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- [00:01]
Deloitte Narrator
The right technology can strengthen human judgment. That's why Deloitte brings together AI and data analytics with multidisciplinary teams who can help you connect the dots across your enterprise, from risk to operations to customer needs. So opportunities don't slip by and surprises don't spread. Because the smarter your systems, the sharper your instincts. That's how technology makes people better at what they do best. Deloitte together makes progress. Learn more@deloitte.com TogetherMakesProgress when you're running a
- [00:35]
The Hartford Narrator
business, the best days are the ones where priorities stay on track. For midsize and large companies, that isn't always easy. Risk can touch multiple parts of an organization at the same time, often in ways that aren't immediately obvious. It might involve property liability or cyber. It could stem from regulatory requirements or challenges tied to a specific industry or or the scale of an operation. At that level, managing risk becomes an ongoing discipline, not a one time decision. the Hartford, the focus is on helping businesses manage risk before it turns into something more disruptive. That means working with companies to identify where they're exposed, decide what matters most and put practical standards in place so risk is managed as part of day to day operations. And when losses do happen, the Hartford can pair that risk control work with insurance coverage grounded in underwriting or risk engineering and claims experience developed over time. Learn more@theheartford.com riskmitigation you need to make
- [01:33]
Adobe Acrobat Narrator
a huge presentation in an hour. Adobe Acrobat uses AI to take all your documents and generate a presentation with a single click. Build slides quickly and streamline the process. Need a last minute pitch deck? Do that with Acrobat. Need to level up your presentation design? Do that with acrobat. You have 30 plus documents that need to be simplified into a proposal. Do that. Do that. Do that with Acrobat. Learn more@adobe.com do that with Acrobat Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News.
- [02:16]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Bloomberg Tech is live from coast to
- [02:19]
Adobe Acrobat Narrator
coast with Caroline Hyde in New York and Ed Ludlow in San Francisco.
- [02:27]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
This is Bloomberg Tech. Coming up, Starships were meant to fly but scrub SpaceX delays a critical test seconds before launch. Plus we'll discuss the space company's planned mega IPO with a space X alumni and an early investor and Lenovo source post earnings on strong AI growth. We sit down for an exclusive interview with the world leading PC makers, CFO Winston Chen. But first SpaceX SpaceX's 12th Starship test flight. For now, scrub right it is sounding like we are not going to be able to clear this issue in time today. So we are going to be standing down from a launch. SpaceX delaying a critical test of its massive starship rocket after a pin tied to the launch tower mechanism failed to retract during the final countdown. The setback comes just the day after the company formally filed for an ipo. Bloomberg's Lauren Rush back with us. Another attempt pencilled for this Friday evening, but can you believe it? The tension, the drama, the anticipation. Lauren in one city, Ed Ludlow in another, and it's a piece of metal that stops us going of a whole T minus 40 seconds. Do we know what happened?
- [03:46]
Lauren Rush (Bloomberg Reporter)
Right, so from what Elon said, it sounded like it was a hydraulic pin that controlled the arm on the launch tower. You know, they mentioned a quick disconnect. You know, all these things need to move rapidly out of the way once the launch takes place so that the rocket can actually clear the tower. So it might seem small, pretty important. That's just what makes rocket launches so exciting, right? One tiny little piece of technology could go wrong and, you know, the whole thing gets stopped. So it sounded like there were also a number of other issues they were working too. Something with the flame trench also had stopped the countdown at one point too. This is all a new pad, right? So this is a new rocket, new launch pad. And I think with this launch, they definitely want it to go well this time, just given all of the stakes surrounding their IPO and their filing that they had this week. So I wouldn't be surprised if they're being a little extra cautious this time than they have been with previous test missions.
- [04:47]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
So, new pad, pad two at Starbase Texas, Boca Chica, Texas. This is a test flight, 12th test flight. But a brand new architecture for Starship, right? Basically the hardware top to tail the Starship spacecraft at the top, that's the black pointy bit. If you're looking at the screen right now and the super heavy booster on the bottom. Why is that important, Lauren?
- [05:08]
Lauren Rush (Bloomberg Reporter)
Well, the anticipation has been super high for this launch because it's the debut of the third iteration of Starship, what's known as version three, or V3. And this vehicle is supposed to be the one that kind of achieves all of the dreams that Starship has laid out, right? It's supposed to get to that really massive payload capacity of 100 metric tons. It's also supposed to be optimized for total reuse, which is kind of the ultimate holy grail that they want to achieve with Starship being able to bring back Both Starship and the super heavy booster intact so that they can rapidly refly them again. So this is kind of the version that's supposed to do all of that. And so I think, you know, everyone is, you know, waiting on pins and needles to see if it will actually work as intended.
- [05:57]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Right. The prior iterations of Starship, 35 metric tonnes payload to low Earth orbit. They want to get 100 metric tons more. Bloomberg's Lauren Grosch, please don't go far. Thank you very much. Let's get more on Space X and why a new re engineered, new architecture starship matters. Laura Crabtree, CEO of Epsilon 3. Laura spent more than a decade at Space X, supported milestone missions. The first Dragon launch, the company's first crewed mission to the International Space Station. I think you left prior to Starship really kicking off, but you understand why this matters. So let's start with the V3. Why does it matter?
- [06:39]
Laura Crabtree (Epsilon3 CEO, SpaceX Alumni)
It matters because people have been waiting, as Lauren just alluded to, everyone's been waiting for this next iteration, for it to be operational, to be able to, to book a launch on Starship. And I think it will enable the next iteration of what we want to see as the space industry continues to grow and access to space continues to be easier, more affordable, etc. And we can take long larger payloads, we can take more people to the moon, we can take lunar rovers more quickly. And I think everyone's been waiting for that for a long time now.
- [07:19]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Laura, you'll understand. So Space X's S1 went public and a main focus of it was that that larger future payload you're talking about being orbital data center. But the core mission, the kind of founding mission of SpaceX, is to make humankind a multi planetary species. Right? We haven't on the show talked as much about that human payload, sorry if that's probably not the kindest way of putting it, but the human payload element of it, how would that work in Starship? You know, the idea is that, you know, if you're going to go the distance of Mars, but even in the near term the moon, it is Starship that is the best technology platform to get us there. Is that the idea?
- [08:00]
Laura Crabtree (Epsilon3 CEO, SpaceX Alumni)
That is the idea. And you know, Elon has talked many times at Company All Hands and I'm sure you know all also out in the public about the future goal of making humans multiplanetary species. So the ultimate goal of something like Starship is to make life interplanetary to enable that future. We want to see, we as, as he Said, you know, we don't want to be like the dinosaurs and we don't want to go extinct on this planet. And so there are a lot of pieces that Space X needs to achieve to get there. Because the mission for Space X to be multi planetary, but you have to have the building blocks of data centers, you have to have Starlink, you have to have all of the things that we have built up to this point. And this is just the next piece of the puzzle.
- [08:52]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
You were the senior mission operations engineer, you basically trained the crew and you oversaw and ran the Dragon spacecraft mission. So for the Bloomberg Tech audience, Space X getting humans to the International Space Station or into space so far has been Falcon 9 with a dragon capsule on top. I'm now showing Starship V3 pictures right now. Laura, the bit that I think people are finding it hard to understand is within the design of the Starship spacecraft, different to putting a capsule on Falcon 9. How would that work? Like literally where do the astronauts go?
- [09:31]
Laura Crabtree (Epsilon3 CEO, SpaceX Alumni)
So there have been lots of design iterations and I'm not entirely sure where the design iteration is right now, but from the last I saw the starship would then take all the humans to the moon and there would be, the incomplete payload would be human. So you know, it would be geared towards humans. So there would be toilets, there would be the pods for people to live in while they're being transported to the moon. So that, that is more the idea, I believe. And so that, that's something that we still have yet to see. Until Starship is operational and many flights have taken place, I don't think we will know exactly the designs and I believe SpaceX is probably waiting to unveil that in future versions.
- [10:22]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Can you try and take us inside Space X a little bit? You know, part of covering the almost launch of the 12th test flight yesterday is, is seeing this sort of gathering of SpaceX staff and engineers, everyone that worked on the re engineering the new architecture. When Elon Musk or the other leaders go to the team and say let's rip up the script, the blueprint and start again, what's that process like to get, to get it onto the pad?
- [10:52]
Laura Crabtree (Epsilon3 CEO, SpaceX Alumni)
Yeah, you know, it's, it's a challenge in the industry there's something called a challenge coin. So you get a challenge coin if you're going to work really hard on something, but it feels like there's a challenge coin on the, on the line all the time. So you're given a somewhat insurmountable problem and you have to go and Solve it. And it. I think the difference that most people are now noting is that within Space X and many startups that you see in the industry today, you're given more responsibility to make decisions than you would have in a traditional large aerospace company. And so you're given a problem, you go and solve the problem to the best of your ability and then you come together, test the problem, iterate. That's why you're seeing so quick of iteration from Starship, because the engineers are being pushed to continue to think outside of the box. You can't design something like Starship with the things that have been done in
- [11:54]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
the past, present day. Laura, you're the CEO of Epson3, a software platform that if you are trying to pull off a high stakes, operational testing, manufacturing procedure, which I think Starship kind of is right now, that's what you need. So I think you're in a good place to just tell us to end. We have 30 seconds. Just how difficult is what Space X is trying to do right now with this Starship program?
- [12:21]
Laura Crabtree (Epsilon3 CEO, SpaceX Alumni)
Yeah, I think Lauren, Lauren alluded to this earlier, but there are millions of decisions that need to be made and millions of technical things that need to go right. So having one small thing like a pin and maybe a couple of out of family temperatures is actually miraculous. You can expect scrubs, you can expect some failure, but when you get to the end, you should have tested enough small things. And that's really what we@epsilon3 want, is to have the infrastructure built to test enough small things that when you get to the mission, you get to the final launch, that you have done enough, that you have the most confidence that your mission will go well. And I think that's what Space X is doing.
- [13:05]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Laura Crabtree, CEO of Epsom3, formerly Senior Mission Operations engineer, alumni of Space X. Thank you so much for being on Bloomberg Tech. Now coming up, Winston Chang of Lenovo joins us following the company's just blowout results. Strong growth in AI for the world's leading PC maker. This is what markets look like on the week and I'd forgive you if you forgot that in the middle of this week we had earnings from the world's most valuable company. Nvidia is down actually almost 4% on the week. Right. The NASDAQ 100 is buoyant, a little bifurcation because Nvidia was accountable for so much of the gain and rally in equity markets in recent weeks. But over five days, that's the picture. Nvidia kind of trailing behind. This is Bloomberg Tech.
- [13:56]
Deloitte Narrator
The right technology can strengthen human judgment. That's why Deloitte brings together AI and data analytics with multidisciplinary teams. People with deep industry experience who can challenge assumptions and help you connect the dots across your enterprise. From risk signals to operational pressure points to shifting customer needs, Deloitte helps you see what's coming sooner so opportunities don't slip by and surprises don't spread. It's not just dashboards, it's real clarity in the moments your decisions are made. When models reveal patterns, people can ask better questions. When data and people are connected, leaders can move faster with confidence. And when your teams are aligned, smart choices can scale from the frontline to the C suite. Because the smarter your systems, the sharper your instincts. That's how technology makes people better at what they do best. Deloitte Together makes progress. Learn more@deloitte.com TogetherMakesProgress Running a small business
- [14:56]
Chase for Business Narrator
takes everything you've got. But with Chase for Business, you're not alone. They bring together local support and a broad range of resources to more than 7 million customers with a deep understanding of your day to day needs. They provide products and guidance built to help you thrive right now. Earn $500 when you open a new Chase Business Complete Checking Account for New Business Checking customers with qualifying Activities offer. Expires June 18, 2026. Chase business complete Checking has the flexible tools you need to accept payments, make deposits and manage your finances with confidence. Learn more@chase.com PodcastBizOffer Chase make more of what's yours Fees may apply to Chase Business Complete checking accounts. The $500 offer is available for new business Checking accounts with qualifying activities through June 18, 2026. Eligibility and qualification requirements must be met. Additional restrictions may apply. Please speak with a business banker for more information. JPMorgan Chase Bank NA member FDIC if
- [15:55]
Adobe Acrobat Narrator
you follow markets, you know the value of long term thinking. You plan, you diversify, you prepare for volatility. But in life, even the best strategies can't prevent every bad day a fire, a loss, a disruption that demands immediate attention. When that happens, what matters isn't just what you planned. It's who shows up. That's where Cincinnati Insurance comes in. For more than 75 years, they've helped individuals and businesses navigate life's toughest moments with care, expertise and personal attention. Together with independent agents, Cincinnati Insurance focuses on relationships, not transactions. Their approach is grounded in experience, follow through and trust built over time. Bad days happen, and when they do, you deserve an insurance partner who understands risk, respects what you've built and is ready to help you move forward. The Cincinnati insurance companies, let them make your bad day better. Find an independent agent@cin fin.com
- [16:58]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Shares of Lenovo absolutely soaring in Hong Kong trading overnight. A gain of 20% was the biggest single day jump since 2008. This after the company reported strong growth in AI related earnings, offsetting challenges from. You know what the challenges are? Rising component prices. Winston Chang, CFO of Lenovo, joins us from New York City. And Winston, it's great to have you on the program. Thank you very much for, for the time. You know, everyone knows Lenovo leading PC maker in the world, but I think to start I wondered if we could just go a bit deeper into what AI related revenues actually look like for Lenovo, define them and then we can extrapolate out on what the story is here.
- [17:38]
Winston Chang (Lenovo CFO)
Yeah, we're certainly very well known for our PC given our dominance in the space for many, many years. But we are actually more than a PC maker. We have the most combined complete portfolio in terms of devices from PCs to tablets to smartphone. It's the most complete portfolio at scale on a global basis, on a non iOS basis. And that serves as the foundation for AI devices going forward. In terms of our product portfolio set we have, our hybrid strategy enables us to have from the pocket to the cloud. And you're seeing that gain in terms of our infrastructure business in the latest quarter in terms of that compute capability that is now being used for infrastructure from AI training to AI inferencing, the
- [18:22]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
US listed shares or ADR is also massive performance today. You know, I appreciate Winston, you're the cfo, maybe you don't keep a constant eye on the share price, but the biggest jump since 2008, it has to tell you something. Do you attribute that to the appreciation maybe that you're getting for the infrastructure business? What do you think the market market is maybe seeing now that it hasn't before?
- [18:46]
Winston Chang (Lenovo CFO)
Yeah, so certainly we're not defined by one quarter. We're in for the long haul and the AI spend and opportunity is also for decades to come. But we're defining this as the decade for Lenovo and I think we're in the first year of that journey and you can see the result of that focus in terms of our capabilities. We've actually been investing in this for over 10 years. Our ability to be able to produce use in at scale on a global basis for both on the device side and also the infrastructure side is unique to Lenovo. We can serve hyperscalers and Also enterprises on that basis as well. And our portfolio set with the IBM heritage that when we made the acquisition 2015 gives us a solid foundation to be able to serve the AI compute capabilities today, given the high performance compute genetics that we have with our industry, liquid cooling technology as well.
- [19:38]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
On Monday, Winston, I was with Jensen Wong in Las Vegas, of course, Vera Rubin coming later this year. That matters to you. And we were speaking with one of your peers, Michael Dell, and I was trying to understand from them the story for the PC in a world where we are shifting to inference but also agentic AI. Can you give me any evidence or data that the more commonplace use of agents actually drives enterprise knowledge worker acquisition of pieces, new pieces at scale?
- [20:13]
Winston Chang (Lenovo CFO)
Yeah, we certainly see our PC demand being very strong and it's been increasing in terms of our portfolio. Our revenues today is about 38% of our total revenues in the last quarter. And the PC is also. APC is also a very big component of that today. As AI training develops and more AI capabilities are being enhanced, more people will use and need to consume and interact with the agents through their devices. And I think the upgrade for better and more higher performance devices will be a necessary part of that journey. You see that with the likes of the Open Air and others having partnerships with either from a staffing perspective or strategic perspective with device makers. And we're also seeing that in terms of dialogues that we're having with AI companies and their desire to work with us from a go to market perspective as well.
- [21:06]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Winston, what is the truth of what's happening with memory? How severe is that as a bottleneck?
- [21:13]
Winston Chang (Lenovo CFO)
Well, certainly this incredible spend and development of AI in terms of the infrastructure is really driving the component shortages. Not only memory, but you're also hearing it in terms of CPU and of course GPU demand as well. I think that would be multi year opportunity in terms of that demand. But at the same time the industry needs to catch up in terms of that supply chain to satisfy that demand. But I think for now that's causing the, the supply and demand imbalance is causing the memory prices to go up. But on the infrastructure side we're able to pass through that demand because that's where the strong demand is in terms of the pricing for pass through. But on the device side, I think the lower end you're starting to see in terms of the first quarter IDC numbers that the, the, those that cannot get supply I think have seen their market shares decline.
- [22:05]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
So Winston, what you just outlined and bear with me on this one, how much are you negotiating with your self? You have different business lines. They both need common components, high bandwidth memory. You know that on the infrastructure side, the service side, that's where the demand is. So do you have to have a word with yourself and say well what about my PC business? Do you have to make a choice of where you prioritize that?
- [22:32]
Winston Chang (Lenovo CFO)
That's a great question in terms of but I think what the suppliers appreciate share with us is that we have that global portfolio. We have the most complete portfolio from PC to tablet to smartphone and I think that gives them the forecast necessary as our long term partners. We also have that demand forecast from the server side as well of our business. So from that perspective we are a strategic partners for suppliers as well in terms of that accuracy of that forecast. We need to supply in terms of satisfying our long Lenovo long term Lenovo friends in terms of the ThinkPad which is so well loved in the market and I think we need to make sure that there is enough supply going to that demand as well.
- [23:10]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Lenovo CFO Winston Chang it's great to have you on Bloomberg Tech. Thank you very much. Now coming up on the show, smart ring maker Aura files confidentially for a US Public listing. We're going to have the details of that next. This is Bloomberg Tech.
- [23:31]
Chase for Business Narrator
Running a small business takes everything you've got. But with Chase for Business, you're not alone. They bring together local support and a broad range of resources to more than 7 million customers with a deep understanding of your day to day needs. They provide products and guidance built to help you thrive right now. Earn $500 when you open a new Chase Business Complete Checking account for new business Checking customers with qualifying Activities offer. Expires June 18, 2026 Chase Business Complete Checking has the flexible tools you need to accept payments, make deposits and manage your finances with confidence. Learn more@chase.com podcast bizoffer chase make more of what's yours Fees may apply to Chase Business Complete checking accounts. The $500 offer is available for new business checking accounts with qualifying activities through June 18, 2026. Eligibility and qualification requirements must be met. Additional restrictions may apply. Please speak with a business banker for more information. JPMorgan Chase Bank NA member FDIC if
- [24:31]
Adobe Acrobat Narrator
you follow markets, you know the value of long term thinking. You plan, you diversify, you prepare for volatility. But in life, even the best strategies can't prevent every bad day a fire, a loss, a disruption that demands immediate attention. When that happens, what matters isn't just what you planned, but it's who shows up. That's where Cincinnati Insurance comes in. For more than 75 years, they've helped individuals and businesses navigate life's toughest moments with care, expertise and personal attention. Together with independent agents, Cincinnati Insurance focuses on relationships, not transactions. Their approach is grounded in experience, follow through and trust built over time. Bad days happen, and when they do, you deserve an insurance partner who understands risk, respects what you've built and is ready to help you move forward. The Cincinnati Insurance companies let them make your bad day better. Find an independent agent@cin fin.com sending a file is easy.
- [25:33]
Laura Crabtree (Epsilon3 CEO, SpaceX Alumni)
Making sure your clients understand the file is the hard part. But with PDF spaces in Adobe Acrobat, you can give your clients the full picture with custom intros, audio summaries and a helpful AI assistant to your docs. So if you want to stop the endless follow ups, do that with Acrobat. Need to make your docs crystal clear. Do that with Acrobat. Want to make sure your clients get everything they need to hear? Do that with Acrobat. Learn more@adobe.com do that with Acrobat.
- [26:09]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Hardware is very, very attractive right now because you can't vibe code Atom. Yes, Right. You can't just summon them into existence. And so interestingly, I think for Aura Steering the way we have, and having
- [26:21]
Winston Chang (Lenovo CFO)
always been a hardware company with a
- [26:22]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
very strong software backing, it's actually been really advantageous. And investors look at us and they
- [26:26]
The Hartford Narrator
say, good, we're so glad that you're
- [26:28]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
not in the software space and that you're a hardware provider. That was Aura CEO Tom Hale giving perhaps a preview of how the wearable maker will pitch investors in an ipo. He was speaking to our Carolina Line Hyde at the Cancelo Spark Summit and just a week later or files confidentially to go public. For more, let's speak to our consumer tech editor, Bloomberg's Dana Wollman. Okay, so we reported this citing a source that they'd filed confidentially. Then I think the company comes out and says, yes, we filed confidentially. But in our original report there's more detail there. There are some serious banks that are working with the company. This seems very real.
- [27:06]
Dana Wollman (Bloomberg Consumer Tech Editor)
Yes, absolutely. This is an all star list of banks. Believe Goldman Sachs was the first on the list. And we don't know the exact timing, just that the company expects to go public sometime later this year. And other details are missing too. Key details like what the price would be when it eventually hits the stock market.
- [27:23]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Now the Bloomberg tech audience is thinking, hmm, it's not looking as Fresh as he did yesterday. I am an Aura wing wearer, which I pay for myself, obviously. 74 sleep score down from from 90 the night prior. That is interesting. Historically, actually most whereas women, they have a story for the male category, which is longevity. And then last October they raised money at an interesting valuation in the private markets. How much momentum is or got right now?
- [27:52]
Dana Wollman (Bloomberg Consumer Tech Editor)
Oh, so much momentum. I mean, Bloomberg actually published a story toward the start of the year saying that this would essentially be the year that smart rings went mainstream. And this, this coming IPO really puts an exclamation point on that. Aura has seen sales of its smart rings rising and rising and it's remarkable in that it started out as this really niche hardware category. And it's one that we really as journalists here at Bloomberg have had to spell out for a while. And we may get to a point where just it's widely understood what a smart ring is. And as you said, it might not just be something that a majority female audience wears, but that a really broader audience takes to.
- [28:31]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
What about Tom Hale or a CEO? What has been his attitude towards the future of this company? Just real quick,
- [28:40]
Dana Wollman (Bloomberg Consumer Tech Editor)
just that it is a really viable kind of product that can reach a really wider audience. I think until now it's been sort of compared to small smartwatches, especially the Apple watch. And I think Tom Hill would say that something like the Oura ring carves its own lane. It's really for people who want something completely different, not the distractions of notifications or, or a screen on their wrist, but really just something zeroed in on health and fitness tracking. And I think Aura, like a lot of other companies in this space, are trying to not just track your steps, let's say your everyday fitness, but become some sort of auxiliary predictor of your overall health.
- [29:24]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Bloomberg's Dana Walman with the Aura story. Thank you very much. A lot more news, time for talking tech. And first up, Waymo has temporarily halted service in five cities amid severe weather over concerns that its robotaxis may attempt to drive on flooded roads. Storms swept through Atlanta on Wednesday during which an unoccupied Waymo vehicle drove and got stuck in a flooded road. Plus deep seat senior management has told potential investors the startup will prioritize groundbreaking AI research over short term monetization. That's according to sources. This comes as the startups in the final discussions over a funding deal that could push its valuation to about $45 billion before the investment. And the EU will propose temporarily lifting sanctions on a major Chinese chip supplier after Automakers warned of impending supply chain chaos if the ban isn't removed. According to sources, however, such a move would require approval by the bloc's 27 member states. Coming up, more earnings, the CFO of Zoom, Michelle Chang after the company raised its full year forecast. Quick look at markets on the way out. Half time Bloomberg Tech. Welcome back to Bloomberg Tech. This is what markets look like right now and probably like the big picture story is not that, that's stocks that are in the quantum realm. Quantum stocks are getting a big two day boost. That's just one day. But we saw a massive gain in those same names yesterday. The story is the U.S. like the country, like the government, putting $2 billion to secure American leadership in the sector. IBM getting 1 billion of that. So after a big jump yesterday, we're seeing continued gains in today. We're going to go a bit more macro later in the show. I the team to move the chart because I thought it was a pretty decent chart worth looking at. One of the most read stories today there is. All right, let's do this. The S&P 500, the benchmark equities index of the world is up for an eighth straight week, is best run again since 2023. And at the end of 2023 we saw the index end the year with nine straight weeks of gains. I've been thinking about this a lot and if you think about market cap gain, particularly since the war in Iran started, it's in video and Alphabet, Apple. It is tech that accounts for a big part of that rally. Something that everyone's clicking on today is a story by Bloomberg's Brady Ford. Salesforce is making flashy promises about its agent capabilities. It's part of this effort to win over the skeptics questioning how it can compete against what we call native firms. But there's an issue with Salesforce claims they are aspirational. Bloomberg's Brady Ford's here with us in sf. Yeah, a lot of traffic on the story. Dig into it. There are charts and data in here. But why is this aspirational? How are we defining that?
- [32:16]
Brady Ford (Bloomberg Reporter)
Yeah, so I think we've all seen some flashy demos and thought like, is this real? Can I use this today? And so we just kind of took that simple question and applied it to one of tech's loudest marketers, Salesforce Force. They've shown in keynotes and commercials and agent functionality handling all sorts of customer service by itself. And you know, in a lot of cases we tried it out and it's not there yet. It's aspirational. These commercials and keynotes show a future vision of what their customers hope to implement and it underscores that getting AI online is difficult and a lot of companies are working on it and it's going to be a bit of a slog to get get this stuff online in many cases.
- [32:56]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
The way that I think about it is Salesforce will talk about the number of customers signed up to an agentic product. Basically the question sometimes is is that company actually using it yet or deployed it yet? Like does it exist in the real world? Is there any data on that?
- [33:14]
Brady Ford (Bloomberg Reporter)
I hadn't find any hard data but you know, anecdotal example, Williams Sonoma let's luxury retailer based down the street. I mean they've been in keynotes, they've been in commercials and some of the more advanced functionality they've shown on stage. I asked them and spoke with them and they say well, hopefully it's up by the holidays, you know, so you might be paying and it takes a while.
- [33:36]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Just real quick, we should say chat, chat with Ben. Marc Benioff.
- [33:39]
Winston Chang (Lenovo CFO)
Yes.
- [33:40]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
What did he say?
- [33:41]
Brady Ford (Bloomberg Reporter)
I did speak with CEO Marc Benioff who said pretty much this kind of marketing is normal, that in the tech industry you got to show customers a vision. Everybody does it and the customers are not confused. It's properly disclosed. I don't know if it's true that all customers and people on the street would understand when they see a commercial. That means that it's not actually functional in the way it shows.
- [34:02]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
But what does Salesforce do? No, we'll say that for another time. Bloomberg's Freddy Ford, thank you very much. Let's take a look at shares of Zoom and another name that moving to to the upside on strong set of numbers. This after the company raised its full year forecast for both adjusted earnings and revenue prompting upgrades at Keybanc and higher price targets at both RBC and bed. It's been a little while since we talked about Zoom. Delighted to say that Michelle Chang, Zoom CFO joins us now. I love getting into the Zoom story. You know, we're many of us users of Zoom, but why now a strong set of numbers like what was it in the calendar period in the fiscal quarter that you saw through the numbers?
- [34:44]
Michelle Chang (Zoom CFO)
Yeah, thanks. First, thanks for having me. It's so great to be here and talk about the stock. What we delivered yesterday is really been what we have been working on and delivering consistency consistently over the last several quarters. This is no longer just the meetings company and I think yesterday's earnings was just another great notch, an example of us working towards that. So clearly showing that AI is monetizing, clearly showing our inflection in the growth, which is what investors want from us, and doing it with great profitability as well. And you saw the stock, had a great reaction.
- [35:23]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Michelle, this is a sincere question, even if in the first instance you might come across as far fetched. If I am invited to meeting at some point and it's not Zoom, it might be a WebEx, it might be the tool of another larger tech company. What's your pitch to that business? That they should still be thinking about using Zoom because clearly there's a world where there are options. Right? There is a world where people are not using Zoom.
- [35:51]
Michelle Chang (Zoom CFO)
Yeah, I mean, look, I would say, you know, a couple of years back, the pitch was best quality. When you can't afford to have the meeting go down, you want the reliability, you want the quality, you want the innovation. Look, Zoom is in a very different place where, you know, a lot of where we're going as a company is this concept of a system of action. What we can see inside the company, what we can see outside the company with things like customer experience and the power of what it looks like when I get stitched in between those things. And so more now. So I think we move to the kind of real tangible value. I heard the story earlier, you know, the real tangible value that we're already delivering for our customers.
- [36:39]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
The data point that jumps out at me is that those users that are paying and willing to pay for the AI companion, I think almost tripled year on year in that period. What's behind that? I mean, it's not just video conferencing, right. It's people saying, okay, well, I'll use this as a workspace.
- [36:59]
Michelle Chang (Zoom CFO)
Yeah, it's a great question. So we said that our paid mail went up 184%. And really what's behind that? Like, look, it started out as meeting summaries. We're pleased to even add this quarter, even four months ago, we announced something called My Notes. Think of that as your personal contacts, your note taker, even that alone grew in four months to 1.5 million. Now look, where Zoom is going is far more about the meeting's lifecycle. It's no longer just that 30 minutes or 60 minutes that we have that human to human connection which will always endure in an AI world. But it's the entire life cycle of how you get work done that really brings the Zoom value prop to our customers.
- [37:49]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Michelle, we just have about 45 seconds left that everyone knows what the story for Zoom was in the COVID era, present day. How would you summarize the Zoom story?
- [38:00]
Michelle Chang (Zoom CFO)
Yeah, look, it's no longer just about meetings. We are retaining that original customer love that we always had that pace of innovation, the security, the trust, all the things that made Zoom zoom. But where we're going is all about system of action, the context that we have from all of the things that you do inside the organization, the outside of the organization. And we're all about taking those conversations and moving them to completion. Because when we know that we do, we add tremendous value for our customers. And look, you saw the results for us financially, right? We're maintaining profitability, revenue growing, high cash flow generation. So we're super excited about where things are going at Zoom.
- [38:45]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Well, for the Zoom user that has this setting switched on, if I go like that or I go like that, it'll appear on the screen. Michelle Chang, Zoom CFO back on Bloomberg Tech thank you very much. An update on the saga around the Standard Chartered CEO's comments. Earlier this week, CEO Bill Winters talked about how I would affect, quote, lower value human capital. Major public backlash followed by prompting CEO Bill Winters to strike a more conciliatory tone in a memo to staff. Then Winters doubled down on a LinkedIn post earlier today explaining the bank has for many years invested in helping staff whose roles have been upended by automation, saying, quote, we have a responsibility to help colleagues move into higher value roles. Then just a couple of hours later, Winters officially apologized for his original comments in another LinkedIn post, writing that he recognized his choice of words had, quote, caused upset to some colleagues and for that I am sorry, he wrote. Coming up, X Price founder and early Space X investor Peter Diamandis joins us. I'm really looking forward to this conversation. That's next. This is Bloomberg Tech. Live Pictures as we're currently waiting for the swearing in ceremony of Kevin Walsh as chairman of the Federal Reserve alongside President Trump and the moment that it begins, we'll bring it to you. For now, let's get back to our top story. The delay of Starship. The central role of Starship, the upgraded rock rocket is key for Space X's business plans, all outlined in detail in the recent IPO filing. Also crucial, Elon Musk, the S1 makes it crystal clear with an outsized pay package, major voting control for the CEO. Bloomberg Intelligence writing the document highlights significant governance concerns that still might be overshadowed by investors fear of missing out on the biggest ever public Listing here to talk about it all, the importance of Starship Musk and the perspective of an early Space X investor. Peter Diamandis, founder of X Prize, back on Bloomberg Tech.
- [41:06]
Peter Diamandis (X Prize Founder, SpaceX Investor)
Good morning. Your exciting time to be Morning.
- [41:09]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
Exciting times. Be alive is like how lots of people put it. You're someone that is an early investor in Space X, you know, with respect, in a small, in a smaller way. But you speak to Elon with more regularity than others. I spent hours going through the S1. I know it's a document, a piece of paper, but what's the story that jumped out from it for you?
- [41:30]
Peter Diamandis (X Prize Founder, SpaceX Investor)
I mean, the story behind the story is we're on the verge of opening up the greatest frontier ever. This is the equivalent of the galleons coming from Europe to the US or the American settlers building the railroads to the west and building everything along the way. You can look at Space X as a launch company or as a satellite communications company, but it's much, much more. You know, you think about the fact that everything we hold of value on Earth, metals, minerals, energy, real estate, is in near infinite quantities in space. And you start to realize, and you know, we're going to see the launch, hopefully, fingers crossed, of Starship V3 later today. And I have confidence that if it doesn't work in the first time, it will work on the second. That's what Elon does is he iterates rapidly and this vehicle blows away all the other launch capability on the planet by, by orders of magnitude. And at the end of the day, we're going to start to see a extraordinary set of new revenue engines as they unfold beyond the bounds of Earth.
- [42:36]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
So that was what jumped out at me. Total addressable market, 28.5, $20 trillion. Right.
- [42:43]
Peter Diamandis (X Prize Founder, SpaceX Investor)
We're getting numb to this idea of.
- [42:44]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
But here's the thing. Peter's 20. We are getting numb to the trillion and iterations of trillion. But most of that is not space. It is AI for the enterprise, it is software.
- [42:58]
Peter Diamandis (X Prize Founder, SpaceX Investor)
You know, when I was, when I was working on the space industry, and I've been in that industry for 40 years, the early days are how do you rationalize space? And people were always looking for some way to rationalize the investments in. It was research, maybe it was tourism. The reality is the single greatest valuable thing on the planet today is the AI driven token. And if you can actually create those token farms in orbit, Peter at you got to go.
- [43:23]
Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
You, you have to forgive me. You will be invited back on this program as soon as possible. We have to go to D.C. for the president of the United States and the swearing in of Kevin Walsh as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
- [43:45]
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Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
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Bloomberg Tech Host (likely Emily Chang)
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