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

Generated by Pika Labs.

A Rival to Runway Emerges; Meta’s AI Drama; A Robotics Vet Becomes a VC

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 6, 2023 7:00am PDT

In the past two months, the number of people using a Discord server dubbed Pika has quietly grown from zero to more than 160,000. Thousands of users post requests such as, “a sleek, electric car silently glides across the screen against a backdrop of futuristic cityscapes” and “clouds move with breeze.” The server spits back three-second... In the past two months, the number of people using a Discord server dubbed Pika has quietly grown...

Illustration by Clark Miller

Delivering in the Dark, Amazon’s Gig Drivers Face Guns and Death

By Theo Wayt · Sep 6, 2023 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

In February 2022, Chris Fear was sitting in her car outside Scottsdale, Ariz., a couple of hours after sunset with the windows down, when she heard a man’s voice. “Get out of your car,” the man said from the darkness. Fear had spent the prior couple of hours delivering packages for Amazon, but she had gotten lost on the way to... In February 2022, Chris Fear was sitting in her car outside Scottsdale, Ariz., a couple of hours...

Deel photo by Getty. Background reflects prop trading websites that use Deel and YouTube video tutorials for them. Art by Shane Burke.

How Deel Became Payout Provider for Prop Trading Firms, Including Site Frozen by CFTC

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 5, 2023 5:27pm PDT · 2 comments

Four-year-old Deel has become one of the fastest-growing and most valuable startups by positioning itself as a way for businesses to hire contract employees anywhere in a snap. What the human resources startup doesn’t talk about in its prolific marketing is the fact that the company, last valued by investors at $12 billion, has also become... Four-year-old Deel has become one of the fastest-growing and most valuable startups by...

Photo by Getty

Arm Value Numbers Inhabit SoftBank’s Parallel Universe

By Martin Peers · Sep 5, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Photo by Getty

Arm Value Numbers Inhabit SoftBank’s Parallel Universe

By Martin Peers · Sep 5, 2023 5:00pm PDT

It’s time for an updated edition of “Games People Play,” one dedicated to IPO marketing. The prime example could be SoftBank and the army of bankers it has on tap that are marketing the IPO for chip design firm Arm. They’re doing a masterful job in manipulating what the media thinks SoftBank wants. A few weeks ago, we saw reports that SoftBank... It’s time for an updated edition of “Games People Play,” one dedicated to IPO marketing. The...

Credit: Midjourney

Creator Economy

The Artists Using Midjourney

By Alex Perry · Sep 5, 2023 3:47pm PDT

You may have heard about Midjourney, a generative artificial intelligence company that specializes in creating images from text prompts and visual inputs. My colleague Kate Clark today published an in-depth profile of the startup, whose founder David Holz refuses to take venture capital and hosts the service on Discord, a chat application... You may have heard about Midjourney, a generative artificial intelligence company that...

Illustration by Harol Bustos.

Inside Meta’s AI Drama: Internal Feuds Over Compute Power

By Kalley Huang and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Sep 5, 2023 9:16am PDT · 2 comments

Meta Platforms’ releases of its large-language models, Llama and Llama 2, in the past six months have won the company praise for offering free, open-source alternatives to models from OpenAI and Anthropic. But for some of the scientists and engineers who worked on Llama, that praise was too little, too late. Many have quit, embittered by a... Meta Platforms’ releases of its large-language models, Llama and Llama 2, in the past six...

Chart by Shane Burke.

What We Can Learn From AI Startups in Y Combinator’s Latest Batch

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 5, 2023 7:01am PDT

Tomorrow, dozens of startups will take to the virtual stage to pitch their ideas as part of Y Combinator’s iconic Demo Day, though some well-known investors have already gotten an early look at them. This year, more than 60% of the group—or 134 startups—are building applications or tools around artificial intelligence, mostly related to... Tomorrow, dozens of startups will take to the virtual stage to pitch their ideas as part of Y...

Midjourney CEO David Holz has bucked the tide among AI founders by boxing out venture capitalists. Midjourney art by Clark Miller

‘He Doesn’t Need VC in His Life’: How Midjourney’s Founder Built an AI Winner While Rejecting Venture Capital

By Kate Clark · Sep 5, 2023 6:15am PDT · 6 comments

Midjourney CEO David Holz has bucked the tide among AI founders by boxing out venture capitalists. Midjourney art by Clark Miller

‘He Doesn’t Need VC in His Life’: How Midjourney’s Founder Built an AI Winner While Rejecting Venture Capital

By Kate Clark · Sep 5, 2023 6:15am PDT · 6 comments

Ever since David Holz founded Midjourney in mid-2021, venture capitalists have been practically begging him to take their money. On top of cold-calling and emailing Holz incessantly, some have asked his inner circle for “warm” introductions. Others have preemptively sent him term sheets. A lucky few have landed meetings with the... Ever since David Holz founded Midjourney in mid-2021, venture capitalists have been practically...

Nikola Tesla's alternating current illuminated the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. Photo: Chicago History Museum/Getty

The Electric: The U.S.-French Race to Electrify the Skies Above the Olympics

By Steve LeVine · Sep 4, 2023 4:31am PDT

In 1876, millions of visitors to the World’s Fair in Philadelphia saw the first typewriter, the largest steam engine ever, and arguably the showstopper—the telephone, demonstrated by Alexander Graham Bell. Seventeen years later, visitors to the Chicago World’s Fair witnessed Nikola Tesla’s system of alternating electric current and the “City of... In 1876, millions of visitors to the World’s Fair in Philadelphia saw the first typewriter, the...

The Botched Reveal of California Forever

The Botched Reveal of California Forever

By Jon Steinberg · Sep 2, 2023 7:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.This week, we’re publishing stories from near (a testosterone party in San Francisco) and far (Jessica's four-day reporting junket in China). But there’s another story we’re tracking that is geographically close to home and psychologically close to Never Never Land. I’m talking about the dream city of California... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.This week, we’re publishing stories from near (a testosterone party...

Czinger cofounders Lukas Czinger (center) and his father Kevin Czinger. Collage by Clark Miller. Photography courtesy Czinger

Selling a Vision, and a $2 Million Hypercar, at Pebble Beach

By Tim Stevens · Sep 2, 2023 6:00am PDT · 6 comments

The chassis lurking under the skin of most cars is a pretty pedestrian thing—mostly sections of stamped and welded steel perforated with mounting points for the engine, suspension and everything else required to make the machine whole. The 3D-printed chassis of the Czinger 21C, however, has an unnervingly organic look. Imagine a car not so... The chassis lurking under the skin of most cars is a pretty pedestrian thing—mostly...

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo engaged in a high-wire act of diplomacy during her four-day trip to China. Photo of Raimondo via Getty Images. Collage by Clark Miller.

‘Excited and Terrified’: On a High-Stakes Trip to China, Gina Raimondo Confronts a Complex Future

By Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 2, 2023 6:00am PDT · 15 comments

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo engaged in a high-wire act of diplomacy during her four-day trip to China. Photo of Raimondo via Getty Images. Collage by Clark Miller.

‘Excited and Terrified’: On a High-Stakes Trip to China, Gina Raimondo Confronts a Complex Future

By Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 2, 2023 6:00am PDT · 15 comments

A former ambulance driver was whizzing me through the rainy streets of Shanghai to meet an eight-car motorcade and—hopefully—U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. She’d been a hard person to wrangle during her three-day diplomatic trip to China, and I had been given the smallest of windows for a face-to-face interview: just 15... A former ambulance driver was whizzing me through the rainy streets of Shanghai to meet an...

Tyler (left) and Cameron Winklevoss, co-founders of Gemini. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Gemini Tries to Line Up Other Creditors in New Genesis Bankruptcy Plan

By Aidan Ryan · Sep 1, 2023 4:45pm PDT

The high-profile spat between Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert is poised to get even uglier. Gemini is trying to rally other creditors behind a plan to wring more money out of DCG to help pay back the more than $3.5 billion owed by its bankrupt lending subsidiary, Genesis, two... The high-profile spat between Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Digital...

Disney CEO Bob Iger. Photo by Los Angeles Times via Getty.

John Malone’s Charter Squeezes Disney at Vulnerable Moment

By Martin Peers · Sep 1, 2023 4:23pm PDT

Bob Iger’s path to rescuing Disney just ran into a roadblock. Disney’s cable channels, including ESPN, went dark on Thursday on the No. 2 cable operator, Charter Communications, amid a fight about how much Charter should pay to carry the channels. Make no mistake: This is not one of those boring cable TV industry battles that have been going on... Bob Iger’s path to rescuing Disney just ran into a roadblock. Disney’s cable channels, including...

Inside the VC Brain

By Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 1, 2023 11:00am PDT · 1 comment

Sometimes VCs need a therapy session. Reporters and editors, too. And so, with this week’s episode, you get a little bit of both—and some news nuggets on what I learned about China and AI on my quick trip to Beijing and Shanghai this week. Hope you enjoy and have a great Labor Day weekend! Spotify Apple Sometimes VCs need a therapy session. Reporters and editors, too. And so, with this week’s...

Midjourney art by Clark Miller

Inside Silicon Valley’s New Boys Club: The Testosterone-Testing ‘T Party’

By Zara Stone · Sep 1, 2023 9:00am PDT · 28 comments

Midjourney art by Clark Miller

Scene and Heard

Inside Silicon Valley’s New Boys Club: The Testosterone-Testing ‘T Party’

By Zara Stone · Sep 1, 2023 9:00am PDT · 28 comments

Early one Saturday morning in August, a dozen men—a mix of startup founders, software engineers, designers and one professional Dungeons & Dragons dungeon master—gathered inside a small San Francisco condo to get their blood drawn. Testosterone levels had been in steep decline globally, the men had learned, and they wanted... Early one Saturday morning in August, a dozen men—a mix of startup founders, software...

Photo by Getty

Pro Weekly: What Companies’ Cloud Spending Reveals

By Akash Pasricha · Sep 1, 2023 8:00am PDT

As companies have shifted more of their computing tasks to cloud providers, their payments to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google and others have become a significant cost of doing business. New updates to The Information’s Cloud Database reveal how those payments rise and fall with those companies’ financial results.Take Robinhood, for... As companies have shifted more of their computing tasks to cloud providers, their payments to ...

Photo via Shutterstock.

For Software Firms, Price Increases Are Becoming a Bigger Growth Factor

By Martin Peers · Aug 31, 2023 5:00pm PDT

After a flood of earnings today, from the likes of MongoDB, Broadcom and Nutanix, we’re pretty much done with tech’s latest quarterly earnings season. (Next earnings season is only six weeks away—whoopee!) As we look back at what we learned, here’s something that’s worth thinking about: Price increases for enterprise software firms are likely to... After a flood of earnings today, from the likes of MongoDB, Broadcom and Nutanix, we’re pretty...

Nvidia-Backed Cloud Provider Hires Morgan Stanley to Sell $500 Million of Employee Shares

By Anissa Gardizy · Aug 31, 2023 4:52pm PDT · 5 comments

CoreWeave, a fast-growing cloud computing startup that rents specialized servers for developing artificial intelligence, has hired Morgan Stanley to sell employee stock to investors at a valuation of at least $6 billion, three times higher than its valuation in an equity financing in May, according to someone with direct knowledge. The deal... CoreWeave, a fast-growing cloud computing startup that rents specialized servers for developing...

Bryan Reisberg (left) and Cliff Brush with their famous dogs. Photos courtesy of subjects

Two Social Media Famous Dog Dads Join Forces

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 31, 2023 2:04pm PDT

Bryan Reisberg (left) and Cliff Brush with their famous dogs. Photos courtesy of subjects

Creator Economy

Two Social Media Famous Dog Dads Join Forces

By Kaya Yurieff · Aug 31, 2023 2:04pm PDT

More creators are joining forces to promote their work. The latest example: Bryan Reisberg and Cliff Brush, the owners of two social-media famous dogs, are collaborating on a deal to develop and promote a super-sized dog backpack. Reisberg two years ago launched Little Chonk, a line of dog backpacks, after he couldn’t find a suitable... More creators are joining forces to promote their work. The latest example: Bryan Reisberg and ...