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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Tesla Investors Brace for Impact

By Nick Wingfield · Apr 22, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Tesla reports its earnings on Tuesday, and it’s likely to be a doozy. Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker has already told analysts the number of Teslas it sold in the first three months of the year was about 9% lower than for the same period a year earlier. Wall Street analysts are currently expecting a 4% dip in revenue compared to the... Tesla reports its earnings on Tuesday, and it’s likely to be a doozy. Elon Musk’s electric...

San Francisco from Twin Peaks. Photo by Anadolu via Getty Images.

Big Tech Earnings and TikTok Ban Bill Coming Next Week

By Martin Peers · Apr 19, 2024 2:35pm PDT

Get ready. The tech news cycle is about to go into overdrive. Next week we’ve got March-quarter earnings from Google, Microsoft and Meta Platforms. The first two will be closely watched for what we can glean about how artificial intelligence–powered services are lifting revenues, while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is sure to wax eloquent about his... Get ready. The tech news cycle is about to go into overdrive. Next week we’ve got March-quarter...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

Why Google’s Android-Pixel Reorg Is a Big Deal

By Amir Efrati · Apr 18, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has been criticized for avoiding tough decisions, but on Thursday he may have resolved one of the biggest questions hanging over the company: what to do about Android, the main rival to Apple as a smartphone operating system. Android has long played second fiddle to the iPhone in the U.S. while dominating globally. But... Google CEO Sundar Pichai has been criticized for avoiding tough decisions, but on Thursday he may...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Photo by Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images.

Tesla’s Board Sweats the Small Stuff

By Martin Peers · Apr 17, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Photo by Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images.

Tesla’s Board Sweats the Small Stuff

By Martin Peers · Apr 17, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

It’s good to see that Tesla’s board is focusing on what’s important. The electric car maker revealed today that it will put Elon Musk’s contentious 2018 pay package to a shareholder vote again in mid-June, along with a proposal to move the company’s corporate domicile to Texas from Delaware. The pay vote makes sense: Musk created value and... It’s good to see that Tesla’s board is focusing on what’s important. The electric car maker...

David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs. Photo by Vernon Yuen/NurPhoto via Getty Images.

Goldman Sachs Sees Gold Mine in Financing AI

By Martin Peers · Apr 16, 2024 5:00pm PDT

It’s not only tech companies that see artificial intelligence as a big new moneymaking opportunity. It’s a potential gold mine for investment banks, according to Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. Using a newer piece of corporate lingo, Solomon “double-clicked”—elaborated, in plain English—on the potential of AI while he was speaking on Monday’s... It’s not only tech companies that see artificial intelligence as a big new moneymaking...

Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Tesla Needs a Full-Time CEO

By Martin Peers · Apr 15, 2024 5:00pm PDT

We all know this hasn’t been Apple’s year, between the so-so reaction to its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, the cancellation of its car project, an antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. government, worries about its lagging status in artificial intelligence and, of course, the reality that iPhone sales are no longer growing. Apple stock is down... We all know this hasn’t been Apple’s year, between the so-so reaction to its Vision Pro...

Photo via Shutterstock.

Why StubHub Likely Won’t Buy a Ticket to the IPO Ride

By Martin Peers · Apr 12, 2024 3:30pm PDT

Greetings!Some people really can’t get past the idea that it’s no longer 2021. After a lot of resistance among private companies to raising money in the past year or two because of concerns about the valuation haircuts that would result, we’ve seen a lot more private funding down rounds and even IPOs at well below peak 2021 valuations (such as ... Greetings!Some people really can’t get past the idea that it’s no longer 2021. After a lot of...

The Amazon Spheres in Seattle. Photo by John Moore/Getty Images.

What Amazon’s Shareholder Letter Didn’t Say

By Martin Peers · Apr 11, 2024 5:00pm PDT

The Amazon Spheres in Seattle. Photo by John Moore/Getty Images.

What Amazon’s Shareholder Letter Didn’t Say

By Martin Peers · Apr 11, 2024 5:00pm PDT

We’re approaching that time of the year when most public companies hold their annual shareholder meetings, theoretically giving investors both large and small a chance to question management and vote on board members and other matters. That all still happens, but the drama has faded from these events. What used to be in-person gatherings are... We’re approaching that time of the year when most public companies hold their annual shareholder...

Photo by Valeriya Zankovych/Adobe Stock.

Meta’s New Chip Underlines Questions About AI Spending

By Martin Peers · Apr 10, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Mark Zuckerberg seems to enjoy stealing Sundar Pichai’s thunder. Close observers of the cloud sector will know that Google Cloud has one of its big annual events in Las Vegas this week, and it’s rolling out lots of announcements, including a new custom-designed chip for cloud computing. It seems Meta Platforms couldn’t resist getting in on the... Mark Zuckerberg seems to enjoy stealing Sundar Pichai’s thunder. Close observers of the cloud...

Left to right: The Information's Kate Clark and Cory Weinberg; Akrati Johari, Chief Growth Officer and Head of ZXData at Zanbato; and Gaurav Mathur, founding partner at Pinegrove Capital Partners. Photo by Nicole Pereira.

General Atlantic and Mubadala Send Positive Signals About Market

By Martin Peers · Apr 9, 2024 5:15pm PDT

The stock market is setting records, partly due to enthusiasm about artificial intelligence, a sector where valuations have soared. The IPO market isn’t back to where it was before interest rates started rising. Yet some investors are more upbeat about investment conditions than they’ve been in a while, judging from comments at our Private... The stock market is setting records, partly due to enthusiasm about artificial intelligence, a...

David Ellison. Photo by Getty

With Paramount, Ellison Should Be Careful What He Wishes For

By Martin Peers · Apr 8, 2024 5:00pm PDT

David Ellison should be careful what he wishes for. The son of Oracle chair Larry Ellison is reportedly nearing victory in his bid for TV and film company Paramount Global—to be financed with help from his dad—despite competition from Apollo. The last time there was a takeover battle for Paramount was almost exactly 30 years ago, when Sumner... David Ellison should be careful what he wishes for. The son of Oracle chair Larry Ellison is ...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images.

Meta Shows Strong Defense to FTC’s Antitrust Lawsuit

By Martin Peers · Apr 5, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images.

Meta Shows Strong Defense to FTC’s Antitrust Lawsuit

By Martin Peers · Apr 5, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

There is something perverse about the Biden administration’s willingness to ban TikTok even as it is arguing that Meta Platforms, whose Instagram is one of TikTok’s biggest rivals, holds “monopoly power” in social media. That contradiction came to mind when we read Meta’s court filing on Friday, asking a court to toss out the Federal Trade... There is something perverse about the Biden administration’s willingness to ban TikTok even as it...

The Amazon Fresh store in Pasadena, Calif. Photo by Getty David Crane via Getty Images.

What’s Behind Headlines About Amazon’s 'Just Walk Out' Feature

By Theo Wayt · Apr 4, 2024 5:00pm PDT

We’re at the point in the artificial intelligence hype cycle where online pundits are looking to tear down what they’ve spent much of the past 18 months building up. Exhibit A is the spread this week of a nugget of a story The Information wrote nearly a year ago about the role of human reviewers in India in powering Just Walk Out, Amazon’s... We’re at the point in the artificial intelligence hype cycle where online pundits are looking to...

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.

DOJ’s Facile Crusade Against ‘Competing’ Company Directors

By Martin Peers · Apr 3, 2024 5:00pm PDT

We’ve learned this week just how flexible the government’s definitions of “monopolist” and “competition” are. On “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” Monday night, Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan declared that a company can be judged monopolist if it mistreats its customers and gets away with it. By that definition, any bank or phone... We’ve learned this week just how flexible the government’s definitions of “monopolist” and “...

Ibotta advertising at an NBA game in 2022. Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images.

Judging the Rubrik and Ibotta IPO Beauty Pageant

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 2, 2024 5:00pm PDT

In the beauty pageant of initial public offerings, the latest tech companies to step to the stage, Ibotta and Rubrik, are trying to showcase the “glow-up” transformations they’ve undergone in the past two years.In early 2022, couponing startup Ibotta was struggling for relevance, barely growing and burning cash, looking more like a candidate for... In the beauty pageant of initial public offerings, the latest tech companies to step to the...

Photo via Shutterstock

Microsoft Unbundles Teams—Are Customers Better Off?

By Martin Peers · Apr 1, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Photo via Shutterstock

Microsoft Unbundles Teams—Are Customers Better Off?

By Martin Peers · Apr 1, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

We got big news today from the world of enterprise software. Microsoft has decided to stop including its Teams feature, a rival to Slack and Zoom Video, by default in its Office suite of software services, at least for new customers. The software giant made this change in Europe last summer, after a regulatory inquiry in its Teams bundling... We got big news today from the world of enterprise software. Microsoft has decided to stop...

Generative AI illustration via Adobe Stock.

AI Rivals Broadband in High Upfront Cost—What About the Return?

By Martin Peers · Mar 29, 2024 3:30pm PDT

Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence, like Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, are cool to experiment with. But it’s becoming clearer by the day just how humongously expensive this kind of AI technology is to develop. Our scoop today about Microsoft drawing up plans to spend as much as $100 billion on a data center project for OpenAI... Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence, like Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, are cool...

U.S. Attorney General, Merrick Garland at a news conference on March 21 after the Justice Department sued Apple for alleged antitrust violations. Photo by Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

When Tech Regulators Shift on a Dime

By Jessica E. Lessin · Mar 28, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Ask most founders, venture capitalists and tech executives how they feel about the state of regulation—from the antitrust case the Justice Department brought against Apple to the executive order regarding artificial intelligence—and you’ll hear a familiar refrain. Most tech leaders ignore regulators because they believe these authorities are... Ask most founders, venture capitalists and tech executives how they feel about the state of...

Photo by Tada Images/Adobe Stock.

What Amazon’s Anthropic Update Doesn’t Tell Us

By Martin Peers · Mar 27, 2024 5:00pm PDT

You could hear a pin drop in the tech world today, things were so quiet. (Are techies off painting Easter eggs?) We’re so starved for news that we appreciated Amazon’s decision to “update” everyone on the status of its commitment to invest up to $4 billion in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. The update was…Amazon has completed the full... You could hear a pin drop in the tech world today, things were so quiet. (Are techies off...

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

IPOs Still Face a High Bar, Despite Upbeat Debuts

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 26, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.

IPOs Still Face a High Bar, Despite Upbeat Debuts

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 26, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Startup CEOs are feeling practically poetic after watching Reddit and Astera Labs trade up following their public debuts in recent days. It feels like “the sun peeking through the clouds after a long period of rain,” one CEO who has been eyeing a public listing texted me. Bankers and venture capitalists, of course, are writing love sonnets to... Startup CEOs are feeling practically poetic after watching Reddit and Astera Labs trade up...