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

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Sunday Insights

Robinhood Now Makes More Revenue From Predictions Than From Stock Trades

By Yueqi Yang · Aug 2, 2026 8:00am PDT

Brokerage app Robinhood has quickly become a force in prediction markets, challenging the hold of Kalshi and Polymarket on the popular betting market. Robinhood’s prediction markets revenue surged more than tenfold year over year in the second quarter to $156 million, the company reported last week, as part of its second-quarter earnings update.... Brokerage app Robinhood has quickly become a force in prediction markets, challenging the hold of...

Art: Clark Miller

Why Apple Should Buy Granola

By Abram Brown · Aug 1, 2026 8:00am PDT · 1 comment

• The Big Read: Silicon Valley looks to a new biotech frontier—Montana • Garry Tan’s political dreams require this 32-year-old’s ‘grunt’ force • Plus, Recommendations—our weekly pop culture picks: “Dead Rabbit,” “The Amateur” and “The Drama”Here’s a thought that would’ve seemed startling not long ago: There’s a very good chance that... • The Big Read: Silicon Valley looks to a new biotech frontier—Montana • Garry Tan’s...

Art: Clark Miller; Liu photo courtesy of Forrest Liu

Garry Tan’s Political Dreams Require This 32-Year-Old’s ‘Grunt’ Force

By Eli Rosenberg · Aug 1, 2026 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

As Garry Tan, the Y Combinator CEO, has deepened his ambitions to become a political force, the task of turning his agenda into reality has often fallen on the shoulders of one guy: Forrest Liu, his political director. The work keeps Liu, 32, plenty busy—and occasionally requires him to put his body on the line as he drums up money and... As Garry Tan, the Y Combinator CEO, has deepened his ambitions to become a political force, the...

Art: Clark Miller

Silicon Valley Looks to a New Biotech Frontier: Montana

By Amy Dockser Marcus · Jul 31, 2026 7:36am PDT

Art: Clark Miller

Silicon Valley Looks to a New Biotech Frontier: Montana

By Amy Dockser Marcus · Jul 31, 2026 7:36am PDT

For the last several years, a startup accelerator called Infinita City has devoted its attention to establishing a thriving enclave for biotech companies in Prospera, a charter city on a small Honduran island. Last year, Tim Draper, a billionaire venture capitalist who backed Infinita, hosted a pitch competition on the island that offered a $1... For the last several years, a startup accelerator called Infinita City has devoted its attention...

A CyrusOne data center in Aurora, Illinois. Photo by Getty Images.

Data Center Operator CyrusOne Lays IPO Groundwork

By Valida Pau · Jul 30, 2026 7:02pm PDT

CyrusOne, a data center operator owned by private equity giants KKR and BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, is getting ready to interview and hire investment banks to advise on what could be one of the largest initial public offerings next year, according to people familiar with the discussions. The IPO preparations indicate that some of... CyrusOne, a data center operator owned by private equity giants KKR and BlackRock’s Global...

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon. Photo by Andrej Sokolow/Getty Images

Amazon’s Cloud Surge Wins Over Wall Street

By Martin Peers · Jul 30, 2026 5:01pm PDT

There’s no doubt about it: AI gave the big cloud firms a lift in business in the June quarter. We’ve already heard that from Google and Microsoft, and on Thursday, Amazon, the biggest cloud firm, followed suit by posting 37% growth in its Amazon Web Services cloud unit for the quarter. That’s 9 percentage points faster than it reported for the... There’s no doubt about it: AI gave the big cloud firms a lift in business in the June quarter. We...

Nscale’s founder and CEO, Josh Payne. Art by Clark Miller; YouTube.

Neocloud Nscale Gets Ready to Pitch Investors on Multibillion Dollar IPO

By Valida Pau and Cory Weinberg · Jul 30, 2026 1:17pm PDT

A jittery stock market isn’t the best environment for new public listings. But one young startup with deep ties to the AI boom is marching ahead with its IPO plans, at least for now.Nscale, a UK-based AI cloud provider heavily backed by Nvidia, has been meeting with prospective investors recently and scheduled an investor day to pitch analysts... A jittery stock market isn’t the best environment for new public listings. But one young startup...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella via Getty

New Microsoft Copilot Security Flaws Show How AI Can Leak Customer Secrets

By Aaron Holmes · Jul 30, 2026 11:57am PDT

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella via Getty

New Microsoft Copilot Security Flaws Show How AI Can Leak Customer Secrets

By Aaron Holmes · Jul 30, 2026 11:57am PDT

Cybersecurity is top of mind for many businesses following the remarkable hack of Hugging Face earlier this month. And rightly so. The problem they now face is that many of the AI firms selling tools to find and patch vulnerabilities are themselves vulnerable to security problems.The latest is Microsoft’s Copilot AI features for Office 365,... Cybersecurity is top of mind for many businesses following the remarkable hack of Hugging Face...

EHang's autonomous two-seat eVTOL. Photo: Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu/Getty

CEOs Say Future Electric Flying Taxis Will Be Pilotless. Will Passengers Go Along?

By Steve LeVine · Jul 30, 2026 9:00am PDT · 1 comment

If electric flying taxis crowd the low-altitude skies in the coming years, as startups predict, how will they manage not to crash into one another? If electric flying taxis crowd the low-altitude skies in the coming years, as startups predict,...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Server Networking Boom Drives $300 Million Funding For Xsight

By Phoebe Liu · Jul 30, 2026 7:00am PDT

Graphics processing units are all the rage, but startups developing the networking equipment that connects GPUs to one other are getting some love from investors, too. The latest is Xsight, a nine-year-old startup based in Israel that makes server networking and storage chips, the latter of which are also in high demand in the current boom.Five... Graphics processing units are all the rage, but startups developing the networking equipment that...

Art by Mike Sulllivan; Getty Images

TSMC Develops AI Chip Packaging Tech to Counter Intel

By Qianer Liu · Jul 30, 2026 6:00am PDT

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is developing an advanced chip-packaging technology similar to what Intel already offers, according to two people with direct knowledge of the project, a sign that the world’s leading chip manufacturer is worried about competition from a distant rival. Chip packaging is the final stage of chip production,... Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is developing an advanced chip-packaging technology...

Mark Zuckerberg, left, and Satya Nadella. Photos via Getty Images

Meta Could Learn Cost Control From Microsoft

By Martin Peers · Jul 29, 2026 5:01pm PDT

Mark Zuckerberg, left, and Satya Nadella. Photos via Getty Images

Meta Could Learn Cost Control From Microsoft

By Martin Peers · Jul 29, 2026 5:01pm PDT

Talk about a tale of two companies. Today’s June-quarter earnings reports from Meta Platforms and Microsoft showed very different approaches to cost control, a discipline that may never be more important for big tech companies. Meta, whose CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to have a you-only-live-once approach to AI investment, reported a 55% surge in... Talk about a tale of two companies. Today’s June-quarter earnings reports from Meta Platforms and...

Reflection AI co-founders Ioannis Antonoglou, left, and Misha Laskin. Photos via Getty Images

Artificial Intelligence

Nvidia Bet on Reflection for Open-Source AI. Now the Startup Is Playing Catch-Up.

By Rocket Drew · Jul 29, 2026 9:53am PDT

Last August, a co-founder of Reflection AI flew to California to meet Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. The fledgling startup had been making an AI coding tool, but the tech magnate encouraged him to go with a new plan, said someone familiar with the meeting, for something that at the time seemed more novel: developing open-source AI models that... Last August, a co-founder of Reflection AI flew to California to meet Nvidia CEO Jensen...

Art by Mike Sullivan; Getty Images.

The Information Finance

Demand Heats Up For Spend Now, Lease Later AI Financing

By Dakin Campbell · Jul 29, 2026 9:41am PDT

In the financial model that governs the AI data center build-out, one of the most important questions is who the tenant will be. The goal is to ensure that demand from big cloud firms and AI labs for computing capacity—and their ability to pay—will line up with supply as trillions of dollars pour into data centers and related... In the financial model that governs the AI data center build-out, one of the most important...

Vitality Mechanical CEO Robby Hogle. Photo courtesy of Vitality Mechanical.

Why Data Labeling Startups Are Paying HVAC Companies $150,000 For Data

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 29, 2026 7:01am PDT

In June, data labeling startup micro1 approached Robby Hogle, CEO of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning company in Troy, Mich., with a proposition: why not learn how to use AI in his business and get paid for it?Hogle had already been doing some work for micro1 as a side hustle. Hogle, a former investment banker, had been providing... In June, data labeling startup micro1 approached Robby Hogle, CEO of a heating, ventilation and...

Alex Atallah, CEO of OpenRouter, left, and Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe. Art by Mike Sullivan; Getty Images

OpenRouter Financials Suggest Steep Price For Possible Acquirer Stripe

By Amir Efrati and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 29, 2026 5:59am PDT

Alex Atallah, CEO of OpenRouter, left, and Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe. Art by Mike Sullivan; Getty Images

OpenRouter Financials Suggest Steep Price For Possible Acquirer Stripe

By Amir Efrati and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 29, 2026 5:59am PDT

If Stripe ends up buying three-year-old startup OpenRouter for close to $10 billion, the payments firm would be paying a substantial premium of about 70 times the startup’s recent annualized revenue, according to a person with knowledge of OpenRouter’s financials. OpenRouter, which helps app developers access hundreds of AI models, was recently... If Stripe ends up buying three-year-old startup OpenRouter for close to $10 billion, the payments...

Image via Getty

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Nears 1 Billion Weekly Active Users Seven Months After Target

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Erin Woo · Jul 28, 2026 7:36pm PDT · 1 comment

OpenAI’s chatbot is on the precipice of having 1 billion weekly active users, a milestone the company was hoping to hit by the end of last year, according to information the company has shared internally. Though the milestone comes seven months after the company originally expected to hit it, ChatGPT is still one of the fastest, if not the... OpenAI’s chatbot is on the precipice of having 1 billion weekly active users, a milestone the...

PayPal CEO shot credit: Art by Clark Miller; YouTube.

PayPal's Message to Shareholders: 'Trust Us'

By Martin Peers · Jul 28, 2026 5:01pm PDT

PayPal has a message for Wall Street and would-be buyers: “We got this.” That’s the upshot of CEO Enrique Lores’ response to what he called “recent M&A speculation”—also known as Stripe’s reported $53 billion takeover bid for the struggling payments firm. Lores wouldn’t comment about anything specific, but his comments implied Stripe’s offer... PayPal has a message for Wall Street and would-be buyers: “We got this.” That’s the upshot of CEO...

Art by Mike Sullivan, stock image by Adobe.

Jump Capital Raises $350 Million Fund For AI Investments

By Yueqi Yang · Jul 28, 2026 3:50pm PDT

Jump Capital, the venture capital firm backed by the founders of quant-trading firm Jump Trading, has raised a new fund of $350 million, Jump Capital co-founder and partner Sach Chitnis told me. The Chicago-based firm will use the new money to expand its investments in AI startups. The fund is the same size as its last vehicle raised in... Jump Capital, the venture capital firm backed by the founders of quant-trading firm Jump Trading,...

Art by Mike Sullivan/Getty Images

Cursor Customers Fight Price Hikes in Contract Talks

By Laura Bratton · Jul 28, 2026 12:38pm PDT · 2 comments

Art by Mike Sullivan/Getty Images

Cursor Customers Fight Price Hikes in Contract Talks

By Laura Bratton · Jul 28, 2026 12:38pm PDT · 2 comments

Cursor, the pioneering AI coding app, is growing pretty well ahead of SpaceX’s planned $60 billion purchase. But the company, which provides access to different AI models for coding work, last year shifted to charging more customers based on usage rather than flat rate subscriptions, and the move is now causing some heated contract renewal... Cursor, the pioneering AI coding app, is growing pretty well ahead of SpaceX’s planned $60...