The Information

Apple's AI chief, John Giannandrea. Photo via Getty

Apple Boosts Spending to Develop Conversational AI

By Wayne Ma · Sep 6, 2023 10:49am PDT

Apple has been expanding its computing budget for building artificial intelligence to millions of dollars a day. One of its goals is to develop features such as one that allows iPhone customers to use simple voice commands to automate tasks involving multiple steps, according to people familiar with the effort. The technology, for instance,... Apple has been expanding its computing budget for building artificial intelligence to millions of...

Illustration by Clark Miller

Delivering in the Dark, Amazon’s Gig Drivers Face Guns and Death

By Theo Wayt · Sep 6, 2023 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

In February 2022, Chris Fear was sitting in her car outside Scottsdale, Ariz., a couple of hours after sunset with the windows down, when she heard a man’s voice. “Get out of your car,” the man said from the darkness. Fear had spent the prior couple of hours delivering packages for Amazon, but she had gotten lost on the way to... In February 2022, Chris Fear was sitting in her car outside Scottsdale, Ariz., a couple of hours...

Deel photo by Getty. Background reflects prop trading websites that use Deel and YouTube video tutorials for them. Art by Shane Burke.

How Deel Became Payout Provider for Prop Trading Firms, Including Site Frozen by CFTC

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 5, 2023 5:27pm PDT · 2 comments

Four-year-old Deel has become one of the fastest-growing and most valuable startups by positioning itself as a way for businesses to hire contract employees anywhere in a snap. What the human resources startup doesn’t talk about in its prolific marketing is the fact that the company, last valued by investors at $12 billion, has also become... Four-year-old Deel has become one of the fastest-growing and most valuable startups by...

Illustration by Harol Bustos.

Inside Meta’s AI Drama: Internal Feuds Over Compute Power

By Kalley Huang and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Sep 5, 2023 9:16am PDT · 2 comments

Illustration by Harol Bustos.

Inside Meta’s AI Drama: Internal Feuds Over Compute Power

By Kalley Huang and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Sep 5, 2023 9:16am PDT · 2 comments

Meta Platforms’ releases of its large-language models, Llama and Llama 2, in the past six months have won the company praise for offering free, open-source alternatives to models from OpenAI and Anthropic. But for some of the scientists and engineers who worked on Llama, that praise was too little, too late. Many have quit, embittered by a... Meta Platforms’ releases of its large-language models, Llama and Llama 2, in the past six...

Tyler (left) and Cameron Winklevoss, co-founders of Gemini. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Gemini Tries to Line Up Other Creditors in New Genesis Bankruptcy Plan

By Aidan Ryan · Sep 1, 2023 4:45pm PDT

The high-profile spat between Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert is poised to get even uglier. Gemini is trying to rally other creditors behind a plan to wring more money out of DCG to help pay back the more than $3.5 billion owed by its bankrupt lending subsidiary, Genesis, two... The high-profile spat between Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Digital...

Nvidia-Backed Cloud Provider Hires Morgan Stanley to Sell $500 Million of Employee Shares

By Anissa Gardizy · Aug 31, 2023 4:52pm PDT · 5 comments

CoreWeave, a fast-growing cloud computing startup that rents specialized servers for developing artificial intelligence, has hired Morgan Stanley to sell employee stock to investors at a valuation of at least $6 billion, three times higher than its valuation in an equity financing in May, according to someone with direct knowledge. The deal... CoreWeave, a fast-growing cloud computing startup that rents specialized servers for developing...

Photo via Shutterstock.

Shopify Rolling Out TikTok Shop Integration, Adding New Twist to Rivalry

By Ann Gehan · Aug 31, 2023 1:45pm PDT · 3 comments

Shopify is making peace with the threat posed by TikTok Shop. This week, the Canadian e-commerce software firm quietly began rolling out a way for merchants using its software to integrate more closely with TikTok’s small but growing online shopping service, according to a person familiar with the matter. The arrangement is a concession of... Shopify is making peace with the threat posed by TikTok Shop. This week, the Canadian e-commerce...

Photo by AP.

A Tangled Mess of Tech: JPMorgan’s Tall Task to Integrate First Republic

By Michael Roddan · Aug 31, 2023 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

Photo by AP.

A Tangled Mess of Tech: JPMorgan’s Tall Task to Integrate First Republic

By Michael Roddan · Aug 31, 2023 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

In the hours after JPMorgan Chase bought troubled First Republic Bank for $10.6 billion in a government fire sale, its consumer banking chiefs Marianne Lake and Jennifer Piepszak—both potential successors to CEO Jamie Dimon—flew to California. What they found when they arrived the morning of May 1 was startling: The business JPMorgan... In the hours after JPMorgan Chase bought troubled First Republic Bank for $10.6 billion in a...

The founders of AI21 Labs. Left to right: Yoav Shoham, Ori Goshen and Amnon Shashua. Photo via AI21 Labs.

OpenAI Challenger AI21 Labs Nears Funding at $1.2 Billion Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Aidan Ryan and Erin Woo · Aug 30, 2023 12:29pm PDT · 1 comment

AI21 Labs, an Israel-based rival to OpenAI, has neared a new round of funding that would value the six-year-old startup at $1.2 billion, before the new capital, according to two people familiar with the matter. It’s the latest sign of investor appetite for firms developing conversational artificial intelligence as the technology becomes a... AI21 Labs, an Israel-based rival to OpenAI, has neared a new round of funding that would value...

Antonio Gracias. Photo by Getty.

Valor Equity Returns Show Limits of Musk Halo

By Becky Peterson · Aug 30, 2023 11:59am PDT · 3 comments

Valor Equity Partners made a name for itself thanks to early bets on Elon Musk companies such as Tesla, and its repeat investments in Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies have paid off handsomely. Yet despite the Musk glow, Valor’s recent and biggest funds are only performing slightly better than those of its venture capital peers,... Valor Equity Partners made a name for itself thanks to early bets on Elon Musk companies such as...

AWS CEO Adam Selipsky (left) and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Art by Clark Miller/Photos by Getty

How AWS Stumbled in AI, Giving Microsoft an Opening

By Anissa Gardizy and Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 30, 2023 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Long before ChatGPT arrived on the scene last year, Amazon Web Services was developing artificial intelligence software akin to the technology that powers the hit chatbot from OpenAI. AWS had hoped to unveil the software, then known inside the company as Bedrock, at its annual customer conference late last November, but had to postpone it due to... Long before ChatGPT arrived on the scene last year, Amazon Web Services was developing artificial...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo via Getty

OpenAI Passes $1 Billion Revenue Pace as Big Companies Boost AI Spending

By Amir Efrati and Aaron Holmes · Aug 29, 2023 3:58pm PDT · 1 comment

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo via Getty

OpenAI Passes $1 Billion Revenue Pace as Big Companies Boost AI Spending

By Amir Efrati and Aaron Holmes · Aug 29, 2023 3:58pm PDT · 1 comment

OpenAI is currently on pace to generate more than $1 billion in revenue over the next 12 months from the sale of artificial intelligence software and the computing capacity that powers it. That’s far ahead of revenue projections the company previously shared with its shareholders, according to a person with direct knowledge of the... OpenAI is currently on pace to generate more than $1 billion in revenue over the next 12 months...

Composite by Clark Miller. Apple Vision Pro photo by Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images.

Apple Hopes Chinese Suppliers Can Solve Vision Pro’s Display Challenges

By Wayne Ma · Aug 29, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

When Apple dealt with Chinese manufacturers in the past, it was to buy low-level components such as small metal parts, paper boxes and batteries. For advanced parts such as displays and chips, the iPhone maker turned to firms headquartered in the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Times are changing. Apple is currently testing advanced... When Apple dealt with Chinese manufacturers in the past, it was to buy low-level components such...

Chamath Palihapitiya. Photo by Variety via Getty Images.

Chamath Palihapitiya’s Venture Firm Offered to Sell Hundreds of Startup Stakes

By Maria Heeter · Aug 28, 2023 12:36pm PDT · 8 comments

Social Capital, the investment firm led by venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, tried to sell stakes in hundreds of young companies in June of this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The stakes for sale were worth $312 million in total based on the valuations at which the companies last raised money, the people said. ... Social Capital, the investment firm led by venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, tried to sell...

Photo by Getty.

Amazon in Talks With Disney About ESPN Streaming Partnership

By Sahil Patel · Aug 24, 2023 3:02pm PDT · 1 comment

Amazon has had early talks with Disney about working on the streaming version of ESPN it is developing, said people familiar with the matter. The tech giant could offer the service through one of its streaming offerings, helping to expand its distribution, while possibly also taking a minority stake in ESPN. Such an arrangement could shore up... Amazon has had early talks with Disney about working on the streaming version of ESPN it is...

Connie James, StubHub's next CFO. Photo via YouTube/Light & Wonder.

StubHub Hires New CFO With Eyes on 2024 IPO

By Cory Weinberg · Aug 24, 2023 12:37pm PDT

Connie James, StubHub's next CFO. Photo via YouTube/Light & Wonder.

StubHub Hires New CFO With Eyes on 2024 IPO

By Cory Weinberg · Aug 24, 2023 12:37pm PDT

Ticket-reselling company StubHub has hired a new finance chief to try to take it public next year, following the departure of its previous CFO in 2022, according to people familiar with the matter. StubHub’s new CFO is Connie James, the people said. She stepped down last month from the same post at Light & Wonder, a publicly traded... Ticket-reselling company StubHub has hired a new finance chief to try to take it public next...

Photo by Convoy.

Digital Trucking Company Convoy Explores Options Including a Sale

By Maria Heeter · Aug 24, 2023 12:11pm PDT · 4 comments

Convoy, a digital trucking marketplace that counts Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates as angel investors and Fidelity and T. Rowe Price as later-stage backers, is weighing strategic options that could include a sale of the company, according to people familiar with the matter. The company, which competes with Uber Freight, hired an investment bank... Convoy, a digital trucking marketplace that counts Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates as angel investors...

Art by Clark Miller

Chip Startup Sued By Apple Has Struggled to Raise Capital

By Wayne Ma · Aug 23, 2023 7:40pm PDT

Rivos, a server chip developer that Apple sued for alleged trade secret theft, has since struggled to raise funds from investors and recruit employees, its co-founders have told some staff. Apple sued the startup last year after it hired numerous employees from Apple’s chip design unit. Rivos last week laid off nearly two dozen employees,... Rivos, a server chip developer that Apple sued for alleged trade secret theft, has since...

A SpaceX rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying 60 Starlink satellites in 2019. Photo by Getty

SpaceX Working with Cloudflare to Speed Up Starlink Service

By Becky Peterson · Aug 23, 2023 12:38pm PDT

Space Exploration Technologies, Elon Musk’s rocket company, is working with Cloudflare to boost the performance of SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink, according to a person with direct knowledge of the project. The two companies are working on a way to increase Starlink’s terrestrial network of mini data centers... Space Exploration Technologies, Elon Musk’s rocket company, is working with Cloudflare to...

TikTokers advertising products for TikTok shop. Photos via TikTok. Art by Shane Burke.

TikTok Shop on Track to Lose More Than $500 Million in U.S. This Year

By Erin Woo and Jing Yang · Aug 23, 2023 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

TikTokers advertising products for TikTok shop. Photos via TikTok. Art by Shane Burke.

TikTok Shop on Track to Lose More Than $500 Million in U.S. This Year

By Erin Woo and Jing Yang · Aug 23, 2023 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

The cost of TikTok’s online shopping expansion in the U.S. is beginning to add up. TikTok Shop, the app’s nascent shopping service, is expected to lose more than $500 million in the U.S. this year, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The loss reflects TikTok’s heavy investment in hiring, building a... The cost of TikTok’s online shopping expansion in the U.S. is beginning to add up. TikTok...