The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica E. Lessin and the team at The Information

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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica E. Lessin and the team at The Information

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Recent Editions

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. Getty Images.

Chesky’s Side Quest

By Martin Peers · Nov 5, 2026 5:01pm PST

Once upon a time, being CEO of a public company was a full-time job. In fact, for most CEOs, it still is—and an exhausting one at that. So it’s a little puzzling to see that a growing number of tech CEOs are embarking on their own side quests, including most recently Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, who has started an AI lab, as Bloomberg reported earlier... Once upon a time, being CEO of a public company was a full-time job. In fact, for most CEOs, it...

Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Voters’ Gift to Big Tech

By Martin Peers · Nov 4, 2026 5:01pm PST

Voters just handed big tech a gift—and we’re not just thinking of Californians who voted against the billionaire tax proposal. (Can all those billionaires come home now?) Wednesday’s rally in the stocks of Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Alphabet suggests that investors see lots of upside for those tech firms from Tuesday’s Democratic victory.The... Voters just handed big tech a gift—and we’re not just thinking of Californians who voted against...

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Getty Images.

Salesforce’s M&A Blitz Reflects Broader Deal Rush

By Martin Peers · Nov 3, 2026 5:01pm PST

Anyone with an interest in tech will be glued to the TV or social media tonight, monitoring the midterm elections. As my colleague Shane Burke writes below, more than 20 candidates in state governor races support a moratorium on data center development. There’s also the California billionaire tax, Proposition 40, to track. But for those in tech... Anyone with an interest in tech will be glued to the TV or social media tonight, monitoring the...

Apple CEO John Ternus. Getty Images.

Apple’s Slowdown

By Martin Peers · Nov 2, 2026 5:01pm PST

Apple CEO John Ternus. Getty Images.

Apple’s Slowdown

By Martin Peers · Nov 2, 2026 5:01pm PST

Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, has learned from the best. The script for his first earnings call on Monday was so full of marketing palaver about Apple products, and so lacking in information, that Ternus’ predecessor, Tim Cook, must have been glowing with pride. Perhaps after seeing investors freak out last week when other big tech firms... Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, has learned from the best. The script for his first earnings call...

Apple CEO John Ternus. Photo by Getty.

Apple, Uber and Elections Headline Week

By Laura Mandaro · Nov 1, 2026 3:00pm PST

Can Apple, Uber and Palantir turn this stock market around? It sure needs it. Worries about excessive AI spending tanked Google’s stock last week and sent the Nasdaq Composite to its worst month since March 2025. While the major indexes are still in the green for the year, a few more days like Friday’s could change that. Fortunately, we have a... Can Apple, Uber and Palantir turn this stock market around? It sure needs it. Worries about...

DoorDash CEO Tony Xu (photo: Getty Images)

DoorDash and Thrive Go Shopping

By Abram Brown and Nick Wingfield · Oct 29, 2026 5:01pm PDT

Get your deals in while ya still can, folks. And clearly, there are relative bargains to be had. DoorDash CEO Tony Xu gets what I’m talking about. On Thursday, Xu finally picked up Instacart, with Xu’s company saying it would pay about $17 billion for the grocery-delivery business. Over on X, Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta sent up a... Get your deals in while ya still can, folks. And clearly, there are relative bargains to be...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Getty Images.

Google Cloud Closes In on Azure, but Microsoft Wins the Day With Investors

By Nick Wingfield · Oct 28, 2026 5:06pm PDT

There was a lot to digest from Wednesday’s earnings reports from Microsoft and Google, long the No. 2 and 3 players in cloud computing, respectively. But let’s start with the most interesting takeaway: Google’s cloud unit revenues are now within spitting distance of Microsoft’s Azure cloud revenues, thanks in part to Google’s sales of its AI... There was a lot to digest from Wednesday’s earnings reports from Microsoft and Google, long the...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. AP Photos.

Google is Having a TPU Moment

By Nick Wingfield · Oct 27, 2026 5:15pm PDT · 2 comments

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. AP Photos.

Google is Having a TPU Moment

By Nick Wingfield · Oct 27, 2026 5:15pm PDT · 2 comments

Get ready to hear Google brag about TPUs on Wednesday. When Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reports third-quarter earnings tomorrow, the company’s in-house AI chips, tensor processing units, are sure to be on the lips of Google executives and Wall Street analysts. That’s because we got a bunch of new signs this week of the swelling... Get ready to hear Google brag about TPUs on Wednesday. When Alphabet, Google’s parent company,...

Left to right: Elon Musk, Dario Amodei and Mark Zuckerberg. Getty Images.

Anthropic, SpaceX and Meta Cash Grabs

By Nick Wingfield · Oct 26, 2026 5:06pm PDT

If it feels like it’s getting stuffy, that’s because the AI industry’s biggest names are doing their best to suck all the air out of the room. On Monday, Anthropic, SpaceX and Meta Platforms all unveiled their respective plans for raising gobs of cash to fund their AI ambitions, which could collectively add up to almost a quarter of a trillion... If it feels like it’s getting stuffy, that’s because the AI industry’s biggest names are doing...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Getty Images.

Anthropic’s Big Reveal

By Nick Wingfield · Oct 25, 2026 3:01pm PDT

The tech industry equivalent of the Super Bowl may finally be upon us. Anthropic could make public the paperwork for its initial public offering as early as Monday. Details about Anthropic’s finances from either drafts of the IPO filing or recent investor meetings have been dribbling out for weeks. As a result, some of the S-1’s revelations will... The tech industry equivalent of the Super Bowl may finally be upon us. Anthropic could make...

Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman. Jaimi Joy/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Why Blackstone Thinks AI Bottlenecks Could Work in its Favor

By Alex Eichenstein · Oct 22, 2026 5:01pm PDT

Greetings! On their earnings calls earlier in the week, Meta Platforms and SpaceX delivered the same underlying message to investors: demand for AI is running ahead of the supply of AI compute. On Thursday, another important player in the AI ecosystem—Blackstone, the alternative asset management giant—repeated a version of that... Greetings! On their earnings calls earlier in the week, Meta Platforms and SpaceX...

Art by Mike Sullivan

The Closing of the ‘Defenders Window’ Is Nigh

By Leo Schwartz · Oct 21, 2026 5:01pm PDT · 1 comment

Art by Mike Sullivan

The Closing of the ‘Defenders Window’ Is Nigh

By Leo Schwartz · Oct 21, 2026 5:01pm PDT · 1 comment

At first, the X headlines this morning about the latest AI-powered cybersecurity incident seemed dire. But by the time I had a cup of coffee and began parsing all the cyber jargon, I was reassured that an apparent solution was on its way to plug a major new security hole that could make websites vulnerable to cyberintrusions. Since August, a... At first, the X headlines this morning about the latest AI-powered cybersecurity incident seemed...

Photo via Getty Images

SpaceX’s Musk Lauds Its Soaring Cloud Business and Possible Tesla Merger

By Nick Wingfield · Oct 20, 2026 5:01pm PDT

SpaceX put on a bit of a show for shareholders today—and I’m not referring to the sizzle reel of rocket and space videos it showed on its earnings call. No, the big attention grabber was the update from CEO Elon Musk on the progress of SpaceX’s contemplated merger with Tesla and just how involved—or not involved he is in the whole affair. ... SpaceX put on a bit of a show for shareholders today—and I’m not referring to the sizzle reel of...

Apple CEO John Ternus. Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images.

At Apple, Pigs Are About to Fly

By Nick Wingfield · Oct 19, 2026 5:01pm PDT

Apple sure takes its own sweet time. On Monday, the company sent out invitations to a product announcement happening next Wednesday, which the company’s marketing chief teased in a message on X: “Can’t wait to pro and tell next week.” That’s likely a reference to a new MacBook Pro from the company, which Bloomberg has reported will be Apple’s... Apple sure takes its own sweet time. On Monday, the company sent out invitations to a product...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Getty Images.

Meta, Tesla and Netflix Q3 Updates Coming This Week

By Martin Peers · Oct 18, 2026 3:00pm PDT

Tech earnings season is back (yes, I know it feels like it never ends). This time, we’ve got a slight twist: Meta Platforms has broken with the pack and is reporting its September-quarter earnings on Wednesday, a week ahead of its big tech counterparts, Google, Microsoft and Amazon. (Apple is even later, on Nov. 2.) By reporting earlier than the... Tech earnings season is back (yes, I know it feels like it never ends). This time, we’ve got a...

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty.

Did Anthropic Miss Its Peak IPO Moment?

By Martin Peers · Oct 15, 2026 5:01pm PDT · 1 comment

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty.

Did Anthropic Miss Its Peak IPO Moment?

By Martin Peers · Oct 15, 2026 5:01pm PDT · 1 comment

It’s beginning to look like Anthropic waited too late to go public. Third-quarter revenue numbers disclosed to investors on Wednesday implied that its growth has slowed from the second quarter, which we reported is likely to put a ceiling on its IPO valuation. Anthropic might have been better off going public in June, when its growth was still... It’s beginning to look like Anthropic waited too late to go public. Third-quarter revenue numbers...

CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator. Getty Images.

CoreWeave Co-Founders’ Stock Sales Aren’t Helping Investor Confidence

By Martin Peers · Oct 14, 2026 5:01pm PDT · 1 comment

This was not the day to be a publicly traded neocloud (as young AI data center firms are known). As the market sold off on bad inflation data—reinforcing certainty of another interest rate hike—neoclouds tanked. These companies typically are borrowing a lot to finance expansion. The worst hit in the stock sell-off was CoreWeave, whose stock fell... This was not the day to be a publicly traded neocloud (as young AI data center firms are known)....

Signs promoting Bumble's IPO in 2021. Getty Images

OpenAI’s Bug and Bumble’s AI-Powered Exit

By Martin Peers · Oct 13, 2026 5:00pm PDT

When is someone going to make a TV show set at OpenAI? It’s got swarms of rogue AI agents causing havoc across the internet, not to mention periodic corporate drama. And today we learned that an OpenAI engineer allegedly planted a “sophisticated recording device” inside a company conference room.The Justice Department identified the engineer—who... When is someone going to make a TV show set at OpenAI? It’s got swarms of rogue AI agents causing...

Alexandr Wang, Chief AI Officer of Meta. Getty Images.

Meta Reaches AI’s Crowded Frontier—Will Users Care?

By Martin Peers · Oct 12, 2026 5:00pm PDT

If it’s Monday, it must be time for another AI model release. This time, it was Meta Platforms’ turn, unveiling Muse Wonder, which it claims can “deliver state-of-the-art performance” on certain tasks. It was a triumphant moment for the company, whose AI efforts previously went through a slump that prompted a massive hiring binge over the past... If it’s Monday, it must be time for another AI model release. This time, it was Meta Platforms’...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Getty Images.

Amazon’s Bargains Include Its Stock

By Martin Peers · Oct 11, 2026 3:01pm PDT

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Getty Images.

Amazon’s Bargains Include Its Stock

By Martin Peers · Oct 11, 2026 3:01pm PDT

It’s the quiet before the storm of earnings season, which starts in a week or two. While we wait for the third-quarter updates, here’s a thought: Investor enthusiasm for semiconductor stocks and blue-sky vision companies like SpaceX appears to have sucked money out of stocks of long-established tech companies. Some are now trading at... It’s the quiet before the storm of earnings season, which starts in a week or two. While we wait...