Airbnb Hosts and Abortion, and Sun Valley

abortions may not be all that easy. Plus, as the biggest names in tech and media gather at some valley, we'll hear from Amajiki twenty three and me about the company's new study on well long COVID, in the current state of biotech stocks, and door Dash and uber sink. After Amazon agrees to take a stake in grub Hub's business, details of the deal and why prime members might start to favorite grub as in every service. Let's talk about the U. S. Supreme Court ruling, of course, to end

federal protection for abortions happened last month. Already, many people wanted to try and find a way to help. Some hosts on Airbnb offered to open their homes to guests who needed to travel to states that will still allow the procedure. However, some of those hosts, well, I'm realizing it isn't as easy a solution as it might seem.

Bloomberg's Michael Tobin wrote all about this. Joins US now talk to us about how hosts were looking to potentially step in and allow travel to states that allowed abortions right after the Supreme Court decision came out. Hosts immediately we're changing some of their listings to say, if you're a woman and needed to travel across state lines to get an abortion, you're welcome to stay at my place

for free. And this is host really stepping up at a time where abortion access is being limited in almost you know, half of US states. And quickly host learned that it was not as easy to do this as they thought. There are very restrictive laws in states like Oklahoma and Texas that will actually put out bounties on people who aid in a bet abortions. And this was an issue that came up last year and companies like Uber were saying that we're going to defend our drivers

if they are implicated um in these lawsuits. And quickly what we've seen happen is some of these hosts takedown these listings and then partner with local nonprofits who are able to provide housing, so perhaps be a little less obvious, a little less implicating to anyone who's looking to use that home. I'm also interested in whether Abb said how Uber came to try and help an offer to pay the legal fees of its drivers. What have I been

be done for their hosts? Right? So Airbnb has said that if any of its hosts are implicating these laws, they will defend them, and they said that last September. And they also said if any other states pass laws that are similar to the one in Texas, will step up and do the same. The company has also made an unspecified donation of Planned Parenthood last year, but they haven't said anything else aside from you know, what's happened

after the Supreme Court ruling. And this is a company that's really stepped up to provide housing to Ukrainian Afghanistan refugees when those crisis were happening, But we haven't heard about any of their plans or partnerships domestically. I mean, it has to be said in many ways, the Ukrainian refugee crisis is in no way politically divisive. We still know that one third of the US population, at least on a Pew survey, agreed that abortions should be illegal.

So we have to realize that this is a very

politically charged conversation, and indeed not everyone agrees. I'm interested in, therefore, whether we expect the companies to stand to make comments about how they support their employees as well, because this is something we've seen many businesses say that's correct, and Airbnb has said that they will pay for employees who need to go across state lines to get an abortion, but we haven't seen that extended to hosts yet or to guess, so at that point, it's still re meant

to be seen what the company plans to do. What about therefore, solutions that some of the actual hosts have been coming up with. You say that they've been working with not for profits? Is that largely in the way in which that they If you're looking to be able to offer your home for free to those who want to travel, is that the way to partner with nonprofits charities?

That's what I've seen so far. One host that I spoke to, who is in Virginia, said that they're going to be partnering with a local nonprofit and they actually have two women who are coming to stay at their homes. So this is somebody who's been able to partner with a local nonprofit and make it successful. They've taken down the language from their listing on Airbnb, but they're still

making it available through their nonprofit. Another host that I spoke to in New Mexico said that they had to take down the listing because of a threat that they got against their family. So it really does show how serious this can be, and they really hope that the organization's um They hope that Airbnb will partner with the

organizations to make this safe for all parties involved. And lastly, what about sort of the next step of of investigative reporting for yourself, Like when you're looking at the ways in which this conversation continues to happen, are there other companies that you're discussing this with. Is there are other ways in which you think a BB and the likes will have to eventually become more clear in some of their advice. I think what we're going to see is

he's come news. You're just going to be continued to be, you know, put under public pressure, in the public spotlight to what they're going to do to support employees and hosts. And this kind of is similar to you know, the conversation about who's an employee and who's a contractor, right, and that's very clear with what you see with Uber and Uber is stepped up to say, and the Airbnb two to their credit if you're implicated in any of these lawsuits will defend you. So we'll see if that

actually happens. Michael Tobin, it's a great story. Thank you so much for coming on to talk about it. Meanwhile, another story that we continue to watch, the crypto crash has claimed another victim, this time broke A. Voyage and Digital has filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy protection. Now the firm sites market volatility and of course the collapse of the all important hedge fund, and had lent money to

Three Arrows Capital. Last month, Voyager had secured a five million dollar credit line from the cryptomogul and White Knight himself, Sam mag Munfreeze. I'll meet a research Interestingly, they'll meet a research too. Let's get out live to Sun Valley for Alan and Co's conference Media Mobile Zeo business tycoons. They gather there are annually rope Place to say, also gathering with them and Lovelow, you've got a very special guest. Yeah, let's go from billionaires and deals to health and data.

Bring in the CEO of twenty three and me and would you hi? How are you? I'm good? How are you? The weather is beautiful, but it's been busy. You've been coming to this conference for a long time, but you're very busy generally speaking. Correct twenty three and you're coming out of the pandemic. The consumer around the world is thinking a lot about their health. How's that helped you people?

You know, it's interesting with COVID, it was the first time when we would publish articles that that would actually drive sales. So COVID definitely spurred people to be hyper aware of health, definitely interested in what's going on. And three me definitely saw a bump that people were interested in the research that we were doing. And people are definitely interested in health. And as we enter this second half and economies are opening and many people are double

vaccinated boosted, are they still coming to you? What is their consciousness about health data? I think people come to twenty three and me there's there's you know, clearly half of our customers come for ancestry and then another half definitely are very interested in the idea that they're empowered to take care of themselves and they're empowered with information about prevention. And I think people have learned with the pandemic.

There's like obviously like we think about mass when we think about vaccines, like all of that ties in with the world of prevention. So suddenly being able to tie that as well with saying type two diabetes, are there things that you can actually do to prevent it? Are there actions that you can take? So lifestyle environment, I think it all wraps in. People definitely start to think about that more and more. What can they do to

just be healthier in general. There's about Spasics twenty three and me just run through what it is you offer and how it works three me. It's it's incredibly simple. You spin in a tube, we collect your DNA, and we help you interpret your DNA. And we're different than all the other companies out there, and that we never said we're just ancestry, we're just health We really wanted to have this holistic vision of like we're about you and understanding your DNA and DNA is fascinating, like you

share it with all this life around us. You and I are ninety nine point you know, five percent the same. So how is it can we understand the DNA to understand why we're different? Some people, you know are introvert, Some people are extroverts. Some people love you know, our high risk for type you diabetes, some people are not. Um how can we actually understand how the DNA influences all of that? So we return near ances to results to people, and we return health results to people, and

we engage them with their own personal DNA. How many of these kits are you selling and where are they doing best? Is it here in the United States? Is it in other markets? Where is their most engagement? We're focused mostly on the US right now. UM. We also sell in the UK, we sell in Canada, we sell in sixty six countries, but we don't sell health everywhere. Health is still highly regulated and most of the world,

so it's mostly in the US. UM we have you know, we still see we see good update from our customers that are really interested in again both understanding ancestry and understanding health. And what's interesting is that there's a real tie in of like most people can relate and say like, Okay, if you're of Jewish descent or if you're of African descent, you're potentially at higher risk for certain conditions. So there's a real tie in between the ancestry and what your

health predispositions are. You made an interesting acquisition Lemonade telehealth. It was another kind of big pandemic era ticket. Yeah, how has that gone for you? The reason why we bought Lemonade is very different than why other groups got into, you know, telehealth. It's not because we wanted to get into urgent care and you know strep throats in the

whole telemedicine craze. But rather, we saw suddenly this opportunity that people are comfortable talking to their clinicians online and that frankly, most clinicians are not trained on genomic medicine, meaning that if you go and you get your genetic results for Alzheimer's or chronic kidney disease or other conditions, most physicians today are not trained on what to do

with that. And so twenty three and me, by acquiring Lemonade, now has the opportunity to offer the full stack, meaning that I can give you access to a direct to consumer approved FDA cleared test. I can get you your genetic information, and now I can actually provide clinicians who are trained on genetic information and a pharmacy that is also trained on how your genetics interplay with medications. So I can offer now that full service too of our customers.

That was a successful acquisition, it's been missing. I mean, you out there looking for similar opportunities to build out the twenty three and me offering well. Acquisitions take a lot of time to integrate, so I would say the first step is like is the integration, but then really be able to start to train missions um and provide those to our customers and provide that full package. Like people today still don't necessarily know what to do with

all their genetic information. So there's a whole process for us of educating our customers like we're gonna we're gonna give you healthcare providers now who can help you actually understand how do you actually potentially translate that into your life, and lots of ways that we can actually leverage the service to help you encourage behavior change. You're the CEO

of a publicly traded company. Now healthcare is important for consumers that we're in a challenging inflationary environment, and we've been having a lot of discussions in the last twenty four hours about where does the consumer stop spending. Do you think that the consumer will continue to assign importance to spending on healthcare data monitoring metrics or is that something that there's a risk that consumer spending slows down. I think I think there's a couple of interesting trends.

So I think first off is people are really frustrated aided with a lack of transparency and healthcare, the surprise bills, and I think that there's definitely an encouragement people want to have more control. And I think one thing that twenty three and ME has really led on is being a low cost provider of information and making it really

affordable and accessible. So I think more and more there's going to be a trend where people want to be in control, they want to know exactly what they're paying for, and they want to be able to know that they're actually getting a reasonably priced service. So I think that twenty three ME, at our current price for a health and answerstree kit, it's in that range of reasonable for people. What is the energy. He big picture outlook for the rest of this year and beyond, well for this year

and beyond. I mean I look at I focus on beyond. So for me, I've always been very much focused on the long term vision. And the long term vision is a totally different type of healthcare system that is frankly about your best interest. Today's healthcare system makes money when you are sick and you go into the system, and so I've all has been focused on a self pay, direct a consumer model because my relationship is directly with you.

How is it that I can win as a company and you can win as an individual if I can keep you healthier? So I really look at a world how do I actually empower you to be healthy? At a hundred? How do I empower you to be as healthy as you possibly can and not actually get sick? To begin with final question very quickly, do you think twenty three and me is seen as a potential partner from a big for a bigger health care system or even a potential acquisition that have you ever thought about

doing that? I think now that we've acquired lemonade Um and the focus that we have on genomic medicine and

the delivery delivery of medicine. I think that twenty three and Me could play a really important role in helping bridge consumers who actually have their genetic information with the rest of the medical world and how they're operating, and start to bridge that genomic divide, like help people actually understand what is this information, how to use it in a clinical setting as well as how to use it

in a lifestyle setting. Right, three and C and mujiki, It's not just billionaires and deals, it's health and data as well. Caroline back to you in New York. She might well be a million billionaire. We'll have to check the Blombo billionaire's list. But what a wonderful interview, what a fascinating CEO and majiki they're trying through me and our own ed Ludlow. We'll be back in Some Valley on Thursday live with event Right CEO Kevin Hart's Don Gavern,

Major League Soccer Commissioner. Make sure you tune in at five pm Eastern two pm Pacific. Coming out door dash shares draw up after competitor grub hub struck a deal with Amazon. Our grub Hub will have easy access to Amazon's broad consumer base. That's next as a Broomberg. Apple's latest mapchips have shaken up the personal computer or industry, driving sales of Apple's map books and imax and pushing

rivals to search for new solutions. In just the last year and a half, Apple has output the M one to the M one Ultra, to the M two and over the next year, I expect new M two Pro and Max chips, as well as the first M three chips. But all of this has taken a toll on Apple's chip efforts for its other products. Case in point two, of Apple's most popular devices, the iPhone and the Apple Watch, will not be getting their typical big chip upgrades this year.

For the first time since Apple began designing its own iPhone processors, the base iPhone four team models won't be getting an all new chip. Those phones will stick to the eight fifteen from the iPhone thirteen instead. Only the more expensive iPhone fourteen Pro line will get a faster A sixteen processor. Similarly, for the first time in its own history, the Apple Watch will be sticking to the same processor technology for the third year in a row. Well,

the Series eight will get an ESS eight chip. The processor will be on par with the S six chip from the Series six. Apple has also been facing hurdles with the development of its first cellular modem, with test versions of the component facing overheating issues. I don't expect an Apple modem to arrive until at the earliest. I believe all of these issues are in part the result of Apple's chip department being spread too thin, as well

as a new focus on the Mac. It's also, of course, due to industry wide battlenecks like the chip shortage, which is leading to higher prices, as well as rising shipment costs and t SMC. Apple's manufacturing partner is also not without blame due to its somewhat rocky transition to new three nimeter processor technology. I'm Mark German. This is power on thanks to putting gum and then don't forget sign

up from max weekly power on news dot com. Now I'm still got Amazon because it's stuck a deal to take up of grub hub and it will say will offer it's primary is in the US in one year membership to the feed delivery service. Now. Clubhub is owned by the Dutch company Just Eat Takeaway, which announced plans to find an investor or bitter for the US business in April and he's saying new meg intelligence some place to say it's here to tell us why why did

Amazon want to get into the delivery service? Well, the lines are clearly blurring between what Amazon is doing in terms of last smile delivery versus what these companies are doing in terms of food delivery and grocery delivery. And I think Amazon used them as a threat. And for Amazon, it's an easy way for them to you know, partner with grubhub, which has been losing share, but it does have a good, you know, customer base in cities and urban areas, so it is also a way for them

to segment the market. They did a similar partnership at Delivery in the UK, so they're really targeting that high end users that grubbub has, albeit its losing share, but I think that's the play here. And then over time they want to bundle everything. You know, they already have music video, well at one more service and their prime

subscription becomes something that customers can do with that. Why go to the high end is certainly for me delivery it started by really doing the top end restaurants, then went a little bit lower but it is the high end by more recession proof in the moment, is that the idea, yes, And and also they have higher repeat purchases, so you know, when when you talk about subscriptions in this business, it's all about frequency and how can you have the customer you know, order more kind of more

times than they would have done otherwise. So in this case, I think the other problem that I see for door Dash and Uber is they charge a take rate based on the basket size or you know, Amazon can say, okay, we'll give you a flat fee. Yes, it doesn't matter in terms of you know, how many times you order, and that could be very disruptive to the business model of Uber and door Dash. I mean they're already struggling

with profitability. If this was to come, I think that would be a big pressure on on their take rates. Talked to us about the structure of the deal and about their option basically to eventually own the full assets that they wish. I think Amazon in this environment can't make a big acquisition. They already bought MGM, they bought Whole Foods, but now I think the regulatory environment is more challenging. Even the delivery partnership went through intense deal

scrutiny and so my hunches. You know, even though they would have gotten this asset very cheap. I mean, just he paid seven point five billion for groub Hub. It will be substantially marked down in this environment. But I think for Amazon, they really think partnership is one way for them to gain you know, access to grow hub customer base, and they can do everything that they would have done if they had acquired the asset, So makes sense. In general, we can see more consolidation in the space.

I think when you're talking about the pricing structure as thinking of my instacat bills and how much I'm assessing how much you know, I get added on from me

just walking into a store. Are we seeing more insolidation likely in the space in general, Well, there will be a lot of pressure, right So if you're getting into a slow economic environment where customers are pulling back on spending, there are just too many subscriptions out there that a customer has and they have to pay back on what is a discretionary versus what is not, and that will be a catalyst for you know, consolidation because order growth

will slow down substantially. Remember they're up against COVID comps georda Ash and Uber grew triple digit order volume growth and and so those comps are very tough, and that would be a catalyst for install Card and the smaller guys to give in and say, okay, we need to partner with a Walmart or a Target or you know one of the big retailers out there. Man saying always say small, bling back intelligence, great analysis. As always, this is bag technology. I'm Caroline Hide in New York. She

has a ribban surging. On Wednesday, the electric vehicle maker, reaffirming it's in port auction. Target revealed the production accelerated, in fact in the second quarter. Riven still on track to produce twenty five tho units this year. Bloomberg's and Ludlow, well, we're never going to let him relax over there in some valley, and we're going to keep you on top of all the ev news. As we know you love it, ed and you know this is a market like market reaction.

Why because they are making progress. You know, they've produced twenty vehicles approximately in the first quarter. They've jumped to fort hundred in the second quarter. You know, this is about a production ramps. You remember, Caroline two thousand and eighteen, how kind of micro focused we were on Tesla and the production hell and Rivian is showing that it is making progress, and the street basically looking at that and saying, okay,

we believe you. The vehicles is possible this year. And look, I know I'm in some valley, but guess who else is in something? J Scaringe, Rivian CEO, may already said hello to him, so you know, it's kind of interesting for him to be here, but this is certainly a company now heading in the right direction in factory at least, so he said hello. Did he say anything that he did?

You know, Garrange is an interesting guy. You know. A lot of sources tell me that he is often the smartest person in the room, but he comes across as incredibly humble. It's an interesting one because Allen and co hosts a tech media and telecoms conference, and you wouldn't think the automotive really fits into that. He's not the only automotive executive here. Of course, Mary Barra, the GM CEO, is also here. But I said, what are you going to be talking about? And I think you know, for

them it's a little bit of a victory lap. They did the sixth biggest I, P O and U S history in November. The stock has been under immense pressure since, but they are still kind of the Golden company with some serious Wall Street backing. Okay, so where do they go from here? Then? Ed, they're ambitious, and I think this has been part of the Street's concerned that they talk about being able to ramp production at that Illinois facility not just to this year, but to a hundred thousand,

then a hundred and fifty thousand units annually. They plan to break ground on a factory in Georgia very soon that could build four hundred thousand units annually and they're going to start production on that. So they have a lot going in fifteen billion dollars approximately on the balance sheet. It's really about the month by month and quarter by quarter execution. That's what the streets laser focused on. Beautiful head,

We thank you, stay well. Meanwhile, raising venture capital isn't as easy for startups and turning out to be challenging year, say the very least, there's a recession potentially looms over the economy. Founders are thinking a smarter ways to secure money. Joining us now to discuss all this from M thirteen is the managing partner, Carl Alama, and it's great to have some time with you, Carl, and just talk to us.

We're just hearing about, you know, companies that recently went public and the strain that they've been under from a public perspective. In the private market, how are you seeing valuations and how are you seeing a willingness of founders to want to raise in this sort of environment. Yeah, it's a very interesting time for sure in venture capital. I think the whole problems everything that's happening in the public markets, it is really kind of cacheting back into

the private markets. At the end of the day, we all invest in these companies because we want to see them go public, want to see them grow and create

great valuations. And when there's so much uncertainty in the multiples and how to value these businesses, brigaches back from the late stage investors who are holding off, waiting for the market to settle and find its bottom back through the earlier stage investors like ourselves, who ultimately want to make sure we're invest in companies that can get later stage funding. I mean you've invested in Bird, Butnova's allocate. I mean, we all know daily harvest headspace, many people

using that in this current environment at the moment. Lift You're no stranger also to navigating companies during downturns, the Great Financial Crisis two thousand and eight, and they're on what's different this time? If anything? Yeah, it's interesting. I've actually I was an operator before I was an investor. I had a company back in the late nineties that I was able to exit through the bubble bust of two thousand and had a fintech company in two thousand

and eight that we navigated through. We eventually were able to exit in two thousand and and so, Uh, definitely went through these challenges myself. I think that every every economic downturn is different in its own right. Uh, this downturn is you know, a lot of people, there's a lot of conjecture about what's driving it, but ultimately there's a lot of international activity going on that's driving inflation, that's driving some of these things that are really scaring

the you know, the market. The one big difference is um whereas in two thousand and eight, really money just dried up. I think the situation we have today is there is a lot of money sitting on the sidelines. The money hasn't dried up. I think the market volatility has created nervousness and created caution on the part of the investors themselves, and so that money is going to have to come back to work. Uh, these funds, these later stage funds and investors have to put that money

to work within a certain predetermined period of time. And so really as the market really finds its bottom, there's a lot of money ready to come back in. So we actually are very very positive and hopeful about the future are um and the opportunity for these companies to raise money in the future. But the period between here

and there is really the unknown. You were, of course, as he said, in fintech and one key fintech name pin up of where you and I originally helm from in Europe corner, I mean huge downgrade in terms of its overall market valuation. How did as a previous leader of businesses in this time, how do you ensure they were able to weather these storms? Have these companies raised enough previously? If they're not, how they're also helping their employees? Well,

who kind of wanted a liquidity moment. Yeah, that's a it's an interesting question. You you have to consider the amount of capital you have, your ability to run. I think you know, the companies that have a lot of capital on the balance sheet, whether they're private or whether they're public, are the highest potential to see through this time.

If you do think of it as a prefixed period of time, really just have to manage the business through it, and once you get through the other end, hopefully the market begins to turn you begin to see the benefits of the building and running a solid business. But your question about employees are so important, especially in the earlier stage.

You know where in this market as well, where there's very low unemployment, employees do have a lot of options to think about moving around and think about the things they want to do. A lot of companies are thinking about layoffs and some kind of tightening on their earnings potential. And the one really really important thing is to keep your best performers and to motivate them. So one thing we really speak to our CEO is about is just how to really deliver that vision, bring them along for

the ride. Make sure everybody realizes that you know, these businesses aren't changing. It's just that they vision is something that they have to be much more efficient about achieving, and so bringing the best team along with you and making sure they're motivated to see through the end of

that journey is incredibly important. Camp companies as give us your assessment of the overall econ economy and recessionists that you see, because the companies that you have fun and in a pass are sort of very discretionary names tonal of course, the likes of Headspace and Lift and Daily Harvest,

all of these things are kind of well treats. Really, if you're thinking of those that don't have all the cash washing about, do you worry that they are going to have a tougher time as people are pulling back slightly on their purse strings to a degree, Yes, I mean you're talking about really the latest stage businesses. Some of these have already edited, of course, so they're are

really in up portfolio any longer. So we don't really you know, we we realize our benefit at the exit point, whether it's an EM and a transaction or an I p O, so we don't necessarily maintain our ownership through you know, the public status of the business um those public companies across the border, tech companies across the border obviously suffering massive compression of their valuations, and realistically, when you see the multiples and the evaluations that were in

place last year, they were probably unrealistically large. So have they overcompressed. Probably if they've overcompressed, then there's opportunity for growth again once they at bottom. And that's really as an as an investor in my personal private or public portfolio of my own, you know, it's really about for me waiting it out and allowing these good companies that have good fundamentals see through the downturn and begin to

get recognized for their value again. Car, So it's great to catch up with you when you have such portfolio as yours and then exited and ones that remain, of course, the companies that you still wait for that exit to occur. Carl Anama really wiser words coming from the managing partner of M thirteen handle weather this particular storm. Another story will continue to watch. Walmart, talking of or consumer discretionary, reportedly told some supplies they need that new fuel and

pickup fees are coming. According to The Wall Street Journal, the giant retailer will charge companies that use Walmart to transport goods to its stores and warehouses. Some are Walnuts Walmarts competitors such as Amazon have already imposed similar fees this year coming up in the wake of rapid pandemic related gaming industry growth. Convoy Ventures so now saying a hundred and fifty million dollar fund. But how much of that is being allocated to the blockchain gaming we'll discuss.

There's a Blomberg so crypto the space in what we call a winter industry. So I'm saying crisis, But what about the underlying technology? What about in the space for gaming? Convoy Ventures is seeing potential. The gaming focused VC firm has raised a hundred fifty million dollars for a new fund, which will include investments in blockchain games. Joining us now, Josh Chapman, managing partner at Convoy Ventures. How is the gaming space going to ride this out? Do you think? Josh? Absolutely?

And thank you for having me, Caroline, thank you for having me on the show. Um. Blockchain gaming space is going to thrive during this next period of macroeconomic cycle for a couple of reasons. One is blockchain gaming rises on the back of the gaming industry, which already has three billion avers worldwide. Uh, the average age is thirty six years old. Um, you know gamers or women, and this has to become a global industry. You know, over the last five to ten years, you're seeing about a

hundred million people joined the gaming industry in general. On the back of that, there has been technological innovation in gaming for decades, ever since the nineteen seventies when the gaming industry really really started with blockchaining gaming specifically, you're looking at an industry that's basically bringing two primary things to the gaming industry. One is business model innovation, which I can dig into a little bit more, and second

is the digital asset ownership of the consumer. And those two trends are going to drive a success of blockchain gaming for the next decade. Now, I don't want to say that all of your investments are in any way blockchain related and only partially and any partially this one

will go into it. But you have got some big names, and of course sky Maybos would have been the real pin up, but that's become a kind of controversial game to be associated with Acts Infinity, just because of the way in which well suddenly they've moved away in this pay play to earn kind of model. How do you see the space evolving and and why is it so controversial? Do you think, you know, I don't see it as

a very controversial thing. I would actually pivot that more to what they're doing is truly quite innovative and that sometimes sees resistance in the gaming industry. And so when you look at the success of Skymavis, you're looking at a team that has been incredibly ambitious and really pushed gaming to ex limits by saying, when you play, you can earn this in game token thing that you could actually trade on external exchanges. Hence why there is a

token attached to the Skymavis platform. We have been thrilled with how the Skymavis team has navigated, especially the last six months and different challenges. They have done a great job at reopening the bridge. The founders and the company really took ownership of a lot of the things that kind of went down, and uh, they've really done a

great job navigating navigating this period. But what's been most controversial that you're kind of getting at is the fact that should playtime be rewarded with financial rewards and the idea is actually not that novel, because people have been gifted things in games for decades, through cosmetic items, through

gift boxes, through perks, through discounts. What we're talking about is that the blockchain ecosystem in general has brought this token financial uh personal ownership to the gaming industry, and the two combined has actually been quite powerful. And so the sky maybe this is truly one of the most successful, is not the most successful blockchain centric platform on the planet, and we just happened to be fortunate enough to be an investor in this amazing team. Of course, actually Infinity

also suffered a hack. I'm now reporting that it was related to a particular tap part of the talent looking at the LinkedIn ad and we're looking too those reports as to how on earth had happened. But of course, when we suffer hacks like this, you, as a backer of the company, should you be there is a sort of money of last resorts, some sort of bailout options.

Absolutely well, I can't get into that specifically about how that went down, but I can tell you that the bridge has been reopened and fully funded, and I can also say that we're super impressed with how the team at their own expense, and how the company balanced you got, its own expense, came forward to protect the community from having to take that hit. Right. That hack was you know, an unfortunate event, but the team and the company really

stepped up to own that. When it comes to the investors, of course, we're incentivized for the success of this company, and so we'll continue to be in their corner. I obviously can't get into the exact details on how that bridge was kind of plugged in gas, but um, they really navigated it incredibly well, and as an investor, we're thrilled to continue to be in their corner and support them publicly on on on publications like this as well

as you know, privately in border remedience with them. So what kind of other gaming startups there for are pushing the envelope, being innovative, using new ways in which to use the blockchain as the underlying technology, but also n f T s and ways in which to real hold. Yeah, so you're seeing a lot of things that we get excited about. The convoys were really specialists on investing into the technology and platforms and infrastructure for the future of

the video gaming industry. That technology and infrastructure side on the platform stuff that we look at of you know, the next Discord, the next Twitch, the next roadblocks. Those kind of companies are what we're trying to invest in at the early stage at Seeds Series A UM. The type of technology the blockchain brings is really things around UH, digital asset ownership, digital identities UM and a new business model.

That alludes to this a little bit earlier, but the business model innovation that blockchain brings to gaming is going to be, in our view as big as the rise of the free to play gaming business model that emerged in the late two thousands. The free to play business model UM brought in about fifty to eighty billion of value to the gaming industry, which is now valued that

over two billion. We think blockchain gaming, with the rise of a marketplace business model that allows for the transfer of transactions automatically without having to rely on counterparties, is a very powerful technology that the gaming industry is going to absolutely take advantage of and integrate into Web two. I think you're going to also see a lot of gaming companies not necessarily go the I C O round, but they will incorporate some type of n F t

revenue component to what they're doing. We think this can be incredibly powerful and it's already proving to generate billions of dollars already in the last twelve d eighteen months. Chess Chapman, managing partner of Convoy Ventures, thinking about the new ways in which companies will raise funds as well as the ways in which they'll continue to develop me thank you so much. China accusing the US of technological terrorism and it's pushed to stop a SML and Nicon

from setting key chip making technology to the country. Now joining US now as the man who helped break that scoop, Eric Martin, And it really is interesting about how the US is leaning on SML calls the Dutch equipment maker and Japanese make an econ as well, China responding pretty aggressively to it. That's right, Caroline. But we've seen is China rejecting the pressure that the US is putting on a SML as well as on Nikon of Japan. But a SML having by far the biggest market share of

this technology. D you v deep ultra violet lithography that etching equipment for chips, I can't tell you how much I had to look into that sort of technology when I used to report on s MLS numbers and some of the other European equipment makers. What do you think China could do? In response, what do you what about their own innovation within the country to be able to develop such such equipment. Well, we've certainly seen efforts by

the Chinese to develop their own uh DUV equipment. To date, they haven't had a whole lot of success with it. A SML remains the by and large, the sole provider of d u V to China, and these are not the most advanced etching etching equipment. This is the kind of next The second generation is slightly older generation that we're talking about, but still the most commonly used in

in this industry. And so this is something that the Chinese definitely have a desire to to steal a march on the advanced countries uh the you know, rich countries they are selling and making this equipment, but that they have thus far not been very successful in that effort. So when the US realizes this is the way it can really applied pressure from a technological standpoint, do you think it will bear fruit? I know, asked this previously, But have we had any further from nikon from a

SML as to whether they are willing to respond. Well, we understand is that a s mL so far has not gone along with UH and has objected to the U s push on the Netherlands for SML to be cut off from these kinds of sales. UH. You know they're feeling is that, UH, that this is not something that the you know, that the US should be should

be doing. UM. But we've seen a broad US push on China UH and on Smike and some of these chip producers in China, and it's something that the Bureau of Industry and Security is you know, on a daily basis looking at in terms of trying to stop China from matching or overtaking the US and this kind of

technology on the on the national security concern. Next thing you're looking for, Eric, well, whether a SML you know, eventually does go along with this or whether you know, more more aptolutely if the government of the Netherlands goes along with this with blocking the sale of this kind of technology, because this is a real choke point for China's chip industry and something that could really hamstring China going forward, Eric Martin, with all the scoops, we thank you.

We look forward to how that story continues to progress. Meanwhile, that does it for this addition of Blow Big Technology tomorrow, Well we're back in some valley event, right. CEO Kevin Harts do GABA Major League Soccer Commissioner Football we call it really If you're British, make sure they tune in five pm Eastern, two pm Pacific, and don't forget to check out our podcast. You can find it on the terminal as well as online on Apple, Spotify. An i heeart from New York. This is Bloomberg