The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

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Recent Editions

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What OpenAI Saw That Anthropic Didn’t

By Martin Peers · Mar 1, 2026 3:00pm PST

Before we get to the scheduled events for this coming week—Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, starring SpaceX, as well as Apple’s master class in hyping product releases—we should acknowledge just how much of a turn the AI debate has taken from humdrum concerns about spending. Friday night’s decision by the Trump administration to declare war... Before we get to the scheduled events for this coming week—Mobile World Congress in Barcelona,...

Block CEO Jack Dorsey. Getty Images.

Jack Dorsey Proves AI Job Cut Fears Are True; Ellisons Win Warner

By Martin Peers · Feb 26, 2026 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Jack Dorsey has been many things in his career, including social media pioneer and crypto advocate. Now he’s the grim reaper of AI. Dorsey on Thursday revealed he will lay off 40% of the employees, or about 4,000 people, at his fintech firm, Block. The reason? AI. “The core thesis is simple,” he explained in a shareholder letter. “Intelligence... Jack Dorsey has been many things in his career, including social media pioneer and crypto...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Bridget Bennett/Getty Images.

Nvidia and Salesforce Show Different Sides of AI

By Martin Peers · Feb 25, 2026 5:00pm PST

It was a tale of two AI cities when Nvidia and Salesforce on Wednesday reported the January-quarter earnings that ended their 2026 fiscal years. Nvidia kept its place at the top of the class, reporting better than projected 73% revenue growth. Net income rose 94% to $42.9 billion. For the full fiscal year, Nvidia had revenue of $216 billion and... It was a tale of two AI cities when Nvidia and Salesforce on Wednesday reported the...

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Bankers Ponder New Ways to Raise Data Center Money, Despite Risks

By Miles Kruppa · Feb 24, 2026 5:00pm PST

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Bankers Ponder New Ways to Raise Data Center Money, Despite Risks

By Miles Kruppa · Feb 24, 2026 5:00pm PST

Talk about symbolic. This week’s annual conference for bankers and investors who play in the arcane world of asset securitization—selling debt backed by mortgages and other cash streams—was disrupted when an exhibit hall at the convention in Las Vegas caught fire on Monday night. I’m not kidding. You could say the blaze was a physical... Talk about symbolic. This week’s annual conference for bankers and investors who play in the...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Prakash Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Software Quandary: Are OpenAI and Anthropic Frenemies or Foes?

By Martin Peers · Feb 23, 2026 5:00pm PST

When does a frenemy become a mortal threat? That question should be top of mind for executives atop enterprise software firms, such as ServiceNow, Salesforce and Snowflake, each of which at various times has announced partnerships with OpenAI. And yet OpenAI seems to be doing everything it can to put at least some of these firms out of business.... When does a frenemy become a mortal threat? That question should be top of mind for executives...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Krisztian Bocsi/Getty Images.

OpenAI’s Magical Thinking; Nvidia on Deck This Week

By Martin Peers · Feb 22, 2026 3:00pm PST · 1 comment

Before we get to what’s coming this week, let’s take a moment to honor the company that has honed the power of magical thinking. That would be OpenAI, whose latest long term revenue and profit projections we reported on Friday night here. The most important element of the report was that in 2025, the cost of running AI models quadrupled, so the... Before we get to what’s coming this week, let’s take a moment to honor the company that has honed...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi today. Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images.

What OpenAI's Funding Says About Google's Value

By Martin Peers · Feb 19, 2026 5:00pm PST

The nervous Nellies in the investor community sold tech stocks again on Thursday, dragging down the Nasdaq 0.4%. Sounds like a normal day in February 2026, you might say. But it’s striking how anxieties about the disruption caused by AI continue to weigh on stock prices, including those of leading AI firms like Google, even as private AI leaders... The nervous Nellies in the investor community sold tech stocks again on Thursday, dragging down...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to court today in Los Angeles. Jill Connelly/Getty Images.

Zuckerberg's Day in Court

By Cory Weinberg · Feb 18, 2026 6:02pm PST · 2 comments

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to court today in Los Angeles. Jill Connelly/Getty Images.

Zuckerberg's Day in Court

By Cory Weinberg · Feb 18, 2026 6:02pm PST · 2 comments

“We call Mark Zuckerberg to the stand.” Thus began Wednesday’s nearly six hours of testimony from the Meta Platforms CEO in a trial of a lawsuit brought by a young woman against several tech companies including Meta, contending that social media causes depression and suicidal thoughts. I was in the downtown Los Angeles courtroom, where... “We call Mark Zuckerberg to the stand.” Thus began Wednesday’s nearly six hours of testimony from...

Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg. David Zalubowski/AP.

Meta and Nvidia Renew Their Vows

By Martin Peers · Feb 17, 2026 5:00pm PST

Take that, Sundar Pichai! Three months after we scooped news that Meta Platforms was in talks to spend billions on Google AI chips—known as tensor processing units—for its data centers, Meta and Nvidia unveiled an expanded “multiyear, multigenerational strategic partnership.” Meta is a longtime Nvidia customer, of course, but it is recommitting... Take that, Sundar Pichai! Three months after we scooped news that Meta Platforms was in talks to...

Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images

AI Is Magnifying Google and Meta’s Edge in Ads

By Martin Peers · Feb 16, 2026 3:00pm PST

We could see a brief shift away from obsessive AI talk this week. On Wednesday, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is due to testify in the Los Angeles trial hearing a lawsuit filed by a young California woman against big tech firms, namely Google and Meta. The woman claims her social media addiction led to depression and suicidal thoughts, as ... We could see a brief shift away from obsessive AI talk this week. On Wednesday, Meta Platforms...

Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank. Photo by Akio Kon/ Getty Images

How SoftBank’s OpenAI Bet Could Benefit CEO Son

By Cory Weinberg · Feb 12, 2026 5:00pm PST

The “rough vibes” at OpenAI have gotten less choppy, allowing SoftBank boss Masayoshi Son to shed some personal financial risk in the company’s big OpenAI investment.A little-noticed disclosure in SoftBank’s earnings report released Thursday said that Son no longer was on the hook for the roughly $1 billion personal guarantee he had pledged so a... The “rough vibes” at OpenAI have gotten less choppy, allowing SoftBank boss Masayoshi Son to shed...

Wall Street traders last week. Photo by Michael Nagle/Getty Images

Shopify, Unity Get Slammed by Anxious Market

By Martin Peers · Feb 11, 2026 5:00pm PST

Wall Street traders last week. Photo by Michael Nagle/Getty Images

Shopify, Unity Get Slammed by Anxious Market

By Martin Peers · Feb 11, 2026 5:00pm PST

Talk about unforgiving! The great enterprise stock sell-off of 2026 recommenced on Wednesday, and it dragged down a couple of companies—Unity Software and Shopify—after they each reported decent December-quarter earnings. Shares of Shopify, most egregiously, fell as much as 12% after the e-commerce software platform said its first-quarter... Talk about unforgiving! The great enterprise stock sell-off of 2026 recommenced on Wednesday, and...

Elon Musk. Photo by Brendan Smialowsk/Getty Images

The Risk of the Muskiverse's Steady Turnover

By Theo Wayt · Feb 10, 2026 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Working at an Elon Musk company is rarely a stable gig. Musk is known to be an extremely demanding boss, and when he’s focused on a problem, heads will usually roll, either because he fires people or makes their lives so miserable they quit. That seems to have been the case again this week, with major executives at both xAI and Tesla heading for... Working at an Elon Musk company is rarely a stable gig. Musk is known to be an extremely...

Aneel Bhusri, CEO of Workday. Photo by Noah Graham/Getty Images.

Workday’s CEO Shuffle Is a Sign of Things to Come

By Martin Peers · Feb 9, 2026 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Last week’s sell-off in software stocks is having an impact. Enterprise software firm Workday revealed Monday it had replaced its CEO, Carl Eschenbach, with co-founder and former CEO Aneel Bhusri, who is returning “to lead the company’s next chapter.” Bhusri, to be clear, has led the company for most of its chapters, having been either co-CEO or... Last week’s sell-off in software stocks is having an impact. Enterprise software firm Workday...

The Amazon Alexa+ Super Bowl commercial starring Chris Hemsworth. Screenshot via YouTube/Amazon Alexa.

What to Expect from Spotify, Lyft and Pinterest Earnings This Week

By Martin Peers · Feb 8, 2026 3:00pm PST

After the crush of tech news last week, including a big AI-fueled stock sell-off, things might calm down a bit in the next few days. With any luck, we’ll have time to debate which of the tech companies’ Super Bowl ads running Sunday night were the best and which were the worst. My vote for best is the Amazon Alexa spot, by the way, although the... After the crush of tech news last week, including a big AI-fueled stock sell-off, things might...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.

Amazon’s Cloud Liftoff

By Martin Peers · Feb 5, 2026 5:00pm PST

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.

Amazon’s Cloud Liftoff

By Martin Peers · Feb 5, 2026 5:00pm PST

Talk about raising the stakes. A day after Google parent Alphabet scared the market by projecting plans to double its capital expenditures to around $180 billion, Amazon went one better by announcing it plans to lay out $200 billion on capex this year, 56% higher than what it spent in 2025. Investors were just as unimpressed as they had been... Talk about raising the stakes. A day after Google parent Alphabet scared the market by projecting...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Jim Lo Scalzo/Getty Images

Google Cloud Finally Takes Off

By Martin Peers · Feb 4, 2026 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Sundar Pichai, take a bow. Google parent Alphabet delivered some red-hot fourth-quarter numbers on Wednesday, a sign that—like its fellow digital ad giant, Meta Platforms—it is enjoying the fruits of its big investment in AI. Alphabet reported both an acceleration in Google’s search revenue growth to nearly 17%, from 15% in the third quarter,... Sundar Pichai, take a bow. Google parent Alphabet delivered some red-hot fourth-quarter numbers...

Bob Iger and Josh D'Amaro. Getty Images. Disney/Getty Images.

Disney’s CEO Choice Reflects Entertainment’s Decline

By Martin Peers · Feb 3, 2026 5:00pm PST

It’s CEO replacement time. Both Walt Disney Co. and PayPal named new chief executives on Tuesday, with each appointment symbolizing major business shifts. Disney named parks chief Josh D’Amaro to succeed longtime CEO Bob Iger, who turns 75 next week (D’Amaro is Iger’s second successor, after the first one flopped so badly Iger had to return to... It’s CEO replacement time. Both Walt Disney Co. and PayPal named new chief executives on Tuesday,...

Elon Musk. Getty Images.

What’s Really Driving Musk’s SpaceX-xAI Merger

By Martin Peers · Feb 2, 2026 5:00pm PST · 5 comments

Talk about pie in the sky. On Monday, Elon Musk announced that his SpaceX had acquired his cash-eating xAI, at a price we reported to be $250 billion. SpaceX was already planning to go public, but now xAI will be able to get some of the cash the newly enlarged company will raise. Of course, that’s not how Musk explained the combination. Instead,... Talk about pie in the sky. On Monday, Elon Musk announced that his SpaceX had acquired his...

Palantir CEO Alex Karp. Fabrice Coffrini/Getty Images

What to Expect From Palantir, Google and Amazon Earnings This Week

By Martin Peers · Feb 1, 2026 3:00pm PST · 2 comments

Palantir CEO Alex Karp. Fabrice Coffrini/Getty Images

What to Expect From Palantir, Google and Amazon Earnings This Week

By Martin Peers · Feb 1, 2026 3:00pm PST · 2 comments

If you like poring over earnings reports (and who doesn’t!), then you’ll be in your happy place this coming week. We’ve got so many tech earnings announcements that we can barely keep track. I’m not kidding—couldn’t these tech executives space things out a little bit? The biggest reports will be on Wednesday, when Google parent Alphabet reports... If you like poring over earnings reports (and who doesn’t!), then you’ll be in your happy place...