Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. Bloomberg Tech is alive from coast to coast with Caroline Hyde in New York and Eva low In sent Francesco.
This is Bloomberg Tech coming up.
Open AI releases a slew of policy recommendations to help navigate the AI era. We'll discuss its chief Global Affairs Officer, Chris Lahine later this hour.
Plus Oracle names a new CFO to help the company navigate massive data center development plans and a cash crunch.
And NASA's artemist too, is set for the first lunar flyby with astronauts on board in more than fifty years.
We'll discuss what to expect.
And all of this amid the context of global instability, concerns about the Middle East conflict, and indeed a market that's on edge, hopeful that cespig could be up on us, but still we're seeing the latest rebuttals.
Coming from Iran.
We're still holding onto games that four ten percent on the Nasdaq one hundred. I'm looking at Bitcoin holding above that level of two almost three percent higher but just sub the seventy thousand dollars. But there is optimism in the market is it right to be had at the.
Moment ed the headlines on the term of this morning is about Iran rejecting a ceasefire and wanting a permanent end to the war in Iran. That's bringing bloembost Tyler Kendo out of Washington, DC.
That's where we're at.
You know, there is a back and forth between which each side wants from the President's perspective and from the United States of America's perspective.
What is the latest, Tyler.
Hey And Well, at this point, it's not necessarily surprising that we heard from Irani and state media within the last thirty minutes saying that Iran has rejected a ceasefire proposal, because earlier this morning, an Iranian official came out and said that quote, no rational person would agree to cease fire, accusing a short term agreement of being in favor of
the US to give the US time to regroup. But this is really raising questions as we get closer to President Trump's now extended deadline of tomorrow at eight pm Eastern for Iran to make a deal amid US threats to hit Iranian civilian infrastructure. So we'll have to watch
where this goes from here. President Trump is set to brief reporters at one pm Eastern, where we may be able to get some more of our questions answered, because Axios is now reporting that Iran has instead submitted a ten point plan to the US, which US officials are calling maximalist in their demands. We don't have the details quite yet on this proposal, but we know previously Iran has demanded, for example, to have sovereignty over the Strait of her moves, and that appears to still be the
biggest sticking point. We've heard from Iranian state media over the weekend saying that Iran needs to have payments for war damages that they are seeking to be repaid through tolls charged on ships going through the Strait.
There has been a little bit.
Of progress, as you all know, Bloomberg News crunch the data and are now saying that we have seen the highest amount of traffic through the Strait at this weekend, but it is still falling well below those levels that we saw before the war began.
The most Tyler Kendall with what you need to know in terms of geopolitics, we thank you. Look as tensions in the Middle East remain elevated to say the least. Investors are weighing what it means for the markets, full risk, apetite and the outlook of big tech.
For us on this.
Show, Jed Elbertson person to talk to about it. Urgent Capital Management joins us. Now, you help manage the large cap equity fund over there, and it's a tough time for anyone trying to navigate these markets. When will big tech manage to go back on the upside. We had a strong week last week or will that last?
Yeah?
I think that's probably the biggest question facing the market today heading into earning season here in two weeks. I think investors in big tech, the big CAPEX spenders, especially Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Google, investors want more confidence that those humongous CAPEX spending plans are going to pay off in higher revenue and higher profits. And there are initial signs of that, but not enough to get investors over the hump. And so this is
a really big earning season for them. They announced last quarter, you know, humongous increases sixty seventy eighty percent increases in capex for twenty twenty six. Investors want to see positive revenue estimate revisions you know, to follow that, and I think AWS and Google's GCP in particular are going to show us that in the first quarter, with more to
come later in the year. And then Microsoft is more of a mixed picture because over the last year they've kind of reprioritized their own model development within the company after their Opening Eye agreement was renegotiated. So a little bit of a messy picture with Microsoft. But I think we're going to see clear signs of acceleration for AWS and.
GCP, and that will be the catalyst enough to put the geopolitical acts to the sidelines for big fund managers, you think.
I think it has the potential to be. Investors have been disappointed in Amazon and Google and Microsoft over the last year because their free cash flow estimates have been declining because of those really big catbacks increases. I think that trend is going to reverse here as twenty twenty six progresses, and I hope that the first quarter is kind of the first tangible side of.
That jed state of play is then, as that one hundred down more than four percent, modestly underperforming the S and P five hundred chip stocks up eleven percent year today, in part because of memory probably earlier in the year.
What I'm trying to get a.
Sense of is how micro focused investors in the technology sector are on the war in Iran, where if they were already looking past it anyway at other structural and spending issues that you just outlined in part with the hyperscalers.
Yeah, I think prior to the war breaking out, tech was underperforming meaningfully. From the start of the year to the start of the war. Since the war broke out, you know, the last you know, twenty five trading days or so, tech has performed better relative to other sectors. So you know, I interpret that as the market being more concerned with AI and it's really fast, you know, adoption within our economy and the positives and negatives there more so than the impact of war.
I have to ask you about some of the IPOs waiting in the wings. There was a lot over the weekend on the social media is about the relative performance of some public names might be indicative of investors getting themselves ready for a SpaceX IPO in June. We reported just last week that the S one file confidentially it's going to be June. Is that something that actually happens in markets where people are like, I'd better have some cash ready for this.
Yeah, yeah, I think you know.
Perhaps the most fascinating tech question in twenty twenty six is where's the money going to come from for the SpaceX, Anthropic and Open AI IPOs. And I think an obvious first thought is the rest of publicly traded tech. Do investors pre trade that to the extent you're suggesting, you know, trade's happening in March and April for an IPO that will come in June and then perhaps the fourth quarter in the case of Anthropic.
And I'm not suggesting, Jed, I'm asking. I've got no idea because I don't participate in the market, So that's why I want to ask you.
Yeah, yeah, I doubt it. Personally, We're not doing that at Argent Capital. We will consider Anthropic and an Open AI and SpaceX, but we wouldn't pre trade it by a couple months and get that cash lined up with that, you know, duration, that's not necessary for us.
What's so interesting is they are, yes, a space focused company, and I know you have exposure to space and aerospace more poorly in the fund. But we've got through the biggest players in AI all coming to the market at the same time.
Now.
Interestingly, Jamie Diamond's been putting his very long pen to paper or typing away for his annual letter to investors, and today he did talk about AI in many ways, and I want to focus in on the investment side because he's saying it's not a speculative bubble. But at the moment, you can't see who the winners and the losers are actually going to be in AI related industry.
Do you think that's right?
Can you not discern who the winners are yet?
Yeah?
I think those comments stuck out to me and really spoke to me. I think that he gave a pretty accurate description of what's happening in tech today. I think that they're you know, in any investing environment, there are certain companies that fit in the too hard bucket for investors. There are too many unanswered questions, there's too much uncertainty. Investors decide I'd rather be on the sideline. I don't
want to invest in this right now. Today it feels like that too hard bucket is really large, much bigger than normal, And of course software is in the two hard bucket. I think insurance brokers are in the two hard bucket, and a whole bunch of other sectors and industries or investors are not sure if AI is going to be a net positive for these businesses and industries or if it will be a net negative. And so we've seen valuations compressed significantly for software most notably, but
many other industries and sectors too. So his comments today just, you know, I think it was a good kind of description of ware markets to today. That too hard bucket is really big. His comments indicate, you know, he sees a lot of companies in that too hard bucket, and you know, me, as an investor, my response to that is, I think that.
Smells like opportunity in many ways.
I think investors are starting to pick through the rubble as it relates to software in particular, and I think there's a lot more of that to come in the future. There are software companies whose competitive position will erode because of AI and the reduced cost of software development, But I think there are other software companies that are going to adopt AI integrated into their products, set improve the offerings for consumers, and grow and thrive.
Right Jed Elberate, Large and Capital Management, thank you very much now coming up the world face is an era of AI upheaval. But fear not, Open ai is out with a set of policy recommendations for people, real human people first will discuss that next.
This has been bog tech.
Open ai says it's working to quote ensure AI benefits everyone, and it's now rolling out policy recommendations to address the rapid social changes AI is driving, from jobs to regulation for more. Oplomerg's AI reporter Seth Figman, choices, now you're not a reporter, you're an editor, and you're help managing the team in many ways. Seth, I'm really interested in on the why now. This is a lot of proposals, conversation starters, the intertwining of public private partnerships.
But why are they're putting it out now?
Yeah, I mean, certainly the rhetoric from open ai and elsewhere is that we are moving very fast towards more advanced aisystems. Open ai specifically it's supposed to be working on a new model in the coming week, so it could partly be a way of getting ahead of that. Keep in mind that what they're saying here is still hypothetical. They're talking about a more advanced form I called super
intelligence outperform any person on Earth, like any task. We're in that there yet, But these proposals are just that they're trying to shift the discourse a little bit and trying to incentivize bigger ideas a new social contract, if you will. That they seem to liken loftily to the new deal.
So for a lot of open AI news over a long weekend in the United States, reshuffle in terms of leadership and manage to health related and one sort of strategic just update us as best you can.
Yeah, a lot of news right before the holiday weekend. You know, Fiji Cimo, who has really been sort of a fast growing influential figure in the organization, is stepping back for a short term medical leave. She was previously the CEO of Instacart and has been really instrumental in
a lot of their product and business initiatives. Brad Leikap, who we've certainly had on our air before, the CEO of the company, who have assumed some of the CEO responsibilities over the last year and change, is now stepping into a new special role where he'll help oversee partly the efforts to bring AI to more businesses through a joint venture with PE firms, and then their CMO is stepping down permanently to deal with her recovery from cancer. So it's a mix of factors here and stepping back.
It's a meaningful shake up at the time when we understand this company is moving ahead with plans for possible IPO and just close the largest funding round that we have ever seen.
All Right, Bloomberg's AI editor Seth Fighmann, thank you very much. Another story out this morning, Oracle has tapped former Schneider Electric EVP Hillary Maxon as CFO and that's effective immediately. For more on the move, let's get out to Bloomberg's Brady Ford, who covers Oracle Hillary Maxon. Interesting appointment, But I think the big story is, you know, Oracle has a new CFO at a critically important time for managing Oracle finances.
What do we need to know?
You get to remember Oracle is going through a pretty narrowly financial situation, right, I mean, they are transitioning from an asset lied database company, the one that is going through tens of billions of dollars in data center development, and they've had to issue equity. They're doing thousands of layoffs and so they're navigating a pretty complicated financial picture and it's not shocking to see a new leader for those finances.
Yep.
The expertise that she brings in particular the background and where really how focused will lie you think, Brady.
Yeah, well I think that's really interesting because you know, they didn't pick a software CFO. They picked someone with heavy industrial experience, and that's effectively how the biggest tech companies.
Are operating now right.
They are heavy industrial companies with massive cap x books, and it makes sense that they would bring somebody kind of outside the software world to navigate that.
Thirty four across all things, Oracle as well, if you always are, thank you very much. Indeedah Coming up SpaceX it prepares for its launch into the public markets. That says more than two trillion dollar valuation potentially. We'll discuss expectations for its listing and other mega public debuts. That's next.
This is a.
Brumbig tech.
You know, masks SpaceX, but it's meeting with banks today. We understand as the world's most valuable startup gears to pitch potentially because ever market debut. Let's get the latest room Meg's Bailey Lipshalts.
So we understand much.
Is on the table, much has been asked of banks, not just only advice it would seem in some reporting, But what are we likely to get in terms of a sense of when they could come, how significantly they're going to get to this true trillion number.
Yeah, So what you'll see play out over the coming weeks is these so called testing the waters meetings. So basically, bankers will meet with their pitch decks, show investors and say, hey, look at Tara fab, how exciting our orbital space data centers, and.
What the ultimate vision could look like.
It won't necessarily focus on actual valuation just yet, but it'll really center on the financials, financial forecast, what twenty seven, what twenty twenty eight could look like, given the expectations that this should price in June. So the next kind of march forward would be waiting for that formal flip public, which would then kick start Caught twenty two days to go in public.
So that's the next key milestone.
But we're going to be talking to investors, talking to sources, trying and to understand what these meetings look like while the company awaits a formal response from the SEC, which would then kind of.
Move this along.
We report right in the middle of last week that the confidential filings in Then we reported that the valuation being targeted is climbing above two trillion dollars. But all of those little bits of reporting would indicate what you just talked about, that June is happening. What else would give us confidence that a June IPO is realistic at this point?
The big thing d is that it'll take a month typically for the SEC to give formal comments. So they filed the middle of last week, call it the early first few days of May. Is when they would get
that filing response from the SEC. It would be up to the company and up to its lawyers to address any qualms from regulators to really set the stage for what we call a formal public flip, which then kicks off again a fifteen day waiting period before a formal marketing could take place and then the deal could be priced. So the big thing to keep in mind is if there's any hold up with the SEC that could delay
this process. But from our understanding, the company wants to move as quickly as possible, which would then mean a public flip where you formally see that s one on Edgar kind of being breaking news sometime in mid to late May, which would then set the stage for an IPO two price in the company to start trading at some point in mid to late June.
Obviously, retail investors get excited, but who are the big players that like you to be talking to at the moment. There has been reporting of big anchor investors who are being looked for.
Anyone in everyone will be kind of tasked with investing. When you're looking to raise seventy five billion dollars, that's more than double the largest IPO of all time. And when you look at a book that, according to our reporting, they could try to sell about thirty percent to retail, that's more than twenty two billion dollars. So you're still solving for a fifty billion dollar problem, whether that's sovereign
wealth funds around the world, whether that's institutional investors. And also, oh, by the way, probably being pitched to some of the largest strategic investors, just given the propensity for XAI orbital data centers and kind of the grand vision that Elon Musk is pitching.
Bloomberg's beaty Lipschultz.
Thank you very much that stick with expectations for a SPACEXIPO and other possible mega listings this year at lease Via is with us. She's the founder partner at IPO Advisory firm Class five Group. Bailey was just talking about the Test the Waters meetings and one of the things we've tried to report on in some detail over a number of years. It's not you is the revenues breakdown at SpaceX right there was a point where it went
from mostly launched to mostly starlink. What I'm seeing and hearing right now is starlink at the top end tracking to maybe twenty billion dollars of revenues this year. You know, if they exceed, how do you price an IPO on that data?
It's it's the perfect question, and thanks for having me here. First of all, all the numbers we've seen so far are leaked numbers or rumored numbers or through the great mind. Until they flipped that document public, we aren't really going to know what any of the numbers are. And then until they go out as you just heard, and meet with investors and the test the Waters, we're not going to know what the expect the Bank's expectations are for
twenty twenty seven twenty twenty eight. I presume they'll go out much further. But none of them that are being bandied about in any way fundamentally correlate to a trillion dollar or a trillion and a half dollar or a two trillion dollar valuation. It's all, it's all hope. It's all do we believe the vision. It's all do we believe and believe that they will have limited competition, which we know there's more coming. So it's a leap of faith and there's going to be a lot of fomo here.
And the best way to look at how to value it is to go way back to nineteen thirty four where you look at Graham and God who wrote the book on Fundamental Securities valuations, and they had a great comment that was applicable during the Internet phase, and it's applicable now and it's hey, look, there are times I'm paraphrasing, but there are times when there are new fields of endeavor, new companies in areas we've never seen before, and investors can in fact make a lot of money if they
are involved early enough. But everybody needs to understand it is not a fundamental investment. It is a bet. It is a speculative bet, and that's what money at these valuations will be going into SpaceX. You roll a dice and you see, you know, Starlink's pretty cool, Lisa, this is rolling a dice situation that's suddenly not so.
It's going to be being discussed with banks talking to investors today.
There is no math that correlates the current revenues to two trillion dollars none. So Yes, it's a bet on the future, and it's a compelling and potentially fascinating and enormous and also very uncertain.
Future, Lise.
Typically before a big IPO of a late stage startup, they would raise a big round right, largely to bringing the crossover investors. In this case, SpaceX merged with XAI, which changed the valuation dynamic, brought debt onto the balance sheet, et cetera. What was your assessment at that transaction?
Pre IPA.
Typical mosque, I would say, I think again, until we know what the math looks like, it's very hard to make any sort of a sound assessment. It's clearly bundling things together, and heaven knows, he's done pretty astonishing things in the past that have worked out and some that haven't. So it's we don't yet know. And again I've not
been on the test the waters meetings. Maybe they're explaining that, maybe they're explaining this, but how the two are going to interact such that one in one equal eight.
Does this have read across to any of the others in the pipeline, Lisa, or is this very much your view on Elo Musk and this bet in SpaceX because it's also a beten XAI and we have plenty of the AI companies potentially waiting in the wings.
So from a general sense, when you have a very large IPO, and we've never seen one like this before, but we've had attlee Baba, We've had Facebook, We've had other big we had Saudi a Ramco, although kind of
a very different industry. When you have a big IPO that goes goes well as Ali Baba did, usually a number of the companies in the wings put the foot on the guests and say we're going to take advantage of the fact that investors are feeling good about ideos, and you see much more activity when you see a larger IPO that stumbles out of the Gate as Facebook did, people and companies go back into hibernation for a while.
So this could be the opening of the door that certainly bankers would love to see, but we have to see how it plays.
Is Abaya, It's been fascinating talking to you, partner and founder at Class five Group about the lineup, and that's currently happening with all things public markets. Let's so quick recap on the public markets right now as to what's happening when President Trump has been speaking. Some headlines have been coming out moments ago part of the White House East egg roll, but of course conversation has moved into
the world of Iran. We understand that President Trump currently is saying that ron as some missiles and drones left, and the Runian people will fight the regime when it's safe for them to do so. But more broadly, he's talking about Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon ed. He's also talking about his popularity right now, the American people wanting the US to win and to come home, and more broadly that he'd like this end to the current conflict.
D okay.
Coming up on the program, we're speak of Chris Lahane, open AI's chief Global Affairs officer. As the company releases social and economic policy proposals for the AI era, it's half time in the program will be right back in. This is Bloomberg Tech. Welcome back to Bloomberg Tech. In an era of artificial intelligence, upheave or open ayes proposing ways to spread the benefits of the technology and put
people first. To start, It's published a set of policy recommendations ranging from a public wealth fund and expanded safety nets to shorter work weeks and faster electrical grid development.
For more.
Open AI's chief Global Affairs Officer, Chris Lane is with us here on Bloomberg Tech. I mean they are proposals, they.
Are not formal proposals.
But what I'm trying to understand with this, Chris, if we get the idea is how everyday people would participate in it. Who enacts it Open AI or government? But you're talking about people whose lives are impacted themselves by AI participating in it.
Explain it.
Yeah, that's exactly right. Let me take a step back and Caroline, thanks for having me so first and foremost
with this document. Really reflects is the work and thinking of open AIS researchers, the folks who are really building and innovating this AI technology, and I think they understand and recognize that this is technology that's on power with historic general purpose technologies are the past that weel, the printing press, combustion engine, electricity, you know, each of those ultimately drove the human condition forward by driving economic progress.
But every time one of these technologies came along, there was obviously challenges they came with it. And so what this document really is attempting to do is to put out some concepts and ideas that are really as transformative as the actual underlying technology. And so it's divide into two sections. One section really deals with an open economy, which is what you are talking about. How do we make sure AI is free, fair safe, How can people
participate as much as possible? And you know, the Software and Wealth Fund idea, you know, is something that we really took from what we had seen in Alaska with the Alaska Permanent Fund, where the entire population of Alaska gets to participate in the economics of the fossil fuel extraction in Alaska. But ultimately there's a whole range of ideas.
One of the I think at the core of all of this, though particularly on the economic opportunity piece, is the understanding that AI needs to be understood as a right that everyone in this country, everyone in the world, has at least the opportunity to be able to participate in. And that's really what's fun of this.
I mean, Chris, a public or sovereign wealth fund is a very specific proposal. Have you discussed that idea with anyone within the administration? Who within the administration have you discussed that with?
Yeah, I'm not going to get into specific names, which may be a shock to you, but we have certainly had those conversations with folks both in the administration. You obviously have the Trump Accounts, which is a version of
some kind of a fund. I think in the last two or three weeks, I've probably met with a dozen two dozen actually, as I think about it, members of the United States Senate where we've been talking about these types of concepts, And I think what's really going on right now is that there is a growing awareness from policymakers, particularly in Washington, DC, of just how fast this technology is accelerating, the scale that it's going to be impacting all of us, and an interest and desire to really
up level the nature of the policy conversations. You know, to date, the conversations have really been almost binary. On one hand, there is, you know, an approach, keep your hands off, don't worry, everything's going to be great. On the other possible extreme, there is the doomer view, which is that this is technology that's so powerful only a
small number of people should control it. We're really trying to put out a different approach, and this approach is based on actually offering solutions that are going to meet the technology where the technology is, but doing it in a way that's inherently small de democratic, working through the democratic process to actually identify the ideas to will allow this technology to benefit as many people as possible. And that's really what we're trying to put out here today.
And this is a conversation starter, as you were alluding to. We don't pretend to have all the answers. Certainly people have smarter ideas, people will pressure test these, but we do think we need to open up that proverbial Overton window so that we begin having these conversations now, so that we can identify the solutions quickly.
Amount of the now is interesting. Was the now prompted by this growing awareness that this isn't very popular with the general public right now, or is it now because you've got something coming, The models are updating, an IPO is on the diverge, and therefore you need to get ahead of the policy perspective too.
It's really the ladder and not the former. And it's certainly when you talk about and you look at the underlying data, those who use AI tend to have a pretty positive to very positive perspective on it. And you know, we're nearing a billion folks who are using this on a regular basis, so it's more and where people use AI, obviously perceptions of it understand how it's can to impact education, healthcare,
their daily lives grows. But this is really at the core, and again this came from our researchers who are really understanding where technology is going and how quickly it's moving in that direction that we do need to begin to identify those ideas, those solutions, those concepts that are going to meet the technology where it is. And I've said this, but Chris, technology is transformative. We're going to need policy ideas are equally transformative. And if I could, I mean
maybe an analogy here is the New Deal. And I don't mean the New Deal in a sense that we believe that there's big government solutions for this. But what the New Deal ultimately recognized was that as technology drove industrialization, there really needed to be a calibration or perhaps a recalibration between the allocation of capital and labor to make sure that the social contract was really in balance.
And you want labor to what we're thinking about it.
I'm sorry, you.
Want labor to have more of a voice, Chris. And what's interesting is others are speaking to this too. Jamie Diamond putting out his letter to shareholders today also talking about his view that this is moving quickly, it could eliminate some jobs and his therm has got definitive plans on how we can support and redeploy our affected workforce. How is other business going to play a role, Chris?
And also what are the governments doing? You look at this from a global perspective, Where is doing this right versus the act?
It's a great question, and I think you can see interesting pockets around the world. You know, when I travel to Asia, a Japan or a Korea, you see a real focus on driving up AI literacy, raising the amount of people in those countries who actually understand how to use AI. I think Japan has a goal of eighty percent of its country or graduating students literate by twenty thirty. You go to places like Estonia, which has always been a digital forward country, they're building AI into their actual
government infrastructure. A Greece, We've spent a lot of time with the Prime Minister of Greece in his government. He's in the process of building AI into their public education system,
and so you're seeing pockets of this. But again, I think part of what's bah behind this release of this particular document is our belief that we really do need to scale up the kinds of conversations that are taking place so that we're actually able to meet this technology where it is and moreover, where it's going.
Chris, there's been some reporting from the Information that your CFO Sarah Fryer has some concerns about the spending plan over the next few years and the reality of a timeline to IPO this year, in disagreement with Sam Altman, your CEO. The report also details that Sarah Fryer was excluded from some finance or investor meetings as a result of that disagreement.
What can you tell us please?
So, first of all, I'm actually blessed in privilege to work with an incredible team, not just in terms of the talent, but how well everyone really works together. Perhaps the greatest validation of both the team are researchers and really our overall strategy is that last week, as you all covered right, we announced the single largest raise in
history one hundred and twenty two billion dollars. And at the core of that I think was the validation of our of our focused or really laser focused strategy, which is on compute. Compute is really Sam's insight. He deserves enormous credit for this. He was there long before anyone else that it is the most finite and most precious resource when it comes to the intelligence age, and we have focused a lot of our work on making sure that we have access to that compute. That compute drives
a flywheel. Right, for every quantum of compute we get, we effectively get a three x in revenue, and it works the following way. Compute drives innovation. When our researchers do that then leads to more tools. Those tools lead to more users. Right, we were the first to ten million, first one hundred million approaching.
I think we've looked one hundred approaching. Chris, You're fine.
Your your zoom froze for a moment there, But I'm going to go back to my question. Sarah I was or was not excluded from meetings because of a disagreement on strategy with Sam Oltman.
We just raised one hundred and twenty two billion dollars and Sarah Fryar was at the center of all of those meetings, pulling all of those conversations together. It's awesome to see the teamwork that exists between her Sam Fiji, you know, our head of applications, and as I said, I get to work with a dream team in terms of talent and how well everyone works together. And again, one hundred and twenty two billion dollars, it's not the amount of money, though that is a large amount of money.
It is the fact that you've had probably one of the most impressive cap tables in the world. Take a look at our business strategy, take a look at our leadership, take a look at our researchers, and really give us a huge vote of confidence. I mean, think about where we are from a revenue perspective in twenty twenty four, I'm doing this from kind of I think we had a billion dollars in revenue a quarter. We're now doing
two billion dollars in revenue a month. I mean, you just haven't seen growth numbers like that historically.
Let's talk about the time, because it's got bigger and that has been reshuffling, and our thoughts go to those with health issues, particularly fujis.
She takes a step back.
Chris, but TIVYPN if that's coming under your leadership, why I'm.
So excited for this, Caroline, I am so excited for this.
I'm excited for.
It for two reasons. On one hand, you know, these guys Geordie and John and their whole team do as good a job as anyone out there and unpacking the why and the how behind technology and explicitly AI I think folks come on to other media outlets. I mean, you guys do an incredible job of breaking news and
scoopy news. What these guys do is really break down ideas and scoop out what's behind those ideas and at a time, and you know, this even relates to the beginning of this conversation on the document that we put out today at a time when we really need to be scaling how the world understands AI. These folks do one of the best jobs out there. We want to
give them the resources that their audience grows. This second point here is that I'm able to bring in house really, in my view, what is the leading agency when it comes to being content forward and digital first. You know a lot of analogies that have been used. I mean, Bloomberg is obviously owned by a financial services company and
then has a media entity. In terms of you know analogies out there, I think there's actually a different analogy here that's a little bit more applicable, and that as you think about Apple under Steve Jobs in the nineteen eighties and early nineties, they actually brought in Shiat Day, which had been their outside marketing agency, and created something called the Apple Media Lab, and it really became a model for how to build in house marketing in an
age when a lot of that marketing was done through what we are now called traditional advertising. We're in a different age today. Digital is at the center of the conversation and I see this as analogous to that but for the digital age we're bringing in really I think the best agency in the We're ad to help us do the best job we possibly can do as we could either grow in terms of how we market and communicate. So I'm totally punk for it. That's really excited when.
You came on to talk about that communication, that potential of policy initiatives as well, Chris Lahne. We always wish we had another ten to fifteen minutes with you, Chrystalahane.
I thought we were going to talk about the night.
Next time we'll go affair for that, Affairs Officer. We so appreciate you tuning in today and joining us. I mean, while coming up a new show, well, it's making fun at the Silicon Valley so called bubble. We sit down with the creator and start of the new AMC show, The Audacity. As a Blueberg tech.
Genius is not about figuring out the solution, It's about being unhinged.
To do something outrageous with it. Fear in p innovation. I call that self police brutality. Tech lives matter exactly.
I was a bit of the trailer for The Audacity, so you shall I say dark comedy coming to AMC, said inside the bubble of Silicon Valley, please to say the show's executive producer, don't think that says with us as well as one of the stars, Billy Magnuson, who had slightly longer locks.
Great to have you, denti On, Thank you so much.
Let's poke some fun or let's have some reality check as well. What a time to be writing about what maybe you're presenting as masters of the universe in some way here? How did this come to bear?
How relevant is it for our time?
I think it's extremely relevant, But it is one of these funny things with television. You rate it a year or so before it actually airs, so you're guessing at what might be relevant. Uh, and it's a difficult thing to chase. Obviously with tech, it's just moving way too fast to try to anticipate what the next thing is going to be. I think we managed to do that. It's kind of like sometimes the Defense Department brings in screenwriters to say, like, would what would a great weapon be?
That of the future.
In a lot of ways, that's what we did in terms of like where we thought tech was going. The therapy bought things like even aspects that were major news items like what happened with the VA and Doge and everything like that is a major story point for us, but we wrote it before that actually happened.
Life imitating h indeed.
But it was interesting is on the X Prize actually is going out there at the moment wanting people to come up with more positive views of how technology is going to change because they want the next phone in the way that was inspired by Star Trek. But for you, how did you get into character?
How did you think about.
This tension that we have of utopia versus well dystopia.
Oh that's quite interesting.
You know, basing as an actor, you know, you take in you decipher what you see out there.
We know all the people on the headlines. We know who is in the tech Titans of who are you most fascinating?
All of them to tell you too, I don't want to put names out there, but we know who they are.
And then you just take the good.
The bad, the ugly, and then you try to build a character through all that and make this milange with a character that I was like, Okay, what's interesting to me?
What's scary to me? Yeah, it's just they're out there, we see them, we know who we.
Are and the best part about Jonathan Glatz are making the story.
Yeah, there's the.
Tech Titans, but Duncan Park is right under them, and he is hungry for it. And it just kind of shows a little bit the toxic nature that can seep into these guys who probably genuinely when they started they had hope and had hoped to build something positive for the world, and then greed corruption all the beautiful things and we see out there seeps in so beautiful.
Yeah, And I think it was important also for there to be for him to be a wanna be Titan, for that desperation to be there to fuel the story, but also to not necessarily be influent by the fame and the spotlight that the people at the very top of the ladder. We see them be like rock stars, and I feel like that desire to be amongst them it was so important, but not actually being one of them was was.
I guess it's a fun world he's created. Actually it's not.
It's just again, our job is to tow a little bit of a early the reality.
Oh hey, I hear really no, I know you don't want to name names, right, So your character is an audacious data mining CEO.
I can tell you.
Decade that's like the or well industry.
So how do you prepare for that character?
So there are some real world examples out there of the audacious.
Data mining CEO. Go through the process, the process of it.
Honestly, it's just looking and regarding what's out there, and then you slowly just pull back each little layer of it and you make a beautiful dish out of it.
And I think that that's the fun part.
Again, the world was created in Jonathan Glatter's mind, and like to have one of the most profound writers of our time.
And I'll quote me on that.
I think he is absolutely exceptional. That playground then is created for me just to dance on, and I couldn't be more grateful to be a collaborator with this fine gentleman to my right.
Likewise, Jonathan, I want to respect the specifics of the audacity and the distinction in genre almost but I came to San Francisco in twenty eighteen with several seasons of Silicon Valley under my belt, right, and that show so closely aligned with the culture satirical, poked fun at.
At what it is to be at.
Maybe the lower end of the spectrum, the startup, small scale, early stage. How conscious of that were you that that exists out there, and how much you wanted Audacity to be representative of all of the capital that's here, intellectual and financial capital that underpins the technology industry.
That I was a huge fan of Silicon Valley myself. It's brilliant, brilliant satire. It definitely is about a time in the Valley that was a little bit more optimistic, the garage incubator type of culture, and that that striving to uh, you know, make it to a place, which is, as I said before, is part of what what Duncan is is going through. But Duncan already Duncan Park, the
character that Billy plays so brilliantly. He he He had a company prior to this called Fathah, which was about bringing people together and you know, they would trading candles and canoes and stuff like that. And then he became a data merchant, h third party type of uh data merchant. And I think that what we're showing in our you know, it's a very different show. It's a much more of a families interacting as a psychiatrist is the second lead
of the show. But the idea that everybody back in the day was truly optimistic in a genuine way, that
they were going to be bringing people together. They're going to lower the barriers in terms of tolerance and people communicating together, and the idea of that information is going to be something that's reliable and accessible, and that all kind of went in the opposite direction for the most part, for the most part, right, But they made a lot of money doing it, and so it was kind of like, wait, are we We're sort of tearing at society in a
lot of ways here, and communication has been completely bifurcated and people are don't seem to be any more tolerant, let alone all the other things that they that they talked about. But we're making so much money doing it.
This is what people want, you know.
And so that sort of cynicism and that, I think it just imbued a different chapter in the Silicon Valley story. And hopefully there's a chapter coming up. I don't know when, but hopefully there will be one where they realize that the power that they that they have is also the power to do Good's.
The characters He's created, it is the culture you're examining the culture that lives inside the Silicon Valley now, and I love that that dynamic of the whole project. I feel lucky to be a part of this project.
Honestly, gentlemen, we appreciate having you here on Bloomberg Tech. And I think I'm right and saying it's already been renewed for a second season as well.
The Audacity premier.
Is April twelfth on AMC Jonathan Glatzer, Billy magnuson Thank You for Coming by.
NASA's Automus two.
Is set to pass at the closest distance that humors have come to the lunar surface in fifty years. Seven PM New York Times tonight is the crew as it's fly by of the Moon. Let's bring in Bloomberg's Lauren Grush just back from first Florida, then Houston.
Big moment seven PM. What do we need to know?
There are quite a few big moments today.
Actually, one thing that I'll start before even seven pm is around two pm Eastern, the crew will actually break the distance record previously set by apall of thirteen of the farthest any humans have traveled from Earth. So that will kind of be a nice little lead into the fly by, and then.
Yeah, this is today is the day. What the Artemis two mission is all about.
It's getting close to the Moon and being able to see the far side of the Moon, parts of the.
Far side that humans have never seen before. So it's a really exciting day.
And it's been so exciting to watch this minute by minute, take by take as this journey continues. Lauren, You've got some fascinating reporting on what's working well out there and also what's not working well.
Right So, actually, I've been blown away by how smooth this mission has gone. Obviously, there's little glitches here and there that they'll be reporting to mission control, but overall it seems to be a relatively smooth mission.
One thing that we have all.
Noticed is that the biggest headache might be.
The onboard toilet.
So it kind of started acting up that first day of flight. They were able to fix it by helping to prime the pump, but then on the next day or a few days after, they had an issue with maybe some ice blockage from the vent line.
They dump the.
Contents overboard periodically, and there was kind of some blockage there, but they seem to get it working again, So it's just been it's been a nice comedic moment, you know, if that's if.
The only issue is your toilet, obviously it's.
Probably not something the astronauts want to be for malfunctioning, but at least that's the only thing that seems to be a real problem.
Laura. It's been some beautiful writing, some incredible reporting throughout the weekend, and we so appreciate you joining us ahead of today's really important day of space ed. That does it with this edition, Boombog Tech back together again.
Yeah, strong starts of the week, a lot to recap.
Check out the podcast. You know exactly where to find it.
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