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

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Recent Editions

Google CEO, Sundar Pichai. Photo by Jeff Chiu/AP.

Wall Street Unperturbed by Google Ruling

By Martin Peers · Aug 5, 2024 5:09pm PDT

Antitrust regulators don’t scare big tech investors. Stock of Google’s parent Alphabet fell by only a couple of percentage points after a judge found Google had broken antitrust laws in its efforts to protect its monopoly in search. Shares of Apple, which arguably stands to lose as much from the ruling as Google, fell even less. (Both stocks... Antitrust regulators don’t scare big tech investors. Stock of Google’s parent Alphabet fell by...

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty.

AI Investors Are Soul-Searching

By Akash Pasricha · Aug 2, 2024 4:40pm PDT · 1 comment

Anyone involved in artificial intelligence right now has to be entering the weekend deeply introspective about when this technology will actually start making businesses money. One by one, big tech companies have spent most of the past two weeks telling shareholders about their mammoth investments in AI that sent capital expenditures... Anyone involved in artificial intelligence right now has to be entering the weekend deeply...

An Amazon distribution center in Richmond, Calif on July 16 during "Amazon Prime Day." Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty.

Prime Video Ads Have Yet to Pay Off

By Theo Wayt · Aug 1, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

We want to start this evening’s Briefing by congratulating and thanking all the people who were involved in securing the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and other prisoners from Russia, in a major victory for press freedom. Make sure to read The Journal’s story about the remarkable effort to rescue him here.Now on to the... We want to start this evening’s Briefing by congratulating and thanking all the people who were...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Getty

Meta Flexes Financial Muscle in Costly AI Showdown With Microsoft and Google

By Amir Efrati · Jul 31, 2024 5:13pm PDT

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Getty

Meta Flexes Financial Muscle in Costly AI Showdown With Microsoft and Google

By Amir Efrati · Jul 31, 2024 5:13pm PDT

Meta Platforms shareholders have had a singular concern lately: how the company can go toe-to-toe with Google and Microsoft (and Microsoft partner OpenAI) in developing cutting-edge artificial intelligence while expanding data centers and filling them with costly AI chips to enable future breakthroughs that result in profits.On Wednesday, Meta... Meta Platforms shareholders have had a singular concern lately: how the company can go toe-to-toe...

Amy Hood. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Microsoft Tests Investors’ Patience

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jul 30, 2024 6:03pm PDT · 4 comments

Patience may be a virtue, but Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood is asking investors to take it to extremes. Twice during the Tuesday conference call to discuss the company’s June-quarter results, Hood said Microsoft’s extraordinary investment in building and leasing data centers to support artificial intelligence would pay off over... Patience may be a virtue, but Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood is asking investors to...

Long waits at Madrid-Barajas International Airport on July 19 due to the global communications outage caused by CrowdStrike. Photo by Diego Radames/Anadolu via Getty.

CrowdStrike’s Comeback Hits an Air Pocket

By Laura Mandaro · Jul 29, 2024 5:00pm PDT

I just spent a relaxing week at the beach that started in turmoil: Mine was one of more than 3,500 Delta flights canceled as a result of a CrowdStrike-sparked outage that also shut down hospital, bank and courthouse systems. While Delta’s still on the hot seat with transportation regulators, Wall Street seems to have largely forgiven... I just spent a relaxing week at the beach that started in turmoil: Mine was one of more than...

John McEnroe, David Zaslav and Dustin Hoffman at a Los Angeles Lakers game in March. Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty.

Why Warner’s NBA Suit Is Pointless

By Martin Peers · Jul 26, 2024 3:00pm PDT

David Zaslav may be persona non grata the next time he shows up to an NBA game. Warner Bros. Discovery, which Zaslav runs, filed suit Friday against the league over its rejection of WBD’s offer to renew its longstanding deal to air NBA games. Whatever the merits of WBD’s argument, this doesn’t seem likely to end well for Zaslav.The fundamental... David Zaslav may be persona non grata the next time he shows up to an NBA game. Warner Bros....

Photo by View Press via Getty.

Google’s Shrinking Ad-Tech Business

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

Photo by View Press via Getty.

Google’s Shrinking Ad-Tech Business

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

Quick quiz: Which part of Google’s business has declined for eight straight quarters? If you guessed the Google network business—which sells advertising on other companies’ websites—you deserve an A in Google-nomics.In the second quarter, reported on Tuesday, Google reported that revenue from the network operation shrank 5% even as ad sales on... Quick quiz: Which part of Google’s business has declined for eight straight quarters? If you...

Tech investors have recently paid more attention to glitzy generative AI startups than more traditional machine learning companies.

Stock Sell-Off, OneStream and AI

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 24, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Tech investors often embody the distracted boyfriend meme—the stock image where a man looks back admiringly at another woman, to the horror of his girlfriend. In that same vein, investors are always looking for the next hot thing. Companies working on earlier iterations of artificial intelligence technology, like machine learning, must have felt... Tech investors often embody the distracted boyfriend meme—the stock image where a man looks back...

Photo by Anadolu via Getty.

Is Amazon to Blame for YouTube’s Ad Slowdown?

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

Google kicked off big tech’s portion of the summer earnings season with what seemed a middle-of-the-road report. Artificial intelligence appeared to give Google Cloud a bit of a lift, while search delivered another decent quarter. The outlier, surprisingly, was YouTube, for which ad growth slowed meaningfully.That raises the question of whether... Google kicked off big tech’s portion of the summer earnings season with what seemed a...

Photo via Getty.

What Verizon’s Numbers Mean for Apple

By Martin Peers · Jul 22, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

After the weekend excitement over presidential politics, we’re getting back to business. And here’s a notable nugget from Verizon’s quarterly earnings today that should be of interest to Apple shareholders and other iPhone watchers: The number of Verizon subscribers upgrading their phones fell 13% in the quarter compared to a year earlier.That... After the weekend excitement over presidential politics, we’re getting back to business. And here...

Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign event in Las Vegas on July 9. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

Tech Democrats Looking for a Reset with Kamala Harris

By Martin Peers · Jul 21, 2024 1:49pm PDT · 3 comments

Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign event in Las Vegas on July 9. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

Tech Democrats Looking for a Reset with Kamala Harris

By Martin Peers · Jul 21, 2024 1:49pm PDT · 3 comments

Biden’s sudden departure from the presidential race sparked intense chatter this afternoon about his successor. Techies don’t seem to be of one mind (not surprisingly), but a good number seem to be backing Kamala Harris, whom Biden himself endorsed.According to several of my colleagues, who’ve been checking in with tech people today, some people... Biden’s sudden departure from the presidential race sparked intense chatter this afternoon about...

A Meta Connect 2023 attendee wears Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. Photo by Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty.

Meta’s AI Weapon; CrowdStrike Strikes Out

By Martin Peers · Jul 19, 2024 3:38pm PDT

The massive computer outage on Friday that grounded airlines and caused other kinds of havoc around the world won’t do anything for the public’s trust in tech. And it’s certainly bad news for CrowdStrike, which otherwise has been a highflier in cybersecurity. CrowdStrike stock dropped 10% today. For more on that episode, see our story here.On a... The massive computer outage on Friday that grounded airlines and caused other kinds of havoc...

Bridgerton's Luke Newton and Nicola Coughlan. Photo by Lucy North/PA Images via Getty.

Netflix's Advertising Cloud Looms Larger

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

Forget presidential politics—let’s talk about the third season of “Bridgerton.” The fun series about romance in quasi-Regency London was a big draw for Netflix in the second quarter, the video-streaming service noted today as it reported another solid quarter. Revenue rose 17% year on year, subscriber numbers grew about the same and its cash... Forget presidential politics—let’s talk about the third season of “Bridgerton.” The fun series...

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty.

Biden Chip Worries Send Stocks Plunging

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

No one can accuse President Joe Biden of sucking up to the tech industry as he tries to win reelection. Tech stocks slumped across the board on Wednesday after Bloomberg reported that the Biden administration is considering imposing “the most severe trade restrictions available” on Netherlands-based ASML and Japan’s Tokyo Electron in a new... No one can accuse President Joe Biden of sucking up to the tech industry as he tries to win...

Former president Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention yesterday. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

VCs Can’t Be Sure What Trump Will Bring

By Martin Peers · Jul 16, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Former president Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention yesterday. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

VCs Can’t Be Sure What Trump Will Bring

By Martin Peers · Jul 16, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Be careful what you wish for. Many of Silicon Valley’s biggest-name venture capitalists are donating money to Donald Trump this election cycle, including, as The Information scooped today, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. Venture capitalists aren’t alone—Elon Musk endorsed Donald Trump on Saturday night and is donating $45 million a month to a... Be careful what you wish for. Many of Silicon Valley’s biggest-name venture capitalists are...

Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport at Fortune's 2022 Brainstorm Tech conference. Photograph by Michael Faas/Fortune via Flickr.

Wiz’s Possible M&A Trap

By Cory Weinberg · Jul 15, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Everything seemed to be coming up Wiz over the past few years. The Israeli startup raised at increasingly high valuations from what seemed like every brand-name venture capital firm on the planet. It boasted in a press release that it was the fastest-growing startup ever. And it sat at the intersection of almost every mega-valuable tech trend:... Everything seemed to be coming up Wiz over the past few years. The Israeli startup raised at...

Donald Trump after shots were fired at a rally in Butler, Penn., on July 13. Photo by Getty

Social Media’s Trump Challenge

By Nick Wingfield · Jul 14, 2024 3:46pm PDT

It’s not often that every major tech leader agrees on the same thing, especially when it comes to a figure as divisive as Donald Trump. But it was hard to find one of them who didn’t publicly express a concern for Trump’s well-being in the wake of the shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania, now under investigation as an assassination attempt aimed... It’s not often that every major tech leader agrees on the same thing, especially when it comes to...

The European Commission for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age's Margrethe Vestager. Photo by Thierry Monasse/Getty Images.

Europe’s Latest Target Is Musk’s X

By Martin Peers · Jul 12, 2024 3:45pm PDT · 1 comment

You have to hand it to the European Commission—they’re doing a great job innovating on regulation. Take today’s announcement that Elon Musk’s X may be in breach of the Digital Services Act, partly because Musk has devalued the blue checkmark by making it available to anyone who pays. What regulator has previously gone after a company for... You have to hand it to the European Commission—they’re doing a great job innovating on...

Photo by Thomas Wire via Getty Images.

Why Women Are Disappearing From Tech

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 11, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Photo by Thomas Wire via Getty Images.

Why Women Are Disappearing From Tech

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 11, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

I opened my email this morning to read troubling news from PitchBook: The percentage of venture deals for companies with female founders—a measly 6.5% last year—has dropped further, to 5.7% this year so far. Companies that have at least one female co-founder are getting only 16.6% of venture dollars, down from 27% last year. And I wasn’t a... I opened my email this morning to read troubling news from PitchBook: The percentage of venture...