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

Jake Cronin and Joe Jordan, cofounders of Siro. Courtesy of Siro.

IVP’s Risky Perplexity Bet; CRV Funds Salestech Startup; OpenAI’s First-Mover Hangover

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 25, 2023 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

If you’re tired of digging through piles of websites and adding “Reddit” to the end of your Google searches, you may want to take a look at this red-hot AI-powered search engine startup—which now has the backing of yet another VC.Perplexity, whose search engine product competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, is raising around $50... If you’re tired of digging through piles of websites and adding “Reddit” to the end of your...

Apple CEO Tim Cook and a Vision Pro headset during an Apple conference in June. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty

Apple Has Discussed Using Vision Pro for Mental Health Diagnosis, Treatment

By Wayne Ma · Oct 25, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

So far, Apple has pitched its upcoming Vision Pro mixed-reality headset as a tool for working and enjoying various forms of entertainment. But inside the company, employees have also discussed another, more specialized use of the product as a way to diagnose and treat mental health issues, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.... So far, Apple has pitched its upcoming Vision Pro mixed-reality headset as a tool for working and...

Photo via Shutterstock

On AI, It’s Microsoft 1, Google 0

By Martin Peers · Oct 24, 2023 5:01pm PDT

In AI, Microsoft is outdoing its biggest rival, Google. That’s the big takeaway from the two tech giants’ September-quarter results, released Tuesday. Growth at Microsoft’s Azure cloud unit—and the company generally—accelerated in the quarter, which executives credited to higher-than-expected consumption of AI-related services. Yet in the same... In AI, Microsoft is outdoing its biggest rival, Google. That’s the big takeaway from the two tech...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo via YouTube/Snapchat.

YouTube and Snap Results Suggest Consumers Cooling to Short-Form Video

By Kaya Yurieff · Oct 24, 2023 3:36pm PDT

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo via YouTube/Snapchat.

Creator Economy

YouTube and Snap Results Suggest Consumers Cooling to Short-Form Video

By Kaya Yurieff · Oct 24, 2023 3:36pm PDT

Have consumers started to cool towards short-form video? That’s certainly one read from Google and Snap results. At Snap, the company didn’t break out the monthly active users of its short-form video feature Spotlight, unlike in the second quarter, when Snap said the feature had more than 400 million monthly active users. Snap did say time... Have consumers started to cool towards short-form video? That’s certainly one read from Google...

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. Screengrab via YouTube.

IVP Leads Investment in AI Search Startup Perplexity at $500 Million Valuation

By Kate Clark and Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 24, 2023 2:28pm PDT

Venture capital firm IVP is leading an investment in Perplexity, developer of an artificial intelligence–powered search engine that competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, according to people with direct knowledge. The deal values the 1-year-old company at around $500 million, including the new capital, up from a $150... Venture capital firm IVP is leading an investment in Perplexity, developer of an artificial...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty

OpenAI’s Corporate Sales Come Under Pressure From Microsoft as AI Customers Eye Cheaper Options

By Aaron Holmes · Oct 24, 2023 12:53pm PDT · 2 comments

OpenAI is no longer the only game in town when it comes to selling generative artificial intelligence. That’s beginning to affect the growth of its sales to corporate customers. Less than a year after OpenAI launched ChatGPT and built a considerable consumer business, several big companies that were also early customers of its AI, such as... OpenAI is no longer the only game in town when it comes to selling generative artificial...

Photo via SiFive.

Semiconductor Firm SiFive, on Sidelines of AI Chip Boom, Lays Off 130 Workers

By Anissa Gardizy · Oct 24, 2023 12:48pm PDT · 2 comments

SiFive, a semiconductor startup that counted Google as a user of its products, has laid off 20% of its staff, or about 130 people, a company spokesperson confirmed. It’s a sign of strain within the semiconductor sector even as intense demand for artificial intelligence chips buoys Nvidia and others. SiFive, which was valued on paper at... SiFive, a semiconductor startup that counted Google as a user of its products, has laid off 20%...

Photo via Flickr.

Paradigm’s Fred Ehrsam Stepping Down as Managing Partner

By Aidan Ryan · Oct 24, 2023 9:05am PDT

Photo via Flickr.

Paradigm’s Fred Ehrsam Stepping Down as Managing Partner

By Aidan Ryan · Oct 24, 2023 9:05am PDT

Paradigm co-founder Fred Ehrsam is stepping down as managing partner, according to an email to employees on Tuesday, as the top crypto-focused venture capital firm gears up to raise a new fund and move past the black eye of its major investment in failed crypto exchange FTX. Ehrsam, who co-founded Coinbase before starting the venture firm, told... Paradigm co-founder Fred Ehrsam is stepping down as managing partner, according to an email to...

Subscriber Survey

The Information’s Readers Use AI—and Pay for It

By Akash Pasricha · Oct 24, 2023 8:00am PDT · 2 comments

An overwhelming majority of The Information’s readers say they use artificial intelligence services such as ChatGPT in either their personal or their professional lives, and two-thirds of that group pay for at least one service. That’s according to our latest monthly survey, which also found readers more optimistic about the outlook... An overwhelming majority of The Information’s readers say they use artificial intelligence...

Photo via Together.

Emergence Capital to Fund GPU Reseller Together at $500 Million Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 24, 2023 7:15am PDT

If you’ve been following our reporting on Together (here and here), which sells access to cloud-based servers running on Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips as well as software to help startups train and run AI models, you may remember the firm raising money at a lower valuation than it could have received. If you’ve been following our reporting on Together (here and here), which sells access to...

Art by Shane Burke. Photo via Coastal Community Bank.

How a Fintech Reckoning Is Rippling Through a Small Bank in Washington

By Michael Roddan · Oct 24, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

When Washington state–based Coastal Community Bank struck its first fintech partnership with Aspiration, a startup backed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Orlando Bloom, it ushered in a new era for the sleepy bank north of Seattle. Starting with that agreement in 2017, Coastal quickly became one of the most prolific banking partners for... When Washington state–based Coastal Community Bank struck its first fintech partnership...

Hello Bello's factory in Waco, Texas. Photo by Rick Kern/Getty.

What a Diaper Bankruptcy Says About the Digital Ad Market

By Ann Gehan · Oct 23, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Hello Bello's factory in Waco, Texas. Photo by Rick Kern/Getty.

What a Diaper Bankruptcy Says About the Digital Ad Market

By Ann Gehan · Oct 23, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

It’s getting ugly out there for consumer brands, as today’s bankruptcy filing by Hello Bello, the baby care brand founded by celebrity couple Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, demonstrates. On the surface, Hello Bello had all the ingredients for success: famous co-founders who could promote the brand to their combined 20 million Instagram followers,... It’s getting ugly out there for consumer brands, as today’s bankruptcy filing by Hello Bello, the...

Elon Musk speaks in front of a test tunnel for The Boring Company in Hawthorne, Calif., in 2018. Photo via Bloomberg/Getty

Boring Co. Shares Rise Over 22% in Employee Share Sale

By Becky Peterson and Mark Matousek · Oct 23, 2023 4:41pm PDT · 4 comments

Elon Musk’s The Boring Company has sold shares owned by employees and investors at a price over 22% higher than in a funding round for the tunneling startup last year, according to two people familiar with the matter. The most recent price gives the startup an implied valuation of over $7 billion and suggests investors have faith that the... Elon Musk’s The Boring Company has sold shares owned by employees and investors at a price...

The YouTube Indicator to Watch

Creator Economy

The YouTube Indicator to Watch

By Sahil Patel · Oct 23, 2023 2:47pm PDT

Will short-form video ever generate meaningful revenue for creators on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram? The next three months will go a long way to answering that question. Just pay attention to YouTube. Advertisers in the summer committed more than $7 billion to YouTube during the annual advertising negotiations known as upfronts. These... Will short-form video ever generate meaningful revenue for creators on YouTube, TikTok and...

A Nvidia HGX H100 artificial intelligence supercomputing GPU. Photo by Getty.

GPUs’ Latest Magic Act: Securing Data Center Debt; Amazon’s Doubling Down on AI Chips

By Anissa Gardizy · Oct 23, 2023 7:15am PDT

While Nvidia makes bank from selling artificial intelligence chips at $32,000 a pop, several upstart cloud providers—as well as the big guns like Amazon Web Services—are buying as many chips as they can so they can rent them out to AI developers. These cloud providers hope to generate revenue of at least several times that sticker price for each... While Nvidia makes bank from selling artificial intelligence chips at $32,000 a pop, several...

Aaron Frank. Photo via Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Apple Card Architect Heads to Lightspeed to Hunt for Fintech Deals

By Lauren Tara LaCapra · Oct 23, 2023 6:30am PDT

Aaron Frank. Photo via Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Apple Card Architect Heads to Lightspeed to Hunt for Fintech Deals

By Lauren Tara LaCapra · Oct 23, 2023 6:30am PDT

At a moment when many investors are retreating from fintech, Lightspeed Venture Partners is doubling down. The venture capital firm has hired Aaron Frank, who built the company that became the foundation for the Apple Card, to help seek out deals in payments and lending. The 37-year-old Frank was the co-founder and CEO of Final, the credit-card... At a moment when many investors are retreating from fintech, Lightspeed Venture Partners is...

Erin Bali photo courtesy of Carbon Health. Composite by Clark Miller

A Pandemic Windfall Turns into a Hangover for a High-Flying Healthcare Startup

By Paris Martineau · Oct 23, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Two years ago, Eren Bali was on top of the world. The online education company he co-founded, Udemy, had gone public in 2021 at a $3.8 billion market value, and Bali was turning his focus to a startup he had formed in 2015: Carbon Health, a chain of urgent-care clinics that planned to use tech know-how to improve healthcare. At the time,... Two years ago, Eren Bali was on top of the world. The online education company he co-founded,...

Jay McGraw, Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell and Jennifer Pullen (left to right) at the grand opening of Hello Bello's diaper factory. Photo by Getty.

Kristen Bell’s Diaper Startup Hello Bello Files For Bankruptcy, Lines Up PE Buyer

By Maria Heeter and Ann Gehan · Oct 23, 2023 5:30am PDT · 4 comments

Hello Bello, the venture-backed diaper and baby care company founded by celebrities Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday. The filing is a high-profile symbol of the struggles many buzzy consumer-focused startups have faced from dealing with belt-tightening by shoppers and increases in digital marketing... Hello Bello, the venture-backed diaper and baby care company founded by celebrities Kristen Bell...

In 2021, SES AI founder Qichao Hu unveils the company's gigantic 107 ampere-hour cell. Photo: Courtesy SES AI

The Electric: Bunkers, Blasts and Production Hell—An Afternoon With SES AI Founder Qichao Hu

By Steve LeVine · Oct 23, 2023 4:30am PDT

In 2021, Qichao Hu began planning a pilot factory in South Korea to produce next-generation electric vehicle batteries for the startup he founded, SES AI, when a debate erupted among his staff scientists: Should the plant include explosion-proof bunkers? Some of the scientists argued that such fortifications were a waste of money—ordinarily the... In 2021, Qichao Hu began planning a pilot factory in South Korea to produce next-generation...

Mansoor Ebrahim Al-Mahmoud, chief executive officer of Qatar Investment Authority, during a panel session at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha, Qatar, on May 23, 2023. Photo: Getty.

Qatar’s Hamas Ties Could Thwart $475 Billion Investing Ambition

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Jon Victor · Oct 21, 2023 7:00am PDT · 25 comments

Mansoor Ebrahim Al-Mahmoud, chief executive officer of Qatar Investment Authority, during a panel session at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha, Qatar, on May 23, 2023. Photo: Getty.

Qatar’s Hamas Ties Could Thwart $475 Billion Investing Ambition

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Jon Victor · Oct 21, 2023 7:00am PDT · 25 comments

Qatar last year signaled it wanted to be a much bigger investor in tech when its $475 billion sovereign wealth fund backed Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Now, the war between Israel and Hamas—a Palestinian terrorist group with ties to Qatar—may hamper those ambitions. The petroleum-rich Persian Gulf nation has been trying to... Qatar last year signaled it wanted to be a much bigger investor in tech when its $475 billion...