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

An Apple store in Shanghai. Photo via Getty.

Apple’s Thin iPhone Has No Physical SIMs—That Could Dampen China Sales

By Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu · Nov 25, 2024 7:30am PST · 5 comments

Apple’s desire to make its products thinner could dampen sales in China if its engineers can’t overcome a design hurdle with the slim iPhone planned for release next fall—it can’t fit a physical SIM card tray, which is required in China. Apple plans to release its slim iPhone next year, alongside new versions of its... Apple’s desire to make its products thinner could dampen sales in China if its engineers...

Photo via Getty

Why Everyone Is Underestimating Reasoning Models

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Kalley Huang · Nov 25, 2024 7:00am PST

Some people in the artificial intelligence industry have been skeptical about whether reasoning models such as OpenAI’s o1 represent a paradigm shift. After all, the model hasn’t gotten much usage in ChatGPT. But these skeptics may not fully understand what reasoning models are actually good for.The queries that ChatGPT typically handles won’t... Some people in the artificial intelligence industry have been skeptical about whether reasoning...

Art by Clark Miller.

New Competitors Chase OpenAI in Reasoning AI Race

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Erin Woo · Nov 25, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

After OpenAI sparked a race this fall by releasing groundbreaking artificial intelligence known as reasoning AI, it seemed like the ChatGPT owner might run away with the market. Both Google and Microsoft scrambled to catch up with the technology, which aims to help users answer complex, multi-step questions, according to two people involved... After OpenAI sparked a race this fall by releasing groundbreaking artificial intelligence known...

Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson announces his resignation last week. Photo: Getty

The Electric: Northvolt’s Blunt Message to Fellow Battery Startups—Don’t Expect a Bailout

By Steve LeVine · Nov 25, 2024 4:30am PST · 2 comments

Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson announces his resignation last week. Photo: Getty

The Electric: Northvolt’s Blunt Message to Fellow Battery Startups—Don’t Expect a Bailout

By Steve LeVine · Nov 25, 2024 4:30am PST · 2 comments

Around a year ago, Swedish batterymaker Northvolt was feted in Europe and North America as the West’s answer to China’s dominance of lithium-ion battery production. The Quebec and Canadian governments committed $1.9 billion in subsidies toward a Northvolt battery plant near Montreal, and the EU provided a $5 billion loan toward a Northvolt... Around a year ago, Swedish batterymaker Northvolt was feted in Europe and North America as the...

Art by Clark Miller

From a Beeple to a Banana

By Abram Brown · Nov 23, 2024 7:00am PST

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Teens confront a new age of facial tech • Media: The young, male digital stars using YouTube to take over podcasts• The Top 5: Best AI books of 2024• Plus: Free Adnan! Free Keiko!; revisiting Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk tome; and a TV triumph about the Troubles.A few times a year, the... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Teens confront a new age of facial...

Synapse CEO Sankaet Pathak. Photo via YouTube/FinTech Silicon Valley.

Andreessen Investor Fought to Keep Synapse CEO Before Fintech Collapsed

By Michael Roddan · Nov 23, 2024 6:00am PST · 4 comments

Last year, the board of now-collapsed fintech startup Synapse Financial Technologies discussed whether to remove the company’s CEO, Sankaet Pathak. At the time, discrepancies in Synapse’s ledgers were piling up, which the board was aware of. Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Angela Strange argued in favor of keeping Pathak in the... Last year, the board of now-collapsed fintech startup Synapse Financial Technologies discussed...

Art by Clark Miller

Best AI Books of 2024: How to Use and Understand the Tech

By Rocket Drew · Nov 23, 2024 5:00am PST · 7 comments

Ray Kurzweil’s predictions about technological advancements have intrigued—and unnerved—people for decades. At 76, he’s still quite up to the task and threw out a whopper within minutes of sitting down with me. “When we achieve AGI in the 2030s, we’re going to actually merge this intelligence with... Ray Kurzweil’s predictions about technological advancements have intrigued—and...

Art by Clark Miller.

Rise of the Bro-Casters

By Taylor Lorenz · Nov 23, 2024 5:00am PST · 22 comments

Art by Clark Miller.

Rise of the Bro-Casters

By Taylor Lorenz · Nov 23, 2024 5:00am PST · 22 comments

About a year ago, Sean Kelly, then 26, decided to launch yet another business. Previously, he’d fooled around running a small drop-shipping company as a Rutgers University undergrad. Later he sold face masks and other personal protective equipment during the pandemic’s early days. Neither enterprise had really gone anywhere, and so... About a year ago, Sean Kelly, then 26, decided to launch yet another business. Previously,...

Former AWS CEO Adam Selipsky and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei during AWS re:Invent 2023 last November. Photo via Getty.

Anthropic Keeps Amazon in AI Contest

By Martin Peers · Nov 22, 2024 2:47pm PST

In Thursday’s Briefing newsletter, my colleague Cory Weinberg reported that bankers at Goldman Sachs’ private tech gathering this week had asked, “For big tech, is capex the new M&A?” as part of a slide presentation on the market. We got the answer today—yes, it is—when Amazon announced it was investing $4 billion more into Anthropic, the... In Thursday’s Briefing newsletter, my colleague Cory Weinberg reported that bankers at Goldman...

How to Move Forward After Forward (with Adrian Aoun)

By Jessica E. Lessin · Nov 22, 2024 10:19am PST · 1 comment

Most founders stay silent about their failures. Instead, Adrian Aoun, who just shut down his health care company Forward after raising nearly half a billion dollars, accepted our invitation to come on the pod. I really enjoyed our conversation, which holds a lot of lessons for founders. And I couldn't help get some sharp questions in myself.... Most founders stay silent about their failures. Instead, Adrian Aoun, who just shut down his...

Art by Clark Miller

A Complex New Age of Face Tech

By Paris Martineau · Nov 22, 2024 9:03am PST · 3 comments

In September, Instagram unveiled a splashy new feature called Teen Accounts, an effort by Meta Platforms, the app’s owner, to show it’s better protecting young people with stricter privacy and safety settings. Suddenly, everyone on the app who had registered their age as 17 years or younger found themselves with an Instagram teen... In September, Instagram unveiled a splashy new feature called Teen Accounts, an effort by Meta...

Pro Weekly: The Companies Riding Trump's Coattails

Pro Weekly: The Companies Riding Trump's Coattails

By Akash Pasricha · Nov 22, 2024 8:00am PST

Pro Weekly: The Companies Riding Trump's Coattails

Pro Weekly: The Companies Riding Trump's Coattails

By Akash Pasricha · Nov 22, 2024 8:00am PST

Here’s another November comeback story: For more than a year, The Information’s readers have held starkly negative views about Coinbase’s prospects in our monthly surveys. This month, however, survey respondents were more bullish about the cryptocurrency exchange than about any of the 13 other companies on our list.The reason for the change of... Here’s another November comeback story: For more than a year, The Information’s readers have held...

Art by Shane Burke

Advertisers Retreat From Social Media Policing

By Catherine Perloff · Nov 22, 2024 6:00am PST · 3 comments

For several years, a favorite tactic of progressives agitating against social media and conservative news outlets has been pressuring marketers to pull their ads. Advertisers have frequently gone along with those campaigns, fearful of the negative publicity associated with their ads appearing on controversial sites. That’s starting to... For several years, a favorite tactic of progressives agitating against social media and...

Photo via Adobe

Is Capex the New M&A for Big Tech?

By Cory Weinberg · Nov 21, 2024 5:00pm PST

Goldman Sachs’ annual private tech conference this week was, from one angle, a study in East Coast realism versus West Coast optimism. Spreadsheets versus innovation. Bankers’ slacks versus Palmer Luckey’s shorts. One of the most high-profile founders on stage, Perplexity’s Aravind Srinivas, cited the satirical TV show “Silicon Valley” as... Goldman Sachs’ annual private tech conference this week was, from one angle, a study in East...

Together AI, Lambda Extend Funding Rush; Singapore to Back Wiz

Together AI, Lambda Extend Funding Rush; Singapore to Back Wiz

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Sri Muppidi · Nov 21, 2024 4:47pm PST

We’ve spent more than a year covering back-to-back financings of artificial intelligence startups. There’s no sign that trend is letting up, at least for startups that compete with major cloud providers by renting out servers with chips made by Nvidia, whose quarterly earnings report this week showed the AI party is still going strong.Together... We’ve spent more than a year covering back-to-back financings of artificial intelligence...

Caption: YouTube’s new gifts feature. Photos via YouTube.

Why YouTube and TikTok Are Pushing Live Tipping

By Rocket Drew · Nov 21, 2024 2:52pm PST

Caption: YouTube’s new gifts feature. Photos via YouTube.

Creator Economy

Why YouTube and TikTok Are Pushing Live Tipping

By Rocket Drew · Nov 21, 2024 2:52pm PST

Last week, YouTube began introducing jewels, virtual tips that fans can buy to send creators during livestreams. YouTubers can exchange these tips for cash, a penny per jewel. The Google-owned video site is the latest to get into live tipping, which has been popular for years on Twitch. As the chart below shows, most major social apps are... Last week, YouTube began introducing jewels, virtual tips that fans can buy to send creators...

OpenAI Considers Taking on Google With Browser

By Erin Woo, Sahil Patel and Amir Efrati · Nov 21, 2024 1:19pm PST · 3 comments

OpenAI is preparing to launch a frontal assault on Google. The ChatGPT owner recently considered developing a web browser that it would combine with its chatbot, and it has separately discussed or struck deals to power search features for travel, food, real estate and retail websites, according to people who have seen prototypes or... OpenAI is preparing to launch a frontal assault on Google. The ChatGPT owner recently...

From left: Brad Smith, Donald Trump and John Thune. Photos by Getty

Microsoft’s Brad Smith Sees Trump Boost to Data Centers, AI

By Aaron Holmes · Nov 21, 2024 9:06am PST · 2 comments

As Republicans sweeping to power in Washington call for bringing the great tech powers to heel, one of those big companies has mostly escaped their wrath: Microsoft. Brad Smith, the company’s president and main liaison to Washington, is trying to keep it that way. In the months before Donald Trump’s reelection, Microsoft staffers... As Republicans sweeping to power in Washington call for bringing the great tech powers to heel,...

Photo via Brave

The Startup Powering Perplexity, Meta's AI Search

By Kalley Huang · Nov 21, 2024 7:00am PST

There’s a lot of excitement around artificial intelligence disrupting search. Consumers and businesses increasingly use AI tools in lieu of traditional search engines such as Google. OpenAI has added search features to ChatGPT, Meta Platforms is crawling and indexing the web for its Meta AI chatbot and the AI search startup Perplexity is nearing... There’s a lot of excitement around artificial intelligence disrupting search. Consumers and...

Photo via Nasdaq.

Marketing Software Firm Braze Could Be a Hot Acquisition Target

By Anita Ramaswamy · Nov 21, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Photo via Nasdaq.

Marketing Software Firm Braze Could Be a Hot Acquisition Target

By Anita Ramaswamy · Nov 21, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

This isn’t the year to be in marketing software. Companies’ marketing spending as a percentage of sales is at a five-year low, according to data from Gartner. That has hurt big software companies like Salesforce and Adobe, which get a chunk of revenue from selling marketing tools. It’s also hurt smaller marketing software firms... This isn’t the year to be in marketing software. Companies’ marketing spending as a...