Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
Data threats don't knock. They sneak in quietly, make themselves right at home. But when you partner with Veeam, you can spot threats before they're a threat to your business. Whatever the world throws at your data, it's all good. Get data resilient@veeam.com that's ve.com 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 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 products. That's metronome.com how can you free your team from time consuming office tasks? Amazon Business empowers leaders to not only streamline purchasing, but better support their teams. Smart business buying tools enable buyers to find and purchase items fast so they can focus on strategy and growth. It's time to free up your teams and focus on your future. Learn more about the technology insights and Support available@AmazonBusiness.com Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts Radio News Bloomberg Tech is live from coast to coast with Caroline Hyde in New York and Ed Ludlow in San Francisco. This is Bloomberg Tech. Coming up, the US government will not take a stake in TikTok, but a deal with US investors is close with Oracle powering the tech as the cloud computing company shuffles its CEOs. Plus T Mobile announces a change in its leadership too. We sit down with the CEO Mike Sievert and his successor Srini Gopalan, and the Trump administration plans to raise the H1B application fee to $100,000. We'll discuss discuss the implications for workers in the tech industry. But for now we look at the broader market said and we turn a tide. We actually push back into the green. A new record high for the NASDAQ 127th record high for the S&P 500 even though we started today in the red. So sentiment whip soaring a little as we look ahead to Federal Reserve speak this week. Inflation data as well. But the sentiment is soured in crypto. We get to get into that a little bit more. The show progresses. We're down 2% on Bitcoin, even more on ETH. What are you looking at? Okay, I'm going to Oracle as Our big move and our top story being Tick tock. We're up 3% in the session, but as you can see over the course of last week and this morning's session, a lot of movement in Oracle that's pushed towards record highs. We now have a better understanding from the White House on the proposed technology structure for a TikTok deal in the US and the investors behind it. And it is Oracle at the heart of that. We also learned this morning that Oracle is going to have two new co CEOs and then just a little bit carry, we're going to get more details on that. Let's start with Tick Tock. More details are coming out on the deal taking shape to sell Tick Tock to a consortium of American investors. U.S. officials say they're confident China has approved the deal under which Oracle would recreate and then provide security for a new U.S. version of TikTok's algorithm. Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner, who covers TikTok for us, joins with more. There have been a lot of headlines this morning. What do we need to know about the status of TikTok in the United States? Well, I think you pointed out the algorithm has been a key sort of sticking point in this entire process because under US law, ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, is not allowed to have any say in the algorithm or the technology of this new U.S. version. And Chinese law says you can't export this valuable technology. So it seems that they figured out some type of workaround where Oracle, as you mentioned in this, this group of US investors will license the algorithm from ByteDance for a short time while they essentially recreate it and make it a brand new version, a brand new algorithm that's US trained and US controlled. And then that will be what powers this new U.S. version of TikTok. But again, this all sort of a very unique, one of a kind deal. And so while the framework has been announced, we are still waiting on formal approvals of this, this deal from leaders in Beijing. Yeah, President Trump saying that she has approved the Tick Tock deal. They just have to get it signed. There's still so many more questions indeed. Who are the US Participants? Who are the people who are going to control? There are new names being thrown in the ring by the President over the course of the weekend. Yes. So we know about Oracle, of course, as being sort of the most notable name in this consortium. Silver Lake Partners was another that was, I believe, unveiled today. We had previously reported that Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm, we have reported at Bloomberg that they are going to be involved. But it sounds like it might still be sort of taking shape a little bit here. And you know Caroline, as we mentioned this, just because the President says, hey, we have a deal and it will be signed. This has been such a contentious issue, contentious deal over many, many years at this point that I think until everyone truly signs on the dotted line, we have to assume this is still being sort of negotiated and worked out in real time. So it seems we're the closest we've ever been. But again, until that deal is formally, formally signed, I think we have to assume things are still moving a little bit remote. Wagner, we thank you for the latest look. Let's stick with one of the key players in the tick tock story and it's Oracle because the company has also just announced that it's promoted Clay McGawk, Mike Cecilia to the roles of co CEOs, replacing Safra Katz who's led the company since 2014 and moves on to a board role. Let's bring in Bloomberg's Brody Ford who covers Oracle. And it is a big change at the top. It is right? Safra Katz has been one of the faces of Oracle for about a decade now. And folks familiar with Oracle's cloud business, which has become so important, will know Clay McGork. He has led that unit for a while. The fact that he is being elevated in this way maybe isn't a shocker. The timing is they were both promoted, Clay and Mike to President in June. Now all of a sudden they're becoming CEOs. And so it's been a busy couple of months at Oracle. If you speak to anyone that's involved in this massive infrastructure build out right now, Clay's name comes up quite a lot. I was interested in reading your story that they are co CEOs, but the comp is different between the two of them. Can you just explain that a bit, Brody? Right. They're co CEOs, they have the same title, but one of them is going to make 150 million more in stock awards. And so that doesn't exactly sound equal to me. Right. What we know about Oracle right now is that the cloud infrastructure business is set to become their largest business by an incredible margin. And so the person who leads that unit is about to make significantly more money. Folks inside the company describe the dynamic to me as Clay is a kind of run through a brick wall to get something done engineering leader, whereas Mike Cecilia is more the adult in the room. In many ways it mirrors a dynamic that Larry Ellison and Safra Katz have had for years. It's interesting that Clay has got a board level as well, whereas. And has for a time, whereas perhaps Mike hasn't. Brody, it's notable that suffragettes is still going to be there. And you also put the context in your story that she wasn't always totally behind the pivot towards data centers. The pivot towards cloud offering. Absolutely. She was in the earlier days of cloud a little skeptical. Right. I mean, she came up in the era where they were selling databases on prem for, you know, margins that are some of the highest you can get on any product. And then comes data center infrastructure where you're making pretty low gross margins and putting up billions at the forefront. She was a little anxious about this. And so as Oracle makes that their main business, it's not a shocker to me that we see a changing of the guard. Brody, real quick, you broke the story Friday that Oracle's netted a deal with Matter and I think as you put it on air, Larry Ellison can't stop winning. Right? Well, we all know that Oracle had this massive deal with OpenAI and the worry was that are they going to be a one trick pony? Are they going to have really bad customer concentration? We broke on Friday that They have another 20 billion deal with Meta seemingly coming down the pipeline. And so it shows that Oracle is seriously being taken as a provider of this kind of AI infrastructure. And a quick note that I'm now seeing Mike Sicilia on the board as well as Clay. So both taking exciting roles. We really appreciate it, Ed. Yeah, Management mayhem Monday. A lot of fun. Coming up, T Mobile announces a change in leadership as well, with Mike Sievert set to depart the CEO role. We speak with Mike and his successor, Srini Gopalan. That's coming up next. You do not want to miss this conversation. This is Bloomberg Tech. Data threats don't knock. They sneak in quietly, make themselves right at home. But when you partner with Veeam, you. You can spot threats before they're a threat to your business. Whatever the world throws at your data, it's all good. Get data resilient@veeam.com that's V E E A M dot com. This is the Bloomberg Businessweek Minute brought to you by Amazon Business. I'm Carol Massar. The 84 year old leather goods maker Coach is on a hot streak lately thanks to a new generation of consumers after years in the retail doldrums. And Coach logged almost $1.3 billion in revenue in the most recent fiscal quarter, up 15% from the year before. BusinessWeek's Avalon Purnell writes the revival has been a decade in the making as Coach worked to rebuild its cool factor by getting out of the mall and into the hands of tastemakers, closed and consolidated retail locations, and ran ad campaigns featuring Selena Gomez, Jennifer Lopez and other high wattage names. Coach also tapped into the cultural zeitgeist as young consumers look for brands with some customization. TikTok influencers are often seen carrying Coach purses dripping with charms shaped like cherries, pears and pretzels. That's the Bloomberg businessweek minute brought to you by Amazon Business, your partner for smart business Buying. Running a business, it's a lot, right? Orders to place, expenses to track, procurements to manage. It feels like there are never enough hours in the day. We could all use more time. That's where Amazon Business comes in. They offer smart buying solutions to help you make the most of yours. Like Spend Visibility, a cloud based system to track your buying patterns so you can optimize your savings and bulk buying so you can continue to save costs on select products with quantity discounts. Now that's smart. Amazon Business handles the heavy lifting so you can finally focus on growing your business instead of drowning in admin from customized recommendations to real time spend tracking and delivery options tailored to your schedule. They've got your back every step of the way. Why not spend less time sweating the small stuff and more time crushing your goals or maybe even sneaking in some well earned downtime? Discover more about smart business buying@amazonbusiness.com a business prime membership is required to access Spend Visibility 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 at adobe.com/do that with Acrobat T Mobile has announced that Mike Sievert is set to transition away from his role as CEO when assume a newly created Vice Chairman Management position. Set to take over as CEO November the first is Srini Gopalan, T Mobile's current CEO. I'm pleased to say they welcome us here in the studio, both for Bloomberg's radio and TV audiences. Mike I Start with you. Why is now the right time for you to hand over the reins in this way? Because Srini's ready. You know, T Mobile does it differently. We believe in thoughtful succession. I recruited Srini to the CEO position almost, almost a year ago and he has killed it. And he has an incredibly inspiring vision for the future. And I also wanted to pick a moment when the company is firing on all cylinders because I think you should do succession amidst success. And so we picked our moment because Srini is ready. He's the person to lead us into the future and the company has put wind in his sails so that the team can continue to deliver outsized success going forward. And Srini, okay, the vision, the exciting vision for the future, how much is that about fiber? How much is that about the, the real expertise you have in a more mature market? Having built that with Deutsche Telekom, look, when I look back at my career over the last 30 years, it feels like I've been preparing for this day because what I've done over the last 30 years is really develop some real expertise at driving technology driven transformation, whether that's digital data, AI, fiber and networks. And that's really what the next stage of growth AT T Mobile is going to be. It's going to be about bringing together this incredible culture, brand, everything that Mike's built, the great value we stand for together with amazing technology, making it easy for customers to do stuff, giving them a great experience and America's best network. So there are no tradeoffs. You get all of that together at the same time at T Mobile. Srini, I'll start with you if I may. You know, in any life cycle of a company there comes a point where it's just more mature, right? There's like this corporate S curve. And so I think it's a really sensible place to start by asking you what you're going to do differently from Mike, given that the company is in a different stage to what it was over the period that Mike led it. Look, at T Mobile, we don't believe in kind of sitting on our hands and kind of waiting to see how the industry evolves. We define the industry, we define how this goes forward. Mike and the team have already been talking a lot about the transformation we want to drive, about bringing America's best network together with great value. Not just that, taking the technology we have available today across AI, across our digital footprint and building the best experience for T Mobile customers. So what you should expect is a lot of continued continuation of changing the industry for the good of the customer. And that means a continual transformation. So this is not a business that likes sort of sitting steady and kind of watching the dividends and growth come in. We're there to change the life of our customers, to change this industry for the better. And you should expect to see a lot more of that. Mike, when I was reading up on Srini ahead of our conversation at Apple a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know that this was going to happen happen, but you know, there's a lot of focuses on his time in Europe. How much was that a big factor for you? Because again, it's a different market there in Europe to here in the United States. Well, what was a factor for me was just what kind of an executive he is. Srini is tenacious, he is hard charging, he is competitive, he's customer loving and he attracts talent and he's got a vision for the future of our company. That's exciting. So I've known this for years because we've been friends for a long time. We've been calling coworkers on the board of directors of T Mobile. I've seen how he thinks and so a year ago I convinced him to give all that Europe stuff up and come to the US as our chief operating officer. Very much with this day in mind because I knew he was the right person to lead the company into the future. You've been bold. For example, Mike, I think of you being the first one to strike that deal with Starlink to think about direct to device satellite communication going forward. Just how is that partnership given you a competitive edge? How much are you seeing people come on board because of the changes you made? Well, T Mobile is an innovator, you know, not just direct to sell. With Starlink we created the home broadband 5G category which millions of people benefit from nationwide. We continue, as Srini was saying, to redefine what it means to compete in this category and then watch while everybody follows. That's why we're the world's most successful telecommunications company. So look on the, on the T satellite light. I mean it's just been fantastic. Our dream when I announced that with Elon back in 2022 was to end dead zones, the end of dead zones. And today T Mobile customers can connect to 600 satellites. The only one that connects your phone automatically if you fall off a terrestrial network. But SUNY for example, on first on your to do list might be that Boost Mobile is going to have potential offering because of the new spectrum that Elon then's got With Starlink, how do you consider the future evolution of direct to consumer satellite? When we started off with this vision of putting an end to dead zones, right, that's what we were going for. We're delighted that Starlink has now acquired more spectrum, makes the service even better. Together, what we want to do is live true to that mission of putting an end to dead zones as far as the competitive world is concerned. We love competition, we love switching. I mean, we've always said this, the more jump balls, the better because there's only one place that you can get the best network, best value and best experience. So we love competition. Anything that stimulates even more switching is a good thing. Srini, a lot of questions that we get from the audience directly you are about fiber. And so I would summarize T mobile strategy today. Little tiny pieces of M and A. How are you going to approach that going forward? You're just going to build this out to yourself. Look, when we approach a new business, right, we approach it with a mix of conviction and humility. We're convinced that our brand, the distribution we bring, what we stand for, our culture of kind of smashing through customer pain points and really attacking incumbents is equally applicable to fiber as it was to fixed wireless. We're also humble enough to realize that we don't have a set of capabilities like local zoning and permitting and we partner for that. And that's the logic for the JVs. The vision for fiber is not small. I think we've clearly showed our hand. We like being first to fiber, we like being a pure play fiber player and we will continue to scale that business. On the acquisition questions, we'll see what's available. We'll take a hard nosed look, allocate capital well. But we do like a pure play fiber business and we think there's a lot of scale possible with that. And Ed, just remember that we're the leading broadband growth company in America even before the fiber pieces that you're now asking about. Because 5G broadband has become a phenomenon and overall T mobile has led broadband growth in this company in this country for 13 quarters in a row and in a small matter of a few years, we're now three years, we're now the fifth largest ISP in the country. From a standing start. Gents, you make a good double act, but we're short on time. So Mike, I'm going to ask my final question to you. You're still in the role till November 1st critical period of the year for handset sales. What's the data telling you early about iPhone 17, what it's going to do for T Mobile, the behaviors of your existing and new customers. Well, it's only been three days, but we're killing it. You know, last year we had an all time record new iPhone introduction. This year we're beating that by double digits. And not just in terms of activating phones for our customers, but in terms of switchers, switchers to T Mobile who are coming at the moment that they get a new iPhone also up double digits this, this, this weekend. And so, you know, we've had a great launch and you know, a new phone is a great time for Americans to ask themselves do they have the right provider switches was the call that Srini made. When we spoke at Apple a couple of weeks ago, Mike said Sievert Timo's outgoing CEO Srini Gopalan Incoming CEO Just terrific conversation. Thank you to you both. Stock markets push higher, but let's focus on crypto because we're actually seeing a drawdown significantly. We've seen about one and a half billion dollars in bullish wages. Those bullish bets have been liquidated. On Monday, particularly across eth, we saw it falling the hardest, nearly half a billion dollars worth of leverage. Long percent positions we understand pulled out of that second largest token. But is this a sign of just a changing of the guard? Are we questioning some of those theories around digital asset treasuries in particular? Are we just taking some money off the table? Let's get more on the broader markets, particularly on tech. Eric Bailey, wealth manager at Steward Partners and I find what Caroline was outlining there really interesting because right now you can either pick out that data set, you can say that equity markets continue to push records or hold at records. Do you have a summary of what the sentiment in the market is right now, Eric? Yeah, thanks for having me. Clearly the risk trade is on. Investors are, are taking risk and we've really seen this since I would say late July where the growth indexes took over value. Right. We had that drop in April and value was kind of leading the markets and that's really shifted. And you've seen growth equity perform extremely well and that's day to day keeps going higher. So you have the Russell 1000 growth indexes up, I think over 17% right now year to date and of late with the news and after earnings growth is, is clearly, you know, where investors want to be. They're comfortable taking risk. Right Now Apple is up 4% in this session and the reason that that's notable Is that it? Actually, believe it or not, most of the way through September, Timber takes it into positive territory for 2025. We talked a lot in the middle of the year about the contribution of the Mag 7 names to the market overall. But as a moment in time to do that at this part of the year, what do you make of it? Yeah, it's impressive, right? You mentioned Apple. I mean that stock not long ago was, was really, you know, investors were checked out, analysts were negative, people were questioning Apple, what they were doing. And now, as you said, it's positive on year. Just an incredible move. And the Mag 7, even Tesla, a name that is still down for the year, but has had a very big move here the last several weeks. And so the Magic 7 is clearly leading the markets right now. You're seeing that day after day. Eric, Eric, should you stay committed to that then? Just. The trend has been relentless higher since April. But the valuation story just gets harder and harder to swallow. I agree as a financial advisor and I have lots of positions in these names, it is concerning because the valuations are just so high. And you ask, can this momentum continue? Are investors going to continue to buy these names? And yeah, I mean, you don't see any signs it's going to weaken. The trends are so powerfully on the upside and so I think you hold them. But clearly, you know, new money going in. I would be cautious because these valuations are so high and so you perhaps diversify, you don't re up your bets if they've been winning of late. But is earnings going to be the tell? Is it going to be geopolitics that the tell? What ultimately makes us question how valuable some of these companies are? Yeah, we'll see. I mean, right now, earnings after the second quarter certainly are leading the, the, these, these names and some of the big announcements, right, with Oracle, which you guys have been talking about all day, clearly tremendous momentum with the announcements they've made in AI. And so I do think it's earnings that's going to lead them higher. As for investors, yeah, I think you got to, you hold your positions, but you look and see how overweight or how, how much, you know, how large a position do I have in these names? And are you comfortable, you know, having this bigger risk, risk position in your portfolio in the context of corporate earnings and tech, you know, the signal from certain names is that kind of soft data set or hard data set even that people are looking for and putting you on the spot. But we get Micron in the next 36 hours. You know, they might tell us something. Big picture about the direction of travel for infrastructure. Is that still like the watch item for a lot of desks? Well, I think the broader, the whole sector of semiconductors which Micron is in overall has performed well. You have seen certain names get hit but overall the group I track, the SMH index has done very well. And so yeah, Micron is certainly going to be important. And I know there were some positive analyst calls I want to say today on Micron. So yeah, that's a big name and that could fuel the market to go higher if they have a good result. Well, so, so in the course of this conversation we've said how remarkable this is, the timing of it, the sentiment in the market. Give us the Eric Bailey prediction for what happens in the balance of 2025. You know, I've been calling for a little bit of a pullback and I've been wrong. I expected that at these, at these valuations we would see some of some kind of correction. You know, since that April drop we have just been on a tear. So I do expect the markets to get bumpier but I don't see it being a long term trend. I think any correction buyers will step in and we're going to continue on this run. It's going to take a lot to get this market to, to get negative. Bailey from Steward Partners, appreciate your time today and the push forward. Welcome back to Bloomberg Tech. We're thinking very much about the News story on $100,000 H1B application fees and in the market some looking at Infosys. These are the US Listed shares of Infosys, the Indian technology company, up modestly in this Monday session, but a big drop Friday when Bloomberg first reported that $100,000 figure. There's a lot of emphasis on, on the IT and outsourcing names out there. There was big downward pressure in Indian listed technology names overnight. There's also a big scramble for American technology companies to understand how this impacts their ability to hire and what it means for existing H1B visa holders. For more on the state of H1B visas and immigration in the US HE Band Erickson, Immigration Group partner, joins us now. The confusion was when this first was confirmed Friday, there wasn't clarity on whether it applied to new applicants to H1B or existing as well. Then over the weekend the White House clarified that it was just new applicants. But he but could we just start by you reflecting on your weekend, the discussions you've had with clients in the technology sector and how you've managed this process, certainly. So you're absolutely right. Initially, there was not clarification as to whether or not the $100,000 fee would apply to existing H1B visa holders or new applicants. There was also confusion about whether or not this was a one time fee versus a continuous annual fee. And what essentially happened for the first 24 hours following the proclamation was pretty close to chaos. We had several clients who are very well known tech companies who either contacted H1B employees who happened to be outside of the United States at the time the proclamation came out, asking them to try their best to come back before the $100,000 fee took effect. And then also we had a lot of companies, not just the companies that we work with, but very well known companies in the market tell their employees employees to wait before engaging in any international travel until we know more. There was also instances of international flights that were getting ready to take off where several passengers requested to deplane specifically because they wanted to avoid their Companies being charged $100,000 fee if they attempted to reenter after an international trip. So like I said, the first 24 hours were extremely confusing and we did the best that we could to provide the guidance to that the companies need in order to communicate to their employees with what very little we knew. He But $100,000 is the fee from this point on. What is the strategy for America's biggest technology companies and also smaller startups? Do you think that it's a manageable fee? And what is the kind of process from here? Do they just slow down hiring in the H1B category? $100,000 fee for an H1B visa petition is not manageable at all for startups, for small businesses, even for mid sized businesses. I think that this is going to make it extremely difficult, if not nearly impossible for startups, small businesses or mid sized businesses to hire the talent that they need in order to be able to compete on a global scale for larger tech companies, companies that have more resources. I think that the ability to manage a fee of this amount is not going to be as difficult as it is for startups. But I want everyone to remember that a lot of these extremely successful international companies were once themselves startups. And so any policy that makes it harder for American startups or small businesses to innovate is going to impact our competitiveness down the line. What's been extraordinary for many has been just seeing where the outsized impact has had, who it's had upon, and in particular it's people coming from India, it's people coming from China here. But the argument coming from the administration is that the H1B visa process wasn't being used as it should be. Have you got any evidence of that? I have no evidence of that. I think that there are quite a few checks and balances built into the H1B process as it stands today. And that's actually inclusive of several levels of scrutiny as well as extensive background checks. And there is prima facie evidence, basically, in other words, preliminary evidence that has to be submitted along with the initial application for an H1B visa in order for that application to be successful in the first place. And so I haven't seen any evidence of misuse. I think that it's a really critical tool for our companies, both tech and in various other industries, industries, in order for them to stay competitive. I also think it's important to point out that people Normally associate the H1B visa with tech companies, which is very true. But there's a variety of different industries that rely on the H1B visa, including research institutions, universities and health care. And so this has the potential to really impact a lot of different American institutions, assuming that this goes forward and is not paused by lynch litigation. Now, we did see that there was an update coming from the administration that potentially doctors would have a carve out from $100,000 in terms of a fee here. But let's go back to California, the state that's most impacted, according to our data, and indeed Texas, New York, New Jersey, the companies that are based there. And then we look at the, as you say, the industries, professors, scientists, technology services, manufacturing, information. These companies, what do they do? Do they hire outside of the US to be able to make up for the talent shortfall while the training goes on in the US or is there any idea that there is enough talent here to satisfy the needs? That's one of the concerns resulting from this fee. The concern is that a lot of companies would choose to either pause hiring, in particular international hiring, but also may choose to shift their operations abroad. And that is going to have downstream effects for the company as well as US Workers that work for the company. So that's one of the concerns. The other concern, as you mentioned, is that there's a variety of different companies that rely on the H1B visa. And so there is language in the proclamation that carves out exceptions for an individual who the government deems is in the national interest of the U.S. however, what we still need to understand is the way in which these arguments requesting a national interest exception are actually going to be treated and adjudicated as it stands now, the evidentiary standards for successfully making that argument are actually quite high. So I don't think that the language that carves out an exception is going to help any of the concerns that the industry has. He But Bloomberg's reported at length that the expectation is immediate legal challenges, challenges to this executive order. And they note in that reporting that Congress has traditionally set in a legislative or codified way, fees and other associated costs. Could you just explain where you stand today, where the precedent is to challenge this and any action that you might take on behalf of clients to to challenge it? I think that anybody who's getting ready to make a legal challenge to this is going to incorporate a few key grounds in their argument. One is that it is the responsibility of Congress to make immigration laws set immigration fees. Also, you know, the president is basing this proclamation on a law that does grant the President broad authority in terms of restricting entry of foreign nationals into the United States. If there is a national security concern or if that individual's entry to the U.S. is somehow detrimental to the U.S. however, there has to be some substantive factual evidence in support of that, which I would imagine folks who seek to challenge this proclamation will argue does not exist. And so those are the grounds that I'm going to be watching out for in terms of the upcoming legal challenges. One thing that I do want to note, however, is that the recent Supreme Court decision in Trump v. CASA made it very difficult for a single federal judge to issue a nationwide indictment injunction, pausing some sort of a presidential action from taking effect. And so one thing I know that I'm going to be watching out for is basically whether or not somebody chooses to file a class action lawsuit, how broad that class is defined, and whether or not a federal judge certifies it. Hey man, for incredibly busy, we really thank you for your time today. Ericsson Immigration Group now, interestingly, ARK CEO Cathie Wood weighed in on the issue of H1B visas and the fees, saying the changes are part of a negotiating process as she predicts that it will actually end up being loosened. Just take a listen to what she said on Bloomberg TV earlier. This is part of President Trump's negotiating process and I think he's negotiating quite intensively right now with India. I think India would be have the biggest impact here in terms of, you know, workers in the United States. So I think this is a little bit like tariffs and it's going to capture all the headlines and it's going to really take the oxygen out of the room because there's a lot of really good fundamental activity happening in the United States related relating to policy. Well, a lot of that, a lot of the innovation, all that Silicon Valley kind of goodness really comes from the talent and the labor pool. We've been talking about this for quite some time in terms of how do you train your engineers, you train Americans to do a lot of what Silicon Valley depends on foreign workers to do. Does this impact innovation in Silicon Valley and does it impact mega cap tech stocks, tech companies that are dependent on this? Well, from what we know of this administration, they ultimately want to keep students who have been educated in the U.S. foreign students that have been educated in the U.S. in the U.S. so really I just think this is part of the negotiation with India and, and that when all is said and done, we're probably going to loosen up the H1 visa visa program. But in the short term, is it, is it, is that going to take high an impact on tech companies? I think what it's going to do is force tech companies to do what they're already doing and that is become more efficient. And the other thing to to note is, you know, coding is changing dramatically. The number of coding jobs and openings has dropped dramatically because of AI. All of us can become coders. This is natural language programming. Generative AI is, is prompting chat GPT to, to get your programs going. We can all do that. That's simplifying it. But I do think it gives you a sense of the kind of productivity that possibilities that are possible that that will impact these tech companies longer term. CEO Cathie Wood there, along with Bloomberg's critic Gupta. Okay, coming up, the maker of the Oura ring is set to become a $11 billion company with a new Series E financing round. We're going to speak to the CEO about how the company plans to use that new funding and a lot more. That's next. This is Bloomberg Tech. This is the Bloomberg businessweek Minute brought to you by Amazon Business. I'm Carol Massar. The 84 year old leather goods maker Coach is on a hot streak lately thanks to a new generation of consumers after years in the retail doldrums. Coach logged almost $1.3 billion in revenue in the most recent fiscal quarter, up 15% from the year before. BusinessWeek's Avalon Purnell writes the revival has been a decade in the making as Coach worked to rebuild its cool factor by getting out of the mall and into the hands of tastemakers. Closed in consolidated retail locations and ran ad campaigns featuring Selena Gomez, Jennifer Lopez and other high wattage names. Coach also tapped into the cultural zeitgeist as young consumers look for brands with some customization. TikTok influencers are often seen carrying Coach purses dripping with charms shaped like cherries, pears and pretzels. That's the Bloomberg Businessweek minute brought to you by Amazon Business, your partner for small business buying. Running a business, it's a lot, right? Orders to place, expenses to track, procurements to manage. It feels like there are never enough hours in the day. We could all use more time. That's where Amazon Business comes in. They offer smart buying solutions to help you make the most of yours. Like Spend Visibility, a cloud based system to track your buying pattern so you can optimize your savings and bulk buying so you can continue to save costs on select products with quantity discounts. Now that's smart. Amazon Business handles the heavy lifting so you can finally focus on growing your business instead of drowning in admin. From customized recommendations to real time spend tracking and delivery options tailored to your schedule. They've got your back every step of the way. Why not spend less time sweating the small stuff and more time crushing your goals? Or maybe even sneaking in some well earned downtime? Discover more about smart business buying@amazonbusiness.com a business prime membership is required to access Spend Visibility 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 these days, AI can help you write emails, summarize long meetings, and even create presentations that impress your most demanding customer. But how about industrial AI that uses data and simulation to boost productivity on the shop floor? AI tools that help you understand machine language. AI that helps you grow your business. With Siemens Xcelerator, you can use AI services, software and consulting from a single trusted digital business platform. Plus you can find the right AI partner without having to search through hundreds of providers. That's AI for real from the global market leader in industrial AI. Siemens Accelerator Learn more at Siemens.us/accelerator Aura, the maker of the popular Aura Health and Fitness Ring is closing in on a roughly $11 billion valuation, doubling its valuation from last November. That's according to to Bloomberg Reporting. Citing Bloomberg sources, the company is saying it sold over five and a half million fitness rings in total and is on track to double its revenue this year. Or a CEO Tom Hale joins us here in San Francisco. Let's get this out the way. Bloomberg's reported a large round $11 billion valuation. A big raise. Any comment, please? Well, you know, you read the same reports that I do. Congratulations on getting a scoop. But. But no, I don't have any comments on rumors as of yet. But, but interesting to see that, that, that that news is starting to trickle out and you appreciate why we have to ask. The main point is that Aura has some momentum. So you actually have shed some. Not just financial metrics, but operational metrics. Right. I would call it. The installed base of customers is growing. Just explain what that data signals to you, Tom. Yeah, well, we have shipped 5.5 million rings rings in the history of the company, but half of those have come in the last 12 months. Right. So as we've doubled our business, we've doubled the number of people have raised just in the last 12 months alone. And we think actually that that's showing up in our revenue. Obviously 500 million last year was what we, what we reported. I think this year we're going to do $1 billion in revenue. And if we think in 2026, we're probably going to sell our 10 millionth ring. Tom, between Ed and I, we try to divide and conquer and all the wearables and use them. And I'm the Oura Ring user in, in the house. So full disclosure and look, we have seen real iterations and changes to the way in which some of the data is helping the agents is something that I'm really noticing, the glucose monitoring as well. How are you evolving to ensure that you get a bigger demographic? Well, you know, one of our core demographics is women and we've been expanding the value that we deliver for women. I mean, this last year we introduced pregnancy insights, menopause features and we've been continuing to push on this idea of the fertile window, which is helping women or couples conceive. So that's one way. But as you think about the areas of expansion for us, we think about metabolic because the one thing that you do more often than sleep that affects your health is eat. And so if we can help you build healthy habits around eating, that's hugely powerful. In addition, we're continuing to expand in fitness, we're looking for very much at the ways that, that sleep and can be played to interact with other parts of your health, to give you a holistic picture of your health. And then this fall, of course, a very exciting time of year, lots of exciting new things will be coming down the pike. What's been so interesting is also who you've been selling to, whether it's corporates or also institutions. I'm thinking of the US Military or as largest business customer, we understand tens of thousands of service members using the rings. You're doing fatigue tracking, you're doing research. Research. But you also got sort of caught in a PR firestorm, shall I say? Suddenly there was a lot of what people would say, misinformation, fake news around how you've had to integrate within Palantir's own use of Fed Start. What did you learn from that experience, Tom? You had to get on TikTok yourself. Yes. I think the truth is, is that when your customers are upset, you absolutely need to listen to them. So we take the concerns that were raised incredibly seriously. Privacy is a third rail, especially for women. And so we took that incredibly seriously. I took to TikTok myself to address our customers directly. But let me address the misinformation. Basically, there is no scenario under which the consumer system and the consumer data would be shared with anyone at Palantir or anyone in the government. So that's just not a thing. They are two separate systems. And of course, the most important thing is that privacy is like the most most important thing that we do. We're focused on your health. And so delivering your health means protecting the precious and private information that's so sensitive. And so that's just a core thing. It's a commitment. We will never, never sell, sell your data, and we will never share your data without your consent. If you, if you want to share your data to be part of a scientific study, we will absolutely enable that, and we'll give you the tools and the power to control it. Tom, we've done so much on this program this year on the electronics supply chain, you know, even on the innovation side, miniaturization of electronics. But I think it's fair to ask, you know, how you're exposed to a supply chain outside of the United States. Anything you've done to respond to the policies of this administration in that respect. You know, President Trump said he was going to raise the tariffs, so we took him at his word. We were well prepared and we managed that quite effectively. We don't manufacture In China. In fact, we open opened up a factory in the US in Mexico to help us manufacture and meet that demand. And that turned out to be a very foresightful decision. We also manufacture in Eastern Europe and now we'll be opening up a factory in the United States in Fort Worth and that actually will be there to service our customers who are in the military. There will be special security and very stringent standards around the data that goes onto the ring itself. So it's actually quite an exciting time for us from a manufacturing standpoint because we've evolved, avoided most of the fracas around tariffs. And I have to ask you about some of the news of the day and talent H1B visas is what we've discussed. But with that footprint in the US you're building, what's that look like for you in hiring competitively on engineering in particular? Yeah, we are investing hugely in the United States. In fact, we have about a thousand employees at Aura now and over 60% of them are actually in the US so we have. We're less exposed to that kind of H1B risk. And since many of them, our technical talent comes from, from Finland as well, but they reside in Finland, it's less of a concern. That being said, I think it's really important maybe for the entire tech industry to really look at this and make sure that we're solving this problem. I kind of subscribe to Kathy's point. I actually think. I think we're going to see something where this is really a negotiating standard. I'm not sure it's going to hold. Fascinating. Or a. CEO Tom Hale come back soon. We appreciate it's time now for talking tech. And first up, Morgan Stanley upgraded as ASML to an overweight rating, joining the likes of UBS and Research. They're bullish on the stock. So shares of the company have rallied 33% from a September the second low. And the recent surge has propelled ASML to become the biggest listed company in Europe, a valuation of $379 billion. Plus shares of Samsung. They also jumped after reports say it has won approval from Nvidia for the use of its advanced memory chips. And the breakthrough by the Korean tech giant clears components for use in AI accelerators that are essential to training AI models and would allow Samsung to compete with SK Hynix. And Alibaba is hoping to lure established brands away from Amazon to its own AliExpress e Commerce site. Now, according to sources, AliExpress is rolling out a new initiative to boost customers and sales, promising lowing shipping fees and offering to take a lower cut of sales than Amazon at. Yeah, stick with Amazon. Amazon and three executives executive face off in court today against the Federal Trade Commission. The regulator alleges Amazon makes it easy to enroll in its prime service and unduly difficult to cancel in violation of customer protection laws. Let's get to Bloomberg's Amazon reporter Spencer Soper. You and I have discussed this issue over the last few years. What do we need to know about this case and the arguments Amazon is going to try and make to defeat it? Well, Amazon's looking at potentially fines well into the billions of dollars around this, so has to take this seriously. You're looking at fines of $53,000 per violation, you know, over tens of millions of prime subscribers. So it's a, it's a rather big deal. The Federal Trade Commission is arguing that Amazon just made it complicated and deliberately difficult for people to cancel prime if they don't want it. And now the Amazon is trying to argue, well, you know, there's all kinds of ways that, that people can cancel and all kinds of different flows. And they're really trying to make it look like there's a, a very large number of ways people can cancel to try to minimize its exposure to this, to any potential, any potential violations. Jury selection is supposed to start today. Trials expected to drag into October and you know, it is kind of a test case around subscriptions and how easy it is to sign up for things on your phone when you're on the move and how hard it is to cancel. Spencer briefly, the FTC is also looking at search advertising practices of Amazon more broadly. They are in the eye of the storm when it comes to regulators a bit. Yeah, it's, it's an interesting phenomenon because a lot of this stuff is kind of holdover from the previous administration and there's been a lot of questions about how Trump's FTC will, will carry on some of these things. But Amazon still feeling the heat, it's still looking at fresh allegations on the advertising front and how it sets pricing on these, on these automated auctions around search advertising that you see on the site and now that also this consumer protection claim. So they're not out of the woods yet, even though the administration has changed. MEG spencer, SOFA Setting us straight ahead of that unfolding litigation. That does it in this edition of Bloomberg Tech though. And we've got to check out the podcast. Yeah, a big way to start the week. Check out the pod. You where to find it on all the Bloomberg platforms and online, Apple, Spotify and I Heart Buckle up so only Monday this is Bloomberg Tech. Tired of spills and stains on your sofa? WashablesOfAs.com has your back featuring the Annabelle Collection, the only designer sofa that's machine washable inside and out. Where designer quality meets budget friendly prices. That's right, sofas start at just $699. Enjoy a no risk experience with pet friendly stain resistant and changeable slipcovers made with performance fabrics. Experience cloud like comfort with high resilience foam that's hypoallergenic and never needs fluffing. The sturdy steel frame ensures longevity and the modular pieces can be rearranged anytime. Check out washablesofas.com and get up to 60% off your annabe sofa backed by a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not absolutely in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping or restocking fees. Every penny back Upgrade now@washablesofas.com Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Every business has an ambition. PayPal open is the platform designed to help you grow into yours with business loans so you can expand and access to hundreds of millions of PayPal customers worldwide. And your customers can pay all the ways they want with PayPal, Venmo, pay later and all major cards so you can focus on scaling up when it's time to get growing. There's one platform for all business PayPal open grow today at paypalopen.com loans subject to approval in available locations. Mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless and if you haven't made the switch yet, here are 15 reasons why you should 1. It's $15 a month. 2. Seriously, it's $15 a month. 3. No big contracts. 4. I use it. 5. My mom uses it. Are you. Are you playing me off? That's what's happening, right? Okay, give it a try. @mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan, $15 per month equivalent required New customer offer first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com.