Can AI Save This Failing Rural Economy?

By many metrics, Meta is falling behind in the AI race. So CEO Mark Zuckerberg is building one of the largest data centers in the world — a facility the size of about 3,000 football fields in one of the poorest regions in the US. On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder sits down with Bloomb…

We Went to Interview Bolivia’s President and a Riot Broke Out

President Rodrigo Paz ended 20 years of socialist rule in Bolivia with promises of unity, democracy and prosperity — and plans to tap the country’s mineral wealth. But when host David Gura went to Bolivia to interview the president, he found a harsher reality: demonstrators blockading La Paz’s stre…

How H-1B Restrictions Popped Dallas’ Housing Bubble

For more than a decade, the towns north of Dallas, Texas – places like Frisco, Prosper and Celina – have seen an unprecedented housing boom, thanks in part to Indian workers drawn by skilled tech jobs and employers who sponsored their H-1B visas. But in the past year, the market for these houses ha…

Huge AI Bonuses Spark South Korea Tech Wealth Fight

Samsung recently made headlines when it narrowly averted a strike by offering eye-popping bonuses to its chip workers. But the move has seemingly backfired—sparking deep resentment in other corners of the company and fueling a wider debate over wage equity in South Korea. On today’s Big Take Asia …

How America’s Consumer Watchdog Became a Corporate Protector

The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is tasked with enforcing consumer finance laws and holding some of the country’s most powerful banks, lenders and companies to account. But a new Bloomberg investigation found that over the past 15 months, much of that work has come to a halt. On today’s…

Weekend Listen: Indonesia’s $15 Billion Free Lunch Experiment

Indonesia’s free lunch program is a massive operation, feeding tens of millions of people every day across a vast archipelago.  On this episode of the Big Take Asia podcast, host Rebecca Choong Wilkins talks with Bloomberg’s Rosalind Mathieson about the challenges facing President Prabowo’s flagsh…

China Is Recruiting US Citizens to Work for Its Government

The mayor of an affluent suburb of Los Angeles pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of the Chinese government last month. And while cable networks across the US had a field day with the story, Bloomberg’s Drake Bennett and Jordan Robertson have been reporting on cases like this one for years. The t…

The DOJ's Campaign to Track Down Anonymous ICE Critics

Free speech lawyers are watching in real time as the US government escalates efforts to unmask anonymous critics of ICE. On today’s Big Take podcast, Justice Department reporter Jimmy Jenkins and legal reporter Zoe Tillman join host David Gura to break down their exclusive reporting on how the DOJ…

Unpacking Trump’s $1.8 Billion Anti-Weaponization Fund

The US Justice Department has announced it would establish a $1.776 billion legal fund to compensate people who claim they’ve been targeted unfairly by the federal government. The plan has been met with swift bipartisan backlash, with some lawmakers calling it a “slush fund” that could line the poc…

US Threatens Cuba With Trump’s Venezuela Blueprint

The Trump administration is ramping up pressure on Cuba’s regime. Just this month, it indicted former President Raúl Castro, announced the deployment of additional military assets to the region and released a video message — featuring Secretary of State Marco Rubio — blaming Cuba’s economic trouble…