GameStop’s $56 Billion Bid for eBay

25:42But the chip shortages are pretty real. And I feel like, you know, inference needs like a million times more compute than like traditional computing. and so we would see more and more demand for chips including CPUs, GPUs, memory. Nikola, it's been great speaking to you. Thank you very much indeed DeepInfra CEO Nikola Borisov on the latest funding round. Coming up we've got more on funds being deployed in AI adjacent areas, particularly crypto. We're going to be speaking to Katie Horne in a bit to talk about her new$1 billion fund and the state of the crypto market. But let's also focus in on these markets more broadly right now.

26:26Crypto had been outperforming. Tech had been outperforming. Actually, we're starting to see a pullback. There is tension once again, particularly with the UAE. The UAE is saying its air defense systems are currently responding to a missile threat. They're posting on X about a third missile threat that they've currently been facing. In particular, this is in response to Iran. Geopolitics once again front and center as oil prices extend their gains. Brent crude is to see$114. That means risk sentiment just turned sour. NASDAQ 100 now down 0.3%. We were higher at the start of this particular show.

26:58The semiconductor index also off by 0.8 % off of its record high. We're going to keep you up to speed with what's happening in the markets and in geopolitics more broadly. This is Bloomberg Tech.

27:15Welcome back to Bloomberg Tech. We look at broader markets for a moment now because, well, we're back in risk-off sentiment amid rising geopolitical concerns regarding the conflict with Iran. We're currently off by two-tenths of a percent on the Nasdaq 100, flicking into negative territory. We had been higher. You're seeing the semiconductor index coming off of its record high. Brent crude up to$113,$114, let's call it. This is UAE is issuing missile warnings, rising tensions and risking the U.S.-Iran truce. and yet it's just coming hours after an oil tank run by the UAE state oil company was also struck by Iranian drones.

27:49So keep an eye on what's happening with the bond market. As the anxiety builds and we see maybe inflation pressures coming from oil, we see the 30-year eclipse 5%. Look, we haven't seen this sort of level on the 30-year bonds in terms of yields since July. You're seeing 10-year ramp higher, six basis points, two-year also up seven basis points, let's call it. So we keep an eye on the broader market. We also keep an eye on risk sentiment just across this entire asset classes. And we want to focus in on our big number today. It's$80 ,000. Guess what managed to touch it again? Bitcoin. For the first time since January, it has seen some love as the tech trade has powered on higher in the previous week and we hit a record high on Friday.

28:29And of course, this asset trades over the weekend. I want to talk more about the crypto sector with Bloomberg Cross Asset Reporter Isabel Lee, fresh back from an event in Vegas. What are the vibes right now on crypto? Honestly, very optimistic and enthusiastic. Like when I was there, it was in Vegas, the Bitcoin conference from Monday to Wednesday. Everyone was just so happy to be there. There were orange suits, orange cowboy hats. CFTC, Mike Selig is there. Paul Atkins of SEC was there. They were wearing orange neckties. Why? Why the orange vibes? It's just the color of not the Bloomberg terminal.

29:02Unfortunately not. Could be. No, orange is like the unofficial color of Bitcoin. and every booth had a big B plastered on it, which is the symbol of Bitcoin. You could just feel the vibes in the air. Mike Saylor again predicting 10 million for Bitcoin. Eric Trump dropped by on Wednesday saying 1 million for Bitcoin. So even if the daily price fluctuations weren't any more of focus there, the big 1 million goal is still in the horizon or 10 million, if you ask Saylor. But was any of this Bitcoin and then some? Look, what we keep seeing is that there are other areas of excitement, more infrastructure being built, more thought around where the world of cryptocurrencies go rather than the OG in the space?

29:40Definitely. So they were thinking about Bitcoin and the future of it. Of course, there were a lot of talks about AI and how that will affect Bitcoin, especially when it comes to mining. And I've talked to a couple of people who really still insisted that Bitcoin is different from other crypto assets because Bitcoin is Bitcoin. It's the original. It's the largest, it's the oldest, and others are pump and dump. Others have smart contracts that may vanish in a few minutes. But then for them, Bitcoin is the OG. And I'm sure now they were looking at 80 ,000 too, because for a while, the Bitcoin price has been hovering between that and not really hitting 80 ,000.

30:11So I'm sure if the Bitcoin conference was this week, they would be happy. So they're enthusiasts around the store of value mentality or that more can be done with cryptography more generally? It's still the store of value mentality, although I did talk to some people roaming around. A first time attendee said that what's next after this one? Because what else could bring this price higher. I mean, it's already so institutionalized. I also talked to Adam Back, who is not Satoshi, according to him. He did say again, he's not Satoshi. And I asked him, how do you feel? Because the institutionalization of Bitcoin kind of goes against the ethos of Bitcoin.

30:42But he was like, no, actually, it's more access for everyone. And he said, when people say that BlackRock, our strategy are the biggest holders of Bitcoin, he said they're really just the custodians in his eyes, but it's still the people who owns it. So really lots of interesting characters. It was an electric kind of conference. It was really good vibes all around. If you're a skeptic, I think you'd doubt it, at least if you're there. You're not wearing orange, I know. Isabel Lee, it's great to have her on the show on All Things Crypto. Look, I'm very pleased to say we can bring in someone who knows a thing or two about the world of crypto.

31:11Katie Horn's with us, who's made her name investing in digital assets and crypto startups. Her firm, Horn Ventures, has just closed a$1 billion fund. You've had notable exits. I think a BVNK, you're acquired by MasterCard, another startup that you backed early on, Bridge, has been bought by Stripe. Katie, is this what it's about? Is it about finding the startups that are likely to just drive this ecosystem forward? Good morning, Caroline. Thanks for having me. Yeah, the world's a very different place than it was four years ago when we raised our first pair of funds. And we're really excited now to have a billion dollars in fresh capital across a pair of funds to back founders in what we say are building the new economy.

31:51And the new economy is, we think, there's an intersection really between AI and between digital assets. We're calling it an agentic future. That's one structural shift we've seen. Another structural shift we've seen is the creation of new assets, things like stablecoin. That has been an area that clearly you saw coming, you lent into, and the stablecoin ability. I think we just had a few tech issues with you, Katie. We'll get back to you in a minute. There we are. I think the stablecoin area has been something that clearly you've seen work with M &A and portfolio companies being bought by really institutional adopters who are now trying to embrace, I think, of the likes of Mastercard, for example.

32:32But what's happening in terms of the AI adjacency? For those who've been hidden away from how crypto is now thinking of itself as the future of AI agents, how does that work? Well, if you think about a world where financial products and services are really being built for an end user, that's not necessarily a human, but might also soon be an agent or a computer. That's a really different world. I mean, if you think about agents, what are one thing we humans do? We stop. We have a finite period of time that we work during the day. So we might be okay with a bank that's closed on a weekend or that has a wire cutoff or deadline or banker's hours.

33:08But, of course, AI agents are powered 24-7. They are globally, they work globally from day one and they're always on. And so I think that there's a lot of opportunity there in what we're calling the agentic finance sector. But you also mentioned Caroline's stable coins. And I think that's another area where we've seen the digital asset space grow and we're seeing it grow ever more. Of course, now we're at a point where stable coins and you mentioned BVNK, which just exited to MasterCard for one point eight billion dollars. By the way, that was MasterCard's third largest ever acquisition. And I think it's reflective of that you now have double-digit trillion dollars in stablecoins.

33:47And this is an innovation that didn't even exist a decade ago. And if you can tokenize a dollar, it turns out you can tokenize other things. So we see institutional players like BlackRock and fintech giants like Robinhood and Coinbase start to tokenize stocks. And it turns out you can tokenize all kinds of other products and services. For that to really be adopted is, of course, a future where the regulatory environment has been far more warm, shall we say, towards crypto and these innovations. And that's where you sit at this intersection, Katie, that's so interesting. I mean, Brian Armstrong himself, someone that you've helped oversee the company of, of Coinbase, you perform A16Z.

34:26What was so interesting about you is also you sat on the DOJ side of things. You understand government. You can talk to both sides of the community. What is the regulatory environment like right now? Yeah, look, I've been following the flow of assets my entire career. I started my career actually at the Supreme Court as a law clerk to Justice Kennedy and then spent over a decade at the Justice Department. And what I can tell you is this is one of the most transformational periods in technology and finance that I've really ever witnessed. You mentioned regulatory, Caroline, and I think that's a part of it, but also the infrastructure is a part of it.

34:59And let's also be honest, the institutional story is a part of it. As far as regulatory environment, I think people often also overlook what the courts have been involved in the regulatory and shaping the regulatory environment. And this has been happening kind of in the background over the last several years. Now we have something coming up, which is the crypto market structure bill. And so everyone's eyes are on that. And of course, we had the Genius Act passed last year. There are still lawmakers that need convincing. Katie, I think of Elizabeth Warren, who's worried about perhaps one of your new and really, well, many would say the exciting startup that has been co-founded by Palmer Luckey.

35:38Now, you're in a company that is Erebor, which is all about, I think I'm pronouncing it correctly, right? Erebor. Erebor is this new sort of bank. It's just had OCC sign-off that it's able to go out there and got an application and granted a preliminary application, at least, for approval to become a bank. But Elizabeth Warren is like, that's happened all too fast. And it seems to be that they're close to the administration. How do you get comfortable that these companies are being vetted in the way that you want to see them being vetted? Sure. Well, we always look at the founding team whenever we're looking for an opportunity to make an investment.

36:11We look at the founding team and you've alluded to part of the founding team here. So we think this founding team of Erebor is incredibly strong. And actually, Palmer Luckey's co-founder is a founder that we had backed in our first fund. So we have a long history going back with him and have seen him over the years. And we are actually the second largest investor, I believe, at this point in Erebor. And I think the exciting thing about Erebor, so it's also the product market fit, and they've just crossed a billion dollars in deposits. And it's also the size of the opportunity. And that's where I think Erebor and companies like it really shine.

36:46I mean, it's really built for the future. And if you think about it, it opened on a Sunday, Caroline. And I think who's ever heard of a bank opening on a Sunday? Now, I think that for the digitally native generations and certainly for the AI native generations, wire cutoffs are going to be a thing of the past. It will be kind of like when you see a payphone booth on the corner and you're like, what is that for in a world where everyone's now on their cell phones? Very briefly, Katie, you've already had success with exits on the M &A side of things. You personally have invested in some of the most exciting companies we're anticipating IPOs from, SpaceX.

37:23I know they were in Andreal, another Parmalaki business. You're in OpenAI. Is the market feeling solid right now? You know, I think right now what we're seeing is we're seeing a period of transformation and tremendous opportunity. And I think this is something I've been alongside the unfolding of transformational technology my entire career. And there will be ups and there will be downs. And one thing I've noticed is that there are periods of irrationality on the way up and there are periods of irrationality on the way down. And our job is long term venture investors who are investing, by the way, Caroline, over a 10 year decade.

37:57Although your colleague Natasha reported that we had already returned capital four years in to some of our LPs around the world from our first pair of funds. We're looking at what the world looks like in 10 years, not what it looks like right now. And we think at bottom, it's a period of tremendous opportunity, generational opportunity. Natasha Mascarena did that great story, all talking about how you were able to lean into dislocations in the market and beating up areas of crypto more broadly to return those funds to LPs. Katie Hahn, it's great to hear about the new raise, the CEO and founder of Hahn Ventures.

38:31Congratulations on the latest$1 billion that has been putting to work in two funds. Meanwhile, coming up, we're going to be live from Milken Institute Global Conference. We speak with Scott Turner. He's the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. This is Bluebird Tech.

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41:37volunteer earnings they're out after the market closed later today so far today shares in the ai firm is up one and a half percent outperforming the rest of the market but they haven't outperformed the rest of the market since they peaked back at the end of october losing a significant amount of market capitalization as they got caught up in perhaps the software anxiety and sell-off is that right that it is let's talk about what to expect the bloomberg's lizette chapman fundamentals first we always know there's fireworks when it comes to Dr. Carlton is that, but what are we expecting in terms of growth of the business?

42:08Right. Well, analysts are expecting another massive quarter of a lot of growth. 74 % revenue spike, a doubling of profits from the same period last year. They've been, this is pretty consistent with past quarterly growth that they've been, that they've, you know, continually set the bar high and ask Palantir to deliver. There's a history of Palantir meeting or beating those expectations. So that's what a lot of people are looking for. That's what some of the betting markets are looking at as well this morning. Oh, I like that you're folding in some of the betting or at least different ways of predicting which way the market's going to go.

42:50Lizette, the market, if you're looking at analysts, think that the price target is much higher than where we currently trade. So is there sort of a vibe shift that we can get from Dr. Karp, as well as clearly the growth that they continue to deliver from the bottom line and top? Right. He will definitely be speaking with analysts today, typically issues some type of shareholder letter as well, where he outlines everything that you just kind of alluded to with the vibe shift, trying to distance Palantir from the other AI software stocks and also to position it as a type of company that is going to support U.S.

43:31policy no matter how controversial or difficult. There's also a lot of focus right now on what they've done to support efforts in Iran, also in Israel, and with U.S. Department of war as well as many of our allies. So there's going to be a big focus on, he usually speaks to that topic as well. And that's what many will be looking for, for him to continue with that vibe. Bloomberg Intelligence Analyst, Mandib Singh, is talking about the government segment, how it continues to benefit from the company's exposure to these increased US defense spending on products such as Maven amid the war in Iran.

44:11But the commercial side, that really has been an area of growth. Are we expecting, what's expecting to see that pick up? And particularly if it's just U.S. bound or whether we see more international adoption? That's a great question. And I think that's something that a lot of people are going to be looking at if they've been able to drive it internationally. U.S. commercial growth has been on a blockbuster tear for, you know, at least the last year plus since they introduced AIP. And so they're looking at growth rates, you know, about, you know, in the 90 percent or so for commercial growth. And for the government growth, They're looking around 59%.

44:48Again, government is about half of the revenue. It's about half and half. And slowly commercial is starting to build up. They haven't been in commercial as long or as strong as government. So that's an area that a lot will be looking at, specifically here in the U.S., whether they can gain traction abroad as well. And then there's the man, the myth, some would say the legend himself, Dr. Karp, the way he speaks to his own loyalists when it comes to shareholders. He's often quite rude to the analyst community and in Wall Street more broadly. But he's had some thoughtful insight as to the future of the workforce and where humanities takes us in terms of an area of study.

45:31Are we expecting any sort of philosophical perspective coming today? I think that that would be a pretty good guess that would land well. He and CTO Shamsankar have been on this quest, as you say, to kind of, you know, mobilize the, you know, not just the software and the bits, but not just the bytes, but also the bits. And so they are both looking to establish that and continue that narrative that not only Alex Karp wrote about in Technological Republic, but Sean wrote about in his new book about mobilizing the techno-industrial workforce and reshoring a lot of the industrial and manufacturing capacities that have traditionally been abroad that they're looking to bring back onshore here in the United States.

46:20They had a commercial software win recently with Cleveland Cliffs to use their AI software to assist with the steelmaking capacity. So it's a pretty good bet, like you said, Caroline, you've been watching these earnings for a long time as well, that he will continue with that and talk really more about the big changes to American society writ large that Palantir and its software is looking to enforce. Well, we're lucky to have you watching them for us tonight, for the most of Lizette Chapman. Thank you very much indeed. Coming up, we're live from the Milken Institute Global Conference. We're going to be speaking with Scott Turner.

46:54He's the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. This is Bloomberg Tech.

47:02Let's head out to the Milken Institute. Balance of Power co-host Joe Matthew standing by with a special guest. Joe. Caroline, thank you. The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is with me right now, live in Los Angeles at the Milken Global Conference. Secretary Turner, it's great to see you. Welcome to Bloomberg. Thank you. Questions about the housing market on this day that the 30-year Treasury tops 5 percent. This is a big deal for our audience. It's a big deal for a homeowner or anyone looking to buy a home. How much will interest rates be a challenge to what you're trying to do in increasing access to affordable housing?

47:37Well, thank you so much. You know, I think you see, you know, the President Trump is laser focused on housing affordability. He's focused on keeping our country safe, you know, from a regime having a nuclear weapon, but also laser focus here domestically to make sure that the Americans can achieve the American dream. And so as we see the fluctuation in interest rates, we're also looking at the regulatory environment to bring down burdensome regulations to make it easier for builders to build and for buyers to buy. So I'm grateful for the president's leadership and that HUD, we're following that and encouraging localities to do the same.

48:07You were pointing specifically to your rescission of the IECC, an energy efficiency requirement that the Biden administration put in place that you say added over$30 ,000 to building a home? Yes, sir. So this is the final determination for 2024 during the Biden administration. Really, it's the International Energy Conservation Code. And it added up to$30 ,000 per project when builders are already building to these energy codes. So we rescinded that to make it easier for builders to build, which will make it better for buyers to buy. On top of that, you know,$100 ,000 in regulation and regulatory fees is added to the final price of a single family home.

48:48That's not sustainable in our country. So we've been very focused on bringing down the regulatory environment, making it easier for builders to build, better for buyers to buy and raising the supply in our country. We're having a big conversation in America right now about affordability. We talk about it on the air all day, whether it's four dollar a gallon gas, although where we are, you've probably seen, Mr. Secretary, it's above six dollars in California, which is pretty wild. But the cost of everything from food to gas is an issue for Americans making your mission that much more urgent, but also more difficult.

49:20No. Well, you know, like I said before, the president is laser focus on domestic policy from the time he was campaigning to the time he came into office. He said, we're going to make it more affordable in America. And I know personally, being in the cabinet and knowing the president, working with him, that to be able to help Americans to afford to buy a home, to buy groceries, to buy medications, it's top of mind for the president. And so you see the actions that have been taken, the rescission of these regulatory environments, the taking down burdensome regulations to help American people is a great priority for the president and myself.

49:54And so while it may seem to be difficult, we've made great strides, But there's still a lot of work to do. We're out of time, Mr. Secretary. But how many houses can you build? If you stay with President Trump for the remainder of this term, how many affordable units can you add in this country? Well, we're going to add many, many, and in particular, opportunity zones. There's already been 400 ,000, so we want to duplicate that and do even more. It's great to see you. Good luck at Milken, and thanks for being with us. Thank you. Secretary Scott Turner with us live from Los Angeles. Caroline, back to you.

50:20Joe Matthew, so good to hear from you on the other coast right now, West Coast, all things Milken will be throughout the day and the week here on Bloomberg TV. But now that does it for this edition of Bloomberg Tech. Don't forget to check out our podcast. You can find it on the terminal as well as online on Apple, Spotify and iHeart. We return to the markets, which have seen some geopolitical anxiety around them today. We currently see we're off by three tenths percent on the Nasdaq. Nasdaq 100 are under pressure as we see once again missile threats for the UAE. The semi-index is up by 0.06 % down from a record high rent crude up to$114 a barrel.

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