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

BlackRock's Tony Kim. Getty Images.

Debt Can Plug the AI Hole in Big Tech’s Deep Pockets

By Martin Peers · Nov 9, 2025 3:00pm PST

We’ve moved from marveling about AI’s potential to puzzling over how to pay for it. The price tag seems to grow every day. On Thursday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggested Tesla will need so many chips for its robots and self-driving cars that it might build its own chip factory. He also said Tesla would have to spend “tens of billions” to train the... We’ve moved from marveling about AI’s potential to puzzling over how to pay for it. The price tag...

Sunday Insights

AI and Crypto Companies Dominated IPO Winners in 2025

By Valida Pau · Nov 9, 2025 8:00am PST

The drought in initial public offerings ended this year, led by big winners in AI and crypto, but gains were rare for companies outside those industries. Bankers expect those trends to hold in 2026. Booms in AI and crypto delivered two of the biggest winners of the year: data center developer CoreWeave and stablecoin issuer Circle. The losers... The drought in initial public offerings ended this year, led by big winners in AI and crypto, but...

Art by Clark Miller

The Dumbest AI Fear

By Abram Brown · Nov 8, 2025 7:00am PST

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Data centers are hiring James Bond–style security consultants• The Arena: Is this German club the next Wrexham?• Plus, our Recommendations: “Coining It,” “Gotham at War,” “The Gods of New York” and “The Lowdown”Many fears about artificial intelligence have at least some validity. I do... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Data centers are hiring James Bond–style...

Kara Nortman photo by Erin Beach; team photos courtesy of FC Viktoria Berlin.

The Next Wrexham? American Investors Bet on a Berlin Women’s Soccer Club

By Sara Germano · Nov 8, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Kara Nortman photo by Erin Beach; team photos courtesy of FC Viktoria Berlin.

The Next Wrexham? American Investors Bet on a Berlin Women’s Soccer Club

By Sara Germano · Nov 8, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

When Kara Nortman was looking to start a women’s professional soccer team in Los Angeles, she and her co-founders—actress Natalie Portman and entrepreneur Julie Uhrman—took meetings with sports experts in their hometown. The advice they received? It would be unwise to enter a market crowded by the MLB’s Dodgers, the NBA’s Lakers and... When Kara Nortman was looking to start a women’s professional soccer team in Los Angeles, she and...

Alfred Lin, Roelof Botha and Pat Grady of Sequoia. Photos by Getty.

Before Sequoia’s Botha Stepped Down, Concerns Over Leadership Simmered

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Katie Roof · Nov 7, 2025 12:38pm PST · 1 comment

Before Sequoia Capital’s leader Roelof Botha announced he was stepping down from the position, partners Alfred Lin, Pat Grady and Andrew Reed came to him to talk about his time at the firm. Botha had only held the top-most job at the firm for three years, taking over from long-time leader Doug Leone just as startup valuations were convulsing... Before Sequoia Capital’s leader Roelof Botha announced he was stepping down from the position,...

Richard Socher. Screenshot via YouTube

You.com CEO Socher Seeks $1 Billion for New AI Lab

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Natasha Mascarenhas and Miles Kruppa · Nov 7, 2025 9:46am PST

Richard Socher, CEO of AI search startup You.com and a former chief scientist at Salesforce, hopes to raise around $1 billion for a new AI research startup he will oversee, said two people who spoke to senior staff at You.com. Socher will remain at the helm of You.com, he said in an interview. Socher said his new AI lab will focus on developing... Richard Socher, CEO of AI search startup You.com and a former chief scientist at Salesforce,...

Art by Clark Miller

Why Data Centers Want James Bond–Style Security Consultants

By Jemima McEvoy · Nov 7, 2025 9:00am PST

On a quiet September morning, Alex Leithiser was out in the woods somewhere in the South on a secret mission: to break into a data center. First, he slipped through a small gap in the facility’s barbed wire fence, and as soon as he hit the ground, he switched clothes, pulling a fresh set from a small backpack. With cameras and alarms all over... On a quiet September morning, Alex Leithiser was out in the woods somewhere in the South on a...

Photo of Noam Shazeer by Getty Images. Art by Mike Sullivan

Google’s $2.7 Billion AI Hire Tests Company’s Speech Limits With Inflammatory Posts

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan and Erin Woo · Nov 7, 2025 6:00am PST · 13 comments

Photo of Noam Shazeer by Getty Images. Art by Mike Sullivan

Google’s $2.7 Billion AI Hire Tests Company’s Speech Limits With Inflammatory Posts

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan and Erin Woo · Nov 7, 2025 6:00am PST · 13 comments

This spring, Google AI leader Noam Shazeer posted a comment in one of the company’s internal discussion forums, in response to a post about how Google employees could support their transgender and nonbinary colleagues on International Transgender Day of Visibility. “I do not believe that humans have an attribute called gender,” Shazeer wrote,... This spring, Google AI leader Noam Shazeer posted a comment in one of the company’s internal...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Getty Images

U.S. to Block Nvidia’s Sale of Scaled-Back AI Chips to China

By Qianer Liu · Nov 6, 2025 5:32pm PST · 5 comments

The White House has told others in the federal government it won’t allow Nvidia to sell its latest scaled-down AI chips to China, despite President Donald Trump’s hints over the summer that he might allow the company to do so, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The decision is a major blow to the AI chip giant, which has... The White House has told others in the federal government it won’t allow Nvidia to sell its...

Elon Musk at today's annual Tesla shareholder meeting. YouTube/Tesla.

Elon Musk's Victory

By Theo Wayt · Nov 6, 2025 5:00pm PST

We’ve finally learned the result of a controversial, long-awaited vote that’s generated reams of punditry and put Wall Street on edge. No, I’m not talking about the mayoral election in New York City—I’m talking about the Tesla shareholder vote on Elon Musk’s gigantic compensation package. Musk won with over 75% of the vote, Tesla said at... We’ve finally learned the result of a controversial, long-awaited vote that’s generated reams of...

Photo by Getty

AI Stokes Battles for Series A; Altimeter to Raise New Growth Fund

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Nov 6, 2025 1:43pm PST

I’ve been hearing a lot about how intense competition is for Series A investments lately. Investors that typically look to invest in more mature startups, say at the Series B or above rounds, are crowding into Series A rounds for fear of missing the next major winner.Like much else these days, artificial intelligence gets the credit (or blame)... I’ve been hearing a lot about how intense competition is for Series A investments lately....

Trase Systems President Baskar Sridharan. Photo courtesy of Trase Systems

Agents Learn to Haggle Prices with Software Vendors

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Nov 6, 2025 10:42am PST

Trase Systems President Baskar Sridharan. Photo courtesy of Trase Systems

Agents Learn to Haggle Prices with Software Vendors

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Nov 6, 2025 10:42am PST

While artificial intelligence agents continue to generate mixed results, depending on how much assistance customers get from their AI vendors, some of them have gained a new skill: negotiating software contracts.Over the past year, data management startup Cribl has been using an AI agent from procurement software startup Zip that reads Cribl’s... While artificial intelligence agents continue to generate mixed results, depending on how much...

Ion Stoica. YouTube/Opaque Systems

Why OpenAI CFO Said Uncle Sam Should Backstop Chip Financing; Databricks Co-Founder Responds to Benchmark Critics

By Rocket Drew and Amir Efrati · Nov 6, 2025 7:00am PST

It’s not every day one of the world’s most valuable companies asks the U.S. government for assistance, but these aren’t ordinary days. On Wednesday, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar suggested at a Wall Street Journal event that the federal government ought to guarantee the financing of AI chips. Come again?“We’re looking for an ecosystem of banks,... It’s not every day one of the world’s most valuable companies asks the U.S. government for...

Tom Vice, the former CEO of Sierra Space, speaks in front of the company's Dream Chaser space plane in 2023. Getty Images

Sierra Space Is Raising Cash in Pivot to Defense

By Cory Weinberg · Nov 6, 2025 6:00am PST

Sierra Space reached for the stars but never got off the ground. The privately held company burned through much of the $1.7 billion it raised in large part to build a space plane for NASA called Dream Chaser that has never flown into orbit. Now Sierra is seeking about $300 million in fresh funding to pivot from primarily building a space shuttle... Sierra Space reached for the stars but never got off the ground. The privately held company...

Heron CEO Drew Baglino, left, with Elon Musk. Photo: Courtesy Tesla

The Electric: Tesla Veteran Seeks to Tackle the Problem of Powering Data Centers

By Steve LeVine · Nov 6, 2025 4:30am PST

Drew Baglino spent 18 years as a key engineer at Tesla, most recently as Elon Musk’s right-hand man. Now chief executive of his own company, Baglino is trying to upend the business of powering data centers, much the way Tesla brought new technology to the auto industry. Drew Baglino spent 18 years as a key engineer at Tesla, most recently as Elon Musk’s right-hand...

Tony Xu, CEO of DoorDash. Getty Images

DoorDash’s Investment Plans Unnerve Wall Street

By Martin Peers · Nov 5, 2025 5:00pm PST · 2 comments

Tony Xu, CEO of DoorDash. Getty Images

DoorDash’s Investment Plans Unnerve Wall Street

By Martin Peers · Nov 5, 2025 5:00pm PST · 2 comments

Wall Street is getting jittery about corporate investment. DoorDash stock slumped as much as 20% in after-hours trading after the food-delivery service revealed it expects to “invest several hundred million dollars more” in upgrading its technology and expansion next year than it did this year. Given that DoorDash generates a couple of billion... Wall Street is getting jittery about corporate investment. DoorDash stock slumped as much as 20%...

Decagon CEO and co-founder Jesse Zhang. YouTube/Startup Grind.

Customer Support AI Startup Decagon in Talks to Raise at $4 Billion Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Natasha Mascarenhas · Nov 5, 2025 1:21pm PST · 1 comment

Decagon, which develops AI for automating customer service, is discussing raising equity funding from new investors at a valuation of $4 billion to $5 billion, according to two people with direct knowledge of the deal. The discussions come just five months after the company announced financing at a $1.5 billion valuation. The deal discussions... Decagon, which develops AI for automating customer service, is discussing raising equity funding...

Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller. Photo via Getty

OpenAI’s Data Center Partner Nears $120 Million Stock Sale For Its Employees

By Anissa Gardizy, Natasha Mascarenhas and Sri Muppidi · Nov 5, 2025 11:28am PST

Crusoe, a startup developing a large data center in Texas for Oracle and OpenAI, is arranging an employee share sale that values the seven-year-old firm at around $13 billion, according to two people with knowledge of the transaction. The deal involves selling around $120 million worth of employee shares and would value them at a 30% premium to... Crusoe, a startup developing a large data center in Texas for Oracle and OpenAI, is arranging an...

Image via Getty Images

How Anthropic’s Claude Code Helped Brex Write 80% of a New Codebase

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Nov 5, 2025 7:00am PST

Coding and financial services are two of the most common domains that people cite when I ask about the most promising applications of artificial intelligence. Now we have an example that combines both of them.Wednesday morning, corporate card issuer Brex announced a series of new “agentic” products, powered by Anthropic’s Claude models, that aim... Coding and financial services are two of the most common domains that people cite when I ask...

Getty Images

OpenAI’s Commerce and Apps Efforts Divide Consumer Firms

By Ann Gehan and Catherine Perloff · Nov 5, 2025 6:00am PST

Getty Images

OpenAI’s Commerce and Apps Efforts Divide Consumer Firms

By Ann Gehan and Catherine Perloff · Nov 5, 2025 6:00am PST

In October, Thumbtack, a firm that helps people book home services professionals, agreed to make its app available through ChatGPT, as have a number of commerce firms eager to reach the chatbot’s 800 million weekly users. But Marco Zappacosta, Thumbtack’s CEO, isn’t worried that ChatGPT will replace his own app. “Booking a car on Uber is... In October, Thumbtack, a firm that helps people book home services professionals, agreed to make...