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

Art by Mike Sullivan

Why Musk is Giving xAI’s Servers to Anthropic; AI Video-App Developer Reka Acquires Video-Generating Startup

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Anissa Gardizy · May 7, 2026 7:00am PDT

OpenAI and Anthropic’s servers are generally bursting at the seams, while xAI’s mountain of servers aren’t as busy, as we and others recently reported. That’s burning a multibillion-dollar hole in the pocket of new xAI owner SpaceX, which is trying to go public soon and is sure to receive tremendous scrutiny over its AI-related losses.So after... OpenAI and Anthropic’s servers are generally bursting at the seams, while xAI’s mountain of...

Shivon Zilis, former board member of OpenAI Inc., center, exits the federal court in Oakland, California, on May 6, 2026. Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images

Artificial Intelligence

How Elon Musk’s Team Is Struggling to Prove His Case in Court

By Rocket Drew · May 7, 2026 6:01am PDT · 2 comments

Elon Musk’s lawyers are close to resting their case against OpenAI, but his path to winning a blockbuster legal victory looks steeper than when the trial began, according to lawyers following the case. The Musk team is expected to wrap up its presentation by Monday, after nearly two weeks trying to prove his claim that OpenAI’s other co-founders... Elon Musk’s lawyers are close to resting their case against OpenAI, but his path to winning a...

AP Images.

Elon Musk’s xAI Is Becoming a Cloud Firm

By Martin Peers · May 6, 2026 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Is xAI the next CoreWeave? SpaceX’s announcement on Wednesday that its xAI unit had struck a deal to supply computing capacity to Anthropic comes a couple of weeks after xAI struck a similar deal with AI coding startup Cursor. Last we checked, AI firms with leading models need all the computing capacity they can get, which means they’re... Is xAI the next CoreWeave? SpaceX’s announcement on Wednesday that its xAI unit had struck a deal...

Recap: The IPO Reckoning

By The Information Partnerships · May 6, 2026 1:27pm PDT

Partner Content

Recap: The IPO Reckoning

By The Information Partnerships · May 6, 2026 1:27pm PDT

After years of mostly tumbleweeds, the initial public offering market is about to enter one of its most exciting and potentially volatile eras. SpaceX—with a valuation expected to exceed $1 trillion—is widely anticipated to go public as soon as June, with companies like Anthropic and OpenAI potentially not far behind. As a historic wave of... After years of mostly tumbleweeds, the initial public offering market is about to enter one of...

Photo by Michael Nagle/Getty Images

The Information Finance

Why SpaceX Might Land in Your Mother’s Index Fund

By Ken Brown · May 6, 2026 8:00am PDT · 5 comments

When SpaceX hits the market, likely next month, Elon Musk’s fans will rush to buy shares no matter what the valuation. A few months later, a far different group of investors might also scramble to get shares, and they’ll also buy at any price.Index funds, the favorites of savvy, cost-conscious investors, might be forced to load up on SpaceX... When SpaceX hits the market, likely next month, Elon Musk’s fans will rush to buy shares no...

Art by Mike Sullivan; Shutterstock

Rising AI Costs Are Becoming a Problem For Even Investors

By Stephanie Palazzolo · May 6, 2026 7:00am PDT

In recent months, a lot of discussion has centered around the rising costs of AI, with even large, sophisticated public companies like Uber blowing through their 2026 AI budgets in a matter of months.Even venture capitalists are feeling the pain. One partner at a large fund told me that they previously gave five of their staffers enterprise ... In recent months, a lot of discussion has centered around the rising costs of AI, with even...

Polymarket's Situation Room pop-up in Washington in March. Alex Kent/The Washington Post/Getty Images.

Polymarket’s Homecoming Is Shaky and its U.S. CEO Is AWOL

By Michael Roddan and Yueqi Yang · May 6, 2026 6:00am PDT

Four years after its was exiled from the U.S., Polymarket was desperate to get back into the country. To make that happen, the prediction market bought a derivative and futures exchange that had just gotten a U.S. license and retained its chief executive, Justin Hertzberg, to run Polymarket U.S. Hertzberg appears to be CEO in name only. His main... Four years after its was exiled from the U.S., Polymarket was desperate to get back into the...

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Getty Images.

Coinbase’s Missed ‘Learning’ on Hiring

By Martin Peers · May 5, 2026 5:00pm PDT

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Getty Images.

Coinbase’s Missed ‘Learning’ on Hiring

By Martin Peers · May 5, 2026 5:00pm PDT

Greetings!Before we get to today’s news, check out our new text-to-audio tool that lets you listen to all of our articles on desktop or mobile web. Just press the Listen button on any article (I promise you will not hear my voice, just in case the thought of that was offputting!).There must be a template out there somewhere, probably created by... Greetings!Before we get to today’s news, check out our new text-to-audio tool that lets you...

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images.

Private Equity’s AI Deals Lighten the Mood at Milken

By Cory Weinberg and Valida Pau · May 5, 2026 4:35pm PDT

News this week about private equity firms’ new joint ventures with OpenAI and Anthropic came at the right time for PE giants: just as they were about to sit down with their investors for days of meetings at the annual Milken Institute conference. The AI partnerships put the slew of PE firms involved—in Anthropic’s case, Blackstone, Hellman... News this week about private equity firms’ new joint ventures with OpenAI and Anthropic came at...

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images

Meta Is Building an AI Agent Called ‘Hatch’ and an AI Shopping Tool in Instagram

By Jyoti Mann · May 5, 2026 3:33pm PDT

Meta Platforms is building a consumer version of the AI agent OpenClaw and a new agentic shopping tool, people familiar with the efforts said, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushes for products to deliver returns on the company’s huge artificial intelligence investments. Meta is training the OpenClaw-inspired agent, internally called “Hatch,” with the... Meta Platforms is building a consumer version of the AI agent OpenClaw and a new agentic shopping...

Bill McDermott, CEO of ServiceNow. Photo by Bridget Bennett/Getty Images

ServiceNow Is Putting Up a New Tollgate for AI Agents

By Laura Bratton · May 5, 2026 1:25pm PDT

The number of software tollgates is expanding.ServiceNow on Monday joined firms such as HubSpot and Workday in detailing plans to charge customers that use AI agents to tap data in its apps. During its financial analyst day in Las Vegas, the company unveiled “Action Fabric”, a new layer—effectively a tollgate—that AI agents will have to go... The number of software tollgates is expanding.ServiceNow on Monday joined firms such as HubSpot...

Anthropic Co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei. Photo by Chance Yeh/Getty Images

Anthropic Commits to Spending $200 Billion on Google’s Cloud and Chips

By Sri Muppidi, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · May 5, 2026 1:20pm PDT

Anthropic Co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei. Photo by Chance Yeh/Getty Images

Anthropic Commits to Spending $200 Billion on Google’s Cloud and Chips

By Sri Muppidi, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · May 5, 2026 1:20pm PDT

When Google last month said it would supply Anthropic with an astonishing five gigawatts of server capacity, the companies didn’t put a dollar figure on that commitment. But as part of the deal, which begins next year, Anthropic plans to spend about $200 billion with Google over five years, according to a person with knowledge of it. The... When Google last month said it would supply Anthropic with an astonishing five gigawatts of...

Subscriber Survey

Three-Way AI Race Emerges as ChatGPT Loses Early Lead Among Readers

By Shane Burke · May 5, 2026 11:59am PDT

ChatGPT’s early lead with The Information’s readers has largely vanished, leaving the three biggest AI chatbots in a neck-and-neck race. In our latest reader survey, about 60% of respondents said they use Anthropic’s Claude, while 57% use OpenAI’s ChatGPT and 56% use Google’s Gemini. The shift has been years in the making. We first asked readers... ChatGPT’s early lead with The Information’s readers has largely vanished, leaving the three...

Images via Getty Images; Shutterstock; YouTube.

xAI’s Fast, Cheap Data Center Build-Out Has Hidden Costs

By Theo Wayt and Valida Pau · May 5, 2026 10:10am PDT · 3 comments

SpaceX is touting xAI’s ability to build data centers quickly and cheaply as a major advantage over rival AI labs, part of a pitch for its upcoming initial public offering. For instance, in SpaceX’s draft IPO prospectus, the company said xAI brought the first two chip clusters at its second data center online at roughly a quarter of what it... SpaceX is touting xAI’s ability to build data centers quickly and cheaply as a major advantage...

Greg Brockman, president and co-founder of OpenAI exits federal court in Oakland yesterday. Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images

Greg Brockman’s Rough Day

By Rocket Drew · May 5, 2026 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Monday was Greg Brockman's turn to get grilled, as Elon Musk's lawyer relentlessly questioned the OpenAI co-founder and president about his financial stake in the AI giant and companies it does business with.Brockman took the stand to start the second week of courtroom proceedings in Musk’s lawsuit alleging breach of charitable trust and unjust... Monday was Greg Brockman's turn to get grilled, as Elon Musk's lawyer relentlessly questioned the...

In Ford's Long Beach, Calif. Skunk Works. Photo: Courtesy Ford

The Electric: Inside Ford's Southern California Skunk Works

By Steve LeVine · May 5, 2026 6:30am PDT

In Ford's Long Beach, Calif. Skunk Works. Photo: Courtesy Ford

The Electric: Inside Ford's Southern California Skunk Works

By Steve LeVine · May 5, 2026 6:30am PDT

In recent months, Ford has dramatically retreated from its bet on electric vehicles and returned to a full-bore lineup of large gasoline pickups and SUVs. There’s one exception: a California skunkworks that aims to build a $30,000 EV that beats Tesla and Chinese juggernauts such as BYD and Xiaomi. In recent months, Ford has dramatically retreated from its bet on electric vehicles and returned...

Art by Shutterstock; Mike Sullivan.

Amazon Weighs ‘Hybrid Mode’ AI Searches on Retail Site

By Catherine Perloff · May 5, 2026 6:00am PDT

Amazon has so far kept its Rufus AI shopping assistant largely separate from its main commerce search bar. But the retail giant is leaving the door open to adding AI commentary to search results, bringing browsing and researching more seamlessly into the buying process. That includes hybrid modes, such as Amazon showing a conversational blurb... Amazon has so far kept its Rufus AI shopping assistant largely separate from its main commerce...

CEO of Palantir Technologies Alex Karp speaks during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 20, 2026 Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/Getty Images

Palantir’s AI Boom; Ryan Cohen’s Chutzpah

By Martin Peers · May 4, 2026 5:00pm PDT

Is Palantir soaking up all the growth in the enterprise software sector? That seems like a reasonable question judging by the company’s first-quarter results released on Monday, which showed 85% revenue growth. That’s an astounding growth rate for a business that’s 23 years old. Even better, Palantir turns a lot of that revenue into pure cash.... Is Palantir soaking up all the growth in the enterprise software sector? That seems like a...

Marc Boroditsky of Nebius, Chuck Fisher of Lambda and Nick Robbins of CoreWeave at The Information's Financing the AI Revolution event.

AI Infrastructure

Nebius, Lambda and CoreWeave Say ‘No’ to TPUs Amid Google’s Push

By Anissa Gardizy · May 4, 2026 9:33am PDT

Good morning! Anissa here. We’ve been tracking Google’s effort to expand the reach of its tensor processing units for quite a while, and two developments last week helped us understand where things are actually headed.On one hand, Google said on its earnings call that it plans to sell its TPUs directly to customers for use in their own data... Good morning! Anissa here. We’ve been tracking Google’s effort to expand the reach of its...

Art via Getty Images; Shutterstock

Cursor Keeps Its Distance From xAI Despite Tie-Up

By Laura Bratton and Stephanie Palazzolo · May 4, 2026 7:00am PDT

Art via Getty Images; Shutterstock

Cursor Keeps Its Distance From xAI Despite Tie-Up

By Laura Bratton and Stephanie Palazzolo · May 4, 2026 7:00am PDT

When Cursor agreed to a $60 billion conditional takeover offer from SpaceX last month—the purchase isn’t definite—some of Cursor’s rivals expected the coding startup to work with SpaceX’s xAI unit to develop new models, specifically for coding.That’s not happening anytime soon, apparently. Cursor doesn’t currently plan to codevelop coding models... When Cursor agreed to a $60 billion conditional takeover offer from SpaceX last month—the...