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

Photo via Eight Sleep

Eight Sleep Embraces AI For Mattress Topper

By Martin Peers · Aug 19, 2025 5:00pm PDT

What is it about sleep technology that causes tech investors to dream of immense riches? Eight Sleep, which makes high-tech mattress toppers and is a favorite brand of many tech luminaries, announced Tuesday it had raised $100 million partly to—in all seriousness—“supercharge its AI roadmap”with projects including an “AI Agent for Sleep... What is it about sleep technology that causes tech investors to dream of immense riches? Eight...

Beehiiv CEO Tyler Denk (left) speaks with The Information's Akash Pasricha.

Creator Economy

How Beehiiv Is Taking on Substack

By Kaya Yurieff and Akash Pasricha · Aug 19, 2025 3:16pm PDT

Newsletter publishers are having a moment again. Beehiiv, a four-year-old competitor to the larger and older Substack, is on pace to double its total revenue this year, to $30 million, CEO and co-founder Tyler Denk told my colleague Akash Pasricha on Tuesday during an interview on TITV, The Information’s new daily streaming show. Investors... Newsletter publishers are having a moment again. Beehiiv, a four-year-old competitor to the...

Photo via Getty

What to Watch as the IPO Heat Turns Up

By Cory Weinberg · Aug 19, 2025 3:00pm PDT

Initial public offerings are generating buzz again, and share prices of tech listings have doubled on average this year. The Nasdaq has been at an all-time high, today’s big-tech stock sell-off notwithstanding. And Chamath Palihapitiya is raising money for a special purpose acquisition company. Are we about to hit a speculative IPO and SPAC... Initial public offerings are generating buzz again, and share prices of tech listings have...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Is AI Better Than Humans at Interviewing People?

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 19, 2025 10:39am PDT · 1 comment

Art via Mike Sullivan

Is AI Better Than Humans at Interviewing People?

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 19, 2025 10:39am PDT · 1 comment

Job seekers are increasingly running into employers using artificial intelligence-powered job interviewers, and the process has garnered backlash and in some cases sparked lawsuits from spurned candidates. But AI interviewers might actually increase candidates’ chances of getting hired.A new research study published this week from the... Job seekers are increasingly running into employers using artificial intelligence-powered job...

World Liberty Financial co-founder Donald Trump Jr. (left), is joined at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square by Zach Witkoff, the incoming chairman of Alt5 Sigma (center) and incoming Alt5 Sigma board director Eric Trump (right). Photo by Getty

Trump Partner in Crypto Venture Faces SEC Allegations

By Michael Roddan · Aug 19, 2025 10:15am PDT · 1 comment

The Trump family has partnered with a father-son duo with a history of run-ins with financial regulators for a deal to sell $1.5 billion of its crypto tokens. A biotech turned crypto company called Alt5 Sigma will sell $1.5 billion of stock and use the money to buy the crypto token created by World Liberty Financial, founded by Donald Trump Jr.... The Trump family has partnered with a father-son duo with a history of run-ins with financial...

Pylon cofounders Robert Eng, Marty Kausas and Advith Chelikani. Photo courtesy of Pylon.

Why Andreessen and Bain Backed a Self-Described ‘Zendesk Killer’

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 19, 2025 7:00am PDT

Automating customer service has been among the most popular applications of artificial intelligence models, and investors have pumped about $1 billion into six key startups developing them. Now, a seventh is throwing its hat into the ring.San Francisco-based startup Pylon has raised $31 million in a fundraise co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and ... Automating customer service has been among the most popular applications of artificial...

Photo via Shutterstock

News Publishers Shift AI Licensing Focus to Usage-Based Deals

By Catherine Perloff · Aug 19, 2025 6:00am PDT

Signs that OpenAI and other artificial intelligence firms are generating ever-increasing revenues are getting attention—from news publishers who want to get their piece of the action. Publishers that have struck deals to license their content to AI firms for training large language models are now discussing internally—and in at least... Signs that OpenAI and other artificial intelligence firms are generating ever-increasing revenues...

Outside the Lordstown, Ohio plant in 2018. Photo via AP.

What Foxconn’s Ohio Factory Deal Says About the Increasing Reach of AI

By Martin Peers · Aug 18, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Outside the Lordstown, Ohio plant in 2018. Photo via AP.

What Foxconn’s Ohio Factory Deal Says About the Increasing Reach of AI

By Martin Peers · Aug 18, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Talk about symbolism. Foxconn chair Young Liu said today that the electronics manufacturer was selling its Lordstown, Ohio, electric vehicle factory to SoftBank, which will use it to make artificial intelligence computer servers. It’s the latest example of how AI is supplanting other newish technologies. (Notably, the Lordstown factory, which... Talk about symbolism. Foxconn chair Young Liu said today that the electronics manufacturer was...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Getty Images. Art by Clark Miller.

Artificial Intelligence

Behind Many Robots, a Human Operator Toils

By Alex Perry and Rocket Drew · Aug 18, 2025 1:14pm PDT · 6 comments

When Nvidia wanted to show off software for developing artificial intelligence at its flagship customer conference in March, it brought out a Star Wars–inspired robot that bobbed its head as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang talked to it. “Stand right here,” said Huang, pointing to his side, and the knee-high robot waddled to the spot, receiving... When Nvidia wanted to show off software for developing artificial intelligence at its flagship...

ByteDance’s Singapore headquarters. Photo via Getty

ByteDance’s Upcoming ‘World Model’; Altman’s Thoughts on the GPT-5 Fiasco, Profitability, and Going Public

By Juro Osawa, Qianer Liu and Jing Yang · Aug 18, 2025 7:00am PDT

Chinese developers of artificial intelligence software have already pulled ahead in domains like open-source and video generation. Now, one such developer is trying their hand at making AI models that can generate realistic worlds that users can explore, like immersive video games.ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is developing such an AI,... Chinese developers of artificial intelligence software have already pulled ahead in domains like...

Photo via Getty

To Court Big Brands, Walmart Throws Some Smaller Merchants Under the Bus

By Ann Gehan · Aug 18, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

For nearly 25 years, Tracey Shelley, an online merchant who sells products like Olay moisturizer, Coppertone sunscreen and Dr. Squatch deodorant, operated mainly on Amazon’s marketplace. But in the past few years, Shelley said she shifted nearly half her business to Walmart, as the retailer lobbied online sellers to sell on its site. In its... For nearly 25 years, Tracey Shelley, an online merchant who sells products like Olay moisturizer,...

Lyten CEO Dan Cook. Photo: Courtesy Lyten

Exclusive From The Electric: Cash Will Be Lyten's Biggest Challenge in its Northvolt Takeover

By Steve LeVine · Aug 18, 2025 4:30am PDT

Lyten CEO Dan Cook. Photo: Courtesy Lyten

Exclusive From The Electric: Cash Will Be Lyten's Biggest Challenge in its Northvolt Takeover

By Steve LeVine · Aug 18, 2025 4:30am PDT

If everything goes well in the coming months, San Jose, Calif., startup Lyten will crank up the production of nickel-based batteries at its newly acquired plant in Sweden. It will then ship those batteries to another plant it’s just acquired in Poland, and make them into stationary storage systems for a list of waiting customers. If everything goes well in the coming months, San Jose, Calif., startup Lyten will crank up the...

Lyten bought Northvolt's battery plants in Poland on left, Sweden right. Images via Getty

The Inside Story of How a Tiny California Startup Grabbed Europe’s Battery Giant

By Steve LeVine · Aug 17, 2025 1:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Until last year, things looked pretty good for Northvolt, a Sweden-based battery startup that Europeans saw as their answer to Tesla. The company had vacuumed up $13 billion in capital from largely blue-chip investors and taken $55 billion in battery orders from major carmakers like BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo. Northvolt executives spoke of going... Until last year, things looked pretty good for Northvolt, a Sweden-based battery startup that...

Art by Clark Miller

AI’s Personality Problem

By Abram Brown · Aug 16, 2025 7:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Foreign researchers weigh AI riches against immigration worries • The Arena: Why David Ellison will want more streaming punch for Paramount• Plus, our Recommendations: “Buzz: The Man & The Moon,” “An Oral History of Atlantis” and “The Gilded Age.” Soon, the greatest challenge in... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Foreign researchers weigh AI riches ...

Art by Clark Miller; Images via Getty

The UFC Alone Isn’t Enough Streaming Punch for David Ellison’s Paramount

By Sara Germano · Aug 16, 2025 6:00am PDT

It didn’t take long for David Ellison, the fresh-faced millennial owner and CEO of Paramount Skydance, to make a statement. Just five days after the merger between Paramount and Skydance closed, the scion of Oracle’s Larry Ellison reached into his deep pockets to acquire seven years of broadcast rights to UFC mixed-martial arts matches for $7.7... It didn’t take long for David Ellison, the fresh-faced millennial owner and CEO of Paramount...

Carrie Wheeler and Keith Rabois. Photos via Opendoor/Getty

Online Critics Push Opendoor CEO Out

By Martin Peers · Aug 15, 2025 3:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Carrie Wheeler and Keith Rabois. Photos via Opendoor/Getty

Online Critics Push Opendoor CEO Out

By Martin Peers · Aug 15, 2025 3:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Carrie Wheeler isn’t one of tech’s big names, but she may go down in history as the latest victim of an online mob. The CEO of home-buying firm Opendoor stepped down Friday after weeks of relentless attacks on her on X, including from investor Eric Jackson and venture capitalist Keith Rabois, a co-founder and onetime executive chair of Opendoor.... Carrie Wheeler isn’t one of tech’s big names, but she may go down in history as the latest victim...

Mark Zuckerberg at Llama Con 2025. Photo via AP

Meta Plans Fourth Restructuring of AI Efforts in Six Months

By Kalley Huang · Aug 15, 2025 2:11pm PDT · 3 comments

Meta Platforms is planning the fourth restructuring of its artificial intelligence efforts in six months, according to three people familiar with the matter. Meta’s new AI organization, Meta Superintelligence Labs, is expected to be divided into four groups: a new lab that has been going by TBD Lab, short for to be determined; a team focused on... Meta Platforms is planning the fourth restructuring of its artificial intelligence efforts in six...

Art by Clark Miller; Trump image via Getty

Tech Needs AI Talent From China and Other Countries. But Researchers Are Caught In a Bind

By Kalley Huang and Erin Woo · Aug 15, 2025 9:04am PDT · 2 comments

In the fast-paced AI wars, time is precious. So when Google last month said it would pay Windsurf $2.4 billion to license the prominent AI startup’s technology and hire some of its employees, the search giant hurried to add Windsurf’s researchers and engineers to its ranks. Within a day, Google had onboarded most of the Windsurf staff it had... In the fast-paced AI wars, time is precious. So when Google last month said it would pay Windsurf...

Photo via Getty

Elon Musk’s xAI Runs on Ex-Google Talent

By Theo Wayt · Aug 15, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

When artificial intelligence researcher Igor Babuschkin announced his departure from Elon Musk’s xAI this week, he became the second founding member of the team to quit this year. And like Christian Szegedy, another co-founder who left in May, Babuschkin had originally come from Google. Despite the pair’s departure, xAI still relies heavily on... When artificial intelligence researcher Igor Babuschkin announced his departure from Elon Musk’s...

Photo by AP.

Dry Powder Is Falling. SPVs May Be a Lifeline.

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 14, 2025 5:44pm PDT

Photo by AP.

Dry Powder Is Falling. SPVs May Be a Lifeline.

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 14, 2025 5:44pm PDT

Earlier this week, I published a look at the blitz of fundraising deals for artificial intelligence startups, often triggered by unsolicited term sheets. A few days later, my colleagues Sri, Erin and I reported on Perplexity’s talks to raise more money at a valuation of more than $20 billion, which, if it closes, would be its third fundraising... Earlier this week, I published a look at the blitz of fundraising deals for artificial...