The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

Five times/week

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.

By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy

Recent Editions

Graphic by Shane Burke. Photos via Shutterstock/Wikimedia.

How Meta’s Acquisition of Giphy Went South

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan and Maria Heeter · May 22, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

When a U.K. antitrust regulator initially ordered Meta Platforms to sell Giphy 18 months ago, it hoped to ensure that the startup—a library for animated images known as GIFs—would prosper as an independent company. Instead, Giphy’s once-promising business has atrophied under Meta’s ownership, making finding a buyer a tall... When a U.K. antitrust regulator initially ordered Meta Platforms to sell Giphy 18 months ago, it...

Zeng "Robin" Yuqun, CEO of CATL, the world's largest battery company. Photo: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

The Electric: Welcome to CATL's World

By Steve LeVine · May 22, 2023 4:30am PDT

In April 2022, Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. announced a blockbuster deal in Indonesia: With local partners, it would spend $6 billion on a complex on North Maluku island that would mine nickel, process it into electrodes and then manufacture electric vehicle batteries. There would even be a factory to recycle... In April 2022, Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. announced a...

The Great Pickleball Gold Rush

The Great Pickleball Gold Rush

By Jon Steinberg · May 20, 2023 6:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.Not everyone can be Josh Harris, the private equity mogul who just dropped $6 billion to purchase the NFL’s Washington Commanders. Most people who want a piece of a pro sports franchise have to start a little lower. Enter pickleball. A sport you probably hadn’t heard of before it became a thing around five... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.Not everyone can be Josh Harris, the private equity mogul who just...

Art by Clark Miller.

While Hollywood Writers Fret About AI, Visual Effects Workers Welcome It

By Scott Alan Lucas · May 20, 2023 6:00am PDT · 7 comments

Art by Clark Miller.

Scene and Heard

While Hollywood Writers Fret About AI, Visual Effects Workers Welcome It

By Scott Alan Lucas · May 20, 2023 6:00am PDT · 7 comments

Is there anybody here who is afraid of AI taking their job?” Visual effects veteran James Blevins, whose credits include “The Mandalorian,” “Icarus,” “Air Force One” and “Space Jam,” was speaking last Wednesday to a crowd of several hundred people at the Hollywood offices of FYI, the... Is there anybody here who is afraid of AI taking their job?” Visual effects veteran James...

What'll you have? Expensify CEO and founder David Barrett has high hopes for his workspace-cafe-lounge concept in San Francisco. Art by Clark Miller

A Lounge, an Office and a Strike Against Silicon Valley’s ‘Factory Mentality’

By Jon Steinberg · May 19, 2023 11:00am PDT · 20 comments

On May 9, Expensify issued a quarterly earnings report that even its likable longtime CEO couldn’t soften. It had been a “nuclear winter” for the economy, David Barrett told shareholders. There were silver linings for his expense management software company, but “don’t get me wrong, this quarter sucked.” His... On May 9, Expensify issued a quarterly earnings report that even its likable longtime CEO...

From left, Major League Pickleball owners Dude Perfect, Heidi Klum, Eva Longoria, Gary Vaynerchuk, Mark Cuban, Naomi Osaka, Kate Upton, David Dobrik, LeBron James and Tom Brady. Photo-composite by Clark Miller. Gary Vaynerchuk by Michael Nagle/Bloomberg, Kate Upton by Humberto Vidal, Lebron James by Ashley Landis-Pool/Getty Images.

The Hot New Trophy Asset: A Pro Pickleball Team

By Abram Brown · May 19, 2023 9:00am PDT · 10 comments

It was power lunch hour in midtown Manhattan and Central Park’s new pickleball courts had filled up with the type of sporty executives who once preferred to talk business over 18 holes of golf. I’d gone to paddle around with Samin Odhwani, an investor at NBA star Kevin Durant’s 35 Ventures, and hear about one of the... It was power lunch hour in midtown Manhattan and Central Park’s new pickleball courts had...

Photo by Bloomberg

Pro Weekly: Twitter’s Intern and Our IPO Tracker’s New Winners and Losers

By Kalley Huang · May 19, 2023 8:00am PDT

Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October, he and his deputies have aggressively cut jobs and slashed costs. During that process, Twitter’s internship program was canceled. But Twitter now has one intern: Arjun Chimni, who was hired as a corporate functions intern in April, according to The Information’s reporting. That’s... Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October, he and his deputies have...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

YouTube Undercuts Amazon on Streaming Push

By Sahil Patel · May 19, 2023 6:00am PDT

Art by Mike Sullivan.

YouTube Undercuts Amazon on Streaming Push

By Sahil Patel · May 19, 2023 6:00am PDT

YouTube and Netflix are the most-watched streaming services in America. But it is Amazon that has come closest to building a streaming version of cable TV with its Prime Video Channels service, which lets Prime subscribers easily sign up for a wide range of streaming services run by other companies. It’s an enormously profitable business,... YouTube and Netflix are the most-watched streaming services in America. But it is Amazon that has...

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo by Bloomberg.

Don’t Dismiss Apple’s Mixed-Reality Headset Just Yet

By Jessica E. Lessin · May 18, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

When I attended a press event showcasing the Apple Watch back in 2015, I wasn’t impressed. I didn’t really care about the custom gold alloys the company bragged about or think that people would buy it for a price that would go as high as $10,000 (for the very fancy version).Of course, I was wrong about the overall product. Today, the Apple Watch... When I attended a press event showcasing the Apple Watch back in 2015, I wasn’t impressed. I didn...

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan. Photo: Getty Images for YouTube

Creator Economy

YouTube’s Ad Pitch Helped by Hollywood Upheaval

By Kaya Yurieff · May 18, 2023 3:34pm PDT

YouTube played up its longstanding relationships with creators at its Brandcast event for advertisers on Wednesday night, showing the increasing importance of creator-generated content during a tumultuous time for Hollywood. Such annual presentations, known as upfronts because advertisers book ad spending commitments in advance for the... YouTube played up its longstanding relationships with creators at its Brandcast event for...

Art via Shutterstock

An Accelerator Implodes, Leaving Founders in Shock

By Kate Clark · May 18, 2023 3:01pm PDT · 4 comments

If you ask a startup founder what they look for in an accelerator program, they’d probably hope for access to startup veterans and connections to prominent venture capitalists. By all accounts, they didn’t get much of that from Newchip, whose parent Astralabs last week entered into Chapter 7 bankruptcy, leaving creditors owed $4.8 million... If you ask a startup founder what they look for in an accelerator program, they’d probably hope...

Art by Clark Miller.

How to Be a Crypto Whistleblower

By Poppy Alexander · May 18, 2023 9:00am PDT · 1 comment

Art by Clark Miller.

How to Be a Crypto Whistleblower

By Poppy Alexander · May 18, 2023 9:00am PDT · 1 comment

In the past few months, both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have brought aggressive enforcement actions against crypto exchanges. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, Tron founder Justin Sun and Terra founder Do Kwon have all been either charged or sued by one of these two agencies. Meanwhile, the... In the past few months, both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures...

Instacart CEO Fidji Simo. Photo by Getty.

Instacart’s Ad Business Surges

By Cory Weinberg · May 18, 2023 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

Instacart has become an advertising powerhouse. The grocery-delivery firm’s ad revenue totaled about $740 million last year, up 30% from 2021, according to a person familiar with the matter. That’s a striking increase, given that the digital ad market was largely stagnant last year. Nearly 30% of Instacart’s 2022 revenue came... Instacart has become an advertising powerhouse. The grocery-delivery firm’s ad revenue...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, fourth from left, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, fifth from left. Photo: Courtesy Office of Gov. Greg Abbott.

The Electric: Tesla’s Rivals Are Missing a Big Opportunity to Slash Battery Costs

By Steve LeVine · May 18, 2023 4:30am PDT · 2 comments

Early this month in the Texan port city of Corpus Christi, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and a phalanx of local officials shoveled dirt onto the site of the first commercial-scale factory of its kind: a $375 million lithium refinery using equipment that slashes operating costs by a third while processing enough of the metal to power 1 million electric... Early this month in the Texan port city of Corpus Christi, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and a phalanx of...

Photo by Bloomberg

WeWork Sinks Lower as Its Task Ahead Grows Taller

By Martin Peers · May 17, 2023 5:00pm PDT

There’s a saying that “old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” You could apply that to a bunch of money-losing companies in the (very broadly defined) tech sector that are still hanging around such as Lyft, Bird Global and BuzzFeed. But the best example would have to be WeWork, which has deflated like a blowup swimming pool with a puncture... There’s a saying that “old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” You could apply that to a...

Photo via Bloomberg

Facebook Doubles Down on Reels; Montana Bans TikTok

By Isabelle Sarraf · May 17, 2023 3:20pm PDT

Photo via Bloomberg

Creator Economy

Facebook Doubles Down on Reels; Montana Bans TikTok

By Isabelle Sarraf · May 17, 2023 3:20pm PDT

Facebook has been doubling down on its creator efforts this week, emphasizing Reels above all else.The flagship Meta Platforms app held the first in a series of livestreams it’s calling Reels School on Wednesday. Facebook invited creators who have found success posting short-form videos to the site to educate other Reel makers on strategy and... Facebook has been doubling down on its creator efforts this week, emphasizing Reels above all...

Sridhar Ramaswamy. Photo by Getty

Snowflake in Talks to Buy Search Startup Neeva in AI Push

By Kevin McLaughlin, Jon Victor and Amir Efrati · May 17, 2023 1:36pm PDT · 6 comments

Database software provider Snowflake has been in advanced talks to acquire Neeva, a search startup founded by former top Google ad tech executive Sridhar Ramaswamy, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions. Buying Neeva could help Snowflake offer artificial intelligence software that helps companies search for information... Database software provider Snowflake has been in advanced talks to acquire Neeva, a search...

Art by Shane Burke

Why Bakkt Delisting Tokens is a Big Deal for Fintechs

By Aidan Ryan · May 17, 2023 9:00am PDT

A behind-the-scenes crypto company is roiling crypto trading apps. In case you missed it, I scooped on Friday that Bakkt is delisting three-fourths of the crypto tokens supported by Apex Crypto, a custody and clearing service the company bought last month. These companies aren’t exactly household names, but their services help power crypto... A behind-the-scenes crypto company is roiling crypto trading apps. In case you missed it, I ...

Subscriber Survey

Readers Are Split on the Tech Outlook, but Bullish on Big Names

By Kalley Huang · May 17, 2023 7:00am PDT

Readers of The Information are split on the outlook for technology companies, but they’ve turned more optimistic about some big tech names. Asked whether conditions for technology companies would improve or worsen over the next six months, 35% of respondents to our latest reader survey said they would improve, 35% said they would worsen... Readers of The Information are split on the outlook for technology companies, but they’ve...

Workers at a Veho facility in Atlanta in 2021. Photo by Bloomberg.

SoftBank-Backed Veho Struggles as Logistics Startups Fail to Deliver

By Ann Gehan · May 17, 2023 6:00am PDT

Workers at a Veho facility in Atlanta in 2021. Photo by Bloomberg.

SoftBank-Backed Veho Struggles as Logistics Startups Fail to Deliver

By Ann Gehan · May 17, 2023 6:00am PDT

After landing nearly $300 million from investors including SoftBank and Tiger Global Management in back-to-back funding rounds in late 2021 and early 2022, delivery startup Veho planned an ambitious expansion that would bring its home dropoff services to 50 cities across the U.S. by the end of last year. But Veho, which offers package deliveries... After landing nearly $300 million from investors including SoftBank and Tiger Global Management...