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

Art by Clark Miller

How AIs Can Have Secret Conversations

By Abram Brown · Aug 30, 2025 8:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Finally! An explanation of what the Musk-Altman legal feud really means• The Arena: Can the metaverse and TikTok help tennis connect with young fans?• Plus, our Recommendations: “The Rise and Fall of Indie Sleaze,” “Anointed” and “Alien: Earth” Generally speaking, humans communicate with... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Finally! An explanation of what the...

Photo via Getty

StubHub Missed Financial Targets Ahead of IPO

By Cory Weinberg · Aug 30, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Even as StubHub makes a renewed push to go public, its business isn’t expanding as quickly as it had hoped. In the first half of this year, the ticketing app fell short of revenue and profit projections it shared with lenders earlier this year, in part due to new U.S. ticket pricing rules. The shortfall highlights the volatile nature of the... Even as StubHub makes a renewed push to go public, its business isn’t expanding as quickly as it...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images

Can Tennis Connect With Young Fans Through the Metaverse and TikTok?

By Sara Germano · Aug 30, 2025 6:00am PDT

For decades, the U.S. Open Tennis Championships has been a crown jewel of the global sports calendar. As the fourth and final Grand Slam of the tennis season, it has hosted historic athletic feats by everyone from Arthur Ashe to Venus Williams. Boisterous night matches—like last weekend’s Daniil Medvedev meltdown—are attended... For decades, the U.S. Open Tennis Championships has been a crown jewel of the global sports...

Art by Clark Miller

Meta’s AI Leaders Discuss Using Google, OpenAI Models in Apps

By Kalley Huang and Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 29, 2025 4:47pm PDT

Art by Clark Miller

Meta’s AI Leaders Discuss Using Google, OpenAI Models in Apps

By Kalley Huang and Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 29, 2025 4:47pm PDT

Meta Platforms’ plans to improve the artificial intelligence features in its apps could lead the company to partner with Google or OpenAI, two of its biggest AI rivals. Leaders in Meta’s new AI organization, Meta Superintelligence Labs, have discussed using Google’s Gemini model to provide conversational, text-based answers to questions that... Meta Platforms’ plans to improve the artificial intelligence features in its apps could lead the...

CEO and founder of OpenEvidence, Daniel Nadler. Screenshot via YouTube.

‘ChatGPT for Doctors’ Startup Considers $6 Billion-Valuation Investment

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 29, 2025 4:00pm PDT · 2 comments

OpenEvidence, which operates a ChatGPT-like product for doctors to find health information, is considering multiple investment offers valuing the three-year-old startup at $6 billion, nearly double its private valuation from a financing just one month ago, according to three people involved in the potential deal. The funding conversations are... OpenEvidence, which operates a ChatGPT-like product for doctors to find health information, is...

President Trump and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in April. Photo via Getty

Nvidia’s Puzzling China PR Play

By Martin Peers · Aug 29, 2025 3:00pm PDT · 1 comment

As we wrap up for the Labor Day weekend, one question has persisted through this week: Why is Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang so determined to demonstrate his need for the Chinese market? With Nvidia’s ability to sell its artificial intelligence chips to China currently in limbo—caught between U.S. and Chinese government restrictions—another CEO might... As we wrap up for the Labor Day weekend, one question has persisted through this week: Why is...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty images.

Why Musk’s Legal Battle Over OpenAI’s Structure Isn’t a Total Long Shot

By Rocket Drew, Theo Wayt and Sri Muppidi · Aug 29, 2025 9:01am PDT · 2 comments

Much is known about the pastimes of the world’s wealthiest person, Elon Musk. They include playing videogames, fathering children and reading Douglas Adams novels. Over the past couple of years, Musk has picked up another hobby: waging war against Sam Altman, an ex-friend with whom he co-founded OpenAI a decade ago as a nonprofit. And Musk’s... Much is known about the pastimes of the world’s wealthiest person, Elon Musk. They include...

Art via Mike Sullivan

DeepSeek Opts for Huawei Chips to Train Some Models

By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Aug 29, 2025 6:00am PDT

Art via Mike Sullivan

DeepSeek Opts for Huawei Chips to Train Some Models

By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Aug 29, 2025 6:00am PDT

DeepSeek, one of China’s leading artificial intelligence developers, has decided to use Huawei Technologies’ AI chips to train some of its AI models, a sign it is reducing its reliance on Nvidia chips, according to three people with knowledge of the effort. The move follows pressure by the Chinese government on local tech companies to use... DeepSeek, one of China’s leading artificial intelligence developers, has decided to use Huawei...

Edo Liberty, founder and CEO of Pinecone. Screenshot via TedAI San Francisco.

Top-Funded AI Database Startup Pinecone Considers a Sale

By Valida Pau, Stephanie Palazzolo and Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 28, 2025 6:05pm PDT · 1 comment

When the artificial intelligence boom began a few years ago, investors flocked to startups that helped businesses transform and store proprietary data in a format AI could understand, known as a vector database. The technology allowed businesses to use a customized AI chatbot to search or analyze their customer and sales information. Since then,... When the artificial intelligence boom began a few years ago, investors flocked to startups that...

Photo via Getty

The Lessons of Google’s Ad Tech Business

By Martin Peers · Aug 28, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Every day this week, we and other close watchers of Google have been holding our breath, waiting for Judge Amit Mehta of the federal court in Washington to issue a ruling on how Google’s illegal search monopoly should be remedied. Options include a forced divestiture of its Chrome browser (where many Google searches originate), ending Google’s... Every day this week, we and other close watchers of Google have been holding our breath, waiting...

Synthesia CEO Victor Riparbelli. Photo via Getty

The New European Startup Darlings

By Katie Roof · Aug 28, 2025 3:36pm PDT · 4 comments

Hi, it’s Katie Roof, spending my first week at The Information schmoozing with Europe’s startup leaders at a conference called TechBBQ in Copenhagen. It’s been close to three years since I’ve been at a tech conference on the Continent, and the difference is palpable. In 2022, there was a panic in the air about a stock sell-off that eventually... Hi, it’s Katie Roof, spending my first week at The Information schmoozing with Europe’s startup...

Kaya Yurieff at The Information's Future of Influence event in June. Photo by Erin Beach

Thank You—And What’s Next for The Creator Economy

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 28, 2025 2:14pm PDT · 3 comments

Kaya Yurieff at The Information's Future of Influence event in June. Photo by Erin Beach

Creator Economy

Thank You—And What’s Next for The Creator Economy

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 28, 2025 2:14pm PDT · 3 comments

We are kicking off today’s newsletter with some news—this time about me. I’m wrapping up my time at The Information and this will be my last Creator Economy newsletter.It’s been such a privilege to write this newsletter, host five summits and break news about the creator economy and social media over the past four and a half years. I wanted to... We are kicking off today’s newsletter with some news—this time about me. I’m wrapping up my time...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Why OpenAI is Going After Healthcare

By Amir Efrati · Aug 28, 2025 10:30am PDT

It was easy to miss last week’s announcement that Ashley Alexander, a 12-year veteran of Facebook and Instagram, is becoming vice president of health products at OpenAI, with the goal of improving “healthcare outcomes and access.” Alexander’s LinkedIn post didn’t give clues about exactly what products she will oversee, but it’s not hard to see... It was easy to miss last week’s announcement that Ashley Alexander, a 12-year veteran of Facebook...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Meet the Google-Scraping Startup Used by ChatGPT, Cursor and Perplexity

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 28, 2025 7:00am PDT

Last week, we wrote about SerpApi, an Austin-based startup that scrapes Google Search results and offers that data through an application programming interface. Among its customers is OpenAI, which uses SerpApi’s services to ensure its ChatGPT can answer user queries with up-to-date information. (SerpApi CEO and founder Julien Khaleghy... Last week, we wrote about SerpApi, an Austin-based startup that scrapes Google Search results and...

Art by Mike Sullivan

How Google Is Preparing to Make Ad Tech Unit Independent

By Catherine Perloff · Aug 28, 2025 6:00am PDT

Less than a month from now, a federal court in Virginia will begin hearing an antitrust case that could determine whether Google has to spin off part of its advertising tech business into an independent company. But Google isn’t waiting for the decision to help that group become a more viable stand-alone business. Last month, for example, Google... Less than a month from now, a federal court in Virginia will begin hearing an antitrust case that...

Sila Nano's new silicon anode plant in Moses Lake, Wash. Photo: Courtesy Sila

The Electric: Silicon's Malaise Reflects an Auto Industry Ceding Momentum to China

By Steve LeVine · Aug 28, 2025 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

Sila Nano's new silicon anode plant in Moses Lake, Wash. Photo: Courtesy Sila

The Electric: Silicon's Malaise Reflects an Auto Industry Ceding Momentum to China

By Steve LeVine · Aug 28, 2025 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

In May 2022, two rival U.S. battery startups announced similar coups.Group14 Technologies, a developer of silicon anodes that promised greater driving range and faster charging in electric vehicles, said that within two years—in 2024—its product would be powering EVs made by Porsche. It was big news because, despite years of trying, no Western... In May 2022, two rival U.S. battery startups announced similar coups.Group14 Technologies, a...

Photo via Getty

Nvidia’s (Slightly) Slower Quarter; Musk’s Phone Ambitions

By Martin Peers · Aug 27, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Nvidia’s quarterly results, out Wednesday, have become the event of the earnings season. And who can be surprised? After all, here’s a company whose July revenue hit $46.7 billion, up 56% on a year earlier. Little more than two years ago, Nvidia’s quarterly revenue was around $7 billion! Of course, Wall Street traders have long ago lost their... Nvidia’s quarterly results, out Wednesday, have become the event of the earnings season. And who...

YouTuber Dhar Mann. Photo: Dhar Mann Studios

Creator Economy

The Dizzying Rise of Dhar Mann

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 27, 2025 2:18pm PDT

In early June, I pulled up to a giant lot in Burbank, Calif. about four miles down the road from Warner Brothers Studios, where “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory” were filmed. I was there to tour the set and offices where YouTuber Dhar Mann runs a growing entertainment empire.Mann, who leases the 125,000 square foot production studio, part of... In early June, I pulled up to a giant lot in Burbank, Calif. about four miles down the road from...

From left to right: Arm CEO Rene Haas, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son. Photos via Getty. Art by Mike Sullivan

SoftBank’s Heavy Spending on Chip Deals Eyed By Investors

By Cory Weinberg and Juro Osawa · Aug 27, 2025 1:02pm PDT

In May, a Nomura Securities equity analyst asked SoftBank Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto a pointed question on an earnings call: How could he justify SoftBank’s recent $6.5 billion purchase, using borrowed money, of Ampere Computing, a failing developer of data center chips? The startup had just $16 million in revenue and had lost... In May, a Nomura Securities equity analyst asked SoftBank Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto...

How the Talent War is Impacting the Race for AGI

By The Information Staff · Aug 27, 2025 11:55am PDT

How the Talent War is Impacting the Race for AGI

By The Information Staff · Aug 27, 2025 11:55am PDT

A central question looms over artificial intelligence: How is the intensifying the war for talent impacting the race for artificial general intelligence (AGI)? A central question looms over artificial intelligence: How is the intensifying the war for talent...