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

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today. Photo via Getty

Europe’s Tax Threat Looms Over Google and Meta

By Martin Peers · Apr 10, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 4 comments

A global trade war could get very ugly for big tech—and not just for importers of physical products, like Apple. A Financial Times report on Thursday quoted the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, as suggesting that Europe could retaliate against U.S. tariffs by imposing a levy on digital ad revenues generated by companies like... A global trade war could get very ugly for big tech—and not just for importers of physical...

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. Photo via YouTube

Google Cloud’s Thomas Kurian Keeps Focus on AI

By Martin Peers · Apr 9, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Shoutout to Thomas Kurian, chief of Google Cloud, who delivered a roughly 90-minute-long keynote address at the cloud unit’s developer conference in Las Vegas today. Even as chaos reigned in the markets and talk of a looming recession circulated, Kurian stood onstage wearing a suit, calmly talking up Google Cloud’s new artificial intelligence... Shoutout to Thomas Kurian, chief of Google Cloud, who delivered a roughly 90-minute-long keynote...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Photo via Getty

What Amazon’s Not-So-Secret Agent Could Do to Shopping

By Martin Peers · Apr 8, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Forget tariffs and the stock market roller coaster just for a moment. As much as Trump’s tariffs pose a worry to tech (as we discussed here and here), a much bigger existential threat is lurking in the background for many app-based companies. And that is artificial intelligence agents, software that enables a chatbot to order a pizza, book a... Forget tariffs and the stock market roller coaster just for a moment. As much as Trump’s tariffs...

Photo via Getty

Microsoft and Netflix Are Safe Tech Names in Storm

By Martin Peers · Apr 7, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Photo via Getty

Microsoft and Netflix Are Safe Tech Names in Storm

By Martin Peers · Apr 7, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Is your seatbelt still holding? Monday’s ups and downs in the stock market would be enough to give anyone whiplash. The good news, for tech investors at least, is that things weren’t all bad. Quite a few stocks went up, including Nvidia, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Broadcom. The biggest losers included Apple, down 3.7%, and Tesla, down 2.6%,... Is your seatbelt still holding? Monday’s ups and downs in the stock market would be enough to...

Photo via Getty

Klarna and StubHub Offerings Become Tariff Casualties

By Ken Brown · Apr 4, 2025 4:00pm PDT

That was fast. The window for technology company stock offerings slammed shut less than a week after it opened, dashing hopes that the moribund market would come to life this year.CoreWeave, the deal that was supposed to lead the pack in a reopened market, got done on Friday. StubHub and Klarna were waiting in the wings, until President Donald... That was fast. The window for technology company stock offerings slammed shut less than a week...

Photo via Getty

What the Wall Street Bloodbath Reveals About Amazon

By Theo Wayt · Apr 3, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Wall Street wisdom says when a recession is on the horizon, investors should flock to defensive companies that sell things people always need, like groceries and healthcare. At the same time, they should flee cyclical firms that sell optional stuff cash-strapped shoppers will avoid or put off buying, like luxury goods and furniture. Which... Wall Street wisdom says when a recession is on the horizon, investors should flock to defensive...

Photo via Getty

Musk Heading Home

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Apr 2, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Is Elon Musk’s run as a government cost cutter coming to an end? According to a new Politico report, President Donald Trump has been telling members of his inner circle that Musk will step back in the coming weeks and return to his businesses, most notably his struggling electric vehicle maker, Tesla. The White House has downplayed the... Is Elon Musk’s run as a government cost cutter coming to an end? According to a new Politico...

Getty Images

Roblox’s Revenue Grab

By Abram Brown · Apr 1, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Getty Images

Roblox’s Revenue Grab

By Abram Brown · Apr 1, 2025 5:00pm PDT

You know what kids love? Videogames. And you know what they don’t really love—at least if the small children in my life are any barometer? Advertisements. Yet Roblox, the eponymous company behind one of the most popular videogame platforms for kids, is pinning at least a portion of its hopes for more revenue growth on…advertisements. You know what kids love? Videogames. And you know what they don’t really love—at least if the...

Getty Images

AI's Trump Stress Test?

By Abram Brown · Mar 31, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Phewww. That was a close one. Tech stocks narrowly avoided another large, painful sell-off on Monday as investors continued to look at the uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s trade agenda. The Nasdaq ended the day down 0.1%, but at different points in the day, trading seemed much grimmer, and the index was down more than 2% at... Phewww. That was a close one. Tech stocks narrowly avoided another large, painful...

Photo via Getty

Musk Solves X

By Martin Peers · Mar 28, 2025 3:38pm PDT · 2 comments

We have one less company called X to worry about. Elon Musk took a break from cutting costs in the federal government to reveal late Friday that he had merged his X social media platform into his xAI startup. It was a surprising but not completely unexpected move, one that removes any impediments to the two firms sharing resources—and should... We have one less company called X to worry about. Elon Musk took a break from cutting costs in...

CoreWeave co-founder and CEO Michael Intrator. Photo via Getty

CoreWeave’s Shaky IPO Signal

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 27, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

CoreWeave is the first company trying to test Wall Street’s appetite for a new, tasty artificial intelligence offering. And investors don’t seem to like what they’re being served.The company priced its initial public offering tonight at $40 a share, putting a roughly $23 billion valuation on CoreWeave, according to CNBC. That’s way down from the... CoreWeave is the first company trying to test Wall Street’s appetite for a new, tasty artificial...

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. Photo via Getty

Stripe Likes Its Privacy; Autodesk’s Activist Travails

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

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. Photo via Getty

Stripe Likes Its Privacy; Autodesk’s Activist Travails

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

Why do profitable companies bother to go public nowadays? That’s a question my colleague Cory Weinberg raised today in this piece, which revealed that payments processing firm Stripe doubled its free cash flow to $2.2 billion in 2024 on just $5.1 billion in revenue. That’s a free cash flow margin of 43%, which is unusually high for a company... Why do profitable companies bother to go public nowadays? That’s a question my colleague Cory...

Alibaba chair Joe Tsai. Photo via Getty

Warnings of an AI Bubble

By Martin Peers · Mar 25, 2025 5:00pm PDT

We keep hearing that companies are still hesitating about paying for new artificial intelligence tools. Yet companies filing to go public nowadays appear to have no such hesitation. Trading app eToro, for instance, which filed to go public Monday night, said in its IPO paperwork, “We’re already using AI to provide users with personalized... We keep hearing that companies are still hesitating about paying for new artificial intelligence...

Photo via Getty

Advertiser Anxiety is Rising

By Sahil Patel · Mar 24, 2025 5:00pm PDT

A truism in the media sector is that economic uncertainty leads marketers to reduce ad spending. And right now, President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and other countries are beginning to make marketers question how much they actually want to spend on advertising in the coming months.In the past week,... A truism in the media sector is that economic uncertainty leads marketers to reduce ad spending....

Photo via Getty

StubHub's Pricey IPO Ticket

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 21, 2025 3:52pm PDT

For the second Friday in a row, a long-anticipated IPO candidate made it official. Last week it was Klarna, and today it’s StubHub. And as I read StubHub’s prospectus today, I couldn’t help but think of a twist on an old idiom: Hell hath no fury like a founder scorned. The filing revealed that Eric Baker—StubHub’s founder, who was fired... For the second Friday in a row, a long-anticipated IPO candidate made it official. Last week it...

Photo via Getty

Apple Can’t Beat Spotify

By Martin Peers · Mar 20, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

Photo via Getty

Apple Can’t Beat Spotify

By Martin Peers · Mar 20, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

There are lots of reasons to be down on Apple nowadays. Its tentative steps into artificial intelligence have not gone well, leading to a high-profile executive shake-up today. Sales of its core product, the iPhone, are stagnant. The most recent attempt at a new product, the Vision Pro mixed reality headset, flopped. And as our Wayne Ma reported... There are lots of reasons to be down on Apple nowadays. Its tentative steps into artificial...

Photo via Getty

Investors Are Overvaluing Musk’s X

By Martin Peers · Mar 19, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Wow. Elon Musk really is the Pied Piper of investors. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that the social media firm had raised “close to $1 billion” in fresh equity at a $32 billion valuation. Including X’s debt, that implies a roughly $44 billion enterprise value for the company, which is what it was worth in Musk’s 2022 buyout of the company then... Wow. Elon Musk really is the Pied Piper of investors. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that the...

Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Photos via Getty

Why Google Wanted Wiz So Badly

By Aaron Holmes · Mar 18, 2025 5:00pm PDT

If at first you don’t succeed, try offering more money. That’s the strategy Google employed to ink its $32 billion deal to acquire cloud cybersecurity startup Wiz, which the two companies announced today. The deal reemerged from the ashes this week after Wiz last summer rejected a $23 billion bid from Google, deciding that it preferred to remain... If at first you don’t succeed, try offering more money. That’s the strategy Google employed to...

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna. Photo via Getty

Klarna Affirms Marketing Savvy With Walmart Deal

By Martin Peers · Mar 17, 2025 5:00pm PDT

If the folks at Klarna ever decide to diversify from installment lending, they should give marketing a go. The Swedish company seems to be an expert in getting attention—and we’re not just talking about its frequent pronouncements about how it is using AI to cut costs. More to the point: Klarna’s announcement on Monday that it will become the... If the folks at Klarna ever decide to diversify from installment lending, they should give...

Photo via Getty

Klarna’s Measly AI Savings

By Martin Peers · Mar 14, 2025 3:26pm PDT

Photo via Getty

Klarna’s Measly AI Savings

By Martin Peers · Mar 14, 2025 3:26pm PDT

How much money can AI save a business? That’s a hugely important question for businesses nowadays—uncertainty about the answer is holding up wider adoption of various new AI products, as we described on several fronts this week. (See this piece on Salesforce’s struggles in selling its new AI agent tool, and these other two stories on the same... How much money can AI save a business? That’s a hugely important question for businesses nowadays...