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

Nvidia H100 chips. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Startups That Bought Too Many Nvidia Chips May Have to Rent Them Out

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 3, 2024 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Throughout last year, some venture capitalists raised concerns about artificial intelligence startups that used much of the capital they raised to buy or rent specialized servers powered by Nvidia chips. While spending gobs of money on those servers was all well and good for major cloud providers like Google—which also funded many of these... Throughout last year, some venture capitalists raised concerns about artificial intelligence...

Why YouTube Decided to Take Over Cable Television

By Sahil Patel · Apr 3, 2024 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

It might be the bleakest chart in the media business: the severe loss of subscribers in recent years among cable and satellite companies, which for decades were the primary way people subscribed to old-fashioned television channels such as CBS and ESPN. Amid the gloom, though, one company has stood out: YouTube TV, which has grown from zero... It might be the bleakest chart in the media business: the severe loss of subscribers in...

Ibotta advertising at an NBA game in 2022. Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images.

Judging the Rubrik and Ibotta IPO Beauty Pageant

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 2, 2024 5:00pm PDT

In the beauty pageant of initial public offerings, the latest tech companies to step to the stage, Ibotta and Rubrik, are trying to showcase the “glow-up” transformations they’ve undergone in the past two years.In early 2022, couponing startup Ibotta was struggling for relevance, barely growing and burning cash, looking more like a candidate for... In the beauty pageant of initial public offerings, the latest tech companies to step to the...

Marni Levine, Head of TikTok Shop’s U.S. Operations, Small and Medium Businesses (right), with The Information's Kaya Yurieff

TikTok Shop, Twitch + AI, Ty Haney: Summit Highlights

By Akash Pasricha · Apr 2, 2024 4:16pm PDT

Marni Levine, Head of TikTok Shop’s U.S. Operations, Small and Medium Businesses (right), with The Information's Kaya Yurieff

Creator Economy

TikTok Shop, Twitch + AI, Ty Haney: Summit Highlights

By Akash Pasricha · Apr 2, 2024 4:16pm PDT

We’re hosting hundreds of attendees at The Information’s Creator Economy Summit and the conversations are flying. Here are some of the highlights so far.Marni Levine, who leads TikTok Shop’s U.S. operations for small and medium businesses, said the app doesn’t plan to reduce e-commerce content in its powerful For You tab, despite complaints... We’re hosting hundreds of attendees at The Information’s Creator Economy Summit and the...

Photo by Erin Beach

Creator Economy Summit

Outdoor Voices’ Ty Haney: New Creator Startup Takes From ‘Good and Bad’ of Her Experience

By Sahil Patel · Apr 2, 2024 2:03pm PDT

Ty Haney left Outdoor Voices, the athleisure startup she co-founded, after a widely publicized dispute four years ago with the company’s board. Now she’s taking a new shot at one of the ideas that caused the rift: building loyal communities of users. “Having built a brand whose life was cut short for various reasons, I saw a... Ty Haney left Outdoor Voices, the athleisure startup she co-founded, after a widely publicized...

TikTok's Marni Levine. Photo by Erin Beach.

Creator Economy Summit

TikTok Shop Chief: No Plans to Dial Back Shop Content

By Erin Woo · Apr 2, 2024 11:47am PDT · 1 comment

TikTok isn’t swayed by users complaining they’re seeing too much on their feeds from creators hawking products. “I’m not considering” dialing back the amount of e-commerce content on TikTok’s For You page, said Marni Levine, head of TikTok Shop’s U.S. operations for small and medium businesses, in... TikTok isn’t swayed by users complaining they’re seeing too much on their feeds from...

Chart by Shane Burke.

AI Valuations May Be Coming Down to Earth; A Glimpse of OpenAI’s Search Engine

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 2, 2024 7:00am PDT

The valuations of artificial intelligence startups, as a multiple of their projected future revenue, may be coming down from their peaks.Three months ago, we calculated such valuation multiples for eight prominent companies that sell consumer or enterprise services tied to large language models. On average, investors valued these companies at 83... The valuations of artificial intelligence startups, as a multiple of their projected future...

Tony Hoggett, Amazon's "grocery chief." Photos: Flickr/Tesco and Getty Images. Art: Shane Burke.

Amazon’s Grocery Stores to Drop Just Walk Out Checkout Tech

By Theo Wayt · Apr 2, 2024 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Tony Hoggett, Amazon's "grocery chief." Photos: Flickr/Tesco and Getty Images. Art: Shane Burke.

Amazon’s Grocery Stores to Drop Just Walk Out Checkout Tech

By Theo Wayt · Apr 2, 2024 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Amazon’s grab-and-go checkout system, Just Walk Out, has been a centerpiece of its ambitions to transform bricks-and-mortar supermarkets. Now Amazon is gearing up to open a new batch of grocery stores after an 18-month pause—and it’s ditching the technology. Tony Hoggett, Amazon’s senior vice president of grocery stores,... Amazon’s grab-and-go checkout system, Just Walk Out, has been a centerpiece of its...

Photo via Shutterstock

Microsoft Unbundles Teams—Are Customers Better Off?

By Martin Peers · Apr 1, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

We got big news today from the world of enterprise software. Microsoft has decided to stop including its Teams feature, a rival to Slack and Zoom Video, by default in its Office suite of software services, at least for new customers. The software giant made this change in Europe last summer, after a regulatory inquiry in its Teams bundling... We got big news today from the world of enterprise software. Microsoft has decided to stop...

Photo via Shutterstock.

OpenAI Moves to Lessen Reliance on Some Nvidia Hardware

By Anissa Gardizy · Apr 1, 2024 7:15am PDT · 2 comments

After breaking the news on Friday about how Microsoft and OpenAI are drawing up plans for an ambitious data center project costing as much as $100 billion, we were bombarded with questions from people across the artificial intelligence and cloud industries: What part of the country will it be located in? What chips would it use? How would the... After breaking the news on Friday about how Microsoft and OpenAI are drawing up plans for an...

Art by Mike Sullivan

YouTube Leaders Bring a New Focus on Financial Discipline

By Kaya Yurieff and Sahil Patel · Apr 1, 2024 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Not long after Mary Ellen Coe joined YouTube as chief business officer in late 2022, leaders at the streaming video behemoth began intensifying their questions about a team of YouTube staffers who provided support to content creators. They wanted to know if the team was worth the money YouTube was investing in it, said a person involved in these... Not long after Mary Ellen Coe joined YouTube as chief business officer in late 2022, leaders at...

Photo: Getty

The Electric: ‘Good Enough’ Batteries Threaten Lithium-Metal Startups

By Steve LeVine · Apr 1, 2024 4:35am PDT

Photo: Getty

The Electric: ‘Good Enough’ Batteries Threaten Lithium-Metal Startups

By Steve LeVine · Apr 1, 2024 4:35am PDT

In 2020, a mania erupted around next-generation electric vehicle batteries, especially lithium-metal batteries that promised 500 miles of driving range, twice as far as most EVs could go on a charge at the time. Investors mobbed QuantumScape, a California lithium-metal battery developer, whose share price rose almost sixfold in the month... In 2020, a mania erupted around next-generation electric vehicle batteries, especially...

Josh Kushner, The Next Unhappy Media Mogul?

Josh Kushner, The Next Unhappy Media Mogul?

By Abram Brown · Mar 30, 2024 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:The skinny on Kim Kardashian’s Skims—and how it dodged retail armageddon.Beyoncé water and fake Pilsner: Our top 5 favorite New Age canned beverages that thirsty VCs love, too.Plus: The perils of inheritance; a man who could save us from our sinking world; and how a football star, a preacher and an actor... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:The skinny on Kim Kardashian’s Skims—and how it dodged...

Art by Clark Miller

Our Favorite New Age Canned Beverages—That Thirsty VCs Love, Too

By Abram Brown · Mar 30, 2024 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

“We’re not trying to bring back Prohibition—or judge anyone,” promised Bill Shufelt, leading me through a taste test of the non-alcoholic beer from his seven-year-old Athletic Brewing, recently valued at nearly a half-billion dollars. That money has afforded some fine products: To my immense surprise, Shufelt’s... “We’re not trying to bring back Prohibition—or judge anyone,” promised...

Generative AI illustration via Adobe Stock.

AI Rivals Broadband in High Upfront Cost—What About the Return?

By Martin Peers · Mar 29, 2024 3:30pm PDT

Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence, like Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, are cool to experiment with. But it’s becoming clearer by the day just how humongously expensive this kind of AI technology is to develop. Our scoop today about Microsoft drawing up plans to spend as much as $100 billion on a data center project for OpenAI... Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence, like Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, are cool...

Reddit IPO, Apple v. DOJ and the Return of the Power Lunch

By Jessica E. Lessin · Mar 29, 2024 12:04pm PDT · 1 comment

Reddit IPO, Apple v. DOJ and the Return of the Power Lunch

By Jessica E. Lessin · Mar 29, 2024 12:04pm PDT · 1 comment

This week's More or Less was an ode to the return of in-person business. Plus, how VCs are breaking down the Reddit IPO and more. Hope you enjoy. Apple Spotify This week's More or Less was an ode to the return of in-person business. Plus, how VCs are...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, left, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Photos via Getty. Art: Shane Burke

Microsoft and OpenAI Plot $100 Billion Stargate AI Supercomputer

By Anissa Gardizy and Amir Efrati · Mar 29, 2024 10:05am PDT · 13 comments

Executives at Microsoft and OpenAI have been drawing up plans for a data center project that would contain a supercomputer with millions of specialized server chips to power OpenAI’s artificial intelligence, according to three people who have been involved in the private conversations about the proposal. The project could cost as much... Executives at Microsoft and OpenAI have been drawing up plans for a data center project that...

Art by Clark Miller

How the CEO of Kim Kardashian’s Skims Dodged Retail Armageddon

By Ann Gehan and Annie Goldsmith · Mar 29, 2024 9:28am PDT · 2 comments

When Skims co-founders Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede were recently considering where to put their very first physical store, they knew right away that New York and Los Angeles wouldn’t work well. Their retail unicorn had previously held pop-up shops in those cities, and they had attracted enormous crowds that limited any chance to observe... When Skims co-founders Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede were recently considering where to put their...

Left to right, Everett Randle, Delian Asparouhov, John Luttig, Leigh Marie Braswell, Avery Klemmer, Vinay Iyengar and Grace Isford.

Pro Weekly: Venture Capital's Youth Movement

By Akash Pasricha · Mar 29, 2024 8:00am PDT

My colleagues Natasha and Kate this week published The Next GPs, identifying 19 people in industry and at venture capital firms such as Accel, Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners who are likely to become general partners in coming years. As I studied the list, I was struck by the relative youth of its members. At least nine,... My colleagues Natasha and Kate this week published The Next GPs, identifying 19 people in...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

How U.S. Sellers Are Embracing Trade ‘Loophole’ That Has Boosted Shein and Temu

By Theo Wayt and Ann Gehan · Mar 29, 2024 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Art by Mike Sullivan.

How U.S. Sellers Are Embracing Trade ‘Loophole’ That Has Boosted Shein and Temu

By Theo Wayt and Ann Gehan · Mar 29, 2024 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

When Air Up, a maker of scented water bottles backed by PepsiCo and Ashton Kutcher, was looking to cut costs last year, it decided to stop using warehouses located in California and Ohio, and instead ship its Asia- and Europe-made products out of the border city of Reynosa, Mexico. That change will make it cheaper for Munich-based Air Up to... When Air Up, a maker of scented water bottles backed by PepsiCo and Ashton Kutcher, was looking...