the u.s. adds 136,000 jobs were added. that's less than expected. but there are more than 1.5 million more jobs than unemployed people, changing the job search. and shelter from the trade storm. htc says it's more sheltered from trade tensions than its u.s. or chinese competitors. we hear from its ceo. but first, our top story. microsoft is exposing a foreign power for trying to hack into a u.s. presidential campaign. the tech giant says computer hackers linked to the iranian infiltratetried to accounts for a political campaign. foreign accounts were compromised by the group. to further discuss, i'm joined by bloomberg executive editor tom giles. so tom, does this show basically that we haven't done enough to look at election hacking? tom: it's going to be a big issue. election security and protection against foreign interference in an election has been a big issue and it potentially will be an even bigger issue in 2020. all kinds of ways for foreign powers to get in and muck around with u.s. elections. we saw it here today with what microsoft talking about the hacking possibility. again, we saw that in 2016 with russia. we're vulnerable there. just the mechanisms for voting , that's another area. and certainly misinformation, and not to mention the president of the united states inviting foreign actors become an interfere at some level with the election. so yes, we remain vulnerable. and as far as hiking and cybersecurity in particular, it will definitely be an issue. great to see microsoft staying on top of it and making us aware when they finally found out about it. how much more is out there and how many more foreign actors will try to use cyber insecurity to infiltrate? taylor: well, did microsoft do the right thing by coming out and getting ahead of it instead of trying to hide it, like maybe what happened in the 2016 election? tom: i think you're referring back to some of the social media companies, right, that i don't think were aware of how their systems were being used, how sort of serious the threat was for misinformation in the 2016 election. i think they, as a general rule, have become much more aware and they're trying to be much more proactive. microsoft is an interesting story, as well. they really tried to establish their bona fides when it comes to cyber security questions and this is them absolutely trying to get out there say we're being vigilant. we're trying to keep tabs on the system we have access to. taylor: does it show that cyberattacks is the next frontier for elections? tom: it's certainly one way that foreign powers can get in an interfere and try to sway the outcome to their advantage. i think russia was a great test case. "great" is not the best word. it was an exemplary case for this, absolutely. taylor: what is the feeling with silicon valley? is this sort of the normal course of business, or does this show there's a lot more work to be done? tom: every time we talk to an executive, we ask, what keeps you up at night? oftentimes, one of the first things they say is cybersecurity , cybersecurity within their company or as far as their customers are concerned. supply chain is concerned. they have other concerns but cybersecurity is one of the main ones they're concerned about. and certainly this is one we're going to be keeping our eyes on for 2020. taylor: bloomberg technology's tom giles, thank you for joining me. president trump is using social media to support his impeachment defense, instead for his reelection campaign. his campaign has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for ads on facebook and twitter. here to explain is bloomberg news wendy from washington. wendy, talk to me first about the d.c. angle. the ads on facebook and twitter take you to a general election campaign. it doesn't take you to an impeachment ad. what does that show you? shows that it's not an impeachment site. the ads say defend the against impeachment and if you click on that link, it takes you to his reelection campaign where you can donate to his reelection. and the language is very much about defend america's greatness and things like that. but it is definitely a reelection effort. taylor: since the impeachment started heating up around september 14, what do the numbers show us about how much money has been raised , specifically through these online companies like facebook or twitter? wendy: well, he's raised $5 million so far. since nancy pelosi announced there would be an impeachment inquiry, i believe he has raised $5 million in small dollar donations that have gone to his reelection campaign through these ads. taylor: how is ad spending doing? are they using facebook more than twitter, given its size and scope? wendy: i think they're usingweng just about anything they can get their hands on. so yes, facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube, they're going everywhere. it's a big effort. they've raised also $7 million through super pac's with this effort, so there will be a lot -- lots of money to throw around. taylor: wendy, i wonder how much more strict we've become since the 2016 elections, simply around ad spending? wendy: well, we've learned, as you were talking in the last segment with tom giles, we've learned you need to be careful about who the actors are and where they're coming from. i believe facebook and other companies have taken some steps to figure out if this is really president trump advertising and not someone from a foreign country. but that's still a concern and the campaigns themselves, i don't inc. have the greatest cybersecurity. they're still a little behind the curve on getting their systems up to snuff. taylor: thank you. that was bloomberg's wendy from d.c. we look at how technology is affecting nearly every sector. we get thoughts on that as well as how innovation is transforming the job seeking ceo,ss with career builder irena. and if you like bloomberg news, check us out on the radio. this is bloomberg. ♪ taylor: the u.s. added 136,000 jobs in september. it was lower than economists estimated, but the trump administration painted any softness in the labor market has -- as only temporary, with no recession on the horizon. >> i think the economy is now in the turning zone, and i think we've had a soft two quarters, but i think we're moving into a much stronger economic sector. taylor: the jobs picture is being painted as lessening. but my next guest says that while tech is causing almost every industry to evolve, that doesn't mean that there are fewer jobs. with more, i welcome irina novoselsky, ceo of careerbuilder, from chicago. irina: it continues to be a tough and tight economic environment. unemployment rate is at 3.8%. job hopping is at its highest in decades. technology has to be the solution. it's really going to be the disruptor. it's what we've been focusing on at careerbuilder to help candidates and recruiters meet. taylor: and what types of tech jobs are most popular on careerbuilder right now? irina: really, anything having to do with software development. one of the things we talk a lot about is about 70% of jobs have a technology component, whether it's a customer service rep, sales director or manager, whether it's a direct technology component like a software engineer. but the health care space, even manufacturing, has a large technological component to it nowadays. taylor: how is turnover within the tech sector? irina: really high and we're seeing that across all different verticals. one of the reasons is when you look at today's audience, the majority of the workforce, about two thirds are either millennial or gen z. really today, where we're at, the only solution for companies is to leverage tools like our ai connecting, matching, and search . otherwise, it's nearly impossible to fill jobs that quickly. 50% of recruiters have jobs open for three months at a time. taylor: how is wage growth within the tech sector? irina: within tech specifically, we're seeing growth in pockets. we're seeinge, salary growth. the more importantly, what clients and companies are looking to do is tap into different subcategories where there is oversupply and going in to find candidates there. we're seeing the mission purpose benefit is outliving the top three components of what candidates are looking for. it's no longer just salary as number one. taylor: and who is looking for jobs? when you say salaries aren't number one, we're talking millennials and gen z. who are the ones taking jobs? irina: they're the largest population in the candidate marketplace but we're in an environment where we've five different generations in the workforce. it's never happened before. what we've spent a lot of time on is how do we level the playing field for companies and candidates? and that's making it easier to post a job or build a resume online. one of the interesting things we're seeing that at the end of 2017, about 30% or 40% of candidates were looking on their mobile device. today, that's upwards of 80%. and if a client, employer doesn't have an ability for a candidate to apply online, the -- they're losing a lot of access to today's employee base. we've made it easier to build a resume with a few steps on their mobile apps. taylor: are companies able to find the right candidates with the right skills? irina: that's a great question. skills are becoming the predominate search criteria. it's no longer the stereotypical, have you done this job before or not? it's are the skills matching? this is where ai is coming into play. when you look underneath a scale, it actually becomes a great connection point for the overall job. it's looking at what an employee can do based on their skills from a previous job rather than just what's written on their resume. taylor: irina, your latest know talked about employers up scaling current employees instead of going external to find new employees. do companies need to do a better job of upscaling their current workforce? irina: yes, definitely. one of the things that's not really talked about, and you mentioned it earlier, but there's more than 1.5 million job openings than there are people that take the jobs. we work with clients and the successful ones are the ones that are leveraging their internal candidates. we call that the silver stars. the candidates you almost give a job to but just want the right fit at the time. we have the ability to leverage ai and tell you where they are now two years later and what their skill set is today. looking at all channels on where you can acquire a candidate. not always going to get new but how do you leverage your existing profile, whether across the board. taylor: you mentioned ai a few times. how is career builder using ai to make sure your platform is has toll the data it further your business? irina: on the candidate side, i mentioned the resumes are the major obstacles for candidates to apply. we've created a three-step mobile resume builder. you can type in your job title and it actually pre-populates what you should have. based on the company, the geography, and your title. it really makes it easy to create the resume on your mobile device. and then on the employer side, we've done the same thing in bringing the ai to the fingertips of recruiters. when you're posting a job, we're actually telling you the appeal score it has to candidates. and what companies you're competing with. and how it candidate will view the job posting. how do we empower recruiters to be able to handle such a tough market? and it's not volume. it's really about quality and technology is the only thing that can drive that quality. taylor: thank you to career builder ceo irina novoselsky. and mark zuckerberg is hiring. he's looking for a superstar analyst for a new venture. the global endowment styled the -- style portfolio is looking to hire analysts with expertise in public equities, hedge funds, buyout and venture capital funds, and real estate. that's according to the posting on linkedin. and coming up, it's been a tough year to go public. we discussed why silicon valley investors are taking matters into their own hands to redesign the whole process. that's next. an bloomberg technology is live streaming on twitter. and check us out on technology and be sure to follow our global breaking news network on tictoc on twitter. this is bloomberg. ♪ taylor: the marketing war over streaming video are heating up. disney is streaming advertising from netflix. netflix spent $1.8 billion on advertising last year and now it will be playing defense against new services from disney as well as those from comcast and at&t. and 2019 has been the year of the tech ipo, but not all of them have had hot starts. many of them have had crazy high valuations that end up dropping in the 11th hour of going public. it's such a trend that earlier this week, technology startups and their investors held a closed-door event late to tuesday provide alternatives to initial public offerings. one alternative is direct listings. here to discuss is jeff thomas. so let's talk about this, direct listings versus ipo's. is this a structural shift going on in the market? jeff: companies go public because they need to raise capital, provide liquidity, have m&a currency and promote their brand. you can't raise capital with a direct listing but you'll create liquidity for your shareholders. especially because you remove the need for an ipo lockup. taylor: i wonder, when we've been talking about skyhigh valuations, is it good for your business when we start to shake out some of those skyhigh valuations and start to see companies coming back down to more normal levels? jeff: well, one structural change is the amount of capital in the private market and that has driven valuations of her private companies setting a new bar. that's one of the reasons we launched nasdaq private market five years ago to start providing liquidity for shareholders before companies go public. just this year alone, we've done more than $2 billion in transactions. taylor: a lot of people are saying that companies are private for too long. do you agree? jeff: the companies have to figure out what's the right time for them. taylor: with valuations coming down and all of the volatility, has the pipeline for ipo's started to slow down? jeff: we still see a strong pipeline for q4. we're still out planning for 2020. there are still a lot of companies that want to get out ahead of the election next year and so i think we will continue to see an active pipeline. taylor: and why is that? do they expect more volatility after the elections? jeff: when we get into an election year, there's a lot of media focus and uncertainty and if there is one thing that markets do not like it's uncertainty. taylor: wework has been in the news. it's shifted to a corporate governance issue when it came to some of these companies that at the last hour, have to pull out ipo. jeff: we can't talk about anyone that's become public, but we have seen some phenomenal entries, especially in the enterprise software space. companies with recurring revenue models, a defensible position. those that have gone public on nasdaq this year, they are up huge over their private market valuations and doing well for their public investors, as well. taylor: so it sounds like investors are doing a better job of differentiating. what's good and what's not? in my right? jeff: there's a great post put out by fred wilson and he talked about not only the revenue growth, but the gross margin profile these companies half. if a company is going to be valued as a software company, they better have 70% or 80% gross margin. taylor: what about pelaton or a tech company? what if the margins don't add up? jeff: it's an amazing story because they've created a fitness revolution so it's a -- really hard to compare them to anything else on the market. taylor: do you get more companies saying they're a tech company even if the underlying business doesn't quite make sense as a tech company? talks aboutne growth. investors want to pay for growth but is it sustainable growth? that comes back to the question on gross margins. if you're growing but not making money, investors have to understand what's the timeline to profitability? taylor: let's talk about other companies that have gone public like uber and lyft. what's going on there? jeff: it's disrupting an industry along with lyft. they've revolutionized the transportation industry. they also raised a town of money in the private markets creating a lot of value for their private investors before they went public. if you look in the future, i don't think anyone can imagine getting around without them. taylor: and let's talk about slack. jeff: slack is the company that listed their shares on the national exchange rather than trying to raise capital. why did they do that? they had a lot of cash on the balance sheet. they felt they were in a strong cash flow position so they did -- didn't need to raise capital. it was more advantageous to have liquidity for all of their investors rather than an event. taylor: what's your takeaway -- public markets are getting more smarter than private markets? jeff: i think we'll continue to see capital flow into the private markets until we see regulations that hamper the ability for companies to go public. that's why we're working very closely with the fcc on a number of regulatory reforms. there are companies of all sizes that can now do test the waters meetings. they can reevaluate the expectations and hopefully that can lead to a warmer reception in public markets. taylor: nasdaq and s&p ahead of west coast markets listings, jeff thomas. thank you. coming up, a failed ipo. we discussed the continued hits the company keeps facing along with all of the other tech stories out this week. this is bloomberg. ♪ eñ ♪ taylor: this is "bloomberg technology." i'm taylor riggs in san francisco. one more jolt for wework. the new company leaders told staff job cuts are coming as soon as this month. we were told it would include layoffs. that's according to two attendees of a meeting. the company officially pressed pause on its ipo effort. here to discuss this and other top stories of the week, a publicist, and here in san francisco with me, alistair barr. let me start with you. are the layoffs enough? there's a lotink to be done. there's a big question mark in a lot of investors' minds about wework's business model in general. is a very tough business to be in when you are spending a lot to lease buildings on long-term contracts and leasing them out on short-term contracts. that makes the company very, very exposed to an economic downturn. i think a total of 12,000. i imagine that the goal is to make people relatively comfortable, get the ipo done, and get access to this other financing that is contingent on doing the ipo. taylor: john, let me bring you in here. what do you make of the company looking to sell off some of its investment, selling off a private jet, for example? is that another step in the right direction? john: i think it's this general reckoning in tech where the ethics question has to be asked. there's a great company. if they're let go of this wework world, it's pretty sad because great ideas are living in that thing. for it to fall apart would be pretty bad. taylor: how is wework's balance sheet? i've heard from a lot of analysts that they can hold off fundraising until mid-2020. do you agree? john: i think the fact that it's a real estate company hides that it's not a technology company. if you try to say you're a tech company but you're not, you'll get bit. taylor: you know, one thing that struck me looking at selling off some of the investments in wing, that seemed to align to their core strategy. is this like a fire sale or are they doing the right job about discriminating what assets to sell off and what assets to keep? alastair: i think anytime a company has to announce it has to sell a bunch of things, it's never a good thing. you want to do that subtly. you want people who really want to buy those entities. i think it's true that the company is trying to focus on the core, short-term space rental company. it might not be a tech company, but it could be a real estate business that might work in there somewhere. taylor: john, what do you want to see next from wework? john: i'd like for companies like wework to emerge to fill in the problem. i think it was a good idea -- eventually, higher education will fall apart and there's no place for young people to get started. i think wework was a good place for young people to get capital, give them space. if those places go away, it will be hard for the next generation to succeed. taylor: john, i want to talk to you next about facebook. and there were leaked recordings that came out earlier about mark zuckerberg talking about an elizabeth warren presidency. in your opinion, john, how much of a threat to facebook is to an elizabeth warren presidency? john: i think facebook right now, it's kind of like a casino for emotions. the fact that it can control how we feel, there's a research paper was released where researchers discovered it's possible to change how you feel depending on what appears in your feed. so, the fact that the technology can be used to manipulate people -- people's emotions is quite powerful. so, regardless of who the candidate will be, it has to reckon with ethical concerns. taylor: is there any sense of extra compliance costs from facebook's end to fight a potential antitrust deal to affect their bottom line? alastair: i think investors will discount that, even if facebook spends -- i'm making this up -- spends $1 billion. investors i don't think will care about that. what they really want to know is what facebook does that makes so much money, which is targeted advertising with this amazingly powerful platform. will that remain? and i think a warren presidency, if that ever happens, could be a real threat to them. taylor: john, is there a case for facebook to be broken up on antitrust concerns? john: i think everyone wants to unravel the big tech companies. what are they? are they big casinos that can control our emotions? if you look at it that way, there's a definite problem, and the problem has to get addressed somehow. but is facebook the only problem? i don't think so. taylor: another problem that facebook is facing that you brought up is libra and their cryptocurrency project. and now paypal announced they are backing out of the agreement. what does that mean for the future of the project? alistair: 28 original members -- i keep calling them members, but actually they just signed contractors who said they will take part later on. the real date is october 14, the first council meeting of this group gets going. i think then people will be actually signing contracts. soon after that, they will hand over $10 million. so paypal pulling out is a blow. at the moment, from a we can tell, we haven't seen any of the 27 companies pull out, but we will have to see. taylor: john, it was a battle of the hardware funds this week. microsoft came out and released a portable phone. why is it smart for microsoft to be getting back into the smartphone business? john: what's neat about the devices today, you're not sure what they are. remember devices called fablets, a folding tablet? the reality is that anything could be a phone. just attach headphones to your tablet, etc. i think it's good that microsoft is coming with something that's not just a phone, but another device you can carry in your purse or your pocket or whatever. it's a new way to think about how you live with computing. that, butapple to do they didn't. taylor: thank you, john maeda, and bloomberg technology's alastair barr. thank you both for joining me. coming up, brex wants to replace your bank account with brex cash. we talk to the ceo about how the fintech company hopes to execute this program. next. this is bloomberg. ♪ taylor: in the world of cryptocurrency, paypal delivered a blow to facebook's libra group. facebook said friday afternoon it decided to forego participation in libra and focus on advancing its existing mission and business priorities as we strive to democratize access to financial services for underserved populations. paypal was one of the original 238 founding members of the facebook-led initiative. several members are now wavering over whether to fully embrace the no comment friday evening from facebook. fintech company brex announced its new product, brex cash. it allows customers to pay in cash for any invoice or bill in one system, earn rewards and even earn 1.6% interest. joining me is brex co-ceo, henrique dubugras. henrique, thank you for joining me. why do you think this is the right system, combining cash, credit, and savings in one? henrique: first, thank you for having me. brexth brexit cash, we -- cash, we tried to assault all of the financial problems of our customers. no matter how you want to pay, you can do it in one single place. banks traditionally separate between checking and savings accounts, so you earn less on -- less interest on your money as a whole. so brex simplified it into an account that earns 1.6% yield. so there's no competition of having one account that earns in another account that doesn't earn. it's 1.6% all the time. taylor: how are you making money? henrique: so, we invest the funds in money market funds, from which we gain a small fee from that. we believe by having the same account between card and cash, people will end up spending more on our card, in which we make more money on interchange. taylor: and is the cash insured by the fdic? henrique: no, the cash is not insured by the fdic. so, we buy money market funds that consists basically of u.s. securities, so government-backed securities. and it's also covered by sipc insurance. taylor: there's been a lot of new entrants into the fisc marketplace recently. i look at companies like square , fun box, and cabbage. do you worry you're flooding the market with too much credit? henrique: so, most of brex customers, they want our card, despite credit. men might get a loan from square, but they still need a card to use those funds. they still use an account like brex cash to pay their vendors and employees, etc. we think we're giving them more access to spend their money instead of the credit itself. taylor: and who is your target customer? today, we target three main venture backed startups, e-commerce companies, and life sciences companies. taylor: i wonder, do you do better when the fed is raising interest rates, or does your business model work better when the fed is cutting interest rates because rates are lower? henrique: it's a question we get all the time from investors. we mostly do better when interest rates are lower. because it reduces our cost. from a technology perspective, if rates were zero, every bank would be competing for customers in terms of technology and service and we believe that's our main competitive advantage. taylor: brex ceo, henrique dubugras, thank you for joining me. henrique: thank you so much. taylor: now, the exemption that the renewable energy world was counting to skirt donald trump's tariffs on solar equipment is no more. the u.s. trade representative said friday was eliminating an exception carved out four months ago for solar panels which generate electricity on both sides. they'll now be subject to the duties trump imported on equipment at 25%. to discuss, i'm joined by bloomberg's power and renewables editor, lin dunn. lin, talk to me, how important was this exemption? lin: for the global renewable energy business, it was hugely important. in january of 2018, the trump administration came out with these tariffs against all solar equipment that comes into the united states. as much as 30%. it's now 25%, and that's still huge. four months ago, the trump administration said they were willing to carve out this exemption for bifacial solar panels. these panels are ones that generate electricity on both sides of the panel as opposed to just one. the solar industry reacted by saying hey, we'll take that, and started manufacturing bifacial solar panels to get around the 25% duties. unfortunately today, the trump administration is saying that is no longer the case and they are stripping away this exemption. so the renewable energy industry is essentially back where they started a year ago. taylor: so why, why strip it? lynn: so, the trade representative put out a notice saying after they created this exemption four months ago, they looked at the impact on the industry, saw there were some manufacturers in the united states raising complaints about how this would affect their leg up in the domestic manufacturing business and decided after reassessing it, that this exemption was not in the best interests of the u.s. taylor: who stands to lose here? is it just bifacial solar panels or a bigger portion of the renewable energy sector? lynn: it's a bigger portion. some of the biggest manufacturers of solar equipment are based in korea, china, and they ship over to the united states. on the end user segment, you're talking about the utilities in the united states trying to develop huge solar farms here, and you'll have to buy this equipment at a higher price now. taylor: does anyone benefit? lynn: there are a few beneficiaries. they're the ones that have u.s. factories. after the trump administration imposed these tariffs, many companies came out with announcements saying we'll build factories in the united states, we'll make our solar panels here. those were the companies disappointed to see there was an exemption carved out that would have asian manufacturers supplying instead. so, those would be the beneficiaries of those exemptions being stripped away. taylor: bloomberg's lynn doan, thank you for joining me. still ahead, fighting drones with drones. we hear from one longtime silicon valley main moving into the future of weapons. this is bloomberg. ♪ taylor: shifting to handsets, htc says it's feeding across a diverse portfolio, including extended reality. the company recently appointed a new ceo. earlier, he spoke exclusively to bloomberg and explained why his company is more sheltered from the effects of trade tensions than u.s. or china competitors. guest: we are a taiwanese company, 100%. our research and our element are in taiwan. we have our own manufacturing plant in taiwan. so, we're pretty indifferent from the chinese mainland supply chain. for sure. taylor: now, for years, the pentagon and other u.s. agencies have been searching for a reliable way to combat drones posing a threat. it turns out the answer might be quite simple. "bloomberg businessweek" spoke to inventor palmer lucky about what his business is doing to rekindle the connection between the u.s. military and silicon valley. >> this is the interceptor. it's the creation of palmer lucky, who might be the world's most unlikely weapons mogul. he is the founder of a multibillion-dollar virtual-reality company. he's also a polarizing figure in silicon valley, known for his support of the trump administration, including immigration policies that opponents of the white house have branded as cruel and even racist. >> my name is palmer lucky and i'm the founder. i want to build a big company or the billions of dollars. i want to become one of the major defense contractors building technology for the united states government. i'm proud to say that. i'm happy to say that and i hope we get there. >> at his previous company, the virtual headset maker oculus rift, lucky decided to build a device with low cost components and high tech software. he sold oculus to facebook for about $2 billion in 2014. two years later, just a month before the 2016 residential -- presidential election, the daily beast reported he had given $10,000 to a group of trump supporters to fund boards -- billboards featuring insulting messages about hillary clinton. >> lock her up! lock her up! lock her up! >> in 2017, facebook announced lucky was no longer an employee. >> i was fired. we can all be honest about it. >> it became the rare hr decision to come into a congressional hearing. >> have you made hiring or firing positions based on political candidates? >> no. >> why was palmer lucky fired? >> that was a personnel matter that it would be inappropriate -- >> you just said you don't fire based on political views. >> i can commit it was not because of a political view. >> using off-the-shelf components in an industry much more suited to his politics. over the course of a few months earlier this year, the company built a cheap version of its drone, made a smart phone video, and started showing it to people at the pentagon. >> it's a little crazy but i think that's definitely the way that it's going. all of these systems, people propose shooting drones out of the sky with a laser, a missile -- that's not a good way to take out, let's say, 100 drones that are attacking from different directions. the only thing that can take out a swarm of fast drones is a bigger swarm of faster drones. and that's exactly what we're building. ♪ pops open. there's the parachute. i think that's why our customers like us so much. they are used to going to people who have like -- here's this white paper. here's this idea we have. we want you to pay us by the hour so we can research if it makes sense, then if it does, -- doesn't, you'll pay us by the hour until we make it. we got it done in a matter of weeks, and here it is. >> they have shipped several hundred interceptors to military bases. it also has contracts with the u.s. customs and border protection agency to provide surveillance equipment to use at the border with mexico. workers at other tech companies, such as google, microsoft, and palantir have objected to similar work, leading to protests by employees. lucky insists his work is not partisan. >> there's a lot of people who i think falsely conflate border security with immigration policy. i don't care what you believe on immigration policy. even if you want to totally open up immigration, you should still want to have strong border security. >> the company's surveillance technology consists of large towers, packed with sensors and small surveillance drones that can be set up along the border and military bases to guard the perimeter. >> so this is one of our century towers. it is a totally autonomous independent security tower. by placing these towers every few miles, you can end up with a nearly perfect picture of everything that's going on in a large area. it's easy for an operator to read. these are being used right now by the department of homeland security, along military bases, the military border. >> is future success lies on the military's concern that the u.s. could lose to china in an arms race based on artificial intelligence. >> our technology is far behind the consumer area and many bases. and we're also far behind our adversaries in many places. people should be more worried than they are about falling behind. because it's not something that's going to happen someday. it's already happened. >> critics say technologists like lucky have an ethical duty to stay out of the weapons business, but neither the military nor investors share those concerns. the company raised a $120 million investment round, valuing it at about $1 billion. taylor: that does it for this edition of "bloomberg technology." and bluebook technology is livestreaming on twitter. check us out @technology and be sure to follow our breaking news network @tictoc on twitter. this is bloomberg. ♪ >> the following is a paid program. the views expressed do not reflect those of bloomberg, its affiliates, or its employees. >> the following is a sponsored program that is furnished by shriners hospitals for children. it's the night before i travel to oklahoma for my filming session. i'm going to see my boy, caleb. i can't live without my shoes. >> make it hard to move. >>