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

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Shopify Checkout Changes Threaten Package Protection Startups

By Ann Gehan · Dec 20, 2024 6:00am PST · 3 comments

Shopify, the Canadian-based e-commerce software giant, is walking a tightrope. The company has growing ambitions to promote its own software, such as its Shop Pay branded checkout, which appears on many of its 2 million merchants’ sites. Those goals are beginning to clash with the interests of the small software firms that historically... Shopify, the Canadian-based e-commerce software giant, is walking a tightrope. The company has...

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Apple Deals With European Regulation by Blasting Meta

By Martin Peers · Dec 19, 2024 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Here’s an idea. Instead of Donald Trump letting Elon Musk crash every dinner and phone call Trump has with tech CEOs, how about he invites Apple CEO Tim Cook and Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg to jointly dine with him? Maybe the incoming president could sort out the two companies’ differences.Tensions between Apple and Meta date back a... Here’s an idea. Instead of Donald Trump letting Elon Musk crash every dinner and phone call Trump...

Holiday decorations surrounding the East Wing entrance of the White House. Photo by Getty

Creator Economy

Biden Bids Creators a Holiday Farewell

By Kaya Yurieff · Dec 19, 2024 1:00pm PST

I spent Tuesday afternoon at the White House’s holiday party for influencers. It was packed: more than 500 attendees mingled over spiked eggnog and cocktail shrimp, including hip-hop artist Flava Flav, comedian Keegan-Michael Key, reality TV star turned podcaster Harry Jowsey—and of course, the Bidens. Tuesday's party, the second year the... I spent Tuesday afternoon at the White House’s holiday party for influencers. It was packed: more...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Google Plans to Add ‘AI Mode’ Option to Search

By Amir Efrati · Dec 19, 2024 12:04pm PST · 1 comment

Art by Mike Sullivan

Google Plans to Add ‘AI Mode’ Option to Search

By Amir Efrati · Dec 19, 2024 12:04pm PST · 1 comment

Google is making one of its biggest moves yet to bring conversational answers into its search engine, a response to artificial intelligence rivals that have attracted users by providing such answers rather than a list of website links. The company is planning to give its billions of search users the option to switch to an AI Mode that looks... Google is making one of its biggest moves yet to bring conversational answers into its search...

John Locke, left, and Arun Mathew. Photo via Accel

Accel Shrinks Its Growth Fund, Bucking Trend to Go Bigger

By Cory Weinberg · Dec 19, 2024 10:35am PST

Accel, a blue-blood of Sand Hill Road, is thinking smaller.The firm publicly filed Thursday that it has raised $1.35 billion for its latest growth fund to invest in mature startups. That’s nearly a quarter less than the $1.75 billion it raised for its last growth fund in 2021.The smaller fund is a tacit admission by one of the industry’s leaders... Accel, a blue-blood of Sand Hill Road, is thinking smaller.The firm publicly filed Thursday that...

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic. Photo by Getty

How Will Anthropic Navigate a Trump Presidency?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 19, 2024 7:22am PST · 1 comment

Lately, AI developer Anthropic has been riding high, with its models’ impressive performance on tasks like code generation helping it to poach customers from its larger rival, OpenAI. What many people haven’t realized, though, is how Anthropic might be disadvantaged in the upcoming Trump era.Anthropic has connections to the effective altruism... Lately, AI developer Anthropic has been riding high, with its models’ impressive performance on...

Nvidia's Jensen Huang (left) and Supermicro's Charles Liang at a conference in Taiwan in June. Photo via Getty

U.S. Prompts Nvidia, Supermicro Probe Into How Chips Ended Up in China

By The Information Staff · Dec 19, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

To figure out how its advanced artificial intelligence chips are ending up in China in violation of U.S. export laws, chip giant Nvidia has turned to companies like Super Micro Computer for answers. Nvidia generally doesn’t sell its chips directly to customers, relying instead on specialized dealers and server companies like Supermicro, as... To figure out how its advanced artificial intelligence chips are ending up in China in violation...

Art by Clark Miller

TikTok Drama’s Next Cliff-Hanger Episode Set in Supreme Court

By Martin Peers · Dec 18, 2024 5:00pm PST

Art by Clark Miller

TikTok Drama’s Next Cliff-Hanger Episode Set in Supreme Court

By Martin Peers · Dec 18, 2024 5:00pm PST

We’ve got a new cliff-hanger episode in the seemingly endless drama over TikTok’s future. This time, the stars will be John Roberts and his band of Supreme Court justices. The highest court in the land on Wednesday said it would hear oral arguments on Jan. 10 in TikTok’s appeal against the ban-or-sell law that threatens the app’s existence. (If... We’ve got a new cliff-hanger episode in the seemingly endless drama over TikTok’s future. This...

Partner Content

Recap: Use Cases, ROI, and What’s Next for 2025?

By The Information Partnerships · Dec 18, 2024 3:39pm PST

With the dramatic innovations from generative AI, companies want to move beyond the experimentation phase to tangible business results. But moving from pilot to production requires business leaders to make important decisions about which tools to use, how to mitigate risks and when to scale. During a recent live video summit, Jon Victor... With the dramatic innovations from generative AI, companies want to move beyond the...

Partner Content

Looking Ahead: AI in 2025 and Beyond

By The Information Partnerships · Dec 18, 2024 3:38pm PST

The Information asked readers how they envision the progress of artificial intelligence in 2025 and beyond. How much do we already know about AI’s potential and what remains unknown? What are the implementation lessons coming from 2024, and are companies using them to make changes going forward? Is AI going to pay off investors,... The Information asked readers how they envision the progress of artificial intelligence in 2025...

Photo by Getty

Creator Economy

TikTok's Trip to Supreme Court Could Play Out in Three Main Ways

By Kaya Yurieff · Dec 18, 2024 2:58pm PST

Well that was fast! The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would take up TikTok’s appeal challenging a U.S. law that could ban the video app next month.Just two days earlier, TikTok had asked the Supreme Court to temporarily halt the law. But the court on Wednesday deferred a decision on granting such a freeze until after oral arguments, which... Well that was fast! The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would take up TikTok’s appeal...

Photo by Yueqi Yang

Crypto Insiders Race for Advisory Council Slots

By Yueqi Yang · Dec 18, 2024 11:11am PST · 3 comments

Photo by Yueqi Yang

Reporters' Notebook

Crypto Insiders Race for Advisory Council Slots

By Yueqi Yang · Dec 18, 2024 11:11am PST · 3 comments

When crypto executives and policy advisers gathered in Washington this week to discuss regulation under President-elect Donald Trump, one question loomed large: How does one land a seat on the crypto advisory council that Trump’s artificial intelligence and crypto czar David Sacks is planning to convene? Sacks, a venture capitalist and... When crypto executives and policy advisers gathered in Washington this week to discuss regulation...

Courtesy of EQTY LAB.

Meet the Startup Making GPUs More Secure for AI

By Anissa Gardizy · Dec 18, 2024 7:37am PST

When I ask business executives about their use of cloud providers’ generative AI tools, I’m often reminded that many firms don’t yet process sensitive data in cloud servers because they’re concerned about the security of the data. Cloud providers have long used encryption to protect data when it’s stored or moving from one location to the next.... When I ask business executives about their use of cloud providers’ generative AI tools, I’m often...

Marc Benioff. Art by Clark Miller; Benioff image via Getty.

AI Is Marc Benioff’s Friend—and Foe

By Jon Victor and Kevin McLaughlin · Dec 18, 2024 6:00am PST · 2 comments

In the weeks after Salesforce unveiled Agentforce in September, its new artificial intelligence agent—a software tool that automates business tasks—CEO Marc Benioff had an aggressive demand for his sales teams. In all-hands sales meetings, he ordered that Agentforce must be part of every deal they complete with customers, said a... In the weeks after Salesforce unveiled Agentforce in September, its new artificial intelligence...

Images via Getty.

Amazon v. SpaceX in Taiwan

By Theo Wayt · Dec 17, 2024 5:00pm PST

As Amazon looks to sell its nascent satellite internet service to foreign governments, a big part of its pitch ought to be: Jeff Bezos and Andy Jassy are not Elon Musk. That seems to be the appeal for Taiwan, which on Tuesday revealed it was talking with Amazon about a “collaboration” with the company’s Project Kuiper satellite internet service.... As Amazon looks to sell its nascent satellite internet service to foreign governments, a big part...

Photo by Getty

The Under-the-Radar Investors That Wrote Massive Checks to Databricks

By Cory Weinberg · Dec 17, 2024 3:31pm PST

Photo by Getty

The Under-the-Radar Investors That Wrote Massive Checks to Databricks

By Cory Weinberg · Dec 17, 2024 3:31pm PST

Many of the investment firms that wrote some of the largest checks into Databricks’ record-smashing $10 billion fundraising haul announced Tuesday are among the tech world’s best known venture names, such as Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital and Insight Partners.Then there’s an investment giant that is expected to wire at least $300 million to... Many of the investment firms that wrote some of the largest checks into Databricks’...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Nvidia Says It Could Build a Cloud Business Rivaling AWS. Is That Possible?

By Anissa Gardizy and Kevin McLaughlin · Dec 17, 2024 2:49pm PST · 2 comments

In the past two years, Nvidia has quietly gone into competition with its biggest customers: cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. Nvidia now rents out servers powered by its artificial intelligence chips to businesses directly, and also provides software to help them develop AI applications. Nvidia says it is already among... In the past two years, Nvidia has quietly gone into competition with its biggest customers: cloud...

Photos by Getty.

Creator Economy

The Year In Charts, From Podcasts to Startup Funding

By Kaya Yurieff · Dec 17, 2024 2:00pm PST

We published a ton of our popular charts and tables this year, comparing everything from TikTok’s growing list of rivals to shifts in how creators make money. After looking back at our work, three data points stand out for representing major themes in the creator economy this year.First up: podcasting’s big boom. The most popular hosts,... We published a ton of our popular charts and tables this year, comparing everything from TikTok’s...

Via Talkie.

A Booming Competitor to Character.AI Plots Its Next Move

By Juro Osawa · Dec 17, 2024 7:05am PST

Many of you may not have heard of Talkie, a competitor to Character.AI in providing personalized artificial intelligence chatbots.But Talkie, developed by Chinese firm MiniMax, is one of the most-downloaded AI apps in the U.S., according to multiple firms that track downloads. Its core base of users is young people, many of whom use the app for... Many of you may not have heard of Talkie, a competitor to Character.AI in providing personalized...

Jensen Huang. Photos by Getty.

China Poised to Investigate More U.S. Tech Deals After Nvidia Probe

By Jing Yang and Qianer Liu · Dec 17, 2024 4:30am PST

Jensen Huang. Photos by Getty.

China Poised to Investigate More U.S. Tech Deals After Nvidia Probe

By Jing Yang and Qianer Liu · Dec 17, 2024 4:30am PST

As the U.S. restricts China’s access to American technology, Beijing is striking back—with antitrust reviews of both ongoing and long-completed acquisitions. The Chinese antitrust regulator’s decision a week ago to investigate Nvidia for alleged violations of antitrust rules in relation to its 2020 purchase of Mellanox... As the U.S. restricts China’s access to American technology, Beijing is striking...