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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Why Meta Should Give Up on Superintelligence

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 2, 2025 7:00am PDT · 7 comments

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on a tear in recruiting for a team focused on “superintelligence,” roughly defined as a more powerful version of artificial general intelligence, AI that can handle most of the economic work people do. Here’s a question, though: Why is Meta going after superintelligence?We can understand why Meta, as a... Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on a tear in recruiting for a team focused on “...

Art by Clark Miller.

Hot Supplement Brands Grapple With Amazon Challenges

By Ann Gehan · Jul 2, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

For much of its 15-year history, supplement brand AG1 refused to sell through Amazon, preferring its own site. That changed this April, when AG1 decided to list its popular green powders on the e-commerce giant. Amazon’s massive pool of shoppers offered a big growth opportunity for AG1 as interest in supplements surges across the board. But just... For much of its 15-year history, supplement brand AG1 refused to sell through Amazon, preferring...

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Warner Bros Discovery’s Bleak Prospects Underlined by Big Investor’s Sale

By Martin Peers · Jul 1, 2025 5:00pm PDT

And now for something completely different. In a break from artificial intelligence recruiting dramas, we’re looking today at the ancient world of television, through the prism of Warner Bros. Discovery. The Newhouse family, WBD’s second-biggest shareholder, revealed in a securities filing on Tuesday that it had sold half its stake in the... And now for something completely different. In a break from artificial intelligence recruiting...

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Wall Street Proposes ‘Off Ramp’ for Data Center Investors

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 1, 2025 3:13pm PDT · 1 comment

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Wall Street Proposes ‘Off Ramp’ for Data Center Investors

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 1, 2025 3:13pm PDT · 1 comment

The investment bankers in the middle of the trillion-dollar data center boom are working on their next play: capital recycling.Private equity firms and real estate funds that invest in new artificial intelligence data centers will eventually need cash returns from their investments. Some of the data center operators they own are getting too big... The investment bankers in the middle of the trillion-dollar data center boom are working on their...

Art by Clark Miller (photo: Getty Images)

Why The WNBA’s Chicago Sky Struck a Deal With a Counter-Terrorism Startup

By Sara Germano · Jul 1, 2025 2:39pm PDT

During the first game of the WNBA season, Chicago Sky star forward Angel Reese received a hard foul from her archrival, the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark. The tough basketball play sparked a maelstrom of hate speech that snowballed across social media, an episode that highlighted how quickly such abusive discourse travels and how the league... During the first game of the WNBA season, Chicago Sky star forward Angel Reese received a hard...

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Creator Economy

TikTok, Instagram May Worsen Streaming Ad Market’s Woes

By Kaya Yurieff · Jul 1, 2025 2:00pm PDT

The TV streaming market is getting awfully crowded! Last week, Kalley and I broke the news that Instagram and TikTok are both working on versions of their video apps better suited for TV screens, following YouTube’s success in the living room.It’s easy to understand why these social media companies want to get in the game. Advertisers generally... The TV streaming market is getting awfully crowded! Last week, Kalley and I broke the news that ...

Vice President JD Vance arrives at the U.S. Capitol today. Photo via Getty.

Silicon Valley Searches for Its JD Vance Angle

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jul 1, 2025 1:42pm PDT · 3 comments

As President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” was being debated in the Senate over the past week, cracks were spreading among Republicans over a provision in the bill to block states from regulating artificial intelligence. Companies such as Meta Platforms, Andruil and Andreessen Horowitz pushed for it. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was also in... As President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” was being debated in the Senate over the past week,...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo via AP

Anthropic Revenue Hits $4 Billion Annual Pace as Competition With Cursor Intensifies

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 1, 2025 11:10am PDT · 1 comment

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo via AP

Anthropic Revenue Hits $4 Billion Annual Pace as Competition With Cursor Intensifies

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jul 1, 2025 11:10am PDT · 1 comment

Anysphere, the maker of Cursor, an artificial intelligence-powered coding app, has hired two leaders of Anthropic’s competing coding product, Claude Code, according to one of the leaders. The move is notable because Cursor relies on AI from Anthropic to power its app and is one of Anthropic’s biggest customers. The hiring underscores the... Anysphere, the maker of Cursor, an artificial intelligence-powered coding app, has hired two...

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OpenAI Leans Into Consulting; The New AI Data War

By Aaron Holmes · Jul 1, 2025 10:04am PDT · 1 comment

OpenAI has a long habit of launching products and features that compete with other tech startups that sell apps or services using OpenAI’s artificial intelligence.Now, OpenAI has its eye on the market for AI consulting services that help large enterprises develop their own AI apps—if they’re willing to spend at least $10 million, as Sri and I... OpenAI has a long habit of launching products and features that compete with other tech startups...

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What Zuckerberg’s New AI Team is Good At

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Kalley Huang · Jul 1, 2025 7:15am PDT

In recent weeks, Meta Platforms has probably generated more buzz from hiring two executives and 14 artificial intelligence researchers—mostly from OpenAI—than from its prior AI efforts altogether. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday officially announced 11 of those researcher hires as part of a new organization, Meta Superintelligence Labs.The... In recent weeks, Meta Platforms has probably generated more buzz from hiring two executives and...

Insider-Led Rounds on Track to Beat 2021 Record

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Jul 1, 2025 6:00am PDT

Venture capitalists are taking their biggest swings at the startups they’ve previously backed. The total value of U.S. venture funding rounds led by investors that previously invested in the startups topped $69 billion as of mid-June, according to PitchBook. That’s already higher than the $67 billion volume of insider-led rounds for all of last... Venture capitalists are taking their biggest swings at the startups they’ve previously backed. ...

Mark Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang. Photos: Getty, Flickr

The High Stakes for Meta’s New Super AI Team

By Martin Peers · Jun 30, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Mark Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang. Photos: Getty, Flickr

The High Stakes for Meta’s New Super AI Team

By Martin Peers · Jun 30, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Start your timer. Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday unveiled the company’s new artificial intelligence organization—Meta Superintelligence Labs—replete with heavyweights from Silicon Valley. This new org is the product of a massive spending spree by Zuckerberg to snag the best AI talent possible in hopes of turning around Meta’s... Start your timer. Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday unveiled the company’s new...

Art by Clark Miller

Corporate Data Wars Intensify

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Jun 30, 2025 12:16pm PDT · 2 comments

A tussle is brewing between software firms and artificial intelligence startups over access to business customers’ data. The popularity of Glean, an AI tool workers use to search for corporate files and data across all of the apps they use, has prompted enterprise software firms like Salesforce, Atlassian and Notion to introduce similar AI... A tussle is brewing between software firms and artificial intelligence startups over access to...

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AI Is Getting Cheaper, Right?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jun 30, 2025 7:00am PDT · 3 comments

The overarching narrative of the past two years has been that AI models are getting cheaper for customers. Just take a look at this chart, showing how the cost of purchasing access to a GPT-4 level AI model from OpenAI has dropped more than 85% since it was released in early 2023. And that’s without getting into the rise of cheap,... The overarching narrative of the past two years has been that AI models are getting cheaper for...

Art by Clark Miller

Amazon Prime Video Floods TV Ad Market, Stealing Dollars From FAST Channels

By Catherine Perloff and Sahil Patel · Jun 30, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Until recently, it seemed video streaming had a channel for every taste. Fans of the 1970s Western drama “Little House on the Prairie,” for instance, could spend time on the channel by the same name watching old episodes. The same is true for the 1980s crime drama “Murder She Wrote” and the 1950s Western “Gunsmoke”—each of these shows have... Until recently, it seemed video streaming had a channel for every taste. Fans of the 1970s...

In Natron Energy's Holland, Mich. factory. Photo: Courtesy Natron Energy

Exclusive From The Electric: The Battery Industry Crisis Catches Up To Natron, Until Now a Rare Winner

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

In Natron Energy's Holland, Mich. factory. Photo: Courtesy Natron Energy

Exclusive From The Electric: The Battery Industry Crisis Catches Up To Natron, Until Now a Rare Winner

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

Natron Energy’s unusual battery provides a jolt of electricity that boosts the performance of chips used in artificial intelligence data centers, an ability that made it appear to be a rare winner in the crisis-ridden U.S. battery industry. But right now, Natron is pretty much out of cash, according to people familiar with the situation. Natron Energy’s unusual battery provides a jolt of electricity that boosts the performance of...

Collage via Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Takes a Page From Palantir, Doubles Down on Consulting Services

By Aaron Holmes and Sri Muppidi · Jun 29, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

As OpenAI pitches its artificial intelligence to big companies and government agencies, it’s taking a page from the playbook of many software firms by offering in-house researchers and software engineers to customize AI for customers. OpenAI is adding staff and resources for a consulting-like service, in which its engineers guide customers... As OpenAI pitches its artificial intelligence to big companies and government agencies, it’s...

Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg. Photos by Getty

Meta Hires Four More OpenAI Researchers

By Kalley Huang · Jun 28, 2025 9:49am PDT · 10 comments

Meta Platforms is hiring four more OpenAI artificial intelligence researchers as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues an unprecedented recruiting effort to catch up to his AI rivals. The researchers, Shengjia Zhao, Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi and Hongyu Ren, have each agreed to join, according to a person familiar with their hiring. They follow four... Meta Platforms is hiring four more OpenAI artificial intelligence researchers as Meta CEO Mark...

Art by Clark Miller (photo: Getty Images)

Nintendo, the Next Apple?

By Abram Brown · Jun 28, 2025 7:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: The deals, free agents and egos fueling the AI talent grab • The Top 5: The most rigorous summer camps• Plus, our Recommendations: A Pablo Escobar tell-all; Netflix’s latest sleuths; and the amazing Gila monsterMamma Mia! Nintendo’s Switch 2, the latest console from the venerable... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: The deals, free agents and egos fueling...

The Most Rigorous Summer Programs for Silicon Valley’s Next Generation

The Most Rigorous Summer Programs for Silicon Valley’s Next Generation

By Todd Plummer · Jun 28, 2025 6:03am PDT

The Most Rigorous Summer Programs for Silicon Valley’s Next Generation

The Most Rigorous Summer Programs for Silicon Valley’s Next Generation

By Todd Plummer · Jun 28, 2025 6:03am PDT

Summer is here, and so is the crushing pressure of what camps or programs to sign your kid up for in order to impress on college applications. Looking to help your little one become the next Bezos? There’s a camp for that. As it turns out: Play your cards right, and this time of year can be just as fruitful a period for college applications... Summer is here, and so is the crushing pressure of what camps or programs to sign your kid up for...