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

Tareq Amin, CEO of Humain, and Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in May. Screenshot via YouTube.

Saudi Arabia, Looking Homeward in AI Buildout, Taps Cisco and AMD for Cloud Project

By Miles Kruppa · Jun 11, 2025 1:21pm PDT

Saudi Arabia is lining up new investors to fund its push to become a major player in artificial intelligence, snagging cash from Cisco Systems and AMD for a cloud project that is central to its efforts to refocus spending on domestic technology. “I’m working really hard to make sure we have a considerable sum of this capital come from external... Saudi Arabia is lining up new investors to fund its push to become a major player in artificial...

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

What Meta Gains From Scale CEO Alex Wang

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 11, 2025 7:00am PDT

The cost of acqui-hiring talent keeps rising! Meta Platforms agreed to shell out close to $15 billion for a 49% stake in data-labeling startup Scale AI, whose CEO Alexandr Wang will be joining Meta in a senior position, my colleague Cory Weinberg reported yesterday. I spoke with a number of Scale investors yesterday who shared their... The cost of acqui-hiring talent keeps rising! Meta Platforms agreed to shell out close to $15...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang via Getty

Nvidia Muscles Into GPU Cloud Market, Rankling New Rivals

By Anissa Gardizy · Jun 11, 2025 6:00am PDT

Nvidia recently debuted a cloud service enabling artificial intelligence developers to rent server chips directly from the chip designer, part of its push into the cloud market dominated by Amazon and Microsoft. In doing so, Nvidia is encroaching on the turf of CoreWeave and dozens of other up-and-coming firms that sell the same type of service.... Nvidia recently debuted a cloud service enabling artificial intelligence developers to rent...

image via Getty

Salesforce Blocks AI Rivals From Using Slack Data

By Kevin McLaughlin and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 10, 2025 6:40pm PDT · 16 comments

image via Getty

Salesforce Blocks AI Rivals From Using Slack Data

By Kevin McLaughlin and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 10, 2025 6:40pm PDT · 16 comments

Slack, an instant-messaging service popular with businesses, recently blocked other software firms from searching or storing Slack messages even if their customers permit them to do so, according to a public disclosure from Slack’s owner, Salesforce. The move, which hasn’t previously been reported, could hamper fast-growing artificial... Slack, an instant-messaging service popular with businesses, recently blocked other software...

Photos via Getty

Meta’s Risky Scale AI Bet Shows Self-Assurance—or Hubris

By Nick Wingfield and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jun 10, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Mark Zuckerberg seems confident! As we reported earlier today, Meta Platforms is on the cusp of taking a 49% stake in Scale AI for $14.8 billion and bringing the AI startup’s CEO, Alexandr Wang, on board to lead a new AI lab. There are echoes in the Meta–Scale AI talks of earlier deals between big tech companies and AI startups, including Google... Mark Zuckerberg seems confident! As we reported earlier today, Meta Platforms is on the cusp of...

Peter Thiel. Photo via Getty

The Investors Set to Win Big From Meta's Scale AI Deal

By Cory Weinberg · Jun 10, 2025 4:37pm PDT

They are co-workers to be, they are both college dropouts-turned billionaire tech founders and they both have recently steered their public images toward wherever the political winds have blown. With Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s big investment in Alexandr Wang’s Scale AI, the two men have something else in common–they both made billions for some... They are co-workers to be, they are both college dropouts-turned billionaire tech founders and...

Roman Wasenmüller, Spotify’s head of podcast business, speaks at The Information's Future of Influence event. Photo by Erin Beach

Creator Economy

No, It’s Not Too Late to Start a Podcast

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 10, 2025 2:00pm PDT

Podcasting is booming, driven by the rise of video shows and podcasters’ sway during last year’s presidential election. That’s got me thinking about whether podcasting has become too saturated. It’s a question I posed to our podcasting panel at The Information’s Future of Influence event last week in Los Angeles. Spotify doesn’t think so.... Podcasting is booming, driven by the rise of video shows and podcasters’ sway during last year’s...

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet. Photo via Getty.

Google Offers Buyouts to Employees in Search and Ads, Other Units

By Miles Kruppa and Catherine Perloff · Jun 10, 2025 12:14pm PDT · 2 comments

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet. Photo via Getty.

Google Offers Buyouts to Employees in Search and Ads, Other Units

By Miles Kruppa and Catherine Perloff · Jun 10, 2025 12:14pm PDT · 2 comments

Google is offering voluntary buyouts to employees across several businesses and units, including the knowledge and information organization, which houses the company’s core search and much of the ads organization, a senior executive told staff on Tuesday. The move comes as Google’s search business faces unprecedented threats from ChatGPT and... Google is offering voluntary buyouts to employees across several businesses and units, including...

Photo via Adobe Stock

CEOs Try Cloning Themselves With AI

By Aaron Holmes · Jun 10, 2025 10:38am PDT · 2 comments

Artificial intelligence may not be advanced enough to run a company yet. But CEOs of some firms are testing ways that AI can sub in for them.They're trying chatbots and video avatars to answer employee questions, schmooze with customers and talk during earnings calls. Artificial intelligence may not be advanced enough to run a company yet. But CEOs of some firms...

Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang

Meta to Pay Nearly $15 Billion for Scale AI Stake and Startup’s 28-Year-Old CEO

By Cory Weinberg · Jun 10, 2025 8:08am PDT · 10 comments

Meta has agreed to take a 49% stake in data labeling firm Scale AI for $14.8 billion, two people familiar with the matter said. The unusual deal will be structured so Meta will send the cash to Scale’s existing shareholders and place the startup’s CEO, Alexandr Wang, in a top position inside Meta, the people said. The deal, which hasn’t yet been... Meta has agreed to take a 49% stake in data labeling firm Scale AI for $14.8 billion, two people...

‘AI Native’ Startups Pass $15 Billion in Annualized Revenue

‘AI Native’ Startups Pass $15 Billion in Annualized Revenue

By Amir Efrati · Jun 10, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Annualized revenue at “AI native” companies selling artificial intelligence models or apps has passed $15 billion just two and a half years since OpenAI launched ChatGPT, according to The Information’s Generative AI Database.While that’s not the same as $15 billion in actual revenue, it’s still an unprecedented haul for such a short time period... Annualized revenue at “AI native” companies selling artificial intelligence models or apps has...

President Donald Trump (left), Elon Musk and SEC Chair Paul Atkins. Photos via Getty

SEC Employees Brace For DOGE Restructuring, AI Push

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jun 10, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

President Donald Trump (left), Elon Musk and SEC Chair Paul Atkins. Photos via Getty

SEC Employees Brace For DOGE Restructuring, AI Push

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jun 10, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Elon Musk may have parted ways with Washington and President Donald Trump, but employees from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are moving forward with a plan to restructure the Securities and Exchange Commission and bring artificial intelligence technology into the agency. The reorganization will begin to take shape over the next... Elon Musk may have parted ways with Washington and President Donald Trump, but employees from...

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo via Getty

Apple Plays It Safe at Developer Conference

By Aaron Tilley · Jun 9, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Apple appears to have learned its lesson about overpromising on artificial intelligence. Last year, at its Worldwide Developers Conference, the company made a bunch of bold promises about its AI plans to show that it too had an answer to the ChatGPT age. Those claims turned out to be half-baked, as many of the AI features under its Apple... Apple appears to have learned its lesson about overpromising on artificial intelligence. Last...

Chime’s IPO Will Have Big, Big Winners and Serious Losers

By Cory Weinberg and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jun 9, 2025 7:30am PDT

When Chime CEO Chris Britt pitched his company to venture capitalists a decade ago, he got a lot of handshakes and little money. Venture capitalists, he has said, were too rich to understand why low- or no-fee bank accounts would appeal to people living paycheck to paycheck. He said investors would question him: “What’s the problem? I don’t get... When Chime CEO Chris Britt pitched his company to venture capitalists a decade ago, he got a lot...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, left, and Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. Photos via Getty

What Meta-Scale AI Deal Could Mean; Cursor’s Explosive Revenue

By Amir Efrati · Jun 9, 2025 7:00am PDT

Before we get to today’s column, here’s something to noodle on.On Friday, word spread widely across the industry that an unnamed public company was going to invest a cool $10 billion in an unnamed private AI firm. On Saturday afternoon, Scale AI’s name popped up as the alleged recipient. By nighttime, Bloomberg reported Meta Platforms was the... Before we get to today’s column, here’s something to noodle on.On Friday, word spread widely...

Art by Clark Miller. Photos via Getty Images

How the Musk-Trump Relationship Went Off the Rails

By Nick Wingfield, Evan Robinson-Johnson, Sylvia Varnham O'Regan, Natasha Mascarenhas and Steve LeVine · Jun 9, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Art by Clark Miller. Photos via Getty Images

How the Musk-Trump Relationship Went Off the Rails

By Nick Wingfield, Evan Robinson-Johnson, Sylvia Varnham O'Regan, Natasha Mascarenhas and Steve LeVine · Jun 9, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Elon Musk’s bets on electric vehicles and rockets delivered some of the biggest payoffs in business history. But his bet on Donald Trump has backfired so spectacularly that it could jeopardize the future of those Musk businesses—unless a seeming weekend ceasefire between the two men can hold. The unraveling of the relationship between Musk... Elon Musk’s bets on electric vehicles and rockets delivered some of the biggest payoffs in...

LG Energy Solution's LFP battery plant in Holland, Mich. Photo: Courtesy LGES

The Electric: South Korea's LG Challenges China's Grip On Iron-Based Batteries

By Steve LeVine · Jun 9, 2025 4:30am PDT

The battery that would go on to power most Western electric vehicles was first produced 15 years ago in a plant in Holland, Mich., run by South Korea’s LG Chem.Last month at the same factory, the company began the West’s first commercial-scale production of the lithium-iron-phosphate battery that’s behind China’s dominance of the global... The battery that would go on to power most Western electric vehicles was first produced 15 years...

Frank Sands Jr., founder and CEO of Sands Capital.

How a Silicon Valley Newcomer Avoided the Meltdown in Startup Valuations

By Sri Muppidi · Jun 8, 2025 11:32am PDT · 5 comments

Dozens of investment funds that bet on mature startups before the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates in early 2022 got creamed. Not Sands Capital, which began investing in public stocks 33 years ago but decided to get into startup investing in 2014. The reason: The firm’s biggest late-stage private tech fund paused making investments in... Dozens of investment funds that bet on mature startups before the Federal Reserve hiked interest...

Art by Clark Miller

Tech’s Winners in Trump-Musk Split

By Abram Brown · Jun 7, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Why Eric Schmidt and Jeff Bezos are sky-high on space data centers• The Arena: Online gambling’s toxic content problem • Opinion: AI has only made coding skills even more essential, Hadi Partovi argues• Plus, our Recommendations: Massachusett’s major wager; Aristotle’s pastime; and a... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Why Eric Schmidt and Jeff Bezos are...

No, AI Isn’t Killing Computer Science. It’s Making It Essential

By Hadi Partovi · Jun 7, 2025 6:00am PDT · 8 comments

No, AI Isn’t Killing Computer Science. It’s Making It Essential

By Hadi Partovi · Jun 7, 2025 6:00am PDT · 8 comments

Another year, another viral tweet argues against “learning to code.” The latest one comes with cherry-picked data implying that art history majors outperform computer scientists in labor markets. Yet the underlying data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York prove the opposite. Art history grads have low unemployment—just... Another year, another viral tweet argues against “learning to code.” The latest one comes with...