rector james comey has declined to testify before the senate intelligence committee. the committee had hoped to hear from comey following his abrupt firing this week by president donald trump. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein will brief the full senate next week amid that controversial shakeup. then it minority leader chuck schumer's office said rosenstein has accepted the bipartisan invitation -- senate minority leader chuck schumer. canada's finance minister told the treasury secretary, steve mnuchin, that he rejects u.s. tariffs on imported canadian lumber. prime minister justin trudeau said he might consider retaliating with tariffs of his own. china's president will host 30 world leaders at the center of his country's soft power push. solidifyis designed to his image and he's prepared to

back it up, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure around the world. global news powered by 2600 journalists and analysts in more than 20 600 countries. from washington, i'm alisa parenti, and this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: this is "bloomberg echnology." bloomberg television and radio have been on the ground in boston showcasing diversity and power of the regional tech economy. we're joined now by caroline hyde at mass robotics live from boston. take it away. caroline: great to see you, as ever. to wrap up our coverage in boston, we are focusing on the emerging robotics industry in

the area. massachusetts is home to more than 120 robotics companies in the area. the industry is growing, and so are its resources. .e are here at mass robotics the nonprofit is dedicated to fostering young boston-based robotics startups and keeping the talent in town. >> is autonomous drone belongs to a american robotics. one full of it -- one of a handful of startups based here in mass robotics. has a main -- the name double meeting. mass because it is started in massachusetts, but also because of massive robotics. -- caroline: the nonprofit opened in 2015 and opened a laugh to help robotics startups get off the ground. or as the cofounder explained, a start up escalator. >> a start up escalator is a new concept.

incubators and escalators have been around for some time. this model has been ineffective, but wh icomes to hardware, there's no organization there to help hardware companies take an organization into a finished product. caroline: products in the works include american robotics drones andcommercial agriculture 3-d printers. >> right now, we have six companies, and we had two more moving in, and we can grow to about 30 companies in this space, and, hopefully, as we grow within the building, we will be able to house more than 100 companies. caroline: founded by leaders in , startupscs industry benefit from mentor ship and funding. >> we do not fund ourselves, but we work with a lot of local vc's and know whichne are

investing in robotics. caroline: newly $1 billion of investment went to companies in california. $123 million to massachusetts, but the number of boston companies is growing, and that is attracting sponsors and partners from massachusetts and outside the state. >> they are looking for investment opportunities or acquisition opportunities, wherever robotics is going, where the innovators are going now. ,aroline: four mass robotics the technology is reaching new heights. for more on this operation and a greater outlook in the industry and beyond, we are joined by the director of computer science and

of course, mass robotics board member. youerhere helping set this place up. tell us what the real misons here. of mass robotics is to convene student talent, entrepreneurs, the vc's and the robotics industry in .assachusetts mass robotics started as a grassroots effort. i have known the founders for many years, and finally, our dream has come to fruition. what we really want -- our big dream is to have massachusetts not just a place that innovates and indents new robots, but also a place where people use robots. caroline: let's go to the innovation part of it first all. you are there at m.i.t. pushing forward on where robotics are going to go. can you tell us what other cutting edge of elements you are

working on? >> in a nutshell, we are trying to make robots more capable and accelerate the invention and design and fabrication of new robots. our common dream is a world where robots are as common as smartphones. robots surely democratize physical work just like smartphones have democratized information. it is important to remember that a robot consists of a body and a brain. if you want a robot with a new capability, you have to deliver a body that caneler on that and a brain that can control that body. we are looking at making more capable and more agile robot bodies. we are trying to get robots to

be much better at figuring things out in the world and be oradaptive and intelligent and how they make decisions. we are trying to get robots to be much more collaborative with each other and with people, and we are trying to automate the creation of robots. caroline: when you talk about collaboration, how worried and how rightly or wrongly is the community that says that will put people out of jobs? you will move on to fast to quickly? >> i've been getting two types of reaction from people who hereby rober -- i work in robotics. there's a group that is worried about when the robots will take over their jobs and jokes about skynet, and there's a group that says how much work can i offload to robots? it is important to understand that if you're in the first group, our perspective is that robots are tools. they are made by people for the

people, and i really believe , we will befuture able to create human robot teams. caroline: what about the brain part and controlling artificial intelligence and ensuring it does not move too quickly? >> you can think about this so many different ways. many people are worried about the ethics of autonomous driving for avoiding the trolley problem. thetrolley problem says robot has to kill one group or the other, should they kill the young people or the older people, but if we get the technology right, we do not have to make the choice because we will be able to provide the robot with information that tells the robot with great

accuracy where the peleill be at all times, and that will allow the robot to make adjustments. ,> if you get the science right they should not be problems, but what about getting the funding right? >> there's no question california is a leader in funding in the space, but there's a lot of activity in massachusetts as well, and it's very exciting to be part of this ecosystem, so massachusetts started as being a huge help for biotech. t the recent past, it became a hub for robotics companies. as i said earlier, over 120 robotics companies including irobot and all those 150 million families who have zumba robots in their home have gained time because they do not have to worry about vacuum cleaning. , ands amazon robotics

all the robots are helping with the logistics of the amazon business, seeing people to focus on bigger picture activities, so , and are other companies around these robotics companies, we also have a lot of i.t. companies and software and all of these companies are actually providing services that enable our lifestyle today. caroline: you will keep on pushing it forward with your work, i'm sure. wonderful getting your expertise and views of the future and robots. thank you, the director of m.i.t.'s computer science and .rtificial intelligence lab we are keeping watch on tech stories happening beyond boston, and music streaming service spotify has taken a step toward

going public. stanley tomorgan advise on the move. spotify's deciding on a direct listing or a more traditional public offering. coming up, we continue our special coverage of boston's text in and speak to specialr's ceo -- coverage of boston's tech scene and speak to tripadvisor's ceo. this is bloomberg. ♪

caroline: welcome back to this special edition of "bloomberg technology," live from mass

roboticshequarters. not far from us is the base of another tech company which tells itself as the world largest 300 millionfor monthly visitors, though times are changing. the company announced it will be revamping its website. this as traditional competitors in silicon valley giant google tried to push into the company's biggest business areas -- trip planning and hotel search. joining us now, ceo and founder stephencowper -- kaufer. how much do you find ecosystem helps build your business and bring in the right sort of pele? >> i think it is great being in a massachusetts-based company, especially in the greater boston area because we are able to pull from an astounding set of

universities. we have the pull of a major metropolitan city to pull in folks from all over the country -- frankly, all over the world -- and living in boston is just a great place to be, so it has a whole lot going for it. caroline: let's talk about where your business is going. you have new products to unveil. how much is that driven by technology, by machine learning? announce --out to or we have announced and are about to release a new website theapp aimed much more at trip planning and booking, price comparison, saving money, as well as the full trip experience. we've always been known for an amazing number of reviews and those insights that help you have a great trip. now we are turning and saying that's wonderful -- not leaving that behind, but how can we save

you that much more money on each that you take? the site searches hundreds of .ebsites at that plus the planning and now all the destination content that we have, and it is really the best out there, if i might say so, for offering that great trip. caroline: how does this change your revenue stream? booking stream was initially catalyzed -- cannibalized to a certain extent. uniquesve 300 million

every month. how do we help them find that planning point. if we're saying the best prices over there, klick here and we will take you there, we are --atively agnostic about it if we are saying the best price is over there, click here and we will take you there, if you store your credit card with us, we will apply that to any site out there to secure you the lowest price. no matter which device you're theg, it will always be best price. caroline: if i want to search an area, perhaps going to a holiday toitaly, which i am, i want look at airbnb, home and away, what other companies have to

offer, will i be able to see that by you? >> you can look at 800,000 rentals on tripadvisor. caroline: are you talking to airbnb? would you look at other partnerships for online booking? >> when you look at what we call alternative accommodations, the house you want to rent in italy, we probably already have it on tripadvisor. it is not in our hotel category, but we have better, resorts, vacation rentals. we have that wide range. i cannot claim that we have everything available, but we had a really darn good selection at whatever price point you're looking at. caroline: talk about the investor price point. will we see margin's start to accelerate? >> when you look at the space we are in, it is a trillion dollar plus travel category.

we are the undisputed leader in terms of traffic. we have more people looking for hotels on our platform than anything else. our challenge, our opportunity is tta the traffic we have an pull it into that hotel shopping experience. we are so proud of what we are doing we are about to go on tv with a really large campaign -- caroline: does the margin go up? >> we expect to do that with little to no impact on our margin going forward. we are shifting, and we are building the bra otrip .dvisor -- tripadvisor caroline: what about global? how do you see the global growth story for you? are all actually growing. the u.s. is actually growing than others.

again, all the markets are growing. it's just a question of how fast and which ones lead. areline: one area you looking at when it comes to competitors, who is your number one competitor in your mind? >> theumr one competitor everyonegoogle because starts everything they do with google, but they are an incredibly powerful search engine. as people start to shop for goods and services on amazon -- az now has my persal loyalty to -- that's where i go to shop when i want to buy something. tripadvisor has all the opportunity to become your search engine for everything travel. planning, hotels, restaurants, attractions, rentals, flights -- we do all that uf.

caroline: we wish you well with it. thank you so much for giving us your time and joining us here at massrotics. >> thank you so much. caroline: coming up, many u.s. manufacturers are investing in roboticsnsad of human labor to increase productivity. a boston robotics company is working to find a balance with kim is working alongside robots. from boston, this is bloomberg. ♪

caroline: welcome back to this special edition of "bloomberg technology." we're live from mass robotics, a co-working space and innovation hub for boston's robotics community. we caught up with re-think

' founder and asked him about the robot, which was o of the first designs to work safely along where set -- alongside warehouse wke. >> our robots have a lot of sensors on them. they have vision and for sensors, so they can operate on the grounds where people are. >> the founder of re-think robotics is changing the way we think of robots in the workplace. , made it smaller. caroline: sawyer is a collaborative robot designed to work safely alongside humans. >> we've run out of low-cost labor in the world to do our manufacturing, so it has to be through tools that help workers be more productive. caroline: a20 $9,000 a unit, sawyer helps package products or

check quality control. the idea started more than a decade ago. working on ehina manufacturing for the roomba. caroline: that's the robotic vacuum made by irobot, a company he cofounded. >> i was sad to see that labor was getting shorter and shorter. in the old days, there is an infinite supply of labor. theirne: they're using investment to expand globally. >> europe has become a major market for us there he quickly, as has china. i think there is an incredible potential to grow the market. just overd grow from $100 million in 2015 to $3 billion by 2020. >> i am out to make manufacturing more real everywhere. i think manufacturing has been undervalued, especially in silicon valley. , --as been about the next

the next app, the next social interaction. caroline: coming up, we tackle the intersection of tech and .ports if you like bloomberg news, check us out on the radio. you can listen on the bloomberg , and inp, bloomberg.com the u.s. on sirius-xm. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> i am alisa parenti in washington. check your first word news. a huge cyber attack hit note -- hit dozens of nations today, hitting computer data for ransom firms andtals, data

other companies. the attack, appeared to exploit a vulnerability identified for use by u.s. national security agencies. hospitalsced hot -- to close wards and emergency rooms. attacks were reported in spain, portugal, and russia. the malwareentified behind the attack in over 70 countries. although the attacks hit russia the hardest. the white house is keeping mum about whether president trump recorded his conversation with former fbi director james comey. in fact, in a tweet, mr. trump suggested such tapes could exist. sean spicer was asked about it today in his daily briefing. >> did president trump record is conversation with former fbi director james comey? >> i have talked to the president, he has not added to that. >> democratic congressman adam

schiff is demanding the white house turn over any recordings to congress if they do exist. there is been a breakthrough in trade talks between the u.s. and china. an agreement will allow more exports of natural gas. plus, greater access to chinese markets. to bloomberg, wilbur ross says this is a step toward building a better relationship. >> we have a lot more issues to deal with with the people's republic of china. that the fact that we got these long-standing aggravations out of the waso quickly augurs well for the relationship pattern going forward. >> it is the first negotiated trade deal for president trump, who has promised to get tough on china. attorney general jeff sessions is demanding federal prosecutors pursue the most serious charges against a vast majority of suspects.

that is the reversal of obama era policies that will result in more people going to prison and for much longer terms. he called it moral and adjust. >> we are seeing an increase in violent crime in cities in ,articular, baltimore milwaukee, st. louis, and many others. the murder rate has surged 10% nationwide. the largest increase in murders since 1968. and we kw at drugs and crime go hand-in-hand. >> global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2600 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am alisa parenti and this is bloomberg. ♪ caroline: this is bloomberg technology, i am caroline hyde. we continue our conversation live at the robotics headquarters in boston's seaport

district. besides being a tech hub, it is a major city for sports. it has three major teams bearing its name. draft kings, the sports king entertainment platform is one of the signature boston tech startups. than 7gned up more million customers, almost 8 million. and they have a is about $8 million from investors. it is wonderful to have you here in the flesh with me in your home town. i want to ask, you have been wooed to the west coast several times but have stayed here. why? a greatu said, it is town, and a burgeoning town for technology entrepreneurship. it is amazing how many more companies are starting here and staying here. caroline: what about the talent pool?

are there worries about immigration? there is annk incredible talent pool here. anything that keeps that thriving in doing well is great for us. anything less so would not be. but i am not worried about that in boston. as you mentioned, there i m.i.t. and boston and all the great schools here and an incredible population of international people, students and the like. it is a big reason boston has become a new technology hub and will be viewed as that on the east coast in the near future. caroline: you have kept the money rolling in. has helpedart owner fund the latest round. where does that money go to draftkings? lot will be spent improving and expanding our product internationally. we will increase our marketing.

we laid low last year. we will not go up anywhere like we were at in 2015. but there is room to grow the marketing budget. on the product side, we are focused on improving the game offerings socially and also for the more casual user by making the claim -- making the games easier to play. caroline: let's talk international expansion. you were in germany, now it is going live. will youe in the e.u. be able to go? jason: germany has been allied with malta. we like what we see so far with germany and malta. the uk's doing tremendously well. after year, we are pleased with the results. we have invested very little there. we are working on improving the product.

we are in a position to very soon accelerate investment and i expected to grow. one nice thing about the maltese license, it allows expansion to other countries in the e.u. australia is another one we would like to expand into. we are also looking into china and latin america. caroline: ongoing discussions continue for the combining of s,rces, you could be frenemie not haters anymore. how is the process going? jason: it is great, we have regular integration strategies and we have gotten the team introduced to each other. i am surprised in a positive way how the team has gelled. you look at how that two teams will come together, the different cultures, and if that

will work. but we are much more similar than different. both makes sense, we're working in the sports base, very different products. not surprising, similar cultures. happy with how it has been going and we will put incredible consumer value out there in the coming years. caroline: what will the team or the name be? jason: we will have announcements soon, we're still working on that. and as you continue to evolve your product, you are working together, the technology, is it machine learning, taetg, you want it more enjoyable to use. what is the underlying technology driving that? jason: it depends on what you are doing. for the social part, we want to do what you see in traditional social media.

we can leverage partners like facebook and twitter to do that. it allows us to much more quickly build that. we want to see who is interested in playing with each other, what type of sports they enjoy, who wants to play basketball with this person, hockey and baseball with the other. just to make that experience easier. do andt they want to anticipate that an make it so they can do it more easily. there is also a gameplay so thatt, making it features themselves are more conducive to playing with friends and casual users. the ability to track how each other is doing. whet the to competitive appetite. aboutis been a concern college sports, a concern about ages.

jason: they have their own a minimum ages, most of them are adults. they have the ability to tell who we are targeting to her speaking to. whether it iseoe who may not be of the right age or geography that we do not currently service, we can easily target. one of the nice things about working with the digital companies is the ability there. when you take facebook or twitter and look at all the data they have end-users, it is an easy pbl to address. caroline: does that work for you? jason: i love them all. caroline: does one work better? jason: facebook is great, there is such reach with facebook. twitter is also phenomenal. i use twitterthe most, it is a great communication tool for the company, beyond acirg and engaging customers. we've recently done more on -- instagam. -- is

ram. jason robins is sticking very much in massachusetts. legalatic turn and battle involving driverless cars. a judge in san francisco asked prosecutors to investigate waymo's lawsuit against uber. they are not saying yet whether a criminal case is warranted. a possible criminal inquiry has been in a place for weeks. ever since the engineer at the center of the dispute could be at the center of a criminal investigation. alphabet, by claimed he took trade secrets with him when he left to do uber's self driving project. bloomberg news has learned sprint has preliminary talks with t-mobile. met withecutives

softbank and had contact with deutsche telekom. they are open to discussion about consolidation. they were interested in acquiring t-mobile. coming up, our exclusive conversation with dell president david golden on where he is finding the best tech talent. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> this is bloomberg. caroline: got to get me one of

them. welcome to this special edition of "bloomberg technology," in boston's seaport district. establishedthe most tech players in the massachusetts area. 36 miles away. dell emc wrapped up their conference in las vegas. they are thinking about partnerships with microsoft and amazon. i spoke with president david goulden. i started by asking him about the conference. it is the largest event since the companies merged last november. david: it was a coming-out out party for the new company. when you think about last september, a little less than a year. people were may be concerned the merger would be a distraction. it may slow down the pace of innovation.

we are able to show the pace of innovation increased. powerful incredibly set of announcements and the portfolio was addressed. ge have a new line of 14 servers based on the latest servers. that was the biggest announcement. that, newk of versions of our systems, based upon the 14 g service. it is all based upon flash these days, new versions of our systems. the entire portfolio was refreshed. caroline: what about as we move into the joint venture area eight you are talking about, can you unfold for us how you are

working alongside to offer more things to more people? particular, you have offered something interesting to female entrepreneurs. does that set you apart? one thing weemc have always done is, have women in technology. we have created a conference within a conference around the. -- that. we are extending that to people running companies in the text basis, as opposed to just customers. we have a ventures arm inside dell emc something called dell technologies capital. it is something we talked more publicly at dell emc world. million a year in early-stage developments in companies that will be the next generation of i.t. leaders. companies that are investing in things like internet of things,

machine learning, deep learning, etc. that comes back to the women in tech conference. many of those companies do have women founders. we can bring that community back together through dell technology ventures as well. caroline: why have a venture arm? beabout learning how to applicable ith world, getting skin in the game? david: it is about being where the puck is heading before it gets there. not all of these companies will succeed but we want to know what is working before it becomes mainstream. emc of the companies on the side were acquired through the years through our venture arm where there was an investment made in the early stages. we saw it develop into promising businesses and portfolio.

it is another form of r&d. working with companies in that space -- it is staying in front of the industry, understanding where the trends are before they learninginstream, them, and helping the company as they go forward. caroline: your event was in las vegas. we are here at hopkinton on the east coast. make, thement you founders, are the u.s.-based, international? what is the space in terms of technology talent? ,avid: in terms of hopkinton boston, it has been a great place to build a company. part of dell technologies is based here. we have roughly a $30 billion revenue basis here out of boston. we have 9000 employees in the greater boston area.

it continues to be a great , thee of innovation university connections, we have a research center in cambridge where i will be spending time today. that is great in terms of how we build and scale a technology company. in terms of investments we make technologies, they still tend to be u.s.-based, generally. i would say 80% are u.s.-based. we technologies, do see interesy in companies like israel where we have made investments. u.s.-based with a mix of east coast and west coast. it is not also look at valley. there is innovation here and up and down the east coast, as well. caroline: within the current administration, concerns about talent comg om abroad, does that change the playing field at all? david: no, it is important that

our markets are very global. we operate in 180 different countries around the globe. the free movement of material labor skills is important. because we want to be able to attract and work with the best and brightt,herever they were -- they are. and he want to sell to our customers around the globe, as well. keeping borders open and having things flow freely, it is important to the economy into our business. caroline: that was my conversation with dell emc president david goulden. now, airbnb is taking unusual approach as they turn their approach to latin america. they are string friendlier tone with local governments, despite offering to remit taxes in mexico city. they hope to strike deals elsewhere in the region. it is the fastest-growing

market, surpassing japan. they have a quarter of a million properties in the region. mexico, south america, and parts of the curry been -- caribbean, including cuba. we are broadcasting on the radio in boston. bloomberg is the official broadcast media partner and cosponsor of the boston pops fireworks spectacular on july 4. this is bloomberg. ♪

caroline: welcome back to this special edition of "bloomberg technology" from boston. all this week we take an in-depth look of the burgeoning economy of the other city on the hill. mayech startups, and the

of massachusetts. silicon valley has some serious competition. >> massachusetts went very difficult time in the 1980's with high taxes and political decisions that set us back a bit. aat is happening, you have political climate where everyone is looking to move our economy forward. but also be innovative. >> it is one thing republicans and democrats agree on in washington, and investment in research, discovery, and inquiry , that translates into the solution for -- therapy. >> we will continue to work with our colleagues and delegio. a lot of people in d.c. get why these payments pay off. boston has one of the top funded hospitals. they could be a good thing.

when the funding dries up, if it dries up, it means these people who are entrepreneurs and do want to start companies will think about private funding. we are there to fill the gap. >> the council t richest in the boston, massachusetts area because of the universities, research, hospital complex. we have the lead. >> there is no other place on earth where you have 500,000 of the smartest kids in the school .oing to school and graduating boston is unique in that regard. caroline: what a week. as a wrap up our final day in boston i want to get back to emily chang in frankfurt -- in san francisco. what amazing insights. we have breaking news that may come in the field of robotics, behind me. emily: it is fascinating to watch all the stories you brought us this week. thank you so much for your in-depth reporting. it has been an -- a great look

-- safe travels, we will see you from across the pond. we also have an exciting week. on monday we will have an exclusive interview. later in the week we will cover google, the developments coming out of the search giant with several google executives. that is all today from san francisco and boston. thiss oomberg. ♪

♪ announcer: from our studios in new york city, this is "charlie rose." charlie: we begin this evening with our continuing coverage of james comey's firing. in an interview with lester holt, donald trump said he would've fired james comey, despite recommendations. it contradicts the statement abrupt.g comey's claims that comey lost the support of a rank-and-file fbi agents. >> is it accurate that the rank