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Art by Mike Sullivan/Midjourney

Why Net Retention Rates Are All the Rage for AI Investors

By Sri Muppidi · Feb 5, 2025 6:00am PST

Investors in artificial intelligence startups have been wowed by the growth of many young AI startups, which are hitting revenue milestones years earlier than a previous generation of software companies did. But they are worried many of those startups won’t be able to hang on to this phenomenal growth—and are hunting for clues on... Investors in artificial intelligence startups have been wowed by the growth of many young AI...

Art by Clark Miller

How Google Cleaned Up Its Cloud Act

By Kevin McLaughlin and Catherine Perloff · Feb 3, 2025 6:00am PST · 5 comments

In the months after Thomas Kurian became CEO of Google Cloud in early 2019, he made a discovery: Another Google team that oversaw the company’s centrally managed information technology services had been overcharging the cloud unit for its use of software and other computing resources, according to a former Google Cloud manager who saw the... In the months after Thomas Kurian became CEO of Google Cloud in early 2019, he made a discovery:...

Sam Altman. Photo by Getty

ChatGPT Subscribers Nearly Tripled to 15.5 Million in 2024

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Amir Efrati · Jan 31, 2025 4:41pm PST · 8 comments

Paid subscribers to ChatGPT nearly tripled to 15.5 million last year from 5.8 million a year earlier, OpenAI recently told some shareholders, despite competition from chatbots made by Google, Anthropic and Meta Platforms. Based on what OpenAI charges for the chatbot subscriptions, the increase means ChatGPT was likely generating at least $4... Paid subscribers to ChatGPT nearly tripled to 15.5 million last year from 5.8 million a year...

Photo via Getty

Meta Taps Ad Agencies to Help Devise AI Ad Tools

By Catherine Perloff · Jan 31, 2025 1:25pm PST · 2 comments

Photo via Getty

Meta Taps Ad Agencies to Help Devise AI Ad Tools

By Catherine Perloff · Jan 31, 2025 1:25pm PST · 2 comments

As Meta Platforms sets about turning its massive investment in artificial intelligence into ways to make money, it’s asking ad agencies for help. Meta has been sending its engineers to work with ad agencies on developing AI tools designed to do everything from tweaking videos and static images in ads to evaluating the effectiveness of such... As Meta Platforms sets about turning its massive investment in artificial intelligence into ways...

Snowflake CEO, Sridhar Ramaswamy. Photo by Getty

Snowflake in Talks to Acquire Analytics Startup Redpanda

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jan 29, 2025 2:38pm PST · 1 comment

Database provider Snowflake this week discussed an acquisition of Redpanda, a data analysis software startup valued at around $500 million in 2023, according to a person who has been part of the talks. An acquisition of the firm could upgrade Snowflake’s artificial intelligence services, an area where the company has lagged rivals such as... Database provider Snowflake this week discussed an acquisition of Redpanda, a data analysis...

President Trump and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son. Photo by AP.

How SoftBank’s Son Made It Back to the White House

By Cory Weinberg and Juro Osawa · Jan 28, 2025 6:13am PST

When President Donald Trump announced a $500 billion plan for data centers to power artificial intelligence last Tuesday, one of the men standing to his left was already getting ready to write the checks. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son was already making plans to put a total of about $40 billion into the Stargate data center project as well as the... When President Donald Trump announced a $500 billion plan for data centers to power artificial...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Before Google’s $2.7 Billion Deal With AI Startup, a Stark Warning on Safety

By Kalley Huang and Paris Martineau · Jan 27, 2025 6:00am PST

Late last summer, leaders at Character.AI were worried: The company—which offers artificial intelligence chatbots that simulate conversations with Aristotle, Pikachu and other historic or invented characters—was seeing a sharp slowdown in user growth. In September messages to staff, which The Information viewed, Character’s... Late last summer, leaders at Character.AI were worried: The company—which offers artificial...

Art via Clark Miller

Meta Scrambles After Chinese AI Equals Its Own, Upending Silicon Valley

By Kalley Huang and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 26, 2025 12:51pm PST · 8 comments

Art via Clark Miller

Meta Scrambles After Chinese AI Equals Its Own, Upending Silicon Valley

By Kalley Huang and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 26, 2025 12:51pm PST · 8 comments

Artificial intelligence researchers at Meta Platforms have been in panic mode. In recent days, leaders of some of the company’s AI teams openly worried that new conversational AI made by a Chinese hedge fund meant Meta was falling behind in the AI race. Leaders including AI infrastructure director Mathew Oldham have told numerous colleagues they... Artificial intelligence researchers at Meta Platforms have been in panic mode. In recent days,...

Andy Jassy photo by Getty. Art by Mike Sullivan

Amazon’s Prime Video Shifts to Profits, Promoting Rival Streamers

By Sahil Patel · Jan 24, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

In the summer of 2022, a year after becoming CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy wanted the executives running the company’s Prime Video business to tell him why it was spending billions of dollars a year on expensive shows such as “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and “Citadel.” At an annual planning meeting, Jassy... In the summer of 2022, a year after becoming CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy wanted the executives...

From Left: Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Jensen Huang, Satya Nadella, Masayoshi Son, Larry Ellison and Sam Altman. Photos by Getty; AP.

Behind the OpenAI-Oracle Pact, an Elon Musk Threat Loomed

By Aaron Holmes, Anissa Gardizy and Amir Efrati · Jan 23, 2025 3:00pm PST · 1 comment

As 2024 was drawing to a close, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman faced two major problems. He wasn’t getting enough server capacity from Microsoft, his company’s biggest backer, to stay ahead of rivals developing artificial intelligence. And he was facing a legal challenge from one of his biggest foes, Elon Musk, who had forged a close bond... As 2024 was drawing to a close, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman faced two major problems. He wasn’t...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the White House Tuesday. Photo via Getty

OpenAI, SoftBank Each Commit $19 Billion to Stargate Data Center Venture

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Amir Efrati · Jan 22, 2025 5:16pm PST · 5 comments

OpenAI and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank will each commit $19 billion to fund a joint venture to develop data centers for artificial intelligence in the U.S., OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told some colleagues Wednesday. The ChatGPT developer would effectively hold a 40% interest in the venture, Stargate, and it would act as a kind of extension of... OpenAI and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank will each commit $19 billion to fund a joint venture to...

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Targets AGI with System That Thinks Like a Pro Engineer

By Amir Efrati and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 22, 2025 1:22pm PST · 2 comments

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI Targets AGI with System That Thinks Like a Pro Engineer

By Amir Efrati and Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 22, 2025 1:22pm PST · 2 comments

OpenAI’s artificial intelligence for writing software code has fueled a multibillion-dollar revenue business, with human programmers using the company’s ChatGPT as a coding helper. Now the company is working on AI to help senior software engineers handle more complex programming tasks, a key step in the company’s attempt to... OpenAI’s artificial intelligence for writing software code has fueled a multibillion-dollar...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Startups’ AI Revenue Is Booming. Some Investors Doubt It Will Last

By Sri Muppidi, Stephanie Palazzolo and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jan 22, 2025 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Investor frenzy for artificial intelligence startups, which made up a third of global venture spending last year, shows no signs of slowing down—particularly when young startups have rapid revenue growth. One of the latest to nail a big jump in valuation after fast revenue gains is Together AI. The two-year-old startup, which rents out... Investor frenzy for artificial intelligence startups, which made up a third of global venture...

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri. Photo via Getty

Instagram Courts TikTok Creators With Big Cash Bonuses

By Kaya Yurieff and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jan 20, 2025 4:31pm PST · 2 comments

Instagram isn’t letting a good TikTok crisis go to waste. Representatives for the Meta Platforms–owned app in the last week have been contacting creators with large TikTok followings, offering cash bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 per month or even more to make short videos for Instagram Reels, according to a person with direct... Instagram isn’t letting a good TikTok crisis go to waste. Representatives for the Meta...

Art by Clark Miller

Venture Capital’s Latest Strategy: Private Equity–Style Roll-Ups

By Natasha Mascarenhas · Jan 20, 2025 6:00am PST · 3 comments

Venture capital firms have increasingly been acting like private equity firms by investing in or buying mature businesses in need of a turnaround. Now those firms are utilizing another PE strategy—rolling up multiple competitors into a single company that can operate more efficiently by combining costs. Venture capital firms such as... Venture capital firms have increasingly been acting like private equity firms by investing in or...

Photo by Getty

Oracle Prepares to Start Shutting TikTok Servers Saturday Night

By Anissa Gardizy · Jan 18, 2025 5:54pm PST

Photo by Getty

Oracle Prepares to Start Shutting TikTok Servers Saturday Night

By Anissa Gardizy · Jan 18, 2025 5:54pm PST

Leaders at Oracle, the main cloud computing provider for TikTok’s U.S. operations, have told some staff to prepare to shut down servers that host U.S. TikTok data on Saturday night as early as around 9 p.m. Eastern, in advance of a U.S. law that bans the app starting Sunday. Oracle CEO Safra Catz was expected to give the final go ahead to... Leaders at Oracle, the main cloud computing provider for TikTok’s U.S. operations, have...

Art by Clark Miller.

TikTok in Last-Minute Dash to Prepare Retailers, Staff for Ban

By Kaya Yurieff and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jan 18, 2025 11:56am PST · 1 comment

With a U.S. ban of TikTok just hours away, the company’s U.S. staff has been scrambling to contain the fallout for the millions of creators and merchants who have tied their livelihoods to the app. TikTok was considering creating a website to handle TikTok Shop returns once the company shuts down the app, managers told staff in its... With a U.S. ban of TikTok just hours away, the company’s U.S. staff has been scrambling to...

Photos by Getty.

TikTok Had No Backup Plan to Legal Fight—but Trump Lobbying May Save It

By Juro Osawa and Kaya Yurieff · Jan 17, 2025 8:10am PST

In the eight months since President Joe Biden signed into law a requirement that TikTok sever its ties with its Chinese parent, ByteDance, or face a ban in the U.S., TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has been asked numerous times by company executives what TikTok would do if its legal fight against the law failed. Chew never gave a clear answer and... In the eight months since President Joe Biden signed into law a requirement that TikTok sever its...

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Palantir in Talks to Invest in Drone Startup at $5 Billion Valuation

By Cory Weinberg and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jan 16, 2025 4:06pm PST · 1 comment

Shield AI, a maker of drones and software whose customers include the Ukrainian and U.S. governments, is in talks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from investors including Palantir and Lockheed Martin, three people familiar with the matter said. The round would likely value the San Diego-based startup at about $5 billion, before the... Shield AI, a maker of drones and software whose customers include the Ukrainian and U.S....

Meta Platforms Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth. Photo via Getty

Meta CTO Says Company Mishandled Introduction of New Content Policies

By Kalley Huang · Jan 16, 2025 1:10pm PST · 11 comments

Meta Platforms Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth. Photo via Getty

Meta CTO Says Company Mishandled Introduction of New Content Policies

By Kalley Huang · Jan 16, 2025 1:10pm PST · 11 comments

Meta Platforms Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth on Tuesday told staff that the company had handled parts of recent changes to its human resources and content moderation policies clumsily, and that it plans to “correct” some of the changes. “There were things I think were pretty ham-fisted, borderline... Meta Platforms Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth on Tuesday told staff that the company...