The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica E. Lessin and the team at The Information

Five times/week

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.

By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy

Recent Editions

Getty Images

Anthropic Models Can Be Cheaper to Use Than Chinese Ones, Study Finds

By Laura Bratton · Aug 13, 2026 12:03pm PDT

A recent analysis is challenging the idea that Chinese-made AI is cheaper than offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic. AlphaSense, a software firm that sells AI-powered search and market-research tools, released a study that found proprietary models from OpenAI and Anthropic are actually cheaper for performing some tasks, compared to... A recent analysis is challenging the idea that Chinese-made AI is cheaper than offerings from...

Why The AI Compute Crunch Is Hitting Neolabs Especially Hard

Why The AI Compute Crunch Is Hitting Neolabs Especially Hard

By Rocket Drew · Aug 13, 2026 7:00am PDT

The AI chip shortage is causing headaches for tech giants such as OpenAI. Among those hardest hit, though, are the startups trying to build their own AI models—so-called neolabs that need to use their limited funding to secure access to enormous clusters of graphics processing units for the compute-intensive task of model training.“It’s like VC... The AI chip shortage is causing headaches for tech giants such as OpenAI. Among those hardest...

Art by Clark Miller.

OpenAI, Anthropic Data Demand Turns Startups’ Slack Threads Into Prized Assets

By Alix Coutures · Aug 13, 2026 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Eight days after AI agent startup Warmly in late June agreed to be acquired by HubSpot, CEO Maximus Greenwald found an unusual email in his inbox. Mercor, a San Francisco startup that pays contractors to train AI models for labs such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, was offering to buy or license Warmly’s code base and records of its tasks and... Eight days after AI agent startup Warmly in late June agreed to be acquired by HubSpot, CEO...

Nebius CEO and founder, Arkady Volozh. Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images.

Nebius, CoreWeave Are Cashing In on Soaring AI Compute Prices

By Martin Peers · Aug 12, 2026 5:00pm PDT

Nebius CEO and founder, Arkady Volozh. Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images.

Nebius, CoreWeave Are Cashing In on Soaring AI Compute Prices

By Martin Peers · Aug 12, 2026 5:00pm PDT

Remember two weeks ago when Apple passed Nvidia in market capitalization? That’s now ancient history. At today’s close, Nvidia’s market capitalization was $1 trillion higher than Apple’s. In the past two weeks, Nvidia stock has risen 18% and Apple’s has fallen 10% or so. That seems to be mostly due to broad market dynamics, such as the state of... Remember two weeks ago when Apple passed Nvidia in market capitalization? That’s now ancient...

In Ukraine, a battery-powered first-person-view attack drone. Photo: Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/Future Publishing/Getty

After Years Looking For a Market, Lithium Metal Battery Startups Find One in Ukraine

By Steve LeVine · Aug 12, 2026 12:36pm PDT

Many of the drone startups competing for expected massive Pentagon contracts are using Western-made next-generation batteries that power the aircraft further and charge faster. And over the last six months, Ukraine has also begun to use such exotic battery chemistries to power interceptor drones that require quick maneuvers to bring down Russian... Many of the drone startups competing for expected massive Pentagon contracts are using...

Getty Images.

The Information Finance

How One Startup Is Bringing Wall Street–Style Contracts for AI Tokens

By Dakin Campbell · Aug 12, 2026 9:30am PDT

If the number of times I called someone this week and heard their cellphone make the familiar ring of a European phone is any indication, many of you are on vacation. Still, there are few breaks these days in the world of financing AI. With trillions of dollars due to pour into chips and data centers and companies spending heavily on their... If the number of times I called someone this week and heard their cellphone make the familiar...

James Sagan, CEO of Architect Capital, on TITV.

OnlyFans Investor Says Company Will ‘Never’ Use AI to Replace Creators

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 12, 2026 7:01am PDT · 1 comment

Every AI executive I talk to these days wants to tell me what their models can now do. James Sagan, the low-profile investor who just bought 16% of OnlyFans at a $3 billion valuation, spent most of our interview telling me what his platform is betting AI can't do.In a wide-ranging exclusive interview about the deal, and how he plans to evolve... Every AI executive I talk to these days wants to tell me what their models can now do. James...

Art by Clark Miller.

Hyperliquid Looks for Path to U.S. Markets for Its Perpetual Futures

By Yueqi Yang · Aug 12, 2026 6:00am PDT

Art by Clark Miller.

Hyperliquid Looks for Path to U.S. Markets for Its Perpetual Futures

By Yueqi Yang · Aug 12, 2026 6:00am PDT

The Senate’s postponement of a vote on the crypto regulatory law, the Clarity Act, ensures that the legislation is all but dead for the moment. But it didn’t cover some of the fastest-growing parts of the crypto market. And firms in those sectors have been hard at work lobbying regulators to push for favorable treatment of their businesses. For... The Senate’s postponement of a vote on the crypto regulatory law, the Clarity Act, ensures that...

Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

How to Analyze CoreWeave’s Mounting Losses

By Martin Peers · Aug 11, 2026 5:01pm PDT · 1 comment

The business of running a fast-growing but young cloud computing firm in the age of AI is not necessarily a profitable one. Take CoreWeave, perhaps the best known of a crop of neoclouds trying to take on the well-established cloud firms. On Tuesday it reported second-quarter earnings showing that revenue rose 112% to $2.575 billion while cash... The business of running a fast-growing but young cloud computing firm in the age of AI is not...

Team8's Liran Grinberg and Layer Global's Anton Levy. Photos by YouTube, Getty Images.

New Israeli Fund Gets an Early Exit; $1 Billion for Anton Levy’s New Fund

By Julia Hornstein and Dakin Campbell · Aug 11, 2026 4:01pm PDT

Software dealmaking is so hot in Israel right now that an Israeli VC fund notched its first exit before it had even wrapped up fundraising.Team8, which just raised $365 million to back seed and Series A companies, co-led a $48 million fundraise for Tel Aviv-based Koi late last year out of a new $265 million fund for seed and Series A startups.... Software dealmaking is so hot in Israel right now that an Israeli VC fund notched its first exit...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

Kalshi Tops $4 Billion In Annualized Revenue as it Seeks $40 Billion Valuation

By Yueqi Yang · Aug 11, 2026 2:25pm PDT

World Cup wagers helped double Kalshi’s revenue to a more than $4 billion annualized rate in July, from a pace of over $2 billion two months earlier, a person familiar with the matter said. That growth is set to drive another jump in the prediction market’s valuation. Kalshi is in advanced talks to raise new funding at a $40 billion valuation,... World Cup wagers helped double Kalshi’s revenue to a more than $4 billion annualized rate in...

Samuel Berry, chief information officer at the Agriculture Department. YouTube.

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Taps C3 AI to Trim Salesforce Footprint

By Laura Bratton · Aug 11, 2026 11:11am PDT · 2 comments

Samuel Berry, chief information officer at the Agriculture Department. YouTube.

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Taps C3 AI to Trim Salesforce Footprint

By Laura Bratton · Aug 11, 2026 11:11am PDT · 2 comments

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which spends about $3 billion a year on IT, uses Salesforce for “pretty much everything” including case management and maintaining its public facing portals and websites, according to chief information officer Sam Berry. But over the last year, the sprawling agency reduced its use of Salesforce for some tasks... The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which spends about $3 billion a year on IT, uses Salesforce...

David Sacks, Craft Ventures partner and Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Getty Images.

Sacks’ Craft Targets $1 Billion in First Fund Since White House Stint

By Julia Hornstein and Leo Schwartz · Aug 11, 2026 11:07am PDT · 2 comments

Craft Ventures, the VC firm helmed by former White House AI czar David Sacks, is raising its first fund since Sacks stepped away from the Trump Administration role earlier this year, according to a securities filing and two people with knowledge of the effort. The firm is targeting around $1 billion for the new fund, one of the people said. The... Craft Ventures, the VC firm helmed by former White House AI czar David Sacks, is raising its...

Jessica E. Lessin and James Sagan.

OnlyFans’ New Investor Reveals Financials, IPO Ambitions in Rare Interview

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 11, 2026 10:31am PDT · 1 comment

One of the most interesting deals of the year had nothing to do with GPUs or tokens. This spring, Architect Capital bought a 16% stake in the adult content platform OnlyFans, at a valuation just north of $3 billion. The founder of Architect Capital has been mum about the deal—one that most other investors wouldn’t touch. But this week, I... One of the most interesting deals of the year had nothing to do with GPUs or tokens. This spring,...

Trajectory cofounders Ronak Malde, Michael Elabd and Arjun Karanam.

Trajectory, Founded by Ex-Google and Apple Researchers, Raises Funding From Sequoia in Back-to-Back Round

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 11, 2026 7:01am PDT

As closed-source models have gotten more expensive, businesses have found workarounds by customizing open-source AI for their specific needs. Some are also trying to improve the software they use that allows models to use tools and take actions, otherwise known as a harness. Now, startups that help businesses with both tasks are seeing more... As closed-source models have gotten more expensive, businesses have found workarounds by...

Bryan Catanzaro, Nvidia’s vice president of applied deep learning research. Getty Images.

Why Nvidia Is Trying To Develop The World’s Best Open-Source AI Models

By Phoebe Liu and Laura Bratton · Aug 11, 2026 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Bryan Catanzaro, Nvidia’s vice president of applied deep learning research. Getty Images.

Why Nvidia Is Trying To Develop The World’s Best Open-Source AI Models

By Phoebe Liu and Laura Bratton · Aug 11, 2026 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Nvidia is doubling down on its open-source efforts, pouring investment into an ambitious new in-house AI model that it hopes will drive demand for its hardware—but that could also compete with customers and partners. Nvidia is aiming for the new model, the biggest of a family that it is calling Nemotron 4, to be on par in its performance... Nvidia is doubling down on its open-source efforts, pouring investment into an ambitious new...

Mark Zuckerberg. Getty Images.

Zuckerberg v. Amodei in AI Marketing

By Martin Peers · Aug 10, 2026 5:01pm PDT

If at first people don’t pay attention to what you say, say it again. That appears to be Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s philosophy. About two weeks after publishing a roughly 1,000-word opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal headlined “The AI Future Is for Everyone,” Zuckerberg published a 6,500 word version of the same piece on Meta.com... If at first people don’t pay attention to what you say, say it again. That appears to be Meta...

The CEO and co-founder of Applied Compute, Yash Patil. Art by Clark Miller; YouTube.

Applied Compute in Talks to Double Valuation to $3 Billion on Open-Source Demand

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Julia Hornstein · Aug 10, 2026 1:18pm PDT

Applied Compute, a year-old startup that helps companies run and customize open-source models with their own data, is discussing a new funding round that would value it at around $3 billion, more than double its valuation from a round announced four months ago, according to a person with knowledge of the funding. The financing follows strong... Applied Compute, a year-old startup that helps companies run and customize open-source models...

Sila Nanotechnologies' plant in Moses Lake, Washington. Photo: Courtesy Sila.

Trump Puts Pentagon Loan Behind Next-Generation Batteries to Leapfrog China

By Steve LeVine · Aug 10, 2026 9:03am PDT

Chinese companies dominate the world’s supply of the “good enough” batteries used to power AI data centers, electricity grids and electric vehicles. Now the Trump administration, wary of growing Chinese export controls on these batteries and some of the key materials that go into them, is pouring funds into efforts to cut U.S. dependence on... Chinese companies dominate the world’s supply of the “good enough” batteries used to power AI...

Getty Images.

OpenRouter Bidding Sparks Router Frenzy

By Alix Coutures · Aug 10, 2026 7:05am PDT

Getty Images.

OpenRouter Bidding Sparks Router Frenzy

By Alix Coutures · Aug 10, 2026 7:05am PDT

Even before Stripe entered talks to buy startup OpenRouter for $10 billion, several tech companies were exploring or developing router technology, which helps customers use the most cost-effective AI models. And Stripe’s talks with OpenRouter, which my colleagues last week reported have entered the advanced stage, have set off a frenzy of... Even before Stripe entered talks to buy startup OpenRouter for $10 billion, several tech...