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So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises. So let's talk about results. At IBM, we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need. Now a global workforce of 300,000 can use AI to fill their HR questions, resolving 94% of common questions, not noise. Proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business. Lets create smarter business IBM Adobe Acrobat
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B
One of the top read stories on the Bloomberg Terminal is about Mor Stanley and cutting about 3% of its workforce pretty much across all of its business lines. And one question I have I think a lot of folks have Is this something specific to Morgan Stanley? Does it signal weakness in the biz? Or is it just kind of the annual culling of people? So let's just see what's happening here. Herman Chan, senior analyst for U.S. banks, joins us here in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio. So what do you make of the news, Herman, coming out of Morgan Stanley about laying off about 3% of its workforce?
E
Yeah, that's right, 3% of its workforce, about 2500 workers. I would say that it is sort of an annual calling. They did a similar workforce reduction last year. I would also point to the fact that headcount across the big banks was pretty stable for banks like JP Morgan, bank of America, Citi, whereas Morgan Stanley grew their headcount 3% last year. So now they're sort of back in the pack with this workforce reduction.
F
So we noticed that the cuts hit investment banking, trading and wealth management. You mentioned that it's annual culling. But should we read into whether this signals a broader shift for the bank?
E
Yeah, it's interesting because last year when they did a 2% reduction, they didn't really touch their financial advisor force, whereas this year it seems like it's more broad in scope. So I think there's just maybe some, some changes in where they think their advisors are and maybe just shifting geographic, geographically as well.
B
You know, what are the investment banks saying about AI and as a way to make them more efficient maybe with less headcount. Because I think about the first three years of my investment banking career, pretty much everything I did running earnings models, LBO models, pitch books, pretty much all of my life could have been done by price myself out of a job back then. But what, what are they saying these days?
E
Yes. So AI is a big story. We just heard JP Morgan at the Investor Day talk about the benefits of AI in of personalization, pinpointing which customers would be open to different products and using AI to better use their marketing dollars for that. On the other hand, they've also talked about improving customer satisfaction with the call centers and the like where there's less people in the call centers, which is expense saving for, for banks like JP Morgan and B of A. But they're also improving customer satisfaction. You can see that improving over time. So there's a double benefit on that front.
F
But this accelerating structural change when it comes to these banks. Because we've heard a lot of banks and fintech firms like Block actually citing AI as a reason why they're calling.
E
Yes, I wouldn't say we're going to see 40% job cuts for, from, from J.P. morgan or B of A at this point, but, but I would say that is definitely reducing the need for headcounts. And we've seen that given the fact that JP Morgan's headcount numbers are flat year over year and really they've been reducing their, their workforce within the consumer bank, which, which speaks to what I was just saying before with the call center.
B
Yeah, you know, we were just talking earlier that 2026 could wind up being a monster year for IPOs. We're just talking about anthropic OpenAI Space X what are the banks saying about the prospects for IPOs in 2026?
E
Yeah, that that is something that heading into the year a lot of the investment banks were really were really enthusiastic about a pickup in capital markets issuance and activity specifically with IPOs and equity capital markets. And also in M and A you talked about some of the three headline IPOs that that could potentially hit this year. That being said, there's been some volatility and turbulence in the markets today so maybe that pushes things back a little bit. But overall there is some general enthus and JP Morgan mentioned capital markets would be up 14 about mid teens for for the first quarter. So there's hope that that could continue going forward.
F
Do you think that these layoffs will affect Morgan Stanley in competing with top talent? Because to Paul's point it's going to be such a busy year or is this par for the core in most banks?
E
Yeah, I would say Morgan Stanley is one of the top investment banks particularly in and in technology TMT and they're going to get their fair share of deals and win of mandates. Just given the fact that they have really strong banking presence within that industry, we'd expect them to do really well in 2026.
B
You know when President Trump took was elected and took over in early last year, one of the initiatives that was really thought to benefit would be the financial services industry. Much less regulation. That's rolling back some of the regulations that came out of the great financial crisis. Have we seen that?
E
We have. So we've seen that directly with M and A. With Bank M and A there's been more but also less red tape in terms of getting deals approved by the regulators. We've seen a few deals that just get approved with less than 100 days from announcement to close. Whereas during the Biden administration it took 300 to 400 days for that to happen. So much more streamlined. And you're also seeing on the other hand for the big banks more, less onerous capital rules. So that means they can plow more of their capital into the trading businesses and lending. So that that's going to be an ongoing benefit for the big banks.
B
Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.
A
So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises. So let's talk about results. At IBM we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need. Now a global workforce of 300,000 can use AI to fill their HR questions, resolving 94% of common questions not noise proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business.
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B
Broadcom the chip maker Broadcom reported some pretty good numbers, better than expected numbers, some good revenue guidance. CEOs talking about $100 billion in revenue next year. They had about $68 billion last year, so that's a mega jump. Let's check in with Kujan Sabani. He's a senior analyst covering the semiconductors for Bloomberg Intelligence. He's based out there in San Francisco. Kujan seems like a good number to me. What did you guys and what did the street take away?
H
Yeah, it was one of the most strongest showings when it comes to AI chip names in our sector. Just for context, most of the AI chip names despite them giving strong numbers next day have seen their stock down sort of mid single digit. Here you're seeing the opposite very well justified few things that really stood out to investors. That One was the 100 billion plus line of sight of AI chip revenues in 2027 and to add the point that they see growth in 2028. Again this is the first company calling out growth two years out so far in our sector so that should ease the concerns around hyperscale spending. There were a lot of other good points here. The networking side of their business which we believe continues to be underappreciated has been running much faster than people expect. The gross margins which you would think should be seeing headwinds because of these ramp of their AI chips are actually going to stay stable which in itself is a very positive sign which implies that a they have significantly strong pricing power, they're not eating the rising input cost and that they have the supply chain really optimized to get the best yields.
F
They did say that AI sales chips could top 100 billion by 2027 Kunjan how credible is that target? I mean air revenue more than doubled last quarter but is this growth sustainable?
H
I mean look what hocked and says in our sector is not taken lightly. It's sort of a line in the stone. So I wouldn't think they would be throwing out numbers willy nilly if they didn't have to. Also there was, there is no need for them to throw out that long outward number. So you know most of the street and the south side does give a lot of credence to that number now that it's coming out from hockey's mouth. And look when we look at the gigawatt and the unit volume projections which are there on the street Even before that 100 billion number came out it doesn't seem drastically aggressive or ambitious. I mean we have heard Google's higher capex, the anthropic deal and the OpenAI deal layout, the timing anthropic again to remind everyone is will be on all the tpus that Broadcom creates through Google. So when you add up most of the unit volume which is expected, this does seem reasonable that they can easily achieve that 100 billion target.
B
Kun John, where does Broadcom fit into the the world of the semiconductor chip makers? I'm thinking you know versus the Nvidia's of the world, the AMD's of the world. What does Broadcom kind of fit in there?
H
Yeah, so you know the AMD's and Nvidia sell what we call GPUs. Think of them as a accelerator chips used for everything AI. But that is something that the shelf chips, anyone can go buy the GPU and use it the way use it the way it's supposed to use. A Broadcom sells a similar chip that is used for the same AI training, AI inference, agentic AI use cases. But are ASICs. What it just means is big companies like Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft go and sort of design their own AI GPUs. If I may, working with a company like Broadcom because they want to modify, they want to customize, they want to optimize it to their own needs. So essentially, essentially you have the Nvidia's, the AMD's, the Broadcom and the Marvels. All selling accelerator chips is just at the end use case is the same. It's just the mode of execution is slightly bit different.
F
Broadcom also announced a $10 billion buyback. What does that signal to investors right now in your opinion?
H
It's definitely a positive signal. I mean any buyback is a positive signal, but it is not that huge enough to really raise eyebrows. Broadcom historically has been a great dividend payer. They have sustained records of growing dividends. So that is what they're sort of long term capital return shareholders really care about, which they continue to still do. This is just a cherry on the top.
B
So in video they have an investor day coming up I believe on St. Patrick's Day. What do you expect to see there? That could be, that could be a big data point.
H
Yeah, that usually is a huge data point for them. It is their three day conference. Look, we expect couple of things here. We expect the new sort of a lot more details when it comes to the Rivera Rubin which is supposed to come in second half of 26. And more than that, we expect a lot more details on that 2027 roadmap. All eyes are from investor perspective now that what we have heard from Nvidia, Broadcom and every hyperscaler is really to figure out the 27 numbers. So the focus really will be the chips that are coming out in 2027. The new innovation that they will be doing what will be the memory, whether it will have silicon, photonics, cpo. I know I'm rambling some technical terms but this is what will really help investors to shape 2027. Will 2027 be an up year for chip makers? And does that mean the hyperscales will still keep spending more in 27 than they are spending in 2026, which would be an impressive feat. So that is what really the focus will be from Nvidia's GTC.
B
Kujan, 30 seconds left here. How often do I have to replace a chip? Is that something that I have to do every year, every time they update? How's that work?
H
Yeah, these are fairly new chips. So when you think of we have not seen a full life cycle of these new GPUs in ASICS, right? We really started seeing them deploying in volume in 2023. Now based on the depreciation schedules right now that are put in place, we're talking about five to six years before you really have to crank out a chip and put a new one in its place. So we are not there yet. However, there's another business where you have a limited power, you have limited data center footprint. So if a new or more efficient chips comes in, there might be a business case to justify ripping out an old chip even though it's working correctly. So that you are running on the latest and greatest chip.
B
Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.
A
So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises. So let's talk about results. At IBM we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need. Now a global workforce of 300,000 can use AI to fill their HR questions, resolving 94% of common questions, not noise proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business.
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you're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at 10am Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomb Business app. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch us live on YouTube.
B
One of the themes or one of the storylines around AI has been the use in the government, particularly the Department of Defense. A lot of these AI folks are having discussions with the Department of Defense about how the technology will be used. One of those is Anthropic and Anthropic the news today out of Bloomberg News has resumed discussions with the Pentagon about the use of AI models in the US Military. Check in with Mandeep Singh here. He runs a tech research for Bloomberg Intelligence, joins us live here in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio. So, so anthropic back into discussions with the government. How is this going to play out, do you think, with these AI agents and the level of control they may or may not have about how their technology is used by their customers, in this case the U.S. government?
I
Yeah, I mean I was very surprised that they didn't come to an agreement before and you know, they were designated as a supply chain risk, which is a big deal for any entity, any company operating here in the us. So from that perspective it's good that you know, they are back to negotiating with the government and trying to figure out a solution so that they don't end up losing any business. I mean Anthropic just doubled their revenue in the past three months. So they ended the year at 10 billion. Now they are at $20 billion run rate within three months. So this is one of the fastest growing US companies ever and they've been designated as a supply chain risk. So clearly they have a lot to lose in terms of momentum if this carries on for a long time. And from that perspective I do think the management, especially the CEO who has been on various podcasts talking about the whole guardrails and the points of disagreements. I do think that they'll find a solution and that should somewhat insulate them from losing any business.
F
So Anthropic reportedly wants limits on surveillance and autonomous weapons. Do those guardrails become the industry standard or if they keep pushing for that, will they be at a competitive disadvantage? Because to your point, they have a lot to lose. And not only them, possibly most of the companies who are wanting to deal with the US government.
I
Well, OpenAI stepped in right away as soon as they had a fallout. So I don't know if you know, other companies, companies believe in the same philosophy here and Anthropic has, you know, being a big proponent of guardrails and you know, safety more so than the other frontier model players. So from that perspective, that has helped them with enterprise adoption. But in this case it's the U.S. government. And you know, you go back in the history of software companies, I mean Apple has had some disagreements with the government where they were asked to open the platform. Same thing with Microsoft when it comes to national security. And they have found a way to just make sure that the government has a good workaround. So in this case that's what they have to compromise or come up with, a workaround. It doesn't mean you have to open your platform but just kind of make sure that the government doesn't label you as a supply chain risk.
B
Anthropic, OpenAI. Are these companies going to come public do you think? At some point.
I
I mean they are getting ready. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if it's not this year. Like really everything points to them going public in the second half given how focused they are on that ramp up and what they are doing in terms of just the cost structure side because one of the criticisms is how much cash they are burning and the training does require a lot of upfront cash. But in this case now that they have doubled their revenue in the past three months and they're sell that, I can sell that. And so that's where I think it's a perfect idea.
B
2026 may have OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX.
F
Yeah, it's going to be an exciting year.
B
I mean that could be an extraordinary year.
I
Some of the biggest IPOs, I mean these are not early stage companies anymore, you know, so think of how much money they may end up raising in the public markets.
B
Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.
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Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available@public.com disclosures.
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B
We got some earnings coming out. Some of the retailers, as you know they kind of report towards the end of the season. Given the holiday, they'd like to push the reportings back a month versus most other companies. Kroger we had some numbers out BJ's Wholesale Warehouse. Jen Bartasha, she covers this part of the retail space. Jen, let's start with Kroger's, the biggest supermarket chain other than Wal Mart.
J
How do they do you know, Kroger had a pretty solid quarter, you know, and I think investors are very encouraged by the early signs of what their new CEO, Greg Forin is bringing to bear. The last year, Kroger's really focused on streamlining the business. They've dispersed, they've, they've gotten rid of some assets, they've streamlined their e commerce operations and now they seem to be better positioned for growth. And one of the things he's known for is execution. And so, so there's some, some optimism with regards to how Kroger could perform this year.
F
We're also seeing shoppers trade down to private label and hunt for discounts. Is this trend accelerating across the space or is this specific to Kroger's?
J
No, it's accelerating across the space. And when we look at, across all goods that are sold, private label sales are still growing at a faster rate than national brands. The pace of that growth is a little bit slower than it had been brand, but it's still edging out national brands. And so when you have retailers like Kroger who have a long standing program around private label, that really bodes well for them with regards to their product mix and their ability to offer value as well as innovation to their customers.
B
So talk to us just broadly how the trends have been with some of these private labels vis a vis the established brands. Just maybe like in shelf placement, it used to be the private labels would be on the, you know, the bottom rung of the shelf near the floor. Are they getting better positioning? Because I know that's important when you're walking down the aisle.
J
It is. It's a great point, Paul. And what you're finding is that for some retailers, that private label is front and center. And part of that is due to the fact that in old days the retailers were more reliant on allocation funds from the CPG companies that dictated where goods were placed. But in a new age of advertising and digital assets, the need for that in store placement is not as big as it used to be historically. So they've got more leeway to put the items where people see them, you know, and at the same time, you know, from a private label perspective, there's just greater acceptance. If you think about, you know, chains like Aldi or Lidl, you know, these are chains that are almost all private label brands and people have really started to embrace that. And so private label in and of itself is no longer, you know, sort of more of a taboo category. And people are consider themselves smart when they're buying private label because they're saving money.
B
I've been seeing like where I live in down the Jersey Shore, Ton more of these Aldi and Lidl stores, I'm like, who are these people?
F
Oh, really?
B
Okay. Because I mean, they're not the shop rate of in Belmont. So I don't know.
F
Let's go to BJ's. They delivered an earnings beat this quarter. Are warehouse clubs continuing to take share from traditional supermarkets? Is that the trend we're seeing?
J
It is definitely a trend. I think what happens is consumers, once they lock into a membership, they really look to maximize that membership. And they've understood that that warehouse clubs as a type of store are actually better positioned than grocery stores or even the mass merchants to make quick changes to their inventory. And what that means is that they can always pivot to things that are the best value for their customers. So even though they may not have the exact same item every time you go, the club people, you know, they encourage that to be looked at as a treasure hunt experience. But they can also offer really, really good value. And so we're seeing the membership base grow and it is eking sales away from some of those more traditional formats.
B
So what is the story? What is the story for BJ's wholesaler? How do they. How do you position it? How does the street position this story?
J
So BJ's has done a really good job in the last two or three years of reorienting to growth. They' accelerated their store openings, so they're entering new markets as well. They're entering the Dallas Fort Worth area later this year, for example. And that kind of growth and targeting high growth markets is really a good plan because historically they've been really constrained to the Northeast. And so I think people are looking at BJ's and they've really been able to show that those new clubs are executing well. They're very, very productive stores, shareholders, and they're able to sustain a pace of faster openings. So all of those things together really point to a long Runway for growth and a lot of white space to enter for new markets and to gain share.
F
So with inflation easing but consumers still cautious, what are you on the lookout for when it comes to the grocery earnings this year?
J
Yeah, it's a great question. You know, there are a couple of things that we're really watching and when it, you know, when you're talking about food, retail price sensitivity is there, but it's going to shift more this year to are these retailers able to sell greater volumes of goods? And if they're achieving that through price cuts or through promotions and then how that then translates back to like the food manufacturing companies. It's been multiple years since we've seen retailers have positive volume volume in in the majority of the store and so that really is the focus for this year, especially because inflation has become less of a pressure for them to have to manage.
D
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Episode: Morgan Stanley Cuts Jobs Across All of Its Business Lines
Date: March 5, 2026
Hosts: Paul Sweeney ("B"), Scarlet Fu ("F")
Guests: Herman Chan (U.S. Banks Senior Analyst), Kujan Sabani (Semiconductor Analyst), Mandeep Singh (Tech Research), Jen Bartashus (Retail Analyst)
This episode dives into several topical stories in business and finance, focusing initially on Morgan Stanley’s recent workforce reduction, and branching out to cover technology's influence on banking (notably AI), blockbuster updates from chipmaker Broadcom, developments in government AI contracts involving Anthropic, and retail sector earnings with an emphasis on Kroger and BJ’s Wholesale. The hosts leverage Bloomberg Intelligence’s deep bench of analysts for sector insights, discussing the impact of layoffs, AI's disruptive potential in banking, IPO prospects for unicorns like OpenAI and Anthropic, and evolving consumer trends in grocery and retail.
Guest: Herman Chan, Senior Analyst, U.S. Banks
“They did a similar workforce reduction last year ... headcount across the big banks was pretty stable ... whereas Morgan Stanley grew their headcount 3% last year. So now they're sort of back in the pack with this workforce reduction.”
— Herman Chan (02:28)
“Heading into the year a lot of the investment banks were ... enthusiastic about a pickup in capital markets issuance ... JP Morgan mentioned capital markets would be up ... about mid teens for the first quarter.”
— Herman Chan (05:29)
Guest: Kujan Sabani, Senior Analyst, Semiconductors
“What [CEO] Hock Tan says in our sector is not taken lightly. It's sort of a line in the stone ... most of the street ... gives a lot of credence to that number now that it's coming out from Hock’s mouth.”
— Kujan Sabani (11:54)
Guest: Mandeep Singh, Tech Research
“OpenAI stepped in right away as soon as they had a fallout. So I don't know if other companies believe in the same philosophy ... Anthropic has, you know, being a big proponent of guardrails and safety more so than the other frontier model players.”
— Mandeep Singh (21:06)
Guest: Jen Bartashus, Retail Analyst
“Private label in and of itself is no longer, you know, sort of more of a taboo category. And people ... consider themselves smart when they're buying private label because they're saving money.”
— Jen Bartashus (27:24)
“AI is a big story. We just heard JP Morgan at the Investor Day talk about the benefits of AI ... improving customer satisfaction with the call centers ... that’s going to be an ongoing benefit for the big banks.”
— Herman Chan (03:54)
“What [Broadcom CEO] Hock Tan says in our sector is not taken lightly. It's sort of a line in the stone.”
— Kujan Sabani (11:54)
“Anthropic just doubled their revenue in the past three months. ... Now they are at $20 billion run rate within three months. So this is one of the fastest growing US companies ever.”
— Mandeep Singh (19:36)
“Private label in and of itself is no longer... a taboo category. And people ... consider themselves smart when they're buying private label because they're saving money.”
— Jen Bartashus (27:24)