Flexport Company News & Analysis — The Information

Recent Articles about Flexport

Pete Hegseth, left, and Dario Amodei. Photos by Getty.

Anthropic Has a Strong Legal Case Against Trump’s DoD

By Rocket Drew · Mar 9, 2026 7:00am PDT

Anthropic’s lawyers probably spent the weekend preparing a lawsuit the company said it would file against the Department of Defense for designating the Claude AI maker as a “supply chain risk” and cutting off commercial ties to “protect national security.” The designation followed Anthropic’s request for special assurances its tech wouldn’t be... Anthropic’s lawyers probably spent the weekend preparing a lawsuit the company said it would file...

BYD founder Wang Chuanfu introduces ultra fast "flash charging" of electric vehicles last week in Shenzhen, China. Photo: VCG/Getty

The Electric: Its Sales Sliding, BYD Fights Back With a New Battery

By Steve LeVine · Mar 9, 2026 4:30am PDT

Last year, China’s BYD zoomed past Tesla to become the world’s leading seller of electric vehicles. Now both companies are in a serious slump: BYD’s year-on-year sales have dropped for six straight months, and Tesla has suffered two years of annual sales declines. Now other nimble EV players, mostly Chinese, are fighting for the global sales... Last year, China’s BYD zoomed past Tesla to become the world’s leading seller of electric...

Illustration: Clark Miller

Tech Finally Reaches a Red Line

By Abram Brown · Mar 7, 2026 7:00am PST

Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Inside Anne Wojcicki’s plan to revive 23andMe• News Analysis: The week Anthropic went to war with OpenAI and the Pentagon• The Information Events: Tennis enters the analytics era at our Indian Wells retreat• Plus, Recommendations—our weekly pop culture picks: “Data,” “A Scandal in... Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Inside Anne Wojcicki’s plan to revive...

Art by Clark Miller

Demand from Alibaba and Other Giants Boosts China’s Homegrown Memory Suppliers

By Qianer Liu · Mar 5, 2026 6:00am PST

Art by Clark Miller

Demand from Alibaba and Other Giants Boosts China’s Homegrown Memory Suppliers

By Qianer Liu · Mar 5, 2026 6:00am PST

Chinese tech heavyweights including Alibaba Group, ByteDance and Tencent Holdings are turning to domestic chipmakers to ease the pain from a deepening global shortage of memory chips, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter. The three companies are in talks to buy more standard memory chips—known as DRAM, or dynamic... Chinese tech heavyweights including Alibaba Group, ByteDance and Tencent Holdings are turning to...

Firebird Metals plans to mine Western Australia's Oakover deposit. Photo: Courtesy Firebird.

The Electric: This Startup Says Winning in Critical Minerals Means Learning From the Chinese

By Steve LeVine · Mar 2, 2026 4:30am PST

Ford and General Motors are banking on a new manganese-based battery to leapfrog China in the EV battery race. The catch is that they won’t break China’s stranglehold on the global supply of the material that goes into the battery—high-purity manganese. Ford and General Motors are banking on a new manganese-based battery to leapfrog China in the EV...

Art by Clark Miller.

The Problem With World Models

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 12, 2026 7:00am PST · 2 comments

If you follow the AI world on X, you’ve probably seen in recent weeks clips of video game-like worlds where users are playing as a dog on a sunny beach, a vial of poison in the play Hamlet or a pack of cigarettes on the floor of Penn Station. These videos, generated with Google’s Genie 3 model, highlight the promise of so-called world... If you follow the AI world on X, you’ve probably seen in recent weeks clips of video game-like...

Art by Clark Miller.

How OpenAI Uses ChatGPT to Catch ‘Leakers’

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Feb 11, 2026 7:00am PST

Here at The Information, we’re always trying to break through the hype to understand how folks are actually using AI in the real world. And recently, I came across a new application of AI that I can’t say I had ever heard of before: using ChatGPT to catch so-called leakers.When a news story about OpenAI’s internal activities is published,... Here at The Information, we’re always trying to break through the hype to understand how folks...

Construction has started at Lithium Americas' Thacker Pass lithium project. Photo: Courtesy Lithium Americas

The Electric: Lithium Makes a Comeback as Trump Moves to Challenge China

By Steve LeVine · Feb 9, 2026 4:30am PST

Construction has started at Lithium Americas' Thacker Pass lithium project. Photo: Courtesy Lithium Americas

The Electric: Lithium Makes a Comeback as Trump Moves to Challenge China

By Steve LeVine · Feb 9, 2026 4:30am PST

Mining lithium in the West has been a terrible business recently. From a peak of about $80 a kilo in late 2022, the price of the metal plummeted as low as $8 last year, causing big losses for investors and forcing mines to close in the U.S., Australia and elsewhere. Mining lithium in the West has been a terrible business recently. From a peak of about $80 a kilo...

Art by Clark Miller.

Nvidia to Delay New Gaming Chip Due to Memory Chip Shortage

By Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu · Feb 5, 2026 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Nvidia won’t release a new graphics chip for gamers this year due to a deepening global shortage of memory chips, prompted by the AI boom, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. It would be the first year in three decades that Nvidia hasn’t released a new graphics processing unit for gaming. Nvidia got its start in the... Nvidia won’t release a new graphics chip for gamers this year due to a deepening global shortage...

Art by Getty Images

Why OpenClaw FKA Clawdbot Matters

By Rocket Drew · Feb 2, 2026 7:30am PST

If you’ve been online in the past few days, you’ve likely been bombarded with words like “Moltbook,” “OpenClaw” and “Clawdbot.” We’re here to break down what it means and how it’s giving us a peek into how AI might evolve.OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent released late last year that can write code, edit files and surf the web to complete... If you’ve been online in the past few days, you’ve likely been bombarded with words like “...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Todd Owyoung/NBC/Getty Images.

AI’s Dealmaking Frenzy

By Martin Peers · Jan 29, 2026 5:00pm PST

AI’s insatiable need for cash is proving to be a dream for dealmakers. Our scoop from Wednesday night that OpenAI was in talks to raise as much as $60 billion from Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon was followed by a Wall Street Journal report today that Amazon alone might put in $50 billion. Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Thursday that Elon Musk was... AI’s insatiable need for cash is proving to be a dream for dealmakers. Our scoop from Wednesday...

Charts by Shane Burke

Behind the Sky-High Valuation of China’s AI IPOs

By Jing Yang and Qianer Liu · Jan 25, 2026 8:00am PST

Charts by Shane Burke

Sunday Insights

Behind the Sky-High Valuation of China’s AI IPOs

By Jing Yang and Qianer Liu · Jan 25, 2026 8:00am PST

China is letting AI and semiconductor startups go public at a furious pace. Since December, two developers of large language models and four designers of graphics processing units have listed on stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai, raising a total of over $4 billion. At least two more are in the pipeline. Kunlunxin, the chip arm of Baidu,... China is letting AI and semiconductor startups go public at a furious pace. Since December, two...

Millions of these metals-rich nodules are strewn across the seafloor three miles below the surface of the Pacific. Photo: Carolyn Cole / L.A. Times/Getty

The Electric: Trump Expedites Deep Sea Mining of Critical Minerals

By Steve LeVine · Jan 22, 2026 4:30am PST

Startup Western mining companies got key U.S. support Wednesday in their yearslong effort to extract copper, cobalt and other key metals from the deep Pacific seabed, a move intended to accelerate non-Chinese supplies for tech and defense companies. Startup Western mining companies got key U.S. support Wednesday in their yearslong effort to...