US Mulls Iran Military Options; Big Tech AI Spending Bonanza
4/30/202622 min
Today's top stories, with context, in just 15 minutes.
On today's podcast:
1) Brent oil rallied to a four-year high after Axios reported that US President Trump will receive a briefing on new military options for action in Iran. The US and Iran have maintained their blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, with the conflict in the Middle East called the biggest supply shock in history by the International Energy Agency.
2) Alphabet's Google is seeing a clear payoff from its AI spending, with solid growth at its cloud computing unit and a "meaningful acceleration in growth" driven by demand for its AI software and infrastructure. Meta Platforms is lagging behind, with its shares tumbling more than 6% after the company boosted full-year capital expenditures, and its consumer AI app being slower to take off. The four companies, including Amazon and Microsoft, are expected to spend as much as $725 billion in 2026, with a key question being whether that massive spending is providing tangible results.
3) Shares of Bill Ackman's Pershing Square USA Ltd. plunged 18% in its debut after the combined initial public offering raised $5 billion. The $5 billion haul was the bare minimum to keep early investors locked into the deal, and fell short of the $25 billion that Pershing Square sought to bring in. Pershing Square USA deserves to trade at a premium to its net assets over time if the newly listed closed-end fund delivers the same outperformance as the hedge fund firm has in the past, Ackman said.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Speaker 10:25
[upbeat music] Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News.
Nathan Hager· Host0:34
[upbeat music] Good morning. I'm Nathan Hager.
Karen Moscow· Host0:39
And I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today.
Nathan Hager· Host0:42
Karen, those levels are at four-year highs for oil as President Trump keeps his naval blockade on Iran's ports and reportedly considers new strikes. The president says a deal has to include Iran giving up its nuclear program.
Speaker 40:57
They've come a long way. The question is whether or not they're gonna go far enough. So at this moment, there will never be a deal unless they agree that there will be no nuclear weapons.
Nathan Hager· Host1:09
President Trump spoke at the White House yesterday. This morning, Axios is reporting that the president will meet later today with the head of US Central Command to discuss potential new military options. We get more from Bloomberg's Joumanna Bercetche in Dubai.
Joumanna Bercetche1:22
Those include targeted and limited operations, uh, could be limited attacks on infrastructure once again.