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- [00:00]
Host
At CES.
- [00:01]
Bloomberg Media Studios Announcer
Michael McDermott, EVP of Samsung, spoke with Bloomberg Media Studios about what the company calls its next AI chapter, your companion to AI Living.
- [00:09]
Ted Mortensen
It's a shift from AI as a feature to AI as a trusted partner in everyday life.
- [00:15]
Bloomberg Media Studios Announcer
Support for the show comes from Public Lately it feels like there are two types of investing platforms. Some are traditional brokerages that haven't changed much in decades, and others feel less like investing and more like a game. Public is positioned differently. It's an investing platform for people who are serious about building their wealth on public. You can build a portfolio of stocks, options, bonds, crypto without all the bugs or the confetti. Retirement accounts? Yep. High yield cash? Yes again. They even have direct indexing. Public has modern design, powerful tools and customer support that actually helps go to public.com market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com market ad paid for by Public Holdings Brokerage Services by Public Investing member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors SEC Registered Advisor crypto services by ZeroHash all investing involves risk of loss. See complete disclosures@public.com disclosures small businesses are.
- [01:15]
Bloomberg Announcer/Ad Voice
The pulse of every community. They bring people together, create opportunities and drive growth. Chase for Business helps business owners like you with personalized guidance and convenient digital tools all in one place. With that guidance and your determination, you can take your business farther and help build a brighter future for your community. Learn more@chase.com business chase for business make more of what's yours the Chase Mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates. May apply JPMorgan Chase Bank NA Member FDIC Copyright 2026 JPMorgan Chase Co. Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News. Bloomberg Tech is live from coast to coast with Caroline Hyde in New York.
- [02:09]
Needs To Tell A Rover
And Ed Ludlow in San Francisco.
- [02:14]
Host
This is Bloomberg Tech. Coming up, Warner Brothers reopens negotiations with Paramount Skydance after it proposed or hinted at raising its bid and sweetening other terms of its offer. Plus renewed selling in Several tech giants are weighing on stocks with lingering anxiety over the outlook for AI and Thrive Capital raises more than $10 billion in its largest fund ever, giving the firm an expanded war chest to invest in AI. Welcome to Bloomberg Tech and this is what markets look like right now. We've carried over the holiday weekend in the US to the same anxiety. We're going to talk later in the program about the contradiction right now at the heart of the AI trade. NASDAQ 100 off by a percentage point. Chips kind of dragging us down. Max 7 Bitcoin at 67,000 USD token. Of course it continues to trade 24,7. But over the weekend, a kind of three day period, there was a lot of geopolitical tension driving it. Our top story is Warner Brothers Discovery reopening talks with Paramount Skydance. Netflix has issued them a waiver. They can do so. It's a seven day waiver through to February 23rd, by which point they either need to give a sweetened improved bid or something else needs to happen. Let's get the details. Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw leads our screen time team and coverage of, of media and entertainment is actually a little bit more difficult to understand than simply negotiations reopening. Talk us through the deadlines, the timeline and what's new, Lucas.
- [03:38]
Lucas Shaw
Well, the news is, is obviously that Warner Brothers decided to talk to Paramount. They have not been speaking for a couple of months. Paramount kicked off this wholesale process last year when it kind of sent over an uninvited offer basically for, for all of Warner Brothers Discovery. It then spent a couple of months increasing its offer every few weeks trying to win. It lost the Netflix and Warner Brothers Discovery has spent the last couple of months sort of trashing Paramount. Both sides kind of waging war in public, if you will. But Paramount has gradually increased more and more pressure, addressed more of the board's concerns and is now at a point where I think Warner Brothers Discovery feels both out of pressure from its shareholders and just because they're sort of tired of this, that they want to engage with Paramount for a week, see what happens. And, and if they can reach a better deal, then obviously you know, the board is going to do its fiduciary duty.
- [04:29]
Host
And we had some reporting about this over the weekend before the formal announcement this morning. Part of this is one of Paramount's bankers signaling to the board that there will be an improved offer, but that they haven't yet made their best offer. What do we know about that?
- [04:45]
Lucas Shaw
Well, Paramount has been saying for a couple of months that its offer is not last and final. And Warner Brothers Discovery shareholders have been waiting for Paramount to increase the offer from the $30 a share. To your point, some a representative of Paramount's guidance had indicated to someone on the board of directors of Warner Brothers Discovery that they would go up to $31 a share. My suspicion is that $31 a share still won't, won't cut it. So the question is, is Paramount going to go to 32, 33, 34, 35? And at what point is that beyond what Netflix is willing to match because keep in mind that Netflix still has a deal with Warner Brothers Discovery and has the right superior Paramount offer Netflix.
- [05:25]
Host
Has come out with. I think we talked about this offline, a strong statement, a lengthy statement, just summarize what Netflix's position is here and where they fit into the idea that that negotiations now are open for a window of time between Warner Brothers Discovery and Paramount Skydance.
- [05:43]
Lucas Shaw
Well, some of those sort of public hostilities or disagreements that I referred to earlier I think are what Netflix is really seeking to attack with its statement. You know, they are getting very tired of Paramount saying that Paramount has a clearer path to regulatory approval and offers a superior deal. And so Netflix goes through all the reasons why regulators might be concerned about a Paramount deal, including some of their international financing and the concentration owning two different movie studios. And that is also a jumping off point for Netflix to argue that the Paramount deal would be worse for Hollywood because Paramount would be a heavily indebted company that would have to cut billions of dollars in costs worth, whereas Netflix is buying a studio that it doesn't have in house and so it would preserve most of those jobs.
- [06:25]
Host
We're just showing the BI Bloomberg Intelligence react, by the way, which is pretty punchy. Netflix should walk away as Warner M and a drama heats up. Maybe we'll get to Geeta later in the week. Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw, you've led the way on the reporting on this one. Thank you so much. Let's get back to markets. Jitters around the software sector are sending investors in search of safety. Some of the industry's biggest names have lost hundreds of billions of dollars in market value so far this year. Add to that spending anxiety. Bank of America's latest fund manager survey shows a record share of investors think companies are overspending this as the four largest US tech firms project roughly 650 billion in combined spending this year. Let's get the latest with Ted Mortensen, Bad Managing Partner. This is the heart of the trade right now, the contradiction in AI. Either AI is going to change the old economy in the new economy or we are in an AI bubble. And for lots of people, both can't be true at the same time. Kind of reflected in the trading of recent days. Where do you sit on that, Ted?
- [07:31]
Ted Mortensen
I think if you, if you look at the agent acceleration, this is something you can't ignore in relationship to traditional SaaS. I mean the problem with the reason why this, the IGV is down over 22% year to day is people have a Real worry on how to model these traditional SaaS companies from a free cash flow perspective. A multiple free cash flow. And that's the big problem I think over the weekend, two days ago when open, I bought Open Claw that just gave more credence to this agentic explosion. If you look at some of the token growth that you're seeing, and this is why the cloud titans can't keep up with compute demand is some of the token growth that you're seeing are triple digits month over month. This is not sequential, this is not year over year, this is month over month growth.
- [08:28]
Host
Can I just jump in there real quick? So I didn't expect you to go to OpenAI OpenCloud that blew up right over the weekend on social media. And what I'm trying to do is understand the story of how public market investors are treating this versus what we see in private markets. That clearly is a consolidation of different platforms. Right. Just try and unpick that for me.
- [08:54]
Ted Mortensen
I think it's, it's really a debate between the old and the new. And I think when you, when you can't model the old, going back to that SaaS assumption on free cash flow multiples and you're looking at this acceleration on a Gentex, people just are getting out of the way to be quite honest with you, and they're going to six other sectors are more infrastructure related and the feeling is that some of the traditional SaaS companies will have problems going from a traditional SaaS model to a consumption model which is all Agent Bay and it's a mess. It's an absolute mess. If you're a software, that's for trying to model these companies.
- [09:36]
Host
Ted, with respect, I don't, I don't think you really answered my question which is, you know, the contradiction of the old and new economy software more recently being impacted and then are we or are we not in an AI bubble? You mentioned cash flows. One of the interesting pieces of math that people are doing is the capital expenditures commitment of the hyperscalers and its impact on cash flow or proportion of cash flow. Basically cash flow is getting wiped out. How do you feel about that?
- [10:05]
Ted Mortensen
I think it's, it's a problem X of Google and Metta which have their supporting businesses on the advertising that can actually make up that free cash flow. Where I get pushback is names like Amazon and even Microsoft to some degree, to a more limited degree. But if you look at Amazon, I mean they essentially had to lay off a very large component of their white collar employment base to maintain even getting to neutral free cash flow. So it is an issue. The things that we are not talking about is memory. And when you have this, this token, I would say acceleration and you have inference also expanding. We have a huge memory problem and I would almost put it at a crisis level where you're not going to have enough memory to support this compute over the next two years. That's a real issue out there.
- [11:00]
Host
Next week, Nvidia Ports reports its earnings and it's the biggest beneficiary of the capital expenditures numbers we talked about to this point is showing massive real top line growth. What would it need to show or evidence to carry the rest of the market with it next Wednesday evening?
- [11:19]
Ted Mortensen
I think number one, they have to, they have to, they have to assure investors that they don't have a memory problem, which they don't. I mean Jensen was so far ahead of this memory issue by locking up supply. That's number one. Number two is some of the, the, the Blackwell numbers as well as transitioning. The timing of Rubin is also very, very important. This is a real change on infrastructure on Rubin and I think anything that they can assure investors that's on, that's on track and the adoption of Rubin from a system perspective is, is not cannibalizing any of their business as it relates to for example Google's TPU's or inference soldiers. They've got to play in both realms.
- [12:11]
Host
Ted Mortenson of bed I think you've set us up for a number of weeks to come. Thank you very much indeed. Now coming up, Ford's charges ahead with a more affordable next gen ev. Shares a little softer but came back after headlines hit. We're going to go under the hood next. This is Bloomberg Tech. Ford may have taken a $19.5 billion hit to overhaul its EV business last year, but the US carmaker is out to prove that it hasn't retreated altogether from electric vehicles. Ford revealed details of how it's engineering a next gen EV platform to go further on a single charge and still start at the 30,000 USD. To do this, the company's head of EVs Doug Field told Bloomberg it had to start with a clean sheet for its organization and design process. Let's get more with Bloomberg's Keith Norton who has covered this company inside and out since 1985. And it's important to be specific here. Right. This was an engineering exercise. The universal ev. What did they actually do to engineer out cost and stay in the game?
- [13:19]
Keith Norton
Well, as you said they, they did it far from Detroit they had, this was set up in California. It was led by Alan Clark, who's a former Tesla engineer. And they just, they sweat the details. It's like improvement by a thousand cuts. And they've managed to shrink the size of the battery on the cv. The battery is the most expensive component of an electric vehicle, while at the same time extending the range by about 50 miles. That's just one of many engineering gains they made, which is the reason they can field this vehicle at $30,000 as a starting price, which is $20,000 below the average price of a new car in America today.
- [13:57]
Host
We spent about 45 minutes on the phone with Doug Field, which was really interesting exercise. There is a pathway here, right. It starts 2027 with a pickup truck and they go basically from Skunk Works to reintegrating back into the might of Ford with distant, maybe distant keith ambitions on L3 systems. What's the sort of timeline from here of this UAV platform, please?
- [14:22]
Keith Norton
Yeah, not exactly that far distant. They're going to come with the eyes off the road, level three semi autonomy in 2028. So a year after they launch this vehicle, they'll offer buyers the option of getting this semi autonomous size off the road, hands off the wheel FE feature. So their point is they can put a feature like that on an inexpensive car in the 30,000, which is unusual. Normally those sorts of advanced technology features show up first on very high end luxury cars, closer to six figures.
- [14:56]
Host
Right. The approach from Ford thus far has been to electrify the big winners. Thinking mach e, thinking F150 lightning. That's gone now. Right. And the Focus is, that's gone right in the Focus is China. So put that, that context out there for us, why this approach ground up? Starting from fresh is the right way to counter the cost basis of a Chinese EV company.
- [15:22]
Keith Norton
Right. So the advantage the Chinese have is in price. I mean there's a, there's a Chinese EV in China for $10,000. Not likely that would come here. But, but they have a big price advantage even if you make a car ready for the US market. But they also have a technology advantage. They have, you know, cars that are essentially an extension of your, of your smartphone smart cars. So you need to compete against them both on price and technology. That's what Ford says it's doing with this because of the approach they've taken. It's not just an affordable vehicle, they say, but it's a desirable vehicle with lots of good features.
- [16:00]
Host
Bloomberg's Keith Norton, who again has led the Charge on covering this industry, this company for a long time. Appreciate it. Let's talk about Apple. It's touting an in person experience event in New York, Shanghai and London for a March 4 product launch, suggesting a lower key showcase than often held at its Cupertino campus. Let's get out to Bloomberg's consumer tech and Apple Managing editor Mark Gurman. There's the event and how they'll do it. Right. Different to the kind of keynote style format in Cupertino, but it's harder. The products and I think you were on very recently kind of telling us what we should expect from this.
- [16:36]
Ted Mortensen
Yeah, there's a lot in the pipeline for the first half of this year. I don't think that everything is going to show up at this event. There's just too much stuff for you to have in one showcase. But if you think about why would you need an event? Why would you need an in person experience in three different places?
- [16:50]
Reed Duckshire
Right.
- [16:51]
Ted Mortensen
Hotspots, London, Shanghai, New York.
- [16:53]
Bloomberg Media Studios Announcer
Right.
- [16:54]
Ted Mortensen
These are as big of metropolitan areas in the world as you can get. It means they're launching something pretty significant. So my eyes are on this new low cost MacBook. It'll be in the 700 to $900 range. It will be their first MacBook powered by an iPhone chip. It'll be slightly smaller than the MacBook Air, but the price point is a really big deal. This has the potential to really overshadow Chromebooks and some of the PCs we're seeing out of the Windows market right now. So this is a really big deal. The other new things that are in the pipeline for the first half of this year, new MacBook Pros, new MacBook Airs, the iPhone 17e as well as new iPad entry level and iPad Air models. I would think that we would at leave get the 17e buy this event at the latest.
- [17:44]
Host
I want to clear something up for our audience because you put me on the spot the other day. I'm running a MacBook Pro with M4. That's my work one at home. I've got a 2020 Mac Air running M1 and you quite rightly pointed out I should upgrade. When they hold these events, how quickly do the new products hit the shelves? Quickly.
- [18:03]
Ted Mortensen
When it's a spec bump, they're rolling out within a few days. The longest delay is usually about a week, two weeks maybe max maximum. But it's usually pretty quick business.
- [18:14]
Host
Mark Gurman, who's been on top of the reporting on this well in advance, thank you very much. Coming up, we're going to discuss just how big a market the physical AI space can be. That's was Anita Torova from Barclays. That's next. This is Bloomberg Tech. How do you shift AI from being.
- [18:31]
Bloomberg Media Studios Announcer
A flashy feature to a trusted partner in consumers everyday lives on the ground at CES Bloomberg Media Studios? Asked Michael McDermott, EVP of Samsung.
- [18:39]
Ted Mortensen
Our 2026 vision is built around an AI companion. It understands you and responds intuitively. This intelligence works quietly in the background across TVs, home appliances and mobile devices. By putting AI at the center of everything we do, we're simply improving everyday life for everyone everywhere.
- [18:59]
Bloomberg Media Studios Announcer
Support for the show comes from Public Lately it feels like there are two types of investing platforms. Some are traditional brokerages that haven't changed much in decades, and others feel less like investing and more like a game. Public is positioned differently. It's an investing platform for people who are serious about building their wealth on public. You can build a portfolio of stocks, options, bonds, crypto without all the bugs or the confetti. Retirement accounts? Yep. High yield cash? Yes again. They even have direct indexing. Public has modern design, powerful tools and customer support that actually helps go to public.com market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com market ad paid for by Public Holdings Brokerage Services by Public Investing Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors SEC Registered Advisor crypto services by ZeroHash all investing involves risk of loss. See complete disclosures@public.com disclosures small businesses are.
- [19:59]
Bloomberg Announcer/Ad Voice
The pulse of every community. They bring people together, create opportunities and drive growth. With a widespread presence in communities across the country, Chase for Business supports small business owners at a local level that makes it possible for you to connect, learn from each other and grow together. There's a real commitment to seeing small businesses succeed. The Chase for Business team has knowledge and expertise that span a wide range of financial areas. They can help you make more informed decisions as you navigate the complexities of running your business. They'll help your business grow with individual guidance and convenient digital tools all in one place. With that guidance and your determination, you can take your business farther and help build a brighter future for your community. Learn more@chase.com business chase for business Make More of what's Yours the Chase Mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply JPMorgan Chase Bank NA Member FDIC Copyright 2026 JPMorgan Chase Co.
- [21:05]
Host
A report from Barclays projects that by 2035 physical AI could be a Trillion dollar market thanks to advances in brains, brawn and batteries. So where are the investment opportunities along that value chains? And needs to tell a rover over. Barclays, head of Thematic FICC research and the author of that report joins us now in many ways. So he'd say it's an update, you know, you're keeping the research alive. So we have the 1 trillion addressable market 2035. But digging down into the notes, actually autonomous driving is a really big part of this view.
- [21:41]
Needs To Tell A Rover
That's right. Our latest research shows that physical AI could really become $1 trillion market by 2035. That's 10 times higher than where the market is currently valued at. And that trillion dollar estimate spans four key robotics categories. Autonomous vehicles, humanoid robots, advanced automation and drones. And look, while I have really strong conviction that the late 2000s and early 2000s will be the decade of the robot, I also think that growth and adoption likely come in stages rather than all at once. I can see how autonomous vehicles could lead the trend and set the stage. And in fact, nearly half of that estimate of the market growth comes from autonomous vehicles. Or in dollar terms that's about $500 billion by 2045. I think also intuitively this makes a lot of sense because autonomous vehicles clearly have a head start. The technology has been around for nearly a decade now. The production process is they can leverage an existing automotive supply chain. And I think more importantly, the models needed for autonomous vehicles can work with a much bigger real world driving data set that's collected from millions of vehicles out there. And that's a very different story if you compare it to where humanoid robots are at the moment.
- [23:02]
Host
So if you follow the arc of what happened with autonomous driving, what needs to happen for humanoid robots for them to make a meaningful contribution to your $1 trillion forecast for addressable market by 2035?
- [23:18]
Needs To Tell A Rover
I think the number one challenge that humanoids face right now is the lack of physical data. And that's because when you think about humanoid robots, they really bridge the gap between the cognitive, the digital and the physical world. And in the physical world, the laws of mechanics and physics are both fly. A humanoid robot needs precise instructions if it's going to function and perform properly in an unstructured world that is made for humans. Take a simple example, such as lifting a box. This is a very simple task for us humans. We have inbuilt dexterity, we have inbuilt intelligence. We know exactly what we have to do. But a humanoid robot needs precise instructions. It needs to know exactly how Much force to apply, where to apply that force. And that simple example can get really tricky if something changes. If, for example, the box is actually heavier than expected, if the surface is slippery, that means that the robot needs a new set of instructions. And the challenge is that there is no dictionary out there. There is no single database that can tell us, look for a 50 pound box. You need this amount of energy, this amount of force. All that needs to be built from scratch in order for the technology to scale and to become more, more useful in the real world.
- [24:32]
Host
In both cases, autonomous driving and humanoid robotics. And actually you could extend that to autonomous drone technology as well. There is a great emphasis on China, how far ahead it is in commercializing the technology, but also supply chain dependency. A lot of that supply chain has historically originated from China. How does that show up in your research?
- [24:54]
Needs To Tell A Rover
So it's clear that China leads. I think it's. It deployed robots on a completely different scale. For example, in 2025, we estimate that nearly 15,000 humanoid robots were deployed worldwide. 85% of those were installed in China. You get a similar story if you look at other types of robotics technologies like industrial automation. There we're talking about 50 to 60% of the units are installed in China. If you compare these figures to what's happening in the US the numbers look very different. Low teams for humanoid robots and even single digits for, for industrial, for industrial robots. So the scale is very different. So China has the advantage in terms of technology. Also access to raw materials. Take for example, critical minerals, rare earths. You need a lot of those components to build some of these very, very specific physical components that go into going to a robot. So there are different chunks of the supply chain where China can really, can really kick in. So all that comes together. But having said that, it's the early stages. I think we are just scratching the surface in terms of what physical I can do. And I see lots of potential for that adoption to accelerate in other parts of the world, starting with the US and even potentially in Europe in a couple of years time.
- [26:12]
Host
So needs to tell a rover of Barclays. It's great to have you back on Bloomberg Tech with your updated research. Thank you. So news crossing the Bloomberg terminal. Palantir says it has moved its headquarters to Miami, Florida from Denver. They made the announcement via a pretty straightforward and simple post on X, the social platform. The shares kind of haven't really moved from where they were trading anyway. But an interesting story will continue to track. Now coming up on the show Bitcoin having a Tough time. After the long weekend, we're going to discuss what's ahead for cryptocurrencies. A lot of focus on geopolitical risk right now. And of course, while it was a US holiday on Monday, Bitcoin trading 24,7 around the world you see since Friday, that's what it looked like. Markets actually not as anxious as they were when we woke up. It's half time. This is Bloomberg Tech. Welcome back to Bloomberg Tech. If you're just joining us, volatility has gripped Wall street particularly when it comes to conversation around the trade. Right now the NASDAQ 100 is actually just a little bit softer. 3. 10 of a percent. The Philadelphia semiconductor index or stocks was down 2%. We're now off by 2. 10 of 1%. Again, we're seeing volatility and Nvidia, one of those names participating in it. There are some news stories I want to pick out while we get the opportunity. Gemini Space Station, the crypto exchange founded by the Vinkel what twins and Ipod a few months ago is down 14%. Basically in the months that followed the IPO, a lot of the C suite has left, they confirmed this morning, the cfo, chief legal officer, chief operating officer, all that. That's putting volatility in that name in the crypto adjacent space. And generally speaking, crypto currencies are struggling to find clear direction after a weekend rally fizzled, erasing a small bounce that briefly took bitcoin close to 71,000 USD per token on Saturday. It has been a tough run for crypto, especially with bitcoin posting four straight weeks of losses. There is one person who I rely on to help with this and that is Bloomberg's cross asset reporter Isabel Lee. So most of America was on a holiday on Monday. In the United states, crypto is a 247 thing and it's a global thing. But it was interesting to kind of track from Friday through to this morning where you net out 67,000 USD per token. And the stories on the Bloomberg are about geopolitics.
- [28:44]
Bloomberg Announcer/Ad Voice
Bitcoin never sleeps. But over the weekend and during holidays we must recognize that liquidity is thin. But to your point, we've seen four straight weeks of losses and there are just a lot of things going on. We have renewed geopolitical tensions when it comes to Iran. Fed rate cuts are back in the focus, especially after last week's inflation report. We also have concerns in my inbox and as I'm sure yours is is just full of air concerns about whether this sell off we're seeing will spill over the tech sector. So all of that is causing Bitcoin, which is now really a risk asset, moving a lot in step with nasdaq, is really edging lower. So that's what you're seeing. It's interesting because we still have the original bitcoin proponents saying that this is a haven, this is what you buy in comes when it comes to when there's geopolitical tension, inflation fears. But for now, it's definitely behaving like a risk asset.
- [29:29]
Host
Bloomberg's Isabel Lee with the crypto summary. Thank you very much. Latest 13 filings from source Fund Management has revealed that it's doubled its stake in Microsoft, jumping from about 102,000 shares to 263,000 shares. Here with the latest is Bloomberg hedge fund reporter Hema Palmer. What do we need to know here about Soros?
- [29:49]
Needs To Tell A Rover
Right. So when we look at at his move here, doubling his stake in Microsoft, this is a stock that as we now have seen with the beginning of the year, has become incredibly volatile, down 23% since the end of the third quarter. So you know, these 13 Fs today are actually quite insightful because we're seeing positioning ahead of what's been a chaotic start to the year. So as we can see, who made the right bets, who is probably in pain, the stock's not doing too well. Well, Source also added to Apple, Nvidia and Amazon. And there's been interesting board.
- [30:23]
Host
It has, it's interesting the 13F exercise. Either you start with the hedge fund or the fund or if you're me, you kind of look at the change in positions of the names. University of Texas came up. Why yes.
- [30:35]
Needs To Tell A Rover
On the flip side, they actually trimmed their Microsoft stake and their Amazon position. They ramped up their Apple holding which has been less, less painful for them. As we look at through through the end of September when we look at these filings through till now, they do have a large portfolio, over 300 positions.
- [30:54]
Bloomberg Announcer/Ad Voice
So we saw some good rotation in that.
- [30:56]
Needs To Tell A Rover
But the interesting move there was ramping up Apple and also trimming Microsoft, Bloomberg's.
- [31:02]
Host
Hamper across all the 30 and F. Thank you so much. All right, a lot more to come on the show. Startups. Mesh is out to build the quote largest optical manufacturing footprint outside of Asia. Lasers, optics, everything AI that conversations next with a funding race. This is Bloomberg Tech.
- [31:23]
Bloomberg Media Studios Announcer
Support for the show comes from Public. Public is an investing platform that offers access to stocks, options, bonds and crypto. And they've also integrated AI with tools that can assist investors in building customized portfolios. One of these tools is called Generated Assets. It allows you to turn your ideas into investable indexes. So let's say you're interested in something specific like biotech companies with high R and D spend small cap stocks with improving operating margins or the S&P 500 minus high debt companies. Chances are there isn't an ETF that fits your exact criteria. But on public you just type in a prompt and their AI screens thousands of stocks and builds a one of a kind index. You can even backtest it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks, go to public.com market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com market and paid for by Public Holdings Brokerage Services by Public Investing member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors SEC Registered Advisor Crypto Services by Xerohash Sample prompts are for illustrative purposes only, not investment advice. All investing involves risk of loss. See complete disclosures at@public.com Disclosures Small businesses.
- [32:36]
Bloomberg Announcer/Ad Voice
Are the pulse of every community. They bring people together, create opportunities and drive growth. With a widespread presence in communities across the country, Chase for Business supports small business owners at a local level that makes it possible for you to connect, learn from each other and grow together. There's a real commitment to seeing small businesses succeed. The Chase for Business team has knowledge and expertise that span a wide range of financial areas. They can help you make more informed decisions as you navigate the complexities of running your business. They'll help your business grow with individual guidance and convenient digital tools all in one place. With that guidance and your determination, you can take your business farther and help build a brighter future for your community. Learn more@chase.com business chase for business make more of what's Yours the Chase Mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates. May apply JPMorgan Chase Bank NA Member FDIC Copyright 2026 JPMorgan Chase Co. You need to make a huge presentation in an hour. Luckily, Adobe Acrobat Studio uses AI to take all your documents and generate a presentation with a single click, building slides faster than ever before. So if you need a last minute pitch deck, do that with Acrobat. Need to level up your presentation design? Do that with acrobat. You have 30 plus documents that need to be simplified into a proposal.
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Needs To Tell A Rover
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Bloomberg Announcer/Ad Voice
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- [34:12]
Host
Elon Musk's, SpaceX and Xai recently merged are competing in a secret Pentagon contest to develop voice controlled or talk, autonomous drone swarming technology. According to sources, it's a $100 million prize that only a handful of companies were selected to take part in. Here with the story, Bloomberg's Katrina Manson. This was a fascinating read. It's a kind of new domain for Space xi. It's a contest. What do we need to know here?
- [34:41]
Katrina Manson
This is really the frontier of the future of war. This is everything that folks like stop killer robots and others have been warning about. This is the Pentagon trying to experiment with completely new tech that has so far been failing. It's experimental. And this is a moment really where the AI companies are coming to the fore quite unexpectedly. Elon Musk is the very same person who said that he would have nothing to do with new tools for killing back in 2015 when he signed on to an open letter from AI researchers and roboticists saying we do not want autonomous weapons. And now this is the Pentagon trying to create autonomous weapons. These are weapons that can select and engage targets of their own accord. The contest is not explicitly saying they will be doing that, but they are saying that drones will be moving around and taking commands from voice and turning those into digital instructions.
- [35:36]
Host
I don't know that the prize money is necessarily the main headline for Space X. Right. What you do really well in your reporting is, is explain where the technology is at and where you know, where various institutions want it to get to. So, so we have drones, but it's this swarming idea in the, I guess, defense use case. What needs to be cracked?
- [35:58]
Katrina Manson
I think there are four stages. First is, as you say, there are drones. Everyone's become familiar with drones because of the a Russian invasion of Ukraine. And Elon Musk himself said in 2024 that if there is a major power war, it's going to be a drone war. So everyone is very focused on what that might look like. In the case of a US trainer contest over Taiwan, people have flown multiple drones together. That's not the same as a swarm. A swarm really is where the drones talk to each other, they interact with each other and ultimately potentially carry a payload or a weapon and can drop that weapon on a target. Weaving in AI to do that for targeting, automatic targeting, recognition, and in this case, to take a command from someone giving a voice instruction and turn that into a movement or an action is relatively uncharted territory.
- [36:49]
Host
I should say that Space X and XI did not respond to our request for comment, which is pretty normal procedure for them. What they are doing is hiring some interesting roles bicoastally, but you know, in the classic talent pools of Silicon Valley, what areas?
- [37:04]
Katrina Manson
This is DC in the west coast and of course Space X, a long term defense contractor, but never an offensive weapons, nothing ever so explicit. And X, I mean this is grok, this is X what we're all going to post this story on afterwards. They are now hiring for people with, with clearances and that's a real change. They're looking for people with secret clearance and top secret clearance.
- [37:28]
Host
Bloomberg's Katrina Manson top reporting. Thank you very much. There are so many other news headlines in the world of tech. Time now for talking tech and first up. And Frobik's talks to extend a contract with the Pentagon are being held up over additional protections the company wants to put on its clawed tool. Anthropic wants to put guardrail in place to stop CLAUDE from being used for mass surveillance of Americans or to develop weapons that can be deployed without a human involved. According to sources, the Pentagon wants to be able to use Claude as long as its deployment doesn't break the law. Plus Thrive Capital has raised more than $10 billion for its largest fund yet. The venture firm founded by Josh Kushner draw far more demand than it could accept, turning away billions of dollars from prospective investors. The interest underscores the success of several of its portfolio companies including OpenAI, Space X and Stripe. And sticking with Thrive Capital, the firm just backed a startup building optical transceivers that are crucial for data centers. The startup is called Mesh Obstacle Technologies, was founded by Space X alumni and it's raised $50 million led by Thrive to scale manufacturing manufacturing of the technology in the United States. The company's co founder and CEO Travis Richards joins us now. This is such an interesting field. It's one that in video has looked at. The use of optical optics in GPU is also OPU is being looked at. Let's start with what you're offering, the actual technology itself which we wrote about this morning.
- [38:59]
Travis Sheer
Yeah, thanks for having me on the show. And yeah, we're, we just announced our, our, our company Mesh Optical coming out of stealth here we are standing up high volume optical manufacturing of these optical interconnects that are used for all GPU clusters. So anytime you hear someone talking about a GPU cluster, there's four to five of these optical transceivers for every one gpu. And so yeah, we're excited to offer our first product as a what we call linear pluggable optic. And it's at like a 1.6 terabyte per second data rate which is like what the state of the art will be in the coming years. And all these GPU clusters.
- [39:38]
Host
You were at Space X for about five years. You're the laser guy, right? Working on, on the technology stack that helps satellites communicate essentially your co founders, also Space X alumni in slightly different domains. But how is that transferable to what you're doing here in the first instance with the transceivers?
- [39:58]
Travis Sheer
Yeah, great question and no, I'm super excited to have a lot of the team that I worked with, they're deploying the Starlink laser mesh and we're very proud of what we did there. And you know I, I think about the job here every day and it feels very similar about, very similar to what I was doing at SpaceX. And you know, Space X, the Space Laser team was quite small and a very awesome team and we're building the same thing here. A very small like technical oriented team with really talented individuals and the day to day feels very similar. We're you know, building standing up high volume production, trying to deploy as much hardware as possible and co locating the talent right next to the manufacturing line. And so yeah it feels very similar.
- [40:44]
Host
This is about more than the underlying technology.
- [40:47]
Travis Sheer
Right.
- [40:48]
Host
This is a field where the supply, supply chain is, is dominated by China. And so one of your ambitions is to, is to exceed that, bring capacity to the United States and you've put a timeline of 2027 on that. This is a big sort of big debut funding round. But what's the roadmap from here? You're going to need more capital. What are your priorities?
- [41:11]
Travis Sheer
Yeah, our priority is to build as many optical interconnects as possible and deploy as many of those as we can. So for the, the immediate term it's, it's getting to high volume of this first device we're making while at the same time planning for our long term ambitions of doing space based laser communication and eventually one day propelling spacecraft with photons.
- [41:35]
Host
Right, right. So explain that distinction right in the first instance, who's the customer? Data center on Earth. And then, and then in the future there is a distinction on this happening in space.
- [41:47]
Travis Sheer
Yeah, yeah. So first customer, you know, we got to help the US deploy this, compute on the ground as fast as possible. And you know there's a big vulnerability in the supply chain with regards to optics and the way those optics are assembled and manufactured all overseas and standing up a secure supply chain outside of, you know, Asia and China specifically really helps Us leverage our product into all of these data centers on the ground and when we show how much volume we can do on the ground it's you know, then we have to start pushing that volume to space and will be the one strategically set up to do that.
- [42:23]
Host
Just, just real quick on Thrive Capital a big day for them. They're leading you around. Why is it important that they, they are backing you?
- [42:32]
Travis Sheer
Yeah, they from the beginning have just been ready to go with us and deploy quickly and you know our goal is to stand up this volume production as fast as possible and they're right. They were also willing to work as fast as possible with us and we really appreciate, appreciate them like back in the founder and also wanting to accelerate.
- [42:52]
Host
From the time that you were at Space X clearly like the bigger vision has changed right now. Space based datacenter like that, that's what we're going towards. Do you expect to work with your old company and with Elon Musk to try and pitch the technology back into them?
- [43:08]
Travis Sheer
You know I'd always love to keep working with them and help. I just want to help connect as much compute and send probes to deep space as much as possible. And whoever we can work with on that, I'm very excited to do that. And you know, connecting everything from the ground to space, it's going to need to transition to optical because RF reaches a limit and optical photons are, are much more efficient and power efficient and the things the constraints on the ground are power and the constraints in space are also power. And so it leads very well for what we're making here.
- [43:44]
Host
We are, we're hearing that a lot on the show of late, Photons of the Future. Travis Sheer is co founder and CEO of Mesh. Thank you very much. Now coming up, digital talent manager Knight raises a new funding round as it looks to expand its business. We have more on that next. This is Bloomberg Tech. Talent management firm Knights has raised $70 million to expand its business across music, sports, gaming and live events. Knight's founder and CEO Reed Ducksher joins us now. This is, this is digital Hollywood, right? And the management of top talent. It's interesting to grow through venture. What do you need the funds for?
- [44:33]
Reed Duckshire
Yeah, we're going to use it for a few different things. I mean we're primarily focused on talent management here at night but we do have a venture studio. You know we've went on to fund things like Feastables and Tone with Kaiser not. And so for us I think the thesis was always that talent of the future are Born on the Internet. That is very much still our thought going into the future. And so we're going to use that to be like what we think is the Internet's media company.
- [44:57]
Host
Which platforms right now are launching careers? I know that that is a broad question, but if we talk to the, the giants in broadcasting and streaming or we talk to YouTube, right. They would all kind of accept that it is a battle for eyeball, even if they're slightly different mediums. So which platform are you seeing launch the people that you hope to serve?
- [45:20]
Reed Duckshire
You know, I think there's, there's two that stand out to me, especially in my industry. YouTube obviously being the first. Like we just saw that they announced they have almost 13% of connected TV watch time. So they're beating Netflix, they're beating Amazon, they're beating hbo. You know, the next one is Tik Tok. I think just primarily because of the discoverability of content through short form. Form, it doesn't matter if you have 10 followers or a million followers. Like a good video can get a lot of views and go viral. And so I think that has created a lot of career careers just because of that type of funnel that's created. Regardless if you have followers or not.
- [45:56]
Host
You are you, you've been at this a while, right? This is, it's not as if night just suddenly came about overnight. Ten years of work. I think now at this stage, the timing of the raise, what was the strategy behind that read?
- [46:10]
Reed Duckshire
Yeah, we've grown very linear over the last 10 years, you know, through signing different talent through the venture studio. It felt like a perfect time for us. You know, we feel like we've never been more right than we are right now in our thesis of Internet native talent being the future of celebrities. And so for us like the last 10 years were all about like how do we educate, how do we continue to grow, represent the biggest talent on the Internet. You know, we think the next 10 years, like attention is the currency. You know, we think that individuals are more, or consumers are more loyal to individuals now more than ever. And so as we continue this thesis, you know, this is a company that hopefully I can run for the rest of my life. We'll see. But I think like, you know, the next 10 to 20 years, like we still believe in this like Internet first talent born on the Internet. The future state of celebrity is born on the Internet. And so it felt like the perfect time for us to make a larger move.
- [47:05]
Host
You've done some, some M and A for want of a better expression. 2004 Knight acquires the ruse podcast network last year. Experiential Supply Co. Is, is this kind of the plan now? Like the $70 million can go towards some interesting properties like that?
- [47:22]
Reed Duckshire
Yeah, we've done those organically off the balance sheet. Like we've always been a profitable company. You know, we've had, we've had a successful career and so we bought the roost from Warner Brothers when they were looking to sell that asset. Really like building our media sales apparatus. Acquiring Experiential Supply was, you know, another thesis that we're going to continue to run after. Like we do think the, the world lives on the Internet and we do think the future state of celebrities are born on the Internet. But we also think that consumers value in person experiences more than ever in the future. We are still bullish on live events, events and experiences for individuals. And so that was a lot of that acquisition. You know, the money will go towards, you know, buying things that make sense for the culture that we've built here over the last 10 years. Businesses that we think intersect with the Internet. And so a lot of what we're going to look at going forward is, is yes, things in those categories.
- [48:12]
Host
Read from Knight's perspective. How do you think about what's happening with Warner Brothers, this discovery, the Netflix part, the Paramount Skydance part, You know, does it have some ripple effect in your world where the talent's heads get turned about the health of industry wide or it's just not a concern?
- [48:32]
Reed Duckshire
No, it does. Like I think the issue is just the consolidation of all these companies provides less buyers in the ecosystem. And so you're, you're seeing a contraction of shows getting sold. And we've now seen that over the past three years, four to five years. I think that's just going to continue. I think the consolidation, you know, worries a lot of people. Like we are based in Los Angeles, although we aren't necessarily traditional Hollywood. You know, we do have shows and have sold shows to those streaming services. I think the interesting place where we sit as a company is that 90% of our client roster sees YouTube or being a large YouTube or TikTok creator as the end game for them. Like they want to be large Internet personalities, they want to control their intellectual property, they want to can control their editing and have final cut and final say in the product. And so I think it affects us way less than it maybe affects the traditional talent management companies whose revenue concentration is primarily through entertainment services that's provided from a TV network or a Netflix where ours. Like the primary revenue source is YouTube AdSense brand sponsorships. It's very different. And so although it does affect us, it's on a much smaller scale.
- [49:44]
Host
Reed Duckshire, Founder, CEO of Knights Great to have you on Bloomberg Tech. Thank you very much. That does it for this edition of Bloomberg Tech. What we were just discussing, right this morning's news that Netflix has issued a waiver to Warner Brothers Discovery allowing them to negotiate with paramount Skydance. It's seven days through February 23rd and Paramount either has to improve their bid or something happens with Netflix, which is a bit softer. They came out with a strong statement saying that they feel very confident in their existing bid. And you can definitely go back listen to the conversation. Luke and Shaw, in markets more broadly, we are seeing volatility. We had some serious declines at the index level. The NASDAQ 100, the MAG7 names, Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, they were all markedly lower. Now actually the stocks is higher, but there has been volatility coming with that. We'll continue to track it. As I said, please recap. We have the podcast, you know exactly where to find it on the Bloomberg terminal as well as online Apple, Spotify and Iheart. This is Bloomberg Tech.