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Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff via Getty. Art by Clark Miller

Why AI Isn’t Giving Salesforce a Boost

By Kevin McLaughlin · Mar 13, 2025 9:31am PDT · 3 comments

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff last month declared 2025 as the “absolute year of Agentforce,” a product the software company launched last fall to help customers automate customer service and other business functions. “We’ve never seen products grow at these levels, especially Agentforce,” he said, citing customers such as gym owner Equinox and... Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff last month declared 2025 as the “absolute year of Agentforce,” a...

From left: Larry Ellison, Zhang Yiming, Donald Trump. Photos by Getty.

Oracle Is Leading Contender to Help Run TikTok in New Deal

By Jing Yang, Juro Osawa, Anissa Gardizy and Sri Muppidi · Mar 13, 2025 6:51am PDT · 4 comments

Oracle has emerged as a leading contender to help run TikTok as part of a deal President Donald Trump is orchestrating to satisfy last year’s divest-or-ban law, say investors, bankers and former executives familiar with the Chinese tech giant. ByteDance management prefers Oracle, while President Trump has also indicated his support for Oracle... Oracle has emerged as a leading contender to help run TikTok as part of a deal President Donald...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

TikTok Executives Bail as Ban Deadline Looms

By Kaya Yurieff, Juro Osawa and Jing Yang · Mar 12, 2025 3:07pm PDT · 1 comment

The groups of buyers circling TikTok’s U.S. operations are likely to find it a more svelte company than it was a year ago, after a string of senior managers left the popular video app. At least eight TikTok executives, including music chief Ole Obermann, global head of litigation Emily Stubbs and Sameer Singh, head of North American ad sales,... The groups of buyers circling TikTok’s U.S. operations are likely to find it a more svelte...

Photo by Getty.

BNY Boosts Business With Circle, as Banks Warm to Crypto

By Yueqi Yang · Mar 12, 2025 10:57am PDT

Photo by Getty.

BNY Boosts Business With Circle, as Banks Warm to Crypto

By Yueqi Yang · Mar 12, 2025 10:57am PDT

BNY, the nation’s oldest bank, is expanding the services it handles for stablecoin giant Circle, the latest sign that U.S. banking access for the crypto industry is easing under a friendlier regulatory environment. The bank will allow some clients to send money to and from Circle through BNY for purchase or sale of Circle’s stablecoins, people... BNY, the nation’s oldest bank, is expanding the services it handles for stablecoin giant Circle,...

Qasar Younis, co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition. Photo via Getty.

Self-Driving Software Supplier Applied Intuition in Talks for Funding at $15 Billion Valuation

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Sri Muppidi and Alex Perry · Mar 11, 2025 8:27pm PDT

Applied Intuition, an eight-year-old developer of simulation software for training self-driving vehicles, is in talks with investors to raise capital at a $15 billion valuation, more than double its valuation from a year ago, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions. Existing investor Kleiner Perkins is in talks to... Applied Intuition, an eight-year-old developer of simulation software for training self-driving...

Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy via Getty

Snowflake, Databricks Discuss AI Data Security Deals With Google, Anthropic

By Kevin McLaughlin · Mar 11, 2025 8:00am PDT

After Sridhar Ramaswamy became CEO of database provider Snowflake a year ago, customers such as banks and healthcare firms said they might move their business elsewhere because they felt they couldn’t safely access artificial intelligence from OpenAI, Anthropic or Google through Snowflake’s core product. Some customers considered switching to... After Sridhar Ramaswamy became CEO of database provider Snowflake a year ago, customers such as...

Europe’s Banks, Unlike U.S. Rivals, Play With DeepSeek

By Michael Roddan · Mar 11, 2025 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

The sudden rise of DeepSeek represents an opportunity for banks and financial firms to access a low-cost but still sophisticated artificial intelligence model—if only it wasn’t from China. Geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing, along with perceived security risks posed by the Chinese-made AI tool, have kept U.S. banks from... The sudden rise of DeepSeek represents an opportunity for banks and financial firms to access a...

Microsoft's Mustafa Suleyman. Image via Getty

Microsoft’s AI Guru Wants Independence From OpenAI. That’s Easier Said Than Done

By Aaron Holmes · Mar 7, 2025 6:00am PST · 2 comments

Microsoft's Mustafa Suleyman. Image via Getty

Microsoft’s AI Guru Wants Independence From OpenAI. That’s Easier Said Than Done

By Aaron Holmes · Mar 7, 2025 6:00am PST · 2 comments

Mustafa Suleyman wasn’t getting the answers he wanted. Last fall, during a video call with senior leaders at OpenAI and Microsoft, Suleyman—who leads Microsoft’s in-house artificial intelligence unit—wanted OpenAI staffers to explain how its latest model, o1, worked, according to someone present for the conversation and two other... Mustafa Suleyman wasn’t getting the answers he wanted. Last fall, during a video call with senior...

Larry Page. Photo by AP

Larry Page Has a New AI Startup

By Jessica E. Lessin and Erin Woo · Mar 6, 2025 12:50pm PST

Google co-founder Larry Page has formed a new company, Dynatomics, to upend manufacturing with artificial intelligence. Page and a small group of engineers are working on ways to use large language models to design flying cars and other types of planes—and then have a factory build them, according to three people knowledgeable about the... Google co-founder Larry Page has formed a new company, Dynatomics, to upend manufacturing with...

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...

Photo via Genesys

Stock Market Volatility Delays a Planned Big 2025 IPO

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 5, 2025 2:56pm PST · 1 comment

Genesys, a private equity-backed customer service software company, delayed what would have been one of the largest initial public offerings of the year, citing a sliding stock market, people familiar with the matter said. The company’s advisers told people in recent days that it would push back the IPO by at least a few months, rather than try... Genesys, a private equity-backed customer service software company, delayed what would have been...

Art by Clark Miller.

How Meta and Google Benefit From AI-Created Ads

By Catherine Perloff · Mar 5, 2025 8:50am PST · 1 comment

Art by Clark Miller.

How Meta and Google Benefit From AI-Created Ads

By Catherine Perloff · Mar 5, 2025 8:50am PST · 1 comment

Five months ago, app studio Sociaaal, which creates apps that help people identify their celebrity look-alike or suggest pick-up lines to score a date, started using generative artificial intelligence to create ads for running on social media, including YouTube. The AI-created ads included some Sociaaal’s marketing team say they never would have... Five months ago, app studio Sociaaal, which creates apps that help people identify their...

CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator, left, and Weights & Biases CEO Lukas Biewald. Photos by Getty

CoreWeave in Talks to Buy AI Startup Weights & Biases For Around $1.7 Billion

By Stephanie Palazzolo, Anissa Gardizy and Natasha Mascarenhas · Mar 4, 2025 3:53pm PST · 3 comments

CoreWeave, which provides cloud servers to large companies developing artificial intelligence, is in talks to acquire Weights & Biases, a startup that helps developers build AI applications, for around $1.7 billion, according to two people who spoke to executives at Weights & Biases. The deal could help CoreWeave diversify its base of customers... CoreWeave, which provides cloud servers to large companies developing artificial intelligence, is...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Getty.

DeepSeek Spurs Black Market Demand for Nvidia Gaming Chips in China

By Qianer Liu · Mar 4, 2025 10:24am PST

When DeepSeek’s success in developing competitive artificial intelligence models at a low cost prompted a $750 billion sell-off in Nvidia shares in late January, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wasn’t worried. He told some employees a few days later that DeepSeek had just become Nvidia’s most important customer in China, since any progress in AI will... When DeepSeek’s success in developing competitive artificial intelligence models at a low cost...

Art by Clark Miller.

Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Race to Use AI to Drive Sales Gains

By Aaron Holmes · Mar 4, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

The role of salespeople is already changing in the era of artificial intelligence—and big tech companies are notching benefits from using these tools, which could be a leading indicator of how the broader industry is set to transform. At Microsoft, for instance, executives have been touting evidence that custom-built AI tools automating... The role of salespeople is already changing in the era of artificial intelligence—and big...

Art by Mike Sullivan

YouTube Tries Again to Compete With Amazon to Become All-Video Hub

By Sahil Patel · Mar 3, 2025 6:00am PST

Art by Mike Sullivan

YouTube Tries Again to Compete With Amazon to Become All-Video Hub

By Sahil Patel · Mar 3, 2025 6:00am PST

It should have been easy. YouTube in late 2022 began including in its app video-streaming services operated by other media companies, such as Paramount Global’s Paramount+ and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max. People could sign up for the services directly from the YouTube app—YouTube would get a cut—and watch without toggling around on... It should have been easy. YouTube in late 2022 began including in its app video-streaming...

Art by Clark Miller; Intrator image via Getty.

CoreWeave Had Soaring Revenues and Capex Ahead of Planned IPO

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 2, 2025 3:30pm PST

CoreWeave, the Nvidia-backed startup cloud provider that is preparing one of the most anticipated initial public offerings of the year, grew revenue exponentially while pouring cash into capital expenditures last year, two people familiar with the matter said. The company is expected to publish its IPO prospectus this week and go public this... CoreWeave, the Nvidia-backed startup cloud provider that is preparing one of the most anticipated...

Masayoshi Son. Photo by Getty; art by Mike Sullivan

SoftBank’s Son Goes on a New Borrowing Binge to Fund AI

By Juro Osawa and Cory Weinberg · Mar 1, 2025 8:00am PST · 2 comments

The biggest risk-taker in tech investing is back to his old playbook, loading up on debt to fund his latest obsession: artificial intelligence. SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son is planning to borrow $16 billion to invest in AI, his company’s executives told banks last week, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions. The... The biggest risk-taker in tech investing is back to his old playbook, loading up on debt to fund...

Photo via Getty.

Amazon Plans Global Expansion for Haul, Its Temu Rival

By Theo Wayt · Feb 28, 2025 10:31am PST

Amazon is going global with its counterattack on bargain sellers Temu and Shein. The e-commerce giant is planning on expanding Haul, the ultracheap Temu look-alike it launched in the U.S. in November, to countries in Europe starting this year, according to a seller consultant who spoke with Amazon representatives. At the same time, a recent... Amazon is going global with its counterattack on bargain sellers Temu and Shein. The e-commerce...

The Bitter Fintech Feud That Stretches From Silicon Valley to Moscow

By Michael Roddan and Cory Weinberg · Feb 27, 2025 6:00am PST

The Bitter Fintech Feud That Stretches From Silicon Valley to Moscow

By Michael Roddan and Cory Weinberg · Feb 27, 2025 6:00am PST

The seemingly mundane world of human resources management startups is not the place you’d expect to see cutthroat corporate blood sport, battles linked to global geopolitics, and questions about whether companies took on the wrong customers to boost growth. But Deel and Rippling are hardly ordinary startups. Their feud spilled into open view... The seemingly mundane world of human resources management startups is not the place you’d expect...