Speaker 1: From the heart of where innovation, money and power COLLI
Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley and beyond. This is Bloomberg Technology with
Speaker 1: Emily Jay. I'm Emily checking San Francisco and this is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Technology coming up in the next hour. Gas price
Speaker 1: pain Uber and lift drivers take home pay plummeting as
Speaker 1: gas prices shore Are the ride chain companies doing enough
Speaker 1: to help? Plus? Google and Apple Maps can't escape politics?
Speaker 1: How mapping technology has become increasingly complicated as Russia rains
Speaker 1: down on Ukraine and relief efforts to help millions of
Speaker 1: ukraining refugees and residents who have stayed behind. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk with flex Sport about the challenging logistics of providing
Speaker 1: humanitarian a and how the war is royally global supply chains.
Speaker 1: Russia's government is moving closer to seizing and even nationalizing
Speaker 1: foreign owned companies that are leaving the market over the
Speaker 1: invasion of Ukraine, while planning measures to coax others in disdaying.
Speaker 1: Creton Harrison with us now to discuss. So Creton, what
Speaker 1: what companies is Russia trying to take control of, or
Speaker 1: even temporary control of, and how would the government actually
Speaker 1: pull this off? Yeah, they're not they're not revealing a
Speaker 1: lot of their plan here about what kinds of things
Speaker 1: they would want to take over. You can make some
Speaker 1: guesses based on there's there's even some public comments from
Speaker 1: from officials in Russia that have been walked out by
Speaker 1: other agencies about some of the aircraft that's in in
Speaker 1: Russia right now that's owned by lessers and whether they
Speaker 1: might see some of that. So that's just one example.
Speaker 1: There's a Russian agency who is that don't know, we're
Speaker 1: not going to say necessarily do that. That person spoke
Speaker 1: out of turn. So this is a very confusing time.
Speaker 1: But with what the action of the government would allow
Speaker 1: them to do. Is it says that if there's a
Speaker 1: company where uh, you know, you have you have Russian
Speaker 1: members of a board and maybe that's for the local
Speaker 1: operating unit or something like that, that that might be
Speaker 1: a company that that that could be uh taken over,
Speaker 1: uh at least on temporary basis. So this is this
Speaker 1: is very very fuzzy and can be interpreted a lot
Speaker 1: of different ways. It probably will be interpreted a lot
Speaker 1: of different ways depending on what happens in the in
Speaker 1: the weeks to come. If you're a company the this
Speaker 1: operating in Russia was until very recently operating in Russia.
Speaker 1: I guarantee you looking at this very seriously and trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what it means for you. But all
Speaker 1: the companies we've we've tried to reach out about this,
Speaker 1: including uh Larry Culp, the CEO of a General Electric
Speaker 1: who was on Bloomberg Television earlier today, are so far saying, uh,
Speaker 1: they don't see any immediate concern of any assets seizure.
Speaker 1: So this is this is something that's going to play
Speaker 1: out for a while at this stage. And of course
Speaker 1: we just reported on Goldman already moving employees out of
Speaker 1: the country. What can companies do to avoid this? Faith Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, as we've seen all week, you know, companies
Speaker 1: have been very careful in their language about what they're
Speaker 1: doing when they stop doing business and rushing. You see
Speaker 1: the words suspended or paused quite a bit. In many cases.
Speaker 1: McDonald's was a very prominent example of this. Companies are
Speaker 1: continuing to pay employees at the local level. You can
Speaker 1: think of that as one potential strategy here to avoid
Speaker 1: getting nationalized. They're having assets c s because you can
Speaker 1: argue that you're still in the country. You're still paying
Speaker 1: Russian employees. You're still there as a business entity. You're
Speaker 1: just not actually, you know, doing business at the moment,
Speaker 1: but you plan to eventually, so that that maybe one
Speaker 1: tack the companies are trying to take to protect their
Speaker 1: long term interests here. Um. Ultimately, though, you know, if
Speaker 1: you have money in in the Russian economy that you
Speaker 1: can use to pay workers, at some point, you've got
Speaker 1: to figure out how to replenish that that could run
Speaker 1: out at some point depending on how long, uh, this
Speaker 1: situation takes to unfold. Uh, you know, you you could
Speaker 1: have a situation where companies that were trying to hang
Speaker 1: on by paying employees might have to might have to
Speaker 1: make another decision. All right, question again, what does this
Speaker 1: mean for everyday people in Russia? Bloombergs, Creighton Harrison, thank
Speaker 1: you for that context. Meantime, everyone feeling the pain at
Speaker 1: the pump, especially drivers for Uber and Left as the
Speaker 1: war in Ukraine drives gas prices in the US to
Speaker 1: an all time high. Bloombergs Jackie Dablos as a story, Jackie,
Speaker 1: in California, I saw prices as high as seven dollars,
Speaker 1: I mean, unprecedented. How are drivers dealing with this, well,
Speaker 1: this is truly taking um a huge cut out of
Speaker 1: their take home pay, and the impact has really been indiscriminate.
Speaker 1: We saw drivers that are driving fuel efficient cars a
Speaker 1: prius even that are seeing their gas bill go from
Speaker 1: ten percent to six of their net earnings. This is
Speaker 1: just completely unprecedented and it's really making them reevaluate. Is
Speaker 1: this side hustle even worth it? And what are the
Speaker 1: companies doing about it? Are they doing enough? What drivers
Speaker 1: tell me is that it's not enough. You know, they
Speaker 1: have partnerships with this app, for example, called get Upside,
Speaker 1: and it's effectively a rewards app that gives you cash
Speaker 1: back for your fuel purchases. But drivers tell me that
Speaker 1: this is really a laughable solution and it it's not sustainable.
Speaker 1: As you said, gas prices are upwards of seven dollars.
Speaker 1: You know. Once driver spoke with me and he said
Speaker 1: he was paying upwards of five dollars. He's losing money
Speaker 1: every ride he takes. He does not have the option
Speaker 1: to quit the app, but it does beg the question
Speaker 1: should companies be on the hook for helping them more,
Speaker 1: especially because as independent contractors, they're the ones footing the
Speaker 1: bill for every single expense. Now, the President himself has said, Look,
Speaker 1: the American people are going to have to be prepared
Speaker 1: for a certain amount of sacrifice and a certain amount
Speaker 1: of pain if the United States is going to take
Speaker 1: this kind of a stand against Russia. In talking to drivers,
Speaker 1: do they understand do they sympathize with with the Ukrainian
Speaker 1: people and what the United States is trying to do here?
Speaker 1: There definitely is a huge tension there. You know, they
Speaker 1: completely sympathize. However, they've been putting up with high gas
Speaker 1: prices and the impacts of inflation for months. It's been
Speaker 1: acknowledged by you know, even uber CEO. It's not the
Speaker 1: first time that they've raised the alarm about the impact
Speaker 1: of gas prices. And this just seems to be a
Speaker 1: real breaking point for so many And so while they
Speaker 1: I think they understand the broader plight of the Ukrainian
Speaker 1: people and the complex nature of the conflict, um, I
Speaker 1: think at this point they have enough options out there
Speaker 1: within the gig economy from door dash in to cart lift. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, there are other places to go um even
Speaker 1: outside the gig economy as well. So it's something they're considering,
Speaker 1: And what does that mean for consumers and riders, are
Speaker 1: prices going to go up? You know, we've already seen
Speaker 1: high fares for a while due to the driver's shortage
Speaker 1: and gas prices. What Uber had to say, for example, uh,
Speaker 1: is that for every increase from today's average gas price levels,
Speaker 1: because consumers will only see a one percent increase in fares. Now,
Speaker 1: that may sound small, but when you take into account
Speaker 1: how quickly demand is coming back and supply is not
Speaker 1: shifting as quickly to meet that demand, we're going to
Speaker 1: see elevated fares for at least a few more months
Speaker 1: until they're able to sort through that supply issue. And yes,
Speaker 1: gas prices will eventually start to trickle down to how
Speaker 1: much we're paying um in fares overall as well. All right,
Speaker 1: Jackie Dabolos who covers Uber and lift for I thank
Speaker 1: Jackie for that update. Coming up, Apple and Google maps
Speaker 1: in the crosshairs of the war on Ukraine. How space,
Speaker 1: satellite and big tech companies are navigating geo political termoil.
Speaker 1: That's next, This is Blueberg. Soon after Russia launched its
Speaker 1: invasion of Ukraine, Google and Apple disabled key features of
Speaker 1: their map services. They're including real time vehicle and foot
Speaker 1: traffic data. This out of concern that live insights into
Speaker 1: what streets or shops were busy could be exploited by
Speaker 1: Russian forces to harm Ukrainian citizens. In fact, the nuances
Speaker 1: of mapping has become significantly more of a political hot
Speaker 1: potato in just the last two weeks. I want to
Speaker 1: talk about that in more. Chad Anderson, founder and managing
Speaker 1: partner of Space Capital, in early stage venture capital from
Speaker 1: that invests exclusively in space based technologies and chat. Many
Speaker 1: of these space based technologies are delivering information to these
Speaker 1: big tech giants that enabled them to change these digital
Speaker 1: maps in real time. What do you make of the
Speaker 1: this new if you will, digital battlefield? Certainly true. The
Speaker 1: Russian invasion of Ukraine has really spotlighted the strategic importance
Speaker 1: of space infrastructure for the US and are allied satellite constellations.
Speaker 1: Spaces is clearly a target and among the critical domains
Speaker 1: to protect as this as this UM conflict unfolds. You
Speaker 1: know with the Google Maps UM and and and Apple
Speaker 1: Maps scenario, they this is some of the first information
Speaker 1: that we got about UM. The Russian invasion UM came
Speaker 1: about because of the traffic information from Google Maps. So um,
Speaker 1: you know, these companies have have decided to turn off
Speaker 1: that functionality. They're still getting turned by turn directions, but
Speaker 1: they've turned off the traffic and foot traffic functionality because
Speaker 1: it can alert the other side as to um where
Speaker 1: Ukrainians are. Um and and as well it goes both ways.
Speaker 1: But they've decided to turn it off to protect those
Speaker 1: those citizens in the Kuran. Well and at what point
Speaker 1: does that potentially undermine Ukrainian effort to resist the invasion
Speaker 1: or flee to safety? I mean, have we outsourced too
Speaker 1: much power, too big tech. Well, they've turned it off.
Speaker 1: From a global perspective, UM, I'm not privy to who
Speaker 1: they've turned it on and off for, so UM, I
Speaker 1: imagine that companies have um this type of functionality and capability.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the space companies that are getting
Speaker 1: dragged into this mess. These satellite technology companies that you
Speaker 1: know have been floating around owned relatively quiet outside of
Speaker 1: the ear It's atmosphere, but suddenly find themselves in the
Speaker 1: middle of this geopolitical mess. Yeah. I mean, this crisis
Speaker 1: has really highlighted the growing capabilities of commercial satellite companies. UH,
Speaker 1: companies like max Are and Planet and Black Sky are
Speaker 1: providing observations of what's happening on the ground, so we're
Speaker 1: getting really ground truth and this is vital information for
Speaker 1: anyone trying to keep up UM from a humanitarian perspective
Speaker 1: or monitoring the situation UM military, civilian. This is giving us,
Speaker 1: you know, without the spin, we're able to see with
Speaker 1: our own eyes what's actually happening on the ground. And
Speaker 1: I think that the amount of data that's available today
Speaker 1: is really unprecedented. This open source information is is really
Speaker 1: important for everyone involved, including the reporters that are on
Speaker 1: the ground UM looking to tie the pieces of the
Speaker 1: story together. We also saw Elon Musk's starlink very publicly
Speaker 1: to the aid of the Ukrainian people, and it just
Speaker 1: sort of drives a point home about how powerful and
Speaker 1: impactful these technologies can be in terms of just changing
Speaker 1: the shape of of modern communication. You know what kind
Speaker 1: of risks do these companies face and how are they
Speaker 1: navigating these challenges internally? Certainly, I mean SpaceX turn Starling
Speaker 1: on their satellite communications constellation made it available in the
Speaker 1: Ukraine UM upon request, and it's really showcasing you know
Speaker 1: what a capability like this can provide in terms of
Speaker 1: redundancy and capability. I mean they're providing vital communications services
Speaker 1: UM where in a previous era, UM the invading country
Speaker 1: could just attack the fiber lines and and or attack
Speaker 1: in some other way and shut off the Internet. So
Speaker 1: we really have resilient communications and can activity here, which
Speaker 1: is also essential in terms of getting vital fact truth,
Speaker 1: you know, like from the source information. And we talked
Speaker 1: about a lot about this in our our latest thesis paper,
Speaker 1: this dot com Playbook. The nature of satellite communications is
Speaker 1: going through a fundamental shift. I mean it's going from
Speaker 1: being a niche comms product making up about less than
Speaker 1: a percent of global broadband Internet to being a Internet
Speaker 1: backbone in space where we could see twenty times the
Speaker 1: capacity come online in the next five years at latency
Speaker 1: that rivals terrestrial and there's not much that Russia can
Speaker 1: do about it. From a practical perspective. Um Elon Muska
Speaker 1: said that they can shake their fist at the sky. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, Russia's trying to jam those signals now, but
Speaker 1: UM SpaceX is able to overcome that with a simple
Speaker 1: software update, So you know. Cybersecurity is also a key
Speaker 1: a key area here for companies and and military as well.
Speaker 1: It's really a fascint nating domain given that a lot
Speaker 1: of these companies are often fielding requests from governments to
Speaker 1: draw the maps a certain way than sometimes showing different
Speaker 1: maps in different countries, and you wonder how they can,
Speaker 1: you know, overcome some of the transparency or lack of
Speaker 1: transparency issues there. Chat Anderson Foundery, managing partner of Space Capital.
Speaker 1: Thank you for helping us work through that time. Now
Speaker 1: for our crypto report. With bitcoin dropping back below forts
Speaker 1: in eracing nearly all gains from the optimism surrounding President
Speaker 1: Biden's executive order on crypto, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are
Speaker 1: now falling, with stocks amid high inflation data continued ga
Speaker 1: political turmoil. As we continue to watch this situation in Ukraine,
Speaker 1: I want to get all get more on this and
Speaker 1: the future of their new crypto fund. Michelle Buy a
Speaker 1: partner at Sequoia Capital, which recently launched such a new fund. Michelle,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. Of course, Sequoia
Speaker 1: is not new to crypto investing, but this is the
Speaker 1: first time you've launched a sector specific fund. Why and
Speaker 1: why now? Yes, thank you so much for having the Emily,
Speaker 1: it's great to be here. We've been investing in crypto
Speaker 1: for several years, over five years now, and in getting
Speaker 1: feedback from our founders about the best products to serve them,
Speaker 1: realize that we served equity based crypto company is very
Speaker 1: well with our seed, venture and growth products all the
Speaker 1: way from seed to I p O, but that we
Speaker 1: could do more for token based crypto companies. And so
Speaker 1: this new fund is allowing us to take a more
Speaker 1: active management role with our liquid tokens and will complement
Speaker 1: our broader efforts. And we thought this was a great
Speaker 1: time because it was, you know, given driven by feedback
Speaker 1: from our founders, but also because cryptos at such an
Speaker 1: inflection point in terms of both users and talent entering
Speaker 1: the space. We think we're just at the beginning of
Speaker 1: an s curve that will see pick up dramatically over
Speaker 1: the next decade. Now. Sekoia has invested in bitcoin and
Speaker 1: etherium itself, for example, but also in companies like f
Speaker 1: t X. When it comes to the token side, water
Speaker 1: tokens and blockchains that you find particularly interesting, it's a
Speaker 1: great question. I think we watch the developer momentum on
Speaker 1: each layer one blockchain and several of the layer two's
Speaker 1: very closely. That's an important signal for us. And so
Speaker 1: bitcoin has a particular type of community and a particular
Speaker 1: use case. You see something's being built out with a
Speaker 1: lightning network. Uh that one of the companies we are
Speaker 1: privileged to partner with Square now Block is very involved
Speaker 1: with as well as then on Ethereum tremendous applications development
Speaker 1: and decentralized finance and f t S web applications. And
Speaker 1: then we've also seen a lot of developer uptick on
Speaker 1: Salana and some newer chains like Avalanche near Cosmos, and
Speaker 1: so we watch all of that very closely, and that's
Speaker 1: how we determine where we wanna, you know, double down
Speaker 1: or spend our time in terms of those different ecosystems. Now,
Speaker 1: last year of Sequoia's new investments in as I understand
Speaker 1: at the US and Europe or in crypto, that's a
Speaker 1: really big part of the pie for a long time
Speaker 1: more traditional tech venture capital firm. Do you see that
Speaker 1: portion of the pie rising into Is this going to
Speaker 1: become an even bigger part of Sequoia's portfolio? I personally
Speaker 1: do as someone who spends all my time in crypto.
Speaker 1: I think there are just tremendously talented founders entering the
Speaker 1: space and more and more engineers, developers, designers who are
Speaker 1: excited about building in all aspects of crypto, and so
Speaker 1: I think that will only increase over time. We have
Speaker 1: Sequoia have a thesis that that crypto is going to
Speaker 1: impact both the financial sector as well as broader Internet services,
Speaker 1: so that's consumer and enterprise, and so we expect crypto
Speaker 1: to eventually be uh in all of those sectors. And
Speaker 1: I would I would expect that everyone at Sequoia is
Speaker 1: eventually a crypto investor. You've talked about how this is
Speaker 1: gonna be very different from traditional venture capital investing. Tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit more about the fund structure. How
Speaker 1: are your investments in in crypto and the cryptocurrency industry?
Speaker 1: Is going to be different than what we've seen Tekoia
Speaker 1: do before. Yes, So what's interesting about investing in more
Speaker 1: traditional equity based startups is that you effectively get a
Speaker 1: piece of paper that says you own a portion of
Speaker 1: a company, and you don't really do much with that
Speaker 1: piece of paper. Over the next several years, you help
Speaker 1: the company grow, of course, but the piece of paper
Speaker 1: is sort of irrelevant. In crypto, it's quite different in
Speaker 1: that if you are getting a token, you can actually
Speaker 1: use that token to the benefit of the company or
Speaker 1: the project. And so what we can do now more
Speaker 1: flexibly is be able to, for instance, steak our tokens
Speaker 1: to help secure a proof of state network. We could
Speaker 1: provide liquidity to protocols uh and just do a lot
Speaker 1: more activity with our token then you would with an equity.
Speaker 1: So obviously we've seen a ton of activity in the
Speaker 1: crypto space. We've seen the power of crypto to be
Speaker 1: used to support war efforts. In the Ukraine, for example,
Speaker 1: there's concerned about crypto being used by Russians who should
Speaker 1: be facing sanctions to circumvent those sanctions. What's your take
Speaker 1: on how the war on Ukraine is impacting the crypto
Speaker 1: space and where this is headed. Yeah, well, first, I mean,
Speaker 1: we are all heartbroken by what we're watching. It's certainly
Speaker 1: HiT's very close to home. Sequoia has Ukrainians who have
Speaker 1: Ukrainian family, we have companies who have you know, employees
Speaker 1: in Ukraine, and of course many users, and so it's
Speaker 1: something that we watch every day and our heart goes
Speaker 1: out to all of them, and we do all that
Speaker 1: we can. We're really proud of the way that our
Speaker 1: crypto and other companies have stepped up to support all
Speaker 1: the efforts. So I've worked very closely with Sam and
Speaker 1: the team at f t X. They've gone above and
Speaker 1: beyond to both donate to you, creating and users on
Speaker 1: the platform, as well as comply with all sanctions, which
Speaker 1: they are very capable of doing. It's often a misnomer that,
Speaker 1: you know, cryptocompanies can't They can certainly comply with sanctions
Speaker 1: and and they and all the companies we work with
Speaker 1: will um and so we are. And then there are
Speaker 1: other companies. Airbnb has been, you know, offering housing and
Speaker 1: so folks are doing everything that they can to support
Speaker 1: Ukraine and comply with all all of the efforts for sanctions.
Speaker 1: And do you look at cryptocurrency as a safe haven
Speaker 1: or a safer asset than a traditional equity in this moment?
Speaker 1: I mean, we've we saw some optimism around at least
Speaker 1: the way bitcoin was trading. We've seen that be wiped away.
Speaker 1: We've seen a lot of volatility. You know, how should
Speaker 1: we make sense of cryptocurrency as an asset? How is
Speaker 1: Tequoia making sense of cryptocurrency as an asset. I think
Speaker 1: we're in this interesting moment where all of crypto gets
Speaker 1: painted by many investors with a broad brush, when as
Speaker 1: the world more comes to understand crypto will see that
Speaker 1: assets are quite different. And so the volatility that you
Speaker 1: see with bitcoin or what you're buying the bitcoin is
Speaker 1: very different than what you're buying with an application token
Speaker 1: or any other type of you know, crypto asset, whether
Speaker 1: it's an n f T, etcetera. And so I think
Speaker 1: there's you can certainly look at the volatility and you
Speaker 1: can say, you know, is bitcoin trading more like inequity?
Speaker 1: Is a trading more like a commodity? How should it trade?
Speaker 1: But the truth is that we're just very early in
Speaker 1: the world understanding bitcoin and broader cryptocurrencies, and I think
Speaker 1: the way those assets trade over time will change a lot.
Speaker 1: All Right, Michelle buy a partner at Sequoia Capital, Thank
Speaker 1: you fascinating. We'll be watching the move Sequoia makes in
Speaker 1: this space. Well, Stripe is announcing they're launching payment support
Speaker 1: for crypto businesses, including exchange whallet's and n f T marketplaces.
Speaker 1: They'll also be partnering with f t X and f
Speaker 1: t X c US to improve pipes know your customer protocols.
Speaker 1: We had a chat about crypto Astrike president John Collison
Speaker 1: a few months back. Take a listen to what he
Speaker 1: had to say. One thing we're really hung up on
Speaker 1: is of commerce today is cross border. That's it like.
Speaker 1: It feels like it should be much higher, especially on
Speaker 1: the Internet where it's so easy to have a cross
Speaker 1: border interactions, and so crypto is one very exciting, uh
Speaker 1: direction for for for trying to solve that. Coming up,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about Web three, mixed reality and
Speaker 1: the metaverse. That is next. This is Bloomer. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Technology and Emily Changing in San Francisco. Get
Speaker 1: ready for the launch of Magically to The company has
Speaker 1: raised million dollars and funding shifted its focus to enterprise customers.
Speaker 1: I want to talk more about that journey with Peggy Johnson,
Speaker 1: the CEO of Magically. Peggy, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining us. So we're looking at the latest iteration and
Speaker 1: improvements on mL one. What are some key changes you're
Speaker 1: making with the latest version of the technology. Thanks for
Speaker 1: having me back, Emily and um the latest version is
Speaker 1: focused on enterprise. In FACK, it's purpose built for enterprise
Speaker 1: and what we heard that folks in the areas of healthcare,
Speaker 1: defense and manufacturing needed we're a bigger field of use,
Speaker 1: so we've doubled that field of view. That's the area
Speaker 1: that you can place the digital content within. We've also
Speaker 1: improved the optics from one end to the other. There's
Speaker 1: the there's better text ledgeability, uh, the images crisper and clearer. Um.
Speaker 1: So we've we've done a lot to focus on the
Speaker 1: improvements that were needed to meet the specific use cases
Speaker 1: in those three areas. So what are the market opportunity here?
Speaker 1: Who do you see using this? Well? I d C
Speaker 1: says the market opportunity and enterprise a r S thirty
Speaker 1: nine billion dollars by but the real near term opportunity
Speaker 1: is in those three areas. So, for instance, in healthcare,
Speaker 1: we are making the device able to take into the
Speaker 1: operating room and doctors can now wear it during surgery
Speaker 1: because they can still see the patient in front of them,
Speaker 1: but they can hang a variety of screens around them
Speaker 1: to check the patient's vitals. We've also changed the orientation
Speaker 1: of the field of view to be more up and down,
Speaker 1: so they don't have as much body movement. They can
Speaker 1: just glance up, see the vitals, and look back down
Speaker 1: at the patient. In defense, we have a variety of
Speaker 1: use cases, largely around training and command and control scenarios.
Speaker 1: And then in manufacturing frontline workers gives them the ability,
Speaker 1: um really to be hands free and continue to do
Speaker 1: their job, but to have digital content put in front
Speaker 1: of their eyes that can help them do their job better.
Speaker 1: Meta's Oculus headset is obviously the market leader for VR
Speaker 1: right now, though still the market is small. You have
Speaker 1: Microsoft's hollow lens in a R. Where do you see
Speaker 1: Magic leaps headset competing? And how well I see us
Speaker 1: as the leader in the fully immersive a R sector.
Speaker 1: So some of the other devices in a R might
Speaker 1: be UM just meeting a narrow enterprise use case. With
Speaker 1: all of the new improvements in our device, we can
Speaker 1: meet a much broader set of use cases. And so
Speaker 1: you can think of us sort of as the higher end,
Speaker 1: the where you need more accurate placement of that digital
Speaker 1: content in your physical world. And those are the requirements
Speaker 1: of the three markets were focused on. The device looks
Speaker 1: like a blend of a R and VR. You know
Speaker 1: why of thing, Mixed reality is the way forward. I've
Speaker 1: spoken to some folks lately who think it's all about
Speaker 1: a R and that you know, most consumers and employees
Speaker 1: if if you're using this through your business don't want
Speaker 1: to be stuck in a virtual world, you're right. And
Speaker 1: I think the real promise of the metaverse is in
Speaker 1: augmented reality. We want to have our heads back up
Speaker 1: again and seeing our physical world and just having that
Speaker 1: content intelligently placed into that world. And so we are
Speaker 1: focused on a R that we did introduce an interesting
Speaker 1: new innovation called dimming, where you can take the light
Speaker 1: out of what you're seeing and you can have almost
Speaker 1: like an a super focus on something. So doctors can
Speaker 1: take the light out of a bright operating room and
Speaker 1: just see the knee in front of them that they're
Speaker 1: operating on. And we can do that globally, or we
Speaker 1: can do it and just segments in front of the screen.
Speaker 1: Super complex to do because a R is all about
Speaker 1: introducing light in front of your eyes and we're actually
Speaker 1: removing it. So do you think the metaverse is overhyped? Well,
Speaker 1: I think we're at the beginning of a technology and
Speaker 1: I think oftentimes new technologies do get a bit of
Speaker 1: a hype psychle We are staying very grounded and what
Speaker 1: the technology is capable of doing today. Over time, I
Speaker 1: think you'll see the further expansion of into consumer a
Speaker 1: r but the device is going to have to be smaller, lighter,
Speaker 1: more of a glasses format. We've made steps toward that
Speaker 1: with Magic Leap to. It's about uh less weight and
Speaker 1: about half the volume of Magical Leap one, but it's
Speaker 1: going to be another or two for consumers. Okay. Peggy Johnson,
Speaker 1: CEO of Magically, thanks you for stopping by. With the
Speaker 1: Russian invasion of Ukraine escalating, so is the flood of
Speaker 1: refugees of neighboring countries, most of them women and children.
Speaker 1: Bloom Brooks Town McKenzie is on the ground at the
Speaker 1: Poland Ukraine border. We are on the Polish Ukrainian border,
Speaker 1: a place called Medica, where the number of refugees continues
Speaker 1: to rise. The United Nations saying one point to million
Speaker 1: people have crossed over from Ukraine into Poland just in
Speaker 1: the last three weeks alone. We are our three weeks
Speaker 1: into this war and the needs of these people very acute. Indeed,
Speaker 1: in temperatures that are well below zero, freezing temperatures and
Speaker 1: difficult conditions. At the top level, we are getting and
Speaker 1: hearing of more funding the United States. The Houses are representatives.
Speaker 1: They're signing off on about thirteen and a half billion
Speaker 1: dollars worth of funding. Part of that will go towards
Speaker 1: the humanitarian crisis on the ground here. The i m
Speaker 1: F pushing through emergency funding at one point four billion,
Speaker 1: and the Europeans as well Ukraine and officials saying they
Speaker 1: expect to see the first transs EU money coming through
Speaker 1: as early as next week. But this is a reminder
Speaker 1: the numbers and the human toll of the need for
Speaker 1: spending for people whose lives now are very much uncertain
Speaker 1: and the prospects very much unknown for what is largely
Speaker 1: a population of women, children and the elderly on the
Speaker 1: Polish Ukrainian border. For Bloomberg, I'm Tom Mackenzie. Thank you Tom.
Speaker 1: And with Ukraine's taking refuge in Poland as along with Moldova,
Speaker 1: Romania and other neighboring countries, there's all ads logistical challenges
Speaker 1: on top of the devastating humanitarian crisis. The logistics company
Speaker 1: flex Sport is lending its expertise to relief efforts and
Speaker 1: charting cargo and passenger planes to and from Ukraine. I
Speaker 1: want to bring in flex Sport CEO Ryan Peterson for more.
Speaker 1: So Ryan talked to us a little bit more about
Speaker 1: what exactly flex Sport is doing here and the logistical
Speaker 1: challenges that you're navigating. Yeah, hey, thanks for having me
Speaker 1: on as a really terrible situation. So um flexport dot
Speaker 1: Org is our impact arms and what we've done is
Speaker 1: partner with the United Unitations logistics clusters organizing sort of
Speaker 1: coordinating the overall refugee sites to to provide relief goods,
Speaker 1: medical care, shelter and and other things that are needed
Speaker 1: to help these people. So they're on the ground and
Speaker 1: we're partnering then with Unice, SEFF and a painful of
Speaker 1: other really established aid organizations to help fulfill almost the
Speaker 1: wish list of these refugee sites of what are the
Speaker 1: products they actually need? Uh, and then also tapping into
Speaker 1: corporates and companies that we shipped for to get products
Speaker 1: flowing from wherever they are in the world. A lot
Speaker 1: of it's coming from the US because that's where Flexport
Speaker 1: is headquartered, but much cheaper if we can find things
Speaker 1: in Europe and bring them by truck across domestic trucking
Speaker 1: within within the European Union. So we've been bringing these
Speaker 1: goods to Poland, Romania, Slovakia. So far Um it's you know,
Speaker 1: kind of a drop in the pocket, but we're getting started.
Speaker 1: We've raised from over fifteen million dollars from donors to
Speaker 1: help us pay for all these flights and get them
Speaker 1: you know, and all the transportation to get their goods flowing.
Speaker 1: What's been the hardest part of getting aid to the
Speaker 1: place is where it's needed most. Historically, it's a coordination
Speaker 1: problem as much as anything. So over the last few decades,
Speaker 1: over six of all the goods that are donated or
Speaker 1: delivered to humanitarian disaster sites natural you know that natural
Speaker 1: disaster or conflicts like this, over sixty the goods end
Speaker 1: up in the landfill eventually, uh, sort of wrong products,
Speaker 1: wrong goods, sent to the wrong place at the wrong time,
Speaker 1: nobody there to receive the cargo. So it's a it's
Speaker 1: a complex coordination problem. This is something that Flexiports uniquely
Speaker 1: good at. So we we started this in seen Um
Speaker 1: following the Syrian Civil War and during the midst of
Speaker 1: the Syrian Civil war to support refugees in Turkey and
Speaker 1: in Jordan's um and working backwards from those sites, from
Speaker 1: those refugee camps of exactly what do they need? What
Speaker 1: are the great people on the ground doing distribution and
Speaker 1: needs assessments, say, here are the products we need and
Speaker 1: we're ready, raise our hand, ready to receive them. And
Speaker 1: then partner with great aid agencies and nonprofits and for
Speaker 1: profits around the world who have those products are can
Speaker 1: coordinate delivery and make sure the goods don't go to waste,
Speaker 1: and to make sure there's not chaos, like if a
Speaker 1: truckload of stuff derives and no one knows what's in
Speaker 1: there and no one's expecting it, it can actually slow
Speaker 1: things down at these sites. And one of the big
Speaker 1: problems is too much stuff is donated that's not the
Speaker 1: right stuff at the right place, at the right time.
Speaker 1: So that's what we're trying to solve for now. Russia's
Speaker 1: invasion of Ukraine has already disrupted the global supply chain.
Speaker 1: Add to that the sanctions the UH impact on Russian oil.
Speaker 1: What shocks are you seeing in the supply chain and
Speaker 1: what are the reverberations you're expecting and we've been through,
Speaker 1: you know, now a couple of years of supply chain
Speaker 1: shocks and are we do have a very resilient economy
Speaker 1: of resilient logistics infrastructure, but you sort of keep pushing
Speaker 1: the line and testing it and it's sort of it's
Speaker 1: resilient until it's not. So. Um. Big things right now
Speaker 1: are we've lost the ability as an aviation air cargo
Speaker 1: industry can't fly over Russia anymore, got to go around.
Speaker 1: That means extra stops, delays, um pretty and or fuel costs.
Speaker 1: Of course, Russia is one of the biggest providers of
Speaker 1: energy to the world, flitting fuel for aviation and that
Speaker 1: so fuel prices are going to go through the roof
Speaker 1: and rased prices both for air and ocean freight in
Speaker 1: all forms of trade. Basic trade and freight runs on
Speaker 1: runs on this energy. Um. But the thing that has
Speaker 1: me worried the most is actually the loss of grain.
Speaker 1: And Russia is the number one exporter of grain in
Speaker 1: the world. Ukraine is number five. And if if this
Speaker 1: grain doesn't reach the market, and it looks like Ukraine's
Speaker 1: probably not going to plant grain this season, that's that's
Speaker 1: gonna drive huge problems for any food importing nation as
Speaker 1: well as fertilizer. Bellar versus a major export or fertilizer,
Speaker 1: you're gonna lose that. So African countries, many developing nations,
Speaker 1: Central Asia, Middle East depend on these inputs and on
Speaker 1: this food for their population. It can get really scary
Speaker 1: if that doesn't arrive. Surely that's going to impact supply
Speaker 1: and prices. Meala Kunis who was born in Ukraine, and
Speaker 1: Ashton Kutcher, I know they're directing portions of a go
Speaker 1: fund me they set up to support flex port all
Speaker 1: with Airbnb. F t X as CEO has been involved.
Speaker 1: I'm curious how much he's donated and how much crypto
Speaker 1: donations in general have contributed to your overall pie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're really pleased to have partner great corporate partners.
Speaker 1: F t X has made a big, meaningful donation over
Speaker 1: four thousand dollars from from the company so far, and
Speaker 1: then they're setting up to promote uh the ability for
Speaker 1: all their users to provide donations via crypto to the
Speaker 1: go fund me that Mila and Ashton set up for
Speaker 1: the cause. I don't have the access for how much
Speaker 1: that's come in, but it's just getting started take a
Speaker 1: little while to wire these things together and such a
Speaker 1: short notice to get crypto set up with all the
Speaker 1: regulations that go into that, but that's happening right now,
Speaker 1: so really proud of that. And also Shopify, who's a
Speaker 1: major flexible investor, made a big, meaningful contribution donation to
Speaker 1: the cause as well, So I really really really excited
Speaker 1: to work with such great people. All right, Well, we're
Speaker 1: going to continue to monitor efforts. Thanks Ryan for taking
Speaker 1: the time to explain that to us and for the
Speaker 1: work that you're doing there to get those supplies that
Speaker 1: are desperately needed to the people who need the most.
Speaker 1: Flex Port CEO Ryan Peterson, thank you. And that does
Speaker 1: it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology. I'm Emily Chang
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. That's all for today. We'll see you
Speaker 1: back here tomorrow.