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

Donald Trump. Photo by Getty

The Winners and Losers of Trump’s AI Plan

By Rocket Drew and Anissa Gardizy · Jul 24, 2025 6:40am PDT · 1 comment

President Donald Trump’s 23-page AI Action Plan, released on Wednesday, won’t transform the AI industry overnight, but it offers a sense of who stands to gain or lose under the current administration’s agenda. Big winners include those developing open-source models, such as Meta Platforms, while a requirement for plugging AI chip export... President Donald Trump’s 23-page AI Action Plan, released on Wednesday, won’t transform the AI...

Targets to Watch as AI Dealmaking Picks Up

By Valida Pau · Jul 24, 2025 6:00am PDT

Google’s and Meta Platforms’ unconventional multibillion-dollar deals to obtain artificial intelligence talent have dominated headlines in recent weeks. But large technology companies including Meta, Amazon, Nvidia, Snowflake and cloud provider CoreWeave have gone beyond recruiting talent: Each has recently acquired at least one AI startup for... Google’s and Meta Platforms’ unconventional multibillion-dollar deals to obtain artificial...

QuantumScape shares are up 203% over the last month. Photo: QuantumScape

The Electric: Long-Suffering Battery Startups Are Among the Best-Performing Stocks

By Steve LeVine · Jul 24, 2025 4:30am PDT

Everyone has a different theory about why batteries are a thing again, and almost none of them overlap. What’s indisputable is that investors once again have battery fever. Everyone has a different theory about why batteries are a thing again, and almost none of them...

Photo via Getty

Musk Giggles as Tesla Tanks

By Theo Wayt · Jul 23, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Photo via Getty

Musk Giggles as Tesla Tanks

By Theo Wayt · Jul 23, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Most CEOs reporting a 12% decline in quarterly revenues would adopt a sober attitude on their earnings call. Not Elon Musk, who opened Tesla’s analyst call on Wednesday with what sounded suspiciously like a penis joke, and then proceeded to make the rather, er, ambitious prediction that Tesla’s robotaxis would be available to half the U.S.... Most CEOs reporting a 12% decline in quarterly revenues would adopt a sober attitude on their...

Photo via Getty

Creator Economy

YouTube Makes Strong Start to Social Media Earnings

By Erin Woo and Kaya Yurieff · Jul 23, 2025 4:14pm PDT

Alphabet kicked off earnings season for social media companies with good news from YouTube: the video juggernaut’s advertising revenue rose 13% year over year in the second quarter, beating its growth rate in the first quarter and calming fears that President Trump’s tariffs would be a headwind for social media revenues. Another positive... Alphabet kicked off earnings season for social media companies with good news from YouTube: the...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty

Founders Fund, Dragoneer Each Commit $1 Billion–Plus to OpenAI Deal

By Sri Muppidi · Jul 23, 2025 1:20pm PDT

As OpenAI tries to raise a record-breaking $40 billion in equity funding this year, it’s getting help from more of its existing investors. Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Dragoneer Investment Group have committed to investing more than $1 billion each in the second, $30 billion installment of the round, according to a person who spoke to OpenAI... As OpenAI tries to raise a record-breaking $40 billion in equity funding this year, it’s getting...

Photo via Getty

The Enterprise Data War Hits OpenAI

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 23, 2025 7:00am PDT

Slack is the glue that holds OpenAI together: Everyone at the 3,000-person company constantly uses the messaging app to discuss their work, former employees have said.So perhaps it’s no surprise that as OpenAI tried to turn ChatGPT into a core enterprise productivity app that connects to all the other apps people use for work, it wanted... Slack is the glue that holds OpenAI together: Everyone at the 3,000-person company constantly...

Crusoe co-founder and CEO, Chase Lochmiller. Photo via Getty

Upstart Crusoe’s Audacious Plan to Take On Cloud Giants

By Anissa Gardizy and Cory Weinberg · Jul 23, 2025 6:09am PDT

Crusoe co-founder and CEO, Chase Lochmiller. Photo via Getty

Upstart Crusoe’s Audacious Plan to Take On Cloud Giants

By Anissa Gardizy and Cory Weinberg · Jul 23, 2025 6:09am PDT

Crusoe, the startup developing a giant data center for OpenAI’s $500 billion Stargate effort, is raising around $1 billion in a bid to join the race to provide computing power for artificial intelligence. The company burst into AI by promising quick access to electricity for power-hungry data centers. Its new effort will leverage that position... Crusoe, the startup developing a giant data center for OpenAI’s $500 billion Stargate effort, is...

Image via Getty

Will the Meme Stock Rally Save Tesla?

By Theo Wayt · Jul 22, 2025 5:03pm PDT · 1 comment

If you’re a renter who’s worried you’ll never be able to afford to buy a home, consider looking for ways to get rich quick in the stock market! For instance, investing in an unprofitable, shrinking home-flipping company can be a surprising moneymaker. I’m talking specifically about Opendoor, whose shares are up more than 400% this month. ... If you’re a renter who’s worried you’ll never be able to afford to buy a home, consider looking...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel at The Information's Future of Influence event in June. Photo by Erin Beach

Creator Economy

What to Expect from Meta, Snap, YouTube Earnings

By Kaya Yurieff · Jul 22, 2025 2:00pm PDT

Earlier this year, uncertainty stemming from the Trump administration’s tariffs seemed poised to hurt advertising demand. But those worries seem to have faded during the second quarter as President Trump postponed tariff deadlines. In fact, ad spending growth accelerated for Meta Platforms, YouTube, Google’s paid search advertising and... Earlier this year, uncertainty stemming from the Trump administration’s tariffs seemed poised to...

Armis co-founders Yevgeny Dibrov and Nadir Izrael. Photo via Armis

This Cybersecurity Startup Is the Latest to Try Recurring Tenders

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Jul 22, 2025 1:37pm PDT

We’ve written a lot lately about the hefty stock packages companies like Meta Platforms, OpenAI and others are dishing out to recruit artificial intelligence researchers. Outside AI, many private company CEOs are also recalibrating how they use shares to keep and reward people. Take, for instance, Armis. The nine-year-old cybersecurity... We’ve written a lot lately about the hefty stock packages companies like Meta Platforms, OpenAI...

Photos via Getty

Meta Hires Three Google AI Researchers Who Worked on Gold Medal-Winning Model

By Kalley Huang and Erin Woo · Jul 22, 2025 1:07pm PDT

Photos via Getty

Meta Hires Three Google AI Researchers Who Worked on Gold Medal-Winning Model

By Kalley Huang and Erin Woo · Jul 22, 2025 1:07pm PDT

Meta Platforms has hired three more artificial intelligence researchers from Google DeepMind as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues his aggressive efforts to recover from stumbles earlier this year with an unprecedented AI recruiting push. The latest hires—Tianhe Yu, Cosmo Du and Weiyue Wang—worked on a version of Google’s Gemini... Meta Platforms has hired three more artificial intelligence researchers from Google DeepMind as...

Box CEO Says AI Will Entrench Old-Guard Enterprise Apps, Not Hurt Them

Box CEO Says AI Will Entrench Old-Guard Enterprise Apps, Not Hurt Them

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Jul 22, 2025 10:49am PDT

Salesforce, Figma and other enterprise app firms have responded to a potential threat from artificial intelligence startups by limiting the startups’ access to customer data or files, even if the customers themselves give permission. But Aaron Levie, CEO of file storage firm Box, which turns 20 this year, says his company has no intention... Salesforce, Figma and other enterprise app firms have responded to a potential threat from...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Where Reinforcement Learning is Going

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 22, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Ever since researchers began noticing a slowdown in improvements to large language models using traditional training methods, they’ve shifted to reinforcement learning, a technique that rewards a model for accomplishing certain goals and penalizes it for other behaviors, as we covered last week.That typically means human experts giving feedback... Ever since researchers began noticing a slowdown in improvements to large language models using...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Why Apple Is Losing Ground in the AI Talent War (It’s Not Just Money)

By Aaron Tilley and Wayne Ma · Jul 22, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Earlier this year, the Apple team working on the company’s artificial intelligence models wanted to release several of them as open-source software. Doing so would have shown Apple’s technical progress in AI while also harnessing the help of outside researchers to improve the models. Still, it also would have revealed to the public how... Earlier this year, the Apple team working on the company’s artificial intelligence models wanted...

Photo via Getty

Microsoft’s Persistent Cybersecurity Sore

By Martin Peers · Jul 21, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Photo via Getty

Microsoft’s Persistent Cybersecurity Sore

By Martin Peers · Jul 21, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Will Microsoft dock Satya Nadella’s pay again this year? The software giant faced the latest in a seemingly endless string of security breaches over the weekend, when it told customers that hackers were exploiting a flaw in its SharePoint file-sharing software. According to a statement by cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks, the fact that... Will Microsoft dock Satya Nadella’s pay again this year? The software giant faced the latest in a...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Where LLMs Are Falling Short

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 21, 2025 7:00am PDT · 5 comments

I’m back from the International Conference on Machine Learning in Vancouver, one of the biggest annual meetups for artificial intelligence researchers. And this year, the conference underscored all the ways in which large language models are still falling short of everyone’s expectations, despite the immense progress that got us to this point.... I’m back from the International Conference on Machine Learning in Vancouver, one of the biggest...

Dylan Field, CEO of Figma. Photo via Getty

Figma’s IPO May Be Hot, but Its Outlook Is Murky

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jul 21, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

After two blockbuster tech initial public offerings, investors are positively drooling over Figma’s upcoming listing. The design software company is expected to launch into a surprisingly hot market for tech offerings led by CoreWeave and Circle, which are up more than 200% and 600%, respectively, since they started trading. Figma boasts... After two blockbuster tech initial public offerings, investors are positively drooling over Figma...

Joby's air taxi, near its manufacturing facility in Marina, Calif. Photo; Courtesy Joby

The Electric: Toyota Took a Pass on EVs. But it Has Bet $1 Billion on this Flying Car Company

By Steve LeVine · Jul 21, 2025 4:30am PDT

Toyota Motors is one of the world’s most buttoned-up companies. But in 2017, an executive from the carmaker’s venture arm drove into the remote Santa Cruz, Calif., mountains to see a group of engineers living together in a 1960s-style commune. As he watched, they demonstrated a remote-controlled electric helicopter they predicted would usher in... Toyota Motors is one of the world’s most buttoned-up companies. But in 2017, an executive from...

Art: Clark Miller

Weekend: Can Meta Fix This Common AI Flaw?

By Abram Brown · Jul 19, 2025 7:00am PDT

Art: Clark Miller

Weekend: Can Meta Fix This Common AI Flaw?

By Abram Brown · Jul 19, 2025 7:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Flying taxis near reality thanks to an unexpected boost from Toyota• The Top 5: A tech mogul’s guide to summer fashion, Sun Valley style • Plus, our Recommendations: “Flesh and Code,” “The CIA Book Club” and “Su Majestad.”Silicon Valley has many flaws. A prominent one: an... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Flying taxis near reality thanks to an...