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

Photo by Matthias Balk/Getty Images.

Amazon Discusses AI Content Marketplace With Publishers

By Catherine Perloff and Erin Woo · Feb 9, 2026 3:34pm PST · 3 comments

Amazon has indicated to publishing industry executives that it is planning to launch a marketplace where publishers can sell their content to firms offering AI products, according to two people who spoke with Amazon about the project. Those discussions come as publishers and AI companies are battling to set terms over how AI firms can access... Amazon has indicated to publishing industry executives that it is planning to launch a...

MrBeast. Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

MrBeast’s Beast Industries to Buy Gen Z–Focused Banking App

By Valida Pau · Feb 9, 2026 9:05am PST

Beast Industries, the entertainment conglomerate founded by Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, has agreed to buy Step Mobile, a teen-focused banking app, the companies plan to announce Monday. The acquisition will expand the YouTube star’s reach beyond media, restaurants and packaged food into financial services. Founded in 2018, Step Mobile runs an app... Beast Industries, the entertainment conglomerate founded by Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, has agreed...

Anthropic's Data Center Ambition—and the Ex-Google Execs Who Could Make It Happen

AI Infrastructure

Anthropic's Data Center Ambition—and the Ex-Google Execs Who Could Make It Happen

By Anissa Gardizy · Feb 9, 2026 8:50am PST

Anthropic’s leaders have been loud about how its AI will reshape businesses but much less boisterous about how it plans to power that usage. Now the company’s data center ambitions are coming into focus. Anthropic is quietly assembling a veteran team, including two former Google executives, and has discussed securing at least 10 gigawatts... Anthropic’s leaders have been loud about how its AI will reshape businesses but much less...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Why Voice Assistants Are Dumb Compared to Text Chatbots

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 9, 2026 7:00am PST

Art by Mike Sullivan

Why Voice Assistants Are Dumb Compared to Text Chatbots

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 9, 2026 7:00am PST

For years, investors and founders have told me that AI which talks and listens the way humans do is on the cusp of a breakout moment. We’re still not there.Audio models are still lagging behind their text-based brethren in terms of intelligence. If you ask an audio model like the ChatGPT voice assistant a tough math question, for instance, it’s... For years, investors and founders have told me that AI which talks and listens the way humans do...

Elon Musk. Photo by Krisztian Bocsi/ Getty Images

Apollo Nears $3 Billion Chip-Funding Deal Tied to XAI

By Miles Kruppa · Feb 9, 2026 6:00am PST

Apollo Global Management, one of Wall Street’s biggest private credit firms, is nearing a deal to lend about $3.4 billion to an investment vehicle that will purchase Nvidia chips and lease them to Elon Musk’s xAI, which just merged with SpaceX, said a person with knowledge of the deal. The deal would be Apollo’s second big investment in a... Apollo Global Management, one of Wall Street’s biggest private credit firms, is nearing a deal to...

Construction has started at Lithium Americas' Thacker Pass lithium project. Photo: Courtesy Lithium Americas

The Electric: Lithium Makes a Comeback as Trump Moves to Challenge China

By Steve LeVine · Feb 9, 2026 4:30am PST

Mining lithium in the West has been a terrible business recently. From a peak of about $80 a kilo in late 2022, the price of the metal plummeted as low as $8 last year, causing big losses for investors and forcing mines to close in the U.S., Australia and elsewhere. Mining lithium in the West has been a terrible business recently. From a peak of about $80 a kilo...

The Amazon Alexa+ Super Bowl commercial starring Chris Hemsworth. Screenshot via YouTube/Amazon Alexa.

What to Expect from Spotify, Lyft and Pinterest Earnings This Week

By Martin Peers · Feb 8, 2026 3:00pm PST

After the crush of tech news last week, including a big AI-fueled stock sell-off, things might calm down a bit in the next few days. With any luck, we’ll have time to debate which of the tech companies’ Super Bowl ads running Sunday night were the best and which were the worst. My vote for best is the Amazon Alexa spot, by the way, although the... After the crush of tech news last week, including a big AI-fueled stock sell-off, things might...

How Capex Ramp Up Will Squeeze Google, Amazon, Meta

By Martin Peers · Feb 7, 2026 10:00am PST · 3 comments

Sunday Insights

How Capex Ramp Up Will Squeeze Google, Amazon, Meta

By Martin Peers · Feb 7, 2026 10:00am PST · 3 comments

Big tech’s dramatic ramp-up in projected capital expenditures this year will all but wipe out free cash flow for Amazon, Google and Meta Platforms. That will force some of those companies to make some difficult choices, such as whether to end stock buybacks or borrow more money. The good news is that the big tech companies have the capacity to... Big tech’s dramatic ramp-up in projected capital expenditures this year will all but wipe out...

Art by Clark Miller (photo: Getty Images)

Epstein Files’ Most Damning Revelation

By Abram Brown · Feb 7, 2026 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Parties, PR and Epstein—inside investor Masha Bucher’s charmed ascendance• Artificial Intelligence: OpenClaw, agents and a mania within a mania • Power and Influence: How the architect behind California’s billionaires tax became tech’s villain• Plus, Recommendations—our weekly pop... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Parties, PR and Epstein—inside investor...

Art by Clark Miller

Artificial Intelligence

After OpenClaw, a Wild, Weird Age of Consumer Agents Lies Ahead

By Rocket Drew · Feb 7, 2026 6:30am PST · 6 comments

Until recently, agentic AI, where AIs can take virtual actions and control computers, seemed like an esoteric technology that wasn’t close to going mainstream—at least for use at home on tasks like checking into flights, responding to emails and controlling smart devices. Then OpenClaw, an open-source personal AI assistant, went viral a... Until recently, agentic AI, where AIs can take virtual actions and control computers, seemed like...

Art by Clark Miller (photos: Getty Images)

Parties, PR and Epstein: How Investor Masha Bucher Shot to Fame in Silicon Valley

By Jemima McEvoy · Feb 7, 2026 6:00am PST · 9 comments

January 30 was an eventful day for Masha Bucher. That evening she held a blowout 8th birthday party for her venture capital firm, Day One Ventures, at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The dress code: elegant. On the invites, Bucher promised the festivities would include a new performance art piece that would weave together “choreography,... January 30 was an eventful day for Masha Bucher. That evening she held a blowout 8th birthday...

Image via Getty

Microsoft Sales Chief Responds to Potential Rivalry with OpenAI’s New Agent Product

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Feb 6, 2026 6:45pm PST · 1 comment

Image via Getty

Microsoft Sales Chief Responds to Potential Rivalry with OpenAI’s New Agent Product

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Feb 6, 2026 6:45pm PST · 1 comment

Microsoft’s top sales executive told staff on Friday that the company was uniquely positioned to compete against a new OpenAI product aimed at helping businesses automate office tasks across different software applications—including Microsoft’s own apps. In an email, Microsoft commercial CEO Judson Althoff provided talking points... Microsoft’s top sales executive told staff on Friday that the company was uniquely positioned to...

Art by Clark Miller

Power and Influence

How the Architect of California’s Billionaire Tax Became Tech’s Villain

By Eli Rosenberg · Feb 6, 2026 11:04am PST · 4 comments

Around the time he filed the billionaire tax proposal that has shaken up the tech world and ignited a debate about wealth taxes nationwide, Dave Regan, president of the California-based union behind the effort, convened a group of fellow labor leaders to solicit their thoughts. In a videoconference, he told the group he had a 30-day... Around the time he filed the billionaire tax proposal that has shaken up the tech world...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holds a Grace Blackwell NVLink72 at CES 2025. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images

How Nvidia and Big Customers Finally Conquered Blackwell ‘Challenges’

By Qianer Liu, Anissa Gardizy and Wayne Ma · Feb 6, 2026 6:00am PST · 1 comment

A year ago, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, told analysts that transitioning from an earlier generation of AI server chips to a newer one, known as Blackwell, was “challenging” for the company’s customers because of the chips’ greater complexity. “The chassis, the architecture of the system, the hardware, the power delivery, all of that had to... A year ago, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, told analysts that transitioning from an earlier...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.

Amazon’s Cloud Liftoff

By Martin Peers · Feb 5, 2026 5:00pm PST

Talk about raising the stakes. A day after Google parent Alphabet scared the market by projecting plans to double its capital expenditures to around $180 billion, Amazon went one better by announcing it plans to lay out $200 billion on capex this year, 56% higher than what it spent in 2025. Investors were just as unimpressed as they had been... Talk about raising the stakes. A day after Google parent Alphabet scared the market by projecting...

Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi. Jeff Chiu/AP.

The Databricks IPO Watch

By Cory Weinberg and Valida Pau · Feb 5, 2026 4:00pm PST

Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi. Jeff Chiu/AP.

The Databricks IPO Watch

By Cory Weinberg and Valida Pau · Feb 5, 2026 4:00pm PST

Plummeting software stocks aren’t good news for any company with a big enterprise business that is considering going public. Nonetheless, there’s a growing consensus that 12-year-old Databricks—whose initial public offering has been chatted about for years—could take the step by the end of this year, according to several investment bankers and... Plummeting software stocks aren’t good news for any company with a big enterprise business that...

Artwork by Clark Miller

Can Anthropic Scale Like OpenAI—and Still Claim the Moral High Ground?

By The Information Staff · Feb 5, 2026 11:42am PST

Anthropic is facing growing pressure to compete more aggressively with rivals like OpenAI and Microsoft while preserving the safety-first identity that has defined it since its founding. Surging revenue forecasts and the launch of its Cowork agent suggest a company pushing harder into enterprise markets, even as it continues to emphasize ethical... Anthropic is facing growing pressure to compete more aggressively with rivals like OpenAI and...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Fabrice/Getty Images

Nvidia CEO Becomes the Latest SaaS Defender—Sort Of

By Amir Efrati · Feb 5, 2026 10:30am PST · 2 comments

Simmering anxieties about AI’s threat to subscription software have turned into a raging nervous breakdown on Wall Street in the past week, thanks in part to Anthropic’s recent AI launches (and despite Anthropic's own love for SaaS apps). Even Palantir, which has lately posted blockbuster growth, has been caught up in the selloff.Enter Jensen... Simmering anxieties about AI’s threat to subscription software have turned into a raging nervous...

Daytona CEO Ivan Burazin. Photo courtesy of Daytona.

Datadog and Figma Back a Startup Developing Tools For AI Agents

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 5, 2026 7:00am PST

First off, check out Jyoti’s Wednesday scoop about Meta’s latest AI model efforts. In sum, Meta is telling its employees “we’re back in the game!” and setting high expectations for the company’s next open-weight large language model, codenamed Avocado.Yes, Meta AI leaders did the same last year with Llama 4 and we all know how poorly that turned... First off, check out Jyoti’s Wednesday scoop about Meta’s latest AI model efforts. In sum, Meta...

Art by Clark Miller.

Nvidia to Delay New Gaming Chip Due to Memory Chip Shortage

By Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu · Feb 5, 2026 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Art by Clark Miller.

Nvidia to Delay New Gaming Chip Due to Memory Chip Shortage

By Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu · Feb 5, 2026 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Nvidia won’t release a new graphics chip for gamers this year due to a deepening global shortage of memory chips, prompted by the AI boom, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. It would be the first year in three decades that Nvidia hasn’t released a new graphics processing unit for gaming. Nvidia got its start in the... Nvidia won’t release a new graphics chip for gamers this year due to a deepening global shortage...