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-illustration by Clark Miller. Palmer Luckey: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg; Kim Kardashian West: Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg; Henry Kravis: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg; Peter Thiel: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg; Bob Iger: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg; Jon Winkelried: Bess Adler/Bloomberg; Joshua Kushner and Karlie Kloss: Edward Berthelot/Getty Images; Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Charles Kushner: David 'Dee' Delgado/Bloomberg; Mukesh Ambani: Prakash Singh/Bloomberg

Josh Kushner’s Budding Empire

By Kate Clark and Abram Brown · Feb 24, 2023 6:00am PST · 16 comments

As summer turned to fall last year, Josh Kushner and his Thrive Capital offered a shiny new perk to some of the firm’s portfolio companies: How about a one-on-one meeting with Bob Iger, the 71-year-old former Disney CEO turned freshly minted Thrive venture partner? Eric Glyman, CEO and co-founder of Ramp, a New York–based credit card... As summer turned to fall last year, Josh Kushner and his Thrive Capital offered a shiny new perk...

David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery. Photo by Getty Images.

Warner’s Profit-First, No-Growth Streaming Strategy

By Martin Peers · Feb 23, 2023 5:00pm PST

Investors interested in the video-streaming segment can’t complain they don’t have choices. If they want to buy into a company that’s singularly focused on turning a profit in streaming, instead of trying to balance profits and growth, they can check out Warner Bros. Discovery. The parent of HBO Max and Discovery+ reported Thursday that the loss... Investors interested in the video-streaming segment can’t complain they don’t have choices. If...

YouTube launched an audio feature for creators to dub their videos. Photo: Shutterstock

Creator Economy

YouTube to Set Off an Audio Dubbing Spree

By Mahira Dayal · Feb 23, 2023 3:33pm PST · 2 comments

YouTube is giving creators a new handy way to expand their audiences. On Thursday, the video streaming giant said it will roll out tools for creators to add their own audio dubbing to new and existing long-form videos, a way to increase the reach of the same video to viewers who want to choose different languages. The free feature could... YouTube is giving creators a new handy way to expand their audiences. On Thursday, the video...

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. Photo via Bloomberg

Stripe Is No Longer the Darling of Silicon Valley

By Kate Clark · Feb 23, 2023 2:44pm PST

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. Photo via Bloomberg

Stripe Is No Longer the Darling of Silicon Valley

By Kate Clark · Feb 23, 2023 2:44pm PST

The last few months have laid out Stripe’s dirty laundry for the first time. As a reporter who has for years tried to find the cracks in the company’s shiny facade, I more than welcome a balanced conversation about Stripe and its prospects. For so long, questioning Stripe’s valuation was the equivalent of a crime in Silicon Valley. As one... The last few months have laid out Stripe’s dirty laundry for the first time. As a reporter who...

Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff at the company's 2022 Code Conference. Photo by Getty Images.

Vox Media’s Bankoff is Battered but Standing. What’s Next?

By Sahil Patel and Paris Martineau · Feb 23, 2023 7:02am PST · 1 comment

Last summer, Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff met with representatives from Facebook parent Meta Platforms to catch up on business. The meeting was timely. A few months before, Vox, owner of New York magazine and websites including Eater and The Verge, had bought Group Nine Media, a smaller collection of websites such as The Dodo, which makes cute... Last summer, Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff met with representatives from Facebook parent Meta...

The People With Power at TikTok Owner ByteDance

By Juro Osawa · Feb 23, 2023 6:00am PST · 5 comments

When TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before Congress next month, he’s likely to face heated questions about the app’s Chinese ownership. TikTok has taken steps to distance itself from its parent, ByteDance, but a close look at the Chinese tech giant’s management structure shows how closely integrated TikTok remains. Most... When TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before Congress next month, he’s likely to face...

Lithium miner Albemarle received a $149 million federal grant for a lithium processing plant. Pictured above, the company's brine operation in Silver Peak, Nev. Photo: The Electric

The Electric: U.S. Battery Subsidies Go Far but Perhaps Not Far Enough

By Steve LeVine · Feb 23, 2023 4:30am PST

New U.S. subsidies have begun to attract investments in electric vehicle batteries, including a decision announced Wednesday by Tesla to relocate some of its battery cell manufacturing from Germany to the U.S. But a public-private group linked to the U.S. Department of Energy says the $250 billion U.S. effort still falls substantially short, and... New U.S. subsidies have begun to attract investments in electric vehicle batteries, including a...

Signage outside Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California, US, on Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. Photo by Bloomberg.

Intel’s Predictable Dividend Cut

By Martin Peers · Feb 22, 2023 5:00pm PST

Signage outside Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California, US, on Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. Photo by Bloomberg.

Intel’s Predictable Dividend Cut

By Martin Peers · Feb 22, 2023 5:00pm PST

Intel’s other shoe dropped. Less than a month after reporting a miserable fourth quarter, in which revenue fell 32% and the chip giant lost $661 million, Intel said Wednesday it was slashing its dividend 66%. It’s a logical move given that Intel needs to spend tens of billions on new chip investments in the next few years, yet burned through $9... Intel’s other shoe dropped. Less than a month after reporting a miserable fourth quarter, in...

The Coinbase Inc. booth at the Blockchain Week Summit in Paris, France, on Wednesday, April 13, 2022. Photo by Bloomberg.

Policy Is a Priority for Coinbase; Paradigm’s Exits

By Aidan Ryan · Feb 22, 2023 4:53pm PST

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has one big priority this year: Policy. As I wrote last week, regulators are increasingly cracking down on crypto in the wake of the FTX blowup. Recently, that has included actions to rein in stablecoins and staking. In a letter to shareholders on Tuesday, Coinbase said that it expects 2023 to be a year of “... Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has one big priority this year: Policy. As I wrote last week,...

Singer and TikTok creator Adanna Duru. Photo: Dove Shore Photography

Creator Economy

Creator Startups Prep Generative AI Features; Q&A With TikTok Singer Adanna Duru

By Kaya Yurieff · Feb 22, 2023 3:26pm PST

The excitement around generative AI is hitting creator economy startups, which are looking for ways to use the technology to make workloads lighter for creators, spurred by the immense success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot. Podcastle, a startup that provides audio recording and editing tools for podcasting, announced a new feature last month... The excitement around generative AI is hitting creator economy startups, which are looking for...

Fred Ehrsam and Matt Huang. Photos by Paradigm and Shutterstock.

Exits Mount at Crypto Venture Firm Paradigm

By Aidan Ryan · Feb 22, 2023 2:35pm PST · 3 comments

Paradigm, the crypto-focused venture firm founded by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam and former Sequoia partner Matt Huang, is shrinking quickly. At least eight employees, including two investment partners and four engineers, have left the firm since the start of October, according to The Information’s tally based on the company’s... Paradigm, the crypto-focused venture firm founded by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam and former...

Why We Are Launching The Information Pro

By Jessica E. Lessin · Feb 22, 2023 11:30am PST · 24 comments

Why We Are Launching The Information Pro

By Jessica E. Lessin · Feb 22, 2023 11:30am PST · 24 comments

I am delighted to share the launch of The Information Pro—a new tier of subscription that features our expanded org charts, brand-new databases based on our reporting, our new survey product and a specialized weekly newsletter. To understand why we are launching The Information Pro, you have to go back to the beginning. When I founded The... I am delighted to share the launch of The Information Pro—a new tier of subscription that...

PRO

Introducing The Information’s Cloud Database of Top Spenders

By Amir Efrati · Feb 22, 2023 11:00am PST

Companies that once bought their own computers and software increasingly rely on cloud services from Amazon Web Services and others. The trend is well known, but the details—who is spending how much with which cloud providers—have been largely hidden. That’s why we created The Information’s Cloud Database, a... Companies that once bought their own computers and software increasingly rely on cloud services...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

The Private Tech Company That Let Employee Stock Grants Evaporate

By Cory Weinberg · Feb 22, 2023 7:00am PST · 14 comments

Household tech names Airbnb and Stripe have gone to great lengths to prevent arcane tax rules from creating disaster for the employees who helped build those firms. Airbnb went public just before employees’ valuable stock grants expired, while Stripe is raising as much as $4 billion privately to avoid that fate. Foursquare—the... Household tech names Airbnb and Stripe have gone to great lengths to prevent arcane tax rules...

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison in 2018. Photo by Bloomberg

AI Startups Find an Unlikely Friend: Oracle

By Aaron Holmes · Feb 22, 2023 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Top cloud providers are jostling to sign deals with artificial intelligence startups that need computing resources as they chase OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT. An improbable early leader in the race to rent servers to these startups is Oracle, a longtime laggard in the cloud field that had developed reputational problems with some longtime customers... Top cloud providers are jostling to sign deals with artificial intelligence startups that need...

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Photo by Bloomberg.

Coinbase Sets Bar Low for Long-Term Profit Goals

By Martin Peers · Feb 21, 2023 5:00pm PST

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Photo by Bloomberg.

Coinbase Sets Bar Low for Long-Term Profit Goals

By Martin Peers · Feb 21, 2023 5:00pm PST

When it comes to profit goals, Brian Armstrong isn’t exactly setting the bar high. Coinbase declared today that it was abandoning the goal it laid out two years ago when it went public to operate “at break even, smoothed out over time,” so that losses sustained during crypto winters would be offset by profits made in good times. Instead,... When it comes to profit goals, Brian Armstrong isn’t exactly setting the bar high. Coinbase...

Art: Shane Burke

Creator Economy

The Creator Gamble in Meta’s New Subscription Offering

By Mahira Dayal · Feb 21, 2023 3:15pm PST

For the last three years, social networks like Meta Platforms have pledged more tools for creators to help them reach fans and make money, services that aim to attract online influencers and their followers to the apps. Meta’s latest tool comes with a twist—and by twist, I mean a fee of between $11.99 and $14.99 a month. It’s an interesting... For the last three years, social networks like Meta Platforms have pledged more tools for...

Illustration by Scotty Reifsnyder.

Internet Freedom Isn’t a Luxury

By Adrian Shahbaz, Allie Funk and Kian Vesteinsson · Feb 21, 2023 9:00am PST · 1 comment

One year ago this week, the Russian government launched its illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Almost immediately after, the Kremlin blocked Facebook and Twitter for people in Russia and forced the remaining independent and foreign media operating in the country to shut their doors. Russians have spent the past year living in a more... One year ago this week, the Russian government launched its illegal and unprovoked invasion of...

A scene from the 2017 day when Okta went public. Photo by AP.

Three Cybersecurity Stocks That Look Cheap

By Akash Pasricha and Martin Peers · Feb 21, 2023 7:02am PST · 1 comment

You can tell a company’s stock price has fallen too far when its shareholders resist private equity buyout offers on the grounds that valuations are too depressed for selling. That’s what has happened lately in enterprise software, and it’s a sign that there are bargains to be had for savvy investors. Two examples:... You can tell a company’s stock price has fallen too far when its shareholders resist...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Art by Clark Miller

Before Rebirth, Microsoft’s Bing Faced Near-Death Experiences

By Aaron Holmes · Feb 21, 2023 6:00am PST · 2 comments

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Art by Clark Miller

Before Rebirth, Microsoft’s Bing Faced Near-Death Experiences

By Aaron Holmes · Feb 21, 2023 6:00am PST · 2 comments

“Where is our hit?” Steve Ballmer repeatedly directed the question at his lieutenants in the year before he stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in 2014, according to two people who heard him ask it. His biggest frustrations were Microsoft’s flops in the consumer market, including Bing, a search engine the company had introduced to... “Where is our hit?” Steve Ballmer repeatedly directed the question at his lieutenants...