CES Expectations, Fubo Shares Jump on Disney Deal
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See why 70,000 teams trust Grammarly at Grammarly.com slash enterprise. This is LeVar Arrington from Up On Game here to tell you Toyota's legacy has been standing tall for generations. From pioneering hybrid technology to redefining the standards of safety and efficiency. With each innovation, a commitment to progress and with a legendary lineup,

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From the heart of where innovation, money and power collide in Silicon Valley and beyond, this is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow. Live from New York, this is Bloomberg Technology. Coming up, CES kicks off in Las Vegas today with a keynote speech from NVIDIA. We'll have the latest on what to expect.

Plus, Disney and FuboTV agreed to combine their online TV businesses, Live TV, creating the second biggest digital pay TV provider and send Fubo shares soaring. And a lawsuit alleges TikTok's video live streams facilitated the exploitation and grooming of minors. Details later this hour. First, we have some breaking news regarding the Federal Reserve. Barr, Michael Barr, is going to be stepping down as Fed vice chair for supervision in

A key move that we want to bring in one Michael McKee here, because Barr has said the risk of a dispute over the position could be a distraction. New administration in the White House means new change of leadership in the Fed. Yeah, new regulatory era for banks and other institutions, because, of course, the incoming Trump administration is going to be very much less so. So Michael Barr stepping down February 28th.

and he will serve until a successor comes. There are other resignations we need to pay attention to. Michael Meakey, thank you. Canadian Prime Minister Tristan Trudeau speaking in Ottawa. Let's listen in. To strengthen and grow the middle class. Why we rallied to support each other through the pandemic, to advance reconciliation, to defend free trade on this continent, to stand strong with Ukraine and our democracy.

and to fight climate change and get our economy ready for the future. We are at a critical moment in the world. My dear Canadians, Every morning, as Prime Minister, I woke up inspired by the resilience, generosity and determination that characterizes us so well as Canadians. That is what motivates me every day that I have the privilege to serve in this post.

That's why, since 2015, I fought for this country, for you, to strengthen the middle class. Why we mobilized as Canadians to support each other during the pandemic, to make reconciliation progress, to defend free trade on our continent, for our unwavering support of Ukraine and democracy.

and to fight climate change and prepare the economy for the future. We are really going through a critical time in the world. My friends, as you all know, I'm a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians, I care deeply about this country, and I will always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians.

And the fact is, despite best efforts to work through it, Parliament has been paralyzed for months after what has been the longest session of a minority Parliament in Canadian history. That's why this morning I advised the Governor-General that we need a new session of Parliament. She has granted this request and the House will now be prorogued until March 24th. Over the holidays,

I've also had a chance to reflect and have had long talks with my family about our future. Throughout the course of my career, any success I have personally achieved has been because of their support and with their encouragement. So last night over dinner, I told my kids about the decision that I'm sharing with you today. I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader

through a robust, nationwide, competitive process. Last night, I asked the President of the Liberal Party to begin that process. This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election. My dear friends, as you know, I am a fighter.

Justin Trudeau there, the Prime Minister of Canada, of course now handing in his resignation as the leader of his party. There is an official suspension of Parliament now in Canada until March the 24th.

We will return to all of the moves when it comes to politics in Canada, but the announcement there that Canada will prorogue Parliament until March 24th, and indeed Trudeau's Canada Parliament will be suspended, and he announces his resignation after nine years in power. He says he'll stay as prime minister until a new liberal leader is chosen.

His resignation announcement, not the only one. This time we return to Michael McKee and the Federal Reserve because Michael Barr is to step down as a Fed vice chair for supervision. But he's not.

resigning from the Federal Reserve, just this vice chair position. Yeah, which makes a very interesting situation for the Fed, because there is no opening on the Fed Board of Governors until January of 2026, when Arianna Kugler's term expires. And it's basically been thought she won't be replaced. But the incoming president won't have the opportunity to pick a different

new vice chair for regulation he could only pick from those who are on the board now the best guess is that if you were going to choose somebody from that board it would be a Mickey Bowman because she's been the sort of community bank representative she's been a banking official she is a republican so she fits some other characteristics that the president would want but does Donald Trump want Mickey Bowman as vice chair or is he gonna leave the position vacant for right now and the other

key thing about this is the Fed says it will take no new actions for bank regulation until a successor is confirmed. And that would seem to indicate that Basel III, the endgame proposal that has been

sort of the big focus on Wall Street is, if not dead, on life support at this point. We'll get to some of the stock reactions on the banks, but is that going to be the big market move, really? That's going to be what's digested here. Yeah, the Fed was supposed to re-announce in January or February their latest Basel III workup because they pulled it back to do some revisions, and now apparently that's not going to happen.

We keep an eye on what's happening in the markets. Yields still about three basis points to the higher side, that more based on tariff perceptions and whether or not they're going to be pulled back or indeed put in force, as Trump had discussed before. We'll get to that a little bit later. But for now, you'll see two-year yields on the downside. 30-year yields have been inching higher, up four basis points. And we're keeping a close eye on the bank stocks and the back of Michael Barr's resignation as the vice chair of the Fed when it comes to supervision. Michael McKee, we thank him.

Let's get back to the tech markets for a moment as well, because we're at record highs on certain names. NASDAQ up another 1.7% on the NASDAQ 100, the big benchmark. What drives us higher? The points being pushed higher by one NVIDIA. We are at a new record high for NVIDIA at the moment. We want to go to some other key market moves of the day. FuboTV, extraordinary.

move for this particular company as we once again see the beginning of 2025 kick off to an M&A frenzy and consolidation within media. This is all about how you're going to be consuming your sports. Live TV online.

We're getting the second biggest player when you combine Disney and Fubo to be taking on, and really only second to YouTube TV. Fubo up 190%, we'll delve into that later in the show. Microsoft, an interesting story, it came on Friday, the fact that they're gonna be spending $80 billion on AI data centers. Many saying that, look, this is why we've got tech rallying on the day more broadly. More commitment to AI infrastructure. Microsoft up 2%. Nvidia on a new record high, we're up 5%. And that's because we're expecting a keynote

at about 6:30 p.m. Pacific time, that is 9:30 p.m. New York time later today from one Jensen Huang. Let's get out to Ian King for more. Ian, of course, at CES, we're about to unfold. What do we expect from Jensen in particular? - Yeah, I mean, we don't know yet. There are gonna be briefings and then he's obviously gonna hit the stage later today. What we've seen are some leaks of a new GPU architecture that's gonna be coming.

basically for the PC market. So, it used to be their pride and joy, but now it's kind of a minor thing. And you'll remember that we reported a long time ago now that this would be the year that Jensen and NVIDIA would directly get into the PC market, into the CPU market. And not the only one. Qualcomm introducing new chips designed to power PCs as well. It's all about the AIPC unfold.

Yeah, I mean, this is the big hope for both the PC makers and the guys that supply them that, hey, this is something exciting. This is a new way to use your PC and that everybody will rush out to trade in their old machine. And basically every chip maker out there is saying, hey, we've got the best solution for this particular way of doing things.

Ian, you've got to be clued in to what Ian's writing on the Tech Daily today. It's a brilliant piece all about the important conversations that are going on outside the main floor of Las Vegas. Ian King in San Francisco for us. Thank you so much for the look ahead to CES and, of course, that keynote from NVIDIA's CEO tonight. And it's the talk of the town. In fact, Jim Bianco from Bianco Research had this to say about the company and its CEO just earlier today on Bloomberg Surveillance.

Well, first of all, everybody should care about Jensen Wang because he is the most important person in 2025 to everybody's returns, no matter what market you are investing in right now, because NVIDIA is the driver of everything. Let's get more investor analysis. Joanne Feeney is partner and portfolio manager of Advisors Capital Management. All on 10 to Hooks at 6.30 p.m. Pacific time.

Absolutely, Caroline. Clearly, Jensen will have a lot that he can talk about and share with

with his investor base, because he has a lot of good stories to tell. The AI demand is not abating. In fact, that news from Microsoft last week shows how much more there is to be spent. And Jensen's talk will likely also hit plenty of other companies that are more and more involved now in rolling out AI applications, whether it's in robotics or autos or digital twins or elsewhere.

Just talk about how Nvidia itself can own that. What's been so phenomenal is the way in which you're sort of getting vertical integration. They can offer you, of course, the hardware, but he's right, they're selling you the software, like a one-stop shop. How does he continue to iterate that into the era and era of, well, apps and, of course, agents?

Yeah, so it's been a long time coming. The development of the NVIDIA-specific software for building computational models called CUDA. He's been working on that for decades, and it's now fully integrated into the hardware, and that creates a really deep moat.

which is why it's awfully hard for other companies to break into this space. Not that we won't see them. We're going to see AMD. We're going to see more and more in-house. But it creates a really strong platform for NVIDIA. And we expect tonight that he'll talk more about how he's going to roll out more data centers to run AI models for other folks. So he's not going to be content, I think.

to stick just with the hardware and the software. I think he wants to get into services to some extent. And it's not been something that NVIDIA has shied away from in the past that is competing with its customers. What new are you hoping to see when it comes to applications? When it comes to robotics, you just mentioned it, for example.

Yeah, so, you know, CES is always full of dream wear as well as reality. And so it's always fun to see what small and large companies roll out. But, you know, robotics is clearly an area for growth that's more near term. We already see plenty of robotics, but they need to become smarter. They need to become more physically adept and graceful. And we think AI can really help in sensing the environment and responding to it.

But another area that's a little bit more overlooked is digital twins. This is when you build a model to replicate something in the real physical world, and you use that model to save on cost, to improve design, whether that's a product, whether it's a building, whether it's infrastructure. And we think AI can really inform and make that a whole lot more efficient and improve designs. We own a company called Bentley Systems, for example. It provides software for management and development of construction,

and projects in the infrastructure space. So that's an example of a company that could be a growing beneficiary of the infiltration of AI into that area. - We love how you bring up individual names and of course you do have exposure to NVIDIA, but you also mentioned AMD. There is the Amazon and even Broadcom in your portfolio. Who else wins when it comes to what has just been the NVIDIA ride?

Well, you know, clearly, and AMD, you know, providing those chips. Broadcom, we have owned for a very long time. And as they continue to acquire and build new capabilities, we think that's going to continue to be a really strong player in this space and has a lot more room for the valuation to improve. And beyond that, you know, look in new applications in healthcare, for example. You know, companies that provide new ways to monitor personal health.

So software leveraged to healthcare, new medical devices from, for example, Medtronic.

that will bring more and more smarter analytics. And then in industrials, whether it's that infrastructure build or software to oversee agricultural developments, that sort of thing. So there are a lot of opportunities. We do like those big names, Microsoft, Amazon, because not only does it have Amazon Web Services, but online retail is still gaining share. So there's still a lot of opportunities out in the tech space for continued growth this year.

This is Bloomberg Technology.

You spoke about the Liberal Party as an institution and the internal battles right now, but I'm wondering if you feel that another leader will have more success than you will at beating Pierre-Paul Yves.

89% of business leaders say AI is a top priority, according to research by Boston Consulting Group. But with AI tools popping up everywhere, how do you separate the helpful from the hype? The right choice is crucial, which is why teams at Fortune 500 companies use Grammarly.

With over 15 years of experience building responsible, secure AI, Grammarly isn't just another AI communication assistant. It's how companies like yours increase productivity while keeping data protected and private.

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a haul anything attitude. And both Tacoma and Tundra are both available with the I-Force Max Hybrid powertrain, giving your truck more power than ever before. Quality, reliability, efficiency, that's the legacy of Toyota. Visit buyatoyota.com, the official website for deals, to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. ♪

Today, the Washington Post reported that President-elect Trump's aides are said to be looking at tariff plans that could be applied to every country but only covering critical imports. Trump has denied those reports through a post on Truth Social saying it's, quote, incorrect and that he won't be paring back his tariff policy. Let's get out to Bloomberg's Mike Shepard for more. And just where are we on the latest of the tariff debate?

Well, it's unfolding still, Caroline. This is one of the biggest questions surrounding the incoming Trump administration's economic policy, together with his plans to cut taxes and his plans on immigration. And these are areas that would affect key industries, especially tech.

And yet we don't have a clear picture from what we saw in this back and forth between the Post and then Trump today. No matter what, industries are going to be looking at what the tariffs could mean for them. And it's really two key areas. One, it would be the increased costs of any inputs that they have in their production lines. And the other thing that they will be worried about is possible retaliation by U.S. trading partners.

It could mean that U.S. products, for instance, anything made by Apple or other name brand American companies could be hit or targeted in retaliation in response to anything that Trump does. Now, it's important to note, Trump still doesn't take office for another two weeks. And this will take shape over a matter of months, not just in the span of the time between now and January 20th.

Mike Sheppard is going to be our daily dose until that time and onwards. We thank you so much. Meanwhile, let's talk about politics and tech a little bit more. One person within Trump's sphere, Elon Musk, is now under scrutiny by senior UK politicians. This after the Tesla boss made a series of inflammatory remarks accusing Prime Minister Kyrstana of complicitly involved in a decades-old scandal over child sexual exploitation gangs.

Max Tchaikin of Bloomberg Businessweek joins us for more. And look, this is following a barrage of posts on his own social media platform, X, where he has been calling for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to be imprisoned. He's been urging the release of Tommy Robinson, who is a far-right leader, and ultimately stirring up even the surprising move away from Nigel Farage, who's the leader of the UK reform.

Why is he getting so involved? Well, I think two things are going on. One, and probably the most important thing, is Elon Musk is stirring the pot on social media. This is somebody who likes to be a provocateur. He basically goes wherever there's heat. You know, we saw this during the 2024 election where he's sort of spreading, you know, unfounded conspiracy theories, backing questionable figures. Really the same playbook we're seeing today.

you know, in the UK. The difference is, of course, that Elon Musk lives in the United States and has sort of more explicitly engaged politically. Here we have a guy who's not really, doesn't have a ton of business interests in the UK getting involved, you know, initially backing Nigel Farage's party, now, you know, coming out against Nigel Farage. It really feels like a combination of, again, stirring the pot, but also perhaps having a real disagreement with Keir Starmer over some of these speech rights. Of course, ex-

has had some back and forth with the British government over how he should regulate misinformation and that sort of thing. Keir Starmer now speaking back, he had been relatively silent, but now he says there's a line that's been crossed, particularly when it came to the safety of one of his own MPs, Jess Phillips, all regarding previous roles in the Crown Prosecution Service when he was leading. But away from the intricacies of really what's going on in the UK, how does it affect

Elon Musk's relationship with Trump going forward and the administration there? Because as we reported, these UK senior figures are coming out and saying this is bad for US-UK relationship. Yeah, I mean, I do think people realize, people in the UK realize that Elon Musk and Donald Trump are two different people. There may be a close relationship, but, you know, of course, Trump is going to make his own policy. And, of course, historically, Trump has kind of cultured

cultivated ties with extreme figures who would sometimes come out and stir the pot and almost gives Trump a weapon, perhaps, in dealing with UK politicians. That said, you know, Tommy Robinson is a very extreme figure, a far-right figure. And I think it's, you know, the sort of back and forth with Farage shows that it's possible that Musk may have crossed the line. Maybe he didn't quite know what he was stepping into. We'll see how this continues to unfold. Max Trafkin, all things Elon Inc. You've got to check out the podcast as well. We thank you.

Disney and streaming provider FuboTV are nearing a deal to combine their online live TV businesses. Now, we understand that Disney is going to be folding in its Hulu plus live TV business into Fubo, creating a new venture that will be owned 70% by Disney and the rest by Fubo. It continues to be listed on publicly traded benchmarks. And Lucas Shore is here to give us a little bit of a look.

into what is actually a pretty complex deal. But the key takeaway is Venue, which is the new sports offering, is going to be able to go ahead.

Yeah, Fubo had sued to block the debut of Venue, which is a joint venture between Disney, Fox, and Warner Brothers Discovery. They said it was a sign of the anti-competitive nature of these big companies because Venue was going to offer a bundle of live sports channels in a way that these companies wouldn't let Fubo do. The lawsuit proved to be pretty effective for Fubo, right? They won the first injunction, or they won an injunction to stop it, and now they're essentially getting acquired for a bunch of money.

A bunch of money that sends shares rocketing by 190%. The 6.2 million that they're likely to now offer, how big is that? What does it mean in terms of how they can survive the on and off switch of subscriptions around the sporting diary? Yeah, so both Fubo and Hulu's live TV service are unprofitable to my knowledge. Fubo reports its numbers, Hulu live TV doesn't. 6.2 million makes it the second biggest among the digital only pay TV companies. It makes it, I think,

kind of number five or six total, you still have YouTube TV, Comcast, Charter, and the satellite companies ahead of it. - Oh, M&A, the watchword for 2025, and it kicks off strong with this particular deal. Lucas Shaw, all in on the consideration around convergence.

Welcome back to Bloomberg Technology. I'm Caroline Hyde in New York. A quick check on these markets. We are higher substantially on the Nasdaq 100, we're up by 1.7%. And it's basically your Magnificent 7 that lead us higher to the tune of Nvidia, up to a new record high. But you've got Microsoft, Amazon, some of the key names in the biggest points contributors to the upside. We're all in on AI and infrastructure. We look ahead.

to Jensen Wang and his keynote at 6.30 p.m. Pacific time later today. Bitcoin also on fire. Risk assets on the higher side and we're up 4%. 102, still off of that record high, but we've certainly been clawing back some of those pre-New Year's Eve losses. Bitcoin 102,000. But let's dig into a company that isn't traded, TikTok.

and its darker side. Now there's a lawsuit from the state of Utah alleging that TikTok has long known its popular video live streams and encourages sexual content, including streams exploiting and grooming minors. And that TikTok also discovered through an internal investigation its feature called TikTok Live facilitated money laundering and it allowed users to sell drugs and fund terrorism. Let's bring in Bloomberg's Alex Levine for more. Alex, all of this is

after we finally get more detail on a lawsuit brought by Utah and other states. But it's been redacted. We get to see the details. What did you learn? Well, to your point, all of this really is it has taken a lot of time for this to come to light. I reported on TikTok Live and some of the issues that you've cited back in 2022. We're now in early 2025. And so it is, you know, it is the platform is much bigger now.

It is much more far-reaching. There are much younger of a demographic on the platform. But what the internal investigation found, which was unredacted in this newly filed complaint on Friday, is that TikTok was very aware of a lot of the issues that we had reported on on TikTok Live back in 2022, except that the issues were much larger and much

there was much more scale to the issues than we were even aware of. So they found that there were hundreds of thousands of minors who were not supposed to be using the TikTok Live feature at all, who were not only using it, but also using it, making money off of it. And they were essentially being asked by adults to perform sexual acts, racy acts in exchange for virtual gifts that can be cashed out for real money.

Now, in a response, TikTok says this lawsuit ignores a number of proactive measures that TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support community safety and well-being. They have taken measures since your first incredible reporting that we think about that was bringing it to light in 2022. But is it enough? Has enough steps been taken for Utah and other states to feel like this is OK now? I think the timing of these lawsuits filed before

both in June by Utah and then in September by a bunch of other states that cited similar issues with TikTok Live, shows that it is not enough, especially against the backdrop of what we are now seeing with the national security issues. TikTok is going before the Supreme Court in this unprecedented hearing this Friday.

And that is over national security issues and the fact that TikTok may be banned over those national security issues. But I think the child safety issues far predated that. And in fact, the fact that they are so prevalent on the platform, which this unredacted complaint has now shown, makes the national security concerns, I would say, even more concerning. And as you mentioned, this is a massive week for TikTok. We've got

Friday, the Supreme Court, we might be hearing the details of whether or not indeed they do think that, well, freedom of speech outweighs access to TikTok or not.

Absolutely. It's a huge week for TikTok. I think that everyone is very much looking to the Supreme Court to see are they going to uphold this law that is about to take effect or will they stay the law, which means hit pause on it while considering what they want to do with it. But I think the fact that Trump's inauguration is just over a week later is going to complicate things and it's going to make it a very bumpy couple of weeks for the company, no matter how this plays out.

And we're just glad that you're there to report on all of it. Alexandra Levine, we thank you. Now, let's just keep the discussions going on TikTok, its potential ban. And as you mentioned, the Supreme Court set to consider the constitutionality of the law on an expedited timeline. Arguments scheduled for a special session on January 10th. Now, we want to be talking with a key voice on all of this. Ivan Sharini is CEO of Faroot Security, a data protection intelligence software company who has testified...

of course, before the House Commerce Committee in the past to explain how TikTok accesses, how it disseminates personal data and just remind us ultimately, Ivan, how it does.

That's an excellent question. Thank you, Caroline. Number one, how does it? It's obviously through its app. And secondly, it's through a lot of something called data trackers that are embedded into all kinds of websites Americans use every day. So that's how they can access information, collect information on Americans that actually never even used TikTok app in their life. What's also interesting is the way in which you've been

trying to access and continuing to understand that those, yes, you might have the app, you might therefore be vaguely aware of some of the issues or risks that are at play. But even if you don't have the app, you continue to monitor basically how pixels or more prevalent, even in things like Google Classroom, TikTok has been. Can you help us understand how you performed that and ultimately what it means for the prevalence of TikTok across US people's data?

Yeah, absolutely. What is really concerning, what we found is that even over the last 12 months, since TikTok was under so much scrutiny, what we found is that the presence of TikTok, for example, on the healthcare websites had actually increased by about 35% in the last year rather than decreasing.

And what is concerning is that those pixels trackers that are all over the websites that we all use on every day, that they are collecting a lot of information, whether it's like what websites you use, what you enter into the websites, where you're coming in, and all kinds of information that is collected can potentially be used for all kinds of nefarious reasons, whether it's for

targeting individuals or groups of people or even potentially again speculating here teaching ai systems to be even more precise on targeting americans so it's a very very concerning on how much data is being collected everywhere by tick tock on people who never even use the app so if ultimately the presence of tick tock trackers are going up into the right of 35 versus last year how

How impactful will it be removing an app if it's affecting people who don't have the app at all? Yeah, so it's definitely a very loaded topic and a question. So presumably, if it is banned, step one will be obviously to remove the app itself from the app stores, from Apple, Google, and everywhere else it's available. Secondly, it's also removing it from all American websites, so making sure that it's not collecting information on Americans.

outside of the app as well. And thirdly, which will be an ongoing task to ensure that it will never come back. And frankly speaking, it's not just TikTok. There's a lot more other information being collected by other companies associated with China on Americans, in addition to TikTok as well.

So, Ivan, just give us out of one to ten how hard it would be to, it sounds easy, you just remove it from the app store, you get rid of it on websites, but technically speaking, how effective do you think this can be? It can be definitely very effective. Probably a really good illustration here is something that is happening in the payment security industry.

credit cards being governed, how you're paying online and how the security of your credit card information is being governed. And what payment security is doing is they've introduced something called the new standard PCI-4, which now insures and mandates companies on a weekly basis. It verifies that no unauthorized

software pixels trackers, anything else, any software technology pieces are collecting credit card information without authorization. So a similar approach can definitely help prevent TikTok or other spying or data collection being done on Americans without authorization.

I mean, of course, the Supreme Court matter is a matter of law and interpretation. And there is politicking amongst, you know, whether or not January the 19th will be pushed out to post a new administration in the White House. But can you set, if you were having the ear of one Donald Trump right now, how would you articulate how risky this is for everyday Americans?

Well, how risky it is, it has already been publicly admitted and disclosed that information collected by TikTok was already used against Americans, whether it was spying on journalists and other cases that have been already reported in the news. So it is already happening. And is it happening on a larger scale? Very likely. So in terms of the impact, data being collected and shared potentially with the adversarial country, is it a risk? In my personal opinion, yes, it is a very high risk.

Well, certainly your evidence gave sway when you gave it on the house as well. Ivan, Serini, we thank you so much to you for your security on all things TikTok. Meanwhile, coming up, how Microsoft is using its venture fund to shape the future of AI. We've got Michael Stewart, managing partner of M12 here. That's next as Bloomberg Technology.

89% of business leaders say AI is a top priority, according to research by Boston Consulting Group. But with AI tools popping up everywhere, how do you separate the helpful from the hype? The right choice is crucial, which is why teams at Fortune 500 companies use Grammarly.

With over 15 years of experience building responsible, secure AI, Grammarly isn't just another AI communication assistant. It's how companies like yours increase productivity while keeping data protected and private.

Designed to fit the needs of business, Grammarly is backed by a user-first privacy policy and industry-leading security credentials. This means you won't have to worry about the safety of your company information. Grammarly also emphasizes responsible AI so your company can avoid harmful bias. See why 70,000 teams and 30 million people trust Grammarly at grammarly.com slash enterprise. That's Grammarly at grammarly.com slash enterprise.

Grammarly, enterprise-ready AI. This is Doug Gottlieb from the Doug Gottlieb Show here to tell you that Toyota's legacy has been standing tall for generations, from pioneering hybrid technology to redefining the standards of safety and efficiency. With each innovation, a renewed commitment to progress, and with Toyota's legendary lineup of trucks in stock at your local Toyota dealer,

We'll be right back.

a haul anything attitude. And both Tacoma and Tundra are both available with the i-Force Max Hybrid powertrain, giving your truck more power than ever before. Quality, reliability, efficiency, that's the legacy of Toyota. Visit buyatoyota.com, the official website for deals, to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. ♪

Microsoft is making a major AI investment, announcing it will spend $80 billion on data centers over the next year. The company wrote previously that not since the invention of the electricity has the United States had the opportunity it has today to harness new technology to invigorate the nation's economy.

Now Microsoft is also investing in AI through its venture capital fund, M12, calling it the defining technology of our times. I'm pleased therefore to welcome Michael Stewart, managing partner of M12, who has been at this AI/ML hardware software investment for a long time, Michael, and we're pleased to have you. So where are other than the AI applications, I want to just dig into that idea of data centers and the commitment of money towards it. Where are innovations happening within the data centers?

Yeah, so the demand that we're going to see for AI as some of these applications start to roll out this year and the next year is going to really accelerate. And it's key not just to have an AI that's available, but it's also performant, affordable, secure, and efficient.

In doing that, it's not just about building out more GPUs, more data centers, but actually increasing the quality of the AI output to be suitable for enterprise use. In that sense, what we're seeing right now is building out kind of the foundation for a lot of different places for technologies to plug in to make this AI better for its customers.

I want to talk optimizing of applications, but can you go to the optimizing of AI infrastructure right now and where you think some of the most exciting moves forward have been?

Efficient chips are clearly an opportunity to address not just the space and the racks that we have to put in the data centers, but also the power that goes into them. And that's one of our portfolio companies, D-Matrix, that makes an innovative in-memory compute architecture for AI inference applications.

The compute and memory are kind of combined into one in a new architecture that also uses chiplets or heterogeneous integration to flexibly maximize the performance of the silicon that you need in a given card.

And that in many ways affects the energy usage as well, power needed. And I know energy innovation is another key area of yours, Michael. But talk to us, therefore, about how we're going to use it in 2025. All I hear is agents, agent force, agentic, no matter how you term it. Is it all about agents?

I'm not going to sound too different from that. I'm a strong believer that this year, the quality of the AI models, the architecture of the agentic applications, they're going to get better and better and attract more attention from companies that want to use them to

address their own costs and scaling needs. And we're seeing this come in two directions. Startups that are creating agents or platforms for agents and selling them as services, a sort of SaaS model. The other is the use of the AI itself in these small companies is something to really start to look at. These founders are building the companies with an AI first mindset that's really quite different

but it's also going to inspire and stimulate larger companies to take note at the efficiencies enabled and adopt this into their own infrastructure. But I feel like the larger software players have already got the memo and you're seeing the likes of Salesforce go all in. Who knows where, of course, Microsoft will be able to push forward with its co-pilots. How are you seeing the opportunity of the startups to be able to innovate faster or in a more niche manner?

And fast, you know, as you use the word fast. Velocity is the absolute definitive trend of this era. Everything's moving faster. Companies getting formed faster, funded faster, growing revenue faster. And agents, as they mature and as they become part of the everyday makeup of these companies themselves, are...

at the same time the product, but also the organizing principle of these companies. And I think that's a different way to look at this from where we expect to see SaaS revenues build up over time as it happened in the prior couple of years, software investing context to today.

the companies are able to accomplish far more with a much smaller team, reach revenue targets far greater than we had expected, and I think they're going to be profitable much sooner than we had otherwise thought possible. Fast doesn't always bode well for deep analysis and doing your corporate governance work.

T's trust and I's dotted. How are you ensuring that the return on investment that seems to be evident is actually happening and is actually going to be re-signed, that these companies aren't just scaling very quickly over a quarter, but they're going to maintain that user base for the next year and the next year?

ROI is the key theme here. If you are a founder and you are creating an AI product, this isn't just about creating a white paper that your customer might read to see where the ROI could plausibly occur in their organization. This is really an opportunity for those founders to go out and drive those pilots themselves

the customers will see these savings hit their bottom line, thereby driving more consumption of AI. And I think that kind of virtuous cycle is a really big difference from prior eras of AI where the savings might come in a defrayed expenses or defrayed CapEx point of view. Here it's about getting higher return on capital, higher return on the company's operations. And I think

As a startup, you really have to get serious about the intellectual honesty of it and your customers must agree with you. Those startups that are able to accomplish that are going to grow 10 times faster than the norm. We know that it takes one to know one and you're a guy with more than 40 patents of your own, so we appreciate your time. Michael Stewart, managing partner of M12.

Of course, Microsoft's venture arm. Meanwhile, it's time for Talking Tech. First up, NVIDIA partner, Honhai. It's posted a faster than expected 15% revenue growth. That is as the company rides a sustained demand for AI infrastructure. The company, also known as Foxconn, saw December revenue rising 42%, which really did beat analysts' expectations and expects significant sales growth in the fiscal first quarter too.

Plus TDK, the main supplier of iPhone batteries, says it plans to roll out an improved version of its product to help mobile devices keep up with the rising power demands of UGESTA AI. Now the Tokyo-based company says it will begin mass production of its third gen batteries in the late summer.

Samsung is expanding its AI reach adding a new suite of features to its lineup of premium TVs. Now the electronics giant is set to introduce Vision AI. It's allowing information to be displayed of what's on the screen. Other features include a built-in AI processor to analyze content, boost colors and contrast and optimize audio too.

Today we bring you the latest from an exclusive Bloomberg Businessweek interview. It's with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In it, he discusses his infamous four-day firing, how he runs OpenAI now, his plans for the Trump-Muss presidency, and of course his relentless pursuit of AGI. Here for more, Bloomberg's Mark Millian, who's part of what is a very deeply reported out Q&A.

It starts with all like, what were the key dinners? What were the key moments? Sam Altman discussing the time that he sat down with Ilya and really started to think about building AGI. What for you was the biggest like jaw-dropping moment of the interview?

I mean, I think the thing that surprised me the most is when he's given the opportunity to talk about what are your big ambitions, what do you want to solve. He talks about fusion energy, that that's the one thing that he, I mean, obviously he's focused on creating super intelligent supercomputers and artificial intelligence.

artificial general intelligence and all these wacky ideas that they're working on in OpenAI, but he's got this big investment in fusion energy, which is sort of a scary concept to a lot of people. And also one that is it even really going to work? Has science really proven that fusion energy is going to solve

all of our energy shortage issues, but like energy is a big kind of need for AI, which sucks up so much electricity.

He's not afraid to be way ahead and trying to solve the unsolvable. He really details how back in 2012 he was sort of a heretic for even discussing AGI and people didn't want to talk about it with him. But what does he ultimately think that this is all for the greater good? Is there a utopian idea here as to why we need nuclear fusion, why we need AGI?

Yeah, I mean, there's also a lot of ways that any of those things could go wrong. But he is, I think, you'll see it in the tone of the interview, and you'll find when you read this, it's a long read. But I think the context is important with someone like that who's in such a big position of power that you kind of get a sense for who he is as a person. And he is an optimist, and he does believe that the things he's working on, he can shape them for the better. Even with a new administration? Yeah.

Yes, and that was a focus of the interview, especially in the latter half. You'll see we talk about his relationship with Donald Trump, who he's previously had differences of opinion with, his relationship with Elon Musk, who it's very strained, a co-founder of OpenAI, now suing OpenAI.

And his optimism very much extended to the idea that he'll be able to repair those relationships and have a working relationship with the new administration. He's asked about his donation to Trump's inauguration. And, you know, of course, he's like, I support whoever the president is.

And yeah, I mean, I found that all very fascinating, his view on politics. Me too. Go read it. You've got to see Mark Millian there on the latest Big Take. Now that does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology. Tomorrow, yet more, all from CES in Las Vegas. Jensen Huang, don't miss it.

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