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

Partner Content

Recap: The Creator Entrepreneur 2.0

By The Information Partnerships · Apr 26, 2024 10:32am PDT

As the market for creators continues to grow, it’s not all about creating engaging videos. As their channels get bigger, creators have become entrepreneurs. So what’s the best way for creators to successfully expand a small business into a larger one—and find new sources of revenue? What technologies exist to help them? And how... As the market for creators continues to grow, it’s not all about creating engaging videos....

Snipfeed co-founders Pierre-Habté Nouvellon, Rédouane Ramdani and Anas Bouassami. Photo via Snipfeed.

Pro Weekly: Why One Creator Economy Company Agreed to Sell

By Akash Pasricha · Apr 26, 2024 8:00am PDT

In February, we launched the Creator Startup Takeover List, listing 45 startups in the sector that are potential acquisition targets. Most companies hadn’t raised any capital since 2021, and, based on our reporting, some were actively seeking buyers. This week, one of those companies struck a deal. On Monday, Snipfeed agreed to sell its... In February, we launched the Creator Startup Takeover List, listing 45 startups in the sector...

Art by Clark Miller

Japan’s New Appetite for Risk Lures Venture Investors to Tokyo

By Juro Osawa, Natasha Mascarenhas and Margaux MacColl · Apr 26, 2024 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Just south of the vast Imperial Palace in downtown Tokyo lies the Kasumigaseki district, with blocks of offices constructed mostly during the last century when the country rose as one of the world’s largest economic powers after World War II. Much of the Japanese government does its work here: A walk through this neighborhood of concrete... Just south of the vast Imperial Palace in downtown Tokyo lies the Kasumigaseki district, with...

Rubrik CEO, Bipul Sinha. Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

A VC Lesson From the ‘Rodney Dangerfield of SaaS’

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 25, 2024 5:53pm PDT

Rubrik CEO, Bipul Sinha. Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

A VC Lesson From the ‘Rodney Dangerfield of SaaS’

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 25, 2024 5:53pm PDT

Venture capitalists should try this fun game at their next (increasingly alcohol-free) game night: artificial intelligence funding mad libs.[VC fund 1] and [VC fund 2] lead funding round for [number]-year-old [type of AI startup], founded by professors at [name of university], at a $[some-billion] valuation.This week, that formula would have... Venture capitalists should try this fun game at their next (increasingly alcohol-free) game...

Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella. Photo by AP.

Alphabet and Microsoft Show Secret to AI Investments: Rich Profits

By Martin Peers · Apr 25, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Artificial intelligence development may be sucking up vast amounts of money from big tech—but hey, at least business is good! That’s the picture painted by earnings updates from both Alphabet and Microsoft on Thursday—echoing a similar state of play reported by Meta Platforms on Wednesday. All three companies reported strong operating profit... Artificial intelligence development may be sucking up vast amounts of money from big tech—but...

Photo by Future Publishing via Getty Images.

Creator Economy

YouTube Shorts Advertising Perks Up

By Kaya Yurieff · Apr 25, 2024 3:49pm PDT

Is it possible that YouTube has figured out how to sell Shorts to advertisers? On a call with investors in parent Alphabet, executives indicated the monetization of YouTube Shorts is showing signs of improvement. That’s good news for creators (and Alphabet shareholders) who have seen advertisers pay far less for YouTube Shorts than longer... Is it possible that YouTube has figured out how to sell Shorts to advertisers? On a call with...

Elon Musk. Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic via Getty Images.

Musk’s xAI Is Close to Raising $6 Billion from Sequoia, Others

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Becky Peterson and Margaux MacColl · Apr 25, 2024 3:04pm PDT

Elon’s Musk xAI is close to having billions of dollars more in its coffers to make its chatbot Grok a more fearsome competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Musk’s year-old startup is raising $6 billion at a valuation of $18 billion not including the investment, according to two people close to the deal. Sequoia Capital is one of the... Elon’s Musk xAI is close to having billions of dollars more in its coffers to make its...

Photo by Ronny Hartman/AFP via Getty Images.

Apple’s Late Arrival; Meta Outlines Ways to Make Money from AI, Including Charging Users

By Kalley Huang and Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 25, 2024 7:10am PDT · 1 comment

Photo by Ronny Hartman/AFP via Getty Images.

Apple’s Late Arrival; Meta Outlines Ways to Make Money from AI, Including Charging Users

By Kalley Huang and Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 25, 2024 7:10am PDT · 1 comment

If you weren’t careful, you may have missed some important news from Apple that was overshadowed by Meta Platforms’ earnings yesterday. The iPhone-maker released a new family of open-source language models, dubbed OpenELM, on Hugging Face. The models, ranging in size from 270 million to 3 billion parameters (as a reminder, “parameters’... If you weren’t careful, you may have missed some important news from Apple that was overshadowed...

Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images.

Huawei Leads Chinese Effort to Compete With Nvidia’s AI Chips

By Qianer Liu and Scott Thurm · Apr 25, 2024 6:00am PDT

Huawei Technologies is leading a group of Chinese semiconductor companies seeking memory chip breakthroughs that could help China develop home-grown alternatives to Nvidia’s cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips, which can’t be sold to the country. The Huawei-led consortium, backed by funding from the Chinese government, aims to... Huawei Technologies is leading a group of Chinese semiconductor companies seeking memory chip...

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in Washington in March. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.

ByteDance Exploring Scenarios for Selling TikTok Without Algorithm

By Erin Woo, Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Apr 25, 2024 4:59am PDT · 2 comments

ByteDance is internally exploring scenarios for selling a majority stake in TikTok’s U.S. business, preferably to companies outside the tech industry, and without the algorithm that recommends videos to TikTok users, said three people with knowledge of the deliberations. ByteDance’s internal discussions come as President Joe... ByteDance is internally exploring scenarios for selling a majority stake in TikTok’s U.S....

SES joined the New York Stock Exchange in 2022. Photo: Sipa/AP

The Electric: In a Deal With Hyundai, SES Widens Lithium-Metal Lead

By Steve LeVine · Apr 25, 2024 4:30am PDT

Next-generation battery developer SES AI pushed further ahead in the race to commercialize lithium-metal anodes, moving to the B Sample qualification stage with South Korea’s Hyundai Motor. The automaker has not committed to deploying the anodes in its electric vehicles, but the deal sets SES on the path of putting its anodes in Hyundai test... Next-generation battery developer SES AI pushed further ahead in the race to commercialize...

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images.

Meta’s Big AI Spending Turns Off Investors

By Martin Peers · Apr 24, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images.

Meta’s Big AI Spending Turns Off Investors

By Martin Peers · Apr 24, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Meta Platforms may have just got kicked off Wall Street’s favorites list. Stock of the Facebook owner dropped 16% after CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned the company was entering a new investment cycle, this time in artificial intelligence, that would take a while to flow through to create “profitable services.” Zuckerberg’s comments hit a nerve:... Meta Platforms may have just got kicked off Wall Street’s favorites list. Stock of the Facebook...

VR headsets at the Meta's booth at a trade fair in Germany. Photo by Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Creator Economy

Reels Is Eating Instagram; TikTok Lite Gets Muzzled

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Apr 24, 2024 4:15pm PDT

Meta Platforms’ warning of slowing growth and higher expenses Wednesday night sank the stock, which had run up 43% this year. But Meta executives, not surprisingly, focused on the bright spots —among them, video. Instagram Reels—Meta’s answer to TikTok—now makes up 50% of the time spent on the app, a pretty big number when you think about... Meta Platforms’ warning of slowing growth and higher expenses Wednesday night sank the stock,...

Nvidia headquarters in Santa Clara. Photo by Getty.

Nvidia to Buy Two Israeli Startups That Make Its AI Chips Cheaper to Use

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 24, 2024 3:13pm PDT · 1 comment

During the artificial intelligence boom, chipmaker Nvidia became one of the most active corporate venture capitalists, investing in over 30 startups last year alone, according to PitchBook. Now it may become one of the most active acquirers of AI startups. Nvidia has recently struck two agreements to buy Israeli AI startups, including one... During the artificial intelligence boom, chipmaker Nvidia became one of the most active corporate...

Rubrik CEO Bipul Sinha. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Inside Rubrik’s Pitch for Its High-Stakes Software IPO

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 24, 2024 11:00am PDT · 1 comment

The next big test of the big IPO market for software firms comes later on Wednesday, when data security firm Rubrik is expected to price its initial public offering. On the surface, the company would be an unlikely IPO success right now. It is small and its business very niche, and it is losing money, which might turn off investors. To get Wall... The next big test of the big IPO market for software firms comes later on Wednesday, when data...

Cognition AI CEO, Scott Wu, and the company's software development assistant, Devin. Screenshots via YouTube.

Six-Month-Old AI Coding Startup Valued at $2 Billion by Founders Fund

By Kate Clark · Apr 24, 2024 8:52am PDT · 1 comment

Cognition AI CEO, Scott Wu, and the company's software development assistant, Devin. Screenshots via YouTube.

Six-Month-Old AI Coding Startup Valued at $2 Billion by Founders Fund

By Kate Clark · Apr 24, 2024 8:52am PDT · 1 comment

The promise of a chatbot that can write and fix code has attracted repeat investments in a six-month-old startup—even after it appeared to flub its product launch. Founders Fund has led a $175 million investment in Cognition, a startup that recently launched an artificial intelligence–powered coding assistant called Devin, according... The promise of a chatbot that can write and fix code has attracted repeat investments in a...

Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Connect 2023. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Meta’s Llama 3 Proves a Hit With Developers; Snowflake Gets In The LLM Game

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 24, 2024 7:00am PDT

It’s been five days since the release of Meta Platforms’ highly-anticipated Llama 3 models, and the new large language models have seemingly won the mindshare of AI developers—so much so that barely anyone was talking about new model releases from Microsoft, Adobe and Amazon on Monday.A number of developers told me that they’re already... It’s been five days since the release of Meta Platforms’ highly-anticipated Llama 3 models, and...

Art by Mike Sullivan

The Cybersecurity Takeover List: 6 Unicorns That Could Seek a Sale

By Aaron Holmes · Apr 24, 2024 6:00am PDT

As companies lose faith in the effectiveness of cybersecurity software and reexamine or rein in their spending on it, startups that sell that type of software have struggled to grow. Many of them will have little choice but to look for a buyout, some of their shareholders say, despite having raised record amounts of capital during the... As companies lose faith in the effectiveness of cybersecurity software and reexamine or rein in...

Demonstrators hold signs in support of TikTok in front of the U.S. Capitol Building earlier today. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.

The TikTok Political Debate Is Over, Bar the Shouting

By Martin Peers · Apr 23, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 5 comments

The political debate about TikTok is all but over, with the sell-or-ban bill now virtually assured of becoming law, judging by its progress in the Senate today. Once the formalities are over, we’ll see TikTok or its users file a legal challenge, which could delay implementation. Even so, the final passage of this legislation is momentous. The... The political debate about TikTok is all but over, with the sell-or-ban bill now virtually...

Anton Levy of General Atlantic at The Information's Private Capital Conference earlier this month. Photo by Nicole Pereira.

ByteDance Investors’ Waiting Game

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Laura Mandaro · Apr 23, 2024 4:31pm PDT

Anton Levy of General Atlantic at The Information's Private Capital Conference earlier this month. Photo by Nicole Pereira.

ByteDance Investors’ Waiting Game

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Laura Mandaro · Apr 23, 2024 4:31pm PDT

Most venture capitalists often see themselves as long-term investors. Those who backed ByteDance, the world’s most valuable venture-backed company, have had plenty of opportunity to test that credo. After pouring $8 billion into TikTok’s parent company, and sometimes buying more shares from other shareholders, these investors have seen the... Most venture capitalists often see themselves as long-term investors. Those who backed ByteDance,...