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

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Bridget Bennett/Getty Images.

Nvidia and Salesforce Show Different Sides of AI

By Martin Peers · Feb 25, 2026 5:00pm PST

It was a tale of two AI cities when Nvidia and Salesforce on Wednesday reported the January-quarter earnings that ended their 2026 fiscal years. Nvidia kept its place at the top of the class, reporting better than projected 73% revenue growth. Net income rose 94% to $42.9 billion. For the full fiscal year, Nvidia had revenue of $216 billion and... It was a tale of two AI cities when Nvidia and Salesforce on Wednesday reported the...

Artwork by Clark Miller

From Vision to Constraints: The Lessons of OpenAI’s Stargate Buildout

By The Information Staff · Feb 25, 2026 1:49pm PST · 1 comment

OpenAI’s ambitions to build some of the world’s largest AI data centers have evolved significantly over the past two years, offering a revealing look at how difficult it is to translate demand for compute into physical infrastructure. Shifts in partners, scope and timelines highlight the financial and operational trade-offs that come with... OpenAI’s ambitions to build some of the world’s largest AI data centers have evolved...

Photo courtesy of Saronic.

Autonomous Warship Startup Saronic Raising at $7.5 Billion Valuation

By Cory Weinberg and Katie Roof · Feb 25, 2026 12:52pm PST · 2 comments

Saronic, a startup that builds autonomous warships, is raising as much as $1.5 billion in a financing that would value the company at about $7.5 billion, before including the investment, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. Kleiner Perkins, the storied venture capital firm that has done few defense tech deals until now, has... Saronic, a startup that builds autonomous warships, is raising as much as $1.5 billion in a...

Co-CEO of Blue Owl, Marc Lipschultz. Photo by Michael Nagle/ Getty Images

Blue Owl Fouls the Nest for AI Financing

By Ken Brown · Feb 25, 2026 8:00am PST · 4 comments

Co-CEO of Blue Owl, Marc Lipschultz. Photo by Michael Nagle/ Getty Images

The Information Finance

Blue Owl Fouls the Nest for AI Financing

By Ken Brown · Feb 25, 2026 8:00am PST · 4 comments

There are few sure things in business, but here’s one: If you want to start a fast-growing company, lend money. The demand for loans is insatiable, and if you offer a good deal, you’ll have a line stretching down the block.Fair warning: The good times may not last long, and the downturn could be ugly. Private market lender Blue Owl is... There are few sure things in business, but here’s one: If you want to start a fast-growing...

Andrew Feldman, Cerebras Systems. Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

Why OpenAI’s Cerebras Chip Deal Matters; What Anthropic Wants to Know About Chinese Rivals

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Feb 25, 2026 7:00am PST

OpenAI executives have repeatedly signaled, both publicly and privately, that the only factor limiting the company’s revenue growth is access to computational resources. Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar wrote an entire blog post on this topic earlier this year, and OpenAI executives highlighted the message again in a presentation to investors... OpenAI executives have repeatedly signaled, both publicly and privately, that the only factor...

Art by Mike Sullivan

The 17 People Crucial to AI Shopping

By Ann Gehan · Feb 25, 2026 6:00am PST

The AI shopping race is shifting quickly. In less than six months, AI companies have mostly stopped trying to make agents that browse and shop directly on retail sites and have focused instead on putting checkout features inside AI chatbots. That’s elevated the importance of the engineers who have been building these shopping features as well as... The AI shopping race is shifting quickly. In less than six months, AI companies have mostly...

Getty Images

Bankers Ponder New Ways to Raise Data Center Money, Despite Risks

By Miles Kruppa · Feb 24, 2026 5:00pm PST

Talk about symbolic. This week’s annual conference for bankers and investors who play in the arcane world of asset securitization—selling debt backed by mortgages and other cash streams—was disrupted when an exhibit hall at the convention in Las Vegas caught fire on Monday night. I’m not kidding. You could say the blaze was a physical... Talk about symbolic. This week’s annual conference for bankers and investors who play in the...

Why OpenAI, Anthropic Missed Their Own Gross Margin Forecasts

Why OpenAI, Anthropic Missed Their Own Gross Margin Forecasts

By Sri Muppidi · Feb 24, 2026 3:43pm PST · 6 comments

Why OpenAI, Anthropic Missed Their Own Gross Margin Forecasts

Why OpenAI, Anthropic Missed Their Own Gross Margin Forecasts

By Sri Muppidi · Feb 24, 2026 3:43pm PST · 6 comments

OpenAI has become increasingly optimistic about the revenue it expects to generate from both consumers and businesses, pushing up its projections for the next five years. Clouding those forecasts, however, are escalating cloud server costs that have outstripped revenue growth.Those pressures were stark last year, when OpenAI’s gross margins fell... OpenAI has become increasingly optimistic about the revenue it expects to generate from both...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei via Getty Images

Anthropic and OpenAI Take Different Stances On Disrupting Software Incumbents

By Laura Bratton, Stephanie Palazzolo and Aaron Holmes · Feb 24, 2026 11:58am PST · 1 comment

Anthropic on Tuesday unveiled new details of how businesses could use its Claude Cowork AI software to access and use data stored in enterprise apps, including DocuSign, LegalZoom and Salesforce. Given the recent market jitters about the disruptive impact of AI on these software firms, you’d think the news would have depressed stocks even more.... Anthropic on Tuesday unveiled new details of how businesses could use its Claude Cowork AI...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Anthropic Research Memo Shows Focus on Rogue Agents, Scheming Models

By Rocket Drew · Feb 24, 2026 10:28am PST

Puncturing the buzz over AI agents such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and the open-source project OpenClaw is the prospect that these agents could get tricked into revealing sensitive information such as a person’s banking information. In a sign of those concerns, Anthropic earlier this year singled out rogue agents as a topic of focus for its... Puncturing the buzz over AI agents such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and the open-source project...

Art by Getty Images

Why ChatGPT Faces Language Barriers

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 24, 2026 7:00am PST

Many AI researchers believe AI models that listen and speak to people are trailing text-based models in capabilities and performance. That gap is even bigger when you look at audio models for languages other than English, especially outside the Western hemisphere.That could be a big issue for companies like OpenAI that are aggressively trying to... Many AI researchers believe AI models that listen and speak to people are trailing text-based...

Art by Clark Miller

Microsoft and Other Software Firms Plot Defense Against New OpenAI, Anthropic Threat

By Kevin McLaughlin, Aaron Holmes and Nick Wingfield · Feb 24, 2026 6:00am PST · 5 comments

Art by Clark Miller

Microsoft and Other Software Firms Plot Defense Against New OpenAI, Anthropic Threat

By Kevin McLaughlin, Aaron Holmes and Nick Wingfield · Feb 24, 2026 6:00am PST · 5 comments

Earlier this month, on an investor call for software company HubSpot, a Wall Street analyst asked CEO Yamini Rangan a question that was on the mind of practically everyone who follows the software business closely: How did HubSpot plan to respond to clients who use agents to pull their data out of HubSpot’s customer management software and... Earlier this month, on an investor call for software company HubSpot, a Wall Street analyst asked...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Prakash Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Software Quandary: Are OpenAI and Anthropic Frenemies or Foes?

By Martin Peers · Feb 23, 2026 5:00pm PST

When does a frenemy become a mortal threat? That question should be top of mind for executives atop enterprise software firms, such as ServiceNow, Salesforce and Snowflake, each of which at various times has announced partnerships with OpenAI. And yet OpenAI seems to be doing everything it can to put at least some of these firms out of business.... When does a frenemy become a mortal threat? That question should be top of mind for executives...

Photo by Kyle Grillot/Getty Images

AI Infrastructure

What OpenAI’s Stargate Issues Could Teach Anthropic

By Anissa Gardizy · Feb 23, 2026 8:00am PST

Over the past year, the running joke in the data center industry—even inside OpenAI—has been that the $500 billion Stargate initiative was less of a master plan than a “vibe.”My reporting this weekend showed how little Stargate resembles the $500 billion effort touted at a White House event just over a year ago. Stargate now has no staff, nor... Over the past year, the running joke in the data center industry—even inside OpenAI—has been that...

Art by Getty Images

OpenAI’s GPT-5 Dip; Why Agents Are Hard to Evaluate

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Feb 23, 2026 7:00am PST

Before we get into today’s column, Friday’s story from Sri and me confirmed what many had been hypothesizing since OpenAI’s release of GPT-5 in August: ChatGPT’s growth hasn’t been as strong as OpenAI hoped.The story is more nuanced, obviously. The chatbot has hit new highs in terms of weekly active users—910 million, to be exact as of earlier... Before we get into today’s column, Friday’s story from Sri and me confirmed what many had been...

SpaceX deploying 60 Starlink broadband data satellites. Courtesy of SpaceX.

SpaceX’s Starlink Makes Land Grab as Amazon Threat Looms

By Theo Wayt · Feb 23, 2026 6:00am PST · 6 comments

SpaceX deploying 60 Starlink broadband data satellites. Courtesy of SpaceX.

SpaceX’s Starlink Makes Land Grab as Amazon Threat Looms

By Theo Wayt · Feb 23, 2026 6:00am PST · 6 comments

Since launching in 2020, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has quickly eclipsed its rocket launch business to become its biggest source of revenue, and, investors hope, a significant cash generator in coming years. But recent efforts to maintain user growth have increasingly turned Starlink into a competitor to mass-market telecom... Since launching in 2020, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has quickly eclipsed its...

At AM Batteries' factory in Billerica, Mass. Photo: Courtesy AM Batteries

Exclusive From The Electric: This Battery Executive's Advantage is That He Has Sold a Startup to Elon Musk

By Steve LeVine · Feb 23, 2026 4:30am PST

In early 2019, Tesla paid $218 million to acquire a small San Diego battery startup that it believed could transform the economics of carmaking. Last month, Elon Musk’s gamble appeared to pay off when Tesla announced it was using the startup’s money-saving technology in an updated battery that powers the Cybertruck. In early 2019, Tesla paid $218 million to acquire a small San Diego battery startup that it...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Krisztian Bocsi/Getty Images.

OpenAI’s Magical Thinking; Nvidia on Deck This Week

By Martin Peers · Feb 22, 2026 3:00pm PST · 1 comment

Before we get to what’s coming this week, let’s take a moment to honor the company that has honed the power of magical thinking. That would be OpenAI, whose latest long term revenue and profit projections we reported on Friday night here. The most important element of the report was that in 2025, the cost of running AI models quadrupled, so the... Before we get to what’s coming this week, let’s take a moment to honor the company that has honed...

Art by Clark Miller

Inside OpenAI’s Scramble to Get Computing Power After Stargate Stalled

By Anissa Gardizy · Feb 22, 2026 11:00am PST · 4 comments

When President Donald Trump announced the $500 billion Stargate AI data center project in January 2025, the three companies charged with developing it promised to move with lightning speed, spending $100 billion almost immediately to start building 10 gigawatts of computing capacity. More than a year later, the Stargate joint venture has not... When President Donald Trump announced the $500 billion Stargate AI data center project in January...

Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Why Reddit’s Stock Plunged 42% In Past Five Weeks

By Martin Peers · Feb 22, 2026 8:00am PST

Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Sunday Insights

Why Reddit’s Stock Plunged 42% In Past Five Weeks

By Martin Peers · Feb 22, 2026 8:00am PST

Reddit’s explosive revenue growth of the past two years turbocharged the company’s stock after its 2024 initial public offering, lifting it nearly 700% to its highs of around $270 last fall. That rally was markedly different from the tepid performance that similarly sized social media companies such as Snap and Pinterest endured after their... Reddit’s explosive revenue growth of the past two years turbocharged the company’s stock after...