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. Tim Cook photo via Getty

Apple Versus Qualcomm: A Split Looms for Tech’s Rockiest Marriage

By Wayne Ma · Feb 21, 2025 6:00am PST · 3 comments

There are companies that dislike each other. And then there’s Apple and Qualcomm. The world’s most powerful consumer electronics and wireless chip companies have long maintained one of the unhappiest marriages in tech. Over the past 15 years, the vast majority of iPhones have contained a Qualcomm modem chip that allowed those devices to connect... There are companies that dislike each other. And then there’s Apple and Qualcomm. The world’s...

Photo via Getty

Walmart’s Slower Growth Projection Highlights Unease About 2025

By Theo Wayt · Feb 20, 2025 5:00pm PST

Uncertainty about the economic impact of President Donald Trump’s trade policies is dampening expectations for how consumer spending will hold up this year. Just look at Walmart, which today projected that its revenue growth this fiscal year would slow to between 3% and 4%, compared with 5% for the year that ended Jan. 31, 2025. Executives used... Uncertainty about the economic impact of President Donald Trump’s trade policies is dampening...

Figure AI's Figure 02 robot. Photo via Figure AI.

SPVs Are Circling Robotics Startup's $40 Billion-Valuation Funding Round

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Feb 20, 2025 4:51pm PST

Special purpose vehicles are now a mainstay in venture capital, showing up in some of the biggest deals in artificial intelligence, from OpenAI to Anthropic, as a flexible way to raise cash from a larger pool of investors.Now fund managers are considering using SPVs to fund a huge new round for Figure AI, a three-year-old startup that builds... Special purpose vehicles are now a mainstay in venture capital, showing up in some of the biggest...

Photo via Getty

Facebook Tries to Get Creators’ Attention

By Kaya Yurieff · Feb 20, 2025 2:02pm PST

Photo via Getty

Creator Economy

Facebook Tries to Get Creators’ Attention

By Kaya Yurieff · Feb 20, 2025 2:02pm PST

Facebook wants to be cool again—and it plans to revamp itself in large part by leveraging creators, as my colleague Sylvia and I detailed in a story on Thursday. Facebook staffers have been talking to the teams of prominent YouTubers including MrBeast and former NASA engineer Mark Rober to get their feedback on how to make the app better... Facebook wants to be cool again—and it plans to revamp itself in large part by leveraging...

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. Photo via Getty

Airbnb, HSBC Offer an AI Reality Check

By Jon Victor and Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 20, 2025 10:00am PST

It’s now common to hear CEOs talk about how they’re using artificial intelligence to cut costs. But here and there some are poking holes in their peers’ rosy statements. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, for instance, said on the company’s earnings call that AI-powered coding assistants haven’t led to a “fundamental step change in productivity yet.”... It’s now common to hear CEOs talk about how they’re using artificial intelligence to cut costs....

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Photos via Getty.

Salesforce in Talks With Microsoft, Oracle and Google About Cloud Deal to Handle AI

By Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 20, 2025 7:31am PST

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has long been a vocal critic of Microsoft. A couple of years ago, he accused the company of violating antitrust laws in how it sells software bundles. More recently, he has slammed its artificial intelligence chatbot for giving inaccurate responses and being difficult to use. But that history hasn’t stopped Salesforce... Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has long been a vocal critic of Microsoft. A couple of years ago, he...

Clara Shih. Photo by Getty

Meta’s Open-Source AI Prepares to Go to Market

By Kalley Huang · Feb 20, 2025 7:00am PST

As Meta Platforms tries to make its large language model Llama the industry standard for artificial intelligence, it is not only courting big businesses but also taking steps to work with one of the largest customers in the world: the U.S. government. In November, the company poached Clara Shih from Salesforce, where she was CEO of ... As Meta Platforms tries to make its large language model Llama the industry standard for...

Mark Zuckerberg introducing Facebook Connect in 2010. Photo via AP.

Meta Woos Creators in Bid to Make Facebook Cool Again

By Kaya Yurieff and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Feb 20, 2025 6:00am PST

Mark Zuckerberg introducing Facebook Connect in 2010. Photo via AP.

Meta Woos Creators in Bid to Make Facebook Cool Again

By Kaya Yurieff and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Feb 20, 2025 6:00am PST

To make Facebook cool again, Meta Platforms is asking some of the most popular creators on YouTube for advice, ranging from MrBeast to Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer who explains scientific concepts. The creators aren’t holding back. Facebook has a “big hill to climb,” said Rober, who has 64 million followers on YouTube and 5.3 million on... To make Facebook cool again, Meta Platforms is asking some of the most popular creators on...

In South 8's San Diego laboratory. Photo: Courtesy South 8

The Electric: South 8 Finds One Escape From the Valley of Death—Profit

By Steve LeVine · Feb 20, 2025 4:30am PST

South 8 Technologies has raised about $9 million in a funding round that it expects to close next month toward manufacturing its innovative gas electrolyte. But CEO Tom Stepien said it took roughly six months to raise the money, with a lot of nos along the way. “I had one investor say, ‘If I bring a battery deal to my partners, they will fire... South 8 Technologies has raised about $9 million in a funding round that it expects to close next...

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo via Getty

Microsoft Outdoes Apple in Ambition

By Martin Peers · Feb 19, 2025 5:00pm PST

We got big news from both Microsoft and Apple today! Microsoft unveiled a new advance in quantum chips—which the software giant hinted could revolutionize computing in the next few years—while Apple unveiled a new iPhone, the 16e, which is a bit cheaper than its flagship line of smartphones and is the first device to use an Apple-designed... We got big news from both Microsoft and Apple today! Microsoft unveiled a new advance in quantum...

Image via Getty.

Creator Economy

Not Every Podcaster Is Ready for Video

By Kaya Yurieff and Catherine Perloff · Feb 19, 2025 3:05pm PST

Long gone are the days when podcasting just meant audio episodes. Spotify and others have been pushing podcasters to post video versions of their shows, which can open up new types of advertising such as product placement and give podcasters video clips that can expand their reach. But some podcasters are skeptical that the video effort will pay... Long gone are the days when podcasting just meant audio episodes. Spotify and others have been...

Photo by Mike Sullivan via Midjourney

How Can Investors Continue Funding AI Developers?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 19, 2025 7:00am PST

Photo by Mike Sullivan via Midjourney

How Can Investors Continue Funding AI Developers?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 19, 2025 7:00am PST

One of the earliest AI Agenda newsletters in August 2023 made the bear case for large language model developers. Over the last year-and-a-half, our predictions from that day seemed to largely come true, as model makers like OpenAI moved more into applications and cheap AI releases from DeepSeek and others threatened the margins of those selling... One of the earliest AI Agenda newsletters in August 2023 made the bear case for large language...

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng. Photo via Getty.

DeepSeek Weighs Raising Outside Money For First Time

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Feb 19, 2025 6:00am PST · 2 comments

DeepSeek’s sudden rise to artificial intelligence stardom has created a dilemma for the Chinese startup: whether to raise money. A two-year-old offshoot of a Chinese quantitative hedge fund, DeepSeek so far has not raised outside funding, partly to avoid pressure from investors to commercialize its products too quickly. But since its AI chatbot... DeepSeek’s sudden rise to artificial intelligence stardom has created a dilemma for the Chinese...

Mira Murati. Photo via Getty.

Murati Joins Crowded AI Startup Sector

By Martin Peers · Feb 18, 2025 5:00pm PST

So much for the idea that the U.S. doesn’t have enough home-grown competitors in artificial intelligence. OpenAI’s former chief technology officer, Mira Murati, confirmed one of the AI world’s worst-kept secrets on Tuesday by revealing the name and team behind her new startup, Thinking Machines Lab. That news came a day after Bloomberg... So much for the idea that the U.S. doesn’t have enough home-grown competitors in artificial...

Photo via Field AI.

Nvidia-Backed Robotics Startup Field Targets $2 Billion Valuation

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Feb 18, 2025 4:23pm PST

Field AI, a two-year-old startup that makes artificial intelligence models to power robots, is in talks to raise several hundred million dollars at a $2 billion valuation, according to a person with direct knowledge of the fundraising discussions. That would quadruple the startup’s valuation last summer when investors including Nvidia valued it... Field AI, a two-year-old startup that makes artificial intelligence models to power robots, is in...

Ilya Sutskever. Photo via Getty.

Is VC’s Smart Money Losing Its Mind or Ahead of the Curve?

By Cory Weinberg · Feb 18, 2025 3:43pm PST

Ilya Sutskever. Photo via Getty.

Is VC’s Smart Money Losing Its Mind or Ahead of the Curve?

By Cory Weinberg · Feb 18, 2025 3:43pm PST

The question “What did Ilya see?” became an oft-repeated meme asking why OpenAI’s chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, cast a dramatic vote to oust Sam Altman in the short-lived ouster of the CEO 15 months ago. A significant fundraising that would value Sutskever’s new startup, Safe Superintelligence, at more than $30 billion turns that... The question “What did Ilya see?” became an oft-repeated meme asking why OpenAI’s chief...

How TikTok Is Faring One Month After Shutdown

Creator Economy

How TikTok Is Faring One Month After Shutdown

By Kaya Yurieff · Feb 18, 2025 2:24pm PST

It’s been one month since TikTok briefly went offline in the U.S., and internal company comments and external data offer a picture of how the situation has impacted the short-form video app’s business. By some accounts, TikTok is doing pretty well. It’s been one month since TikTok briefly went offline in the U.S., and internal company comments...

Sam Altman at a press conference in Tokyo earlier this month. Photo via Getty

What OpenAI’s Sales Automation Software Can Do—and What It Can’t

By Jon Victor · Feb 18, 2025 10:00am PST · 2 comments

A clip recently surfaced on Reddit showing OpenAI executives demonstrating a new ChatGPT feature in Japan. The video showed how ChatGPT’s “deep research” mode, part of a $200-a-month Pro subscription, could automatically sort through sales leads and determine which ones are worth contacting. It determines that by searching the web for data like... A clip recently surfaced on Reddit showing OpenAI executives demonstrating a new ChatGPT feature...

Photo via Shutterstock.

Logistics Firm Forto, Last Valued at $2.1 Billion, Hires Moelis to Explore Sale

By Theo Wayt · Feb 18, 2025 9:31am PST

Even after a shakeout that’s lasted two years, consolidation is still coming for logistics startups. Forto, a Germany-based freight forwarding company that has raised more than $600 million from investors including SoftBank, has been working with investment bank Moelis & Co. to explore options including a potential merger or sale, according... Even after a shakeout that’s lasted two years, consolidation is still coming for logistics...

Photo via Getty

The Three Classes of AI Coding Assistants

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 18, 2025 7:10am PST

Photo via Getty

The Three Classes of AI Coding Assistants

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 18, 2025 7:10am PST

The model race continues. On Monday evening, Elon Musk’s xAI released a new family of large language models, Grok 3, which includes a baseline model, a smaller and faster version of the baseline model, and two “reasoning” models.Early reactions seem promising. Andrej Karpathy, one of the cofounders of OpenAI who left the company last year, said... The model race continues. On Monday evening, Elon Musk’s xAI released a new family of large...