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

Art by Clark Miller

California’s Proposed Regulation Would Strengthen, Not Harm, AI

By AnnaLee Saxenian · Jul 25, 2024 10:28am PDT · 6 comments

Silicon Valley’s success has spawned some pernicious myths, most notably the glorification of the lone entrepreneur working in a garage, unfettered by government oversight. A closely related myth holds that regulation always jeopardizes innovation and technological progress, because government can’t wisely oversee technological... Silicon Valley’s success has spawned some pernicious myths, most notably the glorification...

Photo via AP.

Is OpenAI a Good Business?

By Amir Efrati · Jul 25, 2024 7:00am PDT · 5 comments

In April this year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was asked during a talk at Stanford University about our report that his company had lost more than $500 million in 2022, just as it was releasing ChatGPT, and whether he was generally concerned about losses. His answer: "Whether we burn $500 million a year or $5 billion or $50 billion, I don't... In April this year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was asked during a talk at Stanford University about...

Art by Mike Sullivan

How Snapchat Struggled to Protect Teens From Drug Dealing, ‘Sextortion’

By Erin Woo · Jul 25, 2024 6:00am PDT

In the spring of 2021, Snap leapt into action. After the teenage son of a television host died from what his parents said were fentanyl-laced Xanax pills purchased on Snapchat—Snap’s social media app—the company declared a “code red,” an expression it uses for its highest-priority projects, according to two people... In the spring of 2021, Snap leapt into action. After the teenage son of a television host died...

Photo: Bloomberg/Getty

The Electric: The Case for Tesla Not to Make Robotaxis

By Steve LeVine · Jul 25, 2024 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

Photo: Bloomberg/Getty

The Electric: The Case for Tesla Not to Make Robotaxis

By Steve LeVine · Jul 25, 2024 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

Sales of Tesla’s electric vehicles are falling, its profit margins are shrinking and investors show little near-term faith in CEO Elon Musk’s plan for deploying autonomous Robotaxis. Tesla shares fell 12% Wednesday, one day after a lackluster second-quarter earnings report, trimming what had been a 73% runup since late April. Sales of Tesla’s electric vehicles are falling, its profit margins are shrinking and investors...

Tech investors have recently paid more attention to glitzy generative AI startups than more traditional machine learning companies.

Stock Sell-Off, OneStream and AI

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 24, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Tech investors often embody the distracted boyfriend meme—the stock image where a man looks back admiringly at another woman, to the horror of his girlfriend. In that same vein, investors are always looking for the next hot thing. Companies working on earlier iterations of artificial intelligence technology, like machine learning, must have felt... Tech investors often embody the distracted boyfriend meme—the stock image where a man looks back...

Photo via Getty.

Creator Economy

How One Startup Is Using AI to Keep Readers Hooked

By Ann Gehan · Jul 24, 2024 2:30pm PDT

Fan fiction that riffs on beloved stories has long been popular with readers who can’t get enough of their favorite writers. Now, a Khosla Ventures-backed startup is trying to make it even easier for readers to satisfy their appetite.Inkitt, a startup that lets writers self-publish books and uses artificial intelligence to edit, distribute and... Fan fiction that riffs on beloved stories has long been popular with readers who can’t get enough...

The People in Charge at Databricks as It Moves Toward a Potential IPO

By Akash Pasricha · Jul 24, 2024 10:04am PDT · 1 comment

Seven data scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, founded Databricks in 2013 to build a business around open-source software for data storage and analysis. As the company nears a possible initial public offering 11 years later, Databricks can boast a rare feat for startups its age: Nearly all of its co-founders still work there.... Seven data scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, founded Databricks in 2013 to...

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. Photo by Getty

Nvidia Devises Special Server Design to Boost China Sales

By Qianer Liu · Jul 24, 2024 7:49am PDT · 1 comment

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. Photo by Getty

Nvidia Devises Special Server Design to Boost China Sales

By Qianer Liu · Jul 24, 2024 7:49am PDT · 1 comment

Nvidia has a new workaround to U.S. export rules that block the sale of the most advanced artificial intelligence chips to China—pairing the chips with a special server. The company will next year launch a new AI chip specially tailored for the Chinese market that will be sold alongside a new server designed to maximize the performance of... Nvidia has a new workaround to U.S. export rules that block the sale of the most advanced...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

What Meta's Largest Llama Model is Missing

By Kalley Huang · Jul 24, 2024 7:00am PDT

If you haven’t caught our analysis of OpenAI’s finances in a story we published this morning, it’s worth a read. My colleagues Amir and Aaron have gone deep on how much the ChatGPT creator is spending on computing capacity and other expenses, based on previously undisclosed internal data. Paired with estimates of revenue, they’ve put a... If you haven’t caught our analysis of OpenAI’s finances in a story we published this morning, it’...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Why OpenAI Could Lose $5 Billion This Year

By Amir Efrati and Aaron Holmes · Jul 24, 2024 6:00am PDT · 14 comments

OpenAI has built one of the fastest-growing businesses in history. It may also be one of the costliest to run. The ChatGPT maker could lose as much as $5 billion this year, according to an analysis by The Information, based on previously undisclosed internal financial data and people involved in the business. If we’re right, OpenAI, most... OpenAI has built one of the fastest-growing businesses in history. It may also be one of the...

Photo by Anadolu via Getty.

Is Amazon to Blame for YouTube’s Ad Slowdown?

By Martin Peers · Jul 23, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Google kicked off big tech’s portion of the summer earnings season with what seemed a middle-of-the-road report. Artificial intelligence appeared to give Google Cloud a bit of a lift, while search delivered another decent quarter. The outlier, surprisingly, was YouTube, for which ad growth slowed meaningfully.That raises the question of whether... Google kicked off big tech’s portion of the summer earnings season with what seemed a...

Vice President Kamala Harris arriving in Milwaukee this morning. Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty. (edited)

Venture Capitalists Swap AI Valuations for Political Debates

By Kate Clark · Jul 23, 2024 3:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Vice President Kamala Harris arriving in Milwaukee this morning. Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty. (edited)

Venture Capitalists Swap AI Valuations for Political Debates

By Kate Clark · Jul 23, 2024 3:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Greetings from San Francisco, where unprecedented political chaos has forced venture capitalists into political debates.Last week, it seemed as if all of Silicon Valley had rallied behind former President Donald Trump. Now, Silicon Valley’s Democrats are becoming more vocal, with a candidate they can openly support in Vice President Kamala... Greetings from San Francisco, where unprecedented political chaos has forced venture capitalists...

Vice President Kamala Harris picked up the endorsement of British singer Charli XCX, sparking memes across social media. Photo via Getty.

Creator Economy

Kamala Harris's Brat Summer; More AI Chatbots for Creators

By Julia Hornstein · Jul 23, 2024 2:25pm PDT

Are you having a brat summer? (I certainly am: I’m, literally, “so Julia,” as brat summer creator Charli XCX sings in her song “360,” referencing actress and model Julia Fox.) An outpouring of memes mentioning Kamala Harris on TikTok and X, formerly Twitter, might suggest that the vice president-turned-presidential candidate is having a brat... Are you having a brat summer? (I certainly am: I’m, literally, “so Julia,” as brat summer creator...

Reed Hastings Backs Pro-Kamala Harris PAC with $7 Million Donation

By Julia Black · Jul 23, 2024 1:40pm PDT · 2 comments

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has given $7 million to a super PAC supporting Kamala Harris’s run for president, the Republican Accountability PAC. Hastings said it was his biggest donation ever in support of a single candidate. The gift comes less than a month after Hastings joined the chorus of major Democratic donors asking... Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has given $7 million to a super PAC supporting Kamala...

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri. Photo by Anadolu via Getty.

Meta Employees Debate Merits of Threads’ No-Politics Policy

By Kalley Huang and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jul 23, 2024 1:29pm PDT · 2 comments

Shortly after Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential election Sunday, an employee at Meta Platforms posted in the company’s internal forum that Threads, its text app, was missing in action. “Biden dropped out 20 [minutes] ago and I can’t find anything on it in my feed,” the employee wrote in the post, which The... Shortly after Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential election Sunday, an employee at Meta...

OpenAI’s Aleksander Mądry. Photo by Ben Hider/O'Reilly Conferences via Flickr.

OpenAI Removes AI Safety Leader Mądry, a Onetime Ally of CEO Altman

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 23, 2024 12:51pm PDT

OpenAI’s Aleksander Mądry. Photo by Ben Hider/O'Reilly Conferences via Flickr.

OpenAI Removes AI Safety Leader Mądry, a Onetime Ally of CEO Altman

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 23, 2024 12:51pm PDT

OpenAI has reassigned the executive in charge of ensuring that its artificial intelligence won’t harm society to a different role within its research organization, the company told staffers last week. The executive, Aleksander Mądry, set up OpenAI’s Preparedness team last year to evaluate AI models for “catastrophic... OpenAI has reassigned the executive in charge of ensuring that its artificial intelligence...

Subscriber Survey

Stocks Are Near Record Highs, but Readers See a Correction Coming

By Akash Pasricha · Jul 23, 2024 10:21am PDT

Major stock market indexes are at or near record highs, but nearly three-quarters of The Information’s readers expect a correction of at least 10% within the next year. And nearly six in 10 think private companies are even more overvalued than public companies, according to our latest survey. Sentiment around Nvidia in our survey fell by a... Major stock market indexes are at or near record highs, but nearly three-quarters of The...

An Apple store in Shanghai. Photo by NurPhoto via Getty Images.

Apple Moves Forward With Foldable iPhone

By Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu · Jul 23, 2024 8:10am PDT · 5 comments

Apple is working on a foldable iPhone that could be released as early as 2026 and in recent months reached out to suppliers in Asia to make components for the device, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The phone would fold widthwise like a clamshell, the people said. That would make it similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z... Apple is working on a foldable iPhone that could be released as early as 2026 and in recent...

Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez. Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Getty Images.

Why Cohere’s $5.5 Billion Valuation Isn’t What It Seems; Perplexity’s Data Sources Draw Questions

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 23, 2024 7:00am PDT

On Monday, Cohere, a Canadian large language model developer, announced it had raised $500 million in a deal led by Canadian pension fund PSP Investments at a $5.5 billion valuation, confirming our report from March.That valuation isn’t cheap. Around the time of the investment, the startup was generating $35 million in annualized revenue,... On Monday, Cohere, a Canadian large language model developer, announced it had raised $500...

Drink Startups Get Thirsty

Drink Startups Get Thirsty

By Ann Gehan · Jul 23, 2024 6:11am PDT · 1 comment

Drink Startups Get Thirsty

Drink Startups Get Thirsty

By Ann Gehan · Jul 23, 2024 6:11am PDT · 1 comment

Shoppers these days have a wide range of drink options to choose from, from probiotic kombucha to lychee-flavored sparkling water, thanks to an investment boom in beverage startups three years back. As welcome as that may be for parched consumers, the flood of new drink options is turning into a headache for young drink companies such as Recess,... Shoppers these days have a wide range of drink options to choose from, from probiotic kombucha to...