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Silicon Valley Bank
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The Briefing
Larry Summers Has a Message for Silicon Valley
March 21, 2023
Creator Economy
Twitter’s Tipping and Coin Features Are Disappearing
March 21, 2023
The Weekend
The Best of Times (for AI), the Worst of Times (for Your Bank)
March 18, 2023
Pro Weekly
The Pro Weekly: Andreessen Horowitz Plays a Vital Role in the Creator Economy
March 17, 2023
Dealmaker
Venture Capitalists Made a Big Mess of SVB
March 16, 2023
Crypto Global
Circle CEO on Where Crypto Goes After Bank ‘Whack-a-mole’
March 15, 2023

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Briefings

Virgin Orbit Nears $200 Million Funding Deal
March 22, 2023
Amazon Tests Palm-Scanning Technology at Panera Bread
March 22, 2023
Toyota Phases Out Amazon Alexa in Vehicles, Explores ChatGPT
March 22, 2023
Tencent President Martin Lau to Step Down From Board
March 22, 2023
TikTok CEO to Pledge App Will be Free From Any Government Influence
March 22, 2023
Nvidia CEO Says Generative AI is an ‘iPhone Moment'
March 21, 2023
OpenAI Temporarily Shuts Down ChatGPT After Privacy Bug Leaks Users’ Chat Histories
March 21, 2023
New Report to Australian Government Alleges ByteDance Poses Disinformation Threat
March 21, 2023
FTX Sues Liquidators of Bahamas Unit
March 20, 2023
Flagstar Acquires Most of Signature Bank, Excluding Crypto Business
March 20, 2023
Amazon Laying Off 9,000 More Employees, Including in AWS, Ads, Twitch
March 20, 2023
FDIC Sets Deadline for SVB Bids
March 20, 2023
China Investigates Former Head of Top Chipmaking Firm for Graft
March 20, 2023
Rippling Raises $500 million to Ease SVB-Linked Payroll Crunch
March 17, 2023
Coinbase Exploring Overseas Derivatives Trading Platform
March 17, 2023
Silicon Valley Bank Parent, SVB Financial, Files for Bankruptcy
March 17, 2023
U.S. to Investigate ByteDance Surveillance of Journalists
March 17, 2023

Subscriber comments

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.

Abed Agha

on What Creators on Meta Should Learn from News Publishers on Meta

I think the situation with publishers and creators differs for the following reasons: Creators are the users themselves and as the creator economy grows, so will the number of creators. I suspect the line that draws a distinction between a "creator" and a "user" will get very blurry in the future. In this context, ignoring creator demands = ignoring users; and this will inevitably lead to the decline of such platforms who do this. Equitability between platforms and creators is an important pillar to the advertising-led creator economy and so far YouTube is the only platform that has done it right and baked it in their business model. Meta already scaled their business model outside of creators, so sharing revenue with creators will cannibalize their existing revenue. TikTok should do it while they are still early in their monetization journey.

Arthur P. Johnson

Arthur P. Johnson

on At Patreon, Mismanagement Thwarts a Pandemic-Era Star

Excellent reporting by Paris Martineau, who plainly did not leave a rock unturned. This is such a sad state of affairs, as quite a number of my most cherished creators rely almost entirely on their Patreon-using supporters (including me!) to put food on their respective tables. I personally plan to investigate funding alternatives for each creator I support.

Joy Randels

on Okta Chief Revenue Officer Departs Amid Sales Shakeup

One of the biggest obstacles to overcome in an acquisition is integration. Whether it is technology, people, or processes, it is both an art and science to make an acquisition fully successful.

Syed Ashrafulla

Syed Ashrafulla

on The Best Little Unicorn in Texas: Jasper Was Winning the AI Race—Then ChatGPT Blew Up the Whole Game

Great story on how non-technical founders found a business fit for a platform technology. I don't think OpenAI can hold all (or many) of the verticals while keeping the horizontal ahead, so it makes sense that companies like Jasper will rise with the tide of conversational AI rather than drown in that tide. In the end, we as consumers need the engineering AND the product.

Claire Enders

on Musk May Have Found a Hardcore Leader for Twitter

It’s surprising that any leader gets a kick out of bilking employees, suppliers and almost everyone they might have a legal contract with. Simply because of Musk’s misjudgement on acquiring the company for $44 billion on a whim. Nothing like this Twitter situation would be allowed in the EU.

Latest Articles

Nick Grudin. Photo by Dapper Labs.

Exclusive

Meta Rehires Partnerships Executive After Vowing to Shrink Management

By Sahil Patel and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · March 22, 2023 7:16 AM PDT

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg’ effort to cut back on middle managers isn’t stopping the company hiring more middle managers. Meta has re-hired a veteran manager, Nick Grudin, to oversee its...

Image: Nick Grudin. Photo by Dapper Labs.

Breaking Stories

Silicon Valley Bank
Follow our coverage of Silicon Valley Bank's Failure

Art by Mike Sullivan

microsoft startups

Amazon Faces Moment of Truth on Alexa as ChatGPT Steals Its Thunder

By Theo Wayt · March 22, 2023 6:05 AM PDT

At the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, Amazon announced one of its biggest partnerships yet to help make its Alexa voice assistant ubiquitous: a deal with Toyota to integrate Alexa into the auto giant’s cars. “Our vision for Alexa is that she should be everywhere a customer might need her—at home, in the office, on... At the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, Amazon announced one of its biggest partnerships yet to...

Larry Summers. Photo by Bloomberg.

markets economy

Summers Predicts “Cleaning Out” of Fintech Sector After SVB Failure

By The Information Staff · March 21, 2023 4:44 PM PDT · 3 comments

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers predicted Silicon Valley will see a “cleaning out” in the fintech sector as a result of regulatory attention flowing from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. In an interview with The Information’s editor in chief Jessica Lessin, Summers also said that the banking crisis of the past 10... Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers predicted Silicon Valley will see a “cleaning...

Tonal’s now-shuttered Palo Alto, Calif. retail store. Photo by Getty.

Tonal’s Valuation May Fall 90% in ‘Cram-Down’ Financing

By Maria Heeter · March 21, 2023 3:11 PM PDT · 5 comments

Tonal, a fitness startup with a cadre of celebrity backers, is crunched for cash after failing to find a buyer. The company now may take a drastic step: raising money at a valuation nearly 90% lower than its last one, in a deal that would effectively wipe out the stakes of many existing investors, people familiar with the matter said. Private... Tonal, a fitness startup with a cadre of celebrity backers, is crunched for cash after failing to...

Musical.ly's Shanghai headquarters in 2016. Photo by Bloomberg.

Biden’s Path to Forcing TikTok Sale Leads to Now-Dead App Musical.ly

By Juro Osawa and Maria Heeter · March 21, 2023 1:00 PM PDT

Musical.ly's Shanghai headquarters in 2016. Photo by Bloomberg.

Biden’s Path to Forcing TikTok Sale Leads to Now-Dead App Musical.ly

By Juro Osawa and Maria Heeter · March 21, 2023 1:00 PM PDT

Would TikTok have become a powerhouse without Musical.ly? As arcane as that question might appear, it could become the paramount issue in court if the Biden administration tries to force TikTok’s parent ByteDance to sell the app. That’s because ByteDance’s 2017 purchase of Musical.ly, a rival to the then-young TikTok, is what... Would TikTok have become a powerhouse without Musical.ly? As arcane as that question might...

Art by Shane Burke / Dall-E 2.

Twitter Used to Make Us Smarter

By Jillian York · March 21, 2023 9:00 AM PDT · 4 comments

A handful of months into Twitter’s new management and it’s clear an era has ended. For the site’s power users, which include academics, journalists and lawmakers, the sudden changes in the social network’s policies, practices and culture have destroyed years of careful network building. What that will cost us in the... A handful of months into Twitter’s new management and it’s clear an era has...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, left, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Photos by Getty Images; Bloomberg.

OpenAI and Microsoft Are Partners, Until They Vie for the Same Customers

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · March 21, 2023 6:00 AM PDT · 3 comments

OpenAI’s ChatGPT has enraptured the business world since its November release and OpenAI is signing up customers eager to pay to use its artificial intelligence models in their own products. But the Microsoft-backed startup faces a surprising rival: Microsoft itself. As part of its multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, Microsoft has... OpenAI’s ChatGPT has enraptured the business world since its November release and OpenAI is...

venture capital

The TikTok Investors With the Most to Lose From a U.S. Ban

By Juro Osawa · March 20, 2023 2:29 PM PDT

For venture investors that have collectively invested more than $8 billion in TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, the fate of the video app in the U.S., where officials are seeking changes to its ownership, could mean the difference between a huge portfolio win and a soul-crushing loss. Early backers of ByteDance such as Susquehanna... For venture investors that have collectively invested more than $8 billion in TikTok’s...

Clockwise from top left: Julie Bornstein, Esther Crawford, Mark Hammond, Max Cutler, Kağan Sümer. Photos via Julie Bernstein, Robert Cowherd, Microsoft, Wikimedia and Kağan Sümer.

On the Market: The Founders Who Joined Microsoft, Spotify, Coinbase and Twitter

By The Information Staff · March 20, 2023 6:00 AM PDT

Clockwise from top left: Julie Bornstein, Esther Crawford, Mark Hammond, Max Cutler, Kağan Sümer. Photos via Julie Bernstein, Robert Cowherd, Microsoft, Wikimedia and Kağan Sümer.

On the Market: The Founders Who Joined Microsoft, Spotify, Coinbase and Twitter

By The Information Staff · March 20, 2023 6:00 AM PDT

Call them acqui-fires. Several founders who took positions at the bigger tech companies that bought their startups recently lost their jobs when layoffs rolled through Silicon Valley. That means managers and engineers who also have the entrepreneurial bug are now on the market. Twitter’s most recent round of job cuts included at least four... Call them acqui-fires. Several founders who took positions at the bigger tech companies that...

Art by Clark Miller.

startups economy

SVB Is Dead. Long Live SVB.

By Jason Pontin · March 18, 2023 9:00 AM PDT · 3 comments

We all know how it began. It started on March 9, when the run on Silicon Valley Bank made the innovation economy totter and threatened a global financial crisis. It continued on March 10, when SVB failed and it became clear that anyone who hadn’t gotten their money out yet was stuck, facing payroll in just five days with no clear way to... We all know how it began. It started on March 9, when the run on Silicon Valley Bank made the...

A sign outside TikTok's offices in Culver City, Calif. this week. Photo by Getty.

TikTok Tries to Allay Advertisers’ Concerns as U.S. Ban Threat Looms

By Kaya Yurieff and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · March 17, 2023 12:21 PM PDT

No matter what happens in Washington, TikTok needs to keep advertisers spending money on the app. The latest threat of a ban, made recently by the Biden administration, has prompted marketers to consider their alternatives, ad executives say. TikTok has been taking steps to reassure the ad industry, including convening a closed-door meeting with... No matter what happens in Washington, TikTok needs to keep advertisers spending money on the app....

Cover art and portraits by Clark Miller

The Instant Oral History of the Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

By Abram Brown, Annie Goldsmith, Margaux MacColl, Arielle Pardes, Nick Wingfield and Kaya Yurieff · March 17, 2023 11:26 AM PDT · 1 comment

On a cosmic level, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was a mere blip. The murmurs about trouble began last Wednesday, the panic spread via group texts and Twitter threads on Thursday, the bank went under on Friday, the government got its act together on Saturday, and on Sunday every current and former customer of SVB could breathe a cautious... On a cosmic level, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was a mere blip. The murmurs about trouble...

Sarah Nagy gives a demo of her startup, Seek.ai, at an AI event at the San Francisco Wine Society in January. Photography by Laura Morton

Boom Times in San Francisco’s AI Underground

By Arielle Pardes · March 17, 2023 9:02 AM PDT · 7 comments

Sarah Nagy gives a demo of her startup, Seek.ai, at an AI event at the San Francisco Wine Society in January. Photography by Laura Morton

Boom Times in San Francisco’s AI Underground

By Arielle Pardes · March 17, 2023 9:02 AM PDT · 7 comments

Not even a banking crisis could chill the fever sweeping San Francisco. Last Wednesday, as the tech industry recoiled from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, a party was scheduled at the offices of Maverick Ventures in an old army hospital in the Presidio. The venture capital firm’s partners were hosting the latest LangChain... Not even a banking crisis could chill the fever sweeping San Francisco. Last Wednesday, as the...

The People With Power at Binance and Binance.US

By Aidan Ryan · March 17, 2023 6:03 AM PDT

After a series of crypto collapses over the past year, Binance has cemented its position as the industry’s powerhouse. But the world’s biggest crypto exchange by volume had been under mounting scrutiny from regulators even before the implosion of its top rival, FTX. Media reports over the past year have also revealed... After a series of crypto collapses over the past year, Binance has cemented its position as the...

Photo by AP.

TikTok Sale Likely to Be Rejected by China

By Juro Osawa, Sylvia Varnham O'Regan, Kaya Yurieff and Shai Oster · March 16, 2023 2:55 PM PDT · 10 comments

The Chinese government is likely to oppose any attempt by the Biden administration to force TikTok’s Chinese shareholders to sell their stakes in the hugely popular app, said China-based lawyers and investors, setting the stage for a protracted standoff between Beijing and Washington over the future of TikTok. “Why would China agree?... The Chinese government is likely to oppose any attempt by the Biden administration to force...

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. Photo by Getty.

No More Four-Year Lockups: Stripe’s Sprint to a $7 Billion Fundraising Haul

By Maria Heeter and Cory Weinberg · March 16, 2023 2:31 PM PDT · 2 comments

Two years ago, when Stripe raised money at a valuation of $95 billion, the payments giant had such an upper hand over investors that it could institute some highly unusual conditions in its fundraising round. Investors had to agree to hold onto their shares for four years after the company went public. And Stripe had the option to sell them even... Two years ago, when Stripe raised money at a valuation of $95 billion, the payments giant had...

A First Republic Bank in Los Angeles. Photo by Bloomberg.

First Republic CEO Told Regulators Earlier This Year His Bank Didn’t Need More Rules

By Michael Roddan and Lauren Tara LaCapra · March 16, 2023 2:02 PM PDT

A First Republic Bank in Los Angeles. Photo by Bloomberg.

First Republic CEO Told Regulators Earlier This Year His Bank Didn’t Need More Rules

By Michael Roddan and Lauren Tara LaCapra · March 16, 2023 2:02 PM PDT

On Thursday, First Republic Bank CEO Mike Roffler hashed out a $30 billion rescue plan for his bank with the biggest institutions on Wall Street at the urging of the federal government. But less than two months ago, he was pleading with the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to exclude his San Francisco-based lender from... On Thursday, First Republic Bank CEO Mike Roffler hashed out a $30 billion rescue plan for his...

The Information's Jessica Lessin, appearing live on CNN on Wednesday, March 15. Composite art by Clark Miller

Notes from a Meltdown

Five Years in Five Days: How I Panicked, Pivoted and Ultimately Survived as My Bank Melted Down

By Jessica E. Lessin · March 16, 2023 12:42 PM PDT · 23 comments

It started with a text from a tech investor last Wednesday afternoon. Shares in Silicon Valley Bank were tanking following the announcement of an emergency stock sale, the person told me. The bank that I had used to establish The Information 10 years ago, and that I had stuck with since, was in danger of spontaneously combusting. The investor... It started with a text from a tech investor last Wednesday afternoon. Shares in Silicon Valley...

Subscriber Survey

The Information Readers Turn Bearish

By Scott Thurm · March 16, 2023 9:30 AM PDT · 1 comment

What a difference a month makes. In early February readers of The Information were optimistic about 2023, with nearly three times as many respondents saying they expected conditions for tech companies to improve over the next six months as expected conditions to worsen. Now that sentiment has reversed. By more than 2-to-1, respondents to our... What a difference a month makes. In early February readers of The Information were optimistic...

Art by Clark Miller.

Robots Don’t Make Art

By Ryan Broderick · March 16, 2023 9:00 AM PDT · 6 comments

One of the central tensions of the past 30 years when it comes to art and culture has been the need to balance the unbridled creativity afforded us by the internet with the ability of our legal institutions to make sense of who owns it. Since the artificial intelligence revolution began in earnest last summer with the launch of OpenAI’s... One of the central tensions of the past 30 years when it comes to art and culture has been the...

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian in 2019. Photo by Bloomberg

In Search of Profits, Google Cloud Shifts Focus to Midsize Customers

By Kevin McLaughlin · March 16, 2023 6:00 AM PDT

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian in 2019. Photo by Bloomberg

In Search of Profits, Google Cloud Shifts Focus to Midsize Customers

By Kevin McLaughlin · March 16, 2023 6:00 AM PDT

During Thomas Kurian’s nearly five years at the helm of Google’s cloud-server business, the unit has raised its profile by inking long-term agreements with companies such as Deutsche Bank, Dun & Bradstreet Holdings and Mayo Clinic. But Google Cloud has struggled to get those companies to quickly increase their spending on cloud... During Thomas Kurian’s nearly five years at the helm of Google’s cloud-server...