Bloomberg Tech · Nov 5, 2026 · 44m · 33m saved
With Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics · Gary Steele, CEO of Shield AI · Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, CEO of Zipline · Anna Rathbun, Founder and CEO of Grenadilla Advisory
Photo: TechCrunch, CC BY 2.0 via Wikipedia
The Nasdaq 100 fell as much as 5.6% on the morning Agility Robotics started trading on the Nasdaq, its worst intraday drop since March 2020. Investors were betting that the Democrats' midterm sweep of Congress will bring rules that slow data center construction. Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics, told Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Tech that her company's case does not depend on which party runs Congress.
"Now is the right time because we have customer commitments. We have pending orders. We are scaling up manufacturing. And all of this is focused on filling the labor gap that is growing by the day." — Peggy Johnson
Peggy now runs a public company whose humanoid robot, Digit, already works in GXO Logistics warehouses. The CEOs of Shield AI and Zipline came on the same day to discuss new funding at valuations of about $29 billion and $20 billion.
The full episode is covered here so you can skip it. 44 minutes of audio, 11 minutes of reading.
Here are the 9 calls that matter.
Key Takeaways
Tech sold off on fears that a Democratic Congress will slow data center construction
About 40% of the data center capacity due in 2026 and 2027 sits in two states that flipped
Grenadilla's Anna Rathbun calls it "a big hiccup," not the end of the AI build-out
Bloomberg Intelligence says the selloff is about the timing of cash flows, not credit
Agility Robotics listed with pending orders and a factory sized for 10,000 robots a year
Microsoft is turning away from neoclouds toward building its own data centers
Shield AI's Echodyne deal is a bet on counter-drone technology
Zipline is expanding drone delivery with Walmart to 300 supercenters
1. Midterms Hit Chip Stocks
Tim Stenevek, anchoring Bloomberg Tech in New York in place of Ed Ludlow, opened on the selloff. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index was down about 38% from its June record, Nvidia fell more than 8%, AMD 15.8% and Qualcomm 13.5%.
The Nasdaq 100 had its worst intraday drop since the pandemic
"The Nasdaq 100 down right now, 5.6%, just an ugly morning for tech stocks... At its lows, the worst intraday going back to March of 2020, the depths of the pandemic." — Tim Stenevek
Ian King, who covers chips for Bloomberg News, said power, land and permits were already holding back data center construction before the election. A new Congress could slow it further.
Chipmakers were already warning that data centers could not be built fast enough
"The industry itself had already told us, look, we are concerned that we can't get enough data centers built fast enough to meet demand, to house all of these chips we're making. Power is the issue." — Ian King
Ian added that Qualcomm's drop is partly its own. Its smartphone business is slowing as it shifts toward chips for cars and networking, and margins are being squeezed in the meantime.
