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

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Why ‘Universal Verifiers’ Are OpenAI’s Secret Weapon

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Aug 4, 2025 7:00am PDT

One reason why reinforcement learning—a technique for improving AI models—has become so popular is because researchers can quickly scale it up by using AI to automate writing lots of examples of questions and answers in tough domains like biology, software programming and medicine. RL works best when researchers can quickly verify whether... One reason why reinforcement learning—a technique for improving AI models—has become so popular...

From left: Michael Kratsios, Donald Trump and David O. Sacks onstage at the All‑In Podcast and the Hill & Valley Forum on July 23. Photo by Getty

Behind the White House’s Mixed Messages on AI Copyright

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Aug 4, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Before the White House released its AI Action Plan in July, people involved with drafting the document weighed whether to include recommendations that could have impacted the contentious relationship between artificial intelligence companies and copyright holders. Publishers, authors, film and music companies have filed more than 40 lawsuits in... Before the White House released its AI Action Plan in July, people involved with drafting the...

Joby's electric air taxi over New York City. Photo: Courtesy Joby

The Electric: A Surprising Acquisition Lets Electric Taxi Startup Joby Commercialize Early

By Steve LeVine · Aug 4, 2025 4:00am PDT

Joby Aviation, a maker of electric flying taxis, is coming to the skies of New York sooner than expected, only with fuel-powered aircraft to start with. Joby said today it is buying Blade Air Mobility, known for its helicopter flights to the city’s airports and the Hamptons on Long Island. Joby Aviation, a maker of electric flying taxis, is coming to the skies of New York sooner than...

Art by Mike Sullivan

The Whiz-Bang AI That Hollywood Hates

By Abram Brown · Aug 2, 2025 7:00am PDT

Art by Mike Sullivan

The Whiz-Bang AI That Hollywood Hates

By Abram Brown · Aug 2, 2025 7:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Microplastics are Silicon Valley’s new big worry• Media: Beehiiv, the next billion-dollar newsletter startup?• Plus, our Recommendations: “Camp Shame,” “Algospeak” and “KPop Demon Hunters”Leave it to Las Vegas to stir up tensions between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. The Sphere, the orblike... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Microplastics are Silicon Valley’s new...

Art by Clark Miller

Media and Entertainment

Is Beehiiv the Next Billion-Dollar Newsletter Startup?

By Jessica Roy · Aug 2, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Last August, when CNN’s Oliver Darcy decided he wanted to leave the network and launch Status, an email newsletter focused on the media industry, he cast about for a platform that would allow him to customize the look and feel of his new venture so it didn’t resemble every other media newsletter. There was Substack, the leader in the... Last August, when CNN’s Oliver Darcy decided he wanted to leave the network and launch ...

An Amazon data center in Virginia. Photo via Getty.

Why Big Tech’s Cloud Shift Threatens Microsoft and Google’s Margins

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

Don’t count out Amazon. This was not the commerce cloud giant’s week, to be sure. When it comes to the great artificial intelligence cloud race, which now overwhelms all else in tech, Microsoft and Google appear to be ahead. Both companies posted accelerating growth in their cloud units for the June quarter, unlike Amazon. But one element is... Don’t count out Amazon. This was not the commerce cloud giant’s week, to be sure. When it comes...

Pro Weekly: The Week in The Information Pro

Pro Weekly: The Week in The Information Pro

By The Information Staff · Aug 1, 2025 11:00am PDT

This week, the tech world is buzzing with major news, from the financial milestones of leading AI companies to a lively IPO market. In generative AI, OpenAI and Anthropic are showcasing explosive revenue growth, while Figma's successful debut has injected new life into the IPO landscape. Klarna's has renewed plans to go public and a... This week, the tech world is buzzing with major news, from the financial milestones of leading AI...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Art by Mike Sullivan

Inside OpenAI’s Rocky Path to GPT-5

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · Aug 1, 2025 10:58am PDT · 9 comments

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Art by Mike Sullivan

Inside OpenAI’s Rocky Path to GPT-5

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · Aug 1, 2025 10:58am PDT · 9 comments

OpenAI made waves across the industry in December when it published the results from its tests of artificial intelligence that performs better on tasks when it gets more time and computing power to process them. The results implied ChatGPT customers were about to be blown away by what the new AI could do. But the euphoria was short-lived. When ... OpenAI made waves across the industry in December when it published the results from its tests of...

Art by Clark Miller

How Microplastics Became Silicon Valley’s Big New Worry

By Ann Gehan · Aug 1, 2025 9:00am PDT · 1 comment

Lee Jacobs, co-founder of Long Journey Ventures, thought he had seen it all among his friends and acquaintances in Silicon Valley: the continuous glucose monitors, the cortisol tests, the frequent bloodwork to monitor hundreds of biomarkers and maximize longevity. Recently, another wellness obsession took him by surprise. “I didn’t know the... Lee Jacobs, co-founder of Long Journey Ventures, thought he had seen it all among his friends and...

Zhipu CEO Zhang Peng. Photo via YouTube.

Chinese AI Developer Zhipu’s First Half Revenue Grew Fourfold

By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Aug 1, 2025 6:00am PDT

Chinese artificial intelligence model developer Zhipu AI, whose progress has attracted Washington’s scrutiny and caught OpenAI’s attention, increased revenue as much as fourfold in the first half of the year, the Beijing-based startup’s CEO, Zhang Peng, said in an interview this week. Zhipu’s business remains relatively small—revenue last... Chinese artificial intelligence model developer Zhipu AI, whose progress has attracted Washington...

Dario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive officer of Anthropic. Photo by Getty

Anthropic Revenue Pace Nears $5 Billion in Run-Up to Mega Round

By Sri Muppidi · Jul 31, 2025 5:55pm PDT

This year’s torrid deal-making pace is definitely not taking a pause for summer. On Wednesday, I reported that OpenAI is months ahead of schedule in raising money for its $40 billion megaround. Investors are pouring in money at a moment when OpenAI is generating $12 billion in annualized revenue and hitting 700 million weekly active users... This year’s torrid deal-making pace is definitely not taking a pause for summer. On Wednesday, I...

Photo via Getty

Figma’s Bubble and Apple’s Surprise

By Martin Peers · Jul 31, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Photo via Getty

Figma’s Bubble and Apple’s Surprise

By Martin Peers · Jul 31, 2025 5:00pm PDT

What a day! Apple surprised with a much better quarter than it had projected, lifting revenue in the June quarter 10%, thanks to 13% higher iPhone revenue, the best iPhone quarter in four years. Amazon, meanwhile, reported the best growth for its online stores in three years. (See below for more on the quarterly results.) The biggest news today,... What a day! Apple surprised with a much better quarter than it had projected, lifting revenue in...

Adam Presser. Photo by Getty

Creator Economy

TikTok Leadership Shake-Up Lifts Presser’s Role

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jul 31, 2025 3:00pm PDT

As TikTok nears another deadline to sell its U.S. business, the company is shaking up some of its senior roles. In a note to staff Thursday, which The Information reviewed, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said that Adam Presser, TikTok’s head of operations and trust & safety, will become head of USDS—a unit the company created to secure U.S.... As TikTok nears another deadline to sell its U.S. business, the company is shaking up some of its...

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma, rings the opening bell today at the New York Stock Exchange. Photo via Getty

Figma’s Shares Soar 250% in IPO, Making It Hottest in String of Tech Deals

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 31, 2025 1:31pm PDT

Figma became the second-most richly valued publicly traded software company, after Palantir, following a blockbuster initial public offering. The company’s shares rose more than 250%, pushing its enterprise value at the end of Thursday to $67 billion. That means that investors are valuing Figma at about 55 times the revenue that bankers expect... Figma became the second-most richly valued publicly traded software company, after Palantir,...

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Getty

Meta Is on the Hunt for AI Video Deals

By Rocket Drew, Stephanie Palazzolo and Kalley Huang · Jul 31, 2025 12:09pm PDT

Meta Platforms is prowling for partnerships with startups that use artificial intelligence to create and edit videos, as the social media giant’s AI dealmaking blitz enters new terrain. In recent weeks, Meta and Pika, which develops AI that can generate realistic videos, have discussed a partnership, including a possible acquisition or a deal to... Meta Platforms is prowling for partnerships with startups that use artificial intelligence to...

Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California. Photo by Getty

U.S. Taps Microsoft, OpenAI Tech to Cut Nuclear Red Tape

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Jul 31, 2025 10:30am PDT

Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California. Photo by Getty

U.S. Taps Microsoft, OpenAI Tech to Cut Nuclear Red Tape

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Jul 31, 2025 10:30am PDT

Staff at the Idaho National Laboratory, a federal nuclear research facility, have been using artificial intelligence from OpenAI and Anthropic to automate routine work, such as drafting literature reviews of research papers or generating lines of code.But now, the lab is starting a more ambitious effort: using AI to automate how companies obtain... Staff at the Idaho National Laboratory, a federal nuclear research facility, have been using...

Erik Bernhardsson, CEO of Modal. Screenshot via YouTube

Another AI Cloud Startup Becomes a Unicorn

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Sri Muppidi · Jul 31, 2025 7:30am PDT

Lately, investors have been eager to back cloud startups that provide application developers with access to Nvidia graphics processing units and help them to develop and run AI models quickly. The investor interest comes despite questions about the profit margins of these startups, otherwise known as cloud GPU resellers or inference providers.In... Lately, investors have been eager to back cloud startups that provide application developers with...

Koray Kavukcuoglu. Photo courtesy of Google; Art by Mike Sullivan

How Google’s New AI Architect Plans to Spread Gemini Everywhere

By Erin Woo · Jul 31, 2025 6:00am PDT

When Google’s billionaire co-founder, Sergey Brin, needs something done at the company’s artificial intelligence unit—AI chips allocated to a team, a researcher hired, an employee moved to a new department—there’s one person he messages: Koray Kavukcuoglu. Kavukcuoglu isn’t Google’s flashiest AI leader, though he’s the chief... When Google’s billionaire co-founder, Sergey Brin, needs something done at the company’s...

Testing Bedrock's autonomously driven excavator. Photo: Courtesy Bedrock

The Electric: These Ex-Waymo Executives Are Automating Construction Equipment

By Steve LeVine · Jul 31, 2025 4:30am PDT

It’s taken a decade or so for companies like Tesla, Waymo and others to launch self-driving vehicles. Now a group of five former Waymo executives is aiming to produce giant excavators that operate autonomously in just two years. It’s taken a decade or so for companies like Tesla, Waymo and others to launch self-driving...

Photo via Getty.

OpenAI Hits $12 Billion in Annualized Revenue, Breaks 700 Million ChatGPT Weekly Active Users

By Sri Muppidi · Jul 30, 2025 6:42pm PDT · 8 comments

Photo via Getty.

OpenAI Hits $12 Billion in Annualized Revenue, Breaks 700 Million ChatGPT Weekly Active Users

By Sri Muppidi · Jul 30, 2025 6:42pm PDT · 8 comments

OpenAI roughly doubled its revenue in the first seven months of the year, reaching $12 billion in annualized revenue, according to a person who spoke to OpenAI executives. That figure implies the ChatGPT maker is generating $1 billion a month, compared to about $500 million a month at the start of the year. The growth comes as the company logs... OpenAI roughly doubled its revenue in the first seven months of the year, reaching $12 billion in...