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

Art by Clark Miller

Legal Threats, Google Competition Loom Over Perplexity’s ‘Newbie CEO’

By Kevin Mclaughlin · Oct 25, 2024 9:00am PDT · 2 comments

Aravind Srinivas didn’t set out to earn a reputation as one of the media’s biggest tech villains. It just kind of happened. Over the summer, Forbes and Wired angrily accused Srinivas’ AI search startup, Perplexity, of plagiarizing their paywalled content. In one case, Perplexity had lifted portions of a Forbes story and used it... Aravind Srinivas didn’t set out to earn a reputation as one of the media’s biggest...

Pictured: Logos of Viture, Aruna and Tezza, three companies on this year's edition of The Information 50.

Pro Weekly: The Numbers Behind This Year’s Most Promising Startups

By Akash Pasricha · Oct 25, 2024 8:00am PDT

The technology world often fixates on how much venture capital startups raise. But perhaps more interesting are the companies that generate meaningful revenue without raising any venture capital at all.Tezza, a 12-person startup running a video- and photo-editing business, is one such company. It is generating $37 million in annual recurring... The technology world often fixates on how much venture capital startups raise. But perhaps more...

Photo Credit: Erin Beach

Partner Content

WTF Summit Recap: Women Leaders Tap Their Inner Lioness

By The Information Partnerships · Oct 25, 2024 7:55am PDT

At 6:30 a.m. on a crisp Napa morning, over 30 of America’s most powerful women broke into teams to extract a target balancing precariously inside a minefield. The target was an 80-pound punching bag; the mines were a mix of cones, mats, mace bars and superbands strewn throughout a field to create an obstacle course. The women—a mix... At 6:30 a.m. on a crisp Napa morning, over 30 of America’s most powerful women broke into...

Dave Chen, one of Morgan Stanley's heads of tech investment banking. Photo via Morgan Stanley.

Why the IPO Market Is Sleeping as the Stock Market Roars

By Cory Weinberg · Oct 25, 2024 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

Dave Chen, one of Morgan Stanley's heads of tech investment banking. Photo via Morgan Stanley.

Why the IPO Market Is Sleeping as the Stock Market Roars

By Cory Weinberg · Oct 25, 2024 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

A curious disconnect has fractured the world of tech investing. The market for initial public offerings has stayed stagnant for the third straight year, with bankers projecting a below-average number again next year. The stock market, meanwhile, is at all-time highs, led by big tech stocks like Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Apple. “You would... A curious disconnect has fractured the world of tech investing. The market for initial public...

Photo via Getty

A Silicon Valley Divided

By Jessica E. Lessin · Oct 24, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

One of the developments I didn’t predict at the start of the year was the rise in support for Donald Trump among members of the tech elite—like Elon Musk. Musk aside, there’s no question that Silicon Valley elites are more politically divided than they have been for at least the last 20 years I have reported on them. The Valley’s most... One of the developments I didn’t predict at the start of the year was the rise in support for...

HRZ Han River co-founder Chris Koh. Photo via HRZ Han River.

Coupang Co-Founder’s $100 Million VC Fund Wants to Fund the ‘Korea Graph’

By Kate Clark · Oct 24, 2024 3:00pm PDT

New venture capitalists are climbing a wall of skepticism when they raise new funds, particularly as they compete with established firms like General Catalyst, which just raised $8 billion. Even veterans of some of the most successful startups are finding it tough.That was the case for Chris Koh, co-founder of Korean e-commerce giant Coupang. He... New venture capitalists are climbing a wall of skepticism when they raise new funds, particularly...

Tezza Barton, co-founder of photo and video editing app Tezza. Photo courtesy of Barton

Creator Economy

2024’s Most Promising Creator Startups

By Kaya Yurieff · Oct 24, 2024 2:00pm PDT

On Thursday, The Information released its annual list of the 50 Most Promising Startups, which included six companies focused on providing services for creators and consumers. We chose companies that we think have the potential to be the most valuable businesses in their sectors based on our reporting, including their revenue and... On Thursday, The Information released its annual list of the 50 Most Promising Startups, which...

Arjun Sethi. Photo via Collison Conference/Flickr.

Kraken Set to Add Investor Arjun Sethi as Co-CEO

By Kate Clark and Yueqi Yang · Oct 24, 2024 1:33pm PDT

Arjun Sethi. Photo via Collison Conference/Flickr.

Kraken Set to Add Investor Arjun Sethi as Co-CEO

By Kate Clark and Yueqi Yang · Oct 24, 2024 1:33pm PDT

Arjun Sethi, a co-founder of venture capital firm Tribe Capital, is expected to be named co-CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, working alongside its existing CEO, Dave Ripley, according to two people familiar with the matter. Kraken, founded in 2011, is one of the biggest and oldest U.S. crypto exchanges, and its executives have talked about... Arjun Sethi, a co-founder of venture capital firm Tribe Capital, is expected to be named co-CEO...

Screenshot from viral AI-generated video of Gordon Ramsay made on Hailuo. Photos via YouTube/Adobe.

Chinese Apps Notch Early Wins in AI Video

By Juro Osawa · Oct 24, 2024 11:15am PDT

Videos of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay making a chaotic mess in a kitchen went viral in the U.S. on TikTok, Instagram and X over the past month. The short clips were generated by a Chinese artificial intelligence video-generation app called Hailuo. Hailuo, developed by Shanghai-based startup MiniMax, is one of several Chinese AI video-generator... Videos of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay making a chaotic mess in a kitchen went viral in the U.S....

Art by Mike Sullivan

The Information 50

How Last Year’s Picks for The Information 50 Have Fared

By Akash Pasricha · Oct 24, 2024 10:00am PDT

Last year’s entries in The Information’s 50 Most Promising Startups have been masterful fundraisers, even as global venture funding has slipped in 2024 compared with last year. At least 21 of the companies our reporters selected a year ago have raised additional funding since then. At least 10 have either raised more than $100... Last year’s entries in The Information’s 50 Most Promising Startups have been...

Photo via Adobe.

Open-Source AI Struggles to Close Gap with Closed Rivals

By Kalley Huang · Oct 24, 2024 8:54am PDT · 1 comment

Over the past week, artificial intelligence developers have posted rave reviews on X and Reddit about the quality of Nemotron, a series of large language models Nvidia built using Meta Platforms’ open-source Llama model.The buzz about Nemotron rekindled questions about whether the race between open- and closed-source models is tightening. The... Over the past week, artificial intelligence developers have posted rave reviews on X and Reddit...

Products courtesy of the companies.

Introducing The Information’s 50 Most Promising Startups for 2024

By Scott Thurm · Oct 24, 2024 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

Products courtesy of the companies.

The Information 50

Introducing The Information’s 50 Most Promising Startups for 2024

By Scott Thurm · Oct 24, 2024 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

Artificial intelligence has accomplished many things, but few are as dramatic as the way it has supercharged investing in startups. Just look at the recent headlines: OpenAI raised $6 billion at a valuation of $157 billion. Anthropic is looking to raise funding at a valuation of $40 billion. That posed challenges for our reporters seeking... Artificial intelligence has accomplished many things, but few are as dramatic as the way it has...

Photo: Adobe

The Electric: Musk Warns Rivals They Will Regret Not Making Fully Autonomous EVs

By Steve LeVine · Oct 24, 2024 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has staked the company’s future more clearly than ever on autonomous vehicles, saying Tesla would not make a driver-controlled car costing $25,000. In remarks to analysts Wednesday evening, he urged rivals to follow Tesla’s example and develop their own autonomous vehicles, but offered few new details on Tesla’s... Tesla CEO Elon Musk has staked the company’s future more clearly than ever on autonomous...

Photo via Adobe

Musk’s Tesla Turnaround

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

Today Elon Musk had some good news to report about Tesla for a change. The electric vehicle maker’s third-quarter results on Wednesday were the strongest in 12 months, with a return to growth in auto revenues after two quarters of decline and the revelation that the Cybertruck had turned profitable. Tesla even projected it would finish this year... Today Elon Musk had some good news to report about Tesla for a change. The electric vehicle maker...

Photo via YouTube/Call Her Daddy.

Creator Economy

Podcasts Emerge as Battleground for Trump and Harris

By Rocket Drew · Oct 23, 2024 3:02pm PDT

With only 12 days (!) left before the presidential election, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are still trying to reach potential voters. One way is by appearing on popular podcasts, where they can speak to listeners directly—and often avoid tougher questions from traditional journalists. As the chart below shows, Trump has been on at... With only 12 days (!) left before the presidential election, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are...

Art via Clark Miller

The Startup Fueling OpenAI and Anthropic’s Coding Race

By Amir Efrati · Oct 23, 2024 11:55am PDT · 2 comments

Art via Clark Miller

The Startup Fueling OpenAI and Anthropic’s Coding Race

By Amir Efrati · Oct 23, 2024 11:55am PDT · 2 comments

Last fall, several Google artificial intelligence leaders met with Jonathan Siddharth, CEO of a startup that sells access to part-time software engineers on demand. The Google managers asked Siddharth whether the startup, Turing, could use its army of human programmers to teach Google’s AI to be better at completing coding tasks, according... Last fall, several Google artificial intelligence leaders met with Jonathan Siddharth, CEO of a...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Temu 2.0 Attacks Amazon’s Achilles’ Heel

By Jing Yang and Theo Wayt · Oct 23, 2024 7:26am PDT

Temu is making swift progress in winning over popular Amazon merchants to sell on its bargain site, thanks to a simple pitch: It’s much cheaper for merchants to sell on Temu than on Amazon. Temu has already added more than 60% of major China-based Amazon sellers of products like bedding sets and vacuum cleaners and is enlisting U.S.-based... Temu is making swift progress in winning over popular Amazon merchants to sell on its bargain...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo via Getty.

Anthropic Pulls Ahead in the AI Agent Race

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

In the tight race between well-funded developers of conversational AI, Anthropic has suddenly made some real gains.The startup on Tuesday announced new software that completes tasks for people, such as building a website or editing a spreadsheet. The feature, called “computer use,” means that Anthropic’s Claude model can actually view users’... In the tight race between well-funded developers of conversational AI, Anthropic has suddenly...

Apple Sharply Scales Back Production of Vision Pro

By Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu · Oct 23, 2024 6:00am PDT

Apple has sharply scaled back production of its Vision Pro mixed reality headset since the early summer and could stop making the existing version of the device entirely by year end, according to multiple people directly involved in building components for the device. The move suggests that Apple has enough inventory built up to meet demand for... Apple has sharply scaled back production of its Vision Pro mixed reality headset since the early...

MrBeast. Photo via Getty

‘Let It Slowly Die.’ MrBeast’s Irate Texts Over Burger Deal Revealed in Court Docs

By Kaya Yurieff · Oct 22, 2024 5:15pm PDT

MrBeast. Photo via Getty

Creator Economy

‘Let It Slowly Die.’ MrBeast’s Irate Texts Over Burger Deal Revealed in Court Docs

By Kaya Yurieff · Oct 22, 2024 5:15pm PDT

MrBeast so wishes he had not entered that burger deal! That’s one of the takeaways from a series of angry and regretful messages sent by YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson to a business confidant months before he sued the restaurant operator. The exchanges, part of a deluge of new court filings and exhibits, show Donaldson and colleagues discussing a... MrBeast so wishes he had not entered that burger deal! That’s one of the takeaways from a series...