Speaker 17: The context is important with someone like that who's in
Speaker 17: such a big position of power, that you kind of
Speaker 17: get a sense for who he is as a person.
Speaker 17: And he is an optimist and he does believe that
Speaker 17: the things he's working on he can shape them for
Speaker 17: the better.
Speaker 2: Even with a new administration.
Speaker 17: Yes, and that was that was a that was ak
Speaker 17: of the interview, especially in the latter half. You'll see
Speaker 17: we talk about his relationship with Donald Trump, who he's
Speaker 17: previous previously had differences of opinion with his relationship with
Speaker 17: Elon Musk, who that it's very strained, a co founder
Speaker 17: of open ai now suing open Ai, and his his
Speaker 17: optimism very much extended to the idea that he'll be
Speaker 17: able to repair those relationships and have a working relationship
Speaker 17: in the new administration. He's asked about his donation to
Speaker 17: Trump's inauguration and and you know, of course, he's like,
Speaker 17: I support whoever the president is, and yeah, I mean, I.
Speaker 9: Found that all very fascinating. His view on politics me too.
Speaker 2: Go read it. You've got to see Mark million there
Speaker 2: on the latest big take.
Speaker 3: Now that does it for this edition of Blue meg
Speaker 3: Technology Tomorrow yet more, all from.
Speaker 2: CS in Las Vegas tens Huang. Don't miss it.