The Information

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....

Erik Bernhardsson, Founder and CEO at Modal. Art by Clark Miller; YouTube.

Startup Modal in Talks to Raise at $4.5 Billion Valuation After Revenue Surges

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Anissa Gardizy · May 13, 2026 10:49am PDT

Modal, a startup that rents out Nvidia graphics processing units and software to help developers run and train models as well as agents, is in talks to raise money at around a $4.5 billion valuation. That would be an 80% premium to its last valuation from just a few months ago, according to two people with knowledge of the round. The steep hike... Modal, a startup that rents out Nvidia graphics processing units and software to help developers...

Art by Mike Sulivan

Apple Explores Ways to Welcome AI Agents in the App Store

By Aaron Tilley · May 13, 2026 10:17am PDT

Apple is exploring ways to better incorporate AI agents into its App Store so it can benefit from the tech industry’s hottest trend while ensuring that the software in its store continues to play by its rules, according to people briefed on the matter. So far, the widespread embrace of agentic AI for software creation has put Apple on the... Apple is exploring ways to better incorporate AI agents into its App Store so it can benefit from...

Junyang Lin, former lead researcher of Alibaba’s Qwen models. Art by Clark Miller; YouTube.

Former Alibaba Star Researcher Starts New AI Lab, Seeks $2 Billion Valuation

By Juro Osawa and Jing Yang · May 12, 2026 11:20pm PDT

Junyang Lin, former lead researcher of Alibaba’s Qwen models. Art by Clark Miller; YouTube.

Former Alibaba Star Researcher Starts New AI Lab, Seeks $2 Billion Valuation

By Juro Osawa and Jing Yang · May 12, 2026 11:20pm PDT

Junyang Lin, former lead researcher of Alibaba’s Qwen models, is seeking to raise several hundred million dollars for his new AI lab, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The new AI lab will likely be valued at around $2 billion after the funding round, the people said, adding that the discussions are ongoing and the... Junyang Lin, former lead researcher of Alibaba’s Qwen models, is seeking to raise several hundred...

Stainless CEO Alex Rattray. Screenshot via YouTube/Stainless.

Anthropic in Talks to Buy Developer Tools Startup Used by OpenAI, Google

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Katie Roof · May 12, 2026 2:59pm PDT · 1 comment

Anthropic is in advanced talks to acquire developer tools startup Stainless for at least $300 million, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The four-year-old Stainless sells software to model makers including Anthropic, OpenAI and Google that helps developers, non-technical people and AI agents more quickly access AI models. Such... Anthropic is in advanced talks to acquire developer tools startup Stainless for at least $300...

image via Getty

Microsoft Has Generated More Than $30 Billion in Revenue From OpenAI’s Technology, Spending

By Sri Muppidi and Aaron Holmes · May 12, 2026 11:08am PDT · 2 comments

For three years, Microsoft was the only cloud provider to sell OpenAI’s large language models to other businesses, an exclusive right it fought hard to preserve after investing $13 billion in the startup. But businesses bought more access to those models from OpenAI directly than from Microsoft over that time, new data show. Even so, Microsoft’s... For three years, Microsoft was the only cloud provider to sell OpenAI’s large language models to...

OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, left, and Cerebras CEO, Andrew Feldman. Photos via Getty Images

OpenAI Is Making Billions Just by Promising to Buy From Suppliers

By Cory Weinberg · May 12, 2026 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Chipmaker Cerebras brought in one of the greatest pitchmen in tech, Sam Altman, to appear in a video to promote its $5.5 billion initial public offering. Seated on a gray upholstered couch and speaking softly, the OpenAI chief executive touted Cerebras’ chips as “the best high-speed inference offering in the world right now.” Altman has a strong... Chipmaker Cerebras brought in one of the greatest pitchmen in tech, Sam Altman, to appear in a...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty.

OpenAI to Save $97 Billion Through 2030 in Latest Microsoft Deal

By Sri Muppidi and Aaron Holmes · May 11, 2026 6:09pm PDT · 2 comments

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty.

OpenAI to Save $97 Billion Through 2030 in Latest Microsoft Deal

By Sri Muppidi and Aaron Holmes · May 11, 2026 6:09pm PDT · 2 comments

OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has plenty of things to worry about. But paying OpenAI’s early backer Microsoft as much as $135 billion through 2030 as part of a revenue-sharing deal is no longer one of them. OpenAI’s initial agreement to pay 20% of its revenue to Microsoft could have amounted to that much if the ChatGPT maker ended... OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has plenty of things to worry about. But paying OpenAI...

Photo by VCG/ Getty Images

China’s Kuaishou Plans to Spin Off Kling AI Video Unit at $20 Billion Valuation

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · May 11, 2026 4:44am PDT

Chinese social media giant Kuaishou Technology is planning to spin off its Kling AI video business ahead of an initial public offering next year, in an attempt to capitalize on investors’ appetite for AI stocks, according to two people with knowledge of the plans. Kuaishou has held talks with potential investors for a pre-IPO funding round that... Chinese social media giant Kuaishou Technology is planning to spin off its Kling AI video...

Photo of Elon Musk by Getty Images; art by Mike Sullivan.

Cursor Staff Meet With xAI Employees as Layoffs, Exits Mount

By Theo Wayt, Laura Bratton and Erin Woo · May 8, 2026 2:04pm PDT · 5 comments

Cursor is already starting to make its presence known at SpaceX’s AI unit, just weeks after Elon Musk’s firm got an option to buy the coding startup for $60 billion. Cursor staffers have been visiting xAI offices to meet with employees and discuss their work, according to two people with direct knowledge of the companies. Fresh xAI exits have... Cursor is already starting to make its presence known at SpaceX’s AI unit, just weeks after Elon...

DeepSeek To Raise More than $7 Billion as Startup Plots Revenue Efforts

By The Information Staff · May 8, 2026 4:40am PDT

Liang Wenfeng, billionaire founder and CEO of DeepSeek, is planning to write the biggest check for the startup’s first-ever funding round, which the company now hopes will raise up to 50 billion yuan ($7.35 billion), according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks. That would make it the biggest funding round by a Chinese AI company... Liang Wenfeng, billionaire founder and CEO of DeepSeek, is planning to write the biggest check...

Jerry Tworek. Screenshot via YouTube.

Ex-OpenAI Researcher’s Six-Week-Old Startup Targets Funding at $4 Billion Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Julia Hornstein · May 7, 2026 4:33pm PDT · 4 comments

Jerry Tworek. Screenshot via YouTube.

Ex-OpenAI Researcher’s Six-Week-Old Startup Targets Funding at $4 Billion Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Julia Hornstein · May 7, 2026 4:33pm PDT · 4 comments

Nvidia’s investment spree in startups that use its AI chips has stoked traditional venture capital firms’ interest in those companies. That has paved the way for brand-new startups taking on Anthropic and OpenAI to raise back-to-back funding rounds, sometimes in a matter of weeks. In the latest example, Core Automation, an AI model developer ... Nvidia’s investment spree in startups that use its AI chips has stoked traditional venture...

Photo via Allen Control Systems.

Anti-Drone AI Startup in Talks for $2 Billion Valuation

By Julia Hornstein · May 7, 2026 12:32pm PDT · 1 comment

Allen Control Systems, a four-year-old startup building an autonomous weapons station that can shoot down drones, is aiming to raise new funding at a valuation of $2 billion before the investment, according to two people with knowledge of the efforts. The startup is targeting a round size of roughly $200 million, the people said. The company’s... Allen Control Systems, a four-year-old startup building an autonomous weapons station that can...

From left, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella via Getty. Art by Clark Miller.

OpenAI’s AI Chip Deal With Broadcom Hits $18 Billion Financing Snag

By Anissa Gardizy · May 7, 2026 11:09am PDT

When OpenAI and chip designer Broadcom announced last fall that they would make custom artificial intelligence chips together, they positioned it as a done deal. The companies said the deal would bring enough chips online before 2030 to consume 10 gigawatts of power, equivalent to five Hoover Dams’ worth of electricity, in a bid to lessen OpenAI... When OpenAI and chip designer Broadcom announced last fall that they would make custom artificial...

Binance's Yi He, left, and Richard Teng. Photos by Getty Images

Treasury Department Demands Binance Compliance After Iran Crypto Reports

By Leo Schwartz · May 7, 2026 9:05am PDT

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has privately demanded that Binance comply with a monitoring program U.S. regulators imposed on the crypto exchange in 2023, when it pleaded guilty to charges related to sanctions and anti–money-laundering violations, The Information has learned. The Treasury Department’s request—which it sent to... The U.S. Department of the Treasury has privately demanded that Binance comply with a monitoring...

Polymarket's Situation Room pop-up in Washington in March. Alex Kent/The Washington Post/Getty Images.

Polymarket’s Homecoming Is Shaky and its U.S. CEO Is AWOL

By Michael Roddan and Yueqi Yang · May 6, 2026 6:00am PDT

Polymarket's Situation Room pop-up in Washington in March. Alex Kent/The Washington Post/Getty Images.

Polymarket’s Homecoming Is Shaky and its U.S. CEO Is AWOL

By Michael Roddan and Yueqi Yang · May 6, 2026 6:00am PDT

Four years after its was exiled from the U.S., Polymarket was desperate to get back into the country. To make that happen, the prediction market bought a derivative and futures exchange that had just gotten a U.S. license and retained its chief executive, Justin Hertzberg, to run Polymarket U.S. Hertzberg appears to be CEO in name only. His main... Four years after its was exiled from the U.S., Polymarket was desperate to get back into the...

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...

Anthropic Co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei. Photo by Chance Yeh/Getty Images

Anthropic Commits to Spending $200 Billion on Google’s Cloud and Chips

By Sri Muppidi, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · May 5, 2026 1:20pm PDT

When Google last month said it would supply Anthropic with an astonishing five gigawatts of server capacity, the companies didn’t put a dollar figure on that commitment. But as part of the deal, which begins next year, Anthropic plans to spend about $200 billion with Google over five years, according to a person with knowledge of it. The... When Google last month said it would supply Anthropic with an astonishing five gigawatts of...

Images via Getty Images; Shutterstock; YouTube.

xAI’s Fast, Cheap Data Center Build-Out Has Hidden Costs

By Theo Wayt and Valida Pau · May 5, 2026 10:10am PDT · 3 comments

SpaceX is touting xAI’s ability to build data centers quickly and cheaply as a major advantage over rival AI labs, part of a pitch for its upcoming initial public offering. For instance, in SpaceX’s draft IPO prospectus, the company said xAI brought the first two chip clusters at its second data center online at roughly a quarter of what it... SpaceX is touting xAI’s ability to build data centers quickly and cheaply as a major advantage...

Art by Shutterstock; Mike Sullivan.

Amazon Weighs ‘Hybrid Mode’ AI Searches on Retail Site

By Catherine Perloff · May 5, 2026 6:00am PDT

Art by Shutterstock; Mike Sullivan.

Amazon Weighs ‘Hybrid Mode’ AI Searches on Retail Site

By Catherine Perloff · May 5, 2026 6:00am PDT

Amazon has so far kept its Rufus AI shopping assistant largely separate from its main commerce search bar. But the retail giant is leaving the door open to adding AI commentary to search results, bringing browsing and researching more seamlessly into the buying process. That includes hybrid modes, such as Amazon showing a conversational blurb... Amazon has so far kept its Rufus AI shopping assistant largely separate from its main commerce...