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 by Clark Miller.

OpenAI Selects Law Firms Cooley, Wachtell for IPO Prep

By Valida Pau and Sri Muppidi · Mar 4, 2026 5:48pm PST

OpenAI has picked two law firms, Cooley and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, to prepare for an initial public offering that could come as soon as this year, according to people familiar with the matter. Selecting lawyers to prepare for a listing is one of the first concrete steps the ChatGPT maker has made towards a public listing and usually... OpenAI has picked two law firms, Cooley and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, to prepare for an...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

OpenAI Scales Back Shopping Plans for ChatGPT

By Ann Gehan and Sri Muppidi · Mar 4, 2026 5:20pm PST · 1 comment

OpenAI is scaling back its plan to introduce shopping directly inside ChatGPT, marking a change in its high-profile effort to put checkouts inside the chatbot. Instead of allowing users to make purchases directly from product listings that show up in ChatGPT search results, the company is now focused on having checkouts take place inside of... OpenAI is scaling back its plan to introduce shopping directly inside ChatGPT, marking a change...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Matthew Rhys, who could play Amodei in a movie. Photos via Getty and Shutterstock.

Anthropic CEO’s Candid Comments Imperil Chances of a Compromise

By Martin Peers · Mar 4, 2026 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Who hates Sam Altman more—Elon Musk or Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei? If you guessed Elon Musk, our scoop today about the no-holds-barred memo Amodei sent to his staff on Friday about the Pentagon brouhaha might change your mind. Apart from calling OpenAI’s messaging over the Pentagon issue “mendacious,” Amodei explained the Pentagon’s targeting of... Who hates Sam Altman more—Elon Musk or Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei? If you guessed Elon Musk, our...

Art by Clark Miller.

OpenAI Held Early Talks With The Trade Desk to Sell Ads

By Sri Muppidi and Catherine Perloff · Mar 4, 2026 2:44pm PST

Art by Clark Miller.

OpenAI Held Early Talks With The Trade Desk to Sell Ads

By Sri Muppidi and Catherine Perloff · Mar 4, 2026 2:44pm PST

OpenAI has held early talks to partner with The Trade Desk, a publicly traded ad tech company, to help the ChatGPT maker sell ads, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The talks indicate that OpenAI, which launched ads in ChatGPT in early February, will initially lean on external partners to help it sell ads and quickly ramp... OpenAI has held early talks to partner with The Trade Desk, a publicly traded ad tech company, to...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo by Samyukta Lakshmi/Getty Images

Read Anthropic CEO’s Memo Attacking OpenAI’s ‘Mendacious’ Pentagon Announcement

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 4, 2026 1:08pm PST · 20 comments

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei sent a 1,600-word memo to employees Friday as OpenAI announced a deal to provide AI to the Pentagon. The OpenAI move came hours after the Pentagon said it would sever ties with Anthropic over the company’s safety requirements. In the strongly worded memo, Amodei heavily criticized OpenAI’s actions and the initial... Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei sent a 1,600-word memo to employees Friday as OpenAI announced a...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo by Ludovic Marin/ Getty Images

Anthropic CEO: Trump Disliked Company For Not Giving ‘Dictator-Style Praise’

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo, Sri Muppidi and Amir Efrati · Mar 4, 2026 11:21am PST · 7 comments

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Friday told employees that a deal OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman struck to provide AI to the Department of Defense was “safety theater,” adding that the Trump Administration didn’t like Anthropic in part because the company hadn’t “given dictator-style praise to Trump.” Amodei made the comments in a 1,600-word... Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Friday told employees that a deal OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman...

SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell at MWC Barcelona 2026. Photo by Angel Garcia/ Getty Images

Reporter's Notebook

SpaceX Pitches Starlink to Wary Telecom Firms in Barcelona

By Theo Wayt · Mar 4, 2026 9:30am PST · 1 comment

SpaceX staffers have been out in force this week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to pitch its Starlink satellite internet and cell services to the thousands of telecom executives and regulators assembled here. But in my conversations at an event overshadowed by a new war in the Middle East, many attendees expressed concerns about tying... SpaceX staffers have been out in force this week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to pitch...

Art by Clark Miller

A Claude Catharsis: Accepting When Your Life’s Work Becomes Free and Abundant

By Aditya Agarwal · Mar 4, 2026 9:00am PST · 14 comments

Art by Clark Miller

A Claude Catharsis: Accepting When Your Life’s Work Becomes Free and Abundant

By Aditya Agarwal · Mar 4, 2026 9:00am PST · 14 comments

Not long ago, I spent a weekend writing code with Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant. I’ve been programming for more than 20 years. I was one of the first engineers at Facebook, where I built the original search engine. I went on to become chief technology officer of Dropbox, where I scaled the engineering team from 25 people to a thousand. Code... Not long ago, I spent a weekend writing code with Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant. I’ve been...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

The Information Finance

With AI Finance, It’s All in the Timing

By Ken Brown · Mar 4, 2026 8:15am PST · 1 comment

This may be the moment of maximum AI uncertainty. That means some things will get clearer in the coming months—not necessarily better, just clearer. There are three specific points of uncertainty right now:AI developers have raised a ton of money recently, led by OpenAI’s $110 billion haul, which we broke news on and explained. Coming soon... This may be the moment of maximum AI uncertainty. That means some things will get clearer in the...

Art via Getty Images

OpenAI’s Next AI Model Will Have ‘Extreme’ Reasoning

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 4, 2026 7:00am PST · 1 comment

OpenAI’s next GPT model is coming—and soon, according to a person with knowledge of it.Among the highlights, the new model, GPT-5.4, will have more than double the context window of the current GPT-5.2 model. That means the model can handle queries with many more words or data, up to 1 million tokens compared to 400,000 tokens today, the person... OpenAI’s next GPT model is coming—and soon, according to a person with knowledge of it.Among the...

Art by Clark Miller.

OpenClaw Rips Through China’s Tech and Startup Landscape

By Juro Osawa · Mar 4, 2026 6:00am PST

OpenClaw mania has swept across China. Last month, at a five-day online hackathon organized by a Hangzhou-based AI startup, one contestant developed the equivalent of Tinder for AI agents seeking love interests on behalf of their human owners. Another created a recruiting site where job seekers’ AI agents talk to employers’ AI agents. A third... OpenClaw mania has swept across China. Last month, at a five-day online hackathon organized by a...

Pinterest CEO Bill Ready. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images.

Pinterest’s Elliott-Funded Share Buyback Is a Sign of the Times

By Martin Peers · Mar 3, 2026 5:00pm PST

Pinterest CEO Bill Ready. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images.

Pinterest’s Elliott-Funded Share Buyback Is a Sign of the Times

By Martin Peers · Mar 3, 2026 5:00pm PST

Let’s take a moment to reflect on the benefits of share buybacks. That might sound like a wonky concept, but it’s important. Buybacks shrink the number of shares outstanding, raising the value of the stock that remains. Lately, as AI worries have battered tech stocks, several companies have unveiled expanded buybacks. The latest example is... Let’s take a moment to reflect on the benefits of share buybacks. That might sound like a wonky...

Josh Wolfe, founder and managing director, Lux Capital. Getty Images.

Lux Capital’s Big Warning

By Katie Roof · Mar 3, 2026 4:34pm PST · 4 comments

A venture firm just said the quiet part out loud: Things aren’t as copacetic in startup land as those sky-high AI valuations would suggest. Lux Capital on Tuesday published a letter it had sent to founders it has funded, urging them to prepare for a slew of business risks. The venture capital firm, which has backed Anduril and Ramp,... A venture firm just said the quiet part out loud: Things aren’t as copacetic in startup land as...

Image via Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Is Developing an Internal Alternative to Microsoft’s GitHub

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Aaron Holmes · Mar 3, 2026 2:41pm PST · 3 comments

OpenAI is developing an alternative to GitHub, Microsoft’s popular code repository that lets software engineers store, share and collaborate on computer code, according to a person with knowledge of the project. The decision to embark on the new product came after OpenAI engineers, like other GitHub customers, experienced an increase in outages... OpenAI is developing an alternative to GitHub, Microsoft’s popular code repository that lets...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Palantir CEO Alex Karp. Photos via AP and Getty.

Anthropic-Palantir Partnership at Risk After Pentagon Decision

By Aaron Holmes, Sri Muppidi, Rocket Drew and Julia Hornstein · Mar 3, 2026 12:32pm PST · 1 comment

For over a year, Anthropic has served the U.S. government through Palantir Technologies, an enterprise software firm known for working with the Pentagon and other federal agencies. Palantir’s customers have used Anthropic models to help them identify patterns across large volumes of classified data so they can make decisions. But the Defense... For over a year, Anthropic has served the U.S. government through Palantir Technologies, an...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

What OpenAI’s ‘Stateful’ AI is Good For

By Aaron Holmes · Mar 3, 2026 12:10pm PST · 2 comments

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

What OpenAI’s ‘Stateful’ AI is Good For

By Aaron Holmes · Mar 3, 2026 12:10pm PST · 2 comments

OpenAI and Amazon last week said they were developing a new cloud service for a new generation of AI agents, but their description of the service generated confusion among AI buyers. Let’s clear it up.The new AI cloud service aims to help Amazon Web Services customers develop custom AI agents— powered by OpenAI technology—to automate business... OpenAI and Amazon last week said they were developing a new cloud service for a new generation of...

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (left) and Under Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering), Emil Michael at the Pentagon in July. Win McNamee/Getty Images.

The OpenAI and Anthropic Execs at the Center of the Pentagon Action

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 3, 2026 7:00am PST · 1 comment

OpenAI was on the backfoot on Monday. Current and former OpenAI employees took to social media to share concerns about their employer signing an agreement with the Pentagon that seemed to accept at least some terms Anthropic had rejected. A surge in people uninstalling the ChatGPT app from their phones over the weekend, according to TechCrunch,... OpenAI was on the backfoot on Monday. Current and former OpenAI employees took to social media to...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Amazon Explores Helping Other Apps Sell Chatbot Ads

By Catherine Perloff · Mar 3, 2026 6:00am PST

Amazon is exploring offering technology to help other apps and sites sell ads in AI chatbots, according to two people who have talked to the company about its plans. Such an offering could potentially buttress its $68.6 billion ads business as people increasingly use AI chats to search for information. In recent months, Amazon Publisher... Amazon is exploring offering technology to help other apps and sites sell ads in AI chatbots,...

What Anthropic Stands to Gain From Pentagon Stance

What Anthropic Stands to Gain From Pentagon Stance

By Martin Peers · Mar 2, 2026 5:05pm PST

Could fighting with the Pentagon be the best thing that ever happened to Anthropic? On Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s designation of Anthropic as a “supply chain risk” looked like it could pose an existential threat to the AI firm. Not only could it lose customers, but, depending on how broadly the designation is interpreted, it could... Could fighting with the Pentagon be the best thing that ever happened to Anthropic? On Friday,...

Art by Shane Burke

AI Spurs Shockingly Big Plans for Extra-High-Voltage Power Lines

By Ann Davis Vaughan · Mar 2, 2026 8:00am PST · 1 comment

Art by Shane Burke

AI Infrastructure

AI Spurs Shockingly Big Plans for Extra-High-Voltage Power Lines

By Ann Davis Vaughan · Mar 2, 2026 8:00am PST · 1 comment

The AI boom is catalyzing the build-out of some of the biggest, baddest power lines this country has ever seen. These extra-high-voltage wires can carry up to six times the power of other big lines, and they’re one of the only feasible ways to accommodate multigigawatt data centers on a crowded grid.In the last few months, grid authorities in... The AI boom is catalyzing the build-out of some of the biggest, baddest power lines this country...