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

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Recent Editions

D-Matrix's co-founders, Sudeep Bhoja (left) and Sid Sheth (right). Photos via YouTube/D-Matrix

Nvidia Challenger Woos Investors as It Prepares to Unveil New Chip

By Akash Pasricha and Natasha Mascarenhas · Sep 10, 2024 4:44pm PDT · 1 comment

Another artificial intelligence chip startup is trying to rally investors as it takes on Nvidia. D-Matrix, a Santa Clara, Calif.–based company designing an AI-focused chip to run large language models more cost effectively, wants to raise $250 million in a Series C funding round, according to two people with direct knowledge of the... Another artificial intelligence chip startup is trying to rally investors as it takes on...

The New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings playing at MetLife Stadium on Saturday. Photo by Luke Hales/Getty.

Creator Economy

A Dispatch From YouTube’s NFL Party With Creators

By Sahil Patel · Sep 10, 2024 1:56pm PDT

It’s YouTube’s second year offering customers the NFL’s Sunday Ticket service, which streams every regular season game outside of a viewer’s local market on Sunday afternoons. As part of that deal, the organizations have invited some top YouTubers to shoot videos from the stadiums, as well as use NFL-owned highlights and other intellectual... It’s YouTube’s second year offering customers the NFL’s Sunday Ticket service, which streams...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Stripe’s Challenges With Wells Fargo, Goldman Highlight Payments Risks

By Michael Roddan · Sep 10, 2024 10:39am PDT · 2 comments

Last year, staff inside Stripe got some alarming news: The payment giant’s relationship with a key bank partner was about to change—for the worse. Wells Fargo executives had told Stripe co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison they wanted to end a partnership powering Stripe’s payments, according to three former Stripe employees... Last year, staff inside Stripe got some alarming news: The payment giant’s relationship...

Photo generated by OpenAI's DALL-E.

New Details on OpenAI’s Strawberry; Apple’s Siri Makeover; Larry Ellison Doubles Down on Data Centers

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · Sep 10, 2024 7:00am PDT · 3 comments

Photo generated by OpenAI's DALL-E.

New Details on OpenAI’s Strawberry; Apple’s Siri Makeover; Larry Ellison Doubles Down on Data Centers

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · Sep 10, 2024 7:00am PDT · 3 comments

Strawberry, OpenAI’s reasoning-focused artificial intelligence, is coming sooner than we thought.OpenAI plans to release Strawberry as part of its ChatGPT service in the next two weeks, earlier than the original fall timeline we had recently reported, said two people who have tested out the model. Release timelines are always subject to change,... Strawberry, OpenAI’s reasoning-focused artificial intelligence, is coming sooner than we thought....

Art by Clark Miller

Inside TikTok, It’s Business as Usual-ish as Ban Looms

By Kaya Yurieff and Juro Osawa · Sep 10, 2024 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Next Monday, attorneys for TikTok will attempt to convince a U.S. appeals court to slam the brakes on a government law that would shut the short video app down in January. Inside TikTok, executives have expressed confidence they will be able to pull that off, according to two people who have recently spoken to TikTok leaders. That legal... Next Monday, attorneys for TikTok will attempt to convince a U.S. appeals court to slam the...

The U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., where the Department of Justice's second antirust trial against Google is underway. Photo by Bonnie Cash/Getty.

Google’s Antitrust Trial No. 2 Starts

By Martin Peers · Sep 9, 2024 5:00pm PDT

There may never be a company with a bigger demand for antitrust lawyers than Google has right now. A little over a month after a court issued its ruling in one Justice Department lawsuit against Google, the trial of the government’s second antitrust lawsuit against Google opened on Monday. This one centers on how Google dominates the market for... There may never be a company with a bigger demand for antitrust lawyers than Google has right...

Chart by Shane Burke

Temu’s Biggest Bargain: Its Parent Company’s Stock

By Jing Yang · Sep 9, 2024 7:21am PDT · 1 comment

If you’re looking for a bargain backpack or pair of shoes, Temu might seem like the ideal place to look. If you’re looking for a bargain stock, the price tag on Temu’s parent, PDD Holdings, certainly seems tempting. Since PDD’s top management warned two weeks ago that rising competition would put downward pressure on its... If you’re looking for a bargain backpack or pair of shoes, Temu might seem like the ideal...

Photo by I-Hwa Cheng/Bloomberg via Getty.

Power and Memory Bottlenecks, Blackwell Delays, AI Returns: Takeaways from Semicon Taiwan

By Qianer Liu · Sep 9, 2024 7:00am PDT

Photo by I-Hwa Cheng/Bloomberg via Getty.

Power and Memory Bottlenecks, Blackwell Delays, AI Returns: Takeaways from Semicon Taiwan

By Qianer Liu · Sep 9, 2024 7:00am PDT

The frenzy around AI may be abating, but in a good way. That’s my takeaway from last week's Semicon Taiwan, the chip industry’s big annual convention. Instead of just gushing about the raw power of AI, the conversations on and off stage revolved more around the technical challenges of developing semiconductor technology capable of supporting... The frenzy around AI may be abating, but in a good way. That’s my takeaway from last week's ...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, second from left, and Thrive Capital founder Josh Kushner, far right, at the Sun Valley conference in July. Photo by Getty.

Why Josh Kushner Became OpenAI’s Fundraising Sherpa

By Kate Clark and Natasha Mascarenhas · Sep 9, 2024 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

In mid-July, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman flew into Idaho to mingle with entertainment and tech elites at the annual Sun Valley retreat. Among those by Altman’s side was Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital, the New York venture capital firm that had led a recent share sale valuing the ChatGPT maker at $86 billion. Less than a month later,... In mid-July, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman flew into Idaho to mingle with entertainment and tech elites...

The now-closed Cuberg laboratory in San Leandro, Calif. Photo: Courtesy Northvolt

The Travails of Three Battery Startups Reflect the Industry’s Woes

By Steve LeVine · Sep 9, 2024 4:30am PDT

In May, a worker at the San Leandro, Calif., laboratory of next-generation battery developer Cuberg accidentally spilled alcohol solvent on a pile of scrap lithium metal. A fire broke out, reaching the ceiling, and now-molten lithium burned a 5-inch crater in the floor. Overhead sprinklers sent a spray of water over the interior of the facility,... In May, a worker at the San Leandro, Calif., laboratory of next-generation battery developer ...

Art by Clark Miller

Where Miami’s Party Goes Next

By Abram Brown · Sep 7, 2024 7:02am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: The schools where AI isn’t the enemy, but flaky startups are • The Top 5: What to wear for fall conference seasonPlus: The fuhrer and the czar; the art of the swindle; and leave the gun, take the saltwater taffy.A few weeks after tech’s love affair with Miami kicked off in late 2020, I... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: The schools where AI isn’t the enemy, but...

Art by Clark Miller

What Tech Moguls Should Wear for Fall Conference Season: The Summer’s Red-Hot Power Color

By Antonina Jedrzejczak · Sep 7, 2024 5:00am PDT · 5 comments

Art by Clark Miller

What Tech Moguls Should Wear for Fall Conference Season: The Summer’s Red-Hot Power Color

By Antonina Jedrzejczak · Sep 7, 2024 5:00am PDT · 5 comments

White for summer is nothing new, but 2024 embraced the hue at a whole new level. From sandals to sun hats and everything in between, shades of white dominated the most stylish wardrobes over the past three months. And, no, we’re not about to tell you to put away all those whites with Labor Day behind us. In fact, as you get ready to think... White for summer is nothing new, but 2024 embraced the hue at a whole new level. From sandals to...

Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff. Photo via Anadolu/Getty

Benioff Comes Into His Own

By Martin Peers · Sep 6, 2024 3:21pm PDT

Benioff is back! Well, at least as a dealmaker. As we close out the week in tech news, we have to acknowledge Salesforce’s first multibillion-dollar acquisition since its 2021 Slack purchase. On Thursday, the enterprise software firm unveiled a $1.9 billion acquisition of Own Co., a data security software company that Salesforce said would beef... Benioff is back! Well, at least as a dealmaker. As we close out the week in tech news, we have to...

Products from Shein, Temu, On Running, Skims and Vuori. Photos via retailers.

Amid Consumer IPO Logjam, Picky Shoppers Take the Spotlight

By Ann Gehan · Sep 6, 2024 10:32am PDT · 1 comment

Consumer companies are staring down a stark divide: Shoppers either want ultracheap goods, like $3 crop tops from sites like Temu, or high-end items, like $300 running shoes from On Holding, a sneaker company that went public in 2021. That’s according to investors, analysts and executives I spoke with at a Goldman Sachs retail conference... Consumer companies are staring down a stark divide: Shoppers either want ultracheap goods, like...

Art by Clark Miller

AI Isn’t the Enemy for Some Schools Anymore—Flaky Startups Are

By Paris Martineau · Sep 6, 2024 9:00am PDT · 2 comments

In early January, Marty Sharpe thought he’d get a few dozen teachers to show up to his professional development course on using generative artificial intelligence in the classroom. After all, it was an optional workday after the two-week winter break at the Catawba County Schools in North Carolina. Instead, Sharpe—the Catawba school... In early January, Marty Sharpe thought he’d get a few dozen teachers to show up to his...

Nvidia H100 chips inside a server room. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Pro Weekly: Expanding Our AI Data Center Database

By Akash Pasricha and Anissa Gardizy · Sep 6, 2024 8:00am PDT

Nvidia H100 chips inside a server room. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Pro Weekly: Expanding Our AI Data Center Database

By Akash Pasricha and Anissa Gardizy · Sep 6, 2024 8:00am PDT

Earlier this week, we published our AI Data Center Database, detailing 17 U.S. data centers operating or planned by major tech companies in the fevered race to pursue advances in artificial intelligence. The scale of these facilities is impressive: Some will contain as many as 100,000 of the most advanced semiconductors, sprawl across... Earlier this week, we published our AI Data Center Database, detailing 17 U.S. data centers...

Photo by Erin Beach

Musk’s Rivals Take Jabs at His GPU Cluster, Nvidia’s Cuda Weakness, Enterprise AI Use Cases: Summit Highlights

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 6, 2024 7:00am PDT · 4 comments

I’m still buzzing from getting to meet so many of you yesterday at our first-ever AI Summit. We got to talk all things LLMs, chips and AI applications with leaders such as Reid Hoffman, one of the earliest investors in OpenAI and a Microsoft board director; Chris Lattner, who helped Google launch their tensor processing units and TensorFlow... I’m still buzzing from getting to meet so many of you yesterday at our first-ever AI Summit. We...

Art by Mike Sullivan/ Midjourney

New AI Business Model: Charging Customers Only When the Tech Works

By Jon Victor · Sep 6, 2024 6:00am PDT

Last month, Zendesk, which makes customer support software aided by artificial intelligence, decided to sell it in a daring new way. Instead of charging businesses based on how often they use the software—essentially an AI chatbot—to try to resolve customer problems, Zendesk began charging them only when the chatbot completed the... Last month, Zendesk, which makes customer support software aided by artificial intelligence,...

Aparna Pappu, vice president and general manager of Google Workspace, left, and Naveen Rao, vice president of AI at Databricks. Photo by Erin Beach

AI Summit: Nvidia Rivals, Musk’s Supercomputer Claims and Hot AI Jobs

By The Information Staff · Sep 5, 2024 7:37pm PDT

Artificial intelligence has turned into a battle of giants—but there is still room for startups, from makers of graphics processing units to applications that promise to make healthcare more efficient. Those themes emerged from The Information’s AI Summit in San Francisco Thursday. Greylock Partners’ Reid Hoffman called Elon... Artificial intelligence has turned into a battle of giants—but there is still room for...

Photo by ViewPress via Getty.

Verizon’s Backflip

By Martin Peers · Sep 5, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Photo by ViewPress via Getty.

Verizon’s Backflip

By Martin Peers · Sep 5, 2024 5:00pm PDT

It’s the investment bankers’ dream—a company so desperate for growth that it engages in years of dealmaking under one CEO, while his successor spends years undoing all that earlier work. We’re talking about Verizon, whose $9.6 billion purchase of Frontier today is the culmination of nearly a decade of back-and-forth M&A negotiation. This is... It’s the investment bankers’ dream—a company so desperate for growth that it engages in years of...