The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica E. Lessin and the team at The Information

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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica E. 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 Shutterstock; Mike Sullivan

New Data Show Anthropic, OpenAI and Other Upstarts Are Eating into Software Budgets

By Laura Bratton · Sep 22, 2026 10:38am PDT

We’ve been reporting for months about how companies are shifting some traditional software spending to Anthropic and OpenAI. New data from procurement software firm Zip provides further evidence.AI providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, and Sierra accounted for 8% of spending by Zip customers in the 12 months that ended in August, up from... We’ve been reporting for months about how companies are shifting some traditional software...

Art by Clark Miller

Why America’s AI Dream Is Failing to Launch

By Ryan Cunningham and Kristy Loke · Sep 22, 2026 10:33am PDT · 2 comments

In 2022, American dominance in AI looked almost unassailable. The U.S. led in advanced models, semiconductors, capital and talent. Its closest competitor, China, appeared to be reeling from export controls that cut it off from the world’s most advanced process nodes, chips and memory technologies. Four years later, the tide seems to be turning.... In 2022, American dominance in AI looked almost unassailable. The U.S. led in advanced models,...

Palmer Luckey photo via Getty Images; art by Mike Sullivan

Luckey’s Erebor Bank Plots Syria Expansion

By Michael Roddan · Sep 22, 2026 9:00am PDT

Erebor Bank, fresh from becoming a vital new financial bridge between the U.S. and Venezuela, is eyeing a new foreign foray: expanding into Syria. The bank, founded by Anduril Industries co-founder Palmer Luckey, has told staff and some investors it could help the war-torn Middle Eastern country reconnect to the global financial system,... Erebor Bank, fresh from becoming a vital new financial bridge between the U.S. and Venezuela, is...

Photo courtesy of Ande.

Entertainment-Booking Startup Ande Raises $52 Million From Lightspeed, Redpoint

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 22, 2026 7:00am PDT

Photo courtesy of Ande.

Entertainment-Booking Startup Ande Raises $52 Million From Lightspeed, Redpoint

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 22, 2026 7:00am PDT

Personal AI agents like Instinct and Muse have promised to take away the hassle of booking hard-to-get restaurant reservations, Broadway tickets and sporting events. Now, a startup is coming out of stealth to do the same for corporate entertainment—events, group dining, catering, sporting events and more. Ande, founded nearly three years... Personal AI agents like Instinct and Muse have promised to take away the hassle of booking...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Software Firms Discount AI to Keep Customers From Anthropic, OpenAI

By Laura Bratton, Aaron Holmes and Catherine Perloff · Sep 22, 2026 6:01am PDT

Software firms and cloud providers including Amazon, Microsoft, Figma and Workday are dangling new discounts on AI products to clients and consulting partners exhausted by shifts in pricing. The special offers come as customers get choosier about which tools they purchase after they increased budgets for products like Anthropic’s Claude Code and... Software firms and cloud providers including Amazon, Microsoft, Figma and Workday are dangling...

Art via Getty Images; Mike Sullivan

China Probes DeepSeek, Moonshot Over Potential Data Leaks to Anthropic

By Qianer Liu and Jing Yang · Sep 22, 2026 4:18am PDT

China’s internet regulator is investigating DeepSeek and Moonshot AI after Anthropic alleged both companies had been routing sensitive user data to Claude models, according to people with knowledge of the matter. In a 154-page report published on Sept. 10, Anthropic detailed how seven Chinese companies were using Claude illicitly on a widespread... China’s internet regulator is investigating DeepSeek and Moonshot AI after Anthropic alleged both...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Getty Images.

Meta’s Muse Tries (and Fails) to Disrupt Amazon

By Martin Peers · Sep 21, 2026 5:00pm PDT

Everyone loves a brawl between two big tech firms—even other tech CEOs. Amazon’s block on Meta Platforms’ new Muse personal agent accessing its shopping site, which came to light Sunday night, prompted Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora to post on X on Monday that the episode signals “a bigger battle than anyone anticipates.” He may be... Everyone loves a brawl between two big tech firms—even other tech CEOs. Amazon’s block on Meta...

World Models Need More Intelligence, Says Luma CEO Amit Jain

By Rocket Drew · Sep 21, 2026 3:46pm PDT · 1 comment

World Models Need More Intelligence, Says Luma CEO Amit Jain

By Rocket Drew · Sep 21, 2026 3:46pm PDT · 1 comment

The AI boom has been built largely on progress in language models, but a different approach has gained enormous attention in the industry this year: world models, which are designed to generate accurate predictions about the physical world, rather than words and numbers. I sat down with Amit Jain, co-founder and CEO of Luma AI, to discuss the... The AI boom has been built largely on progress in language models, but a different approach has...

Partner Content

The Real Cost of AI: A Survey of the Unpredictable Token Economics

By The Information Partnerships · Sep 21, 2026 9:04am PDT

For decades, enterprise software budgeting was a predictable exercise: negotiate a subscription fee, project the number of seats you need, move on. AI has broken that model. Pricing tied to tokens — the metered unit behind most AI billing — has turned technology spend into a variable cost, and an unpredictable one. The Information’s survey of... For decades, enterprise software budgeting was a predictable exercise: negotiate a subscription...

Art via Getty Images; Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Develops Features to Counter Grok Bot, Mulls Response to Meta’s Muse

By Amir Efrati and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 21, 2026 7:30am PDT

OpenAI pioneered AI that can take over web browsers and other applications on people’s behalf, and its ChatGPT app brought generative AI to consumers. Now that rivals like SpaceX and Meta are pushing the boundaries by launching personal AI agents that handle multistep tasks, OpenAI is playing catch-up.For instance, OpenAI is developing features... OpenAI pioneered AI that can take over web browsers and other applications on people’s behalf,...

Dario Amodei, left, and Sam Altman. Photos by Getty Image

OpenAI and Anthropic Neared Deal to Stress Test Each Other’s AI

By Amir Efrati and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 21, 2026 6:55am PDT

OpenAI is rethinking a range of safety strategies as it responds to fears from employees and others about the dangers its AI poses. One solution could lie in the recent past. Even before the spate of cybersecurity incidents involving OpenAI’s technology and the dire warnings from industry workers, the company was negotiating a legally binding... OpenAI is rethinking a range of safety strategies as it responds to fears from employees and...

Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

CrowdStrike and Okta Trade at Big Premiums Despite Unproven AI Payoff

By Anita Ramaswamy · Sep 21, 2026 6:31am PDT

Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

CrowdStrike and Okta Trade at Big Premiums Despite Unproven AI Payoff

By Anita Ramaswamy · Sep 21, 2026 6:31am PDT

Cybersecurity stocks have enjoyed a good run in 2026 as investors bet on the idea that they’ll benefit from companies shoring up their defenses against AI-fueled online threats. The S&P Kensho cybersecurity index is up 41% this year compared to an 11% rise in the S&P 500 over the same period. But some of the names attracting the most... Cybersecurity stocks have enjoyed a good run in 2026 as investors bet on the idea that they’ll...

Art via Getty Images

DeepSeek Bets Big on Huawei Chips to Bypass U.S. Export Controls

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Sep 21, 2026 3:22am PDT

DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng told investors that a major priority for his company is to use more domestic chips to train its models, adding that he expects Huawei Technologies to start delivering training chips to DeepSeek as early as the fourth quarter this year, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. DeepSeek’s growing... DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng told investors that a major priority for his company is to use more...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Getty Images.

Tech’s New Trend: Ugly Spectacles

By Martin Peers · Sep 20, 2026 3:00pm PDT

It’s that time of year again—when geeky men stand on stage wearing ugly glasses. Last week, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel gave a detailed demonstration of his forthcoming Specs augmented reality glasses, which were first unveiled in June. This week, it’s Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s turn. Meta holds its annual Connect conference, where it shows... It’s that time of year again—when geeky men stand on stage wearing ugly glasses. Last week, Snap...

U.S. troops used Neros Technologies drones in an August exercise in Germany. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty

Drone Startups Backed By Eric Schmidt and the Trump Family Win the Pentagon’s Latest Competition

By Steve LeVine · Sep 20, 2026 2:01pm PDT

Last month, the Pentagon threw up its arms in frustration (metaphorically speaking) when most of the drone startups in competition for $300 million in contracts failed to produce aircraft that met a hard-and-fast specification: The drones could contain no Chinese-made components or materials. Last month, the Pentagon threw up its arms in frustration (metaphorically speaking) when most of...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Photo by Angela Piazza/Getty Images

How Nvidia Is Trying to Solve the Data Center Power Bottleneck

By Phoebe Liu · Sep 20, 2026 9:01am PDT

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Photo by Angela Piazza/Getty Images

AI Infrastructure

How Nvidia Is Trying to Solve the Data Center Power Bottleneck

By Phoebe Liu · Sep 20, 2026 9:01am PDT

Nvidia is tracking “every single gigawatt of land, power and shell around the world, literally everything on the planet,” CEO Jensen Huang said at Goldman Sachs’ annual tech conference earlier this month. “We know where everything is.”Why track power so intently?Nvidia sees power availability as a key barrier to getting its AI server chips... Nvidia is tracking “every single gigawatt of land, power and shell around the world, literally...

The foldable iPhone Duo. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Sunday Insights

Why Apple Is Betting on Foldable iPhones

By Tiffany Li · Sep 20, 2026 8:01am PDT

When new Apple CEO John Ternus showed off the first version of a foldable iPhone at an event earlier this month, there was a good chance many Americans watching clips of the video stream had never thought hard about buying such a device. But Apple is betting that the same demand that’s driven double-digit growth of such phones outside North... When new Apple CEO John Ternus showed off the first version of a foldable iPhone at an event...

Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Jane Street-Linked Data Center Debt Sours

By Dakin Campbell · Sep 20, 2026 7:01am PDT

Secretive Wall Street trading firm Jane Street has become famous in the past couple of years for its sizable AI-related spending, as it has struck big cloud deals to handle its AI computing needs and made investments in neocloud CoreWeave. Yet even a Jane Street–related deal for data center debt hasn’t won over investors. Debt sold by a... Secretive Wall Street trading firm Jane Street has become famous in the past couple of years for...

Art: Clark Miller (photo: Getty Images)

Dario Amodei's Tabloid Era

By Abram Brown · Sep 19, 2026 8:05am PDT

• Exclusive new list! Introducing Tech’s 50 Most Influential People• Plus, Recommendations—our weekly pop culture picks: “Embedded: Where Is Austin Tice?,” “Valley of Death” and “Hope”Honestly, I almost feel a little sorry for Dario Amodei. That essay-writing, sweater-loving nerd is getting the treatment normally meted out to grim-eyed... • Exclusive new list! Introducing Tech’s 50 Most Influential People• Plus, Recommendations—our...

Anthropic co-founder and president Daniela Amodei. Getty Images.

Anthropic IPO Waiting Game Puts Wall Street on Edge

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 18, 2026 2:55pm PDT · 1 comment

Anthropic co-founder and president Daniela Amodei. Getty Images.

Anthropic IPO Waiting Game Puts Wall Street on Edge

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 18, 2026 2:55pm PDT · 1 comment

Anthropic finance chief Krishna Rao and other executives met with groups of prospective public investors last month with his company’s numbers looking spiffier than ever. The company had gone from spending about $2.30 on operations for every $1 of revenue in spring of 2025 to turning a slight profit on that basis in the June... Anthropic finance chief Krishna Rao and other executives met with groups of prospective public...