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

An Apple Store in Shanghai decorated for Lunar New Year. Photo via Getty.

Apple’s China Syndrome

By Martin Peers · Jan 30, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Apple had good news and bad news when it reported December-quarter results on Thursday. The bad news was that revenues from China—Apple’s second-biggest market—shrank 11%, almost certainly a result of Apple losing share in smartphones to local rivals such as Huawei. Indeed, iPhone revenues globally shrank 0.8% in the quarter. The good news... Apple had good news and bad news when it reported December-quarter results on Thursday. The bad...

Peter Deng at South by Southwest 2024. Photo via YouTube/SXSW.

A Former OpenAI Leader Jumps to Felicis; SoftBank Doubles Down

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Jan 30, 2025 3:01pm PST

Hi - Before we get into today’s column, some breaking news: OpenAI is in talks to raise another giant round, of about $40 billion, led by SoftBank, which would value the ChatGPT maker at $300 billion including the investment—nearly double its valuation late last year in a Thrive Capital-led round. OpenAI will use some of the money to fund its... Hi - Before we get into today’s column, some breaking news: OpenAI is in talks to raise another...

Photo via Getty

Creator Economy

Why Creator Funds Are Back

By Kaya Yurieff · Jan 30, 2025 2:00pm PST

As TikTok’s future remains in turmoil, competitors are trying to take advantage of the situation. One way is bringing back a tried-and-true tactic from 2021: creator funds. This month, companies including creator commerce app Flip, which competes with TikTok Shop, and newsletter publisher Substack announced programs that offer cash... As TikTok’s future remains in turmoil, competitors are trying to take advantage of the situation....

Photo via Getty

Goldman Sachs Is Interested In DeepSeek Too

By Jon Victor · Jan 30, 2025 10:00am PST

Photo via Getty

Goldman Sachs Is Interested In DeepSeek Too

By Jon Victor · Jan 30, 2025 10:00am PST

How fast is DeepSeek open source artificial intelligence taking over the business world? Look no further than Meta Platforms, which is evaluating whether to use the Chinese-made AI in its advertising products despite spending the past two years developing its own Llama open-source models, my colleague Kalley reported Wednesday. Also this... How fast is DeepSeek open source artificial intelligence taking over the business world? Look no...

Art by Clark Miller

Artificial Intelligence

Can’t Compute It All? Introducing The Information’s Glossary of AI Jargon

By Rocket Drew · Jan 30, 2025 7:16am PST · 2 comments

The only thing coming at us faster these days than advances in artificial intelligence’s capabilities is the amount of industry jargon we’re all needing to decipher. Don’t know the difference between open weights and open source? Still trying to distill the meaning of AI distillation, the process DeepSeek may have used to... The only thing coming at us faster these days than advances in artificial intelligence’s...

Photo by AP

Why It’s Cheap and Easy to Mimic OpenAI’s Reasoning Model

By Rocket Drew · Jan 30, 2025 7:06am PST · 1 comment

The word of the moment in artificial intelligence is distillation. Distillation is the technical term for transferring knowledge from one large language model, which acts like a teacher, to another model that acts as a student. And it’s likely one of the key ways a Chinese quant fund replicated OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model and set the... The word of the moment in artificial intelligence is distillation. Distillation is the...

Art by Mike Sullivan

AI Power Demand Spurs Make-Your-Own-Electricity Effort for Data Centers

By Anissa Gardizy · Jan 30, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

The power demands of artificial intelligence have already led the tech giants to scale back their climate goals. Now the intense battle to dominate AI has created a frenzy of dealmaking to secure enough electricity to power a major city. That’s created a clash between the fast-moving, lightly regulated tech industry and the nation’s... The power demands of artificial intelligence have already led the tech giants to scale back their...

Photo: Getty

The Electric: Musk Confirms His Mission Has Changed—Make Tesla a Lot More Valuable

By Steve LeVine · Jan 30, 2025 4:30am PST · 4 comments

Photo: Getty

The Electric: Musk Confirms His Mission Has Changed—Make Tesla a Lot More Valuable

By Steve LeVine · Jan 30, 2025 4:30am PST · 4 comments

In 19 minutes of remarks to analysts Wednesday evening, Tesla CEO Elon Musk enthused about his favorite topics—artificial intelligence-powered driverless cars and humanoid robots, which he predicted would make Tesla the most valuable company on Earth. In 19 minutes of remarks to analysts Wednesday evening, Tesla CEO Elon Musk enthused about his...

Photo by Getty

Meta and Microsoft Show AI Bets Still in Play

By Martin Peers · Jan 29, 2025 5:00pm PST

If we learned anything from tonight’s December-quarter earnings announcements from Microsoft and Meta Platforms, it’s that we’re still in a wait-and-see mode on artificial intelligence. In fact, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared that 2025 would be a “big year” because the trajectory of most of the company’s big bets—such as on its AI assistant—... If we learned anything from tonight’s December-quarter earnings announcements from Microsoft and...

Photo via Getty

Creator Economy

Zuckerberg Wants to Make Facebook Cool Again

By Kaya Yurieff · Jan 29, 2025 3:51pm PST

Meta Platforms is still enthusiastic about creators. That much was clear from the Instagram parent’s earnings call on Wednesday.Chief financial officer Susan Li said “creators are one of our central focuses,” while CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he’s focused on growing Facebook’s cultural influence. He didn’t elaborate, but it seems likely that Meta... Meta Platforms is still enthusiastic about creators. That much was clear from the Instagram...

Snowflake CEO, Sridhar Ramaswamy. Photo by Getty

Snowflake in Talks to Acquire Analytics Startup Redpanda

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jan 29, 2025 2:38pm PST · 1 comment

Database provider Snowflake this week discussed an acquisition of Redpanda, a data analysis software startup valued at around $500 million in 2023, according to a person who has been part of the talks. An acquisition of the firm could upgrade Snowflake’s artificial intelligence services, an area where the company has lagged rivals such as... Database provider Snowflake this week discussed an acquisition of Redpanda, a data analysis...

Photo via Getty

OpenAI Tightens Grip on High End of App Market; Murati’s Startup Gets a Name

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Amir Efrati · Jan 29, 2025 7:00am PST

Photo via Getty

OpenAI Tightens Grip on High End of App Market; Murati’s Startup Gets a Name

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Amir Efrati · Jan 29, 2025 7:00am PST

As questions swirl about whether super-cheap-yet-high-quality Chinese artificial intelligence threatens American-made AI, a new data point suggests OpenAI has some major advantages, relative to its compatriots.We reported Tuesday that OpenAI leaders recently made comments implying that ChatGPT Pro subscriptions—which cost $200 per month, or 10... As questions swirl about whether super-cheap-yet-high-quality Chinese artificial intelligence...

Why Seagate and Western Digital Are Sleeper AI Picks

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jan 29, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Seagate Technology and Western Digital Corp. may be best known for selling hard drives for personal computers, which means they’re likely not the first names that come to mind when one thinks of companies that will benefit from artificial intelligence investments. That mindset may be out of date. In recent years, Seagate and WDC have... Seagate Technology and Western Digital Corp. may be best known for selling hard drives for...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Trump. Photos via Getty.

Trump Plays Banker Role for TikTok—Will Microsoft Bite?

By Martin Peers · Jan 28, 2025 5:08pm PST

Did we miss the memo that ByteDance has retained Donald Trump to sell TikTok? It’s easy to get that impression, given how enthusiastic he is in talking up TikTok’s salability. He claimed on Monday that “a lot of people” are going to bid on the app, and that Microsoft was already in talks to buy it. Does Microsoft know that?Maybe Trump is telling... Did we miss the memo that ByteDance has retained Donald Trump to sell TikTok? It’s easy to get...

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. Photo via Getty

SoftBank’s Stargate Risks

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 28, 2025 3:00pm PST

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi gave the tidiest summation six years ago for why tech CEOs have made countless 11-hour flights from San Francisco to Tokyo to court SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son: “Rather than having their capital cannon facing me, I’d rather have their capital cannon behind me, all right?” Sam Altman was the latest to make the... Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi gave the tidiest summation six years ago for why tech CEOs have made...

Ghost Agency cofounders Nicole Rechtszaid and Jenny Woo.

Why One Founder Is Giving Up On TikTok

By Ann Gehan · Jan 28, 2025 2:00pm PST

Ghost Agency cofounders Nicole Rechtszaid and Jenny Woo.

Creator Economy

Why One Founder Is Giving Up On TikTok

By Ann Gehan · Jan 28, 2025 2:00pm PST

TikTok’s roughly 12-hour shutdown earlier this month, however brief, was a reality check for businesses built around the app. Before that, many brands and creators that sell goods on TikTok’s shopping service, TikTok Shop, had been kicking the can down the road on what to do if the app disappeared. Nicole Rechtszaid, the founder of Ghost... TikTok’s roughly 12-hour shutdown earlier this month, however brief, was a reality check for...

Art by Mike Sullivan

DeepSeek Attracts Surge of Business Users

By Jon Victor · Jan 28, 2025 10:00am PST

The DeepSeek open-source reasoning model, R1, has barely been out for a week, but businesses are already champing at the bit to use the Chinese model in their products because it’s so cheap compared to American ones.Take ZoomInfo, a provider of data about businesses, which its customers use as sales leads. The company already found that it could... The DeepSeek open-source reasoning model, R1, has barely been out for a week, but businesses are...

Photo via Getty

Is DeepSeek an Extinction Event?; A New Reasoning-Focused AI Lab Lands Funding

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 28, 2025 7:00am PST · 4 comments

If you spent any time yesterday or this weekend on X, you might have concluded that AI developers, venture capitalists, Nvidia and cloud providers are totally screwed, thanks to new uber-cheap and impressive AI models from High-Flyer Capital Management, a Chinese hedge fund.The truth is a lot more nuanced, though, and there are still a lot of... If you spent any time yesterday or this weekend on X, you might have concluded that AI...

President Trump and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son. Photo by AP.

How SoftBank’s Son Made It Back to the White House

By Cory Weinberg and Juro Osawa · Jan 28, 2025 6:13am PST

When President Donald Trump announced a $500 billion plan for data centers to power artificial intelligence last Tuesday, one of the men standing to his left was already getting ready to write the checks. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son was already making plans to put a total of about $40 billion into the Stargate data center project as well as the... When President Donald Trump announced a $500 billion plan for data centers to power artificial...

Outside the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square today. Photo via Getty.

Investors’ Deep Search For AI Meaning

By Martin Peers · Jan 27, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Outside the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square today. Photo via Getty.

Investors’ Deep Search For AI Meaning

By Martin Peers · Jan 27, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Talk about a jittery market! Shares of some tech firms exposed to artificial intelligence tumbled today, prompted by new evidence that China’s DeepSeek is giving AI folks in the U.S. a run for their money. Nvidia and Broadcom each fell 17%, while Alphabet dropped 4% and Microsoft 2%. Oh, and let’s not forget Oracle, a small player in the... Talk about a jittery market! Shares of some tech firms exposed to artificial intelligence tumbled...