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 by Shane Burke/Shutterstock

Creator Economy

At Clubhouse, Many Notable Hires Have Departed

By Kaya Yurieff · Mar 2, 2023 3:58pm PST

Roughly 20 leaders have departed Clubhouse over the past year or so, including many of the notable hires the social audio app recruited from major companies such as Meta Platforms, Google, TikTok, Spotify and Netflix. All these ex-staffers had vice president, head or lead in their titles or job descriptions (most were heads of something).The... Roughly 20 leaders have departed Clubhouse over the past year or so, including many of the...

Josh Kushner and Marc Andreessen. Photos by Getty and Bloomberg

What Josh Kushner Can Learn From Marc Andreessen

By Kate Clark · Mar 2, 2023 3:19pm PST · 4 comments

There are different ways to ascend venture capital’s top ranks. Move fast, be loud and raise a lot of money. Or, build slowly, stay quiet and let the deals speak for themselves.For examples of these two approaches, just look at Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital. Both launched near the depths of the 2009 financial crisis and both have... There are different ways to ascend venture capital’s top ranks. Move fast, be loud and raise a...

Art via Shutterstock.

Disney’s Hulu Deal Ain’t Over Till It’s Over

By Andrew A. Rosen · Mar 2, 2023 9:00am PST · 1 comment

Sign up for Rosen’s newsletter, Parqor, part of The Information’s newsletter network. Among many newsmaking statements during his debut earnings season as Disney’s recently returned CEO, Robert Iger declared that “everything is on the table” concerning the Hulu-Disney relationship. Over the years, Disney has... Sign up for Rosen’s newsletter, Parqor, part of The Information’s newsletter...

Art by Clark Miller.

NFT Wars: How a Zero-Fee Upstart Is Roiling Big Marketplaces Like OpenSea

By Akash Pasricha · Mar 2, 2023 6:00am PST · 2 comments

Art by Clark Miller.

NFT Wars: How a Zero-Fee Upstart Is Roiling Big Marketplaces Like OpenSea

By Akash Pasricha · Mar 2, 2023 6:00am PST · 2 comments

Revenue has evaporated nearly overnight at non-fungible token marketplaces like OpenSea, thanks to a fierce price war that’s sent many NFT trading fees tumbling to zero. Now it’s a waiting game to see who can survive the drought. Blur, a marketplace that has no transaction fees, started picking up steam in October and eclipsed... Revenue has evaporated nearly overnight at non-fungible token marketplaces like OpenSea, thanks...

Photo by Shutterstock

Crypto VCs Aren’t Celebrating This Rally Just Yet

By Akash Pasricha · Mar 1, 2023 5:10pm PST · 1 comment

Here are some staggering numbers for you. Year to date, bitcoin is up 43%, ether is up 39%, and Coinbase shares are up more than 92%. In fact, Coinbase is now trading around 5 times its projected next 12 month sales, up from 2.1 times when 2023 began, according to Koyfin. Where’s all this coming from?It turns out, startups and venture... Here are some staggering numbers for you. Year to date, bitcoin is up 43%, ether is up 39%, and...

Marc Benioff. Photo by Bloomberg.

Benioff Discovers Efficiency (and Profits)

By Martin Peers · Mar 1, 2023 5:00pm PST

Some people are easily pleased. Salesforce stock jumped 15% in after-hours trading after the enterprise software firm reported fourth-quarter results that were a little better than it had projected. Free cash flow was solid. And Salesforce announced it was doubling its stock buyback program. Wall Street will enjoy those goodies—and the... Some people are easily pleased. Salesforce stock jumped 15% in after-hours trading after the...

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew via Getty

Creator Economy

Apple Could Trip Up TikTok If Politicians Do Not

By Kaya Yurieff · Mar 1, 2023 2:41pm PST

Could Apple and Google trip up TikTok even if saber-rattling politicians do not? It’s an intriguing idea sparked by a story we published today, especially as it resurfaces a perennial gripe of many startup founders: the iron grip the two tech giants have on smartphone apps. According to new reporting from my colleague Juro on Wednesday, the... Could Apple and Google trip up TikTok even if saber-rattling politicians do not? It’s an...

A Waymo prototype robotaxi in San Francisco. Credit: Waymo

Alphabet’s Robotaxi Unit Waymo Says it Laid Off 8%

By Jon Victor · Mar 1, 2023 8:37am PST

A Waymo prototype robotaxi in San Francisco. Credit: Waymo

Alphabet’s Robotaxi Unit Waymo Says it Laid Off 8%

By Jon Victor · Mar 1, 2023 8:37am PST

Alphabet’s robotaxi developer Waymo laid off 137 employees on Wednesday, its second round of cuts this year as the parent company reins in spending across its subsidiaries. The layoffs mean around 8% of Waymo employees, or 209 employees, have been cut this year, Waymo’s co-CEOs told staff in an internal email viewed by The... Alphabet’s robotaxi developer Waymo laid off 137 employees on Wednesday, its second round...

Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok. Photo by Bloomberg

TikTok’s U.S. Survival Plan Faces Potential Hurdle: Apple’s App Store Rules

By Juro Osawa · Mar 1, 2023 7:32am PST · 3 comments

TikTok faces a new potential hurdle to overcoming national security concerns in the U.S.: Apple and Google. TikTok, the popular video app owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, has begun talks with Apple and Google to ensure its proposed data security plan doesn’t get derailed by their app store rules, according to a person with direct... TikTok faces a new potential hurdle to overcoming national security concerns in the U.S.: Apple...

The People Who Matter at Microsoft as it Deepens Pact with OpenAI

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Mar 1, 2023 6:00am PST

Bill Gates is back at Microsoft—at least on the company’s internal organizational chart, if not as an employee. Although Gates recently said he is a part-time adviser, the co-founder’s inclusion in the above chart of more than 160 top managers is among the most striking of roughly 100 changes we’ve made since our... Bill Gates is back at Microsoft—at least on the company’s internal organizational...

A direct lithium extraction pilot in Amboy, CA. There is no commercial-scale DLE production anywhere in the world. Photo: David McNew/Getty

The Electric: The Rock Inside the Debate Over the Future Price of Lithium

By Steve LeVine · Mar 1, 2023 5:01am PST

A crackdown on illegal lithium mining and pollution in the Southern Chinese province of Jiangxi, the source of about 10% of the world’s supply of the metal, adds fresh drama to a raging debate in the battery industry and on Wall Street: Is lithium in a decadelong shortage or a surplus?Last week, Chinese authorities shut down most lithium mining... A crackdown on illegal lithium mining and pollution in the Southern Chinese province of Jiangxi,...

Elon Musk. Photo by Bloomberg.

Elon Musk’s BasedAI and the AI Culture Wars

By Jessica E. Lessin · Feb 28, 2023 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Elon Musk. Photo by Bloomberg.

Elon Musk’s BasedAI and the AI Culture Wars

By Jessica E. Lessin · Feb 28, 2023 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Elon Musk today confirmed our big story from yesterday that he’s been recruiting a team to build an AI and chatbot that is “anti-woke.” Jon Victor and I wrote that his aim was to build a chatbot that “would have fewer restrictions on divisive subjects compared to ChatGPT and a related chatbot Microsoft recently launched.”Today, Musk tweeted out... Elon Musk today confirmed our big story from yesterday that he’s been recruiting a team to build...

Patrick Collison, CEO and co-founder of Stripe, left, and John Collison, president and co-founder of Stripe. Photo by Bloomberg.

Stripe Cuts Valuation to $50 Billion After Facing Fundraising Hurdles

By Maria Heeter and Cory Weinberg · Feb 28, 2023 4:43pm PST · 5 comments

Stripe has cut the valuation for its multi-billion-dollar fundraising by about 10% to around $50 billion, according to two people familiar with the situation, underlining the challenges that Stripe has faced in completing the fundraising. While Stripe is still expected to complete the funding round, it is now setting the per-share price at about... Stripe has cut the valuation for its multi-billion-dollar fundraising by about 10% to around $50...

Alex French started posting on TikTok in 2019. Photo: Sara Bouwman

Creator Economy

The Early TikTok Creator Who Doesn’t Need a Niche

By Kaya Yurieff · Feb 28, 2023 2:00pm PST

As the creator economy gets more crowded and competitive, it’s become common for people to hone in on a narrow niche as a way to stand out. We’ve profiled creators who review family-friendly cars or make elaborate cheese boards as their main content focus.Then there’s Alex French, 19, who has built her social media career without carving out a... As the creator economy gets more crowded and competitive, it’s become common for people to hone...

Subscriber Survey

The Information Subscribers Are Upbeat About Tech After a Brutal 2022

By Scott Thurm · Feb 28, 2023 10:00am PST · 2 comments

Readers of The Information are generally optimistic about the outlook for technology companies this year after a brutal 2022 marked by slowing growth, shrinking profits, widespread layoffs and plunging stock prices. That result emerges from a survey conducted in early February, which also found that readers are familiar with generative... Readers of The Information are generally optimistic about the outlook for technology companies...

Art by Clark Miller.

Even Busts Can Be Good for Tech

By Margaret O'Mara · Feb 28, 2023 9:00am PST · 2 comments

Art by Clark Miller.

Even Busts Can Be Good for Tech

By Margaret O'Mara · Feb 28, 2023 9:00am PST · 2 comments

These days, big tech CEOs are sounding like grizzled sea captains battening down the hatches for a macroeconomic storm. “This next year or two, the economy is going to test the long-term resolve of a lot of companies,” Amazon’s Andy Jassy noted in late November. “Our operational focus over the next few years is going to... These days, big tech CEOs are sounding like grizzled sea captains battening down the hatches for...

Photo by Getty. Art by Mike Sullivan

Facing Weak Demand for Its Pricey Solar Roof, Tesla Plans Changes

By Becky Peterson · Feb 28, 2023 6:00am PST

In 2016, Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled one of the innovative products for which he’s become famous: roof tiles that incorporate solar panels. The resulting solar roof, as Musk called it, would be beautiful, environmentally beneficial—and cheaper than a conventional roof with separate solar panels, he said. That summer, Musk published... In 2016, Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled one of the innovative products for which he’s become...

Photo by Getty Images.

Alphabet Needs to Replace Sundar Pichai

By Martin Peers · Feb 27, 2023 5:00pm PST · 2 comments

Shareholders in Alphabet are sending the company a message: It’s time for some drastic action. After a sharp slump in the past few weeks, Alphabet stock is up just 1.9% so far this year compared to the Nasdaq’s 10% rise. In contrast Facebook parent Meta Platforms, which was in the doghouse last year, has jumped 41% year to date. Alphabet and... Shareholders in Alphabet are sending the company a message: It’s time for some drastic action....

Twitter CEO Elon Musk. Art: Shane Burke/Photo: Bloomberg

Fighting ‘Woke AI,’ Musk Recruits Team to Develop OpenAI Rival

By Jon Victor and Jessica E. Lessin · Feb 27, 2023 4:32pm PST · 4 comments

Elon Musk has approached artificial intelligence researchers in recent weeks about forming a new research lab to develop an alternative to ChatGPT, the high-profile chatbot made by the startup OpenAI, according to two people with direct knowledge of the effort and a third person briefed on the conversations. In recent months Musk has repeatedly... Elon Musk has approached artificial intelligence researchers in recent weeks about forming a new...

Esther Crawford. Photo: Robert Cowherd

Twitter Needs a Focused Creator Strategy More Than Ever

By Kaya Yurieff · Feb 27, 2023 2:38pm PST · 1 comment

Esther Crawford. Photo: Robert Cowherd

Creator Economy

Twitter Needs a Focused Creator Strategy More Than Ever

By Kaya Yurieff · Feb 27, 2023 2:38pm PST · 1 comment

Esther Crawford’s exit from Twitter throws the company’s ambitions to attract more creators into disarray. The former director of product management, who was laid off over the weekend, was heavily involved in money-making features for creators and other bets, including subscription service Twitter Blue. Even with Crawford championing those... Esther Crawford’s exit from Twitter throws the company’s ambitions to attract more creators into...