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

Tim Cook. Photo via Getty

Why Tim Cook Is Right to Avoid Big Acquisitions

By Martin Peers · Aug 26, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Apple shareholders should be glad Eddy Cue isn’t running the iPhone maker. As a story we published today revealed, Cue has been an advocate for Apple making big acquisitions—including of Netflix and Tesla in the past—that CEO Tim Cook rebuffed. More recently, Cue has suggested that Apple should do bolder deals in artificial intelligence. The... Apple shareholders should be glad Eddy Cue isn’t running the iPhone maker. As a story we...

Photo via Getty

Musk’s Litigation-Led AI Strategy

By Martin Peers · Aug 25, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

It’s not obvious that filing lawsuits against your competitors is the way to succeed in artificial intelligence, if only because a lawsuit can take years to resolve and AI is evolving extremely rapidly. Nonetheless, litigation is the approach Elon Musk is taking to try to protect his startup, xAI, from bigger rivals. You might wonder if this is... It’s not obvious that filing lawsuits against your competitors is the way to succeed in...

AWS data centers in Manassas, Va. Photo via Getty

Bankers Doing Data Center Financings Had No Respite This Summer

By Ken Brown · Aug 22, 2025 3:00pm PDT

There were no August vacations for bankers who do data center financing deals.At the start of the month, Meta reached a deal to borrow $26 billion and get $3 billion in equity tied to its data center build-out, according to Bloomberg. This week, JPMorgan Chase and Japanese lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group agreed to underwrite $22 billion in... There were no August vacations for bankers who do data center financing deals.At the start of the...

Photo via Getty

What Rent the Runway’s Lender Takeover Means

By Martin Peers · Aug 21, 2025 5:10pm PDT

Photo via Getty

What Rent the Runway’s Lender Takeover Means

By Martin Peers · Aug 21, 2025 5:10pm PDT

Some companies should never go public—or maybe even exist. Rent the Runway might be in that group. The clothing-rental subscription service—one of a bunch of mid-sized online shopping companies to go public in recent years—says its mission “is to power women to feel their best every day.” How about trying to make money? After years of steady... Some companies should never go public—or maybe even exist. Rent the Runway might be in that...

Sierra's Bret Taylor, The Information's Jessica Lessin and Harvey's Winston Weinberg.

Why AI Model Makers Might Develop Like Cable and Cellular Companies

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

Could the artificial intelligence business develop like cable TV or cellular, where the real money is made by apps running on top of internet pipes, rather than by the telecom firms that spent billions building those pipes? That would be a big deal for AI. It implies that AI agent developers will end up more profitable than AI model makers, like... Could the artificial intelligence business develop like cable TV or cellular, where the real...

Photo via Eight Sleep

Eight Sleep Embraces AI For Mattress Topper

By Martin Peers · Aug 19, 2025 5:00pm PDT

What is it about sleep technology that causes tech investors to dream of immense riches? Eight Sleep, which makes high-tech mattress toppers and is a favorite brand of many tech luminaries, announced Tuesday it had raised $100 million partly to—in all seriousness—“supercharge its AI roadmap”with projects including an “AI Agent for Sleep... What is it about sleep technology that causes tech investors to dream of immense riches? Eight...

Outside the Lordstown, Ohio plant in 2018. Photo via AP.

What Foxconn’s Ohio Factory Deal Says About the Increasing Reach of AI

By Martin Peers · Aug 18, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Talk about symbolism. Foxconn chair Young Liu said today that the electronics manufacturer was selling its Lordstown, Ohio, electric vehicle factory to SoftBank, which will use it to make artificial intelligence computer servers. It’s the latest example of how AI is supplanting other newish technologies. (Notably, the Lordstown factory, which... Talk about symbolism. Foxconn chair Young Liu said today that the electronics manufacturer was...

Carrie Wheeler and Keith Rabois. Photos via Opendoor/Getty

Online Critics Push Opendoor CEO Out

By Martin Peers · Aug 15, 2025 3:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Carrie Wheeler and Keith Rabois. Photos via Opendoor/Getty

Online Critics Push Opendoor CEO Out

By Martin Peers · Aug 15, 2025 3:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Carrie Wheeler isn’t one of tech’s big names, but she may go down in history as the latest victim of an online mob. The CEO of home-buying firm Opendoor stepped down Friday after weeks of relentless attacks on her on X, including from investor Eric Jackson and venture capitalist Keith Rabois, a co-founder and onetime executive chair of Opendoor.... Carrie Wheeler isn’t one of tech’s big names, but she may go down in history as the latest victim...

Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of Intel, leaves a meeting at the White House on Monday. Photo via Getty.

Trump’s Intel Play

By Martin Peers · Aug 14, 2025 5:00pm PDT

We’re in a new era of government intervention in corporate America. The latest example is Bloomberg’s report on Thursday that the Trump administration was in talks to “take a stake” in Intel. Just on Monday, President Donald Trump said he and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had agreed that Nvidia would pay the government 15% of whatever revenues it... We’re in a new era of government intervention in corporate America. The latest example is ...

Bullish's New York Stock Exchange debut. Photo via Getty

Crypto’s Bullish Day

By Ken Brown · Aug 13, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Crypto conquered the stock market again with the public debut of crypto exchange Bullish, whose stock soared as much as 220% on its opening day Wednesday after raising $1.1 billion in its IPO. The offering followed a glittering IPO from stablecoin issuer Circle and offerings from a raft of companies that have stuffed themselves with... Crypto conquered the stock market again with the public debut of crypto exchange Bullish, whose...

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. Photo via Getty

Perplexity’s PR Genius

By Martin Peers · Aug 12, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 5 comments

For a relatively small player in the artificial intelligence sector, Perplexity AI certainly gets a lot of press. In the past couple of months, reports have suggested Apple and Meta Platforms have both contemplated buying it. At the same time, Perplexity offered to buy TikTok. And today we got news that Perplexity had offered to buy the Chrome... For a relatively small player in the artificial intelligence sector, Perplexity AI certainly gets...

Photo via Getty

The Pluses and Minuses of Trump’s Dealmaking

By Martin Peers · Aug 11, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Photo via Getty

The Pluses and Minuses of Trump’s Dealmaking

By Martin Peers · Aug 11, 2025 5:00pm PDT

For tech CEOs, having an investment banker playing the role of president has its advantages. President Donald Trump is displaying a willingness to consider all sorts of deals that might be verboten on national security grounds—as long as the government is getting paid. Not only is he allowing Nvidia to sell its China-specific H20 artificial... For tech CEOs, having an investment banker playing the role of president has its advantages....

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo via Getty

Meta’s AI Gamble

By Martin Peers · Aug 8, 2025 3:00pm PDT

How much financial stress can tech companies handle in their efforts to win the artificial intelligence race? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said today on CNBC he thinks the ChatGPT creator should continue “running at a loss” so it can continue to invest in computing capacity to keep advancing its AI models. In one way, he has to take that stance: He’s... How much financial stress can tech companies handle in their efforts to win the artificial...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo via YouTube/OpenAI.

OpenAI’s Apple-Like Moment

By Martin Peers · Aug 7, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Apple’s next iPhone unveiling is a month away, but OpenAI may have just sucked all the new tech product excitement out of the room with today’s GPT-5 unveiling. The livestream, featuring a parade of staffers highlighting the new flagship AI model’s range of impressive capabilities, was eerily reminiscent of an Apple iPhone event—slickly produced... Apple’s next iPhone unveiling is a month away, but OpenAI may have just sucked all the new tech...

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo via Getty

Uber Leads Gig Economy Pack

By Martin Peers · Aug 6, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

For just a minute, can we put aside relentless fundraising from artificial intelligence startups? Let’s give some airtime to the gig economy firms of an older generation of startups that are now minting the kind of money these newer firms can only dream about. Yes, we’re talking about the second-quarter numbers out Wednesday from Uber, DoorDash,... For just a minute, can we put aside relentless fundraising from artificial intelligence startups?...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel at The Information's Future of Influence event in June. Photo by Erin Beach.

Snap’s Earnings Show a Stalled Business

By Martin Peers · Aug 5, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel at The Information's Future of Influence event in June. Photo by Erin Beach.

Snap’s Earnings Show a Stalled Business

By Martin Peers · Aug 5, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Last Friday, the day after Figma went public with a 250% pop, former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan tweeted that Figma’s success was “a great reminder that letting startups grow into independently successful businesses, rather than be bought by existing giants, can generate enormous value.” Good point. But for every Figma, there’s a... Last Friday, the day after Figma went public with a 250% pop, former Federal Trade Commission...

Photo via Getty

Is Tesla Musk’s AI Company—or is xAI?

By Martin Peers · Aug 4, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Here’s a question: Which of Elon Musk’s companies is his most AI-focused business? The answer might seem obvious: xAI, developer of Grok. But it’s not that simple, as a letter from two Tesla directors to company shareholders on Monday demonstrates. The letter, explaining the board’s decision to grant Musk a new stock award valued at $23.7... Here’s a question: Which of Elon Musk’s companies is his most AI-focused business? The answer...

An Amazon data center in Virginia. Photo via Getty.

Why Big Tech’s Cloud Shift Threatens Microsoft and Google’s Margins

By Martin Peers · Aug 1, 2025 3:00pm PDT

Don’t count out Amazon. This was not the commerce cloud giant’s week, to be sure. When it comes to the great artificial intelligence cloud race, which now overwhelms all else in tech, Microsoft and Google appear to be ahead. Both companies posted accelerating growth in their cloud units for the June quarter, unlike Amazon. But one element is... Don’t count out Amazon. This was not the commerce cloud giant’s week, to be sure. When it comes...

Photo via Getty

Figma’s Bubble and Apple’s Surprise

By Martin Peers · Jul 31, 2025 5:00pm PDT

What a day! Apple surprised with a much better quarter than it had projected, lifting revenue in the June quarter 10%, thanks to 13% higher iPhone revenue, the best iPhone quarter in four years. Amazon, meanwhile, reported the best growth for its online stores in three years. (See below for more on the quarterly results.) The biggest news today,... What a day! Apple surprised with a much better quarter than it had projected, lifting revenue in...

Mark Zuckerberg and Satya Nadella. Photos via Getty

Microsoft and Meta Have a Bonanza June Quarter

By Martin Peers · Jul 30, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Mark Zuckerberg and Satya Nadella. Photos via Getty

Microsoft and Meta Have a Bonanza June Quarter

By Martin Peers · Jul 30, 2025 5:00pm PDT

For big tech, business is booming. That’s good, because their costs are also skyrocketing. Microsoft and Meta Platforms both reported better than projected June-quarter earnings on Wednesday, sending stocks of the two leaping 9% and 11.7%, respectively, in after-hours trading. But there may well be a reckoning, as both companies projected... For big tech, business is booming. That’s good, because their costs are also skyrocketing....