Bloomberg Businessweek

The people, companies and trends shaping the global economy.

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Jack Dorsey’s Block is cutting 4,000 employees, reducing its workforce by nearly half as the financial technology firm places a bet on artificial intelligence changing the future of labor productivity.

Block has been restructuring its business model and staffing since 2024 as the company’s stock has lagged. At the same time, the company has invested heavily in artificial intelligence tools to run more efficiently, including building its own tool called Goose.
The reduction in force, which was announced in a shareholder letter on Thursday, comes after rolling job eliminations that have often been tied to annual performance reviews.
The move by Block is the latest indication of the havoc that new AI tools are wreaking on the economy and financial markets.

In the shareholder letter, the company highlighted strong financial performance over 2025 including gross profit growth that more than doubled from the first quarter to the fourth quarter.

Dorsey, the company’s co-founder, touted how the company has reignited growth of users of its peer-to-peer payments app Cash App, scaled its lending products and accelerated Square gross payment volume. Block reported gross profit of $10.36 billion in 2025, up 17% year-over-year.

Today's show features:
Bloomberg News Fintech and Crypto Reporter Emily Mason on Block's massive staff cuts
Chris Miller, Professor of International History at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, on the geopolitical forces shaping the global ecosystem for semiconductors
Steven Dickens, CEO and Principal Analyst of HyperFRAME Research, with Nvidia earnings analysis and a lookahead to CoreWeave earnings after the bell
Bloomberg News National Security Reporter Jaime Tarabay on Hillary Clinton’s closed-door testimony related to her connections to the late Jeffrey Epstein, and allegations that the Department of Justice withheld some files in the Epstein case due to an abuse claim against President Trump
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The people, companies and trends shaping the global economy.
Watch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.
Nvidia Corp., the world’s most valuable company, gave another bullish quarterly revenue forecast, signaling that the massive build-out of AI computing remains on track.
Fiscal first-quarter sales will be about $78 billion, the chipmaker said in a statement Wednesday. That compares with an average Wall Street estimate of $72.8 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Our customers are racing to invest in AI compute — the factories powering the AI industrial revolution and their future growth,” Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said in the statement.
The outlook helped soothe concerns about a bubble in AI investments. Huang has repeatedly downplayed fears that the run-up in spending on artificial intelligence hardware isn’t sustainable. He argues that it will take years to replace the world’s installed base of older computers with machines that offer a leap forward in productivity.
But some investors had grown weary of that optimism and traded out of stocks like Nvidia. Wednesday’s report provides some evidence that near-term worries may be overblown.

Today's show features:
Bloomberg Tech Co-Host Ed Ludlow, and Jay Goldberg, Senior Analyst, Semiconductors & Electronics with Seaport Research Partners, break down Nvidia’s earnings report and outlook
Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Global Head of Technology Research Mandeep Singh reacts to quarterly earnings from Nvidia and Snowflake, and Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Technology Analyst Anurag Rana with analysis of earnings from Salesforce and the broader disruption to software companies amid concerns that AI will erode demand
Libby Cantrill, Managing Director and the head of public policy for PIMCO on market reverberations following President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address
Bloomberg News Miami Bureau Chief Dan Cancel on the report of Cuban forces killing four people who opened fire from a speedboat with Florida tags

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Shares of MercadoLibre fell after fourth-quarter net income missed analysts’ estimates as the company continued to invest heavily in its main business lines. MercadoLibre posted $559 million in net income, below the average forecast for $596 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. However, the company posted a 45% year-on-year increase in net revenue to $8.8 billion, beating consensus analyst estimates of $8.5 billion, as customers took advantage of free shipping perks in Brazil and piled into MercadoLibre’s credit offerings. That marks its 28th consecutive quarter of annual growth above 30%.
Martin de los Santos, the CFO of South America's largest company, discusses quarterly earnings and the e-commerce giant's continued efforts to scale its fintech platform, Mercado Pago. Martin speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.
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The Jel Sert Company is a family-owned business that has been at the forefront of innovation in the food and beverage industry since 1926. Jel Sert's products include dessert mixes, drink mixes, and freezer bars, and are made exclusively in West Chicago, Illinois.

Ken Wegner is President of The Jel Sert Company. The grandson of Jel Sert founders Charles and Lillian Wegner, Ken grew up in the business and has worked at the company since 1985, helping steward beloved brands while expanding Jel Sert’s community impact, and growing its workforce to more than 1,400 employees. He discusses the firm's recent expansion within West Chicago, as well as how real-time searches and social data from platforms like TikTok are guiding new flavor development and brand partnerships for Jel Sert. Ken speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.
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President Donald Trump delivered the longest State of the Union address of the television age Tuesday, declaring “a turnaround for the ages” as he tried to sell Americans on his economic program ahead of crucial midterm elections later this year.

The speech had all the ceremony, confrontation and chaos that have come to define the event in an era of narrow congressional majorities and partisan polarization. Democratic Representative Al Green was ejected from the chamber for disrupting the speech. Trump invited the gold-medal-winning men’s Olympic hockey team into the gallery amid chants of “USA! USA! USA!” He awarded several medals honoring veterans and active-duty service members.

And in more than 1 hour 47 minutes, the longest State of the Union in history, the president delivered a rally-like speech punctuated less by policy proposals than by political attacks.
For instant reaction and analysis, Bloomberg Balance of Power hosts Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz speak with:
Bloomberg White House correspondent Jeff Mason
Rick Davis, Partner at Stonecourt Capital and Bloomberg Politics Contributor & Jeanne Sheehan Zaino, Democracy Visiting Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center and Bloomberg Politics Contributor
US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum
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