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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The Information Survey: Nearly 75% of Respondents Are Vibe Coding—Most Like the Results

By Alex Perry · Jul 17, 2025 11:08am PDT · 2 comments

Vibe coding, or using artificial intelligence to translate plain-language ideas into code, is arguably the breakout tech buzzword of the year. The Information’s latest subscriber survey shows there’s plenty of user interest to back up that hype. Nearly three-quarters of readers who responded to our July survey said they’ve tried vibe coding, and... Vibe coding, or using artificial intelligence to translate plain-language ideas into code, is...

Photo via Getty

AWS’ Free Agent Targets Microsoft Customers

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Jul 17, 2025 10:00am PDT

As Microsoft and Amazon Web Services have dueled over cloud customers in the past decade, one of Microsoft’s biggest advantages has been its base of corporate customers that run Windows software on their local servers and want to move it to the cloud. AWS has complained about this dynamic for years, saying the Windows licenses effectively... As Microsoft and Amazon Web Services have dueled over cloud customers in the past decade, one of...

Photo via Getty

Fintech and Crypto Industries Launch Fight to Block Bank Fees for Customer Data

By Yueqi Yang · Jul 17, 2025 9:32am PDT

The fintech industry has gone to the Trump administration to try to block the threat by banks, led by JPMorgan Chase, to charge fintechs fees for accessing their customers’ banking data. Under proposed pricing sheets from JPMorgan, the fintech and crypto industries could face hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to get access to their... The fintech industry has gone to the Trump administration to try to block the threat by banks,...

Art via Mike Sullivan

OpenAI’s Clever Coding Hack with ChatGPT ‘Startup-Killing’ Agents

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 17, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Art via Mike Sullivan

OpenAI’s Clever Coding Hack with ChatGPT ‘Startup-Killing’ Agents

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 17, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

OpenAI is continuing its push into the application layer with ChatGPT “agents.” As we scooped this week, it plans new features that will allow users to create and edit spreadsheets and presentations, generate reports and automate tasks on their browsers—all through ChatGPT.There was one interesting detail in that news that you might have missed.... OpenAI is continuing its push into the application layer with ChatGPT “agents.” As we scooped...

The People With Power at Meta Superintelligence Labs

By Kalley Huang · Jul 17, 2025 6:00am PDT

Meta Platforms’ new artificial intelligence organization is starting to take shape on the company’s Menlo Park, Calif., campus. The company’s blockbuster hires of AI leaders and researchers in recent weeks has introduced dozens of new faces to the area around Meta’s C-suite, where CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made room for Meta Superintelligence... Meta Platforms’ new artificial intelligence organization is starting to take shape on the company...

China clamped export controls on LFP batteries, such as the CATL battery above. Photo: Zhou Chengfeng/VCG/Getty

The Electric: China Has Signaled that LFP Batteries are Strategic. Here's How Trump Should Respond

By Steve LeVine · Jul 17, 2025 4:30am PDT

China has imposed export controls on two items on which it holds an almost complete global monopoly: the world’s currently most popular electric vehicle battery, and the metal used in the most promising battery of the future.The moves come a week after the Pentagon acted in a very big way to weaken China’s grip on rare earth magnets, funding a... China has imposed export controls on two items on which it holds an almost complete global...

Photo via Getty

No, the AI Bubble Isn’t Worse Than 1999

By Martin Peers · Jul 16, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Here’s a sobering thought. Today’s AI bubble is bigger than the tech bubble of the 1990s, according to Torsten Slok, the chief economist for Apollo whose brief daily emails are widely followed. He bases that statement on his analysis that the top 10 companies in the S&P 500 are today “more overvalued than they were in the 1990s.”If this is... Here’s a sobering thought. Today’s AI bubble is bigger than the tech bubble of the 1990s,...

Lowe's CMO Jennifer Wilson. Photo: Lowe's

Lowe’s Bets Big on DIY Influencers

By Kaya Yurieff · Jul 16, 2025 2:00pm PDT

Lowe's CMO Jennifer Wilson. Photo: Lowe's

Creator Economy

Lowe’s Bets Big on DIY Influencers

By Kaya Yurieff · Jul 16, 2025 2:00pm PDT

Major retailers that traditionally spent a lot of their advertising budgets on TV have been leaning into working more with creators. One of the latest examples is home improvement giant Lowe’s, which is making a big push to team up with handy influencers. Through a “home improvement creator network” launched last month, Lowe’s is setting up... Major retailers that traditionally spent a lot of their advertising budgets on TV have been ...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei via Getty

Investors Float Deal Valuing Anthropic at More Than $100 Billion

By Sri Muppidi and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jul 16, 2025 11:33am PDT · 1 comment

As Anthropic’s sale of artificial intelligence has surged, the company has told investors some of its profit-related metrics are improving even as it burns a tremendous amount of cash. That financial performance has prompted some investors to indicate interest in funding Anthropic at a valuation of more than $100 billion if the company decides... As Anthropic’s sale of artificial intelligence has surged, the company has told investors some of...

Image via Getty

Why xAI Spent So Much on Reinforcement Learning

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 16, 2025 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Watching last week’s Grok 4 release, one statistic stood out to us. XAI said it spent 10 times as much computational power on reinforcement learning for Grok 4 as it laid out for Grok 3.RL is a common AI development technique that rewards a model for accomplishing certain goals and penalizes it for other behaviors. The xAI disclosure provided... Watching last week’s Grok 4 release, one statistic stood out to us. XAI said it spent 10 times as...

SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary, center, and his backers, clockwise from top right: Marc Benioff, Eric Schmidt, Jim Breyer, Sergey Brin and Ray Dalio. Photos by Getty. Art by Mike Sullivan

Lavish Spending and Weak Growth Engulf Billionaire-Backed AI Startup SandboxAQ

By Michael Roddan · Jul 16, 2025 6:00am PDT

An array of billionaire backers and the dream of two world-changing technologies has turned SandboxAQ into a $5.6 billion startup star. The company’s business has failed to keep up with the hype, and its CEO’s behavior is now under scrutiny. SandboxAQ’s success so far is illusory. Nearly all of the company’s first-quarter revenue can be traced... An array of billionaire backers and the dream of two world-changing technologies has turned...

Photo via Getty

Waymo’s Debatable Growth Milestone

By Martin Peers · Jul 15, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Photo via Getty

Waymo’s Debatable Growth Milestone

By Martin Peers · Jul 15, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Way to go, Waymo! The Alphabet-owned robotaxi service has hit a 100-million-mile autonomous driving milestone, the company announced Tuesday to much fanfare. That figure is 10 times what it was two months ago. Take that, Elon Musk, whose Tesla has barely launched its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas.Waymo’s success reflects a growing acceptance... Way to go, Waymo! The Alphabet-owned robotaxi service has hit a 100-million-mile autonomous...

Varun Mohan and Alexandr Wang. Photos via YouTube and AP. (edited)

Speed and Greed Test Silicon Valley

By Cory Weinberg and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jul 15, 2025 3:13pm PDT

The artificial intelligence dealmaking frenzy over the past few weeks is shifting Silicon Valley norms and creating wealth at a pace and scale we’ve never seen before. One theme is becoming clear: These AI deals are all about speed, and speed can make things messy. The latest example was Google co-founder Sergey Brin (suddenly relevant... The artificial intelligence dealmaking frenzy over the past few weeks is shifting Silicon Valley...

Art via Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Preps ChatGPT Agents in Challenge to Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 15, 2025 2:59pm PDT · 2 comments

As OpenAI tries to turn ChatGPT into a core application for white-collar work, it’s developing agent features that could make its customers less dependent on productivity apps from Microsoft. In the latest example, OpenAI has developed features that let ChatGPT customers quickly create and edit presentations and spreadsheets that are compatible... As OpenAI tries to turn ChatGPT into a core application for white-collar work, it’s developing...

Photo: Drew Snadecki for TVU Networks

Creator Economy

The Tech Company That Powered Kai Cenat’s Streaming University

By Kaya Yurieff · Jul 15, 2025 2:00pm PDT

Kai Cenat, the world’s top Twitch streamer, made a splash in late May with a four-day “Streamer University” bootcamp for aspiring creators. Cenat, who has more than 18 million followers on the Amazon-owned site, along with fellow Twitch streamer Dennis Duke and rapper and YouTuber DDG and others, offered up classes teaching streamers how to... Kai Cenat, the world’s top Twitch streamer, made a splash in late May with a four-day “Streamer...

Art via Mike Sullivan

AWS, Google Race to Fill the Gaps in Their AI Clouds

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Jul 15, 2025 11:01am PDT

Art via Mike Sullivan

AWS, Google Race to Fill the Gaps in Their AI Clouds

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Jul 15, 2025 11:01am PDT

The artificial intelligence boom is already visibly reshaping the cloud wars. For instance, Amazon Web Services looked like an insurmountable front-runner just a few years ago, but Google has made gains among AI developers thanks to its ability to serve some models at a much lower price, my colleague Kevin reported yesterday.More broadly, we’re... The artificial intelligence boom is already visibly reshaping the cloud wars. For instance,...

Inside Zuckerberg’s AI Playbook: Billions in Compute, a Talent Arms Race, and a New Vision for Meta

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 15, 2025 10:31am PDT · 3 comments

When I sat down with Meta CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg to talk artificial intelligence, I expected that he would want to discuss the company’s new supercomputer plans and talk about why he’s been working the phones all summer in a red-hot AI recruiting blitz. We covered all that. But over the course of the interview, I heard something... When I sat down with Meta CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg to talk artificial intelligence, I...

Figure co-founder Mike Cagney. Photo by Noam Galai

Blockchain Lender Figure Technology Plans IPO

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 15, 2025 8:26am PDT · 1 comment

Figure Technology Solutions, a startup that makes home loans on its blockchain and runs a crypto exchange, is planning to go public this fall, Figure co-founder Mike Cagney said. Figure is part of a wave of crypto companies taking advantage of a more crypto-friendly White House and surging investor interest in the industry. The move is a big... Figure Technology Solutions, a startup that makes home loans on its blockchain and runs a crypto...

Mark Zuckerberg wearing Orion AR glasses. Photo by Getty

Zuckerberg Says His AI Will Solve ‘Simpler Things’ Than Its Rivals

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 15, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Before we get to today’s column about Cognition buying Windsurf, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday spoke to Jessica Lessin, our editor in chief, for the inaugural episode of TITV, a new daily tech show, about the question on everyone’s mind these days: Why exactly would an AI researcher come to Meta? (Other than the $100 million pay... Before we get to today’s column about Cognition buying Windsurf, Meta Platforms CEO Mark...

From left: Varun Mohan, Sergey Brin, Demis Hassabis, Scott Wu and Jeff Wang. Photos and screenshots via Getty; YouTube

Windsurf Whiplash: Inside 96-hours of Frantic AI Dealmaking

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Valida Pau · Jul 15, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

From left: Varun Mohan, Sergey Brin, Demis Hassabis, Scott Wu and Jeff Wang. Photos and screenshots via Getty; YouTube

Windsurf Whiplash: Inside 96-hours of Frantic AI Dealmaking

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Valida Pau · Jul 15, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Last Thursday, more than 40 researchers and engineers at Windsurf, a startup that has developed an artificial intelligence–powered coding tool, began gathering at a hotel in Mountain View, Calif., after receiving an invitation to a mysterious meeting from the startup’s management. The agenda became soon obvious when the staffers were... Last Thursday, more than 40 researchers and engineers at Windsurf, a startup that has developed...