Berkshire Hathaway Slashes Amazon Stake

Summary

Bloomberg Intelligence – Berkshire Hathaway Slashes Amazon Stake

Podcast Summary – February 18, 2026
Hosts: Scarlet Fu, Paul Sweeney
Featured Guests: Matthew Palazzola (BI Senior Insurance Analyst), Ryan Vlastelka (Bloomberg News), Mandeep Singh (Bloomberg Intelligence), Randall Williams (Business of Sports Reporter)

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Episode Overview

This Bloomberg Intelligence episode dives deep into Berkshire Hathaway’s major Q4 portfolio moves—including slashing its Amazon stake by 75%—and explores broader shifts in tech, sports business, and capital allocation strategies at flagship companies. Analyst Matthew Palazzola sheds light on Buffett's latest and perhaps last big investment decisions as CEO, the company's evolving approach to tech, and M&A possibilities. Additional segments discuss Apple's AI strategy, potential sports team sales, and tech industry updates with insights from Bloomberg's reporters.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Berkshire Hathaway’s Q4 Portfolio Moves

Buffett's Role in Recent Trades

• Matthew Palazzola confirms Q4 was “the last quarter where Warren Buffett was actively managing” investments as CEO, aligning these trades with his longstanding strategy, though noting, “He probably wasn't behind a lot of this anyway.”
• Palazzola emphasizes: “He remains chairman, so you never know. He’d be looming behind the scenes. But his last quarter as CEO…” (02:16)

Apple Position Trimming

• Buffett's investment in Apple—unusual given his “only investing in things that he understood” stance (Paul Sweeney, 02:40)—reflected seeing Apple as a “consumer company… more than anything else.”
• Palazzola notes the Apple sell-down is mainly a "tax reasons" play due to “huge unrealized gains that will be taxed” and speculation about “corporate tax rate could be higher” in the future (02:52).

Amazon Stake Slashed by 75%

• Berkshire took profits on Amazon—“cutting most of the position”—after lackluster outperformance: “I sold I believe like $1.7 billion worth of that stock… That one I think was probably company specific. Didn’t really outperform.” (Palazzola, 03:49)
• Contrasts with new tech bets: “They bought $4 billion of Alphabet last quarter. So… the kind of tech aversion, you know, may be changing over time.”

2. Strategic Increases: Chevron & Chubb

Chevron:

• Berkshire doubled down, making Chevron their fifth largest holding—possibly “reading the tea leaves” with geopolitical energy plays, especially as US intervention in Venezuela loomed (04:38).

Chubb:

• Increased stake leaves Berkshire as the “second largest holder.”
• Palazzola lauds Chubb: “Cream of the crop insurance company… Great management. It’s a company that Berkshire would want to own.”
• Signals potential for a major M&A (“phenomenally complementary”), though cultural hurdles and Chubb’s willingness come into play (04:38–06:30).

3. Acquisition Playbook & Dividend Debate

Acquisition Tactics:

• Berkshire is known for accumulating significant stakes before full buyouts (ala Burlington Northern), framing current speculation around Chubb and Occidental (06:30).

Dividends Post-Buffett:

• With Buffett stepping back and Greg Abel stepping in, questions arise on a long-awaited dividend.
• Palazzola: “I don’t think he’s going to come in and start breaking down walls… There’s so much money. We can’t put it to work in a reasonable way. So it would make sense to see something happen there.” (07:01)

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4. Apple’s AI “Outlier” Status & Strategic Partnerships

Apple's Nasdaq Decoupling

• Apple’s correlation to the Nasdaq 100 has dropped to 0.21, lowest since 2006 (“as the company’s decision to mostly sit out the AI arms race has turned it into an outlier”—Scarlet Fu, 10:19).

Pros & Cons of Sitting Out the AI Arms Race

• Ryan Vlastelka explains Apple’s lack of heavy AI investment shields it from the market’s “AI-related volatility” and disruptive risks while still positioning Apple to be “the major way that people access AI services” via devices (10:51).
• “At the same time, Apple is probably going to be the major way that people access AI services… upside potential related to the technology without having to spend on it…” (Vlastelka).

Google AI Collaboration

• Apple’s recent multiyear partnership with Google/Alphabet “provid[es] the technology behind Apple’s AI, including Siri.” Seen as "relief" from heavy in-house AI R&D spend:

  "...people feel really relieved that they are going to be involved with AI… from a highly respected AI lab [Alphabet] without having to pay for it or develop their own.” (Vlastelka, 11:59)

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5. Sports Business: MSG Sports & NFL Sale Talk

MSG Knicks & Rangers Split

• Randall Williams details speculation about splitting MSG Sports (Knicks & Rangers) to unlock value:

  “Knicks obviously are in a larger market… both… would carry a tremendous value, maybe $12 billion combined. And that’s on the low end.” (16:16)

• Ownership and control by James Dolan is the main barrier: “He decides for better, for worse. Yes, exactly. He decides, you know, what he wants to do.” (Williams, 17:41)

MSG Arena Significance

• MSG remains unparalleled for history and event hosting, bolstering its value.

Tax Reform Pressures

• Cited new tax law: from 2028, limits deduction per million-dollar-salaried employee, could make “negative free cash flow situation” unless teams succeed, adding urgency to address structure/ownership (19:36).

NFL: Seattle Seahawks On the Block

• Ownership trust ready to sell, with Williams predicting a “minimum $8 billion” valuation;

  “There’s not a lot of people who are willing to just write a two and a half billion dollar check in cash…” (Williams, 21:39)

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6. Tech Industry Check-In

Meta x Nvidia Partnership

• Meta’s expanded commitment for Nvidia processors isn't “really new”—Meta is among Nvidia’s top two clients, showing the deep integration between giants for AI/data center scale (Mandeep Singh, 25:52).
• Nvidia’s CPU push: “will give you a better throughput, a better performance if you end up using our GPU cluster complement CPUs.”

Uber & the Future of Ride-Sharing

• Uber to invest $100m+ in robo-taxi charging.
• The scale difference is striking:

  “13 billion rides for Uber... Waymo did 20 million rides in the whole year.” (Singh, 27:21)

• Uber’s core advantage: low ETA (quick pickups) due to scale—core to consumer experience.

Global Penetration & China Market Threat

• Uber’s only major blank spot is China, where local giants (like Didi) and Chinese autonomous firms pose the real threat globally (29:00).

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Buffett’s Last Quarter as CEO:

  “This is actually the last quarter that you could even attribute these things to him. He remains chairman, so you never know. He’d be looming behind the scenes.” —Matthew Palazzola (02:16)

• On Apple & Tax Strategy:

  “We’ve got… tens of billions of dollars of unrealized gains that will be taxed. In 10 years from now, probably the corporate tax rate could be higher. That was his concern.” —Palazzola (02:52)

• On Chubb & Insurance M&A:

  “It would be phenomenally complementary of those two businesses… Chubb’s market cap is $130 billion. Berkshire has $300 billion of cash. So they theoretically could buy Chubb in cash if they wanted to.” —Palazzola (04:38)

• On Apple's Positioning in AI:

  “Apple is probably going to be the major way that people access AI services… upside potential …without having to spend on it the way companies like Microsoft or Alphabet or Meta are.” —Ryan Vlastelka (10:51)

• On Uber’s Market Dominance:

  “13 billion rides for Uber… Waymo did 20 million rides in the whole year.” —Mandeep Singh (27:21)

• On Madison Square Garden’s Uniqueness:

  “There’s no venue that has a greater history, I would argue, than Madison Square Garden that is still, you know, open and operational.” —Randall Williams (19:01)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Time | |--------------------------------------------|-----------| | Berkshire Hathaway’s Q4 Moves | 01:39-03:45| | Amazon stake reduction | 03:45-04:35| | Chevron & Chubb increases; M&A discussion | 04:35-06:38| | Post-Buffett dividend possibilities | 07:01-07:57| | Apple’s AI strategy & partnership | 10:19-12:38| | MSG Knicks/Rangers split, sports M&A | 15:30-20:32| | NFL Seahawks sale talk | 20:32-22:31| | Tech: Meta-Nvidia, Uber’s Robo-taxis | 25:22-29:45|

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Summary in the Podcast's Tone

As always, the Bloomberg Intelligence team blends deep-dive analysis with up-to-the-minute Wall Street commentary, keeping things rapid, data-driven, and conversational—whether it's unraveling Buffett’s moves, mapping tech's next wave, or following big-money deals in sports. This week’s focus: seismic shifts in Berkshire’s portfolio, Apple’s deliberate AI strategy, and the unstoppable scale of Uber—all contextualized by the market’s biggest headlines.

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For ongoing insights and in-depth coverage, listen to Bloomberg Intelligence live weekdays from 10AM to 12PM ET or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

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[Scarlet Fu]

All right, we got Scarlet Fu Paul Sweeney live here in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio, streaming live on YouTube [e-mail] Buffett goes out like a bear with five $5 billion in Q4 sales. That's according to the 13F's Matthew Palazzola joins us here, senior analyst who covers insurance companies including Berkshire Hathaway for Bloomberg Intelligence. He's covered that company for decades here. Was this the last quarter where Warren Buffett was actively managing? Maybe, I guess the account along with his co managers there. So this is maybe the last time we can say Warren Buffett sold this or bought this.

[Matthew Palazzola]

Yes, it is. So he was the CEO as of the fourth quarter. So these moves that we're looking at in the 13F took place in the fourth quarter of last year. To be totally fair, he's been stepping back. He probably wasn't behind a lot of this anyway. But this is actually the last quarter that you could even attribute these things to him. He remains chairman, so you never know. He'd be looming behind the scenes. But his last quarter as CEO and.

[Paul Sweeney]

The thing about his investment in Apple was that he famously said he was only investing in things that he understood. And that typically did not include technology companies. But Apple, I guess he saw more as a consumer company than anything else.

[Matthew Palazzola]

Yeah, I think so. And I think the, you know, his thing was moats, right? And probably still is. But the iPhone moat and the infrastructure built in, I think those were appealing things. They have been paring that, that investment as we know, part of that. And you know, it's, it's kind of a twist because he had said this at the annual meeting a couple of meetings ago, that it was a kind of tax reasons that they had these huge unrealized gains in there and he thought taxes would be going up now. They're certainly not going to go up under the current administration kind of anytime soon. But Buffett is always long term thinking. So I think that's what he was looking at is we've got, you know, tens of billions of dollars of unrealized gains that will be taxed. And I think it does still to hold true that in 10 years from now, probably the corporate tax rate could be higher. And that was his concern and part of the reason they were taking down those, those big gains and those big positions.

[Scarlet Fu]

The conglomerate also cut its Amazon stake by 75%.

[Matthew Palazzola]

They did so Amazon, they initially got into Amazon in 2019. That was one of his investment deputies, I think brought it to him. Then again, also like tech, but a retailer, right. That position we calculated was up about 130 to 140% over the time. They hold it nice, but kind of in line with the S&P 500. So it didn't really outperform. So I think it was kind of taking some money off the table. I sold I believe like 1.7 billion worth of that stock cutting, cutting most of the position. So that one I think was probably company specific. Didn't really outperform. They bought 4 billion of Alphabet last quarter. So, you know, the kind of tech aversion, you know, may be changing over time.

[Paul Sweeney]

What did he increase stakes in?

[Matthew Palazzola]

So two, two big ones, Chevron and Chubb. So Chevron is their fifth biggest holding. I think they, interestingly, I don't know if they were kind of betting on US intervention in Venezuela, which happened kind of after the quarter. So you can't say that like Maduro got taken out and this stuff happened and they did it in reaction, did it before, but maybe they were reading the tea leaves there. I don't know. It's a big holding for them. I think the kind of geopolitical energy play makes total sense. The other one is Chubb which, you know, I don't want to get too excited thinking about insurance megadeal here, but they are now the second. Well, they've been the second largest holder of Chubb stock. Chubb makes total sense. It is, in our view, by cream of the crop insurance company, Global reach, still growing nicely. Great management. It's a company that Berkshire would want to own. Now Berkshire's got their own massive insurance business. The interesting thing is you've got two massive insurance businesses. They're actually quite complementary, if one were to want to put them together. So the Berkshire business, very big Personal Auto and Geico, very big reinsurance, kind of global. Global reinsurance. Those are two businesses that Chubb is not really in. There's some overlap in the kind of US specialty businesses that they're both in, but it would be phenomenally complementary of those two businesses. I think there's probably a lot of hurdles to some sort of total deal there. Chubb's market cap is 130 billion. Berkshire has 300 billion of cash. So they theoretically could buy Chubb in cash if they wanted to. But I think it's probably some cultural issues. And would Chubb really want to sell, is the other thing. You know, it is something as a stock, something Berkshire would want to.

[Paul Sweeney]

Is that a strategy that Berkshire actually follows through on where it starts off with a stake and then eventually decides, you know what, we're just going to buy the whole thing?

[Matthew Palazzola]

Scarlett? Yeah, they do do that. So I think with Burlington Northern, which is a little bit before time, when they bought it, they did things like that where they acquire the public stake and then they build it over time. That's why there was a lot of speculation about Occidental. Buffett then came out and threw cold water on it saying that, but it seemed like it was going along with their playbook of huge acquisitions that they made before.

[Scarlet Fu]

So now that Warren's out, can we have a serious discussion about a dividend?

[Matthew Palazzola]

We can. I think we'll get you on the phone, Greg Abel, and see what he says. I think our take has been in the early years, Abel will probably adhere to the ethos of Berkshire, and I don't think he's going to come in and start breaking down walls. I don't think anyone would like to see that, especially Buffett's still there. Tremendous excess capital. Buffett has praised Abel as being a great capital allocator, great capital manager. And they've also said, we literally can't. There's so much money. We can't put it to work in a reasonable way. So it would make sense to see something happen there. And I think, look, the other thesis is they're not going to be as good at anything anymore, right? There's no better investor than Buffett. But Jane, who is the head of the insurance operations, he's been selling a lot of stock. Perhaps he's getting close to retirement, so not going to be good at any of these things anymore. Some sort of capital return would be a big catalyst.

[Scarlet Fu]

Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.

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[Scarlet Fu]

Apple's correlation to the Nasdaq 100 index has tumbled to 0.21, its lowest since 2006, as the company's decision to mostly sit out the AI arms race has turned it into an outlier. Ryan Vlastelka he's an equities reporter for Bloomberg News. He's based out there in Chicago. Ryan, is this a good thing for Apple, a bad thing? Because historically it's been like, hey Apple, when are you guys going to get on this AI bandwagon? And maybe now it's kind of working out to their benefit that they're not so much on that.

[Ryan Vlastelka]

Yeah. So in this market obviously there has been a lot of AI related volatility. There's been a lot of concern about the amount of money that big tech companies are spending on AI, but Apple isn't really spending on AI in that way. There's been a lot of concern about AI disrupting software companies. Apple isn't really software. They there's a lot of concerns about AI disrupting all parts of the market, whether it's financial services, legal services, data, all these kinds of things, none of which really involve Apple. But at the same time, Apple is probably going to be the major way that people access AI services on their phones, on their computers, on their tablets, so on and so forth. Which means it has a certain amount of upside potential related to the technology without having to spend on it the way companies like Microsoft or Alphabet or Meta are. So it's kind of perfectly positioned in this current environment when there's concern about both AI spending but also AI disruption.

[Paul Sweeney]

So it kind of worked out that Apple hasn't made very much progress on AI, but on overall the fact that it didn't do a lot on AI was kind of falling behind. In fact, losing talent was something that was a drag on the stock.

[Ryan Vlastelka]

Say a year ago, yeah, people were concerned about this. But a few weeks ago it announced a multi year partnership with Alphabet where Google is going to be providing the technology behind Apple's AI, including Siri. That was seen as a way for people to feel really relieved that they are going to be involved with AI, have some kind of offering from a highly respected AI lab model provider in Alphabet without having to pay for it or have developed their own in house stuff which is obviously an area of huge competition heavy expenses. I think the four major spenders this year are spending 650 billion so they are stepping out of that and they don't have to worry about that.

[Scarlet Fu]

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[Paul Sweeney]

One of the big gainers today, and it happened even before the market opened. Paul is MSG Sports. It is the owner of the Knicks and the Rangers, not the owner of MSG Networks because that's another business. There's a whole bunch of businesses within msg. I mean, it's difficult to follow.

[Scarlet Fu]

Yeah. And that's after they sold their cable business years ago. So now they just focus on their entertainment.

[Paul Sweeney]

And then there's Sphere Entertainment, which is the big sphere in Las Vegas.

[Scarlet Fu]

Awesome.

[Paul Sweeney]

So all of James Dolan's media properties and assets, you know, in this suite of publicly traded companies. Let's bring in Randall Williams. He is our business of sports reporter here at Bloomberg. And Randall, you have been following this story about this potential split of the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers within MSG Sports. This is something that a lot of people have been calling for for a long time.

[Randall Williams]

You look at the enterprise value of the Knicks and Rangers and what they're traded at at $7 billion. But you look at what the Lakers sold for alone, $10 billion. And I think the Knicks obviously are in a larger market than New York. The Lakers have won more titles, but New York is New York. And so both the Knicks and the Rangers I think would carry a tremendous value, maybe $12 billion combined. And that's on the low end.

[Scarlet Fu]

So is this maybe a first step for selling one of the teams? Selling a piece of one of the.

[Randall Williams]

Teams, getting into speculative territory with James.

[Scarlet Fu]

Dolan, that's always a fun place to play.

[Randall Williams]

Look, I mean, Silver Lake owns a piece of of MSG sports, so that's 5% or it's a 10% stake, but probably 5% each. And when you think about someone wanting to buy into that, you would want to know how much each individually is worth. If not, you're buying into something and it's like you could be buying in at A supreme price or maybe something that's a little bit lower. And I think buyers who are interested in. There have been several over the years want a. Want a. A more precise price. And so do the shareholders of MSG Sports.

[Paul Sweeney]

So what's held up the company from being split up up until now? Because there's been a lot of calls for the enterprise value trading at a discount to the actual value of each franchise. Has been there for a while.

[Scarlet Fu]

I know the answer for voting stock and is from the Dolan control.

[Randall Williams]

Yeah, I think. I think that James Dolan has long been the controlling person for all of these companies. He decides for better, for worse. Yes, exactly. He decides, you know, what he wants to do. And there is a board of directors that voted on this, but this would have never been up for. Been up for a vote had James Dolan now said, you know what, maybe we should consider this. And then from there on, you know, things happen and they vote on this.

[Scarlet Fu]

Madison Square Garden and James Dolan. Do they own the Garden itself, the building?

[Randall Williams]

Believe so, yeah.

[Scarlet Fu]

Because that's always a big. That's always a big part of it, too. Do you own the arena that you plan, or do you.

[Paul Sweeney]

Yes, I had a different publicly traded company.

[Randall Williams]

Exactly.

[Paul Sweeney]

That's the thing.

[Randall Williams]

Exactly. And I had a Bloomberg terminal reader and the original copy that I wrote this morning, I said Madison Square Garden was one of the most famous arenas in the world. And someone quickly. Someone quickly replied and said, no, it is the most famous arena in the world. So Madison Square Garden is a huge attraction. When you think about arenas in New York, there's the Barclays center, of course, which is newer, but the legacy of New York is often rooted in MSG and the events that it's held over many, many years.

[Scarlet Fu]

Yeah, I mean, first of all. And they also put in, I think, close to a billion dollars in renovation several years ago. So they upgraded the Garden. And what's one of the many great things about going to the Garden is they have the, the photos on the wall, the concourses.

[Randall Williams]

Absolutely.

[Scarlet Fu]

All the great events, whether it's a concert, a game, whatever. And there's thousands of them.

[Randall Williams]

There's no, there's no venue that has a greater history, I would argue, than Madison Square Garden that is still, you know, open and operational. And that's a, that's part of this. I mean, you think about the Knicks playoff run last year. You think about the Rangers and what they've done not recently, not the past two seasons, but in the seasons before that. All of these things when they eventually win, you know, God willing, it isn't msg. It isn't one of the deals where, you know, they're in a way game and then they have to come back. If it happens in msg, that will probably be the biggest moment in that arena in the last 25 years. And so whoever wants to buy into that potentially is going to want a good value at it.

[Paul Sweeney]

There was also a note from Lightshed that pointed out that there's a new tax law that goes into effect for the 2020 fiscal year that for public companies, limits deductions on $1 million to $1 million per covered employees. For sports teams, it's easy to find a lot of employees that make at least $1 million a year. So once this goes through in 2028, that's going to put the company in a negative free cash flow situation, unless the Knicks, for instance, go deep into a playoff run or the Rangers go deep into a playoff run. So it also allows the company, you know, for tax reasons, to be in a better position.

[Randall Williams]

Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, there's not a lot of publicly traded sports companies out there for this reason in particular. And you think about all of the big ones. You think about the Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, which houses the Rams, the Nuggets, I believe, another soccer team, and so many more. It's private. And that's for a reason, but this one is unique. And Madison Square Garden is Madison Square Garden and Knicks is the Knicks and the Rangers are the Rangers.

[Scarlet Fu]

Another big trade that a lot of people are thinking about in professional sports is in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks.

[Randall Williams]

Yes.

[Scarlet Fu]

What's the status of that? Because that NFL teams don't come along very often.

[Randall Williams]

Sure. So the NFL's Finance Committee has been talking about this for over a year. And I think things just are at a point now where the ownership group in Seattle, the trust of Paul Allen, the former co founder of Microsoft, is at a point where they're ready to sell.

[Paul Sweeney]

They hired some lawyers, right?

[Randall Williams]

They have. That's reported by sbj. I don't believe the paperwork is signed just yet, but I trust Ben Fisher and, you know, I think that that will happen later this year. Whether that's at the NFL League meetings in Phoenix around the end of March and April. And then I think NFL owners would like to have a new owner by the time the new season starts.

[Paul Sweeney]

How much of a stake do they own in the Seahawks? I mean, is this, you know, like a super stake or is it just.

[Randall Williams]

You know, it's a control stake in a team that wouldn't have happened in, you know, since the Commanders are sold for $6 billion. So whoever buys the Seahawks calls shots. Yeah, exactly.

[Scarlet Fu]

And is it do we have any sense whether it's going to be a billionaire, a financial financing group?

[Randall Williams]

Look, there's so many the NFL's finance structure sees that a controlling owner has to have 30% of a team upfront. So it is in a situation where, you know, you can take on some debt, but not a lot. And 30%, I would imagine. I said this earlier. I think the Seahawks will trade for at minimum $8 billion. 30% of that is going to be around two and a half in cash. There's not a lot of people who are willing to just write a two and a half billion dollar check in cash and then raise the money around it. Because it isn't just raising the money, it's communicating to those people that you're trying to bring in your ownership group that, hey, I run this. But you're welcome to come on board the ship so long as you understand that you're not the captain.

[Advertiser/Commercial Voice]

Right.

[Randall Williams]

And that's tough for a lot of people. Josh Harris did it, but he did it without private equity. Private equity is an option now. And so whoever buys this, whether it be, you know, Jeff Bezos or whoever who Jeff Bezos considered buying the Commanders, is going to have to write a hefty check.

[Scarlet Fu]

Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.

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[Scarlet Fu]

Let's talk a little technology here. I got the S and P, I got the Nasdaq, which is where you find a lot of the tech names. It's up 1.4% today, so that's a nice move. And there's always news in the tech sector, which is why we have to chat with Mandeep Singh and Anuragran and all the folks at Bloomberg Intelligence cover the tech space so often. Meta platforms agreed to deploy millions of Nvidia processors over the next few years. Mandeep, what does this mean? Is it new? What's going on here?

[Mandeep Singh]

Well, I mean, it's not really new because Meta is among the top two customers for Nvidia chips, so it's more to do with the fact that not only are they using the GPUs from Nvidia, they're also using the same CPUs now. And intel and AMD used to own that market of server CPUs. And what Nvidia is saying is will give you a better throughput, a better performance if you end up using our GPU cluster complement CPUs. And I think overall, I mean, that's Meta's way of making sure they get the supply from Nvidia, because we heard that at least 10 times from Jensen this year. That demand is really strong and you know, they get to decide who they allocate their chips to. So this is one way that matter is making sure they have the line.

[Paul Sweeney]

Yeah, all makes a lot of sense. So again, the hyperscalers spending more and you know, striking up new deals. Let's talk a little bit about Uber. It's planning to spend more than 100 million to really supercharge as robo taxi charging stations. How are you thinking about whether this changes the profile of what Uber is as a company?

[Mandeep Singh]

I think for Uber, given the scale of their rides, you know, they do over 13 billion rides a year. Compare that to a Waymo that just did 20 million rides a year.

[Scarlet Fu]

I mean, let's go back. Yeah, say those numbers again.

[Mandeep Singh]

13 billion rides for Uber. And just to put it in context, that equates to maybe 10 million rides a day and way more. Did 20 million rides in the whole year, the past 12 months, which was phenomenal growth, you know, compared for them. But that's the scale that Uber is operating at. And that's their pitch that, you know, if you've got two Robotaxi players, they will eventually have to tap our network. If you've got five players, then there's all the more reason to use Uber as the network to deploy a Robotaxi fleet. Because the hard part in this business is managing the wait times. You can have a fleet of Waymo cars, but people don't have the patience to wait for 10 minutes, you know, for a Vemo. So that's the scale at which Uber operates. It allows them to keep the ETA's really low, which is why people use these services. And that's, I think, what's keeping them.

[Scarlet Fu]

Great inventions of my lifetime. The whole ride sharing thing. Think about how it's changed your life.

[Paul Sweeney]

I know, I mean, back in the day, what did you have to do? Right?

[Scarlet Fu]

Yeah. And you know, we have, with our kids, we have this thing, you know, don't drink and drive don't drink and drive. They're like, nobody drinks.

[Paul Sweeney]

Yeah, I know. They look at you like you're crazy. Because there's a solution for that.

[Scarlet Fu]

Yeah.

[Paul Sweeney]

Actually the people who drink and drive are full grown adults.

[Scarlet Fu]

Yes, yes.

[Mandeep Singh]

That's.

[Paul Sweeney]

Who does that. It's Gen X. Yeah.

[Scarlet Fu]

And you can actually get parking on college campuses now. And that was a huge problem at Duke. You can never get parking space. Now they're like, yeah, we got parking all over the place because the kids are ubering it everywhere.

[Advertiser/Commercial Voice]

Absolutely.

[Scarlet Fu]

So Uber technologies, what's that? Are they fully globally penetrated right now, or is there some big part of the world where, like China, where they. They're just not a player.

[Mandeep Singh]

Yeah, they're not a player in China. And the big threat is what the Chinese autonomous driving companies are trying to do is they're trying to roll out their fleet not only in China, but outside in Europe as well. And that's the next leg of the competition is if you've got, you know, Chinese companies that are in robotaxis that don't end up using Uber. And you know, we know Didi is a big ride sharing company that's similar size to Uber. So that's the threat. But so far, I mean, outside of. Except for China, Uber does. Is has the scale when it comes to all the other markets. So I, I think it's a hard business to disrupt unless you've got something scale.

[Narrator/Announcer]

This is the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast, available on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get. Your podcasts listen live each weekday 10am to noon Eastern on Bloomberg.com, the iHeartRadio app TuneIn, and the Bloomberg Business app. You can also watch us live Every weekday on YouTube and always on the Bloomberg terminal. The path to retirement is different for everyone. And as life changes, so do priorities. Fidelity can help you get where you want to go. With a free personalized plan, goal tracking, and timely insights, you'll be set to take on retirement, whether you're saving for it or already living in it. Get [e-mail] takeon expenses charged by your investments and other costume visas associated with trading or transacting in your account. Apply Fidelity Brokerage Services member nysipc hey all. I'm Jamie Lynn Sigler, a mom, actor and advocate. I know how overwhelming it can be trying to decide which treatment is right for you. I've been there. But you should know you're not alone. You can do this. Start with some research, talk to the community, and most importantly, don't be afraid to ask your doctor questions. You might find results that speak for themselves. That's how I landed on qysimta. Ask your doctor if Qysimpta ofatumumab could be right for you. You can check out the [e-mail] Are.

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