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 via Getty

The Secrets OpenAI Revealed About ChatGPT

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Aaron Holmes · Sep 16, 2025 7:00am PDT

Public interest in ChatGPT's impact on society is rising fast, especially given recent high-profile lawsuits filed by family members of people who used the chatbot before taking their own life. On Monday, OpenAI opened the chabot's kimono a little bit, with a new study showing exactly how users are using ChatGPT. Notably, non-work... Public interest in ChatGPT's impact on society is rising fast, especially given recent...

CEO of Apollo Marc Rowan, left, and KKR partner Waldemar Szlezak. Images via Getty; YouTube.

Insurance Money Is Latest Funding Source for AI Developers

By Miles Kruppa · Sep 16, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Wall Street is turning to life insurance capital to meet artificial intelligence’s insatiable funding needs, melding the AI boom with a fast growing source of assets for the biggest private equity firms. Apollo Global Management, one of the largest asset managers, recently bought Texas-based Stream Data Centers, which is targeting the big cloud... Wall Street is turning to life insurance capital to meet artificial intelligence’s insatiable...

Photo via Getty

On Quarterly Earnings, Trump Has a Point

By Martin Peers · Sep 15, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Imagine a world where companies report earnings only twice a year, instead of every quarter. As John Lennon put it, “you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” Donald Trump reminded us on Monday that he is a big proponent of switching to a half-yearly corporate reporting cadence, away from the quarterly one. His pitch is that doing so... Imagine a world where companies report earnings only twice a year, instead of every quarter. As...

Art by Clark Miller; photos from Getty Images.

Microsoft Hopes Hastened AI Rollout, Price Discounts Can Fuel Office 365 Growth

By Aaron Holmes · Sep 15, 2025 10:04am PDT · 2 comments

Art by Clark Miller; photos from Getty Images.

Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft Hopes Hastened AI Rollout, Price Discounts Can Fuel Office 365 Growth

By Aaron Holmes · Sep 15, 2025 10:04am PDT · 2 comments

On paper, Informatica, a Redwood City-based cloud software firm with 5,000 white collar employees, is exactly the type of company that should be gung-ho to pay up and buy Microsoft 365 Copilot, the version of the company’s flagship Office software that comes with artificial intelligence features. And more than a year ago, Informatica did test... On paper, Informatica, a Redwood City-based cloud software firm with 5,000 white collar...

Here you go! Art via Getty

Everyone Wants To Be a Reinforcement Learning Startup

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 15, 2025 7:00am PDT

These days, artificial intelligence developers, investors and founders are all obsessed with “reinforcement learning,” a method for improving AI by rewarding it for accomplishing certain goals and penalizing it for other behaviors.Investors tell me that they’re getting pitched on dozens of RL-related startups per week, ranging from those ... These days, artificial intelligence developers, investors and founders are all obsessed with “...

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff via Getty. Art via Clark Miller

Marc Benioff Said AI Was Easy. A ‘Crazy’ Team at Salesforce Proved Him Wrong

By Kevin McLaughlin · Sep 15, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was upset. Last fall, one of his technical teams told large Salesforce customers that using Agentforce, the software firm’s new artificial intelligence for automating customer service and other functions, would require extensive planning. The product information the Salesforce team shared with those customers... Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was upset. Last fall, one of his technical teams told large...

CATL's Lingbo Zhu announces the Shenxing Pro last week in Munich. Photo: Courtesy CATL

Exclusive From The Electric: How China's CATL Keeps Trouncing Its Battery Rivals

By Steve LeVine · Sep 15, 2025 4:30am PDT

Lingbo Zhu was scribbling on a sheet of paper last week, sketching out a lineup of batteries that no other company could match. Zhu is international chief technology officer of China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd., the world’s largest battery maker, which took another leap forward last week. Lingbo Zhu was scribbling on a sheet of paper last week, sketching out a lineup of batteries that...

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. Photo via Getty

Perplexity’s Commerce and Ads Experiments Are Stuck in Neutral

By Catherine Perloff and Ann Gehan · Sep 14, 2025 12:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. Photo via Getty

Perplexity’s Commerce and Ads Experiments Are Stuck in Neutral

By Catherine Perloff and Ann Gehan · Sep 14, 2025 12:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Perplexity has drawn plenty of its headlines for its relentless fundraising—which recently valued the artificial intelligence search firm at $20 billion—and its penchant for declaring big-ticket acquisition targets like TikTok. But its efforts to build businesses in online shopping and advertising, which would put Perplexity’s... Perplexity has drawn plenty of its headlines for its relentless fundraising—which recently...

Art by Clark Miller; photos from Getty Images

Elizabeth Holmes’s Resurrection is Gonna Happen

By Abram Brown · Sep 13, 2025 7:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Anthropic’s different approach to Trump • The Arena: Steve Ballmer may be too rich for the NBA• Artificial Intelligence: AI boom complicates how schools recruit, retain doctoral students • Plus, our Recommendations: “Fiasco: Benghazi,” “Make Me Commissioner” and “And So It Goes”... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Anthropic’s different approach to...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

Is Steve Ballmer Too Rich for the NBA?

By Sara Germano · Sep 13, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Earlier this week, a handful of the richest people in the world convened at a five-star hotel in midtown Manhattan to discuss typical titans-of-industry fodder: overseas expansion, the future of media, yadda yadda. But there was an elephant in the room: Did a billionaire in their ranks secretly siphon millions of dollars to an NBA star through a... Earlier this week, a handful of the richest people in the world convened at a five-star hotel in...

Art by Clark Miller

Artificial Intelligence

AI Talent Frenzy Complicates How Universities Retain, Recruit Doctoral Students

By Andrew Zucker · Sep 13, 2025 5:34am PDT · 1 comment

Even though applications aren’t due until December, an avalanche of emails have already hit Naomi Saphra, a soon-to-be assistant professor of computer science at Boston University who’s currently finishing up research across town at Harvard University. The messages are from people eager to join Saphra as BU doctoral students and contribute to... Even though applications aren’t due until December, an avalanche of emails have already hit Naomi...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty,

OpenAI to Gain $50 Billion From Cutting Revenue Share with Microsoft, Partners

By Sri Muppidi, Aaron Holmes and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 12, 2025 7:18pm PDT · 2 comments

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty,

OpenAI to Gain $50 Billion From Cutting Revenue Share with Microsoft, Partners

By Sri Muppidi, Aaron Holmes and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 12, 2025 7:18pm PDT · 2 comments

As OpenAI irons out new terms of a partnership with Microsoft, it has told some shareholders that the percentage of revenue it will hand over to Microsoft will drop considerably in the coming years. As part of their original partnership agreement, Microsoft is entitled to 20% of the startup’s revenue through 2030. But OpenAI has projected to... As OpenAI irons out new terms of a partnership with Microsoft, it has told some shareholders that...

Satya Nadella, left, and Sam Atman. Photos by Getty

Why Microsoft and OpenAI Announced a Tentative Deal

By Amir Efrati · Sep 12, 2025 3:00pm PDT

As we wrap up what has been a busy week in artificial intelligence-cloud land—one dominated by Oracle—we want to circle back to the striking announcement on Thursday night from Microsoft and OpenAI. Anytime two companies, worth at least $4.5 trillion combined, issue a three-sentence press release with no concrete information about a highly... As we wrap up what has been a busy week in artificial intelligence-cloud land—one dominated by...

CEO of Kalshi, Tarek Mansour, left, and CEO of Polymarket, Shayne Coplan. Photos by Getty

Polymarket Fields Offer for $9 Billion Valuation; Kalshi Nears $5 Billion Valuation

By Katie Roof and Yueqi Yang · Sep 12, 2025 10:23am PDT

Startups that enable people to bet on events such as the New York mayoral race, NFL games and the Federal Reserve rate decisions are in talks to raise more money at multi-billion-dollar valuations, as trading volume and rivalry between the two apps intensifies. Polymarket has considered an offer that would value the company as much as $9... Startups that enable people to bet on events such as the New York mayoral race, NFL games and the...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images

As Tech Leaders Flatter Trump, Anthropic Takes a Cooler Approach

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Sep 12, 2025 9:00am PDT

In June, the artificial intelligence startup Anthropic was finally getting close to hiring a candidate—a Republican—for its top government relations job after months of searching for someone. That decision marked a shift: Anthropic had hired several former Biden staffers earlier in the year, which had aggravated people in the... In June, the artificial intelligence startup Anthropic was finally getting close to hiring a...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang via Getty

Nvidia Steps Back From Cloud Effort to Compete with AWS

By Anissa Gardizy · Sep 12, 2025 6:00am PDT

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang via Getty

Nvidia Steps Back From Cloud Effort to Compete with AWS

By Anissa Gardizy · Sep 12, 2025 6:00am PDT

Nvidia is stepping back from its nascent cloud computing business, which had put it in quasi-competition with Amazon Web Services. It has lessened its efforts to attract businesses to the cloud service, dubbed DGX Cloud, said a person with direct knowledge of the situation. Instead, Nvidia plans to primarily use the service, which consists of... Nvidia is stepping back from its nascent cloud computing business, which had put it in...

David and Larry Ellison. Photos via Getty

OpenAI’s Microsoft Deal; Ellison’s Risky Business

By Martin Peers · Sep 11, 2025 5:00pm PDT

We got big news this afternoon from the folks at OpenAI and Microsoft: They are close to a peace deal. Yes, after nearly a year of talks over changes to their partnership, the companies announced they had signed a “non-binding memorandum of understanding for the next phase of our partnership.” Contractual terms now have to be finalized. Hmmm.... We got big news this afternoon from the folks at OpenAI and Microsoft: They are close to a peace...

Photo via Getty

The AI Haves and Have Nots at Goldman's Big Tech Event

By Valida Pau · Sep 11, 2025 2:31pm PDT

At the historic Palace Hotel in San Francisco, Goldman Sachs is wrapping up three and half days of its annual Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference.Attendees were mostly in a buoyant mood, but not because this week is on track to be the biggest of the year for initial public offerings. Instead, the biggest pop during the conference... At the historic Palace Hotel in San Francisco, Goldman Sachs is wrapping up three and half days...

Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes (l) and The Information reporter Akash Pasricha (r).

Atlassian CEO Claims Edge on Glean; Trouble Exporting From Teams

By Kevin McLaughlin · Sep 11, 2025 10:41am PDT

Enterprise search startup Glean has attracted customers and venture capital thanks to an AI search tool that lets employees quickly find corporate files and data in all of the apps their companies use. But Mike Cannon-Brookes, the CEO and co-founder of productivity app Atlassian, thinks his company is ahead of Glean in enterprise search—despite... Enterprise search startup Glean has attracted customers and venture capital thanks to an AI...

OpenAI’s $350 Billion Computing Cost Problem

By Amir Efrati and Sri Muppidi · Sep 11, 2025 9:12am PDT · 10 comments

OpenAI’s $350 Billion Computing Cost Problem

By Amir Efrati and Sri Muppidi · Sep 11, 2025 9:12am PDT · 10 comments

The most popular consumer internet services usually figure out how to make money even after a decade or more of losses. Amazon, Uber, Netflix and Snap all started generating cash by raising prices or leveraging their large audiences to sell ads or other services. OpenAI’s growing audience would seem to put it in a similar position. Its... The most popular consumer internet services usually figure out how to make money even after a...