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

Former AWS CEO Adam Selipsky and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei during AWS re:Invent 2023 last November. Photo via Getty.

Anthropic Keeps Amazon in AI Contest

By Martin Peers · Nov 22, 2024 2:47pm PST

In Thursday’s Briefing newsletter, my colleague Cory Weinberg reported that bankers at Goldman Sachs’ private tech gathering this week had asked, “For big tech, is capex the new M&A?” as part of a slide presentation on the market. We got the answer today—yes, it is—when Amazon announced it was investing $4 billion more into Anthropic, the... In Thursday’s Briefing newsletter, my colleague Cory Weinberg reported that bankers at Goldman...

How to Move Forward After Forward (with Adrian Aoun)

By Jessica E. Lessin · Nov 22, 2024 10:19am PST · 1 comment

Most founders stay silent about their failures. Instead, Adrian Aoun, who just shut down his health care company Forward after raising nearly half a billion dollars, accepted our invitation to come on the pod. I really enjoyed our conversation, which holds a lot of lessons for founders. And I couldn't help get some sharp questions in myself.... Most founders stay silent about their failures. Instead, Adrian Aoun, who just shut down his...

Art by Clark Miller

A Complex New Age of Face Tech

By Paris Martineau · Nov 22, 2024 9:03am PST · 3 comments

In September, Instagram unveiled a splashy new feature called Teen Accounts, an effort by Meta Platforms, the app’s owner, to show it’s better protecting young people with stricter privacy and safety settings. Suddenly, everyone on the app who had registered their age as 17 years or younger found themselves with an Instagram teen... In September, Instagram unveiled a splashy new feature called Teen Accounts, an effort by Meta...

Pro Weekly: The Companies Riding Trump's Coattails

Pro Weekly: The Companies Riding Trump's Coattails

By Akash Pasricha · Nov 22, 2024 8:00am PST

Pro Weekly: The Companies Riding Trump's Coattails

Pro Weekly: The Companies Riding Trump's Coattails

By Akash Pasricha · Nov 22, 2024 8:00am PST

Here’s another November comeback story: For more than a year, The Information’s readers have held starkly negative views about Coinbase’s prospects in our monthly surveys. This month, however, survey respondents were more bullish about the cryptocurrency exchange than about any of the 13 other companies on our list.The reason for the change of... Here’s another November comeback story: For more than a year, The Information’s readers have held...

Art by Shane Burke

Advertisers Retreat From Social Media Policing

By Catherine Perloff · Nov 22, 2024 6:00am PST · 3 comments

For several years, a favorite tactic of progressives agitating against social media and conservative news outlets has been pressuring marketers to pull their ads. Advertisers have frequently gone along with those campaigns, fearful of the negative publicity associated with their ads appearing on controversial sites. That’s starting to... For several years, a favorite tactic of progressives agitating against social media and...

Photo via Adobe

Is Capex the New M&A for Big Tech?

By Cory Weinberg · Nov 21, 2024 5:00pm PST

Goldman Sachs’ annual private tech conference this week was, from one angle, a study in East Coast realism versus West Coast optimism. Spreadsheets versus innovation. Bankers’ slacks versus Palmer Luckey’s shorts. One of the most high-profile founders on stage, Perplexity’s Aravind Srinivas, cited the satirical TV show “Silicon Valley” as... Goldman Sachs’ annual private tech conference this week was, from one angle, a study in East...

Together AI, Lambda Extend Funding Rush; Singapore to Back Wiz

Together AI, Lambda Extend Funding Rush; Singapore to Back Wiz

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Sri Muppidi · Nov 21, 2024 4:47pm PST

We’ve spent more than a year covering back-to-back financings of artificial intelligence startups. There’s no sign that trend is letting up, at least for startups that compete with major cloud providers by renting out servers with chips made by Nvidia, whose quarterly earnings report this week showed the AI party is still going strong.Together... We’ve spent more than a year covering back-to-back financings of artificial intelligence...

Caption: YouTube’s new gifts feature. Photos via YouTube.

Why YouTube and TikTok Are Pushing Live Tipping

By Rocket Drew · Nov 21, 2024 2:52pm PST

Caption: YouTube’s new gifts feature. Photos via YouTube.

Creator Economy

Why YouTube and TikTok Are Pushing Live Tipping

By Rocket Drew · Nov 21, 2024 2:52pm PST

Last week, YouTube began introducing jewels, virtual tips that fans can buy to send creators during livestreams. YouTubers can exchange these tips for cash, a penny per jewel. The Google-owned video site is the latest to get into live tipping, which has been popular for years on Twitch. As the chart below shows, most major social apps are... Last week, YouTube began introducing jewels, virtual tips that fans can buy to send creators...

OpenAI Considers Taking on Google With Browser

By Erin Woo, Sahil Patel and Amir Efrati · Nov 21, 2024 1:19pm PST · 3 comments

OpenAI is preparing to launch a frontal assault on Google. The ChatGPT owner recently considered developing a web browser that it would combine with its chatbot, and it has separately discussed or struck deals to power search features for travel, food, real estate and retail websites, according to people who have seen prototypes or... OpenAI is preparing to launch a frontal assault on Google. The ChatGPT owner recently...

From left: Brad Smith, Donald Trump and John Thune. Photos by Getty

Microsoft’s Brad Smith Sees Trump Boost to Data Centers, AI

By Aaron Holmes · Nov 21, 2024 9:06am PST · 2 comments

As Republicans sweeping to power in Washington call for bringing the great tech powers to heel, one of those big companies has mostly escaped their wrath: Microsoft. Brad Smith, the company’s president and main liaison to Washington, is trying to keep it that way. In the months before Donald Trump’s reelection, Microsoft staffers... As Republicans sweeping to power in Washington call for bringing the great tech powers to heel,...

Photo via Brave

The Startup Powering Perplexity, Meta's AI Search

By Kalley Huang · Nov 21, 2024 7:00am PST

There’s a lot of excitement around artificial intelligence disrupting search. Consumers and businesses increasingly use AI tools in lieu of traditional search engines such as Google. OpenAI has added search features to ChatGPT, Meta Platforms is crawling and indexing the web for its Meta AI chatbot and the AI search startup Perplexity is nearing... There’s a lot of excitement around artificial intelligence disrupting search. Consumers and...

Photo via Nasdaq.

Marketing Software Firm Braze Could Be a Hot Acquisition Target

By Anita Ramaswamy · Nov 21, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Photo via Nasdaq.

Marketing Software Firm Braze Could Be a Hot Acquisition Target

By Anita Ramaswamy · Nov 21, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

This isn’t the year to be in marketing software. Companies’ marketing spending as a percentage of sales is at a five-year low, according to data from Gartner. That has hurt big software companies like Salesforce and Adobe, which get a chunk of revenue from selling marketing tools. It’s also hurt smaller marketing software firms... This isn’t the year to be in marketing software. Companies’ marketing spending as a...

Photo: Getty

The Electric: Does Tesla Really Stand to Prosper From the Trump Presidency?

By Steve LeVine · Nov 21, 2024 4:30am PST · 4 comments

Since Donald Trump won reelection as president, many investors have assumed that the chief beneficiaries would include businesses run by Elon Musk, his biggest financial backer and recently his frequent companion. Investors have pushed up the share price of Musk’s one listed business—Tesla—36% since the Nov. 5 election. Since Donald Trump won reelection as president, many investors have assumed that the chief...

Jiang Fan. Photo by Getty

Alibaba Revamps E-Commerce Businesses As Competition Intensifies

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Nov 21, 2024 1:52am PST

Alibaba Group is placing all of its e-commerce businesses, both domestic and international, under one umbrella overseen by a single executive, according to a person close to the company, as the Chinese tech giant seeks to keep up with fast-moving competitors. The newly formed Alibaba E-Commerce Group, comprising domestic marketplaces Taobao and... Alibaba Group is placing all of its e-commerce businesses, both domestic and international, under...

Photo via Getty

Why Nvidia’s Investors Are So Hard to Please

By Martin Peers · Nov 20, 2024 5:00pm PST · 2 comments

Nvidia investors are, let’s face it, a bit like spoiled children. Here’s a company that posts a 94% increase in revenue from a year ago, which is quite a bit better than it had projected, and the stock falls! Sure, Nvidia’s growth rate has come down from the blazing-fast 260% or so of a few quarters ago, but did anyone imagine the company could... Nvidia investors are, let’s face it, a bit like spoiled children. Here’s a company that posts a ...

Redpoint Ventures’ Rashad Assir and Morning Brew’s Dan Toomey speak on a panel about the creator economy in New York on Monday. Photo: Media Summit | NYC

Why More Companies Will Hire Creators in 2025

By Kaya Yurieff · Nov 20, 2024 2:09pm PST

Redpoint Ventures’ Rashad Assir and Morning Brew’s Dan Toomey speak on a panel about the creator economy in New York on Monday. Photo: Media Summit | NYC

Creator Economy

Why More Companies Will Hire Creators in 2025

By Kaya Yurieff · Nov 20, 2024 2:09pm PST

Next year, expect more companies to hire creators as employees, either to represent their brands to the public or run their social strategies.On Monday I spoke to two creators who have joined companies in the past few years: Morning Brew’s Dan Toomey, who runs the media outlet’s Good Work YouTube channel, which covers business and finance... Next year, expect more companies to hire creators as employees, either to represent their brands...

Credit: Erin Beach

Partner Content

Recap: Will 2025 Be the Year of IPOs for AI?

By The Information Partnerships · Nov 20, 2024 11:49am PST · 1 comment

To call the last two years “tepid” for tech initial public offerings would be an understatement. In the wake of a record-smashing high in 2021, IPO deal proceeds plummeted 94% in 2022 and have been slow to recover. But 2025 could be looking up, with some big names likely to hit exchanges. At a recent event about artificial... To call the last two years “tepid” for tech initial public offerings would be an...

Subscriber Survey

Most Readers Oppose Return-to-Office Mandates

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

Six in 10 readers of The Information oppose policies mandating that they work in an office every day, but executives and founders view such policies more favorably, according to our latest reader survey. A majority of respondents said their ideal is to be in the office three days a week or fewer. Respondents were slightly less optimistic than in... Six in 10 readers of The Information oppose policies mandating that they work in an office every...

Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy. Photo via Getty.

Snowflake Talks With Anthropic About AI Partnership

By Kevin McLaughlin · Nov 20, 2024 7:47am PST

Database provider Snowflake is talking with OpenAI rival Anthropic about letting Snowflake’s customers use Anthropic’s large language models to build artificial intelligence–powered applications, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The Anthropic agreement, if consummated, could help CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy... Database provider Snowflake is talking with OpenAI rival Anthropic about letting...

Writer cofounders May Habib and Waseem Alshikh. Courtesy of Writer.

What If LLMs Could Continue Learning?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Nov 20, 2024 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Writer cofounders May Habib and Waseem Alshikh. Courtesy of Writer.

What If LLMs Could Continue Learning?

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Nov 20, 2024 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Here’s a question of paramount importance in AI: what if large language models could continue learning new information even after they’re done training? That’s the question that researchers at Writer, a $2 billion-valuation startup developing AI tools for enterprises, found themselves asking six months ago. Those researchers have now... Here’s a question of paramount importance in AI: what if large language models could continue...