♪ announcer: this is "bloomberg technology." ♪ emily: i am emily chang in san francisco. this is "bloomberg technology." coming up on this friday, president biden doubles down on fighting climate change.

we will talk about what he has in mind and how the tech sector is affected. plus, the bitcoin blues, prices trading around $35,000 today, near lows from last week's crashed, we will talk to someone who is still optimistic. school is nearly out for summer, but for some it was never in. we will talk about remote learning now that classroom doors will be open again in the fall. first, a strong date, week, and month for u.s. stock split we have to run down. take it away. >> thank you. memorial day weekend. stocks, a lot of green on the screen. low volume helped stoxx drift hi. some of those tech stocks helped. some defensive positioning. green on the screen not the case on a monthly basis. the nasdaq 100 underperformed in

the month of may. you can look at the board and see tech has not been having a good street. 2021, not doing so well. look at the boards one more time. i want to show you the real highlight. tech stocks, materials, industrials. amc entertainment up 116%. getting a $10 billion valuation. emily: all right. retail traders added again. thank you. president biden has his full budget proposal, detailing his ambitions. part of that plan involves ramping up climate change spend across federal agencies, including asking congress to put

money into climate control programs and help with clean energy technology, zero emissions vehicles, and energy efficiency. i want to bring in jennifer for more. thank you for joining us. talk about some of the key elements. jennifer: right. he is seeking to ramp up spending across the federal government and away we have not seen in the last four years. it is part of his government approach. the president is asking for $1.7 billion to improve energy efficiency of homes and buildings. he wants to dedicate $10 billion to clean energy innovation happening outside the department. it is across the federal government and agency, but the epa tells the story, where you will see the biggest difference.

overall spending on the environment. budgets have declined by a third , and the epa would get $11.2 billion, a 27% increase, and they could hire 7.4% more workers over the next year. it is a dramatic change he is envisioning. emily: the president has plans to use the spending to propel cleantech. how might that affect companies like tesla? jennifer: yes, but he wants to use the power of the federal government first, its purchasing power to create more demand for electric vehicles. today, he rolled out more detail on his plan to electrify the government fleet, and is asking congress to put $7.4 billion behind that initiative, buying

up electric vehicles and installing charging stations they would need over the next decade, $2.4 billion for the u.s. postal service and electrifying that space. emily: all right. jennifer, thank you so much for that update. meantime in the budget, plans for cyber. president biden allocating funds to establish an office to coordinate policies across the government and private sector. let's get more details. talk to us about how this fits into other cyber initiatives and organizations in the federal government already. >> this office was set up after it was called or by the defense bill. the question was would they find it. it was dreamed up by this committee on the hill.

they recommended it. this is the first we have seen how they will spend it. offices can have up to 75 people . people who are part of it said they hoped for more money, 25 million for each of the next two years, but they said this is a start. emily: meantime, we have had massive cyberattacks in the last six months. how is the budget responding to these attacks. president biden spoke out about that and expressed his concern, but is there money to help? >> absolutely. his first term has been characterized by responding to cyberattacks. the solarwinds attack

infiltrated u.s. agencies and companies, then an attack that use microsoft to target tens of thousands of networks, then recently there was the colonial ransomware attack, so he has had to deal with a lot of cybersecurity incidents while in office. the response in his budget is to allocate $9.8 billion for federal cybersecurity, which includes $110 million for the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency responsible for protecting agencies and advising the private sector. some people say this is good. experts in the cybersecurity space were hoping for $400 million more for that agency was so they are thankful for the money but looking for more from congress. emily: as they say, it is a start.

thank you so much for that update. in other news, rivian is closer to an ipo, selecting underwriters for a potential public listing. the company is working with jp morgan, goldman sachs and morgan stanley. they could see the value of $70 billion when it goes public. coming up, bitcoin continues its meltdown. we will talk about all the volatility next. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: bitcoin slumped to

$35,000, as traders rates for volatility, adding to one of the worst months ever for the digital coin, after elon musk criticize its energy consumption would to talk about this now -- consumption. talk about this now, we are joined by our guest. he is joining us now. thank you for being here. this activity, this volatility, how do you see it playing out? >> we make it secure, but there is also volatility, people going from one coin to another coin, then back again when it hits the bottom, so we see a lot of

trading during these periods. you have to look at a long time horizon to be watching the asset appreciate. it is an asset you buy and hold for a long time. the volatility is the future rather than a bug. as oscar wilde said, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about, so having this be something that people dive into and you can go down the rabbit hole. ultimately, the story will sell itself or it will not.

so far, it has been selling itself or 12 years. emily: that said, investors who might be thinking about getting into crypto or are skittish, they are probably not necessarily buying the dip. what do you say to those folks given that you offer infrastructure and seek purity solutions for digital assets? ian: i would encourage him to dive into it. i don't necessary mean invest, do the research. do the research and look at the story. i have yet to see an intelligent person dive into this rabbit hole and come out unchanged. of course the internet will have its own money. thinking otherwise is thinking the u.s. postal service would be delivering our email. there are questions around what form that will take, but it is

without question that cryptocurrency as an asset overall will continue for the foreseeable future. i think people should do their unresearched and take a look -- their own research and take a look at the story. if it speaks to you, it is something you can buy and hold. plan on holding it for four plus years would be my recommendation. emily: talk to us more about what ledger does, as despite the volatility, more mainstream acceptances happening, more companies, more events are accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment. ian: sure. we make a hardware while it -- wallet and a platform in which you can interact with the world

of cryptocurrencies. you are the custodian of your coins or your value, so instead of helping them at an exchange, you hold the private keys to your crypto, which lives on the blockchain, in your hands. you are not susceptible to many different kinds of risks you would be in other places, a cyberattack or a company going out of business or any of those types of things. so what we do on the platform, and since we have the assets, we allow people to trade from the security of the platform. you want to be able to interact with the world of digital assets if you own cryptocurrencies but the risk comes at the moment of transaction. we give you a place from which you securely sign transaction so you know you are not making a

mistake and there is not a man in the middle attack giving you something other than what you expect, and allowing you to interact with the world of cryptocurrencies, nft's, trading, buying, selling from the security of the device, and where you have custody of the assets, which you don't on the trading platform. emily: interesting. all right. ledger chief experience officer, thank you for bringing that down for us. we will see how volatile the weekend is. apple is revamping its air pods for later this year with first update in more than two years. we have more now in today's power up. mark: this is mark with "bloomberg technology" and i will be looking at the new air pods and there plus pro launching in 2021 and 2022.

♪ apple is doing a revamp of entry-level air pods this year and a second generation of the pro for next year. it will mark the first update since march 2019 and will add a new design that mirrors the air pods pro. the earbuds come with a new case and shorter stems. the air pods pro next year will be the first change to that product since october 2019, and those will include updated motion sensors with a focus on fitness tracking. apple previously aim to release the new air pods pro as early as this year. the update will bolster the company's wearables, home, and assess, segment, which has grown rapidly, now accounting for $30 billion in sales, 10% of total revenue. the last hardware introduction

where the over-year headphones in december. that $549 pair drew criticism for its price, but praise for its materials. apple only recently caught up with demand for that product. it is not currently working on a second-generation version. however, it is discussing launching additional color variations in the future. as part of its home, audio, and a sensory strategy, apple has begun development of a speaker with a built-in screen, and a device that combines the features of a home pod speaker, apple tv set box, and camera. competition for speakers and screens is widespread. last year, apple released the home pod mini, and this year, it offered a redesign processor and remote. next year, apple has tested a smaller design that eliminates the stem. that will debut in june.

for bloomberg technology, i am mark gurman. . emily: coming up, rise of the machines. everyone is getting into the spac game. we will hear from a robotics surgical company backed by bill gates, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: vicarious surgical, backed by bill gates and coastal

ventures, have agreed to merge with a spac. the deal gives the combined entity and enterprise value of $1.1 billion. the fda granted breakthrough device status and 2019, making it the first company to receive that designation. joining us now is the cofounder and ceo. thank you for joining us. you claim to have a novel in human-like to the robots to perform the surgeries. talk to us about it. adam: our technology is incredibly unique in the way the actuators themselves work. with every other surgical robot, they are built on legacy technology that has coupled motion that limits the motion between the joints and causes motion and force coupling between the joints, or forces

that are large for surgical operations, so with decoupled actuators, we can put more motion, wrist, elbows, and shoulders, giving the surgeon full motion. emily: talk to us about the demand that you saw through the pandemic. how does that of all post-pandemic -- evolve post-pandemic? adam: overall, the field of surgical robotics has had a good amount of demand, but there has been demand for a long time to exceed what a surgeon can do. surgeons put a ton of time and effort into not just training on what they need to do on the

organ, but on how to use the tools, learn the techniques, how to overcome the challenges and limitations of their limited access to the organs where they want to operate, so our device and technology greatly expands with the surgeon is able to do, all while causing far less injury to the patient. that is why the fda granted us breakthrough device designation. we expect there to be significant demand for better quality of care while injuring the patient less for surgery. emily: you worked at apple, fund manufacturing back in the day. how have you applied what you learn to vicarious? adam: yes. both myself and our cto worked at apple. he worked on iphone product

design, focusing on those small mechanisms that have become incredibly relevant, tiny mechanisms that are inside robotic arms and actuators. he leads our research and development effort today. my experience with operations and manufacturing has helped us focus over the last several years we have been inventing and developing this technology to where it is today on costs and a practical approach to it all. emily:

options out there? adam: that is a good question. there are two questions. why go public or stay private? why spac versus traditional ipo? from a private versus public perspective, it is easy for us. we are excited to be a public company, giving us visibility, and the ability to be transparent with potential investors and future customers, employees as we grow our company significantly with this transaction. we are really excited to have that visibility that comes with a public company. spac versus traditional ipo, we are pre-revenue today. i believe that spac's have a unique place in the world. especially valuable given the background in technology we have and seven years of development and the ability to come in and validate that and do due diligence on it. emily: fascinating. we will watch you. adam sachs, thank you for

joining us. coming up, pandemic has changed education. what can students and parents expect. i am speaking with one ceo about how his platform is aiming to make remote learning as part of the future for good. ♪ ♪ (announcer) back pain hurts,

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♪ emily: back. welcome back. let's take a listen after reporting better than expected results. >> we are really excited not only for the organic business, but also the opportunity to bring together the digital hq for this all digital world together with the customer 360 and we think the opportunity is incredible. emily: to talk more about

earnings now and the earnings we have had this week is kriti gupta in new york. kriti: let's start off with salesforce earnings because we did see a notable contrast with a strong profit forecast. the story did not go through in the likes of dell or hp but investor saying that perhaps those sales have peaked. the analysts there, little bit of a different story, but could actually be the broader step back and talk about -- we have it split into three different sectors. technology doing pretty well in the middle but the real outperformance was right up top and the consumer discretionary sector and that is where you had your retailers but also amazon, and i want to bring to your attention communications in the middle and that is where you have your facebooks, twitters,

and googles. tech is having a great day but retailers doing even better. let's revisit the stay-at-home theme in the likes of zoom. one of the hottest stocks 2020, starting to see the sales growth is starting to get projected to get projected lower and lower, can zoom really come back, will find that next week? -- next week. emily: covid-19 has changed the face of education over the last year with schools and parents having to navigate a new normal amid the pandemic, but as the virus begins to wind down in the u.s., kids are out of school for the summer and parents begin a return to the office and that is leaving many with some logistical challenges over the next couple of months, and a load of question for the fall. the cdc tried to clear guidance for summer camps saying that where everyone is fully

vaccinated, it is safe to return to without masking, but of course, many kids not vaccinated because they are not yet available. the ceo at outschool focused on disrupting education with distance learning. thank you for joining us. out school has been an incredible resource over the last year. basically offering school on zoom from science to art took coding to minecraft. talk to us about what demand has been like over the last year and how that changes when school is back in session? amir: as you might imagine with the pandemic and shut down, there has been incredible demand for supplements to school that can be accessible remotely. we offer live online classes to kids in small groups and we saw demand for our classes rockets thousand -- 2000

percent last year. parents continue to come to the site and once -- want supplements for school. as we enter the summer, all of the usual concerns about how can we occupy our kids time and a valuable and safeway come to the fore, and promote families, only taking in person summer camps is not an option because of costs or availability. so we are seeing this consistent demand, and the new normal is not going to be the same as the old normal as people have learned to adapt the habits in the wake of the pandemic. emily: let's talk about the new normal because you say that traditional school as they have been operating for the last couple of centuries are missing the mark on creativity and that the future of learning should be blended in person and online and off-line. talk to us about what you mean by that?

amir: i believe that the future of education will be hybrid. it will be a combination of online resources with traditional in person learning, and hybrid with the combination of core curriculum with enrichments and supplemental activities. one challenge is carving out the time and the budget to really offer extensive enrichment classes, and one of the opportunities that online learning presents is the ability to access -- parents do not believe that it is enough to simply have your kids get great grades in schools and get a great college degree and that will set them up well for the future. there are other skills and

interests, and parts of the world and the economy that are emerging that are unpredictable. supplemental learning it can really fill that gap. emily: i part of a new generation of ed tech unicorns, you raised money at more than $1 billion valuation, i want to talk to you about the summer because there are a lot of parents that do not have options in the summer, and there are some summer camps, but not enough, how is out school helping their? amir: we have more than 100,000 classes taught by 10,000 teachers, and these classes are starting right now, you can come to our site and arrange a camp for your child starting tomorrow, and to fill time dynamically so you can have your kids occupied and interested in learning in a very dynamic way,

and there is a lot of uncertainty this summer because both of how we are emerging from the pandemic and how it is different in different parts of the country, and how parents have access different resources. in some places, there is not much availability of the traditional and person accounts, simply because those will be hit so hard for the pandemic. another reason we released is the new initiative to allow employers to provide out school classes that benefit the teams. that is really, really important, especially working moms have been severely impacted by the pandemic and trying to juggle both words are now taking care of the kids this summer. employers are able to use out

school in that way and companies like twitter and the nasdaq are offering out schools. emily: absolutely. i know you have this newbie to be offering where companies are offering the benefits of out school to their employees. i wonder, i am also worried about women backsliding in the pandemic because they are taking on a greater share of childcare and schooling my but do the benefits about school -- of out school continue after the pandemic? amir: we do not see any backtracking from that. increased awareness about the issues that working parents in particular and working mothers face. we expect that part of our business to increase rapidly and investing heavily and it based on the trends that we see. emily: amir nathoo,

appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. coming up, it pays to play. we are taking a look at the wealth gap and why so much more money is going to institutions like harvard and yell versus historical black colleges and universities of the same size, and how venture capitalist startups might be able to help. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

♪ emily: a class-action case against google for alleged

gender pay disparity said to go ahead. the four lead plaintiffs representing almost 11,000 women can proceed with their case that could go to trial next year. they claim google pays men more for doing the same job. the company says it has worked hard to not do that, and that is over the last eight years to ensure payee quality. turning now to endowments. endowments have been a part of the history of universities and colleges across the u.s. for centuries. we think about endowments, weeping about harvard, yale, but what about the rest of american schools, specifically historically black colleges and universities? today, the average endowments for a student enrolled at an hbcu is around $15,000, while a student not added hbcu is $410,000. joining me now is base 10

general partner, and a second guest. thank you for joining us on an important topic. i wanted to talk to you about this fund because you are basically helping hbcus inves t and start ups and then donate part of the returns back. talk to us about how it works? >> thank you for having us here. you are correct, what we are doing with the initiative is partnering with endowments in order to invest some of the private technology companies, and 50% of all of the profits we make from those investments in order to grow those endowments of hbcus, and help with hbcu students. emily: when you and others at florida and m look at silicon

valley, see the unicorns going public, see the investors making a lot of money, what have you thought to yourself about how to potentially participate? >> it is a great question. we at florida a&m believe in a diversified portfolio, but historically black colleges and small universities, smaller endowments typically have not had access to venture capital because we cannot write the big checks. we have typically access to venture capitals with a fund a friend, but we are probably at about 2% of allocation towards venture capital with a target of 4% to 5%. we are in the game, trying to play the game, and we are trying to get access to great managers like base 10 who have access to great entrepreneurs. emily: some folks have looked at

your fund and said that it is risky, why is that? adeyami: because venture capital overall is a very risky industry. to 50% of venture capital funds lose money, and there are very few companies and funds, about 5% that make for 90% of the returns. the question for anyone investing in venture capital is can we access the very, very best companies. the good thing is that what we have found with this initiative is that the very best ceo's really care, every day even more about diversity and making sure that the success of their companies and if it's the communities that they want to serve. we have found that in a couple of months, that we have been able to partner with now 9 of the very top private technology companies. emily: why invest given the

risks? our investments like this appropriate for colleges and universities with small endowments? marcella: absolutely. endowments are long-lived portfolios. it is not necessarily important for us to put all of our capital in liquid investments. we can take a portion and invest in riskier items. i would say that if you look at the consensus of economists, they believe that they are going to have the biggest growth spurt we have had as a country in the last 70 years in the next couple of years. we want to be a part of that and we don't we just want to play it through a manager that invests in stocks and bonds. we want to be able to participate in venture capital, because that really is the growth engine of portfolios like

the ones that you just showed on the screen. harvard, yale, these portfolios while they are diversified have had a good portion of their investments in the private opportunities that smaller endowments have typically not had to, but have as much access to. emily: talk to us about some of the startups that have participated in this. circle ci, newbank, how eager were they to have hbcus as investors? adeyemi: i have been investing in silicon valley startups and about 10 years and i have to say i have never seen this level of eagerness. in most conversations with ceos, within five minutes, the reaction was things like, you are going to invest in us and together with those profits, we will create scholarship for hbcu

students? this is a no-brainer. we think it speaks to something that we believe at the core at the base 10 which is the companies that are going to perform best are the companies whose leaders really want to make a positive impact in the world, so for all nine of our partners, they all had five to $10 for every dollar they wanted to raise, and they said, i am going back to my investors and i am telling them that we are partnering with you because we want hbcus represented at our table and we want our success to benefit hbcu students. emily: it certainly seems like there is more to this than just generating more wealth, more money for hbcus, it is about creating access in a repeatable way. can you talk about some of the longer terms, bigger ambitions

with this fund? marcella: absolutely. part of -- and we are really excited about it. the other part of it, they have created a structure that i hope others adopted that will create an opportunity, and also support our endowment by not charging us fees, but i think those things with them more tangible diligent items that we are excited about. the other piece which i think is easily exciting and is the absolute cherry on top is the impact to the ecosystem. their ability to go into the student body and support students in stem and engineering

and business and offer internships, support them after graduating with introducing them into the world of technology and venture capital. last but not least is the ability to generate stronger terms for our portfolio, which will generate the ability for us to give more scholarships. it is a self propelling engine and i am super excited about all of the tentacles that base 10 will have in the florida a&m ecosystem. emily: it is incredible and ig really unique approach, and i'm excited to see how it plays out. marcella freeman and adeyemi, thank you for joining us. amazon faces a new antitrust lawsuit. more on the e-commerce giant's way of dealing with controversy,

next. this is bloomberg. ♪ g. ♪

♪ emily: amazon facing more scrutiny as warehouse workers demand higher pay and the attorney general builds an antitrust case against e-commerce giant. i sat down with brad stone to talk about how amazon may whether the many storms. ♪ brad: the truth is complicated and there is probably not a singular truth. this is a company that employs 1.2 million people. you find pockets of discontent and happiness everywhere you go,

and in bessemer, alabama, employees there voted against the united states that union is a -- unionization attempts. the life of a warehouse worker is not easy. they are managed by algorithms, the company does a lot of things to ensure that people that are stagnated, they leave, and so in some ways, it is not very empathetic arrangement. it is complicated, and there are parts of the world where the economic reality is so dire that actually, a $15 an hour wage and amazon to film it center is 8 -- amazon center is a good thing. had the same time, probably lost again for employees banding together. emily: it is not just lawmakers

and employees, but the sellers themselves which is a part of what this new antitrust suit is based on. there is a huge conflict between how, obviously amazon enabled all of these small businesses to reach the world, and then sellers complained that they are forced to offer the lowest prices on amazon, even lower than their own websites. what are the problems that you see? you went back and talked to some sellers who five years ago were singing amazon praises. brad: in lieu of an overarching poll that measured the sentiment of amazon sellers, which it was really hard to do, i thought i would go to all of the sellers that bezos mentioned in his investor letters over the years, and almost two 1, they were really disgruntled about how things have turned out. that shows is the amazon frontier, the e-commerce playing

field in particular with amazon is almost in turmoil, it is changing all the time, with lower costs, chinese sellers close to the manufacturers, and that is really hard to complete. that is a reality and a bitter one for a lot of sellers, and something that has gone to great lengths to obfuscate, but look, you sort of asked about what are the anticompetitive elements and there are a number of things they do like the price parity provision that the dca g is calling out that amazon insists that sellers sell at a lower price or an equal price that the company has gotten so big, they really deserve more attention. amazon will defend it, but look, they will walk away from and it probably does not hurt their business all that much. emily: the author of "amazon

unbound," brad stone. that does it for this addition of bloomberg technology. wall street week is coming up next, david westin talking to dimensional advisors david booth of how investor should prepare for the this is bloomberg. ♪ prospect of inflation. this is bloomberg. ♪ this is bloomberg. ♪

david: caught in the middle. being ceos between democrats and republicans. exxon management between new activism and old finances. and investors between inflation and the fed that will have none of it. this is bloomberg wall street week. i am david westin. this, investor david booth on why we should not be reading too much into any of it. david: sharp time movements in the market is much akin to grambling. emily: blair efron on how as a red-hot m&a market is holding back to find out where the biden administration is heading. >> a function of understdi