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

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Recent Editions

Art by Clark Miller. Screenshots via YouTube.

A $4 Billion Enterprise Software Firm Acquires AI Coding Startup Codegen

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 23, 2025 7:00am PST

This year has been a big one for AI coding startup acquisitions. Who can forget the dramatic Google-Windsurf-Cognition saga from this summer? And this month alone, Anthropic acquired developer tool startup Bun and Cursor bought code review startup Graphite.Another coding deal is sneaking in before the end of the year. ClickUp, a $4... This year has been a big one for AI coding startup acquisitions. Who can forget the dramatic ...

Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Poor Tech IPO Performance Clouds Outlook for New Listings

By Cory Weinberg and Valida Pau · Dec 23, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

More than two-thirds of this year’s tech initial public offerings are trading below their listing prices, a poor reception that is casting doubt on the prospects for companies hoping to hit the market next year. The exceptions are the eagerly awaited deals from giants such as SpaceX and Anthropic. Among this year’s stumbles were venture-backed... More than two-thirds of this year’s tech initial public offerings are trading below their listing...

Anduril CEO and co-founder of Erebor Bank, Palmer Luckey. Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty.

Crypto’s Banking Woes Are Not Over

By Yueqi Yang · Dec 22, 2025 5:00pm PST

The crypto world has gotten some early Christmas presents. The Securities and Exchange Commission has dismissed some Biden-era lawsuits, and the industry has helped push through landmark stablecoin legislation. Crypto companies have also made strides on a lingering problem: access to the mainstream financial system. But that is still a... The crypto world has gotten some early Christmas presents. The Securities and Exchange Commission...

Photo by An Rong Xu/Getty Images

Nvidia Restructures Cloud Team After Retreating From AWS Competition

By Anissa Gardizy and Wayne Ma · Dec 22, 2025 12:40pm PST · 1 comment

Photo by An Rong Xu/Getty Images

Nvidia Restructures Cloud Team After Retreating From AWS Competition

By Anissa Gardizy and Wayne Ma · Dec 22, 2025 12:40pm PST · 1 comment

More than two years after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang shared his vision to develop a cloud service that could rival Amazon Web Services, he has backed away from competing with such firms and last week reorganized his company’s cloud team, according to several people with knowledge of the organizational change and an internal memo about it. The... More than two years after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang shared his vision to develop a cloud service...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Artificial Intelligence

Robot Makers Wrestle With How to Safely Pull the Plug on Humanoids

By Rocket Drew · Dec 22, 2025 10:21am PST

Tech titans from Elon Musk to SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son have envisioned humanoid robots working next to people in factories, schools and homes. Realizing that future will require humanoid makers to assure their human customers that the robots won’t harm them. To help ease those concerns, robotics companies are working on a set of standards that... Tech titans from Elon Musk to SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son have envisioned humanoid robots working...

Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images

AI Infrastructure

Why Data Centers Are Falling Behind Schedule; Jensen Huang’s Power Summit

By Anissa Gardizy · Dec 22, 2025 9:24am PST · 1 comment

You’re about to start hearing a lot about data center delays. In fact, executives and investors I’ve been speaking with expect this will be one of the defining themes of 2026, as delays separate world-class operators from the rest of the pack. But to understand what this will actually mean for the artificial intelligence buildout, it helps... You’re about to start hearing a lot about data center delays. In fact, executives and investors I...

Clay CEO Kareem Amin. Photo courtesy of Clay.

Why Some App Developers View ChatGPT as an Opportunity, Not a Threat

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 22, 2025 7:00am PST

When OpenAI in October announced “apps in ChatGPT,” allowing people to use external apps like Zillow or Spotify in ChatGPT—essentially bringing the apps’ core functions into the chatbot—some developers wondered if this would be a blow to consumer apps that would further separate them from their customers. That’s a fear DoorDash, for instance,... When OpenAI in October announced “apps in ChatGPT,” allowing people to use external apps like ...

Art by Mike Sullivan/Getty Images

Microsoft’s Nadella Pressures Deputies to Accelerate Copilot Improvements

By Aaron Holmes, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · Dec 22, 2025 6:00am PST · 4 comments

Art by Mike Sullivan/Getty Images

Microsoft’s Nadella Pressures Deputies to Accelerate Copilot Improvements

By Aaron Holmes, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · Dec 22, 2025 6:00am PST · 4 comments

A few weeks ago, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent an email to engineering leaders at the company who were working on a consumer version of Copilot, the AI-powered assistant inside several Microsoft products. A Microsoft manager on the email thread noted that Google’s Gemini chatbot had recently gotten better at connecting with Google Drive for... A few weeks ago, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent an email to engineering leaders at the company...

Ford has canceled the electric F-150 pickup and will reintroduce it as an extend-drive hybrid. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty

The Electric: Ford’s Leap Into Powering AI Data Centers Reflects an Industry Adrift

By Steve LeVine · Dec 22, 2025 4:30am PST

In Ford’s third-quarter earnings call in October, Ford CEO Jim Farley was typically optimistic about the company’s prospects for selling electric vehicles, predicting that a planned midsize electric pickup, to be released in 2027, would wow customers. In Ford’s third-quarter earnings call in October, Ford CEO Jim Farley was typically optimistic...

Judge Amit Mehta. Getty Images.

Tech's Big Winners of 2025: Google, Musk and ByteDance

By Martin Peers · Dec 21, 2025 3:00pm PST

We’re heading into the holidays, when a look back at 2025 seems natural (and a good way to make up for the relative lack of news!). Let’s start with Google’s amazing turnaround in 2025. Not only did it emerge mostly unscathed from the antitrust litigation regarding search, it made a giant leap forward in the AI market. Conspiracy theorists will... We’re heading into the holidays, when a look back at 2025 seems natural (and a good way to make...

Sunday Insights

OpenAI Is Getting More Efficient at Running Its AI, Internal Financials Show

By Sri Muppidi · Dec 21, 2025 8:00am PST · 17 comments

As OpenAI discusses raising an unprecedented investment round of up to $100 billion, it can crow about some key improvements to how it runs its business. While its total computing costs are still high as a percentage of revenue, it is wringing more revenue out of every dollar it spends to run the servers that power ChatGPT’s subscription... As OpenAI discusses raising an unprecedented investment round of up to $100 billion, it can crow...

Art by Clark Miller (photos: Getty Images)

Tech’s Surprise VIP for Outer Space

By Abram Brown · Dec 20, 2025 7:00am PST

Art by Clark Miller (photos: Getty Images)

Tech’s Surprise VIP for Outer Space

By Abram Brown · Dec 20, 2025 7:00am PST

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Inside the Anduril-ization of local crime fighting • The Arena: Sports betting is booming—and so are prediction markets• Plus, Recommendations, our weekly pop culture picks—holiday favorites edition: “2046,” “The Holdovers,” “The Holiday,” “Little Women” (2019), “The Muppet... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Inside the Anduril-ization of local crime...

Art by Clark Miller

Sports Betting Everywhere: Prediction Markets Explode

By Sara Germano and Yueqi Yang · Dec 20, 2025 6:00am PST · 3 comments

Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket have gained popularity in the U.S. by letting people bet on everything from elections to Oscar winners to weather trends. But over the past year, a substantial portion of their wagers—and in Kalshi’s case the vast majority—have come from sports betting. And now traditional sportsbooks and... Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket have gained popularity in the U.S. by letting...

Art by Clark Miller (photos: Getty Images)

Local Crime Fighting Gets Anduril-ized: How Tech Startups Are Changing City Police Forces

By Abram Brown · Dec 20, 2025 6:00am PST

Recently, Nick Noone, co-founder and CEO of Peregrine, was introduced to Candace Parker, sports broadcaster and retired WNBA star, by mutual friends. They hit it off. The two share a passion for athletics. (Noone was a Stanford gymnast.) And both have an interest in startups. (Parker is an active angel investor.) After Noone described how his... Recently, Nick Noone, co-founder and CEO of Peregrine, was introduced to Candace Parker, sports...

Marlena Sloss/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Salesforce Executives Say Trust in Large Language Models Has Declined

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Dec 19, 2025 7:54am PST · 6 comments

Over the past year, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has touted his company’s main AI product, Agentforce, as a money saver for businesses looking to automate work using the power of large language models. More recently, though, Salesforce executives have delivered a different message to customers: Agentforce sometimes works better when it doesn’t... Over the past year, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has touted his company’s main AI product,...

Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind. Photo by Chris J. Ratcliffe/Getty Images

Inside the Balancing Act Over Google’s Compute Crunch

By Erin Woo · Dec 19, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind. Photo by Chris J. Ratcliffe/Getty Images

Inside the Balancing Act Over Google’s Compute Crunch

By Erin Woo · Dec 19, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Earlier this year, Google convened a group of its top executives to address what some staffers see as an existential problem: the company doesn’t have enough computer chips for everyone who wants them. A shortage of computing capacity was creating internal tensions, as leaders of Google’s varied product areas struggled to agree on where Google... Earlier this year, Google convened a group of its top executives to address what some staffers...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Why Google’s AI Weakness Turned Out to Be a Strength

By Martin Peers · Dec 18, 2025 5:00pm PST · 4 comments

Sometimes people’s greatest weakness can be their biggest strength. And in AI, it is turning out that what we thought was a weakness for Google—the fact that it had both a search portal and an AI chatbot—is actually an advantage. People use search and AI chatbots interchangeably, to be sure, but it’s become clear through the course of this year... Sometimes people’s greatest weakness can be their biggest strength. And in AI, it is turning out...

Art by Mike Sullivan

The Big Idea That Drove a Strong Year in Tech Dealmaking

By Valida Pau · Dec 18, 2025 2:25pm PST

It’s a no-brainer these days to say AI is driving tech mergers. As I wrote earlier this month, big AI deals and a deal-friendly presidential administration have pushed the value of U.S. announced tech mergers to more than $543 billion this year, the highest level since 2021. To Morgan Stanley bankers, the deals this year and over the next... It’s a no-brainer these days to say AI is driving tech mergers. As I wrote earlier this month,...

Juliana Yamada/LA Times via Getty Images.

Can UCLA Replace Teaching Assistants with AI?

By Aaron Holmes · Dec 18, 2025 10:30am PST

Universities grappling with slowing enrollment and imperiled federal funding are looking for new ways to cut costs. How much will artificial intelligence help? The management school at the University of California, Los Angeles has been developing AI applications for its 500 faculty and staff members, including tools that might automate the... Universities grappling with slowing enrollment and imperiled federal funding are looking for new...

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Problem

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 18, 2025 7:00am PST

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Problem

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 18, 2025 7:00am PST

OpenAI has a problem and, unfortunately for it, that problem is also how it makes most of its money: ChatGPT.In this story that Sri, Amir and I published this morning, we revealed that over the past year OpenAI staffers had noticed that improvements to the company’s models weren’t necessarily lifting ChatGPT usage. Their quandary is that... OpenAI has a problem and, unfortunately for it, that problem is also how it makes most of its...