Hi, I'm Dan Pramak and welcome to Axios Recap.

Today's Thursday, February 25th.

GameStop stock is up, weekly unemployment claims are down, and we're talking robots.

Yesterday, a Massachusetts company called Berkshire Gray agreed to be acquired by a SPAC, one of those

blank check acquisition companies that have become all the rage on Wall Street. But

Berkshire Gray is way more interesting than any SPAC, and not just because it's going to be

valued at nearly $3 billion when its shares become publicly traded.

Berkshire Gray makes robots and systems for e-commerce warehouses.

Some of them look a little bit like those storage bins at airport TSA checkpoints,

except they move around on their own, flying up and down aisles of the warehouse,

picking, packing, and sorting millions of different items

from retailers like Target and Walmart so they can get shipped to your front step. In short,

it's trying to help everyone who isn't Amazon compete with Amazon, which about a decade ago

bought another Massachusetts warehouse robotics company called Kiva Systems. In fact,

Berkshire Gray's leadership includes former execs from both Kiva and Rumba Maker

I-Robot.

Why it matters is that e-commerce usage has exploded during the pandemic, but at the same

time, there are growing concerns about what automation means for America's lower-skilled

workforce, a lot of whom work in warehouses.

So today we wanted to speak with John Delaney.

You might remember him as the former Maryland Congressman who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination.

But he's also a veteran businessman who leads the SPAC buying Berkshire Gray in partnership with Revolution,

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