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

Takeoff founding engineers Shreya Shubhangi and Spencer Yen and founder and CEO Aakash Thumaty. Photo courtesy of Takeoff.

Sierra Acquires Agent Startup ‘Takeoff’ to Diversify Its Business

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Juro Osawa · Jul 23, 2026 7:01am PDT · 1 comment

In 2020, 22-year-old Aakash Thumaty was a product manager at Salesforce when he wrote an essay, “Value Driven Innovation at Shopify and the Incumbency Trap at Salesforce,” which argued against Salesforce’s subscription-based business model. He sent it to Bret Taylor, who at the time was Salesforce’s chief operating officer. To Thumaty’s... In 2020, 22-year-old Aakash Thumaty was a product manager at Salesforce when he wrote an essay, “...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images

Anthropic Considers Unusual Plan for Employee Stock Sales After It Goes Public

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 23, 2026 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

As Anthropic prepares to go public, it is considering a highly unusual move to require rank-and-file employees to sell stock through rigid trading schedules so they don’t run afoul of insider trading laws, said a person familiar with the matter and a person briefed on it. At companies that have used such trading plans, typically only top... As Anthropic prepares to go public, it is considering a highly unusual move to require...

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Getty Images.

Google Cloud’s Revenue Is Rocketing—but Costs of AI Expansion Are as Well

By Martin Peers · Jul 22, 2026 5:01pm PDT

Wow. Google Cloud’s business exploded in the second quarter, with revenue soaring 82%, nearly 20 percentage points faster than for the previous quarter. Rapid demand for AI services—and in this quarter, the impact of AI chip sales—has lifted Google Cloud’s growth rate by nearly 50 percentage points in the past four quarters. But while cloud... Wow. Google Cloud’s business exploded in the second quarter, with revenue soaring 82%, nearly 20...

Left to right: Howard Lutnick, Michael Kratsios and Scott Bessent. Photos via Getty Images

U.S. Investigates Chinese AI Companies’ Access to Chips Amid Moonshot Accusations

By Leo Schwartz · Jul 22, 2026 3:42pm PDT · 1 comment

Left to right: Howard Lutnick, Michael Kratsios and Scott Bessent. Photos via Getty Images

U.S. Investigates Chinese AI Companies’ Access to Chips Amid Moonshot Accusations

By Leo Schwartz · Jul 22, 2026 3:42pm PDT · 1 comment

This week, Trump administration officials have taken to the airwaves and X to blast Chinese open source AI companies like Moonshot, accusing them of stealing intellectual property from the likes of Anthropic and other U.S. AI developers. The administration’s concerns aren’t just rhetoric, though. The Bureau of Industry and Security, an agency... This week, Trump administration officials have taken to the airwaves and X to blast Chinese open...

Stripe CEO, Patrick Collison. Getty Images.

Stripe Minted $3.2 Billion in Cash in 2025, Setting Up Acquisition Hunt

By Yueqi Yang · Jul 22, 2026 12:12pm PDT

Stripe is coming off a banner year thanks to booming growth in the AI sector, where the company processes payments for big AI labs and small developers alike. The payment giant’s revenue jumped by a third to $6.8 billion last year, according to a person familiar with its financial figures, marking its fastest revenue growth since 2021. Stripe is... Stripe is coming off a banner year thanks to booming growth in the AI sector, where the company...

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev. Getty Images.

The Information Finance

What AI Trading Agents Are Up to on Robinhood

By Meredith Mazzilli · Jul 22, 2026 11:14am PDT

In the weeks since Robinhood opened its doors to AI agents, customers of the popular financial app have been using agents for everything from research to trading. Now, a key question for Robinhood’s broader revenue opportunity is how much of an edge the technology can give investors.In late May, Robinhood started letting customers connect their... In the weeks since Robinhood opened its doors to AI agents, customers of the popular financial...

Getty Images.

Anthropic Investor in Talks to Fund New Lab Run By Two Stanford AI Professors

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 22, 2026 8:56am PDT

Cloud and software incumbents want businesses to think twice before using Anthropic, OpenAI and other closed-source AI providers. Executives such as Palantir CEO Alex Karp have argued, for instance, that these AI firms could use their customers’ data to compete with them eventually. These potential fears could also help new AI startups... Cloud and software incumbents want businesses to think twice before using Anthropic, OpenAI and...

Elon Musk. Getty Images.

SpaceXAI Explores Major Data Center Expansion in Texas

By Grace Kay · Jul 22, 2026 6:00am PDT

Elon Musk. Getty Images.

SpaceXAI Explores Major Data Center Expansion in Texas

By Grace Kay · Jul 22, 2026 6:00am PDT

Elon Musk’s AI company, SpaceXAI, is laying the groundwork for at least one new large-scale data center in Texas, three people with knowledge of the effort said. Such a move could substantially expand SpaceX’s AI computing capacity outside its existing data center hub in Memphis, Tenn. An expansion could position SpaceXAI to be a major cloud... Elon Musk’s AI company, SpaceXAI, is laying the groundwork for at least one new large-scale data...

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block. Getty Images.

Dorsey Wants Buzz to Loosen Slack’s Hold on Workers

By Martin Peers · Jul 21, 2026 5:01pm PDT

Who says software is dead? Jack Dorsey’s Block today unveiled a new “collaboration workspace”—software people can use to communicate and work together—which Dorsey says aims to reduce “our dependency on Slack and GitHub.” That’s a bit of a provocative statement from Dorsey, who also co-founded Twitter and therefore knows a thing or two... Who says software is dead? Jack Dorsey’s Block today unveiled a new “collaboration workspace”—...

Workers atop Valar’s reactor in Utah. Courtesy of Valar Atomics

Venture’s AI Fever Goes Nuclear

By Julia Hornstein · Jul 21, 2026 4:23pm PDT

Before we get to today’s column, check out our story from earlier today about Mercor. My colleague Cory and I reported that Mercor generated $614 million in gross revenue in the first half of this year, overwhelmingly from AI foundation model customers. That concentration highlights the risk to Mercor’s business if any of the big AI firms, which... Before we get to today’s column, check out our story from earlier today about Mercor. My...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

Meta’s AI Incubator Is Developing an OpenRouter Rival to Cut Coding Costs

By Jyoti Mann · Jul 21, 2026 3:36pm PDT

Meta Platforms’ internal incubator for AI-powered products and tools is developing a version of the OpenRouter service that would help cut costs by sending some AI tasks to lower-cost models. The incubator, called AAI Labs, is part of Meta’s Applied AI Engineering team, which Meta set up in March and allows employees to pitch AI-powered products... Meta Platforms’ internal incubator for AI-powered products and tools is developing a version of...

Art by Clark Miller.

Anthropic Isn’t the Best at Powering Customer Service, New Data Show

By Laura Bratton · Jul 21, 2026 11:45am PDT · 3 comments

Art by Clark Miller.

Anthropic Isn’t the Best at Powering Customer Service, New Data Show

By Laura Bratton · Jul 21, 2026 11:45am PDT · 3 comments

Anthropic’s models may be unparalleled at coding, but they’re less capable of powering AI voice and chat applications for customer service than other AI providers. That’s according to data from NiCE, a customer service software provider whose clients include Toyota, Allianz, Nestle and Frontier Airlines.Anthropic’s models have a relatively long... Anthropic’s models may be unparalleled at coding, but they’re less capable of powering AI voice...

Art by Clark Miller/Nano Banana.

Anthropic’s Robot Ambition; Nvidia Ramps Up Vera Rubin

By Phoebe Liu, Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Jul 21, 2026 8:01am PDT · 1 comment

Over the weekend, tech blogger Robert Scoble claimed Anthropic was in the process of acquiring Physical Intelligence, an AI robotics software developer that was most recently in talks to raise capital at a valuation of $11 billion. Scoble’s claim sent X into a frenzy.Scoble may not be right, as Physical Intelligence CEO Karol Hausman denied to... Over the weekend, tech blogger Robert Scoble claimed Anthropic was in the process of acquiring ...

Mercor co-founder and CEO Brendan Foody. Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

Mercor’s Fast Growth Relies on Biggest AI Companies, Documents Show

By Cory Weinberg and Julia Hornstein · Jul 21, 2026 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

Mercor, a three-year-old data startup whose army of contractors teaches AI to give better answers, is growing fast but relies heavily on revenue from AI foundation model companies, financial documents seen by The Information show. The company generated $614 million in gross revenue in the first half of the year, up 70% from all of last year,... Mercor, a three-year-old data startup whose army of contractors teaches AI to give better...

David Sacks. Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images.

The Debate About Chinese Open-Source AI; Ellison’s Bad Day

By Martin Peers · Jul 20, 2026 5:00pm PDT

How protectionist is the Trump administration? Sure, President Donald Trump loves tariffs. But does he really want to drive up AI costs for U.S. business by banning Chinese open-source AI? Chatter about that is growing in the wake of a story we published on Saturday, which revealed that the administration had discussed the idea of banning open... How protectionist is the Trump administration? Sure, President Donald Trump loves tariffs. But...

Windrose founder Wen Han. Photo by Windrose via PR Newswire

China’s Windrose Needed U.S. ID Numbers. So It Borrowed a Georgia Address

By Steve LeVine · Jul 20, 2026 7:30am PDT

Windrose founder Wen Han. Photo by Windrose via PR Newswire

China’s Windrose Needed U.S. ID Numbers. So It Borrowed a Georgia Address

By Steve LeVine · Jul 20, 2026 7:30am PDT

The last thing a consumer pondering the purchase of a new electric truck might think about is the origin of the 17-digit vehicle identification number that vehicle authorities everywhere use to keep track of cars and trucks. For Chinese long-haul truck startup Windrose Technology, though, the VIN numbers put on a handful of its trucks shipped to... The last thing a consumer pondering the purchase of a new electric truck might think about is the...

Getty Images

What the New Kimi K3 Model Really Means for the U.S.-China AI Race

By Alix Coutures, Rocket Drew and Aaron Holmes · Jul 20, 2026 7:05am PDT

Thursday’s release of a surprisingly sophisticated new open-source AI model from Beijing-based startup Moonshot has ignited debate over whether China’s developers are erasing the gap with the dominant models from America’s AI firms.There is little question that Moonshot’s Kimi K3 is impressive. The largest open-source model in the world, with... Thursday’s release of a surprisingly sophisticated new open-source AI model from Beijing-based...

Getty Images.

Samsung Is the New Memory Chip Underdog—for Now

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jul 20, 2026 6:32am PDT

A sell-off in the triumvirate of memory chip stocks this month—Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron Technology—has presented investors with a fresh opportunity to get exposure to the fast-growing sector. But investors buying in now have to be willing to dismiss the worries that sparked the sell-off—that the memory chip surge will... A sell-off in the triumvirate of memory chip stocks this month—Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Google Plans New ‘Frozen’ Chip to Run Its AI Models Much More Efficiently

By Erin Woo and Qianer Liu · Jul 20, 2026 6:00am PDT

Google is working on a new server chip that would directly integrate the blueprint of its Gemini AI model, enabling the company to serve its AI models to users much more efficiently, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Google intends the new chip, informally dubbed “Frozen v2,” to help it address a major shortage in AI... Google is working on a new server chip that would directly integrate the blueprint of its Gemini...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Karl Mondon/AFP/Getty Images.

Google and Tesla Headline Tech Earnings This Week

By Martin Peers · Jul 19, 2026 3:01pm PDT

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Karl Mondon/AFP/Getty Images.

Google and Tesla Headline Tech Earnings This Week

By Martin Peers · Jul 19, 2026 3:01pm PDT

It’s midsummer, but now is not the time to be on the beach. This week, we’ve got Alphabet, Google’s parent, and Tesla reporting second-quarter earnings, and the week after, we’ll get Meta Platforms, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and PayPal, a company in the takeover spotlight right now. Of most interest, of course, is how Google, Amazon and Microsoft... It’s midsummer, but now is not the time to be on the beach. This week, we’ve got Alphabet, Google...