The Information

Chart by Shane Burke.

Sunday Insights

In AI Shopping Wars, Rivals Team Up to Take On Amazon

By Ann Gehan · Feb 1, 2026 8:00am PST · 1 comment

AI firms are promoting shopping as a new area of growth for chatbots, and retail giants and payments companies don’t want to be left out. That’s spawned a web of partnerships among companies that could make money off AI-fueled purchases. We’ve mapped out the alliances between 10 companies at the center of the high-profile AI shopping efforts in... AI firms are promoting shopping as a new area of growth for chatbots, and retail giants and...

Charts by Shane Burke

Sunday Insights

Behind the Sky-High Valuation of China’s AI IPOs

By Jing Yang and Qianer Liu · Jan 25, 2026 8:00am PST

China is letting AI and semiconductor startups go public at a furious pace. Since December, two developers of large language models and four designers of graphics processing units have listed on stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai, raising a total of over $4 billion. At least two more are in the pipeline. Kunlunxin, the chip arm of Baidu,... China is letting AI and semiconductor startups go public at a furious pace. Since December, two...

Sunday Insights

Layoffs Don’t Shrink Tech Employee Numbers for Long

By Martin Peers · Jan 18, 2026 8:00am PST

Meta Platforms’ job cuts at its Reality Labs division this past week, where it let go about 10% of the unit, were the first of what could be another wave of layoffs at big tech companies this year. But that doesn’t mean big tech workforces are going to shrink much, if at all. If history is any guide, future layoffs will only result in temporary... Meta Platforms’ job cuts at its Reality Labs division this past week, where it let go about 10%...

Robinhood Wins a Round in Battle With Coinbase

By Yueqi Yang · Jan 11, 2026 8:00am PST

Sunday Insights

Robinhood Wins a Round in Battle With Coinbase

By Yueqi Yang · Jan 11, 2026 8:00am PST

Robinhood and Coinbase are two of the most popular trading apps, historically concentrating on equities and crypto, respectively. But more and more, they’re competing head to head. Coinbase is launching stock trading, while Robinhood is expanding in crypto. Both are also betting big on prediction markets. Yet as far as stock performance goes,... Robinhood and Coinbase are two of the most popular trading apps, historically concentrating on...

Sunday Insights

OpenAI’s International Conundrum

By Sri Muppidi · Jan 4, 2026 8:00am PST · 2 comments

If OpenAI has its way, nearly one-third of the planet will be using ChatGPT by the start of the next decade. That’s roughly triple its nearly 900 million weekly users, and sounds like an impressive base to build a big advertising and commerce business. But where ChatGPT attracts new users will arguably be as important as how many it attracts.... If OpenAI has its way, nearly one-third of the planet will be using ChatGPT by the start of the...

Sunday Insights

OpenAI, Meta and Their AI Rivals Ramp Up Turf Wars and Partnerships, in Three Charts

By Amir Efrati · Dec 28, 2025 8:00am PST · 4 comments

You can call 2025 the year of the robot, at least for the major AI companies. While companies such as Anthropic, Meta and xAI filled out their AI hardware and software lineups, nearly everyone started to work on technology for humanoid robots. The shift to robots says as much about the current competitive landscape in AI as it does about the... You can call 2025 the year of the robot, at least for the major AI companies. While companies...

Sunday Insights

OpenAI Is Getting More Efficient at Running Its AI, Internal Financials Show

By Sri Muppidi · Dec 21, 2025 8:00am PST · 17 comments

As OpenAI discusses raising an unprecedented investment round of up to $100 billion, it can crow about some key improvements to how it runs its business. While its total computing costs are still high as a percentage of revenue, it is wringing more revenue out of every dollar it spends to run the servers that power ChatGPT’s subscription... As OpenAI discusses raising an unprecedented investment round of up to $100 billion, it can crow...

Why Elon Musk Is Suddenly Talking So Much About Space Data Centers

By Nick Wingfield and Cory Weinberg · Dec 14, 2025 8:00am PST · 16 comments

Sunday Insights

Why Elon Musk Is Suddenly Talking So Much About Space Data Centers

By Nick Wingfield and Cory Weinberg · Dec 14, 2025 8:00am PST · 16 comments

Every so often, prominent figures in tech begin amplifying the same topic so energetically that it makes you wonder if they’re all on the same group chat (or if the hive mind from “Pluribus,” the Apple TV+ sci-fi show, is a real thing). One such moment occurred this past week, when it became hard to escape the deafening online chatter about data... Every so often, prominent figures in tech begin amplifying the same topic so energetically that...

Sunday Insights

Dealmakers Are Toasting a Solid Year for Tech M&A

By Valida Pau · Dec 7, 2025 8:00am PST · 1 comment

U.S. tech mergers rebounded to their highest levels since 2021 this year, driven by big bets on AI and more tie-ups under a deal-friendly presidential administration. Total tech merger value reached $543 billion, more than the combined value of the past two years, according to data provider LSEG. Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst topped the charts for... U.S. tech mergers rebounded to their highest levels since 2021 this year, driven by big bets on...

Sunday Insights

Why China Doesn’t Want to Buy More Nvidia Chips

By Qianer Liu · Nov 30, 2025 7:59am PST · 3 comments

Three years after the U.S.’s sweeping export restrictions that cut off Chinese access to AI chips, China has managed to turn the situation around. For the next five years, it will have more AI chips than its companies need. The excessive supply is a combination of local chipmakers catching up and tech companies stockpiling Nvidia chips via both... Three years after the U.S.’s sweeping export restrictions that cut off Chinese access to AI...

Sunday Insights

Nvidia’s Mushrooming Cash Pile Spotlights Spending Choices

By Martin Peers · Nov 23, 2025 8:00am PST · 4 comments

All of the big tech companies have long been cash geysers. But the rate at which Nvidia’s cash production has exploded in the past couple of years is on a whole different level than other companies have experienced. And that’s raising questions about how Nvidia will spend its fast-expanding cash pile. Nvidia’s free cash flow has mushroomed from... All of the big tech companies have long been cash geysers. But the rate at which Nvidia’s cash...

Bitcoin Is Falling and Crypto Stocks Are Crashing

By Yueqi Yang · Nov 16, 2025 8:00am PST · 3 comments

Sunday Insights

Bitcoin Is Falling and Crypto Stocks Are Crashing

By Yueqi Yang · Nov 16, 2025 8:00am PST · 3 comments

Bitcoin has tumbled into a bear market, but the real damage is in the companies that have hoarded crypto, hoping to mimic the gains of Michael Saylor’s bitcoin stock, Strategy. Strategy is down 44% since bitcoin peaked in early October. More importantly, it is now trading slightly below the value of its bitcoin holdings. Bitcoin is down 24% from... Bitcoin has tumbled into a bear market, but the real damage is in the companies that have hoarded...

Sunday Insights

AI and Crypto Companies Dominated IPO Winners in 2025

By Valida Pau · Nov 9, 2025 8:00am PST

The drought in initial public offerings ended this year, led by big winners in AI and crypto, but gains were rare for companies outside those industries. Bankers expect those trends to hold in 2026. Booms in AI and crypto delivered two of the biggest winners of the year: data center developer CoreWeave and stablecoin issuer Circle. The losers... The drought in initial public offerings ended this year, led by big winners in AI and crypto, but...

Chart by Shane Burke.

Sunday Insights

Google and Microsoft Face Less AI Spending Risk Than Meta, Amazon

By Martin Peers · Nov 2, 2025 8:00am PST · 1 comment

Of all the big tech companies investing in AI, Google and Microsoft are the best positioned to handle the growing costs of the technology, judging from data disclosed this past week in September-quarter earnings. Google and Microsoft generate more cash from their businesses than other big tech companies, including Apple. And they’re devoting a... Of all the big tech companies investing in AI, Google and Microsoft are the best positioned to...

Chart by Mike Sullivan.

Sunday Insights

Why Netflix Is Still Outrunning Rivals

By Martin Peers and Catherine Perloff · Oct 26, 2025 8:00am PDT

Netflix’s quarterly earnings reports have lately lacked the drama that once made the updates a must-watch for investors and reporters. For the past eight quarters, the video streamer has routinely posted quarterly revenue growth averaging around 15%—hardly hypergrowth but a big improvement on the 2% to 4% growth rate it recorded between... Netflix’s quarterly earnings reports have lately lacked the drama that once made the updates a...