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

Get smarter about the day’s news in tech, media and finance by following Silicon Valley’s most-read executive newsletter.

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Recent Editions

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Musk Giggles as Tesla Tanks

By Theo Wayt · Jul 23, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Most CEOs reporting a 12% decline in quarterly revenues would adopt a sober attitude on their earnings call. Not Elon Musk, who opened Tesla’s analyst call on Wednesday with what sounded suspiciously like a penis joke, and then proceeded to make the rather, er, ambitious prediction that Tesla’s robotaxis would be available to half the U.S.... Most CEOs reporting a 12% decline in quarterly revenues would adopt a sober attitude on their...

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Will the Meme Stock Rally Save Tesla?

By Theo Wayt · Jul 22, 2025 5:03pm PDT · 1 comment

If you’re a renter who’s worried you’ll never be able to afford to buy a home, consider looking for ways to get rich quick in the stock market! For instance, investing in an unprofitable, shrinking home-flipping company can be a surprising moneymaker. I’m talking specifically about Opendoor, whose shares are up more than 400% this month. ... If you’re a renter who’s worried you’ll never be able to afford to buy a home, consider looking...

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Microsoft’s Persistent Cybersecurity Sore

By Martin Peers · Jul 21, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Will Microsoft dock Satya Nadella’s pay again this year? The software giant faced the latest in a seemingly endless string of security breaches over the weekend, when it told customers that hackers were exploiting a flaw in its SharePoint file-sharing software. According to a statement by cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks, the fact that... Will Microsoft dock Satya Nadella’s pay again this year? The software giant faced the latest in a...

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What’s Missing From Netflix’s Results

By Martin Peers · Jul 18, 2025 3:00pm PDT

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What’s Missing From Netflix’s Results

By Martin Peers · Jul 18, 2025 3:00pm PDT

Imagine buying a house from someone who refused to show you the interior. The roof might be leaking, but the sellers don’t want you to know. That’s what it’s like buying shares in many of the biggest tech companies, which refuse to disclose key details about their business. More strikingly, many of these companies—such as Netflix and Apple—... Imagine buying a house from someone who refused to show you the interior. The roof might be...

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As Crypto Bill Passes, Bank Bosses Feel Heat

By Yueqi Yang · Jul 17, 2025 5:00pm PDT

The crypto industry today scored its biggest win in Congress with the passage in the House of Representatives of the Genius Act. The bill, which the Senate cleared last month, legitimizes and regulates stablecoins, crypto tokens pegged to the U.S. dollar. President Donald Trump is expected to sign it quickly. It’s a moment of rejoicing for... The crypto industry today scored its biggest win in Congress with the passage in the House of...

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No, the AI Bubble Isn’t Worse Than 1999

By Martin Peers · Jul 16, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Here’s a sobering thought. Today’s AI bubble is bigger than the tech bubble of the 1990s, according to Torsten Slok, the chief economist for Apollo whose brief daily emails are widely followed. He bases that statement on his analysis that the top 10 companies in the S&P 500 are today “more overvalued than they were in the 1990s.”If this is... Here’s a sobering thought. Today’s AI bubble is bigger than the tech bubble of the 1990s,...

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Waymo’s Debatable Growth Milestone

By Martin Peers · Jul 15, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Way to go, Waymo! The Alphabet-owned robotaxi service has hit a 100-million-mile autonomous driving milestone, the company announced Tuesday to much fanfare. That figure is 10 times what it was two months ago. Take that, Elon Musk, whose Tesla has barely launched its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas.Waymo’s success reflects a growing acceptance... Way to go, Waymo! The Alphabet-owned robotaxi service has hit a 100-million-mile autonomous...

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Getty

Zuckerberg’s AI Psychological Warfare

By Martin Peers · Jul 14, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Getty

Zuckerberg’s AI Psychological Warfare

By Martin Peers · Jul 14, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Mark Zuckerberg is trying to psych out his rivals in artificial intelligence. That’s one interpretation of his Threads post on Monday, declaring that Meta is “going to invest hundreds of billions of dollars” on AI computing capacity to build “superintelligence”—a new buzzword for the most advanced AI imaginable. That’s a more aggressive... Mark Zuckerberg is trying to psych out his rivals in artificial intelligence. That’s one...

Meta's Menlo Park, Calif. campus. Photo via Getty

Where AI Researchers Will Be Happy

By Martin Peers · Jul 11, 2025 3:00pm PDT

We got big news this afternoon in the AI world, as we learned that OpenAI’s talks to buy Windsurf, maker of the popular Codeium AI coding assistant, have ended—and Google has hired Windsurf’s CEO and some staff. For more on this drama, see our story here. Lots of questions remain unanswered, including what these developments mean for... We got big news this afternoon in the AI world, as we learned that OpenAI’s talks to buy...

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Tesla’s Late to Shareholder Meeting—and Why It Doesn’t Matter

By Martin Peers · Jul 10, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Here’s a question: When was the last time anyone paid attention to a company’s annual shareholder meeting? More to the point, perhaps, when was the last time a company’s annual meeting really mattered? The answer to the first one (and maybe the second) is when a company drags its feet scheduling the meeting, as Tesla did—until today. On... Here’s a question: When was the last time anyone paid attention to a company’s annual shareholder...

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Why Elon Musk’s AI Focus Doomed Linda Yaccarino

By Theo Wayt · Jul 9, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Oh, how times have changed! Just two years ago, Elon Musk hired Linda Yaccarino as the CEO of Twitter with a mandate to clean up relationships with advertisers, many of whom were worried about their products showing up next to hate speech. On Wednesday, Yaccarino unexpectedly announced her departure at a time when the merger of X with Musk’... Oh, how times have changed! Just two years ago, Elon Musk hired Linda Yaccarino as the CEO...

Apple's Jeff Williams. Photo via Getty

Apple’s COO Retirement Offers Clues About Cook Succession

By Nick Wingfield · Jul 8, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Apple's Jeff Williams. Photo via Getty

Apple’s COO Retirement Offers Clues About Cook Succession

By Nick Wingfield · Jul 8, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Exciting news on the home front: Today, we launched a powerful new AI chatbot, The Information Deep Research, trained on over a decade of our exclusive reporting on the most important tech companies and people, including our stories, org charts and proprietary data. You can use it to generate reports on the top talent at Nvidia and Meta... Exciting news on the home front: Today, we launched a powerful new AI chatbot, The Information...

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Questions About CoreWeave’s Shopping Spree

By Ken Brown · Jul 7, 2025 5:00pm PDT

In just three months, CoreWeave has gone from an iffy IPO candidate to a financial monster gobbling up rivals. That’s what a 300% stock rally can do.CoreWeave’s $9 billion bid, announced Monday, for its rival in the artificial data center business, Core Scientific, has far more significance than just a flashy deal. It also shows the dominance of... In just three months, CoreWeave has gone from an iffy IPO candidate to a financial monster...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo via Getty

Nvidia Nears $4 Trillion Market Cap

By Martin Peers · Jul 3, 2025 3:00pm PDT

If anyone enjoys this holiday, it should be Jensen Huang. Nvidia stock on Thursday closed at $159.34 a share, up 18.6% for the year, giving it a market capitalization of $3.88 trillion. Getting to $4 trillion is within reach. (Remember when passing $1 trillion was a big deal for any company?) Right now, Nvidia is valued only a little below what... If anyone enjoys this holiday, it should be Jensen Huang. Nvidia stock on Thursday closed at...

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What Tesla’s Dismal Second Quarter Signals

By Martin Peers · Jul 2, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

This really isn’t Elon Musk’s week. On Tuesday, President Trump made the (obviously unserious) comment about looking into deporting Musk, who has renewed his criticism of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. On Wednesday, Tesla reported that vehicle deliveries fell 13.5% in the second quarter, a slightly greater decline than it sustained in the first... This really isn’t Elon Musk’s week. On Tuesday, President Trump made the (obviously unserious)...

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Warner Bros Discovery’s Bleak Prospects Underlined by Big Investor’s Sale

By Martin Peers · Jul 1, 2025 5:00pm PDT

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Warner Bros Discovery’s Bleak Prospects Underlined by Big Investor’s Sale

By Martin Peers · Jul 1, 2025 5:00pm PDT

And now for something completely different. In a break from artificial intelligence recruiting dramas, we’re looking today at the ancient world of television, through the prism of Warner Bros. Discovery. The Newhouse family, WBD’s second-biggest shareholder, revealed in a securities filing on Tuesday that it had sold half its stake in the... And now for something completely different. In a break from artificial intelligence recruiting...

Mark Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang. Photos: Getty, Flickr

The High Stakes for Meta’s New Super AI Team

By Martin Peers · Jun 30, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Start your timer. Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday unveiled the company’s new artificial intelligence organization—Meta Superintelligence Labs—replete with heavyweights from Silicon Valley. This new org is the product of a massive spending spree by Zuckerberg to snag the best AI talent possible in hopes of turning around Meta’s... Start your timer. Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday unveiled the company’s new...

Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise at the European premiere of F1. Photo via Getty

Apple’s “F1” Movie Opens, Spotlighting Puzzle Over Strategy

By Martin Peers · Jun 27, 2025 3:00pm PDT

Can I have a show of hands of those who plan this weekend to see the new Apple-made Brad Pitt movie, “F1,” which opened today in theaters? It is the kind of film—full of shots of cars racing at high speed—that surely looks better on the big screen. That’s definitely the view of Eddy Cue, the Apple executive with responsibility for the company’s... Can I have a show of hands of those who plan this weekend to see the new Apple-made Brad Pitt...

Travis Kalanick. Photo via Getty

Kalanick May Ride Pony Back to Prominence

By Martin Peers · Jun 26, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Welcome back, Travis Kalanick! We’ve missed you as a generator of news. The New York Times scooped the juicy news today that Kalanick is in talks to get Uber’s backing for a buyout of Chinese autonomous vehicle developer Pony.ai’s U.S. assets. Assuming the deal gets done, it may not involve big dollars—Pony’s market capitalization of $5.2... Welcome back, Travis Kalanick! We’ve missed you as a generator of news. The New York Times...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Photo via Getty

Microsoft’s Shaky AI Leadership

By Martin Peers · Jun 25, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Photo via Getty

Microsoft’s Shaky AI Leadership

By Martin Peers · Jun 25, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Microsoft is on a hot streak. Its stock has soared in recent weeks and so far this year is up 17%, more than that of any other big tech name besides gravity-defying Meta Platforms. What makes Microsoft’s performance so striking is that the stock was not cheap before the rally—based on multiples of earnings and sales—and it is even less cheap... Microsoft is on a hot streak. Its stock has soared in recent weeks and so far this year is up...