Pro Weekly by The Information Staff

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Pro Weekly

By The Information Staff

Our analysts will sort through and send the biggest updates to our data every week in an exclusive newsletter, in case you don’t have the time to go through it all.

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Recent Editions

Cohere's Aidan Gomez, Safe Superintelligence's Ilya Sutskever and World Labs' Fei-Fei Li. Photos via Flickr and Getty.

Pro Weekly: Third-Quarter AI Funding Falls, but There’s a Catch

By Akash Pasricha · Oct 4, 2024 8:00am PDT

Fourth-quarter artificial intelligence funding is off to a big start with OpenAI locking in $6.6 billion in fresh capital this week. It’s the second-largest funding round we’ve ever recorded in our Generative AI Database, behind Microsoft’s $10 billion OpenAI investment in January 2023.But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The third quarter just... Fourth-quarter artificial intelligence funding is off to a big start with OpenAI locking in $6.6...

Notion's Simon Last (left) and Canva's Cameron Adams (right). Photos via Sequoia and YouTube.

Pro Weekly: The Co-Founders Not Running Silicon Valley

By Akash Pasricha · Sep 27, 2024 8:00am PDT

Last week, my colleague Jon Victor published our Notion Org Chart, along with insights from his interview with co-founder and CEO Ivan Zhao. One of Jon’s findings about co-founder Simon Last fascinated me.Last is the only C-suite executive at Notion who has no direct reports. He doesn’t even have a title—he’s simply listed as a co-founder. Zhao... Last week, my colleague Jon Victor published our Notion Org Chart, along with insights from his...

Pro Weekly: Soaring Optimism About Tech Companies

Pro Weekly: Soaring Optimism About Tech Companies

By Akash Pasricha · Sep 20, 2024 8:00am PDT

What a difference a month makes. Respondents to our September survey were markedly more optimistic than in August about 13 of the 14 big tech companies we regularly ask them about. The exception was Coinbase, where reader sentiment was essentially unchanged. The results mirrored a surge in optimism among readers compared with last month... What a difference a month makes. Respondents to our September survey were markedly more...

A wafer on display at Semicon Taiwan earlier this month. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Pro Weekly: AI Chip Startups Race to Finish Products

By Akash Pasricha · Sep 13, 2024 8:00am PDT

A wafer on display at Semicon Taiwan earlier this month. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Pro Weekly: AI Chip Startups Race to Finish Products

By Akash Pasricha · Sep 13, 2024 8:00am PDT

Our AI Chip Database includes 24 companies that hope to grab some of the riches flowing to market leader Nvidia. It’s an expensive task, and several have been busy raising money lately.Groq and Etched, two companies designing chips to run large language models, raised $640 million and $120 million, respectively, over the past few months. I... Our AI Chip Database includes 24 companies that hope to grab some of the riches flowing to market...

Nvidia H100 chips inside a server room. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Pro Weekly: Expanding Our AI Data Center Database

By Akash Pasricha and Anissa Gardizy · Sep 6, 2024 8:00am PDT

Earlier this week, we published our AI Data Center Database, detailing 17 U.S. data centers operating or planned by major tech companies in the fevered race to pursue advances in artificial intelligence. The scale of these facilities is impressive: Some will contain as many as 100,000 of the most advanced semiconductors, sprawl across... Earlier this week, we published our AI Data Center Database, detailing 17 U.S. data centers...

Left to right: Harvey AI co-founders Winston Weinberg and Gabriel Pereyra, Hebbia AI founder George Sivulka, and Minna Song, co-founder of Elise AI. Photos via Harvey AI, Hebbia AI and Elise AI.

Pro Weekly: What This Summer's AI Deals Reveal

By Akash Pasricha · Aug 30, 2024 8:00am PDT

Summer can feel slow, but artificial intelligence investors have been busy over the past two months. Venture capitalists invested nearly $876 million in generative AI startups in July and August, according to The Information’s Generative AI Database.That’s 18% more than investors put into GenAI startups in July and August 2023, which was a 90%... Summer can feel slow, but artificial intelligence investors have been busy over the past two...

Kajabi CEO Ahad Khan and Linktree founders Anthony Zaccaria, Alex Zaccaria and Nick Humphreys. Photos via Kajabi/Getty.

Pro Weekly: Creator Economy M&A Isn't As Quiet as It Might Appear

By Akash Pasricha · Aug 23, 2024 8:03am PDT · 1 comment

As I’ve been updating our Creator Economy Database lately, I’ve been closely monitoring acquisitions in the sector. Last year, 37 companies were acquired, a number of which were fire sales, my colleague Kaya Yurieff reported. But so far in 2024, we’ve seen just 13 acquisitions, suggesting the year will end up quieter.That said, there might... As I’ve been updating our Creator Economy Database lately, I’ve been closely monitoring...

Pro Weekly: A Gloomy Outlook for Big Tech Names

Pro Weekly: A Gloomy Outlook for Big Tech Names

By Akash Pasricha · Aug 16, 2024 8:00am PDT

Pro Weekly: A Gloomy Outlook for Big Tech Names

Pro Weekly: A Gloomy Outlook for Big Tech Names

By Akash Pasricha · Aug 16, 2024 8:00am PDT

Between falling share prices, a major antitrust ruling and an onslaught of quarterly results, readers had a lot to digest before answering our August survey last week. It seems they didn’t like what they saw: Sentiment about the technology sector was the most pessimistic in our surveys since March 2023, when the government closed Silicon Valley... Between falling share prices, a major antitrust ruling and an onslaught of quarterly results,...

Greg Brockman. Photo by Errich Petersen/Getty Images for SXSW

Pro Weekly: Where AI Employees Are Moving

By Akash Pasricha · Aug 9, 2024 8:00am PDT

Earlier this week, my colleagues Stephanie, Jon and Amir broke the news of another leadership shake-up at OpenAI. Greg Brockman, president, is on a leave of absence. Peter Deng, president of consumer product, and John Schulman, a co-founder and scientific lead for advancement, are departing; Schulman is joining Anthropic’s technical staff. We’ve... Earlier this week, my colleagues Stephanie, Jon and Amir broke the news of another leadership...

Pro Weekly: Investments in Generative AI Accelerate

Pro Weekly: Investments in Generative AI Accelerate

By Akash Pasricha · Aug 2, 2024 8:00am PDT

The arrival of ChatGPT 20 months ago sparked an investing fever around generative artificial intelligence. New data show the fever hasn’t broken. Startups in our Generative AI Database raised a record $12.2 billion in the second quarter, topping the previous record from the first quarter of 2023 when Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI... The arrival of ChatGPT 20 months ago sparked an investing fever around generative artificial...

Pro Weekly: Omens of Past Corrections

Pro Weekly: Omens of Past Corrections

By Akash Pasricha · Jul 26, 2024 8:00am PDT

A large majority of respondents to our July survey said they expect a stock market correction of 10% or more within the next 12 months, and more than half said shares of technology companies are in a bubble. We also asked readers which year since 1980 they think 2024 feels closest to. Their answers also reflected anxiety about a looming... A large majority of respondents to our July survey said they expect a stock market correction of...

Left to right: Everett Randle of Kleiner Perkins, Amanda Robson formerly of Cowboy Ventures and Dan Levine of Accel. Photos via listed firms.

Pro Weekly: Our Next GPs Have Been Busy

By Akash Pasricha · Jul 19, 2024 8:00am PDT

Left to right: Everett Randle of Kleiner Perkins, Amanda Robson formerly of Cowboy Ventures and Dan Levine of Accel. Photos via listed firms.

Pro Weekly: Our Next GPs Have Been Busy

By Akash Pasricha · Jul 19, 2024 8:00am PDT

In March, we published The Next GPs, our list of 19 rising stars in venture capital who we think are likely to take leadership roles as general partners of VC firms in coming years. It’s a group I’ve been watching closely. In less than four months since we introduced the list, some of these VCs have been promoted or made flashy investments. Two... In March, we published The Next GPs, our list of 19 rising stars in venture capital who we think...

Pro Weekly: Creator Funding Rises; It's not Just AI

Pro Weekly: Creator Funding Rises; It's not Just AI

By Akash Pasricha · Jul 12, 2024 8:00am PDT

We published our second-quarter funding report this week for the Creator Economy Database. Artificial intelligence fueled a second consecutive quarter of growing investment in the sector, with the first six months of 2024 roughly equaling creator economy startup funding for all of last year. But here’s the thing: It’s not just about AI.Funding... We published our second-quarter funding report this week for the Creator Economy Database....

Photo via Getty Images

Pro Weekly: More VC Firms That Bet Big on Generative AI

By Scott Thurm · Jul 5, 2024 8:00am PDT

Earlier this week, my colleagues Julia and Abubakar dove deep into our Generative AI Database to reveal the venture capital firms that have bet the most on the technology and therefore have the most to gain—or lose.The totals are impressive: Six firms have each led or co-led investments that pumped more than $1 billion into startups working on... Earlier this week, my colleagues Julia and Abubakar dove deep into our Generative AI Database to...

Animoca Brands CEO Robby Yung. Photo via Web Summit.

Pro Weekly: Even Crypto Firms Are Thinking IPO

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 28, 2024 8:00am PDT

There are dozens of tech companies hoping to go public, including specialists in enterprise software, retail, artificial intelligence—and most surprisingly, crypto. This week, we reported that Animoca Brands, which owns stakes in more than 400 crypto and metaverse companies, is looking into going public next year. The company was previously... There are dozens of tech companies hoping to go public, including specialists in enterprise...

Chart by Shane Burke

Pro Weekly: Surging Optimism About Apple

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 21, 2024 8:00am PDT

Chart by Shane Burke

Pro Weekly: Surging Optimism About Apple

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 21, 2024 8:00am PDT

Shares of Apple surged more than 10% in the days after the company announced new artificial intelligence features at its Worldwide Developers Conference last week. Respondents to our monthly survey also are feeling more bullish about the iPhone maker. Roughly 42% of survey respondents said they were optimistic about Apple’s prospects in the... Shares of Apple surged more than 10% in the days after the company announced new artificial...

Photos by Getty

Pro Weekly: Expect More AI Companies to Hire High-Profile C-Suites

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 14, 2024 8:00am PDT

It’s been a big few weeks for executive hires across the artificial intelligence sector, as two leading large-language model developers hired their first chief financial officers. OpenAI tapped former Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar—who earlier in her career was CFO of Square (now called Block)—while Anthropic went with Krishna Rao, former CFO of... It’s been a big few weeks for executive hires across the artificial intelligence sector, as two...

Reddit CFO Drew Vallero at the company's New York Stock Exchange debut in March. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Pro Weekly: Where to Find a CFO for an IPO

By Akash Pasricha · Jun 7, 2024 8:05am PDT

Three years before Reddit went public in March, CEO Steve Huffman made a big hire. He tapped Drew Vollero to be Reddit’s first chief financial officer, after Vollero had shepherded Snap as its CFO through an initial public offering in 2017.Vollero is one of the 31 top executives included in the Reddit Org Chart we published earlier today. Like... Three years before Reddit went public in March, CEO Steve Huffman made a big hire. He tapped Drew...

Eric Lefkofsky, founder and CEO of Tempus AI. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Pro Weekly: The IPO Pipeline Grows

By Akash Pasricha · May 31, 2024 8:00am PDT

There’s still no sign of marquee private companies such as Stripe or Databricks listing shares on the stock market anytime soon. But slowly, the pipeline of initial public offering candidates is growing after a quiet few years, according to The Information’s Tech IPO Tracker. Our data suggests that 19 companies are likely to go public... There’s still no sign of marquee private companies such as Stripe or Databricks listing shares on...

Pro Weekly: A Puzzle in Our Survey Results

Pro Weekly: A Puzzle in Our Survey Results

By Akash Pasricha · May 24, 2024 8:00am PDT

Pro Weekly: A Puzzle in Our Survey Results

Pro Weekly: A Puzzle in Our Survey Results

By Akash Pasricha · May 24, 2024 8:00am PDT

The responses to our latest monthly survey posed a puzzle: Readers were far more optimistic than last month about the tech sector overall, but they were more pessimistic about nine of the 14 big tech companies we asked about.Let’s go through the numbers. More than 51% of the 1,756 readers who took our survey earlier this month feel conditions... The responses to our latest monthly survey posed a puzzle: Readers were far more optimistic than...