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

From left to right: Vipul Ved Prakash, Percy Liang and Chris Ré. Photos via Stanford University and SambaNova Systems.

GPU Cluster Startup ‘Together’ in Talks For Third Financing in 9 Months

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 13, 2023 7:01am PDT

We’ve got news about an artificial intelligence startup that’s part of the recent trend of back-to-back funding rounds.Together, a startup providing developers with compute and software to train and run open-source AI models, is in talks with venture firms to raise up to $60 million in new funding, which would be its third financing event in... We’ve got news about an artificial intelligence startup that’s part of the recent trend of ...

Arm CFO Jason Child. Art by Mike Sullivan.

The Startup ‘Adrenaline Junkie’ Trying to Break Open the IPO Market

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 13, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

When bankers working on Arm’s impending initial public offering wanted to talk to one of the executives in charge of the SoftBank-owned chip designer, they sometimes heard heavy breathing on the other end of the phone. It was the sound of Jason Child, a longtime Amazon executive who is now Arm’s chief financial officer, running up a... When bankers working on Arm’s impending initial public offering wanted to talk to one of...

Deel CEO and co-founder Alex Bouaziz. Photo by Getty.

Deel Changes Terms of Service, Cuts Off High-Risk Trading Sites

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Sep 12, 2023 7:13pm PDT

Human resources startup Deel revamped its terms of service, banning several additional types of transactions and effectively ending support for some retail trading websites whose activities have lately drawn the scrutiny of securities regulators. The four-year-old startup, best known for services that help companies hire remote workers, had... Human resources startup Deel revamped its terms of service, banning several additional types of...

Google Chief Economist, Hal Varian (right), served as a witness at today's trial. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Why Google’s Antitrust Trial Is Not Like Microsoft’s

By Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 12, 2023 5:09pm PDT · 2 comments

Google Chief Economist, Hal Varian (right), served as a witness at today's trial. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Why Google’s Antitrust Trial Is Not Like Microsoft’s

By Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 12, 2023 5:09pm PDT · 2 comments

Snoop into any conversation in Silicon Valley and you’ll hear talk of large-language models, wrangling developer credits from OpenAI, the IPO market and whether anyone actually was going to the Apple event (really—I was just at a school cocktail party of this nature).What you won’t hear is buzz about the government’s biggest antitrust trial in... Snoop into any conversation in Silicon Valley and you’ll hear talk of large-language models,...

Partner Content

Recap: The CEO’s Guide to Generative AI: Maximizing Data

By The Information Partnerships · Sep 12, 2023 3:38pm PDT

Artificial intelligence can be transformative. It can offer increased efficiency, boosted innovation and serious cost savings. But to realize those benefits, CEOs need to take an active hand in making sure the company has the right in-house talent, the right vendors and the right data. What’s the best way to go about this? Stephanie... Artificial intelligence can be transformative. It can offer increased efficiency, boosted...

Credit: James Sharp

Creator Economy

‘Cringe’ TikTok Videos Help a Singer Break Out

By Alex Perry · Sep 12, 2023 3:23pm PDT

Aspiring musical artists who wanted to get attention a decade ago could audition for shows like X Factor or America’s Got Talent. Then TikTok came along. Artists like the duo Flyana Boss and the rapper Ice Spice gained overnight fame as clips of their songs formed the backdrop of viral videos. Some of these TikTok-famous artists plan to attend... Aspiring musical artists who wanted to get attention a decade ago could audition for shows like X...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies in Congress in December 2018. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Google Trial Puts LLMs On the Docket; Databricks Projects Explosive AI Spending

By Jon Victor · Sep 12, 2023 7:00am PDT

Artificial intelligence developers are undoubtedly lapping up a couple of stories my colleagues published Monday about Nvidia leveraging its hardware dominance to muscle into cloud services and Databricks projecting big corporate spending on artificial intelligence services. But first, today’s news.The trial over the U.S. Department of Justice’s... Artificial intelligence developers are undoubtedly lapping up a couple of stories my colleagues...

Art by Clark Miller.

Can Yahoo Be Saved? How Apollo Is Rebuilding an Internet Icon

By Rachel Graf · Sep 12, 2023 6:00am PDT · 9 comments

Art by Clark Miller.

Can Yahoo Be Saved? How Apollo Is Rebuilding an Internet Icon

By Rachel Graf · Sep 12, 2023 6:00am PDT · 9 comments

When speaking about the company he inherited in September 2021, Jim Lanzone is remarkably blunt. “I always knew these products had seen better days,” said Lanzone, the CEO of Yahoo, over a video call in late August. “Even though they still have large audiences, they needed to be modernized—pretty much every single one of... When speaking about the company he inherited in September 2021, Jim Lanzone is remarkably blunt....

Photo by Getty.

Deel Halts Services to Several Prop Trading Firms Pending Compliance Review

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 11, 2023 6:19pm PDT

Deel, the human resources startup embroiled in a government crackdown on online trading sites, has paused providing payout services to several businesses in the category, as it conducts a review of their operations. An executive at MyFundedFX who identified himself as the firm’s chief operating officer said on Discord that for the next 24... Deel, the human resources startup embroiled in a government crackdown on online trading sites,...

Photo via Shutterstock

Apple and Qualcomm Delay the Inevitable

By Nick Wingfield · Sep 11, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Apple and Qualcomm are like a couple you’re certain will eventually get divorced but, for one reason or another, they keep patching things up, postponing the inevitable. Monday brought news of the latest peace treaty between the two companies with an announcement that Apple will continue to use Qualcomm’s 5G cellular modems in iPhones through... Apple and Qualcomm are like a couple you’re certain will eventually get divorced but, for one...

Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi. Photo via YouTube/Databricks.

Inside Databricks’ Contrarian Playbook: Burn $1.5 Billion to Buy Big Growth

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 11, 2023 3:54pm PDT · 5 comments

Much of the startup world has gotten a clear message from investors: Stop bleeding cash. Databricks, one of the software startups trying to benefit most from rabid corporate interest in artificial intelligence, is taking a different tack—and getting rewarded for it. Databricks, on the verge of raising a new round of funding at a $43... Much of the startup world has gotten a clear message from investors: Stop bleeding cash....

Art by Midjourney and Shane Burke.

YouTubers Cash in on Prop Trading’s Rise

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Sep 11, 2023 3:32pm PDT

Art by Midjourney and Shane Burke.

Creator Economy

YouTubers Cash in on Prop Trading’s Rise

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Sep 11, 2023 3:32pm PDT

I’ve spent the past two weeks digging into retail websites that call themselves prop or funded trading firms to report on a story about how HR startup Deel has quietly become the default payout provider for traders on these sites. I quickly discovered how much these websites, which proliferated after the meme stock trading craze of 2020-2021,... I’ve spent the past two weeks digging into retail websites that call themselves prop or funded...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty

Nvidia Muscles Into Cloud Services, Rankling AWS

By Anissa Gardizy and Aaron Holmes · Sep 11, 2023 1:17pm PDT · 6 comments

Last year, Nvidia made an unusual proposal to Amazon Web Services and other cloud providers that have long been the biggest buyers of Nvidia’s specialized artificial intelligence server chips. Nvidia wanted to lease Nvidia-powered servers in the cloud providers’ data centers so it could turn around and rent the same servers to AI... Last year, Nvidia made an unusual proposal to Amazon Web Services and other cloud providers that...

Photo via Midjourney.

Nvidia, DataDirect Networks Shine in Latest Inference and Storage Benchmark Results

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 11, 2023 9:02am PDT

Since ChatGPT’s launch last November, much of the discussion around artificial intelligence has shifted from awe and amazement to more pragmatic questions such as how to manage exploding compute costs associated with developing and using it commercially. Luckily, new findings from MLCommons, a non-profit that develops evaluations and... Since ChatGPT’s launch last November, much of the discussion around artificial intelligence has...

Apple CEO Tim Cook at the site of the TSMC plant in Phoenix in December. Photo by AP.

The Flaw in Apple’s Plan to Make Chips in Arizona

By Wayne Ma · Sep 11, 2023 6:00am PDT · 18 comments

In December last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook traveled to Phoenix, stood with President Joe Biden in front of a high-profile factory Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. was constructing and said the facility would produce chips for the iPhone maker. The comments seemed to commit Apple to aid Biden’s goal of lessening reliance on foreign... In December last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook traveled to Phoenix, stood with President Joe Biden in...

UAW Shawn Fain threatens to strike Thursday at midnight if there is no contract. Photo: Bill Pugliano/Getty

The Electric: In Contract Talks, Detroit Avoids the Real Issue: Making Desirable EVs

By Steve LeVine · Sep 11, 2023 4:30am PDT · 2 comments

UAW Shawn Fain threatens to strike Thursday at midnight if there is no contract. Photo: Bill Pugliano/Getty

The Electric: In Contract Talks, Detroit Avoids the Real Issue: Making Desirable EVs

By Steve LeVine · Sep 11, 2023 4:30am PDT · 2 comments

Detroit’s Big Three carmakers and the United Auto Workers union are slugging it out over higher wages, pensions and shorter workdays as a deadline looms this week in their latest four-year round of contract negotiations. But the unseen driver in the strategies of the two sides is survival amid the shift to electric vehicles, the most fundamental... Detroit’s Big Three carmakers and the United Auto Workers union are slugging it out over higher...

'If Hell Is a Party Like This...'

'If Hell Is a Party Like This...'

By Jon Steinberg · Sep 9, 2023 7:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.“The playa doesn’t give you what you want. It gives you what you need.” I’ve been hearing that old Burning Man saw around these parts since the early 2000s—most recently by a participant in this weekend’s cover story, The Instant Oral History of ‘Trench Foot Burning Man.’ But never has the truism seemed more true... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.“The playa doesn’t give you what you want. It gives you what you...

Art by Clark Miller.

The Venture Capitalist Who Was Attacked by Orcas

By Margaux MacColl · Sep 9, 2023 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

Adventurer: James Currier, founding partner at NFX, co-founder of Tickle, Wonderhill, IronPearl Escapades: Long-haul sailing, Himalayan treks, snow camping It was 10:40 p.m. one night this June when NFX founding partner James Currier’s 30-foot-long sailboat suddenly lurched sideways, shoved by an unknown force beneath the Mediterranean... Adventurer: James Currier, founding partner at NFX, co-founder of Tickle, Wonderhill, IronPearl...

Ryan Petersen. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Flexport Drama Spotlights Petersen’s Role

By Martin Peers · Sep 8, 2023 3:01pm PDT

It’s day 3 of the Flexport CEO shakeup saga, which seems the perfect set up for a corporate TV drama, if only Hollywood writers weren’t on strike. Today’s developments included Flexport founder and once-again CEO Ryan Petersen not-so-subtly criticizing the management of Dave Clark, the former Amazonian ousted as Flexport CEO on Wednesday after a... It’s day 3 of the Flexport CEO shakeup saga, which seems the perfect set up for a corporate TV...

Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Capital; Deven Parekh, managing director of Insight Partners; and Scott Shleifer, managing director of Tiger Global. Photos via Getty.

Venture Firms Hang the ‘For Sale’ Sign on Portfolios

By Maria Heeter, Natasha Mascarenhas and Kate Clark · Sep 8, 2023 1:03pm PDT · 4 comments

Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Capital; Deven Parekh, managing director of Insight Partners; and Scott Shleifer, managing director of Tiger Global. Photos via Getty.

Venture Firms Hang the ‘For Sale’ Sign on Portfolios

By Maria Heeter, Natasha Mascarenhas and Kate Clark · Sep 8, 2023 1:03pm PDT · 4 comments

Some of the most active startup investors have been hanging a “for sale” sign on their portfolios at a time when venture investors are finding it increasingly difficult to raise new venture funds. Insight Partners has considered selling a stake valued at $400 million in Left Lane Capital, a consumer-focused venture capital firm... Some of the most active startup investors have been hanging a “for sale” sign on...