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good wednesday morning welcome to "squawk alley". ahead this hour amazon's jeff bezos voicing support to raise the corporate tax rate and how jimmy dimon views that threat but we'll start with apple. laying out the details behind its new tracking apartment out, julie boorstin has the latest. we've been talking about this forever. what are the details >> reporter: apple preparing for its new operating system launch in just a few weeks is now explaining the new privacy measures, the ability to opt-out of ad tracking that the new ios will offer users this is a feature that facebook has been attacking for months. mark zucczuckerberg it will hur.

here's what the prompts are going to look like you'll see these prompts coming up they will ask if you want to allow an app say facebook to track your activity across other companies apps and websites. apple also recently introduced changes to, changes to app store product pages to increase transparency on its privacy practices including information on the type of data that the app collects apple painting a picture of mobile surveillance claiming the average app has six trackers embedded in it and data brokers collect, sell, license and disclose to third parties personal information including location access, contact information, and even possibly the photos on your phone now this push for user transparency and control is part of apple's commitment to collect only the minimum amount of data required to process data on the device rather than sending the data off the device to servers

or the cloud for procession and using hardware and software together to keep data secure apple saying these changes quote empower users to more easily learn how their personal data is used, shedding light on practices that were previously opaque and hidden allowing them to take greater control of their data now apple says that if companies don't comply with this new rule and do indeed track users on its devices it will ask them to comply if they do not they will kick them out of the app store. >> we've seen some examples that they actually do that from time to time. absolutely fascinating and a good place to start with our next guests. good morning ladies. good to see you both thank you very much for joining us >> good to be here >> thanks for having me. >> joanna, tim cook has talked about privacy being a generational bedrock for a long time do you think at this point that

has stopped being a marketing line and they are now voting with their feet? >> i think it's both i definitely think it's both one of the things they introduced today or updated today was this day in life of your privacy or day in the life of your data it maps out so well how these apps are taking our data and just tracking us in many ways that many consumers were not aware of but it also then recommends a lot of apple products that are safer and more respectful of our privacy which is absolutely true, but is a big marketing point for apple products >> interesting how does it move the needle overall in how we talk about privacy within tech at large for example, i've seen some reporting that suggests android tracks you at a multiple rate of some apple apps but until they move do we actually get anywhere as a whole and do you think they follow it to some degree >> look, i mean what apple does

is industry leading. they may only have half of the operating systems smartphone in united states but the most important half i'll give apple credit for basically saying that our privacy status quo was broken but this habit that everyone has gotten into of following us every where we go off line and in the real world it's no longer okay credit to them for trying to make people more aware of what's happening, people feel intuitively that something is amiss that they are being tracked. apple deserves some credit for laying out the details and there's also a business benefit to apple from doing this half credit plus some self-interest. >> you guys are putting it generously you say there's a business incentive. joanna you called it a marketing point. some just might call it straight

out hypocrisy. let's not forget about the $8 to $12 billion a year that apple gets from google and this is money derived from advertising practice that tim cook is speaking out against so, joanna, paint that side of that argument for us i know we can give apple some credit but really still sort of using that data for its own benefit too. >> it is there's actually no saying this won't hit that side of the business, right? the fact is they do have this partnership with google. search is powered by google on the iphone though i do think there's going to be a loosening of that in next number of software versions i think that's a distance that's going to happen. this is going to hurt that side of the business. this is going to hurt the ad tech side of the business and whether apple benefits directly from that, that remains to be seen but either way i think apple understands and all of the major tech players understand that this is a hit.

i also don't think that most of these companies are betting that this is it right? to me this is one step, it's a whack-a-mole fight that we've seen for number of years whether it's apple or privacy tools try to clamp that down and then there's other ways of tracking us. other ways to get user data to push those ads or those personalized ads >> we'll definitely watch the evolution of the policy even after today's announcement let's turn to amazon and this remarkable statement from the company and jeff bezos about the infrastructure plan, generally speaking and corporate tax rates generally speak. they do say we recognize this investment will require concessions from all sides does that sound like a turning point to you, and what do you make about some people making the connection between jay carney who runs public affairs there and his former role at the

white house? >> i didn't actually think the statement was remarkable it basically didn't say anything amazon said essentially infrastructure is good and that's about it. so it did not specifically support the biden infrastructure plan or any specific policy ideas at all it kind of left that up in air and even the statement it said about taxation basically advocating for a higher corporate tax rate okay but amazon doesn't pay anywhere close to that statutory cooperate tax rate and it knows that and that's not going to change effectively amazon is saying higher corporate taxes are good but not for amazon >> right and this has been talked about earlier on cnbc. robert frank was saying some people see this as business incentives others called them loopholes the fact is amazon didn't pay any federal income tax in 2017 and 2018, something that a lot of lawmakers and biden himself

has taken note of. i guess my question to you does this ultimately sort of hurt other, you know, amazon rivals, its competitors? they may not be able to take advantage of those loopholes or incentives, whatever you want to call them and essentially good pr for amazon? >> i was going to say, i totally agree. i didn't find that statement all that remarkable or groundbreaking, but also it comes at a time where amazon is trying not to say something along those lines. there's been plenty of pr backlash in the last couple of weeks with its various issues. and, again, also in those touching on competitors. so to answer your question i think it remains to be seen. i also think that if any company can fine their way through the loopholes it's always the biggest companies. >> yeah. kind of leads -- there's been some argument that, for example,

from the u.s. chamber of commerce that the beneficiaries of the investment of the infrastructure should be those who pay for it if you pay for it you should be the ones that actually use it. people say who uses bridges and roads more than amazon right now. i wonder how much validity there is to that line of thinking? >> that's a great point. i haven't heard that from the chamber. it's an interesting idea it's worth asking is the job of our elected officials to set tax policy and to enforce it if and when it thinks that companies are getting around the rules and so it's really not on amazon, it's on the people who we elect to office to decide on what's appropriate and fair to, for big corporations to pay. so i also thought janet yellen made some interesting remarks this week about a global minimum corporate tax to avoid some of this issue of companies, you know, dodging taxes by

registering in low tax countries. so there's some interesting ideas floating around out there. >> yeah. that's where it definitely gets interesting. something we'll be talking about for a while. finally, guys, clubhouse now reportedly looking to raise money at a $4 billion valuation is that quadrupling in a matter of months. have you written or decided whether or not this particular platform really has legs >> i'm still going with it's a fad. i find it a little bit insane this quadrupling in what three, four months since january 1 billion, slightly ticking up and i do feel that's ticking up. i do feel the buzz around it is ticking down or at least we've seen competitors, social media network saying actually we think this is just a feature we'll add this audio only chat room type of thing to ours i'm not sold we'll see this mass

blowup in users and potential clubhouse. on the other hand they now started to really think about modernization and lure in creators giving them the ability to get paid or send payments through the app. maybe they went on a creator front and tracked more of the big names. >> thinking about monetizing the there's no revenue no android app competitors that they talked about a lot on this program. give us the bull argument then why are they sort of leading this creator revolution. how do you justify this valuation. i'm having a hard time >> money has no meaning is the bull argument. no i don't want to be cynical there's some interesting things happening with clubhouse to me the post interesting example was in china there were a few days before the government

blocked the app where people in china were having real conversations about their lives and about policy and about what's happening in their country over clubhouse in a way they don't in other internet channels available there that to me is a sign that maybe there's something there. i just want to be humble about whether this is lasting or a fad and about whether there's actually monetization value there. humility is not a quality that is highly regarded in silicon valley so there's not a lot of humbleness out of clubhouse. >> i was going to say i'm stealing the money has no meaning line bhfr whenever we talk about valuations in the future like spotify, with locker room which was a big deal and spotify has a huge valuation

in end people are going oh, you're doing talk radio. with enough dollars chasing it there's a sense if people believe that's enough. >> i don't think we should blow off spotify product. people are there already listening, right there's a really good product tie in there, in that sense. even in terms of twitter building spaces, there's a really good tie in that that's already where people are i don't like the idea that i'm saying well there can't be another big social network and a big mover in the space i think there still can be again i think a lot of this came had to do with pandemic and people being at home and willing to sit at night and listen all the time i think we'll see this evolve in how this fits in people's lives. >> yeah. that is a great point. we'll get a reality check on all sorts of areas on tech once we sort of get back to normal quote-unquote. that was great, guys thanks for kicking off the hour

for us we'll see you soon after the break, jamie dimon's message to shareholders as big tech start to gain ground on major banks "squawk alley" will be right back don't go way we see smarter software delivering cleaner power. emerson's breakthrough technology enables the power industry to integrate renewable energy sources to modernize and improve the electric grid. emerson. consider it solved.

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saying quote fintech and big tech are here big time we have more on the fintech which has seen some monster valuations over the last year, perhaps validating those fears of dimon, the latest that the company that visa missed out on and one that dimon has called out before under no uncertain terms. >> reporter: a lot to unpack one of the start ups that jamie dimon announced. plaid announcing its first funding round since its deal with visa was called off $425 million was led by altimeter capital. virtually lake and ribbit also participated this puts plaid's valuation at $13.4 billion. almost triple what it was worth a year ago when plaid agreed to be bought by visa. that deal ran into some regulatory issues.

the doj vowed to block it. the company said they mutually called off that deal in january and after all that visa now face a doj investigation into its debit card business and possible anti-competitive practices in that full year since the visa and plaid deal was stuck in limb jobs plaid's business boomed as people started adopting digital finance. the company's technology is essentially the plumbing that connects your bank account to a fintech app. it works with thousands of those apps including robinhood which took off during the pandemic as well as coin base. now has 56 million users plaid said it saw a 60% uptick in customers last year it also works with google and microsoft. and it has agreements with most of the major banks including jp morgan dimon used plaid as an example

of unfair competition and improperly use data that's been given to them. plaid in response said the company is focused on ensuring people have access to their own financial information so they can share it securely with permission with fintech apps that they choose and they have they have a data exchange agreement with jpmorgan chase among many other banks back to you. not just plaid receiving that monster value jays. you saw stripe get that $95 billion valuation a few weeks ago and looking ahead to coin base next week which some say could approach 100 billion at the highest end. regulation, though, this is something dimon has talked about often and something that we also heard some from jay powell and janet yell en talk about what we saw with

china, this huge north of $30 billion valuation taken down substantially after all of the scrutiny and rule changes there. how big of a threat do you think that actually is here in america. obviously very different systems. but you talk about privacy obviously big focus. we started the show talk about it do regulators perk up and say we have to change this. does that hurt the tech industry which has grown unbridled over the last few years >> reporter: that could slam the fintech industry so they connect these pop already consumer apps either robinhood, things that people took up during the pandemic to your bank account. if that middle man weren't there and that didn't exist consumers wouldn't be able to use it the argument here is yes regulation could come down on all these fintech apps but consumer demand is big number. coin base, 56 million users.

robinhood added millions of users. regulators have to be concerned about consumer demand. in europe they have something called open banking. all the banks have to put out apis that make it easier to connect a fintech to a bang acc -- bank account if we go in that direction someone could be the the-- be ta threatened here. >> he said at a minimum they will embed payment systems and increase a marketplace of bank services and products. when fintech hears that from a guy like dimon do they think we got him where we want him, or is their size and scale still a huge threat? >> reporter: it's interesting when you mention big tech. a lot of companies like google

launched a pseudo bank account and debit card and they use that to keep customers engaged. they don't want to become banks. they want a reason for their customers for not to leave the app. they won't look for a bank charter but may tow the line if there's a gray area for tech they will offer financial products and if your option especially for younger customers between a google bank account or one of the constitutional wall street banks, it is a real issue for southeast more traditional banks. >> great stuff obviously fascinating series of events here in the last couple of days regarding payments speaking of payments we'll take a close are look at more people buying and selling their house with bitcoin we're back iju aoue n st cplof minutes. implacable place. it is not. it can be bright. quiet. and safe.

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welcome back here's your cnbc news update

nike is suspending its endorsement of texas quarterback deshaun watson it says they are deeply concerned gets the nfl star that includes sexual misconduct watson has denied any wrongdoing read more on cnbc.com. st. louis has elected its first black woman mayor. she narrowly defeated fellow democrat jones will be the third black mayor in the city's history. stephen breyer warning liberals of increasing the supreme court. and there's a possible link between astrazeneca's covid vaccine and rare blood clots it's not recommending any restrictions on the vaccine. french regulators found no link between the vaccine but now recommending people under 30 be offered shots from other

manufacturers. you're now up to date. i'll send it back to you thank you for that apple preparing for its new operating system launch in a few weeks, explaining the new privacy measures the update including an opt-out feature that facebook and others have opposed joining us to discuss is information facebook chief privacy officer and head of global policy chris kelly. good morning thanks for being with us >> thanks so much for having me. >> now we talked about this at the start of the show. the privacy stamp that we're getting from apple does go beyond a marketing campaign but it's also self-serving we spoke about some of the ways in which it was so how do you view the stance they are taking and also facebook's argument that ultimately this is going to hurt small businesses >> i think that you want to empower people with more information over time, and so actually highlighting this issue is not necessarilya bad thing.

but when it is as, you know, you have to look at this in a way where businesses have to make sure that they are applying the same thing to their own, the same standards to their own platforms. and express opt-ins for only third-party information where there's a long-standing relationship is definitely a change in practices. but i'm hopeful that both apple and facebook will more aggressively present these options to users and get that consent. the move toward that is not necessarily a bad thing over time >> right but facebook's argument and stance really pitting themselves against apple they say standing up for small businesses putting them on the other side of privacy. you had google come out saying they want to be on the right side of privacy and just feels like facebook, maybe it's a pr strategy, what it's doing is putting itself on the other side are they explaining themselves

well enough? is there as much to that argument that they are sticking up for small business. >> there's a lot to that argument that they are sticking up for small businesses. a standard has developed here in term of the way that ivf a, the advertising identifier is used that allow small businesses to connect with consumers easily. apple is disrupting that process in name of privacy and facebook is saying well wait a minute there's actually some challenges to that too. ultimately i think more communication and more information on all sides about this is a good thing the unilateral action bay platform provider is something that should cause some pause and facebook is trying point to that out i think in its messaging over time the aggressive presentation of, to consumers of what data is collected, i think is healthy for all of these companies. that more knowledge on the part of consumers is better and more

understanding about the way that advertising works and that targeted advertising actually can be very consumer beneficial is one of the things that the companies are going to have to do a better job at >> so, chris, it sounds like you're saying we can sit here and we can talk about how it's going to impact someone's quarter or how it's going to impact the gunfight between apple and facebook but the larger point is that over time incrementally consumers are going to be conditioned to ask, wait, this new app, how which i be tracked and that's not a question they asked instinctively so far >> i don't think more knowledge here is bad for consumers at all. i think that the practices that develop need to be scrutinized and i think you've seen that regulatorily with number of other actions and that can actually be, you know, most companies should see that as a long term healthy thing. but in the short term there's a

competitive knife fight that goes on between platforms trying to advantage the themselves by changing the rules mid-stream. so there's a lot to be said for both sides but more than anything else if consumers are empowered and given more knowledge that that actually makes for a healthier eco system over time. right. a fair point chris, i want to shift gears to my last question and sneak one in on the nba. as co-coner of the sacramento kings you've seen the rise of top shot, tom brady and the manning brothers jumping on that band wagon do you think nfl ultimately gets more involved and do you think that this rise and the huge amount of money tied to nfts will affect the finances of pro sports leagues >> i think you've seen hundreds of millions of dollars transacted already through nba

top shot we're excited about that as a league you'll see other leagues get into this. you saw the topps spac come because nfts are seen as part of their future the nba top shot example through dapper, you have seen flebl moves and you'll continue to see that from other sports leagues things get overblown too and the sports card trading market makes a lot of sense we'll see what happens in broader art market, though >> okay. chris, we'll certainly be watching we've been covering a lot of this story thanks for being with us chris kelly. >> thanks for having me. >> meantime treasury has a new report about the made in america tax plain. pretty interesting numbers kayla tausche has them >> reporter: treasury putting a little bit of new detail behind the tax changes underpinning the american job plans that says it will raise $2.5 trillion over 15

years by raising the corporate tax rate and establishing minimum tax rates for companies operating here and overseas and reversing some incentives for activities involving fossil fuels. treasury officials say they are aiming for a deal by the end of this year on a global minimum tax that it's currently negotiating with the international community and the u.s. is convinced it will reach one. some of the changes they were proposing were requested by those negotiating partners in meantime treasury says profit shifting overseas remains at record levels that the 2016 tax law did not change that as planned and that taxes by u.s. companies recorded in some seven tiny tax havens still stand greater than by u.s. companies in china, canada, germany and a host of other companies combined in u.s. there is also a proposal for a 15% minimum book tax that

would apply to companies who are currently not paying any taxes and treasury estimates that about 45 companies would be subject to this new tax and they would pay an average $300 million a piece if this were to be implemented treasury secretary janet yellen said taking an aggregate all of this would take effect with the american jobs plan but this comes as the penn wharton budget model suggest the american jobs plan when you take tax and spending provision together would lead to negative economic growth in the u.s. for each of the next three decades treasury officials said they disagreed with the overall finding of that report they believe these plans would be decidedly pro growth, but notably, carl and team, treasury did not provide much new data and many new numbers on how much each of these provisions would raise at different levels and

how likely each one of them is to succeed back to you. huge implications there as we get at least a little bit more from treasury thank you. that's kayla tausche as we go to break keep your eye on snap. up more than 4%. once again the favorite social platform, tik tok a close second up 100% in six months. and that's about a three week high "squawk alley" is back in a "squawk alley" is back in a minute pharmaceutical companies to accelerate their production of critical vaccinations for the world. emerson. consider it solved. keeping your oys.rs business growing of critical vaccinations for the world. has you swamped. you need to hire. i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/promo aaaand welcome back to guess the price

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getting some news out of t-mobile uncarrier convenient. julie boorstin has more about that >> reporter: t-mobile is promoting its strength and fast deployment of 5g as it works to draw and retain subscribers. it will allow unlimited downloading for customers on any of its plan including $15 month entry level plan and that will last for the rest of the year. getting rid of the tiers another perk it's off serge a free 5g compatible samsung phone to any new or currents customer with a traded phone or upgrade to an iphone 12 if you turn in an apple iphone 11 t-mobile is launching $60 wireless home internet service that will also be over 5g and cover about 30 million people in the u.s., about one-third of

whom live in rural areas mike sievert will be on close bell at 3:00 p.m. eastern. you don't want to miss it. a lot of big 5g headlines today. >> we'll certainly be watching thank you very much. bitcoin creating a buzz this time in real estate world as more people are buying and selling homes with the crypto currency diana oleck is taking a closer look >> reporter: this manhattan beach, california home recently sold for bitcoin one of a growing number of mostly high end properties now being listed and purchased in crypto currency. >> i would we're just at the beginning. >> reporter: we met this real estate agent three years ago when he listed this massive malibu home for sale in bitcoin. it ended up selling in dollars but that was then. >> what's happened since that last is it's become more popular where people are asking more

often how do guy about buying a home using bitcoin or crypto currency as the form of currency for buying real estate >> reporter: which is why his company has a crypto management division designed to help agents and consumers through the process. and he shared some advice with us first you'll need to find a real estate agent who knows how to work with bitcoin, someone who has already facilitate ad transaction. if you're a buyer or seller pay off properties with no mortgage makes the transaction much easier you need a crypto real estate attorney someone who specializes in the paper work and liability aspects. finally you'll need a third-party escrow, a bitcoin mover who can both transfer and hold to token paul decided to list his troy, new york home for both bitcoin and dollars.

>> i just put it up in january as a bitcoin listing and a few days later i had an offer in u.s. dollars that was pending i did not see what bitcoin could offer. >> reporter: and that may be the biggest issue for bitcoin in today's ultra competitive real estate market. demand is so high that sellers are likely to get multiple offers in dollars before bitcoin ever enters the picture. that said on the ultrahigh end which is less competitive and where international buyers play, listing in bitcoin will garner more attention and buzz about the property and could ultimately lead to a faster sale back to you guys diana, this to me feels like a lot of hype in arket we looked at bitcoin and it's rise in last year and last few months if you think bitcoin is going to the moon why would you spend

that as a transfer of value. have any homes -- how many homes do you know have been sold using bitcoin? has anyone gotten to that point? >> reporter: absolutely. there's been a couple of dozen being sold in california you're right about people perhaps wanting to hold on to bitcoin now but have you seen home prices because they are going up pretty quickly too. if you're trading bitcoin now for a house you may see great returns on the house as well >> new wrinkle in what's already a fascinating industry especially this year still to come this morning, u.p.s. betting on the evs of the sky. frank collins has more on that don't go away.

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evs are taking to the skies and u.p.s. is joining the movement signing a deal with beta technologies for ten of its aircraft by 2024 frank collins joins us now with a special guest. the >> we're joined by the founder, ceo and chief test pilot of beta technology, kyle clark kyle, thank you for being here and congratulations on this deal with u.p.s.. >> thrilled to be here, frank. thank you. >> we're going to show some video in just a moment but for people who don't understand what they are can you explain what they are and what you think this deal means for the entire industry >> absolutely. electric vertical takeoff and

landing aircraft utilize zero fuel to move goods and people through taxpayer and the neat thing about electric aviation it provides the energy, density and batteries and power density to take off and land vertically we can mov we can move point-to-point goods, people, medical supplies and it is a big-step function change for the entire industry as we are tracking towards a zero emissions future for aviation this deal with u.p.s. is clearly a huge deal for beta but for the entire industry. it telegraphs the aircraft coming to a major player in the world. >> just to clarify, these vehicles take off like a helicopter, fly like a plane we are showing pictures so people can't see the full scope of what they can do, but when talking about the commercial world what is the full range of usage for this type of vehicle we know u.p.s. is thinking about

package delivery where else do you think it can go >> there's obviously logistics, package delivery, passenger, medical. those are the things that helicopters and planes serve now, but theneat thing about a entirely new paradigm in aviation is we don't know all of the applications as we bring this new technology that has a two to five x reduction in cost, it unleashes a number of applications that we haven't even thought about yet when we do that with a quiet, sustainable tool, the customer adoption is real and it is there. >> so for u.p.s., the batteries for yours will be compatible with arrival ev trucks they will use for package delivery in the future is there going to be just one general battery? is it something we will see more widespread throughout the industry of electric commercial vehicles >> yes, of course, batteries in general, everybody wants high energy, density, reliability, long cycle life. the compatibility is mostly on the charging end where the same charging infrastructure can be used for the aircraft and

package cars so that they utilize the same hand-off point and get recharged or refuelled at the same spot >> there's been some drama in the flying airspace recently whisk, the kitty hawk boeing jv, accusing rival archer of a brazen theft of confidential information and ip what did you make of archer's, you know, what some say very quick arrival on the scene and do you think we will see more of this kind of infighting, lawsuits as the industry takes off and we get closer to commercial use >> yes, of course. i mean there's a lot of momentum in the industry. here at beta we are really focused on delivering a pragmatic and intensely reliable propulsion system in aircraft for these fleet customers and focused on sustainability emission there's a lot of people at boeing, at archer working towards the same eventual mission. it will all sort itself out, but

we're just here focused on flying, test flying and delivering these for u.p.s. >> kyle, i wonder if you could talk a little bit about the profitability of this space. is everyone sort of pouring lots of money in to grow, to capture market space how are you thinking about it and what are sort of the unit economics in flying aircraft >> yes, the neat thing about fleet customers is that the unit economics are really focused on the operational costs. as we take the fuel out, as we reduce the maintenance and we increase the service intervals, providing a tool that can be used more often, those economics work for fleet customers much more readily than they work for the ones, twos, occasional flights. in the areas of emergency lift like helicopters that fly very infrequently relative to aircraft that fly with u.p.s. or united therapeutics or the air force regularly, those economics really start to shine whe when you take the fuel out, you

extend the service, reduce the maintenance, and then the aircraft operational costs start to dominate the equation that's when there's a transformational shift from fuel-burning aircraft to purely electric, zero emission aircraft. >> kyle, let's talk about scale for a minute this evtol you are selling to u.p.s. has about a quarter of a space of the package truck, one of the brown trucks we see around our neighborhoods can you make a bigger one, and generally how long does that take if you wanted to make an entire fleet for someone like u.p.s., how long would it take to make 300 or 500 >> naturally we are setting up to deliver 500 a year there are physical limits in how big you can make this form of aircraft, but here we are developing electric propulsion systems, this aircraft is a starter. we are growing an aerospace industry around this new form of propulsion

naturally they will be bigger and bigger aircraft, and we would love to get into medium cargo, medium range and heavy cargo and long-range over the next decades it will take time, but every incremental step we make at this step will push on the heels of the next aircraft. they will get better, more sustainable and more economical, and the entire industry will transition to electric over the next few decades for almost all of the missions that are domestic, some of the long-haul international stuff is still a few decades away but we will get there. >> all right kyle clark, ceo and founder of beta technologies. we appreciate you being here carl, back to you. >> thanks, frank good stuff, frank. thanks so much that's our frank holland keep your eye on viacom/cvs today getting an upgrade at wolff research they say the stock is a recent point. nurning "squawk alley" in a mite

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in case you missed it, nfl superstar tom brady is launching his own nft platform what else? called autograph this spring he will serve as

co-chair onsite entrepreneur richard rosenblatt, and the company assembling a high-profile advisory team carl, reminisce i.nt to me we h julian edelman on a few weeks ago and his nft manager, and they said it was the wild west right now. i think they said he felt like the substitute teacher one day ahead of the teacher so tom brady clearly taking advantage and getting big names involved are we seeing the institutionalization of nfts right before our eyes? you know, i'm waiting for the day that the nfl gets involved in a much bigger way. >> yeah, it is fascinating i think it is not a coincidence that the players that are jumping in on this, dee, have largely been on the front, the leading edge of technology in general. edelman, of course, has some of the highest engagement of any

active player right now on the nfl on both instagram and twitter, i believe we will watch that closely by the way, we should mention a pretty good day for faang in what is obviously kind of a soggy tape all-time high for alphabet, got an all-time high for facebook and amazon is the highest, going back now to february 19th. so we'll keep our eye on that. let's get back to headquarters and the judge. ♪ ♪ carl, thanks so much welcome to "the halftime report." i'm scott wapner front and center, the stunning call on tech why one firm says that sector about to go on a tear. we will tell you how much it thinks the gains could be and debate it with the investment committee. joining me carrie firestone is the ceo. steve weiss is here along with jim lebenthal and joe terranova. good to see everybody. let's go to the wall and check where stocks are currently trading. nasdaq somewhat muted, the overall market is, too dow is down 50, yields 163 we're keeping an eye on the ten year