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

Andy Jassy. Getty Images

Amazon’s Cloud Lifts

By Martin Peers · Oct 30, 2025 5:10pm PDT

The cloud over Amazon is lifting. The e-commerce and cloud giant reported Thursday that its cloud unit, Amazon Web Services, accelerated revenue growth by nearly 3 percentage points to 20% in the third quarter, its fastest rate of expansion since the end of 2022. That means AWS, by far the biggest of the major cloud firms, has joined its nearest... The cloud over Amazon is lifting. The e-commerce and cloud giant reported Thursday that its cloud...

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What Google, Meta and Microsoft Numbers Revealed

By Martin Peers · Oct 29, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Mark Zuckerberg is doubling down on AI—again. And the cost is mounting. Meta Platforms reported Wednesday that its increased investment in AI, both for hiring star AI researchers and for investing billions in data centers, hurt its operating profit margins and squeezed its free cash flow by one-third in the third quarter. Since the end of last... Mark Zuckerberg is doubling down on AI—again. And the cost is mounting. Meta Platforms reported...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Getty Images

Nvidia and OpenAI Flood the Zone With AI News

By Martin Peers · Oct 28, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Where’s an AI agent when you need one? We got a flood of AI-related news today, including OpenAI’s revelation that it had completed its long-gestating restructuring into a near-normal company, one that can go public one day. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also was busy making news at the company’s GTC event in Washington, revealing the volume of orders... Where’s an AI agent when you need one? We got a flood of AI-related news today, including OpenAI’...

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Qualcomm’s AI Hope

By Martin Peers · Oct 27, 2025 5:00pm PDT

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Qualcomm’s AI Hope

By Martin Peers · Oct 27, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Another day, another chip company-A deal. This time, it’s Qualcomm, best known for its mobile phone chips (such as the modem in most iPhones). What Qualcomm is not known for is selling chips for data center servers, despite its valiant attempts to do so in the past. Will this time be different? We’ll see. At least Qualcomm has a customer for its... Another day, another chip company-A deal. This time, it’s Qualcomm, best known for its mobile...

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Big Tech Earnings, Nvidia’s GTC Dominate Crowded Week

By Martin Peers · Oct 26, 2025 3:00pm PDT

This is our first of what we plan to be a regular Sunday evening Briefing, looking out at the coming week. And what a week this promises to be. Nvidia is holding one of its GTC events for developers and customers in Washington Monday through Wednesday—which leather jacket will Jensen Huang wear onstage this time? (For more on GTC, see below.) We... This is our first of what we plan to be a regular Sunday evening Briefing, looking out at the...

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao. Getty Images.

Trump Opens Door for Crypto’s Offshore Giants

By Yueqi Yang · Oct 23, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

For crypto’s offshore giants these days, there’s nothing more important than figuring out their Trump playbook. Most are succeeding, as President Donald Trump’s pardon of Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao today demonstrated. The pardon of Zhao, who was convicted of violating anti–money-laundering laws and served a four-month sentence last year,... For crypto’s offshore giants these days, there’s nothing more important than figuring out their...

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Musk Dials Back Near Term Robotaxi and Optimus Targets

By Theo Wayt · Oct 22, 2025 5:00pm PDT

As a car manufacturer, Tesla’s latest financial results released Wednesday were a definite (if expected) improvement on the first half of the year. Instead of auto sales falling 16%, as they did in the second quarter, they rose 6%. And thanks to even stronger growth in battery sales and services, Tesla’s total revenue grew 12% year over year to... As a car manufacturer, Tesla’s latest financial results released Wednesday were a definite (if...

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Getty Images.

Netflix’s Success Spotlights Warner’s Failure

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

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Getty Images.

Netflix’s Success Spotlights Warner’s Failure

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

OpenAI continued its march to world domination, unveiling its long-anticipated Web browser, ChatGPT Atlas. It offers some snazzy features, including a split-screen view that allows you to ask ChatGPT questions related to the webpage you’re on without switching tabs. Given how difficult it is to change people’s ingrained habits, getting consumers... OpenAI continued its march to world domination, unveiling its long-anticipated Web browser, ...

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Getty Images

What Investors Are Missing in Apple’s iPhone 17 Sales Surge

By Martin Peers · Oct 20, 2025 5:00pm PDT

It’s the calm before the earnings storm. Netflix kicks off tech earnings on Tuesday with its third-quarter report, and most of the big tech names come next week. Already, though, investors are anticipating the news. That’s most obviously true of Apple, whose shares jumped 4% on Monday on a research report about strong sales of the recently... It’s the calm before the earnings storm. Netflix kicks off tech earnings on Tuesday with its...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Getty Images

What Microsoft Could Teach Oracle

By Martin Peers · Oct 17, 2025 3:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Was it something they said? Oracle shares fell 7% on Friday, a day after the software and cloud firm offered investors bullish growth projections for the next five years, both for revenue and for profits. In Oracle’s ideal world, those projections would have put to rest concerns about the cost of its artificial intelligence cloud expansion,... Was it something they said? Oracle shares fell 7% on Friday, a day after the software and cloud...

Oracle co-CEO Clay Magouyrk. Getty Images

Oracle’s Hypergrowth Forecasts

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

Bearish sentiment about the cost-benefit equation of artificial intelligence has become so prevalent lately that it almost feels like conventional wisdom is now skepticism. But that certainly isn’t the case at Oracle, the nearly 50-year-old enterprise software firm turned cloud provider, which declared itself today to be a “hypergrowth company,”... Bearish sentiment about the cost-benefit equation of artificial intelligence has become so...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Getty Images

The Big Question for Amazon and OpenAI

By Theo Wayt · Oct 15, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Getty Images

The Big Question for Amazon and OpenAI

By Theo Wayt · Oct 15, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Walmart’s announcement this week that it would become the first major retailer to start selling products through ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout shows that big retailers are being forced to take new forms of artificial intelligence–related online shopping seriously. It’s not shocking that Walmart, as a megaretailer that wants to sell more stuff... Walmart’s announcement this week that it would become the first major retailer to start selling...

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Getty Images

The Other Bubble

By Ken Brown · Oct 14, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

If there is a bubble in artificial intelligence, much of the blame can be placed on Wall Street, not Silicon Valley. Financial markets are as frothy as they can be, and the appetite for risk appears to be insatiable. That’s why Sam Altman has been able to get otherwise rational companies and investors to fund his audacious growth plans. On... If there is a bubble in artificial intelligence, much of the blame can be placed on Wall Street,...

Hock Tan, CEO of Broadcom. Getty Images

OpenAI’s Computing Capacity Binge

By Martin Peers · Oct 13, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

The hardest-working people in tech right now must be the OpenAI team responsible for writing press releases. On Monday—Columbus Day or, if you prefer, Indigenous People’s Day—when much of American business and government was closed, OpenAI put out its sixth big news announcement of the past three weeks. The company unveiled another chip-supply... The hardest-working people in tech right now must be the OpenAI team responsible for writing...

Sora screenshots via TikTok

Slop Takes Over My Social Media Feed. I Don’t Hate It

By Nick Wingfield · Oct 10, 2025 3:00pm PDT · 1 comment

I’m not sure what everyone else’s social media feeds are looking like these days, but over the past 72 hours mine has become unrecognizable to me. On TikTok, I’ve been inundated with short clips of slap-boxing competitions between Fred Rogers and Kurt Cobain, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, and Elvis Presley and Bob Marley. I’ve watched... I’m not sure what everyone else’s social media feeds are looking like these days, but over the...

Photo via Adobe

Amazon and Google Take Another Stab at Being Glean

By Kevin McLaughlin · Oct 9, 2025 5:00pm PDT

Photo via Adobe

Amazon and Google Take Another Stab at Being Glean

By Kevin McLaughlin · Oct 9, 2025 5:00pm PDT

It’s been nearly a year since we scooped the news that OpenAI, Google, Snowflake and Cohere were all working on artificial intelligence search products similar to the one startup Glean made a big splash with. Glean’s AI-powered search lets workers at companies easily find emails, Slack messages and other data scattered across business... It’s been nearly a year since we scooped the news that OpenAI, Google, Snowflake and Cohere were...

AMD CEO Lisa Su and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photos via Getty

Nvidia Chief’s Not-So-Subtle Dig at AMD

By Martin Peers · Oct 8, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

AMD CEO Lisa Su should hope Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang takes digs at her more often. After Huang turned up on CNBC on Wednesday morning—where he discussed both the AMD-OpenAI chip deal announced on Monday and Nvidia's own dealmaking—AMD’s stock rallied 11%! The stock, which had jumped 24% on Monday but only inched up a bit on Tuesday, is now up 43%... AMD CEO Lisa Su should hope Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang takes digs at her more often. After Huang...

Photo via Getty

The AI Profit Fantasy

By Martin Peers · Oct 7, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 6 comments

In years to come, we might look back at this period in tech as one in which the entire industry was in the grip of a mass delusion, namely the idea that artificial intelligence would prove to be good for business. Of course, it’s still early days. But so far, AI has proven lucrative primarily for the companies involved in making and selling AI... In years to come, we might look back at this period in tech as one in which the entire industry...

Sam Altman at OpenAI DevDay 2025. Photo via YouTube/OpenAI

OpenAI’s ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ Strategy

By Martin Peers · Oct 6, 2025 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

Sam Altman’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” strategy for OpenAI was on full display on Monday. Early in the day, the ChatGPT creator revealed that it will work with Advanced Micro Devices to use that company’s artificial intelligence chips, the latest example of OpenAI’s wide-ranging efforts to assure itself of more computing capacity. The... Sam Altman’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” strategy for OpenAI was on full display on...

Jeff Bezos today at Italian Tech Week 2025. Photo via Getty

Bezos Calls the AI Bubble

By Martin Peers · Oct 3, 2025 3:09pm PDT · 4 comments

Jeff Bezos today at Italian Tech Week 2025. Photo via Getty

Bezos Calls the AI Bubble

By Martin Peers · Oct 3, 2025 3:09pm PDT · 4 comments

Jeff Bezos made news today, putting his imprimatur on the idea that we’re in an AI bubble, although I think the fact that he’s now sporting a light beard was just as interesting. But that’s just me. Bezos’ declaration—at an Italian tech conference—shows that the idea of a bubble is no longer much of a debate. In fact, it’s pretty much... Jeff Bezos made news today, putting his imprimatur on the idea that we’re in an AI bubble,...