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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

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Recent Editions

Judge James Boasberg. Getty Images
The Briefing

How Trump’s TikTok Tactics Helped Meta Win Antitrust Case

By Martin Peers · Nov 18, 2025 5:00pm PST
For once, the latest multibillion-dollar AI deal—this time Microsoft and Nvidia investing in Anthropic—isn’t the day’s biggest tech news development. (Skip down for details on that story.) More important was a Washington judge’s ruling on Tuesday that Meta Platforms isn’t a monopoly. So much for all those breathless headlines suggesting Meta... For once, the latest multibillion-dollar AI deal—this time Microsoft and Nvidia investing in...
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Getty Images.
The Briefing

What Google Has That OpenAI Doesn't

By Martin Peers · Nov 17, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment
Who let the dogs out? Shares of Google parent Alphabet, which was in Wall Street’s doghouse for the past couple of years, are now running freely. Friday night’s news that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway had bought a $4.3 billion stake in Alphabet sent the shares rising 3% on Monday, even as other tech stocks sagged amid a broader market... Who let the dogs out? Shares of Google parent Alphabet, which was in Wall Street’s doghouse for...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Getty Images.
The Briefing

What to Expect From Nvidia Earnings

By Martin Peers · Nov 16, 2025 3:00pm PST
We’re heading into the last full workweek before Thanksgiving and plenty is going on. A short time ago, bets on prediction market Polymarket were giving an 88% chance that Google would release its much-anticipated Gemini 3 AI model this week. Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Friday fueled the speculation with this cryptic X post. Meanwhile, Microsoft... We’re heading into the last full workweek before Thanksgiving and plenty is going on. A short...
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Getty Images
Anthropic’s Cybersecurity Cause and Cure
By Martin Peers · Nov 13, 2025 5:00pm PST
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Getty Images
The Briefing

Anthropic’s Cybersecurity Cause and Cure

By Martin Peers · Nov 13, 2025 5:00pm PST
If you listen to tech executives nowadays, AI can solve all of the world’s problems. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman likes to talk about AI’s potential to cure cancer. Elon Musk the other day promised that Optimus robots—AI in a hardware form—would “eliminate poverty” and prevent crime. But will AI cause almost as many problems as it solves? When it comes... If you listen to tech executives nowadays, AI can solve all of the world’s problems. OpenAI CEO...
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The Briefing

Waymo Speeds Up

By Martin Peers · Nov 12, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment
Next time you’re barreling down a highway and you get stuck behind someone driving at the speed limit, don’t honk or flash your lights. It might be a Waymo self-driving car! The Alphabet-owned robotaxi business announced Wednesday that its cars will now drive on freeways in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and Phoenix, a major advance for... Next time you’re barreling down a highway and you get stuck behind someone driving at the speed...
The Briefing Newsletter
Get smarter about the most important stories in tech, media and finance by following Silicon Valley’s most-read executive newsletter.
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SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. Getty Images.
The Briefing

SoftBank Hunts for Pennies to Meet Its OpenAI Commitment

By Martin Peers · Nov 11, 2025 5:02pm PST
Would you trade shares in Nvidia for stock in OpenAI? That’s what SoftBank just did, selling $5.8 billion worth of shares in the AI chip giant to finance a commitment to invest $22.5 billion in the ChatGPT maker. On the surface, it might seem a logical trade, given that chip companies purporting to compete with Nvidia have proliferated like... Would you trade shares in Nvidia for stock in OpenAI? That’s what SoftBank just did, selling $5.8...
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The Briefing

Instacart’s Slow Growth Lesson

By Martin Peers · Nov 10, 2025 5:00pm PST
Next time you contemplate the much-hyped IPO of a brand-name company, ask yourself this question: Are its glory days behind it? One of the disadvantages for public investors of snapping up newly public tech firms—particularly those that have taken their time going public—is that very often they have already peaked. Take Instacart, which reported... Next time you contemplate the much-hyped IPO of a brand-name company, ask yourself this question:...
BlackRock's Tony Kim. Getty Images.
Debt Can Plug the AI Hole in Big Tech’s Deep Pockets
By Martin Peers · Nov 9, 2025 3:00pm PST
BlackRock's Tony Kim. Getty Images.
The Briefing

Debt Can Plug the AI Hole in Big Tech’s Deep Pockets

By Martin Peers · Nov 9, 2025 3:00pm PST
We’ve moved from marveling about AI’s potential to puzzling over how to pay for it. The price tag seems to grow every day. On Thursday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggested Tesla will need so many chips for its robots and self-driving cars that it might build its own chip factory. He also said Tesla would have to spend “tens of billions” to train the... We’ve moved from marveling about AI’s potential to puzzling over how to pay for it. The price tag...
Elon Musk at today's annual Tesla shareholder meeting. YouTube/Tesla.
The Briefing

Elon Musk's Victory

By Theo Wayt · Nov 6, 2025 5:00pm PST
We’ve finally learned the result of a controversial, long-awaited vote that’s generated reams of punditry and put Wall Street on edge. No, I’m not talking about the mayoral election in New York City—I’m talking about the Tesla shareholder vote on Elon Musk’s gigantic compensation package. Musk won with over 75% of the vote, Tesla said at... We’ve finally learned the result of a controversial, long-awaited vote that’s generated reams of...
Tony Xu, CEO of DoorDash. Getty Images
The Briefing

DoorDash’s Investment Plans Unnerve Wall Street

By Martin Peers · Nov 5, 2025 5:00pm PST · 2 comments
Wall Street is getting jittery about corporate investment. DoorDash stock slumped as much as 20% in after-hours trading after the food-delivery service revealed it expects to “invest several hundred million dollars more” in upgrading its technology and expansion next year than it did this year. Given that DoorDash generates a couple of billion... Wall Street is getting jittery about corporate investment. DoorDash stock slumped as much as 20%...
The Briefing Newsletter
Get smarter about the most important stories in tech, media and finance by following Silicon Valley’s most-read executive newsletter.
By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Getty Images
The Briefing

Perplexity Takes On Amazon

By Martin Peers · Nov 4, 2025 5:00pm PST
Cue the violins. Perplexity on Tuesday accused Amazon of bullying it by demanding that the AI startup no longer allow its users to send their AI assistants to Amazon to buy stuff. The startup, which is an expert at public relations theatrics, published a long blog post entitled “Bullying Is Not Innovation,” in which it claimed to be “fighting... Cue the violins. Perplexity on Tuesday accused Amazon of bullying it by demanding that the AI...
An AWS data center in Ashburn, Va. Getty Images.
AWS Joins OpenAI Club
By Martin Peers · Nov 3, 2025 5:00pm PST
An AWS data center in Ashburn, Va. Getty Images.
The Briefing

AWS Joins OpenAI Club

By Martin Peers · Nov 3, 2025 5:00pm PST
If you’re tired of the seemingly endless parade of AI cloud deals, better get comfortable with them: They’re not going away anytime soon. On Monday, for instance, Microsoft struck deals with two little-known cloud firms, Lambda and Australia’s Iren, for additional computing capacity. Another firm, Cipher Mining Inc. announced a similar deal to... If you’re tired of the seemingly endless parade of AI cloud deals, better get comfortable with...
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The Briefing

Preparing for Elon Musk’s $1 Trillion Tesla Vote

By Theo Wayt · Nov 2, 2025 3:00pm PST
Over the past couple of months, my X feed and television have been bombarded with Tesla advertisements. For the most part, these ads don’t feature products anyone can actually buy—instead, they include futuristic Tesla projects like the Optimus humanoid robot and are aimed at convincing Tesla shareholders to approve a proposed compensation... Over the past couple of months, my X feed and television have been bombarded with Tesla...
Andy Jassy. Getty Images
The Briefing

Amazon’s Cloud Lifts

By Martin Peers · Oct 30, 2025 5:10pm PDT
The cloud over Amazon is lifting. The e-commerce and cloud giant reported Thursday that its cloud unit, Amazon Web Services, accelerated revenue growth by nearly 3 percentage points to 20% in the third quarter, its fastest rate of expansion since the end of 2022. That means AWS, by far the biggest of the major cloud firms, has joined its nearest... The cloud over Amazon is lifting. The e-commerce and cloud giant reported Thursday that its cloud...
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The Briefing

What Google, Meta and Microsoft Numbers Revealed

By Martin Peers · Oct 29, 2025 5:00pm PDT
Mark Zuckerberg is doubling down on AI—again. And the cost is mounting. Meta Platforms reported Wednesday that its increased investment in AI, both for hiring star AI researchers and for investing billions in data centers, hurt its operating profit margins and squeezed its free cash flow by one-third in the third quarter. Since the end of last... Mark Zuckerberg is doubling down on AI—again. And the cost is mounting. Meta Platforms reported...
The Briefing Newsletter
Get smarter about the most important stories in tech, media and finance by following Silicon Valley’s most-read executive newsletter.
By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Getty Images
Nvidia and OpenAI Flood the Zone With AI News
By Martin Peers · Oct 28, 2025 5:00pm PDT
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Getty Images
The Briefing

Nvidia and OpenAI Flood the Zone With AI News

By Martin Peers · Oct 28, 2025 5:00pm PDT
Where’s an AI agent when you need one? We got a flood of AI-related news today, including OpenAI’s revelation that it had completed its long-gestating restructuring into a near-normal company, one that can go public one day. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also was busy making news at the company’s GTC event in Washington, revealing the volume of orders... Where’s an AI agent when you need one? We got a flood of AI-related news today, including OpenAI’...
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The Briefing

Qualcomm’s AI Hope

By Martin Peers · Oct 27, 2025 5:00pm PDT
Another day, another chip company-A deal. This time, it’s Qualcomm, best known for its mobile phone chips (such as the modem in most iPhones). What Qualcomm is not known for is selling chips for data center servers, despite its valiant attempts to do so in the past. Will this time be different? We’ll see. At least Qualcomm has a customer for its... Another day, another chip company-A deal. This time, it’s Qualcomm, best known for its mobile...
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The Briefing

Big Tech Earnings, Nvidia’s GTC Dominate Crowded Week

By Martin Peers · Oct 26, 2025 3:00pm PDT
This is our first of what we plan to be a regular Sunday evening Briefing, looking out at the coming week. And what a week this promises to be. Nvidia is holding one of its GTC events for developers and customers in Washington Monday through Wednesday—which leather jacket will Jensen Huang wear onstage this time? (For more on GTC, see below.) We... This is our first of what we plan to be a regular Sunday evening Briefing, looking out at the...
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao. Getty Images.
The Briefing

Trump Opens Door for Crypto’s Offshore Giants

By Yueqi Yang · Oct 23, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment
For crypto’s offshore giants these days, there’s nothing more important than figuring out their Trump playbook. Most are succeeding, as President Donald Trump’s pardon of Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao today demonstrated. The pardon of Zhao, who was convicted of violating anti–money-laundering laws and served a four-month sentence last year,... For crypto’s offshore giants these days, there’s nothing more important than figuring out their...
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Musk Dials Back Near Term Robotaxi and Optimus Targets
By Theo Wayt · Oct 22, 2025 5:00pm PDT
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The Briefing

Musk Dials Back Near Term Robotaxi and Optimus Targets

By Theo Wayt · Oct 22, 2025 5:00pm PDT
As a car manufacturer, Tesla’s latest financial results released Wednesday were a definite (if expected) improvement on the first half of the year. Instead of auto sales falling 16%, as they did in the second quarter, they rose 6%. And thanks to even stronger growth in battery sales and services, Tesla’s total revenue grew 12% year over year to... As a car manufacturer, Tesla’s latest financial results released Wednesday were a definite (if...