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

Cameo CEO Steven Galanis. Photo by Getty.

Cameo Valuation Plunges at Least 90% in ‘Cramdown’ Funding Round

By Cory Weinberg and Kaya Yurieff · Mar 22, 2024 11:47am PDT · 1 comment

Cameo authorized a $28 million round of funding last week that will drastically reduce its valuation, the company told shareholders, reflecting a big slowdown in the celebrity video shoutout app’s business. The funding, led by existing investor Valor Equity Partners, would value the company at less than $100 million, measured after the... Cameo authorized a $28 million round of funding last week that will drastically reduce its...

How (Not?) to Exit Your AI Company, Analyzing the New Google-Apple Tie Up

By Jessica Lessin · Mar 22, 2024 10:42am PDT

There are weeks when it is really fun to be a reporter! And then even more fun to discuss what is happening with your friends! This was one of those. Lots of AI news, a Reddit IPO and more. I hope you enjoy! Apple Spotify There are weeks when it is really fun to be a reporter! And then even more fun to discuss what is...

Art by Clark Miller

Jeff Bezos Readies Blue Origin for Its Biggest Test

By Nick Wingfield and Becky Peterson · Mar 22, 2024 9:00am PDT · 1 comment

At some point during the second half of this year, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, will stuff his feet into a pair of cowboy boots and, if everything goes as planned, watch as a rocket made by his space startup, Blue Origin, blasts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The boots are a good luck charm that Bezos wears... At some point during the second half of this year, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, will stuff...

Photo via Shutterstock

Pro Weekly: Creators' Influence on Shopping

By Akash Pasricha · Mar 22, 2024 8:00am PDT

Photo via Shutterstock

Pro Weekly: Creators' Influence on Shopping

By Akash Pasricha · Mar 22, 2024 8:00am PDT

Yesterday, we published the results of our March subscriber survey, in which more than half of the 742 respondents said they had bought goods or services through social media. Another result that interested me: 53% of respondents said a creator had inspired them to buy something, regardless of whether they bought it on social media or not.... Yesterday, we published the results of our March subscriber survey, in which more than half of...

Rippling founder and CEO, Parker Conrad. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

In HR Software Battle, Rippling Makes Up Ground Against Deel—At a Cost

By Abubakar Idris and Natasha Mascarenhas · Mar 22, 2024 6:00am PDT

Rippling, a human-resources software startup valued at more than $11 billion, was a relative latecomer to the business of helping companies hire staff overseas. Now its expansion into dozens of countries, including the U.K. and Ireland, is starting to pay off. The eight-year-old startup’s annual recurring revenue roughly doubled to more... Rippling, a human-resources software startup valued at more than $11 billion, was a relative...

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland answers questions during today's press conference announcing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP.

What the DOJ Suit Against Apple Means

By Martin Peers · Mar 21, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

The Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple completes the set of antitrust cases now outstanding against four big tech firms, also including Amazon, Meta Platforms and Alphabet (which faces two, one of which has gone through a trial and is awaiting a judgment). But the Apple case is symbolically important, given how respected and... The Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple completes the set of antitrust cases now...

Mustafa Suleyman. Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Microsoft’s Maneuver; Andreessen Horowitz Preps Its Multiplexer Fund

By Kate Clark · Mar 21, 2024 3:04pm PDT

It’s been a busy week. Reddit went public Thursday, marking a rare initial public offering after a two-year winter for new listings. Shares jumped 48% in its first day trading, earning the company a market cap of over $9 billion.That’s a promising sign for IPO-ready, aging unicorns, and good news for Reddit’s backers, especially Condé Nast... It’s been a busy week. Reddit went public Thursday, marking a rare initial public offering after...

Photo via Adobe Stock

Instagram Shopping Tops TikTok For The Information’s Readers

By Kaya Yurieff · Mar 21, 2024 2:00pm PDT

Photo via Adobe Stock

Creator Economy

Instagram Shopping Tops TikTok For The Information’s Readers

By Kaya Yurieff · Mar 21, 2024 2:00pm PDT

TikTok has poured hundreds of millions of dollars to coax its U.S. users to shop on the app. But for The Information’s readers, Instagram is still the number one social media destination, according to a new survey of subscribers.About 35% of the 742 respondents said they have shopped using Instagram and 20% said they have shopped on Facebook... TikTok has poured hundreds of millions of dollars to coax its U.S. users to shop on the app. But...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, left, and Inflection CEO Mustafa Suleyman, right. Photos by Getty.

Microsoft Agreed to Pay Inflection $650 Million While Hiring Its Staff

By Jessica Lessin, Natasha Mascarenhas and Aaron Holmes · Mar 21, 2024 9:38am PDT · 7 comments

Microsoft doesn’t want its plan to hire two of Inflection AI’s co-founders and most of its 70-person staff to be seen as an acquisition. But it’s still writing a hefty check to the two-year-old artificial intelligence startup. The software giant has agreed to pay Inflection approximately $650 million, mostly in the form of a... Microsoft doesn’t want its plan to hire two of Inflection AI’s co-founders and most...

Subscriber Survey

Instagram a Favored Site for Social Commerce Among The Information Readers

By Akash Pasricha · Mar 21, 2024 9:00am PDT

More than half of The Information’s readers say they’ve bought goods or services through social media, most frequently through Instagram, according to our latest subscriber survey. Survey respondents remain optimistic about the outlook for technology companies, though they are less bullish than they were earlier in the year. In... More than half of The Information’s readers say they’ve bought goods or services...

Photo via Shutterstock

What The Court Will Actually Scrutinize in Elon Musk v. OpenAI; Clearing Up GPT-5’s Timeline

By Kalley Huang · Mar 21, 2024 7:00am PDT

Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming the ChatGPT creator breached a founding agreement to develop artificial general intelligence for the benefit of humanity, not commercial interests, raises legal questions without clear precedent. It might not get very far.One big question is whether private individuals or companies can sue nonprofit... Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming the ChatGPT creator breached a founding agreement to...

How a Legacy Media Company Dwarfed Venture Capitalists’ Returns on Reddit

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 21, 2024 6:00am PDT

How a Legacy Media Company Dwarfed Venture Capitalists’ Returns on Reddit

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 21, 2024 6:00am PDT

The world was a much different place when media titan Condé Nast bought fledgling internet forum Reddit for around $10 million in 2006. Media companies were still figuring out the internet—Condé had just bought the website for Wired, a magazine it already owned—and glossy print titles like Vogue and an arsenal of... The world was a much different place when media titan Condé Nast bought fledgling internet...

Photo: Shutterstock

The Electric: A Sign of EV Regulatory Easing to Come

By Steve LeVine · Mar 21, 2024 4:30am PDT

In a first sign of a softening of electric vehicle mandates, the Biden administration and the state of California this week both eased the way for carmakers to meet stringent emissions and EV rules, extending timelines and allowing companies to sell plug-in hybrids to comply with regulations. The moves align with a general slowing of the... In a first sign of a softening of electric vehicle mandates, the Biden administration and the...

Reid Hoffman. Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Microsoft’s Inflection Deal Spotlights Reid Hoffman’s Role

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 20, 2024 5:00pm PDT

The AI startup gold rush has featured a recurring cast of characters from past seasons of Silicon Valley tech booms. Sam Altman! Vinod Khosla! Google! Microsoft! You already know ’em, you already love ’em. That fact not only has amused me as money poured in over the past year and a half, but has said something about how tech, money and... The AI startup gold rush has featured a recurring cast of characters from past seasons of Silicon...

Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez. Photo by Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Tepid Revenue at Cohere Shows OpenAI Competitors Face Uphill Battle

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Maria Heeter · Mar 20, 2024 3:14pm PDT

The conversational artificial intelligence boom sparked by ChatGPT boosted funding and valuations for startups in the field, but few of them are making much money. In the latest example, Cohere, one of the best-known startup competitors to OpenAI, which has raised $445 million from investors, was generating about $13 million in annualized... The conversational artificial intelligence boom sparked by ChatGPT boosted funding and valuations...

João Pedro Resende, Hotmart’s co-founder and CEO. Photo: Hotmart

The New Influencer Gig: Teaching People to Use AI

By Kaya Yurieff · Mar 20, 2024 2:00pm PDT · 1 comment

João Pedro Resende, Hotmart’s co-founder and CEO. Photo: Hotmart

Creator Economy

The New Influencer Gig: Teaching People to Use AI

By Kaya Yurieff · Mar 20, 2024 2:00pm PDT · 1 comment

As new artificial intelligence tools from companies such as OpenAI and Midjourney have exploded, a cottage industry of creators has developed to teach others how to use them. They’re offering paid classes on how to craft a better prompt for ChatGPT or use AI for filmmaking. AI-related courses and products are a “rapidly growing” category... As new artificial intelligence tools from companies such as OpenAI and Midjourney have exploded,...

Mustafa Suleyman at the World Economic Forum in January. Photographer by Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

What (and Who) Mustafa Suleyman is Working With at Microsoft; What Perplexity’s Google Dependence Tells Us About the AI Race

By Aaron Holmes · Mar 20, 2024 7:15am PDT

Until Microsoft lit up the artificial intelligence world yesterday by appointing Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of AI startups DeepMind and Inflection, as head of its consumer AI business, the software giant lacked an executive who had built sophisticated generative AI models and products from scratch. As we’ve written, Microsoft’s own teams... Until Microsoft lit up the artificial intelligence world yesterday by appointing Mustafa Suleyman...

Art via Reddit/Shane Burke.

With IPO Looming, Reddit’s AI Pitch Faces Skeptics

By Cory Weinberg and Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 20, 2024 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

As Reddit executives and the company’s advisers try to reel in investors for its initial public offering, they’ve been using two seemingly magic words as part of their pitch: artificial intelligence. A slide deck for potential investors shows Reddit’s cartoon robot logo next to emblems of semiconductor companies Nvidia and Arm,... As Reddit executives and the company’s advisers try to reel in investors for its initial...

Mustafa Suleyman. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images.

Microsoft-backed Inflection Arranges Unusual Payout for Startup’s Investors

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Aaron Holmes · Mar 19, 2024 8:09pm PDT · 3 comments

Microsoft’s decision to hire most of the staff of Inflection AI, including co-founders Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan, leaves the would-be OpenAI rival a shell of its former self. But Inflection has arranged an unusual deal for investors that should take the sting out of that blow. At the same time it revealed the staff... Microsoft’s decision to hire most of the staff of Inflection AI, including co-founders...

Marc Lore, the founder, chairman and CEO of Wonder Group. Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images.

Marc Lore Proves You Don’t Need an AI Angle to Raise Money

By Martin Peers · Mar 19, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Marc Lore, the founder, chairman and CEO of Wonder Group. Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images.

Marc Lore Proves You Don’t Need an AI Angle to Raise Money

By Martin Peers · Mar 19, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Who says it’s hard for startups to raise capital? Marc Lore’s success in raising $600 million—in addition to $100 million he is contributing—for his restaurant startup, Wonder, is nothing short of stunning. As Lore acknowledged in a CNBC interview today, the fundraising wasn’t easy, given that most startups raising money nowadays are in... Who says it’s hard for startups to raise capital? Marc Lore’s success in raising $600 million—in...