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

Taylor Swift performs in Paris on May 12. Photo by Kevin Mazur/TAS24/Getty Images.

Taylor Swift the Trust Buster

By Nick Wingfield · May 23, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour united music fans, and now her fury towards Ticketmaster has resulted in an antitrust lawsuit against the ticketing giant that seems to have united people across the ideological spectrum. The U.S. Department of Justice and state and district attorneys general today filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its... Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour united music fans, and now her fury towards Ticketmaster has...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, Calif., this March. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Nvidia Answers Prayers Again

By Cory Weinberg · May 22, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Nvidia, a $2 trillion chip giant worshipped by financial markets and Silicon Valley, has to pass an increasingly difficult test of investors’ faith every quarter. On Wednesday, it gave everyone in the church of artificial intelligence a reason to keep believing.The company’s revenue nearly quadrupled from the first quarter last year to $26... Nvidia, a $2 trillion chip giant worshipped by financial markets and Silicon Valley, has to...

Sam Altman and Scarlett Johansson. Photos via Getty Images

Sam Altman’s Naughty Side

By Aaron Holmes · May 21, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

Sam Altman’s naughty streak has been key to his success. This week, it may have gotten him in trouble.The OpenAI CEO came under fire yesterday after the actress Scarlett Johansson said she, through her lawyers, complained to OpenAI after they used a voice that resembled her own for its ChatGPT assistant. OpenAI says the voice wasn’t meant to... Sam Altman’s naughty streak has been key to his success. This week, it may have gotten him in...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at today's event. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

In Praise of Microsoft’s ‘Prosaic’ AI Features

By Nick Wingfield · May 20, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at today's event. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

In Praise of Microsoft’s ‘Prosaic’ AI Features

By Nick Wingfield · May 20, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

It was Microsoft’s turn today to talk about all of the ways it plans to make your life better with artificial intelligence. The various new features and products it announced felt a little—dare we say it?—bland. But that might be more than okay. In one case, it showed a new version of its Copilot assistant for Windows PCs that can observe... It was Microsoft’s turn today to talk about all of the ways it plans to make your life better...

Attendees play Call of Duty at a convention in Turin, Italy, in April. Photo by Stefano Guidi/Getty Images

Microsoft’s Big Games Gamble

By Nick Wingfield · May 17, 2024 5:00pm PDT

It’s Friday so it seems fitting to take a break from cloud computing, artificial intelligence, balance sheets and the other themes we usually cover here to talk briefly about a more recreational topic: video games. Earlier this week, Take-Two Interactive Software dropped some big news when it said Grand Theft Auto VI will come out in the fall of... It’s Friday so it seems fitting to take a break from cloud computing, artificial intelligence,...

Credit: Photo via Adobe Stock

Walmart and Amazon’s Favorite New Catchphrase

By Theo Wayt · May 16, 2024 5:00pm PDT

A few years ago, in the salad days of startups like Gopuff, Getir and Gorillas that promised grocery deliveries in as little as 10 or 20 minutes, investors like SoftBank and Mubadala bet billions of dollars on the idea that shoppers wanted “ultrafast delivery.” Now it’s looking like the actual future of delivery will wind up being “just fast... A few years ago, in the salad days of startups like Gopuff, Getir and Gorillas that promised...

A trader on the NYSE floor earlier this month. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Everything’s Coming Up Big Tech

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

Wall Street traders sent U.S. stocks to all-time highs on Wednesday. An ebullient market, pleased with easing inflation, liked big tech even more. Most of the tech giants like Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Microsoft saw gains higher than the S&P 500. As if those companies need more help, the market’s friendliness plays into big tech’s... Wall Street traders sent U.S. stocks to all-time highs on Wednesday. An ebullient market, pleased...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai at Google’s I/O developer conference on Tuesday. Photo by Google

Google Serves a Multicourse AI Meal

By Nick Wingfield · May 14, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Google CEO Sundar Pichai at Google’s I/O developer conference on Tuesday. Photo by Google

Google Serves a Multicourse AI Meal

By Nick Wingfield · May 14, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

The season of AI hype continues. Yesterday it was OpenAI. Today it was Google, which used its annual developer conference, Google I/O, to chronicle all of the ways it’s pushing the ball forward in artificial intelligence. Google is part of a $2 trillion–plus company, so it had a lot of ground to cover, which may explain why its event clocked in... The season of AI hype continues. Yesterday it was OpenAI. Today it was Google, which used its...

OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati introducing GPT-4o. Photo via YouTube/OpenAI

OpenAI Outshines Apple

By Nick Wingfield · May 13, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Here at The Information we’ve written a lot over the past six years about Apple’s struggles to make technological progress with its Siri voice assistant. So it must have been painful to the folks at Apple’s giant donut in Cupertino, Calif., to see OpenAI waltz right onto their turf earlier today and show the kind of artificial intelligence–... Here at The Information we’ve written a lot over the past six years about Apple’s struggles to...

Nick Giovanni. Photo via Instacart.

Instacart’s CFO Shuffle

By Martin Peers · May 10, 2024 3:00pm PDT

It’s Friday. What did we learn this week, aside from the fact that Apple’s marketing department is overrun with philistines? Maybe the most interesting tech news was Instacart’s disclosure that Nick Giovanni, the onetime senior Goldman Sachs media-tech-telecom banker who jumped to the grocery-delivery firm to be chief financial officer in... It’s Friday. What did we learn this week, aside from the fact that Apple’s marketing department ...

John Ternus, Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering. Photo by Bebeto Matthews/AP.

Tim Cook, Bob Iger and Reading Between the Media Lines

By Jessica E. Lessin · May 9, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Just as there is an art to managing a CEO succession process from the inside (at least I imagine that to be the case—I have never done it myself), there’s a not so often discussed playbook for how a reporter writes about succession.It starts by writing a profile of the person you really, really think will get the job, though you can’t come out... Just as there is an art to managing a CEO succession process from the inside (at least I imagine...

Elon Musk speaks with Michael Milken at this year's Milken Institute Global Conference. Photo by Apu Gomes/Getty Images.

Milken’s New Power Players

By Cory Weinberg · May 8, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Elon Musk speaks with Michael Milken at this year's Milken Institute Global Conference. Photo by Apu Gomes/Getty Images.

Milken’s New Power Players

By Cory Weinberg · May 8, 2024 5:00pm PDT

It’s no secret that the suits at the annual big-money confab put on by the Milken Institute this week have few spending limits. Staring you in the face in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton is a booth set up by Bombardier, marketing its private jets to attendees. (A new 10-seater costs $32 million, I learned.)What attendees can’t really buy,... It’s no secret that the suits at the annual big-money confab put on by the Milken Institute this...

Disney CEO Bob Iger. Photo by Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.

Disney Turns a Corner in Streaming, but Market Is Unimpressed

By Martin Peers · May 7, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

You can just imagine what Disney CEO Bob Iger was thinking today: If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Disney surprised the market by reporting that its streaming services all but broke even in the March quarter, a notable achievement given that it was wallowing in red ink just a few quarters ago. But the pesky worrywarts of the stock market... You can just imagine what Disney CEO Bob Iger was thinking today: If it’s not one thing, it’s...

The trailer for Netflix's "The Roast of Tom Brady." Photo via YouTube/Netflix.

The Briefing: Netflix’s Tom Brady Roast Is a Hit

By Martin Peers · May 6, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Ted Sarandos should be pleased. Sunday night’s roast of retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady, aired live on Netflix, was a cultural hit, judging from the flood of praise on X (see here, here and here) and news media coverage like this. If nothing else, this symbolizes what old-TV giants have lost to Netflix. People of a certain age may remember... Ted Sarandos should be pleased. Sunday night’s roast of retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady, aired...

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images.

The Big Threat Hanging Over Google

By Martin Peers · May 3, 2024 3:27pm PDT

If you’re lying awake at 3 a.m. one night, try reading the Justice Department’s 509-page “proposed finding of fact” in its antitrust lawsuit against Google’s search business, a revised version of which was filed with the court on Tuesday. You likely won’t make it past the extensive table of contents before you fall asleep. Even so, getting... If you’re lying awake at 3 a.m. one night, try reading the Justice Department’s 509-page “...

An Apple Store in Shanghai. Photo by Wang Gang/VCG via Getty Images.

Apple’s Downbeat Quarter

By Martin Peers · May 2, 2024 5:00pm PDT

An Apple Store in Shanghai. Photo by Wang Gang/VCG via Getty Images.

Apple’s Downbeat Quarter

By Martin Peers · May 2, 2024 5:00pm PDT

After a streak of healthy big tech earnings over the past week, we got a decidedly more downbeat report from Apple tonight. The iPhone maker reported a 4% drop in sales and slightly lower profits. Revenues from its engine, the iPhone, fell 10% on a year earlier, and the company’s June-quarter outlook implied continued weak iPhone sales. All that... After a streak of healthy big tech earnings over the past week, we got a decidedly more downbeat...

Palmer Luckey, Parker Conrad and Jony Ive. Photos via Getty Images.

The Era of Spite Startups

By Cory Weinberg · May 1, 2024 5:00pm PDT

The same old adjectives come up again and again in conversations with investors about top tech founders: gritty, visionary, creative. I’m hearing a new one lately that speaks to this moment in tech: vengeful. A number of the founders attracting the most investor enthusiasm right now have something in common: They’ve all made messy exits from... The same old adjectives come up again and again in conversations with investors about top tech...

Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy. Photo by Thos Robinson/Getty Images.

Amazon’s Profit Surge Will Pay for AI-Driven Capex Push

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

Take a bow, Andy Jassy! The spate of healthy big tech earnings continued on Tuesday, as Amazon reported what have to be described as robust first-quarter results. Its e-commerce business made money both in North America and overseas—that hasn’t been true since 2021—while cloud giant Amazon Web Services posted accelerating sales growth and much... Take a bow, Andy Jassy! The spate of healthy big tech earnings continued on Tuesday, as Amazon...

A Tesla showroom in Shanghai ahead of Elon Musk's visit to China. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Musk’s China Visit Cheers Tesla Investors, Wrongly

By Martin Peers · Apr 29, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Maybe Elon Musk should visit China more often. Today’s 15% rally in Tesla stock follows his quick visit there on Sunday (which incidentally also confirmed his statement last week that his seven-day-a-week work schedule means he rarely takes even Sunday afternoons off). The big news that came out of the visit, according to Bloomberg, was that... Maybe Elon Musk should visit China more often. Today’s 15% rally in Tesla stock follows his quick...

Photo by Brandon Sloter via Getty Images.

What We Heard From Tech CEO Calls This Week

By Martin Peers · Apr 26, 2024 2:30pm PDT

Photo by Brandon Sloter via Getty Images.

What We Heard From Tech CEO Calls This Week

By Martin Peers · Apr 26, 2024 2:30pm PDT

Phew, what a week! We got a blizzard of quarterly earnings updates from tech firms, most of them followed by investor calls that were full of artificial intelligence talk. Much of that was corporate blather, of course, but there were a few moments when actual information was transmitted. Not all of that was relevant to the subject at hand, to be... Phew, what a week! We got a blizzard of quarterly earnings updates from tech firms, most of them...