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

Magic Spoon founders Gabi Lewis and Greg Sewitz, plus product development manager Cortney Leonard, sample two iterations of a toasted marshmallow flavor with a variety of milks. Photograph by Lisa Corson for The Information.

Show Us Everything

The Cereal Influencers of SoHo

By Annie Goldsmith · Jul 1, 2023 7:31am PDT · 9 comments

Pop Up Grocer looks like it was created as much for social media as for real-life shopping. Walking around the bright, checkerboard-floored West Village market one day last month, I felt like I was stepping inside an Instagram post. On an eye-level shelf in the center of the store (prime real estate, as every packaged food distributor knows) was... Pop Up Grocer looks like it was created as much for social media as for real-life shopping....

A Mogul Smackdown We Could Get Behind

A Mogul Smackdown We Could Get Behind

By Jon Steinberg · Jul 1, 2023 6:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend.It should be pretty clear by now what a lame idea the whole Mark Zuckerberg vs. Elon Musk cage match was. The spectacle of two middle-aged men working out their self-esteem issues by beating on each other was not worthy of their companies—or our time. But a pitch from the producers of the Discovery show “BattleBots”... Hi, welcome to your Weekend.It should be pretty clear by now what a lame idea the whole Mark...

Jensen Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia, speaks in Taipei, Taiwan on May 29. Photo by Getty.

Nvidia Acquired AI Startup That Shrinks Machine-Learning Models

By Anissa Gardizy · Jun 30, 2023 7:32pm PDT · 2 comments

Nvidia in February quietly acquired OmniML, a two-year-old artificial intelligence startup whose software helped shrink machine-learning models so they could run on devices rather than in the cloud, according to a spokesperson and LinkedIn profiles of former OmniML employees who now work at Nvidia. The acquisition could be a sign that the... Nvidia in February quietly acquired OmniML, a two-year-old artificial intelligence startup whose...

Introducing ‘More or Less’: MMA, M&A and ‘Misfits’

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jun 30, 2023 3:40pm PDT · 1 comment

Introducing ‘More or Less’: MMA, M&A and ‘Misfits’

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jun 30, 2023 3:40pm PDT · 1 comment

When I moved to Silicon Valley in 2008, Brit and Dave Morin were two of the first people I met. They were working at Google and Facebook respectively, and I had a lot to learn from them as I set out to understand the world of tech. Soon after, my now husband Sam joined me in the Bay Area, and the four of us became close friends and sounding... When I moved to Silicon Valley in 2008, Brit and Dave Morin were two of the first people I met....

Grindr and Motto founder Joel Simkhai. Photo-collage by Clark Miller; photo of Simkhai by Gregory Scaffidi/Courtesy Motto.

Fifteen Years After Founding Grindr, Joel Simkhai Has ‘Unfinished Business’

By Cory Weinberg · Jun 30, 2023 11:00am PDT · 3 comments

On a sweat-soaked New York afternoon over Pride Weekend, a short line formed outside a dark bar on the Lower East Side. After checking customers’ IDs, a boyish-looking bouncer at the front door asked if they’d downloaded the app they needed to get in: “Do you have Motto?” I pulled up the app, its home screen affixed with... On a sweat-soaked New York afternoon over Pride Weekend, a short line formed outside a dark bar...

Art by Clark Miller

Rishi and the VCs: London Is Calling, and Silicon Valley Is Happy to Answer

By Chris Stokel-Walker · Jun 30, 2023 9:00am PDT · 3 comments

It was the worst-kept secret in U.K. tech. For months, the Conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had been wooing Sam Altman’s OpenAI, trying to coax the San Francisco–based artificial intelligence firm into opening its first non-U.S. office in London. Then, in early June, two weeks after Altman met with Sunak in his... It was the worst-kept secret in U.K. tech. For months, the Conservative government of Prime...

Snap, the second-largest spender in our database, said it is committed to spend $3.5 billion over the next three years, largely on cloud services. Photo by Getty.

Pro Weekly: Updates to Our Database of the Biggest Cloud Spenders

By Anissa Gardizy · Jun 30, 2023 8:00am PDT

Welcome back!I’m Anissa, a reporter on cloud computing for The Information. This week we published numerous updates to our Cloud Database, which tracks how much companies spend on cloud computing and with which providers. We also added cybersecurity firm Rapid7 to the list, which now includes 77 companies. Together, they spend more than $13... Welcome back!I’m Anissa, a reporter on cloud computing for The Information. This week we...

Ben Horowitz, Martin Casado and Marc Andreessen. Photos by Getty and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Art by Mike Sullivan.

Andreessen Horowitz’s AI Crusader Emerges as a Confidant of the Founders

By Kate Clark · Jun 30, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Ben Horowitz, Martin Casado and Marc Andreessen. Photos by Getty and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Art by Mike Sullivan.

Andreessen Horowitz’s AI Crusader Emerges as a Confidant of the Founders

By Kate Clark · Jun 30, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

“Will AI kill us all?” Andreessen Horowitz general partner Martin Casado asked his boss Marc Andreessen in early June. The bleary-eyed Casado had dialed in from a desk in a dimly lit hotel room in Washington, D.C., where he’d been meeting with regulators. His boss grinned, retorting, “I have good news!…AI is not... “Will AI kill us all?” Andreessen Horowitz general partner Martin Casado asked his...

Why Beauty Company Oddity is Poised For a Hot IPO

By Ann Gehan · Jun 30, 2023 5:00am PDT · 1 comment

Cosmetics company Oddity Tech, which filed to go public last week, doesn’t need the stock market to continue rallying for its public debut to take off. Instead, Oddity can ride a tsunami of investor enthusiasm for other beauty and skin care stocks whose businesses have been lifted by TikTok popularity. One of the best stock market... Cosmetics company Oddity Tech, which filed to go public last week, doesn’t need the stock...

The U.S. Supreme Court. Photo by Getty.

What Supreme Court Ruling Means for Tech Hiring

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jun 29, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

For any folks in Silicon Valley who don’t often pay attention to what is happening in Washington, today is a day they should.As the country digests the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of race-based admissions in colleges, my mind turned to what the ruling could mean for companies’ efforts to diversify their ranks. After talking to about half a... For any folks in Silicon Valley who don’t often pay attention to what is happening in Washington,...

Chart by Shane Burke

Creator Economy

The Decline of #Pride

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 29, 2023 3:12pm PDT · 1 comment

Fewer brands are posting about Pride month on Instagram and Facebook this year, according to new data from Emplifi, a provider of customer engagement software for social networks and companies like McDonald’s. The number of U.S. brands using Pride-related hashtags on Instagram declined 16% year-over-year, while interactions, meaning... Fewer brands are posting about Pride month on Instagram and Facebook this year, according to new...

Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, arriving at federal court in San Francisco on June 28. Photo by Getty.

Microsoft’s Cloud Server Business in 2022 Was Less Than Half of AWS, New Document Reveals

By Aaron Holmes · Jun 29, 2023 1:36pm PDT · 7 comments

Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, arriving at federal court in San Francisco on June 28. Photo by Getty.

Microsoft’s Cloud Server Business in 2022 Was Less Than Half of AWS, New Document Reveals

By Aaron Holmes · Jun 29, 2023 1:36pm PDT · 7 comments

For years Microsoft has kept a lid on details about the true size of its Azure cloud server rental business, making it impossible for investors to know how Microsoft’s cloud operations unit stacked up against industry leader Amazon Web Services. But this week, thanks to antitrust regulators, the world got a peek under the lid. Azure... For years Microsoft has kept a lid on details about the true size of its Azure cloud server...

Photo by Getty

Three Reasons to Look Past the 40% Drop in VC Funding

By Kate Clark · Jun 29, 2023 12:23pm PDT

To my surprise, the recent boom in artificial intelligence investments has done little to dig U.S. venture capital funding out of its hole.VC funding decreased in the second quarter, which ends tomorrow, according to new data provided to The Information by Crunchbase. U.S. startups raised just $27.6 billion compared to $45.2 billion in the first... To my surprise, the recent boom in artificial intelligence investments has done little to dig...

Coatue co-founder Thomas Laffont. Photo by Juan Pinnel

‘Pressures Remain’: Coatue Prepares Tech Founders for the Road Ahead

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jun 29, 2023 11:26am PDT · 8 comments

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend a founder and investor conference hosted by Coatue, called East Meets West. While the conference, held in Montecito, Calif., was off the record, I asked the firm for permission to share one of my favorite parts of the event: the keynote its partners gave on the state of the finance and tech... Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend a founder and investor conference hosted by...

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. Photo by Getty.

Stripe Lays Off Dozens, Mostly in Recruiting

By Cory Weinberg and Maria Heeter · Jun 29, 2023 11:08am PDT · 1 comment

Stripe has laid off a few dozen employees, most of them recruiters, in its human resources department. The staff cuts, while affecting a tiny percentage of the company’s roughly 7,000-person workforce, are part of a broader wave of belt tightening in tech, even as the pace of larger layoffs has abated. Stripe’s cuts in the recruiting... Stripe has laid off a few dozen employees, most of them recruiters, in its human resources...

Illustration by Laurent Hrybyk.

How Amazon Is Taming Its Customers’ Returns Addiction

By Theo Wayt · Jun 29, 2023 6:04am PDT · 1 comment

Illustration by Laurent Hrybyk.

How Amazon Is Taming Its Customers’ Returns Addiction

By Theo Wayt · Jun 29, 2023 6:04am PDT · 1 comment

When Amazon announced Wednesday that customers could soon start dropping off items they wanted to return at nearly 1,000 Staples stores, it touted the partnership as part of its decadeslong quest to make online shopping as easy as possible for consumers. In reality, the Staples partnership is the result of a years-long effort by a team inside... When Amazon announced Wednesday that customers could soon start dropping off items they wanted to...

Amid "production hell," Tesla built a gigantic tent outside its Fremont, Calif. headquarters for Model 3 manufacturing overflow. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty

The Electric: The EV Industry Confronts the Valley of Death

By Steve LeVine · Jun 29, 2023 4:30am PDT

Two years ago, a wave of electric vehicle, battery and mining companies went public with boasts of coming profits. Today, things look very different. Just this week, Lordstown Motors filed for bankruptcy protection, the U.K.’s Cornish Lithium warned that it might go bust, and Ford, whose EV division will lose $3 billion this year, reportedly... Two years ago, a wave of electric vehicle, battery and mining companies went public with boasts...

President Joe Biden holds a microchip. Photo by Getty.

The Risks of Cutting Off China

By Martin Peers · Jun 28, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

The Great Wall dividing the U.S. from China is about to get higher. A Wall Street Journal report that the Biden administration is considering further tightening exports of artificial intelligence chips to China triggered a sell-off in chip stocks on Wednesday. Shares of Nvidia, the dominant provider of chips for generative AI, fell 1.8%. To be... The Great Wall dividing the U.S. from China is about to get higher. A Wall Street Journal report...

Naveen Rao (left), CEO of MosaicML, and Ali Ghodsi (right), CEO of DataBricks. Photos by Getty.

How Databricks CEO Justifies Paying $1.3 Billion for a Young AI Startup

By Aaron Holmes · Jun 28, 2023 3:31pm PDT · 5 comments

When enterprise software firm Databricks revealed on Monday it would pay $1.3 billion for a two-year-old artificial intelligence startup, MosaicML, the deal looked overpriced. Databricks is paying 65 times Mosaic’s $20 million in annual recurring revenue, a measure of customer commitments to pay for its software, according to Databricks... When enterprise software firm Databricks revealed on Monday it would pay $1.3 billion for a...

Alex Cooper, host of Call Her Daddy, at Spotify's Art of the Interview Session on June 20 in Cannes, France. Photo by Getty.

Spotify’s Video-Podcast Surge

By Isabelle Sarraf · Jun 28, 2023 2:23pm PDT

Alex Cooper, host of Call Her Daddy, at Spotify's Art of the Interview Session on June 20 in Cannes, France. Photo by Getty.

Creator Economy

Spotify’s Video-Podcast Surge

By Isabelle Sarraf · Jun 28, 2023 2:23pm PDT

For the past three years, Spotify has been trying to beef up its video podcasts as it tries to keep up with the TikTok-driven explosion in short-form video. The efforts are starting to show some progress. The music streaming service now hosts more than 100,000 podcast shows that publish video episodes, a 40% increase from March though still a... For the past three years, Spotify has been trying to beef up its video podcasts as it tries to...