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

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Musk’s Money

By Martin Peers · Sep 5, 2025 3:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Elon Musk is putting his money where his mouth is. In a securities filing on Friday, Tesla disclosed a new stock award for its CEO worth as much as $1 trillion. It hinges entirely on Musk’s ambitious claims that his focus on humanoid robots and robotaxis will turn Tesla into “the most valuable company in the world by far,” as he has often... Elon Musk is putting his money where his mouth is. In a securities filing on Friday, Tesla ...

Art by Clark Miller

Why the NFL and Nielsen Are Beefing as Sports Streaming Surges

By Sara Germano · Sep 5, 2025 11:39am PDT

The NFL, the world’s richest and most powerful sports league, would like you to know something: It is not thrilled with the way Nielsen measures its TV audience. Earlier this week, the NFL took the extraordinary step of criticizing media measurement firm Nielsen, which the football giant argued is undercounting the number of viewers for its... The NFL, the world’s richest and most powerful sports league, would like you to know something:...

Art by Clark Miller; photos from Getty Images

Why Silicon Valley Believes GLP-1s Are All-Purpose Wonder Drugs

By Ann Gehan · Sep 5, 2025 9:13am PDT · 1 comment

Over the past year, investor Brian Sugar has developed what he considers a “superpower,” finding it newly possible to push himself harder than ever before at home, in the gym—and in the office. What’s given him this boost? He attributes it to a recently acquired prescription for semaglutide, which places him among a sizable portion of the... Over the past year, investor Brian Sugar has developed what he considers a “superpower,” finding...

The Information Survey: More Than Half of Respondents Take a GLP-1

By Nick Wingfield · Sep 5, 2025 9:01am PDT · 2 comments

Subscriber Survey

The Information Survey: More Than Half of Respondents Take a GLP-1

By Nick Wingfield · Sep 5, 2025 9:01am PDT · 2 comments

It’s not exactly news that Ozempic, Wegovy and other GLP-1 drugs are catching on, with some surveys showing nearly 12% of Americans have used the weight loss medications. The Information’s audience seems to be even more gung-ho about taking GLP-1s than the broader population. More than 50% of the respondents to our recent survey on the topic... It’s not exactly news that Ozempic, Wegovy and other GLP-1 drugs are catching on, with some...

Art by Clark Miller.

How Tech Giants Are Spreading the Risk of the AI Buildout

By Miles Kruppa · Sep 5, 2025 6:00am PDT

Joint ventures. Backstop agreements. Syndicated debt offerings. The richest tech companies and their bankers are developing increasingly complicated financial strategies to meet the soaring demands of funding artificial intelligence. The goal for companies like Google and Meta Platforms is to stay ahead in the AI race while offloading some of... Joint ventures. Backstop agreements. Syndicated debt offerings. The richest tech companies and...

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Nvidia’s Chip Round-Trip Deals

By Martin Peers · Sep 4, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

What would you think if Apple set up a company to buy iPhones and then rented those devices back for use by Apple staffers? It would make you wonder, right? Yet that’s more or less what Nvidia has taken to doing. As we reported today, Nvidia has struck a couple of deals to rent its own chips from Lambda, a cloud startup Nvidia partly owns.... What would you think if Apple set up a company to buy iPhones and then rented those devices back...

Mercor CEO Brendan Foody. Screenshot via YouTube/First Block.

Mercor Fields $10 Billion-Valuation Offers in ‘Pre-emptive’ Onslaught

By Katie Roof · Sep 4, 2025 4:15pm PDT

The frothiness of the artificial intelligence boom is starting to look like 1999…or 2021. Startups are again receiving unsolicited investment interest months or even weeks after announcing a fundraising, sometimes at prices that would more than double their valuation. The latest is Mercor, a startup that helps OpenAI and other AI developers find... The frothiness of the artificial intelligence boom is starting to look like 1999…or 2021....

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Art by Clark Miller

Nvidia to Pay $1.5 Billion to Rent Back Its Own Chips From Cloud Startup

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Anissa Gardizy · Sep 4, 2025 12:49pm PDT · 3 comments

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Art by Clark Miller

Nvidia to Pay $1.5 Billion to Rent Back Its Own Chips From Cloud Startup

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Anissa Gardizy · Sep 4, 2025 12:49pm PDT · 3 comments

A small cloud provider for artificial intelligence that’s preparing to go public has secured a major boost from its most important supplier: Nvidia. The chip giant agreed this summer to rent 10,000 of its own AI chips from the cloud firm, Lambda, for $1.3 billion over four years, and a separate $200 million deal to rent 8,000 more Nvidia chips... A small cloud provider for artificial intelligence that’s preparing to go public has secured a...

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

Salesforce CEO Inadvertently Stokes AI ‘Crisis’ Narrative

By Amir Efrati · Sep 4, 2025 10:30am PDT · 4 comments

After listening to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and his top brass describe their excitement about the company’s artificial intelligence business for an hour and half on Wednesday, one might have thought they were taking a much deserved victory lap.“Every single one of our customers is becoming an agentic enterprise,” Benioff said.In reality, his... After listening to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and his top brass describe their excitement about...

Photo via Dyna Robotics

Robotic Arms Company Considers Investment at $600 Million Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Sep 4, 2025 7:15am PDT

Companies like Physical Intelligence or Skild AI that aim to build robots that can handle a variety of tasks out of the box have raised hundreds of millions in funding over the last two years. Now, a startup that’s taking a different approach—building robots that master one task at a time—is raising a new round of funding. The startup,... Companies like Physical Intelligence or Skild AI that aim to build robots that can handle a...

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Elon Musk’s X Money Plans Stalled by Regulators, Staff Turnover

By Theo Wayt · Sep 4, 2025 7:00am PDT

For decades, one of Elon Musk’s biggest ambitions has been using technology to disrupt and replace traditional banks and payments processors. One of his management obsessions, meanwhile, has been pushing his employees to build things as quickly and cheaply as possible. Inside X, those two ideals are coming into conflict. Musk’s desire for X to... For decades, one of Elon Musk’s biggest ambitions has been using technology to disrupt and...

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Nasdaq Steps Up Scrutiny of Companies Loading Up on Crypto

By Yueqi Yang · Sep 4, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

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Nasdaq Steps Up Scrutiny of Companies Loading Up on Crypto

By Yueqi Yang · Sep 4, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Nasdaq is stepping up its scrutiny of companies listed on its exchange that are aiming to get a stock price boost by raising money to buy and hoard crypto, according to company filings and people familiar with the matter. The exchange’s move could slow the crypto boom that is putting increasingly exotic tokens on mainstream markets. The stock... Nasdaq is stepping up its scrutiny of companies listed on its exchange that are aiming to get a...

Nickel processing and smelting plant in North Maluku, Indonesia. Photo: STR/AFP/Getty

The Electric: In a Geopolitics Hack, EV Makers Use Indonesia to Obtain Chinese Batteries

By Steve LeVine · Sep 4, 2025 4:30am PDT

Two years ago, Indonesia’s president came to the White House and offered then-President Joe Biden a deal. Indonesia would supply all of the nickel the U.S. needed to build a competitive electric vehicle battery industry, if Biden made the mineral-rich country eligible for tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. Two years ago, Indonesia’s president came to the White House and offered then-President Joe Biden...

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Why Google Data-Sharing Decision Could Affect All of Big Tech

By Martin Peers · Sep 3, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Google is out of Wall Street’s doghouse! Stock of Google’s parent company Alphabet shot up 9% on Wednesday as investors rushed to buy up stock of a company whose future is no longer overshadowed by a looming antitrust ruling. Now the focus of antitrust anxiety turns to the other three big tech firms facing government lawsuits—Meta Platforms, ... Google is out of Wall Street’s doghouse! Stock of Google’s parent company Alphabet shot up 9% on...

Lambda CEO Stephen Balaban. Screenshot via YouTube

Nvidia-Backed Cloud Provider Lambda Hires Banks for IPO

By Valida Pau and Natasha Mascarenhas · Sep 3, 2025 1:56pm PDT

Lambda, a cloud provider that rents out Nvidia graphics chips for artificial intelligence, has hired investment banks to prepare for an initial public offering in the U.S., according to people with direct knowledge of the talks. The San Jose, Calif.-based startup has hired Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Citi to prepare for a listing as soon as... Lambda, a cloud provider that rents out Nvidia graphics chips for artificial intelligence, has...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo via Getty

Why Anthropic’s Coding Prediction Hasn’t Panned Out

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Sep 3, 2025 7:02am PDT

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo via Getty

Why Anthropic’s Coding Prediction Hasn’t Panned Out

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Sep 3, 2025 7:02am PDT

Before we get to today’s column, we’d be remiss to not touch on Tuesday’s Google antitrust ruling, which was a huge victory for the search giant. Google got pretty much everything it wanted, while the judge only accepted a few of the government’s proposed remedies. (For more on the results, check out this column from our co-executive editor... Before we get to today’s column, we’d be remiss to not touch on Tuesday’s Google antitrust...

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Google Ramps Up AI Chip Competition with Nvidia

By Anissa Gardizy and Miles Kruppa · Sep 3, 2025 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

Google is one of the largest buyers of Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips, which it rents out to Google Cloud customers such as OpenAI and Meta Platforms. But Google’s grand ambitions for its own competing AI chips show no sign of slowing down. In the latest example, Google recently approached small cloud providers that primarily rent out... Google is one of the largest buyers of Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips, which it rents out...

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Google Wins Antitrust War

By Martin Peers · Sep 2, 2025 5:07pm PDT

Google just won the antitrust war. Yes, it might have lost the initial skirmish, having had its search business branded a monopoly, but it couldn’t have asked for a kinder ruling on how to deal with that monopoly. Google essentially got what it wanted, as the judge said he had accepted “in full” Google’s proposed remedies, with a few... Google just won the antitrust war. Yes, it might have lost the initial skirmish, having had its...

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Nvidia Buys Coding Startup as AI Deal Blitz Grows

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Sep 2, 2025 4:37pm PDT · 1 comment

We’re in the midst of an M&A boom—for artificial intelligence startups. Among the latest: Nvidia last month bought Solver, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal. The three-year-old startup formerly known as Laredo Labs has developed an AI coding agent that completes software development tasks for users. The company... We’re in the midst of an M&A boom—for artificial intelligence startups. Among the...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Photo via Getty

Antitrust Judge Bars Google From Exclusive Deals But Allows Apple Payments to Continue

By Erin Woo · Sep 2, 2025 1:35pm PDT · 1 comment

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Photo via Getty

Antitrust Judge Bars Google From Exclusive Deals But Allows Apple Payments to Continue

By Erin Woo · Sep 2, 2025 1:35pm PDT · 1 comment

An antitrust judge rejected the Justice Department’s most drastic proposals for how Google’s search business should be overhauled to make up for its illegal monopoly, saying in a decision Tuesday afternoon he wouldn’t require the company to sell either its Chrome browser or its Android operating system. Judge Amit Mehta barred Google from... An antitrust judge rejected the Justice Department’s most drastic proposals for how Google’s...