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

Amjad Masad, co-founder and CEO of Replit

Replit’s Margins Illustrate the High Costs of Coding Agents

By Sri Muppidi · Aug 7, 2025 6:07am PDT

At Replit, a maker of artificial intelligence–powered programming tools, the launch of a new coding agent last September put its sales into overdrive. Annualized revenue at the startup surged to more than $32 million in February from a measly $2 million last August. In July 2025, it hit $144 million, according to a person close to the... At Replit, a maker of artificial intelligence–powered programming tools, the launch of a...

In May, Caltech successfully detected solar power produced in space and beamed to Earth. Photo: Ali Hajimiri/Caltech

The Electric: Co-founder of Robinhood Launches a Space Startup

By Steve LeVine · Aug 7, 2025 4:30am PDT

In 1941, Isaac Asimov told the story of Solar Station No. 5, a space station that collected power from the Sun, converted it to microwaves, and beamed it to humans living on planets a vast distance away.A little over eight decades later, Baiju Bhatt, Robinhood’s billionaire co-founder and former co-CEO, has launched a new startup seeking to do... In 1941, Isaac Asimov told the story of Solar Station No. 5, a space station that collected power...

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo via Getty

Uber Leads Gig Economy Pack

By Martin Peers · Aug 6, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

For just a minute, can we put aside relentless fundraising from artificial intelligence startups? Let’s give some airtime to the gig economy firms of an older generation of startups that are now minting the kind of money these newer firms can only dream about. Yes, we’re talking about the second-quarter numbers out Wednesday from Uber, DoorDash,... For just a minute, can we put aside relentless fundraising from artificial intelligence startups?...

Carrie Colbert, Curate’s founder, and RJ Larese, a venture partner and head of “influential investing.” Photo credit: Becki Smith of Smith House Photo and courtesy of Larese.

VC Firm Taps Creators as LPs, Startup Advisers

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 6, 2025 2:02pm PDT

Carrie Colbert, Curate’s founder, and RJ Larese, a venture partner and head of “influential investing.” Photo credit: Becki Smith of Smith House Photo and courtesy of Larese.

Creator Economy

VC Firm Taps Creators as LPs, Startup Advisers

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 6, 2025 2:02pm PDT

When Pepsi acquired probiotic soda maker Poppi in May for nearly $2 billion, influencer Alix Earle also won big. The TikTok star, who promoted the brand on social media and appeared in the company’s Super Bowl commercial, got equity in the company rather than just the typical cash payment. Curate Capital, a venture capital firm that invests... When Pepsi acquired probiotic soda maker Poppi in May for nearly $2 billion, influencer Alix...

Uber CEO on the Next Decade in Autonomous and Why He Isn’t Rushing to Do Big M&A

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 6, 2025 12:48pm PDT · 4 comments

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is having a good year. Despite growing competition and the looming rise of autonomous vehicles, the company announced another quarter of solid growth and a $20 billion share buyback. And, as he shared with me in an interview on The Information’s TITV on Wednesday, it’s all a pretty simple strategy: “We are both in ride... Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is having a good year. Despite growing competition and the looming...

The Saudi-US investment forum in Riyadh in May. Photo via Getty

Middle East’s AI Push Promises Big Deals—With Strings Attached

By Miles Kruppa · Aug 6, 2025 10:00am PDT · 1 comment

Big checks, cheap energy and the prospect of fast growth lured artificial intelligence companies to the Middle East. Now they are facing a reality of tough deal terms and delays that raise questions about their own growth trajectories. Saudi Arabia and the neighboring United Arab Emirates have made big pushes to invest in domestic AI projects... Big checks, cheap energy and the prospect of fast growth lured artificial intelligence companies...

Photo via Getty

OpenAI’s Secret Strategy for Its Open Models

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 6, 2025 7:00am PDT

AI developers rejoice! After months of buildup, OpenAI yesterday finally released the first open-weight large language models it’s put out since 2019, which in AI land is forever. (ChatGPT itself was released less than three years ago.) The impetus for OpenAI to launch an open-weight model goes back to China’s DeepSeek, which exploded onto... AI developers rejoice! After months of buildup, OpenAI yesterday finally released the first...

Art via Mike Sullivan

AI Coding Startups Like Cursor Have Gotten Too Rich

By Anita Ramaswamy · Aug 6, 2025 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

Art via Mike Sullivan

AI Coding Startups Like Cursor Have Gotten Too Rich

By Anita Ramaswamy · Aug 6, 2025 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

Investors have embraced vibe coding as the next big thing in artificial intelligence. They are pouring cash into fast-growing companies offering coding assistants that can speed the work of software engineers—or potentially replace them. That optimism may be shortsighted. The companies that make AI models, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, are... Investors have embraced vibe coding as the next big thing in artificial intelligence. They are...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel at The Information's Future of Influence event in June. Photo by Erin Beach.

Snap’s Earnings Show a Stalled Business

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

Last Friday, the day after Figma went public with a 250% pop, former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan tweeted that Figma’s success was “a great reminder that letting startups grow into independently successful businesses, rather than be bought by existing giants, can generate enormous value.” Good point. But for every Figma, there’s a... Last Friday, the day after Figma went public with a 250% pop, former Federal Trade Commission...

Left: Luma AI CEO Amit Jain. Right: Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela. Photos via YouTube and Getty.

Runway, Luma in Talks for Multibillion-Dollar Fundraises as Revenue Picks Up

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Rocket Drew and Sri Muppidi · Aug 5, 2025 4:16pm PDT

Startups that use artificial intelligence to make videos for Hollywood studios and amateur filmmakers are getting thirsty for more capital. Runway, a startup that has cut deals with Lionsgate and AMC Networks, is in talks with investors to raise around $500 million at a valuation of at least $5 billion before the investment, or 67% higher than... Startups that use artificial intelligence to make videos for Hollywood studios and amateur...

Photo via Getty

Figma's Drunk Elephant in the Room

By Cory Weinberg · Aug 5, 2025 3:48pm PDT · 1 comment

Figma CEO Dylan Field knows people are going to stare at his stock price. “You can’t tell people, ‘Don‘t look at the elephant in the room.’ There’s an elephant in the room — it’s dancing, it’s drunk,” he said in a TV interview the day the company went public last week.But the 33-year-old will have to defy some history if he’s going to get Figma... Figma CEO Dylan Field knows people are going to stare at his stock price. “You can’t tell people,...

Photo via Getty

Snap’s Ad Slowdown Overshadows Video Gains

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 5, 2025 3:31pm PDT

Photo via Getty

Creator Economy

Snap’s Ad Slowdown Overshadows Video Gains

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 5, 2025 3:31pm PDT

Snap’s bleak second-quarter results were a letdown after a parade of upbeat reports from Meta Platforms, YouTube and Reddit. The Snapchat owner’s revenue rose 9% to nearly $1.35 billion during the second quarter, a slowdown from the 14% to 15% growth Snap saw in recent quarters. Snap’s bleak second-quarter results were a letdown after a parade of upbeat reports from Meta...

Partner Content

The Most Overlooked Constraint on AI

By The Information Partnerships · Aug 5, 2025 1:17pm PDT

By 2030, fresh water demand is projected to outstrip the global water supply by nearly 56%, according to the World Resources Institute. At the same time, the growing development of artificial intelligence infrastructure—which depends on water for cooling systems and throughout its energy supply chain—is projected to consume 1.1 trillion to 1.7... By 2030, fresh water demand is projected to outstrip the global water supply by nearly 56%,...

Photo via Getty

How Chatbots Are Eating the M&A Advisory Business

By Aaron Holmes · Aug 5, 2025 10:30am PDT

In the M&A industry, bankers’ most important asset has historically been their rolodex. But the proliferation of AI chatbots appears to be changing that.When the boards of companies look to sell the business, they turn to M&A advisors to scope out suitable buyers. In the past, junior bankers assembling lists of potential buyers would... In the M&A industry, bankers’ most important asset has historically been their rolodex. But...

Art via Mike Sullivan

AI Agenda: Andreessen Horowitz Backs Property Management and Healthcare Voice Agent Startup at $2 Billion Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Sri Muppidi and Cory Weinberg · Aug 5, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Earlier this year, we wrote about investors’ growing interest in startups building AI-powered voice agents for various industries, from hospitality to construction.If you want a sign of just how interested investors are, look no further than EliseAI, which is building AI for the property management and healthcare industries, including voice... Earlier this year, we wrote about investors’ growing interest in startups building AI-powered...

Photo via Getty

Advertisers Can’t Quit Google, Despite Complaints About Traffic and Ads

By Catherine Perloff · Aug 5, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Photo via Getty

Advertisers Can’t Quit Google, Despite Complaints About Traffic and Ads

By Catherine Perloff · Aug 5, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

No matter how annoyed publishers and advertisers get with Google, they just can’t seem to quit it. Some publishers complain that Google searches are directing less traffic to their sites lately. Some advertisers say Google search ads aren’t showing up next to the terms they paid for, but rather against other terms. And yet both groups say they’... No matter how annoyed publishers and advertisers get with Google, they just can’t seem to quit...

Reflection.AI founders Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou. Photo via Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Reflection AI Targets $1 Billion to Take on Meta, DeepSeek in Open Source

By Kevin McLaughlin, Stephanie Palazzolo and Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 4, 2025 7:05pm PDT · 4 comments

Reflection AI, a one-year-old startup co-founded by former Google DeepMind researchers, is in talks to raise more than $1 billion to fund its efforts to develop open-source large language models to compete with the likes of China’s DeepSeek, France’s Mistral and U.S-based Meta Platforms, according to two people with direct knowledge of the... Reflection AI, a one-year-old startup co-founded by former Google DeepMind researchers, is in...

Photo via Getty

Is Tesla Musk’s AI Company—or is xAI?

By Martin Peers · Aug 4, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Here’s a question: Which of Elon Musk’s companies is his most AI-focused business? The answer might seem obvious: xAI, developer of Grok. But it’s not that simple, as a letter from two Tesla directors to company shareholders on Monday demonstrates. The letter, explaining the board’s decision to grant Musk a new stock award valued at $23.7... Here’s a question: Which of Elon Musk’s companies is his most AI-focused business? The answer...

At Big Tech, Cloud Revenue Growth Is Catching Up to Capex

By Aaron Holmes · Aug 4, 2025 12:09pm PDT

The big tech firms pouring tens of billions into capital expenditures for new data centers and servers for their cloud services are beginning to see revenues catch up. Growth in capex spending by Microsoft, Google and Amazon dramatically outpaced their cloud revenue expansion between 2023 and 2024, our analysis shows. But in the past year, that... The big tech firms pouring tens of billions into capital expenditures for new data centers and...

Cognition CEO Scott Wu

Cognition Offers Buyouts to Newly Acquired Windsurf Staff

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Kalley Huang · Aug 4, 2025 11:51am PDT · 2 comments

Cognition CEO Scott Wu

Cognition Offers Buyouts to Newly Acquired Windsurf Staff

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Kalley Huang · Aug 4, 2025 11:51am PDT · 2 comments

Cognition, a two-year-old artificial intelligence coding startup last valued at $4 billion, has offered buyouts to the roughly 200 employees it acquired in a takeover of rival Windsurf three weeks ago, saying they will receive nine months of salary in return, according to an e-mail seen by The Information. The development comes after... Cognition, a two-year-old artificial intelligence coding startup last valued at $4 billion, has...