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

Art via Getty

VCs Bet on AI Chips That Use Light Instead of Electronics

By Rocket Drew · Aug 25, 2025 7:00am PDT

When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in March said his company would release hardware that lets an AI data center chip send information directly over optical cables instead of needing to convert to optical from electrical signals, it was a shot in the arm for optics developers that have long wanted a bigger role in data centers.Using light to send... When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in March said his company would release hardware that lets an AI...

Photo via Faire

E-Commerce Startup Faire Targets $500 Million in Revenue

By Ann Gehan and Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 25, 2025 6:00am PDT

In 2022, Faire became one of the most highly priced e-commerce startups, with a valuation of $12.6 billion, as the online marketplace benefited from a surge in internet sales during the pandemic. But after e-commerce growth cooled with waning Covid-19 restrictions, the company in late 2023 slashed its internal valuation to $5 billion, according... In 2022, Faire became one of the most highly priced e-commerce startups, with a valuation of...

Musk in Qatar. Win McNamee/Getty

The Electric: Is One of Tesla's Key Battery Innovations Worth It?

By Steve LeVine · Aug 25, 2025 4:30am PDT · 1 comment

In 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised to completely rework his processes and release a cheap electric vehicle for the masses. That sent rivals scurrying, especially to keep up with his vow to stop making batteries “wet,” the expensive conventional way, requiring toxic solvents, massive drying ovens and cavernous factories. Instead, Tesla would... In 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised to completely rework his processes and release a cheap...

Art by Clark Miller

Why MIT’s Viral AI Study Struck A Nerve

By Abram Brown · Aug 23, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Art by Clark Miller

Why MIT’s Viral AI Study Struck A Nerve

By Abram Brown · Aug 23, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Welcome, Weekenders!I’m delighted to introduce Weekend’s latest addition: Jemima McEvoy, who joins as a reporter.Jemima comes from Forbes, where she was a staff writer and a distinguished member of the Wealth Team, the group of reporters who assemble the Forbes 400 and World’s Billionaires lists and chronicle these moguls throughout the year.... Welcome, Weekenders!I’m delighted to introduce Weekend’s latest addition: Jemima McEvoy, who...

Art by Clark Miller

Artificial Intelligence

AI Forces Silicon Valley to Confront a Moment of Ecstasy and Agony

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Jemima McEvoy and Erin Woo · Aug 23, 2025 6:55am PDT · 7 comments

Last fall, Howie Liu, CEO and co-founder of Airtable, arrived at a board meeting with an urgent realization: If Airtable, a maker of collaboration software, wanted to stay relevant, it needed to significantly rethink itself. “We started to feel like the incumbent instead of the disruptor and risked becoming one of the dinosaurs,” Liu said. The... Last fall, Howie Liu, CEO and co-founder of Airtable, arrived at a board meeting with an urgent...

AWS data centers in Manassas, Va. Photo via Getty

Bankers Doing Data Center Financings Had No Respite This Summer

By Ken Brown · Aug 22, 2025 3:00pm PDT

There were no August vacations for bankers who do data center financing deals.At the start of the month, Meta reached a deal to borrow $26 billion and get $3 billion in equity tied to its data center build-out, according to Bloomberg. This week, JPMorgan Chase and Japanese lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group agreed to underwrite $22 billion in... There were no August vacations for bankers who do data center financing deals.At the start of the...

Figma CEO Dylan Field during the company's initial public offering last month. Photo via Getty

The Funny Math Behind a Key Software Metric

By Anita Ramaswamy · Aug 22, 2025 7:31am PDT · 8 comments

The rise of artificial intelligence has turned the software industry into a minefield for investors. To address the risks, some are relying more on a metric known as net revenue retention to pick winners and avoid losers. In its simplest form, NRR, also known as net dollar retention, compares annual revenue from a year ago to now. The number can... The rise of artificial intelligence has turned the software industry into a minefield for...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

Struggling Snap Considers Outside Funding for AR Glasses

By Kaya Yurieff, Erin Woo and Jemima McEvoy · Aug 22, 2025 6:09am PDT · 2 comments

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

Struggling Snap Considers Outside Funding for AR Glasses

By Kaya Yurieff, Erin Woo and Jemima McEvoy · Aug 22, 2025 6:09am PDT · 2 comments

For nearly as long as Evan Spiegel has run Snap Inc., his big bet has been on Spectacles, the company’s augmented reality glasses. All together, he has poured $3 billion into the effort—a fraction of what Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Platforms has invested in wearable technology, but a major expense for a company of Snap’s modest size. Spiegel... For nearly as long as Evan Spiegel has run Snap Inc., his big bet has been on Spectacles, the...

Photo via Getty

What Rent the Runway’s Lender Takeover Means

By Martin Peers · Aug 21, 2025 5:10pm PDT

Some companies should never go public—or maybe even exist. Rent the Runway might be in that group. The clothing-rental subscription service—one of a bunch of mid-sized online shopping companies to go public in recent years—says its mission “is to power women to feel their best every day.” How about trying to make money? After years of steady... Some companies should never go public—or maybe even exist. Rent the Runway might be in that...

Image via Getty

Nvidia Orders Halt to H20 Production After China Directive Against Purchases

By Qianer Liu · Aug 21, 2025 4:59pm PDT · 2 comments

Nvidia has told some of its component suppliers to suspend production work related to the H20, its chip tailor-made for the Chinese market, according to two people with direct knowledge of the communications. The directive comes weeks after the Chinese government told local tech companies to stop buying the chips due to alleged security... Nvidia has told some of its component suppliers to suspend production work related to the H20,...

Photo by Getty.

Ex-OpenAI Staff Launch Fund as OpenAI ‘Mafia’ Spreads

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 21, 2025 4:17pm PDT

Over the last two years, several ex-OpenAI employees have left to found new startups. Now some former researchers at the ChatGPT maker are starting venture funds, extending a history of alums from buzzy startups who jump into investing. The latest example of this is Zero Shot Fund, started this summer by a group of former OpenAI employees... Over the last two years, several ex-OpenAI employees have left to found new startups. Now some...

Art by Clark Miller

Meta Signs $10 Billion-Plus Cloud Deal With Google

By Kevin McLaughlin and Kalley Huang · Aug 21, 2025 3:48pm PDT · 2 comments

Art by Clark Miller

Meta Signs $10 Billion-Plus Cloud Deal With Google

By Kevin McLaughlin and Kalley Huang · Aug 21, 2025 3:48pm PDT · 2 comments

Google has struck a major cloud computing deal with Meta Platforms, according to two people familiar with the matter. As part of the agreement, the social media giant will use Google Cloud’s servers, storage, networking and other services, one of the people said. The deal—worth more than $10 billion over six years, the person said—is... Google has struck a major cloud computing deal with Meta Platforms, according to two people...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, left, and Sam Altman. Photos via Getty

OpenAI Is Challenging Google—While Using Its Search Data

By Amir Efrati, Stephanie Palazzolo and Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 21, 2025 2:42pm PDT · 1 comment

As it tries to unseat Google, OpenAI is relying on search data from an unlikely source: Google. OpenAI has been using Google search results scraped from the web to help power ChatGPT responses, according to two people with knowledge of it. As it tries to unseat Google, OpenAI is relying on search data from an unlikely source: Google. ...

Trey Ogilvie and Conduit Commerce employees Rohan Shah, Anand Prabhu and Rahul Sinha (left to right).

Creator Economy

One E-Commerce Startup Makes a Bet on TikTok Shop

By Ann Gehan · Aug 21, 2025 2:00pm PDT

TikTok Shop, the short-form video app’s e-commerce platform, made a big splash nearly two years ago when it first launched in the U.S. Even though it’s reduced the initial deep discounts for shoppers and sellers, quieting some of the initial buzz over the service, some startups are still betting TikTok’s social shopping features will grow.One is... TikTok Shop, the short-form video app’s e-commerce platform, made a big splash nearly two years...

Subscriber Survey

The Information Survey: Two in Three Readers Have Taken Self-Driving Cars

By Shane Burke · Aug 21, 2025 1:03pm PDT · 1 comment

Two out of three subscribers to The Information who responded to a survey have taken a ride in a self-driving car—and nearly 99% of riders were satisfied with the experience. The survey results are the latest confirmation that after years of development and testing, self-driving cars are finally revving up. Two out of three subscribers to The Information who responded to a survey have taken a ride in a...

Sam Altman. Photo via Getty

Why AI Still Feels Pricy

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 21, 2025 10:30am PDT

Sam Altman. Photo via Getty

Why AI Still Feels Pricy

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 21, 2025 10:30am PDT

Our Wednesday story about rising costs of businesses that pay for advanced artificial intelligence from OpenAI and Anthropic stirred strong reactions from readers. OpenAI researcher Aidan McLaughlin wondered aloud where we had gotten the idea that state-of-the-art AI was supposed to get cheaper. The answer: his boss, Sam Altman. OpenAI... Our Wednesday story about rising costs of businesses that pay for advanced artificial...

Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller speaks onstage at the All-In and Hill & Valley Forum on July 23 in Washington, D.C. Image via Getty.

OpenAI’s Data Center Provider in Talks to Raise Money at $10 Billion Valuation

By Anissa Gardizy and Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 21, 2025 8:44am PDT

Crusoe, the developer behind OpenAI’s first Stargate data center, is discussing raising funds at a $10 billion valuation—more than three times its valuation less than a year ago, according to two people with direct knowledge of the fundraising talks. The seven-year-old company wants to raise at least $1 billion to fulfill its ambitions to... Crusoe, the developer behind OpenAI’s first Stargate data center, is discussing raising funds at...

Bret Taylor, CEO of Sierra and chairman of OpenAI's board.

Sierra CEO and OpenAI Chair on Rising AI Costs, GPT-5, and AI Data Wars

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 21, 2025 7:15am PDT

If there’s one thing the artificial intelligence industry hasn’t been lacking in recently, it’s news. So on Wednesday’s episode of TITV, our editor-in-chief Jessica Lessin asked Bret Taylor, CEO of customer-support agent firm Sierra, and Winston Weinberg, CEO of legal agent startup Harvey, for their thoughts on recent developments ranging from ... If there’s one thing the artificial intelligence industry hasn’t been lacking in recently, it’s...

Art by Clark Miller.

Solana Gets Respectable and Sets Its Sights on Wall Street

By Yueqi Yang · Aug 21, 2025 6:00am PDT

Solana, the wild younger sibling of the crypto world, wants to be taken seriously. Best known for memecoins and its connection to crypto exchange FTX, the blockchain is getting close to breaking into mainstream finance. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which has turned crypto-friendly under President Donald Trump, is expected to... Solana, the wild younger sibling of the crypto world, wants to be taken seriously. Best known for...

Mohamad Yassine, CEO of Predictive Horizons. Photo: Vanessa Harp

Exclusive From The Electric: In a Startup, Tesla Veterans Attack Detroit's Warranty Crisis

By Steve LeVine · Aug 21, 2025 4:30am PDT

Mohamad Yassine, CEO of Predictive Horizons. Photo: Vanessa Harp

Exclusive From The Electric: In a Startup, Tesla Veterans Attack Detroit's Warranty Crisis

By Steve LeVine · Aug 21, 2025 4:30am PDT

Last year, Ford paid out $5.8 billion in warranty claims on its vehicles, a 22% increase over 2023. General Motors spent $4.5 billion on such claims, 12% more than its 2023 number. And Tesla paid $1.45 billion, a 19% year-on-year increase.Detroit has a car repair problem going back to the 1970s. It was one reason Japanese carmakers managed to... Last year, Ford paid out $5.8 billion in warranty claims on its vehicles, a 22% increase over...