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

Art by Clark Miller

The Anti-Altman’s Hail Mary Pitch to Investors

By Abram Brown · Jun 22, 2024 7:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:Meet Jacob Helberg, the MAGA star popular with tech liberalsThe best apps for exploring naturePlus: Ferrets, puffins and guinea pigs, oh my; Scottish scaries; and how to summer in Italy from your sofa.Wanted! Investors for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shove millions of dollars into a nascent... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:Meet Jacob Helberg, the MAGA star popular with tech...

Art by Clark Miller

Downloads for the Backroads: A Techie’s Guide to the Best Apps for Exploring Nature

By Brigid Mander · Jun 22, 2024 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

Modern technology is everywhere, often in various forms of screen time. That makes it a popular scapegoat for the increasing, collective loss of our human connection to the natural world. It’s not just that time spent using technology has replaced time in nature, it’s also that for many nature is farther away: Over half the... Modern technology is everywhere, often in various forms of screen time. That makes it a popular...

Photo by Pierre Crom/Getty Images.

Apple Throws Down the Gauntlet to European Regulators

By Martin Peers · Jun 21, 2024 3:00pm PDT · 10 comments

Will Europeans start to regret their governments’ aggressive regulation of U.S. tech? That’s surely going to be a question sparked by Apple’s decision today to withhold a bunch of attractive new technologies—such as its artificial intelligence–powered offerings—from its products in Europe, citing the continental rules on how tech firms operate.... Will Europeans start to regret their governments’ aggressive regulation of U.S. tech? That’s...

Incoming Stability AI CEO, Prem Akkaraju. Photo via Stability AI.

Stability AI Gets New CEO and a Bailout From Investor Group Led By Sean Parker

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jun 21, 2024 11:39am PDT · 2 comments

Incoming Stability AI CEO, Prem Akkaraju. Photo via Stability AI.

Stability AI Gets New CEO and a Bailout From Investor Group Led By Sean Parker

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jun 21, 2024 11:39am PDT · 2 comments

Stability AI, a startup that rode the boom in generative artificial intelligence to a $1 billion valuation before experiencing financial trouble and employee defections, has a new CEO. Prem Akkaraju, former CEO of visual effects company Weta Digital, will step into the role, according to a person involved in the decision. The 51-year-old... Stability AI, a startup that rode the boom in generative artificial intelligence to a $1 billion...

Elad Gil on What to Build in AI (Part II)

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jun 21, 2024 10:56am PDT · 1 comment

Happy 1st birthday to the More or Less podcast! We marked the special occasion with a continuation of our What to Build series, featuring the always sharp Elad Gil. Gil was making big investments in AI before it was cool and has a lot to say about how to value the market today and how he thinks about exit opportunities for AI startups. Plus, we... Happy 1st birthday to the More or Less podcast! We marked the special occasion with a...

Art by Clark Miller

Trump’s Young Man in Silicon Valley

By Margaux MacColl · Jun 21, 2024 9:00am PDT · 16 comments

Soon after a Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty of falsifying business records last month, the former president headed uptown to a restaurant, where a dinner party awaited him. Trump, who appeared unfazed by the conviction, walked in with a smile on his face, greeted by about 20 supporters and members of his innermost circle. The crowd... Soon after a Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty of falsifying business records last month,...

Chart by Shane Burke

Pro Weekly: Surging Optimism About Apple

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 21, 2024 8:00am PDT

Shares of Apple surged more than 10% in the days after the company announced new artificial intelligence features at its Worldwide Developers Conference last week. Respondents to our monthly survey also are feeling more bullish about the iPhone maker. Roughly 42% of survey respondents said they were optimistic about Apple’s prospects in the... Shares of Apple surged more than 10% in the days after the company announced new artificial...

The San Francisco Databricks office. Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images.

Databricks Has an Edge on Snowflake—but It May Not Be as Big as Investors Think

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jun 21, 2024 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

The San Francisco Databricks office. Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images.

Databricks Has an Edge on Snowflake—but It May Not Be as Big as Investors Think

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jun 21, 2024 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

It may not be on the scale of Apple’s rivalry with Google, but the battle between Databricks and Snowflake is one of the most intense in Silicon Valley. Both firms help companies store and manage massive amounts of data—a service that should become more valuable with the rise of generative AI models. Their duel has become so intense... It may not be on the scale of Apple’s rivalry with Google, but the battle between...

Daniela Amodei, co-founder and president of Anthropic. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Why Picking an AI Chatbot Might Require Help From a Chatbot

By Martin Peers · Jun 20, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Artificial intelligence companies increasingly seem to have adopted a product marketing approach modeled on that of cellphone plans. Anyone who uses Verizon should know what I mean: The cellphone firm has long offered an evolving array of plans, each with a slightly different name and offering slightly different options, forcing customers to... Artificial intelligence companies increasingly seem to have adopted a product marketing approach...

Cerebras’ third-generation wafer-scale engine (WSE-3). Photo via Cerebras.

Cerebras, an Nvidia Challenger, Files for IPO Confidentially

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 20, 2024 4:08pm PDT

Cerebras, a developer of artificial intelligence chips that’s trying to wrestle business from Nvidia, has filed confidentially with securities regulators for an initial public offering, according to a person involved in the decision. The startup has also notified Delaware, the state in which it is incorporated, that it is creating... Cerebras, a developer of artificial intelligence chips that’s trying to wrestle business...

Jai Das, Co-founder, President and Partner, Sapphire Ventures. Photo by Getty

With IPOs Off Limits, Software Investors Pin Hopes on PE Buyouts

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 20, 2024 3:00pm PDT

Hi, it’s Akash. I’ve been in Toronto at the Collision Conference, Canada’s annual technology convention. It drew more than 37,800 attendees, along with big names like Vinod Khosla and the country’s own artificial intelligence royalty, Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez, as well as the “godfather of AI,” Geoffrey Hinton.Last year at this event, AI was still... Hi, it’s Akash. I’ve been in Toronto at the Collision Conference, Canada’s annual technology...

Creator Mylene Mae. Photo: Gracie Koh

How a Mini Video Series Supercharged This Creator’s Instagram Account

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 20, 2024 2:00pm PDT

Creator Mylene Mae. Photo: Gracie Koh

Creator Economy

How a Mini Video Series Supercharged This Creator’s Instagram Account

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 20, 2024 2:00pm PDT

Mylene Mae has found success with turning short Reels on Instagram into a series of related videos. She’s part of an emerging trend of creators doing so. Mae, 24, first started posting last April, initially focusing on sharing long-form YouTube videos about her efforts to learn how to code and life as a recent college graduate. On YouTube,... Mylene Mae has found success with turning short Reels on Instagram into a series of related...

Subscriber Survey

By a 3-2 Margin, The Information Readers Support the TikTok Ban

By Scott Thurm · Jun 20, 2024 11:31am PDT

Most readers of The Information support the U.S.’s pending ban of TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media app, though a significant minority oppose the ban scheduled to take effect early next year, according to our latest reader survey. Opinions about the ban divided sharply based on whether a respondent said they use the app. The roughly... Most readers of The Information support the U.S.’s pending ban of TikTok, the Chinese-owned...

Rocco Basilico, head of EssilorLuxottica's wearables. Photo by Getty

The Big Interview

Meta’s Ray-Bans Partner Draws Attention From Tech Rivals

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jun 20, 2024 10:58am PDT · 1 comment

EssilorLuxottica might not be a household name in the U.S. But the eyeglass giant, maker of Meta Platforms’ smart Ray-Ban glasses as well as dozens of other eyewear brands, is suddenly a company tech firms want to buddy up with. Rocco Basilico, the 34-year-old Italian head of EssilorLuxottica’s wearables business, revealed in an... EssilorLuxottica might not be a household name in the U.S. But the eyeglass giant, maker of Meta...

Chart by Shane Burke

A New (and Better) Approach to Measuring LLMs’ Intelligence Has Arrived

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 20, 2024 7:45am PDT · 1 comment

Finally, there’s good news from the never-ending quest to evaluate how good a large language model is. LMSYS, an organization that benchmarks LLMs, released findings last month on how the performance of LLMs changed between normal queries and harder ones that require more reasoning capabilities. LMSYS uses “Elo rankings,” a measure of... Finally, there’s good news from the never-ending quest to evaluate how good a large language...

Mubadala's Ibrahim Ajami. Photos via Flickr and Getty Images. Art by Shane Burke.

A Middle East Dealmaker Fights for Credibility in Silicon Valley

By Kate Clark · Jun 20, 2024 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Mubadala's Ibrahim Ajami. Photos via Flickr and Getty Images. Art by Shane Burke.

A Middle East Dealmaker Fights for Credibility in Silicon Valley

By Kate Clark · Jun 20, 2024 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

In March, a group of VIPs piled into Qasr Al Sarab, a luxury resort two hours’ drive from Abu Dhabi, for an invite-only event co-hosted by Mubadala Investment Co., a $300 billion sovereign wealth fund based in the United Arab Emirates. It was the same hotel where, two years earlier, cast members of “Dune: Part Two” had gotten... In March, a group of VIPs piled into Qasr Al Sarab, a luxury resort two hours’ drive from...

Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker introduces the Fisker Pear hatchback in August. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP

The Electric: One Creditor Stands Above Others in Fisker’s Bankruptcy

By Steve LeVine · Jun 20, 2024 4:30am PDT

Its cash reserves dwindling, electric vehicle maker Fisker last year obtained $510 million in funding from Heights Capital Management, a San Francisco–based investor in distressed assets. But when Fisker missed a November deadline for a securities filing, Heights gained the rights to all the company’s assets. Its cash reserves dwindling, electric vehicle maker Fisker last year obtained $510 million in...

Beauty influencer Debasree Banerjee doing her makeup live on YouTube. Photo via Sujit Jaiswal/AFP via Getty Images.

Reporter's Notebook

A Reality Check for Beauty Startups

By Ann Gehan · Jun 19, 2024 9:00am PDT · 3 comments

Beauty startup investors began this year with high hopes. In December, personal care giant Unilever said it was buying hair care brand K18, a star on TikTok since its 2020 launch. The industry took that as a sign that trendy brands had a fresh shot at selling to big conglomerates, which had mostly paused acquisitions after a deal binge in 2021.... Beauty startup investors began this year with high hopes. In December, personal care giant...

Screenshots from Ohai's character roleplay interface.

China’s Top AI Startups Enter U.S., Defying Political Tensions

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Jun 19, 2024 6:00am PDT

Chinese tech companies are facing more scrutiny in the U.S. than ever before. Yet some of China’s artificial intelligence startups are making a rush to grab U.S. customers. The reason: it’s too hard to make any money in China. One example is Beijing-based Moonshot AI, one of China’s most valuable AI startups. Its employees have... Chinese tech companies are facing more scrutiny in the U.S. than ever before. Yet some of...

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia (center), and Antonio Nero, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (left), take a photo with an attendee of today's HPE Discover Event at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Photo by Ian Maule/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Nvidia Passes Microsoft in Value, Heightening Risks

By Martin Peers · Jun 18, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia (center), and Antonio Nero, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (left), take a photo with an attendee of today's HPE Discover Event at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Photo by Ian Maule/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Nvidia Passes Microsoft in Value, Heightening Risks

By Martin Peers · Jun 18, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Nvidia is No. 1! A 3.5% rally in the artificial intelligence chipmaker’s stock on Tuesday, as most other tech stocks fell, catapulted its market capitalization above that of both Microsoft and Apple for the first time. It ended the day worth $3.34 trillion, while Microsoft was valued at $3.31 trillion and Apple was at $3.29 trillion. Those are... Nvidia is No. 1! A 3.5% rally in the artificial intelligence chipmaker’s stock on Tuesday, as...