>> from the heart of where innovation, money, and power collide, this is bloomberg technology with emily chang. emily: this is "bloomberg technology." elon musk in court, trying to defend the $2.6 billion of solarcity in response to a

shareholder lawsuit. we will bring you his contentious testimony. plus, the government is focusing on chinese ride-hailer didi that just went public in the u.s. they are investigating whether the company violated data privacy and security law. coming down to earth, we will look at virgin galactic shares after the triumphant trip to space by billionaire richard branson. turns out the company needs additional funds as it prepares to bring tourists to space. and investors respond. first, u.s. stocks hitting records ahead of earnings. katie grayfield has more in new york. katie: it was a strong start to the week. both the s&p 500 index and nasdaq 100 ended at record highs. it probably helps that it was a pretty quiet day in the bond market. 10-year treasury yield ended just about half a basis point higher and that gave the all

clear to stocks after last week's dramatic drop in rates. the nasdaq's golden dragon index fell about 0.1% in u.s. trading. that brings its total drop from its mid february peak all the way to 35%. china has been cracking down on international listings and that has been weighing on chinese tech shares in particular. this sector has just not been able to get off the ground. we have got to end with tesla. ceo elon musk in a delaware courtroom today, defending that purchase of solar city all the way back in 2016. he made the case today that this was not a bailout. in any case, tesla had a strong day today, up over 4%. that brings its three day gains to up over 6% and making the back to back losses last week a thing of the past. tesla shares are still well below their high water mark of

about $883. rishaad: -- emily: katie greg felt in new york, thanks for the rundown. elon musk, day one of his trial in wilmington, delaware. must told the court that tesla's $2.6 billion acquisition of solarcity in 2016 was not a bailout. he also denied bowing to retaliate against any director who voted against the acquisition. shareholders have sued tesla over the deal, saying solarcity was a failing company. musk was chair of solarcity and its biggest shareholder at the time. let's bring in web bush managing director dan ives. the board settled this suit years ago and musk decided to take it to court anyway. what's your take? dan: this continues to be something musk feels passionate about, that this was the right acquisition in terms of solarcity, but investors disagree. this has been a dark chapter. if i look at tesla's history,

not an acquisition investors assign value to. investors are looking forward to getting this in the rearview mirror. it is hard to put this as a smart acquisition. it continues to be a black eye, one of the few if you look at tesla in the last 5, 6 years. emily: how black is the eye? he may have to pay upwards of $2 billion if he loses? what is the extent of the damage? dan: i think the damage is more around what comes out in future acquisitions. given this acquisition, it could potentially be somewhat successful. realistically it has almost been a write off in terms of the view of investors, a painful one. i think less credibility with future acquisitions, especially at a time that investors want to see tesla focus purely on ev in terms of their initiatives. i think this is something that musk feels passionate about. i think investors right now want to see how this comes out because i think it is more

reputational as a risk rather than monetary. emily: certainly the optics are bad. he was chairman at the time. he was the company's biggest shareholder. everyone raised their eyebrows when it happened, but elon musk is pretty used to that. what makes this different in terms of the bold and daring moves that he has made? that have worked out? dan: he has made many that worked out, and more. beyond i think even the bulls' dreams. i think this is one that they underestimated just how complex the solar industry was, how competitive it was. it was really out of their core competency. i think you have seen that play out here. it has been frustrating for investors to watch, negative to no value, and it is one that musk still believes. he is not one who will ultimately stop.

but this is one, with many highlights over the last decade, this is definitely a lowlight and something investors would rather have gone the other direction. emily: how does this play into his future ambitions? solar roofs, batteries, a much more sustainable future? do you see solarcity as a huge drag? does it mean they will not be able to accomplish those goals as fast as we thought? dan: i think of it almost as a distraction, and i think maybe eventually they could sell off part of that solar business if they are able to ramp it. the problem right now, in terms of electric vehicles, with this arms race going on as part of the green tidal wave, the last thing investors want to see is any dollar go toward non-ev's. i think that's sort of the frustration here. you want to see them, especially with competition from all angles, you want to see them focused on ev. it is all about delivery. that is the key of the stock, especially with everything going on in china as well. you don't want to see any

distractions from musk or the management team focused on solar ambition where ultimately it is a one step forward, two steps back kind of deal. emily: obviously, taking a look at tesla more broadly, there are lots of different things going on, things happening in china. what are your sort of overriding views right now as we are now in the second half of the year? dan: they have been through a category 5 storm between the chip issues and negative pr issues in china, and they still came out with 200,000 units. i think that shows that they will be on trajectory for potentially 900,000 units, more profitability on the horizon. i think they navigated this mini-crisis. from an investor perspective, what that means is i believe that q2 is another turning point in the broader tesla story. we have a $1000 price target and i think we will look back at

this as one that is a fork in the road situation and they navigated it positively, not just on china but on overall ev in terms of deliveries and chip shortage, which has started to moderate into the second half of the year. emily: meantime, we have earnings season just around the corner. netflix kicking it off for tech next tuesday. what are you looking for, especially when it comes to the companies you cover as we come out of a pandemic and life returns and habits presumably return to normal? dan: our view is that we will have a massive beat and raise across the board in tech. software, cybersecurity. i think microsoft is just going to be an unbelievable quarter. it is our view that tech goes up another 10% to 12% the rest of the year. nasdaq, 16,000 continues to be our target. i believe, we go back three months ago, no matter what these companies reported, they just dismissed it.

there was a covid almost pull forward. now you are starting to see the digital transformation take a next step higher. tech tin used to move up. i think q2 is going to be just the start of what i view as the next part of this bull cycle for technology stocks. emily: and yet, there is this regulatory scrutiny coming from all sides. certainly now, u.s. congress. how big a deal is that especially for big tech? dan: i think it is a big deal. we talk about 5%, 7% overhang on big tech overall because of this. i think it comes from all different angles within the beltway. we have seen the biden initiative, we see it from other parts regardless of which side of the aisle you are on. i think it starts to become a threat specifically on m&a. i think it will constrict m&a for the likes of google, amazon, facebook area -- facebook. i think the winner here is microsoft because they have a lot more flexibility to do

deals while a lot of these others are in the spotlight. microsoft potentially the winner in all of this. emily: all right, we will keep our eye on microsoft. dan ives, thank you. another story we are watching, bloomberg has learned that microsoft has agreed to buy security software maker risk iq. the price, more than $500 million in cash. the deal could be announced in the next few days. risk iq makes cloud software that helps clients understand where and how they can be attacked. microsoft has spent the last eight months grappling with a series of damaging and widespread cyberattacks. coming up, after a successful launch into space, richard branson and his crew, shares in virgin galactic take a nosedive. we'll find out why, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> 3, 2, 1. release, release, release. clean release. ignition. good rocket motor burn. emily: that was the moment virgin galactic founder sir richard branson made history, becoming the first ever owner of a private space company to launch into space aboard his own craft. our very own ed ludlow caught up with branson on the ground soon after he returned to earth.

>> i have been practicing some words to say to kids down on earth for some time. once i have done those words, just being able to unbuckle and just take off and look out these massive windows, then the spaceship was upside down, and take in the earth from space. it is something i have dreamt of since i was a kid. it was completely and utterly awesome. you know, one of those dreams come true. i still think i am going to wake up any minute and it was all a dream. it was extraordinary. ed: you are here, you did touch back down. you said the feeling of weightlessness is indescribable but will you have an attempt for me? >> it is just incredible. it wasn't just floating, but looking at the other three beneath me, floating as well,

and then looking out through these gigantic windows back at this stunningly beautiful earth. i mean, like christine, pristine sky, the strength of the blues and blacks. and realizing we were in space. i have always pictured what it was going to be like, like the ride up there, the right back. i never realized the whole experience was going to be so vivid. ed: beyond the satisfaction of your own goals being achieved, what does today symbolize symbolize -- what does today symbolize for the company and also the children present earlier? >> for the children, we have just got to get building as many spaceships as we can as fast as we can so one day those kids will have a chance to have a similar experience to what i had.

that we will do. we also launched a global raffle today so that two kids, $10 for a pair of tickets, if they win the raffle, they can go up. but that money will hopefully enable many people to go up who could never have dreamt of going into space. emily: virgin galactic founder richard branson. speechless as he talked about that trip, practically. almost at a loss for words at points. shares for virgin galactic tumbling the day after this big event. the company disclosing the potential sale of up to $500 million in shares, suggesting it needs additional funds as it prepares for its commercial debut. also caught up with the virgin galactic ceo to talk about how the math works out for virgin if they plan to charge passengers $250,000 apiece. >> i think the financial model

is going to be very robust. i do think this is a supply constrained market. it will be that way for a while. it does cost a decent amount to go to space, but our ships are reusable. the vast majority of what we build is reusable. that will allow us to have good flow-through when we get the economics moving and scaling. >> is it really software company level margins that you are hoping for? >> i think you will see solid margins out of this, and it is because we are going to lead with value. when you are going to have a business that matters to people, you have to deliver value. i think what you saw today, there is no comparison in the world. we will make sure we deliver value, and i think the economics will come out of that. you focus on your guests, your consumers, your future astronauts. as we bring them into being astronauts, i think they will be thrilled. >> i wanted to ask you about beth moses. she will be responsible for training these future civilian,

paying customer astronauts. she seems really committed, obviously. this is her second time going up. can you tell me how important a role she will play going forward for this company? >> beth is amazing. if you ever were going to pick someone to get you prepared to go to space, it is beth moses. her role is crucial. because when people arrive at spaceport america, as much excitement as there is, there will be a moment of, oh, my goodness, this is real now. am i ready? that is what beth does, against the future astronauts ready to become astronauts. that's what she did with the crew today. they were really ready. etsy from the smiles on their -- you could see from the smiles on their faces. that's what she is going to do going forward. emily: virgin galactic ceo right there. we will have a lot more about the future of space travel over the next couple of weeks and later in the show. of course, we have bezos's launch coming up as well. coming up, we have covid cases surging in the u.s., and a new side effect tied to the johnson & johnson vaccine.

we will have all the details. and gains for disney after its latest release, "black widow," scored the highest grossing debut for a film since the onset of the pandemic. the newest marvel picture talk in $80 million in north american theater ticket sales and more than $60 million globally from fans paying $30 to watch at home. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> there are parts of america that are 40% vaccinated, and those are the parts that are now seeing not only an increase in cases but an increase in hospitalizations. it is like, here we go again. it is really important to be vaccinated there, but more generally it reflects a big problem we are having, having people ready for the vaccine. the people who are vaccinated right now are pretty protected, but what about people who have conditions that the vaccine does not work so well for them? they are immunocompromised, for example, or children. particularly older adults, are -- older adults, there are risks

to people even if they are vaccinated in some cases. emily: that was the vice dean for public health practice at johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health. meantime, as covid cases surge in the u.s., health officials are monitoring reports of a rare immune system disorder and some -- disorder in some people who receive the johnson & johnson vaccine. we have more on this big potential setback. drew, it certainly sounds scary. what do we know? drew: we know there has been about 100 reports or so of this immune system side effect, guillain-barre syndrome. i'm sorry i am mispronouncing that. right now, 95 people i believe hospitalized. there has been one death associated with the condition. the bigger issue here i think is that johnson & johnson's vaccine has had a handful of these

safety setbacks, with the stroke risk, now this. they have also had some manufacturing issues. none of this is great for a vaccine that has kind of been the third-place vaccine already. it has been a real also-play in the u.s. vaccine market with only about 12.5 million doses administered, about a 10th of what pfizer and moderna have had done. it is a further challenge for this shot. in particular, u.s. and health officials had hoped to use this to reach some harder to reach populations. this is going to make that a bigger challenge. emily: what are the chances this vaccine gets taken off the market? drew: i think that is unlikely. this is a rare side effect that appears to be associated with the vaccine. i think we need to emphasize, there has not been a causal link established right now. what we know seems statistically that there is an association, but it is not good. in an era that we have vaccine choice in the united states, which is a very good and lucky thing to have, it probably does not bode well for the future of

the j&j shot. emily: what is interesting is it is an immune system disorder and obviously you are more vulnerable to covid if you have an immune system disorder. it's almost a catch 22. if you are someone who can only get the j&j vaccine, given the threat of covid right now, do you get the vaccine rather than risking a rare but scary side effect? drew: i think one of the things that's it -- that it's important to keep in mind is, yes, this is an immune system related reaction. it is very complicated. we don't know what links if any it might have to covid vulnerability, so i don't want to caution anybody from over interpreting. vaccination is essentially that you are activating the immune system to make it think you had covid. when i got my doses of moderna, i took a really long map -- long nap after my second dose, and other people have various immune system responses. this is something that is very

different. it is also incredibly rare. i do think we need to emphasize that. you are talking 100 cases out of more than 12 million doses. this is an exceptionally rare side effect, or potential side effect, ruling it may be related to these vaccines. emily: we are hearing cases continue to surge, mostly among the unvaccinated. what is the path to getting more people vaccinated in the united states now that most of the people who were going to run out the door have done so already? drew: i think it is a real challenge. vaccinations, especially first vaccinations in the united states, are really in a long, thin tail. in the u.s. rollout, there seems to be resistance. the people remaining in the pockets of non-vaccination that you have especially in the south and central parts of the country, it has been a challenge to try to reach these people. they are talking about going door-to-door. right now, we have not seen an uptick in the numbers of new vaccinations happening in the u.s. emily: your team, amazing. i'm sure we will continue to follow all these developments.

drew armstrong, thanks so much for that update. coming up, the reasons behind beijing's crackdown on big tech in china seem to be expanding. once focused on monopolies now has evolved to personal data. we will have more on what is at stake. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: welcome back to bloomberg technology. i'm emily chang in san francisco. day one of elon musk's trail in delaware has come to a close. musk telling the court the $2.6 billion acquisition of solarcity in 2016 was not a bailout, and he vowed to retaliate against any shareholder who sued over the decision. we are continuing to follow that case and i want to check back in with katie, who has been

watching tesla shares in the market. what do you see? katie: tesla had a strong day, rallying over 4%, outpacing the broader market. and broadcom shares did as well, after reports the company was in talks to acquire sas institute. on the downside, you did have charter communications get downgraded today and that weighed on the stock. virgin galactic came back to earth and then some, falling almost 18% after the share sale filing, even after richard branson's successful test flight over the weekend. but we have to talk about bd because the hits keep on coming. the company fell another 7% after the company said it removed another the five apps from online stores to comply with the chinese order and warned of adverse impacts from that removal. that brings total losses to the company to about 20% since the ipo at the end of june. finally, let's check in on the

meme stocks. the originals did not do too hot today. gamestop fell a little today, amc even more, down almost 8% as movie stocks probably slid but, meanwhile, s go to is your new kid on the block. it soared over 100% today. this company used to be a tiny stock but no longer. reddit stock was lit up with engines today, so meme mania is alive and well. emily: retail investors have a new kid in town. meantime, when china yanked ant financial's ipo last fall, it seems largely focused on monopolistic practices, which were positioned as a bid to protect consumer rights and maintain stability. with the recent crackdown on dd, this seems to focus on sensitive data and national security. here to break it down, we have

sam sachs, a new america cybersecurity fellow. this is the latest in a series of moves by xi jinping's government to crack down on tech in china, but this seems targeted toward a company that just listed publicly in the united states. what is your take? >> we hear a lot that the government is looking to assert its control over the powerful tech platform. but let's drill down a little deeper in that. deeper. what makes these companies so powerful is the vast troves of data they sit on. it's valuable for commercial and political reasons. it is interesting -- the tools that they used to go after didi are cybersecurity review, essentially a black box review of their data security practices, as well as their management of personal data on the mobile app. this is the number one regulatory risk for domestic and foreign companies -- data security. emily: what do you make of the timing happening within days of

its public listing? interestingly, they went public in the middle of the celebration of the anniversary of the communist party. they did not do any media interviews that we typically do during the listing process. doesn't the timing seem interesting? samm: the timing is interesting. i think there are two separate stories colliding here. one is that it's very likely didi was undergoing a cybersecurity review of its data security practices in secret and that's not typically a transparent process. they may have rushed forward with the ipo before getting the blessing from regulators that they were in the clear coming in compliance with domestic data security practices. that is number one. number two, i think there were clearly officials not happy with the overseas listing and there is a broader effort where they are rethinking their stance on

sending tech darlings to list on overseas markets. emily: to put this into context, china and the chinese government has gone to great lengths to put a dish u.s. tech out of china and the conventional narrative is that has helped bolster chinese technology companies. i wonder are the chinese government's latest moves coming at the expense of chinese companies and why would they do that? sam: oftentimes i think there's a tendency to look at moves by the chinese government as coordinated in order to act in the best interest of chinese companies going global. that is not necessarily what's happening. even though the xi jinping government has said we want to have globally successful chinese brands that can operate outside of china's closed and protected system, often times they left hand is not talking to the right and you have security objectives

of the government that are undermining the efforts of those same companies to go out and compete successfully in global markets and that's what's happening here. emily: what do you see longer term in terms of u.s.-china relations? do you see a financial decoupling of the u.s. and china? there are several chinese companies that are listed in the united states. do you see perhaps a financial decoupling? samm: this move is a shortcut to financial sector decoupling and these companies are caught between washington and beijing. beijing wants them to come back domestically. on the washington side, they put forward a more rigorous auditing process, requiring chinese companies to open up their audit books or be forced to delist within three years. that is also what was driving this, the kind of data that would be exposed potentially in

that audit process in the u.s. is not something the chinese government has any interest in disclosing to foreign regulators. certainly on the financial side, decoupling, and there are a number of tools in play that will determine how far that decoupling goes. emily: what is your outlook for a company like didi or bytedance , which was planning to go public, and now that's on hold? samm: the idea of wholesale decoupling is somewhat of a red herring. we are going to see ad hoc in some areas where these are companies that are going to be under increased pressure to shift their global ambitions, and focus more on china's domestic market. for bytedance, we saw this for a while way and now we are seeing -- we saw this for huawei earlier, and now we are seeing it for didi. i think there will be an inward focus as they look to line up with domestic regulation on the security side and now on the data security side. emily: always good to have you here.

new america cybersecurity policy fellow. thanks so much for taking the time to break that all down. now an update on another story we have been following, and that is verizon and china's huawei have come to an agreement in the middle of a jury trial in texas. huawei claimed verizon was using its patented networking technology without a license. it was the first of two trials scheduled this year involving alleged patent breaches. representatives from both companies said they were pleased with the settlement. the terms of the agreement are confidential. coming up, ibm has a plan to use artificial intelligence to spot and curb bias in online advertising. we will speak to the ibm senior vice president of worldwide ecosystems and blockchain's, bob lord, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: sub cart has raised new funding. the company's main owner, walmart, joined investors including softbank in putting in an additional $3.6 billion. walmart bought a majority of flip cart three years ago and has been working toward an ipo for the business. ibm is looking to the future, exploring how artificial intelligence could improve online advertising. big blue researching how ai can spot and even cut bias in the process. joining us now is bob lord, ibm senior vice president of worldwide ecosystems and blockchain. there are issues around online advertising, targeting people on -- targeting people unequitably and racism integrating into that process. how does this work?

bob: great to see you again and thank you for having me on the show. let's step back for a minute, because bias has been prevalent throughout the history of advertising, and i think the industry has a long overdue obligation to address this. what i have learned in ibm, that ai can help figure out whether your advertising is biased toward one community or another and help to address that going further. so we have launched this research study to, rather than guess on the solutions, but basically take a scientific approach to attacking bias in advertising and, in my mind help the brand communicate better with its consumers than it ever has before. emily: what exactly can ai do for a company like facebook which of course has been criticized for only targeting certain kinds of people with its ads russian mark -- it's ads?

bob: let's take a brand. if you are advertising toward a particular consumer to attract a mortgage applicant or for them to buy a cup of coffee, you start out legacy lies with segmentation bias already. what ai can do is look at those results and see whether you are biased in the results you're getting and not addressing the community you should be going after. it's looking at the data and looking at it systematically and rooting out whether or not you are being biased. we've used this many times in many businesses within ibm to root out biases and mortgage applications and things like that. we are just applying it to the advertising industry going forward. emily: artificial intelligence has been an interesting tool that can shake up the advertising industry, which is a huge industry. how is it changing how people work and how they approach their work? bob: there has been a lot of noise in the marketplace about how apple and google are going

to use cookies and identifiers going forward. actually we believe there is a better way. we believe there is no longer the need for these walled gardens. we believe that we need predictive technologies that will protect consumer privacy as well as give rands -- brands the best way of communicating with their consumer. through real-time, predictive ai, we believe we can get there. i came from this industry and went to ibm. i have seen these tools in action in other kinds of businesses and what we are doing through watson advertising is to take those tools and apply them to the advertising industry. think about this -- optimization in real time versus looking backwards at cookies and trying to predict the future. that's what we are doing. where we have applied these tools, we've seen a better result of the effectiveness of

media dollars. emily: interesting. we will have to watch how it all unfolds. interesting to hear about the work you are doing. bob lord, thank you so much for stopping by. coming up, it is a battle of the billionaires as the space race rockets into full gear. we are going to take a look at how the space ambitions of branson and bezos stack up, next. and one of the largest chipmakers, broadcom, is in talks to acquire zap institute. that is according to bloomberg sources. the deal would value them at $20 billion and could be reached in the coming weeks. broadcom shares up more than 10% year-to-date. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: after the successful launch and return of richard

branson aboard his virgin galactic spacecraft, the countdown is on for fellow billionaire jeff bezos and blue origin. next tuesday, july 20, the world's richest man will blastoff for a screaming 11 minute mission that will take him even further into space than branson. the billionaires claimed they are not competing against each other, but it's clear they both have big space ambitions. let's take a look at how their space trips compare. >> two billionaires, two trips to space, nine days apart. they are ushering in a new era of private commercial space travel. here is how the two space trips compare from takeoff to landing. this was virgin galactic's fourth trip to space with crewmembers, while blue origin is heading up for the first time with humans board. >> come this way. >> are you serious? >> i am.

>> virgin galactic gets dropped off in the air by a larger craft and then released. >> release, release, release -- clean release. ignition. good rocket motor burned. >> while the origin blue shepherd rocket is launched from the ground. virgin galactic reached an altitude of 53 miles. blue origin will reach 56 miles. >> richard branson is going to be going into space. we can debate where the line of space is. >> this line is a measure that's an attempt to mark the end of the earth's atmosphere, but it is not a fixed line. not everyone considers branson's mission to reach space. >> we are the only private company that has taken private citizens up into space, and been recognized by the u.s. government as private astronauts, so we are taking you into space.

>> virgin galactic's flight lasted about 90 minutes. blue origin's flight is expected to last about 11 minutes. >> what a view. oh, my goodness. the moon off the nose. >> passengers will experience 32 or so minutes of -- will experience three or so minutes of weightlessness, during which time they can enjoy the view. virgin galactic's airplane glides to a landing on a runway, similar to old nasa space shuttles. blue horizon will parachute to the desert floor. both companies plan to use russian soyuz capsules. both companies plan to take paying customers to space. virgin galactic plans to offer flights to well-heeled customers in 2022. virgin has also said it's technology could be adapted to slash flight times anywhere on the planet to just four or five hours. blue origin has its own plans for days on the moon. bezos has said he envisions millions of people living and

working in space and that lowing -- lowering the cost of space travel with rockets that can be used like airplanes is the first step. emily: to talk more, my guess became in the first female 2006 private space explorer and is the ceo of the x prize foundation. thank you for joining us. a lot of people may not know the history behind the relationship between the x prize and virgin galactic, but it was the x prize that identified the very model of the space plane virgin galactic then bought or licensed and ultimately is what richard branson was riding in. this dates back to the mid-90's. what was it like for you to see that space plane succeed? >> it brought back such great memories and it was fulfilling to watch this come full circle

basically. my dream came true in 2000, going to space, but my first step toward going to space was funding the x prize, which was the $10 million competition. seven countries competed. one was a scale composite funded by paul allen. that's the winning design, spaceshipone, which virgin galactic licensed and created a larger version of it with spaceshiptwo and we saw take flight on sunday. it was wonderful to see this exciting step we took in democratizing space and making it accessible and did up opening up a whole new chapter in the commercialization of space. now we can show it's possible for more people to experience, maybe a glimpse of it, but experience what i experienced on the space station and going to

space and being able to have the overview effect, which is that life-changing experience. emily: what is so innovative about the design of this spacecraft is that it changes shape in flight in space for a safe reentry and is very different than the traditional up and down rocket technology that blue origin is using. how would you compare the two? >> as you said, the virgin design is very different, a two stage with the rocket playing a role when you are into the thickest part of the atmosphere. the first part feels like a plane ride and then the rocket hits and you go up very rapidly to about close to 60 kilometers and the landing is also very different because it's like the

shuttle where you have a glider coming in landing on the runway like an airplane. with new shepherd, you have a parachute landing and the rocket is taking off from the ground through the thickest part of the atmosphere. it is more similar to what i did on my soyuz mission with a rocket launch and the parachute landing. the parachute landing could be a little more uncomfortable. landing just like an airplane is a lot more comfortable for passengers. also another big difference is the virgin light has two pilots on board, so it is piloted, versus the new shepard flight, the blue origin right -- blue origin flight, which is all automated. everyone on board our passengers, and on the virgin galactic side, you have 4000 euros and two pilots.

emily: it is theoretically a little more terrifying to go up without a pilot at all. as someone who has gone up into space and been a private space explorer yourself, you have experienced that. who offers a better experience? who will offer a better experience? is it virgin galactic or blue origin for just regular humans who have never done this before but at least at this point can afford to pay up? >> it's hard for me to judge since i have not flown either. the only thing i have is my own experience and what i can come up with based on that experience. right now i don't know mentally if having pilots on board helps and landing on virgin seems work -- seems more comfortable, but i have to experience blue origin's flight to say for sure. but from a price point, right now there is no price point for the tickets on blue origin and

the auction brought in $28 million, which is an extraordinary amount of money for an 11 minute flight. virgin, ticket prices were about $200,000, so more people -- still both very high prices but $200,000 is much more affordable at least to a larger portion of the population. ultimately i think the prices have to and will come down as more flights take place and this initial supply-demand issue gets resolved, just like the very early days of aviation. but i think that is ultimately the case. emily: it is absolutely fascinating and it must have been such a thrill to see the design you identified 25 years ago make it happen. the ceo of the x prize foundation. thanks so much for joining us. that does it for this edition of bloomberg technology.

make sure you tune in tomorrow. we are going to be joined by arianna huffington to talk about her company's latest funding round. add the cofounder and partner at -- and the cofounder and partner at revolution. i'm emily chang in san francisco. this is bloomberg. ♪

manus: this is "bloomberg daybreak: middle east." their top stories. yousef: investors against today's u.s. cpi ratings. manus: -- yousef: the sultan of oman is in saudi arabia, the first visit by an omani