caroline: i am caroline hyde in for emily chang and this is "bloomberg technology." u.s. officials pause the j&j vaccine after six women develop rare blood clotting. plus, we are getting a coinbase direct listing reference price

set at $250. that price, ahead of its debut. talk to an investor who wrote one of the first company checks. we will get his perspective on where this is headed. and, another big step in ride-hailing. a deal to run driverless taxis in dubai. we will get details from the ceo. these stories in a moment. first, record highs, let's go to ed ludlow with the latest. of course, coinbase's 250 reference price. >> i guess the story of the day was inflation, what inflation? not enough to worry investors that we will see any meaningful change in monetary or fiscal policy. we saw fresh records. the s&p 500 up by 0.3%.

tech shares leading the way in the nasdaq. tech heavy index up by more than 1%. still some weakness in semiconductors. u.s. 10 year yield a little bit lower. a fresh record for the nasdaq 100 for the first time since february 16. if you look at the middle of the chart, it took off quite a few months between september and february to get records. but this new record has come much work for lee. interesting to see the behavior of odd yields. as we have discussed on the show so many times, rising yields have put pressure on tech companies that have stretch valuations. the big story, all about crypto on tuesday. so much of that relates to the coinbase listing. two hundred $50 per share reference price given by nasdaq. that would give it evaluation below the one that the private market given in march.

$350 per share, valuation of $90 billion. all of that optimism boosting bitcoin on tuesday. a little softening through the session boosted some of those crypto related stocks. quite has boosted to around 63,000 year to date. so much excitement around the coinbase listing. maybe this reference price -- you have some smart people you will talk to. but i know that at least you and i are excited, caroline. caroline: price targets going way higher. great roundup, thank you. let's return to the story of the j&j shot. six u.s. women between the ages of 18 and 48 who received the johnson & johnson vaccine developed blood clots. >> the real thing that is so notable here is not just the

cerebral thrombosis. those two things can occur. it is their occurrence together that makes a pattern. and that pattern is very similar to what was seen in europe with another vaccine. caroline: in the united states, nearly 7 million doses of the j and j single vaccine have been administered. : free pause in the distant -- calling for a pause in the distribution. as a look at the numbers, six cases, almost 7 million doses given, this is an abundance of caution but necessary, right? michelle: it is a vanishingly small number. the concern is that what doctors would normally do in the cases of blood clots could be harmful

to women experiencing this particular result. doctors and public health officials want to make sure that they know what to tell doctors to do if they are confronted by something like this. you can think of it the same way we thought about the anaphylactic shock with the mrna vaccines early on. it is not a big deal if you know what to do, if you have epipen thought hand. the problem at this moment is that they need to get their ducks in a row so they know how to treat people experiencing this so they are not worsening the situation. caroline: ok. talk to us about what a knock on effect from a pr perspective. it sort of breaks my heart a bit that both astrazeneca and j&j have suffered this. both of them are doing it on a not-for-profit basis. how can they stop the safety concerns that we have seen here in europe when it comes to the astrazeneca shot? michelle: they both use a --

virus to keep delivering these into the cells to deliver the spike protein. and they are using the same type of virus. the point that you are making, that the side effect is vanishingly small and that it is potentially derailing vaccinations not just in the u.s. and europe but potentially around the world, it does mean that we might see more coronavirus infections and we could see more deaths from covid-19 as a result. the floor getting the vaccine are not necessarily at all sick. they might not ever be sick. they might not contract the virus at all. one of these situations where you are potentially putting someone in harm's way. they might have come through a coronavirus infection justified, in order to protect other

people. you have to be careful going about handling it. caroline: may be the u.s. is just fine. pfizer saying they can deliver tens of millions more doses to the u.s. by the end of may. about 95% efficacy still. u.s. has a lot of those shots. what about the equity story here? j and j was so important because you did not have to store it at such freezing temperatures. perhaps it helps those not just in the u.s. but further afield. michelle: astrazeneca at the johnson & johnson shot, and when you add in the sputnik shot which works in a similar manner, the vaccines that were intended to protect the globe they are the ones that can get out to the more rural areas. you only have to give some of

them, the j&j shot, one time. this is the way that we were planning on protecting everyone. and of course, you have to protect everybody in the globe, even in the remote locations, in order to stop that virus from coming back. the bottom line i think is that we are going to figure out a way to balance the safety and efficacy of these shots. we need these vaccines, the globe needs them. even as you were saying, the u.s. has plenty of mrna vaccines, you can't get them to some countries. think about it, almost 7 million people, this is not a large side effect. caroline: all-important of the vaccine but all important on what is happening in the markets. coming up, we are looking ahead to coinbase's listing.

this as bitcoin hits new eyes. this is bloomberg. ♪

caroline: coinbase, the fast-growing crypto exchange, is expected to go public wednesday at a staggering valuation. a reference price of $250. many think it could go to $400 billion or more. joe weisenthal took a look at what this means for the future of the global currency. joe: coinbase is going public. but it is not just another direct listing. it is a symbol of how far crypto has come in its increasing institutional acceptance. bitcoin has been around since 2009.

despite sustained rallies, the mainstream basically always viewed it extremely skeptically. >> bitcoin, which in our view is nothing else than a ponzi scheme. >> i could care less what bitcoin trades for, how, why it trades, who trades it. if you are stupid enough to buy it, you will pay the price one day. >> i think it is a scam for criminals. >> it is an index of money laundering. joe: fast forward to now, bitcoin has more than doubled this year and it is a more than tenfold since lows last march. now with the total cryptocurrency market worth over $2 trillion, the large institutions are ready to play a role. >> bitcoin should be worth $400,000. >> investor interest is massive. it is so big that despite being less than a decade old, the company is by some measures larger than established exchanges like ice or nasdaq. >> i think there are many that are standing outside the gate,

waiting for that moment where they can have exposure to bitcoin. joe: coinbase had 56 million verified users in the quarter. crypto seems here to stay. caroline: joe weisenthal on how coinbase could change the crypto landscape. i would like to bring in one investor who wrote one of coinbase's first checks. garry tan, initialized capital managing partner, joins us now. a reference price of $250, which means $65 billion. people are talking about $100 billion. what was the price that you paid? can you even remember what the capitalization was when you signed that check? garry: something like sub-10 million dollar.

that is what you get to do when you find someone that early. a single founder, sometimes a demo. that is what i love to do as the early-stage investor. they have a dollar and a dream, really. caroline: for full disclosure, my husband is a senior manager at coinbase. i get a little bit about the company. but i want to know what you get about the company. will you be selling into this direct listing tomorrow? where do you think it can go from here? >> for me, my journey for crypto is really about the long-term i want to talk about ryan armstrong. for me, he is sort of steve jobs and steve wozniak in one person because he can both sell it and build it. that is what first jumped out to me. for him to be able to walk away from eight figures at airbnb,

10, 11 figures as a founder, that is a testament for american innovation. the privilege that we have with creators and builders in tech. i think that is what really drew me. he was working basically -- i think they are just getting started. i think coinbase is this decade's microsoft, netscape, google, or facebook. caroline: why? garry: the pc revolution was about eighth of -- about a fringe set of people saying they wanted it. they wanted a pc on every desk in every home. it took the vision of bill gates to bring that about. apple had to create the iphone to bring about the smartphone. for each of these revolutions, you need sort of a cornerstone company to attract capital, to

bring together the world's best product people, software engineers, designers. i think that is why we are talking about coinbase today. brian was able to be that sort of magnet for that talent. there are very few people, shockingly few people in the world who are capable of building something like that. caroline: a lot of the valuation, institutional money wants to get exposure to crypto in an equity-like fashion or perhaps a blue-chip-like fashion. what does coinbase's obvious relationship to bitcoin and the like going to do for it? how will it educate that it can do well amid volatility? garry: one of the things i have learned over the years as an early investor in corn base -- in coinbase, we have seen every

run and every bust. the magical moment for me working with brian armstrong is the moment that bitcoin went from five dollars to $20 and its first round of $1000. it crashed back down. it did it again in 2017. at this point, we are used to this. that is why the number one thing i think of when people are considering whether to invest in coinbase is actually zoom out, think about what crypto means for society from here. i think i really underestimated what store of value would mean. all of crypto was worth $2 trillion today, all of gold is $10 trillion. we are maybe farther along in that journey. that is only one of a whole bunch of new cases coming online that i think will remake all of society. i think it is really fitting

that brian learned about startups at airbnb. that was software feeding hospitality. -- software eating hospitality coinbase is software eating all of finance. caroline: i love that you use the term dime in hand. that portfolio with coinbase, there was also reddit. kudos to you for those choices. initialized managing partner and cofounder. thicket. coming up, general motors self-driving cruze is going to dubai. the ceo will join us next. when we can expect to see the cars for commercial use in the united states. this is bloomberg. ♪

caroline: cruze, the self-driving car unit act and -- listed in 2023. this marks the first international expansion outside the united states. joining me, ed ludlow, who knows all things having to do with the electric and vehicle space. what do you think they want to achieve by 2023? >> they laid out a vision four or five years ago to make driverless trips 25% of total trips traveled in dubai by 2030. i think they have chosen cruise because they think we have the best chance with that technology. our vehicle, cruze origin, the fact that we are all electric,

partnered with general motors and honda, the ability to build these vehicles and deploy them at a really big scale. >> do you expect to launch commercially in the uae before you launch commercially in the united states? >> no, we expect to launch commercially in the u.s., san francisco, expanding from their, moving to the uae as our first international market after the u.s. launch. >> why does cruze not have a firm -- why does cruise not have a firm date for commercial launch of the u.s.? >> we are making record progress with the cruise origin. dubai in 2023 so you can infer that the u.s. launch will happen sometime in the middle. caroline: talk to us about delivery, use cases, and what we are seeing with chips at the

moment. has that in any way been an issue for the new development? >> on the delivery side, we announced a partnership with walmart last november and kicked off a pilot program with them. that is happening in phoenix, in arizona. we will have more news to share on that front relatively soon. the right hill business, here in san francisco -- the ride-hail business here in san francisco. we are still making rapid progress on everything we are working on and are in pretty good shape and moving quickly. >> when will we see cruise ipo? is that contingent on you becoming revenue-generating? >> all of our focus is getting our initial commercial products launched both on the ride-hail

side and the delivery side. that is where all the energy in the company is right now, making that happen and getting the product on the road. >> we are seeing a lot of consolidation in the space, specialized focus on communities? are there any types of companies or names that you have your eye on? >> i think consolidation at this stage is pretty inevitable. we are not surprised to see the consolidation that has transpired. we are down to a small list of larger companies that have a real shot of commercializing this technology. the voyage team is super talented and experienced. we are thrilled to have had them join us on the cruise mission. great to have them on board. caroline: give us a perspective of when you are looking at regulatory environments,

countries moving ahead. dubai set out a plan years back. how is the regulatory landscape unfolding as you envisaged it? is it faster, slower, more concerning? >> we think in general it is on track. it is important that the united states and other countries around the world set a clear regulatory pathway. that is one of the things where dubai has demonstrated real leadership, that pathway to make this a reality of putting self technology on the roads in large scale. we are feeling good. it is really important that the u.s. maintain the leadership position here. >> as you know, ime san francisco resident. when will i be able to hail a cruise origin shuttle and take a

ride here in the bay area? >> the cruise origin begins production late next year, early 2023. but it is possible that you would be able to take a ride in one of our av's before that time. caroline: there you go, ed. getting in there soon. cruise ceo, thank you for joining us. coming up, tennessee senator marsha blackburn on president biden's $2 trillion structure plan and where america stands with cybersecurity in china. this is bloomberg. ♪

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technology. i am filling in for emily chang. it is a day for both stocks and bonds. it was tech leading the charge today. >> that performance so interesting. it actually in that manifested in the nasdaq 100 hitting a record high. since the year started, you saw such a choppy history for tech but today was the story of the day. defensive trade was really sparked by that johnson and

johnson news. the johnson vaccine was halted, sinking the stock. it is playing out in a way that some of those recovery travel names like american airlines and carnival are underperforming. but the stay-at-home stocks like zoom are strongly in the green. i want to show you the board of single stories. it was not just big tech that rallied. nvidia hit a record high after a wave of praise from analysts. they unveiled that they are venturing into microprocessors. magna international also in the green. this is on the news of a potential contract with apple. i want to bring to your attention roadblocks -- roblox and hasbro. they came up with a deal to bring nerf and monopoly to

videogame platforms. caroline: tech and toys, the perfect marriage. we were just talking about nvidia doing really well in the market. yesterday they unveiled their first server my compressors, extending a push into intel's lucrative market. nvidia shares continue to rally will intel -- while until -- intel's slumped. that was not the only thing revealed. the company showed that the framework aims to help developers improve ai solutions. cloudflare ceo death he would joins us now. he said in the press release that you are working with nvidia and will bring powerful ai tools

to bring applications to power future. tell us about the applications. matthew: four years ago, we launch our platform called workers. that allows any developer anywhere in the world to write code and deployed it across the cloudflare network. what we announced with nvidia today is we will be adding their gpu processors, which is a special kind of trip -- chip which makes artificial intelligence tasks more powerful. whether you are building smart doorbells or any type of device which today may not have the power to run advanced artificial intelligence on it, now that can be on the network itself powered by cloudflare and nvidia. caroline: how does this help you from a sales perspective, and

cloudflare continue to protect cybersecurity across its platforms? matthew: we have always used artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify threats, security, and other challenges. we have used a number of gpu vendors to power that intelligence behind the scenes. what is unique about what we announced today is that same ability we had as a company's we are now making available to any developer in the world to make their devices more powerful. i believe there will be applications for developers to specialize in enhanced security on top of our existing platform. caroline: talk to us about the existing landscape. you have people starting to see the end in sight of a pandemic and returning to work. work from home has put a lot of

pressure on corporate cybersecurity efforts. is the landscape getting easier? matthew: there are a number of things going on. i don't think any one company is going to be completely the same after the pandemic. we have all learned a whole new set of skills. i think employees are going to demand more flexibility. while there will be different companies at different points in the spectrum, i think there is going to be much more remote work and that means there are different challenges to security. you can't rely on all of your employees coming into the metaphorical castle and surrounding it with a mode. -- a moat. at the same time, we and other great companies are pioneering efforts to make sure that no matter where you are anywhere on the network, it's almost like

you will be secure matter what. we think of it as being like bulkheads on a ship. today we heard about new vulnerabilities in the microsoft exchange server. if those get released somehow you have one application compromised on your network, it does not compromise the entire ship. that is a real seachange, more than compensating for the increasingly complex environment in which companies find their employees working. caroline: cybersecurity is not the only security issue for many players out there. you are's seeing supply chain insecurity on chips in particular. -- you are seeing supply chain insecurity on chips. how is that playing out? matthew: it has been a challenging 12 months from a supply chain perspective. i am proud of my team forgetting

in front of some of the shortages and issues. we have always optimized around what we think of as effectively just in time delivery where we are able to stockpile components and build our network as is needed. it has been complicated. urc these shortages of supply and we just had an unprecedented level of demand. -- you are seeing these shortages of supply and we just had an unprecedented level of demand. we saw internet usage around the world almost double and we had to make sure our network held up. i'm proud we were able to do that and i think we will be able to continue to do that. caroline: we thank you so much them a matthew prince, -- thank you so much, matthew prince. coming up, tennessee senator

marsha blackburn on president biden's infrastructure plan. where america stands on cybersecurity and china. this is bloomberg. ♪

caroline: over to washington now. president biden's $2.25 trillion infrastructure and packet -- infrastructure package, but it is getting pushback from the gop. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell is calling on the white house scale back the bill, saying some items just don't belong, such as support for the elderly care. joining me now to dive into where democrats and republicans are meeting headwinds or can come together, tennessee senator

marsha blackburn. it is wonderful to have some time with amid a very busy day. can you talk to us -- time with us amid a very busy day. he talked about what a package should have? sen. blackburn: what we have traditionally focused on. roads, waterway systems, we have even included broadband. but never have we seen the litany of things now being discussed. bernie sanders even said today that humans are infrastructure. they are trying to put in place a spending bill that already is above $2 trillion, maybe as high as 2.7 trillion. that is an awful lot of debt. what we think we should do is focus on those roads and bridges

and ports and waterways and broadband. the last infrastructure bill worked towards last year, and of course the house did not agree with the senate on the spill -- this bill, but it was $325 billion. that is more along the line of what we have spent. in tennessee, where i am from, what we hear from people every single day is we want our roadways fixed. we wanted to be safe to get to work, to be safe to get children to school. we want to make certain that we have the ability for commerce to take place over our highways and our interstate highways. we want our port to be dredged and to be safe for products that are coming in. caroline: but that is cheap at

the moment. perhaps you would have even more commerce if people were freed up from having to care for loved ones and were able to get into the workforce. is there not a better compromise? what do you think can be achieved in a bipartisan nature? sen. blackburn: you know, one of the concerns in this bill is there is more money that is going to go into electric cars then there is into roads and bridges and highways. and are we concerned about eldercare? that is something i do every single day with elderly relatives. are you concerned with that? absolutely. but an infrastructure bill is not the place to have that escutcheon -- discussion and it is not the place for that type of funding. we have other avenues that come from other departments and it

really is inappropriate to say that is infrastructure. is the kitchen sink infrastructure? because they are definitely putting everything but the kitchen sink in this. is ben & jerry's ice cream in their -- ice cream infrastructure? because it is made by humans. these are the questions people need to ask. we know that this bill is really a boondoggle bill. there is a way to appropriately address infrastructure, and indeed, i had a bill. zero money, zero lies, very easy to get projects moving. that is to deal with some of the regulations and mandate that many times prohibit our communities from being able to repair his roads and bridges.

caroline: talk to us about where you have made bipartisan strides. you have been looking at china and the supply chain, big tech and the power it has. where you think there might be some competitive issues he wants to see tackled. -- you want to see tackled. where do you see priorities being tackled in a bipartisan nature? sen. blackburn: yes. i have talked many times about the bipartisan leadership that has been brought to bear on the issues dealing with china. we are very concerned by the aggressive attitude of the chinese calmness party and how they are seeking global domination the time we get to the midpoint of the century. when it comes to huawei and 5g

advancement, when it comes to what they are doing in shin john -- xinjiang and the uighurs, the aggression against the hong kong freedom fighters, tibetans, that for china. when it comes to big tech, we are continuing to work there. with facebook, there are situations where they have shared information with some governments. other governments like the u.k. in the u.s. have been more successful in dealing with facebook, but their lack of

attention to privacy of their online users is something that we are focusing on right now. caroline: do you want changes in antitrust law? sen. blackburn: yeah. and we are reviewing antitrust and there is bipartisan agreement there also. just like with privacy, the need for section 230 reforms, which is something we are discussing here. i look at this as the virtual you protection agenda. it is looking at issues of data security, antitrust, how big tech works in the marketplace, and how they have been manipulating governmental entities not only in the u.s. but around the globe. caroline: we want to thank you for your time. we know you have got to rush back. thank you for speaking to audiences once again.

meanwhile, apple invitations are out and they announced their first product event will be held virtually next week. we look at what we can expect. that's next. this is bloomberg. ♪

caroline: president biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan also aims to address the environment, including creating opportunities for sustainability. we are going to be talking about balancing clean power costs. the u.s. must secure all things in terms of its environmental approach. but before we dig into that, the u.s. energy secretary says the u.s. must balance clean power costs and the battery supply chain. >> the administration is

supportive of tax credits for battery technology, whether it is a tax or utility scale. you name it. we want to see battery technology developed and deployed. at the doe, we are focused on continuing to bring down the price of batteries and finding substitutes for lithium. we are also interested in developing a full on supply chain. you can see that in the american jobs plan as well, to be able to mine responsibly for critical cereals we know we have got in so many pockets of this country. bottom line, we can do that and we can do that responsibly. we can even process responsibly. but we have got to get the ball rolling to create that supply chain. you are speaking to me on a week

where the administration is convening people from the automotive industry because we have lost the ability to produce semi conductors. -- to produce in this country semi conductors. if we have lost the means to produce batteries or ev's, then we have really lost, as a nation, out on our own independence, our own economic independence. some stuff is not going to be built here, but these critical components, these critical supplies that we know we need for our own energy, we have to look at that as a real moment for america. if we decide we want to have the means to our own energy independence, we have to build that stuff here and have to

invest a bit to make that happen. whether it is tax credits, refundable tax credits, tax credits that can be monetized up front or over time, that is all subject to negotiation in congress. the american jobs plan has laid out a framework, but hopefully we have robust support for battery and energy storage. caroline: the energy secretary speaking with bloomberg. from infrastructure to apple. it says it will hold the first product unveiling on april 20, calling the event loaded. apple plans to unveil ipad pro line as early as this month. let's bring in mark gurman, who covers the company for us. first and foremost, what are you expecting at the event?

>> thank you for having me. the big thing will be the new ipad pros. this will be the first update to the ipad pro line in little over a year. they released the current one in mid-march last year. the new thing is a new processor on par with the much faster chipsets. there is going to be an upgraded court that can sync faster and a much improved camera system. but the big thing is actually going to be an improved display on the larger of the two models, with what is called a mini led display. that allows ultimately a better user experience. other things in the pipeline are new imac desktops as well as a product called air tags.

it's like one of those tile gizmos that you slap onto your bag or wallet and you can located -- locate it. caroline: meanwhile, why is all of this significant for apple at the moment? we always know what is so important about innovation. what do you think they are trying to demonstrate? >> nothing you are seeing next week is going to be particularly innovative, in my humble opinion. there is nothing extraordinary we have not seen before from apple or anybody else. besides the imac. on the ipad specifically, we are talking about iterative stuff here. however the ipad is becoming an increasingly key product. that apple -- the tablets made apple $8.4 billion in revenue in 2020 the most since 2014.

sales jumped -- 2020, the most since 2014. sales jumped and now we are at the point are employees and students are returning and it could spark another purchase cycle for the device which is key in work and school. caroline: also they are working on a tv speaker box to combine. mark gurman, stay well. meanwhile, that does it for this edition of bloomberg: technology . tomorrow, we will be ready to cover coinbase is erect the state. currently at a $65 billion valuation. but that is just for starters. guess include a general partner on the board of coinbase. and the founder of 776, and early investor in coinbase -- an

early investor in coinbase. taylor riggs takes the helm that day. thank you so much for joining us. from san francisco and right here in london, this is the bird -- this is bloomberg. ♪

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