The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica E. Lessin and the team at The Information

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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica E. Lessin and the team at The Information

Get smarter about the day’s news in tech, media and finance by following Silicon Valley’s most-read executive newsletter.

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Recent Editions

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo by Samyukta Lakshmi/Getty Images

Artificial Intelligence

Anthropic’s Rapid But Slowing Growth Could Weigh on IPO Valuation

By Cory Weinberg · Oct 14, 2026 7:27pm PDT · 1 comment

Anthropic reported rapid-but-slowing revenue growth in a meeting with potential investors in its planned initial public offering, leaving some attendees expecting the company will need to keep its valuation target in check. At a private investor meeting Wednesday in San Francisco, the company said revenue hit $16.8 billion in the third quarter,... Anthropic reported rapid-but-slowing revenue growth in a meeting with potential investors in its...

CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator. Getty Images.

CoreWeave Co-Founders’ Stock Sales Aren’t Helping Investor Confidence

By Martin Peers · Oct 14, 2026 5:01pm PDT

This was not the day to be a publicly traded neocloud (as young AI data center firms are known). As the market sold off on bad inflation data—reinforcing certainty of another interest rate hike—neoclouds tanked. These companies typically are borrowing a lot to finance expansion. The worst hit in the stock sell-off was CoreWeave, whose stock fell... This was not the day to be a publicly traded neocloud (as young AI data center firms are known)....

Nickel zinc batteries in an AI data center. Photo: Courtesy ZincFive

Ahead of a Public Listing, ZincFive Talks of Replacing Supercapacitors in Data Centers

By Steve LeVine · Oct 14, 2026 12:01pm PDT

In the first age of commercial batteries—in the early 1900s—Thomas Edison thought their best use would be to power long-range electric vehicles, and he patented EV batteries combining nickel with iron and zinc.That was a decidedly wrong-way bet—the internal combustion engine, powered by gasoline, rapidly eclipsed Edison’s batteries, which found... In the first age of commercial batteries—in the early 1900s—Thomas Edison thought their best use...

Art via Getty Images

OpenAI’s Math Breakthroughs Rattle Cryptography Leaders

By Tiffany Li · Oct 14, 2026 7:00am PDT

Art via Getty Images

OpenAI’s Math Breakthroughs Rattle Cryptography Leaders

By Tiffany Li · Oct 14, 2026 7:00am PDT

OpenAI’s release last Tuesday of more than 300 math results it says an internal model solved has sparked concern among some of the world’s leading cryptographers, or experts in encoding information to keep it private and secure. They worry that AI’s continued math advances could find new algorithms that make our current methods of protecting... OpenAI’s release last Tuesday of more than 300 math results it says an internal model solved has...

Sean Taylor, CEO of Smith + Howard. Screenshot via YouTube/Levenfeld Pearlstein.

Inside a TPG-Backed Accounting Firm’s Plans for AI and More Acquisitions

By Alex Eichenstein · Oct 14, 2026 6:00am PDT

Smith + Howard, an accounting firm backed by private equity giant TPG that has grown in part by snapping up smaller firms, is gearing up for a new round of acquisitions—including two that could close by the end of the year. As it grows, the firm is exploring how AI could handle basic work where there’s “a lot of lather, rinse, repeat,” CEO... Smith + Howard, an accounting firm backed by private equity giant TPG that has grown in part by...

Signs promoting Bumble's IPO in 2021. Getty Images

OpenAI’s Bug and Bumble’s AI-Powered Exit

By Martin Peers · Oct 13, 2026 5:00pm PDT

When is someone going to make a TV show set at OpenAI? It’s got swarms of rogue AI agents causing havoc across the internet, not to mention periodic corporate drama. And today we learned that an OpenAI engineer allegedly planted a “sophisticated recording device” inside a company conference room.The Justice Department identified the engineer—who... When is someone going to make a TV show set at OpenAI? It’s got swarms of rogue AI agents causing...

Art by Clark Miller

OpenAI Eyes Acquisition That Could Boost Cybersecurity Business

By Valida Pau and Amir Efrati · Oct 13, 2026 3:07pm PDT · 1 comment

OpenAI, which is trying to develop a substantial cybersecurity business, is in early talks to buy Trail of Bits, a firm that finds and fixes vulnerabilities in open-source software, according to people familiar with the matter. The size of the potential deal couldn’t be learned. OpenAI has sometimes paid in the low hundreds of millions of... OpenAI, which is trying to develop a substantial cybersecurity business, is in early talks to buy...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, right, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang last week. Photo via Getty

Microsoft Cloud President Asks Leaders to Find 20% Cost Cuts

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Oct 13, 2026 2:42pm PDT · 1 comment

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, right, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang last week. Photo via Getty

Microsoft Cloud President Asks Leaders to Find 20% Cost Cuts

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Oct 13, 2026 2:42pm PDT · 1 comment

Microsoft has discussed making significant cost reductions in its Azure cloud-server-rental unit, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation. Girish Bablani, president of Azure, in recent weeks told senior leaders in his group, which has about 11,500 employees, to come up with ideas to reduce costs at least 20%, though it isn’t... Microsoft has discussed making significant cost reductions in its Azure cloud-server-rental unit,...

Partner Content

Rebuilding Companies for the Agentic Era

By The Information Partnerships · Oct 13, 2026 1:12pm PDT

Companies have spent the past few years figuring out how to put AI to work. In 2026, some are confronting a bigger question: What should a company look like when AI can understand context, coordinate work and act across systems? The Information’s Co-Executive Editor Amir Efrati sat down with leaders from three companies at the forefront of this... Companies have spent the past few years figuring out how to put AI to work. In 2026, some are...

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Scrambles to Fix Safety Issues Before Shipping Its Next Flagship Model

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Aaron Holmes and Amir Efrati · Oct 13, 2026 12:51pm PDT

OpenAI is grappling with fallout from its use of a controversial innovation in AI design as it works to get its next unreleased model to a place where leaders believe they can safely release it. The model design, known as loop transformers or recurrent depth, can make it harder to monitor the way the AI “thinks,” or how it reasons and processes... OpenAI is grappling with fallout from its use of a controversial innovation in AI design as it...

Art via Getty Images

Why Companies Can't Prove Their AI Spending Pays Off

By Laura Bratton · Oct 13, 2026 11:16am PDT

The trillion-dollar question of the AI boom is whether businesses’ spending on the technology pays off. But measuring that return is often uncertain, confusing or incomplete. That’s because it takes time for AI to show a return on investment that can be demonstrated in a company’s income statement, as we’ve written.A new study from the... The trillion-dollar question of the AI boom is whether businesses’ spending on the technology...

Vincent Weisser, CEO & Co-Founder of Prime Intellect. Screenshot via YouTube/OpenRouter.

Neocloud Prime Intellect Acquires Startup To Speed Up Inference

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 13, 2026 7:00am PDT

Vincent Weisser, CEO & Co-Founder of Prime Intellect. Screenshot via YouTube/OpenRouter.

Neocloud Prime Intellect Acquires Startup To Speed Up Inference

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 13, 2026 7:00am PDT

Neoclouds and so-called inference providers that help app developers run open source models are trying to differentiate themselves in a very crowded market. For instance, one such neocloud, Prime Intellect, which was valued at $1 billion in an equity financing in July, is buying a startup to help it make open models run faster and more... Neoclouds and so-called inference providers that help app developers run open source models are...

Qasar Younis, CEO and co-founder of Applied Intuition. Sam Barnes/Getty Images.

Applied Intuition Fields Offers at $30 Billion Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 13, 2026 6:30am PDT · 2 comments

For the last three years, AI labs like OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI have sucked up a lot of investor attention—as well as nosebleed valuations. Now a growing number of startups that make apps, agents or other software powered by AI are fetching valuations of $20 billion or higher. Applied Intuition, a maker of software to train self-driving... For the last three years, AI labs like OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI have sucked up a lot of investor...

Getty Images.

Applied And Lam Are Overlooked Chip Equipment Stocks

By Anita Ramaswamy · Oct 13, 2026 6:01am PDT

The AI chip sector has been picked clean of bargains, as stocks of chip designers, chip manufacturers and chip manufacturing equipment makers have all soared in the past year. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t still some opportunities if you know where to look. One example: Applied Materials, which makes machinery used in chip etching and... The AI chip sector has been picked clean of bargains, as stocks of chip designers, chip...

Researchers Need to Learn How AI Makes Decisions, Says Goodfire’s Tom McGrath

By Rocket Drew · Oct 12, 2026 5:43pm PDT · 2 comments

To understand the decision-making of AI, developers often look at the text that models produce as they reason through problems. But these “chains of thought” are increasingly hard to read, which is prompting AI developers to consider other approaches. One alternative, known as “mechanistic interpretability,” seeks to explain the inner workings... To understand the decision-making of AI, developers often look at the text that models produce as...

Alexandr Wang, Chief AI Officer of Meta. Getty Images.

Meta Reaches AI’s Crowded Frontier—Will Users Care?

By Martin Peers · Oct 12, 2026 5:00pm PDT

Alexandr Wang, Chief AI Officer of Meta. Getty Images.

Meta Reaches AI’s Crowded Frontier—Will Users Care?

By Martin Peers · Oct 12, 2026 5:00pm PDT

If it’s Monday, it must be time for another AI model release. This time, it was Meta Platforms’ turn, unveiling Muse Wonder, which it claims can “deliver state-of-the-art performance” on certain tasks. It was a triumphant moment for the company, whose AI efforts previously went through a slump that prompted a massive hiring binge over the past... If it’s Monday, it must be time for another AI model release. This time, it was Meta Platforms’...

Getty Images.

Leading-Edge AI Models Are Losing Their Allure With Developers

By Eric Bellomo · Oct 12, 2026 1:29pm PDT

As a lifelong, overly enthusiastic San Francisco Giants fan, this was a rough summer. Essentially out of contention since week six, the Giants ended the season with a dubious distinction: one of the largest gaps between projected and actual wins of any MLB team in nearly 25 years. Why is this relevant for our Pro subscribers? Well, a FanGraphs ... As a lifelong, overly enthusiastic San Francisco Giants fan, this was a rough summer. Essentially...

From left, Michael Kratsios, Howard Lutnick, Donald Trump and Susie Wiles. Photos via Getty Images; art by Mike Sullivan

Trump Administration Plans to Move AI Testing Agency Officials to White House

By Leo Schwartz · Oct 12, 2026 11:36am PDT

The small agency within the Commerce Department tasked with testing new AI models appears to be getting a refresh. In September, the Trump administration began the process of restructuring the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence so that three of its senior officials report directly to the White House, according... The small agency within the Commerce Department tasked with testing new AI models appears to be...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst Race to Secure the Chips Their Startups Need

By Julia Hornstein, Dakin Campbell and Phoebe Liu · Oct 12, 2026 10:42am PDT

As startups scramble to get access to AI servers, more venture capital firms are finding ways to secure compute on their behalf. Andreessen Horowitz, which two years ago set up a cluster of 20,000 graphics processing units for its startups, is in talks to expand its offering, potentially via two data center companies it has backed, according to... As startups scramble to get access to AI servers, more venture capital firms are finding ways to...

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI’s Plan To Revive Sora

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Cory Weinberg · Oct 12, 2026 7:00am PDT

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI’s Plan To Revive Sora

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Cory Weinberg · Oct 12, 2026 7:00am PDT

Remember OpenAI’s video model Sora and all the great Sam Altman memes that came from it? Earlier this year, the ChatGPT-maker canned both the model and the TikTok-like app it powered as part of broader culling of server-intensive “side projects” even as rivals xAI and Google forged ahead with their own video models.Well, there’s a chance that a... Remember OpenAI’s video model Sora and all the great Sam Altman memes that came from it? Earlier...