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Headlines out on a call between US President Trump and Chinese President Jijingping about a framework agreement for TikTok's US operations.
We will break it down.
Plus Apple rolling out its new iPhone designs in stores today. We'll discuss what the customer and the stock reaction is.
And we sit down with FCC Commissioner and A Gomez to discuss the suspension of the Jimmy Kimmel Show and much more. iPhone seventeen on sale today. Caro went down to the store. We'll get the details in video. We're watching because we have not had any headlines out of that conversation with President Trump and Jijingping. Whether we in video is discussed or not, but that's what the market's watching, and I.
Throw oracle up.
We have had a headline out of that call. It is from China's news agency Jinhoar and it says that, according to Jijingping, China is prepared to respect the wishes of the companies that are involved in the TikTok deal. It has been reported that Oracle is part of the coalition and it's trading at a record high, but we do not have confirmation on the specifics, Caro. We're just watching that because it's the publicly traded name.
Indeed, there are following headlines coming out from that readout of the call. She has asked for the US to refrain from taking unilateral trade measures, a cleif clear focus there for on tariff measures. She on TikTok, saying they welcome business talks following market rules, and she also saying on TikTok that the Chinese government respects the wishes of companies. Perfect person to discuss all of this is Bloomberg Senior
Tech editor Mike Sheppard, who joins us from Washington. What do you make of the readout, Oll, Carol.
We're still looking at this readout as it comes in and as we're trying to interpret its meaning. We are not seeing a clear cut signal that China has given its blessing to this framework agreement that was unveiled by Chinese negotiators and US negotiators after two days of talks in Madrid.
There were very few details.
On that accord at the time, but our reporting has shown, as Ed has pointed out just now that Oracle, as well as and recent Horowitz and silver Lake Capital Management, would be among the US buyers of TikTok's US operations should approval actually come down from the Chinese side. Donald Trump, for his part, of course, is eager to see see this deal go through. He wants TikTok to stay viable in the US. He credits it with his election comeback victory. But we have not heard from the President yet.
Chet more headlines than another red headline on the Bloomberg terminal. G has asked the US to avoid undermining the outcomes from recent talks. I think that's a signal politically right. And remember these headlines are from a readout from China's state news agency. We also have another headline on TikTok. China would like to see the company's find resolution to the TikTok issue, according to G Again, Mike, we're following this in real time, but we're learning about China's attitude.
We still don't have the concrete details of what the structure of a US TikTok is.
Well, that's right, and it also doesn't sound like China is giving its full thumbs up there. It sounds like Hi Jimping is signaling that there are still some objections and that maybe something came up during the call with
President Donald Trump that gave China pause. We did even hear from Trump yesterday a bit of a non committal tone, not quite a full walk back of what we heard at the beginning of the week following this framework agreement between the two sides on trade but especially on TikTok, but he was saying we'll see those were his exact words in a Fox interview, and let's use signal from the president that there may be more work to do.
So we're still waiting to hear what the US version of events is and whether they think that they are any closer or perhaps further away when it comes to talks. It does sound like there are a lot of business issues still to resolve, including from the Chinese point of view.
Ed.
Remember this is key to understand. China does not want to sell TikTok. It wants to see byte dance hold on to this, and if it is sold, it wants to keep control of the algorithm and not see its company byte Dance is considered a real star in the Chinese tech universe. It does not want to see it diminished in any way, so there has to be a hefty price paid for this, and it also does not want to see the valuable algorithm transferred in any way to US owners.
We're just going to try and bring up a chart because Oracle is still triading higher, but only by a percentage point. Now it is actually pulled back from its highs directly on the readout coming from the Chinese state press right now. Now, of course, Oracle's name in the mix for any sort of coalition of companies that were looking to be buying TikTok's US unit. Now we can
see that it's just come off of its highs. So it looks as though, as you interpret, Mike, then indeed this doesn't feel like a done deal yet, and indeed that we are still trying to get the intricacies of what China says it likes to see companies to find resolution to TikTok issue. Of course, we need the US interpretation of all of this next steps, Mike. Therefore, because we were hoping that maybe other things were being considered in their pohlm call, not just TikTok, but in video them anymore.
Well, that's right.
There are a host of trade issues between the two sides to resolve, and I'm glad you brought up in video because the question of export controls that have restricted the chip maker's ability to sell its AI products in China have been a major sticking point between the two sides.
We've seen Jensen Wong really advocate here in Washington over the past nine months for a relaxation of the US export controls, but he's also run into some headwinds in China, which is also moving to discourage Chinese companies from buying the company's chips. So there is a lot at stake, and it's unclear whether Donald Trump used this call to try to go to bat for Jensen Wang and Nvidia.
The President has signaled his openness to the idea of perhaps selling a downgraded version of the new Blackwell line of AI chips in China, but again, that is a multi step process in terms of relaxing those export controls, and it's unclear whether this would factor into the conversation. Jensen Wong, for his part, certainly would like it to.
They're feeling the sense of urgency in China where Huawei is really moving ahead by leaps and bounds when it comes to developing its AI chips and finding ways to deploy them in a way to better compete with Nvidia, as we just saw yesterday.
Kara, Mike Shephard, we thank you for the breakdown instant analysis. Let's get more instant analysis for you. Sam Sak, Senior fellow at the New America Institute who has worked on Chinese technology policy for over a decade, So your viewpoint and expertise crucial.
Hair.
It feels as though maybe a deal isn't done. How do you interpret what really the outcome of a phone called can be sad.
The pathway to a deal, and I don't just mean a TikTok deal, but a broader US China trade deal is strewn with obstacles. Both sides clearly want something that they can deliver. But let's break it down what's in the way. China realizes that they have real leverage here and they're not going to give into this easily. They know that Trump wants to take home something to his
audience at home. The second thing is that there are hawks all over Congress in the administration who also work very hard to ban TikTok, only to see Trump look to trade it away. And they've raised hell about the idea that there are supposed national security concerns that are going to go unresolved about data access, about online content.
So there's a real sort of complex web of issues that both leaders are going to have to work through to bring home the political win for their respective constituents.
A political win.
Thus far, had been signaled to the market that a US part of TikTok would form as a different app. Entirely the users one hundred and seventy million of them would migrate to a different app as reporting goes, and would be controlled by US investors. But how hard is that sort of a pill for China to swallow? There had been reports, of course, that China or byte Dance would license the underlying algorithm. Why has TikTok become like the lynchpin to so much more in US China relationship.
The algorithm for a long time was the secret sauce. It was something that byte Dance was able to do far more effectively than its peers. But keep in mind this saga with TikTok has been playing out for about five years now, and so at what one time was seen as ahead of the game in getting users hooked on the app, the flywheel effect of then collecting more of their data. It's no longer really as cutting edge as I'd say it was five years ago when this
first became an issue. But that doesn't mean that Beijing's going to let it go so easily. This is a Chinese brand that has succeeded globally beyond China's markets at a time when that's key to China's asserting influence in the world, and they're at the beginning of being able to field companies that market that consumers out China outside of China actually want. So they're not going to just give this over easily to the US, as much as they want to secure a deal as well. Also, they
have big wants still on the table. They want export controls lifted. Mike mentioned about the Nvidia chips. Maybe they're holding out to see what exactly they can exert from Trump.
Sam, I'm going to go back to the news because we are literally digesting what is a readout from China State News Agency and According to that read out, President g says that the Chinese government will respect wishes of companies in the context of TikTok, that on TikTok, they welcome business talks following market rules, and the final headline is that China likes to see companies find a resolution
on the TikTok sale. We yet to get the readout from the United States side, but as somebody that's looked at Chinese technology policy, both from within the US government and from the private sector, is this a positive signal she's making or is it a negative signal, a warning.
That She's administration has not changed its position. They're saying that now, but actually the reality is they've been saying that for a long time. I don't think that they care that much about TikTok, to be honest, but I think they know that Trump cares about it, and they see this as the lynchpin to opening up a broader set of asks beyond TikTok, export controls, tariffs lifted, they want access to the US market for more investment. There's a litany of things, and then it becomes it becomes
a game of chicken. Who's going to blink first? And China knows they have something here.
Sam Sachs from the New America Institute, fascinating to have you on amid the breaking news. We thank you. Coming up, we're going to be breaking down the week there was and tech markets we're still at record highs empowers. Martin Norton joins them that next this Bloomberg Tech breaking news. Some headlines coming across the Bloomberg terminal that Chinese President She is asking for the US to avoid undermining outcomes
from recent talks. Mex Tyler Kennell joins us. Now from the White House, we've had to read out from the Chinese state press regarding that phone call between she and Trump. Now we await Trump's reaction. What do you make of the headlines? Right exactly?
Caroline and her White House official tells us that we will get at the White House formal response and a post on truth social So our eyes at the moment
are peeled on President trump social media feeds. But as you read that main headline here that Chinese state media is reporting that Jijingping says that the US should avoid undermining any recent progress in the talks, but that also the US should refrain from taking any sort of restrictive trade measures, and there's a few different angles and threads that we could really dig into when it comes to that idea that it appears that Jijingping is trying to portray,
including that we saw really both sides ramping up the pressure ahead of those talks in Madrid earlier this week, including for example, the US adding some twenty three Chinese companies to its entity list over the weekend. You were talking in your earlier segment about this idea around the messaging of export controls, and we've also seen the US really harden its rhetoric when it comes to so called secondary tariffs against China, urging our allies to impose them
over their imports of Russian energy supplies. We have to keep in mind put this into the context that our reporting has long showed that China has been upset, has been dismayed at this idea that they have been treated differently from other trading partners.
That's why you'll recall it.
Was so significant when that thirty four percent so called reciprocal tariff came back down to ten percent, but of course we still have twenty percent tariff related to fetanyl still on the table. And it's actions like those that perhaps will see some sort of movement on as we wait the readout on the White House's side. Now, as you well know, and we're discussing, the focus of today's call appear to be really on any sort of movement
around TikTok. But when it comes to these other trade concessions, our analysts at Bloomberg Economics point out, we really haven't gotten many signs up to this point that there has been movement on that because most of these talks have really been about keeping that de escalation in place. Caroline and ed. Yesterday, President Trump suggested that he is considering extending that tariff truce deadline it's set to expire on November tenth. That comes just weeks after a potential face
to face meeting. This call was largely seen as perhaps setting the stage for them that we're eyeing could potentially take place next month end of October in South Korea on the sidelines of the APEX summit.
I've been both Tyler Kendall at the White House, Thank you very much. It's really hard to interpret carry the market response here. The S and P five hundred has paired what we're modest gains to basically trade flat, and yields have ticked higher since we got those headlines. We were waiting for this this phone called. Martin Norton is chief investment strategist at Empower and joins us now for more.
I mean that trade headline is the main one both that g is calling on the President of the United States not to go back on what was discussed in talks. And you heard Tyler's reporting there as a market participant, where you braced and ready to move this morning, or did we get what we expected?
You know, we're in a kind of a world where there's a bit of a shoving match, and I think it's largely to be expected. There's not a massive clarity around what this could look like, and it's continued back and forth at this point in time.
I think what we're seeing more broadly is the.
Degree to which geopolitics is entering and becoming another source of volatility for the markets, something that impacts individual companies and the market more broadly. And the news is sudden and it catches folks off.
Guard, it does yep, sorry, ed you go no, no, no, I just wanted to point out the other red headline right because the news is just flying through the terminal as we speak. The other one is that President g Marta says that he wants the United States to refrain from taking unilateral trade measures. Again, we're trying to interpret a readout from China State News Agency, But what is your interpretation of that comment.
I mean, it certainly seems like there are bigger things at play right now. I think the reporting that you all have just shared showing that, yes, TikTok is something that's a primary concern, but there are other primary concerns as it relates to the broader trade relationship, and right now both sides are trying to find these points of leverage to determine what can be pushed to gain kind of the greatest advantage in this conversation.
So it seems like we're kind of listening into.
One part of the conversation, but it's part of a much broader discussion that's been going on and continues to go on.
Madre, it's interesting timing that JP Morgan Asset Management has put out this thought that actually what Trump's geopolitical risk right now is the AI story, and if we get a bad set of numbers, of any earnings look weak in some of these AI stars. That's where the market volatility really comes from. But actually the whole story around semiconductors is so intertwined with geopolitics as well, So how do you distinguish the two?
Right, It's a pretty fascinating time. I mean, we're looking at company after company that seems to be very in tune to what the Trump administration wants, and I think it underscores this idea that AI isn't just a form of secular growth for companies and for the economy, but it's something that is akin to the space race in terms of sovereign interest, and so I think it adds this whole another dimension that we have to consider as
we think about those sources of volatility. I think one consideration here is what does demand look like if we're looking at a more bifurcated world where potentially US and China aren't necessarily buying from each other as much as they are jocking with each other when it comes to AI. I'm not sure that necessarily changes the whole AA narrative.
We know that there's massive, massive amounts of demand even here just domestically, but I think it's a whole new dimension that we have to consider as we take a look forward and try to project expectations, and.
We try to stum up the fact that we're up sixteen percent year to date and then as that one hundred and we're a record highs So with all the underlying risks, should you be buying into this market?
You know, in my mind at this juncture, we're at a point where it makes some sense to rebalance, to take some profits. We've had this tremendous run since April eighth, where we've seen a lot of these companies recover or even something like the Mags, even which had a much bigger hit in the first part of the year due to Deep Seek, even that area of the market is beginning to look pracy now. Companies have delivered, the earnings has been there, the investment in the future that Capex
has been there. We're seeing demand from the hyperscalers based on AI workflows.
So there's a lot of positives to point to.
But it really wouldn't take much something coming out of left field like we saw with Deep Seek to maybe have people pull.
Back a bit.
And I think when we think about these innovation periods. It shouldn't be a straight line higher that would defy reality. It ought to be something that has fits and starts and moments of doubt. So I think when we're at a period where it feels somewhat euphoric, it's time to position for a potential moment of doubt.
Not an alton of EmPATH. Great to have you on amid these moments of doubt you are looking currently it pictures of the Apple store in New York and Fifth Avenue. Earlier today, the company was rolling out several new iPhones signs that kind of the biggest overhaul that we've seen since twenty twenty. I was there as the Apple CEO,
Tim Cook, walked around the store. There were NBA players there, and there were influencers, and there was me trying to get a moment with Tim Cook talking about perhaps some of the issues they had with getting enough iPhone pros into people's hands on the day. Of course, we're knowing that some of the timelines being pushed back, but it's not.
Just the cue.
The enormous queue that I saw lining the streets of New York, but that was replicated in London, wasn't It was over in Asia as well.
Yep, it was.
And it's interesting because you followed the clock around the world. Let's bring in Bloomberg's consumer tech editor Dana Wolman, and let's start on that piece. We have the information from Asia into Europe, now the United States. What's the reaction to iPhone seventeen launch day?
So definitely some long lines in all the major markets where reporters have visited stores, and a relatively few of the customers who we interviewed mentioned the iPhone Ra, which is the skinny iPhone that got so much media attention
ahead of the launch. It turned out that most of the customers who we interviewed were looking for the iPhone seventeen Pro or the Pro Max, which makes sense given that these phones are for pro users, power users and early adopters and tech enthusiasts are precisely the sort of people who might feel motivated to line up in front of a store around dawn the day of a launch.
It's interesting that in the eye of the storm is of course the supply chain that Apple has largely based in China. We are getting more breaking news of the readout coming from the Trump She talks on the phone with President Trump, putting on Social that he's just completed a very productive call with President she. But I'm interested in more broadly, how you're seeing the supply chain impact, Dana.
What's happening on the ground with the sales of the iPhone pro and how quickly or not we're able to get them in our hands, and some of the issues perhaps scratching of them over in China.
So far, not many shocks in terms of delays or shipment times. Shipment times have slipped by a couple weeks in certain markets for very popular models. Nothing that seems too extraordinary. The iPhone error has been delayed in China, seemingly over the eSIM, which is not a widely used technology in China, and the iPhone is the only of the iPhone models that exclusively uses that as opposed to a physical sim being an option.
Okay, Bloomberg's Dana Woman, thank you very much. We have more breaking news from the call between President Trump and Gijingping, posting on truth Social, President Trump says that he has agreed to meet with Jijiping and that meeting would take place at the APEX Summit. Caroline, my understanding is the APEX Summit is October thirty one November one. On TikTok, Trump says that they made progress on the approval of a TikTok deal. Trump adds that he appreciates the TikTok approval.
We're continuing to.
Get a lot of headlines, but not seeing any immediate market action or anything that contradicts some of the statements. Cara, if you want to jump in on what we had earlier, maybe we'll go back to break.
And we'll see what the markets are doing.
Oracle, I'm still training at about one point four percent high on the back of that meant to be cause a part of that consortium buying TikTok. But the key news is that they have agreed to meet again next month.
And I read some places that the networks were ninety seven percent against me again, ninety seven percent negative, and yet I won easily.
It were all seven spake stays. I've going to have won everything.
And if they're ninety seven percent against, they give me Holy Bard publicity oppress, and then they're.
Getting a license.
I would think maybe their license should.
Be taken away.
That was President Trump saying US Broadcast Network should face scrutiny over their licenses if they're too critical of him. His comments came not long after Jimmy Kimmel's show was put on indefinite hold by Disney following reactions to comments the comedian made accusing Republicans are trying to gain political points from the killing of GOP activist Charlie Kirk. Bloomberg
reporting that Kimmel met with Disney executives yesterday. According to sources, the soonest the show could return is September twenty second. I want to get out to Bloomberg's media reporter, Hannah Miller. Let's start on what we know in the news, which is that meeting between kim l and Disney.
What are the details we need?
Yeah, so we know they're discussing the fate of his show and whether there will be an apology or not. You know, Kimmel might be made to go on air apologize for his comments, and that might be something he doesn't want to do.
Meanwhile, as we wait for the reaction of the host himself, Hannah, you've been putting out from really strongly who heard in reporting talking about basically the war that President Trump is having with the media. Set the context for us.
Yeah, the Trump administration has a very contentious relationship with the media. We can see that in lawsuits, settlements, federal cuts to funding for public broadcasting. You know, it's been battle after battle, and a lot of what's happening here is that many of the news organizations being targeted have business stakes at play, and that's sort of being weaponized against them here.
Bloom Megs Hannah Meller, it's a really thoughtful piece. Please go and read it. Let's get you another viewpoint now. Anagomez is the sole Democratic commissioner at the FCC, one of three commissioners that are currently on the FCC. Been
there is twenty twenty three. You've put out a very strongly worded statement following what seemed to be Jimmy Kimmel's show being put on ice indefinitely, and you really talk about it having been led to a shameful show of cowardly corporate capitulation by ABC that has put the foundation of the First Amendment in danger. So you think this is a corporate responsibility at this moment.
What we are saying is this administration use whatever levers of power it has in order to bring broadcasters to heal and the news media as you mentioned. They have sued The New York Times, they have sued the Wall Street Journal, they have gone after ABCNBCCBS, and they are pressuring companies to change how they report the news and what their content is in direct violation of the First Amendment,
which guarantees a freedom of speech. And what happens every time we see this cowardly corporate capitulation is a further frame of a foundation of our democracy, and that's freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
Now and what we understand to have occurred is that Disney moved after local stations had perhaps pushed back. This is all erupted after well, the head of the Commission, SEC Chair Brennan Carr, joined a podcast and really articulated perhaps what could happen because of the words of Jimmy Kimmel on thet his broadcast, but also what he said, we can do this the easy way or the hard way on that Benach on some podcast when it seemed
to be talking about the next stop TEGNA deal. Is that how you interpret it, is that how the market and the media should be interpreting what SEC Chair Brendon car is trying to make it.
I think It's really important to note that the FCC does not have the authority, the constitutional right, nor the ability to take action against broadcasters because of their content. We have very limited media regulation, usually designed to protect children programming and things like that, but we cannot retaliate against broadcasters for legal content. And this is all legal content. So what threats are meant to do is to get the companies to alter their practices in order to cover
this administration in the way that they want. And that is what these corporations need to keep in mind every time they capitulate. They are our democracy.
Commissioner Gomez, I'm grateful for you coming on the program and what you just said about the remit and authority of the FCC. The basics that our audience want to understand is why is the FCC involved here. It is a panel or a committee, right that debates issues, usually proposed by the chair in the public forum or in written communications, and then you vote on the passing of measures or actions and stop me when I'm wrong on that. But you outlined what the authority of the FDC is
not in this case. What is your role in this situation between Disney, Jimmy Kimmel and the comments that he made.
So the FCC, as you note, does meet as a commission and it votes to adopt rules or to issue licenses. But a lot of the actions that you're seeing from this commission right now, particularly when it comes to trying to bring media to heal, is being done at the
staff level. And what's so dangerous about that is where we initiate investigations until those investigations actually get to a final commission decision, there is no judicial review to ensure that the FCC doesn't overstep its bounds, which is exactly what we're doing right now. And you mentioned the next Star transaction, which is actually not currently before the FCC,
but will be filed before the FCC. The FCC has been using any time a party comes in to seek a transfer of a license or some type of permission from the FCC to pressure them to alter their practices, directly affecting the First Amendment and getting them to voluntarily commit to making changes to how they report the news or whether they have diversity, equity and inclusion practices, which themselves have a strong basis in the First Amendment.
Commissioner invited the chair mister Carr onto this program as well, and I wanted to be to be known that that's the case.
There is an.
Example or case study that our audience wants us to ask you about, and that is, if mister Carr and the President wanted to initiate the revocation of a station's license based on that station airing of the Kimmel comments, for example, what needs to happen? Would there need to be an outside complaint filed to the FCC then you review it. Just explain that that scenario.
Please, yes, So revocations of licenses are extremely rare. We do have rules about under what circumstances we might revoke a license, and it is a very high standard because it is such a serious thing to do. That is why the broadcasters fear so much any type of action by the FCC. Yes, we can initiate an investigation based on a complaint that is filed. We can also initiate ourselves. But let me be clear, there is no basis for revoking any licenses because of the Jimmy Kimmel content or
because of normal editorial decisions from a broadcaster. The last time I can think of that we revoked a license was for failure to air a particular broadcaster for more than a year.
Well Commissioner in Caroline, I'm sorry to jump in here. You know, there are many Republicans and non Republicans who feel that Kimmel's comments pushed went past the line, they crossed the line and mischaracterized in the public domain the motivations of the shooter in the Charlie Kirk case, and the FCC takes that into account or it does not.
So we have to keep in mind that Jimmy Kimmel show is satire.
It is not news.
It is not itself trying to inform the public about a particular newsworld the event. And what some of these people are claiming is that what Jimmy Kimmel said was news distortion. That really does not meet the standard for news distortion. So if a complaint were filed, the commission would have to look at it and make a decision about whether any rules were violated. I can tell you today there were no violations under the law or with these facts.
Have any complaints been filed?
I believe a complaint was filed today. There is a partisan legal group that has been filing complaints against all the media companies getting more and more outlandish in their complaints, normally for news distortion. They're the same ones that filed the complaint against sixty Minutes for the Kamala Harris interview. They're the same ones that filed a complaint against NBC because of Saturday Night Live, the sutn Night Live showing
with Vice President Harris. So they're a partisan organization that just keep filing these complaints and the FCC has not acted on all of them. They are very numerous. I would say we get at least once a week.
I think it's right to put in the context that last year Disney indeed did pay fifteen million dollars to settle a defamation laws who brought by President over comments that one of its hosts had already made. There have indeed been several settlements, and as Hannah Miller Reportrait put in their story, then often there are deals in m and A involved. Is that the interpretation that we should make at this moment that deals in some way hinge upon settling of such cases and concerns.
I think that the administration will use the deals to pressure companies one way or another, whether it's to settle lawsuits or to give up their rights as organizations. When the FCC approved the Paramount Skybance deal, for example, the parent company of sixteen of CBS, Paramount agreed to install what I call a truth arbiter, an ambudsman reporting to the president of Paramount, who will field complaints about media
bias for example. That is really chilling because that is exactly the type of interference and the freedom of the press that is not healthy for our democracy and for our discourse. So yes, I think this administration will weaponize any transaction. Anytime you see a party coming before the FCC, you are going to see some kind of a demand to bring them to heal and to change how any broadcaster reports on this administration to make it favorable to the administration and not otherwise.
FCC Commissioner Anagomez, we appreciate your time joining us on Bloombo Tech. Thank you very much, Caroline. I just want to go to shares a. Disney very quickly. In the course of that conversation, the stock actually hit a session low of two percent, now down one point nine percent.
We did report just before the.
Conversation with the Commissioner about the meetings that are taking place between Disney executives and Jimmy Kimmel. One of the ideas or questions being an apology or not. We also have to go back to the breaking news because we've got a full readout from the President on the conversation
with Jijing ping productive call. He says they made progress on issues including trade, fentanyl, the need to bring the war between Russian and UK to an end, and for this program bling big tech, the approval of the TikTok deal. He agreed with President Ji that they would meet at the APEX summit in South Korea. I believe that's October thirty one through November one, and that he would go to China. This is the bit we didn't get to yet that he says in his true social pros the
President he will go to China early next year. The call a very good one. They will be speaking by phone again, and the President says, in his words, we appreciate the TikTok approval and both look forward to meeting at APEX. That's the one the market was waiting for this week.
It is a lot of people who are investors in semiconductor shares, for example, in video, will it be able to continue to sell it to China. Coming up, we're talking exactly that about AI Magnetar's senior managing partner, David S. Ninemans with us. He's going to talk about the investing buildout, the AI build out, the scale of that magnetor of course a key investor in Careweed stick with us this Bloomberg Tech.
AI is hungry for power, and so is everything else, from computing and transportation to industry. Energy demand is reaching historic levels, and batteries are emerging as the backbone of modern infrastructure, enabling reliable, low cost storage at scale.
JB.
Strawball's CEO of Redwood Materials, which deploys these strategic resources, spoke to Bloomberg's Judy Fine at Bloomberg NIF yesterday in Houston.
Energy storage is evolving in batteries in particular, are evolving to play I think an incredibly central part of the story for the e of data center energy availability, but for the grid overall, and increasingly, I think people are beginning to sort of see that that opportunity where if you can have the flexibility that energy storage provides, that gives you the chance to have access to more energy from the grid, and it also gives you a chance
to manage and adjust the transience from some of these new loads, especially AI training loads.
Let's talk more about infrastructure now, but let's talk about the data center side of it. Davis Snydeman's here with us seeing a managing partner at Magnetar Global head of Alternative Credit and fixed Income. Magneta has called twenty billion dollars in assets under management, key investor in AI compute provider Core Weave, And you've just come off the heels
of an investor day. It's a twenty year anniversary. And how much is the demand from your investors to get more into AI data center, to get more into compute and the way in which you finance it.
Yeah, First, thank you again for having me. I've always love to come on the show. You know, we, like you said, we had our twenty year investor day yesterday and just to take you into the room, I think we had six different companies present on six different industries, everything from you know, healthcare finance to restaurant finance and then like you said, AI infrastructure and our newest investments
in energy. And you know, for us, the way we invest the formula has always been the same, it's really by being value added to our portfolio companies.
And so, how are you value added to a cool weave? How are you thinking about financing the GPU the compute they need to go out and buy to fill their data centers for example.
That's right.
So for us, it's it's really about thinking about the asset first, right, understanding the value of that asset, understanding the customer contracts, and then helping the companies unlack value from there.
But you know, I think what you know, AI.
Infrastructure, We talked about it a reasonable bant yesterday and it really comes down to, you know three things. It's skill, it's scale, and it's scarcity. So I'll start with scale, Like when we started investing in core Weave, we were talking about one hundred GPU clusters and we thought that was going to be difficult. You know, now they're putting one hundred thousand GPU into clusters and they're going to do million GPU into clusters, and so the scale is just massive.
Right.
Then you go to the skill, and what you can compare it to is it's like an F one car instead of you know, your family sedan. This is really really hard to do. So companies like core Weave, they're one of the few in the world that can actually do this. And then to your question, is the scarcity. People say there's not enough GPUs and they're not enough power, But the issue is the demand.
The demand is just off the charts today.
Every company we talk to, you know, our entire channel check just as everyone needs more more GPUs.
David, can we talk about how magnetol muff in on any project. The headlines that cross the Bloomberg on a weekly basis at the moment are about the great scale AI neocloud infrastructure projects. But you have like legacy finance coming in hard strategic partners because the size of the check to get the project off the ground is getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
That's right, and it's a great question.
You know, a lot of a lot of the capital that's come into private credit has been this one size fits all. You know, let's make sure the mandate fits into insurance company type of money.
You know, that's just not what we do.
What we do is we go in and we want to be value added to partners and help unlock value. So we want to sit with management teams and talk about how to lower their cost of capital over time, and that's why they bring in a magnetar.
David, where and what is the next call week for you?
You know, for us, it's a diversified portfolio approach, so we're always thinking about downside first, so we're going to look at the assets and kind tracks, but then it's how do we help unlock value? And so even yesterday that a tourist energy, a tensor wave. But these are the companies that are up and coming right now, and you know they spoke very eloquently about their businesses yesterday.
David.
Is there an opportunity for you? And are you literally going to participate in what was announced from the United Kingdom this week all the heavy infrastructure investment from America's biggest technology companies.
Yeah.
For us, we're looking across all projects and again, if we're not really value added and helping lower the cost of capital, that's not where our skill set lies best. And so for us, it's really getting involved with management and helping them make decisions given the data that we have inside of our firm.
There's almost a care wave just launched in the UK and scale I mean again a cryptomnor that pivots into compute. Are they the sort of companies that are interesting?
Sure?
I remember having dinner with n Scale call it six months ago in Chicago at Morton's. That's right, that those are exactly the type of companies that are interesting. And for us, we have to really make sure that we're thinking about our capital and we're thinking about our investors and making the appropriate allocations just for.
Our audience that is savvy on financing and is savon ai data centers, how do you lower the cost of financing?
So it's it's really about the customer mix and the asset mix, and so we're really trying to think about, you know, how we take a customer mix. So if you have all non investment great customers, that's a much that's a much more difficult portfolio to finance. Now you want to have non investment investment customers because they grow very quickly. So now we have to think about the mix of customers underlying your portfolio and help you make those allocation decisions. I think that's how we can get
involved with the companies themselves. We can be value added and really unlock value for them over time.
David's not have been managing partner at Magne's Health Capital. Great to heavy back on the program.
Thank you know.
Coming up, Google brings Gemini throughout the Crome browser.
Got more in that story.
Next.
This has been by tech.
Time now for Talking chech. First up, Google brings Gemini throughout the Chrome browser for users in the United States, just two weeks after dodging an anti trust case that could have broken up the company. It will also be integrating Gemini with other Google apps like Calendar, YouTube, and maps. Mimi Chami will deploy an over the air software fixed Directify, a problem in its advanced driver assistance technology installed in almost forty percent of the Su seven electric sedans int
his Soul Now. The recall comes nearly six months after a fatal crash involving a standard version SU seven sedan that in its autopilot function turned on, and Softbak's Vision Fund is considering cutting as much as twenty percent of its staff, according to a source. Now, the reduction extends years of cutbacks at the Vision Fund as the unit shrank in importance next to growing appetite for big ai bets from founder Masayoshi's son ED.
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