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

Jack Hidary, left, and Eric Schmidt. Art by Mike Sullivan

An Eric Schmidt–Chaired Quantum AI Moon Shot Has a Rocky Launch

By Michael Roddan and Cory Weinberg · Dec 31, 2024 8:00am PST · 3 comments

In October, on a panel at an investor conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, futurist Peter Diamandis congratulated a technology entrepreneur sitting next to him, Jack Hidary, on the success of his startup, SandboxAQ. “I’ve never seen a company scale revenues as quickly as you have,” said Diamandis, founder of the nonprofit XPrize... In October, on a panel at an investor conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, futurist Peter...

Photos via Getty and Shutterstock

The Top AI Moments of 2024 and What We’re Watching For Next Year

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 31, 2024 7:00am PST

What a year! 2024 toned down some of the AI hype from the previous year, as buyers of AI software began asking when they’d start seeing returns from their purchases. Meanwhile, several well-funded AI developers like Inflection, Adept and Character.AI scrambled to safety in the arms of larger tech giants. Still, there was plenty to be excited... What a year! 2024 toned down some of the AI hype from the previous year, as buyers of AI software...

Art by The Information staff (images via Getty)

The Information’s Top Articles of 2024

By The Information Staff · Dec 31, 2024 6:00am PST

The Information’s readers spent a lot of time this year on Elon Musk. And on the artificial intelligence wars. They were early to what’s happening at Apple, too—a foldable phone!—and displayed a deep interest in how tech and politics are increasingly colliding. The Information’s readers spent a lot of time this year on Elon Musk. And on the artificial...

Art by Clark Miller

Accounting Startup’s Sudden Shutdown Adds to Fintech Woes

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Dec 30, 2024 6:28pm PST · 4 comments

Art by Clark Miller

Accounting Startup’s Sudden Shutdown Adds to Fintech Woes

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Dec 30, 2024 6:28pm PST · 4 comments

Elizabeth MacBride, an author and the owner of a small publishing company, was celebrating a belated Christmas with her daughters on Friday morning when she glanced at her phone and saw an e-mail from her accounting firm, Bench. The Vancouver, British Columbia–based startup said it was shutting down services for customers, effective... Elizabeth MacBride, an author and the owner of a small publishing company, was celebrating a...

Photo via Getty

Claims of Legacy Media’s Death Are Premature

By Martin Peers · Dec 30, 2024 5:00pm PST

The deaths in recent days of former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons and Cablevision Systems founder Chuck Dolan seemed, in a way, symbolic of the slow death of the traditional television industry. Both Time Warner and Cablevision were, until a decade or so ago, major forces in cable TV and entertainment. Both now have been swallowed up by other... The deaths in recent days of former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons and Cablevision Systems ...

Art by Clark Miller

7 Charts That Explain 2024

By The Information Staff · Dec 30, 2024 10:00am PST · 4 comments

In many ways, artificial intelligence defined 2024. Nvidia’s perch as the dominant seller of the graphics processing units that power much of AI propelled it past $3 trillion in market capitalization, making it the world’s second most valuable company as of Dec. 27, trailing only Apple. Despite a growing legion of rivals and would-be... In many ways, artificial intelligence defined 2024. Nvidia’s perch as the dominant seller...

Photo via Getty

DeepSeek Shows Necessity Is The Mother of Invention

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 30, 2024 7:18am PST · 7 comments

While the rest of us were recovering from heavy Christmas dinners and too much time with relatives, Chinese quant trading firm High-Flyer Capital Management dropped the latest update on Thursday to DeepSeek, its open-weight large language model. Senior researchers at American firms including OpenAI and Meta Platforms almost immediately started... While the rest of us were recovering from heavy Christmas dinners and too much time with...

Photos via Getty

ByteDance Planned to Spend $7 Billion on Nvidia Chips Next Year

By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Dec 30, 2024 6:00am PST

Photos via Getty

ByteDance Planned to Spend $7 Billion on Nvidia Chips Next Year

By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Dec 30, 2024 6:00am PST

ByteDance continues to use Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence chips despite U.S. efforts to block Chinese companies from using them. The Chinese owner of TikTok recently told suppliers it planned to spend up to $7 billion to access Nvidia chips outside China in 2025, according to a person who has been involved in the plan.... ByteDance continues to use Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence chips despite...

Art by Clark Miller

Some Educated Guesses about Elon

By Abram Brown · Dec 28, 2024 7:00am PST

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• Lists: 20 great books to read over the holidays.• Artificial intelligence: A marketplace for solving AI’s copyright woes? • Plus: The crust czar; a go-to travel shoe; and birds with bullets.Elon Musk really has reached a remarkable place within our lives, a type of ubiquity few other business titans... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• Lists: 20 great books to read over the holidays.• ...

Art by Clark Miller

Artificial Intelligence

A Marketplace to Solve AI Copyright Woes?

By Abram Brown · Dec 28, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Nearly a century ago, Isaac Asimov laid out his Three Laws of Robotics, a set of commandments imagining how artificial beings should interact with humans. The tenets underpin much of modern science fiction, and they tend to knock around in the minds of the people developing modern technology, too. Trip Adler, a co-founder of Scribd—which... Nearly a century ago, Isaac Asimov laid out his Three Laws of Robotics, a set of commandments...

President-elect Donald Trump in Phoenix on December 22. Photo via Getty.

Trump Asks the Supremes to Delay a TikTok Ban

By Nick Wingfield · Dec 27, 2024 5:00pm PST

The sleepy Friday between Christmas and New Year’s turned out to be not so sleepy after all. President-elect Donald Trump filed a brief with the Supreme Court on Friday afternoon asking to delay the effective date of a law banning TikTok. The law will ban TikTok on Jan. 19—one day before Trump takes office—unless it can find a buyer that... The sleepy Friday between Christmas and New Year’s turned out to be not so sleepy after all....

Art by Clark Miller (book covers courtesy of their publishers)

20 Great Books to Read Over the Holidays

By Abram Brown · Dec 27, 2024 11:52am PST

Art by Clark Miller (book covers courtesy of their publishers)

20 Great Books to Read Over the Holidays

By Abram Brown · Dec 27, 2024 11:52am PST

One of Neal Stephenson’s favorite texting buddies is Seamus Blackley, a creator of the Xbox when he was at Microsoft and a former agent at Creative Artists Agency. Their friendship extends back years, and they often trade notes and thoughts on whatever technology has come to fascinate them. A while ago, they got to talking about radiation... One of Neal Stephenson’s favorite texting buddies is Seamus Blackley, a creator of the Xbox...

Photo via Getty

Pro Weekly: Cloud Spending Soars

By Akash Pasricha and Jon Victor · Dec 27, 2024 8:00am PST

Welcome back!Selling cloud services is a good business these days. More than a dozen companies in our Cloud Database have increased their cloud spending lately. For many, it reflects a broader push to embed artificial intelligence into every part of their business. Those AI offerings are powered by cloud computing.Take Snap, for example. We now... Welcome back!Selling cloud services is a good business these days. More than a dozen companies in...

Skild AI robots. Photo by Skild AI

Startups to Watch

9 Robotics Startups to Watch

By Rocket Drew · Dec 27, 2024 6:00am PST · 4 comments

To train artificial intelligence–powered robots to pick a book off a shelf a decade ago, researchers had to direct the robots to perform the task roughly 500 times before the robots learned to imitate the motion, recalls Brad Porter, founder and CEO of Collaborative Robotics, which is developing robots to work in hospitals and warehouses.... To train artificial intelligence–powered robots to pick a book off a shelf a decade ago,...

Beyoncé's NFL halftime show on Netflix. Photo via Getty.

Netflix and the NFL Won on Christmas. What About the Fans?

By Sahil Patel · Dec 26, 2024 4:15pm PST

A lot of eyes were on Netflix on Christmas Day—not just to see whether the Kansas City Chiefs could clinch their home-field advantage in the playoffs by beating the Pittsburgh Steelers (they did), or if Beyoncé could put on a Super Bowl–worthy halftime show during a regular-season game in Houston (she did). Those eyes were also scrutinizing the... A lot of eyes were on Netflix on Christmas Day—not just to see whether the Kansas City Chiefs...

Art by Clark Miller

Where Is Venture Capital Going in 2025?

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Dec 26, 2024 2:00pm PST

Art by Clark Miller

Where Is Venture Capital Going in 2025?

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Dec 26, 2024 2:00pm PST

Dealmakers, it’s been a history-making year. OpenAI raised $6.6 billion, the largest venture capital fundraise in history—only to have Databricks beat that record with its $10 billion haul in December. Then there were the acqui-hires, topped by Google paying $2.7 billion for the talent and technology behind Character AI.But the year wasn’t... Dealmakers, it’s been a history-making year. OpenAI raised $6.6 billion, the largest venture...

Art by Clark Miller.

Microsoft and OpenAI’s Secret AGI Definition

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 26, 2024 7:15am PST

Finally, a verifiable, numbers-based description of artificial general intelligence has arrived!Whether AGI has or hasn’t been “achieved” by AI developers has been a hotly debated topic due to its fuzzy and subjective definition. OpenAI has publicly described AGI as automated systems that outperform people at “most economically valuable... Finally, a verifiable, numbers-based description of artificial general intelligence has arrived!...

Sam Altman and Satya Nadella. Photos via Getty.

Microsoft and OpenAI Wrangle Over Terms of Their Blockbuster Partnership

By Amir Efrati and Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 26, 2024 7:00am PST · 3 comments

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wants to convert the artificial intelligence developer, which is governed by a nonprofit, into a for-profit corporation. His biggest hurdle is Microsoft, which has outsize influence on the process after having committed more than $13 billion to OpenAI. The companies have been negotiating potential changes in OpenAI’s... OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wants to convert the artificial intelligence developer, which is governed...

Art by Mike Sullivan

The Stakes in Amazon’s Union Battle With Delivery Drivers

By Theo Wayt · Dec 26, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

As the Teamsters union ramps up an organizing push aimed at Amazon, the owners of the thousands of independent companies that deliver orders for the e-commerce titan are growing increasingly jittery about their future. In a private chat group for owners of those businesses—subcontractors whom Amazon says are the legal employers of the... As the Teamsters union ramps up an organizing push aimed at Amazon, the owners of the thousands...

Claudia Sheinbaum, President of Mexico, earlier this month. Photo via Getty

Mexico Gives a Lump of Coal to Online Sellers

By Theo Wayt · Dec 24, 2024 4:25pm PST

Claudia Sheinbaum, President of Mexico, earlier this month. Photo via Getty

Mexico Gives a Lump of Coal to Online Sellers

By Theo Wayt · Dec 24, 2024 4:25pm PST

Christmas Eve is usually the last day of a frantic holiday sprint for staff at e-commerce and logistics companies, after which they can expect to kick back and enjoy a comparatively calm couple of months. Not this year. Virtually any business that moves its products across borders has to be on guard as world leaders jockey to position... Christmas Eve is usually the last day of a frantic holiday sprint for staff at e-commerce and...