The Information

Art by Clark Miller

China’s Nvidia Loophole: How ByteDance Got the Best AI Chips Despite U.S. Restrictions

By Anissa Gardizy · Jun 6, 2024 3:30am PDT · 1 comment

The U.S. government forbids Nvidia from selling some of its most advanced artificial intelligence chips to customers in China. But it doesn’t stop Chinese firms from buying or renting Nvidia’s chips if they’re used within the U.S. Some big Chinese tech firms have taken advantage of that loophole, or tried to. ByteDance, owner... The U.S. government forbids Nvidia from selling some of its most advanced artificial intelligence...

Photo courtesy Ionic Materials.

Next-Gen Battery Developer Ionic Materials Closes Down

By Steve LeVine · Jun 4, 2024 10:10pm PDT

In another setback for a maker of a next-generation electric vehicle battery, Massachusetts battery developer Ionic Materials let go virtually its entire workforce on Tuesday, closed down and made plans to sell its equipment and other assets, according to multiple former employees. The company fired more than 40 employees, two of whom said they... In another setback for a maker of a next-generation electric vehicle battery, Massachusetts...

Left to right: Mark Goldberg, Kristina Shen and Ethan Kurzweil. Photos via Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Venture Capitalists Defy Funding Slump to Launch New Firms

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Jun 4, 2024 3:15pm PDT · 3 comments

Over the past year, a wave of venture capitalists have left their firms as the industry wrestles with a steep correction. Now several are launching their own firms, shrugging off the worst market to raise new VC funds in a decade. Former Andreessen Horowitz general partner Kristina Shen, former Index Ventures partner Mark Goldberg and outgoing... Over the past year, a wave of venture capitalists have left their firms as the industry wrestles...

Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces Apple tv in 2019. Photo by Getty.

Apple Held Talks With China Mobile to Bring Apple TV+ to China

By Wayne Ma · Jun 4, 2024 7:00am PDT

Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces Apple tv in 2019. Photo by Getty.

Apple Held Talks With China Mobile to Bring Apple TV+ to China

By Wayne Ma · Jun 4, 2024 7:00am PDT

Apple was in talks last year to launch its Apple TV+ video streaming service in China via a deal with China Mobile, the country’s largest telecommunications provider, according to people with knowledge of the matter. If successful, the talks would make Apple TV+ the only U.S. streaming service to be available in China, one of the... Apple was in talks last year to launch its Apple TV+ video streaming service in China via a deal...

ByteDance's Singapore headquarters. Photo by Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images.

ByteDance Seeks to Raise up to $800 million for Car Marketplace Unit

By Jing Yang, Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Jun 4, 2024 5:22am PDT

TikTok parent ByteDance is raising between $700 million and $800 million for its online auto information and marketplace business Dongchedi, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter, in preparation for an initial public offering for the unit. Plans for an eventual IPO are part of a bigger plan by the Chinese tech giant to... TikTok parent ByteDance is raising between $700 million and $800 million for its online auto...

The State Street Global Advisors building in Boston. Photo by Scott Eisen/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

State Street is Rebuilding Digital Assets Team, Signaling Optimism About Crypto

By Yueqi Yang · Jun 3, 2024 7:16am PDT

Boston-based bank State Street Corp. is once again hiring for its digital-assets division, which plans to offer crypto custody service, less than six months after cutting jobs in the department. The move reflects growing confidence that crypto and tokenized assets will become more integrated into the financial system. The bank is pressing ahead... Boston-based bank State Street Corp. is once again hiring for its digital-assets division, which...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Inside the Collapse of Synapse: Missing Funds Were Known to Investors, Banks for Years

By Michael Roddan · Jun 1, 2024 8:00am PDT · 1 comment

Millions of consumers who kept their savings with digital banking startups such as Yotta or Juno have lost access to their money as a result of this month’s collapse of a little-known fintech called Synapse Financial Technologies. Synapse, which supplies some of the basic plumbing that allows startups to offer banking services, filed for... Millions of consumers who kept their savings with digital banking startups such as Yotta or Juno...

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images

Google Hires AWS, Microsoft Executives for Cloud Unit

By Anissa Gardizy · May 30, 2024 4:18pm PDT · 1 comment

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images

Google Hires AWS, Microsoft Executives for Cloud Unit

By Anissa Gardizy · May 30, 2024 4:18pm PDT · 1 comment

Google hired two cloud executives from rivals Amazon Web Services and Microsoft as it builds out its artificial intelligence ranks with the goal of boosting its cloud business, according to a person with direct knowledge. Saurabh Tiwary, a former corporate vice president at Microsoft, will join Google Cloud Monday as a general manager of cloud... Google hired two cloud executives from rivals Amazon Web Services and Microsoft as it builds out...

Art by Shane Burke.

U.S. Commerce Dept. Probes South Korean Chip-Equipment Makers

By Qianer Liu and Laura Mandaro · May 30, 2024 10:15am PDT

The U.S. Commerce Department is probing whether a South Korean maker of parts for machines that produce semiconductors has been selling to Chinese companies that are subject to U.S. sanctions, said two people with knowledge of the investigation. The review signals a new effort by the U.S. government to root out how companies such as Huawei are... The U.S. Commerce Department is probing whether a South Korean maker of parts for machines that...

Art by Shane Burke/Shutterstock.

Temu Keeps An Iron Grip on Suppliers, Exposing Itself to U.S. Ban Threat

By Jing Yang · May 30, 2024 6:00am PDT

As U.S. lawmakers step up efforts to penalize Chinese-owned bargain retail site Temu over the alleged sale of goods made with forced labor on its site, the company is holding fast to its longstanding response: It is a marketplace for independent sellers, just like Amazon and Etsy, and shouldn’t be held responsible for what those merchants... As U.S. lawmakers step up efforts to penalize Chinese-owned bargain retail site Temu over the...

Aravind Srinivas. Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images.

AI Startup Perplexity in Talks to Raise Money at $3 Billion Valuation

By Kate Clark and Natasha Mascarenhas · May 29, 2024 2:51pm PDT · 5 comments

Bessemer Venture Partners is in talks to lead a $250 million investment in Perplexity, a developer of an artificial intelligence-powered search engine, at a $3 billion valuation, according to a person familiar with the matter. The new valuation would be triple what the San Francisco-based startup was valued at earlier this year. The new... Bessemer Venture Partners is in talks to lead a $250 million investment in Perplexity, a...

Aerial view of the Port of Long Beach. Photo by The Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.

U.S. Escalates Crackdown on Trade Rule Behind Shein and Temu

By Jing Yang, Theo Wayt and Ann Gehan · May 29, 2024 12:53pm PDT · 1 comment

Aerial view of the Port of Long Beach. Photo by The Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.

U.S. Escalates Crackdown on Trade Rule Behind Shein and Temu

By Jing Yang, Theo Wayt and Ann Gehan · May 29, 2024 12:53pm PDT · 1 comment

U.S. officials have escalated a crackdown on the controversial customs exemption that Temu, Shein and other e-commerce firms use to send cheap items from overseas to American shoppers without paying tariffs. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency in recent weeks suspended several customs brokers from a program that makes it easier... U.S. officials have escalated a crackdown on the controversial customs exemption that Temu, Shein...

Photo via CoreWeave/Facebook

Cloud Computing Startup CoreWeave Prepares for 2025 IPO

By Cory Weinberg · May 29, 2024 10:38am PDT

Cloud computing startup CoreWeave, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom, has been on a fundraising spree over the past year from some of the deepest pockets on Wall Street. Now it’s planning an initial public offering. The startup has started early preparations to go public by the first half of next... Cloud computing startup CoreWeave, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial...

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. Photo by Getty

Apple’s Plan to Protect Privacy With AI: Putting Cloud Data in a Black Box

By Wayne Ma · May 29, 2024 6:38am PDT · 2 comments

When Apple executives appear at its annual developer conference in mid-June, they are expected to unveil details of how it will integrate AI in its Siri virtual assistant and other products. One of the big questions is how it will do so while still honoring its promises to protect the personal data of its users. The answer? Apple plans to... When Apple executives appear at its annual developer conference in mid-June, they are expected to...

Elon Musk. Photo by Variety via Getty.

Musk Plans xAI Supercomputer, Dubbed ‘Gigafactory of Compute’

By Anissa Gardizy · May 25, 2024 8:00am PDT · 3 comments

Elon Musk has said publicly that his artificial intelligence startup xAI will need a whopping 100,000 specialized semiconductors to train and run the next version of its conversational AI Grok. To make the chatbot smarter, he’s recently told investors xAI plans to string all these chips into a single, massive computer—or what... Elon Musk has said publicly that his artificial intelligence startup xAI will need a whopping...

Photo by Getty

Meta Is Working on a Paid Version of Its AI Assistant

By Kalley Huang · May 23, 2024 3:59pm PDT · 1 comment

Photo by Getty

Meta Is Working on a Paid Version of Its AI Assistant

By Kalley Huang · May 23, 2024 3:59pm PDT · 1 comment

Meta Platforms is considering charging users for a more advanced version of its artificial intelligence-powered assistant, called Meta AI, according to an internal post reviewed by The Information. Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic each offer $20-per-month subscriptions to their chatbots. The subscriptions let people use those... Meta Platforms is considering charging users for a more advanced version of its artificial...

David Luan, co-founder and CEO of Adept. Photo via YouTube/General Catalyst.

AI ‘Agent’ Startup Adept Has Talked to Potential Buyers, Including Meta

By Amir Efrati and Natasha Mascarenhas · May 22, 2024 6:45pm PDT · 1 comment

The leaders of Adept, a 2-year-old artificial intelligence startup run by former OpenAI and Google AI developers, held talks in recent months about a possible sale or strategic partnership with large tech companies, according to a person with direct knowledge of the conversations. One company Adept spoke to was Facebook owner Meta... The leaders of Adept, a 2-year-old artificial intelligence startup run by former OpenAI and...

Jonathan Ross, CEO & Founder, Groq. Screenshot via YouTube

Nvidia Challenger Groq Enlists Morgan Stanley to Raise $300 Million

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Cory Weinberg · May 22, 2024 10:51am PDT · 4 comments

Groq, an Nvidia rival that develops specialized server chips and software for artificial intelligence, has told investors it wants to raise about $300 million, according to two people who spoke to the company’s leaders. It has tapped Morgan Stanley to help with the fundraising, according to one of the people and a third person. The new... Groq, an Nvidia rival that develops specialized server chips and software for artificial...

An Amazon Flex driver in Tampa, Fla. Photo by Octavio Jones/Getty Images.

Amazon’s Next Potential Threat to UPS: Using Its Own Drivers for Returns

By Theo Wayt · May 22, 2024 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Over the past decade, Amazon has assembled a vast network of delivery drivers to reduce its reliance on shippers like United Parcel Service. Now, Amazon wants those drivers to start tackling another task that has become a major problem: returns. In a new pilot program, Amazon drivers will pick up returns from customers’ houses and bring... Over the past decade, Amazon has assembled a vast network of delivery drivers to reduce its...

TikTok's headquarters in Singapore. Photo by Getty

TikTok Plans Layoffs of Operations and Marketing Employees

By Erin Woo and Kaya Yurieff · May 21, 2024 3:34pm PDT

TikTok's headquarters in Singapore. Photo by Getty

TikTok Plans Layoffs of Operations and Marketing Employees

By Erin Woo and Kaya Yurieff · May 21, 2024 3:34pm PDT

TikTok has told employees it plans significant layoffs in its operations and marketing teams this week, according to current employees. The precise number of job cuts could not be learned, but the employees said the layoff will affect a large percentage of the roughly 1,000 people working in TikTok's global user operations, content and... TikTok has told employees it plans significant layoffs in its operations and marketing teams this...