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President Trump Announces Apple and Intel Chip Collaboration

Jun 18, 202643 min
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Episode description

Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow discusses the latest announcement made by President Donald Trump, which will see Apple and Intel joining forces to produce chips domestically, sending shares of the chipmaker higher. Plus, Anduril's CEO discusses how the company won a contract with the US Air Force to produce autonomous fighters. And, SpaceX wraps up its first full week of trading, with shares falling for a second day straight.

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Transcript

Speaker 1

Bloomberg Tech is live from the heart of Silicon Valley with Ed Lulow in San Francisco.

Speaker 2

This is Bloomberg Tech coming up.

Speaker 3

President Trump posts about a chip agreement between Apple and Intel, sending Intel Soaring will have the details.

Speaker 2

Plus we speak with.

Speaker 3

The CEO of Anderil after the company wins a production contract for autonomous fighters with the US Air Force and SpaceX shares full for a second straight day after a forty nine percent jump, still in high orbit as the company concludes its first full week of trading. Thursday, June eighteenth, Bloomberg Tech Intel is at a record high after the President of the United States posted a very long truth social which included a reference to an agreement between Intel

and Apple for chip design and chip manufacturing. Simple story. There is some background to it that Bloomberg News has reported in the past. It also talked about Nvidia, terror fab and a lot more. But it's Intel where we focus and Bloomberg's and King is with us along with Bloomberg Intelligence Senior analyst man Deep Singh, and we're going to start with ian an agreement. What do we know? What do we do not know?

Speaker 4

Well, we've previously reported that Apple was exploring using Intel as a second source for manufacturing some of its chips. What the president is saying, and you know, we have to be careful because not everything he says immediately comes true. That this has actually reached a firmer stage. And if that's the case, and that's clearly a boost for Intel's efforts to become a manufacturer for other companies.

Speaker 3

Ian really quickly, you reported with Mark and Ryan in May that Apple was looking at its options. Explain the basics of that report.

Speaker 2

That's right right now.

Speaker 4

There are Apple is completely dependent upon TSMC right for manufacturing, so obviously that's a choke point, something that they wish wish, you know, they would like to have a solution to have options. So you would look at Samsung and you would look at Intel as potential backups or potential supplemental manufacturers. And that's what we understand is going on. Apple has always been smart about the supply chain.

Speaker 3

That's the reporting in the details, let's get the analysis. Mandy's singing, who leads our technology research team a Bloomberg Intelligence What are you making of this? Right? Ean outlined that actually in May there was a sense that Apple was looking at options but you have the President of the United States saying there's an agreement. How much can you model for that the president's statement.

Speaker 5

Look, I mean, there's no doubt that Intel is now well positioned to be a double digit revenue growth company given what we have seen so far with the CPU demand that has taken off with Agent and now you know, the fab side of things would get a real kicker

for if Apple was to use it for manufacturing. And you know, when you have one design WRIN, it follows with you know, multiple companies that want to use your manufacturing, and that's where it could be very exciting if actually Apple ends up ramping up in volume.

Speaker 3

Here I note that Apple shares are a percentage point.

Speaker 2

Tim Kok this.

Speaker 3

Year, the outgoing CEO soon to be executive chairman of Apple, game in interview to Wall Street Journal where he said they're going to have to raise prices because of the commodity environment. But what do you interpret here, mandeep on the Apple side of this story with Intel their ability to kind of reindustrialize here in America.

Speaker 5

On the chip side, well, look right now, when I look at TSMC's capacity and video has already prepaid. You know what one hundred and twenty billion dollars for TSMC capacity. So even an Apple which used to get proferential treatment at TSMC, right now, I think they're feeling that Nvidio probably has a bigger lock in in terms of PSMC manufacturing capacity. And from an Apple standpoint, I think diversification and really appeasing the president here makes a ton of sense.

So from that perspective, I think psmc's monopoly is a problem for a lot of you know, they're big customers, including Apple, and it makes sense that they're looking to diversify here.

Speaker 3

In finally, to you, there's kind of two parts that Intel's foundry story. There's the process, the technology process, and then the sort of solidity of whether they have any customers. Where are they at with both of those things.

Speaker 4

Right What they've said is that their process is getting better and better, getting closer to the industry standard, which would be TSMC yield being very important. They're the amount of good chips you make for the run. In terms of customers, they've said, look, we're not going to talk about it. We're hopeful we've got a couple of big irons in the fire that might come to fruition in the second half of this year. But we're not going to.

Speaker 2

Talk about it. We're going to leave it up to them.

Speaker 4

We're not going to get ahead of ourselves and.

Speaker 2

So on that.

Speaker 3

Now, I point out that neither Intel nor Apple have commented so far on the president's post Bloomberg Zy and King and Mandeep seing of a Bloomberg intelligence Thank you both very much. Let's brought in the conversation beyond chips. Then that's that one hundred pushing higher two percent in the session. We're kind of trading near those records of recent weeks.

Speaker 2

I would say there's a lot going on in the market.

Speaker 3

Semiconductors are a big part of the market right now, but the Intel story is a catalyst and driver of that. There is the SpaceX part of this market, and then there is the role of the retail investors. The AI trade has been expanding. Investors are looking across software infrastructure, the next generation of tech leaders for the market's next growth engine.

Speaker 2

Could those be IPOs? So much to discuss.

Speaker 3

Ankor Crawford portfolio manager ourgas with us. You know, I always say this one one session of market does not make really interesting though. How we're ending this short training week in the US, with so many factors for you right now, what is the main driver of psychology for the technology sector?

Speaker 6

Gosh, you know, I think that what I find is people are finally understanding how significant this AI trade is going to be, and that's what's getting reflected in some of the moves that you're seeing.

Speaker 2

In the market.

Speaker 6

You know, the impact of the shortages of the supply chain are also becoming very obvious, whether you see what's happening in memory or the optical supply chain, and so, you know, I feel like the market is fully understanding the kind of supply chain implications and the demand implications. You're going to have a CEO on later who recently commented that token pricing for him went up to x in over the last we'd got to x in in the next six months. Well, that is an indication of

supply demand balance. And you know, clearly we are significantly we need significantly more tokens and we have significantly more demand for the intelligence then we have supply.

Speaker 3

It's so interesting where like the kind of raw data sets or and thotal data sets that the markets tracking are so different now to what they were. I don't know you tell me, like as recently as last year or two years ago, and I.

Speaker 2

Want to talk about SpaceX.

Speaker 3

You know, how big a factor has that IPO been for you and your team and how have you sort of responded to it.

Speaker 6

Well, it's not necessarily a factor, but it's clearly an incredibly significant company that has a very open ended story alongside with it. We've never really seen a business like SpaceX before in our careers, would I would argue there, you know, humanity hasn't seen a business like SpaceX. So you know, we have found a significant place in our port on our portfolios for SpaceX, in part because we do see incredible appreciation as we look out three and five years now. The day to day trading on it

is you know, who knows. There's a lot of things that affect that day to day trading, but we are very bullish on its prospects.

Speaker 3

The retail investors tied a big role head we spites cheld SWEBC.

Speaker 2

Let's get his take.

Speaker 7

As a breakthrough event, I think for the retail investor who is allocated roughly twenty percent of the deal, which is triple a typical IPO. So it's great to see retail having a meaningful seat at the table. It created a tremendous engagement with our clients and broadly with retail clients. Demand was off the charts, and that demand continues. We've seen in the three days following the IPO nearly seven billion dollars of additional orders come from our clients.

Speaker 2

Child schwebc West.

Speaker 3

Is it the retail traded driving trading right now?

Speaker 6

I'm not really sure what's driving it. I think that there's a lot of different aspects that.

Speaker 3

Appreciate the honesty. I don't think anyone knows anger was driving it.

Speaker 6

Oh, we shouldn't make it up then, and so I don't know. All I can say is that sometimes the market kind of thinks about the next day or the next week, and for something like SpaceX, I think what you have to do is look at the long arc of time to understand what they are doing and the significant mote that they have created with you know, Starship, and the reusability of Starship when that comes to fruition,

and the different business models that will get unleashed. And it is incredibly exciting to see this company now be accessible to not only retail but also institutional investors like us, and how.

Speaker 3

Do you assess the role the on the rights has played in it in getting the story of the perspectives across to the valuation and economics of this company.

Speaker 6

I think they did a fantastic job. I don't think it could have gone any better. And you look at just how you know they made the management available. There were several different you know, kind of knowledge knowledge of zooms and that that investors could could get on and to understand the story more completely. That they priced it correctly so that you know they were leaving some economics on the table for what its true value will be.

So I actually think they did the most beautiful job on this IPO, and it was a tricky one because of the valuation kind of the perception. There was a very divided, I think opinion on SpaceX. There's some that love it, some that hate it. Retail was a bit skittish, it felt like to me, at least through the conversations that I had. But so I think they actually, Donder writers did a beautiful job on this. I hope they repeat it with the upcoming IPOs of opening Anthropic.

Speaker 3

Really appreciate it and we're going to have that conversation about anthropic and open AI Later in the program, Anka Crawford of ALGIA back on Bloomberg Tech, Thank you very much. Big news crossing the Bloomberg terminal. Amazon is in talks to sell its custom made AI chips for use in other companies data centers, trying to cut into invidious dominance. This is based on an interview in Paris with Amazon's AI chief, who said the company has begun discussions with

potential customers but declined to name them. We're talking about Peter DeSantis here. He said he views AI infrastructure as rapidly evolving. In the stock hitting session highs on that Bloomberg report.

Speaker 2

Coming up.

Speaker 3

Andreil just won a production contract for autonomous fighters with the US Air Force as the Pentagon pushes for a fleet of up to one thousand autonomous combat jets. We're going to be speaking with Andreil's CEO, Brian Ship.

Speaker 2

That's next. This is Boomberg Tech.

Speaker 3

Andreil is having a major week. The defense tech startup just on a production contract for autonomous fighters with US Air Force, secured a key role in the race to provide software for those aircraft and is moving towards scale manufacturing. Is the Pentagon pushes for a fleet of up to

one thousand autonomous combat jets. All of that comes as defense stocks and military technology remain in focus amid the fallout from the US around conflict and what is a fragile new diplomatic agreement joining US now live on Bloomberg Tech and Real CEO Brian Schimp. You know, I think Andreil's in this place, and it's in its evolution of life cycle where you're trying to manage winning new contracts and put out new technology and ramp what's already out there.

Just talk about those that trio of news you put out and how you pulled it off.

Speaker 8

So you know, we were extremely excited to be awarded this production contract for the Air Force Loyal wing Man fighter jet.

Speaker 2

And you know this.

Speaker 8

Is really about taking it from prototype technology which we've been validating, we've been flying multiple times a day into now an operational capability. So this is both the hardware side where we've already started to produce these out of our facility in Ohio, our Arsenal one facility, and we are now confirmed to move this into a production aircraft, right,

so really start to ramp this next year. So it's super exciting, but that challenge is real, right, and we know the defense industry has had struggles ramping production to the demand we're seeing around the world. But this is something we've systematically invested in and everything we're showing is that we're hitting every ramp that we've promised to hit.

Speaker 3

There's like the established systems fury and there is the next phase of product and contract. How difficult a decision is it to a US sign resource to know where to put teams and capital right now?

Speaker 8

You know, we're we're seeing demand through the roof across the board, right, and this is everything from weapons programs, aircraft programs, you name it. We're seeing just a massively increased demand across the board. But we've been able to scale incredibly well. Right, We've doubled headcount every year. You know, we are continuing to be able to resource these successfully, right, and I think we're just an incredibly attractive place to work.

So for us, the challenge isn't really you know, where do we put resources, it's just you know, running through it as fast as we can, which we've demonstrated the ability to do year over year for you know, the past near decade now, so that part we're not as concerned with. But you know, I think a huge credit

to the Air Force on this. You know, they have decided to move out and I think the fastest fighter jet programs in the nineteen fifties, like this is just an immensely fast pace and I think it shows that the government can move when it wants to and then is can respond to that pace. And it's just an incredibly exciting time to be able to deliver these capabilities.

Speaker 3

How to winsle this translate to the to the revenue run rate? You know that that big announcements, big deals, but for the financials of this company, it's immediate or it's a distant opportunity.

Speaker 8

These types of programs give you know, just this amazing base of growth for the next you know, five years, right, And so this is about how do we lock in that growth and success we've seen to date into something that's going to be producing and delivering for the next decade.

Speaker 2

And that's something.

Speaker 8

That I think really you know, when we look at the financials for the out years, when we stack in all the types of big programs that we're working on now, it more or less gives US an extremely solid base that we're going to continue to grow on and compound on in the future. You know, Brian, I appreciate this is about autonomous fighters. Every time you come on the program, I get a flood of request to ask you about subterranean and actually I get.

Speaker 3

The sense that you don't. It's not even that exciting to you, guys. So what are the next domains, the next big bets that you probably can't talk as much about, but everyone wants me to ask you about.

Speaker 8

Yeah, we're doing, you know, an immense amount of work in space. You know, there's a huge number of areas where you know, this is becoming the next generation warfighting domain. I think the Space Force is talking a lot more about the adversarial activities that Russia and China are doing regularly. You know, they are constantly maneuvering around space, threatening the

US's and Allied satellites. And I think there was an open source report of Russia maneuvering against the satellite that's a commercial SATELLITEES used to provide intelligence to the Ukrainians. So this is an area that's you know, an active growth area that is incredibly important for the US to have leadership in and deter the adversarial activities that you know, our adversaries are doing every day. The other area we're just seeing an immense amount of growth in is on the weapon side.

Speaker 2

You know, you can read all the reports.

Speaker 8

Everyone is well aware now of what's been sort of a poorly kept secret for a long time, which is the US has amazing weapons, right like that, that's been obviously true. But the inability to produce these at scale to supply our allies, the huge delays that exist in delivering these is a major strategic issue for the US

and our allies. And so that is translated, you know, out of the conflict in Iran into you know, an immense amount of demand to bring build up next generation weapons capabilities that can be produced at scale.

Speaker 3

So looking at the Irong conflict, but you know, what is the lesson that you think is learned here for the Pentagon on these types of technologies and war preparedness.

Speaker 8

Yeah, so I think, you know, there's a lot of different lessons you can take away, but one of the biggest ones was really you know, when you look at the number of strikes, the number of ammunitions consumed in the first thirty days of the conflict, it was something around ten times the amount we consumed in the entirety of the Gulf War. Right, and we're shooting, you know,

nearly a decade of tomahawk production in a week. Like these are really serious quantities of munitions consumed in these modern conflicts, and it parallels what you know has been seen in every conflict that's played out in the last several years. You know, particularly as you look at Ukraine, where the amount of munitions consumed is staggering.

Speaker 2

So I think this question of how do.

Speaker 8

You actually get the inventory the stockpiles and have the producibility that you need, that becomes one of the critical questions. And you know, the US again its amazing weapons, but for the vast majority of scenarios you can you can deal with things that are sort of lower price and more fit for purpose and the types of you know, uses you're realistically going to have and what you need to convey to your adversaries you have the resiliency to do.

And so that that is probably the biggest shift I've seen out of this conflict, which is really looking at and excite tolerating how to get to more producible capabilities quickly. And you know we've got you know, maybe a half dozen or more different programs that have initiated out of.

Speaker 3

That, Brian, we just have thirty seconds. You've said Arsenal two could be built outside of the United States. Big market for you is Australia. Taiwan is a big factor in Anderal's guiding mission. Are those realistic locations.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean we we have.

Speaker 8

I think the reality in the world is that our allies are going to look to have more control over the production and supply of weapons. I think that's correct, and I think production capacity for the Allied nations is a contribution in and of itself, and so I think for the administration they want the Allies to be prepared to contribute. So the idea that they are also producing

and contributing to the Allied stockpiles is hugely advantageous. I think that's been a very consistent message from the administrations. We've seen immense support for that. You know where we put it exactly. You know, we have a factory up and running in Sydney, Australia making ghost Shark, and then we're constantly evaluating the right way to help any given country on what they need, how they want us to work with their local partners in industry, and so it's

a very nuanced process. But the reality is we think of allied production as a critical dimension of providing that deterrence that we're here to.

Speaker 3

Do andreal CEO Brian Shim Microsoft is cashing in on China. Unlike its competitors, the AI cloud maker is selling it's Azure cloud models to Chinese tech companies including TikTok Parent bike Dance, which is on track to spend a billion as Microsoft's top client blue most Matt Day has more. So there's the idea that this is a typical right doing business in China full stop.

Speaker 2

But in the AI domain, what.

Speaker 3

Are the models that the Microsoft is able to sell into that market?

Speaker 9

So Microsoft, because of its long standing partnership with Opening I, has some unique ability to sell products in the term of the terms under which it sells products.

Speaker 2

We understand that there's been.

Speaker 9

Some friction between Microsoft and Open Eye over Microsoft sales in China, but they can they can list some of their biggest models.

Speaker 3

Is this big business for Microsoft, Matt Like we said, a billion dollars potentially, But where does that stack up against the rest of its revenues.

Speaker 9

A big number, but not hugely significant to Microsoft at a global scale. You know, they said China accounts for something like a percent and a half of their revenue, so not super significant. But you know the company is internally talking about, you know, Microsoft being the only place where you can get top model companies on the US West Coast and the Chinese East coast, so they think it's a big deal internally.

Speaker 3

So this is according to our reporting and sourcing. Other Chinese tech companies are are in the mix here. But what have the companies said about it officially?

Speaker 9

So they haven't said much. They have said all these companies developed their own models. I think the lesson here is, you know, companies tend to use just about everything. Folks are developing their own models if they have the scale and also accessing you know, whatever they can. And in the case of someone Microsoft's customers, you know in China they're tapping into models served from from Singapore or other cloud regions.

Speaker 3

Mean most about day, very important report, Thank you very much. The big technology story out there today is Intel and Apple. The President of the United States saying on truth Social there's an agreement between the two for Apple to work with Intel on domestic chip manufacturing here in the US. Neither company has commented that Intel shares trading now at a fresh record high. Apple was actually paired most of its advance, so four tenths of a present had been

up one and a half percent. Would also note that Apple's current CEO seem to.

Speaker 2

Be executive chair.

Speaker 3

Tim Cook, gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal last night saying that Apple have to raise prices because of where commodities memory is at right now. Maybe that's a factor.

Speaker 2

Not clear.

Speaker 3

We'll continue tracking the stories. There's a bigger story in technology and markets. For years, one of the most reliable fuels for the massive big tech rally was steady share buybacks. The AI race is proving so expensive that repurchase programs are kind of evaporating. Michael Raine joins US from New York to explain this shift, and like there's two parts

of it. It's like capex is, you know, is expensive, impacts the shared buyback program, but also like loads of companies are issuing new equity, new stock.

Speaker 2

Explain it all.

Speaker 10

Yeah, Yeah, It's really just an amazing paradigm shift for these stocks. You know, when you think about it, Alphabet Google alone over the previous five years had bought back something like two hundred and eighty billion dollars in their own stock. Now they're going the opposite direction, planning to sell about eighty five billion worth of shares to help fund this capex. And I really, you know, it is fascinating because these buybacks were really a driver of the

market for a long time. But it really kind of exposes the notion that, yes, shareholders investors are happy when they hear about buybacks. They're happy to have a new buyer of the stock and shrink that share count and boost EPs. But at the same time, it really does signal that maybe these companies didn't have something better to

spend this money on. Now they do as far as building out all this spending all this capex to build out the data centers, and investors, you know, for now are happy that there's a better plan for all this cash that they generate. You know, time will tell if that stands the test of time and these investments prove to be positive returns on investments, But for now, you know,

the market's happy with it. Obviously, the chip maker stocks are thrilled about it, and we're really just you know, in all of a major paradigm shift in how these companies manage their stock.

Speaker 3

Float, invokes Michael Reagan, Thank you very much. Indeed, following the blockbuster to public debuy of SpaceX, investors are welcoming a massive distribution event that is pumping fresh liquidity back into private markets like the vcs needed that big i PO. It comes to a critical inflection point as a historic wave of multi billion dollar AI model companies prepare pertend to cross that IPO threshold.

Speaker 2

Joining us now is matt.

Speaker 3

Wick Tyler, head of Late stage Growth at Wellington Management. What a time to be you and on your desk? Should we start with SpaceX? You know, to so many participants in this market, it presages this great IPO year.

Speaker 2

Is that what you expect?

Speaker 3

I think that's exactly right.

Speaker 11

If you rewind the clock and you look back to just March of this year, when I was last here with you, we were talking about the fact that the first of the big ones to go out will be SpaceX, and that this year's activity will be driven by the megacap private companies that are now going public.

Speaker 2

And we had that in SpaceX.

Speaker 11

And again, if you rewind the clock and we think about the conversation you and I had back in March. We were talking about the fact that we believed I believe that SpaceX would perform well. And I think we're sitting here today, not quite a week into their trading, saying, oh, SpaceX is performing as expected.

Speaker 3

Mister Reagan just raised really interesting points, which is like, it's not just IPOs. Generally, this market could be flooded with equity. It's not universal that it's a good time to go public. I spoke to Ali Godsey, the Data Bricks CEO, very recently.

Speaker 4

His his take three mega IPOs that have been rumored.

Speaker 3

One of them happened, you know, So letting those kind of go through the system and see how that sort.

Speaker 9

Of plays out and things stabilize a little bit.

Speaker 2

I stand by what I said.

Speaker 12

I think for most other companies, you know, it's probably way best to wait it out.

Speaker 3

You know, I think Wellington's on the cap table of Data Bricks, right, But that's one view, right, There's so much will happen that Data Bricks might not for that reason.

Speaker 11

Yeah, there's a lot in the pipe, there's a lot coming down but I think what the precipice tipping point will be for the next batch of companies will be how these first three, the three mega ones that we talk about, how they perform, and I believe the subsequent two that are coming will likely perform very similar to Space, which is with a lot of enthusiasm not just from

retail investors but also from institutional investors. And I think that is the setup that the next batch of companies, maybe a Data Bricks as an example, would be looking for before they decide to come to the market, just purely.

Speaker 2

As case studies.

Speaker 3

You know, if anthropic and open AI goes go next, that what they've said in their limited ability to speak publicly, is and IPOs the only mechanism to raise capital at the levels they need. Find that really confusing because you know, they both did such ginormous private rounds so recently. The private market seems very willing to support that growth.

Speaker 11

The private market is there's just not sufficient capital to support the capital intensity as we're just hearing about of these model companies in perpetuity, and the private markets do not offer enough liquidity for the investors in these businesses

to ultimately get liquid without ultimately going public. And to put that in kind of understandable terms, the private market transacts in a full year what the public market transacts in a week, and so the volume of liquidity available to public market companies is dramatically different to what's available on the private side.

Speaker 3

How much are private market investors in these leading frontier labs now needing to model for and take into account political risks? I'm talking, of course about the administration's intervention in certain use of technology, but it's not just the US, right, We're talking about jurisdictions.

Speaker 2

Like the EU.

Speaker 11

I think that it is a factor that people are now starting to incorporate in their thinking for how some of these technologies will evolve. And I think it's a big open question mark as to what the future of the model builders as an example, looks like with respect

to regulatory action. But what I do feel confident is I do feel confident that it is in everybody's interests, the model builders themselves as well as the governments to support and ultimately enable this, because if we if the United States or China or the governmental agencies are not promoting this, we will be left behind and we will give up the advantages that are accruing to the top builders today. So I think it will resolve. It's a question of how it resolves.

Speaker 5

Matt.

Speaker 3

I'd really appreciate your insight here, even if the answer is no. How closely did you read the SpaceX prospectus, the story they were trying to tell, and then extrapolate out to how that might apply to everyone else? Open AI and throp at data Bricks, you know, it was so interesting to see their term numbers and how they see the world in the very distant future.

Speaker 11

I would say that SpaceX is unique, and SpaceX is unique because Elon Musk is unique. And so when I think about the SpaceX story and I think about the market cap that SpaceX is currently trading at, I think people are willing to for Elon. Say I believe in your vision of the future, and I believe you Elon can deliver on that vision. And I would say that

it is a relatively unique place in the market. There are not many other entrepreneurs or CEOs I can think of who could go out and tell a story that's five ten years out in the future and get credit for that story today.

Speaker 3

So I think when you think.

Speaker 11

About the model builders going out as the next generation or the next IPO candidates. I think those companies will more likely trade on fundamentals than maybe where SpaceX is trading today, which is again a little bit of the Elon magic dust around ability to convince the world that he will be the person who gets us into the future.

Speaker 3

Let's talk about that in the future then when you come back trading on the numbers, not the names. If those AI companies go public, mattwi Hiler ahead of late stage growth at Wellington, thank you so much. Now coming up, as the AI ratshifts from model to infrastructure rumbles, vetting big on compute, Rumble, Yes, that's right, CEO Chris Polowski joins us. Next, this is Bloomberg Tech. The story's still here. The AI boom is fueling an intense race for the

infrastructure behind it. Rumble, best known as a video sharing and cloud services platform, is looking to capitalize on that trend through its acquisition of Northern Data and the launch of Quake Ai, a new platform combining cloud compute and AI infrastructure. Joining us now is Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski. There is a lot here, let's unpack it all. So the company is going to change its legal name to rum Group. This is based on the close of the

acquisition of Northern Data. Let's go back to the genesis of the idea, why you did this, what the opportunity was.

Speaker 13

Well in twenty thirteen, but it wasn't twenty twenty one where we took on our first investment, and that was I guess around March April of twenty twenty one. In the idea was that we had to build our own infrastructure, and we did that over the last four to five years. We built our entire infrastructure for Rumble to sit on. And with all that being said, we have all this

excess capacity for the video platform. So it was actually in twenty twenty one when we went public as a spac under ticker rum that we said that we had three core pillars to the business. One was going to be the advertising platform, one was going to be the video platform, and one was going to be infrastructure as a service.

Speaker 2

And it is.

Speaker 13

Now at this point in time where we launched Rumble Cloud back in twenty twenty four. Now with the acquisition in Northern Data, we really kind of put a jet pack on that infrastructure as a service business and We're ready to take on the world on cloud with Quake AI.

Speaker 2

So that's kind of been the genesis of what we've done.

Speaker 13

It's going to be our largest business unit going forward, the cloud side.

Speaker 2

So we're really excited to.

Speaker 13

Step on the gas on the AI compute as a service and all the other services that we offer.

Speaker 2

Can we expand on that a little bit?

Speaker 3

So there's two cool businesses right The video platform that we know is Rumble and then quake Aid instru Space And you just said that that will be the larger part. How has the kind of growth trajectory changed here? Why is it that it is the bigger part? And what does the outlook look like?

Speaker 2

Yeah?

Speaker 13

So actually Northern Data just released a couple of days ago that they increased their outlook to one hundred and seventy to one hundred and ninety million euros for twenty for the full year this year.

Speaker 2

So that's that's increased.

Speaker 13

But when you add on top the video platform, you add on top the deal that we just announced a couple of weeks ago with together Ai, and then you add on top increased outlook with Northern Data, it starts to look fundamentally much different than it looked in the last couple of years.

Speaker 2

Mind you, we have grown quite a bit.

Speaker 13

It was in twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two were like sub ten million of revenue, So we did. We posted over one hundred million in the last year. And now when you add all these assets together, and you add everything that we put together, it's going to be fundamentally a money from business going forward here in twenty six and the rest of twenty six and twenty seven and beyond.

Speaker 3

You said in the statement that you'll give further details about products and then also how you brand this. But what can you say about like different business lines. I get Quaki's infrastructure, but what areas are going to be new for you? What is it that you're going to be able to sell other than the big cluster of h two hundreds that you've got.

Speaker 2

Yeah, so we have that big cluster.

Speaker 13

But what's really exciting for me is the unmonetized properties that we have. We have one hundred and eighty megawatts in just outside of Atlanta, Georgia that is completely unmonetized. Right now, we have over two hundred megawatts of unmonetized assets that we're looking to monetize as fast as possible. So our first goal is to get these things monetized. And as you as you know, like the latest generationships out there, you're seeing companies make roughly ten million annually

on omegawatts. So the fact that we have over two hundred megawatts of unmonetized assets, that's something that we want to jump all over as fast as possible and get those monetized.

Speaker 2

In twenty seven and twenty eight.

Speaker 3

Just note that the stocks kind of pushed a little higher again, about four percent during the course of our conversation. Chris Pavlovsky Rumble, I really appreciate you being on the show. Thank you so much. A year ago, President Trump's eldest son stood in Trump Tower and introduced the T One, a gold colored US made smartphone from Trump Mobile. The device is finally out and maybe not living up to all its promises.

Speaker 2

Bloombergs.

Speaker 3

Dane Wolman, our consumer tech editor, joins us in the team, as we can see in the video, has had its hands on the T one.

Speaker 2

Main takeaways please.

Speaker 12

Yes, so the phone is out, it's real, does not quite live up to the pitch for what it's worth, not exactly gold mustard colored and we think really not made in the US. Other sites have done teardowns of the device and it appears to be an exact match for an HTC device that's the Taiwanese brand, a certain model that came out about two years ago, and it's a serviceable phone. It's a mid priced, mid range Android phone, and in some ways the specs are actually quite decent.

In some ways, not the camera. Camera performance in particular lags, but there are better options at this price range. And worth noting that the software support is one of the biggest just areas of uncertainty. It chips with Android fifteen and most Android phone makers are already on Android sixteen.

This week, Android seventeen started rolling out to certain devices, So that's actually one of the biggest points in the review is if you're going to just now buy a new device that you might be holding in your hands using for a few years, don't you want the security of the assurance of a having the most recent, up to date software and knowing that it will continuously be updated while you own the device.

Speaker 3

Bloomberg's tech editor Dana Wolman, thank you so much. Sticking with phones. Apple is preparing a second generation iPhone Air set to debut next spring. Sources say the prototype has a second rear camera and the company's working to improve the battery life. The new Air will run on a version of the A twenty pro processor. That's the same chip coming to this Fool's iPhones. Shares of Take two pushing a lot higher, training at their highest level in

about a month, gain of five percent. On the day, the parent company of Rockstar Games announced it would begin taking pre orders for Grand Theft Auto six next week. The highly anticipated game has already been pushed back twice, causing hits to the company's stock price. The pre ordered date and the release of the final cover art suggests it won't face another delay. I don't want to jinx it. That's the read. The game is scheduled to launch this November.

Sticking with entertainmentt's take a look at today is a big number. Over one hundred and sixty million dollars. That's the amount Toy Story five is expected to bring in at the box office this weekend. The new installment is tracking to have the best debut of the Pixar franchise, and it's not the only blockbuster expected to pull audiences to cinema this weekend. Let's bring in Bloombergs, Felix Jellette on the screen Time team, Toy Story five, What do we need to.

Speaker 14

Know Jasey's origin story We've already got late year, and you know, it's basically more fun. It's part of this pack schedule for the summer. I think if you're a theater owner, you're finally breathing a sign and relieve. It's probably the best summer lineup that Hollywood has ruled out since the pre pandemic days.

Speaker 2

And Toy Story is a big part of it.

Speaker 3

I watched The Mandalorian two days ago with my wife and we were one the two of only three people in that room, So I get the box office weekend. What else is on the on deck apart from Toy Story? And do you need to watch Toy Story one, three, four?

Speaker 2

First?

Speaker 14

You should just for the fun, okay, but you don't have to.

Speaker 2

What else do we have? I mean, there's a new Spider.

Speaker 14

Man movie, in new Minion's movie, new Christopher Nolan movie, Odyssey's Coming Out, Moana Live Action.

Speaker 2

You know, super Girl.

Speaker 14

There's really a pack lineup, and in addition, to all big studios. You're also getting a lot of help this year from some of the smaller players at A twenty four with back rooms, you know, some of these YouTube creators that are coming out with these low budget horror movies that are doing terrifically. And you know, even Amazon chipping in with Project Hail Mary. All of it's adding up to a very strong summer lineup.

Speaker 3

Okay, Bloomberg's Phoenix Chullette, thank you so much. Now before we go, the New York Knicks ticket parade is underway. Let's go over to City Hall Plaza in New York where Bloomberg's Randall Williams is standing by. Tell the Bloomberg Tech audience absolutely everything that is going on that they need to know and what the vibe is right now in New York City.

Speaker 1

This is a basketball party unlike anything I've ever seen. New York City has been waiting fifty three years to party like they're partying right now, all the way up down the street, all the way here to City Hall. And So when you think about what the Knicks means to this culture, you think about Rucker Park, you think about Dykeman, these street courts that have birthed so many

street stars in basketball. And now you think about the Knicks today, Jalen brunts and Karl Anthony, Towns, Jose Alvarado, New Jersey and New York hometown kids, there is not a story you could write better. And for what it means for the NBA. The NBA has been taking a beating in previous years in terms of the conversations about TV ratings. Everyone's been saying, oh, you know, the league is down, the league is down. Well, the Knicks played the San Antonio Spurs, they beat them in five, and

the ratings were up. So they were up so high that they were on par with some of Michael Jordan's numbers in terms of excuse me, not quite as as Michael Jordan's numbers, just.

Speaker 2

Right below it.

Speaker 1

And so when you think about that, for the the NBA is elated.

Speaker 2

Jalen Brunson is elated.

Speaker 1

They're going to be here right behind me at City Hall giving all their speeches and that's going to be a wrap on the NBA season. Next week will be the NBA Draft and we'll go into the summer league. But the NBA is thrilled. The New York Knicks are thrilled, and of course New York City basketball fans are having the time of their life inbox.

Speaker 3

Randall Williams live outside New York City Hall Bloomberg Tech audiences.

Speaker 2

Why are you covering basketball?

Speaker 3

I remember twenty eighteen and twenty twenty two when the Warriors won and the tech sector in Bay Area going wild, So New York City would do that for you as well. That does it for this edition of Bloomberg Tech. More live pictures, New York City, Knick's Parade, our top stories in the markets. Intel is up trading at a record high because the President of the United States said on truth Social that it has an agreement with Apple to bring chip manufacturing for the iPhone maker.

Speaker 2

Back to the United States.

Speaker 3

SpaceX down eight percent, one hundred and seventy seven dollars a share, But remember this is only the fifth day of trading since the Blockbuster IPO. The price at one hundred and thirty five dollars a share and its valuation is still out of this world. This is a story that won't go away, but we are a long way from the lock up period fully expiring, so we're going to track the mechanics of it. Remember, It's a short

trading week in the United States. Friday is a holiday for some and many, so recap today show on the podcast You know exactly where to find it on the Bloomberg platforms, The Terminal and online Apple Spotify. iHeart what a week this is Bloomberg Tech

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