The Information

Art by Clark Miller.

New Competitors Chase OpenAI in Reasoning AI Race

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Erin Woo · Nov 25, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

After OpenAI sparked a race this fall by releasing groundbreaking artificial intelligence known as reasoning AI, it seemed like the ChatGPT owner might run away with the market. Both Google and Microsoft scrambled to catch up with the technology, which aims to help users answer complex, multi-step questions, according to two people involved... After OpenAI sparked a race this fall by releasing groundbreaking artificial intelligence known...

Synapse CEO Sankaet Pathak. Photo via YouTube/FinTech Silicon Valley.

Andreessen Investor Fought to Keep Synapse CEO Before Fintech Collapsed

By Michael Roddan · Nov 23, 2024 6:00am PST · 4 comments

Last year, the board of now-collapsed fintech startup Synapse Financial Technologies discussed whether to remove the company’s CEO, Sankaet Pathak. At the time, discrepancies in Synapse’s ledgers were piling up, which the board was aware of. Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Angela Strange argued in favor of keeping Pathak in the... Last year, the board of now-collapsed fintech startup Synapse Financial Technologies discussed...

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

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,...

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...

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...

Steve McLaughlin, screenshot via YouTube.

FT Partners’ Steve McLaughlin Fights ‘Blood Brothers’ Over Fees

By Michael Roddan · Nov 20, 2024 6:00am PST · 2 comments

In mid-2020, when cryptocurrency firm Circle needed to raise cash, CEO Jeremy Allaire sought out Steve McLaughlin, founder of investment bank FT Partners and a force in fintech dealmaking. For its services, FT wanted a percentage of any capital it raised for Circle, plus fees on any future fundraising or acquisition, even if FT wasn’t... In mid-2020, when cryptocurrency firm Circle needed to raise cash, CEO Jeremy Allaire sought out...

Nisa Leung, Managing Partner, Qiming Venture Partners. Photo by Getty.

Top Chinese VC Firm Qiming Plans Leadership Transition

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Nov 20, 2024 4:00am PST

Nisa Leung, Managing Partner, Qiming Venture Partners. Photo by Getty.

Top Chinese VC Firm Qiming Plans Leadership Transition

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Nov 20, 2024 4:00am PST

Qiming Venture Partners, one of China’s leading venture firms, is planning a major leadership transition, one of the first of a generation of Chinese VC firms to take this step, according to three people with knowledge of the plan. Nisa Leung and Duane Kuang, two of Qiming’s managing partners, will gradually step back from their... Qiming Venture Partners, one of China’s leading venture firms, is planning a major...

Google Sundar Pichai, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President-Elect Donald Trump via Getty. Art by Clark Miller

Musk Joined Call Between Trump, Google CEO

By Erin Woo · Nov 19, 2024 7:07pm PST · 7 comments

When Google CEO Sundar Pichai called Donald Trump to congratulate the president-elect on winning the election, a guest was on the line: Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, xAI and other companies, according to two people familiar with the situation. Musk’s appearance took Pichai by surprise, one of these people said. When Google CEO Sundar Pichai called Donald Trump to congratulate the president-elect on winning...

Ex-OpenAI CTO, Mira Murati. Photo via Getty.

OpenAI’s Female Staff Complain of Gender Disparity After Murati Exit

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Nov 18, 2024 2:32pm PST · 3 comments

OpenAI’s loss of Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati and safety systems chief Lilian Weng has galvanized concern among some of the remaining women at the firm that the management isn’t doing enough to promote and retain women, two people who have worked at the ChatGPT maker said. One female staffer circulated a memo to other women... OpenAI’s loss of Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati and safety systems chief Lilian Weng...

Canva's new CFO, Kelly Steckelberg. Photo via Getty.

Canva Hires Ex-Zoom CFO but Hedges on IPO Timing

By Cory Weinberg · Nov 18, 2024 11:00am PST

Design software firm Canva has hired Zoom Video’s longtime finance chief, Kelly Steckelberg, as its chief financial officer, filling a 10-month vacancy in which the company prioritized picking an executive who had taken a fast-growing company public. The hiring is important for Canva’s ability to go public, although its co-founder in... Design software firm Canva has hired Zoom Video’s longtime finance chief, Kelly...

China tech founder and venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee. Photo via Getty.

China AI Star Kai-Fu Lee Hits Startup Headwinds in U.S.

By Sri Muppidi and Juro Osawa · Nov 18, 2024 6:30am PST

China tech founder and venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee. Photo via Getty.

China AI Star Kai-Fu Lee Hits Startup Headwinds in U.S.

By Sri Muppidi and Juro Osawa · Nov 18, 2024 6:30am PST

In China, one of the biggest names in tech is Kai-Fu Lee, a Taiwan native and a bestselling author who used to head Google’s operations in the country. When Lee founded an artificial intelligence startup called 01.AI in Beijing in March last year, Chinese investors including Alibaba Group were so eager to back him that the startup became a... In China, one of the biggest names in tech is Kai-Fu Lee, a Taiwan native and a bestselling...

Photo via Getty.

Nvidia Customers Worry About Snag With New AI Chip Servers

By Qianer Liu and Anissa Gardizy · Nov 17, 2024 6:00am PST · 11 comments

Nvidia is grappling with new problems related to its much-anticipated Blackwell graphics processing units for artificial intelligence: how to prevent them from overheating when connected together in the customized server racks it has designed. In recent months, Nvidia has asked its suppliers to change the design of the racks several times as it... Nvidia is grappling with new problems related to its much-anticipated Blackwell graphics...

Art by Mike Sullivan

TikTok Considers Quibi-Style Minidramas to Broaden Appeal

By Juro Osawa and Kaya Yurieff · Nov 16, 2024 6:00am PST · 5 comments

Everyone from Hollywood veteran Jeffrey Katzenberg to Snap and Meta Platforms has tried luring Americans with minuteslong TV-style shows on social media apps. All have failed. But that isn’t deterring TikTok from exploring the concept. The ByteDance-owned video app is considering ways of using such minidramas, which have proved to be a... Everyone from Hollywood veteran Jeffrey Katzenberg to Snap and Meta Platforms has tried luring...

Synthesia CEO Victor Riparbelli. Photo via Getty.

Recent Venture Deals Show AI Valuations May Be Cooling

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Natasha Mascarenhas · Nov 14, 2024 11:58am PST

Valuations of generative artificial intelligence startups appear to be coming down—slightly. The latest example is Synthesia, which helps companies create AI videos. It’s raising $150 million in funding at a valuation of $2.1 billion after the investment, double its valuation from 17 months ago, according to a person involved in the... Valuations of generative artificial intelligence startups appear to be coming...

Art by Clark Miller

The Enterprise Search App That Got Google and OpenAI’s Attention

By Kevin McLaughlin · Nov 14, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Art by Clark Miller

The Enterprise Search App That Got Google and OpenAI’s Attention

By Kevin McLaughlin · Nov 14, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

ChatGPT changed how people search for information online, sparking a battle among tech giants. Now Glean, a five-year-old startup led by a former Google search engineer, is attracting big rivals in a related market: search chatbots for businesses. These products, which are powered by the same technology that’s behind ChatGPT, help... ChatGPT changed how people search for information online, sparking a battle among tech giants....

Art by Clark Miller

Following OpenAI, Google Changes Tack to Overcome AI Slowdown

By Jon Victor · Nov 13, 2024 9:31am PST · 2 comments

Google has recently struggled to achieve performance gains in its Gemini conversational artificial intelligence at the same rate it did last year, prompting researchers to focus on other ways to eke out gains, according to an employee who has been involved in the effort. The situation appears similar to the slowdown in AI advances that rival... Google has recently struggled to achieve performance gains in its Gemini conversational...

Photo by Getty

Meta to Launch Ads on Threads in Early 2025

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan and Kalley Huang · Nov 13, 2024 9:22am PST

Meta Platforms plans to introduce advertisements to its text app, Threads, early next year, hoping to cash in on the app’s rapid growth, according to three people with direct knowledge of the company’s plans. A team inside Instagram’s advertising division is leading the effort, which is still in the early stages, the people... Meta Platforms plans to introduce advertisements to its text app, Threads, early next year,...

An xAI facility in Memphis. Photos via Google Earth and Getty

How Elon Musk’s Supercomputer Freaked Out AI Rivals

By Anissa Gardizy · Nov 13, 2024 6:00am PST · 6 comments

On a sunny day last month, a propeller plane made multiple passes in the air over a large industrial building surrounded by grassy fields near downtown Memphis, Tenn., as its passengers snapped photographs and videos of the facility. It was a secret reconnaissance mission. Elon Musk had recently converted the building from a former manufacturing... On a sunny day last month, a propeller plane made multiple passes in the air over a large...

Adrian Aoun, founder and chief executive officer of GoForward Inc., Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Forward, Startup Behind ‘Doctor in Box’ Healthcare Modules, to Shut Down

By Sri Muppidi · Nov 12, 2024 5:58pm PST · 11 comments

Adrian Aoun, founder and chief executive officer of GoForward Inc., Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Forward, Startup Behind ‘Doctor in Box’ Healthcare Modules, to Shut Down

By Sri Muppidi · Nov 12, 2024 5:58pm PST · 11 comments

Forward, a startup that raised $400 million to operate artificial intelligence-powered “doctor in a box” healthcare stations, is shutting down effective Tuesday, according to a person close to the company. All of its nearly 200 employees will lose their jobs, the person said. The San Francisco startup, started in 2017 by former... Forward, a startup that raised $400 million to operate artificial intelligence-powered...