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

Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap, in September. Photo via Getty.

Snapchat’s Safety Struggle

By Erin Woo · Oct 1, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Snap likes to cast its Snapchat app as “an antidote to social media.” Unlike its rival social media apps, Snapchat was “designed to be safe” for kids, the company claims. But designing something to be safe and actually making it safe aren’t the same things.How Snap has fallen short on this front became clear from an unredacted version of a... Snap likes to cast its Snapchat app as “an antidote to social media.” Unlike its rival social...

Sam Altman speaking in Turin, Italy last Wednesday. Photo by Getty.

OpenAI’s Endless Fundraising

By Martin Peers · Sep 30, 2024 5:00pm PDT

If you’re like me, you’re getting political fundraising text messages roughly every 15 minutes these days. But political candidates aren’t the only people raising money aggressively right now. There are also AI startup executives, most obviously the folks at OpenAI. Today we scooped the news that SoftBank is putting $500 million into OpenAI as... If you’re like me, you’re getting political fundraising text messages roughly every 15 minutes...

Mark Zuckerberg wearing prototype AR glasses at Meta Connect on Wednesday. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Meta’s Costly Reality

By Martin Peers · Sep 27, 2024 3:00pm PDT

Mark Zuckerberg has become a watch nerd. In his appearance at Connect on Wednesday, he was flashing a timepiece identified by Redditors as this one costing tens of thousands of dollars, at least the third such ultrapricey watch he has sported lately. It’s all part of a recent style makeover that also includes gold chains and loud shirts. It’s... Mark Zuckerberg has become a watch nerd. In his appearance at Connect on Wednesday, he was...

Mira Murati with Sam Altman last year. Photo by AP

Altman’s Spin Versus Reality

By Martin Peers · Sep 26, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Mira Murati with Sam Altman last year. Photo by AP

Altman’s Spin Versus Reality

By Martin Peers · Sep 26, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Talk about staying above the fray. Even as the latest rash of senior executive departures from OpenAI sparks a fresh round of questions about the company’s management, CEO Sam Altman was in Turin, Italy, appearing at an event to do what he does best: talk about the future.In an onstage interview, Altman did address the latest departures at... Talk about staying above the fray. Even as the latest rash of senior executive departures from...

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Meta’s AI Edge

By Martin Peers · Sep 25, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Sam Altman may have Elon Musk beat for the ability to pull off impressive technological achievements despite near-constant corporate drama. Wednesday’s news that OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati is leaving comes after numerous other high-profile exits in recent months (or in the case of President Greg Brockman, a leave of absence.)... Sam Altman may have Elon Musk beat for the ability to pull off impressive technological...

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty

Private Equity’s Proof of Life

By Martin Peers · Sep 24, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Private equity dealmakers are starting to get busy. The latest evidence of that was today’s news that Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners will buy Smartsheet, which sells software that helps workers plan projects, for $8.4 billion. As falling interest rates are likely at least part of the reason for the (slight) deal revival, we should see more... Private equity dealmakers are starting to get busy. The latest evidence of that was today’s news...

Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Biden’s Intel Quandary

By Martin Peers · Sep 23, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Merger activity is alive! Well, maybe. Friday’s news that Qualcomm had made a friendly takeover overture to Intel has given a shot of adrenaline to deal junkies everywhere. This would be a big deal. Despite Intel’s travails—its revenue this year is expected to be less than in 2013, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence—the company... Merger activity is alive! Well, maybe. Friday’s news that Qualcomm had made a friendly takeover...

Elon Musk. Photo by Marc Piasecki/Getty.

Trumpism Is Here to Stay in Tech, Even If Trump Loses

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 20, 2024 3:00pm PDT · 7 comments

Elon Musk. Photo by Marc Piasecki/Getty.

Trumpism Is Here to Stay in Tech, Even If Trump Loses

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 20, 2024 3:00pm PDT · 7 comments

Just after Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz surprised the tech world by backing Donald Trump for the presidency a few months ago, liberals took glee in the fact that the two venture capitalists made the political equivalent of an investment no-no: They bought at the top of the market. After their endorsement, Joe Biden dropped out, paving... Just after Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz surprised the tech world by backing Donald Trump for...

Mathias Döpfner. Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images.

KKR Grabs the Best of Axel Springer

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

Smart money and digital media don’t always mix well. Just ask KKR. Five years after the private equity firm, together with the Canada Pension Plan, bought a roughly 49% stake in German media giant Axel Springer, parent of Business Insider and Politico, the two investors are fleeing the scene.That might be hyperbolic. Technically what’s happening... Smart money and digital media don’t always mix well. Just ask KKR. Five years after the private...

PayPal's San Jose headquarters. Photo via Adobe

PayPal Makes Headway With Flurry of Deals

By Martin Peers · Sep 18, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Can an old dog learn new tricks? If the old dog is PayPal, the answer seems to be yes. Under newish CEO Alex Chriss—who’s about to celebrate his first anniversary in the job—the digital payments pioneer is striking deals that should rejuvenate its business and help it challenge newer rivals such as Silicon Valley star Stripe. Today, for... Can an old dog learn new tricks? If the old dog is PayPal, the answer seems to be yes. Under...

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri. Photo by Getty

Instagram’s Teen Safety Act

By Martin Peers · Sep 17, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Meta Platforms has come a long way from the “move fast” days. Instagram’s much-ballyhooed announcement on Tuesday—aimed at protecting teens from creepy adult stalkers as well as from bombardment by overnight notifications—will surely be welcomed by many parents and perhaps politicians. But it took several years of incremental Instagram... Meta Platforms has come a long way from the “move fast” days. Instagram’s much-ballyhooed...

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

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

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

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

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

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...