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

Artwork by Clark Miller

The Buildout Behind AI Is Shaking Investor Confidence

By The Information Staff · Mar 18, 2026 1:05pm PDT · 1 comment

The buildout required to support next-generation AI is proving far more complex and expensive than many expected. The scramble to secure power and finance large-scale data centers is beginning to influence how investors evaluate the economics of the AI industry. We asked Deep Research to examine how these infrastructure demands are shaping Wall... The buildout required to support next-generation AI is proving far more complex and expensive...

Art by Clark Miller

Coinbase Dives Into AI Agent Payments

By Yueqi Yang · Mar 18, 2026 10:10am PDT

Crypto exchange Coinbase is moving fast to build the infrastructure that allows AI agents to make payments, seeking a lead in the nascent market that could become a battleground for payments firms. Coinbase and Zerohash, a crypto infrastructure startup, are among the companies vying to issue a new stablecoin for Cloudflare that is set to launch... Crypto exchange Coinbase is moving fast to build the infrastructure that allows AI agents to make...

Jensen Huang speaks during a keynote address at the Nvidia GTC. Photo by David Paul Morris/ Getty Images

Nvidia’s Build-A-Claw Workshop

By Rocket Drew · Mar 18, 2026 9:15am PDT

Nvidia’s developer conference has agent fever. On Tuesday, one of the most popular spots at the company’s GTC convention was Nvidia’s “Build-A-Claw” tent, where attendees could try out Nvidia’s newly unveiled NemoClaw, open-source software for creating AI agents based on the popular OpenClaw.Many of the people who stopped by the Build-A-Claw... Nvidia’s developer conference has agent fever. On Tuesday, one of the most popular spots at the...

Sheryl Sandberg, left, and Nick Clegg were named to the Nscale board last week. Photos by Getty

Nscale Crashes the Big Leagues of Data Center Developers

By Ken Brown · Mar 18, 2026 8:49am PDT · 1 comment

Sheryl Sandberg, left, and Nick Clegg were named to the Nscale board last week. Photos by Getty

The Information Finance

Nscale Crashes the Big Leagues of Data Center Developers

By Ken Brown · Mar 18, 2026 8:49am PDT · 1 comment

A year ago, CoreWeave looked like AI’s riskiest play. Then last fall, Oracle stepped in front. More recently, Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank, no stranger to big bets, has borrowed its way to the top.This week, though, a new company took the title as riskiest AI firm: Nscale, a company run by a former coal miner that appears to have been independent... A year ago, CoreWeave looked like AI’s riskiest play. Then last fall, Oracle stepped in front....

Art by Mike Sullivan

Apple Cracks Down on ‘Vibe Coding’ Apps

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Aaron Tilley · Mar 18, 2026 6:00am PDT

Apple has quietly prevented AI vibe coding apps such as Replit and Vibecode, which help people create games and other applications, from releasing updates to their mobile apps on the App Store unless they make modifications, according to several people with knowledge of the situation. The company confirmed it has told some app developers that... Apple has quietly prevented AI vibe coding apps such as Replit and Vibecode, which help people...

Fidji Simo, CEO of Applications at OpenAI. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images Message Shane Burke

OpenAI, Musk and Focus

By Martin Peers · Mar 17, 2026 5:00pm PDT

OpenAI has decided the “everything everywhere all at once” strategy isn’t ideal, after all. As we and others reported on Monday night, senior OpenAI executive Fidji Simo told staffers last week that the company needed to “refocus on business customers and cut down on side quests that were becoming a distraction.” (Is that the understatement of... OpenAI has decided the “everything everywhere all at once” strategy isn’t ideal, after all. As we...

A photo of the Getty Villa, where the Montgomery Summit held its opening event. Photo courtesy of March Capital.

The AI Worries Keeping Investors Up at Night

By Julia Hornstein · Mar 17, 2026 3:45pm PDT

It’s no surprise that if you bring hundreds of venture capitalists and limited partners together in 2026, most will have bought into AI—literally. So it was interesting to hear what investors gathered in Santa Monica, Calif., last week for March Capital’s annual The Montgomery Summit thought were the AI boom’s weak links. Take Matt... It’s no surprise that if you bring hundreds of venture capitalists and limited partners together...

Palantir CEO Alex Karp via Getty

Palantir Has What OpenAI and Anthropic Want

By Laura Bratton · Mar 17, 2026 12:50pm PDT · 1 comment

Palantir CEO Alex Karp via Getty

Palantir Has What OpenAI and Anthropic Want

By Laura Bratton · Mar 17, 2026 12:50pm PDT · 1 comment

Anthropic and OpenAI have leaned heavily into serving businesses with AI agents that automate white collar tasks and software that helps businesses manage these agents. The two AI developers are even competing to sign up private equity firms to create joint ventures that would sell AI to the PE firms’ portfolio companies, my colleagues... Anthropic and OpenAI have leaned heavily into serving businesses with AI agents that automate...

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, speaks during a keynote address at the Nvidia GTC. Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images

Nvidia Needed Groq After All

By Wayne Ma and Anissa Gardizy · Mar 17, 2026 7:00am PDT

Greetings from the San Jose Convention Center, where Nvidia is throwing its annual AI conference. The AI craze is palpable here. Humanoid robots offer fist-bumps to conferencegoers, and attendees are buying sweaters with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s face on them. Nebius, a cloud provider that rents out Nvidia graphics processing units, took... Greetings from the San Jose Convention Center, where Nvidia is throwing its annual AI conference....

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Clinches AWS Deal in Bid to Win Government Contracts

By Sri Muppidi and Aaron Holmes · Mar 17, 2026 6:00am PDT

OpenAI on Friday signed a new contract with Amazon Web Services to sell its AI to U.S. government employees for both classified and unclassified work, according to two people with direct knowledge of the agreement. The contract will allow OpenAI to support the Pentagon through a deal it hastily won late last month after the agency ditched its... OpenAI on Friday signed a new contract with Amazon Web Services to sell its AI to U.S. government...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

What Meta’s Nebius Deal Signals

By Martin Peers · Mar 16, 2026 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

If you’ve got a ticket on the AI gravy train, times are good. That could be because you’re a supplier to Nvidia—and therefore enjoying booming business, as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pointed out in his speech on Monday at the company’s GTC convention. Or it could be because you’re a small data center operator picking up business from a big tech... If you’ve got a ticket on the AI gravy train, times are good. That could be because you’re a...

Art by Mike Sullivan

War Doesn’t Belong to U.S. Weapons Startups Yet

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 16, 2026 10:10am PDT

Art by Mike Sullivan

Reporter's Notebook

War Doesn’t Belong to U.S. Weapons Startups Yet

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 16, 2026 10:10am PDT

War focuses attention on the present. That was very clear from a week’s worth of conversations in Washington with leaders at defense tech startups, traditional military contractors and people close to the Pentagon. Until the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, buzz was building around startups such as Anduril and Saronic that promised to deliver... War focuses attention on the present. That was very clear from a week’s worth of conversations in...

Image via Shutterstock

AI Infrastructure

5 Ingenious Hacks That Are Boosting AI Data Centers

By Ann Davis Vaughan · Mar 16, 2026 8:00am PDT

The frantic rush to power and stand up AI data centers has spurred a range of speed hacks—from building AI tent cities, to firing up jet engines, to taking over abandoned industrial sites. What’s most surprising is all of the different ways the biggest AI data centers have improvised and scrounged to meet the staggering electricity demands of... The frantic rush to power and stand up AI data centers has spurred a range of speed hacks—from...

Elon Musk, left, and Sam Altman. Photos by Getty Images.

What OpenAI Could Owe Elon Musk; An xAI Hiring Spree

By Rocket Drew · Mar 16, 2026 7:15am PDT

Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the judge hearing Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, has shown herself in other high profile tech cases—such as Epic Games’ lawsuit against Apple—to be unafraid to skewer arguments or testimony from witnesses in her courtroom.That was clear on Friday, in a hearing in the OpenAI case to determine whether an economist Musk... Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the judge hearing Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, has shown herself...

OpenAI's Sachin Katti presenting at Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona. Photo courtesy of Intel.

OpenAI Names New Infrastructure Leaders Following Stargate Strategy Shift

By Anissa Gardizy · Mar 16, 2026 6:00am PDT

OpenAI has appointed new leaders to oversee its Stargate computing initiative after deciding to rent more AI servers from major cloud providers rather than build its own data centers, according to two people familiar with the changes. As part of its reorganization, OpenAI has divided its computing effort into three groups: technical design of... OpenAI has appointed new leaders to oversee its Stargate computing initiative after deciding to...

SES AI CEO Qichao Hu has pivoted from batterymaking to scientific discovery with a database he calls Molecular Universe. Photo: Courtesy SES AI.

The Electric: The U.S. Is Good at Finding New Molecules. But Can it Turn Them Into Products?

By Steve LeVine · Mar 16, 2026 4:30am PDT

SES AI CEO Qichao Hu has pivoted from batterymaking to scientific discovery with a database he calls Molecular Universe. Photo: Courtesy SES AI.

The Electric: The U.S. Is Good at Finding New Molecules. But Can it Turn Them Into Products?

By Steve LeVine · Mar 16, 2026 4:30am PDT

In manufacturing, some factories use so few humans that operators can turn out the lights and save money on electricity. In the pharmaceutical industry, too, AI has discovered new drugs with almost no human involvement after the prompt. In manufacturing, some factories use so few humans that operators can turn out the lights and...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images.

What to Expect From GTC: Nvidia’s Groq Chip

By Qianer Liu and Anissa Gardizy · Mar 15, 2026 3:00pm PDT

It’s party time in San Jose, Calif.! Nvidia on Monday kicks off its annual GTC developer conference in the city, the biggest event on the chip giant’s calendar—which, given the number of public events featuring its CEO, Jensen Huang, is saying something. Huang is scheduled to deliver his keynote tomorrow morning, and it is sure to be a... It’s party time in San Jose, Calif.! Nvidia on Monday kicks off its annual GTC developer...

Sunday Insights

Figma and HubSpot CEOs Say They Aren’t Fazed by Risks From AI Agents. Their Disclosures Say Otherwise

By Laura Bratton · Mar 15, 2026 8:00am PDT · 7 comments

Leaders at enterprise app makers such as Figma, Workday and HubSpot have downplayed threats from AI that could crimp their growth, a concern that has pressured their stocks for months. But the securities filings those leaders sign every quarter are beginning to note the competitive risks the companies face from AI agents, which their customers... Leaders at enterprise app makers such as Figma, Workday and HubSpot have downplayed threats from...

Art by Mike Sullivan

ByteDance Suspends Launch of Video AI Model After Copyright Disputes With Hollywood

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Mar 14, 2026 9:00am PDT

ByteDance has put on hold the global launch of its latest video-generation model, Seedance 2.0, due to a string of copyright disputes with major Hollywood studios and streaming platforms, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. The TikTok parent released Seedance 2.0 to consumers and businesses in China last month, and... ByteDance has put on hold the global launch of its latest video-generation model, Seedance 2.0,...

Illustraiton: Clark Miller (Photo: Getty Images)

Patrick Collison’s Palace Intrigue Complaint

By Abram Brown · Mar 14, 2026 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Illustraiton: Clark Miller (Photo: Getty Images)

Patrick Collison’s Palace Intrigue Complaint

By Abram Brown · Mar 14, 2026 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Kings League, a fast-growing, internet-savvy soccer startup, takes a lean approach to pro sports• Tech Culture: Can protein-obsessed techies help save Sweetgreen? • Plus, Recommendations—our weekly pop culture picks: “Real Vikings,” “Kutchinsky’s Egg” and “Sirat”Patrick Collison, one... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Kings League, a fast-growing,...