The Information

Art by Mike Sullivan

AMD to Backstop $300 Million Crusoe Loan, Following Nvidia Playbook

By Miles Kruppa and Valida Pau · Feb 19, 2026 10:43am PST

Chipmaker AMD is pursuing the same growth-driving strategy that has boosted sales at rival Nvidia: lending its financial support to upstart cloud providers buying its chips. AMD will effectively guarantee a $300 million loan for data center and cloud startup Crusoe to purchase AMD’s AI chips and install them in a data center in Ohio. The loan... Chipmaker AMD is pursuing the same growth-driving strategy that has boosted sales at rival...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Hungryroot Posts 55% Revenue Growth, Eyes Potential 2026 IPO

By Ann Gehan · Feb 19, 2026 6:00am PST

With software and other sectors melting down at the merest hint of AI disruption, businesses that sell food and other consumer goods are finally getting some love. That’s good news for venture-backed companies like Hungryroot, which could benefit from investors’ desires to AI-proof their portfolios. Hungryroot, which offers an app for ordering... With software and other sectors melting down at the merest hint of AI disruption, businesses that...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Getty Images

OpenAI Is Finalizing First Commitments for $100 Billion Mega Round

By Sri Muppidi · Feb 18, 2026 6:21pm PST · 1 comment

OpenAI is finalizing initial commitments from investors in a round that could raise $100 billion at a $830 billion valuation including the investment, according to two people with direct knowledge of the fundraising. SoftBank is expected to anchor the round with a $30 billion investment, which it will spread in three installments of $10 billion... OpenAI is finalizing initial commitments from investors in a round that could raise $100 billion...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wearing a pair of Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses at an event last year. ,Photo by David Paul Morris/ Getty Images

Meta Revives Plan for Smart Watch, Targets 2026 Launch

By Jyoti Mann · Feb 18, 2026 12:57pm PST

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wearing a pair of Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses at an event last year. ,Photo by David Paul Morris/ Getty Images

Meta Revives Plan for Smart Watch, Targets 2026 Launch

By Jyoti Mann · Feb 18, 2026 12:57pm PST

Meta Platforms plans to release its first smartwatch in 2026, according to two people familiar with the matter. Meta’s plans come as other big tech companies, including Apple, OpenAI and Google, are stepping up their plans for new consumer devices. The company has revived a previously shelved smartwatch project, now code-named Malibu 2, and... Meta Platforms plans to release its first smartwatch in 2026, according to two people familiar...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Anthropic Could Share Up to $6.4 Billion With Amazon, Google and Microsoft in 2027

By Sri Muppidi and Catherine Perloff · Feb 17, 2026 4:46pm PST · 2 comments

Anthropic expects to pay Amazon, Google and Microsoft at least $80 billion to run its Claude AI on their cloud servers through 2029, according to the startup’s most optimistic recent forecasts. That’s not the only way the tech giants can make money from Anthropic: They get a cut of the revenue Anthropic generates if their customers buy its AI. ... Anthropic expects to pay Amazon, Google and Microsoft at least $80 billion to run its Claude AI...

Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / Getty Images.

Pinterest Calls ‘Code Reds’ to Revive Growth Amid AI Threat

By Ann Gehan and Catherine Perloff · Feb 17, 2026 6:00am PST · 1 comment

For the past three years, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready appeared to have secured a second chance for the scrapbooking app to prove itself to Wall Street. All that evaporated on Thursday night, when weaker fourth-quarter ad revenue prompted a sell-off that drove shares down 17% to their lowest level since April 2020. Even before the earnings report... For the past three years, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready appeared to have secured a second chance for...

Art by Clark Miller

OpenAI in Advanced Talks to Hire OpenClaw Founder, Others Connected to Agent Project

By Jessica E. Lessin, Rocket Drew and Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 15, 2026 12:01pm PST · 2 comments

OpenAI is in advanced discussions to hire OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger and a handful of other people helping to maintain the red hot open-source software for powering personal agents, according to two people directly involved in the discussions. If those efforts are successful, Steinberger and his team will likely work on personal agents... OpenAI is in advanced discussions to hire OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger and a handful of...

Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril Industries, looks on during the UFC 324 event on January 24 in Las Vegas. (Photo by Getty Images)

Anduril Discusses New Funding at $60 Billion-Plus Valuation

By Katie Roof, Valida Pau and Cory Weinberg · Feb 13, 2026 4:40pm PST

Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril Industries, looks on during the UFC 324 event on January 24 in Las Vegas. (Photo by Getty Images)

Anduril Discusses New Funding at $60 Billion-Plus Valuation

By Katie Roof, Valida Pau and Cory Weinberg · Feb 13, 2026 4:40pm PST

Defense tech startup Anduril is in talks to raise billions in new funding at a valuation of at least $60 billion including the new investment, according to a person with knowledge of the plans. The valuation would be roughly double the figure from its last private funding round in June. The funding would give the company more leeway to fund its... Defense tech startup Anduril is in talks to raise billions in new funding at a valuation of at...

Grafana Labs CEO Raj Dutt. Screenshot via YouTube

Grafana Labs in Talk to Raise at $9 Billion Valuation

By Katie Roof and Cory Weinberg · Feb 13, 2026 1:22pm PST

Grafana Labs, a software startup that helps companies monitor cloud and AI activity and spending, is finalizing a new funding round that would value it at about $9 billion, people familiar with the matter said. That’s up from $6.6 billion in a 2024 funding round. The funding talks follow Grafana’s growth in annual recurring revenue, which hit... Grafana Labs, a software startup that helps companies monitor cloud and AI activity and spending,...

Arif Janmohamed. Screenshot via YouTube/The Fabric.

Lightspeed Partner Behind Navan, Netskope to Launch New Firm

By Katie Roof · Feb 13, 2026 10:49am PST

Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Arif Janmohamed, one of the firm’s leading enterprise software investors, is reducing his involvement to launch a new early stage investment firm later this year, he said. Janmohamed joined Lightspeed in 2008 as one of its first employees and became a partner four years later. He is the latest in a wave of veteran VC... Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Arif Janmohamed, one of the firm’s leading enterprise software...

Musk Restructures xAI Team Amid Senior Departures, SpaceX Merger

By Theo Wayt · Feb 11, 2026 12:01pm PST

Elon Musk has overhauled xAI’s leadership structure following its merger with SpaceX and as he pressures the AI firm to accelerate progress on Grok AI models, The Information’s latest org chart for the combined company shows. The changes coincide with an exodus of senior leaders. Just half of xAI’s 12 founding staffers, including Musk,... Elon Musk has overhauled xAI’s leadership structure following its merger with SpaceX and as he...

Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki/ Getty Images.

ChatGPT Shopping Could Get Complicated Fast

By Ann Gehan · Feb 10, 2026 10:04am PST

Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki/ Getty Images.

ChatGPT Shopping Could Get Complicated Fast

By Ann Gehan · Feb 10, 2026 10:04am PST

OpenAI has touted shopping inside ChatGPT as a major business opportunity as it tries to raise tens of billions in fresh cash. Meanwhile, the company is still nailing down some online commerce basics. That includes figuring out the best way to navigate state sales taxes—people working on commerce inside OpenAI still haven’t decided how it... OpenAI has touted shopping inside ChatGPT as a major business opportunity as it tries to raise...

Photo by Matthias Balk/Getty Images.

Amazon Discusses AI Content Marketplace With Publishers

By Catherine Perloff and Erin Woo · Feb 9, 2026 3:34pm PST · 3 comments

Amazon has indicated to publishing industry executives that it is planning to launch a marketplace where publishers can sell their content to firms offering AI products, according to two people who spoke with Amazon about the project. Those discussions come as publishers and AI companies are battling to set terms over how AI firms can access... Amazon has indicated to publishing industry executives that it is planning to launch a...

MrBeast. Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

MrBeast’s Beast Industries to Buy Gen Z–Focused Banking App

By Valida Pau · Feb 9, 2026 9:05am PST

Beast Industries, the entertainment conglomerate founded by Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, has agreed to buy Step Mobile, a teen-focused banking app, the companies plan to announce Monday. The acquisition will expand the YouTube star’s reach beyond media, restaurants and packaged food into financial services. Founded in 2018, Step Mobile runs an app... Beast Industries, the entertainment conglomerate founded by Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, has agreed...

Elon Musk. Photo by Krisztian Bocsi/ Getty Images

Apollo Nears $3 Billion Chip-Funding Deal Tied to XAI

By Miles Kruppa · Feb 9, 2026 6:00am PST

Apollo Global Management, one of Wall Street’s biggest private credit firms, is nearing a deal to lend about $3.4 billion to an investment vehicle that will purchase Nvidia chips and lease them to Elon Musk’s xAI, which just merged with SpaceX, said a person with knowledge of the deal. The deal would be Apollo’s second big investment in a... Apollo Global Management, one of Wall Street’s biggest private credit firms, is nearing a deal to...

Image via Getty

Microsoft Sales Chief Responds to Potential Rivalry with OpenAI’s New Agent Product

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Feb 6, 2026 6:45pm PST · 1 comment

Image via Getty

Microsoft Sales Chief Responds to Potential Rivalry with OpenAI’s New Agent Product

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Feb 6, 2026 6:45pm PST · 1 comment

Microsoft’s top sales executive told staff on Friday that the company was uniquely positioned to compete against a new OpenAI product aimed at helping businesses automate office tasks across different software applications—including Microsoft’s own apps. In an email, Microsoft commercial CEO Judson Althoff provided talking points... Microsoft’s top sales executive told staff on Friday that the company was uniquely positioned to...

Art by Clark Miller.

Nvidia to Delay New Gaming Chip Due to Memory Chip Shortage

By Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu · Feb 5, 2026 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Nvidia won’t release a new graphics chip for gamers this year due to a deepening global shortage of memory chips, prompted by the AI boom, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. It would be the first year in three decades that Nvidia hasn’t released a new graphics processing unit for gaming. Nvidia got its start in the... Nvidia won’t release a new graphics chip for gamers this year due to a deepening global shortage...

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Is Hiring Hundreds of AI Consultants to Boost Enterprise Sales

By Sri Muppidi · Feb 4, 2026 6:17pm PST · 2 comments

OpenAI is hiring hundreds of new staffers to expand a technical consulting team that helps large corporations develop custom AI applications and agents to automate employee tasks, according to a person with knowledge of the company’s plans. The hiring effort could help it beat back competition from archrival Anthropic, which has also upped its... OpenAI is hiring hundreds of new staffers to expand a technical consulting team that helps large...

Alexandr Wang, left, and Mark Zuckerberg. Photos by AP

Meta Memo: New Avocado Model ‘Most Capable’ to Date

By Jyoti Mann · Feb 4, 2026 12:21pm PST · 1 comment

Meta Platforms is sounding an increasingly bullish note about the first major AI model expected to emerge from its new AI group. The company recently told some staffers in the group, known as Meta Superintelligence Labs, that its next generation large language model, codenamed Avocado, is “now Meta’s most capable pre-trained base model to date,”... Meta Platforms is sounding an increasingly bullish note about the first major AI model expected...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Amazon Discusses Getting Special Access to OpenAI Tech

By Anissa Gardizy, Catherine Perloff and Amir Efrati · Feb 4, 2026 6:00am PST

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Amazon Discusses Getting Special Access to OpenAI Tech

By Anissa Gardizy, Catherine Perloff and Amir Efrati · Feb 4, 2026 6:00am PST

As Amazon weighs an equity investment of tens of billions of dollars in OpenAI, the companies are also discussing a commercial agreement that could require OpenAI to dedicate its own researchers and engineers to developing customized models for powering Amazon’s own AI products, according to a person involved in the talks and another person who... As Amazon weighs an equity investment of tens of billions of dollars in OpenAI, the companies are...