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 via Clark Miller

SAP Moves to Block OpenClaw and Other Unauthorized AI Agents

By Kevin McLaughlin and Laura Bratton · May 4, 2026 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Some enterprise software companies are worried enough about customers using AI agents to access their data that they’re planning to install tollgates to their apps. And then there are software companies like SAP. Last month, the $200 billion German firm published a policy document for customers, suggesting it would ban them from using external... Some enterprise software companies are worried enough about customers using AI agents to access...

Palantir CEO Alex Karp. Photo by Getty.

Palantir’s AI Pricing Power

By Laura Bratton · May 3, 2026 3:00pm PDT

Results from Google, Microsoft and Amazon last week showed AI is still fueling cloud revenues, news that helped lift the stock market to fresh records on Friday. This week, we’ll get a clearer glimpse into whether AI can also lift the lagging prices of software stocks such as Palantir and ServiceNow.Palantir kicks off the week’s wave of... Results from Google, Microsoft and Amazon last week showed AI is still fueling cloud revenues,...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Sunday Insights

SpaceX IPO Set to Drive Billions in Tech Stock Sales

By Cory Weinberg and Valida Pau · May 3, 2026 8:00am PDT · 4 comments

A jet painted with SpaceX logos ferried nearly 200 investors from the largest Wall Street funds from Newark, N.J., to the southern tip of Texas a week and a half ago for a multiday presentation from executives. The airplane was so full it couldn’t fit everyone who wanted to get on, said an investor on the trip. The massive initial public... A jet painted with SpaceX logos ferried nearly 200 investors from the largest Wall Street funds...

Art: Clark Miller

Doom Ban, Meme Coins and 7 More Highlights from Musk v. OpenAI

By Rocket Drew · May 2, 2026 8:00am PDT

Art: Clark Miller

Doom Ban, Meme Coins and 7 More Highlights from Musk v. OpenAI

By Rocket Drew · May 2, 2026 8:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Inside ZaiNar, the secretive startup hoping to power the physical AI era • Policy: Meet the Trump official who wants to deliver a win to prediction markets • Plus, Recommendations—our weekly pop culture picks: “Expanse: The Nannup Four,” “The Infinity Machine” and “Beef”Watching... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Inside ZaiNar, the secretive startup ...

Art: Clark Miller (Photo: Getty Images)

CFTC Chair Races to Stop States From Killing Prediction Markets

By Nancy Scola · May 2, 2026 7:04am PDT

When Michael Selig took up his new position as head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a few months ago, he quickly embarked on an effort that seems fitting for a Trump administration official who would like to make it possible for every American living room to become a wagering parlor. Selig is a sports fan, and he filled the space... When Michael Selig took up his new position as head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a...

Anthropic co-founder and president, Daniela Amodei. Kimberly White/Getty Images.

Anthropic in Talks to Buy AI Chips From U.K. Startup

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Anissa Gardizy · May 2, 2026 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

As Anthropic’s sales explode, straining the servers it uses, the company is considering adding another source of AI server chips in addition to existing suppliers Google, Amazon and Nvidia. The maker of Claude has recently been in talks with London-based startup Fractile to buy its inference chips, which aim to run AI models efficiently, when... As Anthropic’s sales explode, straining the servers it uses, the company is considering adding...

Art: Clark Miller

Secretive ZaiNar Exits Shadows, Targets $5 Billion in Deals for GPS Alternative

By Jemima McEvoy · May 1, 2026 9:02am PDT · 3 comments

A couple of weeks ago, Daniel Jacker, CEO and co-founder of ZaiNar, made me an alluring offer: Would I like to see the first-ever public demonstration of the technology his startup had spent nine years laboriously developing in anonymity? He described it as the most accurate location-tracking tech on the planet, capable of pinpointing an object’... A couple of weeks ago, Daniel Jacker, CEO and co-founder of ZaiNar, made me an alluring offer:...

Moonshot AI and Other Chinese Firms Weigh Corporate Overhaul in Wake of Meta-Manus Deal Reversal

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · May 1, 2026 6:00am PDT

Moonshot AI and Other Chinese Firms Weigh Corporate Overhaul in Wake of Meta-Manus Deal Reversal

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · May 1, 2026 6:00am PDT

Chinese tech startups such as Moonshot AI and DeepRoute.ai are considering changing their corporate structures—in which they’re partly incorporated overseas—in favor of incorporating in China. That shift follows signals from China’s securities regulator that it is less likely to approve initial public offerings by local companies... Chinese tech startups such as Moonshot AI and DeepRoute.ai are considering changing their...

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty.

Apple's Cash Strategy Shift

By Martin Peers · Apr 30, 2026 5:10pm PDT

Tim Cook is going out with a bang. Apple reported a stellar March quarter on Thursday, delivering 17% higher revenue, thanks to 22% growth in iPhone revenues, a big change from several years of anemic growth in sales of the ubiquitous device. In other words, far more consumers are upgrading their old iPhones than has been the case for a... Tim Cook is going out with a bang. Apple reported a stellar March quarter on Thursday, delivering...

Omar Havana/Getty Images

Founders Fund Takes a Bigger Bite of Anduril

By Julia Hornstein · Apr 30, 2026 4:31pm PDT

Two months ago, my colleagues broke the news of Anduril’s latest funding round, slated to value the company at $60 billion. Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital are leading the roughly $4 billion investment, according to a source with direct knowledge of the fundraising efforts. But another investor stands out for the size of its check. ... Two months ago, my colleagues broke the news of Anduril’s latest funding round, slated to value...

Philip Johnston, CEO of Starcloud. Screenshot via YouTube

Starcloud in Talks for $2.2 Billion Valuation as SpaceX Stirs Interest

By Theo Wayt and Julia Hornstein · Apr 30, 2026 2:24pm PDT · 1 comment

Starcloud, a two-year-old startup building orbital data centers, has told investors it’s in talks to raise at least $200 million at a valuation of around $2.2 billion after the investment, according to a person involved in the deal. The discussions come just one month after Redmond, Wash.-based Starcloud said it raised $170 million at a $1.1... Starcloud, a two-year-old startup building orbital data centers, has told investors it’s in talks...

How to Analyze Customer Sentiment with Google Gemini

By The Information Partnerships · Apr 30, 2026 1:34pm PDT

Partner Content

How to Analyze Customer Sentiment with Google Gemini

By The Information Partnerships · Apr 30, 2026 1:34pm PDT

Customers provideteams with feedback constantly, in the form of support tickets, survey comments, app reviews, and countless other sources. But much of this data is unstructured, making it challenging to identify patterns across hundreds or thousands of responses. In the past, making sense of this data required customer service teams to manually... Customers provideteams with feedback constantly, in the form of support tickets, survey comments,...

Art by Clark Miller.

SpaceX IPO Details Put Musk’s AI Ambitions in Focus

By The Information Staff · Apr 30, 2026 1:30pm PDT

Elon Musk is pitching SpaceX investors on something much bigger—and riskier—than rockets and Starlink. SpaceX’s planned mid-June IPO is shaping up as a test of how eagerly public markets will fund Musk’s next grand bet: using Starlink’s fast-growing internet business to bankroll a costly push into AI infrastructure after SpaceX’s... Elon Musk is pitching SpaceX investors on something much bigger—and riskier—than...

Amy Hood, CFO of Microsoft. Photo by Chona Kasinger/Getty Images

Microsoft Pushes Usage-Based Pricing as AI Eats into Cloud Margins

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Apr 30, 2026 11:59am PDT

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Wednesday that a lot more people were heavily using the company’s AI-powered applications. But his company’s first quarter financial results showed the usage was dragging down profit margins in its cloud unit, prompting Microsoft to effectively boost prices. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Wednesday that a lot more people were heavily using the company’...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Standard Intelligence Rides Neolab Fervor with Computer Use Model

By Rocket Drew · Apr 30, 2026 7:00am PDT

Pedestrians in downtown San Francisco are used to seeing Waymos navigating the streets. But two months ago, people in the South Park neighborhood saw something new: a Toyota Rav4 driving around with a laptop propped on the dashboard. The laptop was running a new breed of AI model, known as a “computer use model,” from a two-year-old startup... Pedestrians in downtown San Francisco are used to seeing Waymos navigating the streets. But two...

Photo by David Kawai/ Getty Images.

Shopify Seeks Licenses to Push Deeper Into Fintech

By Ann Gehan · Apr 30, 2026 6:00am PDT

Photo by David Kawai/ Getty Images.

Shopify Seeks Licenses to Push Deeper Into Fintech

By Ann Gehan · Apr 30, 2026 6:00am PDT

Commerce giant Shopify is seeking regulatory approvals to take a bigger role in offering financial and payments services to the millions of merchants using its software. Shopify has already secured money transmitter licenses in more than a dozen U.S. states to hold and move funds itself, and it is seeking them nationwide. If that happens, the... Commerce giant Shopify is seeking regulatory approvals to take a bigger role in offering...

Photo by Amy Osborne/Getty Images

Artificial Intelligence

Musk Battles OpenAI Lawyer Over Claims Co-Founders Stole a Charity

By Rocket Drew · Apr 29, 2026 8:01pm PDT

The AI era’s mega-trial delivered its first real drama, as an OpenAI lawyer sought to portray Elon Musk as resentful and double-dealing during a tense cross examination Wednesday. Bill Savitt, OpenAI’s outside counsel, and a veteran of legal combat with Musk, called into question Musk’s motivations for bringing the lawsuit and sought to... The AI era’s mega-trial delivered its first real drama, as an OpenAI lawyer sought to portray...

Left to right: Microsoft's Satya Nadella, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Andy Jassy and Google's Sundar Pichai. Getty Images.

Google Cloud and AWS Shine in Big Tech's Quarterly Update

By Martin Peers · Apr 29, 2026 5:00pm PDT

It was the Super Bowl of quarterly tech earnings today, with March-quarter results from Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta Platforms. The tsunami of numbers, all released within a few minutes of each other, might overwhelm even a top AI model. But for a human, what was clear was that surging demand for AI computing capacity is lifting cloud... It was the Super Bowl of quarterly tech earnings today, with March-quarter results from Google,...

Michael Nicolls, senior vice president for Starlink at SpaceX, during a keynote speech at MWC Barcelona 2026 in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday, March 2, 2026. Photo by Angel Garcia/Getty Images

SpaceX’s Starlink Revenue Per User Fell 18% As Customers Quadrupled

By Valida Pau and Theo Wayt · Apr 29, 2026 10:53am PDT

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service quadrupled its individual subscribers between 2023 and 2025—but the average revenue each subscriber brought in fell 18% to $81 a month in that period, a draft version of SpaceX’s initial public offering prospectus shows. The decline in Starlink’s ARPU reflects the service’s introduction of... SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service quadrupled its individual subscribers between 2023...

Craig Warga/The Information.

The Hidden Risks in AI Funding

By Ken Brown · Apr 29, 2026 8:34am PDT · 1 comment

Craig Warga/The Information.

The Information Finance

The Hidden Risks in AI Funding

By Ken Brown · Apr 29, 2026 8:34am PDT · 1 comment

Bankers and investors, especially when they are sitting in front of an audience, are not shy about offering their opinions. Yet when I asked a panel of money types at our Financing the AI Revolution conference on Monday about risks in the current market, I got near silence.We had been discussing the billions of investment dollars pouring into... Bankers and investors, especially when they are sitting in front of an audience, are not shy...