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

Thinking Machines Lab CEO Mira Murati via Getty

How Ex-OpenAI CTO Murati’s Startup Plans to Compete With OpenAI and Others

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo and Rocket Drew · Jun 23, 2025 3:23pm PDT · 4 comments

The thinking behind Thinking Machines Lab, a high-profile but mysterious artificial intelligence startup led by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, is becoming clearer. After raising an astonishing $2 billion at a $10 billion valuation from investors including Andreessen Horowitz less than five months after its founding, Murati... The thinking behind Thinking Machines Lab, a high-profile but mysterious artificial intelligence...

Art by Mike Sullivan

The Great Data-Labeling Debate: Synthetic or Human?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 23, 2025 7:00am PDT

The news around data-labeling startups is stirring a debate in the industry about whether artificial intelligence developers should improve their models with cheap synthetic data (data that are generated by other AI models) or with a much smaller amount of expensive, human-labeled data via firms such as Scale or Surge.Until recently, AI... The news around data-labeling startups is stirring a debate in the industry about whether...

Photo via Getty.

Google Cuts Smart TV Budget as It Doubles Down on YouTube

By Sahil Patel · Jun 23, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Google has cut its smart TV budget and trimmed its team—marking the most concrete signs yet of the company’s waning interest competing with the likes of Samsung and Roku as it centers its TV business around YouTube. The company has reduced the budget for Google TV and Android TV 10%, according to people familiar with the matter. This group... Google has cut its smart TV budget and trimmed its team—marking the most concrete signs yet...

Apptronik co-founders Nick Paine, left, and Jeff Cardenas, along with Apollo, their humanoid robot. Photo: Courtesy Apptronik.

The Electric: Tesla's Optimus Hype Has Pumped Up the Nascent U.S. Humanoid Battery Industry

By Steve LeVine · Jun 23, 2025 4:30am PDT

Apptronik co-founders Nick Paine, left, and Jeff Cardenas, along with Apollo, their humanoid robot. Photo: Courtesy Apptronik.

The Electric: Tesla's Optimus Hype Has Pumped Up the Nascent U.S. Humanoid Battery Industry

By Steve LeVine · Jun 23, 2025 4:30am PDT

U.S. researchers invented the electric vehicle battery, but Chinese companies have swallowed up the business of making them. Now a new technological race has emerged, this time in humanoid robots: As in batteries and EVs, U.S. companies are in tough competition with Chinese rivals that already control much of the supply chain for motors and... U.S. researchers invented the electric vehicle battery, but Chinese companies have swallowed up...

Star Xu, founder and CEO of OKX. Photo via Getty

Crypto Is the Hottest Investment, in the Stock Market

By Yueqi Yang · Jun 22, 2025 6:00am PDT

Crypto is booming right now, but the rally is playing out in the stock market rather than on crypto exchanges. Shares of stablecoin issuer Circle are up eightfold since its initial public offering just over two weeks ago, and companies that hold bitcoin are getting valuations that are surprising even to industry insiders. Several big crypto... Crypto is booming right now, but the rally is playing out in the stock market rather than on...

Art by Clark Miller

Who Controls Sam Altman’s Story?

By Abram Brown · Jun 21, 2025 7:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Humanoid robots are the latest pawns in the U.S.-China tech war• The Arena: Can 3D printing—yes, 3D printing—make Nike a winner again?• The quiet AI mogul with $1 billion in sales—and no investors • Plus, our Recommendations: Putin’s favorite fintech; the dirt on d’oh!; and a collision... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Humanoid robots are the latest pawns in...

Art by Clark Miller

Coming to Amazon: A 3D-Printed Nike Sports Bra?

By Sara Germano · Jun 21, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

More than 1,700 men have broken the 4-minute mile, but no woman has ever done so. The fastest any female runner has ever covered the distance is 4 minutes and 7.64 seconds, the current world record set by Faith Kipyegon in 2023. Which is to say: not even close. Nevertheless, Nike is staging a race in Paris next Thursday where Kipyegon will... More than 1,700 men have broken the 4-minute mile, but no woman has ever done so. The fastest any...

SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son with a humanoid robot in 2015. Photo via Getty

Why SoftBank’s Robots-in-the-Desert Project Could Be a Mirage

By Nick Wingfield · Jun 20, 2025 5:00pm PDT

SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son with a humanoid robot in 2015. Photo via Getty

Why SoftBank’s Robots-in-the-Desert Project Could Be a Mirage

By Nick Wingfield · Jun 20, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Masayoshi Son is a man who keeps adding zeros to his grand ambitions. Apparently, the SoftBank Group founder isn’t content with his $500 billion Stargate plan to build artificial intelligence data centers and is now trying to rally partners, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., to build a $1 trillion industrial complex in Arizona... Masayoshi Son is a man who keeps adding zeros to his grand ambitions. Apparently, the SoftBank...

Melanie Perkins, CEO and co-founder of Canva.

Canva, Generating Significant Cash, Discusses Share Offer at $37 Billion Valuation

By Sri Muppidi and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jun 20, 2025 3:30pm PDT

Canva is about to buy itself a little more time before a long-anticipated initial public offering. The Australian maker of design software is in talks to arrange a sale of shares held by current and former employees that would value the company at $37 billion, according to two people with knowledge of the fundraise. That’s just shy of its peak... Canva is about to buy itself a little more time before a long-anticipated initial public...

Partner Content

Four AI Futures for Enterprise Tech

By The Information Partnerships · Jun 20, 2025 10:30am PDT

Expectations about the impact of artificial intelligence on business are running high, but how will AI deployment unfold? The Information’s readers were presented with a survey detailing four different scenarios about how AI will play out in their companies, as defined by the EY organization, in the near and midrange future. Through careful... Expectations about the impact of artificial intelligence on business are running high, but how...

Pro Weekly: AI Efforts Drive Google-Apple Sentiment Split

Pro Weekly: AI Efforts Drive Google-Apple Sentiment Split

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 20, 2025 8:00am PDT

What’s driving reader outlooks for tech giants including Google, Apple and Meta this month? You can probably guess: How much they’re doing (or at least talking about doing) to get ahead in AI. In our June survey, subscribers said they were a lot more optimistic about Google’s prospects compared with our survey the previous month. The share... What’s driving reader outlooks for tech giants including Google, Apple and Meta this month? You...

Art by Clark Miller

Why Humanoid Robots Are the Latest Front in America’s Tech War With China

By Steve LeVine, Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Jun 20, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Art by Clark Miller

Why Humanoid Robots Are the Latest Front in America’s Tech War With China

By Steve LeVine, Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Jun 20, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Elon Musk’s forecasts of an ultralavish future for Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, have not only been a boon to his company’s share price: They’ve provided a broad lift to nearly everyone working on humanoids, a technology once considered a fantasy land. One of the biggest beneficiaries is Apptronik, a scrappy Austin, Texas, rival working, in a... Elon Musk’s forecasts of an ultralavish future for Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, have not only...

Scale AI's Alexandr Wang in 2023. Photo via Getty

What a Scale AI Rival’s Extraordinary Success Says About the Meta Deal

By Nick Wingfield · Jun 19, 2025 5:00pm PDT

The past week has been a steady drip, drip, drip of new details shedding light on Meta Platforms’ $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI and its hiring of the startup’s CEO, Alexandr Wang. The latest eye-opener came this morning in Stephanie and Cory’s profile of a Scale competitor, Surge AI, and its founder, Edwin Chen.In essence, they report,... The past week has been a steady drip, drip, drip of new details shedding light on Meta Platforms’...

Coatue founder Philippe Laffont at The Information’s 2024 Private Capital Conference. Photo by Nicole Pereira.

Tokens Are AI Boom’s New Favorite Metric; Quick Payout for Friedman-Gross Fund

By Miles Kruppa and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jun 19, 2025 2:00pm PDT

On Wednesday, Kalley and Cory broke the news that former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Safe Superintelligence co-founder Daniel Gross were in advanced talks to join Meta Platforms. Along with the hires, Meta is also discussing buying out a portion of the duo’s fund, which raised more than $1 billion two years ago. On Wednesday, Kalley and Cory broke the news that former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Safe...

Creator Economy

Big Brands Are Thinking More Like Creators

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 19, 2025 1:00pm PDT

Hello from the very hot French Riviera, where I’m wrapping up my time at Cannes Lions!On Thursday morning, I moderated a panel with two Mattel executives: Lisa McKnight, chief brand officer, and Jason Horowitz, global head of marketing and media. It’s striking how much brands are starting to operate more like creators. The most... Hello from the very hot French Riviera, where I’m wrapping up my time at Cannes Lions!On...

Chatbots Get Cheaper; Anthropic Reigns Supreme in Coding

Chatbots Get Cheaper; Anthropic Reigns Supreme in Coding

By Aaron Holmes · Jun 19, 2025 10:26am PDT

Chatbots Get Cheaper; Anthropic Reigns Supreme in Coding

Chatbots Get Cheaper; Anthropic Reigns Supreme in Coding

By Aaron Holmes · Jun 19, 2025 10:26am PDT

When DeepSeek released its high-performing open-source artificial intelligence earlier this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicted that the price of AI models and applications would soon come under pressure. And he said that trend would prevent any one company from gaining a permanent advantage over others in selling AI to... When DeepSeek released its high-performing open-source artificial intelligence earlier this year,...

Subscriber Survey

Tech Users Clamor for New AI Devices—But Gripe About Existing Gadgets

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 19, 2025 10:00am PDT · 1 comment

Early tries at developing artificial intelligence–powered devices and wearables have been marked by some notable flops, like Humane’s AI pin. But tech enthusiasts remain open-minded about buying an AI device. Among The Information’s readers, seven in 10 said they would purchase an AI-powered device, according to our latest exclusive... Early tries at developing artificial intelligence–powered devices and wearables have been...

Photo by Mike Sullivan via Midjourney

Zuckerberg Fills Out His AI Dream Team; Developers Are Cheating on LMArena

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 19, 2025 7:00am PDT

Before we get to today’s column, my colleagues Kalley and Cory broke some important news on Wednesday: Meta Platforms is close to hiring former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, who now moonlights as a prominent AI investor, and Daniel Gross, Friedman’s investment partner and a cofounder of Safe Superintelligence with Ilya Sutskever. In the process,... Before we get to today’s column, my colleagues Kalley and Cory broke some important news on...

Art by Clark Miller

Artificial Intelligence

The Little-Known Startup That Has Surged Past Scale AI—Without Any Investors

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Cory Weinberg · Jun 19, 2025 6:00am PDT · 6 comments

For years, data labeling existed in a tucked-away corner of Silicon Valley, a critical but unglamorous area of AI where companies like Google and OpenAI hire outside firms to improve their models by laboriously grading the quality of what they produce. Now, a spotlight has unexpectedly fallen onto the field in the wake of Meta Platforms’... For years, data labeling existed in a tucked-away corner of Silicon Valley, a critical but...

Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters earlier this month. Photo via Getty

Netflix Is Becoming What It Replaced: Live TV

By Sahil Patel · Jun 18, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters earlier this month. Photo via Getty

Netflix Is Becoming What It Replaced: Live TV

By Sahil Patel · Jun 18, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Before we get into this evening’s briefing, check out Kalley and Cory’s late-breaking scoop today about Meta Platforms’ latest efforts to boost its artificial intelligence efforts. We reported that the company is holding advanced talks with Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, two prominent investors, about joining Meta. Meta is also discussing... Before we get into this evening’s briefing, check out Kalley and Cory’s late-breaking scoop today...