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

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo via Getty

What Anthropic and Stargate Have in Common

By Martin Peers · Jan 22, 2025 5:30pm PST

The term “bottomless pit of need” usually refers to an insecure person, but it could also apply to artificial intelligence startups, with their insatiable appetite for cash. Take Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s biggest rivals, which the Financial Times reported on Wednesday was raising $1 billion from Google. Just two weeks ago, we reported Anthropic... The term “bottomless pit of need” usually refers to an insecure person, but it could also apply...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the White House Tuesday. Photo via Getty

OpenAI, SoftBank Each Commit $19 Billion to Stargate Data Center Venture

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Amir Efrati · Jan 22, 2025 5:16pm PST · 5 comments

OpenAI and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank will each commit $19 billion to fund a joint venture to develop data centers for artificial intelligence in the U.S., OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told some colleagues Wednesday. The ChatGPT developer would effectively hold a 40% interest in the venture, Stargate, and it would act as a kind of extension of... OpenAI and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank will each commit $19 billion to fund a joint venture to...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Creator Economy

Let’s Make a Deal—for TikTok

By Kaya Yurieff · Jan 22, 2025 3:00pm PST

It’s been a whirlwind 24 hours of headlines pointing to a possible deal for TikTok, which could save it permanently from a U.S. ban. The big question is whether any of these overtures will pass muster with China’s government, which will likely have the final word on a sale. It’s not clear that TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance is even... It’s been a whirlwind 24 hours of headlines pointing to a possible deal for TikTok, which could...

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Targets AGI with System That Thinks Like a Pro Engineer

By Amir Efrati and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 22, 2025 1:22pm PST · 2 comments

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Targets AGI with System That Thinks Like a Pro Engineer

By Amir Efrati and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 22, 2025 1:22pm PST · 2 comments

OpenAI’s artificial intelligence for writing software code has fueled a multibillion-dollar revenue business, with human programmers using the company’s ChatGPT as a coding helper. Now the company is working on AI to help senior software engineers handle more complex programming tasks, a key step in the company’s attempt to... OpenAI’s artificial intelligence for writing software code has fueled a multibillion-dollar...

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew

Expect ‘Uncertainty Around TikTok for Years’: Event Recap

By Rocket Drew · Jan 22, 2025 1:10pm PST · 1 comment

TikTok got a second life after President Donald Trump extended the deadline for the app to find a U.S. buyer by another 75 days. But its future remains far from clear, given questions about whether Trump, ByteDance and the Chinese government will eventually agree on a deal. And that means rivals, creators and advertisers will be in limbo for a... TikTok got a second life after President Donald Trump extended the deadline for the app to find a...

Marc Benioff and Larry Ellison. Photo via Getty.

Why Oracle and Salesforce Should Merge

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jan 22, 2025 7:30am PST · 4 comments

Oracle’s founder and chief technology officer, Larry Ellison, is in the center of tech action more than at any time in the past 30 years, thanks to the company’s role in artificial intelligence and TikTok. But it’s not clear that Oracle has the resources to stay in the game. Even before Tuesday’s announcement by President... Oracle’s founder and chief technology officer, Larry Ellison, is in the center of tech...

Photo via Getty

What Stargate Means and What It Doesn’t

By Amir Efrati and Anissa Gardizy · Jan 22, 2025 7:00am PST

Ten months ago, we broke the story that OpenAI and Microsoft were discussing “Stargate,” an unprecedented $100 billion data center supercomputer to take artificial intelligence to new heights. On Tuesday, Stargate finally became official—but largely without Microsoft.At the White House on Tuesday, the leaders of OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank said... Ten months ago, we broke the story that OpenAI and Microsoft were discussing “Stargate,” an...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Startups’ AI Revenue Is Booming. Some Investors Doubt It Will Last

By Sri Muppidi, Stephanie Palazzolo and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jan 22, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Startups’ AI Revenue Is Booming. Some Investors Doubt It Will Last

By Sri Muppidi, Stephanie Palazzolo and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jan 22, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Investor frenzy for artificial intelligence startups, which made up a third of global venture spending last year, shows no signs of slowing down—particularly when young startups have rapid revenue growth. One of the latest to nail a big jump in valuation after fast revenue gains is Together AI. The two-year-old startup, which rents out... Investor frenzy for artificial intelligence startups, which made up a third of global venture...

President Donald Trump alongside SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty.

Larry Ellison in the Spotlight

By Martin Peers · Jan 21, 2025 5:00pm PST

Oracle founder and chairman Larry Ellison is suddenly the tech executive in the center of the action. Not only did Oracle bring back TikTok on Sunday, the aging tech firm also got a headline role, along with SoftBank and OpenAI, in President Donald Trump’s Tuesday announcement of an artificial intelligence data center project that will cost up... Oracle founder and chairman Larry Ellison is suddenly the tech executive in the center of the...

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. Photo by Getty

The Fine Print on Goldman CEO’s AI Hype

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 21, 2025 3:32pm PST · 3 comments

The AI hype machine got another boost last week when Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said artificial intelligence could produce the key document for an initial public offering that’s essentially “95% of the way there in just a few minutes.” Solomon might have been trying to scare Wall Street's high-priced bankers and lawyers. If that's... The AI hype machine got another boost last week when Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said...

Photo by Getty

Creator Economy

Instagram Goes After TikTokers; TikTok’s MAGA Moment

By Kaya Yurieff · Jan 21, 2025 2:16pm PST

Well, a lot has happened since we last sent out this newsletter! Although TikTok is back online for existing U.S. users, its future is far from certain. We’ll be watching to see if the Google and Apple app stores decide to reinstate the video app—and how Trump’s executive order that promises he won’t enforce the ban-or-divest law for 75 days... Well, a lot has happened since we last sent out this newsletter! Although TikTok is back online...

Art by Mike Sullivan via Midjourney

More Changes Coming to Microsoft and Google’s Productivity Apps: Grammarly CEO

By Jon Victor and Kevin McLaughlin · Jan 21, 2025 10:00am PST

Art by Mike Sullivan via Midjourney

More Changes Coming to Microsoft and Google’s Productivity Apps: Grammarly CEO

By Jon Victor and Kevin McLaughlin · Jan 21, 2025 10:00am PST

Microsoft and Google’s injection of generative artificial intelligence features into apps like Docs and Word is just the start of a dramatic shift for enterprise apps in the coming years, says Shishir Mehrotra, CEO of Grammarly, which develops writing assistant software.Instead of a chatbot like Google’s Gemini or Microsoft’s Copilot that... Microsoft and Google’s injection of generative artificial intelligence features into apps like...

Photo via Getty

A Competitor of Scale AI Doubles Its Revenue, Thanks to Reasoning

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 21, 2025 7:16am PST

Before we get into today’s column, President Donald Trump’s repeal of Joe Biden’s executive order on AI on Monday evening has to be the biggest news in AI. In case you’ve forgotten, Biden’s executive order required companies training large AI models to share details about their models with the federal government. Trump’s decision won’t have... Before we get into today’s column, President Donald Trump’s repeal of Joe Biden’s executive order...

ByteDance’s Singapore office. Photo by Claudio Schwarz.

ByteDance Is a Steal Even Without TikTok

By Juro Osawa and Jing Yang · Jan 21, 2025 6:00am PST · 5 comments

TikTok might have restarted operations in the U.S., but investors in the app’s parent company, ByteDance, remain in the dark about its future. For those debating buying into ByteDance shares, however, it doesn’t matter. Whatever happens, ByteDance stock is severely undervalued. Even if TikTok were to disappear entirely from the U.S.,... TikTok might have restarted operations in the U.S., but investors in the app’s parent...

Photo via AP.

Could Trump Be Considering a Revised TikTok Global Deal From 2020?

By Martin Peers · Jan 20, 2025 4:45pm PST

Donald Trump is president again, as of today! And in tech, among the most immediately affected will be viewers of the long-running drama “TikTok—Ban or Not?”. Trump on Sunday promised to renew the series for an expected three months. So far, Apple and Google don’t appear to be sticking around for the new season. While cloud service... Donald Trump is president again, as of today! And in tech, among the most immediately affected...

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri. Photo via Getty

Instagram Courts TikTok Creators With Big Cash Bonuses

By Kaya Yurieff and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jan 20, 2025 4:31pm PST · 2 comments

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri. Photo via Getty

Instagram Courts TikTok Creators With Big Cash Bonuses

By Kaya Yurieff and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jan 20, 2025 4:31pm PST · 2 comments

Instagram isn’t letting a good TikTok crisis go to waste. Representatives for the Meta Platforms–owned app in the last week have been contacting creators with large TikTok followings, offering cash bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 per month or even more to make short videos for Instagram Reels, according to a person with direct... Instagram isn’t letting a good TikTok crisis go to waste. Representatives for the Meta...

Art by Clark Miller

Venture Capital’s Latest Strategy: Private Equity–Style Roll-Ups

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Jan 20, 2025 6:00am PST · 3 comments

Venture capital firms have increasingly been acting like private equity firms by investing in or buying mature businesses in need of a turnaround. Now those firms are utilizing another PE strategy—rolling up multiple competitors into a single company that can operate more efficiently by combining costs. Venture capital firms such as... Venture capital firms have increasingly been acting like private equity firms by investing in or...

Photo by Getty

Oracle Prepares to Start Shutting TikTok Servers Saturday Night

By Anissa Gardizy · Jan 18, 2025 5:54pm PST

Leaders at Oracle, the main cloud computing provider for TikTok’s U.S. operations, have told some staff to prepare to shut down servers that host U.S. TikTok data on Saturday night as early as around 9 p.m. Eastern, in advance of a U.S. law that bans the app starting Sunday. Oracle CEO Safra Catz was expected to give the final go ahead to... Leaders at Oracle, the main cloud computing provider for TikTok’s U.S. operations, have...

Art by Clark Miller.

TikTok in Last-Minute Dash to Prepare Retailers, Staff for Ban

By Kaya Yurieff and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jan 18, 2025 11:56am PST · 1 comment

With a U.S. ban of TikTok just hours away, the company’s U.S. staff has been scrambling to contain the fallout for the millions of creators and merchants who have tied their livelihoods to the app. TikTok was considering creating a website to handle TikTok Shop returns once the company shuts down the app, managers told staff in its... With a U.S. ban of TikTok just hours away, the company’s U.S. staff has been scrambling to...

Art by Clark Miller

Wildfire Startups Need a SpaceX Moment

By Abram Brown · Jan 18, 2025 7:00am PST

Art by Clark Miller

Wildfire Startups Need a SpaceX Moment

By Abram Brown · Jan 18, 2025 7:00am PST

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Sports league startups bet on selfies and shape-shifting putting greens* Power and Influence: The tech industrial complex gets ready to party over Trump• Media and Entertainment: Apple’s most intriguing TV show• Plus, our Recommendations—for deep-winter binges: A buffed-up Baldur’s... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Sports league startups bet on selfies and...