From Marhard where Innovation of Money and Power Collie in Silicon Vallet NBN. This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow.
I'm Caroline Heindel Bloomugswelte Quarters in New York.
And I'm Ed Ludlow in San Francisco. This is Bloomberg Technology coming up.
We go live to the White House to speak with Heather Bouchet of the Council of Economic Advisors, her take on today's CPI print and the impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Plus, Alphabet loses its anti trust fight with Epic Games as a federal court jury in California rules Google Play is a monopoly. Will break down the impact of the antitrust ruling.
And space surveillance startup true anominally raises one hundred million dollars in its latest funning round to ramp up output of its satellite that can track national threats in orbit. We'll discuss with that and so much more throughout this hour. First, that's checking on these markets. And while the initial threat over the CPI print just running ever so slightly hot, and one particular point in the margin generally has died down, and we see two tens of percent up on the NASDAK.
No great shapes we're seeing the two year you'll completely flat, having originally just spiked high, we come back down. We bribe Brieth what seems to be a bit of a size. People take on board the fact that really CPI is ultimately slowing, but still some areas are concerned maybe at BE rent, maybe at be of course.
The cost of your cars.
We've got so much to discuss with this inflationary environment core CPI.
Let's get back to it for a moment.
Ed The data they're coming in today basically matching estimates and reinforcing bets that the Federal Reserve we'll have to keep rates elevated to tame inflation in the longer term. But in the here and the now, we just try to really understand where we're dialing back on inflation. We want to get the view from the White House Council of Economic Advisors, to be precise, the member is Heather Bouchet. You join us now and look consumer prices in general.
The print came in well where the market had seen it. The headline take to bob expectations on the month a month just episod slightly.
But what was your read on today's print.
Well, certainly, as you noted, the headline was a bit above market expectations. But when you look at the whole report, you see that the pace of inflation, you know, in various parts of the report, has been coming down in ways that are really important for consumers. So, for example, the pace of inflation for groceries or slower than they
have been in over a year. And you know that is consistent with news that we were talking about right after Thanksgiving, where the price of a Thanksgiving dinner was cheaper this year than it was last year. And as we look forward to the holiday season, you see that some goods that are going to be important for families, sporting goods or toys or you know, things that they might buy for Christmas, like televisions or whatnot, those prices have also the pace is also slowed there as well.
So there is some good news for consumers in there. And you know, when you look over the last quarter, the annualized rate of headline inflation is about two point two percent.
I would say, though a lot of consumers don't feel it. Now you've rightly pointed out that consumer sentiment has been picking up. In December, it's up about thirteen percent. I think infation expectations they've been dialing back, but well to use on the.
Day that we get yet another word of the year.
One word of the year has been this vibe session, and the feeling is that people don't feel great, even though the economy seemingly is going pretty great. What do you say as an administration when that hits hard on a consumer that doesn't feel the way that you're currently talking about this economy right now.
Well, let's be very clear.
The President has been clear, his economic team has been clear. We understand that high prices have been hard on families and that this has post challenges. Pocketbook questions are really important. It's one of the reasons why when I looked at this report today, we see actually that wages have now been increasing faster than the pace of inflation for seven months now, and we know that it takes some time for things to you know, kind of for people's perception
of what's happening in the economy to resonate. We're hopeful that as we see wages continued hopefully to outpace inflation, that'll help people be able to get their family budgets back under control.
You know.
The other thing we see, of course, is for the eighty percent of workers in the economy that are production and non supervisory workers, so not the managers, but the production and non supervisory workers, they have fully recovered their real wages back to where they had been pre pandemic.
So that's certainly good news. But we know that the path to recover from this historic virus induced recession that we had and all of the challenges that we had getting back up online and the supply chain challenges, so much work went into making things function again in our economy, and hopefully as people go into this holiday season, they'll see that prices are that the pace is not as high as it was last year, and that'll help with consumer confidence over time.
Heather, thank you for your time. It's ed here in San Francisco. Our technology audience its workers just have one very simple question, what specifics what areas are you you seeing the Inflation Reduction Act have a substantive impact in lowering inflation? In other words, are there any specific data points you can give us that show the IRA has worked.
Well?
Let me just focus on one today. So we saw in today's report on inflation, that the price of new cars has fallen for the past two months, and in fact, actually it's fallen for four out of the last six months.
And one of the things that we've been tracking very carefully because of the Inflation Reduction Act is what's been happening with US auto industry as we've made these historic investments and in batteries and in electric vehicles, and of course we've seen that the number of electric vehicles has been rising, and we see that actually the price of those cars, because there's now more competition, has actually come down.
So now the price of an electric vehicle is about within three thousand dollars of a car.
Then that's before the.
Tax credit that families can receive to buy those new electric vehicles. So that's one place where those investments are helping to bring changes for consumers and families while also creating good jobs here in the United States.
In that case, he a what is the White House's reactions the news overnight that Ford has cut its production target for the F one to fifty lightning by fifty percent twenty four And what they're saying is they're simply matching their output to what is what they see as being consumer demand.
Well, I can't comment on that today in the details, but you know, we are seeing these historic investments as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act. We are seeing this uptick in sales for electric fields that we've seen in the past. Of course, you know this is it is challenging to reshape an entire economy, to build a
nuclear energy, clean energy economy. But knowing that the President has done what he could do working with Congress to be able to make sure that business has had the support they need to be able to make these investments, that's where our energy has been focused.
There is, of course that tension that ultimately inflationary pressure hasn't been helped by geopolitics, by trade, in particular, by the fact that we are having to slow in some ways the supply chain between the US and China in particular. How much of a help or a hindrance is that, particularly the moment we think of what's happening in the chip sector.
Well, let me just say a couple of things.
You know, when you look at the pace of inflation, and if you were to overlay price changes along with changes in what has happened in the supply chain index that we look to. You actually see that a big part of why we've been able to get prices down. You know, right, they were at their peak nine point one percent. Now we're at three point one percent for
headline inflation. You know, when you look at that shift, a lot of that mirrors these challenges that we saw in supply chains as an outcome of the pandemic, and as businesses had to get up and running, and yet there was still this virus around the world and upended these global supply chains.
All the work that the.
President did to make sure that goods were able to be transported, to make sure that the ports were working, that played a key role in where we are today and getting prices down. And of course global trade isn't a really important part of those global supply.
Chains, Heather.
In the technology industry, there are still companies that are reducing headcount and at the same time AI is driving a number of postings which seems to be adding to wage inflation because frankly, the numbers are astronomical on offer to hire the best talent in AI. Does the White House have any data that shows an AI impact on the labor force and indeed the economy right now.
Well, at this moment, this technology is news. So I can't we don't have like a specific estimate, but I can tell you a couple of things. I mean, first, this is an issue that the President takes seriously. In fact, I believe today his AI Council is meeting and they're having conversations about these technologies. But you know, one of the things that we've seen in past instances where we've seen new technologies is that people's jobs tend to change, and it works its way as it works its way
through the system. So we expect that, you know, as is new technologies come online that'll ship the composition of skills that workers need and how they're they're performing on the job. But just know that this is something that the administration is certainly focused on, as if the President is so focused on making sure that we're building an economy from the middle out and bottom up and prioritizing workers in our economic agenda.
Hebbalshi, the White House Council of Economic Advisors, Thank you very much. Now, coming up, Google loses its a trust court fight with Fortnite maker Epic Games. We'll discuss well that all means for the two hundred billion dollars per year app store industry. That's next. Google Play deliberately wields monopoly power. That's what a federal court jury found yesterday after liberating less than four hours following a month long
trial in San Francisco. The court fight was with Fortnite maker Epic Games, which should accuse both Google and Apple of being a duopoly in the app distribution marketplace and enriching themselves by charging developers excessively high fees to this games an Epic reminder actually lost it challenged Apple two years ago, the Supreme Court reviewing that one. Let's bring in Bloomberg's Mark German and Leah Nyland to break this all down. Outline the logic of these nine jurors in
San Francisco. Leah, what was it that they decided on and why?
Yeah, So they.
Found that Google wields monopoly power in the market for app stores, and that it engaged in any competitive conduct by paying different people, including gaming companies and smartphonemakers to make the Google Play Store the Saul app store on various Android phones. And so it's a little bit different than in the.
Apple App Store. You know in the.
Apple case, you know, Apple does not allow any other app stores on the phone, and that's long been its policy. And Google, you know, there were all of these payments, some worth a significant amount of money. They were paying Samsung as much as eight billion dollars over four years to ensure that the Google Place or really was the best and most accessible access point for people using the
Android phone. So, I mean, those payments are really what people think convinced this jury that you know, Google is a monopoly, whereas in the Apple case they didn't really have any of that type of evidence.
To that end, though Mark the reader cross is clear and already actually we've seen both Alphabet and Apple having to think about the business model and ultimately ultimately how it evolves.
Does it change from here on out on the back of this ruling.
Oh, I certainly think so. So there was one remaining point in the Apple case with Epic Games, and that's heading to the Supreme Court likely in a few months now, and that is steering right the ability for any app in the App store to point a user to the web to complete transaction. That means the user wouldn't have to use Apple's billing system therefore saving the developer between fifteen and thirty percent off the top in terms of
that Apple revenue share. And now that this jury sided with Google, potentially that puts this idea in the heads of the decision makers, the lawmakers on this last point to side with Epic Games and against Apple in this case. But there's a couple things that I want to outline here. I think Leigh is completely right. I think this came down to optics pr and those side agreements that Google had with Spotify, Google and other players to really promote
the Google Play Store. For those unfamiliar, there's a fundamental difference between how app stores work on iOS, the iPhone platform, and Android, the Google platform. Android devices have supported side loading, third party app stores, the installation of apps from outside Google Play from the beginning. So the idea here is that Google doesn't necessarily have a monopoly on app stores. Google has a monopoly on Android smartphones, right, they have
this ownership over the smartphones. They're paying, like le I said, Google to promote Google Play over a Samsung app store, right, They're pushing users towards the Google Play Store, right. So that's really the fundamental issue here. And in terms of
how things are going to change. Google, they're probably going to have to allow third party billing platforms globally or at least in the US because of this lawsuit, and in Europe because of the Digital Markets Act in the European Union, they're going to have to stop those side deals. So you're going to see a lot more flattening and potentially more third party app Store is getting traction on
Android and on the Apple side. Outside of the US in the European Union, you're likely to see the same thing kickoff in March.
Well, we're going to wait for the new year, but for now it looks as though the businesses are going to have to realign somewhat. Bluem Meg's Mark Gumm and great breakdown there, Len Island. As always, we thank you so much for the expertise.
Okay, time for talking text so us like Sam Altman is back on the conference circuit in touting AIS benefits to humanity. In his first public appearance since Altman regained control of Open AI, the CEO appeared at a forum hosted by Operation Hope to discuss AI's advances. He announced that he and John Hope Bryant, the founder of the Hope Organization will co chair a new AI ethics council
based out of Atlanta. Plus, the world's most valuable chip maker, in Vidia, has become one of the leading investors in
AI companies. That's according to estimates by Dealram. The chip maker participated in thirty five deals this year, almost six times more than last year, making in Vidia the most active large scale investor in AI in what was a banner year for deal making in the sector and speaking of in video, US Commerce Secretary Gina Rimondo says the US is looking into the specifics of three new AI
accelerators that the company is developing for China. The announcement comes after vowing earlier this month to restrict any new chips that give that country AI capabilities.
Caroline and that's stick on that one with the Commerce Secretary of Momundo. So just warning the US efforts to build out the domestic semiconductor industry could be delayed by years if companies are required to go through standard environmental reviews. Joining US now as someone who knows the space very well, Ben Nicklish is the CEO of Element Solutions, which produces chemicals in almost every EV but also in smartphones. Computers and develop the next generation chemicals that are going to
enable tech advancements. And then to that end, how much is there a local domestic supply chain issue from an environmental.
Perspective as well.
Yeah, so there's been a significant ramp and investment in semiconductor capability in North America, but it's a muscle that we haven't flexed in a long time, and so we are bumping. We are seeing the supply chain bump into some issues getting capacity online, but we're confident that it will come online and there's a real need and capital behind it.
There's just an absolute obsession with GPUs h one hundred AMD's out of three under decks, less discussion about the infinite list of other chips and the rule materials needed to support that infrastructure build out. What is life like for you?
You threw the.
Chaos of twenty twenty twenty twenty one, where there was a real chip crunch industry wide.
Yeah, so the semiconductor industry has been through real volatility in the past several years. There weren't enough chips and then there was a big stockpile and so demand softened and capacity additions were slowed down. It's been a roller coaster. We're fortunate to see demand recovering, semiconductor fab utilization increasing, and our business is very well poised to benefit from that.
From an element.
Solutions perspective, we sell very small quantities of critical materials process chemistries that are used in the fabrication of semiconductors and printed circuit boards and the assembly of electronics hardware. Fortunately for us, we have ample capacity to meet the increasing demand that we expect next year and for many years.
And trip you touch so many end markets smartphones, electric vehicles, Are you so far kind of upstream that you don't have the sensitivity to pressures on the end market or are you recognizing some pain in the consumer?
So our business is unit driven, right, and we've been living through a very significant draw down, one of the largest drawdowns in the smartphone market in its history. Similarly in the semiconductor market, the automotive market was soft for a period back a few years ago. We're starting to
see that recover. What's great for our business is that we're driven not just by units, but content per unit, and as cars become computers, as computing power proliferates, and as the technical requirements associated with that computing power become more challenging. That's a gain for us in terms of our volume and value in each unit and the margin opportunity associated with it.
How much of a straight line is that inevitable move towards evs? For example, we would just had head of bouchet On of course, from the White House Council of Economic Advisors, and we were putting to her like some of the concerns surrounding the fact that the Ford lightning, for example, the F one fifty has been cut back, the twenty twenty four production has been cut.
Back and indeed in half. Is it that we will be.
Bumpy in the road towards the shift toward EV's.
What is it that you see as a key blocker here?
Sure if you think back three years ago, the rate of penetration of electric vehicles to the global automotive fleet wouldn't would have paled in comparison to what we've actually seen. Right, So automotive electrification has accelerated relative to prior expectations, and surely there will be bumps in the road as large companies grapple with changing supply chains.
But the trend is there, you know.
It's not a straight line.
There's volatility around that line, but the trend is very positive. And for Element, you know, we have really differentiated capabilities that are enabling the high performance electric vehicles you see on the road today, and we get about one have to two times the value an electric vehicle versus a comparable internal combustion car. So we're excited by that increasing penetration and we see a lot of opportunity associated with.
It, the opportunity being I'm sure market capitalization boosting.
How are you seeing your investor base change.
Ben, Our investor base is solid, sturdy, and very compelled by the opportunities we have in front of this company and the way we've been deploying capital and support of it. We are seeing more energy and attention towards our company from electrification, from innovation in high end electronics. We talked about AI or you were talking about AI earlier. In the proliferation of computing power to the edge of the network, those technical challenges are ripe for us to benefit from and enable.
Bank the excitation development solutions, goods CAT shop.
Of course, AI has been all we've been talking about for twenty twenty three. Back in twenty twenty two, it was all about crypto and it was still kind of all talking around the holiday table, as it seems to have been a bit on a run at least bitcoin or want to dig into that with Kristin Smith, CEO of Lockchain Association, because really all eyes have been on the price of bitcoin, but also and also a lot of old coins as well. Exuberant seems to have been
cautiously creeping back. Whether or not that's fundamentally driven on the Federal Reserve and inflation, but actually idiosyncratic views that we might have more institutional interest from spot bitcoin ETF.
Is that really what's dictating trade for you?
I think there's a combination of factors. I think obviously the Bitcoin ETF, there's a tremendous amount of excitement around that. You know, as you recall a couple of months ago, Gray Scale had a huge victory in the court that is basically more or less forcing the SEC to consider these applications more seriously. The next big sort of deadline for when the SEC might make some move around that is in early January, though it really could happen anytime.
But we're hearing that a lot of different applicants are having very productive conversations with the SEC, and so there is a lot of hope and optimism that we'll get something like that done. I do think though, also that you know, as you were saying, twenty twenty three was not the great year for crypto, and twenty twenty three is almost over. I think there is this real sense that you know that the bad actors within the crypto industry have been weeded out and what's left is really
the focus on what the technology can do. And so we're seeing a lot of optimism not just around bitcoin from institutional investors, but sort of returning to the technology of crypto, what it can do and how it can improve not just finance, but you know, the way that we interact on the Internet. So very excited for twenty twenty four.
We do end up rather than talking about blockchain and the underlying technology, we talk a lot about the trading of the assets, and just to go back to bitcoin in and of itself a sport atf you're having discussions.
With members of your association.
Is just how quickly that can actually be enacted. Say the SEC goes go for it, You're allowed how many days, weeks, months is it until you can actually start.
Yeah, I think that's a little bit unclear. I think a lot of it is actually going to depend on the SEC and how quickly they move. I know that most of the applicants can turn these around pretty quickly. They have the you know, the infrastructure in place to do so it's really getting the sign off, and so I do think that is going to be something to look for, you know, hopefully when the SEC makes this announcement.
The fourth Republican presidential debate they talked about crypto. Thought that was interesting. Yes, twenty twenty four is ahead. It seems like if twenty twenty three the bad actors have been weeded out, twenty twenty four the congressional legislatory actors might come in and do something for your industry. Yeah.
No, absolutely.
I think the politics around crypto are shifting more in favor of the technology. As you mentioned, we have presidential candidates that actually had a debate in New Hampshire on this issue just last night, but it also came up in the Republican debate with a question with for bag
Gramaswami and Montsantis. Also seeing congressional candidates include crypto positions in their policy platforms, and I think with the next election, we're going to see more candidates who are elected to Congress who have a better understanding of this technology and why it's important for the United States to be competitive with this and so I think as we get closer to the election, I think the tide is going to turn. Certainly doesn't mean we don't have those in Congress right
now that are not excited about crypto. That is natural to have, you know, folks on both sides of the issue. But I think increasingly the trend is in favor of the technology and the community and the ecosystem, and so I think twenty twenty four is really going to be sort of a turnaround year for the crypto industry and we're very excited about that.
Kristen, does the Blockchain Association have a scenario for each potential outcome? So if Biden is or is not re elected, or there is a new administration in the White House, do you see different avenues or paths forward for your industry?
Yeah, Well, I think there are are a couple of
key factors. I mean, a lot of personnel is policy, and so the people who are appointed are nominated, I should say, and then confirmed by the Senate to run the independent agencies like the SEC and the CFTC have an incredibly important role to play, and so I think, you know, whether it's Biden or somebody else, you know, Gary Gunsler's not going to be at the SEC forever, and so we will see some changes at some point, and so figuring out who those people are going to
be is incredibly important. But you know, we're also looking at Congress. I think, you know, if the Senate flips, that could have a huge impact. If the House flips, that could have a huge impact. So yeah, we do a lot of scenario planning. But I think the most important thing that we're focused on right now with the Blockchain Association is really getting the education across to policy makers,
Like this is an incredibly complex space. It's not something that you can talk about in one conversation and have everybody understand what the technology can do and what the
issues are. And so, you know, regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats are in control of the White House or Congress, I think there's a pathway forward to having you know, sort of reasonable, successful policy, and the core the key to that is having the right the right kind of education and that that's where we're doing a lot of our focus in twenty Wow.
How hard is that education made when one of the most powerful executives and suddenly in banking, Jamie Diamonds, saysage shut it down if he was in power when it comes to bitcoin.
Yeah, you know, it's it's it's interesting to see Jamie diamond on the same side as Elizabeth Warren. I mean, Elizabeth Warren is supposed to be against the big banks, and it's very clear they're in cahoots. So I think the fact that he said that is is uh, raised his eyebrows among you know, certain folks that don't know a lot about this space, because it seems sort of counterintuitive to have those two that are on the same
side on this front. And so you know, I think I think it actually is a conversation starter and allows us to come in and talk about this because you know, half of it is you know, getting the attention, uh, you know of the policy makers, and this is certainly an opportunity for that.
Certainly caused a few headlines that one Blockchain Association CEO Chris the Smith always great tab you on to reflect on the industry all right.
Coming up on the program, there's a new satellite in town, well in space that can track national threats in orbit. We're going to talk with Evan Rodgers, CEO of the startup True Anomaly that's up next. This is Bloomberg Technology.
Time now for our VC roundup.
General Atlantic, the investment firm whose bets have included Facebook, now Meta, Airbnb, where it's confidentially filed for an IPO itself. According to sources, the firm is considering listening as soon as next year, depending on those market conditions. Meanwhile, Changshin Memory Technologies is delaying its own IPO and when instead consider raising funds privately at about a nineteen and a half billion dollar valuation. So the latest Chinese company to
call of a debut because of volatile market conditions. Meanwhile, Essential Ai it's an ay I start up founded by two authors of a seminal research paper over at Google. It's raised fifty six and a half million dollars in new funding led by March Capital. The company will use AI for corporate functions like data analysis and automating pretty monotonous tasks.
Ed, all right, let's set out space True Anomaly a US startup designing military and intelligence space reconnaissance systems raised one hundred million dollars from investors to ramp up its output of a satellite that can track national threats in orbit. Right Ventures led the series be round, with participation from Eclipse Ventures, ACME Capital, and Menlo Ventures joining us. Now delighted,
says true Anomally CEO and co founder Evan Rodgers. Let's start with Jackal, the AOV, but the system more broadly explained the technology to.
Us, Yeah, thank you, ed. So, Jackal is what we call on our economous orbital vehicle designed to fly in close proximity safely to other satellites as its own onboard propulsion capability. That's a chemical system and is equipped with five different cameras that allow us to maneuver safely and image other satellites at a high resolution pretty much in any orbital lighting conditions, whether it's an eclipse or whether
it's fully lit by the sun. It's designed at a cost point that allows these systems to be proliferated at a scale that's so far been unachievable by the defense industrial base that's been supporting the Space Force and the intelligence community to date, So.
If I'm the US government or I'm Space Force, how do I get access to JACK or how do I use it? And what are the threats in orbit that I'm trying to gather data on?
Well, the Space Force is thinking about transacting with the private sector in a variety of ways. We ultimately want to transact with the DoD in a way that allows us to align incentive so the true nominally can assume some of the technical risk that allows us to target margins that are interesting to particularly defense investors for future rounds.
The Space Force hasn't made it very very clear what they intend to transact on a typical firm fixed price contractor or delivering the satellite for commercial operations or for government operations. The Space Force is working on a strategy to date to think through that, and we hope to be part of the conversation there.
One partnership you do have is you're going to ride on SpaceX at some point next year on your first mission. What's that experience like working with SpaceX and the ride share context to get out to orbit.
SpaceX has been an absolutely fantastic partner. You know, the reality is that SpaceX has provided launch at a cost where companies like trinomily can get ready access to space at a price point that doesn't break the bank. Ten years ago, a company like trinomially couldn't exist because an ecosystem of capabilities and infrastructure and subsystems didn't exist. For ture only to have access to a supply chain that really has been matured by low cost launch.
We're working with SpaceX and indeed well the US government.
What is the US government as an institution like to deal with.
That's a great question, Caroline. It's a complicated relationship. The DoD really has responded very positively to what Tronomi is building. This company was founded by four co founders that spent ten years each in the United States Space Force and
the Air Force Space as space operations officers. We saw the transition of the DoD thinking about the space domain as a peacetime domain to thinking about it as a war fighting domain, and what we recognized is that that required a new defense industrial partner explicitly focused and purpose built for thinking about protecting the infrastructure that is in space that we've spent hundreds of billions of dollars as the United States and allies fielding and that really is
the backbone of global commerce and intelligence. So they've responded very positively, and at the end of the day, it's incumbent on turronomily to demonstrate that we can actually build and fly safely the systems that we have designed.
And so, really this unnerving future that you paint of war in space is that what it ends up looking like is a protection of one's assets out there, rather than it becoming some ultimate sort of war zone that immediately makes one kind of go to Hollywood in one's mind's eye at least.
Yeah, science fiction is sort of a complicated set of imaginaries around this and isn't always useful. The truth is that our adversaries have spent the last twenty years building an arsenal of counterspace weapons designed to target and destroy satellites, and that puts the United States and its allies ability
to project power globally significantly at risk. And these weapons are really conventional weapons, everything from missiles that are designed to be launched from the surface of the Earth to satellites that are designed to attack other satellites. Nobody wants a conflict that extends into space. If we have to fight that conflict. It needs to be done in a way that ultimately doesn't generate debreathe that prevents the access
to space for future generations. So we can't the words have a pyrrhic victory what General Saltzman, who's the chief of Space Operations, calls a pyrig victory. The ideal outcome is to terrence where we have an infrastructure in the space domain, the ability to gather information about what our adversaries are doing, to hold them accountable, so that we can hold them account on the public stage, understand the next creation of systems that need to be built, and ultimately deter evan.
This was a very oversubscribed round one hundred million dollar Series B. I know you're yet to reach unicorn status, but what we use the cash for? How do you grow this year?
And we're really focused on delivering against the contracts that we've signed. To date, we've had pretty exceptional revenue and orders traction. We have some really exciting announcements that will come out in the next couple of months. Around that, I'm focused on investing in the team and delivering the product and scaling production.
A right true.
Normally CEO and CO founder Evan Rogers call sign Jolly, I'm told from his time in the Space Force. Thank you for your time here on bloom bed technology.
Let's go back to talking space and because missions are always physically taxed for astronauts, but those months long trips away from friends, from family, they can also take a really heavy emotional and mental toll on one's well being. That's why hgc VIVE and its partners has sent the first virtual reality headset for mental health usage to the International Space Station. The headset is currently being used by
Danish astronaut Andreas Genson. Here to tell us a little bit more about bridging the gap between the science and mental health is Dan O'Brien. He's ahualc VIVE President of the Americas. And Dan, what is complex? What is difficult about sending such equipment to space?
Well, it's actually very challenging. One we use gravity for pretty much all of our technology on the ground and in space, we actually had to account for zero gravity and actually have a point of reference so that we don't have things like drifting away inside of a space station. So just the technological achievement to actually send something into
space like this was pretty amazing. But it's also again just like you said, on the mental health side, the rigors of space is actually pretty isolating, very distracting, and it's very challenging for the astronauts. They're dealing with stress in minutes, you know, of what we deal with kind of in hours or weeks or years. So it's a
very high stress environment. So we want to actually put this product up there so that we could measure how we can make it a more efficient and productive environment for our astronauts.
Dan, I've spent many more hours this year using virtual mixed augmented reality with my feet firmly planted on the ground and Earth. I'm sure you have as well. Yes, all their differences from the experience the astronauts go through of a virtual reality environment in zero gravity, what if they relate to you.
I think you can look at they're doing a lot of video experiences as opposed to something that you might be just walking around and experiencing. But you can see here they actually do a lot of on ground training. So here the commander you know, and that video was actually doing all of the spacewalk experiences and training before
he went into that environment. So what we do on Earth is the ability to actually do a lot of training simulation with our healthcare applications, a lot of high stress training that we can use across a lot of verticals, not just for NASA, but for first responders, healthcare, defense,
and education. So we actually have a lot of ways that we can use it on Earth that we can't use it in the space station, but we can actually bring those astronauts a lot of experiences that will just bring them a lot of calm and serene that they can use inside of that environment.
Then what's the HTC getting out of sending a headset up to zero gravity environments?
Well, I think there's a lot for us to always learn. We're an innovation company that delves into hardware and software and we have been delivering new technology for the industry for many years. We were the first company to bring you a four GLT device or touchscreen device with our smartphones, and then we were the first company to bring you things like a full room scale walking around virtual environment. So for us, it's always about being the innovation leader
in every aspect. And what we're learning now in space and being able to actually have an object in space, it teaches us a lot about different environments that we can actually bring a virtual scenario to. But it's also about that training and simulation. We can actually do a lot in that space station with our headset and our technology.
Leader doesn't always mean winner.
And when we think of vr AR, certainly for this year, one goes to meta then one goes to at least the.
Announcement coming from Apple.
Sure, do you feel that market share will ultimately be yours by being a leader.
To Well, it's always good to be first, right, But at the same time, we are the reference designed for so many of those other companies. They usually follow us about a year behind us, whether it comes to wireless, connectivity and technology. But even looking at Apple, like their headset that they're going to announce is already behind and what is actually coming out when we look at Meadow,
they have a different, completely different business model. You know, they're looking at the users, the product, they're looking at, you know, selling ads. In the metaverse, we're a company that actually stands for technology, innovation, humanity. So what we're actually trying to accomplish with our brand and our technology is actually bringing products and solutions that will actually benefit humanity and our users, whether they're consumers or commercial users.
Cutting face a meta. We thank you for that.
Dan O'Brien really talking about the marketing landscape and indeed, more broadly, the landscape for ARVR is of course HDC Vibe President of the Americas. Then that does it for this addition of Bloomberg Technology. Has been a lot about space air as always fifty percent in orbit, fifty percent on a there's a lot of recap.
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