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Pro Weekly
Pro Weekly: Generative AI Spurs Cloud Demand—and Competition
June 2, 2023
The Briefing
Let The Mixed-Reality Headset Games Begin
June 1, 2023
Creator Economy
How Social Media AI Chatbots Compare
June 1, 2023
Dealmaker
Google, Nvidia and Microsoft Offer What VCs Can’t
June 1, 2023
The Electric
The Electric: Congress’ Move on Permitting Reform Leaves Industry Wanting More
June 1, 2023
Crypto Global
MoonPay Is Trying to Reinvent Itself
May 31, 2023
The Weekend
The Short Seller Who Told Us So
May 27, 2023

Partners

Briefings

Second Twitter Safety Executive Resigns
June 2, 2023
Executive Order on Outbound Investment Will be ‘Narrow’ and ‘Administrable'
June 2, 2023
Amazon in Talks to Offer Cheap or Free Mobile Plans to Prime Members
June 2, 2023
California Assembly Passes News Bill Opposed by Meta
June 1, 2023
Ella Irwin, Twitter’s Head Trust and Safety, Resigns
June 1, 2023
SentinelOne’s Shares Plunge 35%
June 1, 2023
MongoDB Reports Strong Customer Growth, Hikes Sales Forecast
June 1, 2023
SpaceX Wins Pentagon Contract for Ukraine
June 1, 2023
Trian Chief Investment Officer and Co-Founder Ed Garden to Step Down
June 1, 2023
Meta Calls Employees Back to Office Three Days a Week
June 1, 2023
Okta Shares Plummet After CEO Acknowledges Sales ‘Uncertainty'
June 1, 2023
Microsoft Signs Deal With Cloud Startup for Access to GPUs
June 1, 2023
Meta Announces Quest 3 Ahead of Apple Headset Debut
June 1, 2023
Verizon Packages Netflix and Paramount+ Together in New Streaming Bundle
June 1, 2023

Subscriber comments

Yutaka Okura

on Google Invests in AI Startup Runway to Wrest Cloud Business From AWS

Google used to always aim high - like B-HUG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) as they call it internally. But their recent investment looks like just following social technical trend, rather than setting the trend. I would like them to regain dynamism of leading the society, further investing in moonshot type of activities such as they used to do it at GoogleX.

Carsten Schmidt

Carsten Schmidt

on TikTok Is Not the Enemy

While TikTok is certainly shady, there hasn’t been any clear evidence that shows they are guilty. I think the government owes it to the people to provide clear evidence of this being a clear security threat before banning a service.

Ivan Bou

on Musk Tells Tesla Staff He Must Approve All Hiring—Again

Carly Fiorina and Mark Hurd did the same at HP for many years. It kept creating a situation where sales people would love and territories would stay open for months and months because approvals took forever. When you don't trust people to manage to a budget and then use use blunt instruments to massage numbers to quarterly targets, this is what you do.

Andrew Hopkins

on Scared of Leaking Data to ChatGPT? Microsoft Tests a Private Alternative

Controlling the data feeding "private models" is part of the problem though. The more data you can feed a "private model", the more likely you are to derive value from it... but, how do you control access to data that could be sensitive or regulated? You have to control the output as well.

Jason Geater

on Silicon Valley’s Realtors, Like Its Bankers, Are Having a Tough Month

Shows just how much free money has artificially inflated assets prices (into the stratosphere) in the most highly-levered asset class. Exacerbate the issue by making said loans against fantasy VC valuations sounds like a recipe for success: ‘This founder has liquidity issues, but they have a billion in founder stock.…We’re going to ascribe value to that and give them a loan. We’re not like the boring banks who need a salary" This will certainly end well when all of the "unicorn" founder borrowers start defaulting on their mega-mansions.

Amber Hayes

on LinkedIn Faces Growing Complaints From Recruiters Over Rising Prices

Amber Hayes VP of recruiting, HR Operations and Mobility - Unity Technologies Totally agree. Their product has not improved, and prices continue to rise, significantly. We have partnered with seekout as the continued cost increases with LinkedIn are not sustainable in the long term.

Anshu Sharma

on Twitter Cuts Salesforce Bill 75% as More Buyers Scrutinize Software Spending

The $400 per year sounds like a lot for Slack. But when your employees each fully loaded cost is close to $250,000 - it’s a rounding error, especially if it makes them even 1% more productive.

Latest Articles

Deals

SoftBank’s Onetime Pizza-Robot Darling Shuts Down

By Erin Woo · June 2, 2023 4:37 PM PDT · 5 comments

Zume, which raised $375 million from SoftBank to automate pizza-making with robots before switching to developing sustainable packaging, has shut down. The company is insolvent and has retained restructuring firm...

Photo by Bloomberg.

JPMorgan Culling First Republic Bank’s Personal Credit Lines

By Maria Heeter and Michael Roddan · May 25, 2023 10:02 AM PDT · 1 comment

JPMorgan has told customers with personal credit lines at First Republic Bank that it will no longer offer those lines when they come up for renewal, according to correspondence viewed by The Information. The failed lender, which has been sold to JPMorgan, had offered personal lines of credit to its wealthy client base as a key way of attracting... JPMorgan has told customers with personal credit lines at First Republic Bank that it will no...

Art by Clark Miller, Shutterstock (2).

entertainment media/telecom

It’s Storytelling, Stupid

By Andrew A. Rosen · May 25, 2023 9:00 AM PDT · 7 comments

Sign up for Rosen’s newsletter, The Medium, part of The Information’s newsletter network. I doubt the shareholder lawsuit filed against former Disney CEO Bob Chapek and current Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy a couple weeks ago will go to trial. If Disney is guilty of fraud in how it represented the performance of its... Sign up for Rosen’s newsletter, The Medium, part of The Information’s newsletter...

Microsoft's Satya Nadella, left, and Peter Lee. Photo by Bloomberg, Microsoft

How Microsoft Swallowed Its Pride to Make a Massive Bet on OpenAI

By Aaron Holmes · May 25, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 13 comments

Satya Nadella didn’t want to hear it. Last December, Peter Lee, who oversees Microsoft’s sprawling research efforts, was briefing Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, and his deputies about a series of tests Microsoft had conducted of GPT-4, the then-unreleased new artificial intelligence large-language model built by OpenAI. Lee told... Satya Nadella didn’t want to hear it. Last December, Peter Lee, who oversees...

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai

Shareholder Advisory Firms Call for Alphabet Chair’s Ouster

By Jon Victor · May 24, 2023 3:13 PM PDT · 8 comments

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai

Shareholder Advisory Firms Call for Alphabet Chair’s Ouster

By Jon Victor · May 24, 2023 3:13 PM PDT · 8 comments

Two influential shareholder advisory firms have taken an aggressive stance against Alphabet’s board of directors ahead of the company’s June 2 annual meeting, telling clients they should vote in favor of a majority of proposals submitted by shareholders to improve the company’s corporate governance—proposals the board... Two influential shareholder advisory firms have taken an aggressive stance against...

Photo by Tony Webster via Flickr

After Years of Resistance, AWS Opens Checkbook for Open-Source Providers

By Kevin McLaughlin and Anissa Gardizy · May 24, 2023 8:00 AM PDT · 2 comments

Several years ago, providers of open-source software had a beef with Amazon Web Services. They complained that AWS was selling cloud-based versions of their software, depriving them of hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. The dispute was a public relations nightmare for AWS and risked inviting trouble from competition regulators.... Several years ago, providers of open-source software had a beef with Amazon Web Services. They...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Venture Capitalists Face Pressure to Divest From China

By Kate Clark · May 24, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 5 comments

Silicon Valley venture capitalists are coming to terms with a new reality: Their once-prized China investments may be victims of a simmering cold war. As tensions between the U.S. and China have risen, some firms have sought ways to distance themselves from China’s tech scene. NEA, a VC firm whose Chinese investments date back two decades... Silicon Valley venture capitalists are coming to terms with a new reality: Their once-prized...

Art by Clark Miller.

Black Founders Needed SVB

By Rodney Williams · May 23, 2023 9:00 AM PDT · 1 comment

My first SXSW was 11 years ago. Arriving there in 2012 with just an idea for my first company—a secure communications platform called Lisnr—was scary, to say the least. I wasn’t on any event lists. But more than that, there wasn’t any programming aimed at encouraging Black founders, or even seemingly any desire to do so.... My first SXSW was 11 years ago. Arriving there in 2012 with just an idea for my first...

Chart by Mike Sullivan.

Enterprise Software’s Laggards: Firms Growing Slowly And Still Burning Cash

By Akash Pasricha · May 23, 2023 7:47 AM PDT · 1 comment

Chart by Mike Sullivan.

Enterprise Software’s Laggards: Firms Growing Slowly And Still Burning Cash

By Akash Pasricha · May 23, 2023 7:47 AM PDT · 1 comment

It’s the age-old refrain in American business: You have to spend money to make money. And it’s particularly true of the tech industry, where startups pour millions into untested new businesses and technologies. Investors usually don’t mind companies burning cash as long as they’re growing quickly—but some enterprise... It’s the age-old refrain in American business: You have to spend money to make money. And...

Photo by Bloomberg

google microsoft

Google and OpenAI’s Next Battleground: Firefox?

By Jon Victor · May 23, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 1 comment

The race between Google, OpenAI and Microsoft for chatbot supremacy has only just begun. But the companies may soon compete to put their artificial intelligence–powered chatbots in front of nearly 200 million people who use Mozilla’s Firefox web browser each month. Mozilla plans to prominently feature a chatbot like Google’s... The race between Google, OpenAI and Microsoft for chatbot supremacy has only just begun. But the...

Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok. Photo by Bloomberg

TikTok Says U.S. Survival Plan is Going Forward. Its Cloud Provider Isn’t So Sure

By Anissa Gardizy · May 22, 2023 7:30 AM PDT · 1 comment

TikTok’s leaders have spent much of this year telling Washington insiders the company was moving forward with Project Texas, a plan to run the viral video app in a way that alleviates U.S. government concerns about potential meddling by China. The reality isn’t so simple. Project Texas requires Oracle, the app’s cloud provider,... TikTok’s leaders have spent much of this year telling Washington insiders the company was...

Graphic by Shane Burke. Photos via Shutterstock/Wikimedia.

How Meta’s Acquisition of Giphy Went South

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan and Maria Heeter · May 22, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 1 comment

When a U.K. antitrust regulator initially ordered Meta Platforms to sell Giphy 18 months ago, it hoped to ensure that the startup—a library for animated images known as GIFs—would prosper as an independent company. Instead, Giphy’s once-promising business has atrophied under Meta’s ownership, making finding a buyer a tall... When a U.K. antitrust regulator initially ordered Meta Platforms to sell Giphy 18 months ago, it...

Art by Clark Miller.

While Hollywood Writers Fret About AI, Visual Effects Workers Welcome It

By Scott Alan Lucas · May 20, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 7 comments

Art by Clark Miller.

Scene and Heard

entertainment ai

While Hollywood Writers Fret About AI, Visual Effects Workers Welcome It

By Scott Alan Lucas · May 20, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 7 comments

Is there anybody here who is afraid of AI taking their job?” Visual effects veteran James Blevins, whose credits include “The Mandalorian,” “Icarus,” “Air Force One” and “Space Jam,” was speaking last Wednesday to a crowd of several hundred people at the Hollywood offices of FYI, the... Is there anybody here who is afraid of AI taking their job?” Visual effects veteran James...

What'll you have? Expensify CEO and founder David Barrett has high hopes for his workspace-cafe-lounge concept in San Francisco. Art by Clark Miller

A Lounge, an Office and a Strike Against Silicon Valley’s ‘Factory Mentality’

By Jon Steinberg · May 19, 2023 11:00 AM PDT · 20 comments

On May 9, Expensify issued a quarterly earnings report that even its likable longtime CEO couldn’t soften. It had been a “nuclear winter” for the economy, David Barrett told shareholders. There were silver linings for his expense management software company, but “don’t get me wrong, this quarter sucked.” His... On May 9, Expensify issued a quarterly earnings report that even its likable longtime CEO...

From left, Major League Pickleball owners Dude Perfect, Heidi Klum, Eva Longoria, Gary Vaynerchuk, Mark Cuban, Naomi Osaka, Kate Upton, David Dobrik, LeBron James and Tom Brady. Photo-composite by Clark Miller. Gary Vaynerchuk by Michael Nagle/Bloomberg, Kate Upton by Humberto Vidal, Lebron James by Ashley Landis-Pool/Getty Images.

The Hot New Trophy Asset: A Pro Pickleball Team

By Abram Brown · May 19, 2023 9:00 AM PDT · 11 comments

It was power lunch hour in midtown Manhattan and Central Park’s new pickleball courts had filled up with the type of sporty executives who once preferred to talk business over 18 holes of golf. I’d gone to paddle around with Samin Odhwani, an investor at NBA star Kevin Durant’s 35 Ventures, to hear about one of the firm’s... It was power lunch hour in midtown Manhattan and Central Park’s new pickleball courts had...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

YouTube Undercuts Amazon on Streaming Push

By Sahil Patel · May 19, 2023 6:00 AM PDT

YouTube and Netflix are the most-watched streaming services in America. But it is Amazon that has come closest to building a streaming version of cable TV with its Prime Video Channels service, which lets Prime subscribers easily sign up for a wide range of streaming services run by other companies. It’s an enormously profitable business,... YouTube and Netflix are the most-watched streaming services in America. But it is Amazon that has...

Art by Clark Miller.

How to Be a Crypto Whistleblower

By Poppy Alexander · May 18, 2023 9:00 AM PDT · 1 comment

Art by Clark Miller.

How to Be a Crypto Whistleblower

By Poppy Alexander · May 18, 2023 9:00 AM PDT · 1 comment

In the past few months, both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have brought aggressive enforcement actions against crypto exchanges. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, Tron founder Justin Sun and Terra founder Do Kwon have all been either charged or sued by one of these two agencies. Meanwhile, the... In the past few months, both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures...

Instacart CEO Fidji Simo. Photo by Getty.

startups Finance

Instacart’s Ad Business Surges

By Cory Weinberg · May 18, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 5 comments

Instacart has become an advertising powerhouse. The grocery-delivery firm’s ad revenue totaled about $740 million last year, up 30% from 2021, according to a person familiar with the matter. That’s a striking increase, given that the digital ad market was largely stagnant last year. Nearly 30% of Instacart’s 2022 revenue came... Instacart has become an advertising powerhouse. The grocery-delivery firm’s ad revenue...

Sridhar Ramaswamy. Photo by Getty

Snowflake in Talks to Buy Search Startup Neeva in AI Push

By Kevin McLaughlin, Jon Victor and Amir Efrati · May 17, 2023 1:36 PM PDT · 5 comments

Database software provider Snowflake has been in advanced talks to acquire Neeva, a search startup founded by former top Google ad tech executive Sridhar Ramaswamy, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions. Buying Neeva could help Snowflake offer artificial intelligence software that helps companies search for information... Database software provider Snowflake has been in advanced talks to acquire Neeva, a search...

Subscriber Survey

startups google

Readers Are Split on the Tech Outlook, but Bullish on Big Names

By Kalley Huang · May 17, 2023 7:00 AM PDT

Readers of The Information are split on the outlook for technology companies, but they’ve turned more optimistic about some big tech names. Asked whether conditions for technology companies would improve or worsen over the next six months, 35% of respondents to our latest reader survey said they would improve, 35% said they would worsen... Readers of The Information are split on the outlook for technology companies, but they’ve...

Workers at a Veho facility in Atlanta in 2021. Photo by Bloomberg.

SoftBank-Backed Veho Struggles as Logistics Startups Fail to Deliver

By Ann Gehan · May 17, 2023 6:00 AM PDT

Workers at a Veho facility in Atlanta in 2021. Photo by Bloomberg.

startups e-commerce

SoftBank-Backed Veho Struggles as Logistics Startups Fail to Deliver

By Ann Gehan · May 17, 2023 6:00 AM PDT

After landing nearly $300 million from investors including SoftBank and Tiger Global Management in back-to-back funding rounds in late 2021 and early 2022, delivery startup Veho planned an ambitious expansion that would bring its home dropoff services to 50 cities across the U.S. by the end of last year. But Veho, which offers package deliveries... After landing nearly $300 million from investors including SoftBank and Tiger Global Management...