Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news from the heart of where innovation, money and power collide in Silicon Valley and beyond. This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow.
Live from New York.
I'm Caroline Hyde, and this is Bloomberg Technology.
Coming up.
Tesla the shares sync after its deliveries full thirteen percent over the last quarter, the lowest since twenty twenty two, plus investors brace for tarifs a head of President Trump's Rose Garden announcement today, we'll discuss what this means for the global tech trade and Chinese US relations. And we sit down exclusively with the CEO of Roadblocks as a company launches new parental control, and we discuss its ad
partnership with Google. But first we check in on these markets that fluctuate ahead of the all important announcements from the Rose Garden. Later today, President Trump set to unveil what Liberation Day really means. We're flat on the day on the NASAQ one hundred, but dig into some of the key movers. I single out one Tesla. We're off by one point six percent, had been lower in earlier trading. But let's dig into the details of what people are
saying is production issue but also a political issue. It's the worst sales slump for Tesla going back to twenty twenty two. They delivered just three hundred and thirty six thousand vehicles, falling short of the average three hundred ninety thousand estimated by analysts.
For more, we go to Bloombo's Cray Trudel.
It's about three hundred and sixty thousand and six hundred vehicles delivered. But analysts had braced for a slowdown, but not this big of a slowdown.
Craig.
Yeah, there were some that were even predicting a year over year growth, which seems kind of hard to leave when you look at the publicly available figures that we had throughout the quarter, especially over here in Europe, we saw just really substantial declines and some of the biggest
ev markets but this was pretty widespread, right. We saw also in China the wholesales out of the Shanghai plant were down, you know, month after month in the first quarter, and so you know, as you alluded to earlier, this is a matter of both you know, Musk's politicking coming into play, but also you know, more mundane factors like changing over the model Why, which you know, we'll better get a handle on just how much you know, one factored into into this versus the other as the week's
you know, you know, in the coming weeks when we get a better sense of just how well the new newer model Why is doing.
Mundane factors such as competition as well, most fiercely in China, can you just break out where in particular the geographies were worse.
Yeah, I mean the company doesn't offer a regional breakdown unfortunately, but we know that in China, BID is really just mopping up. We're seeing them really, you know, pull further ahead from the competition Tesla and otherwise we've seen also Gan me you know, turn a lot of heads and really you know, pull away consumers that might have otherwise
looked at at buying a Tesla. I think one of the challenges that you're seeing for the company is that you know, they just don't have as broad a lineup or as affordable a lineup as BYD does, and so they are just not the volume player that they used to be in that market and cannot keep up with BYD.
China's Passenger Car Association releasing data that Seeson eleven percent slide. For Tesla in France it was down more than thirty percent. Once again, just tell us the nuance of what we expect to hear from Elon Musk on this. In the past they have tried to direct as to why they've slown down and blaming in many parts the production overhaul.
Will we hear from him on the back of these is.
Yeah. I think one of the things that's interesting to me about these figures that they reported today is is that production exceeded deliveries by a fairly substantial margin. And so this excuse that this was just you know, production constrain, you know, that that was at issue, doesn't really seem
to work out. Of course, you would expect there to be some lag in that, you know, some vehicles have to be produced and then shipped to where they you know, are end up at Tesla stores and with end customers. But you know, for for this gap to be the significant in a quarter where we knew the model why
changeover was happening, that's definitely notable. I think the other thing that we're likely to hear from from Musk in addition to the model y excuse is you know, for him to sort of pivot to the talk about AI and autonomous driving and you know, flip to the robotaxi event that they've you know, said is coming in June that they will start giving people rides in unsuper revised,
full self driving Tesla's in Austin. That of course, is something that is potentially a catalyst in the months to come.
And why Kathy Wood remains a bull for example, Crowdrudell, thank you very much. Indeed, in another blow to Elon Musk, his Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate was dealt a resounding loss in the state's judicial race. That's despite Musk's backing of nearly twenty million dollars into the campaign. Now, former state Attorney General Brad Schimmel lost to the Circuit Court judge Susan Crawford, who led with fifty five percent of the votes.
Now that's according to the Associated Press. Still, it wasn't a full win for Democrats in Florida special elections. They fell short on their bids for two critical House seats. And let's just turn our attention now to what also Elon Musk must be navigating, which is President Trump's tariff plan.
They're coming down to the wire, and this is as his team is apparently still finalizing the level and scope of the new import taxes he is slated to unveil this afternoon, which of course could be a major shock compared to the US's tariff right historically.
Blim mergs.
Mike Shepherd joins us for more. What are the finer details that we're still expecting beyond doubt.
Well, Caro, those are the things that we're trying to find out at this hour. We're all holding our breath here in Washington and really on Wall Street too, to see what will emerge from those deliberations by the President and his team. They're looking at a basically choice between
three paths. One is the reciprocal tariffs that we've heard President Trump talk about recent weeks, This idea that we charge them, in his words, what they charge us, in other words, customizing tariff levels depending on what they see
as a relative trade barrier with US goods. The next would be doing something it's a little bit more like a tiered system where you have a lower tariff right for countries that have fewer trade barriers with the US, and a higher tariff right for countries that have more trade barriers. And then there's the third option, also Carow, of something that looks more like a flat tariff, one that would be just one level, say twenty percent worldwide, no matter the country, no matter the level of received
trade barriers assessed by the administration. That would reflect what he had talked about on the campaign trail too, Chep.
What's so interesting is technology has taken a hit from a valuation perspective. People trying to dissect how much this affects the semiconductor industry in particular, we've got any nuance there, Well, you.
Know, we don't. There was discussion from the President and his advisors of taking a sectoral approach to the tech industry, naming the semiconductor sector in particular, and the idea was that, look, by imposing tariffs on imported chips, we will try to bring some production back here to the US. And they've even referred to TSMC's decision to move to the US's evidence that those tariff threats actually will have some effect.
TSMC announced, of course, an additional one hundred billion dollar investment in the US not long after the president took office. But the effects of these tariffs will be felt across the value chain. In tech, We're going to see costs potentially rise for all manner of good that comes into the US. We're talking about computer hardware in addition to chips,
we're also talking about smartphones. So the impact will be felt widely, and businesses will have to make a decision about whether they pass those costs on to consumers or they simply accept smaller margins in the process.
Mike sheppin always giving us up to date. Thank you so much. Let's now bring in Michelle Guide.
CEO of Purdues Crook Institute for.
Tech Diplomacy, previously served in the Trump administration the previous one in terms of diplomacy and global public affairs. This inflationary pressure, Michelle, is it worth it in the short term for long term bringing potentially more manufacturing back to the US.
Well, well, I'll start with Caroline. When I served as Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs, we had four thousand public affairs officers and one hundred and eighty five missions across the world, advancing one of America's key messages at the time, which was fairness and reciprocity. And that's because the President Trump had been saying it since
day one. In his first foreign trip at Riad, he said it in Denaying, he said it in Warsaw, he said it at the UN twice, he said it at Davos. So fairness and reciprocity. Fair and reciprocal trade has been a key message of the United States for a very
long time under this president. And I think the uncertainty that we're seeing right now is in the discomfort that we're seeing is less uncertainty and actually more of an adjustment about what the long term trajectory is going to be to make sure that the United States is as economically and technologically competitive.
As possible point us to that longer term trajectory.
Therefore, Michelle, this is not a surprise to you.
So those that are still feeling that instability, as you call it, how do they see the next few months ago if they're a business leader having to decide where to invest.
Well, I think even longer term than that, we have a strategic decision to make as a country. Are we going to wake up and or we're going to worry that the S and P is down eight point three percent since February, Or are we going to worry about the United States becoming a technology and an economic and a manufacturing powerhouse in the twenty first century so that we can lead the world and we can be the safest, freest, and most prosperous country that the world has ever seen.
And if the choice is the latter, then we're going to have to re engineer a lot of things in order to be the global leader and to secure our national security in our prosperity. Tariffs are a part of that, but there's a lot more that has to be done. And we've seen in recent weeks the America First Investment Strategy come out, so we're investing into our economy and our technologies with national security in mind. We just saw a couple of days ago the announcement about the new
US Investment Accelerator. All of these things are going to help us be a economic powerhouse and a manufacturing powerhouse, because not only do we have to design and innovate and code new technologies, we also have to build them because it's imperative to our national security, and.
Companies have been trying to build them and ultimately using the chipsack previously, you've had Intel promised at least eight billion to be able to bring manufacturing of chips here as well as R and D. Another three billion dollars being promised if they bring R and D to the military there in particular.
But now that hangs in the balance.
I understand and hear you in terms of there's this new US investment accelerator. But that is a cool front certainty for these companies too.
It is.
But look out outside of just the Chips Act. You had the soft bank investment one hundred billion dollars to start moving to five hundred billion dollars to build AI data and energy infrastructure here in the United States. TSMC dedicated another one hundred billion dollars at Purdue Research Park. The CROC Institute is at Purdue University at Predue Research Park. SK Heinez four billion dollars to build advanced packaging. Hundai just did twenty billion dollars in Louisiana. So it's not
just chipsacked and in federal spending. But there's a lot of private sector companies from foreign countries that are investing here because they want to build here, and it's all good news for the United States.
Michelle. I think therefore an element of uncertain to hear.
We can see what the US wants, but it's how the others react. And for many in technology, they're wondering, how did digital services become impacted? If Europe fights back on these tariffs, how do you gain that out?
For business leaders, Yeah, I think that's going to be a short term and long term conversation between the US and Europe and specifically our tech companies and their regulatory bodies. But I'll say this, European Commission head Ursula vonder Lyon said yesterday that Europe is always going to look out
for European values in European self interests. The United States has to do the same, which means that there has to be a level playing field between our most trusted partners, just like the EU or Mexico or Canada, in addition to adversaries like China who are trying to compete and lead in technology. And so this is all about looking
toward America's self interest. We have to manufacture, we have to build, we have to innovate and make sure that we are re engineering the global system in order to serve that so that United States can lead.
To compete against China.
Will this ensure that or could we see TikTok almost become part of the negotiation, which takes many by surprise.
We'll see.
You know, the deadline's coming up on April fifth, and I think we're gonna The President has said he wants to try to find a way to maintain their presence here while protecting our national security.
We'll see, but it is.
Law that they have to divest or leave the United States in terms of the US China competition. More broadly, the way that we outcompete China is to innovate and enterprise and manufacture and build faster, better and smarter. And by focusing on our ability to do all of those things here at home, to unleash the private sector is our best chance of winning and leading, just as we did in the twentieth century.
Shell Geide, it was great to have you on. Thank you, Perduez Kirk Institute for Tech Diplomacy.
Stay well.
Meanwhile, coming up plans for TikTok. Will they remain up in the air? Just three days left before it's potential. We speak with one of the bidders who's been in it.
For the long haul.
It's Frank McCourt Junior. This is Blomberg Technology. President Trump is set to hold a meeting today to discuss a proposal for divesting TikTok's US operations from its China's parent company, Byte Dance. This comes just days ahead of its April fifth deadline to be sold or to be banned. Sources say the administration is considering currently a deal that would include Oracle, Blackstone and other investors in a joint venture. This proposal, though, is just one being put forth by
a number of interested parties in purchasing TikTok. One of those who put their bid in near the beginning is Frank McCourt, junior Project Liberty founder and executive chairman of the Court Global.
He joins us, now, are you.
Going to be there in Washington for this meeting? Jetting off after this? Have you been part of this conversation?
Now, I'm jetting off after this, but not to Washington, and so we're interested in the same comes out of the meeting. There's still a lot in motion. Let's say, right now, Caroline, what.
Do you think really is in motion?
Is it a broader diplomatic sort of ping pong? That valance, it seems, is mainly needing the charge in or is it actually just trying to work out which bid works best for the US law.
I think it's really beginning to digest what the real issues are here, what's really in that legislation upheld by the Supreme Court, Meaning where does the algorithm sit, who has access to it? For example, the finds huge finds here for any violation of the law, and who is
responsible for those finds. So I think that now we're getting to the point of a real analysis of the law and the Supreme Court ruling and what is a legitimate bid, What is a real transaction where one could buy TikTok us TikTok and meet the spirit and the letter.
Of the law.
Let's go to your offer, because as it stands, you don't want the algorithm that fits the letter of the law right.
Correct, Yes it does, And that's fundamentally the point here. You can't dodge that issue. The algorithm is, along with the source code, the way that China is able to manipulate what Americans read, see, and eventually think about issues. And this is highly dangerous for America. And that's why the legislation was passed with a broad bipartisan support. And so we now have a set of issues where you need to completely disentangle from the Chinese technology in order
to have a bid that complies with the law. And the reason why we still believe our bid, our offer for us TikTok, is the only offer that actually meets the letter and the spirit of the law. We don't want or need the algorithm because we have a clean stack that we've been building for the last five and a half years.
We understand there are four bidders. I'm going to go into one of them more clean in a minute. But who else do you understand to be the bidders out there at the moment.
I'm not one hundred percent sure I've heard the number four. I don't believe there are four, and I think that there may be a mixing and matching of bidders that we're hearing about as well. So I think it's all very much a fluid situation right now, Caroline, and we'll learn more of this afternoon.
This afternoon, we understand that President Trump is hearing the latest ideal around Oracle being part owner.
They're already an.
Infrastructure provider and Project Texas, which was full of under the previous administration, was meant to be the way in which Oracle could preserve ultimately the data of US citizens within using TikTok. Is that going to be a legitimate way that is sold here in America.
Let's think about source code and operational code or algorithm. The issues are not just where it sits, but who has access to it.
And this is.
The source code or the algorithm could sit somewhere, but if China still has access to it, that's highly problematic. And I think at the end of the day, China has been clear. It seems to me anyway that they've been crystal clear they're not letting go of the algorithm. And what also seems to me crystal clear in the legislation is that any bid that includes the algorithm is not going to meet the criteria laid out in the law.
So there's the issue. And again I go back to the reason why we made the bid and did it on behalf of Project Liberty. It was not because we set up Project Liberty to purchase you as TikTok.
We set up Project Liberty.
To bring forward the set of issues that are problematic with the current tech design that we have right now. It just so happens that TikTok was an opportunity that presented itself where we stepped forward and said, hey, why
don't we turn a problem into a solution. Here, let's buy you as TikTok, move it over to a clean stack where you and I control our identity, control and own our data, permission its use, and basically have a different Internet, which I would argue will be vastly better for people, vastly better for democracy, for society, and for children.
You want a decentralized future of social media. At the same time, the administration is trying to weigh up future relationships with China. We also know that President Trump really liked using TikTok as a way in which to tell his message during the campaign to the younger audience. When you think about the potential oracle bid, you said, it's very fluid. But who else might be joining that? We've
heard of Blackstain, We've had a VCS for example. Do you know any other players that might be getting into that bid.
Well, we've talked to I believe all of the existing investors in Bye Dance, US investors in Byte Dance, and I think all or most all would be happy to stay involved in the transaction. I mean, why not, Caroline. It's better to spin off a company, keep an interest in it, hope for the best rather than have the company shut down.
General Lanteka talking about so all.
These names that you're hearing, they're all around the deal because they have an interest in the deal. As far as President Trump and his affinity for TikTok, we can create a version of TikTok that he'll like just as much, if not more, because it will do the same good things without putting Americans at risk.
Do you think there's any way that we get a deal by the deadline of.
The fifth.
I personally think that's highly unlikely. But we'll know more this afternoon or certainly.
By the fifth.
And are they coming to you directly? Who are you speaking to within the administeron?
Our conversations have been with the Vice President and the Vice President's office, and.
The leaning you get from Vice President Vance, is he taking into consideration the future of how social media works within the United States, the future of an algorithm being in China or not?
Or is he seeing as much more of as a diplomatic effort.
Oh, you'd have to ask the Vice President that. I certainly hope he's seeing the broader issues of the future of the Internet, and I know is concerned about our national security.
Many are also questioning just the price point, What would you be willing to pay without the algorithm, without the so called secret source.
Well, we've put a we've put a number of twenty billion on the assets without the algorithm, and so, and we're sticking by that. We think that's a very full number for just the user base and the data where we're we're not getting all that back end. But we don't want, our need the back end. And that's the point, right we've built it, which is why we happen to be in the right place at the right time for this transaction. We meet the spirit and the letter of
the law. We keep us TikTok lit up and everybody wins.
Is that anyway that they go back to Congress and re offer this deal.
Is there any way that that law ends up not sticking?
I can't see it. I can't see it. This was a law to pass for good reason, and as I said earlier, highly broadly bipartisan people saw clearly the national security issues associated here, and the and the and the risks of the United States and to US citizens. It was It was a law that was appropriately passed, one of the few that was passed with bipartisan support, and in the speed at which it was passed, signed by the President, upheld by the Appellate Court, upheld by this
Supreme Court. Twelve judges said, this is a valid law. This is a real set of national security issues. Zero judges were on.
The other side of that.
Many of the same people that voted for this law are in the Trump administration. They understand the issues and that hasn't changed. And what I want to emphasize is there is a solution to this. There's a solution that meets the criteria of the legislation, keeps TikTok lit up, protects American citizens, and begins to show the way of a new Internet.
Will current uses of TikTok love your vision of the Internet as much as they love the algorithm.
And I think they're going to love it more.
We call it the People's bid because we're going to green Bay packer it, give them a piece of it. Let them actually benefit financially from the growth of the platform and the value they're not just from the business they create on the platform, but why not give them a piece of the entire platform so that they can benefit from the equity that's built up in the platform itself, bringing.
In the sports. We love it. Thank you as ever for joining us.
Let us know what comes out of your discussions post the meeting today. Frank McCord of Project Liberty and of course Court Global, he is potentially offering to buy TikTok. Welcome back to BLUEBG Technology. I'm Karen Hide in New York. Now, if you have children, the chances of you knowing about Roadblocks are pretty high. It's a virtual universe, of course, that allows users to create, to collaborate nearly eighty five million daily active users.
Roadblocks is out with a slew of announcements.
Including a partnership with Google, as well as new parental controls. Shares rallying following the news and let's just unpack it all in inexclusive conversation with Roblock CEO David Bazuki.
David is great.
To have you on the show, and I'm so interested in what analysts are calling right now a smart strategic move this partnership with Google. What brands are responding to this new partnership we've unveiled.
Hey, great to be on the show and want to highlight you know, we shared a really huge vision of having ten percent of all gaming running on roadblocks, which is a really big vision. And you know, we feel gaming is still in the in the prehistoric times as far as how people consume and use gaming content. We have a huge creator community who is already creating amazing businesses.
This partnership with Google is another way for those creators to help build their business and monetize, and for our older users, we're going to give our creators side by side virtual currency and side by side subscriptions another way to help build their business on roadblocks. We have many creators making over ten million dollars a year on the platform and some making over fifty million dollars a year. So this is a really sponsor ing big emerging studios building on our platform.
It's about the ecosystem.
I'm interested you say for older users, who do you think the brands really want to expose themselves to right now? In terms of generations? Is it still all about gen z? Is it skewing upward?
We shared the vision once again of ultimately getting to a billion daily active users on our platform with this intermediate step of ten percent of gaming and in last quarter we shared a lot of fun stats are seventeen through twenty four age group is growing very rapidly. We've become a platform where more of our users are over thirteen. That seventeen through twenty four year old segment is really hard to reach.
More and more of them are on roadblocks.
As we start to have amazing experiences, whether it's NFL Universe, Dressed to Dress to Impress experiences where these types of users are on our platform.
Dress to Impress immediately makes me think about, well, obviously the retail opportunity for brands, but also how it becomes synonymous with physical well too, take us forward is what really advertising will eventually be?
For roadblocks?
Okay, well, if we step forward, way forward in a sci fi scenario, I can imagine, just like it's fun to go shopping at the mall today, it's of course we're going to go shopping with our virtual avatars. We're going to be able to go to stores, see our favorite brands. We're going to be able to try clothing on and see how it looks on our avatar. We're going to have a lot of fun doing it, and when we want to buy the physical or the virtual item, we'll be able to make that purchase. So we may
look back in ten or twenty years ago. Oh my gosh, it was weird that all of our shopping on the web was two D rather than jumping forward to a future three D and ultimately four dimensional world. So someday maybe we'll go virtual shopping together.
Well, advertisers are going to be excited by it.
The analyst are excited by it because ultimately this will become a bigger and bigger part of your business model. When do you think you'll be able to break it out and show just how much advertising is bringing to your bottom line?
Yeah, we once again on this journey to getting over ten percent of the gaming market space. We've shared we expect to be growing our bookings at over twenty percent year on year, continuously going forward while generating a lot of cash. And we are looking forward to when we break out the advertising revenue and the commerce revenue.
We haven't shared when we will do that.
Come on the show, Dave on the show, What you got to break it for us?
On the show?
Oh, I can't break it on the show, but I'll call you before we break it out and I'll let you know I.
Appreciate that nook more seriously for brands to really commit here and to stick with it for your users to remain It's also all about safety. I know you even putting a lot of thought into that. You've got new parental controls that you're announcing today for us, Dave, talk us through them.
Yeah, well, take a step back.
Even when we first launched the platform, very early on, our goal was to build the safest place on the Internet, and as a Roadblocks has become more embedded in our culture, we're constantly shipping safety improvements. We're really trying to support parents to make great decisions for their family. So we already preemptively have screen time limits on Roadblocks. Parents can set that with their family. We're announcing today more parental visibility.
Parents will be able to see where the people and their family, the younger people at least, are playing on Roadblocks. They're going to have more and more control of who their kids are friends with, and they'll actually have control over what experiences they might say is not appropriate for our family. So this notion of focusing on safety and giving parents control in addition to all of the other safety work we do, is really a big priority for us.
How does that fit with the kids actual experience, Dave?
And how do you think in any way we'll start to see less time spent on the product?
We once again, there's something really cool about Roadblocks and this form of social media. The form of social media that roadblox is really communication and connection. And when I was a kid, sometime on rainy days, I would pick up the phone and that's how I'd hang out with my friends. Roadblocks is less about sharing short videos and watching them by myself or sharing images of myself. It's
about doing things with other people. And so I think parents, working with the young people and their family will figure out what's right for them.
At one point, you did suggest that if parents don't trust the product, they should keep their kids off.
What's the reaction been to that, right, Well, I.
Think there was a lot more context to that.
What we were talking about is comfort and the notion in we think parents should be comfortable with what the young people are doing on their platform.
We do.
You know, safety is our top priority. We're shipping safety improvements every week and that This is just one of many, many announcements. You know, one of the biggest things we do on Roadblocks is try to keep people on our platform so they don't go to other platforms where they may share images or where they may chat with unfilled texts. So that quote I made was about parents should be comfortable with what their family is doing.
How much can AI make them more comfortable.
So behind the scenes before, we're in an amazing time with AI right now. It's changing how we create. It's changing ultimately how people create on roadblocks, and we think what's going to happen on Roadblocks is rather than maybe the text world or the image world, which is the one D world or the two D world, on roadblocks, we're going to be supporting the three D world where people are building three D objects. Behind the scenes, we've been building an AI platform for four years. We have
over two hundred models running on Roadblocks. All of the images that people use when they're creating, all of the text, all of the voice on Roadblocks runs through some of these models, and so AA has really been a foundation of what we've done. Our voice model is so good and so efficient that we've shared it on hugging face so other companies can use it. I was just at the Game Developers Conference. I ran into a startup and I said, how are you going to do voice safety?
And they said, we're going to use your open source voice models. So we're really trying to give back to the community and these areas where we've got, you know, expertise, and we've also joined a consortium to try to make this open source for more small companies.
That consortium roost Robust Online Open Safety Tools alongside Google and discord just how collaborative is it with other platforms when it comes to safety or is there more collaboration needed.
Today we're one of the founding members. We want to more and more make open source. Some of the models we've built for safety voices is arguably one of the first steps for that, and it's exciting to me that I'm starting to hear of small startup companies who will simply use our voice model.
We've also made our.
Three D foundational AI model, the cube model, also open source, and we believe once again these foundational models, because we have such an expertise in training and building, can be used by others.
I just go back to what you said at the start there, Dave, that you wanted to build the safest place on the Internet all the way back in two thousand and six. The world was such a different place in two thousand and six, and yes, we might as parents have been anxious about what our kids were doing on the streets. But now we've got an anxiety level around all of what could be going on the Internet. And then you add AI on top of that, and the moderation crisis that evolves of that of ever more
content that you have to oversee. Just what does it feel like, as someone who I know is a parent has their nephew nieces using roeblocks, is really thoughtful about the future of Internet? Does it upset you or how does it make you respond when the worst of humanity creeps on it.
I'm surprisingly very optimistic, and I'm surprising, you know.
I'm optimistic because.
More and more, from the safety standpoint, AI gives us enormous power and enormous tools to help moderate both content as well as communication. On the creation side, I'm very optimistic because I more and more people on roadblocks are going to become creators, and people who feel they could never have designed clothing or could never have designed a new house, or could never design a sports car.
Are going to start.
Being able to design these things by talking about them and not just design them one time, but iterate on them, improve on them. So just like digital tools like photoshop replaced oil painting, I actually feel AI is going to make us all feel more like creators and supercharged creativity amongst all of us.
So we love the low fi vibes of roadblocks in the past, how much is it going to become high fidelity what we're currently seeing on our screens.
The long term spec for the product, and really one of the most difficult specifications of any technical platform is giving artists complete freedom. And with video right now, we could argue that artists have freedom. We see animation, we see anime, we see photo realistic, we see hyper realistic.
We're introducing more and more functionality, and we mentioned this part of the notion that we want to have ten percent of the gaming space on our platform, So ultimately artists can either go our traditional BLOCKI style, a more realistic style, or ultimately, with some of the cloud facilities, we're building high res styles that they're used to in some of the other types of games they see out there in the market.
You talk about how you want to serve the market, the ecosystem, the developers you've done. I mean, the value creation that we've seen with one of the key developers being Brookhaven, has been phenomenal.
They sold out to Oldex.
Do you know the sort of size of deal and how many millions are going for those sorts of purchases.
I can't comment on the size of the deal.
I'm pretty sure the deals are starting to get into nine figures, not eight figures. At the Roadblocks Developer conference last September, one of my ten prognostications was we're going to see a billion dollar market value deal for a studio on Roadblocks, and arguably we should see that happen. If we keep pushing the technology for the gaming space, and if we have ten percent of the gaming in the world running on our platform.
We're going to see more and more of those studios start to show.
Up talking about gaming.
But you're also talking about how this is ultimately a social endeavor. Who is your competitor right now? Is it eyes and minutes spent on TikTok and social media or is it other gaming platforms.
It's an interesting metaphor it.
As we think about competition, we think more about.
This vision we have in the company, and.
Also what is technically possible with today's technology.
We know it's technically possible ultimately.
For a young creator to build a really interesting experience, have it immediately be live in any country, be within the policies of any country, have it automatically translated to any language, and have it run either on a very low end device a two gigabyte RAM phone or a super high end gaming PC, and allow people to join
that experience instantaneously without a download. Because we know all of this is possible, and we're building it as quickly as we can, we do sometimes think our competition is our own ability to iterate quickly.
Some might say about TikTok being a competitor. We had Jesse Tinsley on the show previously. He said, you're supporting his bid for TikTok from a personal perspective, I.
A high level, I won't comment on what bid I'm supporting. I do think there's one of the things we're highlighting in our discovery system is transparency, and I think there's an underlying theme of all of these bids, whether you know the algorithm is running in the US or at the least it's completely transparent. I think people all around the world would like to see transparency in these algorithms.
One of the things we're doing more and more on roadblocks for the creators who also our users find cool experiences on roadblocks is being very transparent with how our algorithm is working, so developers can can know how we're forwarding things to the user. But I do think whatever the bid on TikTok is, we're going to see transparency of that algorithm and arguably an air gap where that algorithm has to run in the United States.
The administration pretty involved in the TikTok now, the administration the current SEC now inheriting a potential investigation into roadblocks.
How is that going day?
I can't comment on that.
I constantly say we run an extremely type chip and we're very proud of everything we do.
Pride is something you want to make global, and you're talking about how people can create immersive world and immediately go into any language, any country right here, right now, it's quite difficult to be a global country company when based in the US. How do you feel about the trade anxiety that's currently undergoing and what it means for your business.
I was just in Emirates at the World Forum, and what.
Was interesting is in Emirates there are some top Roadblocks creators who are are contributing code to some of the top experiences on the platform, and also some top creators who are are fashion creators who are doing quite well in the virtual economy on the platform. Optimistic for platforms like Roadblocks, where there's a demand for amazing content, more and more of our creators, whether they're in the USA, whether they're in the Gulf region, whether they're down in
Brazil where you know we have an enormous activity. I'm really excited that we can offer a global economy for these creators, and we see our top creators coming from all around the world dressed to impress team. For example, I believe is in the.
UK your username is build Aman. Are you still busy building a view.
That this is going to be the metaverse that we're going to live in that in the next few years?
Is that what the ultimate vision is here day?
The vision we have is humans are always trying to find a way to communicate, and we used to use the mail system. We use the phone system, we use texting, we're on video, we're communicating on video, and we believe three D communication is going to sit side by side with that.
Three D communication is pretty interesting.
We can change our avatar, we can play Hide and Seek together, we can go to a concert together. So we're really optimistic about what we call this evolution to three D and forty communication. We think it's going to be big. We think this is a natural evolution of technology. We're in a great opportunity to help usher this in in a safe and civil way.
And when we get back to building, we actually.
Call our people and our team with in Roadblocks builders, so that that builder man idea has really stayed with us.
David Zuki, great to have you on the show, co founder CEO Roadblocks, stay well.
Coming up with sticking with gaming because.
Nintendo has announced the release date and price, it's highly anticipated.
Switch to details next.
Quick check in on Tesla shares though, because we're now up two point seven percent this after of course, Tesla deliveries come in well below expectations, about three hundred and sixty thousand overall when the market have wanted three hundred and ninety. How there does seem to be news coming more broadly from the administration, hinting to his close relations via that Trump is telling his inner circle that Musk will leave soon. That's according to Politico, this is Blue
Beg technology. Nintendo has revealed new details, so it's highly anticipated Switch to which it plans to release on June the fifth.
This is the video game makers really first entirely.
New platform in eight long years and has the potential to lift sales after a pretty lackluster few years for the industry.
His to tell us more is Bloomberg Cecilia de Nastasio. It's expensive.
It is expensive, So four.
Hundred and fifty dollars, what is that like in context of the market.
There are other handheld offerings now that are on the market that we're not on the market when the original Switch was released, and they're selling for somewhere between four hundred and seven hundred dollars. But at the same time, Nintendo has a lot of star power that these competitors from Lenovo, Asis, Valve Corp. And potentially even Microsoft, which is also teased to handheld console do not.
Okay, so it can stand out from the crowd.
What an analy is saying to the date, the price point, the release, how much anticipation is there.
I talked to several analysts this morning who are very optimistic about sales for the switch to.
They say that some of the launch titles.
Including a new Mario Kart, a new Curby game Donkey Kong, could propel sales for the switch to.
And of course the Nintendo has been so clever at using that IP and getting into different ways. It's a style of marketing in many ways. Where else will they be leaning into and who ultimately is their target market right now?
The switch to, unlike the original switch, is more of an incremental change to its predecessor. So the WEU which came before the switch looked completely different, and now the switch to it's mostly just improved screen size, battery life resolution,
some sort of small quality of life adjustments. The target audience for the switch to is someone who loves their Switch one, and we know that there are hundreds of millions of people who fit into that category but want something with a little bit more of a modern feel and touch.
But off to eight years, is it enough of a change? And listen talking to say that it is.
Again, there are more powerful handheld gaming devices on the market now than ever, including four around a similar price point to Nintendo's. However, Nintendo sells consoles with their exclusive games, which are widely loved in the video game community.
And so we're not worried about the consumer that's under pressure at this point looking at a price point like that looking to upgrade.
People really love their video games and are willing to do a lot to get their hands on a new console. It's something that people will budget out for months or years in.
Advance, okay, and even be pourchasing from some international makes Cecilia Donastasio great on all things in Nintendo. Meanwhile, let's get back to the rest of the market, because Tesla shares actually rebounding. There were session loans previously on the
back of lackluster deliveries. But now that reports in Politico that Trump has told his inner circle that Elon Musk will be leaving soon, reimbogs Isabelle, Lee joins us some more, and many feeling good he can be more focused on Tesla or I'm assuming absolutely Caroline.
So in the morning, the mood was kind of gloomy because Tesla saw its vehicle sales falling thirteen percent in the first quarter. That's the lowest since twenty twenty two. And this is common because they transitioned their model wise factory, it's common to loose some output. The uncommon thing is Elon Musk involvement, which some analysts cited and around eleven seventeen political publisher's story. In around eleven nineteen, you see shares of Tesla flip back to the green and now
it's edging higher around two and a half percent. So really, with this stop, there's just one headline after another. But with the political reporting, maybe that means Elon Musk will focus more on Tesla, and maybe that would mean less headlines, but it remains to be seen.
We're talking of one headline after another. We've got another one coming from the New York Times. Amazon puts in a last minute bid to acquire TikTok.
It's reporting by New York Times.
Amazon shares currently spiking a little bit higher. The investor reaction seeming to like the integration of social media within Amazon's more broad remit. We're seeing Amazon bid in coming in via an offer letter to Vance and to lutnix So, to the Commerce secretary and to vice president Vance.
So says The New York Times. We will be reaching out for Amazon response.
It had been rumored in the market that they might be an acquirer. And of course Amazon in many ways has the sheer scale of money and cash on board
to be able to afford it. But the question is regulatory Will they be allowed to purchase such a significant asset when they already have the DOJ and they have many a regulator breathing down their neck when it comes to M and A of late, But as we say, repeat New York Times coming in with reporting that Amazon has made a last minute offer a bid to acquire all of TikTok, the US part of btdowns.
Now that does it for this position of Bloomberg Technology. Do not forget to check out our podcast.
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