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Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News. Bloomberg Tech is live from coast to coast with Caroline Hyde in New York and Ed Ludlow in San Francisco. This is Bloomberg Tech. Coming up, Amazon cut 16,000 corporate jobs to remove layers of bureaucracy and quote, increase ownership. ASML also announcing job cuts to boost efficiency and posting strong fourth quarter orders. And sources tell Bloomberg that SoftBank is in talks to invest as much as $30 billion more into open air. Let's check in on these markets though because there's been some interesting whipsawing ASML among them. But we go more macro right now. One point we saw the S&P 500 above that 70,000 of 7,000 level. We have never seen that before and that is as we see the momentum in AI continuing. But we have a crucial Fed meeting. What is going to be put to Jay Powell later today by independence of the Federal Reserve. We're not thinking that there will be any move in terms of rates but still there's nervousness, nervousness around Iran as well and there's a lot to be focusing in on. But for now, Nasdaq 100 holds on to its gains of 410 of a percent. What are you looking at? The breaking news story of the morning. Amazon is cutting 16,000 more corporate roles, eliminate middle management stream line. It confirms a lot of what Bloomberg had already reported. The stock kind of bouncing around in the session now softer by 7/10 of 1%. We're going to get to that later in the program and go deep on what's happening in Amazon and tech more broadly. Then there's ASML at one point in the session up more than 7% and pushing to a fresh record high. Great blockbuster bookings bookending the 13th consecutive year of growth and also doing its own job cuts. I guess, you know, fix the roof while the sun is shining kind of analogy Caro. But now the stock is down softer 2 1/2 percent. Something might have been happening on the call. Yeah, we've got to dig into it because as you mentioned, 1700 jobs to go and the Dutch maker of the semiconductor equipment that is sort of world used says it plans to cut 1700 roles around 4% of the workforce is an effort to streamline the organization. The CEO has said this is as the company reported earnings that you mentioned showing record four quarter bookings fueled of course by demand. But SML CEO Christoph Phuket did speak with Bloomberg on the phone earlier. Take a listen to what he had to say. The last three months have brought a lot of clarity and I think what you see basically is that the semi industry, our customer start to believe that this demand is sustainable and therefore they have moved into building capacity and they are moving very aggressively. And I think this has been very nicely translated indeed into a record booking number. So that's of course very good news for the midterm. Why are the shares down then? Let's talk about the results. When Pierre Ferro is head of global tech infrastructure and new street research. Why did we sell the rally the record high in the shares earlier today? Hey Caroline. Yes, that's a great question. So I think some ASML basically confirmed what Everybody suspected that 2026 is going to Be a great year. Now you have to take a step back and think what does that mean a great year? They guided revenue growth between 4 and 19%, which in absolute term is very strong growth. As you mentioned, bookings were never seen. We've never seen that level of orders at ASML like exceeding 13 billion in a single, in a single quarter. Now when you take a step back, think about what is the downstream of asml, who are the clients? It's a Micron, it's a Hynix, it's a Samsung, it's a tsmc. And these players actually growing much, much faster than that. They're growing like if you take for instance, TSMC is probably going to grow like between 30 and 35% this year. So we already see that semicap equipment starts lagging a bit. Their clients in terms of growth and that's a very natural thing because they sell equipment to add capac. And when you look at the trajectory of growth of AI, we are actually just passing the inflection point. Going forward, growth is going to continue to be very strong, but it is going to slow. And so it's going to translate into slower growth at semicap equipment manufacturers. And I really think this is the way the street is digesting the news today. And overnight, initially the stock was up and now the the street is raising. Okay, but if 2026 is a peak spending year, maybe it's time to actually take profits on ASML as a stock. So you think this is peak? I mean that's not what one would hear from Jensen Huang who thinks we still got trillions to go. We are still in this mode of trying to question whether we're in an AI bubble or not. Do you think that we got any clarity on that from ASML after we of course got TSMC after SK Hynix showed such strength in memory. Yeah, so we're definitely not at peak on AI. And you look at the TSMC guide to 2029 growth, between 55 and 60%. So we are still in a very high growth environment in AI. The peak I refer to Caroline, is a peak in actually capacity increase. Because if in 2027 you still grow very fast, but a bit slower than 2026, you will not need more equipment that you needed in 2026. So this is this idea that semicap players are driven by incremental capacity, not by growth directly. It's a first order derivative of the growth of their clients. And that's the reason why the market is right to be a bit nervous, specifically on Summit now when it comes to their clients, like the growth outlook of 426 is amazing. It's already very strong for 2027 and it looks really, really good for 2028 and 2029. So we are still in a very, very, very strong growth environment in the eye. Yeah. If the stock's down in 2026 is the peak. The market doesn't believe Mr. Fouquet. He thinks it's about sustainability. Listen to this real quick. I think we have all been surprised by the magnitude of AI and we all saw it coming a bit. But at the same time, you know, we see those investment coming out and it's been big and I think that all of us are continuing to watch basically for the sustainability of those investment. I think sustainability is a key word. I think the question is always, is this going to last? I think that more and more customers are responding positively to that question, is this going to last? And he's saying that the signals from his customers are that it is going to last. And you'll say the market isn't showing us that where the market is showing is being careful about it because this is going to last for the CEO of ASML might mean we still have very good level of spending in 2027. But if 2027 is as good as 2026, how is the stock going to work on that? It's not going to work well. I have a question for you. What is the leading indicator in the world of tech? Right. I can give you a chart right now. It shows you expected capital expenditures for the hyperscalers and other associated names like Matter and Oracle. Right? Is that the leading indicator or Bloomberg's in King is going to come on next and tell us that Texas Instruments is a leading indicator for the health of the economy or ASML and EUV demand is a leading indicator. Which data set is most critically important to you right now, Pierre? So what's most critically important, Ed, is to connect these data sets rightfully. I love the chart you just showed. This is like CapEx and you see that we expect CapEx to grow a lot this year, a growth next year. And as we are not too sure, we don't model much beyond that. This is a leading indicator. Now what is going to drive the business of ASML is how much incremental capex you add every year. And what you see very clearly is that this incremental CAPEX is now plateauing and coming down. And that's the reason why in semicap equipment you have to be careful and expect like a significant slowdown in revenue growth for the rest of the industry. Capex growth is a very, very good indicator. And then Texas Instruments is actually a very interesting indicator. That is the most important indicator today outside of AI because it's quite important to understand what is the global economy doing outside of AI. And we've been into like a very, very painful, lengthy down cycle in automotives, in industrials and what TSMC said, it's confirmed signals that we've had already for a few weeks that we are at the bottom and things are improving. Just trying to answer the question, is this going to last? Pierre Ferragud from New Street Research, thank you very much. I alluded to it just then. Shares of Texas Instruments soaring after the company gave a surprisingly robust forecast for the first quarter, signaling that customers have worked through inventory and are returning for chips, analog chips. Multiple analysts are raising price targets, calling the outlook encouraging. Bloomberg's inking is here. Analog chips, simple translation of a touch of a button into a signal. But we always write in our story, in our summary of earnings. This is like the bellwether, the crystal ball for the economy. What do we learn through their earnings? I mean they've got tens of thousands of products, tens of thousands of customers. So they are literally everywhere. Everything that's got an on and off switch, that's where they are. What they said was again you were very careful and they're incrementally better. They had been talking about a recovery being kind of off pace, not as kind of robust as we would normally get. Now they're saying actually orders are improving and are continuing to improve. The signs are now better. How much are they able to harness any of the air vibes rather than autos, industrials? The bellwether part? Yeah, that's a very good question. The answer is they confirmed the vibe is good for them. It's now a significant business, but really it's not the main business. The main business for them remains industrial and automotive. The things that are a broader. I mean we know that data centers are big, right? And they confirm that. What they told us was that industrial is getting better as well, which is what we want to hear. We've really focused right now on how global these companies are, like currency impacts, like China. What's going on with China? Is there anything kind of extra that Texas Instruments can, can tell us about different geographies, other industries like industrial good. Is there anything that's pretty bad? Yeah, I mean they talked about consumer electronics not being fantastic and that's because consumer electronics actually recovered earlier than other markets and now it's kind of slowing down a little bit. Some of the consumer electronics devices, home theater, maybe PCs, a little bit memory dependent. We talked about memory. The price of memory is going up, that's no secret. And that has a knock on impact in King as always breaking it down. And you mentioned memory. We're going to go there, check out SK Hynix shares. They have really rocketed on the back of their earnings and there's this relentless appetite for AI memory which SK site Hynix serves. They're also in fact going to be establishing an AI data center solutions firm here in the US Said how much is that to do with South Korea, US relationships going forward and the need to invest in the United States. It's going to be backed by $0 billion of capital to pursue partnerships and investments in the sector. So keep an eye on that stock. And that was its trading in South Korea today. Coming up, trade tensions rise between the US And South Korea. More on the why next. This is Bloomberg Tech. Every day millions of customers engage with agents like me. We work round the clock and have the facts at our fingertips. We're fast and effective but incredibly patient. And we're built on Sierra, the leading AI powered customer experience platform. No hold music, just answers and action. Visit Sierra AI to learn more. That's Sierra AI. Support for the show comes from public. 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 completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com market 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. Disclosures available at public.comDisclosures Small businesses are the pulse of every community. They bring people together, create opportunities and drive growth with a widespread presence in communities across the country. Chase for Business supports small business owners at a local level that makes it possible for you to connect, learn from each other and grow together. There's a real commitment to seeing small businesses succeed. The Chase for Business team has knowledge and expertise that span a wide range of financial areas. They can help you make more informed decisions as you navigate the complexities of running your business. They'll help your business grow with individual guidance and convenient digital tools all in one place. With that guidance and your determination, you can take your business farther and help build a brighter future for your community. Learn more@chase.com business chase for business Make More of what's yours the Chase Mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply JPMorgan Chase Bank NA Member FDIC Copyright 2026 JPMorgan Chase Co. Taking a look at shares of Amazon softer 710 of 1% the company announcing the cut of 16,000 corporate jobs worldwide, saying it's an effort to remove layers of bureaucracy and to quote, increase ownership. It also confirms corporation quite a lot of what Bloomberg's been reporting of late. Bloomberg Spencer Soper, who covers Amazon, joins us now. 16,000 corporate jobs is the latest wave of more than one wave and the messaging and in line with your reporting, right, is that this is about efficiency and streamlining, not about AI. What are the details of this particular trim that we're seeing? Yeah, definitely a delayering. They're kind of targeting the middle. And this is something that goes back to last year when Jassy was talking about, you know, more, more people who are doing the direct work and fewer people managing the work, you know, in the middle. So there's, there's that in there. It also hit a large, you know, different parts of the organization. So when, when they had initially laid off 14,000 back in October, departments were given a choice. They said they had to hit some numbers. They were given a choice do you want to cut people now or wait until after, after the holiday season. And so a lot of departments, particularly the retail division, waited until after Christmas to do their cuts. So now we're seeing a total of 30,000, which is the biggest in, in Amazon's history for the corporate side. And that's, you know, compared TO I think 27,000, which was a few years ago back in 2021 and 22. Now feel, Spencer, that they've been at length to say this isn't some regular occurrence. I know Beth Galetti, who's really in charge of people experience technology is this isn't going to be some rolling set of cuts that we see every few months. But 30,000 last three months is a huge amount. Yeah, 30,000 is a big amount. And but also if you read her statement very carefully, it's really corporate gobbledygook trying to strike that tone between, you know, reassuring employees but also not making any promises, you know what I mean? So she's, she's saying some might ask if this is going to be a rolling theme. And you know, but she's not really saying, hey, we're not going to cut any more over this period of time. So it's kind of just not non committal gobledygook. If you really read it carefully. Yeah. Saying is this the beginning of a new rhythm? That's not our plan. But just as you always have, every team will continue to evaluate the ownership speed and capacity to invent for customers. Bloomberg. Spencer Soper, thanks for breaking it down for us. Now the Trump administration is demanding that South Korea implement its six month old trade deal with the US to prevent tariffs from rising to 25%. Trade tensions between the two countries have been rising, made worse by the US Frustration with Korean digital services regulations. No. Senior tech editor Mike shepherd joins us now to unpack what is a tech centric story in many ways because it involves key chip makers over in Korea, for example. Well, it really does. And we saw actually the flashes of this brewing as long as 10 days ago, Karen, we saw Howard Lutnick threatening those memory makers with tariffs of up to 100% if they didn't step up their investments here in the US and that is one of the issues that we have seen surge more recently with the presidency threat of increasing tariffs to 25% from the current agreed upon 15% level. And a lot of that has to do with what is happening with those investments. Remember, under the deal, South Korea had promised to invest as much as $350 billion in the US over the next several years. But that step has been stalled in the South Korean parliament. They are just beset by a lot of issues including currency woes and capital outflows. And so lawmakers there have really not been able to cod quantify how this investment would go forward. But we heard this morning from U.S. trade Representative Jamison Greer that time is up and South Korea needs to start moving, otherwise the US Will move to the next step perhaps, and that is implementing a potential tariff increase. Mike, the other news story at the intersection of tech and what's happening in Washington, D.C. is Intel pledging to match Trump account contributions, contributions for its employees. What do we need to know about that? Well, it's an interesting step and it's one that other companies, including BlackRock, have already taken and that they are in Dell, of course. Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Computing, has, is one of the pioneers behind this Trump Accounts project and has made some big pledges that we've talked about on this program before. But intel is getting in line with that. And of course, course, the stakes for intel are quite different. And when I say stakes, it's quite literal. The US government owns currently 5.5% of the company and is on course to own as much as 10% of the chip maker. And it's also interesting that in December, the company hired Robin Colwell from the White House to serve as its next government head of government affairs here in Washington. So intel is in a way really aligning with this initiative, the Trump accounts, which are designed to encourage saving and investment by parents for young children over the next several years to try to get people not only invested in the stock market, but saving over the long haul. And in this way, intel is trying to get on the right side of the story with the administration in another one of the president's priorities. Bloomberg's Mike Shepherd. Thank you very much. CAR it's time now for talking tech, Ed. First up, Elon Musk has suggested the timing of Space X's possible blockbuster IPO could come in mid June is according to a report in the Financial Times. The owner of the rocket maker, of course, is reported to be targeting the IPO for when Jupiter and Venus will appear very close together in the sky. Musk's 55th birthday is also in June. Plus, Snap has created a subsidiary dedicated to augmented reality glasses specs. Now, the unit is intended to give the smart eyewear team more independence, will allow it to raise money. A spokesperson confirmed Snap will launch the glasses regardless of external investment. And Apple CEO Tim Cook has joined other tech leaders weighing in on the killing of Alex Pretty by federal agents in Minnesota. In an internal memo, Cook called for DS escalation and he said he had spoken to President Trump about the situation. SoftBank is in talks to invest as much as $30 billion more into open air. Now that's according to sources. The Japanese firm is already one of opening's biggest backers with 11% stake in the ChatGPT maker. Here with more is Bloomberg's and data centers are Linda 1 and so 30 billion really makes Massa all in. I mean, we know he takes big bets. Yes, yeah, and I think we had one of the analysts out in Asia saying he is literally betting the house on OpenAI and other stakes. Now, that being said, it's probably worth pointing out that it's as much as $30 billion as opposed to $30 billion itself. So we'll see exactly where he lands there. But I mean, let's face it, like something has already invested tens of billions of dollars in OpenAI. So what's another $30 billion at the this point? Right, Lynn, there are lots of people in my world asking equally if Open Air is good for it in all their capital commitments for infrastructure and where the SoftBank has up to $30 billion. But the main thrust of it is that this is part of a round that we know is happening. Right. OpenAI wants to raise money. What do we know about its target raise overall and the valuation it wants to hit, irrespective of how much SoftBank contributes to that? That's exactly right. And we've been reporting on this funding round that Open Air has been orchestrating over the past several months for a while now. Obviously SoftBank isn't the only name that is intended to invest in this round. We very recently broke the news that OpenAI has been in conversations with very big name investors in the Middle east. And so it's possible that we see some sovereign wealth money wind up in this round. Now, in terms of like, what they're targeting valuation wise, very difficult to say. It's even like difficult to say exactly how much they may end up raising in the end. The ranges that you've seen out there from us, from others in the media are kind of all over the place. It's like anywhere from $750 billion to $850 billion, depending on where investors, investors in OpenAI decide to land in the end. So it's very much an active round and we continue to try to keep tabs of exactly where it lands. What's interesting is how SoftBank has been very focused on the AI play, but also selling down an Nvidia to be able to loosen up some cash. They made a purchase of ampere, for example, in the chips area. Are they deemed a winner in the AI space right now? Well, I think it's probably two different questions that you're looking to unpack there. One is, what does SoftBank selling down its stake and in video really mean? And I think that for a moment people were making the mistake of interpreting that as, ooh, sopping, sees that it's getting like way over its skis. And it's not really, you know, all in on AI, when in fact what it was really doing is trying to raise enough money to make even more bets on AI. Your other question though was like is sopping a winner in AI? I mean is anybody a winner in AI? I think that the concerns over an AI bubble are still relevant. We saw some although report some strong bookings. So. Welcome back to Bloomberg Tech. Let's check in on these markets which have been flip flopping as we build anticipation of the Fed decision and indeed many feeling we're not going to get a rate change. But what will Jay Powell say at the press conference? We also got building geopolitical anxiety whether it's about Iran, whether we've got still tensions with South Korea in terms of trade. Nevertheless one point The S&P 500 goes above 7,000 and the NASDAQ 100 holds on to its gains. Earnings are coming thick and fast. This is where we see the fundamental picture of this tech rally that we're so used to. Seagate best performer in terms of actual percentage move. When you look at the NASDAQ 120%. This is again winning formula on memory. Analysts calling the numbers that Kate put out last night terrific. Texas Instruments also came out with numbers. This is like the bellwether when you think about industrials and think about autos. And we've hit a bottom. We're coming back out of it for up almost 8% on that name. ASML actually turns red. It have blowout orders. But so many people questioning perhaps where they can keep on building momentum selling chip equipment to those chip makers such as tsmc intel here in the United States. Intel as I say, up 10%. Keep an eye on how the moon music has changed around AI or whether there's a bubble or not. And it's all about these earnings right now. It is. And big turn Tech earnings are well and truly upon us and that includes ServiceNow. Bloomberg Intelligence says investors will want to hear about the pending acquisition of cybersecurity startup Ambassador along with new air sales and a lot more. Bloomberg's Brody Ford who covers the software space is here with us generally right now the IT spending environment isn't great. What is the kind of read through and expectation from the street on how ServiceNow will talk about that? Right. And how it will show up in their own numbers? Application software has just had a really tough stretch the last year or so. Right. I mean we've seen all of these big vendors, whether it be Salesforce or ServiceNow talk up their new AI tools. But it just seems that we can't quite see it in the numbers that there's a real revenue uplift. And with service now add on top that they've made two big deals in the last year or so, I just see a lot more investor anxiety about them than I had at any point in recent years. I mean, you just have to look back to how their shares have deeply underperformed. Last year they were off by basically almost 30%. When you flip into what we might hear from IBM, it has actually outperformed software names. But their consultancy side of the business, this is maybe the one that you get the AI part of the equation coming in. Exactly. IBM is face facing this moment where the discretionary spending is being taken out of those traditional consulting projects. But it doesn't seem to matter too much for them because a lot of their infrastructure software is doing quite well and people are still buying a ton of mainframes. Who knew? So IBM has actually faced a pretty, you know, positive environment for a name that in the past was associated with kind of stodgy, boring, slow growth company. You know, don't even get them started on Quantum Brody. We got a lot to digest after the Bell, thanks to you. We appreciate it. Brody Ford. Another stock we're watching is Microsoft. Investors are paying close attention to its cloud computing service Asia and the impact of AI, generative AI actually can. His Wolf research analyst expects the platform's growth to exceed guidance at 39%, writing we believe that Open Air training revenue will begin contributing more materially to Azure in the second fiscal quarter and beyond, which could provide incremental upside to our preview. Alex joins us now. The question is do they have the capacity to serve the relentless demand from a player such as Open Air? Alex? Yeah, I mean that's the, I think the big question. And look, we're excited. We think this is the bellwether that's going to help usher AI into the enterprise era. The move from co pilot to coworker that never sleeps, never, never eats, never complains, just works on complicated problems all the time with the same tool chain that you're used to as a human. We think Microsoft is very well positioned as a platform to deliver on all parts of that stack and journey, the most important metric being Azure. The capacity constraint issues we think do start to get resolved as they bring the Fairwater data centers online. We see both the Wisconsin and Atlanta data center starting to ramp and contribute. We think that unlocks about a gigawatt of capacity over the course of the Next year, which we estimate is about $20 billion of incremental Azure unlock. We think that they also are contracting and expanding their capacity with third parties like the Neo Cloud, you know, N Scale Nebus and a few others that could be an up to another gigawatt of capacity or another potential 20 billion. So we think that you start to see those resolutions come through over the course of the next few quarters. I want to go back to where you started co pilot and then you went co worker. What's so interesting really on the show the last few days and really thinking about Anthropic offering co work. How much is that potential? Potentially a real competitor to Microsoft could it up and it's in the space it to me and the way we think about it is that we're in phase zero of adoption in the enterprise. A lot of the tools, the way they're being used right now, we're in the discovery phase of what's possible. We think that Anthropic OpenAI really all the model companies have an opportunity to, to massively expand the value creation that they're delivering in their offerings in the enterprise specifically. And so this is a demonstration, we believe where different vendors at different times will be able to exhibit share gains with functionality that they launch in their ecosystems to enable value creation. So we view it less as a zero sum and more of as an infinite gain that we're just starting to play. Alex, I find this so interesting that we started this conversation about top line growth in Azure, right. Almost the reverse of a conversation we might have had one or two quarters ago, which would have started with capital expenditures. How much do you need to just get a projection of confidence from Microsoft on their capital expenditure figures to keep this, this big story alive? Yeah, so look, last quarter quarter was the big shift quarter in terms of CapEx going from, you know, something where we thought it was going to be 100 billion to 150 billion this year. We think that the CapEx shift has been made, we think now it's a question of stability and you know, to some extent maybe aligning the increase from here with some of your kind of core revenue growth assumptions. But look, that could change too. Over the last month we think inference has quite frankly exploded with the amount of tokens being generated for autonomous coding tasks that are now running, you know, writ large when people sleep, as well as some of the possible functionalities exhibited by things like Clockbot and these other kind of orchestration engines. So it's anyone's guess, we don't, we don't think Capex is going down anytime soon. We think kind of stable to up is is how we are thinking about it when it comes to genuinely autonomous agents. You know Microsoft's very good. I always say this in the program. It's what I grew up with selling software that you can otherwise get for free elsewhere. They're not the only game right. When it comes to the coworker NWC has a very similar story. They like to tell they like to talk up their prowess in observability. Right. Really important critical factor when an agent is an autonomous and they talk up at us how well they're doing to help engineers get through backlog. How are you going to discern Alex, which company is better at that, you know and therefore which will be adopted in the enterprise? Well look, I think all three hyperscalers have a role to play. I think the one element about autonomous agents, particularly ones that have to handle sensitive oftentimes customer privileged information is security. And we think one of the key differentiators for Microsoft is their security portfolio, their security stack, their security graph as well as you know, all of the investments that they've made in other parts of the data platform estate over time. So we think that is a critical piece of the puzzle that will help them gain share of this developing market that we're just kind of starting to discover the use cases around. Alex Zukin, the Wolf Research Great to have you on the show in advance of Microsoft. Coming up WABI CEO Raquel Edison joins us to talk about the self driving startups, latest funding and a push into robo taxis. That's next. This is Bloomberg Tech. Support for the show comes from public 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 completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com market 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, recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comDisclosures Small businesses are the pulse of every community. 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Head to 4imprint.com to explore. That's 4imprint.com, 4imprint for certain. Self driving startup Huawei secured $1 billion in new funding and includes a 750 million Series C that was led by Khosla Ventures by G2 Venture Partners plus 250 million in miles own based investment from Uber to launch Huabby enabled Robotaxis. Joining us now Raquel Rotissen. She is CEO Founder of Wabi. How important is this focus on physical AI in the trucking space? Now moving to the Robotaxi. How significant is that for you? Yes, it's a really exciting moment, I will say where you know, the physical revolution is here and self driving is what is going to scale first. And you know, we have a very advanced system in trucking and now we are entering Robotaxi with a massive partnership with, with Uber and you know, it's really the next stage for the company is really exciting to be leading the way in physically. What's interesting is we had Gotic on yesterday also raising funds. Well, they're securing new deals, they're already commercializing. How is your go to market looking? It's all about the platform that you offer when it comes to trucking. And now Robotaxis. What is it that makes you so distinct? So what makes us very, very unique is the fact that we have next generation technology, a physical AI platform that for the first time in the industry, in the industry is going to be able to drive both form factors, Robotaxis as well as selecting trucks. And we are very advanced in terms of both the technology as well as commercialization in trucking and now, you know, entering Robotaxi and we're going to enter a taxi really, really quickly. So it's very, you know, it's great to see that, you know, this next generation technology enables you to go so much faster, so much more capital efficient and with a product that really means the customer demands. Raquel, congratulations on the round. You know, really notable. It reads like the money that's coming in from Uber is contingent on you hitting some milestones in robot taxi. Right? Your focus has been autonomous trucking. What are those milestones in Robotaxi that Uber requires you to hit so you can unlock access to that cash? So, so not sharing a lot of details yet on the amazing partnership with Uber, but those are simple milestones that we can, you know, we can achieve quickly and you know, thanks to the technology that we have, you know, already today we have the capabilities to, you know, the core capabilities required for robot access with our self driving trucks. And is there unlike the rest of the industry, we can drive not only on highways, but in general surface streets. So that's why, you know, we feel, you know, very confident that, you know, we can enter Robotaxi and disrupted market really, really, you know, swiftly. You're a Canadian company essentially and one of the conversations that we were having yesterday with GATIC is in America, in the US a need for a federal regulatory framework. Are you able to give me a kind of assessment of going to market in Canada versus the United States? Which jurisdiction you think is ahead right in accommodating this nascent technology, yeah, the US is definitely ahead of the Canadian markets in terms of, you know, regulatory piece as well as adoption. And Canada has to do, you know, quite a bit to catch up. But there is a lot of excitement on the Canadian ecosystem to make this disposable. They really understand that this technology has so many benefits from safety to, you know, the efficiency that is and sustainability, extra sustainability that is going to come with, with the technology. So definitely there is a desire, but the US is way ahead of Canada. So we will, you know, for us, our first market has been over the last couple of years for tracking really the US or some much larger, you know, markets. And then we will see about, you know, more expansion in the years to come. What's interesting is that you've been in a deeply entrenched in the academic side of the it still a full professor over in the University of Toronto for 25 years. Is talent ever an issue for you people? So know who you are. They must gravitate towards the expertise you brought in physical AI. But it's getting very expensive. Is that almost what some of this funding round is for? It's a great, great point, Caroline. So there is definitely, you know, a lot of, you know, talent war for AI these days with obviously the revolution that is happening. But you know, why we can attract the best in class without paying premiums. And the reason why is that if you're interested in physically, if you're interested in, you know, bringing a product that is, you know, you say once in a lifetime or in a generation, sort of opportunity to really change the world as we know it today and you want to do it with innovative technology that and really pushing the industry to the next next level, then what is the place to be? And that's what, you know, we have hired the best in class talent team and we continue to attract the best in class and you know, also what retention numbers are off the chart. So definitely, you know, amazing team and we continue to double down in terms of hiring. Raquel, I have another question about Canada and you know, forgive me, it's just been so much in the news recently, the ecosystem in Canada. You probably saw that Y Combinator cut Canada from its list of, of countries that it would invest in startups in. What do you make of that? And like, what is the ecosystem in Canada right now? Like on the software and hardware side, do you see the talent pool that you need available in your home country? Yeah. So I'm not going to comment on, you know, you know, why Combinator Specifically, but I will say that, you know, the, there is a vibrant tech ecosystem in Canada. You know, as you, as, you know, you know, Canada has been at the forefront of really all the innovation on the majority of the innovation underpin the revolution that we are seeing today with folks like, you know, Jeff hinton, Nobel Prize, etc. Right. So, so the talent is there, the ecosystem is there and you know, from my perspective, you know, what is a proud Canadian company and there is, you know, a few others that are really leading the way and it's a massive, you know, it's an amazing market. And if you look at our list of investors, you know, we have plenty from the Valley, plenty for Canada from Canada as well as Europe and even Middle east now. So, you know, I will say that we, you know, Canada can really attract capital from, you know, across the globe and you know, it's a miss if you don't, you don't invest in Canada. Thank you. Raquel Edison, CEO and founder of Wabi closing a $750 million Series C taking up to $1 billion with support from Uber to Wall Street. Perhaps feeling some mixed signals on Tesla ahead of its earnings price targets for the EV maker. They're rising despite investor concerns over its earnings potential this year. Here with more is Steve Mann of Bloomberg Intelligence. And for Tesla, it's always a question of whether you care about the fundamentals in the quarter just gone or whether you're betting on AI, optimus and the future of robotics. Yeah, I think if you look at the stock price over the last quarter, there's definitely some push and pull on the stock price. It's been pretty steady where it's at at the moment. So there are two camps. One is looking at the business fundamentals. You know, sales in the fourth quarter was down 15, 16%. Not, you know, there's been a lot of pull ahead before the $7500 US tax credit went away. So earnings are probably not going to be pretty. But on the other camp, you know, investors are really stoked with their cyber cav Robotaxi rollout. Steve, in your January 12th preview, you wrote that 2026 is the pivot year for AI and robotics. Right. And weekend that you expect management to talk up those things. But what do you actually need to hear? What things of substance do you want Musk to say on the call? That actually will be a driver of confidence in the near term, even if that is this year. Yeah, I think investors are very anxious about that. You know, Elon Musk has talked about, you know, the vision system, self driving vision system that they're rolling out. There's a lot of anticipation because, you know, I think the next leg for the company is really scaling that business. So it's about Robotaxi, it's about rolling out the Cyber Cab. The new, you know, steering wheel is brake pedal less vehicle and the FSD subscription. So I mean this look, investors are very stoked about this and they're really looking for Elon Musk to tell them that hey, in the next three to six months we are really going to scale it up beyond Austin. Steve man of Bloomberg Intelligence Rule bracing for aftermarket today. And Tesla are also bracing for Matter, which reports after the bell. Investors are focused on capital expenditure plans for 2026, which analysts say could overshadow the company's advertising revenue growth. Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner joins us for the details. It's a pretty familiar formula at this point. I hand it over to you. Give us the Metro earnings preview as best you can. I feel like we've been talking about a lot of the same stuff for the past year, which is what is spending going to look like and can the company paint this picture for investors that all the spending will ultimately pay off down the line. And you remember it was just a year ago that Mark Zuckerberg was saying hey, record spending up to 65 billion in capital expenditures and everyone's head spun around, you know, crazy to think of that. I saw the estimates on the Bloomberg today that they think capital expenditures could be $111 billion for Metta in 2026. And so it's just hard to quantify. You know, easy to quantify but hard to wrap your head around. The jump we've seen in spending from this company in particular as they rush toward AI and there's going to be a lot of questions about what the ROI on that is going forward. And that is why the stock has taken some hits. I mean, initially it was talk up your capex and you're rewarded for it. But then in the last earnings, I'm just looking at the chart of how swiftly they fell back in October as maybe we then started to be worried about the commitment of capital expenditure. How can they steady nerves in other parts of the business? What do we need to hear on the bread and butter of ad sales and the like? Well, I imagine we'll hear them talk about how AI is improving ads today. Right. And that's going to be in automated campaigns, that's going to be in better targeting, pretty much anything they can do to show, hey, look, this, this $50 billion data center we're building in Louisiana is actually helping our revenue or will help our revenue immediately. I think that's going to be very important because a lot of their futuristic bets, we've talked about the metaverse on here, virtual reality, even the glasses, which seem to be going well. I mean, these are not driving meaningful revenue to the company. And yet they are sucking tons of cash to. To operate. And so that is the trade off. A lot of the big bets still haven't materialized on the revenue side just yet. So they need to show that AI is continuing to help on that ads business. Kurt Wagner, he's going to be all over them. Post the bell today. Thank you. That does it for this meaty edition of Bloomberg Tech. So much more to come in. Yeah, the Mag 7 starts in earnest. Today is the day and it's the market run up. Going into it kind of got me on edge, you know. Recap on the podcast carries. Right. It was meaty. You know where to find it on the Bloomberg platforms online. Apple, Spotify and iHeart. I know. I'll be at my desk after the market bell. I know what I'm bracing for. Question is, will you be back with us? This is Bloomberg Tech. These days, it seems like AI agents are just about everywhere. You turn every field and every function. But without identity, you can't trust they'll serve your business instead of jeopardizing it. 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