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

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Recent Editions

Marco Argenti. Screenshot via YouTube

How Wall Street Firms Are Warming to AI—With Help From Silicon Valley

By Lauren Tara LaCapra · Jan 9, 2024 6:00am PST · 4 comments

Big banks were slow to adopt cloud services, initially nervous about storing their sensitive customer data on other companies’ servers. But when it comes to generative artificial intelligence, banks and other financial services firms have been early adopters. Goldman Sachs, for instance, has more than 1,000 developers using generative AI... Big banks were slow to adopt cloud services, initially nervous about storing their sensitive...

Twilio CEO, Jeff Lawson, who left the company on Sunday. Photo via Getty Images.

Why Twilio’s Lawson Didn’t Have to Cave to Activists

By Martin Peers · Jan 8, 2024 5:00pm PST

Well, that didn’t turn out to be too much of a fight. Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson on Sunday exited the company he founded, the enterprise software company said today, surrendering to activist Anson Funds with barely a shot fired. It didn’t take much to scare Twilio. Anson had hinted it could mount a proxy fight to win board seats if Twilio didn’t... Well, that didn’t turn out to be too much of a fight. Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson on Sunday exited the...

Image by Getty.

Fintech-Focused Vetamer Capital Shuts Down Hedge Fund

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 8, 2024 4:18pm PST

Vetamer Capital, an investor in public and private tech companies started by a Lone Pine Capital veteran just three years ago with $350 million to invest, has shut down its public-equities hedge fund and returned capital to investors, the firm said in a recent letter to its investors. The San Francisco-based firm is a notable addition to the... Vetamer Capital, an investor in public and private tech companies started by a Lone Pine Capital...

Chart by Shane Burke

Funding For Global Creator Economy Startups Plunged 58% In 2023

By Kaya Yurieff · Jan 8, 2024 2:39pm PST · 1 comment

Chart by Shane Burke

Creator Economy

Funding For Global Creator Economy Startups Plunged 58% In 2023

By Kaya Yurieff · Jan 8, 2024 2:39pm PST · 1 comment

Funding for global creator economy startups continued its downward spiral in 2023, falling nearly 58% to about $1.7 billion compared to the year before, according to the latest update from The Information’s Creator Economy Database. Funding for just U.S. startups plunged 62% to $1.03 billion year-over-year. A once white-hot sector for... Funding for global creator economy startups continued its downward spiral in 2023, falling nearly...

Parag Agrawal, former Twitter CEO, during the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 7, 2022 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images.

Former Twitter CEO’s AI Startup Raises $30 Million in Khosla-Led Deal

By Kate Clark · Jan 8, 2024 1:52pm PST

Parag Agrawal, who was CEO of Twitter for a year before Elon Musk took over the social media app in late 2022, recently raised about $30 million in funding for an artificial intelligence startup, according to two people familiar with the deal. Khosla Ventures, an early backer of OpenAI, led the funding in Agrawal’s company, which... Parag Agrawal, who was CEO of Twitter for a year before Elon Musk took over the social media app...

Perplexity AI cofounders Johnny Ho, Aravind Srinivas and Denis Yarats. Photo courtesy of Perplexity AI.

This One-Year-Old Startup Is Hoping to be the Next Google—Can It Succeed?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 8, 2024 7:10am PST · 6 comments

It’s not often that a young startup takes on a 25-year-old, $1.8 trillion tech behemoth. But for Aravind Srinivas, cofounder and CEO at Perplexity AI, that’s just an average Tuesday. Perplexity is hoping to create the next Google Search, infused with generative AI. The one-year-old startup has raised $100 million to fund that mission, most... It’s not often that a young startup takes on a 25-year-old, $1.8 trillion tech behemoth. But for...

Affirm CEO, Max Levchin (left) and Klarna CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski (right). Photos via Getty.

After Rebound, Affirm Eyes Path to Profits

By Mark Matousek · Jan 8, 2024 6:00am PST · 2 comments

Affirm was among last year’s top stock market performers, as the company narrowed its losses and investors cheered deals with Amazon and Walmart that expanded the lender’s reach with shoppers. That marked a dramatic rebound from 2022, when rising interest rates upended Affirm’s business. But while Affirm’s revenue growth... Affirm was among last year’s top stock market performers, as the company narrowed its...

Metals-laden nodules off the coast of the southeastern U.S. Photo: NOAA.

The Electric: The U.S. Races China and Russia to Mine the Ocean for Battery Metals

By Steve LeVine · Jan 8, 2024 4:30am PST

Metals-laden nodules off the coast of the southeastern U.S. Photo: NOAA.

The Electric: The U.S. Races China and Russia to Mine the Ocean for Battery Metals

By Steve LeVine · Jan 8, 2024 4:30am PST

Welcome back to The Electric!For years, a new breed of mining companies has been heavily lobbying around the world for the right to extract battery metals from the depths of the ocean. Until now, their chances of succeeding seemed an extreme long shot. But this week we report on the probability of a breakthrough in Norway, and the chance of... Welcome back to The Electric!For years, a new breed of mining companies has been heavily...

Art by Clark Miller

The AI Election Apocalypse Isn’t Here—Yet

By Nick Wingfield · Jan 6, 2024 6:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.We’re nine days away from the official start of the race for the White House, with the Iowa Republican caucuses on January 15th. A lot of people are already on edge about this election for a variety of reasons. At the top of that list are technologists who believe a cataclysmic mash-up of artificial intelligence and... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.We’re nine days away from the official start of the race for the...

Photo via Getty

Apple, iMessage and Antitrust; Instacart’s Uber-Like Wall Street Life

By Martin Peers · Jan 5, 2024 3:30pm PST · 1 comment

Here’s a question: How much would Apple suffer if it opened up iMessage to Android? The widespread assumption—including within Apple itself—is that by removing a major impediment to people using Android, such a move would boost sales of the devices based on the Google operating system, at the expense of the iPhone. But that may not be as true as... Here’s a question: How much would Apple suffer if it opened up iMessage to Android? The...

Jessica Rosenworcel photo via Getty Images. Art by Clark Miller

FCC Chair Sets Her Sights on Space, Net Neutrality Comeback

By Nancy Scola · Jan 5, 2024 11:40am PST

Jessica Rosenworcel has me rattled. As a rule, people who run federal agencies in Washington don’t meet reporters in the lobby. They send staff. But Rosenworcel tells me, on a recent December afternoon, that it was something her old boss, West Virginia Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, used to do. And she told herself if she was ever the... Jessica Rosenworcel has me rattled. As a rule, people who run federal agencies in Washington...

Art by Clark Miller

5 Predictions About How AI Will (and Won’t) Affect the 2024 U.S. Election

By Alexandra Lindsay and Greg Dale · Jan 5, 2024 9:03am PST · 3 comments

Art by Clark Miller

5 Predictions About How AI Will (and Won’t) Affect the 2024 U.S. Election

By Alexandra Lindsay and Greg Dale · Jan 5, 2024 9:03am PST · 3 comments

Want to feel old? It was more than five years ago that director Jordan Peele teamed up with BuzzFeed to create a viral deepfake video of Barack Obama uttering a series of improbable lines, a clip meant to serve as a public service announcement for the dangers of how technology could be used to manipulate public opinion. “It may sound... Want to feel old? It was more than five years ago that director Jordan Peele teamed up with...

Aidan Gomez, co-founder of Cohere and Google veteran. Photo by Getty

Pro Weekly: Google Is the Training Ground for Other AI Companies

By Akash Pasricha · Jan 5, 2024 8:00am PST

Before the holidays, I spent much of December reporting and updating our Org Charts for OpenAI, Anthropic and Cohere, all of which are now live. This week, we took a step back to examine the backgrounds of the leadership at the three artificial intelligence powerhouses. Sifting through the work histories of each company’s staff, one... Before the holidays, I spent much of December reporting and updating our Org Charts for OpenAI, ...

Athelas' Tanay Tandon. Screengrab of Tandon via YouTube. Art by Mike Sullivan

A Healthtech Unicorn Leaves a Trail of Clinic Complaints, Concerns Over Billing Practices

By Paris Martineau · Jan 5, 2024 6:00am PST · 2 comments

Early last year, salespeople from a health tech startup, Athelas, gave Rich Schlauch a pitch he couldn’t resist. The salespeople told Schlauch, who runs a behavioral health clinic in South Carolina, that he could increase his practice’s revenue by at least 15% and submit insurance claims faster using Athelas’ new billing... Early last year, salespeople from a health tech startup, Athelas, gave Rich Schlauch a pitch he...

Why Peloton’s TikTok Rally Doesn’t Fit

Why Peloton’s TikTok Rally Doesn’t Fit

By Martin Peers · Jan 4, 2024 5:00pm PST · 3 comments

Wall Street traders need to exercise their brains a bit more. Peloton shares jumped 14% on Thursday after the struggling fitness firm struck a deal to put its workout videos on TikTok. Sure, associating with TikTok can help almost anything and anyone seem cool with the kids. But investors seem to be misreading this situation. The “exclusive... Wall Street traders need to exercise their brains a bit more. Peloton shares jumped 14% on...

Investor Nat Friedman and Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang

OpenAI Board Has Discussed Seats With Scale AI’s Wang, Investor Friedman

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Aaron Holmes · Jan 4, 2024 4:49pm PST · 4 comments

Investor Nat Friedman and Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang

OpenAI Board Has Discussed Seats With Scale AI’s Wang, Investor Friedman

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Aaron Holmes · Jan 4, 2024 4:49pm PST · 4 comments

OpenAI’s board and its representatives have started talking to candidates to fill its board of directors in the wake of CEO Sam Altman’s ouster and subsequent return. The candidates include two familiar names: Scale AI CEO and co-founder Alexandr Wang, and former GitHub CEO and startup investor Nat Friedman, according to two people... OpenAI’s board and its representatives have started talking to candidates to fill its board...

Host Julian Shapiro-Barnum with Maya Rudolph. Photo from Recess Therapy.

Creator Economy

The Kids of Recess Therapy Take to the Golden Globes

By Kalley Huang · Jan 4, 2024 3:00pm PST

In recent years, creators have made inroads into traditional entertainment through brand partnerships and other collaborations. One sign of that relationship: creators at mainstream media’s marquee events. For the last three years, YouTuber Emma Chamberlain has been a red carpet correspondent for Vogue at the Met Gala. Last year, Amelia... In recent years, creators have made inroads into traditional entertainment through brand...

Art by Getty

Why One Venture Capitalist Decided to Call it Quits

By Kate Clark · Jan 4, 2024 2:25pm PST

We didn’t even make it one week into the new year without a venture capital fund announcing that it’s shutting down. Jai Malik, founder of industrial startup–focused fund Countdown Capital, explained his decision to call it quits in a four-page letter to his limited partners this week. Not once did he mention the downturn in VC that’s made... We didn’t even make it one week into the new year without a venture capital fund announcing that...

Amazon’s Five-Year Corporate Hiring Binge, Revealed

By Theo Wayt · Jan 4, 2024 1:13pm PST

Amazon’s corporate headcount more than tripled over five years to hit around 415,000 by the end of 2022, according to internal figures seen by The Information, far outpacing growth at other big tech companies such as Microsoft and Alphabet. The figures seen by The Information reveal that cloud computing and advertising, which have become... Amazon’s corporate headcount more than tripled over five years to hit around 415,000 by the...

Robin AI founder and CEO Richard Robinson. Photo courtesy of Robin AI.

This Legal AI Startup’s Approach Won It Attention from Singapore

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Jan 4, 2024 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Robin AI founder and CEO Richard Robinson. Photo courtesy of Robin AI.

This Legal AI Startup’s Approach Won It Attention from Singapore

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Jan 4, 2024 7:00am PST · 2 comments

This is Natasha, doing a guest appearance on the ever fantastic AI Agenda! Legal tech is famously a graveyard of failed startups. But legal AI startups may have a better shot at turning things around.Take one-year old Harvey—supposedly named for a character in the popular legal sitcom “Suits”—which last month raised capital at a $700... This is Natasha, doing a guest appearance on the ever fantastic AI Agenda! Legal tech is...