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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Chime’s Founders Hedge Their Bets

By Cory Weinberg · Jun 2, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Chime executives and bankers will spend the next week trying to convince investors that its stock will rise after its initial public offering. The company’s cofounders seem to be preparing for the opposite.New stock awards granted to cofounders Christopher Britt and Ryan King as part of the offering set a low bar potentially at the expense of... Chime executives and bankers will spend the next week trying to convince investors that its stock...

Mike Cessario, founder and CEO of Liquid Death, on stage at an event. Photo by Getty.

The Takeover Targets Emerging Out of IPO Dead Ends

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 2, 2025 1:02pm PDT

This year has seen trickles of tech initial public offering activity, but there’s still a sizable list of IPO hopefuls whose public market ambitions have stalled. Bankers say that dynamic is encouraging more private companies to try to find a buyer instead. To that end, we updated our Tech IPO Tracker to highlight the likeliest takeover targets... This year has seen trickles of tech initial public offering activity, but there’s still a sizable...

Chris Lehane, head of policy at Open AI. Photo by Getty

OpenAI’s Democrats in Action; China’s Open-Source AI

By Rocket Drew · Jun 2, 2025 7:00am PDT

As OpenAI defends its planned corporate restructuring against a range of nonprofit critics, it’s probably feeling pretty good about its decision last year to hire a number of personnel with deep ties to the Democratic establishment.Those hires, including career Democrat Chris Lehane, who leads OpenAI’s global affairs team, looked like a... As OpenAI defends its planned corporate restructuring against a range of nonprofit critics, it’s...

From left: Eddie Wu, Jack Ma and Zhou Jingren. Photos by Getty

How Alibaba Helped China Take the Lead From the U.S. in Open-Source AI

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Jun 2, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

From left: Eddie Wu, Jack Ma and Zhou Jingren. Photos by Getty

How Alibaba Helped China Take the Lead From the U.S. in Open-Source AI

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Jun 2, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

When Alibaba Group’s cloud business unit announced the first generation of artificial intelligence models developed by its own team in 2023, the Chinese tech giant said in a statement that it would integrate the models, known as Qwen, into its various businesses “in the near future.” The reality wasn’t so simple. Each of the company’s six... When Alibaba Group’s cloud business unit announced the first generation of artificial...

Christopher Young, former executive vice president of business development at Microsoft. Photo via Getty.

Microsoft’s Former Deals Chief to Join AI Roll-Ups Rush

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Aaron Holmes · Jun 1, 2025 10:00am PDT · 3 comments

It’s become one of the most popular private investing strategies of the last year: Firms including General Catalyst, Thrive Capital and 8VC have been investing in startups that buy services businesses such as call center operators, merge them with similar companies, and use artificial intelligence to boost sales and keep costs low. In... It’s become one of the most popular private investing strategies of the last year: Firms...

Art by Clark Miller

What Anthropic’s Big Acquisition Could Mean

By Abram Brown · May 31, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Jensen Huang’s precarious balancing act between Trump and China• The Top 5: The fanciest fitness memberships• Plus, our Recommendations: A forgotten horror; the mighty Sahara; and an internet star’s subtle-enough sitcomAnthropic has a shiny new addition I can’t stop thinking about: Reed... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Jensen Huang’s precarious balancing act...

Art by Clark Miller.

The Fanciest Fitness Memberships That Techies Love

By Alex Perry · May 31, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

What do thousands of dollars at a fitness center get a person? Amenities like AI-powered weightlifting machines, in-house physicians, meditative sound baths and color-coded, know-it-all orbs. Earning a clean bill of health has never inspired such extravagance. Here are five of the most luxe fitness memberships popular among the technorati and... What do thousands of dollars at a fitness center get a person? Amenities like AI-powered...

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Musk’s White House Departure Shifts His Focus to Tesla, xAI and SpaceX

By Martin Peers · May 30, 2025 3:19pm PDT

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Musk’s White House Departure Shifts His Focus to Tesla, xAI and SpaceX

By Martin Peers · May 30, 2025 3:19pm PDT

Elon Musk has left the building—the White House, that is. President Donald Trump gave Musk a farewell press conference today, complete with a golden key (literally), marking the end of Musk’s formal time overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency. While both Trump and Musk said the Tesla CEO would visit Washington from time to time, Musk... Elon Musk has left the building—the White House, that is. President Donald Trump gave Musk a ...

Art by Clark Miller.

The Information Events

How DeepSeek Is Unlocking a New Wave of AI Ambition in China

By Qianer Liu · May 30, 2025 12:35pm PDT

The tightening of U.S. chip export controls on China has forced Chinese artificial intelligence developers such as DeepSeek to get creative, finding more efficient ways to train AI models on limited computing resources. And that creativity is likely to continue, according to two Chinese investors and startup founders who spoke at a subscriber... The tightening of U.S. chip export controls on China has forced Chinese artificial intelligence...

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How AI and E-Commerce Can Play Nice

By Ann Gehan and Akash Pasricha · May 30, 2025 8:00am PDT

Online shopping is an emerging battleground for AI companies. If you don’t believe us, check out our latest Talent Tracker of executives leading the way in AI-driven shopping. It highlights people at AI heavyweights like OpenAI and Perplexity, but also e-commerce and online payment incumbents like Shopify and PayPal. (See our full list of 14... Online shopping is an emerging battleground for AI companies. If you don’t believe us, check out...

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Every VC-Backed IPO in the Past 12 Months Has Been a Down Round

By Cory Weinberg · May 30, 2025 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

When banking app Chime goes public next month, it will mark the eighth straight venture capital–backed initial public offering in the past 12 months to be valued less than it was in private fundraising rounds. Chime, for instance, was valued at $25 billion in 2021, but its bankers have been discussing pricing its shares at roughly an $11... When banking app Chime goes public next month, it will mark the eighth straight venture...

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AI Can Help Companies Become More Efficient—Except When It Screws Up

By Martin Peers · May 29, 2025 5:15pm PDT

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AI Can Help Companies Become More Efficient—Except When It Screws Up

By Martin Peers · May 29, 2025 5:15pm PDT

Artificial intelligence really does make mistakes—sometimes big ones. Last weekend, I put half a dozen emails with details of airplane and hotel bookings for an upcoming vacation into Google’s NotebookLM and asked it to write me an itinerary. The resulting document read great—until I realized it listed a departure date 24 hours later than the... Artificial intelligence really does make mistakes—sometimes big ones. Last weekend, I put half a...

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Why One Startup Is Telling Investors Not to Wire the Money

By Natasha Mascarenhas · May 29, 2025 5:06pm PDT

A few months ago, I wrote about a number of early-stage startup founders who chose not to raise venture capital after an initial seed round, instead running their startups on the sales their businesses were generating. Dan Shipper, founder of media and artificial intelligence software startup Every, is taking this “seed-strapping” approach a... A few months ago, I wrote about a number of early-stage startup founders who chose not to raise...

Hailey Bieber. Photo via Getty

Creator Economy

A $1 Billion Boost to Beauty M&A

By Laura Mandaro and Ann Gehan · May 29, 2025 2:01pm PDT

After explosive growth, a generation of beauty brands that blew up on TikTok over the past few years seemed at risk of stalling out. Startups selling lip gloss and body creams lined up bankers last year, hoping for sales to larger consumer product companies. Then few of those deals actually happened.That is, until Wednesday, when Elf Beauty said... After explosive growth, a generation of beauty brands that blew up on TikTok over the past few...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty

OpenAI’s New Path to Conversion Faces Activist Opposition

By Rocket Drew · May 29, 2025 1:33pm PDT · 1 comment

OpenAI has backed off on its plans to carve out its for-profit business, which is responsible for ChatGPT, from its nonprofit charity arm. However, OpenAI’s new proposal to restructure its ownership hasn’t won over nonprofit advocates who opposed the original plan. The advocates are pressing the attorneys general in Delaware and California to... OpenAI has backed off on its plans to carve out its for-profit business, which is responsible for...

Art by Clark Miller

Jensen Huang Used to Delegate Politics—Until Trump’s Return

By Qianer Liu and Wayne Ma · May 29, 2025 10:41am PDT

Art by Clark Miller

Jensen Huang Used to Delegate Politics—Until Trump’s Return

By Qianer Liu and Wayne Ma · May 29, 2025 10:41am PDT

Since the start of this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been thrust into an unexpected new role—chief lobbyist for his company—forcing him to carry its hopes, suggestions and pleas directly to President Donald Trump. Many of Huang’s conversations with Trump have happened at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence and private club in south... Since the start of this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been thrust into an unexpected new...

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The Downsides of Vibe Coding

By Jon Victor · May 29, 2025 10:00am PDT · 1 comment

Some businesses are waking up to the downsides of automated coding products. While most customers cite huge gains in developer productivity from tools like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or Anthropic’s Claude, the code they generate sometimes doesn’t work as expected—or worse, it can make a business vulnerable to hacking or a data leak.The risks can be... Some businesses are waking up to the downsides of automated coding products. While most customers...

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VCs Are Keeping an Ear Out for Voice AI Startups

By Stephanie Palazzolo · May 29, 2025 7:21am PDT

Each new month of the AI boom has brought along with it a new “AI startup flavor of the month” for venture capitalists to drool over. The latest one, VCs tell me, are startups building AI voice agents for various verticals, from hotels to hospitals.Up until recently, AI software that can understand and respond with human speech has largely been... Each new month of the AI boom has brought along with it a new “AI startup flavor of the month”...

Art by Mike Sullivan

VC Funds Are for Sale—at a Discount

By Sri Muppidi · May 29, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

The year 2025 was supposed to bring a cash windfall to venture capital backers, as companies that had delayed going public finally made the leap. That hasn’t happened. With a roller-coaster stock market delaying many long-anticipated initial public offerings, the limited partners in VC funds have been finding new ways to cash out of their stakes... The year 2025 was supposed to bring a cash windfall to venture capital backers, as companies that...

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Nvidia’s Inconveniently Good Quarter

By Martin Peers · May 28, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Photo via Getty

Nvidia’s Inconveniently Good Quarter

By Martin Peers · May 28, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Well, this is inconvenient. Despite President Donald Trump’s order in April immediately blocking Nvidia from selling AI chips to China, the AI chipmaker reported another stellar quarter through the end of April. Revenue rose 69%, while free cash flow soared 75% to $26 billion, more than either Apple or Google throws off. Nvidia said the Trump... Well, this is inconvenient. Despite President Donald Trump’s order in April immediately blocking...