The Information

Peng Zhao, CEO of Citadel Securities. Photo by Bloomberg.

Wall Street Firm Citadel Securities Courts AI Startups for Trading Edge

By Jon Victor and Cory Weinberg · Jun 8, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Citadel Securities, a prominent high-frequency trading firm, has told startup founders and investors it is looking to license software from artificial intelligence startups working on large-language models or to buy stakes in them, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations. The discussions highlight how interest in the latest... Citadel Securities, a prominent high-frequency trading firm, has told startup founders and...

Jonah Peretti. Photo by Getty.

BuzzFeed Considers Sale of Complex Networks

By Sahil Patel · Jun 7, 2023 12:08pm PDT

BuzzFeed is exploring a potential sale of Complex Networks, a digital media firm it acquired when going public in late 2021 for nearly $300 million, according to people familiar with the matter. The move, which follows a decline in Complex’s revenues over the past couple of years, is a sign of the challenges facing BuzzFeed, once a... BuzzFeed is exploring a potential sale of Complex Networks, a digital media firm it acquired when...

A Thursday Night Football game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the New York Jets. Photo by Getty.

How Amazon Misread the NFL Ad Market

By Sahil Patel and Theo Wayt · Jun 7, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Last summer, advertising representatives for a national pizza chain in the U.S. met with Amazon ad executives to negotiate a potential sponsorship deal for Amazon Prime Video’s broadcast of “Thursday Night Football.” Amazon executives asked the pizza chain for commitments of up to $12 million for the full season, double what... Last summer, advertising representatives for a national pizza chain in the U.S. met with Amazon...

CareRev co-founder Will Patterson stepped down as CEO last week. Art by Clark Miller

A Long, Strange Trip for the ‘Uber for Nurses’

By Paris Martineau · Jun 6, 2023 6:00am PDT · 8 comments

CareRev co-founder Will Patterson stepped down as CEO last week. Art by Clark Miller

A Long, Strange Trip for the ‘Uber for Nurses’

By Paris Martineau · Jun 6, 2023 6:00am PDT · 8 comments

Will Patterson was on a hot streak. As the co-founder and CEO of CareRev—a gig-work platform sometimes described as an “Uber for nurses”—he saw his company’s business surge during the pandemic as hospitals and clinics scrambled to find healthcare workers. In late 2020, he seized the moment by pitching investors over... Will Patterson was on a hot streak. As the co-founder and CEO of CareRev—a gig-work...

The Port of Los Angeles, where Next Trucking has a significant presence. Photo by David McNew/Getty Images.

Logistics Startup Next Trucking Tries to Sell Itself

By Maria Heeter · Jun 5, 2023 9:48am PDT · 2 comments

Sequoia Capital–backed logistics startup Next Trucking, facing a slowdown in the trucking sector, is trying to sell itself, according to people familiar with the matter and a pitch deck reviewed by The Information. Next has enlisted the help of BG Strategic Advisors, a Florida-based boutique investment bank specializing in transportation... Sequoia Capital–backed logistics startup Next Trucking, facing a slowdown in the trucking...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Photo: Getty.

Microsoft Is Charging Some Office 365 Customers 40% Extra to Test AI Features

By Aaron Holmes · Jun 2, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Microsoft and other software companies that recently launched artificial intelligence features now face the hard part: getting customers to pay for the features, which are costly to operate. More than 600 of Microsoft’s largest customers, including Bank of America, Walmart, Ford and Accenture, are expected to test the AI features in... Microsoft and other software companies that recently launched artificial intelligence features...

Instacart CEO Fidji Simo. Photo by Getty.

Growth Wanes at Instacart, Gopuff

By Cory Weinberg · Jun 1, 2023 3:36pm PDT

Grocery upstarts Instacart and Gopuff haven’t been able to deliver two things at once this year: growth and profits. Privately held Instacart posted a 2% decline in the number of grocery orders it facilitated in the first quarter compared with the same period last year, according to people familiar with the matter. The number,... Grocery upstarts Instacart and Gopuff haven’t been able to deliver two things at once this...

Photo by Getty

Meta Calls Employees Back to Office Three Days a Week

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jun 1, 2023 2:56pm PDT

Photo by Getty

Meta Calls Employees Back to Office Three Days a Week

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jun 1, 2023 2:56pm PDT

Meta Platforms has notified employees they will need to return to the office three days a week starting in September, according to a person familiar with the matter. The announcement, which has not been previously reported, marks the strictest policy change from the company since it embraced remote work during the pandemic. While tech companies... Meta Platforms has notified employees they will need to return to the office three days a week...

Tim Cook. Photo by Bloomberg

Apple’s Learning Curve: How Headset’s Design Caused Production Challenges

By Wayne Ma · May 31, 2023 6:00am PDT · 11 comments

If Apple unveils its long-awaited mixed-reality headset next week as expected, it will represent the company’s riskiest gamble on a new product since the iPhone. It will also test the company’s prowess in design and manufacturing like nothing before. The headset is the most complicated hardware product Apple has ever created due to... If Apple unveils its long-awaited mixed-reality headset next week as expected, it will represent...

Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson. Photo by Bloomberg.

Twilio, Set to Lose Supervoting Protection Next Month, Has Been Meeting With Activist

By Maria Heeter · May 30, 2023 1:43pm PDT · 2 comments

Activist investor Legion Partners, which owns a stake in Twilio, has met several times with the company’s board of directors and management, urging them to make changes to the board and consider divestitures, among other moves, according to people familiar with the matter. The conversations come at a critical moment for the $11.5 billion... Activist investor Legion Partners, which owns a stake in Twilio, has met several times with the...

Art by Clark Miller.

MoonPay CEO, Other Executives Cashed Out Before Crypto Business Dropped

By Aidan Ryan · May 30, 2023 11:03am PDT · 4 comments

In November 2021, just as crypto prices were hitting all-time highs, MoonPay—a crypto payments startup that celebrities including Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton had praised for its non-fungible token “concierge” service—announced it had completed its first ever outside fundraising: an eye-popping $555 million round at a... In November 2021, just as crypto prices were hitting all-time highs, MoonPay—a crypto...

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Photo by Bloomberg.

TikTok CEO Expands Purview to Include ByteDance’s New App Lemon8

By Juro Osawa · May 30, 2023 5:59am PDT

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Photo by Bloomberg.

TikTok CEO Expands Purview to Include ByteDance’s New App Lemon8

By Juro Osawa · May 30, 2023 5:59am PDT

The Singapore-based CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, is getting a bigger job. TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is putting its newer social media app, Lemon8, under Chew’s supervision, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The move appears to reflect ByteDance’s strategy of locating the heads of its... The Singapore-based CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, is getting a bigger job. TikTok’s Chinese...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Photo by Bloomberg.

Twitter Cut Key Software Before DeSantis Audio Glitch

By Kevin McLaughlin and Erin Woo · May 26, 2023 2:12pm PDT · 11 comments

On Wednesday night, Twitter experienced multiple outages during a high-profile live audio forum on the app in which Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launched his presidential campaign. While the specific reason for the flub couldn’t be learned, the company several weeks ago stopped paying for special software that handles high-traffic... On Wednesday night, Twitter experienced multiple outages during a high-profile live audio forum...

Chris Britt, co-founder and CEO of Chime.

Chime’s Slowdown Highlights Limits of Bank Disruptors

By Mark Matousek and Erin Woo · May 26, 2023 6:14am PDT · 11 comments

Chime found a way to offer zero-fee banking services without being a bank itself. But that approach is starting to show its limits. While Chime brought in more than $1 billion in revenue last year, according to two people familiar with the figure, Chime’s revenue growth has slowed dramatically since 2020. And behind the scenes, the... Chime found a way to offer zero-fee banking services without being a bank itself. But that...

Photo by Bloomberg.

JPMorgan Culling First Republic Bank’s Personal Credit Lines

By Maria Heeter and Michael Roddan · May 25, 2023 10:02am PDT · 1 comment

JPMorgan has told customers with personal credit lines at First Republic Bank that it will no longer offer those lines when they come up for renewal, according to correspondence viewed by The Information. The failed lender, which has been sold to JPMorgan, had offered personal lines of credit to its wealthy client base as a key way of attracting... JPMorgan has told customers with personal credit lines at First Republic Bank that it will no...

Microsoft's Satya Nadella, left, and Peter Lee. Photo by Bloomberg, Microsoft

How Microsoft Swallowed Its Pride to Make a Massive Bet on OpenAI

By Aaron Holmes · May 25, 2023 6:00am PDT · 15 comments

Microsoft's Satya Nadella, left, and Peter Lee. Photo by Bloomberg, Microsoft

How Microsoft Swallowed Its Pride to Make a Massive Bet on OpenAI

By Aaron Holmes · May 25, 2023 6:00am PDT · 15 comments

Satya Nadella didn’t want to hear it. Last December, Peter Lee, who oversees Microsoft’s sprawling research efforts, was briefing Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, and his deputies about a series of tests Microsoft had conducted of GPT-4, the then-unreleased new artificial intelligence large-language model built by OpenAI. Lee told... Satya Nadella didn’t want to hear it. Last December, Peter Lee, who oversees...

Photo by Tony Webster via Flickr

After Years of Resistance, AWS Opens Checkbook for Open-Source Providers

By Kevin McLaughlin and Anissa Gardizy · May 24, 2023 8:00am PDT · 2 comments

Several years ago, providers of open-source software had a beef with Amazon Web Services. They complained that AWS was selling cloud-based versions of their software, depriving them of hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. The dispute was a public relations nightmare for AWS and risked inviting trouble from competition regulators.... Several years ago, providers of open-source software had a beef with Amazon Web Services. They...

Photo by Bloomberg

Google and OpenAI’s Next Battleground: Firefox?

By Jon Victor · May 23, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

The race between Google, OpenAI and Microsoft for chatbot supremacy has only just begun. But the companies may soon compete to put their artificial intelligence–powered chatbots in front of nearly 200 million people who use Mozilla’s Firefox web browser each month. Mozilla plans to prominently feature a chatbot like Google’s... The race between Google, OpenAI and Microsoft for chatbot supremacy has only just begun. But the...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

YouTube Undercuts Amazon on Streaming Push

By Sahil Patel · May 19, 2023 6:00am PDT

YouTube and Netflix are the most-watched streaming services in America. But it is Amazon that has come closest to building a streaming version of cable TV with its Prime Video Channels service, which lets Prime subscribers easily sign up for a wide range of streaming services run by other companies. It’s an enormously profitable business,... YouTube and Netflix are the most-watched streaming services in America. But it is Amazon that has...

Instacart CEO Fidji Simo. Photo by Getty.

Instacart’s Ad Business Surges

By Cory Weinberg · May 18, 2023 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

Instacart CEO Fidji Simo. Photo by Getty.

Instacart’s Ad Business Surges

By Cory Weinberg · May 18, 2023 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

Instacart has become an advertising powerhouse. The grocery-delivery firm’s ad revenue totaled about $740 million last year, up 30% from 2021, according to a person familiar with the matter. That’s a striking increase, given that the digital ad market was largely stagnant last year. Nearly 30% of Instacart’s 2022 revenue came... Instacart has become an advertising powerhouse. The grocery-delivery firm’s ad revenue...