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Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News this is Bloomberg businessweek Daily reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead with insight on the people, companies and trends shaping today's complex economy. Plus global business, finance and tech news as it happens, the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast with Carol Massar and Tim Stennebec on Bloomberg.
Carol Massar
All right. Yes indeed everybody. We are continuing on Bloomberg Business Week Daily. We are live at Bloomberg Philanthropy's Global forum here at the Plaza in New York City. So we've stepped out of studio to really tap into some of the leaders that are in town. They're talking about major issues, AI, climate change, infrastructure. So much going on and I feel like everybody's watching kind of the tech race, which I think about the story that just crossed about maybe intel or intel and Apple are talking, maybe Apple makes an investment in Intel. We're going going to get the lowdown on that in just a moment.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Yeah, we are. In the meantime, we got a great program coming up over the next hour right here on Bloomberg businessweek Daily. We're gonna speak with the CEO of the New York Climate Exchange. He's standing by Also, Mahmoud Mo Heelden, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for COP27 and the CEO of Canada's bilateral development finance institution is going to be joining us in just a few minutes.
Carol Massar
Our global view and perspective continues in just a moment. But first up, everybody's watching what's going on with global technology companies and we are watching so much in terms of what's going on with Intel. The st shooting up in the last 15, 20 minutes. This on a headline that crossed that intel has approached Apple about securing an investment in intel is, according to people familiar with the matter, part of an effort to really bolster a business that is now partially owned by the US Government. Don't forget that you, Carol, yes. You're a taxpayer, you, me, we all own a piece of Intel. Ryan Gould and Leanna Baker, Bloomberg News reporting this out. Ryan is Bloomberg News deals reporter. He's back at the Bloomberg Interactive Broker studio at Bloomberg headquarters in New York City. Ryan, what's going on and what do we know?
Ryan Gould - Bloomberg News Reporter
Yeah, I think it's great to be with you guys first of all, but I think, you know, the news of the day is that we can report that intel has approached Apple about securing a potential investment in the chip maker. This obviously comes on the back of both the US Government investing in intel directly, one of its largest shareholders, and also would potentially follow a $5 billion investment from both Nvidia and a $2 billion investment from SoftBank. I guess one way to put this all together is, you know, intel is on the comeback and exactly what that comeback looks like. Well, maybe it's a little too early to tell, but they're definitely being proactive about it.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
You know, a line in the piece from you and Liana really sticks out. It's this, the fact that a longtime intel customer, Apple was, but it switched to in house processors in the past five years. It's unlikely that Apple would switch back to intel processors in its devices. What's in this for Apple?
Carol Massar
Yeah, I want to, I feel like.
Narrator/Advertiser
A three year old or four year old.
Carol Massar
Why, why are they doing this?
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Well, why would they, they're not necessarily doing it. Like why would, why would Apple do this?
Ryan Gould - Bloomberg News Reporter
I think Tim, you, you mentioned that line, but I think one of the other lines that you know is worth drawing attention to in the story is that Tim Cook appeared at the White House not so long ago, just a few months ago actually, and stood in front of Donald Trump and pledged $600 billion of investment in the US over the course of a six year period. I mean that's no sort of small amount of money. I mean, when you think about their announcement that Apple made with regard to the Corning longtime Apple glass supplier for 2.5 billion, I mean, you know, you're kind of looking at Apple and thinking, okay, this is some, this is a company, this is Tim Cook wanting to be on the right side of Donald Trump. And, you know, what does that look like for Intel? Well, maybe think about things like tariffs, think about things like onshoring manufacturing, think about things like what does it mean to be made in the usa?
Carol Massar
So is this more an Apple story or an intel story or a little bit of both, just to wrap up here?
Ryan Gould - Bloomberg News Reporter
I think this is more of an intel story for sure. I mean, to be sure, Apple, you know, Apple doesn't need Intel. It's the other way around. And so this is definitely an intel story. But I think, you know, to underline all of this, this is about intel being proactive. And, you know, when you've got the US Government as one of your largest shareholders, I think that's definitely a message that you would want to convey to people watching on the outside that, you know, now's the time to get serious about, about our future.
Carol Massar
All right, good stuff. There's so much in the story. It is a Bloomberg exclusive. So we highly recommend you check it out on the Bloomberg terminal and@Bloomberg.com Ryan Gould joining us, Bloomberg News deals reporter back there at Bloomberg headquarters in New York City.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Stay with us. More from Bloomberg businessweek Daily. Coming up after this.
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You're listening to the Bloomberg Businessweek Daily podcast. Catch us live weekday afternoons from 2 to 5 Eastern. Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app or watch us live on YouTube.
Carol Massar
Carol Massar, Tim Stanwick live here at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum at the Plaza in New York City. Well, if you want to know what global consumers are up to or what massive global companies are really thinking about when it comes to the macro environment, what are their priorities, then keeping an eye on Walmart is definitely a must do. It is the world's largest retailer. It was among the retailers that recently raised their forecast. That happened over the summer. And a member of the company C suite is joining us, Tim, right here at the forum.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Now here at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum, pleased to have Chris Nicholas with us. President and CEO of Sam's Club. It is Walmart's membership only retail warehouse club, mostly with clubs here in the US but also overseas clubs in Mexico, China and Brazil. Former CEO of Walmart U.S. previously CFO across Walmart U.S. and Walmart International.
Carol Massar
Which means you've seen everything I tried.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
How are you?
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
I'm doing great. Really excited to be here.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
How are we doing? And by we, I mean the American consumer. You've got such a great view on what happens across the country. How are we doing?
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Yeah, I mean we what we're seeing at Sam's Club is consumers that are consistent and rational. You know, I've been in retail for more than 30 years now and I've never known a time when people don't love great items at great prices. And as long as you're giving people that, we're finding consumers really, you know, rational and consistent.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
What is their behavior though, right now? Because that's something Carol and I were talking a lot about today and you know, the whole idea of are they buying what they typically buy? Are they buying what they buy at a certain point in economic cycle? Are they trading up, are they trading down? What are they doing in your stores?
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, consistent would be the word. I'D use. People are still buying general merchandise from us. I mean, we talked in our last quarter the results about general merchandise sales having another quarter of positive comp. But what's really interesting within that is that the units are moving faster than the items, which means that, you know, we're still giving them great value. And I think people are really moving to appreciate when they're getting good value. You know, the club warehouse model is, is made for times like these. I would say it's a good time to be in the club model. We've got, in our clubs, we've only got 4,000 items. And the way that the club model works just to level set us is our job is to make almost nothing on what we sell. We just about break even and we make all our money from membership. So the lower you can operate in terms of costs, the lower you can keep prices. And when that happens, people are more loyal, they renew more often and you get more members. So we're in this like really special moment right now where people love the great value that we've got and they love the great items that we've got too.
Carol Massar
You know, I want to cross that with what we just heard from Fed Chairman Jay Powell, Chris, last week in terms of the decision and kind of basically saying the Fed's not in a great place. Like either way, there's some risks to the employment picture. There are concerns still about inflation. So this is, there's kind of risks to both sides of the equation and concerned about monetary policy that it's hard to do right now in this environment. So that to me sounds uncertain, unsure, but it doesn't sound like you're saying any of that.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Look, the club. Here's the thing. We have this, this position where there's only, I mean, between us and our main competitors in the club model in particular.
Carol Massar
Right.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
We're only like six and a half percent of the, of the, of the, the total retail market. And we would definitely, from a club point of view, our consumers definitely skew sort of more wealthy, you know, bigger basket sizes and. But, but we do serve everybody and we don't see a great delta between different income cohorts.
Carol Massar
You don't?
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
No.
Carol Massar
All right, that's.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Nor generations.
Carol Massar
Well, what about, I mean, are you, when you think about kind of the environment, especially when it comes into tariffs in terms of pricing, how do you kind of figure out where you can maybe raise prices where you can.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
It's such a great, it's such a great question. We. And again, not to sort of Pivot. But one of the powers of the club model is because you've only got 4,000 items in the club, those items are curated.
Carol Massar
Yeah.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
And our merchants, they are true professionals, like many of them have been in their jobs decades. And they understand the value chain from end to end better than anybody. And so they get the ability to choose what's in the club, but they also get the ability to work through where the inefficiencies are in the supply chain. They've got deep relationships to suppliers. So you work through where the opportunities are between the suppliers too. So I'll give you an example. Our roses that we buy from Ecuador, the costs went up because the tariff environment changed. And so our merchants worked through with the supplier, like what could we do? So we move them in different ways so we have less packaging. We wrap them in the US now instead of where we used to wrap them. And so you do things like that that help you to manage the input costs. That means you don't have to pass it on to the consumer. And our job is to work through how little you pass through and you work through how late you do it. So we'd always like to be last, last up. But we have the ultimate opportunity in the club channel and that is that we have choice because we don't have to sell everything. So we, the curation actually is a superpower for us.
Carol Massar
Does that mean you haven't raised prices on anything?
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
No, no, we see. I mean, look, here's the thing. There are certain things that. Where prices move all of the time anyway. So produce would be a good example of that. And there are some strictly tariff related. Yeah. What I would say to you is that if I think about general merchandise would be the. Which is like all of the electronics and apparel and all of those things.
Carol Massar
The stuff that I have way too much in my home.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
There's never enough.
Carol Massar
Yes, there is.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
You're talking to guys who sell stuff, Carol.
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
I know, I know.
Carol Massar
But anyway. But in terms of tariffs, particularly putting pressure on pricing.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Yeah. So what we see is in terms of what people are buying. I think I mentioned this, but the, the growth in the units that we've had is outpacing our comps in general merchandise. So if you think about like over the last few years you had like packaged goods through Covid became more expensive and they never really came down. Whereas general merchandise, we had the supply chain disruption, you remember that? And the general merchandise inflated and then it deflated rapidly as it was after all of the supply chain disruptions disappeared. And at the end of last quarter, we were still in a period of slight deflation in general merchandise. So prices move all of the time. Our job and our merchants job is to make sure that we give people access to the price points they want and the value that they want. Maybe it's worth mentioning, but in Sam's club, like we're 25 cheaper than retail in general. So as we resist putting prices up because that's in our DNA, we're always going to be more price competitive than everybody else.
Carol Massar
So then you haven't raised any prices related to tariffs.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
We will. We will. We will be the last people to put prices up. And some prices have gone up and. But in the mix, I'm telling it so for sure, I mean, we have input price changes in some items and some's come through already and some are still to come through. But I would tell you that, like, our job is not to lead with putting prices up. And all of our sales growth in Sam's Club is through unit growth, not inflation.
Carol Massar
Okay, cool.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
I'm wondering what you're hearing from your team. Who's out there talking to the producers, the American producers of things we grow produce, beef as well. We had a Bloomberg News story last week about farmers and the toll that the Trump administration policies are taking on farmers right now. And immigration, just one of them. Tariffs on soybeans are another one as a result of fewer, less interest from China and Chinese buyers. What are you hearing though, on the immigration front? Because in some cases 40% of migrant workers are from outside. 40% of farm workers rather, are migrant workers. So they're coming from outside the US and that's a challenge for farmers to actually find those employees right now. What are you hearing from them?
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Yeah, I'm not hearing. I don't have anything to add or to offer on that topic. I would tell you that we have brilliant pharma partners. We understand the value change really well and we have no in stock issues or cost price issues.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
So have they raised prices at all on American Producer I.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
You'd have to ask somebody else about the through line on like employment and price increases. I think you probably speak to a lot of people that are better informed.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
What about from produce that comes outside of the United States? I mean, we can't do everything here. We can't grow bananas. We can't grow avocado.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Avocado?
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Yeah. Tomatoes when they're out of season, come from outside of the U.S. what does that look like?
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Yeah, I mean, what is like the.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Increase in Costs associated with tariffs, because those will be. Or those are tariffs already. I mean, beef that comes from Brazil, 40% tariffs, for example.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Yeah, I mean, we definitely over index on US Beef. The vast majority of what we buy is us. The vast majority. And so, you know, but we have choices about where we buy from. This is the benefit of being this curated limited assortment retailer is that we get the choices to buy from the places that. Which give the consumers great value and great quality, which we're never going to relent on. But you know, yeah, we buy items, you know, we buy avocados, as you said, from abroad and many other items. Tomatoes. When it's out of season and you know, the quality and the value, we'll never relent on the quality. But if the input costs increase and the inputs costs will increase. But there's in produce, there are so many variables. Produce and beef, I mean, there are so many variables that pushes the costs down as well as up. So I think it's a super complex situation and I think that our farmers are some of the best in the world and I think that our merchants know how to work with the farmers. The best thing you can do for those farmers is to give them great forecasts, allow them to grow to those forecasts and give them good prices that allow them to run sustainable business models. And we do a really good job of that.
Carol Massar
Chris, you guys in retail, I'm sure we're even late to talk about the holiday season and the upcoming holiday season. When you think about assortment and what you want to have in inventory for consumers, how's it looking for this year? Is it going to be a lot different from last year? Are the supply chains all there to get what you need and what you want for your consumers?
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Yeah, that's not an issue. We don't see any issues with supply chain management in that way. We, Sam's Club in particular, we get really early. So you're going to a Sam's Club now, which hopefully please do. You'll see it's full of Christmas.
Carol Massar
I know, it drives me a little crazy.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Yeah, I mean, I understand.
Carol Massar
Why is it so early? I mean, Halloween hasn't even happened.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Yeah, well, in, in the club channel, people like to be prepared.
Carol Massar
I know.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
So we get in to a season early and then we exit early and. And that's kind of scarcity is part of the value that we, that we create. And so we. So we're not worried about it from a Sam's Club point of view. But the thing I would say is that like people just love to celebrate, they love to buy, they love the seasons. And, and so I think you'll find that certainly at Sam's Club, people, whether it's the general merchandise they buy pre Thanksgiving and Christmas or the food that they buy for the season, as long as you're giving them great value, they're going to come to you and people will find a way to celebrate.
Carol Massar
One of the things we love about the Global Business Forum is we tackle everything. Climate change, you know, workforce, employment, economics, politics. As a leader who's been at a company for a long time and I'm sure looking at everything that's going on, what's top of mind for you and an environment where there's pushback against certain initiatives, there's a lot of political things going on, geopolitics. I'm just curious, you know, in running what you guys do and I know you're kind of a well oiled machine in many ways, but I'm just curious.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Yeah, I think you know, in the, in an environment of change and by the way, I like change is a constant and you've got to, you've got to love it then I've always found that the best thing to do is to focus on what you can control and what you can control is the culture you create as a business, how you work with and treat your customers and your members, the experiences that you create. You know, a great example is, is the E commerce business. We've just launched express delivery from our clubs and people love it and they're opting in.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Does the price change with delivery?
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
No, we have price parity. We have price so others don't. We do so we have price parity between clubs and an online. We think that's really important from a trust point of view and people are thanking us for it. Our delivery from club food and non food is growing at triple digits right now. So I think focus on what you can control. Start with being great people. Start with being a great business. Look after your associates so they can look after our members and then that generally will lead to the right outcomes.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
So on that we'll hear from one of your big competitors tomorrow. Costco reports earnings tomorrow. How do you make sure that people join Sam's Club and not Costco?
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Yeah, look, Costco is a great competitor. We think that we're great too and we're doing a lot of good things. What I would tell you is this.
Carol Massar
Because you have an aggressive plan in terms of expansion.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Yeah.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Excited about it.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
I know, yeah, we're really excited about that plan actually. The club channel in general is a relatively small channel. There's a huge, there's huge upside for the whole of the club channel. And I would tell you this, good competition makes you better. And, and I've never been afraid of, of good competition.
Carol Massar
What about AI and how you guys are working?
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Are you afraid of AI?
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
AI is a big topic everywhere now, isn't it? We, you know, here's the thing. We are, we're excited about AI as a company and I am personally too. I think this idea of are you.
Carol Massar
Guys using it a lot? A lot.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
We've been using it for a long time, honestly. But the generative AI and then the agentic AI that's through too is, is really exciting. It's exciting for our members and for our associates. What we do, we pivot to growth. How does this help us move faster, do more for our associates and our members? How do we find different routes to market? So that's exciting. Of course we also look at like how do you find opportunities to take time out of product launches and all of those kind of things so that you're a better business. The one thing that you may have seen is we also believe that the opportunity to give people, to empower people with the use of AI but with an enterprise, but with enterprise data is really exciting. So whether it's in the office or recently we made an announcement a couple of weeks ago, our holiday meeting where we gave our frontline management access to OpenAI to ChatGPT, which they can use to just go faster and do more. And that's really exciting.
Carol Massar
Yeah, it's kind of amazing. We're all kind of finding our way through it. Chris, thank you so much.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. And yeah, good luck.
Carol Massar
Good luck. Thank you as well. Chris Nicholas, he's the president CEO of Sam's Club.
Podcast Announcer
You're listening to the Bloomberg Businessweek Daily podcast. Catch us live weekday afternoons from 2 to 5 Eastern. Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app or watch us live on YouTube.
Carol Massar
Carol Massar, Tim Stanvick live here. Here at the Plaza. The Bloomberg Global Business Forum leaders and one of the big topics this week that we've seen as world leaders are in town and also as it's climate NYC is everything and anything to do with artificial intelligence.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
I mean we can kind of stay away from headlines here every single day. Just today, Microsoft partnering with open air rival Anthropic to help power its workplace AI assistant anthropic founded by former OpenAI employees, Carolina. It's one of the largest competitors to open AI, a key player in the industry.
Carol Massar
Yeah. Just coming on the heels of one of the big stories that we covered this weekend. Video announcing it will invest as much as $100 billion in open AI to help with that build out of data centers. So there's a lot going on when it comes to AI. It's all about partnerships. And we have a great guest to talk about that. Lane Dilg is former head of Strategic Partnerships Global affairs at OpenAI. She's had a career in law, politics. She served as special senior, actually senior counsel to then Senator Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. And she's also worked at the Department of Justice. I'm rushing, but you have like this incredible public private background. So when you think about AI, I don't know, how do you make sense of just, it just feels frenetic. The amount of money, the amount of activity, the amount of headlines that come every day.
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
Yes, there obviously is so much happening, so many big deals in the news. And those big deals in the news do have real life implications for all of us. So incredible, as you mentioned, to see, see the Nvidia and OpenAI deal showing that Nvidia will provide chips to OpenAI up to 10 gigawatts and also make an investment $100 billion, obviously shoring up OpenAI's credit and providing a real Runway for OpenAI. Those kinds of deals we are seeing almost weekly right now. You mentioned Microsoft and Anthropic as well. So a very, very competitive landscape and a landscape that is moving extremely quickly.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
It's kind of funny to hear about Microsoft partnering with Anthropic, given that Microsoft is a huge investor in OpenAI. What do you make of that? Like, what's the world that we're living in when you have these strange bedfellows?
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
Yes, I think, you know, I think everyone is watching sort of all of these different pieces from an adoption perspective. People are looking at how, how many different companies will individual companies work with? So do you want to work with one AI model? Do you want to. Or one AI model provider? Do you want to work with many. Microsoft also has in house AI. They have the partnership with OpenAI. And now you see them with Anthropic.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Can you. We've had some folks come on our program and say, okay, there's been so much funding, there's been so much money chasing these companies. There are also those people who say, we're kind of just going to wait until the dust Settles because we think there could be this commodity issue when it comes to LLMs. What separates one LLM from another? What separates Claude from Chat GPT? And I fully were asking somebody who was at chat GPT. Yes, at OpenAI. So, yes, that's, that's where this question is coming from.
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
A great question though, because obviously now I use all of them to try to stay up to date on where everyone is. And I also speak with the different companies about sort of what their trajectory will be going forward. I do think the models are somewhat different just for users. They, they provide responses a little bit differently, they're friendly in different ways, they're useful in different ways. And so there's some personal preference. I do think that we will start to see differentiation in areas like material science, chemistry, biology, as people really move into these more specific domains where different model providers lean in. Who they work with and how will become important in terms of what you can do to solve problems with the technology. And I think the other piece, as you see with the Nvidia OpenAI deal, we often say infrastructure is destiny. It is true that there is also this massive race for compute, and that is because to continue the research and development, to continue to make the progress you need compute. And compute requires a lot of energy. So we don't know yet whether there will be differentiation there or not. But everyone racing to make sure they have the compute they need to continue development.
Carol Massar
You run your own advisory firm and you're dealing with kind of innovation and partnerships and working with other companies.
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
We.
Carol Massar
But I want to go back to what Tim said. I mean, I think there was, when the Nvidia deal came out that there was concerns that it was a sign of a bubble, that it's Nvidia partnering with Open Air. Obviously it's the company Chachi beat, so identified when it comes to AI at this point. But this idea that Nvidia needs a marketplace to keep buying its chips. So I'm just curious, I mean, at some point, I don't know, what are you hearing from companies as you talk to them? Are they a little cautious at all? Is there any nervousness about this incredible spend and this incredible build out?
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
Yes, a great question. Obviously financial experts around the world asking many of these questions. I think, you know, we previously thought that Nvidia may not be able to supply enough. So interesting to now hear people say, well, they are, you know, trying to find a consumer a home for their gypsy.
Carol Massar
Yes, right.
Chris Nicholas - President and CEO of Sam's Club
Yeah.
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
So I think, you know, I think that conversation happening on both sides Sides. You know, my own personal view is that we are not yet anywhere close to maxing out the demand for compute and chips. And when we are, then you may actually see that model development is stalling or something else. But I just don't think we're there right now.
Carol Massar
I am curious, when you are at OpenAI and we know you left a couple a few months ago, but now you have your own advisory firm, is the phone ringing off the hook of people saying, help me, I need to find this and what are they looking for?
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
Yes. So it is true that people are looking for lots of answers. They're looking for answers to the macroeconomic questions. They're looking for answers to help them guide investments. But then teachers and healthcare providers are looking at, you know, what is the potential? How do I take care of my workforce and also take care of those I serve? At the same time, what is the pace of adoption? I'm excited to be here today with Bloomberg Philanthropies working on the Mayor's Challenge, which is a competition they run around the world for mayoral innovation for city services. And so many people in that space saying, where are the opportunities for innovation? And we're seeing such interesting proposals there as well.
Carol Massar
I just want to say I actually had a meeting with a giant company. I'm not going to say who it was.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
We've heard of them.
Carol Massar
Yeah, everybody's heard of them. But it was like we talking about, they were asking me about what I'm, how I'm using AI. I was asking them and it's like we're all kind of fumbling our way through and we have courses that have come up at Bloomberg to kind of help us figure our way through this company. They're just kind of like somebody figures something out and they do a kind of a show and tell. But it's, it's interesting how we're trying to find our way through this.
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
Yes. I've heard two CEOs at the Frontier Labs really say the pace of scientific progress on the AI side is much faster than the pace of, of implementation and adoption. It's hard. These are large institutions with lots of people. You have to actually figure out what is the right way for your company, for your school, for your business. And that takes some time.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
You know, I use chat GPT all the time personally. I use it at work too. We have the paid version at work, but I have the free version on my phone. And when it tells me I can't use it anymore, I just go over and use Claude, how Do you. How do you prevent that? Like, how do you get me to pay for it? Like, how do you monetize all the free users when so much compute is being used?
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
Yeah, I think, you know, same with any product. In a certain way, you want yours to be the go to. You want yours to be the most useful, the one that you turn to to solve the problems that are most important to you. And I think that companies are competing in that and we'll see fits and starts. But you do you get accustomed to one product or another?
Carol Massar
So we'll be paying for it?
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Well, I mean. Or is there going to be advertising?
Carol Massar
Yeah.
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
So I think, you know, right now you can pay for different, different levels of access. I think that is meaningful both for individuals and for businesses. I use the paid accounts across all of the different companies, which may seem crazy, but I want to see where the capability really is. So I do think that is the monetization that you're seeing primarily.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
And I'm not a tax professional, but that's a business expense, I would imagine. So. Talk to your accountant.
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
Yes. Taking notes.
Carol Massar
I am curious about. We mentioned that you were senior counsel to Kamala Harris when she was senator.
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
Actually, I have been senior counsel to a senator, but most recently I was senior adviser in the Department of Energy.
Carol Massar
Oh, I'm so sorry. That was the notes I had. So sorry. I do think, though, about the intersection of technology and politics, and I feel like every decision is made with a careful glance at the White House. So talk to me about that and how that might, I don't know, kind of impact the deals that are done and how they're done.
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
Yes, absolutely. I think you see a lot of that in the infrastructure space. So if you look at the models, they, as we talked about, require compute, but compute also requires energy. And as we look at competition between the United States and China, I think people feel really good about our talent, they feel really good about our workforce, they feel really good about our innovation. But we do need to get more energy on the grid and we need to do that fast. And so I think you see this all of the above approach, but also disagreement over what is that all of the above approach. How does it work? Do things need to be grid connected or not? And most importantly, how do we make sure that consumers have the electricity they need at the prices they need while we power all of this AI?
Carol Massar
Well, is it ultimately going to be everybody, especially the hyperscalers probably doing their own, like, energy development on site, that kind of thing, or I think you'll.
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
See mix just like you see the mix in the financial deals. I think you'll see a mix both to hedge risk, but also because it'll be opportunistic. We need the energy as fast as we can get.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Hey, just want to end with what this does to the American workforce, the global workforce. Dario Amadei over at Anthropic has been really outspoken about how this could just decimate white collar jobs. You agree?
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
So I think there, there was a conference in San Francisco that people are watching just last week about what the different scenarios are. I think we don't know the answers yet. And so from a policy perspective, we need to be planning for multiple scenarios. It's critically important that we understand both the data of how our jobs moving, where the transition's happening, and also look at the social safety nets and other things to make sure that if there is dislocation, we're doing the reskilling, we're doing the training to get people into a place that is productive.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
You've seen the tech up close. You know what it can do. What of kind keeps you up at night?
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
What keeps me up at night is, you know, as always, it's the humans. It's our human potential, it's our ability to step into this technology and it's also what we can do with it for good or for ill. And I think that that's the space where I'd like to see the policy focused.
Carol Massar
Are you worried about the bad side of AI?
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
I'm worried about humans using AI for bad purposes is what I worry about more than the doomers who are more concerned about what we want would call alignment issues. I think the science on alignment is pretty strong and will continue to be strong and people will be alarmed if it's not. But the question of what can you do with the technology is is a hard one. We are about to all get more powerful.
Carol Massar
Yeah, it's kind of interesting. Need to leave there. I feel like we could talk a lot more about this and we will probably in the future. I hope you can come back.
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
Yes.
Carol Massar
Lane, thank you so much. Lane Dill, she's former head of strategic partnerships and Global affairs over at Open Air.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Stay with us. More from Bloomberg businessweek Daily coming up after this.
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Carol Massar
Carol Massar along with Tim Stanwick. We are live here at Bloomberg Philanthropy's Global Forum. We're going to continue with some great conversations from this event.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Yeah. The event brings together heads of state, business leaders to address the world's most urgent challenges and opportunities. Among those challenges and opportunities is sustainable economic development. And that's where Lori Kerr comes in. She's the chief Executive officer of Fin Deaf Canada. It's Canada's bilateral development finance institution. She joins us on set here at the Plaza Hotel. How are you?
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
I'm great. It's really great to be here. Thanks so much for having me.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
It's good to have you here. I feel like our conversation this year would be a lot different than our conversation last year if we were to have that. We're going to get to that in a minute. You invest in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, in a world that many would argue is turning inward. How do you convince Canadians that what you're doing is in their best interest?
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
Well, I mean, if I quote some of the recent speakings of the of our own prime minister, he certainly recognizes that when developing countries prosper, Canada prospers as well. It's a Time to really lean into global partnerships to build resilience and global, global economic growth.
Carol Massar
How do you prioritize how to do that? Because I'm sure there's a lot of folks saying we need help.
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
Absolutely. And quite honestly, like the demand is limitless for, for what Fintev Canada offers and other bilateral development finance institutions. So how we approach our financing and investment decisions is of course we have to have commercial sustainability. That's what we're going to. We want to have vibrant markets and we also look through three impact lenses. We have three impact lenses through which we work that informs all of our financing and investment decisions. Climate and nature action, gender equality and local market development.
Carol Massar
Has to check on all of those in order for it to happen or.
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
Not all of them because different types of investments in financing opportunities will address one or more of them. We obviously look to try and have positive contribution across each of those, but not everything ticks every box, so to speak.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
I feel like in this administration, in the environment that we're in in the United States, those, those boxes would not exist under this current administration. Does that. How do you think about that?
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
Well, it's again, it's a real wonderful opportunity for Canada to show global leadership. And again, when developing countries prosper, Canada prospers in the world prospers. So it's an opportunity for us to continue with looking at having impact in the markets that we serve.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
So with the US pulling back on foreign aid, with the US dismantling usaid, which certainly is controversial here in this country, as I'm sure you're aware. Does it, does it mean more of an opportunity for Canada or net net. Does it hurt Canada and does it hurt the world in the long run?
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
Well, I think certainly there's a lot of hugely, hugely negative impacts from a huge amount of the age aid, bathtub sort of a plug being pulled, so to speak. But we have to look at that as an opportunity. Right. As I mentioned when we just started that demand for development finance is steep, but now it's really infinite because the US has traditionally played such a very big role in development aid and in development finance. So in a way it's a tremendous opportunity for countries like Canada and like minded countries to lean in.
Carol Massar
Laurie, I'm always interested in the specifics of things. So talk to us about some things that where there have been investments made and what's the outcome?
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
Yeah, absolutely. So let me give you one example. So we were established in 2018, so we're the youngest bilateral development finance institution and one of our very first investments is in a company called Climate Investor 1, and they're supporting energy transition across Africa, across Asia and across Latin America. So in 2018, we made a $20 million equity investment and now they've been able to raise $800 million. 80% of that is dispersed across 16 renewable energy projects. Six of them are already in operation. So that's renewable energy on grids, that's diversification of energy matrices, that's supporting local economic and local economic growth. So really having a positive impact. So they've been a really great example of how using public resources through development finance can really mobilize private capital and show that commercial viability and positive impact on climate can go hand in hand.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
We have been speaking about the potential economic effects of a pullback in aid by the United States and other countries filling that gap. But as we just heard just moments ago, we were speaking with Mahmoud Mohilden, who basically said the. The era of developing countries being helped by other countries is over, in his view. Do you agree with him?
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
Interesting. So what I would say it's definitely a repositioning.
Lane Dilg - Former Head of Strategic Partnerships at OpenAI
Right.
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
I think we've. For the last 15, 20 years, it's been an era and the era is changing for sure. So there's disruption in the system again. I do think that there are many countries that are still looking to play their part, believe that there is a role that kind of believes there is a role for Canada play in development. So it's a reordering, it's a reawakening, and it's much more about partnership, I think, going forward.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
Do you think about it from an immigration perspective at all? The idea that if you are able to improve conditions in other countries, the people who live in those countries will not feel forced migration?
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
Absolutely. I think, you know, Canada is differently situated than many of our European friends and partners in terms of the immigration issue. But certainly, you know, one of the value added of supporting local market growth and local market development through the private sector is providing jobs. When you provide jobs, you provide incomes. When you provide incomes, you have a growing middle class. When you have a growing middle class, you actually provide export opportunities for countries like Canada. When you provide good jobs and people are happy to stay at home and work and thrive in those local economies. So there's. It's a reinforcing benefit, let's say, of supporting emerging markets.
Carol Massar
What's been the biggest impact on your world as a result of what I would say is a conflicted relationship between the US And Canada now, which is kind of amazing to kind of get your head around it. Anybody who's, you know, studied trade or history, who'd have thought. But this is where we are a little bit today. But what has been the impact on your world? Because of it?
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
Yeah. So in the development finance world it's again, it's been a huge disruption. I mean the US has been such an enormous player in development finance as I said earlier. So we're all having to reposition ourselves. It's providing a lot more opportunity and an impetus really for collaboration amongst the DFI community. So the bilateral defi were a humble but we're really a mighty bunch and we really need to be supercharged. We co finance and we co invest sort of as a matter of course. We're again a very collegial.
Carol Massar
Who else is stepping up with you and you feel like really kind of all right, so if the US isn't going to be so active in it, what other country or so on and so forth that are working more closely with you?
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
Yeah, so we work a lot with so the bilateral. So for example with Proparco in France, with British International Invest in the UK with FMO in in the Netherlands, with DEG in Germany. So I mean there's a number of the European development finance institutions that we work with. We also do co finance with the ifc. And in fact just this week we're really happy to be closing on $125 million worth of transactions to two banks in Central America, Banco Industrial in Guatemala. So we're providing a $75 million loan. Guatemala is one of the most significant vulnerable countries in Central America. Use of proceeds entirely for climate finance. So climate smart agriculture and green buildings. And then the other transaction is $50 million to Bangladesh in Honduras and that's one of the poorest countries in Central America there. We're also supporting climate finance, renewable energy, water and sanitation as well as small and medium sized enterprises. Micro and small and medium sized enterprises. And women owned and women led. Micro and small.
Carol Massar
I mean I always think about all the micro lending and so you do it for women. Right. And the impact that it has on a family in particular.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
How do you make sure that the money is used efficiently? And you know, there were so many stories at least with U.S. money that went out where you'd find that, okay, well grants that went to certain organizations weren't necessarily used in the most efficient way or even used for what they were supposed to be used for. How do you make sure that there's not sort of a fraud? Yeah, I didn't want to say fraud. I just want to say there's somebody who sort of takes more than they're supposed to.
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
Sure. So, I mean, we're, we're in the commercial financing business. Right. We provide financing and investment. We have a higher risk appetite than commercial capital. But you know, again, we want to provide, we want to support commercially viable solutions. Part of the impact framework that we as development finance institutions bring to the fore is sort of the rigor and vigor around the impact and the reporting. So, you know, we do go in and we have the measures and the metrics to actually be on the ground and make sure that we're getting the information back, the data back, we go out and verify that. So again, it's the, it's the depth around measurement, impact evaluation and reporting that makes us thrive and allows us to actually have impact in the markets that we serve.
Carol Massar
All right, I think we have to leave it there. Unfortunately, we run out of time.
Bloomberg Host - Possibly Joe Weisenthal
We run out of time.
Carol Massar
That was fast. Laurie, thank you so much. Good luck you.
Lori Kerr - CEO of FinDev Canada
Thank you so much. Have a great afternoon.
Carol Massar
Laurie Kersh is Chief Executive Officer Fin Dev Canada, joining us right here at the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Forum.
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Date: September 24, 2025
Episode: Intel Said to Seek Apple Investment as Part of Comeback Bid
Hosts: Carol Massar & Tim Stenovec
Location: Bloomberg Philanthropy's Global Forum, The Plaza, New York City
This episode of Bloomberg Businessweek is broadcast live from Bloomberg Philanthropy's Global Forum at The Plaza, where major global leaders, policymakers, and business executives discuss pressing issues. The hosts tackle top business headlines and trends, focusing particularly on:
Segment Start: [01:57]
Interview with Chris Nicholas, President & CEO, Sam’s Club
Segment Start: [08:05]
Interview with Lane Dilg, former Head of Strategic Partnerships, OpenAI
Segment Start: [24:49]
Interview with Lori Kerr, CEO, FinDev Canada
Segment Start: [36:42]
| Timestamp | Segment | Key Speaker(s) | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------| | 01:57 | Intel seeks Apple investment announcement | Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec, Ryan Gould (Bloomberg News) | | 08:05 | Sam’s Club/State of U.S. Consumer | Chris Nicholas (Sam’s Club), Hosts | | 24:49 | AI industry partnerships, investment & risk | Lane Dilg (Former OpenAI), Hosts | | 36:42 | Development finance, Canada’s global role, climate/gender finance | Lori Kerr (FinDev Canada), Hosts |
This episode delivers an up-close look at how tech, retail, artificial intelligence, and international development are evolving in today's economic and political environment. The episode is structured around in-depth interviews, each offering clarity on major issues:
Listeners get both topical news and nuanced commentary with practical examples and direct insights from industry leaders.