The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica 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: Getty

The Electric: Why Trump’s Directives Will Likely Hurt EVs

By Steve LeVine · Mar 31, 2025 5:53am PDT

In a pair of sweeping directives involving the auto industry the past two weeks, President Donald Trump did not attack electric vehicles, as he has in the past. But the moves nonetheless seem likely to hobble Western-made EVs. Already priced higher than most buyers are willing to pay, they likely will become far more expensive. In a pair of sweeping directives involving the auto industry the past two weeks, President Donald...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Some Large Cloud Customers Slow Down AI Spending as Prices Drop

By Aaron Holmes · Mar 29, 2025 9:13am PDT · 5 comments

Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks last year started adding artificial intelligence chatbots to its products to help customers get answers about their network security. The tools originally relied on state-of-the-art models from OpenAI and other firms. But Palo Alto Networks recently found that open-source models from DeepSeek, a Chinese... Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks last year started adding artificial intelligence chatbots...

Art by ChatGPT (and Clark Miller)

OpenAI Goes Ghibli, Tech’s Secret Chats

By Abram Brown · Mar 29, 2025 7:00am PDT · 3 comments

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: How the startup behind Cursor became the hottest, vibiest thing in AI• The Top 5: The lobbyists Silicon Valley loves to hire • Plus, our Recommendations: The indentured servants who excel at scams; an Anxious Generation villain; and the existential link between Mel Brooks and Leonard... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: How the startup behind Cursor became the...

Art by Clark Miller

The Lobbyists Silicon Valley Loves to Hire

By Julia Black · Mar 29, 2025 6:00am PDT

Art by Clark Miller

The Lobbyists Silicon Valley Loves to Hire

By Julia Black · Mar 29, 2025 6:00am PDT

In the second Donald Trump era, the separation between tech and politics appears vanishingly small. “Eight years ago, you’d never see a Tim Cook or Elon Musk in Mar-a-Lago. Now, you see them all the time,” said Brian Ballard, founder of Ballard Partners and one of the top lobbyists recommended to us by industry insiders. Federal lobbying... In the second Donald Trump era, the separation between tech and politics appears vanishingly...

Art via Clark Miller

Andreessen, Sequoia Recently Discussed Funding Voice AI Startup Sesame

By Sri Muppidi, Jon Victor and Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 28, 2025 6:26pm PDT

Sesame, a startup developing artificial intelligence voice assistants and wearable devices, is in talks to raise a new funding round, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Northstar.vc, a four-year-old investment firm that has backed messaging app Discord, recently discussed investing in... Sesame, a startup developing artificial intelligence voice assistants and wearable devices, is in...

Photo via Getty

Musk Solves X

By Martin Peers · Mar 28, 2025 3:38pm PDT · 2 comments

We have one less company called X to worry about. Elon Musk took a break from cutting costs in the federal government to reveal late Friday that he had merged his X social media platform into his xAI startup. It was a surprising but not completely unexpected move, one that removes any impediments to the two firms sharing resources—and should... We have one less company called X to worry about. Elon Musk took a break from cutting costs in...

The Signal Scandal and DOGE Drama w/Ben Smith and Nicholas Carlson!

By Jessica E. Lessin · Mar 28, 2025 2:01pm PDT · 1 comment

On this week’s More or Less: Special guests Ben Smith and Nicholas Carlson help Brit and Jess break down the Signal scandal and fresh DOGE drama. Apple Spotify On this week’s More or Less: Special guests Ben Smith and Nicholas Carlson help Brit and Jess...

The Winners in CoreWeave’s IPO, and Why VCs Missed Out

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 28, 2025 9:25am PDT · 6 comments

The Winners in CoreWeave’s IPO, and Why VCs Missed Out

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 28, 2025 9:25am PDT · 6 comments

CoreWeave’s initial public offering, which started trading today, had a rocky path to the market but delivered a windfall to Magnetar Capital. The investor bet big on the AI data center startup but presciently protected itself from the risk of big losses. Magnetar invested in CoreWeave when others wouldn’t touch it, and that helped it get the... CoreWeave’s initial public offering, which started trading today, had a rocky path to the market...

Photo via Getty

Pro Weekly: EToro Leads Crypto IPO Comeback

By Akash Pasricha · Mar 28, 2025 8:10am PDT

When it rains, it pours. March has been one of the busiest months in a while for tech companies filing to go public, so we’ve overhauled our IPO Tracker to help you keep track of the sudden burst of activity. Cloud provider CoreWeave priced its initial public offering on Thursday night, though with a smaller offering at a lower price than... When it rains, it pours. March has been one of the busiest months in a while for tech companies...

Art by Clark Miller

Move Over, OpenAI: How the Startup Behind Cursor Became the Hottest, Vibiest Thing in AI

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Mar 28, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Every so often, a flashy startup hurtles to the white-hot center of the Silicon Valley zeitgeist, presenting an extraordinary encapsulation of a moment in time. For the past few years, it has been OpenAI. Now, arguably, it’s Anysphere, an AI startup run by four founders, all under age 30, that remained little known until quite recently. In quick... Every so often, a flashy startup hurtles to the white-hot center of the Silicon Valley zeitgeist,...

CoreWeave co-founder and CEO Michael Intrator. Photo via Getty

CoreWeave’s Shaky IPO Signal

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 27, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

CoreWeave is the first company trying to test Wall Street’s appetite for a new, tasty artificial intelligence offering. And investors don’t seem to like what they’re being served.The company priced its initial public offering tonight at $40 a share, putting a roughly $23 billion valuation on CoreWeave, according to CNBC. That’s way down from the... CoreWeave is the first company trying to test Wall Street’s appetite for a new, tasty artificial...

Photo via Getty

Why a 30-Year-Old Magazine Is Embracing Creators

By Kaya Yurieff · Mar 27, 2025 2:07pm PDT

Photo via Getty

Creator Economy

Why a 30-Year-Old Magazine Is Embracing Creators

By Kaya Yurieff · Mar 27, 2025 2:07pm PDT

Traditional media outlets are dealing with the rise of AI summaries on sites like Google and the popularity of chatbots, which threaten to siphon away traffic coming from search. At the same time, young people are increasingly getting their news from creators and social media. With these factors in mind, 30-year-old Fast Company launched a... Traditional media outlets are dealing with the rise of AI summaries on sites like Google and the...

Photo via Getty

Chinese Startup Behind Manus AI Agent Seeks $500 Million Valuation

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Juro Osawa and Jing Yang · Mar 27, 2025 11:16am PDT

The Chinese startup that operates Manus, the artificial intelligence agent that became a viral hit in the U.S. earlier this month, is in talks with potential investors including U.S. venture capital firms to raise a new funding round at a valuation of at least $500 million, up around fivefold from its previous valuation, according to three... The Chinese startup that operates Manus, the artificial intelligence agent that became a viral...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Why Some AI Buyers Might Need to Hire More Engineers, Not Fewer

By Jon Victor · Mar 27, 2025 10:00am PDT

Many companies shelling out cash for artificial intelligence may be counting on the technology to reduce the number of software engineers they need. That’s not the case at Vanta, which sells compliance software to enterprises.As the $2.5 billion–valuation startup uses more AI to aid its 300-person sales organization, it’s hiring more engineers... Many companies shelling out cash for artificial intelligence may be counting on the technology to...

Art by Mike Sullivan

CoreWeave’s Quiet Rival May Be the Better Bet

By Anita Ramaswamy · Mar 27, 2025 10:00am PDT · 10 comments

CoreWeave, the AI–focused data center company set to go public Friday, is the hottest name in both finance and tech right now. Then there’s Nebius. Nebius also builds data centers aimed at artificial intelligence. It is already listed, so there is no IPO fanfare. It is also growing fast and has almost no debt. The most surprising thing... CoreWeave, the AI–focused data center company set to go public Friday, is the hottest name...

Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, speaks during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference. Photo by Getty

Why Nvidia and CoreWeave Want to Buy AI Inference Startups

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 27, 2025 7:00am PDT

Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, speaks during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference. Photo by Getty

Why Nvidia and CoreWeave Want to Buy AI Inference Startups

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 27, 2025 7:00am PDT

Yesterday, Kevin and I broke the news that Nvidia was in advanced talks to buy Lepton AI, a startup that rents out servers powered by Nvidia’s chips and helps AI developers train and run open-source models on those servers, otherwise known as an inference provider.A deal would put Nvidia in direct competition with a slew of other inference... Yesterday, Kevin and I broke the news that Nvidia was in advanced talks to buy Lepton AI, a...

Art by Clark Miller

Cybersecurity Startups’ Revenue Surges on AI Threats

By Sri Muppidi · Mar 27, 2025 6:10am PDT · 1 comment

Just as artificial intelligence has helped programmers slash the time it takes to write code, hackers are also finding it’s a productivity boon. The increased number of threats, along with risks from companies’ adoption of AI, has helped some cybersecurity startups grow more quickly. Take Chainguard, a startup developing software to detect... Just as artificial intelligence has helped programmers slash the time it takes to write code,...

Asma Sharafi, U.S. CEO of VW's PowerCo.

Exclusive From The Electric: An Interview With the New U.S. CEO of VW’s PowerCo

By Steve LeVine · Mar 27, 2025 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

For 15 years, QuantumScape has struggled to develop a next-generation lithium-metal battery that would substantially increase the driving range of electric vehicles. Now its top investor—Volkswagen—has brought in its own lithium-metal expert to help push the battery into commercial use by the end of the decade. For 15 years, QuantumScape has struggled to develop a next-generation lithium-metal battery that...

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. Photo via Getty

Stripe Likes Its Privacy; Autodesk’s Activist Travails

By Martin Peers · Mar 26, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Why do profitable companies bother to go public nowadays? That’s a question my colleague Cory Weinberg raised today in this piece, which revealed that payments processing firm Stripe doubled its free cash flow to $2.2 billion in 2024 on just $5.1 billion in revenue. That’s a free cash flow margin of 43%, which is unusually high for a company... Why do profitable companies bother to go public nowadays? That’s a question my colleague Cory...

Cameron Zoub, Steven Schwartz and Jack Sharkey of Whop. Credit: Bain Capital Ventures.

Startup Whop Reaps Revenue Gains from Influencer Storefronts

By Alex Perry · Mar 26, 2025 2:00pm PDT

Cameron Zoub, Steven Schwartz and Jack Sharkey of Whop. Credit: Bain Capital Ventures.

Creator Economy

Startup Whop Reaps Revenue Gains from Influencer Storefronts

By Alex Perry · Mar 26, 2025 2:00pm PDT

Whop, a four-year-old startup that helps influencers and other entrepreneurs sell digital goods and services, such as video tips to make options trades or the lines of code to create a shopping bot, has been growing at a fast clip. It now has ambitions to expand and offer extended storefronts and online communities for large retailers, according... Whop, a four-year-old startup that helps influencers and other entrepreneurs sell digital goods...