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

Art by Clark Miller (photo: Getty Images)

Epstein Files’ Most Damning Revelation

By Abram Brown · Feb 7, 2026 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Parties, PR and Epstein—inside investor Masha Bucher’s charmed ascendance• Artificial Intelligence: OpenClaw, agents and a mania within a mania • Power and Influence: How the architect behind California’s billionaires tax became tech’s villain• Plus, Recommendations—our weekly pop... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Parties, PR and Epstein—inside investor...

Art by Clark Miller

Artificial Intelligence

After OpenClaw, a Wild, Weird Age of Consumer Agents Lies Ahead

By Rocket Drew · Feb 7, 2026 6:30am PST · 6 comments

Until recently, agentic AI, where AIs can take virtual actions and control computers, seemed like an esoteric technology that wasn’t close to going mainstream—at least for use at home on tasks like checking into flights, responding to emails and controlling smart devices. Then OpenClaw, an open-source personal AI assistant, went viral a... Until recently, agentic AI, where AIs can take virtual actions and control computers, seemed like...

Art by Clark Miller (photos: Getty Images)

Parties, PR and Epstein: How Investor Masha Bucher Shot to Fame in Silicon Valley

By Jemima McEvoy · Feb 7, 2026 6:00am PST · 9 comments

January 30 was an eventful day for Masha Bucher. That evening she held a blowout 8th birthday party for her venture capital firm, Day One Ventures, at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The dress code: elegant. On the invites, Bucher promised the festivities would include a new performance art piece that would weave together “choreography,... January 30 was an eventful day for Masha Bucher. That evening she held a blowout 8th birthday...

Image via Getty

Microsoft Sales Chief Responds to Potential Rivalry with OpenAI’s New Agent Product

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Feb 6, 2026 6:45pm PST · 1 comment

Image via Getty

Microsoft Sales Chief Responds to Potential Rivalry with OpenAI’s New Agent Product

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Feb 6, 2026 6:45pm PST · 1 comment

Microsoft’s top sales executive told staff on Friday that the company was uniquely positioned to compete against a new OpenAI product aimed at helping businesses automate office tasks across different software applications—including Microsoft’s own apps. In an email, Microsoft commercial CEO Judson Althoff provided talking points... Microsoft’s top sales executive told staff on Friday that the company was uniquely positioned to...

Art by Clark Miller

Power and Influence

How the Architect of California’s Billionaire Tax Became Tech’s Villain

By Eli Rosenberg · Feb 6, 2026 11:04am PST · 4 comments

Around the time he filed the billionaire tax proposal that has shaken up the tech world and ignited a debate about wealth taxes nationwide, Dave Regan, president of the California-based union behind the effort, convened a group of fellow labor leaders to solicit their thoughts. In a videoconference, he told the group he had a 30-day... Around the time he filed the billionaire tax proposal that has shaken up the tech world...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holds a Grace Blackwell NVLink72 at CES 2025. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images

How Nvidia and Big Customers Finally Conquered Blackwell ‘Challenges’

By Qianer Liu, Anissa Gardizy and Wayne Ma · Feb 6, 2026 6:00am PST · 1 comment

A year ago, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, told analysts that transitioning from an earlier generation of AI server chips to a newer one, known as Blackwell, was “challenging” for the company’s customers because of the chips’ greater complexity. “The chassis, the architecture of the system, the hardware, the power delivery, all of that had to... A year ago, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, told analysts that transitioning from an earlier...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.

Amazon’s Cloud Liftoff

By Martin Peers · Feb 5, 2026 5:00pm PST

Talk about raising the stakes. A day after Google parent Alphabet scared the market by projecting plans to double its capital expenditures to around $180 billion, Amazon went one better by announcing it plans to lay out $200 billion on capex this year, 56% higher than what it spent in 2025. Investors were just as unimpressed as they had been... Talk about raising the stakes. A day after Google parent Alphabet scared the market by projecting...

Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi. Jeff Chiu/AP.

The Databricks IPO Watch

By Cory Weinberg and Valida Pau · Feb 5, 2026 4:00pm PST

Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi. Jeff Chiu/AP.

The Databricks IPO Watch

By Cory Weinberg and Valida Pau · Feb 5, 2026 4:00pm PST

Plummeting software stocks aren’t good news for any company with a big enterprise business that is considering going public. Nonetheless, there’s a growing consensus that 12-year-old Databricks—whose initial public offering has been chatted about for years—could take the step by the end of this year, according to several investment bankers and... Plummeting software stocks aren’t good news for any company with a big enterprise business that...

Artwork by Clark Miller

Can Anthropic Scale Like OpenAI—and Still Claim the Moral High Ground?

By The Information Staff · Feb 5, 2026 11:42am PST

Anthropic is facing growing pressure to compete more aggressively with rivals like OpenAI and Microsoft while preserving the safety-first identity that has defined it since its founding. Surging revenue forecasts and the launch of its Cowork agent suggest a company pushing harder into enterprise markets, even as it continues to emphasize ethical... Anthropic is facing growing pressure to compete more aggressively with rivals like OpenAI and...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Fabrice/Getty Images

Nvidia CEO Becomes the Latest SaaS Defender—Sort Of

By Amir Efrati · Feb 5, 2026 10:30am PST · 2 comments

Simmering anxieties about AI’s threat to subscription software have turned into a raging nervous breakdown on Wall Street in the past week, thanks in part to Anthropic’s recent AI launches (and despite Anthropic's own love for SaaS apps). Even Palantir, which has lately posted blockbuster growth, has been caught up in the selloff.Enter Jensen... Simmering anxieties about AI’s threat to subscription software have turned into a raging nervous...

Daytona CEO Ivan Burazin. Photo courtesy of Daytona.

Datadog and Figma Back a Startup Developing Tools For AI Agents

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 5, 2026 7:00am PST

First off, check out Jyoti’s Wednesday scoop about Meta’s latest AI model efforts. In sum, Meta is telling its employees “we’re back in the game!” and setting high expectations for the company’s next open-weight large language model, codenamed Avocado.Yes, Meta AI leaders did the same last year with Llama 4 and we all know how poorly that turned... First off, check out Jyoti’s Wednesday scoop about Meta’s latest AI model efforts. In sum, Meta...

Art by Clark Miller.

Nvidia to Delay New Gaming Chip Due to Memory Chip Shortage

By Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu · Feb 5, 2026 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Art by Clark Miller.

Nvidia to Delay New Gaming Chip Due to Memory Chip Shortage

By Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu · Feb 5, 2026 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Nvidia won’t release a new graphics chip for gamers this year due to a deepening global shortage of memory chips, prompted by the AI boom, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. It would be the first year in three decades that Nvidia hasn’t released a new graphics processing unit for gaming. Nvidia got its start in the... Nvidia won’t release a new graphics chip for gamers this year due to a deepening global shortage...

China's ADA Space plans to launch 2,800 of these satellites into space to make up a data center constellation. Photo: An Yuan/China News Service/Getty

The Electric: This Chinese Startup Has Already Put a Data Center In Space

By Steve LeVine · Feb 5, 2026 4:30am PST · 1 comment

With his $1.2 trillion merger of SpaceX with money-losing AI developer xAI, Elon Musk suggests he is in the vanguard of the next big thing—the establishment of AI data centers in space. Sorry, Elon, a Chinese startup got there first. With his $1.2 trillion merger of SpaceX with money-losing AI developer xAI, Elon Musk suggests he...

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Is Hiring Hundreds of AI Consultants to Boost Enterprise Sales

By Sri Muppidi · Feb 4, 2026 6:17pm PST · 2 comments

OpenAI is hiring hundreds of new staffers to expand a technical consulting team that helps large corporations develop custom AI applications and agents to automate employee tasks, according to a person with knowledge of the company’s plans. The hiring effort could help it beat back competition from archrival Anthropic, which has also upped its... OpenAI is hiring hundreds of new staffers to expand a technical consulting team that helps large...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Jim Lo Scalzo/Getty Images

Google Cloud Finally Takes Off

By Martin Peers · Feb 4, 2026 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Sundar Pichai, take a bow. Google parent Alphabet delivered some red-hot fourth-quarter numbers on Wednesday, a sign that—like its fellow digital ad giant, Meta Platforms—it is enjoying the fruits of its big investment in AI. Alphabet reported both an acceleration in Google’s search revenue growth to nearly 17%, from 15% in the third quarter,... Sundar Pichai, take a bow. Google parent Alphabet delivered some red-hot fourth-quarter numbers...

Alexandr Wang, left, and Mark Zuckerberg. Photos by AP

Meta Memo: New Avocado Model ‘Most Capable’ to Date

By Jyoti Mann · Feb 4, 2026 12:21pm PST · 2 comments

Alexandr Wang, left, and Mark Zuckerberg. Photos by AP

Meta Memo: New Avocado Model ‘Most Capable’ to Date

By Jyoti Mann · Feb 4, 2026 12:21pm PST · 2 comments

Meta Platforms is sounding an increasingly bullish note about the first major AI model expected to emerge from its new AI group. The company recently told some staffers in the group, known as Meta Superintelligence Labs, that its next generation large language model, codenamed Avocado, is “now Meta’s most capable pre-trained base model to date,”... Meta Platforms is sounding an increasingly bullish note about the first major AI model expected...

Art by Mike Sullivan

The Information Finance

Why Big Tech Companies Are Racing to Fund OpenAI

By Ken Brown · Feb 4, 2026 8:01am PST · 3 comments

Nvidia could invest around $30 billion, Amazon is down for at least $20 billion and Microsoft is looking at $10 billion as part of a $100 billion fundraising for OpenAI. SoftBank will bring the AI company closer to its goal with an investment worth around $30 billion. My colleague Sri Muppidi reported all of this last week. OpenAI has built... Nvidia could invest around $30 billion, Amazon is down for at least $20 billion and Microsoft is...

Art via Mike Sullivan/Getty Images

China’s Response To Google’s Genie; Why This OpenAI Researcher Left to Start a Competitor

By Juro Osawa · Feb 4, 2026 7:00am PST

Google last week generated buzz with a new AI tool called Project Genie, which enables users to create and play in virtual worlds like ultra-realistic videogames. An upstart Chinese competitor that recently announced a similar product is trying to keep up with Google and capture some of that buzz.PixVerse, which a few weeks ago unveiled its “... Google last week generated buzz with a new AI tool called Project Genie, which enables users to...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Amazon Discusses Getting Special Access to OpenAI Tech

By Anissa Gardizy, Catherine Perloff and Amir Efrati · Feb 4, 2026 6:00am PST

As Amazon weighs an equity investment of tens of billions of dollars in OpenAI, the companies are also discussing a commercial agreement that could require OpenAI to dedicate its own researchers and engineers to developing customized models for powering Amazon’s own AI products, according to a person involved in the talks and another person who... As Amazon weighs an equity investment of tens of billions of dollars in OpenAI, the companies are...

Demonstrators hold protest signs in Atlanta in October, 2025. Photo by Julia Beverly/Getty Images (edited)

Venture Capital’s Showing in the Epstein Files

By Laura Mandaro · Feb 3, 2026 6:16pm PST

Demonstrators hold protest signs in Atlanta in October, 2025. Photo by Julia Beverly/Getty Images (edited)

Venture Capital’s Showing in the Epstein Files

By Laura Mandaro · Feb 3, 2026 6:16pm PST

On Monday, our reporter Jemima McEvoy broke the news that venture capitalist Masha Bucher had deep ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Their correspondence, released in a dump of more than 3 million pages from the Justice Department Friday, showed Bucher—née Drokova, the name she was using at the time—working as a publicist for... On Monday, our reporter Jemima McEvoy broke the news that venture capitalist Masha Bucher had...