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

Character AI co-founders Daniel De Freitas and Noam Shazeer. Photos by Winni Wintermeyer for The Washington Post via Getty.

Did Google Just Pay $2.5 Billion to Hire Character’s CEO?

By Amir Efrati and Kalley Huang · Aug 5, 2024 7:20am PDT · 5 comments

Google may have just paid one of the biggest signing bonuses in the history of Silicon Valley to hire two artificial intelligence researchers who left the search giant three years ago. On Friday, after chatbot developer Character announced that its founders and some other employees were going back to Google, Character told its roughly 130... Google may have just paid one of the biggest signing bonuses in the history of Silicon Valley to...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Once High-Flying Software Firms Confront Sluggish Growth

By Cory Weinberg, Jon Victor and Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 5, 2024 6:00am PDT · 6 comments

Carta, which makes software to help companies keep track of their shareholders, seemed to be executing the Silicon Valley startup playbook perfectly. In 2022, it landed an $8 billion valuation from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz and Silver Lake. Growth in annual recurring revenue hummed to 44% that year. Then the tides turned. Carta’s... Carta, which makes software to help companies keep track of their shareholders, seemed to be...

Photo by Getty

The Electric: No Longer Propelled by Tesla, the EV Industry Retreats Faster

By Steve LeVine · Aug 5, 2024 4:30am PDT

In February, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shelved plans to release a $25,000 electric vehicle—the company’s first EV for mainstream customers—next June. Musk said he wanted to prioritize the development of the autonomous Robotaxi, but his decision has had a much wider impact, helping to throw the nascent EV industry into reverse. In February, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shelved plans to release a $25,000 electric vehicle—the company’...

The AI Fun Vanishes

The AI Fun Vanishes

By Abram Brown · Aug 3, 2024 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

The AI Fun Vanishes

The AI Fun Vanishes

By Abram Brown · Aug 3, 2024 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Will BlackSky be a space race standout—or another cautionary tale?• The Top 5: Techies love at-home blood tests.Plus: A digital mood board; mom versus Big Brother; and Terry Gilliam’s time arrives again.We live in an age in which artificial intelligence has already altered our lives and... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Will BlackSky be a space race standout—or...

Art by Clark Miller

Silicon Valley Is Out for Blood

By Ashley Mateo · Aug 3, 2024 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

After the initial onslaught of Covid-19, 40-year-old Derrick Johnson made a deliberate decision to be more intentional regarding his health. “Both my mother and my father passed early—from lung cancer and a heart attack—and there’s been various cancer deaths in my family,” he said. “I really wanted to become... After the initial onslaught of Covid-19, 40-year-old Derrick Johnson made a deliberate decision...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang with the Blackwell AI chip. Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty

Nvidia’s New AI Chip is Delayed, Impacting Microsoft, Google, Meta

By Qianer Liu and Anissa Gardizy · Aug 2, 2024 8:00pm PDT · 17 comments

Nvidia’s upcoming artificial intelligence chips will be delayed by three months or more due to design flaws, a snafu that could affect customers such as Meta Platforms, Google and Microsoft that have collectively ordered tens of billions of dollars worth of the chips, according to two people who help produce the chip and server hardware... Nvidia’s upcoming artificial intelligence chips will be delayed by three months or more due...

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty.

AI Investors Are Soul-Searching

By Akash Pasricha · Aug 2, 2024 4:40pm PDT · 1 comment

Anyone involved in artificial intelligence right now has to be entering the weekend deeply introspective about when this technology will actually start making businesses money. One by one, big tech companies have spent most of the past two weeks telling shareholders about their mammoth investments in AI that sent capital expenditures... Anyone involved in artificial intelligence right now has to be entering the weekend deeply...

Character.AI co-founders Daniel De Freitas and Noam Shazeer. Photo by Winni Wintermeyer for The Washington Post via Getty. Art by Shane Burke.

Google Hires Character.AI Cofounders and Licenses Its Models

By Kalley Huang, Natasha Mascarenhas and Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 2, 2024 11:08am PDT · 2 comments

Character.AI co-founders Daniel De Freitas and Noam Shazeer. Photo by Winni Wintermeyer for The Washington Post via Getty. Art by Shane Burke.

Google Hires Character.AI Cofounders and Licenses Its Models

By Kalley Huang, Natasha Mascarenhas and Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 2, 2024 11:08am PDT · 2 comments

Google has agreed to pay a licensing fee to chatbot maker Character.AI for its models and will hire its cofounders and many of its researchers, the companies said. Character’s leaders told staff on Friday that investors would be bought out at a valuation of about $88 per share. That’s about 2.5 times the value of shares in... Google has agreed to pay a licensing fee to chatbot maker Character.AI for its models and will...

Art by Clark Miller

Will BlackSky Be a Space Race Standout—or Another Cautionary Tale?

By Sarah Scoles · Aug 2, 2024 9:11am PDT · 2 comments

Stop whatever you’re doing and look up at the sky. Now give Brian O’Toole, CEO of BlackSky Technology, a big smile. One of his company’s 16 state-of-the-art satellites might be passing overhead, ready to take your picture. “The plain-English thing about what we do is we have a satellite flying over your house every... Stop whatever you’re doing and look up at the sky. Now give Brian O’Toole, CEO of...

Pro Weekly: Investments in Generative AI Accelerate

Pro Weekly: Investments in Generative AI Accelerate

By Akash Pasricha · Aug 2, 2024 8:00am PDT

The arrival of ChatGPT 20 months ago sparked an investing fever around generative artificial intelligence. New data show the fever hasn’t broken. Startups in our Generative AI Database raised a record $12.2 billion in the second quarter, topping the previous record from the first quarter of 2023 when Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI... The arrival of ChatGPT 20 months ago sparked an investing fever around generative artificial...

Circle CEO, Jeremy Allaire. Photo via Bloomberg/Art by Shane Burke.

How Stablecoin Giant Circle Can Battle Rate Cuts

By Yueqi Yang · Aug 2, 2024 6:00am PDT

Higher interest rates have been a boon for Circle Internet Financial’s business. Now, with the threat of a Federal Reserve rate cut looming and timing for a planned initial public offering up in the air, the stablecoin issuer is finding ways to branch out. Boston-based Circle generates revenue mostly from earning interest on the tens... Higher interest rates have been a boon for Circle Internet Financial’s business. Now, with...

Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, and Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. Photos via Getty.

Nvidia Faces DOJ Antitrust Probe Over Complaints From Rivals

By Anissa Gardizy, Stephanie Palazzolo and Amir Efrati · Aug 1, 2024 5:49pm PDT · 2 comments

Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, and Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. Photos via Getty.

Nvidia Faces DOJ Antitrust Probe Over Complaints From Rivals

By Anissa Gardizy, Stephanie Palazzolo and Amir Efrati · Aug 1, 2024 5:49pm PDT · 2 comments

Antitrust officials at the U.S. Department of Justice are investigating complaints that Nvidia is allegedly abusing its market dominance in selling chips that power artificial intelligence. In recent weeks, U.S. officials reached out to several Nvidia competitors, including Advanced Micro Devices and AI chip startups, to gather information about... Antitrust officials at the U.S. Department of Justice are investigating complaints that Nvidia is...

An Amazon distribution center in Richmond, Calif on July 16 during "Amazon Prime Day." Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty.

Prime Video Ads Have Yet to Pay Off

By Theo Wayt · Aug 1, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

We want to start this evening’s Briefing by congratulating and thanking all the people who were involved in securing the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and other prisoners from Russia, in a major victory for press freedom. Make sure to read The Journal’s story about the remarkable effort to rescue him here.Now on to the... We want to start this evening’s Briefing by congratulating and thanking all the people who were...

Photo via AP

Creator Economy

Snap Adds to Chilly Advertising Outlook

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 1, 2024 3:31pm PDT

Selling online ads is great if you’re Meta Platforms. For the rest, it’s increasingly blah. Snap joined a parade of internet companies to warn digital advertising growth was cooling, catching Wall Street by surprise. The news took 20% off the price of Snap shares in after-hours trading Thursday. The parent of Snapchat said it expects... Selling online ads is great if you’re Meta Platforms. For the rest, it’s increasingly blah. ...

Leslie Feinzaig. Photo via Flickr.

The Seed Investor Who Launched ‘VCsForKamala’

By Kate Clark · Aug 1, 2024 3:05pm PDT · 1 comment

Leslie Feinzaig, a venture capitalist and founder of the community group Female Founders Alliance, buys web addresses often, usually shortly after she develops a new idea. “I have an embarrassingly long list of URLs,” she said in an interview Thursday afternoon. However, few of these URLs have sparked a movement in venture capital quite... Leslie Feinzaig, a venture capitalist and founder of the community group Female Founders...

Recap: Why Companies Are Betting on Small AI Models

By The Information Partnerships · Aug 1, 2024 1:53pm PDT

Partner Content

Recap: Why Companies Are Betting on Small AI Models

By The Information Partnerships · Aug 1, 2024 1:53pm PDT

Ever since ChatGPT exploded, tech companies have been racing to replicate its success with their own large language models, from Google’s Gemini to Meta Platforms’ Llama. But bigger isn’t always better. Small language models promise enterprises less lag, lower costs and a smaller environmental footprint. Amir Efrati, executive... Ever since ChatGPT exploded, tech companies have been racing to replicate its success with their...

Art by Clark Miller. Michelle Ritter photo via BFA, Eric Schmidt via Getty.

An Eric Schmidt Investment Firm Crumbles After Mismanagement, Soured Romance

By Cory Weinberg and Michael Roddan · Aug 1, 2024 10:01am PDT · 14 comments

Michelle Ritter felt stuck. She knew it was an odd thing to say last month, as she sat on the living-room carpet of the 13-bedroom Bel Air mansion—previously owned by the Hilton family—that she currently lives in. The owner of the mansion is Eric Schmidt, the 69-year-old former Google CEO, whom Ritter, 30, began dating in 2020 when... Michelle Ritter felt stuck. She knew it was an odd thing to say last month, as she sat on the...

Photo via AP.

XAI Eyes Chatbot Maker Character.AI; Meta Spends Big on AI—Now, How Can It Make Money?

By Kalley Huang · Aug 1, 2024 7:00am PDT

The big fish of artificial intelligence are again circling a minnow. Elon Musk’s xAI has considered buying Character.AI, which makes chatbots for hyperrealistic roleplay, my colleagues Natasha and Stephanie and I reported yesterday. Such a purchase would give xAI new avenues for testing and improving its models, as well as additional... The big fish of artificial intelligence are again circling a minnow. Elon Musk’s xAI has...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Cable’s Decline Loomed Large Over NBA’s Divorce From Warner

By Sahil Patel · Aug 1, 2024 6:10am PDT

How hard did the NBA try to keep its marriage to longtime cable television partner, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Turner Sports, going? During a new round of negotiations with media companies for rights to air the league’s games, the NBA made it practically impossible for Warner to win one of the multiple deals it was doling out. For... How hard did the NBA try to keep its marriage to longtime cable television partner, Warner Bros....

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Getty

Meta Flexes Financial Muscle in Costly AI Showdown With Microsoft and Google

By Amir Efrati · Jul 31, 2024 5:13pm PDT

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Getty

Meta Flexes Financial Muscle in Costly AI Showdown With Microsoft and Google

By Amir Efrati · Jul 31, 2024 5:13pm PDT

Meta Platforms shareholders have had a singular concern lately: how the company can go toe-to-toe with Google and Microsoft (and Microsoft partner OpenAI) in developing cutting-edge artificial intelligence while expanding data centers and filling them with costly AI chips to enable future breakthroughs that result in profits.On Wednesday, Meta... Meta Platforms shareholders have had a singular concern lately: how the company can go toe-to-toe...