The Information

Ali Ghodsi. Art by Clark Miller. Screenshots via YouTube.

Databricks’ ‘Truth-Seeking’ CEO Wants to Be Bigger Than Salesforce

By Jon Victor · Dec 2, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

New managers acclimating to life at data analytics software firm Databricks are often shocked when CEO Ali Ghodsi calls up one of their team members out of the blue to question them about a product they’re working on. Or drops into a low-level meeting unannounced. Or phones the data scientists working for a customer. For Ghodsi, it’s... New managers acclimating to life at data analytics software firm Databricks are often shocked...

Photo via AP.

ByteDance’s Global AI Ambition Runs Into Obstacles

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Nov 29, 2024 6:00am PST

TikTok owner ByteDance, whose artificial intelligence chatbot is a major hit in China, wants to compete worldwide in generative AI. But those plans could be complicated by the geopolitical and regulatory storms surrounding TikTok, as well as the technical challenges it has encountered. Inside ByteDance’s AI research and development... TikTok owner ByteDance, whose artificial intelligence chatbot is a major hit in China, wants to...

Amazon Senior Vice President Rohit Prasad. Image via Getty.

Amazon Develops Video AI Model, Hedging Its Reliance on Anthropic

By Kevin McLaughlin and Anissa Gardizy · Nov 27, 2024 5:50pm PST

Amazon has developed new generative artificial intelligence that can process images and video in addition to text, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter and two people who spoke with Amazon about its plans. The model could help customers search video archives for certain scenes, say a winning basketball shot, using simple... Amazon has developed new generative artificial intelligence that can process images and video in...

Sriram Krishnan. Photo via Flickr/Fortune.

Andreessen Horowitz’s Sriram Krishnan to Leave Firm, Discusses Role With Musk

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Erin Woo · Nov 27, 2024 12:46pm PST

Sriram Krishnan. Photo via Flickr/Fortune.

Andreessen Horowitz’s Sriram Krishnan to Leave Firm, Discusses Role With Musk

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Erin Woo · Nov 27, 2024 12:46pm PST

Sriram Krishnan, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and former product leader at Twitter, is leaving the firm four years after joining, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Krishnan, 41, has had discussions with Elon Musk about joining the Department of Government Efficiency, the new entity incoming President-elect Donald... Sriram Krishnan, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and former product leader at Twitter,...

Eric Glyman, co-founder and CEO of Ramp. Photo by Getty.

Ramp Seeks Valuation Bump to $11 Billion in Share Sale

By Cory Weinberg · Nov 27, 2024 10:35am PST

Ramp, the business card and expense software startup, is discussing selling shares held by employees and other stockholders at a price that would value it at $11 billion, two people familiar with the deal said. That price would be 35% above Ramp’s highest valuation, set in 2022—near the end of the low-interest-rate funding... Ramp, the business card and expense software startup, is discussing selling shares held by...

Photo by Getty

TSMC’s Push to Be Tech’s Switzerland in Doubt as U.S.-China Tensions Grow

By Qianer Liu · Nov 26, 2024 6:00am PST · 1 comment

If Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. had its way, the chip manufacturing powerhouse would be a neutral party in the battle between the U.S. and China for technological supremacy—a semiconductor version of Switzerland, one TSMC executive told The Information. Unfortunately, the company may find it increasingly tough to avoid picking a... If Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. had its way, the chip manufacturing powerhouse would be...

An Apple store in Shanghai. Photo via Getty.

Apple’s Thin iPhone Has No Physical SIMs—That Could Dampen China Sales

By Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu · Nov 25, 2024 7:30am PST · 5 comments

Apple’s desire to make its products thinner could dampen sales in China if its engineers can’t overcome a design hurdle with the slim iPhone planned for release next fall—it can’t fit a physical SIM card tray, which is required in China. Apple plans to release its slim iPhone next year, alongside new versions of its... Apple’s desire to make its products thinner could dampen sales in China if its engineers...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...