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

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Photo via Getty

Amazon’s Andy Jassy Says the Quiet Part About AI Out Loud

By Theo Wayt · Jun 17, 2025 5:00pm PDT

The tech industry has spent the past few years telling everyone that the artificial intelligence tools they’re building are about to change the world. But until recently executives at the largest tech firms haven’t been willing to spell out what exactly that means for the hundreds of thousands of white-collar staffers at their own companies.... The tech industry has spent the past few years telling everyone that the artificial intelligence...

Image via Getty

Meta’s New Way to Pay for AI Investments: WhatsApp Ads

By Kalley Huang · Jun 16, 2025 5:00pm PDT

The days of “No ads! No games! No gimmicks!” are over. That was the slogan coined by one of the founders of WhatsApp, Brian Acton, which the other founder of the messaging app, Jan Koum, used to keep taped to his desk on a sticky note. On Monday, though, WhatsApp’s owner, Meta Platforms, said the app will start showing ads for the first time in... The days of “No ads! No games! No gimmicks!” are over. That was the slogan coined by one of the...

A Waymo autonomous vehicle. Photo via Getty

Robotaxis Get Real

By Abram Brown · Jun 13, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Flying cars may not have arrived yet, but the long-awaited era of everyday robotaxis is here. And not just in America, if I’m correctly reading signals about the state of the industry from the last several days. They were all equally eye-opening, even if one was a little grim. In Los Angeles, a real-life “Black Mirror” moment played out,... Flying cars may not have arrived yet, but the long-awaited era of everyday robotaxis is here. And...

Photo Bloomberg via Getty Images

In IPO Market, FOMO Replaces Fear

By Cory Weinberg · Jun 12, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Photo Bloomberg via Getty Images

In IPO Market, FOMO Replaces Fear

By Cory Weinberg · Jun 12, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Did you hear that pop? Tech initial public offerings are getting loud, a little silly, and highly profitable for investors again. Banking app Chime’s share price jumped 37% above its IPO price Thursday, its first day of trading on Nasdaq, lifting its market cap past $15 billion. It’s the latest in a string of price pops that are helping to... Did you hear that pop? Tech initial public offerings are getting loud, a little silly, and highly...

Oracle CEO Safra Catz. Photo via Getty

Stargate Snag Doesn’t Stop Oracle Cloud Growth

By Nick Wingfield and Anissa Gardizy · Jun 11, 2025 5:00pm PDT

We learned a few interesting things from Oracle’s earnings report today. First, CEO Safra Catz dropped the news that Stargate, the splashy, $500 billion joint venture between Oracle, SoftBank and OpenAI to build artificial intelligence data centers, is “not yet formed.” The tidbit from Oracle is another sign Stargate is off to a slow start after... We learned a few interesting things from Oracle’s earnings report today. First, CEO Safra Catz...

Photos via Getty

Meta’s Risky Scale AI Bet Shows Self-Assurance—or Hubris

By Nick Wingfield and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jun 10, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Mark Zuckerberg seems confident! As we reported earlier today, Meta Platforms is on the cusp of taking a 49% stake in Scale AI for $14.8 billion and bringing the AI startup’s CEO, Alexandr Wang, on board to lead a new AI lab. There are echoes in the Meta–Scale AI talks of earlier deals between big tech companies and AI startups, including Google... Mark Zuckerberg seems confident! As we reported earlier today, Meta Platforms is on the cusp of...

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo via Getty

Apple Plays It Safe at Developer Conference

By Aaron Tilley · Jun 9, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Apple appears to have learned its lesson about overpromising on artificial intelligence. Last year, at its Worldwide Developers Conference, the company made a bunch of bold promises about its AI plans to show that it too had an answer to the ChatGPT age. Those claims turned out to be half-baked, as many of the AI features under its Apple... Apple appears to have learned its lesson about overpromising on artificial intelligence. Last...

Tim Cook at WWDC 2024. Photo via Getty

Apple’s Needless App Store Fight

By Martin Peers · Jun 6, 2025 2:30pm PDT

Tim Cook at WWDC 2024. Photo via Getty

Apple’s Needless App Store Fight

By Martin Peers · Jun 6, 2025 2:30pm PDT

Forget the Musk-Trump drama for a moment. Next week is WWDC, Apple’s annual developer conference, when the iPhone maker shows off slick new software features coming later in the year. I’m tempted to say this year’s event will be more in the spotlight than usual, except that might be difficult to assert given the massive attention Apple gets for... Forget the Musk-Trump drama for a moment. Next week is WWDC, Apple’s annual developer conference,...

Photo via Getty

What’s Next for Tech in Post-Musk Washington

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

Today’s episode of America’s greatest reality series—yes, I’m talking about Elon Musk’s falling-out with President Donald Trump—was a barn burner. But rather than rehashing the gory details here (as extraordinary as their social media back-and-forth was, it was also entirely predictable), it’s more interesting to consider what this means for... Today’s episode of America’s greatest reality series—yes, I’m talking about Elon Musk’s...

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire. Photo via Getty

Squaring Away Circle’s IPO

By Yueqi Yang · Jun 4, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

One of the longest running stories in crypto, Circle Internet Group’s effort to go public, is finally wrapping up. After four years of trying, the stablecoin firm priced its initial public offering tonight at $31 per share, above its preliminary range of between $27 and $28, and valuing the company at $6.9 billion based on outstanding shares.... One of the longest running stories in crypto, Circle Internet Group’s effort to go public, is...

AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi. Photo via AppLovin

Venture Capital’s Big AppLovin Miss

By Martin Peers · Jun 3, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

One of venture capital’s big misses has to be AppLovin, an ad-tech firm specializing in selling ad space in gaming apps. Its shares have soared more than 900% since the beginning of last year, giving AppLovin a market capitalization today of $135 billion. That makes it just a bit smaller than Spotify, Shopify and Arm Holdings—and bigger than... One of venture capital’s big misses has to be AppLovin, an ad-tech firm specializing in selling...

Photo by Getty

Chime’s Founders Hedge Their Bets

By Cory Weinberg · Jun 2, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Photo by Getty

Chime’s Founders Hedge Their Bets

By Cory Weinberg · Jun 2, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Chime executives and bankers will spend the next week trying to convince investors that its stock will rise after its initial public offering. The company’s cofounders seem to be preparing for the opposite.New stock awards granted to cofounders Christopher Britt and Ryan King as part of the offering set a low bar potentially at the expense of... Chime executives and bankers will spend the next week trying to convince investors that its stock...

Photo via Getty

Musk’s White House Departure Shifts His Focus to Tesla, xAI and SpaceX

By Martin Peers · May 30, 2025 3:19pm PDT

Elon Musk has left the building—the White House, that is. President Donald Trump gave Musk a farewell press conference today, complete with a golden key (literally), marking the end of Musk’s formal time overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency. While both Trump and Musk said the Tesla CEO would visit Washington from time to time, Musk... Elon Musk has left the building—the White House, that is. President Donald Trump gave Musk a ...

Photo via Getty

AI Can Help Companies Become More Efficient—Except When It Screws Up

By Martin Peers · May 29, 2025 5:15pm PDT

Artificial intelligence really does make mistakes—sometimes big ones. Last weekend, I put half a dozen emails with details of airplane and hotel bookings for an upcoming vacation into Google’s NotebookLM and asked it to write me an itinerary. The resulting document read great—until I realized it listed a departure date 24 hours later than the... Artificial intelligence really does make mistakes—sometimes big ones. Last weekend, I put half a...

Photo via Getty

Nvidia’s Inconveniently Good Quarter

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

Well, this is inconvenient. Despite President Donald Trump’s order in April immediately blocking Nvidia from selling AI chips to China, the AI chipmaker reported another stellar quarter through the end of April. Revenue rose 69%, while free cash flow soared 75% to $26 billion, more than either Apple or Google throws off. Nvidia said the Trump... Well, this is inconvenient. Despite President Donald Trump’s order in April immediately blocking...

Photo via Getty

Benioff the Dealmaker Resurfaces With Informatica Purchase

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

Photo via Getty

Benioff the Dealmaker Resurfaces With Informatica Purchase

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

Marc Benioff is in his happy place once again, buying companies. Salesforce’s deal to buy data management firm Informatica for $8 billion in cash is the first sizable acquisition Benioff has done since a bunch of activist investors in late 2022-early 2023 forced him to focus more on profits and less on deals. And it comes at a critical time for... Marc Benioff is in his happy place once again, buying companies. Salesforce’s deal to buy data...

Trump’s Tariff Threat Shouldn’t Panic Apple Investors

Trump’s Tariff Threat Shouldn’t Panic Apple Investors

By Martin Peers · May 23, 2025 3:15pm PDT

Woo-hoo—it’s Memorial Day weekend, which means summer is just around the corner. And in a typical year, we would expect to soon see tech reviewers telling consumers not to upgrade their iPhones now, because new models will be coming in September. Not surprisingly, the June quarter is typically Apple’s weakest for iPhone sales. But this year,... Woo-hoo—it’s Memorial Day weekend, which means summer is just around the corner. And in a typical...

Sam Altman. Photo via Getty

The Flaw in Altman’s Thesis for AI Devices

By Martin Peers · May 22, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Is it animal, mineral or vegetable? OpenAI’s public declaration of its plan to roll out AI-specific hardware devices—as a result of its $6.5 billion purchase of Jony Ive’s startup, io—has sparked the predictable rush of people speculating on what the first such device will be. And we’re not just talking about journalists. Taiwan-based analyst... Is it animal, mineral or vegetable? OpenAI’s public declaration of its plan to roll out...

Jony Ive and Sam Altman. Photo via OpenAI

What OpenAI’s Jony Ive Deal Means For Altman—And Apple

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

Sam Altman seems to be trying to set a new world record for creating a vertically integrated tech company in as little time as possible. The deal he and former Apple design chief Jony Ive announced Wednesday, under which OpenAI will buy Ive’s AI hardware startup io at a valuation of $6.5 billion, is striking on a number of levels. And not just... Sam Altman seems to be trying to set a new world record for creating a vertically integrated tech...

Google Challenges Meta With Smarter Glasses

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

Google Challenges Meta With Smarter Glasses

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

With its Ray-Ban smart glasses, Meta Platforms has had the high-tech eyewear market pretty much to itself. But Google’s unveiling on Tuesday of its own glasses, using software developed with Samsung and to be made in conjunction with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, an edgy Korean eyewear brand, signals there’s a new kid on this block. Now all... With its Ray-Ban smart glasses, Meta Platforms has had the high-tech eyewear market pretty much...