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

Art by Clark Miller; Wang image via Getty.

Artificial Intelligence

Government Deals and a Palace Dinner: Scale AI’s Billionaire CEO Eyes Grander Stage In Politics

By Julia Black and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Mar 15, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Just a day before a major AI summit in Paris commenced last month, the event’s organizers made a sudden addition to the speaker lineup: Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old billionaire co-founder and CEO of Scale AI, a startup that specializes in fine-tuning and assessing the quality of AI models for both private companies as well as the U.S.... Just a day before a major AI summit in Paris commenced last month, the event’s organizers made a...

Photo via Getty

Klarna’s Measly AI Savings

By Martin Peers · Mar 14, 2025 3:26pm PDT

How much money can AI save a business? That’s a hugely important question for businesses nowadays—uncertainty about the answer is holding up wider adoption of various new AI products, as we described on several fronts this week. (See this piece on Salesforce’s struggles in selling its new AI agent tool, and these other two stories on the same... How much money can AI save a business? That’s a hugely important question for businesses nowadays...

Silicon Valley Unscripted: Billionaires, AI, and Interplanetary Exploration

By Jessica E. Lessin · Mar 14, 2025 11:49am PDT

In this week’s episode: Waymo, Larry Page, TikTok and our first $1 million More or Less bet. YouTube Spotify In this week’s episode: Waymo, Larry Page, TikTok and our first $1 million More or Less bet....

Moveworks CEO Bhavin Shah. Photo via Flickr/Web Summit.

Pro Weekly: AI Agent M&A Heats Up

By Akash Pasricha · Mar 14, 2025 8:00am PDT

Moveworks CEO Bhavin Shah. Photo via Flickr/Web Summit.

Pro Weekly: AI Agent M&A Heats Up

By Akash Pasricha · Mar 14, 2025 8:00am PDT

ServiceNow’s $2.85 billion acquisition of Moveworks turned heads this week, marking one of the largest recent purchases of an artificial intelligence software company. Moveworks may be a familiar name. It was one of the 78 companies we highlighted as potential acquisition candidates in October when we published our Generative AI Takeover List... ServiceNow’s $2.85 billion acquisition of Moveworks turned heads this week, marking one of the...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

DeepSeek, a National Treasure in China, is Now Being Closely Guarded

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Mar 14, 2025 6:51am PDT · 6 comments

DeepSeek’s sudden rise to global stardom has earned the startup a status akin to national treasure in China. One result is restrictions on how the company operates. In recent weeks, company executives have forbidden some of DeepSeek’s employees involved in the research and development of artificial intelligence models from traveling abroad... DeepSeek’s sudden rise to global stardom has earned the startup a status akin to national...

Art by Clark Miller; Herrington image via Getty.

Amazon Retail Chief Shifts Culture Toward Lower Costs And—Gasp!—Some Slower Shipping

By Theo Wayt · Mar 14, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

In the summer of 2022, Amazon was reeling. The company’s revenue growth had fallen to its lowest levels in decades, and it was grappling with a hangover from a costly, pandemic-era expansion of its warehouses and workforce. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy began breathing down the necks of lieutenants like Doug Herrington to focus on profits, a change from... In the summer of 2022, Amazon was reeling. The company’s revenue growth had fallen to its lowest...

Photo via Getty

A Silent Oracle’s TikTok Edge

By Martin Peers · Mar 13, 2025 5:00pm PDT

It’s hard to walk down the street lately without tripping over someone who has expressed interest in buying TikTok. I’m kidding, but you get the point—everyone from AI startup Perplexity to billionaire Frank McCourt to the YouTube influencer MrBeast claims to be interested. As is often the case, however, it’s the people who aren’t talking that... It’s hard to walk down the street lately without tripping over someone who has expressed interest...

Mira Murati. Photo via Getty

Mira Murati’s Stock-Option Strategy Pays Off With Recruits

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Kalley Huang, Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Mar 13, 2025 3:44pm PDT · 1 comment

Mira Murati. Photo via Getty

Mira Murati’s Stock-Option Strategy Pays Off With Recruits

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Kalley Huang, Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Mar 13, 2025 3:44pm PDT · 1 comment

It says something about the hype around ex-OpenAI executive Mira Murati’s new startup, Thinking Machines Lab, that when Sequoia Capital’s Alfred Lin said his firm was “talking” to the startup, that was deemed worthy of a headline.We’ll do you one slightly better: Murati has told people she’s also had conversations with Vinod Khosla, an early... It says something about the hype around ex-OpenAI executive Mira Murati’s new startup, Thinking...

Makeup influencer Mikayla Nogueira. Photo via Getty.

Creator Economy

Have We Reached Peak Influencer Brand?

By Ann Gehan · Mar 13, 2025 2:05pm PDT

It seems like more creators than ever are starting their own lines of makeup, skin care, snacks and more, with at least three new brands this week alone. On Tuesday, makeup artist Mikayla Nogueira, who has over 16 million followers on TikTok, announced a skincare line, Point of View. The same day, TikTok and Instagram star Alix Earle helped... It seems like more creators than ever are starting their own lines of makeup, skin care, snacks...

Art by Mike Sullivan

CIOs Face a Glut of AI Sellers

By Jon Victor · Mar 13, 2025 10:41am PDT

Convincing professionals, software engineers and other application developers to open their wallets for new artificial intelligence that speeds up their work seems easier than ever. But selling AI to large enterprises is a different ballgame. That was painfully clear this week at the first annual HumanX conference in Las Vegas, which... Convincing professionals, software engineers and other application developers to open their...

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff via Getty. Art by Clark Miller

Why AI Isn’t Giving Salesforce a Boost

By Kevin McLaughlin · Mar 13, 2025 9:31am PDT · 3 comments

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff last month declared 2025 as the “absolute year of Agentforce,” a product the software company launched last fall to help customers automate customer service and other business functions. “We’ve never seen products grow at these levels, especially Agentforce,” he said, citing customers such as gym owner Equinox and... Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff last month declared 2025 as the “absolute year of Agentforce,” a...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Are Enterprises Actually Using Reasoning Models?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 13, 2025 8:34am PDT

Art by Mike Sullivan

Are Enterprises Actually Using Reasoning Models?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 13, 2025 8:34am PDT

The excitement around reasoning models like OpenAI’s o1 and DeepSeek’s R1 got me thinking: How much are businesses actually using them? The answer might be: not as much as you’d think.When I ask business executives at startups and large firms about their companies’ usage of reasoning models to power their products, a common refrain I’ve... The excitement around reasoning models like OpenAI’s o1 and DeepSeek’s R1 got me thinking: How...

From left: Larry Ellison, Zhang Yiming, Donald Trump. Photos by Getty.

Oracle Is Leading Contender to Help Run TikTok in New Deal

By Jing Yang, Juro Osawa, Anissa Gardizy and Sri Muppidi · Mar 13, 2025 6:51am PDT · 4 comments

Oracle has emerged as a leading contender to help run TikTok as part of a deal President Donald Trump is orchestrating to satisfy last year’s divest-or-ban law, say investors, bankers and former executives familiar with the Chinese tech giant. ByteDance management prefers Oracle, while President Trump has also indicated his support for Oracle... Oracle has emerged as a leading contender to help run TikTok as part of a deal President Donald...

Photo via Harbinger Motors

The Electric: EV Truck Startup Harbinger Says Some Rivals Took Money and ‘Lit It on Fire’

By Steve LeVine · Mar 13, 2025 4:30am PDT

Perhaps no segment of the nascent electric vehicle industry has had a sorrier few years than commercial trucking. Since 2022, at least six electric van and truck startups have filed for bankruptcy, and a seventh seems to be just hanging on.In January, though, electric truck startup Harbinger Motors raised a $100 million Series B round, which it... Perhaps no segment of the nascent electric vehicle industry has had a sorrier few years than...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo via Getty

AI’s Circular Money Flows

By Martin Peers · Mar 12, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

If you want a sense of the risks that lurk in the great AI-data center investment boom now underway, check out our scoop today about Nvidia’s relationship with CoreWeave, the upstart cloud computing firm planning to go public in a couple of weeks. The story reveals that Nvidia, beyond both investing in CoreWeave and selling chips to it, also... If you want a sense of the risks that lurk in the great AI-data center investment boom now...

Influencer Marketing Growth to Slow on TikTok Ban, Tariffs

Influencer Marketing Growth to Slow on TikTok Ban, Tariffs

By Kaya Yurieff · Mar 12, 2025 3:45pm PDT · 2 comments

Influencer Marketing Growth to Slow on TikTok Ban, Tariffs

Creator Economy

Influencer Marketing Growth to Slow on TikTok Ban, Tariffs

By Kaya Yurieff · Mar 12, 2025 3:45pm PDT · 2 comments

Influencer marketing budgets are still expected to grow in the U.S., but the fate of TikTok’s future in the country, as well as economic uncertainty spurred by the Trump administration’s tariffs, could contribute to a slowdown in growth this year. Spending on U.S. influencer marketing is expected to rise 15% to $10.5 billion in 2025,... Influencer marketing budgets are still expected to grow in the U.S., but the fate of TikTok’s...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

TikTok Executives Bail as Ban Deadline Looms

By Kaya Yurieff, Juro Osawa and Jing Yang · Mar 12, 2025 3:07pm PDT · 1 comment

The groups of buyers circling TikTok’s U.S. operations are likely to find it a more svelte company than it was a year ago, after a string of senior managers left the popular video app. At least eight TikTok executives, including music chief Ole Obermann, global head of litigation Emily Stubbs and Sameer Singh, head of North American ad sales,... The groups of buyers circling TikTok’s U.S. operations are likely to find it a more svelte...

Photo by Getty.

BNY Boosts Business With Circle, as Banks Warm to Crypto

By Yueqi Yang · Mar 12, 2025 10:57am PDT

BNY, the nation’s oldest bank, is expanding the services it handles for stablecoin giant Circle, the latest sign that U.S. banking access for the crypto industry is easing under a friendlier regulatory environment. The bank will allow some clients to send money to and from Circle through BNY for purchase or sale of Circle’s stablecoins, people... BNY, the nation’s oldest bank, is expanding the services it handles for stablecoin giant Circle,...

Courtesy of Dexterity

Robots That Don’t Walk Are Making Strides

By Rocket Drew · Mar 12, 2025 7:00am PDT

Humanoid robots that walk around on two legs have been attracting attention and money, but they are still a long way off from being mass produced. Traditional robots that don’t have legs, however, are moving ahead in places like agricultural fields, stores and warehouses.One example is Mech, an artificial intelligence-powered robot for logistics... Humanoid robots that walk around on two legs have been attracting attention and money, but they...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, left, and CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator. Photos by Getty

‘Project Osprey:’ How Nvidia Seeded CoreWeave’s Rise

By Cory Weinberg and Anissa Gardizy · Mar 12, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, left, and CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator. Photos by Getty

‘Project Osprey:’ How Nvidia Seeded CoreWeave’s Rise

By Cory Weinberg and Anissa Gardizy · Mar 12, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

In early 2023, Nvidia was seeing near-endless demand for its artificial intelligence chips. Cloud computing giants such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud were increasing their orders, sending Nvidia’s revenue to new heights. Developers were scrambling to access the chips, which were hard to come by. Then Nvidia made a... In early 2023, Nvidia was seeing near-endless demand for its artificial intelligence chips. Cloud...