Tech Disruptors

“The searches that you’re doing on Claude require the consumption of energy and at some point the system should hit a breaking point,” says George Bilicic, Lazard vice chairman of investment banking and global head of power, energy and infrastructure. Bilicic joins Bloomberg Intelligence’s Alexandra Davidov and Rob Barnett on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss why AI and data-center demand are reshaping the outlook for utilities, power markets and infrastructure investment. They also explore why the next phase of the build-out will require more than simply adding generation wherever demand appears. The conversation covers financing, M&A, grid constraints, gas, renewables, storage, nuclear, permitting and Lazard’s latest work on the levelized cost of energy (LCOE).

“One of the things that’s been universally true ... is the human desire to travel is really strong. It’s very consistent,” says James Waters, chief business officer of Booking.com. Waters joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Nicole D’Souza on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss the outlook for global travel demand. They also explore the effect of macroeconomic and geopolitical trends on the industry and how Booking.com is using AI to enhance trip planning, customer service and marketing. The conversation examines the company’s competitive positioning, loyalty strategy and growth in alternative accommodations and experiences, as well as how Booking is preparing for an AI-driven future in travel.

The chip design industry continues to push the frontier of semiconductor power, performance and area. On this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast, Synopsys Vice President of AI and Machine Learning Thomas Andersen discusses the evolution of the company’s AI portfolio. He joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Niraj Patel to explain how Synopsys progressed from leveraging AI through reinforcement learning across design, verification and test workflows to introducing AgentEngineer, a multi-agent AI-orchestrated workflow. Andersen also discusses the intersection of simulation and electronic design automation (EDA), the role of humans in the loop for chip design, AI’s current shortcomings, the pace of AI-tool adoption, the industry’s path beyond Moore’s law and much more.

In this episode IOWN Global Forum board members Chris Wright (Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Global Engineering, Red Hat) and Jefferson Wang (Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, Cloud, Accenture) talk through the accelerating shift towards photonics-based networks and how this next-generation technology can help unlock the full potential of the AI economy.

Replacing electrical-based connectivity with optics promises to drastically increase processing speeds, reduce latency, and lower power consumption for high-demand AI, cloud computing, and financial networks.

Uniphore CEO Umesh Sachdev joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh on this episode of the Tech Disruptors podcast to discuss his company’s platform for developing ontologies compared with the use of forward-deployed engineers (FDEs) by hyperscalers and frontier large-language-model companies. He explores Uniphore’s approach to leveraging small language models for use cases such as claims and billing, as well as the trade-offs with frontier models used for cybersecurity and coding agents.