The Information

Dario Amodei, left, and Sam Altman. Photos by Getty Image

OpenAI and Anthropic Neared Deal to Stress Test Each Other’s AI

By Amir Efrati and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 21, 2026 6:55am PDT

OpenAI is rethinking a range of safety strategies as it responds to fears from employees and others about the dangers its AI poses. One solution could lie in the recent past. Even before the spate of cybersecurity incidents involving OpenAI’s technology and the dire warnings from industry workers, the company was negotiating a legally binding... OpenAI is rethinking a range of safety strategies as it responds to fears from employees and...

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DeepSeek Bets Big on Huawei Chips to Bypass U.S. Export Controls

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Sep 21, 2026 3:22am PDT

DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng told investors that a major priority for his company is to use more domestic chips to train its models, adding that he expects Huawei Technologies to start delivering training chips to DeepSeek as early as the fourth quarter this year, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. DeepSeek’s growing... DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng told investors that a major priority for his company is to use more...

Anthropic co-founder and president Daniela Amodei. Getty Images.

Anthropic IPO Waiting Game Puts Wall Street on Edge

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 18, 2026 2:55pm PDT · 1 comment

Anthropic finance chief Krishna Rao and other executives met with groups of prospective public investors last month with his company’s numbers looking spiffier than ever. The company had gone from spending about $2.30 on operations for every $1 of revenue in spring of 2025 to turning a slight profit on that basis in the June... Anthropic finance chief Krishna Rao and other executives met with groups of prospective public...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

A Tsinghua Professor’s Stealth LLM Startup Hits $1.4 Billion Valuation

By Juro Osawa · Sep 18, 2026 5:10am PDT

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

A Tsinghua Professor’s Stealth LLM Startup Hits $1.4 Billion Valuation

By Juro Osawa · Sep 18, 2026 5:10am PDT

A secretive Chinese AI model startup founded in February by a Tsinghua University professor is now valued at more than $1.4 billion, after raising $400 million in three funding rounds from investors including Tencent, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Beijing-based Naive AI is preparing to release its first large... A secretive Chinese AI model startup founded in February by a Tsinghua University professor is...

Art: Clark Miller; Getty Images

Introducing The Information’s 50 Most Influential People in Tech

By Jemima McEvoy and Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 17, 2026 6:09am PDT

Money, technical savvy and disruptive ideas all matter within the technology industry. But the most seismic force is influence. Those who have it build, fund and steer the companies that alter the world—again and again. Those without it can only rise so far. So who’s got that clout? You’ll find the answer by poring over our new list: the... Money, technical savvy and disruptive ideas all matter within the technology industry. But the...

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Apollo Backs AI Startups in Bid to Bankroll Hardware Boom

By Valida Pau · Sep 16, 2026 2:51pm PDT

Apollo Global Management, known for leveraged buyouts and hefty financing deals, has started investing in AI and related hardware startups with the ambition to lend money to them in the future. In one previously unreported deal, Apollo has already invested in the low tens of millions of dollars in Mercor’s latest funding round, which is set to... Apollo Global Management, known for leveraged buyouts and hefty financing deals, has started...

Apple CEO John Ternus. Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images.

Apple Considers Return to Server Market, Has Talked With Nvidia to Use Network Tech

By Aaron Tilley, Qianer Liu and Phoebe Liu · Sep 16, 2026 6:00am PDT

Apple has been working on plans for an enterprise server using its own chips that could incorporate networking equipment from Nvidia, people familiar with the project said, as the Mac maker looks to capitalize on surging interest in its computers for AI. Apple has been developing the server with plans to sell it to AI developers, other... Apple has been working on plans for an enterprise server using its own chips that could...

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AI Agent Startup Instinct in Talks for $10 Billion Valuation

By Valida Pau · Sep 15, 2026 6:50pm PDT

Photo by Getty

AI Agent Startup Instinct in Talks for $10 Billion Valuation

By Valida Pau · Sep 15, 2026 6:50pm PDT

The startup behind personal AI assistant Instinct is in talks to raise $1 billion at a valuation of about $10 billion, people with knowledge of the deal said. Sequoia Capital and Benchmark have been in talks to lead the financing, the people said. Coatue Management has also been in talks to lead, according to one of the people. The Information ... The startup behind personal AI assistant Instinct is in talks to raise $1 billion at a valuation...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

Meta to Launch Camera-Free Smart Glasses Amid Mounting Privacy Concerns

By Jyoti Mann · Sep 15, 2026 3:22pm PDT · 1 comment

Meta Platforms plans to release a camera-free pair of smart glasses this fall, according to people familiar with the matter, as it looks to expand its hardware lineup amid privacy concerns about cameras on its existing offerings. The new glasses model, internally code-named Luna, has six built-in microphones that will allow users to speak with... Meta Platforms plans to release a camera-free pair of smart glasses this fall, according to...

Art by Shane Burke

How Erebor Bank’s Sweet Stablecoin Deal Backfired

By Michael Roddan and Yueqi Yang · Sep 15, 2026 7:30am PDT

When Palmer Luckey’s Erebor Bank launched earlier this year, it made an attractive pitch to lure new crypto customers: It would convert their stablecoins to cash for free. But Erebor wound up pulling the offer after several months, after sophisticated crypto trading firms sniffed out a way to make an easy profit out of the offer—at a cost... When Palmer Luckey’s Erebor Bank launched earlier this year, it made an attractive pitch to lure...

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ByteDance’s First-Half Profit Drops to $20 Billion, Weighed Down by AI Spending

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Sep 15, 2026 5:00am PDT · 1 comment

ByteDance’s net profit in the first half of this year declined by a single-digit percentage to $20 billion, as the Chinese tech giant ramped up its investments in AI, according to three people with knowledge of the financial results. The company’s revenue for the period rose around 30% year on year to $120 billion, driven partly by robust growth... ByteDance’s net profit in the first half of this year declined by a single-digit percentage to...

Photo via Shield AI

Defense Startup Shield AI in Talks for Valuation of at Least $20 Billion

By Julia Hornstein and Jemima McEvoy · Sep 14, 2026 1:44pm PDT

Photo via Shield AI

Defense Startup Shield AI in Talks for Valuation of at Least $20 Billion

By Julia Hornstein and Jemima McEvoy · Sep 14, 2026 1:44pm PDT

Shield AI, a startup building drones and AI-powered software for the military, is in talks to raise new funds at a valuation of at least $20 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the fundraise. The funding round, if it closes, would represent a roughly 60% increase to Shield’s valuation from just five months ago. The planned funding... Shield AI, a startup building drones and AI-powered software for the military, is in talks to...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Anthropic Data Fears Prompt Nvidia, Palantir and Booz Allen to Restrict Model Use

By Laura Bratton and Aaron Holmes · Sep 14, 2026 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

As paranoia rises over whether Anthropic or OpenAI could learn from their customers’ intellectual property, large firms involved in sensitive corporate work, such as Palantir Technologies, Nvidia and Booz Allen Hamilton, have started demanding new guarantees or reducing or eliminating use of the AI firms’ most advanced models. As paranoia rises over whether Anthropic or OpenAI could learn from their customers’ intellectual...

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Anthropic Strikes $13.7 Billion Compute Deal With Trump-Linked Rum Group

By Valida Pau and Phoebe Liu · Sep 13, 2026 6:07pm PDT

Anthropic has signed a computing deal worth $13.7 billion over six years with Rum Group, a company with roots in social media and long-standing ties to the Trump administration, according to a person familiar with the matter. The deal is the latest in a spate of cloud computing agreements Anthropic struck in the past year, with major cloud... Anthropic has signed a computing deal worth $13.7 billion over six years with Rum Group, a...

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Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Quietly Discussed an AI Safety Standards Body

By Leo Schwartz · Sep 13, 2026 12:16pm PDT · 1 comment

Anthropic, OpenAI and Google have been holding discussions about working together to create a standards body for the AI industry, people familiar with the matter said, even before Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on Saturday for AI companies to coordinate on testing and auditing the technology. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, for his part, told staff at... Anthropic, OpenAI and Google have been holding discussions about working together to create a...

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images, YouTube

Personal AI App Instinct Faces Compute Crunch That Could Lead to New Funding

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Valida Pau · Sep 10, 2026 3:29pm PDT · 1 comment

Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images, YouTube

Personal AI App Instinct Faces Compute Crunch That Could Lead to New Funding

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Valida Pau · Sep 10, 2026 3:29pm PDT · 1 comment

The year-old startup behind Instinct, a personal AI assistant that’s caught fire with Silicon Valley insiders, is seeking more computing power, leveraging its early buzz as it faces new competition from giant Meta Platforms. Over the last few weeks, Instinct, which launched to a select group of users earlier this year, has sometimes notified... The year-old startup behind Instinct, a personal AI assistant that’s caught fire with Silicon...

Art: Clark Miller (photos: Getty Images, via YouTube)

Inside Blackstone’s Bid to Rule Over AI Financing

By Dakin Campbell · Sep 10, 2026 12:54pm PDT

In May, Blackstone unveiled a new joint venture with Google that revolved around a big number: The Wall Street giant was promising to spend $5 billion to buy 500 megawatts’ worth of Google’s tensor processing units, and it said it would use the chips in a new company that would deliver computing power to leading AI firms. Four months later,... In May, Blackstone unveiled a new joint venture with Google that revolved around a big number:...

Art by Mike Sullivan

SpaceX Overhauls Data Center Build-Out, Potentially Slowing Expansion

By Grace Kay · Sep 10, 2026 6:21am PDT · 4 comments

Elon Musk is famous for his “move fast” management philosophy, which he demonstrated most starkly when he built new data centers for his AI startup in record time two years ago. But a new team of rocket engineers Musk recently installed to run his data centers is taking a very different approach. SpaceX is changing how it builds the giant... Elon Musk is famous for his “move fast” management philosophy, which he demonstrated most starkly...

Jeffrey Katzenberg. Photo by David Paul Morris/ Getty Images

Jeffrey Katzenberg Teams Up with Former OpenAI Sora Head on New AI Video Startup

By Cory Weinberg and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 9, 2026 4:19pm PDT

Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg is teaming up with the former head of OpenAI’s Sora app to launch a new AI startup that would train its own video models and try to win over filmmakers, people familiar with the matter said. The founders have been talking to potential investors including Andreessen Horowitz about raising significant funding for... Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg is teaming up with the former head of OpenAI’s Sora app to...

Photo via Getty Images; art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Restricts Adobe and Other Competitors From Advertising in ChatGPT

By Alix Coutures and Amir Efrati · Sep 9, 2026 1:54pm PDT

Photo via Getty Images; art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Restricts Adobe and Other Competitors From Advertising in ChatGPT

By Alix Coutures and Amir Efrati · Sep 9, 2026 1:54pm PDT

OpenAI has told some business partners that it will no longer accept advertising in ChatGPT for image- and audio-generating products—which compete with its own features. The change, which hasn’t been previously reported or reflected in its published ads policy, blindsided existing advertisers such as Adobe, which sells such products. And... OpenAI has told some business partners that it will no longer accept advertising in ChatGPT for...