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

Chart by Shane Burke

Temu’s Biggest Bargain: Its Parent Company’s Stock

By Jing Yang · Sep 9, 2024 7:21am PDT · 1 comment

If you’re looking for a bargain backpack or pair of shoes, Temu might seem like the ideal place to look. If you’re looking for a bargain stock, the price tag on Temu’s parent, PDD Holdings, certainly seems tempting. Since PDD’s top management warned two weeks ago that rising competition would put downward pressure on its... If you’re looking for a bargain backpack or pair of shoes, Temu might seem like the ideal...

Photo by I-Hwa Cheng/Bloomberg via Getty.

Power and Memory Bottlenecks, Blackwell Delays, AI Returns: Takeaways from Semicon Taiwan

By Qianer Liu · Sep 9, 2024 7:00am PDT

The frenzy around AI may be abating, but in a good way. That’s my takeaway from last week's Semicon Taiwan, the chip industry’s big annual convention. Instead of just gushing about the raw power of AI, the conversations on and off stage revolved more around the technical challenges of developing semiconductor technology capable of supporting... The frenzy around AI may be abating, but in a good way. That’s my takeaway from last week's ...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, second from left, and Thrive Capital founder Josh Kushner, far right, at the Sun Valley conference in July. Photo by Getty.

Why Josh Kushner Became OpenAI’s Fundraising Sherpa

By Kate Clark and Natasha Mascarenhas · Sep 9, 2024 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

In mid-July, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman flew into Idaho to mingle with entertainment and tech elites at the annual Sun Valley retreat. Among those by Altman’s side was Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital, the New York venture capital firm that had led a recent share sale valuing the ChatGPT maker at $86 billion. Less than a month later,... In mid-July, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman flew into Idaho to mingle with entertainment and tech elites...

The now-closed Cuberg laboratory in San Leandro, Calif. Photo: Courtesy Northvolt

The Travails of Three Battery Startups Reflect the Industry’s Woes

By Steve LeVine · Sep 9, 2024 4:30am PDT

The now-closed Cuberg laboratory in San Leandro, Calif. Photo: Courtesy Northvolt

The Travails of Three Battery Startups Reflect the Industry’s Woes

By Steve LeVine · Sep 9, 2024 4:30am PDT

In May, a worker at the San Leandro, Calif., laboratory of next-generation battery developer Cuberg accidentally spilled alcohol solvent on a pile of scrap lithium metal. A fire broke out, reaching the ceiling, and now-molten lithium burned a 5-inch crater in the floor. Overhead sprinklers sent a spray of water over the interior of the facility,... In May, a worker at the San Leandro, Calif., laboratory of next-generation battery developer ...

Art by Clark Miller

Where Miami’s Party Goes Next

By Abram Brown · Sep 7, 2024 7:02am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: The schools where AI isn’t the enemy, but flaky startups are • The Top 5: What to wear for fall conference seasonPlus: The fuhrer and the czar; the art of the swindle; and leave the gun, take the saltwater taffy.A few weeks after tech’s love affair with Miami kicked off in late 2020, I... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: The schools where AI isn’t the enemy, but...

Art by Clark Miller

What Tech Moguls Should Wear for Fall Conference Season: The Summer’s Red-Hot Power Color

By Antonina Jedrzejczak · Sep 7, 2024 5:00am PDT · 5 comments

White for summer is nothing new, but 2024 embraced the hue at a whole new level. From sandals to sun hats and everything in between, shades of white dominated the most stylish wardrobes over the past three months. And, no, we’re not about to tell you to put away all those whites with Labor Day behind us. In fact, as you get ready to think... White for summer is nothing new, but 2024 embraced the hue at a whole new level. From sandals to...

Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff. Photo via Anadolu/Getty

Benioff Comes Into His Own

By Martin Peers · Sep 6, 2024 3:21pm PDT

Benioff is back! Well, at least as a dealmaker. As we close out the week in tech news, we have to acknowledge Salesforce’s first multibillion-dollar acquisition since its 2021 Slack purchase. On Thursday, the enterprise software firm unveiled a $1.9 billion acquisition of Own Co., a data security software company that Salesforce said would beef... Benioff is back! Well, at least as a dealmaker. As we close out the week in tech news, we have to...

Products from Shein, Temu, On Running, Skims and Vuori. Photos via retailers.

Amid Consumer IPO Logjam, Picky Shoppers Take the Spotlight

By Ann Gehan · Sep 6, 2024 10:32am PDT · 1 comment

Products from Shein, Temu, On Running, Skims and Vuori. Photos via retailers.

Amid Consumer IPO Logjam, Picky Shoppers Take the Spotlight

By Ann Gehan · Sep 6, 2024 10:32am PDT · 1 comment

Consumer companies are staring down a stark divide: Shoppers either want ultracheap goods, like $3 crop tops from sites like Temu, or high-end items, like $300 running shoes from On Holding, a sneaker company that went public in 2021. That’s according to investors, analysts and executives I spoke with at a Goldman Sachs retail conference... Consumer companies are staring down a stark divide: Shoppers either want ultracheap goods, like...

Art by Clark Miller

AI Isn’t the Enemy for Some Schools Anymore—Flaky Startups Are

By Paris Martineau · Sep 6, 2024 9:00am PDT · 2 comments

In early January, Marty Sharpe thought he’d get a few dozen teachers to show up to his professional development course on using generative artificial intelligence in the classroom. After all, it was an optional workday after the two-week winter break at the Catawba County Schools in North Carolina. Instead, Sharpe—the Catawba school... In early January, Marty Sharpe thought he’d get a few dozen teachers to show up to his...

Nvidia H100 chips inside a server room. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Pro Weekly: Expanding Our AI Data Center Database

By Akash Pasricha and Anissa Gardizy · Sep 6, 2024 8:00am PDT

Earlier this week, we published our AI Data Center Database, detailing 17 U.S. data centers operating or planned by major tech companies in the fevered race to pursue advances in artificial intelligence. The scale of these facilities is impressive: Some will contain as many as 100,000 of the most advanced semiconductors, sprawl across... Earlier this week, we published our AI Data Center Database, detailing 17 U.S. data centers...

Photo by Erin Beach

Musk’s Rivals Take Jabs at His GPU Cluster, Nvidia’s Cuda Weakness, Enterprise AI Use Cases: Summit Highlights

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 6, 2024 7:00am PDT · 4 comments

I’m still buzzing from getting to meet so many of you yesterday at our first-ever AI Summit. We got to talk all things LLMs, chips and AI applications with leaders such as Reid Hoffman, one of the earliest investors in OpenAI and a Microsoft board director; Chris Lattner, who helped Google launch their tensor processing units and TensorFlow... I’m still buzzing from getting to meet so many of you yesterday at our first-ever AI Summit. We...

Art by Mike Sullivan/ Midjourney

New AI Business Model: Charging Customers Only When the Tech Works

By Jon Victor · Sep 6, 2024 6:00am PDT

Art by Mike Sullivan/ Midjourney

New AI Business Model: Charging Customers Only When the Tech Works

By Jon Victor · Sep 6, 2024 6:00am PDT

Last month, Zendesk, which makes customer support software aided by artificial intelligence, decided to sell it in a daring new way. Instead of charging businesses based on how often they use the software—essentially an AI chatbot—to try to resolve customer problems, Zendesk began charging them only when the chatbot completed the... Last month, Zendesk, which makes customer support software aided by artificial intelligence,...

Aparna Pappu, vice president and general manager of Google Workspace, left, and Naveen Rao, vice president of AI at Databricks. Photo by Erin Beach

AI Summit: Nvidia Rivals, Musk’s Supercomputer Claims and Hot AI Jobs

By The Information Staff · Sep 5, 2024 7:37pm PDT

Artificial intelligence has turned into a battle of giants—but there is still room for startups, from makers of graphics processing units to applications that promise to make healthcare more efficient. Those themes emerged from The Information’s AI Summit in San Francisco Thursday. Greylock Partners’ Reid Hoffman called Elon... Artificial intelligence has turned into a battle of giants—but there is still room for...

Photo by ViewPress via Getty.

Verizon’s Backflip

By Martin Peers · Sep 5, 2024 5:00pm PDT

It’s the investment bankers’ dream—a company so desperate for growth that it engages in years of dealmaking under one CEO, while his successor spends years undoing all that earlier work. We’re talking about Verizon, whose $9.6 billion purchase of Frontier today is the culmination of nearly a decade of back-and-forth M&A negotiation. This is... It’s the investment bankers’ dream—a company so desperate for growth that it engages in years of...

Reid Hoffman. Photo by Erin Beach

OpenAI Investor Hoffman Says Musk’s New AI Chip Cluster Is ‘Table Stakes’

By Erin Woo · Sep 5, 2024 4:02pm PDT · 1 comment

Elon Musk’s recent claim that his xAI startup had assembled a cluster of 100,000 Nvidia chips in four months represents “table stakes” for the kinds of artificial intelligence Musk is pursuing, venture capitalist Reid Hoffman said Thursday at The Information’s AI Summit. “I don't think it's necessarily... Elon Musk’s recent claim that his xAI startup had assembled a cluster of 100,000 Nvidia...

Paul Graham. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

The Cult of Founder Mode

By Kate Clark · Sep 5, 2024 3:00pm PDT

Paul Graham. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

The Cult of Founder Mode

By Kate Clark · Sep 5, 2024 3:00pm PDT

Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I spent most of Labor Day weekend in bed recovering from a bout of Covid, because I was blissfully unaware of the newest venture capital debate brewing online.Rather than enjoy barbecues with their families, it seems like many venture capitalists and startup founders spent the weekend engaging in an... Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I spent most of Labor Day weekend in bed recovering from...

Joe Rogan. Photo by SYFY via Getty

Creator Economy

The Superstar Podcast Deals of 2024

By Rocket Drew · Sep 5, 2024 2:00pm PDT

Not too long ago, it didn’t seem plausible that chatting with a friend in front of a microphone could make for a lucrative career. I hosted a weekly radio show for about eight years, starting in 2010, when no one had heard of a podcast. During that time, the most common question I received was “That’s neat, how much does it cost you?” So I... Not too long ago, it didn’t seem plausible that chatting with a friend in front of a microphone...

Photo via Getty.

OpenAI Considers Higher Priced Subscriptions to its Chatbot AI; Preview of The Information’s AI Summit

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Erin Woo · Sep 5, 2024 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

How much would you be willing to pay for ChatGPT every month? $50? $75? How about $200 or $2,000?That’s the question facing OpenAI, whose executives we hear have discussed high-priced subscriptions for upcoming large language models, such as OpenAI’s reasoning-focused Strawberry and a new flagship LLM, dubbed Orion. (More on those models here... How much would you be willing to pay for ChatGPT every month? $50? $75? How about $200 or $2,000?...

A Huawei store in Chengdu, China. Photo via Shutterstock.

Apple’s China Rival Huawei Faces Production Snag With New Phone

By Qianer Liu · Sep 5, 2024 6:06am PDT · 1 comment

Huawei Technologies, whose phones are a major competitor to Apple’s iPhones in China, has scheduled a big product announcement for next Tuesday, the day after Apple is expected to unveil its next iPhone. That would be an ideal time for Huawei to unveil its much-anticipated next flagship phone, the Mate 70. But Huawei and the company that... Huawei Technologies, whose phones are a major competitor to Apple’s iPhones in China, has...

An Electric Era charging station at Seven Feathers Truck & Travel Center in Canyonville, Ore. Photo: Courtesy Electric Era.

The Electric: Battery Charging Executive Urges Biden to Go Easier on China

By Steve LeVine · Sep 5, 2024 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

An Electric Era charging station at Seven Feathers Truck & Travel Center in Canyonville, Ore. Photo: Courtesy Electric Era.

The Electric: Battery Charging Executive Urges Biden to Go Easier on China

By Steve LeVine · Sep 5, 2024 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

Late this month, Quincy Lee plans to inaugurate a fast-charging station for electric vehicles outside a new Costco in Ridgefield, Wash. The station will have six charging ports, powered by Chinese-made batteries, allowing it to quickly charge from 50 to 100 EVs per day. Late this month, Quincy Lee plans to inaugurate a fast-charging station for electric vehicles...