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

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Inside Google’s Efforts to Develop Custom Chip for Pixel

By Wayne Ma · Jul 6, 2023 6:00am PDT · 8 comments

Google has big ambitions to develop its own chips for its Pixel phones. So far, however, things haven’t gone according to plan. The search giant has delayed by at least one year the release of its first fully customized chip, which would act as the brains for its Pixel line of smartphones, according to two people with direct knowledge of... Google has big ambitions to develop its own chips for its Pixel phones. So far, however, things...

Battery making in Yichun, China. Photo: Deng Longhua/VCG/Getty

The Electric: The U.S. EV Industry is in the Line of Fire in China’s Trade Retaliation

By Steve LeVine · Jul 6, 2023 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

Chinese restrictions on the export of two key materials for the high-tech and defense industries could be a harbinger of problems for Western makers of electric vehicles. China’s Commerce Ministry on Monday said it would require permits for the export of gallium and germanium beginning next month. The timing of the announcement, just ahead... Chinese restrictions on the export of two key materials for the high-tech and defense industries...

Photo by AP

What Threads Could Mean for Meta…and Twitter

By Martin Peers · Jul 5, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 4 comments

If there’s a tech billionaire the news media hates more than Mark Zuckerberg, it's Elon Musk. That's why you're seeing an unusual deluge of positive coverage for Meta Platforms' Twitter rival app, Threads, which formally launched a short time ago. The positivity won’t last, to be sure. Before too long—give it a week—someone in the media will... If there’s a tech billionaire the news media hates more than Mark Zuckerberg, it's Elon Musk....

Photo by Getty

Instagram’s Threads App Courts Creators; How One Reddit App Is Surviving

By Isabelle Sarraf · Jul 5, 2023 2:46pm PDT

Photo by Getty

Creator Economy

Instagram’s Threads App Courts Creators; How One Reddit App Is Surviving

By Isabelle Sarraf · Jul 5, 2023 2:46pm PDT

Creators have told us they would like more texting features to reach fans on the platforms where they already spend time—and Instagram seems to be listening. Ahead of the rollout of Threads, its text-focused app expected to launch this week, it’s been courting creators. The separate app, which describes itself as a “text-based conversation... Creators have told us they would like more texting features to reach fans on the platforms where...

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti speaks with Justin Killion, former president of Complex Networks, and BuzzFeed's former COO Christian Baesler. Photo by Getty

BuzzFeed’s Peretti Is Hoping to Raise $150 Million From Sale of Complex Assets

By Sahil Patel · Jul 5, 2023 12:49pm PDT · 3 comments

For months, BuzzFeed stock has traded so low that the Nasdaq recently threatened the company with delisting. With BuzzFeed’s effort to sell Complex Networks, a group of websites targeted at people in hip-hop, fashion and sports, CEO Jonah Peretti has the chance to transform Wall Street’s view of the company. Peretti is asking $150... For months, BuzzFeed stock has traded so low that the Nasdaq recently threatened the company with...

Photo via Shutterstock

Checking in on Crypto’s Most Promising Startups

By Akash Pasricha · Jul 5, 2023 9:01am PDT

Can you believe it? We’re already halfway through 2023! To mark the occasion, Aidan Ryan and I caught up with our 2022 list of the most promising startups in crypto, first published in October, to see how they’ve held up.In an industry that has undergone a tremendous transformation, with collapses like FTX and BlockFi and the SEC cracking down... Can you believe it? We’re already halfway through 2023! To mark the occasion, Aidan Ryan and I...

Art by Clark Miller

This Is the Help Congress Needs to Regulate AI

By Adam Bly · Jul 5, 2023 9:00am PDT · 7 comments

When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified before Congress in May about the existential risks large-language models and other generative artificial intelligence technologies pose to humanity, there was an elephant in the room. Who believes that Congress—in its current state, at least—is capable of designing and agreeing upon effective... When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified before Congress in May about the existential risks...

Foreground: CoinFund president Chris Perkins. Background: Sam Bankman-Fried. Photos by Getty.

Crypto VCs Wrest Power Back From Founders

By Aidan Ryan · Jul 5, 2023 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Foreground: CoinFund president Chris Perkins. Background: Sam Bankman-Fried. Photos by Getty.

Crypto VCs Wrest Power Back From Founders

By Aidan Ryan · Jul 5, 2023 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Venture capitalists are becoming a little more demanding of crypto firms. At the height of the crypto boom, venture investors were so focused on winning hot deals that they didn’t push for audited financial statements or board seats. Now some are demanding both, venture capitalists and outside accounting providers say. Some are also... Venture capitalists are becoming a little more demanding of crypto firms. At the height of the...

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. Photo by Getty

Reddit Battle Spotlights Existential Question

By Martin Peers · Jul 3, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

It’s that point of the early summer when many in tech and business take a well-deserved break. Aside from the nonstop machinations of Elon Musk—whose only purpose in life, apart from transforming cars and rockets, seems to be keeping journalists employed—the most interesting tech news story of recent days centers on Reddit. The site’s volunteer... It’s that point of the early summer when many in tech and business take a well-deserved break....

Microsoft's Gurdeep Pall at an event in Tokyo in 2017. Photo by Getty Images

Longtime Microsoft Executive Gurdeep Pall to Depart

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jul 3, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

Gurdeep Pall, a 33-year Microsoft corporate vice president who helped build and promote key products like Windows, Skype and Bing, recently informed colleagues that he plans to retire from the company in September, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Since joining Microsoft in 1990, Pall has served as a high-profile executive under... Gurdeep Pall, a 33-year Microsoft corporate vice president who helped build and promote key...

Table by Shane Burke

Creator Economy

Creator-Focused AI Startups Draw Investor Dollars (Chart)

By Isabelle Sarraf · Jul 3, 2023 2:54pm PDT

Artificial intelligence advances are piquing investor interest in creator economy startups, according to our latest update to the Creator Economy Database.Since we reported preliminary funding for creator economy startups in mid-June, we’ve tracked eight more funding rounds raised in the second quarter. Three back startups that use AI-based... Artificial intelligence advances are piquing investor interest in creator economy startups,...

The People Who Run Chime

By Mark Matousek · Jul 3, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

The People Who Run Chime

By Mark Matousek · Jul 3, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Chime aims to undercut traditional banks by being more consumer friendly. Its management team’s experience reflects that approach. None of the seven executives reporting to Chime CEO Chris Britt has ever worked at a traditional bank. Instead, the team mostly came out of either financial services firms such as Visa and LendingClub or... Chime aims to undercut traditional banks by being more consumer friendly. Its management...

A nickel mining operation run by Harita Nickel in Indonesia's North Moluku province. Photo: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg/Getty

The Electric: The IRA Has Triggered a Nickel War

By Steve LeVine · Jul 3, 2023 4:30am PDT · 2 comments

In December 2021, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) killed one of President Joe Biden’s signature initiatives—an extension of the $7,500-a-vehicle consumer tax credit on the sale of electric vehicles, which he said did not need public subsidies. Months later, though, Manchin said he would go along with the subsidies—if they were tied to a robust effort... In December 2021, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) killed one of President Joe Biden’s signature...

Magic Spoon founders Gabi Lewis and Greg Sewitz, plus product development manager Cortney Leonard, sample two iterations of a toasted marshmallow flavor with a variety of milks. Photograph by Lisa Corson for The Information.

Show Us Everything

The Cereal Influencers of SoHo

By Annie Goldsmith · Jul 1, 2023 7:31am PDT · 9 comments

Pop Up Grocer looks like it was created as much for social media as for real-life shopping. Walking around the bright, checkerboard-floored West Village market one day last month, I felt like I was stepping inside an Instagram post. On an eye-level shelf in the center of the store (prime real estate, as every packaged food distributor knows) was... Pop Up Grocer looks like it was created as much for social media as for real-life shopping....

A Mogul Smackdown We Could Get Behind

A Mogul Smackdown We Could Get Behind

By Jon Steinberg · Jul 1, 2023 6:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.It should be pretty clear by now what a lame idea the whole Mark Zuckerberg vs. Elon Musk cage match was. The spectacle of two middle-aged men working out their self-esteem issues by beating on each other was not worthy of their companies—or our time. But a pitch from the producers of the Discovery show “BattleBots”... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.It should be pretty clear by now what a lame idea the whole Mark...

Jensen Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia, speaks in Taipei, Taiwan on May 29. Photo by Getty.

Nvidia Acquired AI Startup That Shrinks Machine-Learning Models

By Anissa Gardizy · Jun 30, 2023 7:32pm PDT · 2 comments

Jensen Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia, speaks in Taipei, Taiwan on May 29. Photo by Getty.

Nvidia Acquired AI Startup That Shrinks Machine-Learning Models

By Anissa Gardizy · Jun 30, 2023 7:32pm PDT · 2 comments

Nvidia in February quietly acquired OmniML, a two-year-old artificial intelligence startup whose software helped shrink machine-learning models so they could run on devices rather than in the cloud, according to a spokesperson and LinkedIn profiles of former OmniML employees who now work at Nvidia. The acquisition could be a sign that the... Nvidia in February quietly acquired OmniML, a two-year-old artificial intelligence startup whose...

Introducing ‘More or Less’: MMA, M&A and ‘Misfits’

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jun 30, 2023 3:40pm PDT · 1 comment

When I moved to Silicon Valley in 2008, Brit and Dave Morin were two of the first people I met. They were working at Google and Facebook respectively, and I had a lot to learn from them as I set out to understand the world of tech. Soon after, my now husband Sam joined me in the Bay Area, and the four of us became close friends and sounding... When I moved to Silicon Valley in 2008, Brit and Dave Morin were two of the first people I met....

Grindr and Motto founder Joel Simkhai. Photo-collage by Clark Miller; photo of Simkhai by Gregory Scaffidi/Courtesy Motto.

Fifteen Years After Founding Grindr, Joel Simkhai Has ‘Unfinished Business’

By Cory Weinberg · Jun 30, 2023 11:00am PDT · 3 comments

On a sweat-soaked New York afternoon over Pride Weekend, a short line formed outside a dark bar on the Lower East Side. After checking customers’ IDs, a boyish-looking bouncer at the front door asked if they’d downloaded the app they needed to get in: “Do you have Motto?” I pulled up the app, its home screen affixed with... On a sweat-soaked New York afternoon over Pride Weekend, a short line formed outside a dark bar...

Art by Clark Miller

Rishi and the VCs: London Is Calling, and Silicon Valley Is Happy to Answer

By Chris Stokel-Walker · Jun 30, 2023 9:00am PDT · 3 comments

It was the worst-kept secret in U.K. tech. For months, the Conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had been wooing Sam Altman’s OpenAI, trying to coax the San Francisco–based artificial intelligence firm into opening its first non-U.S. office in London. Then, in early June, two weeks after Altman met with Sunak in his... It was the worst-kept secret in U.K. tech. For months, the Conservative government of Prime...

Snap, the second-largest spender in our database, said it is committed to spend $3.5 billion over the next three years, largely on cloud services. Photo by Getty.

Pro Weekly: Updates to Our Database of the Biggest Cloud Spenders

By Anissa Gardizy · Jun 30, 2023 8:00am PDT

Snap, the second-largest spender in our database, said it is committed to spend $3.5 billion over the next three years, largely on cloud services. Photo by Getty.

Pro Weekly: Updates to Our Database of the Biggest Cloud Spenders

By Anissa Gardizy · Jun 30, 2023 8:00am PDT

Welcome back!I’m Anissa, a reporter on cloud computing for The Information. This week we published numerous updates to our Cloud Database, which tracks how much companies spend on cloud computing and with which providers. We also added cybersecurity firm Rapid7 to the list, which now includes 77 companies. Together, they spend more than $13... Welcome back!I’m Anissa, a reporter on cloud computing for The Information. This week we...