The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

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The Briefing

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

Get smarter about the day’s news in tech, media and finance by following Silicon Valley’s most-read executive newsletter.

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Recent Editions

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Photo via Getty.

Coinbase’s Meme Moment

By Martin Peers · Feb 13, 2025 5:00pm PST

Coinbase ran a victory lap tonight, delivering boffo fourth-quarter numbers that capped a good year both business-wise and politically for the crypto giant. In a shareholder letter, Coinbase signaled its optimism for the future with the most predictable of cliches. Thanks to Donald Trump’s election as president, “It’s the dawn of a new era for... Coinbase ran a victory lap tonight, delivering boffo fourth-quarter numbers that capped a good...

Photo via Getty

Reddit and AppLovin, the Young Turks of Digital Advertising

By Martin Peers · Feb 12, 2025 5:00pm PST

Oh, to be young again. That must be what folks at Google and Meta Platforms think when they look at the two digital-ad rocket ships of the past 12 months, AppLovin and Reddit. (Sure, Reddit is 20 years old, but it’s relatively new to the ad market.) That youth is demonstrated by how much their businesses, and their stocks, exploded last year.We... Oh, to be young again. That must be what folks at Google and Meta Platforms think when they look...

Photos via Getty

Would Musk Be Better Than Altman at Running OpenAI?

By Martin Peers · Feb 11, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Here’s a question: If you had to choose between Sam Altman and Elon Musk as the best person to safeguard the future of humanity, who would you pick? It’s a tough choice—you can be forgiven if you say neither. A (slightly) easier question is: If you had to pick one of them to run OpenAI, who would it be? Conventional wisdom is that a... Here’s a question: If you had to choose between Sam Altman and Elon Musk as the best person to...

Photo via AP

Musk’s Shrewd OpenAI Bid

By Martin Peers · Feb 10, 2025 5:00pm PST

Photo via AP

Musk’s Shrewd OpenAI Bid

By Martin Peers · Feb 10, 2025 5:00pm PST

Elon Musk’s ability to multitask has got to be one of his superpowers. In the past couple of weeks, he’s been all in on his contentious DOGE cost-cutting campaign for the Trump administration, a task he’s handling in addition to his CEO roles at Tesla and SpaceX. Today comes the news, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, that he’s also... Elon Musk’s ability to multitask has got to be one of his superpowers. In the past couple of...

Photo via Getty

Amazon’s Server Signal

By Martin Peers · Feb 7, 2025 3:00pm PST

How long can computer servers be expected to last? Don’t groan—that’s a real issue. After all, if a company is spending tens of billions on servers annually, they presumably don’t want to replace them every other year. But as we learned in the past week or two from December quarterly earnings reports, the big tech companies have differing... How long can computer servers be expected to last? Don’t groan—that’s a real issue. After all, if...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Photo via Getty

Amazon Ups AI Capex Ante

By Martin Peers · Feb 6, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Amazon is upping the ante in tech’s great capex stakes. The commerce cloud giant’s CEO, Andy Jassy, intimated Thursday, as the company reported fourth-quarter earnings, that it would spend around $100 billion on capital expenditures this year. That’s up around 29% from what Amazon spent in 2024, and roughly $20 billion to $25 billion ahead of... Amazon is upping the ante in tech’s great capex stakes. The commerce cloud giant’s CEO, Andy...

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo via Getty.

Khan’s Parallel Universe; Uber Is Minting Money

By Martin Peers · Feb 5, 2025 5:00pm PST · 9 comments

Lina Khan is out of the government, but she hasn’t given up her crusade against big tech. The former Federal Trade Commission chair has written an opinion piece for The New York Times suggesting the success of China’s artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek is a sign that “there isn’t enough competition” in the tech industry. Perhaps Lina... Lina Khan is out of the government, but she hasn’t given up her crusade against big tech. The...

A Google Cloud data center. Photo via Google.

DeepSeek Doesn't Slow Tech’s AI Capex Splurge

By Martin Peers · Feb 4, 2025 5:00pm PST

A Google Cloud data center. Photo via Google.

DeepSeek Doesn't Slow Tech’s AI Capex Splurge

By Martin Peers · Feb 4, 2025 5:00pm PST

Tech’s AI-driven capex splurge lives! Google parent Alphabet today said it expected to lay out $75 billion on capital expenditures this year, a 43% lift over 2024. That puts Google very close to Microsoft, which has said it will spend $80 billion building artificial intelligence data centers in its fiscal year ending June. Meta Platforms, with... Tech’s AI-driven capex splurge lives! Google parent Alphabet today said it expected to lay out...

Photo via Getty.

What Trump’s Order Means for Temu and Shein

By Theo Wayt · Feb 3, 2025 5:00pm PST

If you’re planning on buying your significant other a Valentine’s Day gift on Temu, Shein or Amazon’s low-cost rival to those services, Haul, make sure you have a backup plan so you don’t wind up in the doghouse. A (perhaps unintended) consequence of a Trump administration executive order issued over the weekend means packages from the... If you’re planning on buying your significant other a Valentine’s Day gift on Temu, Shein or...

Art by Clark Miller; Images via Getty.

The Zuckerberg-Musk Double Act

By Martin Peers · Jan 31, 2025 3:23pm PST

Is Mark Zuckerberg auditioning for the role of Elon Musk’s Mini-Me? We’re kidding, but it is uncanny how much Zuckerberg seems to be following Musk’s lead lately. In the latest example, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Meta Platforms is considering moving its legal incorporation to Texas, out of Delaware, just as Tesla did last... Is Mark Zuckerberg auditioning for the role of Elon Musk’s Mini-Me? We’re kidding, but it is...

An Apple Store in Shanghai decorated for Lunar New Year. Photo via Getty.

Apple’s China Syndrome

By Martin Peers · Jan 30, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Apple had good news and bad news when it reported December-quarter results on Thursday. The bad news was that revenues from China—Apple’s second-biggest market—shrank 11%, almost certainly a result of Apple losing share in smartphones to local rivals such as Huawei. Indeed, iPhone revenues globally shrank 0.8% in the quarter. The good news... Apple had good news and bad news when it reported December-quarter results on Thursday. The bad...

Photo by Getty

Meta and Microsoft Show AI Bets Still in Play

By Martin Peers · Jan 29, 2025 5:00pm PST

Photo by Getty

Meta and Microsoft Show AI Bets Still in Play

By Martin Peers · Jan 29, 2025 5:00pm PST

If we learned anything from tonight’s December-quarter earnings announcements from Microsoft and Meta Platforms, it’s that we’re still in a wait-and-see mode on artificial intelligence. In fact, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared that 2025 would be a “big year” because the trajectory of most of the company’s big bets—such as on its AI assistant—... If we learned anything from tonight’s December-quarter earnings announcements from Microsoft and...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Trump. Photos via Getty.

Trump Plays Banker Role for TikTok—Will Microsoft Bite?

By Martin Peers · Jan 28, 2025 5:08pm PST

Did we miss the memo that ByteDance has retained Donald Trump to sell TikTok? It’s easy to get that impression, given how enthusiastic he is in talking up TikTok’s salability. He claimed on Monday that “a lot of people” are going to bid on the app, and that Microsoft was already in talks to buy it. Does Microsoft know that?Maybe Trump is telling... Did we miss the memo that ByteDance has retained Donald Trump to sell TikTok? It’s easy to get...

Outside the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square today. Photo via Getty.

Investors’ Deep Search For AI Meaning

By Martin Peers · Jan 27, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Talk about a jittery market! Shares of some tech firms exposed to artificial intelligence tumbled today, prompted by new evidence that China’s DeepSeek is giving AI folks in the U.S. a run for their money. Nvidia and Broadcom each fell 17%, while Alphabet dropped 4% and Microsoft 2%. Oh, and let’s not forget Oracle, a small player in the... Talk about a jittery market! Shares of some tech firms exposed to artificial intelligence tumbled...

Photo via Getty

How Trump’s Order Blitz Played Out for Tech

By Rocket Drew · Jan 24, 2025 3:47pm PST · 1 comment

What a week! President Donald Trump had promised a slew of executive orders once he took office, and the tech and finance industry executives who threw their support behind him expected several would address their long-held beefs with Biden administration policies.Trump delivered on the deluge. The crypto industry got almost everything it... What a week! President Donald Trump had promised a slew of executive orders once he took office,...

Donald Trump, left, and Xi Jinping. Photo by Getty.

Trump Loves TikTok—Does Xi?

By Martin Peers · Jan 23, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Donald Trump, left, and Xi Jinping. Photo by Getty.

Trump Loves TikTok—Does Xi?

By Martin Peers · Jan 23, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

It’s a good bet that President Donald Trump cares a lot more about TikTok than Chinese President Xi Jinping does. That suggests the Chinese leader will have some bargaining leverage over Trump in whatever discussions the two have about the fate of the ByteDance-owned app. You can just imagine Xi pressing for big concessions on tariffs or Chinese... It’s a good bet that President Donald Trump cares a lot more about TikTok than Chinese President...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo via Getty

What Anthropic and Stargate Have in Common

By Martin Peers · Jan 22, 2025 5:30pm PST

The term “bottomless pit of need” usually refers to an insecure person, but it could also apply to artificial intelligence startups, with their insatiable appetite for cash. Take Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s biggest rivals, which the Financial Times reported on Wednesday was raising $1 billion from Google. Just two weeks ago, we reported Anthropic... The term “bottomless pit of need” usually refers to an insecure person, but it could also apply...

President Donald Trump alongside SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty.

Larry Ellison in the Spotlight

By Martin Peers · Jan 21, 2025 5:00pm PST

Oracle founder and chairman Larry Ellison is suddenly the tech executive in the center of the action. Not only did Oracle bring back TikTok on Sunday, the aging tech firm also got a headline role, along with SoftBank and OpenAI, in President Donald Trump’s Tuesday announcement of an artificial intelligence data center project that will cost up... Oracle founder and chairman Larry Ellison is suddenly the tech executive in the center of the...

Photo via AP.

Could Trump Be Considering a Revised TikTok Global Deal From 2020?

By Martin Peers · Jan 20, 2025 4:45pm PST

Donald Trump is president again, as of today! And in tech, among the most immediately affected will be viewers of the long-running drama “TikTok—Ban or Not?”. Trump on Sunday promised to renew the series for an expected three months. So far, Apple and Google don’t appear to be sticking around for the new season. While cloud service... Donald Trump is president again, as of today! And in tech, among the most immediately affected...

The Supreme Court this morning. Photo via Getty.

TikTok in Trump’s Court Now

By Martin Peers · Jan 17, 2025 3:00pm PST

The Supreme Court this morning. Photo via Getty.

TikTok in Trump’s Court Now

By Martin Peers · Jan 17, 2025 3:00pm PST

When future historians chronicle recent events in the tech industry, they’re likely to marvel at the endurance of TikTok, which has become like a cockroach in a nuclear war: the ultimate survivor. Today’s Supreme Court decision upholding the ban-or-sell law should have been the nail in the coffin for the company. After all, as we recounted... When future historians chronicle recent events in the tech industry, they’re likely to marvel at...