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 Mike Sullivan

AI Agenda: Andreessen Horowitz Backs Property Management and Healthcare Voice Agent Startup at $2 Billion Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Sri Muppidi and Cory Weinberg · Aug 5, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Earlier this year, we wrote about investors’ growing interest in startups building AI-powered voice agents for various industries, from hospitality to construction.If you want a sign of just how interested investors are, look no further than EliseAI, which is building AI for the property management and healthcare industries, including voice... Earlier this year, we wrote about investors’ growing interest in startups building AI-powered...

Photo via Getty

Advertisers Can’t Quit Google, Despite Complaints About Traffic and Ads

By Catherine Perloff · Aug 5, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

No matter how annoyed publishers and advertisers get with Google, they just can’t seem to quit it. Some publishers complain that Google searches are directing less traffic to their sites lately. Some advertisers say Google search ads aren’t showing up next to the terms they paid for, but rather against other terms. And yet both groups say they’... No matter how annoyed publishers and advertisers get with Google, they just can’t seem to quit...

Reflection.AI founders Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou. Photo via Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Reflection AI Targets $1 Billion to Take on Meta, DeepSeek in Open Source

By Kevin McLaughlin, Stephanie Palazzolo and Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 4, 2025 7:05pm PDT · 4 comments

Reflection AI, a one-year-old startup co-founded by former Google DeepMind researchers, is in talks to raise more than $1 billion to fund its efforts to develop open-source large language models to compete with the likes of China’s DeepSeek, France’s Mistral and U.S-based Meta Platforms, according to two people with direct knowledge of the... Reflection AI, a one-year-old startup co-founded by former Google DeepMind researchers, is in...

Photo via Getty

Is Tesla Musk’s AI Company—or is xAI?

By Martin Peers · Aug 4, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Photo via Getty

Is Tesla Musk’s AI Company—or is xAI?

By Martin Peers · Aug 4, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Here’s a question: Which of Elon Musk’s companies is his most AI-focused business? The answer might seem obvious: xAI, developer of Grok. But it’s not that simple, as a letter from two Tesla directors to company shareholders on Monday demonstrates. The letter, explaining the board’s decision to grant Musk a new stock award valued at $23.7... Here’s a question: Which of Elon Musk’s companies is his most AI-focused business? The answer...

At Big Tech, Cloud Revenue Growth Is Catching Up to Capex

By Aaron Holmes · Aug 4, 2025 12:09pm PDT

The big tech firms pouring tens of billions into capital expenditures for new data centers and servers for their cloud services are beginning to see revenues catch up. Growth in capex spending by Microsoft, Google and Amazon dramatically outpaced their cloud revenue expansion between 2023 and 2024, our analysis shows. But in the past year, that... The big tech firms pouring tens of billions into capital expenditures for new data centers and...

Cognition CEO Scott Wu

Cognition Offers Buyouts to Newly Acquired Windsurf Staff

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Kalley Huang · Aug 4, 2025 11:51am PDT · 2 comments

Cognition, a two-year-old artificial intelligence coding startup last valued at $4 billion, has offered buyouts to the roughly 200 employees it acquired in a takeover of rival Windsurf three weeks ago, saying they will receive nine months of salary in return, according to an e-mail seen by The Information. The development comes after... Cognition, a two-year-old artificial intelligence coding startup last valued at $4 billion, has...

Photo via Getty

Why ‘Universal Verifiers’ Are OpenAI’s Secret Weapon

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Rocket Drew · Aug 4, 2025 7:00am PDT

One reason why reinforcement learning—a technique for improving AI models—has become so popular is because researchers can quickly scale it up by using AI to automate writing lots of examples of questions and answers in tough domains like biology, software programming and medicine. RL works best when researchers can quickly verify whether... One reason why reinforcement learning—a technique for improving AI models—has become so popular...

From left: Michael Kratsios, Donald Trump and David O. Sacks onstage at the All‑In Podcast and the Hill & Valley Forum on July 23. Photo by Getty

Behind the White House’s Mixed Messages on AI Copyright

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Aug 4, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

From left: Michael Kratsios, Donald Trump and David O. Sacks onstage at the All‑In Podcast and the Hill & Valley Forum on July 23. Photo by Getty

Behind the White House’s Mixed Messages on AI Copyright

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Aug 4, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Before the White House released its AI Action Plan in July, people involved with drafting the document weighed whether to include recommendations that could have impacted the contentious relationship between artificial intelligence companies and copyright holders. Publishers, authors, film and music companies have filed more than 40 lawsuits in... Before the White House released its AI Action Plan in July, people involved with drafting the...

Joby's electric air taxi over New York City. Photo: Courtesy Joby

The Electric: A Surprising Acquisition Lets Electric Taxi Startup Joby Commercialize Early

By Steve LeVine · Aug 4, 2025 4:00am PDT

Joby Aviation, a maker of electric flying taxis, is coming to the skies of New York sooner than expected, only with fuel-powered aircraft to start with. Joby said today it is buying Blade Air Mobility, known for its helicopter flights to the city’s airports and the Hamptons on Long Island. Joby Aviation, a maker of electric flying taxis, is coming to the skies of New York sooner than...

Art by Mike Sullivan

The Whiz-Bang AI That Hollywood Hates

By Abram Brown · Aug 2, 2025 7:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Microplastics are Silicon Valley’s new big worry• Media: Beehiiv, the next billion-dollar newsletter startup?• Plus, our Recommendations: “Camp Shame,” “Algospeak” and “KPop Demon Hunters”Leave it to Las Vegas to stir up tensions between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. The Sphere, the orblike... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Microplastics are Silicon Valley’s new...

Art by Clark Miller

Media and Entertainment

Is Beehiiv the Next Billion-Dollar Newsletter Startup?

By Jessica Roy · Aug 2, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Last August, when CNN’s Oliver Darcy decided he wanted to leave the network and launch Status, an email newsletter focused on the media industry, he cast about for a platform that would allow him to customize the look and feel of his new venture so it didn’t resemble every other media newsletter. There was Substack, the leader in the... Last August, when CNN’s Oliver Darcy decided he wanted to leave the network and launch ...

An Amazon data center in Virginia. Photo via Getty.

Why Big Tech’s Cloud Shift Threatens Microsoft and Google’s Margins

By Martin Peers · Aug 1, 2025 3:00pm PDT

An Amazon data center in Virginia. Photo via Getty.

Why Big Tech’s Cloud Shift Threatens Microsoft and Google’s Margins

By Martin Peers · Aug 1, 2025 3:00pm PDT

Don’t count out Amazon. This was not the commerce cloud giant’s week, to be sure. When it comes to the great artificial intelligence cloud race, which now overwhelms all else in tech, Microsoft and Google appear to be ahead. Both companies posted accelerating growth in their cloud units for the June quarter, unlike Amazon. But one element is... Don’t count out Amazon. This was not the commerce cloud giant’s week, to be sure. When it comes...

Pro Weekly: The Week in The Information Pro

Pro Weekly: The Week in The Information Pro

By The Information Staff · Aug 1, 2025 11:00am PDT

This week, the tech world is buzzing with major news, from the financial milestones of leading AI companies to a lively IPO market. In generative AI, OpenAI and Anthropic are showcasing explosive revenue growth, while Figma's successful debut has injected new life into the IPO landscape. Klarna's has renewed plans to go public and a... This week, the tech world is buzzing with major news, from the financial milestones of leading AI...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Art by Mike Sullivan

Inside OpenAI’s Rocky Path to GPT-5

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · Aug 1, 2025 10:58am PDT · 9 comments

OpenAI made waves across the industry in December when it published the results from its tests of artificial intelligence that performs better on tasks when it gets more time and computing power to process them. The results implied ChatGPT customers were about to be blown away by what the new AI could do. But the euphoria was short-lived. When ... OpenAI made waves across the industry in December when it published the results from its tests of...

Art by Clark Miller

How Microplastics Became Silicon Valley’s Big New Worry

By Ann Gehan · Aug 1, 2025 9:00am PDT · 1 comment

Lee Jacobs, co-founder of Long Journey Ventures, thought he had seen it all among his friends and acquaintances in Silicon Valley: the continuous glucose monitors, the cortisol tests, the frequent bloodwork to monitor hundreds of biomarkers and maximize longevity. Recently, another wellness obsession took him by surprise. “I didn’t know the... Lee Jacobs, co-founder of Long Journey Ventures, thought he had seen it all among his friends and...

Zhipu CEO Zhang Peng. Photo via YouTube.

Chinese AI Developer Zhipu’s First Half Revenue Grew Fourfold

By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Aug 1, 2025 6:00am PDT

Zhipu CEO Zhang Peng. Photo via YouTube.

Chinese AI Developer Zhipu’s First Half Revenue Grew Fourfold

By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Aug 1, 2025 6:00am PDT

Chinese artificial intelligence model developer Zhipu AI, whose progress has attracted Washington’s scrutiny and caught OpenAI’s attention, increased revenue as much as fourfold in the first half of the year, the Beijing-based startup’s CEO, Zhang Peng, said in an interview this week. Zhipu’s business remains relatively small—revenue last... Chinese artificial intelligence model developer Zhipu AI, whose progress has attracted Washington...

Dario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive officer of Anthropic. Photo by Getty

Anthropic Revenue Pace Nears $5 Billion in Run-Up to Mega Round

By Sri Muppidi · Jul 31, 2025 5:55pm PDT

This year’s torrid deal-making pace is definitely not taking a pause for summer. On Wednesday, I reported that OpenAI is months ahead of schedule in raising money for its $40 billion megaround. Investors are pouring in money at a moment when OpenAI is generating $12 billion in annualized revenue and hitting 700 million weekly active users... This year’s torrid deal-making pace is definitely not taking a pause for summer. On Wednesday, I...

Photo via Getty

Figma’s Bubble and Apple’s Surprise

By Martin Peers · Jul 31, 2025 5:00pm PDT

What a day! Apple surprised with a much better quarter than it had projected, lifting revenue in the June quarter 10%, thanks to 13% higher iPhone revenue, the best iPhone quarter in four years. Amazon, meanwhile, reported the best growth for its online stores in three years. (See below for more on the quarterly results.) The biggest news today,... What a day! Apple surprised with a much better quarter than it had projected, lifting revenue in...

Adam Presser. Photo by Getty

Creator Economy

TikTok Leadership Shake-Up Lifts Presser’s Role

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jul 31, 2025 3:00pm PDT

As TikTok nears another deadline to sell its U.S. business, the company is shaking up some of its senior roles. In a note to staff Thursday, which The Information reviewed, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said that Adam Presser, TikTok’s head of operations and trust & safety, will become head of USDS—a unit the company created to secure U.S.... As TikTok nears another deadline to sell its U.S. business, the company is shaking up some of its...

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma, rings the opening bell today at the New York Stock Exchange. Photo via Getty

Figma’s Shares Soar 250% in IPO, Making It Hottest in String of Tech Deals

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 31, 2025 1:31pm PDT

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma, rings the opening bell today at the New York Stock Exchange. Photo via Getty

Figma’s Shares Soar 250% in IPO, Making It Hottest in String of Tech Deals

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 31, 2025 1:31pm PDT

Figma became the second-most richly valued publicly traded software company, after Palantir, following a blockbuster initial public offering. The company’s shares rose more than 250%, pushing its enterprise value at the end of Thursday to $67 billion. That means that investors are valuing Figma at about 55 times the revenue that bankers expect... Figma became the second-most richly valued publicly traded software company, after Palantir,...