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

Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen. Photo via Getty.

Flexport Exits Mount as CEO Ryan Petersen Overhauls Tech, Legal and Sales Teams

By Theo Wayt and Ann Gehan · Oct 4, 2023 6:41am PDT

Ryan Petersen’s clearout of Flexport’s top management is continuing. The company’s top engineering executive and longtime chief legal officer both departed the company this week, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Information. The logistics startup’s Asia sales head has also left the company, the memo said. The... Ryan Petersen’s clearout of Flexport’s top management is continuing. The...

Art via Shutterstock/Shane Burke.

Fintech Lenders Spiral as Risky Borrowers Struggle

By Mark Matousek · Oct 4, 2023 6:01am PDT

The end of an era of historically low interest rates has been a boon for big banks, which can now earn more from the loans they make. But for financial tech startups that sought to challenge traditional lenders, steeper borrowing costs have provoked a reckoning, forcing some to hike fees and cut off their riskiest customers. Upstart, which... The end of an era of historically low interest rates has been a boon for big banks, which can now...

Photo via Shutterstock

Streaming Services Should Beware Becoming Like Cable Companies

By Nick Wingfield · Oct 3, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

About a month ago, I finally reached my breaking point with YouTube TV, the streaming service I had subscribed to years earlier as a replacement for cable TV. I didn’t think twice about paying $40 a month for it in 2018, but after years of price increases—YouTube TV now costs $73 a month—I realized my family wasn’t watching it nearly enough to... About a month ago, I finally reached my breaking point with YouTube TV, the streaming service I...

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. Photo via Getty.

Anthropic in Talks to Raise $2 Billion From Google and Others Just Days After Amazon Investment

By Kate Clark, Anissa Gardizy and Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 3, 2023 3:17pm PDT · 4 comments

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. Photo via Getty.

Anthropic in Talks to Raise $2 Billion From Google and Others Just Days After Amazon Investment

By Kate Clark, Anissa Gardizy and Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 3, 2023 3:17pm PDT · 4 comments

Anthropic, one of the main rivals of OpenAI, is in talks with investors to raise at least $2 billion in new funding, following a commitment from Amazon last week to invest $1.25 billion in the company, according to three people with direct knowledge. Anthropic has told investors that Google, which bought a roughly 10% stake in the startup in... Anthropic, one of the main rivals of OpenAI, is in talks with investors to raise at least $2...

"Extremely Online" author Taylor Lorenz. Photo by Brian Treitler

Creator Economy

Mommy Bloggers, the Original Creators; a Threads Revival

By Kaya Yurieff · Oct 3, 2023 2:44pm PDT

How is Instagram going to resuscitate Threads? By focusing on Black creators and finding the sweet spot between hard news and pop culture. That’s what my colleague Sylvia reported in her article Monday about what's going on inside Instagram as it tries to breathe new life into the app, a rival to X (formerly known as Twitter). The jury’s still... How is Instagram going to resuscitate Threads? By focusing on Black creators and finding the...

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. Photo by Drew Angerer via Getty.

Microsoft CEO Says AI ‘Vicious Cycle’ Will Boost Google; Meta and OpenAI’s Other Rivalry

By Aaron Holmes · Oct 3, 2023 7:40am PDT

CEOs often speak from both sides of their mouth, depending on who their audience is. On Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella painted a scary picture of how Google could multiply its power in the age of artificial intelligence. His doom and gloom comments, made before a federal judge in Washington, contrasted with an upbeat Nadella from February... CEOs often speak from both sides of their mouth, depending on who their audience is. On Monday, ...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Getty

Nvidia Deepens Push Into AWS’ Turf

By Anissa Gardizy · Oct 3, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Nvidia’s ambition to compete with Amazon Web Services is growing. Nvidia is best known for designing server chips for artificial intelligence, but it has been running a nascent cloud service for corporate customers that develop AI with those chips. Nvidia operates the service, DGX Cloud, with servers located in the data centers of... Nvidia’s ambition to compete with Amazon Web Services is growing. Nvidia is best known for...

Photo via Nasdaq

DoorDash Should Buy Instacart Now

By Martin Peers · Oct 2, 2023 5:01pm PDT · 2 comments

Photo via Nasdaq

DoorDash Should Buy Instacart Now

By Martin Peers · Oct 2, 2023 5:01pm PDT · 2 comments

Instacart’s stock price performance so far brings to mind a variation on the old line about love: Is it better to have gone public and lost, or never to have gone public at all? The shares fell 9% on Monday to $26.96, 10% below its IPO price, following our scoop that the Wall Street analysts at the banks underwriting the offering are projecting... Instacart’s stock price performance so far brings to mind a variation on the old line about love:...

ByteDance's Singapore offices. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

TikTok’s Owner Generated Nearly $7 Billion in Cash From Operations in First Quarter

By Amir Efrati · Oct 2, 2023 3:16pm PDT

The cash machine of TikTok’s owner is getting bigger. ByteDance’s revenue rose 34% to $24.5 billion in the first quarter of 2023, a slight slowdown from its 38% revenue growth in the 2022 calendar year, according to detailed financial results viewed by The Information. But the company generated $6.8 billion in cash from operations in... The cash machine of TikTok’s owner is getting bigger. ByteDance’s revenue rose 34% to...

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri. Photo by AFP via Getty.

Instagram Looks for Ways to Revive Interest in Threads

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Oct 2, 2023 3:11pm PDT · 4 comments

Three months ago, Threads, Meta Platforms’ answer to Twitter, was the hottest social media app around. In just days, 100 million people had signed up for it. Since then, usage has plunged, prompting Meta staffers to look for ways to revive interest in the app. One top priority is getting creators to post more often, as a way of boosting... Three months ago, Threads, Meta Platforms’ answer to Twitter, was the hottest social media...

VidCon's inaugural conference in Baltimore. Photo via VidCon

Creator Economy

What You Missed at VidCon Baltimore

By Kaya Yurieff · Oct 2, 2023 2:31pm PDT

First, some breaking news: ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, is planning to buy at least $300 million in stock from current and former employees, a buyback that implies a valuation around $223.5 billion. That’s about 26% lower than the buyback ByteDance announced a year ago. In an unusual move, TikTok is buying back shares at different prices,... First, some breaking news: ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, is planning to buy at least $300...

TikTok's booth at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Photo via Getty.

ByteDance Valuation Falls 26% to $223.5 Billion in New Employee Share Buyback

By Kaya Yurieff and Amir Efrati · Oct 2, 2023 12:56pm PDT

TikTok's booth at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Photo via Getty.

ByteDance Valuation Falls 26% to $223.5 Billion in New Employee Share Buyback

By Kaya Yurieff and Amir Efrati · Oct 2, 2023 12:56pm PDT

TikTok parent company ByteDance is planning to buy at least $300 million worth of stock from current and former U.S. employees in a deal that values the privately-held company at $223.5 billion, down 26% from a similar buyback offer a year ago, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. Current and former employees must... TikTok parent company ByteDance is planning to buy at least $300 million worth of stock from...

Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg. Photos via Shutterstock and AP.

Meta, OpenAI Square Off Over Open Source AI

By Jon Victor · Oct 2, 2023 10:32am PDT

Artificial intelligence leaders and policymakers are divided on a key question: Are cutting-edge AI models too powerful to hand to just anyone? That question has pitted companies such as Meta Platforms, which recently made the code for its conversational AI freely available on the internet, against rivals such as OpenAI that sell proprietary AI... Artificial intelligence leaders and policymakers are divided on a key question: Are cutting-edge...

Dave Rogenmoser, co-founder of Jasper. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

AI Startups Are Facing a Reckoning

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 2, 2023 7:35am PDT · 10 comments

A reckoning may be coming for once-hot artificial intelligence startups. Among the most vulnerable: consumer apps (think Character.AI) and “thin wrapper” startups like CopyAI that merely provide a nice user interface on top of a third-party model from model developers like OpenAI. We got a sense of the slowdown last week, when Natasha and I... A reckoning may be coming for once-hot artificial intelligence startups. Among the most...

Instacart CEO Fidji Simo rings the Nasdaq opening bell on Sept. 19. Photo via Nasdaq.

Instacart’s Bleak Second-Half Outlook: Slower Growth, Lower Profits

By Cory Weinberg · Oct 2, 2023 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Instacart’s first couple of quarters on the public markets could come with slower revenue growth and lower profits than it reported in the first half, according to private forecasts from analysts at banks that underwrote Instacart’s initial public offering this month. The low expectations could further dent Instacart’s stock... Instacart’s first couple of quarters on the public markets could come with slower revenue...

GOP presidential candidates lashed out at electric vehicle subsidies in last week's debate. Photo: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg/Getty

The Electric: Some Republicans Want to Kill the IRA. The Industry Isn’t Worried. That’s a Big Risk

By Steve LeVine · Oct 2, 2023 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

GOP presidential candidates lashed out at electric vehicle subsidies in last week's debate. Photo: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg/Getty

The Electric: Some Republicans Want to Kill the IRA. The Industry Isn’t Worried. That’s a Big Risk

By Steve LeVine · Oct 2, 2023 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have united around a vow to gut President Joe Biden’s landmark laws supporting electric vehicles, which marshal more than $500 billion to build a U.S. battery industry. Industry hands foresee little threat to the nascent industry, even in a Republican landslide that wins the White House and... Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have united around a vow to gut President Joe...

The Heir Who Wants to Be Mayor

The Heir Who Wants to Be Mayor

By Jon Steinberg · Sep 30, 2023 6:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.To spend time with Daniel Lurie is to understand the true meaning of the word “mensch.” Everyone who knows the San Francisco philanthropist and Levi’s heir says pretty much the same things about him: Daniel is “a really good guy”—affable, smart, egoless and earnest in his desire to improve the lives of the... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.To spend time with Daniel Lurie is to understand the true meaning of...

Art by Clark Miller.

How a Videogame CEO Became the Boss of the Weight Room

By Margaux MacColl · Sep 30, 2023 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

Adventurer: Strauss Zelnick Escapades: 6 a.m. weightlifting, skiing the mountains of Montana, cycling through the Canadian Rockies Plenty of tech execs flex about their fitness regimen. But few can flex like Strauss Zelnick, CEO of videogame holding company Take-Two Interactive Software, which is responsible for hit games like BioShock,... Adventurer: Strauss Zelnick Escapades: 6 a.m. weightlifting, skiing the mountains of Montana,...

Photo via Getty.

Apple’s Hiccup, Blue Apron Gets Picked Up

By Martin Peers · Sep 29, 2023 3:00pm PDT

It’s hard to feel sympathy for Apple, given how much money it makes ($9.2 million in net income every hour in the most recent quarter). But the flood of complaints on social media about overheating in the latest line of iPhones makes you feel a bit for the tech giant and its executives. Here’s a company that wanted to make its high-end phones... It’s hard to feel sympathy for Apple, given how much money it makes ($9.2 million in net income...

Meredith Whittaker is an outspoken critic of the tech industry, but still hopes to find allies who believe in the right to privacy. Art by Clark Miller.

Signal Chief Meredith Whittaker Could Use Some Backup in the Fight for Encryption

By Julia Black · Sep 29, 2023 12:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Meredith Whittaker is an outspoken critic of the tech industry, but still hopes to find allies who believe in the right to privacy. Art by Clark Miller.

Signal Chief Meredith Whittaker Could Use Some Backup in the Fight for Encryption

By Julia Black · Sep 29, 2023 12:00pm PDT · 1 comment

I was about to sit down for coffee in Brooklyn with Meredith Whittaker when she started apologizing for the messages blowing up her phone. “Sorry, we’re launching our post-quantum protocol today,” she said while tapping away in—what else—her Signal app. Whittaker, the president of the Signal Foundation, the... I was about to sit down for coffee in Brooklyn with Meredith Whittaker when she started...