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

Photo via Getty.

What Happens to VCs’ Forgotten Startup Toys?

By Cory Weinberg · Dec 24, 2024 2:01pm PST · 1 comment

The gifting season is upon us, with kids and adults alike tearing into their new toys and gadgets while must-have presents from just a few years before sit forgotten. Venture capitalists can probably relate. In the tech world, we’re wrapping up year two of VCs splurging on shiny new artificial intelligence startups. AI startups to automate... The gifting season is upon us, with kids and adults alike tearing into their new toys and gadgets...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Photos via Amazon/Adobe Stock.

Amazon Wants Merchants to Sell Everywhere—Except Temu

By Jing Yang, Qianer Liu and Theo Wayt · Dec 24, 2024 10:52am PST · 1 comment

For popular China-based Amazon merchants, bargain site Temu has been an attractive new place to sell their wares. And Amazon hadn’t been doing much to stop them from branching out. That’s all changed in recent weeks, several major Amazon merchants said. Amazon representatives have been offering incentives such as free advertising and... For popular China-based Amazon merchants, bargain site Temu has been an attractive new place to...

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Has Discussed Making a Humanoid Robot

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Amir Efrati · Dec 24, 2024 8:31am PST

Over the past year, OpenAI has dropped not-so-subtle hints about its revived interest in robotics: investing in startups developing hardware and software for robots such as Figure and Physical Intelligence and rebooting its internal robotics software team, which it had disbanded four years ago.Now, OpenAI could be taking that interest to the... Over the past year, OpenAI has dropped not-so-subtle hints about its revived interest in...

From left, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Apple's Tim Cook and Steve Jobs

How Apple Developed an Nvidia Allergy

By Wayne Ma · Dec 24, 2024 6:00am PST

From left, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Apple's Tim Cook and Steve Jobs

How Apple Developed an Nvidia Allergy

By Wayne Ma · Dec 24, 2024 6:00am PST

Like most big tech companies with artificial intelligence ambitions, Apple has little choice but to use chips from Nvidia, whose graphics processing units are practically a de facto standard in the development and running of AI software. But Apple is working on ways to spend less on Nvidia chips without undermining its success in AI. Instead of... Like most big tech companies with artificial intelligence ambitions, Apple has little choice but...

Peter Thiel. Photo via Getty

Tech Wields New Political Power in Old-Fashioned Ways

By Cory Weinberg · Dec 23, 2024 5:00pm PST

A decade ago, Peter Thiel wrote somewhat famously that “competition is for losers.” He was interested in backing startups that looked like Google, whose products were so good “that no other firm can offer a close substitute.” A caveat he offered was that he wasn’t interested in backing monopoly businesses that look like “government favorites.”... A decade ago, Peter Thiel wrote somewhat famously that “competition is for losers.” He was...

Art by Clark Miller

Nvidia, OpenAI and Their Rivals Expand AI Turf Wars

By Amir Efrati · Dec 23, 2024 7:30am PST · 3 comments

Nvidia, a chip giant, says it can develop a cloud services and software business to rival Amazon Web Services. OpenAI, an artificial intelligence developer, has been developing server chips and a browser to reduce its dependence on Nvidia and Google, respectively. And Elon Musk hired a data center team to build one of the biggest supercomputing... Nvidia, a chip giant, says it can develop a cloud services and software business to rival Amazon...

Sam Altman. Photo by Getty

OpenAI Wows the Crowd as New Scaling Law Passes Its First Test

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 23, 2024 7:00am PST · 3 comments

OpenAI’s next-generation reasoning model—called o3 for a funny reason—seriously impressed researchers and developers last week.Specifically, o3 and o3-mini (a smaller version of the model) scored impressively on a number of extremely difficult math and coding benchmarks, beating out competitors like Anthropic and Google by a lot. It also reached... OpenAI’s next-generation reasoning model—called o3 for a funny reason—seriously impressed...

Art by Clark Miller

OpenAI Has Edge Over Google in Winning Publishers’ Business

By Catherine Perloff · Dec 23, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Art by Clark Miller

OpenAI Has Edge Over Google in Winning Publishers’ Business

By Catherine Perloff · Dec 23, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

OpenAI’s efforts to license news publishers’ content for training its large language models are beginning to pay business dividends. Publishers are increasingly opting to use OpenAI’s artificial intelligence tools for their operations rather than Google’s, publishing executives say. OpenAI has signed more than a dozen... OpenAI’s efforts to license news publishers’ content for training its large language...

Art by Clark Miller

Will Sports Gambling Copy Crypto’s Playbook?

By Abram Brown · Dec 21, 2024 7:00am PST

Welcome, Weekenders! This edition of Weekend is especially exciting: It marks the debut of a new coverage area for us and the arrival to The Information of a talented reporter. Sara Germano, a veteran of the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, has joined Weekend to helm The Arena, Weekend’s new franchise devoted to covering... Welcome, Weekenders! This edition of Weekend is especially exciting: It marks the debut of a...

Art by Clark Miller

It’s AI! It’s Crypto—It’s Crypto Meets AI!

By Burt Helm · Dec 21, 2024 6:00am PST · 7 comments

Before Marc Andreessen slid into Andy Ayrey’s life, Ayrey’s artificial intelligence experiments were a quirky passion project. Ayrey, an artist and web designer who lives in rural New Zealand, likes to tinker with large language models and see what he can build with them. His favorite creation is a mischievous troll of an AI bot,... Before Marc Andreessen slid into Andy Ayrey’s life, Ayrey’s artificial intelligence...

North Korea's players celebrate with the trophy after winning the FIFA U-17 women's football World Cup 2024. Photo by Getty

Why Netflix Will Lose in Sports

By Martin Peers · Dec 20, 2024 2:30pm PST · 2 comments

Netflix shareholders may be a happy bunch right now, after the bonanza year the video-streaming stock has enjoyed. Though its revenue is growing at a decent but unspectacular clip—15% in the third quarter—its shares have so far risen 87% this year to above $900 a share. Since their low point in mid-2022, during a freakout about Netflix’s... Netflix shareholders may be a happy bunch right now, after the bonanza year the video-streaming...

A person wearing a Magic Leap 2 headset. Photo by Getty.

Google Contracts Employees From Magic Leap

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Dec 20, 2024 10:04am PST

A person wearing a Magic Leap 2 headset. Photo by Getty.

Google Contracts Employees From Magic Leap

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Dec 20, 2024 10:04am PST

Google has hired more than 100 staffers at augmented reality firm Magic Leap as contractors to assist with Google’s work on its new Android XR operating system, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation. The unusual arrangement, which Magic Leap’s senior vice president of product, Jade Meskill, confirmed, will give... Google has hired more than 100 staffers at augmented reality firm Magic Leap as contractors to...

Art by Clark Miller

The Sneaker Wars’ Surprise Twist: Female Basketball Stars Can Outsell Men

By Sara Germano · Dec 20, 2024 9:08am PST

A pop quiz: Which living basketball player has the most-worn signature sneaker in the NBA this season? If you guessed perennial All-Stars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant or even Michael Jordan, you’d be wrong: It’s Sabrina Ionescu, starting point guard for the WNBA champion New York Liberty. Indeed, sales of Ionescu’s unisex... A pop quiz: Which living basketball player has the most-worn signature sneaker in the NBA this...

Pro Weekly: Big Winners Among Our Most Promising Startups

Pro Weekly: Big Winners Among Our Most Promising Startups

By Akash Pasricha · Dec 20, 2024 8:00am PST

We’ve been selecting promising startups for The Information 50 for five years now, and we’ve compiled those 250 picks into The Information 50 Database. Many have grown to impressive heights. To be considered for the list, companies must be valued at less than $1 billion; since we selected them, 39 of our picks have been valued at more than that... We’ve been selecting promising startups for The Information 50 for five years now, and we’ve...

Photo by Getty

Shopify Checkout Changes Threaten Package Protection Startups

By Ann Gehan · Dec 20, 2024 6:00am PST · 3 comments

Shopify, the Canadian-based e-commerce software giant, is walking a tightrope. The company has growing ambitions to promote its own software, such as its Shop Pay branded checkout, which appears on many of its 2 million merchants’ sites. Those goals are beginning to clash with the interests of the small software firms that historically... Shopify, the Canadian-based e-commerce software giant, is walking a tightrope. The company has...

Photos by Getty

Apple Deals With European Regulation by Blasting Meta

By Martin Peers · Dec 19, 2024 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Photos by Getty

Apple Deals With European Regulation by Blasting Meta

By Martin Peers · Dec 19, 2024 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Here’s an idea. Instead of Donald Trump letting Elon Musk crash every dinner and phone call Trump has with tech CEOs, how about he invites Apple CEO Tim Cook and Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg to jointly dine with him? Maybe the incoming president could sort out the two companies’ differences.Tensions between Apple and Meta date back a... Here’s an idea. Instead of Donald Trump letting Elon Musk crash every dinner and phone call Trump...

Holiday decorations surrounding the East Wing entrance of the White House. Photo by Getty

Creator Economy

Biden Bids Creators a Holiday Farewell

By Kaya Yurieff · Dec 19, 2024 1:00pm PST

I spent Tuesday afternoon at the White House’s holiday party for influencers. It was packed: more than 500 attendees mingled over spiked eggnog and cocktail shrimp, including hip-hop artist Flava Flav, comedian Keegan-Michael Key, reality TV star turned podcaster Harry Jowsey—and of course, the Bidens. Tuesday's party, the second year the... I spent Tuesday afternoon at the White House’s holiday party for influencers. It was packed: more...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Google Plans to Add ‘AI Mode’ Option to Search

By Amir Efrati · Dec 19, 2024 12:04pm PST · 1 comment

Google is making one of its biggest moves yet to bring conversational answers into its search engine, a response to artificial intelligence rivals that have attracted users by providing such answers rather than a list of website links. The company is planning to give its billions of search users the option to switch to an AI Mode that looks... Google is making one of its biggest moves yet to bring conversational answers into its search...

John Locke, left, and Arun Mathew. Photo via Accel

Accel Shrinks Its Growth Fund, Bucking Trend to Go Bigger

By Cory Weinberg · Dec 19, 2024 10:35am PST

Accel, a blue-blood of Sand Hill Road, is thinking smaller.The firm publicly filed Thursday that it has raised $1.35 billion for its latest growth fund to invest in mature startups. That’s nearly a quarter less than the $1.75 billion it raised for its last growth fund in 2021.The smaller fund is a tacit admission by one of the industry’s leaders... Accel, a blue-blood of Sand Hill Road, is thinking smaller.The firm publicly filed Thursday that...

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic. Photo by Getty

How Will Anthropic Navigate a Trump Presidency?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 19, 2024 7:22am PST · 1 comment

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic. Photo by Getty

How Will Anthropic Navigate a Trump Presidency?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Dec 19, 2024 7:22am PST · 1 comment

Lately, AI developer Anthropic has been riding high, with its models’ impressive performance on tasks like code generation helping it to poach customers from its larger rival, OpenAI. What many people haven’t realized, though, is how Anthropic might be disadvantaged in the upcoming Trump era.Anthropic has connections to the effective altruism... Lately, AI developer Anthropic has been riding high, with its models’ impressive performance on...