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 via Getty Images

What’s CXL? The Alternative Memory Technology Embraced by Google, Nvidia

By Qianer Liu · Mar 11, 2026 7:00am PDT

The global memory chip shortage sparked by the AI boom has prompted companies including Google and Nvidia to spend more effort on alternatives that could ease the supply crunch. One of them is a technology that allows servers to share memory across a data center.The technology, Compute Express Link, or CXL, is seven years old but was slow to... The global memory chip shortage sparked by the AI boom has prompted companies including Google...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

OpenAI’s Shift to Shopping Apps Faces Even More Hurdles

By Ann Gehan and Sri Muppidi · Mar 11, 2026 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

With OpenAI suddenly scaling back on chatbot checkouts, its foray into shopping hinges on convincing retailers to set up shop with dedicated apps within ChatGPT—and getting people to buy stuff there. It faces hurdles on both fronts. ChatGPT apps have been around for just a few months—available for around 100 consumer firms, including... With OpenAI suddenly scaling back on chatbot checkouts, its foray into shopping hinges on...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

OpenAI Plans to Launch Sora Video AI in ChatGPT in Strategy Shift

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Sri Muppidi · Mar 10, 2026 8:54pm PDT

OpenAI plans to soon launch its Sora AI-generated video capabilities in ChatGPT, according to people with knowledge of the effort. The strategy shift could increase the chatbot’s usage as well as its costs. The move comes about five months after OpenAI released a Sora mobile app, which lets people quickly create videos of themselves and other... OpenAI plans to soon launch its Sora AI-generated video capabilities in ChatGPT, according to...

Oracle co-CEO Clay Magouyrk. Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Oracle’s Upbeat Quarter Calms Investors

By Martin Peers · Mar 10, 2026 5:00pm PDT

Oracle co-CEO Clay Magouyrk. Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Oracle’s Upbeat Quarter Calms Investors

By Martin Peers · Mar 10, 2026 5:00pm PDT

Oracle managed to calm some frayed nerves on Wall Street on Tuesday. The cloud and software firm, which has become a focal point for investors’ anxiety about AI-related spending, reported slightly better than projected revenue for its February quarter. More importantly, for the second time in two quarters, it raised its revenue projection for... Oracle managed to calm some frayed nerves on Wall Street on Tuesday. The cloud and software firm,...

Photo by Gabby Jones/ Getty Images

What Quince’s $10 Billion-Valuation Round Says About Consumer Investing

By Katie Roof · Mar 10, 2026 4:24pm PDT

Is investing in consumer startups back? Well, it’s back from the dead.When we broke the news of fashion e-tailer Quince’s $10 billion valuation last week, I thought maybe I was back in 2021. It wasn’t long ago that direct-to-consumer brands like Warby Parker and Daily Harvest and more were raking in investment dollars. But following some... Is investing in consumer startups back? Well, it’s back from the dead.When we broke the news of...

Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft's commercial business. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Microsoft Doubles Down on Seat-Based Pricing For AI

By Aaron Holmes · Mar 10, 2026 10:30am PDT

Microsoft appears to be betting that its tried-and-true subscription pricing model for software is here to stay, even in the era of AI agents that run 24/7, and that customers will be OK with ever-higher prices.Microsoft on Monday announced a new AI subscription bundle that combines Office 365 and with 365 Copilot, a suite of AI tools for... Microsoft appears to be betting that its tried-and-true subscription pricing model for software...

Microsoft President Brad Smith testifies before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in May. Photo by Getty Images.

Org Chart: The Microsoft Legal Staff Girding for Cloud-Bundling Suits

By Aaron Holmes · Mar 10, 2026 8:00am PDT · 1 comment

Microsoft is facing a new cluster of antitrust probes over whether it has illegally monopolized the cloud and software markets. As it gears up for battle, it’s been reorganizing the top ranks of its legal and policy department. Over the past year, Microsoft has shifted at least four executives into new roles within the legal teams under... Microsoft is facing a new cluster of antitrust probes over whether it has illegally monopolized...

Unreasonable Labs cofounders Yuan Cao and Markus Buehler. Photos courtesy of Unreasonable Labs.

The Startup Trying a New Trick to Develop AI For Science Discovery

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 10, 2026 7:38am PDT

Unreasonable Labs cofounders Yuan Cao and Markus Buehler. Photos courtesy of Unreasonable Labs.

The Startup Trying a New Trick to Develop AI For Science Discovery

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 10, 2026 7:38am PDT

OpenAI and Anthropic have raised tens of billions of dollars on the promise of artificial intelligence that can make new discoveries in fields like medicine, biology and physics. And yet, we’re nowhere close to that. (You might recall this awkward moment from last fall when a ChatGPT-generated math “discovery” was debunked.) The... OpenAI and Anthropic have raised tens of billions of dollars on the promise of artificial...

Pony Ma, CEO, of Tencent Holdings. Photo by Justin Chin/ Getty Images

Tencent Joins China’s AI Agent Race With ‘Top-Secret’ WeChat Project

By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Mar 10, 2026 6:00am PDT

Tencent Holdings is secretly building a new AI agent for its hugely popular WeChat messaging app, in hopes of leapfrogging rivals like Alibaba Group and ByteDance in the race to dominate China’s domestic AI market, according to four people familiar with the project. The project could dramatically widen how AI agents, which take actions on... Tencent Holdings is secretly building a new AI agent for its hugely popular WeChat messaging app,...

Spark General Partner Yasmin Razavi. Art by Clark Miller; Screenshot via Youtube

Anthropic Backer Spark Capital Targets $3 Billion in New Funds

By Katie Roof and Anissa Gardizy · Mar 9, 2026 7:02pm PDT · 3 comments

Spark Capital, the first venture firm to back Anthropic, is in the process of raising about $3 billion in new funds, 50% more than the size of funds it raised two years ago, according to a person with direct knowledge of the fundraise. The fundraising target will test investor demand in a venture firm that made early bets on one of the initial... Spark Capital, the first venture firm to back Anthropic, is in the process of raising about $3...

Airstrikes on an oil depot in Tehran on March 7. Sasan/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images.

Iran, IPOs and the Stockmarket

By Martin Peers · Mar 9, 2026 5:00pm PDT

It’s a good thing SpaceX is thinking of June for its upcoming IPO. There has to be a decent chance the current Iran war has ended by then, restoring some stability to the market. Then again, these hostilities could easily spread. Not only is the IPO market not necessarily safe, but there’s a cloud of uncertainty now hanging over the economy and... It’s a good thing SpaceX is thinking of June for its upcoming IPO. There has to be a decent...

The Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas in September. Kyle Grillot/Getty Images.

The Real Reason OpenAI Walked Away From an Oracle Stargate Expansion in Abilene

By Anissa Gardizy · Mar 9, 2026 10:30am PDT · 2 comments

The Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas in September. Kyle Grillot/Getty Images.

AI Infrastructure

The Real Reason OpenAI Walked Away From an Oracle Stargate Expansion in Abilene

By Anissa Gardizy · Mar 9, 2026 10:30am PDT · 2 comments

Finance and data center executives have been buzzing about a Friday Bloomberg report that Oracle and OpenAI won’t expand a data center for the ChatGPT maker in Abilene, Texas, where the companies launched their first Stargate-branded facilities. As I have since learned, OpenAI several weeks ago declined to expand its data center usage... Finance and data center executives have been buzzing about a Friday Bloomberg report that Oracle...

Pete Hegseth, left, and Dario Amodei. Photos by Getty.

Anthropic Has a Strong Legal Case Against Trump’s DoD

By Rocket Drew · Mar 9, 2026 7:00am PDT

Anthropic’s lawyers probably spent the weekend preparing a lawsuit the company said it would file against the Department of Defense for designating the Claude AI maker as a “supply chain risk” and cutting off commercial ties to “protect national security.” The designation followed Anthropic’s request for special assurances its tech wouldn’t be... Anthropic’s lawyers probably spent the weekend preparing a lawsuit the company said it would file...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. AP.

OpenAI’s IPO Hopes Face Skeptical Investor Community

By Anita Ramaswamy and Miles Kruppa · Mar 9, 2026 6:00am PDT · 11 comments

OpenAI is likely at least six months away from going public, and possibly longer. But as the company takes steps toward an initial public offering, investment banks trying to get a piece of the business are contacting public market investors to gauge how they’re thinking about OpenAI’s prospects as a public company, said one person who has been... OpenAI is likely at least six months away from going public, and possibly longer. But as the...

BYD founder Wang Chuanfu introduces ultra fast "flash charging" of electric vehicles last week in Shenzhen, China. Photo: VCG/Getty

The Electric: Its Sales Sliding, BYD Fights Back With a New Battery

By Steve LeVine · Mar 9, 2026 4:30am PDT

Last year, China’s BYD zoomed past Tesla to become the world’s leading seller of electric vehicles. Now both companies are in a serious slump: BYD’s year-on-year sales have dropped for six straight months, and Tesla has suffered two years of annual sales declines. Now other nimble EV players, mostly Chinese, are fighting for the global sales... Last year, China’s BYD zoomed past Tesla to become the world’s leading seller of electric...

Photo by Prakash Singh/Getty Images

Sundar Pichai’s Near-Billionaire Status; Oracle in Spotlight

By Martin Peers · Mar 8, 2026 4:00pm PDT

Photo by Prakash Singh/Getty Images

Sundar Pichai’s Near-Billionaire Status; Oracle in Spotlight

By Martin Peers · Mar 8, 2026 4:00pm PDT

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai is close to achieving billionaire status, thanks to his generous stock compensation—and he’s only likely to get richer. Alphabet revealed in a securities filing late Friday that it had awarded him several new grants of stock, to vest over the next three years, which could potentially be worth nearly $700 million. We... Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai is close to achieving billionaire status, thanks to his generous stock...

A plume of smoke rises from the Zayed Port following a reported Iranian strike in Abu Dhabi on March 1, 2026. Photo by Ryan Lim / AFP via Getty Images.

Iran War Imperils $300 Billion in Gulf AI Spending

By Miles Kruppa · Mar 8, 2026 8:00am PDT

The war in Iran is complicating plans by Gulf nations to spend more than $300 billion on data centers, chips and other AI investments, crimping a potential source of funding for power-hungry tech companies. Countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia have become big destinations for data centers. Local firms are developing the projects,... The war in Iran is complicating plans by Gulf nations to spend more than $300 billion on data...

Illustration: Clark Miller

Tech Finally Reaches a Red Line

By Abram Brown · Mar 7, 2026 7:00am PST

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Inside Anne Wojcicki’s plan to revive 23andMe• News Analysis: The week Anthropic went to war with OpenAI and the Pentagon• The Information Events: Tennis enters the analytics era at our Indian Wells retreat• Plus, Recommendations—our weekly pop culture picks: “Data,” “A Scandal in... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Inside Anne Wojcicki’s plan to revive...

Illustration: Clark Miller (Photos: Samantha Brown, Gregg Felsen and Emily Ha)

The Information Events

Tennis Enters the Analytics Era at The Information’s Indian Wells Retreat

By The Information Staff · Mar 6, 2026 7:00pm PST

As the action unfolded at the BNP Paribas Open this week, The Information gathered dozens of tech and finance leaders for two days of tennis and tech conversations on the sidelines of the conference in Indian Wells, Calif., near Palm Springs. As the action unfolded at the BNP Paribas Open this week, The Information gathered dozens of tech...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

In Anthropic Feuds, the Personal Collides With the Political

By Nick Wingfield, Erin Woo, Sri Muppidi and Julia Hornstein · Mar 6, 2026 3:08pm PST · 1 comment

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

In Anthropic Feuds, the Personal Collides With the Political

By Nick Wingfield, Erin Woo, Sri Muppidi and Julia Hornstein · Mar 6, 2026 3:08pm PST · 1 comment

There are fierce battles over principles, and then there are grudge matches. In recent days, Anthropic has engaged in an extraordinary mix of both. For over a week, the AI startup and its CEO, Dario Amodei, have been locked in an intense struggle with the Pentagon over Anthropic’s refusal to let the military use its technology for domestic... There are fierce battles over principles, and then there are grudge matches. In recent days,...