♪ i am emily chang in san francisco. this is bloomberg technology. robert mueller leaves of warning about efforts to interfere in the 2016 u.s. election, and tech was there weapon. how well-prepared are we to prevent it from happening again? american companies boosting supplies of rare earth as suppliesears up block

to the united states. it has been a rocky few weeks ber, we will tell you what investors are watching. robert mueller breaks his silence about the russia investigation. he said if he and other investigators had confidence the president not commit a crime, they would have said so. mueller did have one last message about russian interference in the 2016 election. reiteratingose by the central allegation of our indictments, that there were multiple, systematic, efforts to interfere in our election, and that allegation deserves the attention of every american. discussoining us to

are our guests. , we know there was interference in the 2016 election, though the president and others have downplayed it. what is the reaction to washing in washington to mueller underlining that point? >> there wasn't much new. he gave a five-minute summary of his report. hasing it directly from him shaken things up in washington, especially among democrats. we have seen an increase call from democrats to begin impeachment hearings. tv,ink the visual on bloomberg, cable news, evening news, mueller saying these things, that the president not

he wasa crime he said bound by justice department rules not to indict a sitting president. it was something he couldn't consider. using the platform to remind people that despite what the thisdent has said about politically motivated action, about russian interference in our elections and how prepared we are. it is making waves in washington and will give democrats catalyzing around impeachment. emily: facebook took down accounts tied to iran, not russia, however this social network and other companies have tried to make changes from these things happening again, but they said it is hard to keep up.

fromell-prepared are we preventing the interference we saw in 2016 from happening in the upcoming elections? >> there are two parts. targeted attacking and extraction of information. the second was using social media to distribute the disinformation. what we typically find is larger organizations are better prepared than smaller organizations to defend against the extraction of information. where things don't seem to be going great is how do we flag this information faster and prevent the amplification from taking effect. those are really the two key points. an organization can run better preventand episodes like 2016, but there is still that process that once information gets out and can be

used, there is an amplifier affected that is different and it gets more into disinformation than targeted hacking. emily: some of the details of the russian interference was among what was redacted from the mueller report. do we have any more indication about what could be under those black lines and whether the public will ever see it? >> i don't have any indication of what is under those black lines. congress is seeking to get those, actions lifted. attorneydent gave the general the authority to declassify information around this, so it is possible we could see more, but the reason it was, to back there was a long conversation about sources and methods.

i think there is still a lot we will not know about this. it is a reminder the mulder report only gives us a small window into the information the intelligence community has collect. this is not all the information robert mueller has in his report. we are only seeing a few pieces of the puzzle. emily: jason, i want to ask you what you think the responsibilities of these tech companies should be, facebook, twitter, youtube. is this doctored video of nancy pelosi. instead, do you think these companies are doing enough to stop this information, if that is what you would call this video, and are you concerned they won't make the tough choices needed to prevent this kind of interference from happening again? >> i think right now facebook is

claiming satire in terms of why they did not bring it down. i think social media platforms have a greater responsibility. they are the amplification platform of communicating information to the masses in the u.s. in the western world. with they are doing now is not enough. what level they need to go to is not a symbol an easy question. there are arguments around satire for reasons of protecting free speech. can that said, clearly we do better than we are doing right now and having platforms that amplify messages that adversaries is not in the goodwill objective for any of us. emily: the president tweeting that nothing changes in the model report. the case is closed. thank you. what happens next?

this is not the last we will be hearing about the mall report. >> to some extent the ball is in the democrats' court now. if they want to pursue investigations, begin formal impeachment hearings, so the democrats have to figure this out amongst themselves as a caucus, and nancy pelosi will probably be the key decision-maker. the white house has to be on the defense. they will try to get control of the message and repeat this no collusion, let's move on, case closed, let's investigate the investigators, so those of the talking points from here to undercut this investigation by looking into the origins of the investigation and create a side narrative here. how it plays out politically for the president is still unclear. everyone looks back to clinton

and the republicans. the republicans suffered big losses in clinton saw his popularity go up during his impeachment, but republicans to the white house in the next election with george w. bush. it is all up in the air and there are a lot of things that could go down from here on out. emily: lots to report. thank you so much. leavex is threatening to georgia if new law restricting abortion takes effect. the service says it has many on productions in georgia whose rights will be severely restricted by this law. netflix produces several shows there. the legislation is set to become law year. targetup, china's newest gears up to use its dominance in the rare earths market to strike back in the trade war with washington.

how this could affect u.s. tech next. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ to the latest twist in the u.s.-china trade war. could beijing use its dominance of rare earths to hit back in its war with washington? china supplies 80% of rare earth used in smartphones, electric cars. joining us now are our guests. what signals has china given thus far that this is a lover they might -- lever they might pull? >> china has been messaging and

state media. we had a visit by xi jinping and his trade negotiator to a rare earth production facility. it is saying it will use any leverage, including our dominance in rare earths to gain some leverage. china will look at everything it has available that the u.s. wants and hold that over them as they try to reach a trade deal. emily: talk to us about what rare earths are and how important they are to u.s. businesses and technology in particular. minerals, 17s are of them, used in things like led screens on your iphones, electric vehicles, wind turbines , and part of the issue here is that a lot of them can only be found in certain places like china.

and being one of the largest exporters of this throughout the world, along with to a much smaller degree places in europe, for example have comparatively small percentages of exports they end up producing and supplying to manufacturers. gives i have a chart that us a picture of the experts that rare earths from china to the u.s. are to us about where we now. this could be one option. what else? have been. and china ramping up their rhetoric against each other. since the talks collapsed a couple of weeks ago, we are looking ahead to a potential meeting between xi jinping and trump at the g20 at the end of june, but we are at a standstill now. the two sides of ramping up

pressure on each other, tariffs, the increases take effect on june 1, 10% to 25% on 200 billion dollars of chinese goods. trump has threatened to hit virtually every import from the nation. it looks like each side is trying to gain as much leverage as possible. threat is among many options china has. there is often talk about whether it would use its u.s. treasury holdings and start to deplete those to show its might. there are other things like consumer boycotts or increased regulations that make it harder for u.s. companies to work in been used have before. emily: there is this potential boycott of the iphone. fromlked about rare earths a product level, but which of

the companies that could suffer the most if rare earths are cut off, apple, tesla? that know one u.s. company es rarehere that mind earths that are potentially affected. their ceo said it is like a tariff on them specifically. other companies are based in north america that may not feel such an effect, mainly because they are producing elsewhere and not actually exporting either the rare earth materials or the products they produce from them, not exporting them to the u.s., but two facilities elsewhere around the globe. emily: we know that the u.s. has -- china off huawei huawei

off from u.s. supplies of chips and other technology even though officials have repeatedly said huawei has nothing to do with the trade war, but if such a thing happen in china cut off rare earths to the u.s., how might you respond? is a scarywhy it time in the u.s.-china trade talks. let's say we take the huawei example, the u.s. cutting it off from these american suppliers, china said it will retaliate, but has not said how. i threat like restricting or cutting off access to rare earth s is just scary. it is something that could potentially happen. no one knows how china will retaliate and it could hit the u.s. economy and companies. if china is trying to send a message here, it is being sent loud and clear. you both.nk

lots more as we continue to follow. sticking with trade tensions, apple could be hit. the tech giant could see its earnings fall 26% if china bans sales of the iphone. an iphone band represents an extreme case an error that the trade war could play out. a senior research analyst spoke to bloomberg earlier today. >> we saw some of the trend in january right after the huawei situation, most chinese are buying huawei phones. that situation reverted in february when apple started giving a nice price discount during the chinese new year. we saw on the last earnings call the tim cook mentioned china was strong. we believe it was driven by february, march, and services from the gaming site from the is ase folks, so there definitely a cause for concern.

the reality is we don't know the real outcome, but everyone can speculate on it. .e tried to lay out a scenario apple come off sharply. how much of that the supply chain concerns that are already in because of the tariffs now? main reasonstwo the stock is down. tariff, which% increases the costs for apple, even if they don't pass on the price to consumers. the second one was concern around demand in china. i would say both of them are a big factor in the price drop. a lot of it happened after the last earnings call. then you started seeing a lot of the negative news come. right now i would say a lot of the stock reaction has been tariffs in china demand, which is a function of politics rather

than true fundamentals. can the sales declined potentially be offset by other countries like india?> that a lot of is the sales in china and india have been driven by apple's approach. from that vantage point, they could see incremental tariffs in india, but at the end of the day , even the last couple of quarters, you have seen they did over 200 million units of iphone sales, but it is more supply constraints. you could argue they could reallocate from one geography to another, but if it is demand-related, it is a real challenge. >> we pay attention to the iphone because it is such a massive part of apple's business, but other places are pretty sizable, and maybe not as

dependent on the consumer market of china. is that a strength for apple that it can steal market share in places like the u.s.? other, there are mechanisms available. is a long-term growth story. months, next six to 12 the iphone will play a role in the apple thesis. for the last 10 to 12 years, there has been an iphone story that is slowly transitioning away from iphone, but that doesn't happen overnight. the iphone is still a near-term catalyst for the stock. telecomreaking news and , the u.s. justice department wants t-mobile and sprint lay the groundwork for a new wireless carrier with its own network as a condition to clearing their merger.

this is according to a person familiar with the matter. happens, they want t-mobile and sprint to create a fourth competitor. it is unclear how this would work. both companies in the doj declined to comment on the story. t-mobile shares up, sprint unchanged. we will you posted. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ pichai was one of the highest paid corporate executives, now he is facing no big paychecks at all. he hasn't received an equity award in more than two years. he turned down a grant of restricted stock because he felt he was already paid generously. it is not clear how much he passed up, but another giant payday could spark another round of controversy for google. pimco has always been

headquartered in newport beach, california with an office in new york, but opened an outpost in austin, texas. e spoke exclusively to the pimco ceo on the move to hire more tech talent. that we needed an office to hire talent in technology. i think it is fair to say that when it comes to higher tech people that we compete against other financial companies, but also compete against big tech companies and also startups. we looked at six different locations and concluded that university wase the best place for us over the next 20 years to hire talent and technology, then move some small part of the business in texas. that was quite attractive.

sodid an in-depth study and far we have 100 people down there. >> you have expanded. what is left? are there any gaps left at pimco he would like to fill out? if you knowthing is something about it and how you will grow it. we want to grow organically, and from time to time there may be small things we can do to bring to the pimco organization, but by and large it is hiring people and making sure we understand what we are good at and what we are not good at. there is a lot of introspection that comes into this and making sure we do that well. pimco speaking with bloomberg. horowitz, andreessen recently raised $2.75 billion

for two new funds. we will discuss the future of the firm and a new book next. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: this is "bloomberg technology." my next guest has become one of the most influential figures at a venture capital powerhouse in silicon valley. scott kupor at jason horowitz, a firm shaken up after 2009. it since invested in a host of companies, airbnb, and more. now kupor is out with a new book. he joins us here in the studio. scott: thanks for having me here. emily: the proverbial sandhill road doesn't exist anymore. venture capitalists go everywhere around the world.

horowitz is one of the firms that disrupted the traditional model. how would you describe the state of vc today? scott: there is a tremendous amount of capital. it is easier than ever to get seed capital in particular. companies are staying private longer, so you have a huge amount of seed capital and enormous amount of capital going into these later rounds. funds went -- i think it is a healthy place to be. you aren many places seeing venture capital firms trying to reinvent themselves as you see competition from private equity firms crowdfunding softbank. how do you see the traditional model being disrupted in the future? todaye way vc exists

exist in the future? scott: if you look at the first 40 years, you are right. the big thing that happened over the last 10 years is we have had this new introduction of seed firms. you now have a whole new set of investors that are coming into play before the traditional venture capital firms. it has forced those capital firms to figure out what other than money they can provide. there has to be something else. emily: are you worried about a softbank coming in with $100 billion? scott: turns out there are lots of other people playing in. we have sovereign wealth funds, equity firms. you have to do something other than provide capital. capital is no longer a scarce resource. it is basically a commodity. for venture to survive, it has to figure out what other than capital it can offer. emily: how does andreessen horowitz continue to be a

disruptor? scott: we have done a couple things. we have about 160 people today. 100 of them work with our companies post investment. everything from marketing to sales to business development opportunities. we have to think about investing across the lifecycle. a later stage fund allowed us to have more emphasis on these companies as they go through later and larger cycles. emily: you have investors looking across the pipeline to the more public markets. we are in the middle of volatility, a trade war. a lot of tech companies going public, some to mixed results. you are an investor in lyft, you have airbnb kenexa. are you concerned about your companies? scott: i believe the ipo market is healthy. we have seen companies have not performed as well as we would like, but if you talk to

institutional investors, a blackrock or fidelity, they will tell you there is a scarcity of growth in the public markets. where you can find growth that is reasonable -- there is lot of a demand still for that. some companies have not done well. a lot of the software companies in particular have done extremely well in the markets. emily: i was interviewing the ceo of uber on the day of the cooper ipo, which was -- uber ipo, which was the day the trade war ramped up. are you encouraging companies to stay on the current path? scott: you always have to look at the environment. the fundamental demand for ipos and growth stocks are there. if companies feel they can perform to the expectations of the public market, it is a fine time for them to go. you have seen there is more of a preference for software-based companies with better visibility, even if they are

growing at slower rate than others. people have to be mindful about cash consumption. emily: there is discussion we are already in the midst of a tech cold war with china. would you agree? scott: i don't think we are in a cold war right now, but there is lots of stuff that is challenging. firmre involved with the builds. there is no question it is very hard for u.s. companies to take non-us capital, in particular capital from china. we have been on record that i don't think that is good for the industry. we are still in the early stages. the impact on the venture capital industry is fairly muted. i don't think it is good policy over the long-term. emily: are you worried about u.s. competitiveness? scott: i am. i think capital and entrepreneurship is free flowing. as a country, we have been efficient. -- has been a beneficiary of

venture capital. the pie has gotten bigger. everyone has grown along with it. if we do things from a policy perspective that does not make the u.s. an attractive place, that is not good for us. emily: there is a growing chorus of voices calling for big tech to be broken up -- elizabeth warren, the cofounder of facebook -- do you think there is anything to this argument that these companies are too big? scott: it is interesting from a political perspective that there is a lot of activity happening. you see it in the administration. is active in these areas as well. we've got to recognize the impact of technology is felt in many ways. sometimes in silicon valley we don't appreciate it. we have to do with regulators and have rational regulation to

have entrepreneurship thrive. emily: does that mean breaking up or not? scott: i will leave that to the regulators. we have to do more than we have done historically. we have been lucky in the sense that we have been able to live in our hermetically sealed bubble. the reality is these technologies are impacting people in different ways. emily: where will we see andreessen horowitz put this new money? you say you have companies just hitting escape velocity. scott: one fund is focused on early-stage companies. the second is what we call later stage venture. companies that might have $20 million, $30 million in revenue, but are not thinking about going public in the long-term. investmentecent where the company has a lot of the business model working, now they need the additional capital

to expand sales. emily: the secret to sandhill road. what are the top secrets entrepreneurs need to know, and how can we make sure all people know these secrets as well? scott: you hit on it. that is why we wanted to write the book. we agree there is too much asymmetry in the business. my hope with the book as we open that up and help people understand what it means to build a vc. my hope is that encourages more entrepreneurship, not just different genders and ethnicity, but geographically. emily: scott kupor manager at andreessen horowitz with a new book out. scott: thanks for having me. emily: alibaba is considering raising $20 billion through a second listing in hong kong after a record-breaking new york debut five years ago. the deal would mark a merger

victory for the hub, which rewrote its rules after failing to attract alibaba in 2014. we caught up with the chief executive in an exclusive interview to discuss. >> i am happy if this report is indeed correct, that they are planning to come. it is not aome, surprise to us. i have said when you travel or, you come home. everybody does that. that does not mean you give up your new home. i am sure they come back and keep whatever they are doing in new york and other places. they will be coming back to asia. they could be here or they could be in shanghai or shenzhen. we are very happy that they are coming back.

we will be very happy for whatever decisions they make. >> the news around alibaba's potential secondary listing comes as a trade war escalates between the u.s. and china. are you assessing your strategy in light of this? >> obviously this trade war is a global event. it is going to affect all of us in very deep ways, so nobody likes it. we are almost like watching on the sidelines, praying that this divorce will not take hold, and maybe there are ways to scale it back. we will have to see. >> what messages are you hearing from potential issuers when it comes to reviewing their ipo plans? charles: everyone is looking at this and asking the question, how does this impact me? it is not just about ipos, it is

about the company, about investment, for somebody that wants to start a business, this is the time to do it. should i wait? the uncertainty that is created is costly to the entire economy. to political leaders need take the responsibility, quickly define what is really wanted. if you want a, we can probably agree. if you want b, we can probably work something out. if you want something that you know is fundamentally unacceptable to the other side, then we are going through a divorce and we go into a civil and peaceful, and hopefully a process that allows everyone to get on with their lives. >> the biotech sector has been part of the revamp with the stock market focus in this space. you have seen several pre-revenue tech firms come to hong kong.

what kind of changes might you see going forward? charles: we already have 10 listings and raising $35 billion. we are the second largest biotech market globally. we have another 10 in the pipelines. the key here is you are -- we are launching this very important chapter in the market where a huge population is aging. this is the area that i see tremendous opportunity. i am also quite worried there are also attempts to say the u.s.-china conflict should also somehow spill over to this particular sector, which would be ill-conceived. manufacturing,e technology, you could argue that the rise of china means the decline of america in employment, in military

security, technology advancement. i'm not saying i agree with that , but i could see the reasonable argument. in biotech, before you are american, before you are asian, we are humans. we all want to be healthy. we don't want to be sick when we have a disease. enemy.s only one there is no enemy between us, there is only one common enemy -- disease. li, hongat was charles kong exchange chief executive. coming up, call it the dream of the jetsons. the roomba cleaned up the messes of dozens of customers. theilked to the ceo about r new product lineup. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: i robot, the maker of roomba vacuums is releasing to helpcleaning robots lighten the load at home. these new robots can talk to each other. tell us about them. >> the two new robots, the m6 ares9 and bravo designed not just to raise the bar on vacuuming and mopping but also to collaborate as a first step in a home where your devices are working together to a better result. the s9, the new vacuum is a beast. it is 40 times more powerful. it goes into corners very aggressively to get all of the dirt. it is designed so that it can pick up allergens and pollen,

trap them so that 99% of what gets picked up is captured. that is brava jet m6, the new mopping robot. both of these robots build maps. they understand the kitchen and what the living room is. for the m6, that is really important because different rooms might have surfaces. or you might want to use dry or damp mopping depending on what type of floor it is. imagine your mudroom, which can have a lot of caked in dirt and mud and you want to vacuum it first before you mop. emily: roomba has a fervent following, but you have people saying this doesn't work for my space. shares dropped after first-quarter results on a

softer second-quarter outlook. what is your response to the skepticism? >> we have always had people who didn't yet understand. today, 25% of all money spent on vacuum cleaners is spent on robot vacuum cleaners. for the second year in a row, the roomba was the number one selling vacuum cleaner in america. this is a real disruption and changing of how people are going to care for their home. now we are extending from vacuuming into mopping. later this year, we will be mowing your lawn too. emily: asia is a big part of your business. as i understand, 25% of your sales come from china. how is the trade war affecting you? >> asia is 25% of our sales, japan being the largest. but the trade war is more impactful because of the tariffs.

our products are subject to 25% tariffs. despite the fact that the consumer robot industry grew last year to 35%, these increases in price which are reflected in increased traces of our products certainly are having a slowdown impact on the meteoric growth in the marketplace. emily: 20% of your sales come from asia. we will continue to follow. irobot ceo and cofounder, thanks so much. still ahead, it is uber's biggest test since going public. the ride-hailing giant reports its first earning results since going public. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: amazon is updating alexa for software to allow users to delete data using a spoken command "delete everything i said today." bloomberg previously reported that amazon listens to voice recordings as part of an effort to improve the software. uber, the biggest ipo of the year, started off on a weak foot. concerns ranging from the size to push to sell driving cars to investor appetite for a worsening u.s. china trade dispute. shares have fallen 9% from the $45 offering price. $39.ng today around we will get news insights into the company after earnings results are reported on thursday. here with a preview is bloomberg tech's eric newcomer. we know some of the numbers because they came out in the ipo perspective.

what are the new pieces of information we are looking to learn? eric: we actually know a lot, because they gave ranges around q1. it is a question -- ok, in the range of $3 billion, in revenue for the quarter, where exactly does it fall? in the range of a billion dollar loss for the quarter. it's going to be a lot of fine-tuning along those numbers then, any sort of ancillary numbers they provide then the call will be an opportunity for executives to talk about the company and explain where the vision is. emily: you and i spoke with them on the floor of the stock exchange when the company went public. take a listen to what you had to say than about profitability. >> profitability is a very significant priority for us. the great companies of the world

can grow, but they can grow off of a base of their internal capital, so to speak. that is the goal for us. we don't want to be dependent on public markets for capital. this is a very important capital raise for us, but we believe that our business can and should be profitable over time. emily: that said, investors don't necessarily buy it. i wonder what kind of color we are going to get like that about what is to come given that the shares have continued to not perform well. >> the key question is if uber tries to cut its losses, what effect does that have on total addressable market? if prices are going up, does that limit the universe of people who will take a number if drivers are getting paid less? does that reduce the workforce? people will want to know how

interconnected that is and try to watch what happens as uber -- if they try to cut into losses, what effect that has on revenue growth and how much it is able to sustain revenue growth. knowing the pieces are interconnected will be necessary to understand this company. emily: what are you hearing from inside the company about morale? eric: i think it is happy to be out in public. it was a huge milestone the company had been oriented to for a long time. for the most part, they are operating, but people had huge stakes in the company from the early days would like to see the value up, because it has a massive impact on their net worth. emily: you will be all over the results tomorrow. we will have them as well. our very own eric newcomer. thank you as always. the parent company to we work is

in talk with banks of arranging a credit line of $2.8 billion. bloomberg learned jpmorgan is leading the potential financing. said theypany has want the credit line in place before a planned ipo. that does it for this edition of "bloomberg technology.' we are live online. check us out on our global streaming tictoc on twitter. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> the following is a paid presentation for the power air fyer oven. we introduce the power air frier, and it became enjoyable to enjoy the crispy food you love guilt free. people love the power eric fryer. now air frying is taking a quantum leap forward. introducing the full oven that can fry 70% more than traditional ai