a loss for the first quarter, though a narrower than expected one. >> phil lebeau, thank you. i think that is going to do it for us here with "squawk on the street." major averages are all lower this morning for the final day of trading for the month of april, but higher for the month. "techcheck" starts right now ♪ happy friday welcome to "techcheck. i'm jon fortt with carl quintanilla and deirdre bosa today, amazon smashes expectations one more blowout in a big week for big tech the stock had a good week, up only modestly now after the news we will look ahead twitter tumbles, what went wrong for jack dorsey and company as that stock falls down double

digits beeple is back the $69 million man that personified the nft craze joins us with this neck project. carl >> jon, a lot of questions for beeple apple is flat to start the trade today, feeling the effects of the eu antitrust charge which we'll talk about in a moment western digital down after a beat on revenue and stronger chip prices. but overall, tech is challenged today, although the sector has continued to lead the pack this month, thanks largely to blowout earnings from amazon an intraday high today >> that's right. that's the top of our feed today. amazon, as big tech continues to amaze this week with earnings. we saw another huge growth story with sales up 44%, crossing $100 billion in revenue this quarter. the second time it did so. between the big five, amazon, apple, alphabet, microsoft, facebook, that's $1.2 trillion in revenue a year.

25% higher than when the pandemic actually started. "the new york times" points out this morning, those five make more in sales in one week than mcdonald's does all year guys, i think she called it bonkers dollars for big tech that might be a technical term this week has been truly, truly astounding there is no denying that niece names are the pandemic economy winners standing in stark contrast to some of the other sectors in parts of the economy. >> it helps that an iphone goes for a lot more than a happy meal i guess they've got that going for them when you look at overall revenue. >> indeed. i mean in one issue we tried to tackle in the last hour was the acceleration at aws. the core retail business has huge macro tailwinds, but for aws to accelerate versus prior quarters and to beat on the margin story that seems to be

where a lot of the focus is today. >> yeah. bezos calling aws one of amazon's children. the others also being prime, which is ten years old some huge engagement numbers there as well. engagement numbers up 70% over the last year. we know that they have been spending huge amounts on content and amazon cfo telling me that's going to continue into this year as well as on things like logistics. we know amazon has been spending there heavily already. let's bring in keith rabois, an early employee at paypal and square and linkedin. keith, good morning. i know you've been critical of silicon valley in the past after their blowout quarters, though, their record growth, is that a good thing for america? >> it's a reflection of the last 10 or 20 years of investment, r&d and intellectual property, so it's manifesting itself right now. we'll see what the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years look like, which i

think will be different. technology takes time to develop, time to shift, time to be adopted by consumers and turn into revenue and monetization. you're seeing the monetization phase extremely impressively right now. >> so what do the next 20, 30, 40 years look like they feel invincible at the moment >> generally speaking, technology across the globe will dictate the future of the world. i believe the headquarters of the companies, the employees of the companies will be more fragmented and distributed in berlin and in new york and miami. they're not going to be headquartered in silicon valley. they're not really headquartered in silicon valley right now. amazon, microsoft are not in silicon valley they've never been in silicon valley two of the four most important tech companies have never been in silicon valley. let's not overstate the value of california >> keith, i wonder, when do you think viewers should expect to notice an effect or is there the relationship between jassy and

bezos so symbiotic that it will be hard to notice? >> that's a great question i don't really know the answer i don't know if anybody -- if amazon knows the answer. when you still have a chairman looking over your shoulder the degree of freedom you have to change things are constrained. the apple transformation was different because steve jobs died, but at least tim didn't have someone looking over his shoulder it will take years probably to see the effect. >> keith, amazon wins the union vote, hikes pay, crushes earnings you see all of these strong results across these big technology companies does this bode well for them or does it play into the argument that they're just too big for some people's taste? >> well, i don't see having amazon having any impact on what i do i'm looking for investing in the future of retail, the future of cloud computing. i think people way over read the

effect that amazon has in the future of technology there's nothing that's deterring us from investing in entrepreneurs that have better ways of doing things and amazon really can't stop that. >> what do you think of what the eu is doing with apple right now, kind of pushing on the side of spotify arguing what apple is doing with the app store, charging competitors 30% is anti-competitive often regulators by the time they identified a problem and crack down on it, somebody has innovated around it. is this going to slow things down >> the eu has been silly with respect to competition for 30 years. this is just a classic example there's a reason why presence have not built impressive companies in europe. eu and other regulators get in the way on behalf of society, i used to be an antitrust lawyer in the '90s, this is totally ridiculous but not the first time that european union has

been ridiculous using competition laws as a political wedge. i saw they will try to ban the phase of ethereum. i saw data regionally ten years ago there was probably about 20 important technology companies in europe. today, there's probably three. all of the rest have moved to the west or china. that's the future of europe if they keep regulating like this >> did i hear you correctly you're not worried about amazon? >> i'm not worried about amazon. it doesn't affect anything i do on a daily basis or the investments we make -- >> what about -- >> sorry go ahead. >> what about the tax base, i know you have investments there, building a quiet presence in financial services, payment technology on the cutting edge, about to roll out new technology to whole foods stores, potentially license it out, whether just walk out or palm technology that doesn't make you think twice? >> no.

paypal is still doing well, square, stripe is doing well, affirm doing quite well and these are the companies that i'm invested in. >> okay. then keith, is there anything about any of the big tech companies that you think that they could go into some of them are trying to get deeper into the health care space. i mentioned payments do you think new businesses will be difficult for them to make strides given sort of the antitrust issue as well. >> one of the reasons i'm not worried about large tech companies, they don't hire the right people that can create new businesses fromscratch it doesn't affect what i do because i'm looking for entrepreneurs that are going to change the world elon musk is not going to work at beeple or facebook and he's not working at amazon. as long as elon musk doesn't want to work at those companies i can give him money and he can change the world >> andy jassy created aws within

amazon. >> he did. but he had amazon as a core customer and a place that a lot of people, maybe nobody was looking, so the future he was able to create a culture and amazon was better than google or facebook at this, able to create something but he had a target customer base of one and turned that into a product for other people that's a reasonable strategy for a large incumbent. amazon isn't dominating cloud computing. there are plenty of competitors, large and small. >> keith, i hope you won't mind one question on doordash it's been about 24 hours since reuters ran this piece with the comment from the labor secretary about worker, gig worker classification was he -- do you think we haven't heard it from anywhere else or a turning point in how workers get classified in this country >> i do think we need to innovate we have two pools of how we classify workers the future will be a hybrid

model and makes sense to have some social protections that apply to workers that choose a better fate. forcing people to be w-2 employees makes no sense people who work at doordash or uber or lyft prefer the flexibility and control of their schedule and the ability to take a day off whenever they want versus working in an office and someone dictating these things to them. it's not as if people are choosing artificially to be independent contractors. many, many people in america prefer to be independent there may be solutions that are somewhat a mix and match strategy i don't think there's a one size fits all for the future of laber. >> along those lines, doordash's chief operating officer told me earlier this week the average hours worked for one of their dashers is four hours a week so when you consider that, does that person want to be an employee and what if they're driving for uber and lyft? how do you do that what are the types of benefits in a flexible economy.

we should want one the types of benefits that are most going to support those workers? >> yeah. flexibility is pretty critical four hours may be a second job for example, when i first invested in doordash in 2013 many of the drivers and dashers were grad students they can, you know, generate incremental income and they can't work ten hours a week. it would interfere with their academic pursuits. i think applying rules that make no sense for the future of the world are just going to, you know, handicap everybody, most importantly going to handicap the workers. >> you know, there's so much debate around this whether making independent contractors employees would actually take away the flexibility we've seen cases in europe where they have been able to do so and make the model work. why isn't it something to consider here in the united states >> well, i think companies should be liberalized to compete on that basis. if there's a company and founder

and ceo that wants to compete by hiring employees and making them full-time employees you get to control things and you get a lot more degrees of freedom as a ceo than you would working with independent contractors but every business should compete. there's an opportunity for everybody in america to compete for workers. there's a scarcity of workers who want to work for less than $20 ap hour. every company should have a different model and people can choose some people prefer to drive in a lyft and then deliver at doordash because they don't want to get out of their car. doordash doesn't work for them because they have to deliver food other people don't want to deal with passengers. passengers can be unruly, drunk, annoying that's a better choice for somebody to work at doordash where they don't have to interact with passengers we need flexibility for people to choose what jobs, hours, terms make the most sense for them every american has the right to choose their own work and we should have different business models and different companies that support each choice

>> it's interesting you see the ride sharing delivery companies facing a shortage, but amazon last night has had no problem hiring, you know, now 1.2 million workers. thank you as always for your insights we'll have you back again soon, i hope. >> pleasure. it has been a blockbuster week for tech earnings and we're wondering which company you would give the oscar for best performance in a technology role even with netflix out of the running it is a stacked lineup hit us up on twitter or scan the qr code on your screen and make your case. we will show off the best answers at the end of the show carl >> all right guys, when we come back, the record-breaking artist beeple, known for his nfts is with us known for his nfts is with us after the break. so when something happens that could affect your portfolio, you can act quickly.

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time for a gut check on twitter. shares are plunging after the company reported first quarter earnings that beat on the top and bottom lines a miss on monetizeble daily active users alongside weak guidance, the company cautioning it saw several headwinds ahead ranging from apple's privacy changes to costs and expenses we will break down the quarter further with julia boorstin later this hour. carl >> it's been a month since this

moment you'll see beeple sold for $69 million. we've seen the hype around nft skyrocket and come back down joining us to discuss his latest collection and the market at large is digital artist beeple welcome back good to see you. >> how is it going how are we going "techcheck," we have a new show here smarty smart >> yes and we're honored to have you with us. talk about your newport t-- new portfolio? how is your audience >> honestly, we're -- it's not really it's something that i think will appeal to crypto collectors but also appeal to more traditional physical collectors as well. dissimilar to the kristi's piece sort of like a j-peg this has a

component to the pieces i'm releasing tonight. i think that's something that there's a lot of room for improvement in soft rt of like exploration around it's going to be seen whether that's your phone or computer screen i want to make cool screens fo people to view this on and something that feels like it's very cohesive sort of package with the artwork itself and feels like a physical extension of that digital artwork. >> you've been i think remarkably wise about this whole opportunity, what it means, where we are in the natural course of these new kinds of innovations. >> yep. >> what have you made about the craze so far and where we are, which chapter? >> sure. i think people are starting to sort of maybe take abreath her and sort of resettle and kind

of, you know -- i think the market is starting to mature i still think it's insanely early. talk to the average person, they still have no idea what an nft is it's still very much i see a massive room for growth, but i think you're seeing people sort of looking for a bit more sort of quality in the releases here and something they think is going to retain value long term and super healthy for the whole entire ecosystem. >> let's talk about -- happy friday >> hey. >> let's talk about the brand of beeple you've been very realistic, i think, about nfts and the heat around them right now and how that might cool off, but then your art is surrealist and very -- well the bulls -- the one bull mounting the other bull with bitcoin behind it, it's very much -- very much -- >> family show. >> some of these we can't show how has all of this affected

your brand and the way you're expressing through your artwork and that unique experience that you talked about before that you want to provide for the people who are patrons of your art? >> sure. i don't think it's affected my brand that much. i'm still going to do weird stuff. i'm still going to do weird stuff as you see, but honestly, that's what people like. people, that's sort of what got me here, sort of doing kind of whatever i want and sort of, you know, people seem to sort of resonate with that i think, again, with the physical aspect, i think it's something that really sort of bridges the gap for a lot of people with nfts, they're maybe not -- they're on the fence. nft, you also have the physical as sort of another way to sort of enjoy this and another way to sort of look at it i think that is something that is going to sort of bring in a lot more people to the space and help them, you know, sort of understand this better when they're able to sort of -- okay, it's not just something virtual,

it has a physical component. i think that can only sort of add to the experience. >> it's deirdre. glad to hear you will keep things weird that's what many love about your artwork. not to take too hard of a turn but we have been talking about a potential doubling of the capital gains tax. have you and others in the industry thinking or talking about it >> what would it mean for nfts and the blockchain technology? >> well, that would probably -- to be honest, you guys are probably would know better than us and the tax implications of that i assume it would not be great but it's one of those things that quite honestly is sort of out of our control and kind of hopefully that, you know, is done in a way that does not hurt business i hope that's the case i think this stuff is again so new that it's a bit gray at the moment and i think having clarity around that actually

long term could really help and sort of legitimize this industry and something that, you know, it's going to need to be sorted out eventually, so we might as well sort it out now and move forward with it and planned. every industry is taxed. it's one of those things that will be what it is and as soon as we get that sorted out, we can move forward with that >> right that's a good point. less trading and more holding if you know you're going to be taxed on your capital gains. i don't know if you've seen this it's the gardner height cycle talks about the importance of technology innovations and usually becomes clearer once the hype does die down where do you think that nfts are, if we are in a cycle? are we still in the hype period? is it dying down are we reaching a plateau of productivity >> i honestly think we're so early still. i think this was -- i think it's going to take a similar, you know, sort of trajectory to

crypto which you will see like everybody gets excited and maybe there's a bit of a softening for a bit. the technology, again, is so -- i believe so strongly in this technology because it's so sort of simple in terms of, you know, just proving ownership and it can be applied to so many things that i think long term it has such a massive opportunity and massive, you know, possibility of really be looked at as a true alternate asset class that i think where we are, you know, over the course of this, you know, two months or whatever, i think this is an industry that's going to be around for many, many decades and so, you know, i'm not super concerned about, you know, where the market is just over the last very, very short term here. >> whether it's other artists, investors, who are you watching in the nft and art space right now that is making you think that you just think is smart or innovative. >> gary is coming out with a

drop as well on may 5th that i think is going to be really awesome. i think he's coming at this with a very thoughtful, very long-term strategy and i think he's going to do great i think he's recognizing that the nfts, there's no like magic here or trick. if you are making stuff that connects with people, on an emotional level and really sort of, you know, has that connection, i think -- or it is something that has utility and has really sort of use, i think those nfts will have value if you are not doing that it's going to be hard to sell nfts because i think people will be looking for something to connect with them or have use as, and that's where they're going to want to put their money. >> that's interesting. we've talked to some musicians, for example, some bands like kings of leon and guster that have looked into this and some argue it's a way for songwriters

to finally get past the mess that is the record label and get paid for their songwriting is there a use case that you've heard of where you think, i don't really see that working? >> i think there are a lot of use cases that i think people are going to test out and maybe there are some that seem like they'll work and then, you know, maybe you realize it's like, people aren't that interested in that or doesn't solve that much of a problem i've seen massive, massive amounts of use cases i think music in particular is something that is very, you know -- has a huge, huge room there and i actually have a completely other separate project from beeple that we're going to be ready to show pretty quickly so maybe i'll, you know, be back on here hopefully. it's definitely i think we're very much at the beginning of the possibilities here, and it's going to take some time for some of these to sort of bear out i think it's also going to take time for the education piece to really sink in and see if it's like, well, that would work, people just don't know about it,

they don't know about nfts yet i think it's too early to sort of, you know, count any ideas out yet. it's going to take a second to see where the dust settles with some of this stuff >> in tv we call that a deep tease, beeple. we hope you'll come back when you're ready to tell us more. >> i would like to tell you more we're not quite ready. but pretty quickly we are and it's another exciting nft and another way of looking at them that i think will really resonate with people >> please come back soon great seeing you >> awesome thank you, guys so much. i appreciate it. >> next, do we have a canary in the coal mine? what's the matter with the bird at twitter this quarter? next, the stock now down about 13.5%. the broader market taking a leg lower as well. more on that when "techcheck" comes right back oh, i've traveled all over the country. talking about saving with geico. but that's the important bit, innit?

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happy friday welcome back to "techcheck" on what has been an obviously huge week for mega cap tech earnings. i'm carl quintanilla with deirdre bosa and jon fortt and julia boorstin is out in the field for us we'll hear from her in a minute. we are seeing some selling to end this week. the nasdaq below 14 k. amazon hit an all-time high on the beat from last night and watching trading there chip makers mostly lower today nearly every stocks component is in the red ev trying to finish on a positive note, although miles from recent highs. a lot to process on this final trading day of the week. in the meantime let's get a news update from rahel solomon. >> good morning. federal stimulus checks helped personal income increase a record 21.1% in march. spending also rose more than 4%. that is the largest month over month increase since last summer. exxon's first quarter earnings topped forecast despite a hit to the bottom line from winter storms.

severe weather also cut into chevron's profits which were in line with estimates. clorox earnings coming in 14 cents above expectations, although the company did sharply lower guidance, blaming higher commodity and freight costs, demand for cleaning and disinfecting products is down. clorox shares hitting a 52-week low this morning before rebounding honeywell leaving the new york stock exchange and transferring its listing to the nasdaq with the move there will be seven dow industrials listed on the nasdaq. you're up to date. jon, i'll send it back to you. >> thank you twitter pulled a netflix julia boorstin with us now top and bottom line, not bad the user numbers not good. what's going on? >> well, jon, twitter did beat on the top and bottom line, but its user numbers came in a million lighter than anticipated and the company warned that user growth will slow, but perhaps most keconcerning for investors

its guidance felt short of expectations the company did not change the long-term goal of doubling revenue but morgan stanley said these results may cause some investors to question twitter's ability to meet or beat its multiyear revenue outlook and note these results speak to excuse challenges that twitter faces to build a durable advertising business and i think that we are seeing something interesting in a divergence between the tech giants and a company like twitter one step below them amazon's ad business is accelerating and bra us in $7 billion in revenue in a quarter that's nearly seven times as much as twitter, just to put that all in context. >> i'm starting to think maybe twitter is several steps below some of these. i'm looking now, i look at these twitter results and think of snap snap has twice the market cap of twitter, up near $100 billion and the growth at snap, its daily user growth was 22%, revenue growth 66%

how come they are managing to be kind of a niche social player and succeed and twitter can't? >> well, i think these are two very different companies, and it's interesting, jon, that you use the term social player snap would say they're not a social network they're a communications tool for communicating with your closest friends, and they are premium content so that premium content obviously gets higher advertising rates and more predictable. snap is all about this premium experience, whereas twitter is about communicating with people or following people you don't know it's not able the close relationships. because the content is user generated it's more unpredictable for advertisers. such different companies in terms of the types of relationships on them and also the value to advertisers i think when its comes to the reopening play, jon, snap, people are going to be out there making new friends and connect with them and spending less time at home on their computers, toggling between work and

twitter. >> so what does this mean directionally, maybe strategically, do you think, for twitter? i don't see evan getting hauled in front of congress or sweating or worrying about these ios 14 changes. he's managed to carve out this nice space for himself that is higher growth and apparently lower hassle than twitter, right? >> lower hassle, evan spiegel has made a big deal for a long time about their commitment to privacy. i have to say twitter said while there would be a measurable impact of the ios changes, it would not be meaningful. definitely a lower impact in terms of percentage for twitter than for facebook. i don't think they're as much at risk as many might have thought in terms of that bigger question of, you know, how much ad targeting is going to be limited by apple's operating system change i think directionally, twitter is trying to diversify its ad base they have direct response advertising, a small but growing part of the business that's been

very valuable for other players such as snap, and i think that twitter is going to just try to make sure it has a variety of revenue streams, not just brand advertising going forward. >> finally, julia, on engagement, many months ago people were worried about high profile users exiting, the loss of the former president as a user, monetizeble dau up 20. i wonder if we could put that debate to bed? >> so they added 7 million between q4 and q1. the growth is much more significant year -- quarter versus a year ago quarter. i think that there's no question that twitter has a very devoted core fan base. the question is just how big it can grow if you look at facebook's growth, we're talking about tens of millions of daily active users added just from the prior quarter. this is just a different type of service and i think that they will have meaningful growth and the question is just how fast

y you're going to be able to grow once people are out again. snap, it's about connecting with new friends after we meet in person twitter may follow closer to where pinterest is feeling damage from the world reopening, perhaps not quite as much as pinterest feels. >> right i like how snap was called in the wild app, less so for twitter and pinterest. thanks so much for bringing that to us. we'll see you in a little bit jeff bezos getting active on instagram. yellow inside the yellow trade and what to make of micro krigs's turbulent trade. ♪ ♪ ♪

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. amazon's blowout quarter ceo jeff bezos victory lap before he steps down as ceo later this year and looks to be settling into perhaps some more easy going social media presence now with that weight of that nearly $1.8 trillion market cap company, soon off his shoulders squarely, though he will be involved bezos sharing three posts in 24 hours and looking relaxed driving through a desert to an

unmanned blue origin test landing. this video teasing ahead as bezos' space exploration company set to release details on how to buy a ticket on the shepherd spacecraft a humble brag as well, posting about amazon's winning linkedin top spot as the most desired company. guys, aws chief andy jassy set to take over from bezos next quarter. it looks for his account but looks like jassy might have a private one. we will see if decides to go public when he takes over the reigns, carl. >> nothing wrong with a private insta account. i have one too i can't blame him if that's the case our trading boom check watching the yolo trade, microvision. kate rooney has more on it hey, cate. >> hey, carl happy friday we've watched this rise of social media discussions and the rise of the stock market on things like twitter and reddit now we've got new research showing that it is influencing

people's trades and it's not just millennials and genz. a new survey shows over half of respondents are using some form of social media to research and investment 20% used reddit or twitter to drive some financial decisions and roughly 7% used facebook the numbers are even higher for millennials and genz we think of as those reddit traders, but among people over 40 years old, still 17% used reddit for stock picks. speaking of reddit, guys, it is friday so we've got to bring you some of the highlights let's talk about microvision first. ticker mvis. we're seeing a lot of that on wall street bets this week it's the top mention and after disappointing earnings this week, there were some -- also some disappointed traders on wall street bets today it has seen a big slide this week over to mind mend, the psychedelic company that went public this week, it's getting a

lot of buzz online finally amd, the chipmaker with a beat this week dr. lisa su becoming a reddit idol one post we'll show you right now shows lisa as an action hero the title of this one "don't bet against the doctor." guys, back to you. >> kate, i love that joining the ranks of aunt kathie when you talk about microvision, that's an interesting case here because we're starting to see a split in the ranks of reddit investors. there's a sort of thread where earlier microvision investors are upset that wall street bets caught wind of their trade and they're using it to trade, not hold the stock does this suggest it's going to be more difficult going forward to sort of the reddit army as they've been called, to move stocks in a big way to coordinate >> there have been some earlier investors and you see this in crypto where there are some that are early, don't want to sell

for any reason and are sort of dogmatic about it and newer investors doing research and there's a a chasm there on wall street bets. it is seen by a lot of people as sort of fun, entertainment, meme investing. it's hard to tell who is a serious investor and who really has a lot of money on the line and who is doing this to make a funny meme and get more followers. >> important distinctions as you're doing your research there. thanks ceo alex carp brought home more than $1 billion last year we will tell you how in a moment one analyst says this stock is, quote, a goliath on steroids find out what it is and why. on cnbc pro. we're back in two. this is the gap, that opened up when everything shut down. ♪ but entrepreneurs never stopped. ♪ and found solutions that kept them going.

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new report out from microsoft, amazon, the fbi and department of justice says ransom ware is a national security threat and calling for regulation of crypto currency. eamon javers explains. >> jon, this is from the institute for security and technology and what they're saying here, all these member groups contributing to this report on getting their arms around the threat of ransomware which they say is a national security threat and the question is what to do about it one of the things they're focused on here is crypto currency because that's how the payments are getting paid to the

bad guys they walk us through which crypto laundering takes place taking dollars turning them into bitcoin when the victims exchange fiat currency to crypto and the payout where they send the crypto to the hackers' wallet the criminals distribute payments to affiliates and bosses the tumbler process where the payments are mixed with legitimate funds and then an exchange where criminals sell the mixed crypto on exchanges for foreign fiat currency and turns it back into dollars again that bad guys can use. the question is, what do you do about all this here are some of the recommendations from this organization they're talking about allowing anonymous sharing, incentivizing sharing of wallet addresses, ransom notes know your customer regulations and want anti-money laundering regulations to apply in the crypto world they want sec enforcement and traditional banks to pursue sec enforcement of crypto currency businesses that fail to register as broker dealers, for example

and then the old fashioned one, see something, say something exchanges and other crypto players say should file suspicious activity reports, sars reports, just like we see in the financial world and they also want the irs to continue its crackdown on tax evasion signatures which would allow more tracking of some of the bad guys here in this space. a lot of recommendations here and we'll see how many are actually put in place in this crypto world which is sort of like the wild west as you know. >> some of the numbers in this report staggering. a third of a billion dollars in ransom ware in 2020, up 3x over 2019 we only hear about this sporadically, so even with these changes since so much of this is done in the shadows, is it clear it's going to have an impact if they get everything they want? >> if they get everything they want it definitely will have an impact the question is whether that's possible you know what happens in this town to these blue ribbon commissions. they say this one is going to get a high-level audience here in washington, but the question

is whether all of this is doable, who will push back on these recommendations and the big thing to me, i keep going back to the idea of discho sure. you're talking about about this money being paid, paid in the dark, because companies are not disclosing how much they're paying in ransomware payouts we have a problem where a huge section of corporate america is simply sending checks to criminal organizations around the world, in effect, in order to get their data back that's a real problem for the u.s. economy going forward because the more you send those checks out, the more you make a market for that and the more the bad guys are going to say we can do this too. i think the problem here is disclosure we need to know who is paying and how much as a first starting point and then we can begin to get our arms around how to deal with the problem >> right an important topic thank you so much for that another important topic, in 2020, u.s. vc firms deployed a record amount of capital but the portion of funds to female founders, actually dropped

64% of vc firms still have zero female partners. all raise is a nonprofit on a mission to create greater access in the industry and released their annual the annual report detailing sobering statistics. i spoke to ceo pam koska who says it is key to diversifying the landscape. >> in 2020 a lot of the established firms actually fell back on old behavior, known networks we don't have a pipeline problem. we have a network access problem in the industry. so we're really looking to increase and expose those amazing founders who are seeking capital and to create these connections and not let the industry fall back on its previous trends. >> pam says that they measure change because you can't change what you don't know. take out your phone and scan this code. it will take you to our website where you can watch a full piece on the work that is being done

and watch more of our original digital content, cnbc.com/techcheck where you are follow our linkedin page and twitter account for more content. carl. >> an important story we will continue to cover. when we come back, a look at the pandemic pull-forward winners. coming up next, the difference between the haves and have notes in technology. later on, julia boorstin was the first to tell you about disneyland's reopening today she is there julia, what is coming up. >> reporter: i am back at disneyland it is opening after more than 13 months being shuttered we will tell you what has been in the works here at the park when it was closed and what the reopening means for the media giant. that's coming up after the break.

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take a look at disney's stock. over the last year or so it was a huge loser as the pandemic began, as disneyland, movie theaters shut down then it came roaring back on the strength of disney plus and its streaming strategy so now, julia, the in-person part of the business, disneyland, is reopening you're there it sounds like a perfect storm is it? >> reporter: well, look, the fans are coming into the park. i'm here in frontier land, and you see people wearing their masks and mouse ears, and disneyland's reopening marks the end of a period of massive

pandemic-related losses at disney's parks division, about $7 billion in operating profits lost through the end of 2020 we don't have the number for the first quarter, of course, but now disneyland paris is the only park that is still closed. so visitors returning today after temperature checks will find new social distancing measures as well as online food ordering to help reduce lines, plus improvements to rides made during the park's closure. i spoke to disney's parks chief, josh de morrow, about the division's work over the past year. >> we looked at how can technology help the guest experience, and you have seen some already we have a reservation system in place. it helps us with capacity right now, it helps with guest flow. disney genie is something coming soon i think it will revolutionize the park industry, specifically for disney it is a tool you tell genie what you want to do, and genie is

reorganizing every minute to make sure your experience is optimized in the park. >> reporter: there are more tech-driven improvements coming. california adventure, here in anaheim, is preparing to launch its adventurer's campus on june 4 it disney updated attractions here such as the haunted mansion and is keeping some attractions like the monorail closed because of covid restrictions and is shortening its "rise of the resistance" ride to meet a 15-minute ride limit we don't get details on how many want to come to the park and what the demand is until earnings return in about two weeks, but it seems like tickets for the disneyland park are sold out for may. analyst martin crockett, deidre, expects parks to be back operating at pre-pandemic levels by fiscal 2022. >> quick recovery. no surprise. pentup demand there. thank you so much. coming up, alex cart made over a billion dollars last year read why on cnbc.com plus, the votes are in

best performance by a tech company when we come back. ♪ ♪ over $1.5 billion last year. that's decision tech. only from fidelity. everyone wakes up every morning to a world that must keep turning. the world can't stop, so neither can we. because the things we make, help make the world go round. they make it cleaner, healthier, and more connected. it's what we build that keeps things moving forward. so with every turn, we'll keep building a world that works.

for our crowd source we asked what tech company you thought was the best performer

this week. most responses say ingham au zon, following that massive earnings beat. carl, i think apple was robbed >> we will see, guys next week, another quarter of the s&p is going to print, so enjoy the rest over the weekend. let's get to "the half." carl, thanks welcome to ""the halftime report". i'm scott wapner front and center, the big money question of the week, now what where do we go after the big tech blowout shannon shi companies ya'. steve weiss, pete najarian, good to see everybody let's go to the wall take a look at stocks. they are closing out their best month since november we're mostly red today the ten-year note yield you see 162. a lot of questions about where we are now, where we're going from here after the busiest week of earnings season steve weiss, my headline of the week is this