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

Five times/week

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.

By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy

Recent Editions

Photo via Getty

What Zuckerberg’s New AI Team is Good At

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Kalley Huang · Jul 1, 2025 7:15am PDT

In recent weeks, Meta Platforms has probably generated more buzz from hiring two executives and 14 artificial intelligence researchers—mostly from OpenAI—than from its prior AI efforts altogether. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday officially announced 11 of those researcher hires as part of a new organization, Meta Superintelligence Labs.The... In recent weeks, Meta Platforms has probably generated more buzz from hiring two executives and...

Insider-Led Rounds on Track to Beat 2021 Record

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Jul 1, 2025 6:00am PDT

Venture capitalists are taking their biggest swings at the startups they’ve previously backed. The total value of U.S. venture funding rounds led by investors that previously invested in the startups topped $69 billion as of mid-June, according to PitchBook. That’s already higher than the $67 billion volume of insider-led rounds for all of last... Venture capitalists are taking their biggest swings at the startups they’ve previously backed. ...

Mark Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang. Photos: Getty, Flickr

The High Stakes for Meta’s New Super AI Team

By Martin Peers · Jun 30, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Start your timer. Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday unveiled the company’s new artificial intelligence organization—Meta Superintelligence Labs—replete with heavyweights from Silicon Valley. This new org is the product of a massive spending spree by Zuckerberg to snag the best AI talent possible in hopes of turning around Meta’s... Start your timer. Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday unveiled the company’s new...

Art by Clark Miller

Corporate Data Wars Intensify

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Jun 30, 2025 12:16pm PDT · 2 comments

Art by Clark Miller

Corporate Data Wars Intensify

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Jun 30, 2025 12:16pm PDT · 2 comments

A tussle is brewing between software firms and artificial intelligence startups over access to business customers’ data. The popularity of Glean, an AI tool workers use to search for corporate files and data across all of the apps they use, has prompted enterprise software firms like Salesforce, Atlassian and Notion to introduce similar AI... A tussle is brewing between software firms and artificial intelligence startups over access to...

Photo via Getty

AI Is Getting Cheaper, Right?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 30, 2025 7:00am PDT · 3 comments

The overarching narrative of the past two years has been that AI models are getting cheaper for customers. Just take a look at this chart, showing how the cost of purchasing access to a GPT-4 level AI model from OpenAI has dropped more than 85% since it was released in early 2023. And that’s without getting into the rise of cheap,... The overarching narrative of the past two years has been that AI models are getting cheaper for...

Art by Clark Miller

Amazon Prime Video Floods TV Ad Market, Stealing Dollars From FAST Channels

By Catherine Perloff and Sahil Patel · Jun 30, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Until recently, it seemed video streaming had a channel for every taste. Fans of the 1970s Western drama “Little House on the Prairie,” for instance, could spend time on the channel by the same name watching old episodes. The same is true for the 1980s crime drama “Murder She Wrote” and the 1950s Western “Gunsmoke”—each of these shows have... Until recently, it seemed video streaming had a channel for every taste. Fans of the 1970s...

In Natron Energy's Holland, Mich. factory. Photo: Courtesy Natron Energy

Exclusive From The Electric: The Battery Industry Crisis Catches Up To Natron, Until Now a Rare Winner

By Steve LeVine · Jun 30, 2025 4:30am PDT

Natron Energy’s unusual battery provides a jolt of electricity that boosts the performance of chips used in artificial intelligence data centers, an ability that made it appear to be a rare winner in the crisis-ridden U.S. battery industry. But right now, Natron is pretty much out of cash, according to people familiar with the situation. Natron Energy’s unusual battery provides a jolt of electricity that boosts the performance of...

Collage via Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Takes a Page From Palantir, Doubles Down on Consulting Services

By Aaron Holmes and Sri Muppidi · Jun 29, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Collage via Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Takes a Page From Palantir, Doubles Down on Consulting Services

By Aaron Holmes and Sri Muppidi · Jun 29, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

As OpenAI pitches its artificial intelligence to big companies and government agencies, it’s taking a page from the playbook of many software firms by offering in-house researchers and software engineers to customize AI for customers. OpenAI is adding staff and resources for a consulting-like service, in which its engineers guide customers... As OpenAI pitches its artificial intelligence to big companies and government agencies, it’s...

Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg. Photos by Getty

Meta Hires Four More OpenAI Researchers

By Kalley Huang · Jun 28, 2025 9:49am PDT · 10 comments

Meta Platforms is hiring four more OpenAI artificial intelligence researchers as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues an unprecedented recruiting effort to catch up to his AI rivals. The researchers, Shengjia Zhao, Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi and Hongyu Ren, have each agreed to join, according to a person familiar with their hiring. They follow four... Meta Platforms is hiring four more OpenAI artificial intelligence researchers as Meta CEO Mark...

Art by Clark Miller (photo: Getty Images)

Nintendo, the Next Apple?

By Abram Brown · Jun 28, 2025 7:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: The deals, free agents and egos fueling the AI talent grab • The Top 5: The most rigorous summer camps• Plus, our Recommendations: A Pablo Escobar tell-all; Netflix’s latest sleuths; and the amazing Gila monsterMamma Mia! Nintendo’s Switch 2, the latest console from the venerable... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: The deals, free agents and egos fueling...

The Most Rigorous Summer Programs for Silicon Valley’s Next Generation

The Most Rigorous Summer Programs for Silicon Valley’s Next Generation

By Todd Plummer · Jun 28, 2025 6:03am PDT

Summer is here, and so is the crushing pressure of what camps or programs to sign your kid up for in order to impress on college applications. Looking to help your little one become the next Bezos? There’s a camp for that. As it turns out: Play your cards right, and this time of year can be just as fruitful a period for college applications... Summer is here, and so is the crushing pressure of what camps or programs to sign your kid up for...

Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise at the European premiere of F1. Photo via Getty

Apple’s “F1” Movie Opens, Spotlighting Puzzle Over Strategy

By Martin Peers · Jun 27, 2025 3:00pm PDT

Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise at the European premiere of F1. Photo via Getty

Apple’s “F1” Movie Opens, Spotlighting Puzzle Over Strategy

By Martin Peers · Jun 27, 2025 3:00pm PDT

Can I have a show of hands of those who plan this weekend to see the new Apple-made Brad Pitt movie, “F1,” which opened today in theaters? It is the kind of film—full of shots of cars racing at high speed—that surely looks better on the big screen. That’s definitely the view of Eddy Cue, the Apple executive with responsibility for the company’s... Can I have a show of hands of those who plan this weekend to see the new Apple-made Brad Pitt...

Photos via Getty, collage by Mike Sullivan

Google Convinces OpenAI to Use TPU Chips in Win Against Nvidia

By Anissa Gardizy and Qianer Liu · Jun 27, 2025 1:09pm PDT · 1 comment

OpenAI, one of the world’s biggest customers of Nvidia artificial intelligence chips, recently began renting Google’s AI chips to power ChatGPT and other products, the first time it has used non-Nvidia chips in a meaningful way, according to a person who is involved in the arrangement. The move reflects OpenAI’s broader shift away from relying... OpenAI, one of the world’s biggest customers of Nvidia artificial intelligence chips, recently...

Art by Clark Miller.

The Private Market Trap That’s Endangering U.S. Innovation

By Rett Wallace · Jun 27, 2025 12:38pm PDT · 10 comments

Every investor knows what’s wrong with private markets right now. Venture capital and private equity funds have delivered weak returns, few exits and little cash for investors, resulting in a brutal fundraising climate for funds and therefore companies. The bigger picture reveals a much worse problem: There is roughly $13 trillion trapped in... Every investor knows what’s wrong with private markets right now. Venture capital and private...

Art by Clark Miller.

Inside the Great AI Talent Auction: The Deals, the Free Agents—and the Egos

By Erin Woo · Jun 27, 2025 9:04am PDT · 2 comments

Say you’re at the top of your field. Say you’ve been promoted to be a senior researcher at OpenAI, watching the paper value of your equity swell as your company’s valuation goes from less than $20 billion to $260 billion in just four years. Say Mark Zuckerberg—yes, Zuck, personally—comes texting and calling, offering you tens of... Say you’re at the top of your field. Say you’ve been promoted to be a senior researcher at...

Runway CEO Cristobal Valenzuela at The Information's Private Capital Conference in 2024. Photo by Nicole Perreira.

Pro Weekly: How AI Is Taking Over the Creator Economy

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 27, 2025 8:38am PDT

Runway CEO Cristobal Valenzuela at The Information's Private Capital Conference in 2024. Photo by Nicole Perreira.

Pro Weekly: How AI Is Taking Over the Creator Economy

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 27, 2025 8:38am PDT

Creator economy investors are basically artificial intelligence investors these days. I took a look at second-quarter venture funding in our Creator Economy Database, and it’s clear that investors are looking beyond the now-common AI image- and video-generation tools to focus on a crop of specialized AI products for creators. AI... Creator economy investors are basically artificial intelligence investors these days. I took a...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Microsoft’s AI Chip Effort Falls Behind

By Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu · Jun 27, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Microsoft has spent years designing its own artificial intelligence chips, in part to reduce its dependence on Nvidia. It isn’t going so well. The software giant, which Nvidia employees say was its largest customer by revenue last year, is taking much longer than expected to design its latest-generation AI chips, raising the possibility that the... Microsoft has spent years designing its own artificial intelligence chips, in part to reduce its...

Travis Kalanick. Photo via Getty

Kalanick May Ride Pony Back to Prominence

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

Welcome back, Travis Kalanick! We’ve missed you as a generator of news. The New York Times scooped the juicy news today that Kalanick is in talks to get Uber’s backing for a buyout of Chinese autonomous vehicle developer Pony.ai’s U.S. assets. Assuming the deal gets done, it may not involve big dollars—Pony’s market capitalization of $5.2... Welcome back, Travis Kalanick! We’ve missed you as a generator of news. The New York Times...

Kirsten Green, Founder and Managing Partner of Forerunner Ventures. Photo via Getty

Forerunner’s Green: ‘Virality’ Won’t Last for Some Consumer AI Startups

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Jun 26, 2025 4:36pm PDT

For more than a decade, Forerunner Ventures founder Kirsten Green has had a front-row seat on what’s hot or not in consumer startups. After a particularly brutal period for these startups when interest rates spiked, investors like Green are especially optimistic—largely because they’ve seen artificial intelligence breakthroughs create... For more than a decade, Forerunner Ventures founder Kirsten Green has had a front-row seat on...

Unicorn co-founders Scott Dunn and Chris Gera. Photo: Unicorn/Chris Gera

A New Startup Runs a Studio to Make Hit Creator Shows

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 26, 2025 2:23pm PDT · 1 comment

Unicorn co-founders Scott Dunn and Chris Gera. Photo: Unicorn/Chris Gera

Creator Economy

A New Startup Runs a Studio to Make Hit Creator Shows

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 26, 2025 2:23pm PDT · 1 comment

Creator management firms help creators ink brand deals, but they typically don’t also have production facilities to help creators launch projects, such as recurring shows made for YouTube or TikTok.Scott Dunn and Chris Gera are taking a different approach with their new startup Unicorn, which is part talent management firm and part content... Creator management firms help creators ink brand deals, but they typically don’t also have...