Episode summary
Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend: May 1, 2026 | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · 38 min · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec
Summary
The weekend show centered on a packed week for markets, with the hosts revisiting Jerome Powell’s likely final rate decision as Fed chair, the White House visit by the king of England, Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square USA IPO, and a burst of megacap tech earnings. The analyst argued that the most important investor question was return on capex, and said Alphabet stood out because of its vertical integration across chips, cloud, and AI, while Meta was under pressure for lacking a separate cloud business and clear top-line proof from AI. He also said Google’s external cloud business is growing far faster than Amazon’s AWS and that Alphabet’s subscriptions and cloud are helping diversify beyond ads.
The conversation then shifted to Wayfair, where the CFO said the company’s first-quarter results showed share gains and better profitability even though the home-furnishings category remains weak. She said Q2 guidance does not assume any category recovery, but that initiatives like Wayfair Verified, rewards, and physical stores are supporting growth. She also pointed to strength in luxury and pro customers.
The final segment focused on sustainable wine making with the sustainability director at OPC Wines and Spirits, who said climate change, water stress, regulation, and younger consumers are forcing vineyards to be more transparent and resilient without sacrificing quality.
Key takeaways
- The analyst said Alphabet’s advantage is vertical integration, with its own chips and cloud helping it run capex more efficiently than Meta or Microsoft.
- The analyst said Google Cloud grew 63% on an almost $80 billion run rate, while AWS grew 28%, widening the gap in cloud growth.
- The analyst said Meta lacks a separate cloud business and has not convincingly shown that AI is driving the top line.
- Wayfair’s CFO said Q1 net revenue grew 7.4% even as the broader category was down low single digits.
- Wayfair’s CFO said Q2 guidance assumes no category recovery and still calls for mid-single-digit revenue growth.
- The sustainability director said wine makers are adapting to climate change with cover crops, lower emissions, and stronger certification standards.
Notable quotes
“public cloud infrastructure was growing 20% uh you know the combined market was $400 billion”
“Google has that vertical integration. Uh think of you know what Apple has done so well over the past 10 years on the consumer device side”
“meta on the other hand wasn't very convincing in terms of showing that agentic AI contribution to the top line”
“our focus continues to be on the share gains in each of those sort of subcategories that we play in”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news. — This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily, reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead with insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping today's complex economy. Plus, global business, finance, and tech news as it happens. Bloomberg Business Week Daily with Carol Masser and Tim Stenc on Bloomberg Radio.
Hi everyone, welcome to the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. It was another whirlwind of news this past week from what's likely to be Jerome Powell's final Federal Reserve rate decision as Fed chair, although he's not leaving the Federal Reserve quite yet. We also got a visit from the king of England spending time at the White House, also in New York City, to a massive IPO from Bill Aman's Persing Square, which maybe was a little bit disappointing if you check out how it traded on its first day.
Yeah, Persing Square USA fell 18% in its debut this week. That's below that book value of $50 a share. Plus, we also got a slew of earnings this week. We got quarterly updates from five of the Mag 7. Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, and Apple.
What did we call it, Tim? Something like 80 seconds or less than that. — It was 80 seconds last quarter and then this week it was 71 seconds when all these companies reported. — It was — On Wednesday afternoon. — It was crazy.
It was crazy. — These companies, these four big mag seven companies all dropping within um less than 2 minutes time. It was crazy. There were lots of other earnings this week. We also got results from Wayfair. The company CFO Kate Guliver joined us to talk about the consumer, the trends, the buying trends that are out there and building out the company's retail exposure.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- businessweek weekend roundup
- world technology stories
- global politics and economics
- business and finance news
- market and economic updates
Watch the episode
Watch “Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend: May 1, 2026 | Bloomberg Businessweek” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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