Bloomberg Tech Podcast Summary

Episode: Tech Earnings: Google’s Spending, Arm’s AI Data Center Push

Date: February 5, 2026
Hosts: Caroline Hyde (New York), Ed Ludlow (San Francisco)

Overview

This episode covers a tumultuous period for markets and tech stocks, against a backdrop of negative macro momentum, major tech earnings releases, and astonishing guidance figures—most notably Alphabet’s (Google) $185 billion CapEx forecast. Interviews with ARM CEO Rene Haas and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon provide deep insights into AI’s data center evolution, semiconductor supply constraints, and strategic pivots. The episode also covers market anxiety, crypto weakness, cloud infrastructure investment, and the shifting fortunes of software, legal AI, and social platforms like Snap.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Market Volatility & Tech Sell-Off

Backdrop: A broad sell-off hit tech stocks, with software leading the decline. Software stocks are down 15% this week, 29% from all-time highs, and 70% now technically “oversold”—an all-time record.
Indices Impact: The S&P 500 and Dow are both down ~1.2% (02:24). Tech’s pain is spreading to wider markets.
Crypto Hit: Bitcoin slid below $70,000, down ~45% from its October high. Crypto exchange Gemini announced 25% layoffs.

“Nothing has rivaled the sheer magnitude of this sell-off... The share of software stocks at oversold levels eclipsed 70% yesterday. That is an all-time high.”
— Alexandra Simoneva, Bloomberg (02:24)

Alphabet (Google) Earnings: The CapEx ‘Mic Drop’

Record Spending: Alphabet’s 2026 CapEx forecast of $185 billion shocked markets (04:08). Forecast exceeded street expectations by $65B, causing the stock to fall nearly 5%.
Cloud Growth: Despite Google Cloud’s blowout 48% growth (vs. 30% expected), the overwhelming focus is on investment burn impacting near-term free cash flow.
Investor Concerns: Markets are recalibrating what they’re willing to pay in light of high investment levels and muted returns to shareholders.

“These companies used to return so much of that free cash flow to shareholders and now it’s being spent for investment... the investor kind of gets put to the side for a little bit.”
— Aoko Yoshioka (16:19)

ARM’s AI Data Center Surge

Interview with CEO Rene Haas

Record Results: ARM posted all-time records in revenue and royalties ($1.24B revenue, $740M royalties, 27% YoY growth) (05:38).
Minimal Memory Impact: Memory shortages are not materially impacting ARM due to diverse business exposure and focus beyond the basic smartphone stack.
Data Center Inflection: Datacenter royalties are up 100% YoY; the business is “exploding.” ARM expects data centers to soon surpass handsets as its largest business line (05:38, 07:19).
AI & CPUs: The market is rapidly adopting ARM CPUs in hyperscalers—over 50% market share. More CPU cores per chip (e.g., Nvidia 'Vera' with 88 cores) mean higher royalties (07:19).
SoftBank Overhang: SoftBank remains a committed, long-term major shareholder, and is not planning to reduce its stake (10:41).
AI Infrastructure Runway: Investment in AI infrastructure—by Google, Microsoft, and via ARM’s ‘Stargate’ initiative—is only just beginning, with vast untapped applications in enterprise and healthcare (08:49).

“Our data center business is exploding. We were up 100% year on year... we're just not seeing that kind of [memory shortage] impact.”
— Rene Haas, ARM CEO (05:38)

“AI has really had very little penetration into large enterprise or health systems... There's a long, long runway.”
— Rene Haas (08:49)

Nvidia & ARM: The CPU Story

Nvidia ARM CPUs: Nvidia’s move to offer standalone ARM CPUs (Vera) is viewed by ARM as a crucial strategic boost, signaling transition toward homogeneous ARM-based data centers (11:39).
Homogeneous Architecture: ARM predicts future data centers will favor a single architectural stack (ARM), for maintenance, cost, and performance advantages (12:35).

Qualcomm: Navigating Memory Shortage & Diversification

Interview with CEO Cristiano Amon

Earnings Impact: Qualcomm forecasts $11B in sales, but stock dropped ~8% due to weaker guidance and memory supply constraints (37:36).
Premium Segment Advantage: Handset demand is strong; OEMs are prioritizing premium and high-tier devices, less sensitive to memory-induced price increases (40:11).
Diversification Push: Automotive, IoT, and robotics are driving record non-handset revenues (42:34). Automotive delivered back-to-back $1B+ quarters, highlighted by partnerships with Volkswagen and growth in digital cockpit solutions.
Data Center Roadmap: Qualcomm expects material data center revenue to emerge in fiscal 2027, aiming to capitalize on post-GPU architectures and in-house memory solutions (44:02).
Consumer Resilience: End-user demand remains robust; issues are supply-side, not macro demand related (45:09).

“Demand is strong... The industry is now defined by the availability of memory... [OEMs] have to size the market not based on demand, but the memory they can get.”
— Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm CEO (38:50)

Crypto’s Struggles

Crypto Slide: Bitcoin and altcoins are under pressure, with the supposed 'digital gold' now lagging not just short-term, but on a longer horizon compared to physical gold and silver.
Faith in Store of Value Eroded: Despite institutional adoption, crypto assets are not reflecting broader market gains in precious metals or equities, puzzling the industry (26:11, 27:25).

“We have this digital gold that’s supposed to go up, but we are seeing gold and silver prices going up, but meanwhile bitcoin is selling. That’s the issue of crypto.”
— Myochen, Bloomberg Crypto Reporter (27:25)

AI’s Impact on Enterprise Software & Legal Tools

AI Shake-Up: AI-driven enterprise tools and legal plugins (e.g., Anthropic's Claude Legal) are posing some, but not existential, risk to incumbents like Westlaw and LexisNexis (21:08).
Limitations: Generalist legal AI tools lack access to deep, proprietary legal datasets, meaning they remain less authoritative than established solutions (21:40).

“The generic tools don’t have access to the vast pools of data... and therefore they’re more likely to make mistakes, to hallucinate, and lead people astray.”
— John Davies, Bloomberg Intelligence (21:40)

The State of Software Debt

Distress Signals: Nearly $18B of software loans entered 'distressed' territory in four weeks—highest since October 2022 (27:54).
AI Resistance: Not all software is equally exposed to AI risks; loan buyers are scrutinizing portfolios for firms that can withstand or thrive in the AI era, rather than “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” (29:33, 29:55).

Social Platforms: Snap’s User Woes

DAU Decline: Snap saw its first drop in daily active users since 2018, despite rising paid subscribers (33:17).
Aging Out Issue: The platform faces the ‘stickiness’ problem—Gen Z is aging out, Gen Alpha isn't coming in, and global appeal isn't expanding quickly enough (33:46).
Uncertain AI Deal: A $400M partnership with Perplexity (announced in Nov 2025) faces delays and market skepticism (34:37).
Smart Glasses Skepticism: Snap’s investment in smart glasses/AR faces entrenched competition and uncertain mass adoption prospects (36:54).

“Snapchat definitely has kind of a stickiness problem... younger people are not adopting it at the same rate that Gen Z might have.”
— Minda Smiley, E-Marketer (33:46)

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

On Market Sell-off:
“The share of software stocks at oversold levels eclipsed 70% yesterday. That is an all-time high.”
— Alexandra Simoneva, Bloomberg (02:24)
On Alphabet CapEx:
“Alphabet, parent of Google with a Capex forecast for the fiscal year of $185 billion. The street had forecast just shy of $120 billion. That's a bit of a delta.”
— Ed Ludlow (04:08)
On AI Data Centers:
“Our data center business is exploding. We were up 100% year on year... we're just not seeing that kind of [memory shortage] impact.”
— Rene Haas, ARM CEO (05:38)
On AI’s Runway:
“AI has really had very little penetration into large enterprise or our health systems... there's a long, long runway.”
— Rene Haas, ARM CEO (08:49)
On ARM CPUs in Data Centers:
“We’re now over 50% market share at the hyperscalers... more cores means more royalties and high growth rate.”
— Rene Haas (07:19)
On Qualcomm’s Memory Constraints:
“Demand is strong... OEMs had thinking about a particular size of the year that got resized by the memory availability... All that happened is OEMs are now thinking about how much memory they can get.”
— Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm CEO (40:11)
On Crypto’s Failure as ‘Digital Gold’:
“We have this digital gold that’s supposed to go up, but we are seeing gold and silver prices going up, but meanwhile bitcoin is selling.”
— Myochen, Bloomberg (27:25)
On Snap’s User Challenges:
“Snapchat definitely has kind of a stickiness problem... younger people are not adopting it at the same rate that Gen Z might have.”
— Minda Smiley, E-Marketer (33:46)

Timestamps for Major Segments

[02:24] Market & Tech Sell-Off Summary – Alexandra Simoneva
[04:08] Alphabet CapEx Shock & Sector Earnings Headlines
[05:38] ARM CEO Rene Haas on Record Results & Data Center Growth
[07:19] ARM’s Data Center Inflection, CPU Strategy & AI Demand
[08:49] Google’s CapEx, AI Investment “Runway”, SoftBank’s Stake
[11:39] Nvidia’s ARM CPU Push & Data Center Homogeneity
[16:19] Alphabet/Amazon Post-Earnings Market Reaction – Aoko Yoshioka
[21:08] AI & Legal, Anthropic Claude Legal vs. Incumbents – John Davies
[26:11] Crypto Volatility, Lack of Institutional Upside – Myochen
[27:54] Software Loans in Distress, Market Nuance – Sally Bakewell
[33:17] Snap Earnings – User Decline & Platform Struggles – Minda Smiley
[37:36] Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon: Memory Market, Diversification, Data Center Strategy

Conclusion

This episode unpacks the volatile intersection of tech earnings, macro-market turbulence, and sweeping industry transformation propelled by AI, infrastructure investment, and hardware innovation. With C-level perspective from ARM and Qualcomm and sharp analysis from market watchers, the episode delivers an encompassing look at both opportunity and anxiety shaping today’s tech landscape.

Note: Ad reads, musical intros/outros, and non-content interludes have been omitted for clarity.

Bloomberg Tech Podcast Summary

Episode: Tech Earnings: Google’s Spending, Arm’s AI Data Center Push

Date: February 5, 2026
Hosts: Caroline Hyde (New York), Ed Ludlow (San Francisco)

Overview

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Market Volatility & Tech Sell-Off

Backdrop: A broad sell-off hit tech stocks, with software leading the decline. Software stocks are down 15% this week, 29% from all-time highs, and 70% now technically “oversold”—an all-time record.
Indices Impact: The S&P 500 and Dow are both down ~1.2% (02:24). Tech’s pain is spreading to wider markets.
Crypto Hit: Bitcoin slid below $70,000, down ~45% from its October high. Crypto exchange Gemini announced 25% layoffs.

“Nothing has rivaled the sheer magnitude of this sell-off... The share of software stocks at oversold levels eclipsed 70% yesterday. That is an all-time high.”
— Alexandra Simoneva, Bloomberg (02:24)

Alphabet (Google) Earnings: The CapEx ‘Mic Drop’

Record Spending: Alphabet’s 2026 CapEx forecast of $185 billion shocked markets (04:08). Forecast exceeded street expectations by $65B, causing the stock to fall nearly 5%.
Cloud Growth: Despite Google Cloud’s blowout 48% growth (vs. 30% expected), the overwhelming focus is on investment burn impacting near-term free cash flow.
Investor Concerns: Markets are recalibrating what they’re willing to pay in light of high investment levels and muted returns to shareholders.

“These companies used to return so much of that free cash flow to shareholders and now it’s being spent for investment... the investor kind of gets put to the side for a little bit.”
— Aoko Yoshioka (16:19)

ARM’s AI Data Center Surge

Interview with CEO Rene Haas

Record Results: ARM posted all-time records in revenue and royalties ($1.24B revenue, $740M royalties, 27% YoY growth) (05:38).
Minimal Memory Impact: Memory shortages are not materially impacting ARM due to diverse business exposure and focus beyond the basic smartphone stack.
Data Center Inflection: Datacenter royalties are up 100% YoY; the business is “exploding.” ARM expects data centers to soon surpass handsets as its largest business line (05:38, 07:19).
AI & CPUs: The market is rapidly adopting ARM CPUs in hyperscalers—over 50% market share. More CPU cores per chip (e.g., Nvidia 'Vera' with 88 cores) mean higher royalties (07:19).
SoftBank Overhang: SoftBank remains a committed, long-term major shareholder, and is not planning to reduce its stake (10:41).
AI Infrastructure Runway: Investment in AI infrastructure—by Google, Microsoft, and via ARM’s ‘Stargate’ initiative—is only just beginning, with vast untapped applications in enterprise and healthcare (08:49).

“Our data center business is exploding. We were up 100% year on year... we're just not seeing that kind of [memory shortage] impact.”
— Rene Haas, ARM CEO (05:38)

“AI has really had very little penetration into large enterprise or health systems... There's a long, long runway.”
— Rene Haas (08:49)

Nvidia & ARM: The CPU Story

Nvidia ARM CPUs: Nvidia’s move to offer standalone ARM CPUs (Vera) is viewed by ARM as a crucial strategic boost, signaling transition toward homogeneous ARM-based data centers (11:39).
Homogeneous Architecture: ARM predicts future data centers will favor a single architectural stack (ARM), for maintenance, cost, and performance advantages (12:35).

Qualcomm: Navigating Memory Shortage & Diversification

Interview with CEO Cristiano Amon

Earnings Impact: Qualcomm forecasts $11B in sales, but stock dropped ~8% due to weaker guidance and memory supply constraints (37:36).
Premium Segment Advantage: Handset demand is strong; OEMs are prioritizing premium and high-tier devices, less sensitive to memory-induced price increases (40:11).
Diversification Push: Automotive, IoT, and robotics are driving record non-handset revenues (42:34). Automotive delivered back-to-back $1B+ quarters, highlighted by partnerships with Volkswagen and growth in digital cockpit solutions.
Data Center Roadmap: Qualcomm expects material data center revenue to emerge in fiscal 2027, aiming to capitalize on post-GPU architectures and in-house memory solutions (44:02).
Consumer Resilience: End-user demand remains robust; issues are supply-side, not macro demand related (45:09).

“Demand is strong... The industry is now defined by the availability of memory... [OEMs] have to size the market not based on demand, but the memory they can get.”
— Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm CEO (38:50)

Crypto’s Struggles

Crypto Slide: Bitcoin and altcoins are under pressure, with the supposed 'digital gold' now lagging not just short-term, but on a longer horizon compared to physical gold and silver.
Faith in Store of Value Eroded: Despite institutional adoption, crypto assets are not reflecting broader market gains in precious metals or equities, puzzling the industry (26:11, 27:25).

“We have this digital gold that’s supposed to go up, but we are seeing gold and silver prices going up, but meanwhile bitcoin is selling. That’s the issue of crypto.”
— Myochen, Bloomberg Crypto Reporter (27:25)

AI’s Impact on Enterprise Software & Legal Tools

AI Shake-Up: AI-driven enterprise tools and legal plugins (e.g., Anthropic's Claude Legal) are posing some, but not existential, risk to incumbents like Westlaw and LexisNexis (21:08).
Limitations: Generalist legal AI tools lack access to deep, proprietary legal datasets, meaning they remain less authoritative than established solutions (21:40).

“The generic tools don’t have access to the vast pools of data... and therefore they’re more likely to make mistakes, to hallucinate, and lead people astray.”
— John Davies, Bloomberg Intelligence (21:40)

The State of Software Debt

Distress Signals: Nearly $18B of software loans entered 'distressed' territory in four weeks—highest since October 2022 (27:54).
AI Resistance: Not all software is equally exposed to AI risks; loan buyers are scrutinizing portfolios for firms that can withstand or thrive in the AI era, rather than “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” (29:33, 29:55).

Social Platforms: Snap’s User Woes

DAU Decline: Snap saw its first drop in daily active users since 2018, despite rising paid subscribers (33:17).
Aging Out Issue: The platform faces the ‘stickiness’ problem—Gen Z is aging out, Gen Alpha isn't coming in, and global appeal isn't expanding quickly enough (33:46).
Uncertain AI Deal: A $400M partnership with Perplexity (announced in Nov 2025) faces delays and market skepticism (34:37).
Smart Glasses Skepticism: Snap’s investment in smart glasses/AR faces entrenched competition and uncertain mass adoption prospects (36:54).

“Snapchat definitely has kind of a stickiness problem... younger people are not adopting it at the same rate that Gen Z might have.”
— Minda Smiley, E-Marketer (33:46)

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

On Market Sell-off:
“The share of software stocks at oversold levels eclipsed 70% yesterday. That is an all-time high.”
— Alexandra Simoneva, Bloomberg (02:24)
On Alphabet CapEx:
“Alphabet, parent of Google with a Capex forecast for the fiscal year of $185 billion. The street had forecast just shy of $120 billion. That's a bit of a delta.”
— Ed Ludlow (04:08)
On AI Data Centers:
“Our data center business is exploding. We were up 100% year on year... we're just not seeing that kind of [memory shortage] impact.”
— Rene Haas, ARM CEO (05:38)
On AI’s Runway:
“AI has really had very little penetration into large enterprise or our health systems... there's a long, long runway.”
— Rene Haas, ARM CEO (08:49)
On ARM CPUs in Data Centers:
“We’re now over 50% market share at the hyperscalers... more cores means more royalties and high growth rate.”
— Rene Haas (07:19)
On Qualcomm’s Memory Constraints:
“Demand is strong... OEMs had thinking about a particular size of the year that got resized by the memory availability... All that happened is OEMs are now thinking about how much memory they can get.”
— Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm CEO (40:11)
On Crypto’s Failure as ‘Digital Gold’:
“We have this digital gold that’s supposed to go up, but we are seeing gold and silver prices going up, but meanwhile bitcoin is selling.”
— Myochen, Bloomberg (27:25)
On Snap’s User Challenges:
“Snapchat definitely has kind of a stickiness problem... younger people are not adopting it at the same rate that Gen Z might have.”
— Minda Smiley, E-Marketer (33:46)

Timestamps for Major Segments

[02:24] Market & Tech Sell-Off Summary – Alexandra Simoneva
[04:08] Alphabet CapEx Shock & Sector Earnings Headlines
[05:38] ARM CEO Rene Haas on Record Results & Data Center Growth
[07:19] ARM’s Data Center Inflection, CPU Strategy & AI Demand
[08:49] Google’s CapEx, AI Investment “Runway”, SoftBank’s Stake
[11:39] Nvidia’s ARM CPU Push & Data Center Homogeneity
[16:19] Alphabet/Amazon Post-Earnings Market Reaction – Aoko Yoshioka
[21:08] AI & Legal, Anthropic Claude Legal vs. Incumbents – John Davies
[26:11] Crypto Volatility, Lack of Institutional Upside – Myochen
[27:54] Software Loans in Distress, Market Nuance – Sally Bakewell
[33:17] Snap Earnings – User Decline & Platform Struggles – Minda Smiley
[37:36] Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon: Memory Market, Diversification, Data Center Strategy

Conclusion

Note: Ad reads, musical intros/outros, and non-content interludes have been omitted for clarity.

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Tech Earnings: Google’s Spending, Arm’s AI Data Center Push

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Summary

Bloomberg Tech Podcast Summary

Episode: Tech Earnings: Google’s Spending, Arm’s AI Data Center Push

Overview

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Market Volatility & Tech Sell-Off

Alphabet (Google) Earnings: The CapEx ‘Mic Drop’

ARM’s AI Data Center Surge

Nvidia & ARM: The CPU Story

Qualcomm: Navigating Memory Shortage & Diversification

Crypto’s Struggles

AI’s Impact on Enterprise Software & Legal Tools

The State of Software Debt

Social Platforms: Snap’s User Woes

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

Timestamps for Major Segments

Conclusion

Summary

Bloomberg Tech Podcast Summary

Episode: Tech Earnings: Google’s Spending, Arm’s AI Data Center Push

Overview

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Market Volatility & Tech Sell-Off

Alphabet (Google) Earnings: The CapEx ‘Mic Drop’

ARM’s AI Data Center Surge

Nvidia & ARM: The CPU Story

Qualcomm: Navigating Memory Shortage & Diversification

Crypto’s Struggles

AI’s Impact on Enterprise Software & Legal Tools

The State of Software Debt

Social Platforms: Snap’s User Woes

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

Timestamps for Major Segments

Conclusion