The Information

World Liberty Financial co-founder Donald Trump Jr. (left), is joined at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square by Zach Witkoff, the incoming chairman of Alt5 Sigma (center) and incoming Alt5 Sigma board director Eric Trump (right). Photo by Getty

Trump Partner in Crypto Venture Faces SEC Allegations

By Michael Roddan · Aug 19, 2025 10:15am PDT · 1 comment

The Trump family has partnered with a father-son duo with a history of run-ins with financial regulators for a deal to sell $1.5 billion of its crypto tokens. A biotech turned crypto company called Alt5 Sigma will sell $1.5 billion of stock and use the money to buy the crypto token created by World Liberty Financial, founded by Donald Trump Jr.... The Trump family has partnered with a father-son duo with a history of run-ins with financial...

Photo via Getty

To Court Big Brands, Walmart Throws Some Smaller Merchants Under the Bus

By Ann Gehan · Aug 18, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

For nearly 25 years, Tracey Shelley, an online merchant who sells products like Olay moisturizer, Coppertone sunscreen and Dr. Squatch deodorant, operated mainly on Amazon’s marketplace. But in the past few years, Shelley said she shifted nearly half her business to Walmart, as the retailer lobbied online sellers to sell on its site. In its... For nearly 25 years, Tracey Shelley, an online merchant who sells products like Olay moisturizer,...

Lyten bought Northvolt's battery plants in Poland on left, Sweden right. Images via Getty

The Inside Story of How a Tiny California Startup Grabbed Europe’s Battery Giant

By Steve LeVine · Aug 17, 2025 1:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Until last year, things looked pretty good for Northvolt, a Sweden-based battery startup that Europeans saw as their answer to Tesla. The company had vacuumed up $13 billion in capital from largely blue-chip investors and taken $55 billion in battery orders from major carmakers like BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo. Northvolt executives spoke of going... Until last year, things looked pretty good for Northvolt, a Sweden-based battery startup that...

Mark Zuckerberg at Llama Con 2025. Photo via AP

Meta Plans Fourth Restructuring of AI Efforts in Six Months

By Kalley Huang · Aug 15, 2025 2:11pm PDT · 3 comments

Mark Zuckerberg at Llama Con 2025. Photo via AP

Meta Plans Fourth Restructuring of AI Efforts in Six Months

By Kalley Huang · Aug 15, 2025 2:11pm PDT · 3 comments

Meta Platforms is planning the fourth restructuring of its artificial intelligence efforts in six months, according to three people familiar with the matter. Meta’s new AI organization, Meta Superintelligence Labs, is expected to be divided into four groups: a new lab that has been going by TBD Lab, short for to be determined; a team focused on... Meta Platforms is planning the fourth restructuring of its artificial intelligence efforts in six...

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Elon Musk’s xAI Runs on Ex-Google Talent

By Theo Wayt · Aug 15, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

When artificial intelligence researcher Igor Babuschkin announced his departure from Elon Musk’s xAI this week, he became the second founding member of the team to quit this year. And like Christian Szegedy, another co-founder who left in May, Babuschkin had originally come from Google. Despite the pair’s departure, xAI still relies heavily on... When artificial intelligence researcher Igor Babuschkin announced his departure from Elon Musk’s...

Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch at The Information's San Francisco AI Summit in 2024. Photo by Erin Beach for The Information.

Cloud Startup Vercel Fields Offers for $9 Billion Valuation

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Sri Muppidi · Aug 14, 2025 3:30pm PDT · 1 comment

Vercel, a nine-year-old cloud startup that companies use to host and develop websites and artificial intelligence apps, has been approached by investors offering to invest hundreds of millions of dollars at a valuation between $8 billion to $9 billion, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions. The new funding could nearly... Vercel, a nine-year-old cloud startup that companies use to host and develop websites and...

Jeff Green, founder of The Trade Desk. Photo via Getty

Walmart Backing Away From Trade Desk, an Amazon Ad Tech Rival

By Catherine Perloff and Theo Wayt · Aug 14, 2025 7:16am PDT

Amazon’s most direct rival in handling ad sales across the web, the Trade Desk, could be in danger of losing one of its most valuable clients—Walmart. Last year, Walmart renegotiated its four-year-old arrangement with the Trade Desk, under which advertisers buying spots on the Web using Walmart shopper data for targeting have to use the... Amazon’s most direct rival in handling ad sales across the web, the Trade Desk, could be in...

Michael Liberty (left) and Donald Trump Jr. Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images, YouTube.

Trump Pardon Leads to Business Deal for His Son

By Michael Roddan and Aaron Tilley · Aug 14, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Michael Liberty (left) and Donald Trump Jr. Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images, YouTube.

Trump Pardon Leads to Business Deal for His Son

By Michael Roddan and Aaron Tilley · Aug 14, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

On President Donald Trump’s last day of his first term, in 2021, he pardoned Michael Liberty, a real estate developer and tech entrepreneur who had served jail time for illegal campaign contributions and was facing new federal criminal and civil charges. The pardon may pay dividends for the president’s family. Roughly a year after the pardon,... On President Donald Trump’s last day of his first term, in 2021, he pardoned Michael Liberty, a...

A backup battery system form Base Power is installed on February 2025 in Houston. Photo by Getty.

Home Battery Startup Base Power Plots $4 Billion Valuation

By Anissa Gardizy · Aug 13, 2025 6:07pm PDT · 2 comments

Venture investors are discussing ploughing as much as $1 billion into Texas-based energy startup Base Power at a $4 billion valuation, or about four times its valuation in April, according to a person with knowledge of the investment talks. The startup, co-founded in 2023 by Zach Dell, a former Thrive Capital employee and son of PC mogul... Venture investors are discussing ploughing as much as $1 billion into Texas-based energy startup...

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. Photo via Getty

Perplexity Explored Buying Other Search Browsers Before Chrome Bid

By Sri Muppidi, Erin Woo and Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 13, 2025 2:31pm PDT · 1 comment

Perplexity made headlines this week when the artificial intelligence startup said it had offered to buy Google’s Chrome, the world’s largest internet browser, for a price amounting to nearly double its valuation. While that acquisition seems unlikely to transpire, the company has been on the prowl for smaller browsers it could more easily bite... Perplexity made headlines this week when the artificial intelligence startup said it had offered...

A Rivos employee shown in a company video from last year. Photo via YouTube/Rivos.

Chip Startup Rivos Seeks Up to $500 Million to Compete With Nvidia

By Valida Pau and Wayne Ma · Aug 13, 2025 7:36am PDT

Rivos, a chip startup that aims to compete with Nvidia, is seeking to raise between $400 million and $500 million, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Santa Clara, Calif.–based startup, backed by Intel’s CEO Lip-Bu Tan, is seeking a valuation of more than $2 billion, one of the people said. It’s not clear if the valuation... Rivos, a chip startup that aims to compete with Nvidia, is seeking to raise between $400 million...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing in July. Photo via Getty

China Demands Companies to Halt Nvidia Chip Orders Over Security Concerns

By Qianer Liu · Aug 12, 2025 5:55am PDT

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing in July. Photo via Getty

China Demands Companies to Halt Nvidia Chip Orders Over Security Concerns

By Qianer Liu · Aug 12, 2025 5:55am PDT

Just weeks after Nvidia reached a deal with President Trump allowing it to sell AI chips in China, the chipmaker has hit a new hurdle—Chinese authorities. China’s internet regulator in the past two weeks ordered local tech companies including ByteDance, Alibaba Group, and Tencent Holdings to suspend their purchases of Nvidia chips, citing... Just weeks after Nvidia reached a deal with President Trump allowing it to sell AI chips in...

Unsolicited Term Sheets, Declining Dry Powder: Inside the AI Deal Rush

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 11, 2025 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

Last year, when money was surging into artificial intelligence startups, even some venture capitalists involved in those deals worried that the high costs of AI and unreliable demand from businesses were setting up many startups for disappointment. Such skepticism, if not dead, is on its last legs. Monthly revenue that is doubling or quadrupling... Last year, when money was surging into artificial intelligence startups, even some venture...

Mark Zuckerberg, left, and WaveForms AI co-founder Alexis Conneau. Photos by Getty

Meta Acquires AI Audio Startup WaveForms

By Kalley Huang · Aug 7, 2025 2:18pm PDT

Meta Platforms has acquired WaveForms AI, a small startup working on artificial intelligence capable of understanding emotion and mimicking it in audio form, according to a person with direct knowledge. The acquisition comes as Meta continues to overhaul its efforts in AI, after stumbles earlier this year. In June, the social media giant hired... Meta Platforms has acquired WaveForms AI, a small startup working on artificial intelligence...

Amjad Masad, co-founder and CEO of Replit

Replit’s Margins Illustrate the High Costs of Coding Agents

By Sri Muppidi · Aug 7, 2025 6:07am PDT

At Replit, a maker of artificial intelligence–powered programming tools, the launch of a new coding agent last September put its sales into overdrive. Annualized revenue at the startup surged to more than $32 million in February from a measly $2 million last August. In July 2025, it hit $144 million, according to a person close to the... At Replit, a maker of artificial intelligence–powered programming tools, the launch of a...

Left: Luma AI CEO Amit Jain. Right: Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela. Photos via YouTube and Getty.

Runway, Luma in Talks for Multibillion-Dollar Fundraises as Revenue Picks Up

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Rocket Drew and Sri Muppidi · Aug 5, 2025 4:16pm PDT

Left: Luma AI CEO Amit Jain. Right: Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela. Photos via YouTube and Getty.

Runway, Luma in Talks for Multibillion-Dollar Fundraises as Revenue Picks Up

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Rocket Drew and Sri Muppidi · Aug 5, 2025 4:16pm PDT

Startups that use artificial intelligence to make videos for Hollywood studios and amateur filmmakers are getting thirsty for more capital. Runway, a startup that has cut deals with Lionsgate and AMC Networks, is in talks with investors to raise around $500 million at a valuation of at least $5 billion before the investment, or 67% higher than... Startups that use artificial intelligence to make videos for Hollywood studios and amateur...

Photo via Getty

Advertisers Can’t Quit Google, Despite Complaints About Traffic and Ads

By Catherine Perloff · Aug 5, 2025 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

No matter how annoyed publishers and advertisers get with Google, they just can’t seem to quit it. Some publishers complain that Google searches are directing less traffic to their sites lately. Some advertisers say Google search ads aren’t showing up next to the terms they paid for, but rather against other terms. And yet both groups say they’... No matter how annoyed publishers and advertisers get with Google, they just can’t seem to quit...

Reflection.AI founders Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou. Photo via Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Reflection AI Targets $1 Billion to Take on Meta, DeepSeek in Open Source

By Kevin McLaughlin, Stephanie Palazzolo and Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 4, 2025 7:05pm PDT · 4 comments

Reflection AI, a one-year-old startup co-founded by former Google DeepMind researchers, is in talks to raise more than $1 billion to fund its efforts to develop open-source large language models to compete with the likes of China’s DeepSeek, France’s Mistral and U.S-based Meta Platforms, according to two people with direct knowledge of the... Reflection AI, a one-year-old startup co-founded by former Google DeepMind researchers, is in...

Cognition CEO Scott Wu

Cognition Offers Buyouts to Newly Acquired Windsurf Staff

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Kalley Huang · Aug 4, 2025 11:51am PDT · 2 comments

Cognition, a two-year-old artificial intelligence coding startup last valued at $4 billion, has offered buyouts to the roughly 200 employees it acquired in a takeover of rival Windsurf three weeks ago, saying they will receive nine months of salary in return, according to an e-mail seen by The Information. The development comes after... Cognition, a two-year-old artificial intelligence coding startup last valued at $4 billion, has...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Art by Mike Sullivan

Inside OpenAI’s Rocky Path to GPT-5

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · Aug 1, 2025 10:58am PDT · 9 comments

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Art by Mike Sullivan

Inside OpenAI’s Rocky Path to GPT-5

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · Aug 1, 2025 10:58am PDT · 9 comments

OpenAI made waves across the industry in December when it published the results from its tests of artificial intelligence that performs better on tasks when it gets more time and computing power to process them. The results implied ChatGPT customers were about to be blown away by what the new AI could do. But the euphoria was short-lived. When ... OpenAI made waves across the industry in December when it published the results from its tests of...