Tencent Company News & Analysis — The Information

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The Information Events

How DeepSeek Is Unlocking a New Wave of AI Ambition in China

By Qianer Liu · May 30, 2025 12:35pm PDT

The tightening of U.S. chip export controls on China has forced Chinese artificial intelligence developers such as DeepSeek to get creative, finding more efficient ways to train AI models on limited computing resources. And that creativity is likely to continue, according to two Chinese investors and startup founders who spoke at a subscriber... The tightening of U.S. chip export controls on China has forced Chinese artificial intelligence...

Art by Clark Miller

Jensen Huang Used to Delegate Politics—Until Trump’s Return

By Qianer Liu and Wayne Ma · May 29, 2025 10:41am PDT

Since the start of this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been thrust into an unexpected new role—chief lobbyist for his company—forcing him to carry its hopes, suggestions and pleas directly to President Donald Trump. Many of Huang’s conversations with Trump have happened at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence and private club in south... Since the start of this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been thrust into an unexpected new...

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VCs Are Keeping an Ear Out for Voice AI Startups

By Stephanie Palazzolo · May 29, 2025 7:21am PDT

Each new month of the AI boom has brought along with it a new “AI startup flavor of the month” for venture capitalists to drool over. The latest one, VCs tell me, are startups building AI voice agents for various verticals, from hotels to hospitals.Up until recently, AI software that can understand and respond with human speech has largely been... Each new month of the AI boom has brought along with it a new “AI startup flavor of the month”...

Art by Mike Sullivan

China Tightens Control Over AI Data Centers

By Qianer Liu · May 15, 2025 6:00am PDT

Art by Mike Sullivan

China Tightens Control Over AI Data Centers

By Qianer Liu · May 15, 2025 6:00am PDT

Chinese officials in the past two months told some of the country’s top technology companies that the government will take a more active role in overseeing their data centers for artificial intelligence and the specialized chips for developing the technology, according to two people involved in the conversations. The Chinese government wants... Chinese officials in the past two months told some of the country’s top technology companies that...

Jensen Huang. Photo by Getty.

Nvidia Is Again Working on China-Tailored Chips After U.S. Export Ban

By Qianer Liu · May 2, 2025 6:00am PDT

The U.S. government is steadily tightening the noose on Nvidia’s sales to China. But the AI chip giant isn’t giving up on the market. Nvidia has told some of its biggest Chinese customers, including ByteDance, Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, that it is tweaking the design of its artificial intelligence chips so they can be sold to Chinese... The U.S. government is steadily tightening the noose on Nvidia’s sales to China. But the AI chip...

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OpenAI’s ‘Yeet’ Social Feed Aims to Fix ChatGPT Usability

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Apr 16, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

If you didn’t think OpenAI had enough on its plate already, you might now. Yesterday we got news—confirmed by my colleague Amir—that the company is developing an X-like social feed within ChatGPT, in part so that users can share how they’re using the chatbot to solve problems or create images.There are a couple reasons why this sort of product... If you didn’t think OpenAI had enough on its plate already, you might now. Yesterday we got news—...

Hemant Taneja. Photo by Getty

What Worries General Catalyst’s Hemant Taneja

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 10, 2025 3:26pm PDT · 1 comment

Venture capitalists typically aren’t macroeconomic or geopolitical experts, despite what you may read on X or hear on podcasts. But they do need to have a sufficient worldview to understand where markets are growing, where to put investment dollars and how to raise money.In that way, it’s become clear that General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja was... Venture capitalists typically aren’t macroeconomic or geopolitical experts, despite what you may...

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Klarna and StubHub Offerings Become Tariff Casualties

By Ken Brown · Apr 4, 2025 4:00pm PDT

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Klarna and StubHub Offerings Become Tariff Casualties

By Ken Brown · Apr 4, 2025 4:00pm PDT

That was fast. The window for technology company stock offerings slammed shut less than a week after it opened, dashing hopes that the moribund market would come to life this year.CoreWeave, the deal that was supposed to lead the pack in a reopened market, got done on Friday. StubHub and Klarna were waiting in the wings, until President Donald... That was fast. The window for technology company stock offerings slammed shut less than a week...

The Nvidia booth at a tech show in Hangzhou, China in 2024. Photo via Getty.

Nvidia Faces Dilemma After Chinese Firms Rush to Order $16 Billion in New AI Chips

By Qianer Liu · Apr 2, 2025 6:00am PDT

Chinese companies including ByteDance, Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings have placed at least $16 billion in orders for Nvidia’s H20 server chips for running artificial intelligence in the first three months of the year, ahead of a potential U.S. ban on sales of the chip in China, according to two people with direct knowledge of the... Chinese companies including ByteDance, Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings have placed at least...

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Chinese Startup Behind Manus AI Agent Seeks $500 Million Valuation

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Juro Osawa and Jing Yang · Mar 27, 2025 11:16am PDT

The Chinese startup that operates Manus, the artificial intelligence agent that became a viral hit in the U.S. earlier this month, is in talks with potential investors including U.S. venture capital firms to raise a new funding round at a valuation of at least $500 million, up around fivefold from its previous valuation, according to three... The Chinese startup that operates Manus, the artificial intelligence agent that became a viral...

Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, speaks during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference. Photo by Getty

Why Nvidia and CoreWeave Want to Buy AI Inference Startups

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 27, 2025 7:00am PDT

Yesterday, Kevin and I broke the news that Nvidia was in advanced talks to buy Lepton AI, a startup that rents out servers powered by Nvidia’s chips and helps AI developers train and run open-source models on those servers, otherwise known as an inference provider.A deal would put Nvidia in direct competition with a slew of other inference... Yesterday, Kevin and I broke the news that Nvidia was in advanced talks to buy Lepton AI, a...

Gabriel Stengel, CEO and Co-Founder of Rogo. Screenshot via YouTube

Thrive Capital Leads New Deal in Wall Street AI Startup Rogo

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Anita Ramaswamy · Mar 24, 2025 7:00am PDT

Gabriel Stengel, CEO and Co-Founder of Rogo. Screenshot via YouTube

Thrive Capital Leads New Deal in Wall Street AI Startup Rogo

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Anita Ramaswamy · Mar 24, 2025 7:00am PDT

Is Wall Street ready to work with artificial intelligence? Two of OpenAI’s biggest investors think so.Thrive Capital is set to lead at least a $40 million financing into Rogo AI, an artificial intelligence startup selling AI software for investment bankers and Wall Street analysts and investors, at a valuation of up to $350 million, according to... Is Wall Street ready to work with artificial intelligence? Two of OpenAI’s biggest investors...

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, at the Nvidia GTC. Photo by Getty

Top Developers Want Nvidia Blackwell Chips. Everyone Else, Not So Much

By Anissa Gardizy · Mar 19, 2025 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

Jensen Huang turned Nvidia into the third most valuable company in the world by designing chips that were way ahead of their time. But Huang’s remarks on Tuesday suggest he’s pulling far ahead of some customers, and the growing gap between what he’s selling and what they’re buying could spell trouble.In his keynote speech at the GTC developer... Jensen Huang turned Nvidia into the third most valuable company in the world by designing chips...

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Salesforce and Manus Show the High Cost of Agents

By Juro Osawa · Mar 17, 2025 7:22am PDT

The unexpected popularity of Manus, a so-called computer-using AI that takes over a person’s web browser to execute tasks like travel booking and stock analysis, has put the Chinese startup behind it in a bind. The firm’s ability to meet demand for the product, also known as an agent, is limited both by its server capacity and, more importantly,... The unexpected popularity of Manus, a so-called computer-using AI that takes over a person’s web...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Photo via Getty

Google Is Still Behind in AI. Why?

By Martin Peers · Mar 7, 2025 3:00pm PST · 6 comments

Here’s an exercise: Try asking a selection of AI chatbots for a list of the big tech news stories of the day. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and xAI’s Grok both deliver a good list of specific stories—ChatGPT even offers links. Google’s Gemini, not so much: Its list is a bunch of vague bullet points with no examples. Gemini’s performance was no better when I... Here’s an exercise: Try asking a selection of AI chatbots for a list of the big tech news stories...

Art by Mike Sullivan

How China’s Tech Titans Swallowed Their Pride and Embraced DeepSeek

By Juro Osawa, Qianer Liu and Jing Yang · Mar 6, 2025 6:00am PST

Art by Mike Sullivan

How China’s Tech Titans Swallowed Their Pride and Embraced DeepSeek

By Juro Osawa, Qianer Liu and Jing Yang · Mar 6, 2025 6:00am PST

The breakout success of DeepSeek has triggered soul searching among Chinese tech giants including ByteDance, Alibaba Group, Tencent Holdings and Baidu. The conclusion: All four are swallowing their pride and embracing the startup’s technology. Over the past month, the four companies have either integrated DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence... The breakout success of DeepSeek has triggered soul searching among Chinese tech giants including...