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Caterpillar Warns Tariff Impact Bigger Than Previously Seen · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. You're listening to the
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at ten am
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  Speaker 1: or watch us live on YouTube.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Dell reported fewer sales of AI servers, lower profit margins
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  Speaker 2: and expected that's really taking a toll on shares. They're
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  Speaker 2: down about nine percent. So you want someone who could
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  Speaker 2: break it all down for us. Let's bring in Woojin Ho,
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  Speaker 2: Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analysts joining us from Princeton. Woojin,
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  Speaker 2: welcome back to the show. I want to start broader.
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  Speaker 2: So taking these results into consideration, I mean, is it
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  Speaker 2: showing that the AI rally has has more room to
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  Speaker 2: run or not? I mean, what are you hearing?
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  Speaker 3: And in terms of the AI rally in general, I
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  Speaker 3: mean we saw in videos numbers and video is actually
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  Speaker 3: doing quiet well. I mean if you ex out to
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  Speaker 3: China outlook right, the demand is still robust and this
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  Speaker 3: actually flows through to Dell. If anything, the AI numbers
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  Speaker 3: for a server numbers were better than expected in the quarter,
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  Speaker 3: and they also raised their guidance by another full year
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  Speaker 3: guidance by another five billion, So instead of fifteen billion
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  Speaker 3: for the year, they're expecting twenty billion for the year,
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  Speaker 3: and add more of these sovereign and neocloud deployment start
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  Speaker 3: ramping up. You know, twenty twenty six AI server revenue
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  Speaker 3: should be better for Dell given how they're positioned.
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  Speaker 4: So then can you try to explain why this stock
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  Speaker 4: is down nine percent? I mean, Dell just said it
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  Speaker 4: now plans to ship twenty billion dollars of artificial intelligence
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  Speaker 4: servers in fiscal twenty twenty six, double what it sold
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  Speaker 4: last year. What is upsetting investors?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So, so there's a couple of things. Let's start
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  Speaker 3: on the AI server piece first. I've always said and
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  Speaker 3: Dell is we'll contend to it. Having Aisells is double
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  Speaker 3: edged sword. What you're getting in sales, you kind of
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  Speaker 3: lose out on gross margin. So let me give you
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  Speaker 3: an example. From a gross margin standpoint, traditional servers as
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  Speaker 3: well as storage combined are roughly in the you know,
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  Speaker 3: the twenties to thirties range, right. AI servers they're they're
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  Speaker 3: closer to the mid teens range, right, So from an
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  Speaker 3: operating margin standpoint, it actually is somewhat earnings deluded to
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  Speaker 3: some degree if you sell way too much AI servers.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, the one point two billion AI server
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  Speaker 3: beat that only equated to two cents in an EPs.
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  Speaker 3: So what Della has been saying for quite some time now,
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  Speaker 3: don't focus on operating margin because that's that's what they missed.
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  Speaker 3: Focus on the operating margin dollars. That's fantastic, But you know,
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  Speaker 3: the you know, the the incremental five billion for the
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  Speaker 3: year isn't going to be the big boost the EPs
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  Speaker 3: that people are hoping for.
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  Speaker 2: A big concern for investors is at the profitability of
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  Speaker 2: AI servers. I mean they run on processors from companies
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  Speaker 2: like Nvideo, A m D right, which are which are
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  Speaker 2: pretty pricey. I mean, should they be worried about that?
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, the hope is is that once we
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  Speaker 3: start moving away from these hyper scale and neocloud type
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  Speaker 3: of deals, right because they're selling you know, fifty fifty
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  Speaker 3: thousand servers plus to each of these each of these companies,
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  Speaker 3: you know, they're not going to get as much they're
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  Speaker 3: they're heavily discounted. But if they start selling to the
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  Speaker 3: enterprise over time, the gross margin profile should get better
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  Speaker 3: and be more in line with traditional service. Now, that's
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  Speaker 3: going to take a couple of years to materialize. But
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  Speaker 3: the more important thing is if we think about it
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  Speaker 3: from a longer term perspective, as long as Dell is
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  Speaker 3: ahead of from from a competitive standpoint, they should continue
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  Speaker 3: to win this AI game, not only on the neocloud side,
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  Speaker 3: but also on the enterprise side, which should help profitability
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  Speaker 3: longer term. But you're gonna have to wait.
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  Speaker 4: And you know, when I did a little more digging
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  Speaker 4: into this earnings report, I found that Dell spent one
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  Speaker 4: point three billion dollars on share repurchases and dividends during
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  Speaker 4: the quarter. That's an enviable position to be in. But
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  Speaker 4: do you think it's the best use of Dell's money?
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  Speaker 3: Well, so, I think they've They've they've always been since
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  Speaker 3: they came back to public and then spun off the
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  Speaker 3: VMware business. They've been very focused on shareholder returns. Right now,
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  Speaker 3: if you think about from a valuation standpoint, you know,
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  Speaker 3: M and A is probably going to be something that's
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  Speaker 3: going to be tough for them to do. They've already
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  Speaker 3: learned a lesson from big m and A with a
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  Speaker 3: VMware deal, and which is one of the reasons why
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  Speaker 3: they spunted out. So if from a shareholder standpoint, if
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  Speaker 3: there's nothing that Dell can buy, I'd rather have it
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  Speaker 3: back in dividends and and buybacks. How is it changing, sure,
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  Speaker 3: like a day like today?
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  Speaker 4: Well yeah, oh yeah.
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  Speaker 2: How is how is Dell shaping up against its competitors,
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  Speaker 2: Let's say, like an HP or super micro computer.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so so let's let me take it from a
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  Speaker 3: two standpoints. Right from super Micro, we're thinking about it
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  Speaker 3: more along the lines from AI servers. Super Micro still
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  Speaker 3: leads the way in the AI server market. Now, one
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  Speaker 3: of the things that we can glean from the numbers
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  Speaker 3: is that Dell has been heavily discounting to win to
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  Speaker 3: win its market share, and they actually have the financial
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  Speaker 3: have to do so with a strong balance sheet. Now,
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  Speaker 3: from an HP standpoint, this is more personal computing side,
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  Speaker 3: and this is one of the This is another reason
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  Speaker 3: why the shares may be pulling back a little bit
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  Speaker 3: their PC growth. That segment only grew one percent, and
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  Speaker 3: on contrast, HP grew five percent. So there's a lot
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  Speaker 3: of questions in terms of the competitive nature for Dell
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  Speaker 3: versus HP on the PC market. Now that being said,
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  Speaker 3: what we can glean from the guide and it is
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  Speaker 3: the second half of this calendar year. HP should get
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  Speaker 3: back on track from back to school spending as well
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  Speaker 3: as Windows eleven upgrade, So I think they should do
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  Speaker 3: about five percent growth in the second half of the year.
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  Speaker 4: In the seconds we have left, can you tell us
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  Speaker 4: how Dell is stacking up against the competition, namely HP.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so from a PC stamp from HP, you know,
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  Speaker 3: HP is actually winning the game over the last couple
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  Speaker 3: of quarters, but it's going to be neck and neck
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  Speaker 3: over the next couple of years. But from an AI
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  Speaker 3: and a server standpoint, Dell should be fine.
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  Speaker 2: And in the last minute we have where does Dell
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  Speaker 2: go from here? I mean, what should their focus be?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, I really do think it should be on the
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  Speaker 3: traditional server side as well as source side with AI,
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  Speaker 3: because they're all going to be melded into one type
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  Speaker 3: of business going forward, and the Dell's well positioned their
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  Speaker 3: longer term.
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  Speaker 2: Stay with us for more Bloomberg Intelligence coming.
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  Speaker 1: Up after this, you're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast.
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  Speaker 4: One of the big movers today is Caterpillar. Mover to
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  Speaker 4: the downside, that is off nearly four percent right now.
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  Speaker 4: It's warning investors that tariffs are expected to have an
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  Speaker 4: even greater impact, take an even bigger bite out of
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  Speaker 4: its bottom line, expected to cost CAT as much as
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  Speaker 4: one point eight billion dollars this year. Let's dig into
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  Speaker 4: it a little more with Christopher Ciolino. He is Bloomberg
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  Speaker 4: Intelligence Senior US Machinery analyst. So what is it about
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  Speaker 4: this report that's got investors in a tizzy?
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  Speaker 5: Well, you're right, I mean, tariff's will be a bigger
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  Speaker 5: cost headwind this year, more than KAT previously expected. And
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  Speaker 5: the revision really seems to be driven by additional clarifications
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  Speaker 5: around the Section two thirty two steal in aluminum tariffs
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  Speaker 5: and some of the reciprocal rates on India as you
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  Speaker 5: alluded to. You know, KAT thinks these TIFFs could be
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  Speaker 5: you know, up to a one point eight billion dollar
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  Speaker 5: impact in twenty twenty five. That's up you know, two
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  Speaker 5: to three hundred million versus their prior view, so a
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  Speaker 5: little bit higher. So you know, even though that we're
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  Speaker 5: looking at these incremental costs this year, we think it's
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  Speaker 5: pretty easily digestible for CAT and probably represents, you know,
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  Speaker 5: the peak headwind that we'll likely see. They really haven't
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  Speaker 5: implemented significant cost mitigation or pricing actions yet. I suspect
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  Speaker 5: you'll see more of those measured than twenty twenty six,
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  Speaker 5: which could ultimately offset these impacts.
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  Speaker 2: So is it steal an aluminum? Is that the main focus?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, we think so. So we did get an update
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  Speaker 5: on the section two thirty two taraffs for steel and
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  Speaker 5: aluminum that expanded the coverage to you know, I think
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  Speaker 5: an additional four hundred different products. So you know, we
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  Speaker 5: had CAT report earlier this month and we had that
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  Speaker 5: subsequent update, So I think that's probably the big driver
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  Speaker 5: behind it. Obviously, heavy machinery companies use a lot of
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  Speaker 5: steel and aluminum. It's their largest input costs, so that
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  Speaker 5: certainly does move the needle.
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  Speaker 4: We're talking about headwinds, but what about tailwinds any of
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  Speaker 4: those for Caterpillar.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, despite some of these near term costs headwinds,
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  Speaker 5: I don't think it really ultimately changes the narrative here.
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  Speaker 5: You know, we're still quite optimistic that earnings are going
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  Speaker 5: to bottom this year. There's a number of cyclical and
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  Speaker 5: secular tailwinds that we think are going to drive higher
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  Speaker 5: earnings in twenty six and twenty seven. The backlocks is
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  Speaker 5: sitting at a record high. We've seen very solid order
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  Speaker 5: trends these past you know, four quarters, and dealer inventories
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  Speaker 5: remain at you know, pretty healthy levels considering softness in
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  Speaker 5: the broader economy. So all of these are really positive
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  Speaker 5: leading indicators for Caterpillar.
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  Speaker 2: And Chris, you follow this company very closely. So when
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  Speaker 2: we have an economics flowdown, what segments of Caterpillar's business
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  Speaker 2: tend to hold up the best.
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  Speaker 5: So right now, the segment holding up the best would
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  Speaker 5: be their E and T or energy and transportation business,
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  Speaker 5: and really I think the big driver behind that is
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  Speaker 5: power generation, particularly on the data center side. Those are
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  Speaker 5: much longer cycle products have you know, very extended backlogs
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  Speaker 5: for many years. Caterpillars adding capacity there, so we've seen
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  Speaker 5: that business hold up very well. On the flip side,
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  Speaker 5: the more cyclical construction industry's business is probably the one
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  Speaker 5: more harder hit, and also their resource industry's business, which
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  Speaker 5: is a lot of mining equipment that's been a little
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  Speaker 5: softer as well. But you know, I think, you know,
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  Speaker 5: if we're looking at a lower rate environment moving forward,
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  Speaker 5: we're certainly a little bit more optimistic on some of
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  Speaker 5: the growth prospects and those two businesses moving forward.
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  Speaker 2: Stay with us for more Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.
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  Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
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  Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on apple Cock and Android
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• 11:08
  Speaker 4: In Video and AI, it was out with earnings this
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: week and it impressed with more proof that that AI
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: spending continues to be strong. I want to talk more
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  Speaker 4: about AI in the real world with Binran. He is
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: founder and CEO at the software company sig Tech. He
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: joins us from London. Ben, thanks so much for being
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: with us. Before we get into Sigtech and what you
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  Speaker 4: do with AI agents, we'll get into what all of
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: that is. I just want your take your thoughts on
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  Speaker 4: In Video's earnings report this week.
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  Speaker 6: I think we are seeing unprecedented demand for AI services,
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  Speaker 6: AI inference. If you look at the you know, not
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  Speaker 6: only the hyperscaters, purchasing GPUs and building data centers.
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  Speaker 7: It's keep going up.
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  Speaker 6: And if you look at the consumptions of tokens by
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  Speaker 6: large language model providers such as Opening Ai and Google
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  Speaker 6: and the Anthropic, it's growing at one hundred percent every
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  Speaker 6: six months. So the adoption, the usage, the consumption is
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  Speaker 6: all going up the trend. There's no no reason why
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  Speaker 6: it's going to slow down or certainly all stopping.
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  Speaker 2: We've heard a lot about different types of AI. Jen
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  Speaker 2: AI is a huge one. I mean, I know everyone's
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: on the CHADGBT or whatever whatever else you have, but
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: do generic AI tools They can help out in a
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  Speaker 2: lot of fields. But what about financial institutions, I mean
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: you focus more on on custom AI?
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  Speaker 6: Is that correct?
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  Speaker 7: Yeah?
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  Speaker 6: We focused on building entirely bespoke and custom AI agents
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  Speaker 6: for customers in capital markets. I think people now one
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  Speaker 6: hundreds of millions of people have used CHGBT, so we all
• 12:51
  Speaker 6: have a good idea of you know, what a chat
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  Speaker 6: bolt can do for us, which is extremely useful. But
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  Speaker 6: when it comes to business is there's an increasing gap
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  Speaker 6: between what the large language models are capable of and
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  Speaker 6: what actually value users in businesses are getting out of
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  Speaker 6: the getting out of the applications using using the same models.
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  Speaker 6: You know, the large nugree model capability has been improving
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  Speaker 6: dramatically and frankly the probably the most improved applications unfortunately
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  Speaker 6: have been restricted to only a few areas, mainly about
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  Speaker 6: writing code. That that has been the killer app outside chatboard.
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  Speaker 6: In finance, the difficulty is there actually there are many
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  Speaker 6: different reasons why the application is not delivering the kind
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  Speaker 6: of potential we are expecting. One of the reasons is
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  Speaker 6: in finance we use a lot of private data that
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  Speaker 6: the large language models are mainly trained on public data.
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  Speaker 6: And then the question of how to converting the vast
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  Speaker 6: corpus of financial documents in PDFs, in world documents in
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  Speaker 6: excels into the right formats that actually can be effectively
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  Speaker 6: used by large language models. Any error English data conversion
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  Speaker 6: document processing pipeline will immediately result in very pro qualities
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  Speaker 6: downstream and in other areas. In finance, we prontion numbers,
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  Speaker 6: and the large language models are very bad at cremching
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  Speaker 6: numbers right and it's probably the most expensive calculator we
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: can think of.
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  Speaker 7: So to make large.
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  Speaker 6: Nuguerte models working in finance we have to provide a
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  Speaker 6: very wide range of financial tools. These tools can be software,
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  Speaker 6: can be APIs, can be desktop applications. Then we have
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  Speaker 6: to train models to use them, and there are other
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  Speaker 6: challenges to Yeah, that's why everything has to be bespoke.
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  Speaker 4: Then we keep hearing that AI is going to be
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  Speaker 4: a job killer, and we're already seeing it. Frankly, a
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  Speaker 4: lot of you know, entry level positions being taken over
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  Speaker 4: by AI. That means a lot of recent graduates from
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  Speaker 4: college or finding it even harder to find a job
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  Speaker 4: in unemployment during and amidst that demographics about six percent
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  Speaker 4: right now versus you know, a little more than four
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  Speaker 4: percent for the rest of us. So what what how
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  Speaker 4: do you see the future of work looking and how
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  Speaker 4: does AI play a part?
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  Speaker 6: I think whatever, there's you know, unprecedented new technology coming along,
• 15:38
  Speaker 6: so transformative and.
• 15:39
  Speaker 7: So disruptive like AI.
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  Speaker 6: But previously there was internet, there was industrial revolution, there
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: was the invention of airplanes and cars. I mean, inevitably
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  Speaker 6: some jobs will be killed, I guess you can say that,
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  Speaker 6: but there will be new jobs created. I think the
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  Speaker 6: key here is to understand from them mentally what AI
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  Speaker 6: can do and what AI cannot do and what makes
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  Speaker 6: us by us, I mean humans special. AI is very
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  Speaker 6: good at doing repetitive, non non creative work, non creative
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  Speaker 6: knowledge work. Humans we are uniquely equipped to be creative
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: and imaginative. And also, by the way you you probably
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: know that AI is really bad at telling a.
• 16:31
  Speaker 7: Joke, a good joke, and there's a reason for.
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: It, because AI is trained to predict the next the
• 16:40
  Speaker 6: next most likely word, the word by word, and to
• 16:43
  Speaker 6: deliver a good joke, and the punchline has to be
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: surprising and the witty.
• 16:48
  Speaker 7: So it's large number.
• 16:50
  Speaker 6: Models are literally not trained to be able to tell
• 16:52
  Speaker 6: a good joke. So all the comedians and they have
• 16:58
  Speaker 6: right own stuff, and they have to have inspiration, they
• 17:01
  Speaker 6: have to have new experiences, imagination and creativity. I think
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: that's probably a good room model for the future work.
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: Look like we can spend more time on being imaginative
• 17:12
  Speaker 6: and creative and frankly more intellectually satisfying, and less time
• 17:17
  Speaker 6: on things frankly we don't wake up and be excited about.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Stay with us for more Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.
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  Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us Live
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  Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: Want to switch gears for a minute and talk about
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: the sleepy summer for the housing market would be home buyers.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: We know they've been staying on the sideline, so they're
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: waiting for mortgage rates to come down. They're waiting for
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: housing prices to come down. So will they And when
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: Best Friedman, she's been looking into her crystal ball, we
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: called her in for some help. EO at Brown, Harris Stevens,
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: that's always good to see you. Thanks so much for
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: joining us. So let's just start with a reality check.
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: Are things improving? I mean I heard that inventory was
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: starting to beef up a little bit, So are you
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: seeing some pockets of improvement?
• 18:15
  Speaker 8: You know, it's interesting. Good morning, so nice to see
• 18:17
  Speaker 8: you as well. Thanks for having me. I think we
• 18:19
  Speaker 8: see a step forward and then a step back. And
• 18:22
  Speaker 8: I would describe our housing market at least through the summer,
• 18:25
  Speaker 8: it's very frustrating people buyers and sellers couldn't get on
• 18:30
  Speaker 8: the same page. You know, for buyers things have become unaffordable.
• 18:35
  Speaker 8: Rates are too high. Sellers aren't budging on their prices.
• 18:37
  Speaker 8: They're taking their homes off the market. So there's been
• 18:41
  Speaker 8: a little bit of that, and it's gradual. You know,
• 18:43
  Speaker 8: we definitely performed better this year than we did last year.
• 18:46
  Speaker 8: It's a better housing market. But having said that, it's
• 18:51
  Speaker 8: it's going to take a little bit of time. And
• 18:53
  Speaker 8: I know that everybody's expecting or thinking that the FED
• 18:56
  Speaker 8: is going to cut the FED fund rate in September.
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  Speaker 8: Maybe we'll have to see how the jobs report comes out.
• 19:04
  Speaker 8: But you know, even that, you know, I don't know
• 19:07
  Speaker 8: that's going to have a dramatic impact.
• 19:09
  Speaker 7: It's going to take time for us to come.
• 19:10
  Speaker 8: To a better place where we see supply and demand intersecting.
• 19:15
  Speaker 8: That's a healthy market, and we don't really have that best.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: I have to tell you, I've been kind of caught
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: in the middle of all this. I mean, I was
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: trying to find a home. I've been out bid by
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: like one hundred and seventy thousand dollars in New Jersey.
• 19:28
  Speaker 7: I mean, it was rough.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: So can you break it down as far as areas
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: of the US right, what areas are are home selling
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: at a faster pace or or maybe what areas have
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: more inventory.
• 19:40
  Speaker 7: I mean, every real estate market is so local. I'm
• 19:43
  Speaker 7: sorry that you have that experience. I'm still there are areas.
• 19:48
  Speaker 8: I'll give you an example and market that is completely
• 19:51
  Speaker 8: on fire. There's no inventory and there's bidding wars. Is
• 19:54
  Speaker 8: Upstate New York, Rinebeck. You can't find anything. Whatever comes on,
• 19:59
  Speaker 8: there's a bidding war, similar to what happened to you
• 20:01
  Speaker 8: in New Jersey. Places like Montclair, New Jersey, very popular,
• 20:05
  Speaker 8: a really strong market, and you know, people get discouraged
• 20:10
  Speaker 8: when they walk in they see twenty people there waiting,
• 20:12
  Speaker 8: and then they know there's going to be multiple bids
• 20:14
  Speaker 8: and rates are higher. Price is now going to be higher,
• 20:17
  Speaker 8: and so you know, that's very tough. But that's more
• 20:19
  Speaker 8: the exception to the rule. Palm Beach is similar, but
• 20:23
  Speaker 8: other places like New York is a pretty steady market.
• 20:26
  Speaker 8: In New York City right now, the market has been decent,
• 20:30
  Speaker 8: not great. The rental market really strong. That's all I
• 20:33
  Speaker 8: hear about is people cannot afford to rent in New York.
• 20:36
  Speaker 8: There's no vacancies. So it really depends on what's going
• 20:41
  Speaker 8: on with supply and demand in the market. Like in Connecticut,
• 20:44
  Speaker 8: for example, also really strong demand and lack of supply,
• 20:49
  Speaker 8: and so that's starting.
• 20:51
  Speaker 7: We're starting to see more inventory come on and so
• 20:54
  Speaker 7: that's a good thing.
• 20:55
  Speaker 8: And so hopefully if we get a little bit of
• 20:57
  Speaker 8: if rates come down a little bit they have come
• 20:59
  Speaker 8: down a little bit, that might inspire more buyers to
• 21:02
  Speaker 8: get into the market. But it's gonna it's tough. I'm
• 21:05
  Speaker 8: sorry that you had that experience. You know, in due time,
• 21:09
  Speaker 8: something will come on that you love and you will
• 21:11
  Speaker 8: find it and you will bid on it.
• 21:13
  Speaker 7: Bess.
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: I want your thoughts on a trend we're continuing to
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: see grow, and that is corporations backed by private equity
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: groups now buying up single family homes. So folks are
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: not only competing against other would be home buyers, they're
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: competing against the big guns, these institutional investors. I saw
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: this one report from MetLife Investment Management. Get this, They
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: say investors, institutional investors may control forty percent of the
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: single family rental home market by twenty thirty. How's the
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: little guys supposed to compete with that?
• 21:44
  Speaker 7: That's really hard. I don't know.
• 21:45
  Speaker 8: And we are and we have housing shortage in the
• 21:48
  Speaker 8: United States.
• 21:49
  Speaker 7: You know, we're we need to build.
• 21:52
  Speaker 8: We need four million homes here, So I don't know,
• 21:54
  Speaker 8: that's not a good sign. Because people find that they
• 21:57
  Speaker 8: can't afford rent, they can't afford to buy, and so
• 22:01
  Speaker 8: we need to figure out ways to work together with
• 22:03
  Speaker 8: our state and local officials to make rules and legislation
• 22:07
  Speaker 8: that makes sense so that people can afford to buy
• 22:10
  Speaker 8: and can afford to rent.
• 22:12
  Speaker 7: And so yeah, the little guy matters.
• 22:14
  Speaker 8: We have to make sure that everyday people can afford
• 22:16
  Speaker 8: to pursue their dream, which is to buy a home
• 22:20
  Speaker 8: or to rent the home, whatever it is. It's really
• 22:22
  Speaker 8: important and we've lost a little bit of that in
• 22:25
  Speaker 8: the last five years, and I would love to see
• 22:28
  Speaker 8: that switch direction. I'm happy to be part of those discussions.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: And best in the last minute we have here. How
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: are the builders doing? I mean, how is the sentiment
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: among the builders or building these homes?
• 22:39
  Speaker 8: You know, it's a great question and it depends, you know.
• 22:43
  Speaker 8: I'll give you a real example. A few months ago,
• 22:45
  Speaker 8: as working friend of mine, builder developer New York City,
• 22:48
  Speaker 8: was looking at a site, very excited. He wanted to
• 22:51
  Speaker 8: buy the site to develop it. And then the primary
• 22:54
  Speaker 8: came out and it looks like and whether your politics
• 22:58
  Speaker 8: are I don't care, but it looks so potentially Mom
• 23:01
  Speaker 8: Donnie might win in New York.
• 23:02
  Speaker 7: It's a possibility.
• 23:04
  Speaker 8: And so he got squee mission backed away from it,
• 23:07
  Speaker 8: and so but another developer came in and ended up
• 23:10
  Speaker 8: buying the site.
• 23:11
  Speaker 7: It just really depends.
• 23:12
  Speaker 8: People are very emotional when it comes to these things,
• 23:15
  Speaker 8: and it depends how they feel. If they think the
• 23:17
  Speaker 8: market's going to be good or strong, they'll invest.
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: And builders are the same. It's pencils down. If they think.
• 23:23
  Speaker 8: Legislation is sloppy and not helpful and not giving them incentives,
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: they're not going to continue to build.
• 23:28
  Speaker 7: So it's such a nuanced story.
• 23:32
  Speaker 8: So we're seeing some builders do things, some stay on
• 23:34
  Speaker 8: the sidelines right now.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast, available on Apple, Spotify,
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• 24:01
  Speaker 7: Yeah