Tesla Sales Slump, TikTok Deadline Looms, Roblox CEO Discusses Company Vision
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Live from New York, I'm Caroline Hyde, and this is Bloomberg Technology. Coming up, Tesla, the shares sink after its deliveries fall 13% over the last quarter, the lowest since 2022. Plus, investors brace for tariffs ahead of President Trump's Rose Garden announcement today. We'll discuss what this means for the global tech trade and Chinese-US relations.

And we sit down exclusively with the CEO of Roblox as the company launches new parental controls and we discuss its ad partnership with Google. But first, we check in on these markets that fluctuate ahead of the all-important announcements from the Rose Garden later today. President Trump set to unveil what Liberation Day really means. We're flat on the day on the Nasdaq 100. But dig into some of the key movers. I single out one.

Tesla, we're off by 1.6%, had been lower in earlier trading, but let's dig into the details of what people are saying is production issue, but also a political issue. It's the worst sales slump for Tesla going back to 2022. They delivered just 336,000 vehicles, falling short of the average 390,000 estimated by analysts. For more, we go to Bloomberg's Craig Trudell.

about 360,600 vehicles delivered. But analysts had braced for a slowdown, but not this big of a slowdown, Craig. Yeah, there were some that were even predicting year-over-year growth, which seems kind of hard to believe when you look at the publicly available figures that we had throughout the quarter. Especially over here in Europe, we saw just really substantial declines in some of the biggest EV markets

But this was pretty widespread, right? We saw also in China, the wholesales out of the Shanghai plant were down month after month in the first quarter. And so, as you alluded to earlier, this is a matter of both Musk's

politicking coming into play, but also more mundane factors like changing over the Model Y, which we'll better get a handle on just how much one factored into this versus the other in the coming weeks when we get a better sense of just how well the newer Model Y is doing.

mundane factors such as competition as well, most fiercely in China. Can you just break out where in particular the geographies were worse? Yeah, I mean, the company doesn't offer a regional breakdown, unfortunately, but we know that in China, BYD is really just mopping up. We're seeing them really, you know, pull further ahead from the competition. Tesla and otherwise, we've seen also Xiaomi, you know, turn a lot of heads and really, you

you know, pull away consumers that might have otherwise looked at buying a Tesla. I think one of the challenges that you're seeing for the company is that, you know, they just don't have as broad a lineup or as affordable a lineup as BYD does. And so they are just not the volume player that they used to be in that market and cannot keep up with BYD. China's Passenger Car Association releasing data that sees an 11% slide for Tesla. In France, it was down more than 30% once again.

Just tell us the nuance of what we expect to hear from Elon Musk on this. In the past, they have tried to direct as to why they've slowed down and blaming in many parts the production overhaul. Will we hear from him on the back of these numbers? Yeah, I think one of the things that's interesting to me about these figures that they reported today is that production exceeded deliveries by a fairly substantial margin. And so this excuse that this was just production constrained production

you know, that was at issue doesn't really seem to work out. Of course, you would expect there to be some lag in that, you know, some vehicles have to be produced and then shipped to where they, you know, end up at Tesla stores and with end customers.

But, you know, for this gap to be this significant in a quarter where we knew the Model Y changeover was happening, that's definitely notable. I think the other thing that we're likely to hear from Musk, in addition to the Model Y excuse, is, you know, for him to sort of pivot to the talk about AI and autonomous driving and, you know, flip to the robo-taxi era.

event that they've said is coming in June, that they will start giving people rides in unsupervised, full self-driving Teslas in Austin. That, of course, is something that is potentially a catalyst in the months to come. And why Cathie Wood remains a bull, for example. Craig Trudell, thank you very much indeed.

In another blow to Elon Musk, his Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate was dealt a resounding loss in the state's judicial race. That's despite Musk's backing of nearly $20 million into the campaign. Now, former State Attorney General Brad Schimel lost to the Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford, who led with 55% of the votes. Now, that's according to the Associated Press. Still, it wasn't a full win for Democrats. In Florida special elections, they fell short on their bids for two critical House seats.

And let's just turn our attention now to what also Elon Musk must be navigating, which is President Trump's tariff plan. They're coming down to the wire. And this is as his team is apparently still finalizing the level and scope of the new import taxes he is slated to unveil this afternoon, which, of course, could be a major shock compared to the U.S.'s tariff rate historically. Bloomberg's Mike Shepard joins us for more. What are the finer details that we're still expecting to be ironed out?

Well, Caro, those are the things that we're trying to find out at this hour. We're all holding our breath here in Washington and really on Wall Street, too, to see what will emerge from those deliberations by the president and his team. They're looking at a basically choice between three paths. One is the reciprocal tariffs that we've heard President Trump talk about in recent weeks, this idea that

We charge them, in his words, what they charge us. In other words, customizing tariff levels depending on what they see as a relative trade barrier with U.S. goods. The next would be doing something that's a little bit more like a tiered system where you have a lower tariff rate for countries that have fewer trade barriers with the U.S. and a higher tariff rate for countries that have more trade barriers.

And then there's the third option also, Caro, of something that looks more like a flat tariff, one that would be just one level, say 20 percent worldwide, no matter the country, no matter the level of perceived trade barriers assessed by the administration. That would reflect what he had talked about on the campaign trail, too. Shep?

What's so interesting is technology is taking a hit from a valuation perspective. People trying to dissect how much this affects the semiconductor industry in particular. Have we got any nuance there?

Well, you know, we don't. And there was discussion from the president and his advisers of taking a sectoral approach to the tech industry, naming the semiconductor sector in particular. And the idea was that, look, by imposing tariffs on imported chips, we will try to bring some production back here to the U.S. And they've even referred to TSMC's decision to move to the U.S. as evidence that those tariff threats actually will happen.

have some effect. TSMC announced, of course, an additional $100 billion investment in the U.S. not long after the president took office. But the effects of these tariffs will be felt across the value chain in tech. We're going to see costs potentially rise for all manner of good that comes into the U.S.,

We're talking about computer hardware in addition to chips. We're also talking about smartphones. So the impact will be felt widely, and businesses will have to make a decision about whether they pass those costs on to consumers or they simply accept smaller margins in the process. Mike Shepard, always keeping us up to date. Thank you so much. Let's now bring in Michelle Guider, CEO of Purdue's Kroc Institute for Technology.

diplomacy. You previously served in the Trump administration, the previous one, in terms of diplomacy and global public affairs. This inflationary pressure, Michelle, is it worth it in the short term for long term bringing potentially more manufacturing back to the U.S.?

Well, I'll start with Caroline. When I served as Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs, we had 4,000 public affairs officers in 185 missions across the world advancing one of America's key messages at the time, which was fairness and reciprocity. And that's because President Trump had been saying it since day one. In his first foreign trip at Riyadh, he said it in Da Nang. He said it in Warsaw. He said it at the UN twice. He said it at Davos. So fairness and reciprocity, fair and reciprocal trade,

has been a key message of the United States for a very long time under this president. And I think the uncertainty that we're seeing right now is, and the discomfort that we're seeing is less uncertainty and actually more of an adjustment about what the long-term trajectory is going to be to make sure the United States is as economically and technologically competitive as possible.

Point us to that longer term trajectory there for Michelle. This is not a surprise to you. So those that are still feeling that instability, as you call it, how do they see the next few months go if they're a business leader having to decide where to invest? Well, I think even longer term than that, we have a strategic decision to make as a country. Are we going to wake up and are we going to worry that the S&P is down 8.3% since February?

Or are we going to worry about the United States becoming a technology and an economic and a manufacturing powerhouse in the 21st century so that we can lead the world and we can be the safest, freest, and most prosperous country that the world has ever seen? And if the choice is the latter, then we're going to have to re-engineer a lot of things in order to be the global leader and to secure our national security and our prosperity. Tariffs are a part of that.

But there's a lot more that has to be done. And we've seen in recent weeks the America First investment strategy come out. So we're investing into our economy and our technologies with national security in mind. We just saw a couple days ago the announcement about the new U.S. investment accelerator.

all of these things are going to help us be an economic powerhouse and a manufacturing powerhouse. Because not only do we have to design and innovate and code new technologies, we also have to build them because it's imperative to our national security. And companies have been trying to build them and ultimately using...

The CHIPS Act, previously you've had Intel promised at least 8 billion to be able to bring manufacturing of chips here, as well as R&D, another $3 billion being promised if they bring R&D to the military there in particular. But now that hangs in the balance. I understand and hear you in terms of there's this new U.S. investment accelerator, but that is a cause for uncertainty for these companies too.

It is, but look outside of just the CHIPS Act. You had the SoftBank investment, $100 billion to start moving to $500 billion to build AI data and energy infrastructure here in the United States. TSMC dedicated another $100 billion.

At Purdue Research Park, the Kroc Institute is at Purdue University. At Purdue Research Park, SK Hynix, $4 billion to build advanced packaging. Hyundai just did $20 billion in Louisiana. So it's not just chipsacked and federal spending, but there's a lot of private sector companies from foreign countries that are investing here because they want to build here. And it's all good news for the United States.

Michelle, I think therefore an element of uncertainty here, we can see what the US wants, but it's how the others react. And for many in technology, they're wondering how do digital services become impacted if Europe fights back on these tariffs? How do you gain that out for business leaders?

Yeah, I think that's going to be a short-term and a long-term conversation between the U.S. and Europe, and specifically our tech companies and their regulatory bodies. But I'll say this. European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said yesterday that Europe is always going to look out for European values and European self-interest. The United States has to do the same, which means that there has to be a level playing field

between our most trusted partners, just like the EU, or Mexico, or Canada, in addition to adversaries like China who are trying to compete and lead in technology. And so this is all about looking toward America's self-interest. We have to manufacture, we have to build, we have to innovate, and make sure that we are re-engineering the global system in order to serve that so the United States can lead. And to compete against China, will this...

ensure that? Or could we see TikTok almost become part of the negotiation, which takes many by surprise? We'll see. You know, the deadline's coming up on April 5th, and I think we're going to, the president has said he wants to try to find a way to maintain their presence here while protecting our national security. We'll see. But it is law that they have to divest or leave the United States.

In terms of the U.S.-China competition more broadly, the way that we outcompete China is to innovate and enterprise and manufacture and build faster, better, and smarter. And by focusing on our ability to do all of those things here at home, to unleash the private sector, is our best chance of winning and leading, just as we did in the 20th century. Michelle Guider, it was great to have you on. Thank you. Purdue's Clark Institute for Tech Diplomacy.

Stay well. Meanwhile, coming up, plans for TikTok, will they remain up in the air? Just three days left before its potential ban. We speak with one of the bidders who's been in it for the long haul. It's Frank McCourt Jr. This is Bloomberg Technology.

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President Trump is set to hold a meeting today to discuss a proposal for divesting TikTok's U.S. operations from its China's parent company, ByteDance. This comes just days ahead of its April 5th deadline to be sold or to be banned. Sources say the administration is considering currently a deal that would include Oracle, Blackstone and other investors in a joint venture. This proposal, though, is just one being put forth by a number of interested parties in purchasing TikTok.

One of those who put their bid in near the beginning is Frank McCourt Jr., Project Liberty founder and executive chairman of McCourt Global. He joins us now. Are you going to be there in Washington for this meeting, jetting off after this? Have you been part of this conversation? No, I'm jetting off after this, but not to Washington. And so we're...

We're interested to see what comes out of the meeting. There's still a lot in motion, let's say, right now, Caroline. What do you think really is in motion? Is it a broader diplomatic sort of ping pong that Vance, it seems, is mainly leading the charge in? Or is it actually just trying to work out which bid works best for the U.S. law? Yeah, I think it's really beginning to digest that.

what the real issues are here, what's really in that legislation upheld by the Supreme Court, meaning

Where does the algorithm sit? Who has access to it, for example? The fines, huge fines here for any violation of the law. And who is responsible for those fines? So I think that now we're getting to the point of a real analysis of the law and the Supreme Court ruling. And what is a legitimate bid?

What is a real transaction where one could buy TikTok, US TikTok, and meet the spirit and the letter of the law? Let's go to your offer, because as it stands, you don't want the algorithm. That fits the letter of the law, right? Correct. Yes, it does. And that's fundamentally the point here. You can't dodge that issue.

The algorithm is, along with the source code, the way that China is able to manipulate what Americans read, see, and eventually think about issues. And this is highly dangerous for America. And that's why the legislation was passed with a broad bipartisan support. And so

We now have a set of issues where you need to completely disentangle from the Chinese technology in order to have a bid that complies with the law. And the reason why we still believe our bid, our offer for you as TikTok is the only offer that actually meets the letter and the spirit of the law. We don't want or need the algorithm because we have a clean stack that we've been building for the last five and a half years.

We understand there are four bidders. I'm going to go into one of them more cleanly in a minute. But who else do you understand to be the bidders out there at the moment? I'm not 100% sure. I've heard the number four. I don't believe there are four. And I think that there may be a mixing and matching of bidders that we're hearing about as well. So I think it's all very much a fluid situation right now, Caroline. And we'll learn more this afternoon.

This afternoon, we understand that President Trump is hearing the latest ideal around Oracle being part owner. They are already an infrastructure provider. And Project Texas, which was thought of under the previous administration, was meant to be the way in which Oracle could preserve ultimately the data of U.S. citizens using TikTok.

Is that going to be a legitimate way that TikTok is sold here in America? Let's think about source code and operational code or algorithm. The issues are not just where it sits, but who has access to it. And this is a, the source code or the algorithm could sit somewhere

But if China still has access to it, that's highly problematic. And I think at the end of the day, China has been clear. It seems to me anyway that they've been crystal clear. They're not letting go of the algorithm. And what also seems to me crystal clear in the legislation is that any bid that includes the algorithm is not going to meet the

the criteria laid out in the law. So there's the issue. And again, I go back to the reason why we made the bid and did it on behalf of Project Liberty. It was not because we set up Project Liberty to purchase US TikTok. We set up Project Liberty to bring forward the set of issues that are problematic with the current tech design that we have right now. It just so happens that

TikTok was an opportunity that presented itself where we stepped forward and said, hey, why don't we turn a problem into a solution here? Let's buy you as TikTok, move it over to a clean stack where you and I control our identity, control and own our data, permission its use, and basically have a different internet, which I would argue will be vastly better for people, vastly better for democracy, for society, and for children.

You want a decentralized future of social media.

At the same time, the administration is trying to weigh up future relationships with China. We also know that President Trump really liked using TikTok as a way in which to tell his message during the campaign to the younger audience. When you think about the potential Oracle bid, you said it's very fluid, but who else might be joining that? We've heard of Blackstone, we've heard of VCs, for example. Do you know any other players that might be getting into that bid? Well, we've talked to, I believe, all of the existing players

investors in ByteDance, US investors in ByteDance. And I think all or most all would be happy to stay involved in the transaction. I mean, why not Caroline? It's better to spin off a company

keep an interest in it, hope for the best, rather than have the company shut down. - So General Atlantic you're talking about. - So all these names that you're hearing, they're all around the deal because they have an interest in the deal. As far as President Trump and his affinity for TikTok, we can create a version of TikTok that he'll like just as much, if not more, because it will do the same good things without putting Americans at risk.

Do you think there's any way that we get a deal by the deadline of the 5th? I personally think that's highly unlikely, but we'll know more this afternoon or certainly by the 5th. And are they coming to you directly? Who are you speaking to within the administration? Our conversations have been with the Vice President and the Vice President's office.

And the leaning you get from Vice President Vance, is he taking into consideration the future of how social media works within the United States? The future of an algorithm being in China or not? Or is he seeing this much more of as a diplomatic effort? Oh, you'd have to ask the Vice President that. I certainly hope he's seeing the broader issues of the future of the internet, and I know he's concerned about our national security.

Many are also questioning just the price point. What would you be willing to pay without the algorithm, without the so-called secret source? Well, we've put a number of 20 billion on the assets without the algorithm. And we're sticking by that. We think that's a very full number for just the user base and the data.

We're not getting all that back end, but we don't want or need the back end. And that's the point, right? We've built it, which is why we happen to be in the right place at the right time for this transaction. We meet the spirit and the letter of the law. We keep US TikTok lit up and everybody wins. - Is there any way that they go back to Congress and re-offer this deal? Is there any way that that law ends up not sticking?

I can't see it. I can't see it. This was a law passed for good reason.

As I said earlier, highly, broadly bipartisan. People saw clearly the national security issues associated here and the risk to the United States and to U.S. citizens. It was a law that was appropriately passed, one of the few that was passed with bipartisan support and in the speed at which it was passed. Signed by the president, upheld by the appellate court, upheld by the Supreme Court.

12 judges said this is a valid law. This is a real set of national security issues. Zero judges were on the other side of that. Many of the same people that voted for this law are in the Trump administration. They understand the issues, and that hasn't changed. And what I want to emphasize is there is a solution to this. There's a solution that meets the criteria.

of the legislation, keeps TikTok lit up, protects American citizens, and begins to show the way of a new internet.

Will current users of TikTok love your vision in the internet as much as they love the algorithm? I think they're going to love it more. We call it the people's bid because we're going to Green Bay Packer it. Give them a piece of it. Let them actually benefit financially from the growth of the platform and the value there. Not just from the business they create on the platform, but why not give them a piece of the entire platform so that they can benefit from the equity that's built up in the platform itself.

Bringing in the sports. We love it. Thank you, as ever, for joining us. Let us know what comes out of your discussions post the meeting today. Frank McCourt of Project Liberty and, of course, McCourt Global. He is potentially offering to buy TikTok.

Welcome back to Bloomberg Technology. I'm Caroline Hyde in New York. Now, if you have children, the chances of you knowing about Roblox are pretty high. It's a virtual universe, of course, that allows users to create, to collaborate. Nearly 85 million daily active users. Roblox is out with a slew of announcements.

including a partnership with Google, as well as new parental controls. Shares rallying following the news and let's just unpack it all in an exclusive conversation with Roblox CEO, David Buzuki. David, it's great to have you on the show. And I'm so interested in what analysts are calling right now a smart strategic move. This partnership with Google, what brands are responding to this new partnership you've unveiled?

Hey, great to be on the show and want to highlight, you know, we shared a really huge vision of having 10% of all gaming running on Roblox, which is a really big vision. And, you know, we feel gaming is still in the prehistoric times as far as how people consume and use gaming content. We have a huge creator community who is already creating amazing businesses. This partnership with Google...

is another way for those creators to help build their business and monetize. And for our older users, we're going to give our creators side-by-side virtual currency and side-by-side subscriptions, another way to help build their business on Roblox. We have many creators making over $10 million a year on the platform and some making over $50 million a year. So this is really sponsoring big emerging studios building on our platform. It's about the ecosystem.

I'm interested, you say for older users, who do you think the brands really want to expose themselves to right now in terms of generations? Is it still all about Gen Z? Is it skewing upward? We shared the vision, once again, of ultimately getting to a billion daily active users on our platform with this intermediate step of 10% of gaming. And in last quarter, we shared a lot of fun stats. Our 17 through 24 age group

is growing very rapidly. We've become a platform where more of our users are over 13. That 17 through 24 year old segment is really hard to reach. More and more of them are on Roblox as we start to have amazing experiences, whether it's NFL Universe, Dressed to Impress, experiences where these types of users are on our platform. - Dressed to Impress immediately makes me think about

well, obviously the retail opportunity for brands, but also how it becomes synonymous with physical world too. Take us forward as what really advertising will eventually be for Roblox.

Okay, well, if we step forward, way forward in a sci-fi scenario, I can imagine just like it's fun to go shopping at the mall today, of course we're going to go shopping with our virtual avatars. We're going to be able to go to stores, see our favorite brands.

We're going to be able to try clothing on and see how it looks on our avatar. We're going to have a lot of fun doing it. And when we want to buy the physical or the virtual item, we'll be able to make that purchase. So we may look back in 10 or 20 years and go, oh my gosh, it was weird that all of our shopping on the web was 2D.

rather than jumping forward to a future 3D and ultimately four-dimensional world. So someday maybe we'll go virtual shopping together. Well, advertisers are going to be excited by it. The analysts are excited by it because ultimately this will become a bigger and bigger part of your business model. When do you think you'll be able to break it out and show just how much advertising is bringing to your bottom line? Yeah, we, once again on this journey to getting over 10% of the gaming market space,

We've shared we expect to be growing our bookings at over 20% year on year, continuously going forward while generating a lot of cash. And we are looking forward to when we break out the advertising revenue and the commerce revenue. We haven't shared when we will do that. - Ah, come on, on the show, Dave, on the show. - What? - You gotta break it for us on the show.

Oh, I can't break it on the show, but I'll call you before we break it out and I'll let you know. I appreciate that. Look, more seriously, for brands to really commit here and to stick with it, for your users to remain, it's also all about safety. I know you've been putting a lot of thought into that. You've got new parental controls that you're announcing today for us. Dave, talk us through them.

Yeah, well, take a step back. Even when we first launched the platform very early on, our goal was to build the safest place on the internet. And as Roblox has become more embedded in our culture, we're constantly shipping safety improvements. We're really trying to support parents to make great decisions for their families. So we already...

have screen time limits on Roblox. Parents can set that with their family. We're announcing today more parental visibility. Parents will be able to see where the people in their family, the younger people at least, are playing on Roblox.

They're going to have more and more control of who their kids are friends with. And they'll actually have control over what experiences they might say is not appropriate for our family. So this notion of focusing on safety and giving parents control, in addition to all of the other safety work we do, is really a big priority for us.

How does that fit with the kids' actual experience, Dave? And do you think in any way we'll start to see less time spent on the product? - We once again, there's something really cool about Roblox and this form of social media. The form of social media at Roblox is really communication and connection. And when I was a kid, sometime on rainy days, I would pick up the phone

and that's how I'd hang out with my friends. Roblox is less about sharing short videos and watching them by myself or sharing images of myself. It's about doing things with other people. And so I think parents working with the young people in their family will figure out what's right for them. At one point, you did suggest that if parents don't trust the product, they should keep their kids off. What's the reaction been to that, Dave?

Well, I think there was a lot more context to that. What we were talking about is comfort. And the notion, we think parents should be comfortable with what the young people are doing on their platform. We do, you know, safety is our top priority. We're shipping safety improvements every week. And this is just one of many, many announcements. You know, one of the biggest things we do on Roblox is safety.

try to keep people on our platform so they don't go to other platforms where they may share images or where they may chat with unfiltered text. So that quote I made was about parents should be comfortable with what their family is doing. How much can AI make them more comfortable?

So behind the scenes before, we're in an amazing time with AI right now. It's changing how we create. It's changing ultimately how people create on Roblox. And we think what's going to happen on Roblox is rather than maybe the text world or the image world, which is the 1D world or the 2D world, on Roblox we're going to be supporting the 3D world where people are building 3D objects.

Behind the scenes, we've been building an AI platform for four years. We have over 200 models running on Roblox. All of the images that people use when they're creating, all of the text, all of the voice on Roblox runs through some of these models. And so AI has really been a foundation of what we've done. Our voice model is so good and so efficient that we've shared it

on Hugging Face so other companies can use it. I was just at the Game Developers Conference. I ran into a startup and I said, how are you going to do voice safety? And they said, we're going to use your open source voice model. So we're really trying to give back to the community in these areas where we've got expertise. And we've also joined a consortium to try to make this open source for more small companies. That consortium, Roost,

robust online open safety tools alongside Google and Discord. Just how collaborative is it with other platforms when it comes to safety? Or is there more collaboration needed, Dave?

We're one of the founding members. We want to more and more make open source some of the models we've built for safety. Voices is arguably one of the first steps for that. And it's exciting to me that I'm starting to hear of small startup companies who will simply use our voice model. We've also made our 3D foundational AI model, the cube model,

also open source and we believe once again these foundational models, 'cause we have such an expertise in training and building them, can be used by others.

I just go back to what you said at the start there, Dave, that you wanted to build the safest place on the Internet all the way back in 2006. The world was such a different place in 2006. And yes, we might, as parents, have been anxious about what our kids were doing on the streets. But now we've got an anxiety level around all of what could be going on the Internet. And then you add AI on top of that and the moderation crisis that evolves of that of ever more content that you have to oversee. Just...

What does it feel like as someone who I know is a parent, has their nephew, nieces using Roblox, is really thoughtful about the future of the internet? Does it upset you or how does it make you respond when the worst of humanity creeps on it? I'm surprisingly very optimistic and I'm surprising, you know, I'm optimistic because more and more from the safety standpoint, AI gives us enormous power and enormous tools to help

moderate both content as well as communication. On the creation side, I'm very optimistic because more and more people on Roblox are going to become creators. And people who feel they could never have designed clothing or could never have designed a new house or could never design a sports car

are going to start being able to design these things by talking about them and not just design them one time, but iterate on them, improve on them. So just like digital tools like Photoshop, replaced oil painting, I actually feel AI is going to make us all feel more like creators and supercharged creativity amongst all of us.

So we love the lo-fi vibes of Roblox in the past. How much is it going to become high fidelity of what we're currently seeing on our screens?

The long-term spec for the product and really one of the most difficult specifications of any technical platform is giving artists complete freedom. And with video right now, we could argue that artists have freedom. We see animation, we see anime, we see photorealistic, we see hyper-realistic. We're

introducing more and more functionality and we mentioned this part of the notion that we want to have 10% of the gaming space on our platform. So ultimately artists can either go our traditional blocky style, a more realistic style or ultimately with some of the cloud facilities we're building high res styles that they're used to in some of the other types of games they see out there in the market.

You talk about how you want to serve the market, the ecosystem, the developers. You've done, I mean, the value creation that we've seen with one of the key developers being Brookhaven has been phenomenal. They sold out to Voldex. Do you know the sort of size of deal and how many millions are going for those sorts of purchases?

I can't comment on the size of the deal. I'm pretty sure the deals are starting to get into nine figures, not eight figures. At the Roblox developer conference last September, one of my 10 prognostications was we're going to see a billion dollar

market value deal for a studio on Roblox. And arguably, we should see that happen if we keep pushing the technology for the gaming space. And if we have 10% of the gaming in the world running on our platform, we're going to see more and more of those studios start to show up.

talking about gaming, but you're also talking about how this is ultimately a social endeavor. Who is your competitor right now? Is it eyes and minutes spent on TikTok and social media or is it other gaming platforms?

It's an interesting metaphor. As we think about competition, we think more about this vision we have in the company and also what is technically possible with today's technology. We know it's technically possible ultimately for a young creator to build a really interesting experience

have it immediately be live in any country, have it be within the policies of any country, have it automatically translated to any language, and have it run either on a very low-end device, a 2GB RAM phone, or a super high-end gaming PC, and allow people to join that experience instantaneously without a download.

Because we know all of this is possible and we're building it as quickly as we can, we do sometimes think our competition is our own ability to iterate quickly. Some might say about TikTok being a competitor. We had Jesse Tinsley on the show previously who said you're supporting his bid for TikTok. On a personal perspective, are you still, Dave?

I won't comment on what bid I'm supporting. I do think there's one of the things we're highlighting in our discovery system is transparency. And I think there's an underlying theme of all of these bids, whether...

you know, the algorithm is running in the US or at the least it's completely transparent. I think people all around the world would like to see transparency in these algorithms. One of the things we're doing more and more on Roblox for the creators who also are users find cool experiences on Roblox

is being very transparent with how our algorithm is working so developers can know how we're forwarding things to the user. But I do think whatever the bid on TikTok is, we're going to see transparency of that algorithm and arguably an air gap where that algorithm has to run in the United States.

The administration pretty involved in the TikTok bid. Now, the administration, the current SEC now inheriting a potential investigation into Roblox. How is that going, Dave? I can't comment on that. I constantly say we run an extremely tight ship and we're very proud of everything we do.

Pride is something you want to make global. And you're talking about how people can create an immersive world and immediately go into any language, any country. Right here, right now, it's quite difficult to be a global company when based in the US. How do you feel about the trade anxiety that's currently undergoing and what it means for your business?

I was just in Emirates at the World Forum and what was interesting is in Emirates there are some top Roblox creators who are contributing code to some of the top experiences on the platform and also some top creators who are fashion creators who are doing quite well in the virtual economy on the platform.

I'm optimistic for platforms like Roblox where there's a demand for amazing content. More and more of our creators, whether they're in the USA, whether they're in the Gulf region, whether they're down in Brazil where we have an enormous activity, I'm really excited that we can offer a global economy for these creators. And we see our top creators coming from all around the world. Dress to Impress team, for example, I believe is in the UK.

Your username is Builderman. Are you still busy building a view that this is going to be the metaverse, that we're going to live in that in the next few years? Is that what the ultimate vision is here, Dave? The vision we have is...

Humans are always trying to find a way to communicate. And we used to use the mail system. We used the phone system. We used texting. We're on video. We're communicating on video. And we believe 3D communication is going to sit side by side with that. 3D communication is pretty interesting. We can change our avatar. We can play hide and seek together. We can go to a concert together. So we're really optimizing.

about what we call this evolution to 3D and 4D communication. We think it's going to be big. We think this is a natural evolution of technology. We're in a great opportunity to help usher this in in a safe and civil way. And when we get back to building, we actually call our people and our team within Roblox builders. So that Builderman idea has really stayed with us.

Dave Uzuki, great to have you on the show. Co-founder, CEO of Roblox. Stay well. Coming up, we're sticking with gaming because Nintendo has announced the release date and price for its highly anticipated Switch 2. Details next. Quick check-in on Tesla shares, though, because we're now...

up 2.7%. This after, of course, Tesla deliveries come in well below expectations, about 360,000 overall when the market had wanted 390. However, there does seem to be news coming more broadly from the administration hinting to his close relations via that Trump is telling his inner circle that Musk will leave soon. That's according to Politico. This is Blue Bag Technology.

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where money means more. Nintendo has revealed new details for its highly anticipated Switch 2, which it plans to release on June the 5th. This is the video game maker's really first entirely new platform in eight long years and has the potential to lift sales after a pretty lacklustre few years for the industry. Here's to tell us more is Bloomberg's Cecilia D'Anastasio. It's expensive. It is expensive. So $450. What is that like in context of the market?

There are other handheld offerings now that are on the market that were not on the market when the original Switch was released. And they're selling for somewhere between $400 and $700. But at the same time, Nintendo has a lot of star power that these competitors from Lenovo, Asus, Valve Corp, and potentially even Microsoft, which is also teased to handheld console, do not. Okay, so it can stand out from the crowd. What are analysts saying to the date, the price point, the release? How much anticipation is there?

I talked to several analysts this morning who are very optimistic about sales for the Switch 2. They say that some of the launch titles, including a new Mario Kart, a new Kirby game, Donkey Kong, could propel sales for the Switch 2. And of course Nintendo has been so clever at using that IP and getting into different ways. It's a style of marketing in many ways.

Where else will they be leaning into and who ultimately is their target market right now? The Switch 2, unlike the original Switch, is more of an incremental change to its predecessor. So the Wii U, which came before the Switch, looked completely different. And now the Switch 2, it's mostly just improved screen size,

battery life, resolution, some sort of small quality of life adjustments. The target audience for the Switch 2 is someone who loves their Switch 1 and we know that there are hundreds of millions of people who fit into that category but want something with a little bit more of a modern feel and touch. But after eight years, is it enough of a change?

Analysts I'm talking to say that it is. Again, there are more powerful handheld gaming devices on the market now than ever, including for around a similar price point to Nintendo's. However, Nintendo sells consoles with their exclusive games, which are widely loved in the video game community. And so we're not worried about the consumer that's under pressure at this point, looking at a price point like that, looking to upgrade?

People really love their video games and are willing to do a lot to get their hands on a new console. It's something that people will budget out for months or years in advance.

and even be purchasing from some international makers to Bloomberg, Cecilia, Danastasia, great on all things Nintendo. Meanwhile, let's get back to the rest of the market because Tesla shares actually rebounding. They were at session lows previously on the back of lackluster deliveries. But now there are reports in Politico that Trump has told his inner circle that Elon Musk will be leaving soon.

Bloomberg's Isabel Lee joins us for more. And many feeling good. He can be more focused on Tesla, I'm assuming. Absolutely, Caroline. So in the morning, the mood was kind of gloomy because Tesla saw its vehicle sales falling 13% in the first quarter. That's the lowest since 2022. And this is common because they transitioned their Model Y factory. It's common to lose some output.

common thing is Elon Musk's involvement, which some analysts cited. And around 11:17, Politico published their story, and around 11:19, you see shares of Tesla flip back to the green. And now it's edging higher by around 2.5%. So really, with this stock, there's just one headline after another. But with the political reporting, maybe that means Elon Musk will focus more on Tesla, and maybe that would mean less headlines. But it remains to be seen. Well, talking of one headline after another, we've got another one coming from The New York Times.

puts in a last-minute bid to acquire TikTok. It's reported by New York Times. Amazon shares currently spiking a little bit higher. The investor...

reaction seeming to like the integration of social media within Amazon's more broad remit. We're seeing Amazon bid incoming in via an offer letter to Vance and to Lutnick, so to the Commerce Secretary and to Vice President Vance, so says the New York Times. We will be reaching out for Amazon response. It had been rumored in the market that they might be an acquirer. And of course, Amazon

Amazon, in many ways, has the sheer scale of money and cash on board to be able to afford it. But the question is regulatory. Will they be allowed to purchase such a significant asset when they already have the DOJ and they have many a regulator breathing down their neck when it comes to M&A of late? But as we say, repeat, New York Times coming in with the reporting that Amazon has made a last minute offer, a bid to acquire all of the

of TikTok, the US part of ByteDance. Now that does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology. Do not forget to check out our podcast. You can find it on the terminal as well as online on Apple, Spotify and iHeart. From New York, this is Bloomberg Technology.

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