The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

Five times/week

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.

By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy

Recent Editions

In Conversation With Vinod Khosla: Apple, OpenAI and the Future of Seed Investing

By Jessica Lessin · Jun 14, 2024 11:40am PDT · 3 comments

“Can we stay on strawberries for a minute?” Vinod Khosla asked me. About halfway into our hour-long conversation with Vinod Khosla on “More or Less” this week, we found ourselves deep in the topic of artificial intelligence–generated strawberries. (I wanted to talk about media owners protecting their intellectual... “Can we stay on strawberries for a minute?” Vinod Khosla asked me. About halfway into...

Art by Clark Miller

How the World Plans to Stop American AI Domination

By Julia Black · Jun 14, 2024 9:00am PDT · 3 comments

Founders usually create startups to make money for themselves and their investors—or to change the world and protect humanity, as some of them say in their more grandiose moments. For Aleph Alpha, an artificial intelligence startup in Germany, those things mattered too, but its founders had another, more tribal motivation: to make sure... Founders usually create startups to make money for themselves and their investors—or to...

Photos by Getty

Pro Weekly: Expect More AI Companies to Hire High-Profile C-Suites

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 14, 2024 8:00am PDT

It’s been a big few weeks for executive hires across the artificial intelligence sector, as two leading large-language model developers hired their first chief financial officers. OpenAI tapped former Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar—who earlier in her career was CFO of Square (now called Block)—while Anthropic went with Krishna Rao, former CFO of... It’s been a big few weeks for executive hires across the artificial intelligence sector, as two...

Art by Clark Miller

Priceline, Coca-Cola Cos. Shift Ad Dollars as Influencers Launch Their Own Brands

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 14, 2024 6:00am PDT

Art by Clark Miller

Priceline, Coca-Cola Cos. Shift Ad Dollars as Influencers Launch Their Own Brands

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 14, 2024 6:00am PDT

Over the past several years, many big consumer brands have dabbled in influencer marketing as they sought to figure out how effective it was. Now curiosity is giving way to real commitments. Fanta, the fruit-flavored soda owned by Coca-Cola, has in the past spent little on creators. But that’s changed, and in late April, the soda brand... Over the past several years, many big consumer brands have dabbled in influencer marketing as...

Photo by Patrick T. Fallon via Getty Images.

Musk’s Vote Win Is Far From the End of the Pay Battle

By Becky Peterson · Jun 13, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

We’ve got good news and bad news on the story that has dominated Tesla coverage for weeks, the shareholder vote on Elon Musk’s pay package. The good news is we have a decision—as Musk posted late Wednesday, shareholders approved his $46 billion pay package. The bad news, at least for those shareholders hoping for a resolution, is that the vote... We’ve got good news and bad news on the story that has dominated Tesla coverage for weeks, the...

A Samsung 32GB DDR5 128GB RDIMM chip. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Samsung Values Chip Customer Tenstorrent at $2 Billion

By Kate Clark · Jun 13, 2024 3:13pm PDT

For the last two years, we’ve broken a lot of news about cloud giants Microsoft and Google elbowing out traditional venture firms to invest huge sums in artificial intelligence startups that are also their customers. A similar dynamic is playing out in hardware startups.Samsung, the second-largest smartphone maker in the world, is... For the last two years, we’ve broken a lot of news about cloud giants Microsoft and ...

Emma Chamberlain at a Spotify event at Cannes Lions 2023. Photo by Antony Jones/Getty Images.

Creator Economy

Creators Set to Take Over Cannes

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 13, 2024 2:32pm PDT

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the swanky advertiser conference in the south of France, is kicking off next week—for the first time with an official creator presence.Last year a few well-known creators including Emma Chamberlain and Alex Cooper appeared on stage. This year’s event will feature a lot more top creators, as... The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the swanky advertiser conference in the...

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images

OpenAI’s Revenue Surprise; Nvidia Could Spark a Talent War with TSMC

By Aaron Holmes and Qianer Liu · Jun 13, 2024 7:00am PDT

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images

OpenAI’s Revenue Surprise; Nvidia Could Spark a Talent War with TSMC

By Aaron Holmes and Qianer Liu · Jun 13, 2024 7:00am PDT

The biggest question our team has faced upon reporting OpenAI’s revenue growth in the past year or so was whether Microsoft was a critical contributor to the startup’s sales. Most people we talked to had assumed Microsoft was, but the definitive answer is actually “No.”While Microsoft sells OpenAI models to its own Azure cloud customers, the ... The biggest question our team has faced upon reporting OpenAI’s revenue growth in the past year...

An Amazon Prime Thursday Night Football broadcast. Photo by Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images.

Amazon and YouTube Clash for Dominance in Streaming Ad Dollars at Upfronts

By Sahil Patel · Jun 13, 2024 6:00am PDT

The battle for advertising dollars in television used to be dominated by networks like CBS and NBC. Now the most intense competition may be between newer tech entrants—Google’s YouTube, Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix. Less than six months after launching ads on its Prime Video streaming service, Amazon has made a deep... The battle for advertising dollars in television used to be dominated by networks like CBS and...

At a Samsung display at a battery exhibition in Seoul, South Korea in March. Photo: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg/Getty

The Electric: In a Switch, EV Makers Favor Iron-Based Batteries Over Nickel

By Steve LeVine · Jun 13, 2024 4:30am PDT

Since they began seriously building electric vehicles around 2020, Western automakers have stubbornly clung to nickel-based batteries despite their relatively high cost and vulnerability to supply chain snarls. But in a growing shift, more Western players are moving to lower-cost iron-based batteries, which are likely to be the world’s dominant... Since they began seriously building electric vehicles around 2020, Western automakers have...

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Apple’s AI Storytelling Casts a Spell on Investors

By Martin Peers · Jun 12, 2024 5:00pm PDT

What a difference a snazzy presentation makes! Apple regained its status as the most valuable company for a few hours on Wednesday as its stock rallied for the second day in a row following its Monday artificial intelligence revelations. By day’s end, though, investors seemed to realize they’d gone overboard. Apple stock fell back from its... What a difference a snazzy presentation makes! Apple regained its status as the most valuable...

Sherry Wong, founder and CEO of Roster. Photo via Branded

A YouTuber Launches a Job Site for Creator Work

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 12, 2024 2:00pm PDT

Sherry Wong, founder and CEO of Roster. Photo via Branded

Creator Economy

A YouTuber Launches a Job Site for Creator Work

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 12, 2024 2:00pm PDT

Hiring is a perennial headache for creators. Most rely on recommendations from other creators or use their own social media accounts to spread the word. Complicating matters is that often they’re looking for short-term help or people with a specific skill set, such as experts in YouTube thumbnail design.Roster, a hiring website that officially... Hiring is a perennial headache for creators. Most rely on recommendations from other creators or...

Sam Altman at WWDC earlier this week. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

OpenAI’s Annualized Revenue Doubles to $3.4 Billion Since Late 2023

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · Jun 12, 2024 1:33pm PDT · 5 comments

OpenAI has more than doubled its annualized revenue to $3.4 billion in the past six months or so, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has told staff, a sign that growth in the ChatGPT developer’s business is accelerating despite intensifying competition. Annualized revenue—a measure of the past month’s revenue multiplied by 12—was $1.6 billion in... OpenAI has more than doubled its annualized revenue to $3.4 billion in the past six months or so,...

Former CEO and co-founder of Synapse, Sankaet Pathak. Screenshot via YouTube.

Ex-CEO of Failed Fintech Synapse Nabs $10 Million for New Robotics Startup

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Jun 12, 2024 1:32pm PDT · 2 comments

Trustees for bankrupt fintech Synapse are still hunting for $85 million in lost customer money. But that hasn’t stopped the company's former chief executive Sankaet Pathak from raising millions in funding for a new robotics venture, Foundation. He’s already got a $10 million commitment from Tribe Capital, an early-stage venture... Trustees for bankrupt fintech Synapse are still hunting for $85 million in lost customer money....

Photo via Getty Images

What On-Device Models Mean for Open-Source AI

By Kalley Huang · Jun 12, 2024 7:45am PDT

When Apple on Monday showed off the artificial intelligence that will soon land in some of our iPhones, some developers praised the company for running many of the new features directly on the iPhone, rather than in the cloud as other companies do. Like Apple, which has made user privacy and security central to its marketing, these developers... When Apple on Monday showed off the artificial intelligence that will soon land in some of our ...

GitLab co-founders Sid Sijbrandij (left) and Dmitriy Zaporozhets at the company's IPO in 2021. Photo via Nasdaq

GitLab, DocuSign: Two Software Companies That May Not Stay Public for Long

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jun 12, 2024 6:00am PDT

GitLab co-founders Sid Sijbrandij (left) and Dmitriy Zaporozhets at the company's IPO in 2021. Photo via Nasdaq

GitLab, DocuSign: Two Software Companies That May Not Stay Public for Long

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jun 12, 2024 6:00am PDT

Tech companies may soon be on a shopping spree, as the world adjusts to high interest rates and companies start looking for ways to juice growth. And for investors inclined to make a bet on potential targets, they need not go much further than two enterprise tech firms: GitLab and DocuSign. That’s our conclusion from wading through... Tech companies may soon be on a shopping spree, as the world adjusts to high interest rates and...

Photo by Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images.

Oracle Feeds Off AI Leftovers

By Martin Peers · Jun 11, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Talk about fighting for crumbs. Microsoft and OpenAI announced Tuesday that they’ll tap Oracle’s cloud servers for “additional capacity for OpenAI.” That counts as great news for Oracle, sending its stock up 9% in after-hours trading. Investors overlooked the fact that Oracle also reported Tuesday that its cloud revenue growth slowed by several... Talk about fighting for crumbs. Microsoft and OpenAI announced Tuesday that they’ll tap Oracle’s...

Photo via Shutterstock

BeReal's Surprising Sale Is a Positive Sign for Startups

By Kate Clark · Jun 11, 2024 3:35pm PDT · 2 comments

BeReal was the hot app among venture capitalists and Gen Zers in 2022, a feat it used to lasso a $585 million valuation from Coatue Management and DST Global that year. The app’s once-scorching growth has cooled—yet it still managed to sell itself to French gaming company Voodoo for $537 million. In this era of fire sales, that’s cause for a... BeReal was the hot app among venture capitalists and Gen Zers in 2022, a feat it used to lasso a...

Amber Venz Box. Photo by Jim Bennett/Getty Images.

Creator Economy

Google AI Overviews Are ‘Nail in the Coffin’ for Blogs: LTK Founder

By Julia Hornstein · Jun 11, 2024 2:23pm PDT

For the last 24 hours, Apple’s newly unveiled artificial intelligence features have sucked up much of the oxygen in the room when it comes to tech headlines (more on that here). As many journalists remarked, Apple is playing catch up to some of its rivals, notably Google, whose AI-infused products have been in the wild for months. That’s enough... For the last 24 hours, Apple’s newly unveiled artificial intelligence features have sucked up...

Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of Software Engineering. Screenshot via Apple.

Apple Eyes Deals with Google and Anthropic After OpenAI; Apple Grades Its LLMs While Databricks Grades AI Usage

By Amir Efrati · Jun 11, 2024 7:00am PDT

Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of Software Engineering. Screenshot via Apple.

Apple Eyes Deals with Google and Anthropic After OpenAI; Apple Grades Its LLMs While Databricks Grades AI Usage

By Amir Efrati · Jun 11, 2024 7:00am PDT

On a basic level, none of the artificial intelligence Apple announced on Monday came as a surprise. But there's a big difference between a news report describing what Apple is going to launch and seeing the finished product, and in that regard Apple delivered a cogent presentation that put Google's sprawling AI keynote from May to shame.Also, as... On a basic level, none of the artificial intelligence Apple announced on Monday came as a...