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This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow.
Live from New York and San Francisco. This is Bloomberg Technology coming up. President electrom and Elon Musk are in Washington today. We dissect the tech founder's extraordinary political role.
Plus we speak with a key investor in Swiggy about the latest landmark Indian IPO.
And SoftBank will be the first to build a supercomputer with chips using Nvidia's new Blackwell design.
President electromp is due to meat with President Biden. Let's get out to Washington, DC and Bloomberg. Katie Lyones, who joins us from right outside of the White House. A meeting there was telegraphed. We've known about it being on the schedule for a few days. But significant, Kayley, Yeah.
It is significant, Ed, mostly because this is not something we saw in twenty twenty. Donald Trump did not extend an invitation to Joe Biden to meet him at the White House like this, as is American tradition. But now Biden has done the same or rather, she was in differently as he invited Donald Trump to be here with him today for what is a typical part of the transition process. This administration, of course, has pledged that there will be a peaceful transition of power for President elect
Donald Trump. As for what they will talk about in this meeting, the White House has been pretty tight lid about that. The Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre yesterday and the Press briefing was asked about the subject matter and she said they prefer to keep private conversations private. As for some educated guesses as to what they could talk about.
In addition to of course domestic issues preserving American democratic institutions, there could be some foreign policy in this meeting as well, as we've seen in the past, like for example, in twenty sixteen when then President Barack Obama met with Donald Trump after his first election victory. So we'll wait to see if we get any characterization of this meeting from
either the current president or the President elect. But obviously it is going to be an important photo opportunity and assigned to the American people that the democratic process is working as usual.
Kayleie involved in toe Leta with House Republicans is el mask Can you just tell us a little bit about what you're hearing with a relationship that and who else Trump president elect Trump is assigning roles.
Well, certainly we got some big news pertaining to Elon Musk and another high profile Republican Vivek Ramaswami, who of course ran against Donald Trump during the primary campaign earlier this year. They will be heading up together the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE you might be able.
To call it.
Essentially given until July fourth, twenty twenty six, to help cut waste in government and deregulate things. Present a proposal essentially for how that can be done. I would just point out though that this of course is not a
direct government role. It may avoid some of the conflict of issues or conflict of interest issues that could arise if Elon Musk was given a more direct role in government by Donald Trump, but by and large they will not actually have the power to exercise these spending cuts. That is still going to be up to the appropriators, which is Congress. Is they set their budgets and appropriate
the money that is there to be spent accordingly. So while they can make recommendations, this isn't necessarily giving him direct clear power over the way in which money is spent or not in the federal government. All that said, it does clearly underscore the very close relationship that Donald Trump now has with the richest man in the.
World, Katie Lines outside the White House, we appreciate it. Let's bring more on this growing clout that Elon Musk has over in Washington. Bluembgs, Michael Shepherd is with us and to that point, the doge or doge however, we're going to be discussing it. Michael, just where do you think the rubber hits the road from the perspective of Washington.
Because we all know Elon Musk demon mode. We know how focus he can be on stripping out costs, how he can really focus in and hone a particular issue and manage to ultimately provide, whether it be cars or whether it be rockets. But what about efficiency cuts and two trillion dollars worth.
Well, it's a great question, Caroline, and it really cuts to the heart of whether this effort will actually produce the kind of results that Elon Musk expects and may be seeding with Donald Trump in expectation of his own that he would be able to replicate what he has done in the private sector here in the public sector. And the truth is, every expert who understands government spending and government performance sees a vast difference between how an
agency operates and how a corporate entity is run. In many ways, the differences are so historic when it comes to how employees are contracted, paid, what they're judged on, but also just simply what kind of service or good or product they're trying to provide.
Michael, I want to be clear with a Bloomberg Technology audience that the Department of Government Efficiency, per the details that President elect Trump team put out, is not a department. It acts outside of government, which is interesting, right. There are lots of questions about whether must continues the CEO of TESLA, But what is it that he's going to target from outside of government?
Well, again, there are so many questions about this initiative that still have to be answered, the structure of it, how many people will be working on this effort to see it through, who will write the recommendations, Will Musk be pulling in people and the Vekaramaswami be pulling in people from their own ventures and entities and maybe structuring some of these quests for efficiency in a way that
benefit the companies that they work at. For instance, Tesla and SpaceX are heavily regulated and overseen by agencies including NITZA and the FAA, And these are things that Elon Musk has complained about, and he has said, Look, if I want to get the MARS, I need the shackles of regulation removed.
But at the same time.
People out there in the countryside really do benefit from those regulations when it comes to environmental protections, when it comes to other things that maybe breaks misbehavior in the markets, for example. So some of what he is seeking in terms of efficiency could actually create harms for people who don't have the same degree of insulation from some of life's inconveniences that the world's richest man does enjoy.
Mike, it was said that Peter til reminded us to not take President electrom literally, but to take him seriously. Now do we take literally a cunt of at least two trillion dollars that Elon Musk said while out on the campaign stage, or is that more we take it seriously?
The direction of.
Travel, The direction of travel certainly is something to watch. But in terms of taking it seriously or literally, that is going to be a very difficult number to reach.
And here's why.
That is more than the government spends annually on operations. They simply can't find enough savings at all the agencies to be able to hit that number. You would have to start cutting into benefits that are considered sacred here, really Medicare, social Security, veterans aid, all of those things, and people out the voters who put Donald Trump in office would very quickly see the pain and feel the pain back home in their own lives. So it's more
a direction of travel, more notional target. And again that was something he said at Madison Square Garden. Now putting that onto paper and making it a goal and over how long too, I mean two trillion dollars, maybe over ten years might be something a little bit more achievable, depending on what they decided to.
Go after Bloomberg's Michael Shepard, thank you very much. Mike mentioned Knitzer the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This morning, that agency communicated a sixth recall via Tesla for the cyber truck, the six prequel they've done in the last twelve months.
A physical defect.
But again one of the agencies that one of Musk companies is subject to. The stock down one percent having opened significantly higher. Carro will keep an eye on it's important coming up what lies ahead for tech M and A. We speak with Sam Stovell of c RFRA what you got.
Let's have a look at other earnings.
Spotify decidedly higher, up more than nine percent, two and fifty two million paying subscribers, better than had been anticipated, six round and forty million monthly active users. And they've been cost cutting, stripping out people and it's proving itself in the margins. This is bloombog technology.
We're waiting a potential outcome or comments from the meeting between President Biden and President elect Donald Trump at the White House. You see the images there of the White House in Washington, DC, and we will bring that to you as soon as we have it. In the meantime, Caroline much more in the financial markets when it comes to tech.
When it comes to media stocks and M and A ed on again or off again, Direct TV intending to terminate its planned acquisition of Dish Network in ten days if bondholders don't agree to a dead exchange. Remember that's Echo Stars Dish TV bondholders we all turn our attention to. Meanwhile, Charter announced its planned to buy a Liberiting broadband in an all stock deal earlier today. There is so much focus post the election last week of what M and
A means. Let's dig into it, Sam Stovell, chief Investment stratechers at CFRA, Look, M and A is happening, and A potentially been put on ice. What do you see for the next administration in terms of allowing M and A to become well more fervent here in the United States.
Well, we certainly think that with the lifting of the regulations restrictions that that should be very beneficial to these companies involved in M and A, the asset managers and investment banks, et cetera. We recently raised prior to the election our outlook on KKR, But we also have strong investment recommendations on other companies like Black Rock, like Alliance Bernstein, et cetera. So our belief is that financials in general, but these type of companies in particular, should do well.
Let's hone in a little bit more on the technology trade, and ultimately we're seeing risk on perpetuate whether you're looking at crypto, whether you're looking at Tezza down on the day but up significantly since the election results.
Any areas of technology.
That you think haven't been in the eye of the storm post election, Well.
Obviously the eye of the storm really for tech is whether the mag seven is going to continue to be a leader, whether we are going to be seeing companies in the system software, the semiconductor area continue to lead the pack if they have, or whether we end up more with cybersecurity and other areas like that. So companies such as the geogroup, Core Civic, other companies in the defense area, especially if it has to do with security, we think will do fairly well.
Sam, you wrote in your latest research titled Waves and Tides that this was all wrapped up pretty quickly the political process. When you think about the technology investors' perspective, what's the risk of a surprise going forward? Do you have a high degree of conviction that you understand the world we're now operating in.
Well, we still have an overweight recommendation on tech. It is a group that shows the greatest growth potential in our opinion. In calendar years twenty four, twenty five, and twenty six, which is where most of our analysts are focusing their valuation attention. Certainly, near term tech looks a bit pricey. It's trading at a near sixty five percent
premium to its longer term forward pe. That compares also with the forty percent premium we see in the market itself, numbers that rival where we were just before the eight and a half percent pullback in July of this.
Year, Sam, do you need to be quickly in names like Tesla?
If Mosk is going to have a role in this government.
Well, we have a hold recommendation on Tesla, but I think, certainly knowing that he has not only the president alects Eir, but probably a spot in the guesthouse, that Tesla is something that is going to be in the news on a daily basis.
Sound stoveall calling it. We thank you as cfra ed. What have we've got coming up?
Yeah, we've got some news headlines coming up on the show. And first off, in Talking Tech in videos, Jensen Huang announces a huge partnership in Japan.
Listen to this.
I have a very big announcement to Mike.
Today.
We're announcing that we're partnering with SoftBank to bring and to build an AI infrastructure for Japan.
And in Video's AI summit in Tokyo, Quang unveiled new plans for SoftBank's AI supercomputer build out. They're set to usefuse new Blackwell chips and we're part of a larger effort to create an AI grid that runs across Japan. Plus Apple's readying a smart home push. According to sources, the tech giant is set to announce a new command center wall mounted display to control appliances, handle video, and
use AI to navigate apps. This is the company hopes to catch up with the likes of Alphabet and Amazon in the smart home space, and shares.
Of just Eat are soaring. The food delivery company announced it will.
Sell grub Hub to Mark Laws Wonder Group for an enterprise value of six hundred and fifty million dollars. Wonder will pay one hundred and forty two million dollars in cash and take on five hundred million dollars in Grubhub debt.
The deal is.
Expected to be completed during the first quarter of twenty twenty five.
CARA, of course, the all important meeting which is currently occurring between President and Electrump going back to the White House to meet with President Biden a historic moment.
Yeah, I mean this is unorthodox, but let's listen in to the comments that dis is tough.
And it's many cases not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today, and I appreciate very much a transition that's so small it'll be as smooth as it can get.
Very much appreciated that job you are, Thank you all.
President elect Donald Trump meeting with President Biden in the White House carry the key line around politics being tough, but President elect Trump appreciating a peaceful transition, and the written correspondence very early following the election result also talked about peaceful transition from both President elect Trump's camp and also that of President Biden, who has already spoken with Trump more than once in recent days.
The chaos of the political gaggle that currently groups itself, and for that historic moment, as you say, we really get to see how the sausage is made. From a media perspective, we also have an awful lot to do be discussing when it comes to artificial intelligence.
What we do day in, day out on the show.
Yeah, day in, day out, and is subject to change under this coming administration, but.
The struggle is real.
Open AI, Google and Anthropic, the key leading names are all facing roadblocks and seeing diminishing returns from their costly efforts to develop newer models. And these setbacks rights Bloomberg's Rachel Mets raised doubts about the heavy investment in AI and very feasibility of one day reaching so called artificial general intelligence. Bloomberg's Rachel Mets has been writing about this, and when we posted on social media that you were coming on, I was a bit surprised really by the
number of questions and reaction. But if you could distill what the single challenges between those leading names, what is it.
It sounds like bigger is not always better for the price, and data is increasingly becoming an issue having enough data, the right kind of data.
It's really interesting, Rachel, that we've had sort of Samalmon discuss this, that it's become this weird Moore's law within AI general to AI that just the more you bombard the data, the more you throw at it, the more sophisticated the large language models have become. But does it feel like we're hitting a point here and add to your point, do we need more synthetic data. Is it any clear clarity coming from Anthropic or open AI as to what the limitations are.
Yeah, I mean it sounds like there are some problems and there's also some solutions. Like this, This is not the end of the road RAI development, but what it does mean is that companies we should expect to see companies concentrating more on the kinds of things that they do later in the process of building these models, what's often known as post training, the things that they do to treat the models, fine tune them, get them ready to be released to the public. Open Ai released a
model called one that does what it calls reasoning. This is doing some compute near the end of the process. I guess you would say. It takes in a prom from a user and then it does a bunch of calculations before it gives the result. So I would expect to see more of that. Sam Altman also recently talking in on Reddit about agents. We also know that Anthropic
is an an agent. There's been some reporting that Google is working on a similar kind of thing, So I would expect that we see people working a lot more on later on in the process here.
Maybe patients is what we're all going to have to have a little bit more of Rachel mess We appreciate it, Thank you so much. Meanwhile, sticking with large language models and actually language AI because the company deep L is releasing a pair of new features that are meant to help break down language barriers. One feature provides real time translated captions during virtual meetings. The other is targeted on one on one conversations happening in different languages as well.
Here with more deep L CEO and founder Jerk Kurtilowski.
Now, Jerk, just talk us through what these two.
Products are that you're releasing and how different they are from what's already on the market.
Yes, hi, Caroline.
So deepel has been since twenty seventeen facilitating businesses to communicate much better with text translation. So think about the email that you want to send to a customer on the other side of the ocean, or think about document that you've just received which is in Japanese, and we've been helping our customers with that. And the next logical kind of frontier for us has been spoken language.
Think of all of those.
Meetings that you might be in where there is a person who doesn't understand English, and how can they follow, how can they be included that in that conversation. This is something that we're really focusing on right now. The second challenge out there, we have people who are kind of coming in into retail stores, coming maybe to a healthcare provider, and they have to they have to participate in a conversation in a language that they potentially do
not know. Technology can solve that, and with the quality that we have that that improves it quite a lot.
Yeah, in the context of the one on one conversation and translation, I'm so interested in that. You know, when I was at Medacan act frankly, I've seen it already done, but the form factor was the ray band, Meta smart glasses. Right, So Zuckerberg's on stage, he speaks in English that the person stood in front of him answered in Spanish, etc. Again, going kind of back to the carriage question, how is yours any different to what's been demonstrated already.
Yeah, I think what we are doing here is we're applying the quality of textual translation that you bel is known in the market for, bringing in the security functionalities that we have. We are providing our services to a broad range of industries which are highly regulated, be it financial or legal, and bringing that now to the realm of voice translation.
So security is your edge.
Perhaps already the market that you own with certain clients is already your edge. Where next and how ultimately difficult is this, Yrek. We can all suddenly be like, oh, well, translation, and why do I am I not getting better and quicker and voice translation rather than it just written. But how difficult is this to train your latest large language models on the variety of languages out there.
Spoken language is so much inherently more complicated than written language. It's just the sentences are much more unclear. There's like even finding out where the comma where the full stop is in a spoken sentence, it's it's It's much more complicated, and therefore the technology still has to develop over the next years to get to a level where we'll be fully confident in having those conversations. But already now for our customers this is bringing a lot of value in their daily lives.
Deep l CEO and founder Yarak Kutilowski, thank you very much. I mean, look at how zoom change meetings around the world. Can you imagine simultaneous AI translation.
Welcome back to Blue Bag Technology. I'm Caroline Hide in New York.
Alamed Ludlow in San Francisco. President Elect Trump has met with President Biden.
Also in Washington today is Ela Musk and we want to discuss his role in politics. We understand he's going to be meeting with House Republicans with Donald Trump a little bit later the President elect.
Let's bring in lumoxt Tom Jiles.
I mean, I jokingly say that we almost anticipated Leland Must to be sat next to Donald Trump in that meeting with Biden. He has literally been by his side. And he's not getting a formal role in the government from a cabinet perspective, but he is taking a leadership role from a cost cutting perspective.
He is all over the place, he's on calls with world leaders. And yes, he's going to head the Department of Government Efficiency, whatever that means. And if you could make it a cabinet level, why not whatever level it is, whatever they're going to call it, it's really going to be about coming in and shaking things up and really disrupting government agencies that he sees that they together see. Don't forget vivek Ramaswami will be part of this in consultation, presumably with the President.
Where can we find efficiency?
Now, on one level, there's probably a lot of fat you can cut. On the other hand, taking the ax to a government agency is nothing like what it's like to cut jobs in the private sector, like he's done at Tesla, like he's done at X.
Yeah, I mean that is the easiest case study in terms of coming in and shaking it up Twitter, the company now known as X comparisons Tom in the actions he took in the days following that acquisition.
He came in and wielded an axe with so much force that the workforce was cut dramatically, to the point where they actually had to try to rehire some workers later. But the way they went about it was so dramatic, so comprehensive, and almost willy nilly taut, taking out entire sections. There was pr was eliminated, marketing, things like content.
Moderation were completely removed.
Wholesale they and in many cases the employees allege and they're alleging it.
In court, they weren't paid.
There was no sense of they weren't even given the disseverance that they're worth.
And the result has.
Been a company, as we've talked about before, that has lost tremendous value. Sure you can cut costs, Sure there were probably efficiencies, there was probably some bloat, but that company is a shadow of its former self. It is valued eighty percent less than it used to be, and it's become a very different business and one that's not operating well as a business.
Do you want to have that same impact on the federal government.
To We made clear earlier that the Department of Government Efficiency, per the release that was put out from the Trump camp, will.
Work outside of government.
But it is a big question whether this will be an advisory or formal role and where the musk can stay at the helm of Tesla.
And then some news out.
Today KNITS communicating a recall on cybertruck sick in the last twelve months, NITSA also being an agency that musk, I guess we'll look at explain it.
That's right.
There are problems with the cyber truck, and you have to ask the question, would they be encountering some of these same issues if you had somebody at in leadership who was dedicated to who knows the product, who cares about the product, and the way that Elon Musk deeply, deeply cares about the products that he says, he cares about what's happening at SpaceX. He cares about the quality of the cars and the vehicles that come out of Tesla.
That passion is really important, that mission, sending that mission, making it clear to all of your employees. Can you do that at multiple companies and working at the government at the same time. Right now, things seem to be
going well at some of these companies. Again not at X if you look at it from a business perspective, But at what point do Tesla's shareholders take a look at any problems that emerge and say, we need Trump, sorry, we need Elon back at the helm And what's he doing at the government getting on these calls with Zelenski. He should be running this business that we are shareholder, We are owners of.
Tom Giles breaking it down. Great to have him in New York. We thank you.
Now let's just talk about another election impact, this time on crypto, because boy, bitcoin just continues to rise today above ninety thousand at one point in excess of ninety three thousand.
It's just below that level at the moment.
Coelect Jovon putre is with US, founder and managing partner of Future Perfect Ventures and an early stage VC fund investing in decentralized technologies. You focus on crypto, you focus on AI, focus on blockchain technology. And the moment, I have a feeling you're very absorbed with the price points across decentralized finance. What do you make of whether the too much is priced in right now?
Well, after the atfs were approved earlier this year, we saw the price rise, we saw demand continue to grow for bitcoin, and then the Ethereum ETF but there was the election still looming, and then there's a lot of uncertainty on whether we would have a crypto friendly ad administration here in the US. The answer is a resounding yes, And so I think we're seeing all this pent up demand the fact that we continue to see it rise.
I mean, we've seen a little bit of profit taking, but overall, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, which is the base of a lot of these DeFi applications, They're all up significantly and continue to rise. So I think we're going to continue to see a lot of demand here.
I hate to say it, but doze up ten percent on the day, extraordinary rally the Department of Government Efficiency happens to spell out doge do you think that there's any real fundamental reason you should be in that particular project and protocol right now?
We personally don't hold any at Future Perfect Ventures. There's been an explosion of meme coins, people looking for speculation and assets. I mean, obviously dochecoin was kind of endorsed in some ways by Elon Musk and everything that Elon touches. As you know the previous segment mentioned is arising, so you know, we don't see fundamentals personally there, but I think there is obviously a momentum move and if your interested in mean coins, the certainly have the momentum right now.
Okayl like Jeman Puncher, a founder and managing partner of Future Perfect Ventures. Great to have you back on the program. Thank you very much. So coming up on the program Swiggy's big IPO debut in India. Next back a Process two billion dollars we speak a Process Group Chief Investment Officer irv Into. That's next. This is Bloomberg Technology.
Chinese internet giant Tencent reported revenue growth for the third quarter with its domestic gaming business, Real Bright spot.
Let's bring in Bloomberg's Henry Ren.
Interestingly, the ADRs traded here in the US are off by about six tens percent, so there with some worries about basically the consumer sentiment in China still Henry Yeah.
So there are certainly something good and bad for both the balls and the beers for this result. So we start from the more positive part, which is the domestic gaming business. That segment grew revenue by fourteen percent year over year during a quarter, and that's helped by some newly released games, including the Dungeon and Fighter mobile game,
which was released in the summer. Now, the company said that that will go through some consolidation period for that game going forward, but in the Lunar New Year period of next year they will push out to new content to drive more user engagement. The more worrying part, however, is about their fintech and payment business. So that part of business is hurt by a weaker MAC environment and weiker consumer spending.
It's not the news.
Actually last quarter the company has already said that the gross has been slowing down, but this quarter we're seeing further gross moderation and that part of business is growing just two percent year over year in terms of revenue, which is the slowest pace we've been seeing since the COVID lockdown days of twenty twenty two.
Bimbogs Henry ran out of London. Thank you very much that stick with tech. In Asia, Swiggybacker Process saw a two billion dollar gain from its investment in the Indian food delivery platform. This is Swiggy made its stock market
debut in India with a seventeen percent gain. For more Process Group, Chief Investment Observing too joins us in you know, it's a significant moment for you, clearly a good return on an investment, but a significant moment all the same for the markets and the technology sector in India.
Your reaction person, It's great to be with you in the audience here today. It is an important day, I would say, principally an important day and a milestone for the company. So we should applaud and celebrate the company's achievement to get to this step in the journey. And for us as a long term investor, we think about it. The topic very much is our long term one, right and we consider the potential here and when we think
about today, we talk about the magnificent seven. No one talks about their IPO evaluation, right, we want to be in the future ten years, hence twenty years, hence considering what the valuation Squeaky can be then and not just where it went public at. Today, So an important day, and yet I know we and the company are also focused on the future, which is promising.
Ivan we're talking about an Indian company listing in India and for our Bloombog technology audience watching here in North America or Europe, wherever it may be. Why was that an important step for a domestic name to look inward for its listing.
Well, I think you alluded to the topic in your first question. Right, the Indian markets are healthy, but there's nothing better than seeing a class of exceptional companies go
public to signify further health in a market. And while the strength of the Indian economy and the trajectory of growth is well understood, I think from a capital market standpoint, seeing successful companies list and trade well, today was a successful day, but we've all seen the proof of we in putting we hope they will continue to trade well over time. That's also an important signifier of a market. And then accounting itself.
You hold winning bets for the long term. Ervin you hold Tencent. That is how we associate process in many ways, like it all Loathed is that you made an extraordinary early bet on Tencent and now it is the biggest giant in China. How do you keep on replicating these hits? Where are the exact areas? It seems to be a commerce with ten Cent, it's gaming and just the whole of China's focus on a consumer.
Where else do you repeat?
Well, it's not an easy task, and we dedicate a lot of effort to try and to find exceptional companies wherever they are outside of China as well. You say we are most well known for investment intents, which represents a large percentage of our map today, but our NAB is one hundred and fifty hundred and sixty billion and we have thirty five and change billion of other stuff which is important and growing, and we look to find those opportunities in growth markets around the world.
In India like Swiggy.
In Brazil we have a company called Ifood.
In Europe we have.
A classified platform called OLX, and so we seek growth in exceptional founders and companies wherever they are. You're right, it's our goal to try to find the next tensent. It's not easy, but we think we're making progress.
Okay, let's hone in on the exact areas you want to be aiming and putting money to work, because you have now of course e commerce and fast delivery with Swiggy.
Is it about fintech?
Is it about areas of growth in the emerging markets that you cannot get that sort of out side return here in the United States.
Well, I'd say you name a couple of them, right, Fintech is very important to us, so to food delivery.
As a sector.
Now we think about food delivery is broader than just food.
It's a local commerce play. If you've talked to Tony.
At door Dash and Dara at uber or long Seeing at Maitland, they'd say the same thing. So don't just take my word for it. But it's a way of taking a high frequency, high engagement offering, which is food.
Everyone needs food, and.
Broadening that to a whole suite of services and offerings that people also need. So, yes, food, what we think about is local commerce, yes, fintech and beyond. I think marketplaces generally we still believe have a lot of growth in them. We will look to find opportunities which can connect to our broader ecosystem of businesses. We have over one hundred positions to both enhance our ecosystem and hopefully our ecosystem can enhance them as well.
Evan has the risk profile of some of those technology names and geography. Geography is like India and China changed following the outcome of the US election, I.
Think it's too early to tell.
I mean, there's a lot of speculation about where the administration will go. When we've seen some of the cabinet positions start to fill at least the names start to be floated, and we saw the announcement of course related to Musket Rahmaswami overnight. So it's too early to tell whether that will have an effect on where markets go and the risk profile of those markets.
All we can control.
All we're focused on is ensuring that we do the best job we can to find those exceptional companies and ensure that the performance under our watches as strong as it can be, and.
Find those extraordinary companies at the right valuation. Evn, what sort of valuations you're seeing when you're first getting into these businesses.
It as lofty, is it? Here's the US if it's AI related.
Yeah, So it's a very rich topic for a discussion, because yes, the US is expensive, not just in the public domain, but of course in the private domain, particularly with respect to a opportunities. We're looking at them, we're monitoring closely, and at the same time we think there's better risk reward outside of the US. Think Latin, think Europe,
think India. Of course, yes, valuations are also more elevated in India, but we think the risk of war in some of these other markets is more promising, which is why, as a matter of relative effort and attention, we're spending more time there.
Come back when the next IPO is up, when the next investment is made of into a process. We thank you for joining us. Now turning our attention to Europe for a moment, because there's IPO news there as well. We just filed Klana for an IPO in the United States, though the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering has not yet been determined. The move ends months to speculation that the European company was readying a stock market listing.
Ed Okay, coming up on the program.
Could brain implants help restore site for the blind?
We'll discuss next. This has been bag.
Restoring site for the blind. It's a science fiction like ambition, but a growing number of tech style clubs are now plowing resources into that new field. Bloomberg Sera McBride is here and has been writing about it. I mean, when we think about this sort of let's call them brain implant companies, we've discussed all kinds of use cases, largely related to movement in the human body.
Now, Site, what prompts you to write about that?
Well, just what you said.
There's been so much focus on movement, but Elon Muskin particular keeps talking about all the other uses these implants will have, and some of them are very remote telepathy and so on. But Site did seem like a next step where a number of companies were working and achievable.
Some of them have made some really exciting breakthroughs. And there's some thought that working with the visual cortex it's going to take a few years, but there have been some experiments with it for twenty years, and the more electrodes you put in your visual cortex. Perhaps the better you can help people see.
So let's talk about those strategies.
Very often we get all consumed with Neuralink, but there are a breadth of other companies that you've highlighted in your story, but also a breadth of strategies.
Can you just talk us through some of the most promising.
Sure.
So.
One of the most promising strategies UH is actually not to put electrodes in the brain, to start by putting them on the retina, and that's been happening for some time,
in particular for conditions like macular degeneration. One company Science, which is run by the former president of Neuralink who left the company a few years ago, just unveiled some quite promising UH data based on an experiment with a few dozen people who had implants in their retina and were able to focus on letters and see much larger letters and read in a way in many cases that
wasn't possible before. Other companies are working on techniques that might help people who are completely blind, and for a lay person who can see reasonably well. Some of these breakthroughs seem very kind of baby steps. It's just getting people to be able to see flashes of light, for example, rather than fully formed images. But these technologies just kind of take it one step at a time, and they're promising.
Bloomberg Sarah McBride with a must read out on Bloomberg today.
Thank you very much, Caro.
I want to quickly go to shares of AMD, the chip maker, down two percent. News in the last hour or so that AMD is cutting about four percent of its workforce, largely focused on cuts in sales and marketing positions. Interesting a company that has around twenty six thousand staff, so four percent, what about headcount reduction of a one thousand.
But it's tough out there in the market for AI accelerators, this deep push into data centers and now them trimming in some areas, as I said, in sales and in marketing.
Keep and I on AMD as we wrap up this show. That is the end of the addition of Bloomberg technology from the White House from Washington across to some of the latest developments in brain technology.
Extraordinary show.
Yeah, an important image of President elect Trump sat next to President Biden in the White House.
Brief comments. But as we've.
Reported, our sources say Elon Musk is also in DC and may likely meet with House Republicans alongside President elect Trump. Wow, there's a lot to recap therefore, so you must check out the Bloomberg Technology podcast and you know exactly where to find it on Apples, Spotify, iHeart, and all the Bloomberg platforms. Thank you, Team New York. Thank you to everyone here in San Francisco. Much more to come this week on Bloomberg Technology. Yeah.
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