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Art by Mike Sullivan

The Cost of Buying AI Is Creeping Up, Boosting Microsoft and Other Sellers

By Aaron Holmes · Aug 20, 2025 6:30am PDT · 2 comments

Last year, the cost for businesses to purchase state-of-the-art artificial intelligence was plummeting. Top AI providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google had slashed the price of their flagship AI models by more than 90% compared to prior years, while DeepSeek and other open-source developers were releasing free yet powerful models. Google... Last year, the cost for businesses to purchase state-of-the-art artificial intelligence was...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Is AI Better Than Humans at Interviewing People?

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 19, 2025 10:39am PDT · 1 comment

Job seekers are increasingly running into employers using artificial intelligence-powered job interviewers, and the process has garnered backlash and in some cases sparked lawsuits from spurned candidates. But AI interviewers might actually increase candidates’ chances of getting hired.A new research study published this week from the... Job seekers are increasingly running into employers using artificial intelligence-powered job...

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To Court Big Brands, Walmart Throws Some Smaller Merchants Under the Bus

By Ann Gehan · Aug 18, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

For nearly 25 years, Tracey Shelley, an online merchant who sells products like Olay moisturizer, Coppertone sunscreen and Dr. Squatch deodorant, operated mainly on Amazon’s marketplace. But in the past few years, Shelley said she shifted nearly half her business to Walmart, as the retailer lobbied online sellers to sell on its site. In its... For nearly 25 years, Tracey Shelley, an online merchant who sells products like Olay moisturizer,...

Art by Clark Miller

AI’s Personality Problem

By Abram Brown · Aug 16, 2025 7:00am PDT

Art by Clark Miller

AI’s Personality Problem

By Abram Brown · Aug 16, 2025 7:00am PDT

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Foreign researchers weigh AI riches against immigration worries • The Arena: Why David Ellison will want more streaming punch for Paramount• Plus, our Recommendations: “Buzz: The Man & The Moon,” “An Oral History of Atlantis” and “The Gilded Age.” Soon, the greatest challenge in... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Foreign researchers weigh AI riches ...

Art by Clark Miller; Images via Getty

The UFC Alone Isn’t Enough Streaming Punch for David Ellison’s Paramount

By Sara Germano · Aug 16, 2025 6:00am PDT

It didn’t take long for David Ellison, the fresh-faced millennial owner and CEO of Paramount Skydance, to make a statement. Just five days after the merger between Paramount and Skydance closed, the scion of Oracle’s Larry Ellison reached into his deep pockets to acquire seven years of broadcast rights to UFC mixed-martial arts matches for $7.7... It didn’t take long for David Ellison, the fresh-faced millennial owner and CEO of Paramount...

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 ...

Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch at The Information's San Francisco AI Summit in 2024. Photo by Erin Beach for The Information.

Cloud Startup Vercel Fields Offers for $9 Billion Valuation

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Sri Muppidi · Aug 14, 2025 3:30pm PDT · 1 comment

Vercel, a nine-year-old cloud startup that companies use to host and develop websites and artificial intelligence apps, has been approached by investors offering to invest hundreds of millions of dollars at a valuation between $8 billion to $9 billion, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions. The new funding could nearly... Vercel, a nine-year-old cloud startup that companies use to host and develop websites and...

Secret Snowflake AI Revenue Figure Shows Brand-Name LLMs Reign Supreme

By Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 14, 2025 1:02pm PDT

Secret Snowflake AI Revenue Figure Shows Brand-Name LLMs Reign Supreme

By Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 14, 2025 1:02pm PDT

For all the talk about the rise of low-cost or open-source AI models, enterprises are still gravitating to brand-name models from OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. That’s prompting database providers like Snowflake, Databricks and Oracle to strike deals allowing database customers to use the brand-name AI to build chatbots and search tools that... For all the talk about the rise of low-cost or open-source AI models, enterprises are still...

Jeff Green, founder of The Trade Desk. Photo via Getty

Walmart Backing Away From Trade Desk, an Amazon Ad Tech Rival

By Catherine Perloff and Theo Wayt · Aug 14, 2025 7:16am PDT

Amazon’s most direct rival in handling ad sales across the web, the Trade Desk, could be in danger of losing one of its most valuable clients—Walmart. Last year, Walmart renegotiated its four-year-old arrangement with the Trade Desk, under which advertisers buying spots on the Web using Walmart shopper data for targeting have to use the... Amazon’s most direct rival in handling ad sales across the web, the Trade Desk, could be in...

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...

Unsolicited Term Sheets, Declining Dry Powder: Inside the AI Deal Rush

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Aug 11, 2025 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

Last year, when money was surging into artificial intelligence startups, even some venture capitalists involved in those deals worried that the high costs of AI and unreliable demand from businesses were setting up many startups for disappointment. Such skepticism, if not dead, is on its last legs. Monthly revenue that is doubling or quadrupling... Last year, when money was surging into artificial intelligence startups, even some venture...

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OpenAI Says GPT-5 Is One-Size-Fits-All; New Open Model Was Cheap to Train

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Aaron Holmes · Aug 7, 2025 11:05am PDT

Photo via Getty

OpenAI Says GPT-5 Is One-Size-Fits-All; New Open Model Was Cheap to Train

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Aaron Holmes · Aug 7, 2025 11:05am PDT

OpenAI unveiled its new flagship AI model, GPT-5, on Thursday. And with the launch, OpenAI seems to be moving more towards offering an entire AI system to its customers versus giving them the choice between models. The company said during a live-streamed presentation that it would be withdrawing user access to its older models, meaning that... OpenAI unveiled its new flagship AI model, GPT-5, on Thursday. And with the launch, OpenAI seems...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Chinese Models Lead the Pack on Video AI, for Now

By Rocket Drew · Aug 7, 2025 7:00am PDT

Before we get to today’s column, OpenAI is set to release its latest flagship model, GPT-5, later Thursday morning.We may have taken some of the wind out of the launch’s sails thanks to our reporting in recent weeks on how GPT-5 came together and what you can expect from the model (sorry OpenAI!), but there’s still lots to look forward to with... Before we get to today’s column, OpenAI is set to release its latest flagship model, GPT-5, later...

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?...

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OpenAI’s Secret Strategy for Its Open Models

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Aug 6, 2025 7:00am PDT

AI developers rejoice! After months of buildup, OpenAI yesterday finally released the first open-weight large language models it’s put out since 2019, which in AI land is forever. (ChatGPT itself was released less than three years ago.) The impetus for OpenAI to launch an open-weight model goes back to China’s DeepSeek, which exploded onto... AI developers rejoice! After months of buildup, OpenAI yesterday finally released the first...

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...

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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...

Erik Bernhardsson, CEO of Modal. Screenshot via YouTube

Another AI Cloud Startup Becomes a Unicorn

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Sri Muppidi · Jul 31, 2025 7:30am PDT

Lately, investors have been eager to back cloud startups that provide application developers with access to Nvidia graphics processing units and help them to develop and run AI models quickly. The investor interest comes despite questions about the profit margins of these startups, otherwise known as cloud GPU resellers or inference providers.In... Lately, investors have been eager to back cloud startups that provide application developers with...

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....

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Amazon Locks Down Against Google’s AI Shopping Agents

By Ann Gehan · Jul 30, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Photo via Getty.

Amazon Locks Down Against Google’s AI Shopping Agents

By Ann Gehan · Jul 30, 2025 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Amazon is taking steps to keep other companies’ artificial intelligence shopping tools from swarming its e-commerce site. In recent weeks, Amazon updated the code underpinning its website to add language warding off new AI agents from Google. These changes follow restrictions Amazon added earlier this year calling out bots from Perplexity,... Amazon is taking steps to keep other companies’ artificial intelligence shopping tools from...