Israel Says Strike Killed Iran’s Larijani as War Intensifies | Bloomberg Businessweek
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>> Well, Israel said it killed Iran's
security chief that in an overnight
attack intensifying a regionwide war
that shows no signs of abating and we
are well into our third week. President
Trump earlier today from the uh Oval
Office referred to that action. He also
talked more broadly about the US war in
Iran, including timing. He talked around
noon Wall Street time today. But we're
not ready to leave yet, but we uh we'll
be leaving in the near future. We'll be
leaving in pretty much the very near
future. But right now, they've been uh
decimated from every standpoint. And
again, we've had great support from
countries in the Middle East. Great
support, but we've had no support from
essentially no support from NATO.
>> And that of course is President Trump
earlier today from the Oval Office. with
more on what's going on. We want to head
first of all to Jerusalem and to
Bloomberg News Jerusalem journalist. He
is Dan Williams where it is later there
of course in Israel. Um Dan, good to
have you here with us. Glad we could
check in with you. Um glad to see you
are still safe. There's so much going
on. Um what do we know about this
security chief in Iran that was said to
be taken out?
I think it would be fair to say that he
was the de facto at least publicly
available ruler of Iran after Israel and
the United States in the early hours of
this war on February 28th killed the
Supreme Leader Kame. As everyone knows,
Ham was officially succeeded by his son
Moshaba. But that man has not been seen
in public. He is rumored to have been
injured in that in an Israeli strike or
a US strike. And indeed, Trump, the US
president, has even speculated that he
might not be alive. By contrast, Ali
Lariji Janei, a veteran member of the uh
national security echelon in Iran, was
available for interviews. He made
televised statements and he even marched
in an annual parade or an annual march
on Friday into Iran as a sign of his
defiance. It's possible that as a result
of that public appearance, he enabled
the Israelis to tag him and track him
and uh ultimately kill him overnight.
>> Dan, uh obviously it sends a message to
the way that that Israel and the US view
the the the leaders as they are right
now, but I'm wondering with the killings
uh of the the top brass in Iran, who is
left to actually be the leader of the
country?
Well, if you ask the Israeli or US
leaders about this, that would be the
Iranian people, the Iranian public. They
said at the outset of this war that the
secondary objective, the initial
objective was to degrade, destroy um
Iranian capabilities, namely ballistic
missiles, what remains or remained of
the nuclear program and in the case of
the US also the Iranian Navy in order to
enable maritime traffic uh free of
Iranian harassment uh in the Gulf. a
secondary role or a secondary objective
was to create a space as they put it for
the Iranian people to take over control
of that country. Israel assesses that 70
to 80% of the Iranian populace oppose
this regime or have opposed this regime.
And uh while that is hard to assess
objectively, certainly from um outside
just two months ago, we saw protests
sweeping Iran and a very brutal
crackdown by the Iranian state. So the
official line is that the allies are
seeking to destroy that regime and in
embolden to the extent possible or
create the conditions to the extent
possible that will enable protesters to
come back into the streets and actually
give that regime the final push required
to topple it and replace it.
>> Sam, we're going to talk more about Iran
in um a segment right after you. What I
want to ask you though about in terms of
Israel, the foreign minister um earlier
said the war is effectively quote
already won but vowed to quote continue
till the point the mission will be
completed. What exactly is Israel's
mission? And I got to ask you when we
talk about backing and what people and
citizens want. What do the people of
Israel want? Are they still backing
their prime minister? Will they still
back him after all of these conflicts
are over?
>> Well, that's an excellent question. I
think while the allies at least at the
level of their leaderships, their
militaries are very much in sync about
the objectives here, they say they speak
repeatedly. Uh and in fact the US
military has compared or described the
Israeli air force as a peer air force to
the US air assets being brought into the
region. Quite an extraordinary statement
for the US power, this dominant power in
the world to be speaking about what is
basically a regional power um in the
form of Israel. Nevertheless, the
Israeli public to judge by polls, unlike
the American public, are broadly in
support of this war. This war has not
found popularity among the uh America
among Americans. There's a very good
reason for this. One is geographical
distance. Uh Americans are on the other
side of the world. Israelis are in the
region feel directly threatened by Iran
not just by its statements but its
actions including the support of proxies
such as Hamas which Israel has been
battling for 2 and a half years albeit
in a state of ceasefire right now in
Gaza a uh fairly fragile ceasefire but a
ceasefire nonetheless. Hezbollah in
Lebanon where there has been an eruption
of violence. There have been also
Iranianbacked militias in Iraq and in
the past in Syria and currently in Yemen
as well. So the Israelis would appear to
be seeing this as the crowning
>> the crowning battle or the last war of
this multiffront campaign that's really
in its third year now
>> Dan 203 seconds but do the people of
Israel still back their prime minister
who was on
>> yeah go ahead
>> he his approval ratings have improved
given his conduct of um recent policy
issues I believe including this war
there is an election later this year I
think that's the ultimate plebesite
because no matter his successes and
there have been successes regionally on
the battlefield. They will remember the
October 7th attack which began this
multiffront campaign, a disastrous
attack for Israel which happened on his
watch.
>> Dan, so appreciate it. Please stay safe.
Please be well. Bloomberg News uh
Jerusalem journalist of course there uh
in Jerusalem in Israel. All right, so
that is our view from Israel. Let's get
to a view on Iran.
>> Back with us, Alice Vitanka, senior
fellow at the Middle East institute
specializing in Iran. He's also senior
fellow of Middle East studies at the US
Air Force Special Operations School and
teaches as an adjunct at Wrightpat Air
Force Base. He's the author of several
books including the battle of the
Ayatollas in Iran, the United States
foreign policy and the political rivalry
since 1979. He joins us from Washington
DC. Uh I I want to just pick up where we
left off with Dan and the killing of of
of this latest figure in Iran. Where
does that leave the country in terms of
of leadership right now?
>> Tim, obviously it's a pretty big news.
Uh Ali Lauri is a figure that anybody
who's been watching Iran knows has had
one or another political senior
political role for pretty much as long
as the Islamic Republic has been in
Iran, 47 years. and he most recently
returned as the head of the Supreme
National Security Council back in August
of last year with his sole job as trying
to sort of coordinate best policies as
they uh right after the 12-day war. And
now he's gone most likely, although uh I
haven't seen Iranian official
confirmation, but he's probably gone.
And I don't think we should
underestimate what that means. It's
pretty significant, at least a
psychological blow. Uh but I wouldn't be
surprised if he's quickly replaced. I
mean the regime is still able to put
people in position senior positions at
least for now. Whether that means that
those are the best people they have or
whether it just suggests that they want
to show continuity which is obviously
very important for again from a
psychological point of view to show that
they're not on their way out.
>> Alex, you know Tim just turned to me. He
says it sounds like whack-a-ole and it
does. It feels like as soon as they're
you've reminded us the regime is not one
person and that as soon as someone's out
they find somebody else. But having said
that not everybody is interchangeable
and not everybody is a supreme leader.
So I just you know I guess I keep
wondering um Israel's prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video
statement that his military is quote
undermining this regime meaning Iran in
the hope of giving the Iranian people a
chance to remove it. Is it true? Has the
regime been undermined? And is this what
Iranians want?
>> Well, Carol, there's no way to deny the
fact that the regime is undermined
massively. Certainly, it's never been uh
under such amount of attack in its
history. And I would also say, Carol, no
doubt in my mind that the people of Iran
by and large really want to see the end
of this regime. Obviously from their
point of view they want the regime to
fall with minimum casualties, minimum
damage to the country's infra
infrastructure. Uh but the Islamic
Republic in the eyes of many are you
know a political system that brought one
crisis or disaster upon the nation after
another going back to 1979. I mean it
made a host of bad decisions. You could
go back to the taking over the US
embassy in November of 1979
>> provoking Saddam Hussein to attack Iran
in September of 80. And I can go on. Um,
look, the regime is weak. Uh, it's not
on its way out just yet. The big
question, and I think that might answer
partly what you're asking me, Carol, is
not just that the figures, all of them
have to go. The question is, does Israel
and the United States perhaps have it in
him to accept so-called pragmatic
figures from within the regime emerge as
possible candidates to take over? That
kind of tallies nicely with what
President Trump has been suggesting. a
number of times over the course of this
war.
>> Who are are are there any of those
figures that we know about? Have those
figures been identified, Alex? Are there
any names of people who might be
pragmatic and acceptable to the United
States and Israel?
>> Well, that's a big question mark. I
mean, I can give you names, Tim. Let me
give you a former President Hassan
Roani. For some, he might be just
pragmatic enough to be able to change
course, take the country in a different
direction. many others would oppose him
say well that's not going to solve much
he's been part of this system for from
day one so why go through all this
trouble just to be have someone like him
in place so really I guess it comes down
to how much appetite you you have if you
are US if you are Israel for this war to
continue to get to a point where you say
I've eliminated all of them uh or you
say well I don't want to stay here for
months and years I want to have somebody
who is sensible enough to compromise and
I will then call it a day and move on.
>> You know, Alex, one of the things that
we keep talking about, um, as we look at
this war now in its third week, uh, and
it's something that, you know, President
Trump said earlier, he talked about the
war in Iran. He said that everybody in
the world should be thankful and that if
he and his administration had not taken
all the steps it has on Iran, including
withdrawing the US from the landmark
2015 accord to curb Iran's nuclear
program during his first term, that in
his words and quote unbelievable nuclear
holocaust would have taken place. Is he
right? Is this something that actually
changes the trajectory of the region of
perhaps Iran's role with the world?
Carol, that's a great question. I mean,
that was certainly the motive. That's
how the president has tried to sort of,
if you will, sell this to to the
American public uh from
>> But is it a sell or is it is it maybe
right?
>> Depends. Look, if the regime collapses
in the sense that we can say Islamic
Republic is no longer here, is no longer
relevant. Iran has moved on, the region
will move on, then I would say that's
pretty I mean to end something that's
been with us for 50 years in less than a
month that you know I know the world is
going through energy crisis but it's
still a significant success. But if the
remnants of this regime stay with there
thousands of drones and so forth and act
like spoilers going forward then the
question becomes was this the wisest way
to do it? Why the timing? Why rush into
something? And all sorts of question can
be then asked but obviously it's too
early to judge. Let's see what how long
more this war goes on and what uh you
know what any political transformation
major one might come out of it.
>> You know uh Joe Kent the director of the
National Counterterrorism Center
resigned over the war with Iran. He
claimed that Israel had misled President
Trump into believing that the regime in
Thrron posed an imminent threat. He said
Iran posed no imminent threat to our
nation. It's clear that we started this
war due to pressure from Israel and its
powerful American lobby. Those are the
words of of Joe Kent. Is he right that
that this country pose no imminent
threat to the US?
>> Look, I certainly as an open- source
analyst did not see any Iranian
intentions to attack the United States
anytime soon. They just didn't have that
capacity. Um, but the point is obviously
the Israelis sit in a very different
part of the world. So, they have a very
different perspective. They are much
closer and the regime in Iran for
decades vowed to destroy them. So they
have a very different uh sort of sense
of uh threat when it came to the Islamic
Republic. Another way of looking at this
Tim is the Islamic Republic did not do
itself any favors going back to 1979.
Not sort of looking for ways to you know
if you will mend ties with the United
States after hostage crisis of 79. Um so
again depends how you measure hostility.
The intent uh was never certainly to be
a friend or partner of the United
States. Ali Kami the last supreme leader
openly talked about you know getting the
United States states out of the region.
So but did I see an Iranian effort on
the way to attack the United States? As
I said I certainly in my position did
not see that but I also didn't see them
wanted to be friends with the United
States if that makes sense.
>> Alexena, thank you so much. Uh such a a
go-to for us. Senior fellow at the
Middle East Institute specially
specializing in Iran.
>> Stay with us. More from Bloomberg
[music] Business Week Daily coming up
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>> Taking a [music] look at where we are in
terms of uh the energy trade. uh WTI and
Brent uh both are higher, but we're
looking at them definitely off uh their
top levels, highest levels of the
session. Having said that, President
Trump, he made a lot of comments earlier
today from uh the White House in the
Oval Office. He said uh that as soon as
the war is over, oil prices will drop
like a rock. He says it won't be long
too before cargo ships can move through
the straight of Hormuz.
>> I have a lot of friends from Ireland.
They're very happy that I'm getting rid
of a nuclear power, a nuclear terrorist.
And as soon as that war is over, which
will be soon, your prices are going to
drop like a rock. You watch.
>> All right. We will be watching. We are
watching. President Trump, of course,
earlier today from the White House. As
for oil, as we mentioned, it is higher
off its best levels of the session, but
we do know Iran has continued attacks on
energy infrastructure around the Middle
East. And then of course we talked
earlier with our own Dan Williams from
Israel uh how Israel has killed uh
senior Iranian officials. We want to get
another check on the energy markets
because the longer this goes on we think
about short-term but also longerterm
impacts. Dr. Ellen Wald is back with us.
President of Transversal Consulting,
senior fellow at the Atlantic Council,
author of Saudi, Inc. once again with us
from Boca Raton, Florida. Ellen, is
President Trump, first of all, great to
have you back. We love talking with you.
Is President Trump correct that as soon
as the war is over, oil prices will drop
like Iraq?
>> Oil prices will definitely drop when the
war ends and it's clear that um shipping
can resume, but we're not going to
return to the previous state of affairs
immediately. And that's that's very
clear. First of all, there's going to be
a huge backlog. Uh we're going to need
to see the stores of various uh
products, crude oil, but also various
petroleum products be refilled. And then
there's also the damage that's already
been done that has to be contended with.
For example, Iran landed its first hit
to an um oil and gas field in the UAE.
We don't even know how the extent of the
damage, how long it might be offline. Um
when it comes to LG and and natural gas
prices in the LG trade, um it's going to
take Qatar at least a month to get just
to get its facilities back up and
running. So, there's going to be some
long-term reverberations of this. Um,
and so, while crude oil prices and and
futures may definitely drop, um, we're
definitely not going to to see, you
know, return to everything as as usual.
>> Yeah, I'm looking at at futures many
months out at this point. And, and we're
still, if we go to December of this
year, Ellen, for WTI, traders are still
betting that's going to be $76.25
per barrel. And that's a price that we
hadn't seen in years until earlier this
month. So, at least the way that traders
are thinking about this, they're not
looking at this. Either they're not
looking at it ending anytime soon or
they're looking at the repercussions of
this extending far beyond quote dropping
like a rock.
>> Absolutely. I mean, it depends what
dropping like a rock means. Does
dropping like a rock mean that prices
will be back, you know, in the 80s or or
70s? Yeah. Does it mean they'll be back?
You know, does it mean we'll see $50
oil, which is what Trump claimed we were
going to see right after, you know, the
the Venezuela um you know, debacle or or
the Venezuela victory, whatever side
you're on. Um you know, I'm not sure
that that we're going to see that. Um we
will definitely see a drop simply
because the danger presumably will be
removed, but the long-term repercussions
are going to be felt for for a long
time. in agriculture uh just backlog of
products. This is going to take some
time to unravel.
>> So talk to us about those longerterm
implications. When you say it's going to
take a while, how long, Ellen? Are we
talking a few months? Are we talking six
months? Are we talking a year?
>> I mean, I think that the the markets are
incredibly resilient at uh you know,
rerouting things. So, I I think that we
will see markets take the most efficient
and best ways to sort things out, but
the the real test is going to be the
extent of the damage. How long is it
going to take to get these oil
facilities? We don't know how much more
is going to be damaged. We're still in
the phase of Iran has the capability to
destroy and damage oil production in its
neighbors and we don't know how much uh
you know, how much more damage it's
going to do. the more damage it does,
the longer it will take to um you know
to recover from this. So yeah, 6 months
I say is is probably a minimum.
>> What's more problematic? Some of those
other Middle Eastern targets or you know
oil um operations in Iran. And I only
bring that up because the president did
reiterate that the US could knock out
oil on Car Island, adding that it hasn't
done so yet because of how long it would
take to rebuild it. uh nation previously
bombed military targets on the key
Iranian export hub but spared its oil
infrastructure. If indeed that happened,
what would that do to energy markets
short and longer term?
>> So I I think that energy markets are
really operating in general without um
accounting for Iranian oil. So, if all
Iranian oil is off the market, I don't
think that that's going to push prices
up all that much because, you know, it's
really just China that is buying Iranian
oil anyway. So, um you know, China is
probably going to buy more Russian oil
to account for a loss in Iranian oil or
it will buy oil from elsewhere. Um, it
would be great to have that oil
available for the market and also for
Iran when it's in some kind of
rebuilding stage, but if that oil is off
the market, I don't think that is going
to have the biggest impact.
>> Ellen, you know, I if if we are indeed
in we are a net exporter of oil. I think
a lot of people have this misconception
about what it means to be energy
independent when a conflict many
thousands of miles away that cuts off
20% supply of the world's oil has such
dramatic effect on West Texas
Intermediate. Can you explain that
connection for people?
>> Yeah, exactly. I mean, oil is a global
commodity and it's priced globally. So
even though we don't really import all
that much from uh Persian Gulf countries
at the moment, um what happens anywhere
to oil impacts the price at home. Now
that doesn't mean that we're going to
see shortages. I don't think we are in
danger of seeing shortages of any sort.
But because most of the price of
gasoline is the price of the barrel of
oil, we are impacted by the fact that um
you know when prices rise because of any
kind of global incident, we are going to
feel that uh at home. Is there a way
though for the US to become more energy
independent if we do in the words of of
the president drill more here in the
United States? But or is the the
challenge you know the oil that that we
extract here or the oil that you know
maybe we will get from Venezuela is not
necessarily the oil that we are should
we can be using or we can be refining.
>> Right. I think that um the best way to
insulate the United States from the kind
of um price fluctuations that we're
seeing is actually to become more oil
interdependent. Uh and I think that we
do that by strengthening our connections
within North America. One of the biggest
reasons why we aren't feeling, you know,
these impacts beyond just in the price
of gasoline and the price of diesel is
that we have such a great interface with
Canada. Most of our oil imports right
now actually come from Canada. And so if
we can strengthen our interdependence as
as part of the North American oil
ecosystem, then we are either even
better insulated. The other way to do
that is to do more refining and to
produce more diesel here in the United
States to produce more gasoline. Uh
California, for example, can only use
gasoline that is produced and refined in
California. Well, that needs to change
or California needs to have more
refineries. the more that we can can
have our own refineries and the more
that we can do that the better insulated
we can be and from global issues and
also the more we can help assist uh you
know I mean we we started this war in a
sense and we have the capability to
assist other countries that are more
impacted by it and if we produce more at
home and we produce more products we can
help other countries more by exporting
>> Ellen you mentioned Canada um I don't
know if you've seen any of the stories
over the last year, but we're having
some troubles with that relationship.
Um, certainly with this White House.
Having said that, I do think about um
the administration and how they do think
about national security and that
includes energy security. Does this
somehow grease the wheels, no pun
intended, in terms of that relationship,
the US and Canada to kind of figure out
something a little bit more
constructive? Uh I think it absolutely
should because the better relations we
can have with Canada, the more ease of
transportation of goods, uh services,
but also the things that we need to um
you know build oil infrastructure will
be better. Um Canada really has no
choice but to export a lot of its oil
through the United States. So the United
States technically imports that oil and
then a lot of it is also exported or
used in the US. Um, now they do have the
option to export um, you know, via uh,
ports in Vancouver. But the more that we
can work with Canada uh, and build more
infrastructure and do more exchanges,
the the better those relations will be
and the more flexibility we'll have in
terms of of gasoline and and energy
prices in general. One distinction I
want to make because we have a great
story out on the Bloomberg too about
just reminding us that US diesel rose
above $5 a gallon for the first time
since December of 2022 because of what
we are seeing the surging oil prices um
amid the war and disruption in the
Middle East. We talk about diesel its
role in freight agriculture construction
industries um and so everybody's kind of
trying to to juggle and manage that.
What do we need to understand? I mean,
we talk about energy as this bucket, but
there are different pieces within that
bucket.
>> Absolutely. And one of the reasons the
diesel prices are are surging is because
we didn't have a lot of diesel in
storage. Um, and so we haven't had that
cushion to kind of fall back on. Whereas
in terms of gasoline, we have have more
we had more in storage and so we have
more cushion to fall back on. But rises
uh increases in diesel prices are really
what reverberates throughout the economy
and that's really where we will see um
the you know people who aren't buying
diesel gasoline might not necessarily
feel it at the pump but diesel is what's
used in trucking. It's what's used in in
construction and so we will feel those
increases in other ways in the economy.
Increases in grocery prices for example
uh and other goods that need to be
transported. I mean our n trucking is I
would say the lifeblood of this country.
I mean everything is transported uh via
trucking essentially and so we're going
to feel that in the economy in a variety
of ways.
>> Yeah. And I think Carol a complicated
time uh to say the least for uh a
midterm election
>> for an administration that has been so
focused on affordability. Uh Dr. Ellen
Wald always great to see you. Thanks so
much for joining us on Bloomberg
Business Week Daily. Ellen Wald is
president of Transversal Consulting.
She's senior fellow at the Atlantic
Council. She's the author of Saudi Inc.
Stay with us. More from Bloomberg
Business Week Daily coming up after
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Well, it is day two of Nvidia's
developer [music] conference in Nvidia
GTC is what it's called. It's happening
in San Francisco. Uh Nvidia CEO making
some comments right now at a press
conference. He says, this is Jensen
Wong. He says, "Buybacks dividends to be
a very large number." He also says that
Grock, that's Grock with a Q, not Grock
with a K. as Ed Llo talked to us about
yesterday could add 25% to data center
opportunity. Some other headlines
include HPE announces that HPE AI grid
is powered by Nvidia
>> on those uh buybacks. He says this sees
the shift to buybacks dividends in the
second half.
>> Okay,
>> so a little bit more in terms of that.
>> Let's bring in Mandy Singh. He's
Bloomberg Intelligence global head of
technology research. He joins us here in
the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers
studio. between the four and five
o'clock hour yesterday mandeep uh after
markets closed this slew of
announcements came out about different
partnerships that Nvidia had with
different companies that happens every
few months at these GTC's whether it's
in San Jose in the March or back in
October I believe in in Washington DC
what are the most important partnerships
that have been announced
>> I mean look they're trying to expand the
ecosystem and they want to uh convey to
the street that it's not just about the
data centers but also about autonomous
vehicles with the Uber and Lyft
partnership and actually those talks
were up today. So physical AI is a big
theme for Nvidia and their whole thing
is we are a systems company. Don't treat
us like a chip provider who is just
supplying the GPUs. Okay,
>> we do end to end systems.
>> But how much do they make from just the
chips versus how much they make from
these other markets?
>> I mean right now it's all data center
driven in fact.
>> [laughter]
>> And the idea is that they want to they
want to show that there's this physical
AI. There are these robots that are
going to be folding our clothes and
doing our dishes and that's going to be
powered by Nvidia. You cover Uber and
Lift. You cover ride sharing. Uh is
there a future there for Nvidia inside
these cars?
>> I mean it's a moonshot for me and all
these hyperscalers have moonshots. In
the case of Alphabet, we know Whimo has
paid off, but it took more than 10
years, you know, for that to get to a
certain point. So from that perspective,
I think it's still ambitious in terms of
uh revenue generating opportunity.
>> But uh look, I I think that's what you
can do as a CEO is to say that you have
technology that is pervasive, that is
not too niche. And uh Nvidia has proven
you know the fact that they're guiding
to trillion dollars in revenue uh
through 2027 is a testament to the fact
that they have expanded the addressable
market in a big way.
>> Address that number because we did see
the stock pop in the aftermarket on and
then it pulled back again and all of us
were kind of like searching through and
like reminding us about what they've
said. Is was that a big upgrade in terms
of their forecast or not really?
>> It certainly is. uh from a growth
perspective 2027 uh growth numbers
consensus numbers uh are at least 5%
above where consensus was based on this
1 trillion guide. The reason why they're
not getting the credit from investors
right now is because it's all driven by
Nvidia's supply agreements. They have
locked in TSMC supply. I would argue if
Google GPUs have more supply, they would
be growing faster too. So right now
because the market is so supply
constrained, if Nvidia is saying they
have locked in 70% of TSMC's wafer
capacity, well guess what? Anyone else
who wants to uh make a chip cannot make
a chip because there is no supply of
invid TSMC wafers.
>> That's ma amazing 70%.
>> Yes.
>> Wow. That's
>> and they prepaid 95 bill uh billion
dollars Nvidia data. If you look at
their uh just recently reported quarter,
they had $95 billion in prepaid
commitments to their suppliers, notably
TSMC and you know some of the memory
guys. So
>> So they own it and it's harder for
everybody else.
>> I would argue Google TPU is a a very uh
close second to Nvidia. The problem is
they cannot ramp up supply.
>> So explain how that constricts a company
like Broadcom or AM AMD. So Broadcom
also guided $400 billion in revenue for
2027 which is why I think Nvidia gave
that 2027 numbers is because
>> so Broadcom says hundred billion Nvidia
says a trillion
>> trillion through 2027. So if you uh uh
kind of do the back of the envelope math
it equates to about $500 billion in
revenue for 2027. Okay. So from a ratio
perspective, Broadcom and Nvidia are
currently at, you know, uh Broadcom has
a 10 to 15% market share, Nvidia has
almost 75% and then you have AMD. That
ratio is still more or less in line in
2027 and that's why they guided to that.
>> But the $500 billion extra figure, does
that imply no growth then in the
industry that year or or for Nvidia that
year? if they're bringing in 500 billion
dollars this year in that category in
500 billion.
>> No. So, uh, so right now they're at a
$215 billion run rate in data centers.
In 2026, it goes to 375 billion. So,
that's like a 70%.
>> And then for 2027, it gets to 500
billion, which is another 35% growth.
So, their growth is still astronomical.
When you think about a company of this
scale growing at 70% and then 35%.
That's phenomenal. So there's nothing to
take away from you know what they are
doing in terms of execution and how
they're ramping up. But partly that has
to do with how well they have managed
the supply chain. It's like the Apple uh
days you know when Apple was ramping up
iPhones they had a lock on the supply
chain. Similarly, you see that with
Nvidia, they have managed the supply
chain extremely well in an environment
where everyone is supply constrainted.
Nvidia did a great job of managing that,
>> man. Deep in terms of Nvidia putting
that lock on the supply chain. Is that
because the visibility and the actual
orders they're there like I I keep
wondering how much are they kind of
locking in just to make sure they own
it, right? And have it as the demand
comes in. like how much are they
guaranteed actually comes to fruition?
>> Well, they have the best performing chip
and that's why, you know, I said it's
really a tight race between Nvidia and
Google TPUs. Everyone else is behind.
And so from that perspective, the fact
that hyperscalers are still 60% of
Nvidia's $500 billion revenue in 2027
just goes to show that there is no other
place to go. If Meta wants to add AI
infrastructure capacity, they have to
get Nvidia chips. Same thing even Google
the with their TPUs is a big Nvidia
customer. Why? Because that's the only
way to add AI infrastructure capacity,
not with their own TPUs. They cannot
make more TPU chips. So that's why all
these hyperscalers are still such a big
chunk of Nvidia.
>> It's pretty remarkable, right?
>> Yeah. I'm looking at
>> I mean terms of really no competition,
right? or or or at least not they're not
in the position of where Nvidia is at
this point.
>> I think that supply factor is huge. If
DSMC was to somehow raise their supply
of chips, then I think Google TPUs has a
shot at really ramping up faster. But
until that happens,
>> are they not doing that or they can't do
that? you you can see TSMC's capex for
2026 and all the capex it takes about 18
months to ramp up a fab to uh for it to
be online. So this is uh you know the
lead times are quite long when it comes
to ramping up uh supply of uh TSMC's
manufacturing capacity.
>> Just a few of the headlines on
partnerships. Salesforce teams with
Nvidia on AI agents. Hyundai Hyundai Kia
Nvidia expand autonomous driving
partnership. IBM announces expanded pack
with Nvidia. Salesforce I mentioned STMI
uh ST micro electronics to partner with
Nvidia. Uh the headlines go on HPE
unveils AI factory supercomputing
advancements with Nvidia. Does everybody
want to work with Nvidia? I mean, that's
if you have a 75% market share in one of
the fastest growing areas in the
enterprise market and everyone sees it's
going to be a trillion dollar market,
then yeah, you you you go with that 75%.
>> L'Oreal expands AI partnership with
Nvidia.
>> I think it's just why
>> L'Oreal
>> they're planning to use 50% of free cash
flow for investor returns. Is that
smart? When they say they're going to do
buybacks, dividends,
>> it is the Apple playbook to me. Apple uh
did exactly that in terms of you know
being uh shareholder friendly with their
buybacks and reducing the share count.
You're seeing that such great stuff as
always. Mandep Singh of our Bloomberg
intelligence team.
>> Stay with us more from Bloomberg
Business Week Daily coming up after
[music] this.
>> You're listening to the Bloomberg
Business Week Daily podcast. Catch us
live weekday afternoons from 2 to 5:00
p.m. Eastern. Listen on Apple CarPlay
and Android [music] Auto with the
Bloomberg Business App or watch us live
on YouTube. Uh let's bring in Samantha
Dart. She's co-head of global
commodities [music] research at Goldman
Sachs. She joins us from New York City.
Samantha, good to have you on the
program. We talk a lot about gas prices
and how they're up about a dollar just
going back to a little over a month ago.
But you have a no doubt talking about
other refined products. We're talking
jet fuel. We're talking heating oil uh
and diesel for example. Why are other
refined products more affected than you
know traditional gasoline prices with
this shock?
>> Yeah, the majority of the crude that
you're missing from uh the Middle East
is heavy crude and that type of crude uh
tends to produce more of the what they
call the dirtier products. So your
diesel, your jet fuel, fuel oil. So you
end up with a production of those
refined products in particular um more
impacted uh and and losing more barrels
than uh than gasoline at the margin. So
jet few I think is the best example of
that uh with prices uh skyrocketing.
Yeah, I always think this is important
when we dig and we did a little bit of
this with an earlier guest, Ellen Wald,
but just like understanding again, we go
we talk about commodities, we talk about
energy and we throw everything into the
same kind of bucket if you will, but
understanding the distinctions and
differences in terms of how it can
impact our world. talk a little bit more
about this and when it comes to refined
oil products, where it's all coming
from, how it gets around the world and
certainly how it can affect the global
economy and and specifically the US
economy.
>> Yeah. On one hand, you have this
outright supply of a lot of these
products from the Middle East that is
not crossing through the straight,
right? So, for example, a lot of um your
Asia NATA comes from uh the the Persian
Gulf. A lot of your European jet fuel
comes from the Persian Gulf. But I think
in addition to that, because you're also
losing a lot of crude supplies from that
same region, you end up losing your
ability to produce additional barrels of
those products, whether it is in Asia or
Europe or in other places. And because
these products are widely traded, what
we end up seeing is that product prices,
your from gasoline to diesel to jet
fuel, they go up everywhere because you
end up um if it's cheaper here than
there, you end up trading uh and and
moving those products around so that you
equalize the price. So even though
certain regions are more directly
impacted by the volumes not crossing
this trade at the moment, your marginal
increase to product prices, they end up
impacting all the regions.
>> You know, I'm looking at the the futures
curve on the Bloomberg terminal right
now in terms of where we think or where
traders rather think that at least uh
WTI is going to go over the next few
months. What's your prediction in terms
of okay, if there is some sort of
ceasefire, if the straight of Hormuz
opens, how quickly and where will oil
prices get down to?
>> Yeah, think about it this way. I think
there are two key variables here. One
are the volumes that we're losing every
day and two, the market perception of
the duration of this conflict. the
volumes we're losing are still extremely
high. We have barely anything crossing
the straight at the moment. And even
taking into account the IEA uh strategic
petroleum reserves release that was
announced last week, we end up with
north of 10 million barrels a day of oil
and products that were missing every
day. So, so that's one. But the second
component that goes straight to what you
just said is that market perception of
duration. And the more concerned the
market becomes, that's when you tend to
see your brand prices cross $100 a
barrel. That's the the signal that it
sends because you can only destroy
demand uh more significantly once you're
above that threshold. You don't
historically we haven't seen much of a
response below $100 a barrel. We're now
seeing, you probably saw the headline of
um SAS curtailing flights because they
probably can't pass through such an
uptick in jet fuel prices to consumers.
So that's the signal that the market is
sending. So to your point, if you have,
let's say, a ceasefire tomorrow, the
signal that sends is, huh, then maybe
the the disruption through the strait is
not going to last much longer. It's
going to take okay a few weeks to
restart refineries, restart uh oil
production, but
of the need of destroying demand that
goes down and then you can give up a lot
of your risk premium. You could, you
know, just as easily as as you've gone
above $100 a barrel for brand, you could
be back in the low 80s,
>> right? Demand destruction can certainly
happen. Hey, one of the things I think
about Samantha, coming out of this war,
we hope sooner rather than later that
there is an end to the US war in Iran,
uh, and Israel pulls back as well, uh,
their involvement. Is there something
different that we're going to see in
terms of, um, national security moves
when it comes to energy supplies and
maybe things being built out closer to
home where they can be? Is there
something longer term that happens in
terms of the energy global energy supply
chain?
>> I think that's such an important point
and and it's not just what's happening
now. I think since the COVID shock,
we've seen how we can be vulnerable to
supply chain disruptions that was
followed by the European energy crisis
in 21 and now we have this conflict um
that is creating a lot of disruption
worldwide. So I think you're absolutely
right. This ends up incentivizing I
think the the the the widespread
buildout of strategic reserves uh
initiatives like um project vault in the
US or the strategic reserves build out
that we saw in China even last year. Uh
I think we're likely to see more of
those initiatives exactly because
countries are likely to try at least to
become more self-sufficient. You look at
Europe today for example, almost 50% of
Europe's energy consumption uh is still
covered by imports.
>> Yeah. Right. I mean it's just
tremendous. And you think about too
certainly Asia, China, we talk about
this a lot. I wonder if in terms you
guys game out scenarios longer term. Do
you see a world where global energy
markets Iran is not really factored in
because of some of the restrictions,
right? Um in terms of where it can go.
Is there a world where Iran is a part of
that global mix?
>> You know, it's really hard for us to say
what we do best, I think, is count the
barrels and work the the scenarios of um
how pricing can respond to different uh
supply availability. So, right now, uh
Iranian cargos are pretty much the only
ones crossing the street and and not
even the the usual number of tankers. So
um we'll continue to to look through how
that crossing evolves, what's available
to the market and work through the
scenarios.
>> You know, I want to just talk about
domestic production a little bit. And
you know, commodity, our own
commodities, Bloomberg intelligence
analyst likes to say the cure for high
prices is high prices. But when with the
oil industry, it's not as easy as just
producing more uh especially if it
involves infrastructure. And and I'm
wondering how higher prices here in the
US affecting consumers might make
production change in the US or or cause
uh companies in the US to invest more in
production like the president wants to
see. Is this enough of a supply shock to
do that or does it seem so short-lived
that companies will not make the capex
investments to increase production?
So firstly I I would say that your last
point I think is exactly right. Usually
we see lack of investment uh in supply
reflected in a back end of the forward
curve that rises and rises and that uh
signals the need for additional
long-term investment. These things can't
be built uh overnight. Um but I would
say given the rally that we've seen in
oil so far, uh what we've seen is that a
lot of oil companies in the US have
hedged. So you see at the margin a
little bit of a a an increased incentive
for um growing production, but that's
not overnight either. I mean, we like to
call SH short cycle supply because it
doesn't take years to show up. It takes
months,
>> but we're still talking 6 9 12 months to
see that show up. All right. I don't
know if I can do this with uh the
co-head of global commodities research,
but I'm going to go ahead and do it
anyway. Samantha, should we be talking
like or do you guys talk about as a
result of this, it's a reminder that
it's good to have different forms of
energy and I think about alternative
energy which has taken a major back seat
certainly uh it feels like with this
administration. And I know Europe and
the world thinks differently in terms of
alternative forms, but do you do you
factor that in about how this war again
is reminding us that it's good to have
different forms of where our energy
comes from?
>> No, but I again I think you're exactly
on point. So for example, let's look at
China. China um dominates in a lot of
metals production and refining, but not
so much in oil and gas. They are net
short oil, they are net short gas. So
what did China do? They invested a lot
in EVs domestically. So you're shifting
your demand towards electricity because
electricity you can produce and to
produce electricity. They relying again
on what they have which is coal. They
can produce it and stockpile it and
renewables as well. So if you turn to
places again like Europe um Europe has
some oil and gas as well no question but
those reserves are not growing. So by
investing in more renewables, yes, they
can become a little bit more resilient.
The only thing is they shouldn't shut
down their alternative.
>> Samantha, we got to run. We got to
continue this in the future. Samantha
Dart over at Goldman Sachs.
>> This is the Bloomberg Business Week
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Ask follow-up questions or revisit key timestamps.
The video discusses the escalating Israel-Iran conflict, including the killing of Iran's de facto ruler and the strategic objectives of the US and Israel to destabilize the Iranian regime. It also delves into the significant impact of the war on global energy markets, contrasting President Trump's optimistic predictions about oil prices with expert analysis foreseeing long-term repercussions and highlighting the disproportionate impact on refined products like diesel and jet fuel. The conversation further explores the global nature of oil pricing, the complexities of energy independence versus interdependence, and the importance of strategic reserves and alternative energy sources. Separately, the Bloomberg Business Week Daily covers Nvidia's GTC conference, showcasing its expanding AI ecosystem, strategic partnerships in autonomous vehicles and physical AI, and its unparalleled market dominance, primarily driven by securing a vast portion of TSMC's manufacturing capacity, which constrains competitors and underpins Nvidia's astronomical growth forecasts.
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