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

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OpenAI’s ‘Yeet’ Social Feed Aims to Fix ChatGPT Usability

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 16, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

If you didn’t think OpenAI had enough on its plate already, you might now. Yesterday we got news—confirmed by my colleague Amir—that the company is developing an X-like social feed within ChatGPT, in part so that users can share how they’re using the chatbot to solve problems or create images.There are a couple reasons why this sort of product... If you didn’t think OpenAI had enough on its plate already, you might now. Yesterday we got news—...

Sundar Pichai at Google I/O 2024. Photo by Getty

Google’s Search for Its AI Future

By Erin Woo · Apr 16, 2025 6:00am PDT

Next week, a federal judge will start the process of determining how to fix Google’s search engine, which he ruled last summer was an illegal monopoly. No matter what he decides, though, artificial intelligence is already upending the future of Google Search. Over the past two years, as OpenAI’s ChatGPT has grown more popular, Google has... Next week, a federal judge will start the process of determining how to fix Google’s search...

Daniel Matheson, lead attorney for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, exits court today. Photo via Getty.

Could Meta Have Made Snap a Success?

By Martin Peers · Apr 15, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Mark Zuckerberg is very confident in his own abilities. His testimony in the government’s antitrust trial today—as reported by my colleague Kalley Huang—made clear his belief that both Twitter and Snap would have been better off if they had accepted the buyout bids he made early in their lives. By the same token, he believes Instagram today is... Mark Zuckerberg is very confident in his own abilities. His testimony in the government’s...

Coachella 2025's first weekend. Photo via Getty.

Figma IPO Filing Defies Economic Gloom

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 15, 2025 3:45pm PDT · 1 comment

Coachella 2025's first weekend. Photo via Getty.

Figma IPO Filing Defies Economic Gloom

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 15, 2025 3:45pm PDT · 1 comment

Figma on Tuesday threw a bone to the bankers, lawyers and other advisers who make their living by taking tech companies public. The software firm, which we have reported was planning to list this year, announced it had confidentially filed for an initial public offering. The listing, of course, won’t be for months. There are rounds of... Figma on Tuesday threw a bone to the bankers, lawyers and other advisers who make their living by...

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri exiting federal court on April 4 after a tutorial ahead of the FTC case. Photo via Getty.

Creator Economy

Instagram’s Influencer Dilemma Reaches Back Years

By Kalley Huang · Apr 15, 2025 2:40pm PDT

Instagram users have long complained that the app, which in the early 2010s became a must-have social network for millennials, has lost its way as it prioritizes creators. Emails from this week’s trial to determine whether Instagram-parent Meta Platforms violated antitrust law show how the company’s top executives debated the topic as far... Instagram users have long complained that the app, which in the early 2010s became a must-have...

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg leaving a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Photo via Getty

Zuckerberg Considered Instagram Spinoff, Court Hears

By Kalley Huang · Apr 15, 2025 12:01pm PDT

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested spinning off Instagram seven years ago, in part because Instagram’s growth was eroding Facebook’s edge and he worried about an eventual breakup by regulators, according to newly disclosed emails shown in court on the second day of an antitrust trial between the Federal Trade Commission and Meta. The... Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested spinning off Instagram seven years ago, in part...

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At LinkedIn, the Line Between Engineer and Designer Is Blurring

By Jon Victor · Apr 15, 2025 10:05am PDT

In an era of vibe coding and artificial intelligence that can build a professional-looking webpage based on a simple prompt, the lines separating software engineers, designers and product managers are getting blurry.At LinkedIn, for example, company leaders are encouraging engineers to use AI to speed up design work and designers to use AI to... In an era of vibe coding and artificial intelligence that can build a professional-looking...

Why VC Investors and Startups Should Be Worried About the Bond Market

By Anita Ramaswamy · Apr 15, 2025 10:00am PDT · 2 comments

Why VC Investors and Startups Should Be Worried About the Bond Market

By Anita Ramaswamy · Apr 15, 2025 10:00am PDT · 2 comments

Last week’s surge in interest rates, sparked by President Donald Trump’s tariff moves, might end a recent uptick in venture capital investing. Global VC deal value hit $126.3 billion in the first quarter, its highest level in nearly three years, according to data provider PitchBook. The rebound came as the Federal Reserve started cutting... Last week’s surge in interest rates, sparked by President Donald Trump’s tariff moves, might end...

Sarah Owens. Image courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory

OpenAI’s Innovator’s Dilemma; Gemini’s Product Lead on What’s Next

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 15, 2025 7:00am PDT

ChatGPT is growing like gangbusters, but many people still don’t know how to utilize it properly or find it to be intimidating.Take Sarah Owens, a molecular biologist at Argonne National Laboratory, who we cited in an article we published Monday as a happy new user of OpenAI’s technology. While she’s got some good results from ChatGPT in... ChatGPT is growing like gangbusters, but many people still don’t know how to utilize it properly...

Art by Clark Miller; Musk image via Getty.

How Elon Musk Stopped Loving Cars and Left Tesla in the Lurch

By Steve LeVine · Apr 15, 2025 6:00am PDT · 17 comments

Early last year, Elon Musk decided that Tesla wouldn’t be an electric vehicle company anymore. It would keep making cars, but not the new, mass-market model that investors, many Tesla fans and his senior advisers were asking for. Instead, he would bet the company on artificial intelligence products like the Robotaxi and humanoid robots. He... Early last year, Elon Musk decided that Tesla wouldn’t be an electric vehicle company anymore. It...

Meta's Chief Legal Officer, Jennifer Newstead, arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Court House this morning. Photo via Getty.

Tech and Antitrust Trials Don’t Mix

By Martin Peers · Apr 14, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Antitrust trials and tech businesses don’t mix well. As was the case with the government’s ad tech case against Google last year, as well as its case against Meta Platforms, which went to trial in a Washington courtroom today, the lawsuits typically rest on years-old snapshots of an industry that are about as current as a picture you took of... Antitrust trials and tech businesses don’t mix well. As was the case with the government’s ad...

Art by Clark Miller.

Grüns Lands Valuation Around $500 Million as Supplement Startups Boom

By Ann Gehan · Apr 14, 2025 3:43pm PDT

Art by Clark Miller.

Grüns Lands Valuation Around $500 Million as Supplement Startups Boom

By Ann Gehan · Apr 14, 2025 3:43pm PDT

Investors are on a health kick and looking for new ways to tap into fast-growing brands in the nutrition sector. That includes pouring money into startups selling supplements, particularly those that offer new ways for people to load up on vitamins, protein and other ingredients. The latest example is two-year-old gummy supplement startup... Investors are on a health kick and looking for new ways to tap into fast-growing brands in the...

Art by Clark Miller

OpenAI’s Latest Breakthrough: AI That Comes Up With New Ideas

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Amir Efrati · Apr 14, 2025 7:30am PDT · 4 comments

Even as artificial intelligence has made strides in summarizing research papers or solving mathematical problems, professionals in many fields still believed humans would be in charge of coming up with ideas for new discoveries. Now AI is getting good at such brainstorming, too. OpenAI is preparing to launch new AI models as soon as this week... Even as artificial intelligence has made strides in summarizing research papers or solving...

Art by Mike Sullivan via Midjourney

Revenue Lags at AI Evaluation Startups

By Sri Muppidi · Apr 14, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Startups whose products evaluate artificial intelligence to make sure it isn’t making things up or delivering unsafe results, like Patronus and Braintrust, have caught the attention of investors. But previously undisclosed sales data from these and other startups selling evaluation software show corporate customers have been relatively slow to... Startups whose products evaluate artificial intelligence to make sure it isn’t making things up...

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Meta Antitrust Trial Tests Its Bid to Win White House Favor

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan and Kalley Huang · Apr 14, 2025 6:00am PDT

In the months after Donald Trump was elected president in November, Meta Platforms pulled out all the stops to get on his good side. So far though, it hasn’t helped its executives put an end to a long-running antitrust lawsuit that could potentially force Meta to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp. Barring an unlikely last-minute agreement between... In the months after Donald Trump was elected president in November, Meta Platforms pulled out all...

A Clarios battery manufacturing plant. Courtesy: Clarios

The Electric: Some Investors Are Using IRA Tax Credits to Pay Themselves

By Steve LeVine and Ken Brown · Apr 14, 2025 4:30am PDT

A Clarios battery manufacturing plant. Courtesy: Clarios

The Electric: Some Investors Are Using IRA Tax Credits to Pay Themselves

By Steve LeVine and Ken Brown · Apr 14, 2025 4:30am PDT

Since 2021, lead-acid battery maker Clarios has been talking about going public. But in January, the company said it was scrapping its plans for an initial public offering. That would normally have been a blow to the company’s owners, private equity firm Brookfield Asset Management and Canadian pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du... Since 2021, lead-acid battery maker Clarios has been talking about going public. But in January,...

Art by Clark Miller

A Safe Investment in Turbulent Times

By Sara Germano · Apr 12, 2025 7:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Patrick Collison’s political philosophy could change America • The Top 5: The very best podcasting gear• A look inside the Breakthrough Prize gala • Plus, our Recommendations: An “All-In” alternative; the liberal hoax that fueled deep-state paranoia; and John le Carré meets Agatha... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Patrick Collison’s political philosophy...

Art by Clark Miller

Silicon Valley’s Favorite Podcasting Gear

By Paris Martineau · Apr 12, 2025 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

When Ed Zitron launched his podcast “Better Offline” in 2024, a gift from the show’s publisher soon arrived at his Las Vegas home: an imposing seven-foot-tall black felt-clad box known as a VocalBooth. “It’s like a foam prison with lights inside it,” said Zitron. “It’s wonderful.” Nowadays, he steps inside the chamber usually once a week to “get... When Ed Zitron launched his podcast “Better Offline” in 2024, a gift from the show’s publisher...

Photo via Getty

Google’s Continuous Cost-Cutting

By Martin Peers · Apr 11, 2025 3:27pm PDT

Google appears to have learned a lesson from 2023, when its layoffs of 12,000 people, or 6.4% of its workforce, became big news and sparked anger among employees used to its cushy culture. In the past 18 months or so, Google has made a series of smaller cuts, mostly at the scale of “hundreds of people” each time, according to news reports in The... Google appears to have learned a lesson from 2023, when its layoffs of 12,000 people, or 6.4% of...

Trump’s Chaos & AI’s China Threat (with Joanna Coles)

By Jessica E. Lessin · Apr 11, 2025 2:58pm PDT

Trump’s Chaos & AI’s China Threat (with Joanna Coles)

By Jessica E. Lessin · Apr 11, 2025 2:58pm PDT

Jessica is joined by Daily Beast Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles to discuss the latest secret tech confabs and this wild, wild week. Apple Spotify Jessica is joined by Daily Beast Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles to discuss the latest secret...