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

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Why Google’s AI Weakness Turned Out to Be a Strength

By Martin Peers · Dec 18, 2025 5:00pm PST

Sometimes people’s greatest weakness can be their biggest strength. And in AI, it is turning out that what we thought was a weakness for Google—the fact that it had both a search portal and an AI chatbot—is actually an advantage. People use search and AI chatbots interchangeably, to be sure, but it’s become clear through the course of this year... Sometimes people’s greatest weakness can be their biggest strength. And in AI, it is turning out...

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon. Getty Images.

OpenAI's Funding Advantage Over Rivals Grows

By Martin Peers · Dec 17, 2025 5:00pm PST

Talk about an endorsement! For all the talk about OpenAI falling behind Google, the ChatGPT maker doesn’t seem to be having any problems attracting big backers. Last week it was Disney, putting in $1 billion, and soon it’s likely to be Amazon, judging from The Information’s scoop on Tuesday night that Amazon was in talks to invest more than $10... Talk about an endorsement! For all the talk about OpenAI falling behind Google, the ChatGPT maker...

George Osborne. Jack Taylor/Getty Images.

OpenAI Lands Its British Politician

By Martin Peers · Dec 16, 2025 5:00pm PST

What is it about former British government ministers that makes them so appealing to U.S. tech firms? Former U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is joining OpenAI to be head of OpenAI for Countries, based in London. The title is a little vague, but according to OpenAI’s chief global affairs executive, Chris Lehane, Osborne will be... What is it about former British government ministers that makes them so appealing to U.S. tech...

ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott. Getty Images.

ServiceNow Sell-Off Highlights Jittery Market

By Martin Peers · Dec 15, 2025 5:00pm PST

ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott. Getty Images.

ServiceNow Sell-Off Highlights Jittery Market

By Martin Peers · Dec 15, 2025 5:00pm PST

Talk about a jittery market. Shares of ServiceNow dropped 11.5% on Monday after a weekend report that the enterprise software firm was in “advanced talks” to buy cybersecurity firm Armis for $7 billion. The stock sell-off wiped $21 billion off ServiceNow’s market capitalization—reducing it to $159 billion—which seems something of an... Talk about a jittery market. Shares of ServiceNow dropped 11.5% on Monday after a weekend report...

Mario Tama/Getty Images

How Netflix and the Ellisons Could Compromise on Warner

By Martin Peers · Dec 14, 2025 3:00pm PST

We’re heading into our last full working week of the year, so the news flow is likely to start quieting down. (Be on the lookout for ServiceNow’s next big acquisition, however). One story that’s likely to chug along through the holidays is the battle between Netflix and the Ellison family’s Paramount Skydance for Warner Bros. Discovery. There’s... We’re heading into our last full working week of the year, so the news flow is likely to start...

Disney CEO Bob Iger. Michael Reaves/Getty Images

OpenAI’s Mickey Mouse Deal

By Martin Peers · Dec 11, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

When you’re on your back foot, as OpenAI has lately been, what better way is there to take the offense than to announce a Mickey Mouse deal? Take OpenAI’s partnership with Walt Disney Co., unveiled on Thursday morning. Disney will make a $1 billion equity investment in the ChatGPT creator and will license 200 characters from its film and... When you’re on your back foot, as OpenAI has lately been, what better way is there to take the...

Oracle co-CEO Clay Magouyrk. Getty Images

Oracle’s Costly AI Expansion Turns Off Wall Street

By Martin Peers · Dec 10, 2025 5:00pm PST

The costs of Oracle’s AI data center expansion is becoming clear—and Wall Street isn’t happy. The software and cloud firm, which until recently was a solid moneymaker, said Wednesday it burned through $10 billion in cash in the November quarter thanks to a big ramp-up in capital expenditures on AI-focused data centers for its cloud business.... The costs of Oracle’s AI data center expansion is becoming clear—and Wall Street isn’t happy. The...

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

Trump's Disappearing Messages

By Martin Peers · Dec 9, 2025 5:00pm PST

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

Trump's Disappearing Messages

By Martin Peers · Dec 9, 2025 5:00pm PST

It sometimes feels there’s an element of the supernatural in the Trump administration’s dealings with the business world. Stuff gets announced and then disappears into the ether, never to be heard of again. Take President Donald Trump’s announcement in August that he’d let Nvidia sell its H20 AI chips to China, in exchange for a 15% cut of the... It sometimes feels there’s an element of the supernatural in the Trump administration’s dealings...

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison. Ted Sarandos and David Ellison. Getty Images.

Nvidia, Confluent and WBD’s Happy Day

By Martin Peers · Dec 8, 2025 5:00pm PST

This could be big news: President Donald Trump said he would allow Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 AI chip to China, in exchange for the U.S. government getting a 25% cut of those sales. That could re-open the Chinese market to Nvidia—if the Chinese government allows its local companies to buy the chips. Chances of that are good. The H200s are... This could be big news: President Donald Trump said he would allow Nvidia to sell its advanced...

Larry Ellison, Hock Tan Take the Stage This Week

Larry Ellison, Hock Tan Take the Stage This Week

By Martin Peers · Dec 7, 2025 3:00pm PST

Step aside, young folks of tech. This week we hear from the industry’s, ah, elder statesmen—specifically Larry Ellison at Oracle and Hock Tan from Broadcom, whose combined age is about 150. Oracle and Broadcom are each reporting their latest quarterly earnings this week, when the status of their newish AI businesses will be in the spotlight. In... Step aside, young folks of tech. This week we hear from the industry’s, ah, elder statesmen—...

OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei. Getty Images.

Amodei’s Advantage Over Altman Comes Into View

By Martin Peers · Dec 4, 2025 5:00pm PST · 3 comments

To a casual observer, OpenAI and Anthropic might have appeared—until recently—to be the Uber and Lyft of the AI world, with Anthropic the distant rival to the dominant OpenAI. That feels to be less the case nowadays. In fact, Anthropic—with its disciplined focus on serving businesses and expectations it will turn a profit several years before... To a casual observer, OpenAI and Anthropic might have appeared—until recently—to be the Uber and...

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at the 2025 Dreamforce conference last month. Getty Images

Salesforce’s (Small) AI Lift

By Martin Peers · Dec 3, 2025 5:00pm PST · 2 comments

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at the 2025 Dreamforce conference last month. Getty Images

Salesforce’s (Small) AI Lift

By Martin Peers · Dec 3, 2025 5:00pm PST · 2 comments

There may be some blurry light at the end of the tunnel for Marc Benioff. Salesforce’s fiscal third-quarter numbers released on Wednesday suggest its revenue from AI products is growing enough to lift its annual growth rate just a bit. Salesforce is still growing very slowly—its new projection is for revenue to expand 9.2% in the current fiscal... There may be some blurry light at the end of the tunnel for Marc Benioff. Salesforce’s fiscal...

Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz. Getty Images.

Eventbrite Punches Exit Ticket

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

For all the venture capitalist–inspired hype around tech startups, it’s always good to remember that many are too niche to ever amount to anything—and should never go public. We got a reminder of that on Tuesday when Italian conglomerate Bending Spoons said it would buy ticketing firm Eventbrite for $500 million in cash. That’s a stunning... For all the venture capitalist–inspired hype around tech startups, it’s always good to remember...

Michael Saylor, co-founder and executive chairman of Strategy Inc. Getty Images.

The Flaw With Strategy’s Stock-Selling Merry-Go-Round

By Martin Peers · Dec 1, 2025 5:00pm PST

You can always rely on Michael Saylor and the folks at Strategy to blaze new trails in corporate finance. Take Strategy’s announcement today that it had raised $1.44 billion by selling shares to—get this—establish a “USD reserve” to pay the $689 million it owes annually in dividends on its stock and interest on its debt. Usually companies try to... You can always rely on Michael Saylor and the folks at Strategy to blaze new trails in corporate...

Amazon CEO Andy at Amazon Re:Invent 2024. Photo courtesy of AWS

AWS Beats the AI Drum in Vegas

By Kevin McLaughlin · Nov 30, 2025 4:07pm PST

Hopefully, everyone has digested their Thanksgiving leftovers. It’s going to be a busy week, tech event-wise. The biggest of them all is re:Invent, Amazon Web Services’ annual customer conference in Las Vegas that has become something like the Super Bowl of cloud computing. On Tuesday, AWS CEO Matt Garman is scheduled to take the stage for... Hopefully, everyone has digested their Thanksgiving leftovers. It’s going to be a busy week, tech...

Getty Images.

Crypto Robbery Rattles Investors

By Yueqi Yang · Nov 26, 2025 2:48pm PST

Getty Images.

Crypto Robbery Rattles Investors

By Yueqi Yang · Nov 26, 2025 2:48pm PST

The recent bitcoin sell-off wasn’t the only cause for alarm among crypto investors this week. Many were rattled by news that a tech investor was robbed of $11 million worth of crypto at his home. Doorbell camera footage shows someone posing as a delivery worker approaching the home, accessible on street level in Mission Dolores, and asking for “... The recent bitcoin sell-off wasn’t the only cause for alarm among crypto investors this week....

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Getty Images

Google’s Meta Talks Put the Ball in Nvidia’s Court

By Martin Peers · Nov 25, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

We’re getting close to the year’s end, when reporters’ minds turn to predictions for the new year. So here’s one: I predict sometime soon Nvidia will announce it is investing billions of dollars into Meta Platforms, in exchange for Meta committing to continue using Nvidia’s AI chips. This is just a wild guess, to be clear, but it’s based on how... We’re getting close to the year’s end, when reporters’ minds turn to predictions for the new...

Getty Images

Grindr’s Control Issues

By Cory Weinberg · Nov 24, 2025 5:00pm PST

It’s not too often that a controlling shareholder can’t get their way at a public company. But an attempt by the two biggest investors in Grindr to take the gay dating and hookup app private went south on Monday. The reason? They didn’t come up with the money. It’s the latest chapter in a long-running corporate finance saga surrounding Grindr,... It’s not too often that a controlling shareholder can’t get their way at a public company. But an...

Oracle, Warner Bros. Discovery and the Ellisons

Oracle, Warner Bros. Discovery and the Ellisons

By Martin Peers · Nov 23, 2025 3:00pm PST

The Ellison family will have plenty to talk about when they convene for Thanksgiving this week (assuming they do!). The price of Oracle has plummeted in the past six weeks, for one thing, reflecting AI bubble jitters centering on Oracle. In the same period of time, Larry Ellison and his son David have been—by all accounts—busy plotting the... The Ellison family will have plenty to talk about when they convene for Thanksgiving this week...

Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Getty Images

Ron DeSantis Spotlights Key AI Question

By Martin Peers · Nov 20, 2025 5:00pm PST

Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Getty Images

Ron DeSantis Spotlights Key AI Question

By Martin Peers · Nov 20, 2025 5:00pm PST

We’re moving off the (unresolved) AI bubble debate to a much more fundamental question about AI. That is whether decisions about an enormously costly technology, which threatens to put many people out of work, should be left to tech leaders or discussed more broadly. It turns out Republicans may have the best handle on this issue, most obviously... We’re moving off the (unresolved) AI bubble debate to a much more fundamental question about AI....