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- [00:01]
Peter
For every six Chinese people, there's a Ping an customer. We have accumulated a massive amount of the customer data, not just on the financial side, but end to end across channels thanks to our AI advancements.
- [00:13]
Scarlet Fu
This is the Technology Empowered Growth at Ping An Podcast. In our latest episode, Ping an is utilizing technology to provide integrated and personalized 24. 7 support for China's rapidly growing elderly population. Now available on Spotify, Apple Podcast and Ping An's website. Introducing the all new Adobe Acrobat studio now with AI powered PDF spaces do more with PDFs than you ever thought possible. Need AI to turn 100 pages of market research into 5 insights with a click. Do that with Acrobat. Need templates for a sales proposal that'll close that deal. Do that with Acrobat. Need an AI specialist to tailor the tone of your market report to sound real smart in real time. Do that with the all new Adobe Acrobat Studio. Learn more@adobe.com do that with Acrobat.
- [01:01]
Paul Sweeney
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- [01:35]
Scarlet Fu
Bloomberg Tech is live from coast to coast with Caroline Hyde in New York and Ed Ludlow in San Francisco.
- [01:46]
Ed Ludlow
This is Bloomberg Tech. Coming up, Palantir shares fall on concerns about the company's valuation and the sustainability of the rally.
- [01:54]
Host/Interviewer
Plus we'll break down more tech earnings. Spotify, Uber Grab all out with results as well. We push ahead to AMD tonight and.
- [02:02]
Ed Ludlow
The world's largest sovereign wealth fund votes against Tesla's proposed pay package for CEO Elon Musk. We'll discuss the impact on the company's.
- [02:11]
Host/Interviewer
Shares, but first we check out what's happening in these markets more broadly. Ed and I'm looking at a NASDAQ 100 that is under pressure. Look, we're only down to levels, well, that we've seen this month and indeed it's the worst sell off since all Thursday, so this isn't seismic. But there is a tension here about some of the levels of valuations in certain people speaking out about putting on some short bearish bets. Looking at Bitcoin though has been under far more pressure. It's the lowest level that we've seen since June of this year, off by another 3.3%. Amid the risk of tension. You're looking at some big movers underneath the hood.
- [02:44]
Ed Ludlow
Yeah. Test is down 2.8%. It had been down 4% at the open Norway's sovereign wealth fund, Tesla's ninth largest shareholder voting against the pay package. We're going to head out to Europe in a minute and get more on that. And then there's Palantir stock, strong beat in the third quarter, raising annual outlook for revenue. But the sell side and investors and the Internet all going to valuation is a point of discussion, Caro. Commercial growth and government growth. But this isn't about fundamentals. Or maybe it is.
- [03:15]
Host/Interviewer
Let's talk about both fundamentals and valuations and talk about Palantir's earnings and the sustainability of these numbers. And Mariana Perez Mora, she is an aerospace defense analyst at B of A securities with a buy rating $215 price target for Palantir more broadly. And I think you're even upping it to 255. Tell us about why Palantir is just outperforming is peerless in your perspective.
- [03:38]
Mariana Perez Mora
So first, thank you so much for having me here. I'm happy to share this with you too. And I think Palantir has proven that has been the winner of this implementation.
- [03:50]
Paul Sweeney
Yeah.
- [03:51]
Mariana Perez Mora
And I mean not only about like investment, but actually the growth they are unlocking. The customers actually go into them because they can prove that they can actually extract value from this implementations. And it doesn't only stop with those customers, but also other software peers that are partnering with Palantir because they also want to be part of this. They have like really good software but they are still struggling to actually make that software work. And Palantir is like from a fundamentals perspective actually proving that they can extract value from those implementations.
- [04:25]
Host/Interviewer
Your note is such a joy to read because you're using wonderful analogies going back to the matrix, whether you're going to blue pill or whether you're going to red pill. But what's interesting is you're thinking that ultimately the red pill is there with Palantir and they are unlike the 95% of failed pilots that MIT drew a focus on, they're managing to make AI work. But why? What is it different about Dr. Karp, Daddy Karp, however you see him, and indeed the go to market focus that.
- [04:53]
Mariana Perez Mora
They have, I think what is different first is that they have been working on this infrastructure that is actually what makes AI be operational for more than 20 years. This is something that today has more value than anything because of the acceleration on AI and the new software that we have. But like this ontology that they have that is like the data integration that can actually unlock value from all these different data parts and have the human to be able to interoperate with that. That has been in the works for more than 20 years. And that's why they are a real winner from a customer perspective. You have to take into account that they work with the US government and they have worked with the US government for so long. So they know how to do complex operations and they are translating all that know how into the commercial world. That is why I think they're winner. They were prepared for this.
- [05:51]
Ed Ludlow
Mariana A part of the pressure on the stock this morning, and we need to acknowledge it, is that Michael Burry of the Big Short fame or Scion Asset Management, his firm have disclosed some bearish wages including on on Palantir put options is the form that they've taken. But there's clearly some, some bigger picture worry about valuation and are we or are we not in an AI bubble? The way that you put it in your note is to discern what is real and what is not real. What is it you see in Palantir that gives you the conviction it is real.
- [06:27]
Mariana Perez Mora
What makes me convinced about being real is what when you hear about the customers and the transformation they are seeing from implementing Palantir's product, they are like actually saving money. They are doing things faster, cheaper, better, smarter. Those real changes are the ones that make me optimistic about it. And we have said this over time. I'm really convinced that even if the bubble were to burst, Palantir will survive because is the structure to actually extract that value and do more with AI, AI agents or whatever is next from stochastic models or, or anything in software and computing and everything you are.
- [07:11]
Ed Ludlow
You write that seeing is believing. Mariana, I've attended quite a few AP cons and what happens is you have these customers go on stage and demo how they actually use Palantir. Like there are so many people out there that are like what is Palantir even to do? You know, I've seen the demo and you get a sense for how it works. So then that takes me to the commercial growth. 121% growth year on year in the U.S. the nervousness out there is that it's only the U.S. that commercial business isn't growing internationally.
- [07:43]
Mariana Perez Mora
I think when you think about international, you have to take into account two things. Number one, there are larger customers there that like we're already hardly like a lot of penetrated and that the Palantir is putting their focus in the US So it's also demand is like amazing for AI in general and we see that with all the capex being invested. But if you have to actually catch up with that demand and execute on that, you have to take into account where you put your efforts and your resources and I think it's aligned with that. The Palantir is putting most of their commercial resources focused in the US Mariana.
- [08:19]
Ed Ludlow
Perez Mora, bank of America Securities Price target up to $255 reiterating a buy on Palantir. Appreciate it. Let's get to the top story in Tesla shares down after the world's largest sovereign wealth fund voted against Tesla's stock award proposal. For CEO Elon Musk, the biggest show of opposition yet by a major shareholder. In London. Bloomberg's autos are. Craig Trudeau joins us with more. We're trying to tabulate and tally who's voted no so far ahead of November 6th. Norway's sovereign wealth fund is the ninth largest Tesla shareholder, I believe, hence why we're saying this is the, the biggest no vote so far.
- [09:01]
Craig Trudeau
Yeah, that's right. And they were pretty diplomatic about it. They praised the, the value that Musk has, has created over the years. They refer to him as, you know, having played a visionary role. And yet they're concerned just about the sort of magnitude of, of this award about dilution and also about the issue of sort of key man risk. This is something that has been, has come up time and again with Musk. You know, the moment that he has had someone who's emerged as sort of, you know, who sort of looks like a number two. That person doesn't seem to last very long. So in Tesla's defense, I think the board has tried to take some steps with this package to try and mitigate some of that risk and sort of have Musk play a role in, in succession. But the planning for that still seems to be, you know, pretty much, you know, sort of to the side as they really sort of focus as a board on retaining him and on incentivizing him.
- [10:01]
Host/Interviewer
Can you take us to how they have voted in prior votes on pay for Tesla or the relationship between the Norwegian wealth fund and Elon Musk going forward, what that means for, well, really the retail base, which is the big push here for many.
- [10:19]
Craig Trudeau
Yeah, I think as much as this no vote is concerning if you want to see this measure pass, you know, we, we only have to go back to last year to an example of when this fund voted against a Musk pay package. This was the vote on re ratifying the 2018 award that a judge in Delaware threw out. And there's, there's kind of a juicy story to that in that the CEO of this wealth fund, you know, kind of got raked over the coals by Musk. We found out later for the way that the fund voted on that pay package. There was a freedom of information requests for, for messages between the head of the fund, Nikolai Tengen, and Elon Musk. And Musk, you know, referred to this notion that he needed to, quote, make amends for the way that the fund voted. So there is a backstory here. And as much as you know, this is maybe a negative signal again, if you want this to pass. We've seen that it's been the case that even when this fund has opposed a measure that the board has wanted to see through, the board has managed to get its way with its, you know, in part thanks to its very substantial retail investor base.
- [11:29]
Host/Interviewer
Great context as always. Pretty much cratered out. So I appreciate you joining. Coming up, Grab well, it boosts its earnings forecast for the year. We speak with the CFO Peter about the company's latest results as a Bloomberg Tech.
- [11:48]
Peter
For every six Chinese people there's a ping on customer. We have accumulated a massive amount of the customer data, not just on the financial side but end to end across channels thanks to our advancements.
- [12:00]
Scarlet Fu
This is the technology empowered growth at Ping and Podcast. In our latest episode, Ping an is utilizing technology to provide integrated and personalized 24. 7 support for China's rapidly growing elderly population. Now available on Spotify, Apple podcasts and Ping An's website.
- [12:17]
Paul Sweeney
Support for the show comes from public.com you're thoughtful about where your money goes. You've got your core holdings, some recurring crypto buys, maybe even a few strategic option plays on the side. The point is you're engaged with your investments and Public gets that. That's why they built an investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can put together a multi asset portfolio for the long haul. Stocks, bonds, options, crypto, it's all there. Plus an industry leading 3.6% APY high yield cash account. Switch to the platform built for those who take investing seriously. Go to public.com market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com paid for by public Investing. All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for U.S. listed registered securities options and bonds in a self directed account are offered by Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC. Crypto trading provided by Zerohash complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures being a small.
- [13:17]
Scarlet Fu
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- [14:18]
Host/Interviewer
AI is headed for the grocery aisle Instacart is launching new AI tools including an assistant. They can make product recommendations as it really leans the e commerce business into more profitable software. Natalie Lang joins us to talk us through it. Tell us a little bit about how these actual Instacart tools are working.
- [14:36]
Christina Hooper
So Instacart is building this chatbot as a white label service for groceries. So they can actually have a chatbot within let's say Kroger's own iOS app or the Sprouts website and Apple.
- [14:51]
Ed Ludlow
Natalie, let's head out to Uber, one of the big decliners. Rideshare Good delivery, good profit, not good. What's the story there?
- [15:00]
Christina Hooper
Yes, so Uber sort of reported some disappointing operating income and adjusted EBITDA this morning out of the third quarter as well as some disappointing forecasts. Earnings forecasts for the 4 for Q and so it's the profit has not.
- [15:15]
Host/Interviewer
Been catching up with some of the.
- [15:17]
Christina Hooper
Growth recovery we're seeing. Their growth we accelerated to more than 20% on the top line gross bookings metric and this is sort of a testament to their strategy to go into new products, some of which may not be profitable at the beginning, such as.
- [15:34]
Host/Interviewer
Autonomous investments which they have been doing a lot of recently.
- [15:40]
Ed Ludlow
Bloomberg's Natalie Lung. Thank you very much. Food delivery and ride hailing company Grab raised its earnings forecast for the year. After quarterly profit topped estimates, the Singapore based Grab introduced new products like group food orders and less expensive shared rides that help draw in customers. Here to discuss Pizza Grab cfo. That's so interesting, right? You just heard Natalie talking about Uber bringing in new products that hurts profitability. Your strategy seems to me to be like more affordable products for a wider audience base, customer base, but you're doing it in a way that is accretive to your bottom line. How have you done that?
- [16:20]
Peter
That's right. That we've been on point in terms of strategy making our product more affordable and we really widen the top of the funnel for us. If you look at the third quarter, we have now 48 monthly transacting users on our platform, which is another record for us. And we're also seeing more users spending on the platform at the same time. So that affordability also is pushing the average spend also on our platform because they're transacting more on the platform. If you look at the number of transactions on our platform, we grew 27% which was actually growing faster than our GMV also at the same time. So what we're seeing is a number of things. One is people are engaging more on the platform. We're also cross selling more. Also as they're coming in into certain funnels that we have on the affordable side, they're also trying other products that we have, whether it's the group order that you just mentioned, whether it's the dine out features that we have also for them to be able to go to restaurants. So there's a lot more products that we've actually been monetizing and that's producing some of the results that you're seeing.
- [17:22]
Ed Ludlow
If you have a strategy where group food orders and shared rides are a driver of demand, do you need big volume in order to make this a profitable exercise for Grab?
- [17:37]
Peter
Obviously scale is important. The more scale that we have, the more users using the platform, the more we can actually leverage the cost structure of our business and also scale the big driver base that we have also at the same time. So it does play a role. And hence what you've been seeing is that now over a third third of our user base, especially in deliveries now are coming in into what we call more the affordable product stack. And it's a great entry point for them to use. You're looking at over 25 million monthly transacting users just interacting in those affordable products just on the food delivery side of the business. And that's a great way for us because it enables us to for those users who are a little bit more price sensitive to try the product first, get a taste of it. Also they're a little bit more price sensitive on the delivery fee and we've managed to be able to lower the delivery fee for them. But they also get to experience the platform and once they've experienced the platform they get to also experience other products like grocery delivery, which is still a very nascent business for us. It's about 10% of our deliveries GMV and at the same time also we're cross selling them to other products like dine out for an example for them to be able to go to restaurants at the same time.
- [18:50]
Host/Interviewer
It's interesting that you also offer fintech as well and loans, but I just got to target the elephant in the room is that we hear all these growth stories. We see analysts raising their price target on you, but the shares are down on the day. Peter and from the conversations you had with investors and analysts, what was it that perhaps there was a little bit of concern about?
- [19:10]
Peter
I would say it's any concern. A lot of the investors are really focused on has how we are going to finish the quarter and I've reiterated them that we're on track to finish a very strong quarter. If anything, that reflects on the guidance that we've given out. Also we've increased the EBITDA guidance now to $490 million to 500 and that's also shows the confidence in terms of how we exiting the quarter. I've also told them that in terms of our GMB growth, we're continuing to sustain this growth acceleration in our business today. So we are looking to finish strong in the quarter. One of the areas that we're focusing also is the fintech business. We've given out a $1 billion loan outstanding by the end of the year and we're on target to hit that also. So all the different parts of the business are on track for us to have a very strong finish of the year.
- [20:00]
Host/Interviewer
What's also on track is early 2026 robotaxi Chinese robotaxi company. We ride. You've been partnering there. How are you seeing AV is the key area of focus? Just briefly.
- [20:10]
Peter
Yeah, we're leaning into ab. It was the biggest platform in Southeast Asia. We're leaning into the various parts of investments that we're making. One is across learning the Tech and whether it's the we write partnership that we have in Singapore, we're hoping to have these cars deployed on the streets in the first quarter to be able to take on public passengers with the safety driver. And also we're looking at US technology such as Main Mobility. We made an announcement with partnering with Main Mobility also. So we're looking at all the different tech and taking the best of it and really bringing it south. Southeast Asia.
- [20:42]
Ed Ludlow
Peter, quickly, you know, across the jurisdictions you operate in, do you recognize one that is a better regulatory environment to deploy robotaxi in?
- [20:52]
Peter
You know, in all the countries, especially when we starting in Singapore, because really Singapore, when it comes to the government regulations, the standards are very high here. And a lot of the other Southeast Asian countries tend to look to Singapore as a proxy. So we've been working very closely with them. And that's around safety, which is really important and also the customer adoption of an autonomous vehicle itself. But at the same time also we're leaning it in terms of how we can reskill the existing driver base that we have here also. So we identify new opportunities for driver base where they become safety drivers, they become come remote drivers, fleet operators, etc. Which is really important. So the way we approaching AV is working with the government, but also working working with the driver community and also the end user also for them to be able to adopt these new technologies.
- [21:43]
Host/Interviewer
I mean the labor impact of AI is front and center. Is interesting that you're really leaning into that. Peter, the prioritization of innovation. How much are you able to do that while still driving the bottom line because profitability is being asked of you?
- [21:58]
Peter
Yeah, well actually is something which is very core to grab itself. It's not something new. Also we've been focusing a lot on AI. About four or five years ago we have developed our own models actually very early on. We now have over a thousand models in production that we're running here. And the way we've been operating in the last 18 months since the technology has advanced so much is really internally we are also using a lot of AI. Over 98% of our engineers today use some sort of AI code assist. Also we started to deploy is the products to our customers. Also we have voice activation now for the visually impaired where they can actually just speak to our app and able to order food or order a ride for an example. And also we've deployed copilot equivalent to our driver base where they could really rely as on with a with a really effective pilot to be able to navigate throughout their day. And also with the merchant. Merchant actually we have also they can interact with our merchants.
- [22:57]
Host/Interviewer
Staying up late for us. We so appreciate it. PTO of Grab the Chief Financial Officer. It's Election Day in the US and millions of Americans heading to the polls to cast ballots in local and state races. In New York, the Merrill contest is in the spotlight. Zoran Mandani, Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Lewa, Battle for City Hall. An outcome, outcome that could have major implications of Big tech's footprint right here in the city. Let's get the latest on an extraordinary race for Miles Miller. What are you watching out for?
- [23:26]
Ed Ludlow
Yeah, you know, this is going to be a race that really is going to be either a landslide and a mandate or a squeaker with Andrew Cuomo. But the one thing that I think the tech community is looking out for is if Mamdani is to win, will these tech firms stay in New York? And the answer that he's given is yes. He says that in a city that is more affordable, tech firms will be able to recruit and retain much quicker. And what he has said is that that is what will be borne out of some of his big proposals. You're talking about everything from free childcare, discounted childcare, to free buses. And he's saying that, that that will have a measurable effect on the tech community. You know, as I speak to folks like Jeff Blau at Related and some other real estate firms, they say that tech is really starting to continue to work and stay in New York. And you know, those were some of the people who were backing Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo's campaign. Will they be able to move over and work, work with Mamdani? Mamdani thinks yes, if he is elected because he will have this affordability message and that will bore true. We also know that if Andrew Cuomo were elected, you know, he spent 10 years as governor and really worked very well with the tech community. And that's what he is making his pitch as as well. Bloomberg's Miles Miller, thank you very much. Meanwhile, voters in New Jersey and Virginia are heading to the the polls in key gubernatorial races, contests that could shape how states approach Big Tech, artificial intelligence and datacenter development. Bloomberg's Romaine Bostic in New Jersey with the latest remain. Whether a Republican win or a Democratic win, the considerations are very clear here.
- [25:15]
Paul Sweeney
Yeah, Ed. And in fact, this has actually become a bit of a sleeper issue in this campaign. Remember, it was just about a year ago when one of the main wholesalers in this region actually ended up Delivering to utilities a more than tenfold jump in wholesale electricity prices. And that was driven almost entirely by a big build out in data center demand. Earlier this year, just in the summer of 2025 there was a fresh auction and prices went up again more than 20%. Remember these are wholesale prices and these are prices that are effectively a barometer on future demand for AI capacity. And I want to put this in context for you Ed. As of right now There is about 500 megawatts of AI data center capacity up and running right now. Within a year that's likely to Double. There are two big projects under the works. About 100 plus megawatt project being built by Coreweave in central New Jersey in the town of Kenilworth and one even larger than that down south near Atlantic City, Carolina that's going to have a big impact on energy prices.
- [26:16]
Host/Interviewer
This great context.
- [26:18]
Ed Ludlow
Bloomberg's remain bostic in the earnings landscape. We're thinking a lot about Spotify. This is kind of the Daniel EK farewell tour I guess a little bit. Ashley Commons about to tell me that I might be a bit wrong on that. But the core data pretty good. Let's get more on what's going on with Spotify. Bloom is actually common out there on the east coast. You know we've been through this story with you Daniel taking a step back the new co CEO structure and I'm just looking at earnings. The key metrics that matter seem to be good. They seem to be okay.
- [26:48]
Scarlet Fu
Yeah yeah no great quarter. I think investors you know there's a little bit of a loss at one point today. I think investors really just want to hear that Spotify is going to raise prices in the US and they didn't exactly hear that. So there was a little trepidation there. But otherwise broadly speaking things are looking pretty good.
- [27:08]
Host/Interviewer
It does seem to be pricing power doesn't it that everyone's focusing in on and whether advertising can just go up and to the right in terms of that sort of arpu. What are you hearing for the trajectory in 2026? What are analysts investors focusing on under the new co CEOs?
- [27:23]
Scarlet Fu
Yeah so well they're focusing on a few things. I definitely is a big topic. Spotify is now partnering with chap chat GPT. So Spotify shows up in chat GPT. They talked a lot on their earnings calls about this idea of you ubiquity. So their Apple TV app chat Beatty and other places where Spotify can show up to be used everywhere people are so is a big conversation for sure. But also, again, those prices, the investors and the music rights holders want to see higher prices.
- [27:53]
Ed Ludlow
Actually, I want to go to a story that you broke about Netflix. It's in talks to license video podcasts from iHeartMedia. On the surface, simple headline, but it was impactful in the moment. What have you learned in the course of reporting about this deal?
- [28:09]
Scarlet Fu
Well, this also relates to Spotify because Spotify was the first one out of the gate. They announced that they're licensing some of their video podcasts to Netflix starting in the new year. Crucially, this means those video podcasts, the full episodes, will be removed from YouTube. So the fact that Netflix is having conversations with additional networks like iHeart is pretty significant. It shows that they really are interested in at least testing out this video podcast space.
- [28:35]
Host/Interviewer
Ashley Kahman, always breaking the news. We appreciate it. Thanks for joining. Let's just return to the macro picture now around this investment landscape because more Wall street executives, they are sounding the alarm bell. They're saying investors should brace for an equity market Correction More than 10% in the next 12 to 24 months. Christina Hooper, MAN Group Chief Market market strategist sees a mixed economic picture, saying it is the tale of two cities, tech led success masking broader weakness elsewhere. Please say Christina Hooper joins us now. And we are on this day shining light on Palantir, for example, the sort of poster child of where the fundamentals live up to what have been deemed nosebleed valuations on nosebleed success stories. But how do you square that within the potential for a pullback in the equity market more broadly?
- [29:22]
Christina Hooper
Well, I think there is just a lot of enthusiasm around anything that's related to AI. And I'm old enough to remember the late 1990s and how much enthusiasm there was around any companies that were related to the Internet. For example, everyone was scrambling to change their name to have dotcom at the end. Now many companies are scrambling to say they are part of this incredible, incredible AI food chain. And I think what is happening though is that investors may not be thinking about what could be obstacles to the continued capex boom around AI. And I think there are some pretty significant ones. First of all, we knew and of course we got the deal done on rare earth elements. But that was clearly an issue. If you don't have access to access to enough rare earth elements, that will certainly slow down an AI capex boom. But we also have concerns around how much productivity gains companies will actually see. We had that MIT report that came out last spring that suggested maybe not so much there could be a point where companies say, you know what, we've thrown an enormous amount of money at this. We're not necessarily seeing all that we wanted to see. We'll slow down investment and then finally we have the potential for a NIMBY movement. Not in my backyard. In fact, you just reported on how there are AI data centers and of course we're seeing a lot more news around business neighborhoods that are not thrilled to have AI there or states that don't want to see it there because electricity costs are going up a lot.
- [30:58]
Host/Interviewer
So there are a lot of macro elements and risk factors is to this the endless money that's being thrown at the desire to build out by the hyperscalers we've seen in their earnings, but more about the valuation front because I can understand how. Is that really what takes the wind out of the sails of valuations, or is it more of a Michael Barry perspective that, you know, there's just an awful lot of endless capital expenditure and also cloud growth similarities that seem to be slowing down? And he's trying to say, look, you know, maybe it's time to bet against just how far we've run rather than the future risks.
- [31:27]
Christina Hooper
Risks, absolutely. I think it's a, it's both. There are certainly real question marks, I think, about how much more investment we'll see companies make without seeing sort of significant gains and perhaps recognizing that there could be some overlap. There could be, there could be more discretion and more thoughtfulness around spending. So I certainly think there's, there's a little of both there. I just, as an outside observer, seeing the incredible, incredible amount of money and excitement, there's nothing like it. I think since what we've seen in the late 1990s, we know how that ended. So we should just think of it as a cautionary tale and say, hey, maybe we should be diversified. Maybe we should have some exposure to China AI, given that the risks aren't the same, the vulnerability billies aren't necessarily the same there.
- [32:21]
Ed Ludlow
Let's go back to the Tale of Two Cities thesis. So American technology at least good, but papering over some cracks. What are those cracks? Tell our audience more about the warning signs you're seeing in other parts of this economy, Christina.
- [32:38]
Christina Hooper
So I certainly think we are seeing consumer weakness, especially among lower income consumers, but also some middle income consumers. And I think we can just look to the Chipotle earnings call last week for signs of that growing weakness. September and October were difficult months where the frequency of visits went down for a lot of customers. Many of whom are young. And so that could very well be giving us an increase inclination of what could come and what could spread. Because keep in mind we are seeing a lot of white collar job layoffs being announced. We could see more coming and that will likely impact middle to higher income consumers, many of whom are spending, still spending quite robustly and that could create a much bigger problem for the economy. Economy thus far it's been a two legged stool and it could very well go down to one and a half legs.
- [33:42]
Ed Ludlow
So this is very interesting going into the holiday quarter. Maybe this is not the right data set, but Apple told us last week that revenue going into the holiday quarter would be up 10 to 12% that that indicating that in the middle to higher income earners they'll go out and spend money on iPhones. Right. I guess that how does that set us up for the holiday quarter and how we view this economy?
- [34:07]
Christina Hooper
Well, we could still have a very strong holiday quarter driven by those higher income consumers. My concern though is that there are vulnerabilities there and especially as we go into 2026, we could see more in the way of white collar layoffs. We also know that the higher income consumers are not so sensitive to inflation, but they are very sensitive to the stock market. And so if we were to see some kind of stock market sell off, I think that would be problematic and would certainly reduce high end consumer spending as well.
- [34:38]
Host/Interviewer
Christina, I want to go back to something you said that maybe you diversify into China. I had a great conversation with Mandeep just on the side of the set. He's up Bloomberg intelligence analyst. He'd just been to Asia and he said they're doing it so differently that because they cannot depend on on Nvidia chips being limitless, they are aware of the geopolitical risks maybe in the way that the US ones are putting rare earth to one side. So which China names and how does one get exposure to that from your mind's eye?
- [35:04]
Christina Hooper
So I can't name specific companies but I can say that there are so many that look very attractive that have much lower valuations and are part of that AI food chain that and that capture capex spending. I think we'll see more dollars go there and certainly it's in earlier innings in Asia. So I think we have a longer Runway there.
- [35:28]
Ed Ludlow
Christina Hooper of Man Group, great to have you back on Bloomberg Tech. Thank you very much. Now coming up, Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy joins us to talk about the company's latest partnerships to expand enterprise Access this on a day when investors are brought broadly questioning valuations, particularly in the software space that conversations Next this is Bloomberg Tech.
- [35:54]
Paul Sweeney
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- [36:54]
Scarlet Fu
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- [38:28]
Host/Interviewer
It's time now for talking tech and first up in video and Deutsche Telekom. They've unveiled plans to build out a $1.2 billion data center in Germany, boosting Europe's infrastructure. The facility, well, it's set to be one of Europe's largest in the region, expected to begin operations in the first quarter of 2026, plus a 240% rally in SK Hynix shares that's in this year alone spotted a warning from the Korea Exchange, signaling that the stock may have been overheating. The exchange has issued an investment caution on the chip maker following a surge driven by booming demand for memory chips. And Nintendo is raising its sales forecast for the Switch to now, expecting to sell 19 million units by March 2026, up from its early projection of 15 million. The upbeat outlook follows strong early demand for the company, reporting over to 10 million units sold by the end of September.
- [39:16]
Ed Ludlow
At case, Snowflake is announcing a series of new and expanded partnerships, part of the company's effort to become the datacenter platform of choice for enterprise AI. Snowflake CEO Shridhar Ramaswamy joins us to discuss each of them. The one that caught my eye was the relationship with Google Cloud and bringing the availability of the latest Gemini models to Snowflake. And the reason I want to start with that is you are all about choice, right? Because you can look at anthropic oai, but there must have been an indication to you Shrida that those Gemini models are in demand amongst your customer base.
- [39:57]
Sridhar Ramaswamy
Hey, it's great to be here. Absolutely. Gemini models are among the best in the world and a lot of our customers are asking for access to these models. We are thrilled to be expanding our partnership with Google Cloud similar to what we have done with our big partners. AWS and Azure is a big step forward for us.
- [40:19]
Ed Ludlow
Can you just explain the basics of the Snowflake business model? We always talk about Snowflake being a different layer above the primary cloud, but why is it important that through Cortex your platform any any given enterprise customer can access assess the underlying model?
- [40:35]
Sridhar Ramaswamy
This is a great question. Snowflake is the data layer that sits above cloud service providers, the US and Azure and GCP. We are very much a data centric platform. We are about making it really easy to ingest, clean and be able to run analytics on top of the data and AI. Especially Snowflake intelligence that we are launching is a game changer because it brings the access the power of all the data directly to end users and what required dashboards, what required analysts is right now at the fingertips, at the voices of every single person. And that's the reason why Snowflake plays such a critical role. We are among the best data platforms that run on top of the hyperscalers. And it, it is that that gives us incredible ability to create value using AI with partnerships with the best folks in the world, the open eyes and.
- [41:34]
Ed Ludlow
Anthropic and now Gemini creating value.
- [41:37]
Host/Interviewer
I think that has been the proof point, the watchword of this entire year. Shrida, how can you turn to our audience and say this is return on AI investment. This is what my customers are experiencing?
- [41:49]
Sridhar Ramaswamy
This is a great question. First of all, our model is a consumption model, meaning that Snowflake doesn't get paid. We don't get to recognize revenue unless customers actually use products. We don't sell subscriptions. That automatically ties us to utility that we create with our products. We work with our customers, whether it is a TS Imagine or the USA Bobsled team to create products that they get additional value from. For example, often replacing an existing dashboarding solution like we have done at at Snowflake. We are confident that using Snowflake intelligence we can replace a bunch of dashboards and run the entire data access in a much more flexible way for a fraction of the cost. We very much believe in showing auto I return on investment for every single project that, that we do. And the consumption model is a huge help here because if the product isn't used, there's no revenue on our side.
- [42:52]
Host/Interviewer
So should I when we're talking in the market writ large about worries of an AI bubble as people are perhaps selling certain names because they feel that the fundamentals have become dislocated with the actual valuation of companies. How are you thinking in this, your context? How are you worrying perhaps that companies will stop their spending spending until they get ROI in the near term?
- [43:14]
Sridhar Ramaswamy
Well, this is where as I said, our model is very, very helpful because we don't ask for investments ahead of the return very much. We create pilots, we, we create, you know, proofs of concept and show value to your, to our customers and only then is it scaled. In our own example, we launched a tool that indexed all of the enablement information, the education information for our sales team and then we started putting more and more things. Now all of our sales information lives in a single agent is used pretty much by everyone in the sales force, certainly me at Snowflake. It is that step by step launch and not a big bang launch that is also important. And keeping that focus on what are projects that go about creating value? Are they replacing existing systems? Are they lowering costs? That kind of maniacal focus is what is helping us successful even in the era, because we very carefully tally all of this up and make sure that our customers feel like we are creating value every step of the way.
- [44:18]
Ed Ludlow
Sridhar Are we or are we not in an AI bubble based on what you're seeing every day through Snowflake?
- [44:27]
Sridhar Ramaswamy
Well, absolutely, there's a lot of enthusiasm about it, but at Snowflake, I and every employee at Snowflake is focused on what does this mean for our customers. We are back to basics. We created Snowflake Intelligence because we wanted to bring the power of agent AI to every single user within a company in a meaningful way. We wanted to make sure that data analysts, who, mind you, get paid a lot, are focused on helping people create data agents rather than writing endless SQL queries as I've done in, in in my life. And that focus on what are projects that can create value for our customers? How do we get them to production fast? How do we show the return to them is what we can do. The outside market valuations, those things are distractions. I think the more we focus on back to basics, the better off we are.
- [45:24]
Host/Interviewer
Sridhar Ramaswamy it's great to get back to basics with the Snowflake CEO. We appreciate your time.
- [45:29]
Ed Ludlow
AMD set to report earnings after the closing bell and the result should give an indication of how the company's AI push is going. Investor sentiment has been strong after the chip maker signed deals with Open Air and Oracle to deliver massive amounts of its latest AI chips. Let's get more with Bloomberg Semiconductor reporter Ian King. It's probably a good moment to look at what the forecasted revenue is for the period and how much of that is datacenter revenue. Because the reality is for all the headlines and that stock performance over the last two months, AMD is just still a much smaller second player behind Nvidia.
- [46:06]
Peter
Yeah, I mean, it's not getting in annual revenue what Nvidia is getting in a year. And the story is as simple as that. But what we've seen over the last three months is maybe AMD has a seat at the table now. Maybe, you know, we've seen some validation of its technology in these deals. Whether that translates in the short term to stronger revenue and stronger revenue forecasts, I think importantly is going to be what determines the reaction today.
- [46:32]
Host/Interviewer
There's been a lot of people trying to interpret who the key clients are I think Links Equity Strategies really saying the key client for MD is matter and and actually how real some of these longer term deals are in how much vindication is Lisa sue going to give tonight or is it all about the analysts meeting that's coming up in the next week?
- [46:50]
Peter
It'll be both. I think up until now everybody has sort of been AMD curious. Well, you know, we should give them a chance. We should give them, you know, a look and maybe see if they are a viable alternative. These deals apparently tell people no we're their technology is real. So what they will want from Lisa is the numbers. If she doesn't give them the numbers, the strong forecast, they'll want a pretty good explanation of why not now and if not why now, then when AMD's.
- [47:18]
Ed Ludlow
Traditional market is processors for personal computers and servers away from the AI chip. What do we think we'll learn there?
- [47:26]
Peter
Yeah, no, there are very strong expectations. You'll remember intel came out and said hey, we were worried that things were in trouble there and that we've got a lot of inventory. Turns out demand is really strong for APCs and for standard server parts. AMD is actually taking market share or has been taking market share from Intel. So the expectations there are very strong and that could help the near term numbers.
- [47:47]
Host/Interviewer
It's relentless these earnings and in kings across it throughout for us. We so appreciate it. Thank you. All things AMD after the bell, but that does it. From this edition of Bloomberg TechEd.
- [47:57]
Sridhar Ramaswamy
Yep.
- [47:57]
Ed Ludlow
Don't forget to check out the pod to recap the show. There is so much going on in this earnings season and in the background, anxiety about valuation and bubbles. Two days time, a vote on Elon Musk's proposed $1 trillion pay package and earnings no matter how good they are. Carrie, In Palantir's case, valuation is what we're all concerned about. I alluded to it and many of you use it. Listen to the podcast. It's very good if we say so ourselves. You know where to find it. It's on the Bloomberg platforms as well as online on Apple, Spotify and I heart this is Bloomberg Tech.
- [48:40]
Scarlet Fu
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- [48:41]
Paul Sweeney
Sweeney inviting you to join us for the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast.
- [48:45]
Scarlet Fu
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Paul Sweeney
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Paul Sweeney
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Scarlet Fu
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Paul Sweeney
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Scarlet Fu
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