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

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The Electric: A New Database of 90 Tesla Veterans Running Other Companies

By Steve LeVine · Apr 29, 2024 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

When Tesla’s head of powertrain, Drew Baglino, resigned this month, along with Rohan Patel, vice president of public policy, and Martin Viecha, vice president of investor relations, they joined hundreds of senior and midlevel executives who have left the company over the years. As we show in the searchable Tesla Diaspora Database we are... When Tesla’s head of powertrain, Drew Baglino, resigned this month, along with Rohan Patel, vice...

How to Really Save TikTok

How to Really Save TikTok

By Abram Brown · Apr 27, 2024 7:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:The great Tokyo gamble.Our favorite interior designers…for rescuing boring offices. Billionaire nerd buys The Onion, thinks he can solve media’s problems (yes, we’re serious!). Plus: Yo-Yo Ma, Apple and global politics; a videogame legend’s unexpected new work; and Michael Douglas as our nation’s... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:The great Tokyo gamble.Our favorite interior designers…...

Art by Clark Miller. Lawson via Getty Images.

Twilio Founder Jeff Lawson Has Some Serious Plans for The Onion

By Abram Brown · Apr 27, 2024 6:00am PDT · 9 comments

For quite some time, Jeff Lawson has kept up a running joke among friends and family. “Bezos bought The Post, Benioff bought Time—well, Jeff Lawson is going to buy The Onion,” said Lawson, billionaire founder of Twilio, an unsexy enterprise software company that he ran until a recent series of battles with activist investors... For quite some time, Jeff Lawson has kept up a running joke among friends and family....

Art by Clark Miller

Our Favorite Interior Designers…for Rescuing a Boring Office

By Annie Goldsmith · Apr 27, 2024 5:00am PDT · 2 comments

Art by Clark Miller

Our Favorite Interior Designers…for Rescuing a Boring Office

By Annie Goldsmith · Apr 27, 2024 5:00am PDT · 2 comments

When Molly Martell, vice president of brand at San Francisco venture capital firm Headline, was tasked with revamping the company’s offices in 2021, she sought out a design that “felt like the antidote to Zoom” and could fulfill a mandate for a “cozy” space that wasn’t “cold, gridded boxes,” she... When Molly Martell, vice president of brand at San Francisco venture capital firm Headline, was...

Photo by Brandon Sloter via Getty Images.

What We Heard From Tech CEO Calls This Week

By Martin Peers · Apr 26, 2024 2:30pm PDT

Phew, what a week! We got a blizzard of quarterly earnings updates from tech firms, most of them followed by investor calls that were full of artificial intelligence talk. Much of that was corporate blather, of course, but there were a few moments when actual information was transmitted. Not all of that was relevant to the subject at hand, to be... Phew, what a week! We got a blizzard of quarterly earnings updates from tech firms, most of them...

The Tortured Venture Capitalists Department

By Jessica E. Lessin · Apr 26, 2024 10:43am PDT

As the only non-venture capitalist on the More or Less podcast, I sometimes view these episodes as my window into VC therapy. And so, with Taylor Swift on my mind, I felt the angst of my VC compatriots as we recorded this week. We spent most of the time talking about another asset class: hedge funds and why there isn't likely to be another... As the only non-venture capitalist on the More or Less podcast, I sometimes view these episodes...

Partner Content

Recap: The Creator Entrepreneur 2.0

By The Information Partnerships · Apr 26, 2024 10:32am PDT

As the market for creators continues to grow, it’s not all about creating engaging videos. As their channels get bigger, creators have become entrepreneurs. So what’s the best way for creators to successfully expand a small business into a larger one—and find new sources of revenue? What technologies exist to help them? And how... As the market for creators continues to grow, it’s not all about creating engaging videos....

Snipfeed co-founders Pierre-Habté Nouvellon, Rédouane Ramdani and Anas Bouassami. Photo via Snipfeed.

Pro Weekly: Why One Creator Economy Company Agreed to Sell

By Akash Pasricha · Apr 26, 2024 8:00am PDT

Snipfeed co-founders Pierre-Habté Nouvellon, Rédouane Ramdani and Anas Bouassami. Photo via Snipfeed.

Pro Weekly: Why One Creator Economy Company Agreed to Sell

By Akash Pasricha · Apr 26, 2024 8:00am PDT

In February, we launched the Creator Startup Takeover List, listing 45 startups in the sector that are potential acquisition targets. Most companies hadn’t raised any capital since 2021, and, based on our reporting, some were actively seeking buyers. This week, one of those companies struck a deal. On Monday, Snipfeed agreed to sell its... In February, we launched the Creator Startup Takeover List, listing 45 startups in the sector...

Art by Clark Miller

Japan’s New Appetite for Risk Lures Venture Investors to Tokyo

By Juro Osawa, Natasha Mascarenhas and Margaux MacColl · Apr 26, 2024 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Just south of the vast Imperial Palace in downtown Tokyo lies the Kasumigaseki district, with blocks of offices constructed mostly during the last century when the country rose as one of the world’s largest economic powers after World War II. Much of the Japanese government does its work here: A walk through this neighborhood of concrete... Just south of the vast Imperial Palace in downtown Tokyo lies the Kasumigaseki district, with...

Rubrik CEO, Bipul Sinha. Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

A VC Lesson From the ‘Rodney Dangerfield of SaaS’

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 25, 2024 5:53pm PDT

Venture capitalists should try this fun game at their next (increasingly alcohol-free) game night: artificial intelligence funding mad libs.[VC fund 1] and [VC fund 2] lead funding round for [number]-year-old [type of AI startup], founded by professors at [name of university], at a $[some-billion] valuation.This week, that formula would have... Venture capitalists should try this fun game at their next (increasingly alcohol-free) game...

Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella. Photo by AP.

Alphabet and Microsoft Show Secret to AI Investments: Rich Profits

By Martin Peers · Apr 25, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Artificial intelligence development may be sucking up vast amounts of money from big tech—but hey, at least business is good! That’s the picture painted by earnings updates from both Alphabet and Microsoft on Thursday—echoing a similar state of play reported by Meta Platforms on Wednesday. All three companies reported strong operating profit... Artificial intelligence development may be sucking up vast amounts of money from big tech—but...

Photo by Future Publishing via Getty Images.

YouTube Shorts Advertising Perks Up

By Kaya Yurieff · Apr 25, 2024 3:49pm PDT

Photo by Future Publishing via Getty Images.

Creator Economy

YouTube Shorts Advertising Perks Up

By Kaya Yurieff · Apr 25, 2024 3:49pm PDT

Is it possible that YouTube has figured out how to sell Shorts to advertisers? On a call with investors in parent Alphabet, executives indicated the monetization of YouTube Shorts is showing signs of improvement. That’s good news for creators (and Alphabet shareholders) who have seen advertisers pay far less for YouTube Shorts than longer... Is it possible that YouTube has figured out how to sell Shorts to advertisers? On a call with...

Elon Musk. Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic via Getty Images.

Musk’s xAI Is Close to Raising $6 Billion from Sequoia, Others

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Becky Peterson and Margaux MacColl · Apr 25, 2024 3:04pm PDT

Elon’s Musk xAI is close to having billions of dollars more in its coffers to make its chatbot Grok a more fearsome competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Musk’s year-old startup is raising $6 billion at a valuation of $18 billion not including the investment, according to two people close to the deal. Sequoia Capital is one of the... Elon’s Musk xAI is close to having billions of dollars more in its coffers to make its...

Photo by Ronny Hartman/AFP via Getty Images.

Apple’s Late Arrival; Meta Outlines Ways to Make Money from AI, Including Charging Users

By Kalley Huang and Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 25, 2024 7:10am PDT · 1 comment

If you weren’t careful, you may have missed some important news from Apple that was overshadowed by Meta Platforms’ earnings yesterday. The iPhone-maker released a new family of open-source language models, dubbed OpenELM, on Hugging Face. The models, ranging in size from 270 million to 3 billion parameters (as a reminder, “parameters’... If you weren’t careful, you may have missed some important news from Apple that was overshadowed...

Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images.

Huawei Leads Chinese Effort to Compete With Nvidia’s AI Chips

By Qianer Liu and Scott Thurm · Apr 25, 2024 6:00am PDT

Huawei Technologies is leading a group of Chinese semiconductor companies seeking memory chip breakthroughs that could help China develop home-grown alternatives to Nvidia’s cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips, which can’t be sold to the country. The Huawei-led consortium, backed by funding from the Chinese government, aims to... Huawei Technologies is leading a group of Chinese semiconductor companies seeking memory chip...

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in Washington in March. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.

ByteDance Exploring Scenarios for Selling TikTok Without Algorithm

By Erin Woo, Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Apr 25, 2024 4:59am PDT · 2 comments

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in Washington in March. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.

ByteDance Exploring Scenarios for Selling TikTok Without Algorithm

By Erin Woo, Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Apr 25, 2024 4:59am PDT · 2 comments

ByteDance is internally exploring scenarios for selling a majority stake in TikTok’s U.S. business, preferably to companies outside the tech industry, and without the algorithm that recommends videos to TikTok users, said three people with knowledge of the deliberations. ByteDance’s internal discussions come as President Joe... ByteDance is internally exploring scenarios for selling a majority stake in TikTok’s U.S....

SES joined the New York Stock Exchange in 2022. Photo: Sipa/AP

The Electric: In a Deal With Hyundai, SES Widens Lithium-Metal Lead

By Steve LeVine · Apr 25, 2024 4:30am PDT

Next-generation battery developer SES AI pushed further ahead in the race to commercialize lithium-metal anodes, moving to the B Sample qualification stage with South Korea’s Hyundai Motor. The automaker has not committed to deploying the anodes in its electric vehicles, but the deal sets SES on the path of putting its anodes in Hyundai test... Next-generation battery developer SES AI pushed further ahead in the race to commercialize...

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images.

Meta’s Big AI Spending Turns Off Investors

By Martin Peers · Apr 24, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Meta Platforms may have just got kicked off Wall Street’s favorites list. Stock of the Facebook owner dropped 16% after CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned the company was entering a new investment cycle, this time in artificial intelligence, that would take a while to flow through to create “profitable services.” Zuckerberg’s comments hit a nerve:... Meta Platforms may have just got kicked off Wall Street’s favorites list. Stock of the Facebook...

VR headsets at the Meta's booth at a trade fair in Germany. Photo by Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Creator Economy

Reels Is Eating Instagram; TikTok Lite Gets Muzzled

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Apr 24, 2024 4:15pm PDT

Meta Platforms’ warning of slowing growth and higher expenses Wednesday night sank the stock, which had run up 43% this year. But Meta executives, not surprisingly, focused on the bright spots —among them, video. Instagram Reels—Meta’s answer to TikTok—now makes up 50% of the time spent on the app, a pretty big number when you think about... Meta Platforms’ warning of slowing growth and higher expenses Wednesday night sank the stock,...

Nvidia headquarters in Santa Clara. Photo by Getty.

Nvidia to Buy Two Israeli Startups That Make Its AI Chips Cheaper to Use

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 24, 2024 3:13pm PDT · 1 comment

Nvidia headquarters in Santa Clara. Photo by Getty.

Nvidia to Buy Two Israeli Startups That Make Its AI Chips Cheaper to Use

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 24, 2024 3:13pm PDT · 1 comment

During the artificial intelligence boom, chipmaker Nvidia became one of the most active corporate venture capitalists, investing in over 30 startups last year alone, according to PitchBook. Now it may become one of the most active acquirers of AI startups. Nvidia has recently struck two agreements to buy Israeli AI startups, including one... During the artificial intelligence boom, chipmaker Nvidia became one of the most active corporate...