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

Elon Musk at today's annual Tesla shareholder meeting. YouTube/Tesla.

Elon Musk's Victory

By Theo Wayt · Nov 6, 2025 5:00pm PST

We’ve finally learned the result of a controversial, long-awaited vote that’s generated reams of punditry and put Wall Street on edge. No, I’m not talking about the mayoral election in New York City—I’m talking about the Tesla shareholder vote on Elon Musk’s gigantic compensation package. Musk won with over 75% of the vote, Tesla said at... We’ve finally learned the result of a controversial, long-awaited vote that’s generated reams of...

Tony Xu, CEO of DoorDash. Getty Images

DoorDash’s Investment Plans Unnerve Wall Street

By Martin Peers · Nov 5, 2025 5:00pm PST · 2 comments

Wall Street is getting jittery about corporate investment. DoorDash stock slumped as much as 20% in after-hours trading after the food-delivery service revealed it expects to “invest several hundred million dollars more” in upgrading its technology and expansion next year than it did this year. Given that DoorDash generates a couple of billion... Wall Street is getting jittery about corporate investment. DoorDash stock slumped as much as 20%...

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Getty Images

Perplexity Takes On Amazon

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

Cue the violins. Perplexity on Tuesday accused Amazon of bullying it by demanding that the AI startup no longer allow its users to send their AI assistants to Amazon to buy stuff. The startup, which is an expert at public relations theatrics, published a long blog post entitled “Bullying Is Not Innovation,” in which it claimed to be “fighting... Cue the violins. Perplexity on Tuesday accused Amazon of bullying it by demanding that the AI...

An AWS data center in Ashburn, Va. Getty Images.

AWS Joins OpenAI Club

By Martin Peers · Nov 3, 2025 5:00pm PST

An AWS data center in Ashburn, Va. Getty Images.

AWS Joins OpenAI Club

By Martin Peers · Nov 3, 2025 5:00pm PST

If you’re tired of the seemingly endless parade of AI cloud deals, better get comfortable with them: They’re not going away anytime soon. On Monday, for instance, Microsoft struck deals with two little-known cloud firms, Lambda and Australia’s Iren, for additional computing capacity. Another firm, Cipher Mining Inc. announced a similar deal to... If you’re tired of the seemingly endless parade of AI cloud deals, better get comfortable with...

Getty Images

Preparing for Elon Musk’s $1 Trillion Tesla Vote

By Theo Wayt · Nov 2, 2025 3:00pm PST

Over the past couple of months, my X feed and television have been bombarded with Tesla advertisements. For the most part, these ads don’t feature products anyone can actually buy—instead, they include futuristic Tesla projects like the Optimus humanoid robot and are aimed at convincing Tesla shareholders to approve a proposed compensation... Over the past couple of months, my X feed and television have been bombarded with Tesla...

Andy Jassy. Getty Images

Amazon’s Cloud Lifts

By Martin Peers · Oct 30, 2025 5:10pm PDT

The cloud over Amazon is lifting. The e-commerce and cloud giant reported Thursday that its cloud unit, Amazon Web Services, accelerated revenue growth by nearly 3 percentage points to 20% in the third quarter, its fastest rate of expansion since the end of 2022. That means AWS, by far the biggest of the major cloud firms, has joined its nearest... The cloud over Amazon is lifting. The e-commerce and cloud giant reported Thursday that its cloud...

Getty Images

What Google, Meta and Microsoft Numbers Revealed

By Martin Peers · Oct 29, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Mark Zuckerberg is doubling down on AI—again. And the cost is mounting. Meta Platforms reported Wednesday that its increased investment in AI, both for hiring star AI researchers and for investing billions in data centers, hurt its operating profit margins and squeezed its free cash flow by one-third in the third quarter. Since the end of last... Mark Zuckerberg is doubling down on AI—again. And the cost is mounting. Meta Platforms reported...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Getty Images

Nvidia and OpenAI Flood the Zone With AI News

By Martin Peers · Oct 28, 2025 5:00pm PDT

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Getty Images

Nvidia and OpenAI Flood the Zone With AI News

By Martin Peers · Oct 28, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Where’s an AI agent when you need one? We got a flood of AI-related news today, including OpenAI’s revelation that it had completed its long-gestating restructuring into a near-normal company, one that can go public one day. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also was busy making news at the company’s GTC event in Washington, revealing the volume of orders... Where’s an AI agent when you need one? We got a flood of AI-related news today, including OpenAI’...

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Qualcomm’s AI Hope

By Martin Peers · Oct 27, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Another day, another chip company-A deal. This time, it’s Qualcomm, best known for its mobile phone chips (such as the modem in most iPhones). What Qualcomm is not known for is selling chips for data center servers, despite its valiant attempts to do so in the past. Will this time be different? We’ll see. At least Qualcomm has a customer for its... Another day, another chip company-A deal. This time, it’s Qualcomm, best known for its mobile...

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Big Tech Earnings, Nvidia’s GTC Dominate Crowded Week

By Martin Peers · Oct 26, 2025 3:00pm PDT

This is our first of what we plan to be a regular Sunday evening Briefing, looking out at the coming week. And what a week this promises to be. Nvidia is holding one of its GTC events for developers and customers in Washington Monday through Wednesday—which leather jacket will Jensen Huang wear onstage this time? (For more on GTC, see below.) We... This is our first of what we plan to be a regular Sunday evening Briefing, looking out at the...

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao. Getty Images.

Trump Opens Door for Crypto’s Offshore Giants

By Yueqi Yang · Oct 23, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

For crypto’s offshore giants these days, there’s nothing more important than figuring out their Trump playbook. Most are succeeding, as President Donald Trump’s pardon of Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao today demonstrated. The pardon of Zhao, who was convicted of violating anti–money-laundering laws and served a four-month sentence last year,... For crypto’s offshore giants these days, there’s nothing more important than figuring out their...

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Musk Dials Back Near Term Robotaxi and Optimus Targets

By Theo Wayt · Oct 22, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Getty Images

Musk Dials Back Near Term Robotaxi and Optimus Targets

By Theo Wayt · Oct 22, 2025 5:00pm PDT

As a car manufacturer, Tesla’s latest financial results released Wednesday were a definite (if expected) improvement on the first half of the year. Instead of auto sales falling 16%, as they did in the second quarter, they rose 6%. And thanks to even stronger growth in battery sales and services, Tesla’s total revenue grew 12% year over year to... As a car manufacturer, Tesla’s latest financial results released Wednesday were a definite (if...

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Getty Images.

Netflix’s Success Spotlights Warner’s Failure

By Martin Peers · Oct 21, 2025 5:00pm PDT

OpenAI continued its march to world domination, unveiling its long-anticipated Web browser, ChatGPT Atlas. It offers some snazzy features, including a split-screen view that allows you to ask ChatGPT questions related to the webpage you’re on without switching tabs. Given how difficult it is to change people’s ingrained habits, getting consumers... OpenAI continued its march to world domination, unveiling its long-anticipated Web browser, ...

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Getty Images

What Investors Are Missing in Apple’s iPhone 17 Sales Surge

By Martin Peers · Oct 20, 2025 5:00pm PDT

It’s the calm before the earnings storm. Netflix kicks off tech earnings on Tuesday with its third-quarter report, and most of the big tech names come next week. Already, though, investors are anticipating the news. That’s most obviously true of Apple, whose shares jumped 4% on Monday on a research report about strong sales of the recently... It’s the calm before the earnings storm. Netflix kicks off tech earnings on Tuesday with its...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Getty Images

What Microsoft Could Teach Oracle

By Martin Peers · Oct 17, 2025 3:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Was it something they said? Oracle shares fell 7% on Friday, a day after the software and cloud firm offered investors bullish growth projections for the next five years, both for revenue and for profits. In Oracle’s ideal world, those projections would have put to rest concerns about the cost of its artificial intelligence cloud expansion,... Was it something they said? Oracle shares fell 7% on Friday, a day after the software and cloud...

Oracle co-CEO Clay Magouyrk. Getty Images

Oracle’s Hypergrowth Forecasts

By Martin Peers · Oct 16, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Oracle co-CEO Clay Magouyrk. Getty Images

Oracle’s Hypergrowth Forecasts

By Martin Peers · Oct 16, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Bearish sentiment about the cost-benefit equation of artificial intelligence has become so prevalent lately that it almost feels like conventional wisdom is now skepticism. But that certainly isn’t the case at Oracle, the nearly 50-year-old enterprise software firm turned cloud provider, which declared itself today to be a “hypergrowth company,”... Bearish sentiment about the cost-benefit equation of artificial intelligence has become so...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Getty Images

The Big Question for Amazon and OpenAI

By Theo Wayt · Oct 15, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Walmart’s announcement this week that it would become the first major retailer to start selling products through ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout shows that big retailers are being forced to take new forms of artificial intelligence–related online shopping seriously. It’s not shocking that Walmart, as a megaretailer that wants to sell more stuff... Walmart’s announcement this week that it would become the first major retailer to start selling...

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Getty Images

The Other Bubble

By Ken Brown · Oct 14, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

If there is a bubble in artificial intelligence, much of the blame can be placed on Wall Street, not Silicon Valley. Financial markets are as frothy as they can be, and the appetite for risk appears to be insatiable. That’s why Sam Altman has been able to get otherwise rational companies and investors to fund his audacious growth plans. On... If there is a bubble in artificial intelligence, much of the blame can be placed on Wall Street,...

Hock Tan, CEO of Broadcom. Getty Images

OpenAI’s Computing Capacity Binge

By Martin Peers · Oct 13, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

The hardest-working people in tech right now must be the OpenAI team responsible for writing press releases. On Monday—Columbus Day or, if you prefer, Indigenous People’s Day—when much of American business and government was closed, OpenAI put out its sixth big news announcement of the past three weeks. The company unveiled another chip-supply... The hardest-working people in tech right now must be the OpenAI team responsible for writing...

Sora screenshots via TikTok

Slop Takes Over My Social Media Feed. I Don’t Hate It

By Nick Wingfield · Oct 10, 2025 3:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Sora screenshots via TikTok

Slop Takes Over My Social Media Feed. I Don’t Hate It

By Nick Wingfield · Oct 10, 2025 3:00pm PDT · 1 comment

I’m not sure what everyone else’s social media feeds are looking like these days, but over the past 72 hours mine has become unrecognizable to me. On TikTok, I’ve been inundated with short clips of slap-boxing competitions between Fred Rogers and Kurt Cobain, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, and Elvis Presley and Bob Marley. I’ve watched... I’m not sure what everyone else’s social media feeds are looking like these days, but over the...