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- [00:01]
Ed Ludlow
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. This is the Technology Empowered Growth at Ping An Podcast. In our latest episode, Ping an is.
- [00:18]
Julie Samuels
Utilizing technology to provide integrated and personalized 24. 7 support for China's rapidly growing elderly population.
- [00:25]
Ed Ludlow
Now available on Spotify, Apple Podcast and Ping An's website.
- [00:30]
Julie Samuels
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.
- [00:52]
Ed Ludlow
Real smart in real time.
- [00:54]
Julie Samuels
Do that with the all new Adobe Acrobat Studio.
- [00:57]
Ed Ludlow
Learn more@adobe.com do that with Acrobat Your next product launch is coming fast. Don't let billing slow you down Legacy systems can't handle usage based billing. That means your team is stuck gluing code together, piecing through spreadsheets and running ad hoc queries just to figure out what to bill. With Metronome, you can roll out new pricing in minutes instead of months, whether it's usage based, seat based or a hybrid model. Visit metronome.com to see how companies like OpenAI and Anthropic launch billing as fast as they launch. That's metronome.com Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts Radio News Bloomberg Tech is live from coast.
- [01:45]
Julie Samuels
To coast with Caroline Hyde in New.
- [01:48]
Ed Ludlow
York and Ed Ludlow in San Francisco.
- [01:54]
Caroline Hyde
This is Bloomberg Tech coming up. AMD fails to impress with its latest earnings, shares volatile amid rising valuations and concerns from investors, plus a historic victory for Zoram Mamdani, the new new mayor of New York. We'll discuss what his election means for the city's tech scene and all eyes on Tesla as the company's shareholders are set to vote on a proposed $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk. There are two names in the markets that we're watching most closely, and that's in the earnings context. Right now, AMD is basically swung between modest declines and modest gains all morning long. It gave an outlook for period that was well in line with consensus, but did not beat the most bullish estimates and everyone's trying to work out is there making some ground up in the data center context in the near term or is it their legacy businesses? Processes for PC, CPU for servers doing the business. Supermicro, similar story. The outlook for earnings in the current period below consensus traction struggles when it comes to have they worked this whole thing out on the server side. That stock down 7%. Let's get those stories with Bloomberg's executive editor for tech, Peter Elstrom, and start with amd. It's been really hard to pass this one right when the stock fell and you're like, okay, the stock rally over in chips, but actually investors are just playing what AMD has put in front of them.
- [03:20]
Ed Ludlow
Right, Right. It's been a rough 24 hours for chip stocks. We saw that in Asia. We also saw it in Europe. AMD is a bit of a different story. The stock has been on such a tear, it's up about 100% this year so far. I think investors were looking for an impressive result. What they're really looking for is amd.
- [03:39]
Julie Samuels
As you, as you alluded to, they.
- [03:40]
Ed Ludlow
Still have a hand in the traditional business of PCs and servers and they're moving more aggressively into this AI space to compete with Nvidia. Now they're not growing as quickly as.
- [03:50]
Caroline Hyde
Nvidia Video is up, growing in the.
- [03:52]
Ed Ludlow
50, 50% range at this point. Nvidia AMD has been more in the 30% range. People really want to see whether the AI business, the chips that AMD is offering are going to take off and AMD is going to be able to accelerate that growth rate.
- [04:06]
Julie Samuels
We didn't see that.
- [04:07]
Ed Ludlow
As you mention, they did have a pretty solid beat on the revenue side, but it was not as high as some people had been expecting. Also, the operating expenses were a little bit higher than expected, probably suggesting that more their business was on the old traditional PC business rather than the AI business.
- [04:24]
Caroline Hyde
Peter, help us make sense of Super Micro. There was a time where that was a stock and a name caught up in broad enthusiasm for AI. But at the end of the day, Super Micro assemble servers and server designs for others. What do we learn from that print?
- [04:40]
Ed Ludlow
Right. Well, Supermicro has had a few crosscurrents that we have been looking at. They had some accounting, accounting issues. They announced a couple of revisions to what what they were reporting in their financials.
- [04:54]
Julie Samuels
And now their outlook is coming in.
- [04:55]
Ed Ludlow
A little bit light. Their revenues for the current quarter were a little light. Also their projection for the next quarter is a little bit light. I think people are concerned that this.
- [05:03]
Caroline Hyde
Has been an AI play.
- [05:04]
Ed Ludlow
They have benefited from the fast growth in, in the past, but it looks like they're losing some of that momentum at this point. That could be because competitors like Dell are picking up more market share. It could also be because we're seeing some of these companies do more of this construction, the building the AI chips into servers themselves, and that would take away business from Super Micro.
- [05:25]
Caroline Hyde
Bloomberg's Peter Ellstrom with the summary. Thank you very much. Let's get some more on amd, the wider chip sector, and what's really happening with evaluations. Joanne Feeney, advises capital management partner and portfolio manager, joins us. I restart with you how I did with Peter. Right. The market is confronted with AMD earnings and trying to work out, is this them gaining some territory on Nvidia in the accelerator card market, or are they getting a boost, particularly in the quarter gone from those legacy business lines? PC processors, CPU for server. Let's just start there. What did you learn from amd?
- [06:00]
Ed Ludlow
Yeah, good morning, Ed. We're seeing all of that from amd. And let's start with, with the old boring part of AMD, right? The PC, the CPUs, the standard server CPUs, where they're clearly continuing to gain share versus intel, and that's a good cash generator for the company. So we shouldn't dismiss that acceleration that we saw there, that success that they're continuing to deliver in terms of share gains. Obviously a lot of investors are still focused pretty much on the opportunity. And what's interesting there is that they've just gotten started. They've only now developed, you know, solutions for those accelerators that, you know, meet the quality for, for inference, for example, potentially for training that Nvidia has in the past. When we've seen AMD leapfrog Intel back in the old days, they gained an enormous amount of share. We saw that again this time around. Now they have a new opportunity to gain share in the accelerator. We're not seeing them gain share except for just a little bit as they get started today. But I think that's something we can look forward to.
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Caroline Hyde
Bloomberg's in King, who, you know, made a really simple point yesterday on the program ahead of AMD earnings. The datacenter category is just north of $4 billion a quarter. Business Nvidia's datacenter category is $40 billion or north of $40 billion each quarter in aggregate. Do you see all those ships rising right now with the tide that is infrastructure investment?
- [07:30]
Ed Ludlow
It still is it. We're still seeing the pie expand or tie rise or whatever analogy you want. But what AMD has that Nvidia doesn't have is an opportunity to take a greater share of that pie as it grows. And so, you know, I expect we're going to see both companies continue to grow very strongly over time. We own both of those for clients. I own both of them personally because I think this is an opportunity in AI that is just beginning. I think we have many years ahead and what we're seeing also in those results from AMD and elsewhere is that enterprises sovereigns are looking to deploy AI and that's, that's helping to continue to grow that pipe.
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Caroline Hyde
Joanne Phoenix Bear with us. New York City Mayor Elect Zoram Dani is speaking in Queens, New York.
- [08:18]
Ed Ludlow
Now hold. The poetry of campaigning may have come to a close last night at nine, but the beautiful prose of governing has only just begun. The hard work of improving New Yorkers lives starts now. That process begins with transition. In the coming months, I and my team will build a city hall capable of delivering on the promises of this campaign. We will form an administration that is in equal parts capable and compassionate, driven by integrity, and willing to work just as hard as the millions of New Yorkers who call this city home. And central to that effort is a transition team that is defined by the excellence New Yorkers will soon come to expect from government. Our team will be directed by Ilana Leopold, whose roots in this city extend back to her grandmother running the trams on Roosevelt Island. She has extensive experience in city government and has been a key part of our campaign to become the next mayor of this city. And it will be led by our formidable co chairs, former Federal Trade Commissioner Chair Lina Khan, former First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer, United Way President and CEO Grace Bonilla, and former Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, Melanie Hartzog. Over the coming days, we'll start announcing the leaders who will implement our agenda. People like deputy mayors who oversee entire areas of government, and the commissioners who carry out the critical work of city agencies. Some of these people will have familiar names. Others will not. What will unite them will be a commitment to solving old problems with new solutions. We will cast a wide net. We will speak to the organizers on the front lines of the fight to improve our city government. Veterans with proven track records, policy experts from around the country and the world, and working people who know better than anyone what their neighborhoods need. Throughout this campaign, I have worked hard to be accessible and transparent with New Yorkers. That same spirit will animate this transition and the City hall we build because New Yorkers deserve a government that they can trust. And on January 1st, when our city celebrates the inauguration of a new administration. Let us also celebrate a new era for our city, one that we all feel invested in and whose success we all work to achieve. Now it is my pleasure to invite Ilana Leopold to deliver a few words. Thank you. Thank you.
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Julie Samuels
Good morning. My name is Ilana Leopold and I'm very honored to serve as the executive director of Marilla Mamdani's leadership team. I want to thank Zaran for his faith in me both on the campaign.
- [11:14]
Caroline Hyde
That was New York City Democratic mayor elect Zoram Mamdani, speaking after his win last night, elected the 111th mayor of New York City, the youngest mayor elect in a century. Let's get the reaction now and some of the technology perspective and avowed democratic socialists in charge of the city that serves as the capital of global finance, increasingly a major technology hub. Judy Samuels is the CEO of Tech nyc, a network of tech leaders working to foster New York's tech scene. She joins us now and will give us the reaction. Tech nyc Will this mayor be a good mayor for your industry in New York City?
- [11:58]
Julie Samuels
Oh, listen, I think, we don't know. I think what's good for New York tends to be good for tech here. Zorn Mamdani ran on a campaign of making New York affordable. He ran in a campaign that really celebrated a lot of what people love about New York. People love to be out in the streets. So if people want to be here, if young people want to be here, the tech companies will continue to want to be here. And clearly we heard loud and clear yesterday that a lot of young people want Zoram Dani to be mayor. There are a lot of tech workers who voted for him. Of course, you know, that's, that's the bull case, right? The bear case, of course, is that, that you're going to have someone who is anti business. I hope that's not the case, but there's so many unknowns right now.
- [12:46]
Caroline Hyde
Julie, you said that a lot of the technology industry turned out and voted for him. Voter turnout was a critical data point overnight. What's your reaction to that data point?
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Julie Samuels
Listen, as a practical matter, I think more people voting, always better. So, so we're really glad to see that was the case. And in fact, even as early as the primary, months ago, the data was, the data were very clear that people who worked in tech were donating a lot of money to Zoran Mamdani's campaign. So it's not a surprise, you know, we can quickly or easily, I should say, draw a line to understand that A lot of tech workers, young tech workers, did vote for him yesterday. Clearly you know, so much about Zoran's campaign, I think resonated with people in the tech industry. It had the focus flavor of a startup. It really disrupted the status quo of politics in New York. And I think that resonated with a lot of people who work in tech.
- [13:44]
Caroline Hyde
Julie. There is always a difference, of course, between policy platform in the context of a campaign.
- [13:50]
Ed Ludlow
That's right.
- [13:51]
Caroline Hyde
And then policy platform when in office. But the consensus seems to be that Mr. Mandani is, is in favor of sort of pro housing revisions to the city's charter. Right. Making housing available and more affordable. Technology is a sector tends to have higher pay and perhaps, you know, apply to a higher to middle income earning bracket. Are they really going to be focused on a policy around affordable housing?
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Julie Samuels
Well, I think that's a really great question. And in fact, the organization I run, Tech nyc, put out research with Zillow just maybe a year ago that showed that even people who have high paying jobs in tech are having a hard time affording housing in New York City. So it is not when we talk about affordable housing, it is, it runs across the entire spectrum for so many people. It's unaffordable. And so I think that more housing is better for tech in New York. We've seen the same dynamic in San Francisco. Francisco, of course, the need to build more housing so more people from across the economic spectrum can live here, build their careers here, grow their family here. I'm really incredibly in favor of the pro housing initiatives that, that won yesterday.
- [15:11]
Caroline Hyde
Is there an opportunity, Julie, for you to work with this mayor and this administration to bring a sort of closer relationship. Apologies between you and, and the administration?
- [15:20]
Julie Samuels
Absolutely. I think there's a lot of opportunity. I think the thing I'm most hopeful about is modernizing government, government efficiency. Zorma Dani is what is a very progressive candidate now, Mayor elect. And progress means government that works better. So we need to unleash technology in New York City government to work better for New Yorkers. But we also will need to be really careful and when we work with his team or and sometimes when we disagree with his team to ensure that the tech economy continues to thrive here, that businesses continue to grow here. This is the future of the economy in the world. Technology is of course, and needs to also be the future of the economy in New York City. So we have to work together. We have no other choice.
- [16:08]
Caroline Hyde
What do you disagree with his team on and what would you ask Mr. Mamdani? To reconsider in terms of policy.
- [16:14]
Julie Samuels
Oh, that's a really, that's a great question. I think that I don't know what we disagree with necessarily at this point, but I can tell you what we'll be watching for again. The use of technology in government. We think that's crucial and I want to make sure that his team, that the incoming mayor understand that some of that requires some experimentation and requires being, being open minded about new uses of technology. Also, you know, I think there are concerns that I hope don't, don't come to be, but there are some concerns that there's kind of like an anti business dynamic. We haven't talked about raising taxes. I haven't brought that up because you can't do that without the state. You can't do that without Albany. Obviously a lot of people in tech are not, would not be excited about more income tax, more corporate tax. So that, that I'm sure will be an issue that comes up over the next four years.
- [17:07]
Caroline Hyde
New York City Mayor elect Zoram Dani, the 111th mayor of New York to be elected, is an avowed Democratic socialist. And one of the big stories of this year, 2025 has been the move of key figures in the technology industry to put themselves in close proximity to President Trump and the administration currently in the White House. Are both of those things achievable at the same time? Time for Mr. Mandani to have relationships of key figures in your industry at the same time that they try and be, be close to this president and the Republican Party?
- [17:43]
Julie Samuels
I think, I think that's a really good question and I think we're going to see. I'd point out that most of the, the particular tech leaders you're talking about are actually not New Yorkers, but they do run companies that have incredibly large presences in New York City. I think that, I hope that, let me say, I hope that Zora Mamdani and his team fundamentally understand that the future of our city's economy, the future of opportunity for New Yorkers is inextricably intertwined with the growth of the tech sector here. And if those jobs aren't here, they will go somewhere else. And if those resources aren't here, they will go somewhere else. And I, I just have to believe, I do believe that we can find a way to work together to ensure that all New Yorkers have the opportunity to, to benefit from the growth that that technology is bringing to the city.
- [18:32]
Caroline Hyde
Let's end that there then, Judy, by asking what is the one first ask that you have for Mayor Elect Mamdani on behalf of your members in the technology industry in New York City.
- [18:43]
Julie Samuels
I think the first big ask will be to really drill down and figure out how we can find a way to use technology to make New York City government work better for New Yorkers.
- [18:54]
Caroline Hyde
Julie Samuels, CEO of Tech NYC with immediate reaction to Mayor Elect Zora Mamdani speaking for the first time since his win last night, there are other news headlines. It's time for Talking Tech. And first up, the US Government says it's nearing the end of its investigation into Google's $32 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Whiz. The deal, announced in March, prompted an in depth probe by the Justice Department. While that review is now wrapping up, the acquisition remains under scrutiny from other antitrust regulators. Plus, Google and Epic Games have reached a settlement in their long running antitrust dispute over how developers distribute and monetize apps on the Android platform. The deal follows Google's court ordered Play Store changes to allow more competition. Exact terms of the agreement weren't disclosed and the scientist who led Tencent's flagship AI model has raised $50 million for his new startup, Video Rebirth, which aims to rival OpenAI's Sora. Founded by Leeway, the company seeks to make video creation as intuitive as chatting with an AI. The platform's expected to launch in December. Okay, coming up, Amazon goes off the perplexity, suing the AI startup from using its own AI tool to help shoppers. We've got more on that next. This is Bloomberg Tech.
- [20:21]
Ed Ludlow
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. This is the Technology Empowered Growth at Ping An Podcast. In our latest episode, Ping an is.
- [20:38]
Julie Samuels
Utilizing technology to provide integrated and personalized 24. 7 support for China's rapidly growing elderly population.
- [20:44]
Ed Ludlow
Now available on Spotify, Apple podcasts and Ping AD's website. There are two kinds of people in the world. People who think about climate change and people who are doing something about it. On the Zero podcast we talk to both kinds of people. People you've heard of, like Bill Gates. I'm looking at what the world has to do to get to Zero not using climate as a moral crusade, and the creative minds you haven't heard of yet. It is serious stuff, but never doom and gloom. I am Akshat Ratty listen to Zero every Thursday from Bloomberg Podcasts on Apple Spotify or anywhere else you get your podcasts.
- [21:27]
Caroline Hyde
Amazon is suing Perplexity over its AI shopping tool known as Comet, which helps users buy items on Amazon. The retail giant alleges Perplexity committed computer fraud and violated its terms of service by failing to disclose. Disclose when Comet was making purchases on behalf of real people. For more, let's get to Bloomberg's Matt Day, who leads our coverage of Amazon. This is an interesting move. We've covered Comet and Perplexity on the show. We understand Amazon just, I think, start by explaining the grievance that Amazon has and the accusation Amazon's making against Perplexity and what they're doing.
- [22:06]
Ed Ludlow
So Amazon says that, you know, what Perplexity is doing here is masking who's on its website. Right. They've alleged that Perplexity inserted sort of the same code that would make Amazon Systems think it was just a regular Google Chrome user, when in fact it was an automated agent going on their site. And so Amazon's raised a whole host of concerns, you know, saying account integrity could be compromised, saying, you know, if someone has to make a return, you know, who's at fault? What goes on here? There's basically kind of a turf war over, over the customer experience on their retail side.
- [22:36]
Caroline Hyde
Okay, We've heard from Perplexity, both through a spokesperson, but they also put out their own commentary on a blog, summarize it for us.
- [22:43]
Ed Ludlow
So they are accusing Amazon of bullying. You know, they say they don't see a meaningful distinction between a user who said, listen, I want to purchase something on Amazon, I'm going to authorize Perplexity to go, you know, make the computer plumbing that makes that work. They say that's, that's no different than someone navigating with a mouse and keyboard. Right. Obviously, Amazon has a different view, but Perplexity seems to want to take a stand here and, and kind of stick up for, for this new potential commerce venue that they're deploying with their comment browser. Right.
- [23:10]
Caroline Hyde
You cover Amazon so deeply. Like, is this the playbook Amazon goes to? Are they typically litigious? Are they looking over their shoulder in a real way?
- [23:20]
Ed Ludlow
I think they really are looking over their shoulder here. I mean, they've said AI is going to change everything. You know, there's debates going on right now about what is a browser. So this is probably the first of many debates we're going to have, you know, in public and in private as these companies negotiate on just how, you know, who owns the experience. When agents are, you know, going all over the Internet rather than individual users with, with hands and eyes.
- [23:42]
Caroline Hyde
Really quick, what happens next?
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Ed Ludlow
Oh, we'll see if they settle. Right. And I don't think anybody wants to see this go to court and all this nasty discovery come out. Right. So I think the obvious question in a case like this is can they come to some agreement?
- [23:55]
Caroline Hyde
Lumix, Matt Day out of Seattle, thank you very much. Another story. It was the breakout hit of the summer. K Pop Demon Hunters became Netflix, his biggest original film of all time. Now with the chance to build a global franchise, there's just one thing missing for the holiday season, the merch. Bloomberg's entertainment editor Lucas Shaw is here with more. I've learned through you in attending screen time in the context of movie, tv, video games, that merchandising and franchising into other IP or from the core IP is so important. Basically, those big K pop fans are not going to be able to get hold of certain toys and other other things this holiday season. Explain the same story to us.
- [24:37]
Ed Ludlow
Well, it comes back to the movie, which was a surprise hit. You know, when you have a new property, you go to retailers and toy manufacturers, your Mattel, your Hasbro, Walmart, Target, and say, hey, we have this movie coming in like a year or two. We think it's going to be really popular with kids. Do you want to partner on things? Will you give a shelf space? Because they need that. The toy manufacturers in particular need time to make the toys, which takes a while and it involves international shipping and all that. And there was not a lot of confidence in this project, both because it was an original animated movie, which hasn't, those types of movies haven't done very well at the box office. Mostly sequels have been doing well and Netflix just doesn't have a track record in this regard. And so it was only after this movie became so popular that everyone scrambled and they now say they're moving the fastest they've ever moved. But it still means that a lot of the products, a lot of the toys and other things won't be available until next year.
- [25:32]
Caroline Hyde
We know that the holiday quarter is really important. For example, we talk about it in the context of the new iPhone being on sale. But I guess in this story, who's suffering here, like, is it Netflix that is going to have to claw to make up some ground? Where is the kind of opportunity lost, revenue loss?
- [25:48]
Ed Ludlow
Yeah, I think it's, it's shared between the toy companies, the retailers and Netflix. But they would all like to believe and they're all saying that it is sort of short term pain that yes, you know, they won't have, they can't maximize what they're getting from the holiday season, but they will have properties next year and that this is something they're building for the long term and that if the second movie, which won't come for four years is really popular, that this will all sort of be a footnote in history. Now that's dependent on them making a good second movie and building the bridge. But short term pain, Lucas, really quick.
- [26:27]
Caroline Hyde
Warner Brothers discovery, what's the need to know?
- [26:30]
Ed Ludlow
I mean, all everyone is going to want to know about is who is buying them and how. You know, the company is the cable networks are not doing so hot. Is streaming growing? How is HBO Max looking? The movie studio had a pretty decent summer. But the big question hanging over the company company is who's going to buy it?
- [26:47]
Caroline Hyde
Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw who leads our coverage of screen time and entertainment. Thank you very much. Welcome back to Bloomberg Tech. Let's get a look at the markets, some of the other stories we're trying to pass. A lot of it still earnings related. And look at this one. Pinterest is down more than 21% on track for its biggest drop since the middle of 2022. And it's all about an outlook for the holiday quarter that is completely tepid. The market is reacting to this with some severity. And how common is that story across all of the names that we've been tracking? But when the team met this morning to plan the show, we were like, whoa, we need to get this one in. It's as simple as the outlook for the holiday period. And we'll give you more when we get it. Okay. Other news that we're tracking, Apple is said to be adding a new cheaper Mac book to its lineup, rivaling Google's chromebooks and Windows PCs. Bloomberg Samantha Kelly joins us now for more. So this is an interesting one. I'm a MacBook user. I also have a Windows based PC that I use through work. The main thing is the price differential in the market. Mac Books are typically very expensive relative to a much broader range of available Windows or other operating system based PCs. I think there's a place to start. Tell us about what we know from the reporting about a new cheaper Mac book.
- [28:09]
Julie Samuels
That's right. And thanks for having me. Yeah, it's really interesting. This would be a pretty big departure from what we've seen from Apple before of the more premium standpoint with computers, but this would bring it down to a lower End probably in the $600 to $800 range. It would be more targeted towards students, small businesses. It wouldn't be able to do everything, but you'd be able to to surf the web, some documents, some light editing and it would really open up the market for a lot of people who might have an iPhone but aren't ready to make that jump for some MacBooks start, you know, at $999 to your point, these are pretty expensive computers.
- [28:47]
Caroline Hyde
Do we know anything about the timeline for this, Samantha? Like is Apple going to surprise us with this this year or when do we expect to hear about it?
- [28:56]
Julie Samuels
We're expecting it to soon, but it's not imminent. So it's in development, it's already in production. So we're thinking the first half of next year, probably in the spring, maybe somewhere between maybe March and June.
- [29:11]
Caroline Hyde
What has Apple done to, you know, like sometimes I reflect about how Apple does something in the iPhone or it might do it in the wearables category or even the iPad and then it will say how do we apply that to a different category like MacBook? Is there any reporting on like how there's a technology transfer that they have got the costs down or are they going to the Playbook that they've done like a base version? IPhone took a long time to get after having many premium models.
- [29:37]
Julie Samuels
Yeah, it's interesting you say that. So my colleague Mark Gurman is reporting that some of the components would obviously be a lot cheaper, making the price go down. But they might use an iPhone chip which is very advanced at this point and exceeds some that we're seeing in the earlier M chips that are in some of the MacBooks. So they would be able to take an iPhone chip, put it into a device and really open it up there. Also in other ways, you know, people might not need, you know, certain, certain features, but they are still looking for battery life. In some cases they're using an iPad with a, with an external keyboard, but that really increases the price too. They this would be able to take everything, boil it down and give people perhaps an entry point into the ecosystem that they haven't been able to enter before.
- [30:23]
Caroline Hyde
I should say that an Apple spokesperson declined to comment on our reporting. Now that's out the way. We should probably acknowledge the other side of the competition, which is the Chromebook and other laptop PCs. They are providing more competition to Apple.
- [30:39]
Julie Samuels
Exactly. Yeah. So there's been a lot of success around Chromebooks with Google. I mean a lot of schools have students using these devices. Of course you have Dell and HP as major players as well. A lot of people who can't afford a premium device will go to these very strong products. So it definitely will, you know, have a new player involved and it'll really increase competition. We saw some, some dips yesterday as far as stock with those related companies as well.
- [31:11]
Caroline Hyde
Bloomberg's Samantha Kelly with the original reporting. Thank you very much. Tesla shares are pushing higher. Ahead of tomorrow's big shareholder meeting where the spotlight will be on Elon Musk's proposed $1 trillion compensation plan. Let's bring in Shane Goodwin, Executive Executive Director for SMU Corporate Governance Initiative. Shane was a governance adviser to the special committee, engaged to counsel them on corporate governance matters, including satisfaction of fiduciary duties under Texas law when that special committee of two on Tesla's board put the package together. Shane, welcome back to Bloomberg Tech. I want to start by just clarifying some things for our audience. Now that the proxy is filed and the proposed compensation plan is out there, have you continued to be engaged with Tesla's special committee or was that work finished?
- [32:05]
Ed Ludlow
No, we've still been very actively involved with the special committee throughout this whole process. Obviously that was just the start of it to kind of work with them, but we've been working with them ongoing and they've been engaged with all their advisors, legal advisors, along the way.
- [32:21]
Caroline Hyde
And since the proxy was filed and shareholders became aware of the terms of the proposed compensation agreement, what is it specifically that you have been talking to the special committee and the board about?
- [32:34]
Ed Ludlow
Well, the issue is that most people see every single day a lot of the headlines that come up and then how can we proactively really address those? And more importantly, it's just really to make sure that it's clear. Obviously, as your viewers certainly saw, the proxy advisers came out and actually commented on the plan and said some other aspects as well. And then we just wanted to make sure that the, the shareholders, not the proxy advisors, were very fully informed about what the plan is and why this is different from what the assessor Glass Lewis is really reviewing.
- [33:08]
Caroline Hyde
So the biggest headline of this week is that Norway's sovereign wealth fund came out and voted no against the proposed pay package exchange. Not an advisory, but an actual shareholder. I believe Tesla's ninth biggest shareholder. And their argument was very simple, that they, they appreciated the significant value that Mr. Musk has created, but argue that this, this proposal, the total size of the award is too great. And like the advisory services, they're worried about dilution. Could you respond to that? Dilution part.
- [33:42]
Ed Ludlow
Yeah. Well, first let me just address obviously, obviously they also opposed the pay plan on the ratification last year as well. So for me it was a little hard to understand kind of the rhetoric versus the reality because they've been a shareholder in Tesla since 2011. So right after the IPO they had a very small position and they've actually continued to build that position to where they are today. So although they may have some concerns, they've enjoyed the benefit of nearly a 40,000% increase in their share value during that particular time and constantly adding to their position. So they're obviously willing to enjoy the benefits of that. You know, with respect to the dilution, it's been very clear about what the plan was. And I know we talked about this last time, Ed, which was when the special committee, Robin Denholm and Kathleen Wilson Thompson, sat down with Elon to understand not only a vision for master plan for, but obviously what he want to accomplish. And Elon has been very clear about this and obviously the chair as well, which is he wanted to make sure he has enough voting influence and that number was around 25% that would matter for him. This has been discussed as well, which is the committee reviewed numerous ways of finding a way to actually accomplish the voting and decoupling the economics. And unfortunately, under current exchange rules that we have today with other, you know, nasdaq, NYSE has a similar rules, you can't go and do a high, high vote or dual class listing once you've been listed on the exchange.
- [35:19]
Caroline Hyde
Shane, we've also spoken to Tesla's board chair Robin Denholm subsequently since, since you on the program. Right. And there is an acknowledgment that there is a very real risk that if this is a no vote in the end, Elon Musk either leaves Tesla or he pays back his activities in a different role or he focuses more attention elsewhere. You are privy to these conversations. You just told us that what is the plan B? What is the, I guess, mitigation of key man risk in the event that you don't secure the votes?
- [35:52]
Ed Ludlow
Yeah, Robin has addressed this specifically with both you and Caroline as well, you know, quite frankly. And this is really what I classify really as a kind of a Super bowl performance that we're doing right now. We're focused on winning the game and not looking at what happens if we lose. I actually do believe that the shareholders are going to come out in a very strong way tomorrow and really support not only the plan, but the directors were obviously up for nomination and all the proposals that are put forth. And I think a lot of that is already out there. So I don't think there's a really a need to focus on plan B. I can assure you that they're a very diligent board. They, they thought through these things. But I think everyone's very focused on the, on winning.
- [36:34]
Caroline Hyde
We continue to get the same question for you and for the board, which is this is the first vote under Texas law. What do shareholders need to know that's different under Texas law from what they voted previously under Delaware law?
- [36:46]
Ed Ludlow
Yeah, I would say the biggest one if it comes up, is that, you know, insiders, particularly in a transaction like this, are allowed to vote their shares in this particular election. So, you know, Elon's shares will definitely be counted as included in part of this process. Whereas previously as it was discussed within Delaware, it's not that that's really the fundamental big change. But quite frankly, if everyone recalls the previous plan, the 2018 plan, both originally in 2018, but also in the ratification in 2024, it had over 70 plus percent shareholder approval which did not include Elon's in that particular time. So I do think we're going to have a lot more of a support here than some of the headlines are reacting to right now. But that is, that is really one of the bigger changes here for Texas.
- [37:37]
Caroline Hyde
Shane Goodman, Executive Director, SMU Corporate Governance Initiative and an advisor to the special Committee on Testers board that put together the proposed pay package. Thank you very much. Coming up, we're going to talk to an investor, Vinod Khoestler and also David Zhu, CEO of startup Revo AI, about the go to market platform's debut and its funding. That's next. This is Bloomberg Tech AI startup Revo is emerging from stealth with the aim of unifying the steps and data necessary for businesses to develop and execute go to market strategies. The company has $80 million from a combination seed and Series A funding round co led by Coastal Ventures and Kleiner Perkins. Revo CEO David Zhu and investor Vinno Khoisla with us now. David, I would love to start with you. You're trying to tackle the concept that you have labeled the Franken stack. Even though the term is new to me. The concept is something that's been discussed on this program a lot. Just explain what Revo wants to achieve it.
- [38:55]
Ed Ludlow
Sure. Well, first off, thanks for having me. It's a big day for us. Like is the biggest shift in enterprise software software since the cloud. But the reality is revenue teams are still stuck in like you said, what we call the Frankenstein, which is a dozen different tools that don't really talk to each other, causing sellers to waste over 70% of their time wrangling software instead of talking to their customers. And that's really painful. Revo is looking to fix that via one unified revenue operating system built from the ground up with AI at its core. And with this 80 million raise, we're scaling quickly to help all companies win in the age of AI.
- [39:32]
Caroline Hyde
Vinod I was talking with my team this morning about the structure of this round. And so it's basically a combined seed and series A. And Revo is coming out and kind of announcing itself to the world. Would you kind of give us the back story? You know, you are an experienced investor in the world of technology. When this crossed your desk, how did you know that you needed to get involved and how did you determine at this very early stage the potential that Revo had?
- [40:02]
Ed Ludlow
The opportunity didn't actually cross our desk in a traditional way. We've known David for a long time from doordash to open door to open store. Sorry. And now Revo, we've been incubating ventures with him. My partner Samir has worked closely with him on Revo and we cooked up the concept, brainstormed it and thought it was important enough to do in the age of AI. I think most applications and application stacks need to be rethought. And this is David, just a superstar on snow. So it was pretty easy.
- [40:44]
Caroline Hyde
Then. Is this an example of you investing in the known quantity founder then rather than the idea?
- [40:53]
Ed Ludlow
Absolutely. When we invested, the idea wasn't clear. That was a year and a half or two years ago. But the founder was very clear.
- [41:05]
Caroline Hyde
David, I'm trying to track the growth that you've had. So spring of 2024, you kind of come up with the idea, I guess incorporate a business and you've hired, I guess aggressively. You know, you're, you're sub 100 people still, but you've basically gone to companies that are well known globally, not just here in the valley and taken the best people you can. What was that like?
- [41:29]
Ed Ludlow
Well, yeah, that's, that's, you're spot on there. The company you build taking a page out of the notes book. But the company you build is the team you build as a company you build, not the plans you make. And when we thought about tackling the space of unifying all of go to market tech in one system, expanding marketing, sales and success, we really needed to make sure that we had the talent Density both from a technical perspective but also from a go to market to really bring together the combination of the depth of domain knowledge plus the ability to access the first party data to really pull this vision off. So global talent is necessary for us to make this a reality.
- [42:10]
Caroline Hyde
David, what else do you need the $80 million for?
- [42:14]
Ed Ludlow
Yeah, well, it's over the next few months and quarters and years. Our vision is clear. We need to continue accelerating our product roadmap to build out both the breadth of the surface area to serve our customers, but also making sure that every single capability is the best possible from a depth perspective. But more importantly, in the age of AI, context matters and it's very important for us to double down on making sure that our AI operating system is able to work seamlessly across every single one of these modules. Capabilities, jobs to be done. So we're not replicating another frankenstack for the future world. So that's what we're going to use the proceeds to do.
- [42:58]
Caroline Hyde
Vinod, I go back to you with the concept of the Franken stack. You know you're invested everywhere. One of the first checks into open air. The world has changed a lot since then. You know we had yesterday Sridhar from Snowflake on the program talking about the problems right now in the data layer. What do you make of the Franken stack? Is that a real thing or this is just a marketing opportunity around this round?
- [43:25]
Ed Ludlow
No, I think it's a real thing. Enables each startup to do a lot more than it could do. 20 engineers can do the work of 60 engineers if you use the productivity tools AI enables. But more than that, the user experience can be dramatically different with the help of AI. As I like to say, in the old world of applications, users had to learn an application and they learned each vertical stack. In the new world of AI, the application learns the human and responds the way it should. It's my favorite way to think about the transition AI makes possible. You don't have to be trained on an application like SAP or Hubstack. The application gets to know you and other humans on your team and so it facilitates not only the function but also work flow across people and across applications. I think pretty important shift in software to both you.
- [44:29]
Caroline Hyde
I kind of like to end the conversation by by going a little bit bigger on the world that we're in right now. You know David, if you could reflect on what it was like doing this round. There is a lot of energy behind AI right now, but at the other end of the spectrum there is valuation Concern, you know, there's no difficulty in open air, anthropic, those kinds of frontier labs gaining capital. But there is a lot going on right now. Would you just reflect on what the last few weeks has been like in trying to close this?
- [44:58]
Ed Ludlow
Well, you know the fundamental difference is clear with our approach. We are native and purpose built for revenue teams and so you know, when you talk about the old players that are trying to bolt AI onto legacy stack, it's just doesn't work. What we're building with Revo is akin to how Tesla built its cars. Vertically integrated with AI at its core. This way our AI is able to see, to see and act across the full customer journey. So the old players are held back by their past and the new players, to your point, don't have the depth of domain knowledge nor the access to the full suite of first party data to pull hold his vision off. So Revo is building with both and yes it's hard, but that's really what makes it defensible and worth doing.
- [45:43]
Caroline Hyde
Vinod, you know you're co leading this round with your friends at Kleiner Perkins. Again, the same question, like what does the environment look like to you right now? This is a very sizable debut round. You had the conviction to do that?
- [45:59]
Ed Ludlow
Well, it was a while ago we did the seed round of 10 million, there wasn't announced and now we just participate in the $70 million round. Obviously we think highly of the team, but I think it's the magnitude of the opportunity this opens up for native companies. I like to say most valuations won't hold up in the space, but the ones that are really high quality companies will return disproportionate returns in 2018. People said to me $1 billion valuation for open Air was too high. Then they said 26 billion was too high and then 100 billion, then 300 billion and then 500 billion were all too high. So a small percentage of the companies, I suspect much less than 5% will actually do extremely well and return 10, 50, 100 times their money invested. Most companies will still lose money and I think that's why you want to back quality founders like David. David's a superstar. I'd back him in almost anything he did.
- [47:12]
Caroline Hyde
David Z, CEO of Revoi Vino coast, the co founder of coast of Ventures and as we just discussed, co led that round. Great to have you both on the program, Frankie. That does it for this edition of Bloomberg Tech Tech Earnings but also valuation concerns are driving this market right now one way and the other it's been a volatile session. There was a lot to recap, particular in the case of amd. So do so on the podcast. You know exactly where to find it. This is Bloomberg Tech.