From Marhard where Innovation of Money and power Collie in Silicon Valley NBN.
This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed lud Glove.
Now from New York and San Francisco. This is Bloomberg Technology coming up a breakdown of Trump's VC pick, JD vance and his ties to Silicon Valley.
Huawei tries to beat US curbs with a one point four billion dollar chip R and D center in China.
We discuss and exclusive Bloomberg reporting on salesforce as the company cuts more of its workforce. First, let's check in on those markets at the moment head because we are barreling towards yet another record high on the S and P five five hundred. Look small cats doing a lot of the heavy lifting today as well. Retail sales come in solid. So even though it's not good enough to put off any sort of rake cup comes September, we
are still seeing some resilience in the US consumer. We're up six tens a percent over the last two days on the S and P five hundred, and even though we see a little bit of tech money coming off the table when it comes to in video and others that led the charge more broadly, we are managing to push on to new record highs. But what are you looking at in terms of the microdata.
Our top story is former President Trump picking JD. Vance the Senator as his running mate, his pick for VP on the Republican ticket. We talked a lot about the Trump trade in the last twenty four hours. Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent of truth Social is the most direct example of that.
So this is a two day chart.
We jump thirty percent or so Monday, biggest jump since March, and we're giving some of it back Tuesday. There's no negative sentiment per se, but I flag it.
Because true social.
In the first instance, carro is how Trump communicated that JD.
Vance was his pick.
Yeah, all about communication at the moment. Stock twits is one of the main stocks we can be on. Let's go to the communication on the ground from our very own Joe Matthews standing by, and look, there is a lot to be said about the prominence of the role of JD. Van's in Silicon Valley in venture capital. What are you making of it on the ground, Well.
It's pretty interesting here. Obviously, a venture capital is first known to many of our viewers and listeners here on Bloomberg. But he's also become a much louder voice when it comes to economic policy, when it comes to government spending, when it comes to crypto. Now it's going to be interesting to see how he gets into Donald Trump's head here, potentially because Donald Trump is not known for taking a lot of advice and in this case from a running mate.
We saw these two together in the convention hall last night and it was really about Donald Trump. Jd Vance was at his side, smiling, waving a celebration here in Milwaukee. But we have to remember this is Donald Trump's convention, this is Donald Trump's targeting.
To jump in because I think Joe, sorry to jump in. I think we lost your mic for a second there. But you raise really interesting point, which is jd Vance has some very established views, for example, in the context of antitrust, where the conservative movement might be a little bit more split. Tell me about what it was like, though you mentioned that all the focus was on Trump broadly, how did the party react to jd Vance versus some of the other names that have been touted.
Very well received. Look, that's going to be the deal. Though in a place hosting the Republican National Convention. Just spoke with Senator Bill Haggerty a short time ago, a Republican from Tennessee who is very pro crypto but also a very old line Republican. He thinks it's a great choice. We've spoken with a number of officials here in Milwaukee who seemed to be embracing this idea. I have to admit most people were surprised. To not be surprised. We've
been talking about JD. Vance on a short list here for weeks and weeks, and a lot of folks thought that Donald Trump might move in a different direction here. So it's an interesting and potentially discipline move, but it tells us a lot about the future of the Republican Party. Jdvans is thirty nine years old and will be the heir apparent of the MAGA movement.
Are most Joe Matthew on the ground in Milwaukee, thank you.
No.
JD.
Vance spoke with Fox yesterday and talked about China.
I think what President Trump has promised to do is go in there, negotiate with the Russians, ukradients, bring this thing to a rapid close so that American can focus on the real issue, which is China that's the biggest threat for our country, and we're completely distracted from them.
Both presidential candidates want to be seen as tough on China. Trump promised to hike tariff on China across the board if reelected, and President Biden has boosted levies on Chinese electric vehicles.
Joining us now is.
Former Republican Congressman Denver Riggleman, who also served as an Air Force intelligence officer. He's the founder of security firm Riblemen Information and Intelligence Group.
Morning to you, mister Riggleman.
Let's just start with your reaction to JD. Vance as Trump's pick as running mate and as potential vice president.
Well, you know, it's funny, you were right. I was listening to you. It wasn't that much of a surprise to me. But I do.
Believe this is very, very good. I would say for the Democrats right now. I think his views on women. I think women voters are really going to carry this. So I think what they're going to do. They're going to attack Jady Vance on multiple policy situations where he's flipped.
They're going to attack them on what he said about Trump before.
But I think what this really does for the Democrats is I think they're actually going to actually look at his issues on women, and I think it actually helps a Democratic ticket. I was, you know, I wasn't surprised, but I did think he might go another route, maybe a Nikki Haley route or a female vice president.
But I think with JD.
Vance, I actually think it helps the Democrats based on what he said about women's issues and things of that nature.
You an author yourself. You co authored a bit with Hunter Walker titled The Breach, which is published in October twenty two, all about January this Denver. You're also, I mean, someone who feels that you were jettison from your own party for having officiated a same sex marriage. So you've got an interesting relationship with the Republicans and put that
out to our audience. But I do want to make sort of use of your expertise when it comes to cyber to intelligence to ultimately the risks that we heard coming from Jdvans about China and whether you think that is something to be standing upon, whether that is something that you agree with as a key concern, and whether it will be tackled by the Republicans.
You know, regardless of jd Vance's viewer sale on January sixth as an election denier or what he does. The fact is China is a bipartisan they're sort of a support, a bipartisan support to look at China as a threat that they are. And you know, we talked about you know, stealing IP We've talked about things like that with China.
When you're talking about their AI development or they're talking about their technical development, I think we have to be very careful about the regulatory structure here in America when we're talking about AI development, tech development.
As far as China is concerned.
I think actually, you know, jd and the Dems, you know, both sides really have some valid concerns about China. You know, I just wrote an opt that I'm trying to get in about Chinese drones and the built and Americans that use them and actually law enforcement agencies that use them
and how they can be used as collection sources. So I do think right now, as on the China task for some Congress, I do believe that China is the one bipartisan issue where everybody can gel together, and regardless of their past views or things like that, I think that China the specific China issue is something we really have to worry about.
Congressman.
One interesting point that our correspondent raised on the ground in Milwaukee is how much President Trump will or will not listen to his vice president. Pick one policy area, for example, is big tech and antitrust. This is Bloomberg Technology, after all, and mister Vance's position has been quite clear. He thinks that big tech should be broken up, that there is too much power, and he's aligned with the FTC. Other parts of the conservative movement want to see shrunk
regulators and shrunk agencies. How do you think that will play out?
I don't actually think it's gonna be one of the bigger issues when we're going into the election. I think afterwards, if the Trump administration is to win, I think it's going to be actually a bit of a war on anti trust with big tech. You know, I've had my own issues with big tech, especially algorithmically and what they do in that environment.
You know, my company actually looks at some of this.
We're looking at social media platforms and disinformation and how to use AI and graphical networks to track those. So I do believe right now, when you're talking about anti trust and tech. I think that is going to be one of the biggest things that we talk about after the election, on how we either regulate if we break them up, or you know, if we look at some kind of algorithmic solutions, or we're looking at some other ways to see what's happening with big tech and how
they're actually manipulating information. But I don't know if the anti trust stuff is going to go a long way, but I do think there's gonna there is going to be a reckoning when it comes to how algorithms to us, how people are targeted, and what disinformation and things like look like on big tech platforms.
So that's really my opinion on it.
It's a very complex topic, as you both know, but I do believe that that's probably going to be one of the lesser things they talk about during the campaign. But after whoever wins, I think there is going to be a reckoning with big tech on how we actually look at what they're doing on those platforms.
Denva, you've brought us a lot of complexity, Congressman. More broadly to your views of what might hinder or propose and be a positive force for JD vance. But as a founder yourself. Does it make you positive that he's someone who understands venture capital and investing?
You know, Actually, he doesn't make me confident at all. I mean when you think about where he's come from, what he's done. Yes, he's thirty nine, he wrote a book, and I am a founder. I am looking at venture capital, right, I do have investors.
JD.
Vance in the business side doesn't make me confident at all. I really don't think he knows what he's talking about in most respects. So I hate to be that blunt, but again, I think you're going to look at the staff around whatever president is elected. That's the people that actually do the policy making. I think JD. Bans is there specifically to get votes, maybe in rural areas, maybe they did polling. I don't think he's there for any
of his business or technical expertise. So I think he's simply there because he's presenting a vision of what MAGA policies look like in the future. And I don't think it really has to do with his business acumen at all. And sorry if I'm blunt about it, but that's how I feel about it.
Denver, we like blunt.
We appreciate you, of course Denver Riggleman and founder of a Rigleman information intelligence group. But crucially, of course former congressmen ed what forgot? Coming up?
Okay, coming up?
Huawei gets set to break new grounds. Details behind the tech giants new one point four billion dollar.
R and D hub coming up next.
I think we're also taking a quick look at shares of event Bright. Just a terminal headline TikTok carriage. Tell me what's going on?
Yeah?
Interesting is we were just discussing China. Of course, TikTok has a new partnership with event Bright. We understand that these uses can add event bright links to TikTok videos. We see an absolute surge in then interday price up nineteen percent, but a whole lot of regulatory risks so surrounding TikTok here in the United States. This is a blue big technology time now for Talking Tech, A first up Match group, well, it's getting a third activist investor.
According to a letter reviewed by Bloomberg.
Starboard has built a six point six percent stake in the online dating company and plans to make a push for a sale of Match if the company fails to turn around its operations. Now Match's largest app, which is Tinder, has seen its paying customer based shrink for six six straight quarters. Plus Microsoft faces a UK investigation. Now the tech giant is set to undergo a full blown anti trust probe over its investment in Inflection AI, with emphasis
over the hiring of former employees from the startup. Now, the Competition of Markets Authority has set a September eleventh deadline on whether it will escalate the investigation further. And Huawei nars completion of its chip research center in Shanghai.
Now.
The new development center will house thirty thousand personnel and covers one point six million square meters. Huawei is said to have spent over one point four billion dollars in investment costs for the new facilities and is expected to use it to pioneer breakthroughs in semiconductors and whiless networks.
Well, let's stay with that story in Huawei and bringing bloomberg Zy and King here in San Francisco. Those seem like big numbers, But if there's one thing you've taught our audience in recent years, it's the development of new semiconductors and then the manufacturing of them takes a very long time. So what are the basics in this case with Huawei.
Yeah, it does.
I mean it's not like they're beginning from scratch here. This is more, you know, something that we should pay attention to as a symbolic but also as potential for what happens in the future. If they're bringing in more people the kind of numbers that they're talking about, that's a significant effort that would be at the same kind of scale of other companies.
But it takes years and years.
You know, two or three years to design one, then to get it into manufacturing, then it's probably not going to be that good. Then you need a second generation. So nothing to be panicking about this year or next year, but certainly a symbol of a serious effort that's underway.
Well, what got usaw panicking originally was the Mate sixty, and we're anticipating a Mate seventy, which of course is then new flagship smartphones in and when we get our hands on it, how much do we understand of the technology they're using is still US dependent? How much eventually can we cut that off? Will it be cut off?
Yeah, I mean that's a very good question, and that there are a lot of opinions about the chip that's in the current This is called so called seven nanimeter chip. Some people are saying this just proves that Huawei has walked around the efforts to stop it. Others are saying, no, no, this is a clude job. This, this really isn't that important. This doesn't mean anything. They won't be able to get
any better. So I think you're absolutely right to be pointing out that when that new phone hits market, there'll be a lot of people pople getting their hands on it, and the first thing they'll do is so in half and look at what's inside.
Not exactly the way in which Huawei. I think one's supposed to be used for.
This an interesting one.
Othertheless, Bloomberg's inking, we so value your opinion and expertise. Thank you. Now let's look at another key story with software giants Salesforce, Bloomberg exclusively reporting that the company cut three hundred jobs this month. Now it's in an effort to streamline operations and control costs. Bloomberg's Ready Ford wrote the news for us, and they'd already been doing a lot of layoffs.
Yeah.
The entire tech industry obviously has shared thousands upon thousands of jobs over the last two issuars at this point, and there's been this question of is it over?
Are we back to a normal period?
And I think what Salesforce and a couple other companies have shown us is that this is just part of the game.
Now.
You know what happened last week. It was just after the end of the second quarter, right, and we saw Salesforce a few other companies make these cuts. I think going forward, we will see tech companies no longer do this thing where the headcount is just up into the right and definitely rather that they're going to continually kind of cut over here, higher over here and just monitor those expenses.
Brady, this is three hundred roles that you're reporting being cut. I jump into my Bloomberg terminal dso quickest way to check workforce, and I'm seeing seventy two thousand. But as you point out, it's a bit of a broader, broader effort.
Right.
What's I guess sentiment of Salesforce staff right now? A lot of them watch this program.
Yeah, I would say sentiment is that idea of like you know, for a long time, large companies, whether it was Salesforce into an open text whatever. There was more tolerance for Hey, we're gonna have divisions that are more speculative events. They're nice to have, and I think they're just that ruthless reprioritization going on.
I mean into it cut.
I want to say. It was eighteen hundred people a week before, and they attribute a lot of it to underperformance. They said, this is not a head count reduction. We're just going to rehire people who are going to be doing more relevant work for us. So it's just that sense of if you are not producing, whether you're a salesperson or some other role, we were able to show your hit in the P and L, you might be at risk.
I think.
Thanks Brady Ford with another piece of excellent reporting.
Thank you, thank you very much.
So Amazon's two day summer sale is underway, with real time data actually suggesting that sales are rising about thirteen percent in the first six hours of the event. That's compared to the same period last year. That data coming from Momentum Commerce, which actually manages about fifty brands in a variety of product categories. CEO John tsche is with us and John, you have such a breadth of type of things being sold and being demanded by the consumer. Is it everything?
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Yeah, everybody should should get there figurative while it's open, because there's great deals on Amazon today. At Momentum Commerce, we support brands across all kinds of categories, and that's certainly one trend we're seeing so far in the early innings of Prime Day today. Where historically Prime Day has been an event with great participation from consumer electronics gadget brands, back to school offerings trying to pull that demand forward, and
a lot of Amazon's own devices. This year, we're seeing great offers from jewelry brands, fashion brands, home and kitchen brands, so beauty brands are participating really widely. So it really is the everything store. And with Prime Day today, we're seeing deals across the board.
John, Amazon's kind of jumped around a little bit on the timing of Prime Days. They've experimented a different different parts of year. Is there any sort of seasonality factor that motivates consumers to go out spend early catch deals in the summer rather than say, later in the year, like in October.
Yeah, I think you know. A few years back, Amazon shifted to October for the first time as a function of COVID and disruption from COVID, and then they've held that and sort of done two Prime Days the last few years. You know, what we see in the data certainly is that the July the summer Prime Day has really been seared into the minds of the US consumer in particular, and we're now seeing the entire retail industry followsuit.
So if you wander around the web and go to any D two C site, you're going to see callbacks to Prime Day offerings, even on a direct site, and certainly you see Target and Walmart and others all running similar events timed around Amazon. So this is the tenth Prime Day and it's certainly become part of culture this year, which is really exciting.
What's different for Amazon now, I think is the influence and competition from some of the Chinese players Ali Express Team Ali Express went so big on the Euros even on foss Sport here in the United States, but we served thirteen percent growth in the first six hours. What do you see in the market more broadly through this prime window.
Yeah, well, you know, keep in mind a non trivial percentage of goods that are sold on Amazon are from factory brands in China that are coming direct via the Amazon marketplace. And you know, Amazon has designs to compete more directly with Timu in the Lakes with a discount section that's going to be added to the site. So there definitely is competition in that area. But you know, none of those players can compete with Amazon on logistics
and distribution. I mean, I bought some legos from my kids this morning on Amazon and they're going to arrive tomorrow. You know, in that premium convenience is really challenging Frowy Express and Team Moods to compete with. So it's a different proposition there.
John, You do that in the UK and it arrives the same day, which is also very phenomenal, and it's interesting you're obviously buying for your children. We see more broadly the macro picture of retail sales looking resilient today. Every time I opened TikTok, I got an ad for sixteenth seventeenth Prime Day and it was Megande Stallion.
You talk about as.
Being a cultural moment. How much are we seeing gen Z driving the money? How much is it you driving the money? Who is demographically purchasing right now.
Yeah, I think historically it's been across the board, but it hasn't been as strong with gen Z and younger demos, and I think that's probably certainly part of the reason why Amazon shows Meg Stallion as the spokesperson to promote the event. I think they did a great job with the lead in promotions. They also did great you know I you know, sadly get an Amazon package at my house every day, and the packing tape for the last month has been really cheeky kind of promotions getting everybody
excited about Prime Day. So the lead in has been really terrific, and I think we're seeing demographics across the board leverage Amazon because it's so convenient, the selection is so wide. A lot of the brands we work with are beauty brands that are targeting a younger demographic, and they're all participating pretty aggressively in Prime Day this year.
One of our client's first aid Beauty, has incredible discounts available today, So seeing a lot of different offerings, I think that's the piece that is most interesting.
This year.
The event seems to be on pace. Our data suggests thirteen percent year over year growth through ten am Eastern. Generally peak shopping for prime days between ten am and one pm Eastern is still really early. But if we hold that track, that's going to be four hundred and fifty million items sold in two days. Yeah, consumers are
going to save about three billion dollars. And I think the distribution of those sales is going to be across a lot of different categories appealing to very different demographics. So it's the everything store and the everything sale, and people are excited.
John Tch, We thank you, see your moment in comments. Welcome back to Bluemotechnology. I'm Caroline heid in New York and I.
Met love Loow in San Francisco.
A very quick check on the market and as that one hundred is basically flat. Some of the laggards in there are the bigger tech company's Microsoft Meta. Some of the chip makers as well are selling. For whatever reason, we continue to talk about the Trump trade because we have the big news item that jd Vance is Trump's VP. Pick the two that I pick out our Trump Media and Technology Group.
Parent of True Social.
Yes, down almost ten percent in the session, but remember it jumped more than thirty percent yesterday. This is the most direct version of the Trump Trade. Many use this stock as a kind of reflection or proxy of how they assess the odds of either presidential candidate's fortunes. And of course, as we talked about earlier, former President Trump used truth social to announce jd Vance in the first instance.
I also put Tesla softer, just a few tens of percent.
But remember it's been buoyant again, some saying Tesla Trump trade because Elon Musk came out so quickly, not just in support of President Trump following the assassination attempts of the weekend, but also in support of jd Vance's the VP pick character.
And let's just talk about exactly that, the VP pick jd Vance, major Silicon Valley investors, the choice of the Ohio senator, and former venture capitalists as a runningway, it seemed to be celebrating it a move that puts the tech industry center stage potentially if Trump wins the White House.
We see some members of the Founder's fund currently coming out saying the saying we have a former tech we see in the White House joining us as Bloomberg's Mike Shephard not the only post that was out there, Mike we're just hearing about Tesla's performance today. But you know Mask himself saying Trump Vance resounds with victory. What do you make the tie to venture capital.
Well, it really is a reflection what we're seeing out there now, all the champagne quirks popping in so called little tech about their sensation that hey, we're being seen, we are finally here, we have arrived, and we will
have a seat at the table. And they have, you know, felt for many years that they have taken a back seat to the larger tech companies, to their larger brethren in the forum of the major tech companies that we spend so much time talking about Google, Microsoft, Apple and so forth, and the ones that they feel have taken advantage of them in some ways. And this choice of.
JD.
Vance by Trump really sends that signal to the group of investors from Silicon Value who've also been supporting Trump in increasing numbers too, like David Sachs who spoke at the convention last night, and writers as well.
I want to make one point, which is many bench capitalists or some bench capitalists are supporting JD. Vance's appointment, not all. Just would make that point as it was raised to me on social media. Give us a little bit of the backstory. You know, I think we take for granted on Bloomberg Technology. We know quite a lot about JD.
Vance.
We've been covering, for example, Peter Teel's backing of him for quite some time. But there are many in the audience, Mike that may be asking, well, we don't get the point here.
Who is he and what's he about?
Well, what they may be seeing is in JD. Vance somebody who is a lot more than just a venture capitalist. He is somebody who's also expressed skepticism about the US support for Ukraine in its efforts to repel the Russian invasion. And people are not just single issue voters. They're not thinking that, well, because he is from the venture million that I therefore must support him. They are going to look at a lot of other positions that he has taken over the years, including on that as they make
their choices and as they are trying to decide. One interesting thing about Vance is how he has aligned against what he calls a big tech oligarchy. He has even gone so far as to express praise, rare praise for a Biden administration official of FTC Chair Lena Kahan, who has been pursuing competition enforcement cases against a lot of those big tech companies.
We will get into the antitrust position appointed policy in just a little while. Bloombergs Mike Shepherd, who leads the intersection of our coverage.
Of tech and politics. Thank you.
So let's continue the conversation on JD. Vance and bring in a former colleague of his. Crystal mckella is a former managing director at a Peter teel back growth stage fund called Methrill, where she works with Vance. She's currently a managing partner at alf VC. Good morning, Welcome to the studio. So very similar question to Mike. Give us the detail of your time spent working alongside JD.
Evans and what you learned about him.
And for full disclosure, we got you on the show because you are quoted in that Bloomberg story overnight that we were just discussing with Michael.
Great.
Well, thank you so much.
I really appreciate the opportunity tunity to be here. I had a fantastic experience with JD. I worked with him for about a year when he was just starting out in Silicon Valley. We was just starting out as a venture capitalist, and he was fantastic.
To work with.
I mean, everyone knows how intelligent he is. But one thing that really shone through in those early days working with him one on one, sitting down with founders, listening to their stories, evaluating deals, was how smart he is and how hard working he was.
And he continues to be.
You can't be a polymath and get up to speed on a lot of different industries unless you're both smart and willing to put in the time and put in the work. And I found in him an eager, utterly without ego, smart, hard working, really fun guy whose values were very centered. And you know, and there's been a lot of talk about how JD is a Silicon Valley candidate. Yes, and yes, on the one hand, that's true. He's going
to be good at for Silicon Valley. He's going to be good for the country because he is pro growth, he is pro innovation, and he's also pro eliminating those regulations that strangle industry, that strangle growth.
But that's really only one quick point on that that our editors were at pains this morning to point out there's a difference between an association with Bench Capital and the technology industry at large. His position on big tech is very clear that actually he's in favor of breaking up big tech and increased oversight by the FTC. That might be at odds with the rest of the Republican base. As a bench capitalist, what do you make of that?
As a visure capitalist and as a former antitrust lawyer way back when I can say unequivocally that predatory behavior on the part of large firms with market power is unequivocally bad for the economy, is that, and particularly when those companies control a lot of the speech that we see and control our access to information, is bad for
our democracy. So, as an former anti trust lawyer, as a VC, as someone who cares about our democracy and freedom of speech, I unequivocally agree with jd on his skepticism and concern about some of the very large technology companies in our economy.
I'm interested in Crystal to go back to it. And do you think JD. Vance himself will be kind of critical of the way we're all going berserk that there's a VC in the White House.
I'm so sorry I didn't completely well.
Karr was saying, I'll jump in carry what Caroline was saying, is that what do you think JD Vance makes of all of the media coverage that he's a bench capitalist or format VC and he's now potentially going to be in an administration.
You know, JD is an extremely humble guy.
I remember when his book first came out, he was gobsmacked by how much attention he got and by how much his words meant to so many people. So I imagine that he is feeling a lot of humility right now in general for being, you know, at being chosen for the vice presidential pick by President Trump.
Uh.
And I think that he would feel this, you know, the same way that I'm expressing right now, which is fundamentally and even on day one when he was in Silicon Valley, his driving force is his concern for the forgotten working class, the people in this nation, at this nation's corps who have suffered because of the hollowing out
of traditional industry and the opioid epidemic. That was what animated his you know, his desire to write his book, which was extremely raw, extremely vulnerable, and really he sacrificed his own privacy to share to shine a light on a huge problem facing our nation's core that he wanted.
To make better.
I think that, you know, my experience with him when he was working in venture capital was this was his primary This was his primary driving force.
This was at the core of his identity.
So, yes, he'll be good for Silicon Valley because he's pro growth, his pro andavate, he's pro open source, and he is pro.
The innovation economy.
And he's going to be really good for the country because of his genuine compassion for the forgotten middle class, for the forgotten working class.
But Crystal, many feel that venture capital doesn't help the forgotten middle class. Many feel that in fact, artificial intelligence is going to do a disservice to it. Yet more, can you twin for us what seems to be almost at loggerheads that here's someone who really cares about the hollowing out, who really cares about an operiod crisis, about the forgotten, at the same time as he's backing startup companies that perhaps will take away jobs some blue collar workers.
Yet further, do you think he was in any way trying to dove tell those two things together when you worked with him, Well, I don't.
See AI replacing steel workers anytime soon. And you know one of the things that venture capital is an enormous category, everything from social media to national security technology, which is a space that I work in, to healthcare, and I think that you know, the best technology is the one that moves things forward. It's the one that provides enhanced capabilities for reduced cost. A lot of venture capital dollars are going in directions that I think.
Are destructive for our society.
We've certainly seen the destructive force of social media on family structures, on teenagers. So there is a whole category of companies that are invested in by venture capital firms that are extremely destructive to the fabric of American society. And then there is a whole other section of companies that are invested in that truly will you answer our prayers that will make us as a nation healthier and safer.
That is the area where I invest that is the area where Peter Teel focuses a lot of his attention.
That is where JD was investing. That's where his firm.
Colin Greenspond, a former colleague of mine who worked with JD at his fund.
That's where his focus is. So I think it's hard to.
Lump all the venture capital together in one bucket.
Well said, and of course a lot VC cong saying that your mission driven founders, and it's all about product solving urgent problems. So Crystal, thank you for the perspective for bringing us to your knowledge of what jd Vance was like.
To work with. We appreciate it you.
While coming up, we're going to bring in Cameron Porter, general partner at Steel Atlas, talking steel workers, but in fact about really the role of energy here, the importance of nuclear power in artificial intelligence development, development, and well the relevance of energy policy in this US election.
This is Bluebog technology.
So yesterday was the start of the RNC with a theme make America Wealthy Again. Now, part of yesterday's discussion, therefore, was around energy. Let's continue the conversation with today's VC spotlight Cameron Porter, general partner at Steel at This with
us joining us to discuss nuclear power. And this has become something that we've really wanted to tackle on the show because more and more people are saying the energy needs of our artificial intelligence can only be solved to a large extent by something like nuclear What type of nuclear power needs to be brought to bear from your investment.
Thank you for having me here, Caroline, And yeah, nuclear is a critical part for the US policy, both because of enterprise technologies like AI, but also because that AI can be used in military applications, so it's really a national security issue. And for looking at nuclear energy broadly, there's really two buckets fission and fusion.
Fusion's a bet on the future.
Fission is what's here today and that's where we're investing, and we're seeing a lot of dollars in the US flow into those new advanced reactor technologies.
Cameron, good morning to you from San Francisco. You know you position the firm in your investments is kind of industrial technology, something we have.
Discussed on the show.
We also look at some of the public equities in the space that have seen in recent months twenty twenty four quite incredible gains. Is that evidence enough that this is now a point of consciousness for the presidential candidates in DC, but also your broader investment community.
Yeah, these public gains are just the beginning of the signs that these tailwinds are real and here to stay. I think that we even saw the beginnings of how important public policy in nuclear and energy more broadly, is starting with Trump. Trump began with the Nuclear Energy Innovation
and Modernization Act. Biden has continued to push forward policies, including the Advance Act that was just passed in order to make it easier for US to license new reactors, in order to make it easier for US to finance those reactors, and the private markets, both at the late stage and the early stage, are now taking note of that and investing in companies that can start delivering on this demand.
Former President Trump was on the All In podcasts recently saying, I'm okay with nuclear. They have to do where it makes sense. So talk about where you see nuclear making sense. What investments you made that make sense. I know that you're looking a lot at transmutics in particular. How are they doing things differently, where are they based, what are they solving?
Look, we backtra mutechs because there were three major problems with nuclear in the past. Safety, How do we prevent things like Chernobyl and three Mile Island waste? How do we make sure that we're not spending billions of dollars? I mean in the US, we literally were about to spend at yuck amountain one hundred billion dollars to deal with the waste problem.
And then how do we deal with proliferation?
How do we make sure the nuclear systems we are developing here in the US can to be employed globally without risking people developing nuclear weapons. And so the reason we invested in Transmutex is their use of a particle accelerator allows them to develop a reactor that solves those three core issues, ushering in what we think is the future of nuclear energy.
During that episode of All Lane, I think what Trump was discussing with its host was a comparison with Europe, right. I think France was the specific example, but the UK, where Caroline and I hail from, has some active nuclear reactors. This is something the United States is not just dealing with in twenty twenty four. Talk to us about the timeline of what it would take to bring nuclear back in a meaningful way.
To look, this is a decade long investment period. It's going to take several years for these systems to get licensed, and then probably five years in an optimistic case, for them to get built. Those are the timelines that we're seeing in China, which right now has the most reactors under construction and it's worthwhile investment. I mean, I think we can look at the case study of France versus Germany.
Germany went all in on wind and solar. When Russia pulled the plug on natural gas, all of a sudden, their grid was thrown into a state of shock and volatility. That's undermined their manufacturing industry to today. Whereas France, because of their reliance on nuclear, which is reliable, self sovereign, they've been able to maintain relatively stable energy prices.
And so that's what the US should index on going forward.
And do you think it will and ultimately how quickly do you think policy will change.
I think policy is already changing.
We saw under Biden the commitment at COP twenty eight to three x nuclear here in the US, and that's a commitment now that we're seeing backed up by policy like the Advance Act, which I think it's worth noting it was an incredibly bipartisan bill, and that's going to continue under Trump or Biden. If it's Trump, I expect to see more or deregulation to get reactors to market sooner. And if it's Biden, we're going to see incentives in order to help promote the investment in these companies.
Cameron Port, a general partner at Steel Atlas, on a very important nuclear discussion.
Thank you very much.
Let's bring in Rasanking Kid Smith, COO of Frankfurt based Northern Data Group, a specialist tech company providing high performance computing solutions. The company also expecting to see revenue triple as demand for AI continues to grow. An incredible backstory with SAM where in simple terms, you go from being largely focused on crypto and mining and through acquisitions high performance data center in the AI context, it seems to be that part that's going to be the driver of
this revenue tripling. Explain that long term forecast please.
Yeah, And I think just to sort of contextualize, the Northern Data Group is, as you say, a high performance computing solutions provider. We have an established position in the HPC market as a result of our legacy in cryptocurrency mining. But HPC is now front and center, or the pixel shovels, if you will, of the boom and generative AI, and we're witnessing a real global race to meet the soaring
demand for generative AI and it's massive computing requirements. Companies are really scrambling to secure access to the latest GPUs which will be housed inside of data centers. And there's a real short supply of data censors too, So unlike many others, we are really hyper focused on investing not just in the most cutting edge hardware and software technologies,
but also in the most sustainable data center environments. Our environments are more broadly powered by one hundred percent carbon free energy, and we might really like to keep that carbon footprint at the most minimal point. The other ethos is really really distant to us.
Arisany we just showed the shares, I point out they're probably hiring the session after two hundred and fourteen million euros worth of share isssudents earlier. I think I'm right in saying this is the first time you've spoken publicly since former employees of the company a filed suit and made allegations against the management team of fraud, summarizing they say that you falsely misrepresented some of the financials at
the company. We just wanted to give you the opportunity to comment publicly on Bloomberg Technology about that suit.
Yes, so, I think anybody with even a cursory understanding of our business will know that those complaints are completely with our meriat. We have already filed a motion to dismiss, and we're confident that the legal process will vindicate the company. We're publicly traded, all of our financials are publicly available,
along with our stable cash and financial position. So while this is somewhat of a nuisance, what we are really laser focused on now is executing against our strategic plan and the ultimate credibility of our business and the innovation that we drive is built on that delivery. So we're not worried about it at all.
You're not worried, are you, So therefore not worried that you might look at doing another listing here in the United States. It's there's been a sort of a theme of companies that will begin crypto and crypto mining, pivoting and becoming a key resource in the world of AI. I think a core weave here in the US.
Would you tap investors here?
So just as a sort of starting point, of course, I can't comment on market speculation, but as I said, our business is really performing well and the AI sector is driving. But of course we want to operate in the spaces that are most open to the advancement of generative AI and the business that we are driving. But it also just as a point of clarity, of course, we are not pivoting from one thing.
To the other.
We have used our ground route in HPC solutions to develop new lessons and take the learnings from those lessons to provide new use cases like generative AI and machine learning.
How important is the US part of the business versus German and versus European How does it differ? Very briefly, Rosa.
So the European environment is our hearts. So we are a European based company with a European hard but we are a global business with a global footprint, and so we use the investment and you will have seen, as you've mentioned our capital raise that will be used to expand our footprints into the US. So, however, though that part of the business in Europe is truly important to
us because it provides some of our true usps. We are data sovereign, we have access to large amounts of hy electricity, so these are true usps for us and the go forward.
Razan Okay Smith, great to have some time with you of Northern Data.
We appreciate it.
That does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology.
Incredible amount to recap a lot of Bloomberg reporting. To check it out on our podcast. You know where to find it. This is Bloomberg Technology.