The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

Five times/week

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.

By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy

Recent Editions

Art by Mike Sullivan.

XAI Bets on Grok’s Racy Side

By Grace Kay and Theo Wayt · Jun 24, 2026 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

SpaceX’s xAI is doubling down on video- and image-generating tools, people familiar with the project said. That’s seizing on an opening left by OpenAI and Anthropic, which offer fewer visual capabilities. XAI launched an upgraded video model last week, highlighting how it’s pushing ahead with its own visual efforts even as it brings in outside... SpaceX’s xAI is doubling down on video- and image-generating tools, people familiar with the...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Amazon Gives Big Brands More Control Over Product Listings

By Ann Gehan · Jun 18, 2026 8:00am PDT

Amazon’s status as the home of independent merchants is eroding. The e-commerce giant has lately overhauled its shopping site to give big brands more control over how their products are displayed and sold. The company recently told them it would give them priority over independent merchants in deciding how their products are described on its... Amazon’s status as the home of independent merchants is eroding. The e-commerce giant has lately...

Roku founder and CEO, Anthony Wood. Brenton Ho/Variety via Getty Images.

Roku’s Timely Exit; Salesforce’s Dealmaking Is Revving Up

By Martin Peers · Jun 15, 2026 5:01pm PDT

There’s a lot going on all of a sudden. We’re all still trying to come to grips with the latest Anthropic-Trump administration standoff. SpaceX’s market performance so far has been like a rocket ship: The stock rose 20% on Monday, finishing with a market capitalization of $2.5 trillion. And back on Earth, we got some notable acquisitions on... There’s a lot going on all of a sudden. We’re all still trying to come to grips with the latest...

Art: Clark Miller

Bootleg Reta is Silicon Valley’s Drug of the Summer

By Jemima McEvoy · Jun 12, 2026 9:01am PDT

Art: Clark Miller

Bootleg Reta is Silicon Valley’s Drug of the Summer

By Jemima McEvoy · Jun 12, 2026 9:01am PDT

For more than a decade, Dr. Molly Maloof has had a front-row seat to Silicon Valley’s ever-evolving health obsessions as a physician and founder of M3 Healthspan, a San Francisco–based concierge medical practice serving the tech elite. Lately, those conversations have focused on one substance perceived as a wonder drug among wonder drugs:... For more than a decade, Dr. Molly Maloof has had a front-row seat to Silicon Valley’s...

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...

Cerebras IPO Winners Include Foundation, Benchmark—and OpenAI

By Julia Hornstein, Katie Roof and Cory Weinberg · May 14, 2026 6:00am PDT

Over the last decade, there were times when Cerebras investors could be forgiven for losing hope. The company, which was attempting the difficult and expensive task of developing an alternative to Nvidia’s graphics processing units, didn’t deliver its first chips until five years into its existence. Then, after it filed to go public in 2024, the... Over the last decade, there were times when Cerebras investors could be forgiven for losing hope....

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images

Meta Is Building an AI Agent Called ‘Hatch’ and an AI Shopping Tool in Instagram

By Jyoti Mann · May 5, 2026 3:33pm PDT

Meta Platforms is building a consumer version of the AI agent OpenClaw and a new agentic shopping tool, people familiar with the efforts said, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushes for products to deliver returns on the company’s huge artificial intelligence investments. Meta is training the OpenClaw-inspired agent, internally called “Hatch,” with the... Meta Platforms is building a consumer version of the AI agent OpenClaw and a new agentic shopping...

Art: Clark Miller (Photo: Getty Images)

Benson Boone, Tech’s Go-To Performer

By Erin Woo · Apr 25, 2026 8:20am PDT

Art: Clark Miller (Photo: Getty Images)

Benson Boone, Tech’s Go-To Performer

By Erin Woo · Apr 25, 2026 8:20am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: The tech elite are using AI to supercharge their cancer battles • Artificial Intelligence: Should AI and Christianity mix? • Tech Culture: Amid AI backlash, billionaires demand new breed of bodyguard—plus, inside the star-studded Breakthrough Prize gala • Plus,... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: The tech elite are using AI to...

Art: Clark Miller (Photos: courtesy of the Breakthrough Prize)

The Night Hollywood and Silicon Valley Celebrated Together

By The Information Staff · Apr 25, 2026 8:13am PDT

In a festive merger, the glitterati and the technorati combined forces in Los Angeles a week ago for the annual Breakthrough Prize black-tie gala, which hands out million-dollar awards to the world’s leading scientists. In a festive merger, the glitterati and the technorati combined forces in Los Angeles a week...

Images from Reddit.

OpenAI Takes Aim at Google with New Image Model

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 20, 2026 7:00am PDT

If you’ve been on X or Reddit in recent weeks, you’ve likely seen images created by an upcoming model from OpenAI floating around. Sharp-eyed people have pointed out that the new model is potentially being tested with some ChatGPT users and on leaderboards under code names. The images generated by that model, which some are calling “... If you’ve been on X or Reddit in recent weeks, you’ve likely seen images created by an upcoming...

Anthropic co-founder and president, Daniela Amodei. Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Anthropic’s Revenue Growth Suggests OpenAI Is Overvalued

By Martin Peers · Apr 7, 2026 5:00pm PDT

The sooner Anthropic and OpenAI go public, the better—at least then we’d have proper financial disclosure. Both companies’ habit of updating the public on their revenue growth by references to either monthly revenue or annualized revenue, which is (loosely speaking) the last month’s revenue multiplied by 12, is getting old. And it’s not exactly... The sooner Anthropic and OpenAI go public, the better—at least then we’d have proper financial...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images.

What to Expect From GTC: Nvidia’s Groq Chip

By Qianer Liu and Anissa Gardizy · Mar 15, 2026 3:00pm PDT

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images.

What to Expect From GTC: Nvidia’s Groq Chip

By Qianer Liu and Anissa Gardizy · Mar 15, 2026 3:00pm PDT

It’s party time in San Jose, Calif.! Nvidia on Monday kicks off its annual GTC developer conference in the city, the biggest event on the chip giant’s calendar—which, given the number of public events featuring its CEO, Jensen Huang, is saying something. Huang is scheduled to deliver his keynote tomorrow morning, and it is sure to be a... It’s party time in San Jose, Calif.! Nvidia on Monday kicks off its annual GTC developer...

Art by Mike Sullivan

ByteDance Suspends Launch of Video AI Model After Copyright Disputes With Hollywood

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Mar 14, 2026 9:00am PDT

ByteDance has put on hold the global launch of its latest video-generation model, Seedance 2.0, due to a string of copyright disputes with major Hollywood studios and streaming platforms, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. The TikTok parent released Seedance 2.0 to consumers and businesses in China last month, and... ByteDance has put on hold the global launch of its latest video-generation model, Seedance 2.0,...

Illustration: Clark Miller

Fast-Growing Kings League Looks to Conquer America With Lean Approach to Pro Sports

By Simon Parkin · Mar 13, 2026 9:01am PDT

Unlike London’s Wembley Stadium, with its arcing steel crown, or the University of Michigan’s Big House, cavernous and iconic, Barcelona’s Cupra Arena is easy to miss. It occupies a dockside warehouse on the outskirts of the city, unremarkable from the road, if not for the gusts of applause that rattle the corrugated walls. It’s home to the... Unlike London’s Wembley Stadium, with its arcing steel crown, or the University of Michigan’s Big...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

OpenAI Plans to Launch Sora Video AI in ChatGPT in Strategy Shift

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Sri Muppidi · Mar 10, 2026 8:54pm PDT

OpenAI plans to soon launch its Sora AI-generated video capabilities in ChatGPT, according to people with knowledge of the effort. The strategy shift could increase the chatbot’s usage as well as its costs. The move comes about five months after OpenAI released a Sora mobile app, which lets people quickly create videos of themselves and other... OpenAI plans to soon launch its Sora AI-generated video capabilities in ChatGPT, according to...

What Anthropic Stands to Gain From Pentagon Stance

What Anthropic Stands to Gain From Pentagon Stance

By Martin Peers · Mar 2, 2026 5:05pm PST

What Anthropic Stands to Gain From Pentagon Stance

What Anthropic Stands to Gain From Pentagon Stance

By Martin Peers · Mar 2, 2026 5:05pm PST

Could fighting with the Pentagon be the best thing that ever happened to Anthropic? On Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s designation of Anthropic as a “supply chain risk” looked like it could pose an existential threat to the AI firm. Not only could it lose customers, but, depending on how broadly the designation is interpreted, it could... Could fighting with the Pentagon be the best thing that ever happened to Anthropic? On Friday,...

Image from Getty Images.

A Robot Data Startup Raises $60 Million

By Rocket Drew · Feb 26, 2026 7:00am PST

Companies developing AI models to power humanoid and other robots have been hard at work collecting videos and other data for training their models, even paying people to record themselves completing tasks in homes and workplaces. As these data-collection efforts start to pay off, and robots take on some of those tasks, the robot developers... Companies developing AI models to power humanoid and other robots have been hard at work...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Bridget Bennett/Getty Images.

Nvidia and Salesforce Show Different Sides of AI

By Martin Peers · Feb 25, 2026 5:00pm PST

It was a tale of two AI cities when Nvidia and Salesforce on Wednesday reported the January-quarter earnings that ended their 2026 fiscal years. Nvidia kept its place at the top of the class, reporting better than projected 73% revenue growth. Net income rose 94% to $42.9 billion. For the full fiscal year, Nvidia had revenue of $216 billion and... It was a tale of two AI cities when Nvidia and Salesforce on Wednesday reported the...

Art by Clark Miller

In Sickness and in Health: Wellness-Obsessed Techies Adopt Oura Rings as Wedding Bands

By Jemima McEvoy · Feb 14, 2026 5:23am PST

When AI researcher Sebastian Raschka got married in November 2023, he and his now-wife, Liza, went nontraditional. They wedded in Las Vegas at an Elvis-themed chapel, then celebrated by attending a U2 concert at the Sphere, the futuristic orb-shaped theater on the Strip. The Raschkas also bucked tradition in their selection of wedding rings,... When AI researcher Sebastian Raschka got married in November 2023, he and his now-wife, Liza,...

The Amazon Alexa+ Super Bowl commercial starring Chris Hemsworth. Screenshot via YouTube/Amazon Alexa.

What to Expect from Spotify, Lyft and Pinterest Earnings This Week

By Martin Peers · Feb 8, 2026 3:00pm PST

The Amazon Alexa+ Super Bowl commercial starring Chris Hemsworth. Screenshot via YouTube/Amazon Alexa.

What to Expect from Spotify, Lyft and Pinterest Earnings This Week

By Martin Peers · Feb 8, 2026 3:00pm PST

After the crush of tech news last week, including a big AI-fueled stock sell-off, things might calm down a bit in the next few days. With any luck, we’ll have time to debate which of the tech companies’ Super Bowl ads running Sunday night were the best and which were the worst. My vote for best is the Amazon Alexa spot, by the way, although the... After the crush of tech news last week, including a big AI-fueled stock sell-off, things might...