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

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Creator Economy

Zuckerberg Wants to Make Facebook Cool Again

By Kaya Yurieff · Jan 29, 2025 3:51pm PST

Meta Platforms is still enthusiastic about creators. That much was clear from the Instagram parent’s earnings call on Wednesday.Chief financial officer Susan Li said “creators are one of our central focuses,” while CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he’s focused on growing Facebook’s cultural influence. He didn’t elaborate, but it seems likely that Meta... Meta Platforms is still enthusiastic about creators. That much was clear from the Instagram...

Snowflake CEO, Sridhar Ramaswamy. Photo by Getty

Snowflake in Talks to Acquire Analytics Startup Redpanda

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jan 29, 2025 2:38pm PST · 1 comment

Database provider Snowflake this week discussed an acquisition of Redpanda, a data analysis software startup valued at around $500 million in 2023, according to a person who has been part of the talks. An acquisition of the firm could upgrade Snowflake’s artificial intelligence services, an area where the company has lagged rivals such as... Database provider Snowflake this week discussed an acquisition of Redpanda, a data analysis...

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OpenAI Tightens Grip on High End of App Market; Murati’s Startup Gets a Name

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Amir Efrati · Jan 29, 2025 7:00am PST

As questions swirl about whether super-cheap-yet-high-quality Chinese artificial intelligence threatens American-made AI, a new data point suggests OpenAI has some major advantages, relative to its compatriots.We reported Tuesday that OpenAI leaders recently made comments implying that ChatGPT Pro subscriptions—which cost $200 per month, or 10... As questions swirl about whether super-cheap-yet-high-quality Chinese artificial intelligence...

Why Seagate and Western Digital Are Sleeper AI Picks

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jan 29, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Why Seagate and Western Digital Are Sleeper AI Picks

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jan 29, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Seagate Technology and Western Digital Corp. may be best known for selling hard drives for personal computers, which means they’re likely not the first names that come to mind when one thinks of companies that will benefit from artificial intelligence investments. That mindset may be out of date. In recent years, Seagate and WDC have... Seagate Technology and Western Digital Corp. may be best known for selling hard drives for...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Trump. Photos via Getty.

Trump Plays Banker Role for TikTok—Will Microsoft Bite?

By Martin Peers · Jan 28, 2025 5:08pm PST

Did we miss the memo that ByteDance has retained Donald Trump to sell TikTok? It’s easy to get that impression, given how enthusiastic he is in talking up TikTok’s salability. He claimed on Monday that “a lot of people” are going to bid on the app, and that Microsoft was already in talks to buy it. Does Microsoft know that?Maybe Trump is telling... Did we miss the memo that ByteDance has retained Donald Trump to sell TikTok? It’s easy to get...

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. Photo via Getty

SoftBank’s Stargate Risks

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 28, 2025 3:00pm PST

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi gave the tidiest summation six years ago for why tech CEOs have made countless 11-hour flights from San Francisco to Tokyo to court SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son: “Rather than having their capital cannon facing me, I’d rather have their capital cannon behind me, all right?” Sam Altman was the latest to make the... Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi gave the tidiest summation six years ago for why tech CEOs have made...

Ghost Agency cofounders Nicole Rechtszaid and Jenny Woo.

Creator Economy

Why One Founder Is Giving Up On TikTok

By Ann Gehan · Jan 28, 2025 2:00pm PST

TikTok’s roughly 12-hour shutdown earlier this month, however brief, was a reality check for businesses built around the app. Before that, many brands and creators that sell goods on TikTok’s shopping service, TikTok Shop, had been kicking the can down the road on what to do if the app disappeared. Nicole Rechtszaid, the founder of Ghost... TikTok’s roughly 12-hour shutdown earlier this month, however brief, was a reality check for...

Art by Mike Sullivan

DeepSeek Attracts Surge of Business Users

By Jon Victor · Jan 28, 2025 10:00am PST

Art by Mike Sullivan

DeepSeek Attracts Surge of Business Users

By Jon Victor · Jan 28, 2025 10:00am PST

The DeepSeek open-source reasoning model, R1, has barely been out for a week, but businesses are already champing at the bit to use the Chinese model in their products because it’s so cheap compared to American ones.Take ZoomInfo, a provider of data about businesses, which its customers use as sales leads. The company already found that it could... The DeepSeek open-source reasoning model, R1, has barely been out for a week, but businesses are...

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Is DeepSeek an Extinction Event?; A New Reasoning-Focused AI Lab Lands Funding

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 28, 2025 7:00am PST · 4 comments

If you spent any time yesterday or this weekend on X, you might have concluded that AI developers, venture capitalists, Nvidia and cloud providers are totally screwed, thanks to new uber-cheap and impressive AI models from High-Flyer Capital Management, a Chinese hedge fund.The truth is a lot more nuanced, though, and there are still a lot of... If you spent any time yesterday or this weekend on X, you might have concluded that AI...

President Trump and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son. Photo by AP.

How SoftBank’s Son Made It Back to the White House

By Cory Weinberg and Juro Osawa · Jan 28, 2025 6:13am PST

When President Donald Trump announced a $500 billion plan for data centers to power artificial intelligence last Tuesday, one of the men standing to his left was already getting ready to write the checks. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son was already making plans to put a total of about $40 billion into the Stargate data center project as well as the... When President Donald Trump announced a $500 billion plan for data centers to power artificial...

Outside the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square today. Photo via Getty.

Investors’ Deep Search For AI Meaning

By Martin Peers · Jan 27, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Talk about a jittery market! Shares of some tech firms exposed to artificial intelligence tumbled today, prompted by new evidence that China’s DeepSeek is giving AI folks in the U.S. a run for their money. Nvidia and Broadcom each fell 17%, while Alphabet dropped 4% and Microsoft 2%. Oh, and let’s not forget Oracle, a small player in the... Talk about a jittery market! Shares of some tech firms exposed to artificial intelligence tumbled...

Photo by Getty

DeepSeek’s Implications For AI; Why Stargate Should Be Taken Seriously

By Anissa Gardizy · Jan 27, 2025 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Photo by Getty

DeepSeek’s Implications For AI; Why Stargate Should Be Taken Seriously

By Anissa Gardizy · Jan 27, 2025 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Before we get to our main item, I’d recommend you read yesterday’s scoop about Meta Platforms and other American developers reacting to the threat posed by DeepSeek, the hottest new artificial intelligence model (and consumer mobile app!) that has been sweeping the industry.On to the news…Last week I was at one of the largest data center... Before we get to our main item, I’d recommend you read yesterday’s scoop about Meta Platforms and...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Before Google’s $2.7 Billion Deal With AI Startup, a Stark Warning on Safety

By Kalley Huang and Paris Martineau · Jan 27, 2025 6:00am PST

Late last summer, leaders at Character.AI were worried: The company—which offers artificial intelligence chatbots that simulate conversations with Aristotle, Pikachu and other historic or invented characters—was seeing a sharp slowdown in user growth. In September messages to staff, which The Information viewed, Character’s... Late last summer, leaders at Character.AI were worried: The company—which offers artificial...

Digit, Agility Robotics' humanoid. Photo: Getty

The Electric: Humanoid Robots Are Cool—but How Will Their Battery Problem Be Solved?

By Steve LeVine · Jan 27, 2025 4:30am PST · 3 comments

Adam Jonas made his name as one of the biggest Tesla bulls. These days, people are flooding the Morgan Stanley analyst with questions about humanoid robots. The volume of calls has exceeded “the entirety of our [automaker], dealer and supplier coverage combined,” he said in a note Friday. Adam Jonas made his name as one of the biggest Tesla bulls. These days, people are flooding the...

Art via Clark Miller

Meta Scrambles After Chinese AI Equals Its Own, Upending Silicon Valley

By Kalley Huang and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 26, 2025 12:51pm PST · 8 comments

Artificial intelligence researchers at Meta Platforms have been in panic mode. In recent days, leaders of some of the company’s AI teams openly worried that new conversational AI made by a Chinese hedge fund meant Meta was falling behind in the AI race. Leaders including AI infrastructure director Mathew Oldham have told numerous colleagues they... Artificial intelligence researchers at Meta Platforms have been in panic mode. In recent days,...

Donald Trump at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville last summer. (Getty Images)

Crypto’s Glory Days Hide An Uncomfortable Reality

By Abram Brown · Jan 25, 2025 7:00am PST · 1 comment

Donald Trump at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville last summer. (Getty Images)

Crypto’s Glory Days Hide An Uncomfortable Reality

By Abram Brown · Jan 25, 2025 7:00am PST · 1 comment

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: How Poppi hopes to win the battle of the bubbles • Space Inc.: What India’s space odyssey could look like • Plus, our Recommendations: An explanation for our problematic shopping; a master novelist’s slim oeuvre; and a movie podcast for the nerdiest film nerdsThe most powerful and... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: How Poppi hopes to win the battle of the...

Art by Clark Miller

A Satellite Startup Envisions a Top Spot in India’s Space Odyssey

By Anita Raghavan · Jan 25, 2025 5:00am PST · 3 comments

Back in November, Awais Ahmed, dressed all in black from his glasses to his trousers, paused for a moment outside his startup’s Bangalore laboratory to peer through a glass window at a stout contraption: a 2.5-foot-tall satellite partially covered in gold foil. A giant eye stared back at him. Mounted atop the satellite was a hyperspectral... Back in November, Awais Ahmed, dressed all in black from his glasses to his trousers, paused for...

Photo via Getty

How Trump’s Order Blitz Played Out for Tech

By Rocket Drew · Jan 24, 2025 3:47pm PST · 1 comment

What a week! President Donald Trump had promised a slew of executive orders once he took office, and the tech and finance industry executives who threw their support behind him expected several would address their long-held beefs with Biden administration policies.Trump delivered on the deluge. The crypto industry got almost everything it... What a week! President Donald Trump had promised a slew of executive orders once he took office,...

Trump Inauguration, Stargate, and the Meme Economy

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jan 24, 2025 10:35am PST

On this week's More or Less: Silicon Valley goes to Trump's inauguration and the truth behind Stargate. Apple Spotify On this week's More or Less: Silicon Valley goes to Trump's inauguration and the truth...

Art by Clark Miller. Ellsworths image via Getty.

How Poppi Hopes to Win the Battle of the Bubbles

By Ann Gehan · Jan 24, 2025 9:01am PST

Art by Clark Miller. Ellsworths image via Getty.

How Poppi Hopes to Win the Battle of the Bubbles

By Ann Gehan · Jan 24, 2025 9:01am PST

On the ground floor of a nondescript condo building in east Austin last month, the wife-and-husband co-founders of Poppi made good on a promise they made to me: that they would offer me a taste test of their beverage company’s in-the-works flavors. It wasn’t quite like getting access to the secret Coca-Cola recipe, but it was as... On the ground floor of a nondescript condo building in east Austin last month, the...