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

Five times/week

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.

By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy

Recent Editions

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Photo via AP.

Amazon’s Jassy Vows to Fight Bureaucracy

By Martin Peers · Sep 16, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

CEO letters to staff are usually written with so much bombast and blather that they say little of note. But that’s not the case with one that came from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy today. Despite a sleepy headline, “Strengthening Our Culture and Teams,” Jassy’s letter delivers some home truths. Most notably, he made it clear his concern that Amazon is... CEO letters to staff are usually written with so much bombast and blather that they say little of...

Photo via Getty.

What Biden’s Temu and Shein Crackdown Means for Amazon

By Martin Peers · Sep 13, 2024 3:30pm PDT

It’s no surprise that President Joe Biden isn’t a TikTok fan: He’s not really the target demographic. But the president signaled today that he also isn’t a fan of Temu or Shein, two online shopping sites with ties to China that sell lots of cut-price clothing, housewares and other stuff. The Biden administration is taking new steps to close the... It’s no surprise that President Joe Biden isn’t a TikTok fan: He’s not really the target...

Sam Altman. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty.

What OpenAI Investors Are Risking

By Martin Peers · Sep 12, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 6 comments

OpenAI today released its much-anticipated Strawberry artificial intelligence model, designed to “solve harder problems” than its previous models, as the company said in its blog post today. Here’s a problem it should try to tackle: How can investors justify investing money in the ChatGPT maker at a $150 billion valuation, the level at which... OpenAI today released its much-anticipated Strawberry artificial intelligence model, designed to...

A 5G cellular tower in San Mateo, Calif. Photo via Getty.

Cellular Data Use Has Exploded: Why That’s a Problem

By Martin Peers · Sep 11, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

A 5G cellular tower in San Mateo, Calif. Photo via Getty.

Cellular Data Use Has Exploded: Why That’s a Problem

By Martin Peers · Sep 11, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Here’s a quiz: What vital digital resource are we consuming as though it was water, apparently unaware that supply is finite? I’m not talking about electricity (well, not today), but wireless spectrum, the airwaves telephone giants use for cellular services like 5G. You know, the service we only pay attention to when it doesn’t work.Here’s a... Here’s a quiz: What vital digital resource are we consuming as though it was water, apparently...

Huawei's tri-fold smartphone, the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Edition, at a Huawei today in Yantai, China. Photo by Tang Ke/VCG via AP.

Huawei Takes on Apple With Trifold

By Martin Peers · Sep 10, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Take that, Tim Cook! Chinese phone giant Huawei, a big Apple rival in China, tried to upstage the introduction of the iPhone 16 on Monday by unveiling a new foldable phone on Tuesday. This isn’t just any foldable—no, the Mate XT unfolds into three parts, compared to those low-ambition two-part designs from Samsung, Motorola and others. ... Take that, Tim Cook! Chinese phone giant Huawei, a big Apple rival in China, tried to upstage the...

The U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., where the Department of Justice's second antirust trial against Google is underway. Photo by Bonnie Cash/Getty.

Google’s Antitrust Trial No. 2 Starts

By Martin Peers · Sep 9, 2024 5:00pm PDT

There may never be a company with a bigger demand for antitrust lawyers than Google has right now. A little over a month after a court issued its ruling in one Justice Department lawsuit against Google, the trial of the government’s second antitrust lawsuit against Google opened on Monday. This one centers on how Google dominates the market for... There may never be a company with a bigger demand for antitrust lawyers than Google has right...

Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff. Photo via Anadolu/Getty

Benioff Comes Into His Own

By Martin Peers · Sep 6, 2024 3:21pm PDT

Benioff is back! Well, at least as a dealmaker. As we close out the week in tech news, we have to acknowledge Salesforce’s first multibillion-dollar acquisition since its 2021 Slack purchase. On Thursday, the enterprise software firm unveiled a $1.9 billion acquisition of Own Co., a data security software company that Salesforce said would beef... Benioff is back! Well, at least as a dealmaker. As we close out the week in tech news, we have to...

Photo by ViewPress via Getty.

Verizon’s Backflip

By Martin Peers · Sep 5, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Photo by ViewPress via Getty.

Verizon’s Backflip

By Martin Peers · Sep 5, 2024 5:00pm PDT

It’s the investment bankers’ dream—a company so desperate for growth that it engages in years of dealmaking under one CEO, while his successor spends years undoing all that earlier work. We’re talking about Verizon, whose $9.6 billion purchase of Frontier today is the culmination of nearly a decade of back-and-forth M&A negotiation. This is... It’s the investment bankers’ dream—a company so desperate for growth that it engages in years of...

Ilya Sutskever. Photo by Jack Guez/AFP via Getty.

What SSI’s $5 Billion Valuation Really Means

By Martin Peers · Sep 4, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

It’s the billion-dollar baby of artificial intelligence. Safe Superintelligence Inc., the AI startup launched by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, announced Wednesday it had raised a whopping $1 billion from big-name venture capital firms, including Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz. That’s a huge amount of money for a... It’s the billion-dollar baby of artificial intelligence. Safe Superintelligence Inc., the AI...

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Tech’s Sea of Red

By Martin Peers · Sep 3, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Just what we needed: a stock market chill to remind us that summer is over. Investors on Wall Street were dumping stocks left, right and center on Tuesday, after anemic manufacturing data reminded people of economic uncertainties they had put out of their minds. Tech stocks were a sea of red, from the smallest to the biggest companies. But... Just what we needed: a stock market chill to remind us that summer is over. Investors on Wall...

California State Senator Scott Wiener. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.California State Senator Scott Wiener. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

What California AI Bill Could Mean

By Martin Peers · Aug 30, 2024 4:35pm PDT

The constantly humming AI-news machine revved up a notch this week, what with Nvidia’s earnings report, news about OpenAI’s fundraising and the first ever data about how many people are using Meta AI. But potentially the biggest development was the passage in the California legislature of SB 1047, aimed at addressing the risks of AI. It has... The constantly humming AI-news machine revved up a notch this week, what with Nvidia’s earnings...

Sam Altman at WWDC this year. Photo via Getty.

Why OpenAI Needs an IPO

By Cory Weinberg · Aug 29, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Sam Altman at WWDC this year. Photo via Getty.

Why OpenAI Needs an IPO

By Cory Weinberg · Aug 29, 2024 5:00pm PDT

The elite circle of the world’s most valuable private companies face a steady chorus of will-they-or-won’t-they IPO chatter from investors and bankers (and me). It helps to cut through the rumors by thinking through the reasons why a company might want or need to go through the expensive ritual (lawyer fees, new scrutiny, dealing with the... The elite circle of the world’s most valuable private companies face a steady chorus of...

Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang. Photo by I-Hwa Cheng/AFP via Getty.

Nvidia CEO Ducks Key Questions

By Martin Peers · Aug 28, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

For all the Nvidia watchers out there, including superfans of the stock who have kept track at bars, we’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that Nvidia delivered another set of monster earnings. It reported top-line growth of 122%—a little above its own projections—lifting net income 168% to $16.6 billion. The bad news is that... For all the Nvidia watchers out there, including superfans of the stock who have kept track at...

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce after the Super Bowl in February. Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images.

Amazon’s Swiftie Moment

By Martin Peers · Aug 27, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Here’s a question that’s sure to divide your household: Is Amazon’s $100 million podcast deal with the Kelce brothers a bet on Travis Kelce marrying Taylor Swift? The consensus here at The Information is yes, for sure. While the Kelce brothers’ podcast, “New Heights,” was popular before Travis and Taylor became a thing, it really took off... Here’s a question that’s sure to divide your household: Is Amazon’s $100 million podcast deal...

Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, in 2015. Photo by TechCrunch via Flickr.

Tech’s Premature Telegram Freakout

By Martin Peers · Aug 26, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

There’s nothing like a billionaire’s arrest as they get off their private jet to alarm other rich people. The apprehension of Telegram founder Pavel Durov by French police as he deplaned over the weekend has more than a few techies worked up, particularly Elon Musk and other like-minded folks. Their message: This is a threat to free speech.Well,... There’s nothing like a billionaire’s arrest as they get off their private jet to alarm other rich...

Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang. Photo via Shutterstock.

All Eyes on Nvidia’s Numbers

By Martin Peers · Aug 23, 2024 3:30pm PDT

Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang. Photo via Shutterstock.

All Eyes on Nvidia’s Numbers

By Martin Peers · Aug 23, 2024 3:30pm PDT

Summer is winding down—Labor Day is just a week away! But we’ve still got plenty of business news. Next week is particularly important: Nvidia will report earnings for its July fiscal quarter on Wednesday. In a note to clients yesterday, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives described the Nvidia report as “the most important tech earnings in years,” one... Summer is winding down—Labor Day is just a week away! But we’ve still got plenty of business...

Snowflake CEO, Sridhar Ramaswamy. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Snowflake’s AI Winter

By Anita Ramaswamy · Aug 22, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Investors are certainly giving Snowflake the cold shoulder. On Wednesday, the data analytics firm delivered an earnings update that showed July-quarter revenue above the company’s own projections and increased its estimate of full-year revenue growth for fiscal 2025 by two percentage points, to 26%. As Deutsche Bank analyst Brad Zelnick pointed... Investors are certainly giving Snowflake the cold shoulder. On Wednesday, the data analytics firm...

Jim Gorman. Photo via Getty.

Ex-Morgan Stanley Chief Gorman Gets Hardest Job in Business: Finding Iger Successor

By Martin Peers · Aug 21, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Uh-oh. This doesn’t seem good. Disney on Wednesday announced that board member Jim Gorman, a former CEO of Morgan Stanley, would take the reins of the board’s succession planning committee from Disney chair Mark Parker. This is the committee charged with what is apparently the hardest job in the Western world: finding a lasting successor for CEO... Uh-oh. This doesn’t seem good. Disney on Wednesday announced that board member Jim Gorman, a...

Bolt CEO, Ryan Breslow. Photo via YouTube/Axios.

Bolt’s Breslow Plots His Return

By Martin Peers · Aug 20, 2024 5:00pm PDT

You really can’t beat tech industry founders (and a few venture capitalists) when it comes to setting new standards of chutzpah. The latest example? As my colleague Erin Woo scooped today, Bolt founder Ryan Breslow is proposing to return as CEO of the once-hot e-commerce startup. He claims to have the backing of an overseas investor who would... You really can’t beat tech industry founders (and a few venture capitalists) when it comes to...

Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via Getty.

Why Sports TV Joint Venture Is Dead

By Martin Peers · Aug 19, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via Getty.

Why Sports TV Joint Venture Is Dead

By Martin Peers · Aug 19, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Sports fans, listen up. If you were planning to sign up for the new Venu sports-streaming service due to launch this fall—to include sports cable channels such as ESPN, TNT and Fox Sports 1, all for the cut-rate price of just $43 a month—think again. Chances are Venu will never see the light of day, thanks to a judge’s ruling on Friday night... Sports fans, listen up. If you were planning to sign up for the new Venu sports-streaming service...