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 by Clark Miller.

Amazon’s Media Empire Quietly Taps Outside Ad Sales Help

By Catherine Perloff · Jun 2, 2026 6:00am PDT

Amazon has been pitching its advertising business as an “everything store” for media—where brands can buy ads that run on everything from Thursday Night Football and streaming site Twitch to media it does not own, like Netflix and Spotify. Despite that united front, behind the scenes the company has been relying on an increasing number of... Amazon has been pitching its advertising business as an “everything store” for media—where...

Benjamin Fanjoy/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Google’s AI Fundraising; Anthropic’s IPO Option

By Martin Peers · Jun 1, 2026 5:01pm PDT

How is running an AI firm like running for Congress? In either case, you have to spend half your time raising money! Take Google’s surprising announcement on Monday afternoon that it plans to raise a total of $80 billion in equity “as part of its plan to fund investments” in AI. That’s in addition to the $85 billion it has already borrowed in... How is running an AI firm like running for Congress? In either case, you have to spend half your...

Sachin Katti, OpenAI's head of compute.

AI Infrastructure

OpenAI Could Release Internal Tool That Would Weaken Nvidia’s Software Advantage

By Anissa Gardizy · Jun 1, 2026 9:37am PDT

Morning! Anissa here. OpenAI is open to the idea of publicly sharing software it’s been developing to make its AI run on chips from different providers, a senior executive said, a move that could weaken one of Nvidia’s biggest advantages. The revealing comments came from Sachin Katti, who leads compute and infrastructure at OpenAI,... Morning! Anissa here. OpenAI is open to the idea of publicly sharing software it’s been...

An attack drone made by Neros Technology, a leading company in the Pentagon's Drone Dominance competition. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty

Drone and Battery Stocks Have Surged on Trump's Escalating Drone Push

By Steve LeVine · Jun 1, 2026 9:01am PDT

An attack drone made by Neros Technology, a leading company in the Pentagon's Drone Dominance competition. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty

Drone and Battery Stocks Have Surged on Trump's Escalating Drone Push

By Steve LeVine · Jun 1, 2026 9:01am PDT

Investors are piling into the shares of drone and next-generation battery startups as the Trump administration seeks to jump-start a U.S. drone manufacturing industry that hasn’t kept up with its international rivals. Investors are piling into the shares of drone and next-generation battery startups as the Trump...

Art via Getty Images

AI Evaluators Struggle with Models That Know When They’re Being Tested

By Rocket Drew · Jun 1, 2026 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

AI researchers are starting to make progress on a confounding problem: AI models are getting better at telling when they are in an evaluation.That could become a problem for AI companies that use evaluations to gauge the capabilities and behaviors of their models before releasing them. If models act differently during testing, that could mean... AI researchers are starting to make progress on a confounding problem: AI models are getting...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Ruhani Kaur/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Anthropic’s Mythos Is a Security Powerhouse. It’s Also a Budget Buster

By Aaron Holmes · Jun 1, 2026 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

When Palo Alto Networks earlier this year began testing Anthropic’s Claude Mythos to comb through its own source code, it didn’t take long to see the future of cybersecurity. It also didn’t take long to see what that future would cost. The model found more than two dozen critical vulnerabilities in around three weeks, roughly five times what the... When Palo Alto Networks earlier this year began testing Anthropic’s Claude Mythos to comb through...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella via Getty

Microsoft’s AI Independence Day

By Aaron Holmes and Qianer Liu · May 31, 2026 2:56pm PDT

Two months after Microsoft’s conscious uncoupling from OpenAI, Microsoft wants to prove it’s thriving as an AI provider that doesn’t have to rely on the ChatGPT maker’s technology. Microsoft’s annual Build conference for roughly 2,500 app developers, which kicks off Tuesday in San Francisco, will be a “debutante ball” of sorts for its team... Two months after Microsoft’s conscious uncoupling from OpenAI, Microsoft wants to prove it’s...

Why Forward Deployed Engineers Are the Rage

By Laura Bratton and Kevin McLaughlin · May 31, 2026 8:00am PDT · 5 comments

Sunday Insights

Why Forward Deployed Engineers Are the Rage

By Laura Bratton and Kevin McLaughlin · May 31, 2026 8:00am PDT · 5 comments

AI researchers may have the hottest job in tech, but forward-deployed engineers who put the AI to good use are becoming indispensable too. The military-inspired job title, which Palantir began using in the context of business software more than a decade ago, has spread to all corners of the industry. Last week, for instance, Meta formed a new... AI researchers may have the hottest job in tech, but forward-deployed engineers who put the AI to...

Art by Clark Miller

Defense Tech Grows Up

By Leo Schwartz · May 30, 2026 9:01am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Can OpenAI’s revenue chief catch Anthropic in enterprise tech?• Plus, Recommendations—our weekly pop culture picks: “Deep Cover: The Family Man,” “1873” and “Legends”On Tuesday, I dropped in at JPMorgan Chase’s glitzy new Midtown headquarters for a confab on national... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Can OpenAI’s revenue chief ...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images

OpenAI’s Revenue Chief Barnstorms for Business Customers

By Sri Muppidi and Laura Bratton · May 30, 2026 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Before former Slack CEO Denise Dresser joined OpenAI in December as its chief revenue officer, the company’s efforts to sell its products to business customers were sometimes clunky. Earlier in 2025, for example, the company had struck an agreement with Databricks, which would sell OpenAI products alongside the database software provider’s own... Before former Slack CEO Denise Dresser joined OpenAI in December as its chief revenue officer,...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

Meta Memo Outlines Ambitious Hardware Plans, Including New AI Pendant

By Jyoti Mann · May 29, 2026 4:38pm PDT

Meta Platforms plans to start testing an AI pendant in the next year as part of an ambitious roadmap for wearable devices aimed at reversing the huge losses in its hardware division. An internal memo describing the roadmap, reviewed by The Information, also lays out plans to significantly expand its selection of AI glasses and to add a... Meta Platforms plans to start testing an AI pendant in the next year as part of an ambitious...

The Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploding on May 28 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. @JConcilus via AP.

Why SpaceX Isn’t Celebrating the Blue Origin Explosion

By Theo Wayt · May 29, 2026 3:31pm PDT

The Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploding on May 28 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. @JConcilus via AP.

Why SpaceX Isn’t Celebrating the Blue Origin Explosion

By Theo Wayt · May 29, 2026 3:31pm PDT

By now, you’ve probably seen the unbelievable video of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploding on its launchpad in Florida on Thursday night. On its face, Blue Origin’s pain would seem to be Elon Musk’s gain, further cementing SpaceX’s already significant lead in the space business just weeks before it goes public. While the explosion is... By now, you’ve probably seen the unbelievable video of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploding...

Art by Getty Images

China’s ByteDance Developing New AI Chips Like Those from Nvidia Partner Groq

By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · May 29, 2026 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

TikTok owner ByteDance is developing a new chip to run artificial intelligence models as part of an aggressive expansion of its homegrown AI infrastructure. The new AI chip is intended to have a structure similar to U.S. chip designer Groq’s language processing units, which are built to run AI models at low cost, according to three people with... TikTok owner ByteDance is developing a new chip to run artificial intelligence models as part of...

Zach Dell, CEO of Base Power. Screenshot via YouTube.

Base Power in Talks to Raise Funds at $12 Billion Valuation

By Leo Schwartz, Anissa Gardizy and Julia Hornstein · May 28, 2026 6:39pm PDT

Base Power, a three-year-old home-battery startup, is in talks to raise funds at a $12 billion valuation, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions. Ribbit Capital, which backed Base Power’s last funding round, has been in talks to lead the current round, according to two people with knowledge of the talks. Founded by Venezuelan... Base Power, a three-year-old home-battery startup, is in talks to raise funds at a $12 billion...

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.

Boomers, Beware of SpaceX Stock

By Anita Ramaswamy · May 28, 2026 4:59pm PDT

Greetings! Anita here. It’s been a relatively slow week for SpaceX news, but that will soon change. Musk’s rocketship company is expected to launch its investor roadshow next week ahead of a mid-June IPO. The milestone will likely usher in a flood of giddy headlines and a lot of debate on Reddit forums and cable TV on whether individual... Greetings! Anita here. It’s been a relatively slow week for SpaceX news, but that will soon...

Getty Images

Big Law’s AI Threat to Harvey, Legora

By Julia Hornstein · May 28, 2026 4:47pm PDT · 1 comment

Getty Images

Big Law’s AI Threat to Harvey, Legora

By Julia Hornstein · May 28, 2026 4:47pm PDT · 1 comment

Despite fears that advanced tools from Anthropic and OpenAI would soon make legal apps like Harvey and Legora irrelevant, recent revenue milestones at those startups suggest they are doing just fine. But a fresh assault on their business is brewing: Some law firms now want to develop their own AI apps with frontier model companies like... Despite fears that advanced tools from Anthropic and OpenAI would soon make legal apps like...

Lowe's Senior Vice President Chandhu Nair. Photo courtesy of Lowe's

Lowe’s Says ‘Semantic’ Data is Boosting Its AI Agents

By Kevin McLaughlin · May 28, 2026 1:09pm PDT

Microsoft, Databricks, SAP and other AI software providers are fighting over control and access to enterprise data known as the semantic layer, as we reported last week. Semantic layers are essentially a data management tool that companies use to standardize definitions for their business metrics, such as revenue and customers, and are now... Microsoft, Databricks, SAP and other AI software providers are fighting over control and access...

Art by Clark Miller.

The AI Boom’s Pricey Middle

By The Information Staff · May 28, 2026 1:08pm PDT

Baseten’s talks to raise fresh funding at an $11 billion valuation are the latest sign that investors are betting the messy work of helping developers run AI models can become one of the next big businesses in AI. That boom has lifted a group of companies including Baseten, Fireworks AI, Together AI and Modal. These startups give customers... Baseten’s talks to raise fresh funding at an $11 billion valuation are the latest sign that...

The Bald Hill lithium mine in Western Australia. Photo: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg/Getty

The AI Data Center Boom Ignites a Tear in Lithium Shares

By Steve LeVine · May 28, 2026 9:00am PDT · 2 comments

Investors fled the stock of lithium mining companies in 2022 and 2023, when the metal’s price plunged about 90% and mines shut down globally. Now they have piled back into the category. The reason: a boom in lithium-ion batteries used to power AI data centers and the electricity grid, and the possibility that high gasoline prices will trigger a... Investors fled the stock of lithium mining companies in 2022 and 2023, when the metal’s price...

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI. Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images

Microsoft to Release New Coding Model Next Week in Comeback Attempt

By Aaron Holmes · May 28, 2026 7:00am PDT

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI. Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images

Microsoft to Release New Coding Model Next Week in Comeback Attempt

By Aaron Holmes · May 28, 2026 7:00am PDT

Microsoft next week will unveil a suite of new homegrown AI models at its annual Build conference for app developers in San Francisco. The question is whether it can win over these people.The company plans to unveil a coding model to boost the competitiveness of Microsoft-owned GitHub Copilot, a coding assistant whose early lead in the AI coding... Microsoft next week will unveil a suite of new homegrown AI models at its annual Build conference...