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

Former Twitter executive Kayvon Beykpour. Photo by Getty.

Creator Economy

The Executive Musk Almost Tapped to Run Twitter

By Kaya Yurieff · Sep 14, 2023 2:59pm PDT

On Elon Musk’s first day as the new owner of Twitter, later renamed to X, he secretly met with one possible candidate who could help him run the company: Kayvon Beykpour, according to a new biography of Musk by Walter Isaacson out this week. Beykpour co-founded livestreaming app Periscope. Twitter acquired his company in 2015, but... On Elon Musk’s first day as the new owner of Twitter, later renamed to X, he secretly met with...

Nvidia and the Corporate VC Boom Ahead

Nvidia and the Corporate VC Boom Ahead

By Kate Clark · Sep 14, 2023 2:36pm PDT

Nvidia’s corporate development team must be exhausted. They’ve inked roughly 20 deals this year, according to financial data firm PitchBook and The Information’s reporting. For comparison, once-prolific VC investor Tiger Global Management has done about 30 startup deals this year.We’ve seen this movie before. In 2020, during an unprecedented... Nvidia’s corporate development team must be exhausted. They’ve inked roughly 20 deals this year,...

Flexport founder, Ryan Petersen. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Flexport’s Revenue Dropped 70% in First Half of 2023

By Maria Heeter, Aaron Holmes, Ann Gehan and Theo Wayt · Sep 14, 2023 12:40pm PDT · 10 comments

Flexport’s revenue fell nearly 70% in the first half of the year to $700 million and the company burned through cash, people familiar with the company’s financials said. The decline shows how the SoftBank- and Andreessen Horowitz-backed logistics startup’s performance has been deteriorating rapidly amid a broader freight market... Flexport’s revenue fell nearly 70% in the first half of the year to $700 million and the...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a news conference following a Senate bipartisan Artificial Intelligence Insight Forum. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Why Musk-Altman-Zuckerberg Summit is a Sideshow; Nvidia Adds Databricks to Investment Portfolio

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 14, 2023 7:00am PDT

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a news conference following a Senate bipartisan Artificial Intelligence Insight Forum. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Why Musk-Altman-Zuckerberg Summit is a Sideshow; Nvidia Adds Databricks to Investment Portfolio

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 14, 2023 7:00am PDT

On Wednesday morning, dozens of U.S. senators and tech executives including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and xAI’s Elon Musk filed into the Kennedy Caucus Room just north of the U.S. Capitol. The chamber has held hearings on the sinking of the Titanic, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Watergate scandal, but this time it was... On Wednesday morning, dozens of U.S. senators and tech executives including OpenAI’s Sam Altman,...

Paradigm co-founders Fred Ehrsam (left) and Matt Huang (right). Photos via Flickr and AP

The Paradigm Shift in Crypto That Wasn’t

By Aidan Ryan · Sep 14, 2023 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

Earlier this year, as some of the less die-hard crypto investors and entrepreneurs began distancing themselves from that turbulent sector, Paradigm—one of the largest venture firms specializing in crypto—also seemed to wobble. In May, Paradigm scrubbed any mention of crypto from the homepage of its website and Twitter bio, changing... Earlier this year, as some of the less die-hard crypto investors and entrepreneurs began...

Albemarle's Silverpeak, Nev. lithium brine operation. Photo: Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Getty

The Electric: Albemarle Will Continue to Refine Most of Its Lithium in China in 2030

By Steve LeVine · Sep 14, 2023 4:30am PDT

North Carolina-based Albemarle, the world’s most valuable lithium producer by market cap, hopes to boost its global production of the metal more than threefold by the end of the decade. But the company expects just 30% of its output to qualify for subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act, Eric Norris, the company’s president for lithium, said... North Carolina-based Albemarle, the world’s most valuable lithium producer by market cap, hopes...

Why the Two Biggest Winners in Instacart’s IPO Clashed

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 13, 2023 5:57pm PDT · 5 comments

By far, the two biggest winners of Instacart’s long-awaited initial public offering next week will be the grocery company’s largest individual shareholder, co-founder and former CEO Apoorva Mehta, and its largest venture backer, Sequoia Capital. Mehta’s profit from the listing stands to be more than $780 million, while Sequoia... By far, the two biggest winners of Instacart’s long-awaited initial public offering next...

Arm headquarters in San Jose, Calif. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Arm Flexes Its Pricing Muscle

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 13, 2023 5:06pm PDT

Arm headquarters in San Jose, Calif. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Arm Flexes Its Pricing Muscle

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 13, 2023 5:06pm PDT

Bankers working on Arm Holdings’ much-watched initial public offering huddled on Wednesday to spar over how to determine the most important part of the deal: At what price are they going to sell shares when the SoftBank-owned chip designer goes public tomorrow? Like a Vatican smoke signal, push alerts and headlines across the business press... Bankers working on Arm Holdings’ much-watched initial public offering huddled on Wednesday to...

Credit: Shutterstock

Creator Economy

Pinterest Shopping Push Crowded by TikTok Efforts

By Alex Perry · Sep 13, 2023 4:21pm PDT

For the past year, Pinterest management has pushed to make the digital scrapbooking app a shopping destination, not just a place to browse ideas and share digital vision boards. On Wednesday, CEO Bill Ready trotted out stats to illustrate how Pinterest’s revitalized e-commerce bent was working. But unlike a year ago, its efforts will... For the past year, Pinterest management has pushed to make the digital scrapbooking app a...

Mike Novogratz. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Crypto Venture Capital Firms Face Fundraising Woes

By Aidan Ryan · Sep 13, 2023 9:00am PDT · 1 comment

Venture funding to crypto startups is down significantly compared to last year, when it seemed like a new crypto unicorn was crowned every day. And the pace of fundraising by venture investors has cooled dramatically too. The first half of last year saw a string of big crypto fund launches. In March, Haun Ventures announced it raised $1.5... Venture funding to crypto startups is down significantly compared to last year, when it seemed...

From left to right: Vipul Ved Prakash, Percy Liang and Chris Ré. Photos via Stanford University and SambaNova Systems.

GPU Cluster Startup ‘Together’ in Talks For Third Financing in 9 Months

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 13, 2023 7:01am PDT

We’ve got news about an artificial intelligence startup that’s part of the recent trend of back-to-back funding rounds.Together, a startup providing developers with compute and software to train and run open-source AI models, is in talks with venture firms to raise up to $60 million in new funding, which would be its third financing event in... We’ve got news about an artificial intelligence startup that’s part of the recent trend of ...

Arm CFO Jason Child. Art by Mike Sullivan.

The Startup ‘Adrenaline Junkie’ Trying to Break Open the IPO Market

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 13, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Arm CFO Jason Child. Art by Mike Sullivan.

The Startup ‘Adrenaline Junkie’ Trying to Break Open the IPO Market

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 13, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

When bankers working on Arm’s impending initial public offering wanted to talk to one of the executives in charge of the SoftBank-owned chip designer, they sometimes heard heavy breathing on the other end of the phone. It was the sound of Jason Child, a longtime Amazon executive who is now Arm’s chief financial officer, running up a... When bankers working on Arm’s impending initial public offering wanted to talk to one of...

Deel CEO and co-founder Alex Bouaziz. Photo by Getty.

Deel Changes Terms of Service, Cuts Off High-Risk Trading Sites

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Sep 12, 2023 7:13pm PDT

Human resources startup Deel revamped its terms of service, banning several additional types of transactions and effectively ending support for some retail trading websites whose activities have lately drawn the scrutiny of securities regulators. The four-year-old startup, best known for services that help companies hire remote workers, had... Human resources startup Deel revamped its terms of service, banning several additional types of...

Google Chief Economist, Hal Varian (right), served as a witness at today's trial. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Why Google’s Antitrust Trial Is Not Like Microsoft’s

By Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 12, 2023 5:09pm PDT · 2 comments

Snoop into any conversation in Silicon Valley and you’ll hear talk of large-language models, wrangling developer credits from OpenAI, the IPO market and whether anyone actually was going to the Apple event (really—I was just at a school cocktail party of this nature).What you won’t hear is buzz about the government’s biggest antitrust trial in... Snoop into any conversation in Silicon Valley and you’ll hear talk of large-language models,...

Partner Content

Recap: The CEO’s Guide to Generative AI: Maximizing Data

By The Information Partnerships · Sep 12, 2023 3:38pm PDT

Artificial intelligence can be transformative. It can offer increased efficiency, boosted innovation and serious cost savings. But to realize those benefits, CEOs need to take an active hand in making sure the company has the right in-house talent, the right vendors and the right data. What’s the best way to go about this? Stephanie... Artificial intelligence can be transformative. It can offer increased efficiency, boosted...

Credit: James Sharp

‘Cringe’ TikTok Videos Help a Singer Break Out

By Alex Perry · Sep 12, 2023 3:23pm PDT

Credit: James Sharp

Creator Economy

‘Cringe’ TikTok Videos Help a Singer Break Out

By Alex Perry · Sep 12, 2023 3:23pm PDT

Aspiring musical artists who wanted to get attention a decade ago could audition for shows like X Factor or America’s Got Talent. Then TikTok came along. Artists like the duo Flyana Boss and the rapper Ice Spice gained overnight fame as clips of their songs formed the backdrop of viral videos. Some of these TikTok-famous artists plan to attend... Aspiring musical artists who wanted to get attention a decade ago could audition for shows like X...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies in Congress in December 2018. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Google Trial Puts LLMs On the Docket; Databricks Projects Explosive AI Spending

By Jon Victor · Sep 12, 2023 7:00am PDT

Artificial intelligence developers are undoubtedly lapping up a couple of stories my colleagues published Monday about Nvidia leveraging its hardware dominance to muscle into cloud services and Databricks projecting big corporate spending on artificial intelligence services. But first, today’s news.The trial over the U.S. Department of Justice’s... Artificial intelligence developers are undoubtedly lapping up a couple of stories my colleagues...

Art by Clark Miller.

Can Yahoo Be Saved? How Apollo Is Rebuilding an Internet Icon

By Rachel Graf · Sep 12, 2023 6:00am PDT · 9 comments

When speaking about the company he inherited in September 2021, Jim Lanzone is remarkably blunt. “I always knew these products had seen better days,” said Lanzone, the CEO of Yahoo, over a video call in late August. “Even though they still have large audiences, they needed to be modernized—pretty much every single one of... When speaking about the company he inherited in September 2021, Jim Lanzone is remarkably blunt....

Photo by Getty.

Deel Halts Services to Several Prop Trading Firms Pending Compliance Review

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 11, 2023 6:19pm PDT

Deel, the human resources startup embroiled in a government crackdown on online trading sites, has paused providing payout services to several businesses in the category, as it conducts a review of their operations. An executive at MyFundedFX who identified himself as the firm’s chief operating officer said on Discord that for the next 24... Deel, the human resources startup embroiled in a government crackdown on online trading sites,...

Photo via Shutterstock

Apple and Qualcomm Delay the Inevitable

By Nick Wingfield · Sep 11, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Photo via Shutterstock

Apple and Qualcomm Delay the Inevitable

By Nick Wingfield · Sep 11, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Apple and Qualcomm are like a couple you’re certain will eventually get divorced but, for one reason or another, they keep patching things up, postponing the inevitable. Monday brought news of the latest peace treaty between the two companies with an announcement that Apple will continue to use Qualcomm’s 5G cellular modems in iPhones through... Apple and Qualcomm are like a couple you’re certain will eventually get divorced but, for one...