BN Daybreak: Mag 7 results; Anthropic's valuation; Iraj Abedian on Iran; UK property

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:08]Good morning and welcome to the Biz News Daybreak. Today is Thursday the 30th of April. I'm Carrie Lanigan.

[00:00:16]Up first, let's get the latest overnight world news from our partners at Bloomberg.

[00:00:21]>> After the close of trading, Wall Street got four of the seven mag seven names reporting their latest quarterly results. Amazon's cloud unit posted its fastest quarterly growth in more than three years, bolstered by new data center capacity and an increasing slice of business from anthropic and open AI.

[00:00:41]Still, capital spending for that effort jumped to 44.2 billion in the first quarter, exceeding analyst expectations and a sign that Amazon is seeing higher expenses for the buildout than anticipated. Reaction from Ron Westfall, who is networking VP and practice leader at Hyperframe Research Infrastructure.

[00:01:01]>> AWS is definitely benefiting Amazon's overall prospects. And I think that's underlined by the fact that the AWS AI revenue run rate has already gone past $15 billion.

[00:01:14]And that's linking to the fact that AWS growth is projected to accelerate toward 25.6% 6% following its landmark 100 billion infrastructure deal with Anthropic.

[00:01:27]>> Microsoft's cloud business reported growth that narrowly beat estimates, disappointing investors concerned that the company's not fully capitalizing on demand for AI services. Meta Platforms raised its spending outlook for the year, extending its streak of plowing historic levels of investment into the race to build everadvancing AI systems.

[00:01:47]After ours, Meta Platform shares declined. Alphabet, the parent of Google, reported quarterly revenue and profit that beat projections fueled by strong growth in its cloud computing unit. Sources tell Bloomberg Anthropic is weighing a fresh funding round that would value the AI developer at more than $90 billion. And with the latest, here's Bloomberg's Ed Ledllo. That number is a $900 billion valuation, which if Anthropic were ever to do a deal or raise funds at that valuation, it would leapfrog open AI as the world's most valuable AI startup. What sources are telling us, what we're hearing is that investors are basically going to Anthropic and saying, "We want you to raise money, and this is the valuation that we're we're offering right now."

[00:02:33]Um, there are no firm term sheets.

[00:02:35]Anthropic has not accepted this offer.

[00:02:37]Bloomberg's Ed Ledllo. Fed officials left interest rates unchanged, but revealed a deepening division over the outlook for policy amid increased uncertainty caused by the conflict in the Middle East. Here's Fed Chair Jay Powell.

[00:02:51]>> Today, the FOMC decided to leave our policy rate unchanged.

[00:02:56]We see the current stance of monetary policy as appropriate to promote progress toward our maximum employment and 2% inflation goals. Meanwhile, Powell says he does intend to remain at the central bank as a member of its board of governors.

[00:03:10]>> I've said that I will not leave the board until this investigation is well and truly over with transparency and finality and I stand by that. I'm encouraged by recent developments and I'm watching the remaining steps in this process carefully. Reaction from Jim Biano, the president of Biano Research.

[00:03:28]>> I think it's one of the most disappointing things that he's done during his chairmanship. That is a political decision. The decision was made to push the investigation of the building to the inspector general. The inspector general finds some malfeasants or wrongdoing with the building, they'll have a criminal referral. That is appropriate. He seems to be saying that the Fed has billions of dollars in building construction and no one's allowed to ask any questions about it and he's going to stand in the doorway and disrupt the Fed as long as they're going to look into this building. I think that that is a big big disappointment. I would have expected more from him.

[00:04:04]>> Earlier in the day, the Senate Banking Committee voted to approve the nomination of Kevin Worsh, who is now on track to succeed Powell as chair, pending his confirmation by the Senate.

[00:04:15]President Trump says he will keep Iran under a naval blockade until the regime agrees to a deal on its nuclear program.

[00:04:23]Trump telling Axios he is rejecting an Iranian proposal to first open the Strait of Hormuz and lift the blockade while postponing nuclear talks to a later stage. Bloomberg Intelligence senior defense research analyst Wayne Sanders says it is President Trump's best option as the war enters its third month.

[00:04:42]>> The blockade is working. It's providing the pressure that you're already looking for. The bombing campaign did a great job of destroying a lot of the the military infrastructure across Iran, but at this point in time, Iran has already proven from uh they're not exactly worried about the Iranian people. And some additional military strikes, I don't think is really going to gain uh the US anything. It actually makes the US look more like an aggressor uh on that. If we were to continue to do that without being provoked by Iran, >> we begin with economist Dr. I Abijan who gave his insight 60 days into the Iran conflict. Abijan sat down with business news editor Ale Kagi yesterday and gave a stark view from inside a nation isolated and under pressure. Well, inside Iran as you know is exactly for 60 days going 61 days of what they call it net blockade meaning the government or the regime has literally cut off the nation from uh connectivity with the rest of the globe with the exception of their own members who have what they call it a white sim card which affects which which enables them to connect the rest of the nation is is blocked out. Um there are here and there uh with the help of uh different links and the star link those who have there are a couple of them couple of hundred of them in the country uh so-called illegally and it's a crime to have them but nonetheless uh I've seen various agencies and organizations mostly human rights organizations manage to receive uh information from inside the country. The most important is about the the availability of food. Increasingly uh inflation and and shortage of medicine and food are becoming a real challenge for for the nation. Uh and of course at the same time and somewhat expectedly as I highlighted back in March that um the the regime in Iran is brutalizing those who have they have arrested and every day u two or three people get publicly executed in order to make a lesson for the rest and and terrorize those who want to potentially uh rise up against the the the the the hardship that they experience. So I think inside it's a it's a wartime uh environment as I see it as I said there is no connectivity there isn't an opportunity to have a uh video or or telephone call with anybody uh connections with my family is 30 seconds they send a message we are alive or they have the 30 seconds whenever they get the opportunity to call and say we are all together everybody is okay and and then they get cut off. It's a tough tire.

[00:07:35]>> It's almost straight from the terror playbook that one has read over many of these organizations. You you make an example of somebody by a public execution that to us here in South Africa where we don't even have the death penalty. That is quite quite stark and quite uh jolting. But that's not the only thing that is different between living in Iran even in normal times and now here in our country.

[00:08:01]>> Yeah, I think it is. It is uh of course a difficulty is the uncertainty that that literally uh like a cloud hanging over the nation uh 90 odd million people they don't know what's what's cutting out for them uh Americans and Israelis and Iranian regimes they've kept the nation um out of the loop uh and therefore people don't know what deal is being made over their head and about their lives. And that uncertainty together with the with the fury and the and the sorrow that they have. Remember uh two months ago in January the the government massacred thousands upon thousands arrested um an estimated 200,000 people. So it's this millio of of fear of uh mourning of anger and of not knowing what's being cut over their head for them and for their children.

[00:09:05]>> Business news journalist Linda Fanilberg sat down with Sable International's Michaela Moral Brink who says UK property is still an attractive opportunity for South African investors.

[00:09:16]>> Yeah. So this is something a lot of South Africans aren't aware of. Um, and it's the ease at which you can acquire a UK mortgage. So there's no there's no restrictions around UK investment first of all. Um, and with that you you can get a mortgage in the UK. So lenders will typically lend from about 60 to 75%.

[00:09:40]Um, and and SE actually has their own mortgage advisory um, within the company. you know, we're based obviously in Ktown, but then we've also got a Londonbased office and and a team in in London can assist you with that UK mortgage. It's it's very interesting that for a South African investor, you can put down, you know, your 20% deposit, let's call it, um, and you can get that 75% loan to value. And that's not that's not something that a lot of South Africans know. and and often time that that rental income will cover majority if not all of of your mortgage repayment. So, you know, when you're looking at the interest rates in in the UK, you know, around 4% 4 to 5% is what you can get as a as a as a foreigner.

[00:10:32]Then you compare that to South Africa and you you've got a prime lending rates of about 10.25%. So, you know, it's a much more affordable lending rate. Um, which surprises a lot of investors actually. They they're not aware of this. Um, and that's why that that rental can almost cover your entire mortgage repayment, which is a very very interesting fact that you want as an investor. And closing this morning's show where Bloomberg Stevens Stabchinsky explains the UAE's decision to quit OPEC and how this decision is raising new questions about the oil cartel's future influence over markets.

[00:11:11]>> UAE's decision to leave OPEC is the is the main story there as the global oil industry grapples with supply disruption caused by the war uh in Iran. uh our team at Bloomberg economics have chimed in on this very interesting take here that when you look beneath the hood the clash between the two has actually been brewing for not just it this wasn't something that started just weeks ago this was months and years in the making and the Iran war has simply widened uh that fracture flip the page please and have a look at where we go as far as oil markets go and perhaps the potential impact on the oil markets and the take from zod and his team is unlikely to react as far as oil goes. The issue isn't how much golf producers actually want to supply is whether they can actually supply what they want to supply and I think it's something we'll get into right now. April.

[00:12:06]>> Yeah. With our colleague Steven Stchinsky who leads our Asia energy coverage and he joins me in the studio.

[00:12:12]So Stephen, I mean we're getting these headlines right about how maybe this blockade will be extended even further.

[00:12:18]So maybe what we're seeing in brand kind of makes sense cuz we're at levels we saw before the ceasefire began.

[00:12:24]>> But the UAE thing longer term, what is that going to mean for the market balance as well?

[00:12:29]>> You know, I think that's more of a uh you know, obviously not not any near-term effect because they can't get the oil out, but more long-term. The importance of OPEC is is in greater question. There have been other OPEC members that have left over the years.

[00:12:43]Um smaller oil producer Qatar left a few years back. um Angola, but the UAE is is a pretty big blow. They're the third largest producer in OPEC and it just and they they have, you know, they're one of a few producers basically just Saudi and them that have the ability to spare capacity to potentially maybe increase their output according to the IEA. Now, some analysts say that the UAE is already pumping at at maximum capacity uh already, but the fact of the matter is if if if they're losing these members, what importance does OPEC and OPEC plus have on the wider market? How much ability do they have to actually um sort of balance the market? Um and and are there questions about other members leaving? We had a Bloomberg report uh just in the last 12 hours kind of surveying uh a number of different officials within the OPEC group. So far, it doesn't look like we're going to see a mass exodus >> um from OPEC plus, but I think it does, you know, sort of change the way that you look at the organization and how Saudi Arabia will will will effectively have influence in the market going forward.

[00:13:50]>> That's your Business News Daybreak. I'm Carrie Lanigan. Thanks for listening.