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

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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica E. 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

Art by Getty Images; Mike Sullivan

Why Anthropic’s Data Policy Drama Is Good for OpenAI

By Laura Bratton · Sep 15, 2026 11:28am PDT

Major Anthropic customers are still waiting to get “zero data retention” for the newest Fable AI models, meaning the AI firm would not store data related to their usage of its models. In the meantime, some are turning to OpenAI. Palantir and Booz Allen, for instance, are expanding their use of OpenAI’s Astra model, which they’ve been able... Major Anthropic customers are still waiting to get “zero data retention” for the newest Fable AI...

Art by Shane Burke

How Erebor Bank’s Sweet Stablecoin Deal Backfired

By Michael Roddan and Yueqi Yang · Sep 15, 2026 7:30am PDT

When Palmer Luckey’s Erebor Bank launched earlier this year, it made an attractive pitch to lure new crypto customers: It would convert their stablecoins to cash for free. But Erebor wound up pulling the offer after several months, after sophisticated crypto trading firms sniffed out a way to make an easy profit out of the offer—at a cost... When Palmer Luckey’s Erebor Bank launched earlier this year, it made an attractive pitch to lure...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Developers Find Ways to Use Claude Code Without Anthropic Models

By Alix Coutures · Sep 15, 2026 7:00am PDT

Boris Cherney, the head of Anthropic’s coding tool Claude Code, last month found himself in the middle of an online spat that highlighted how some developers are finding workarounds to using Claude Code with cheaper non-Anthropic models, including those of rival OpenAI, to save costs.Developer Alex Getman used a proxy made up of lines of code to... Boris Cherney, the head of Anthropic’s coding tool Claude Code, last month found himself in the...

Photo by Costfoto/ Getty Images

ByteDance’s First-Half Profit Drops to $20 Billion, Weighed Down by AI Spending

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Sep 15, 2026 5:00am PDT · 1 comment

Photo by Costfoto/ Getty Images

ByteDance’s First-Half Profit Drops to $20 Billion, Weighed Down by AI Spending

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Sep 15, 2026 5:00am PDT · 1 comment

ByteDance’s net profit in the first half of this year declined by a single-digit percentage to $20 billion, as the Chinese tech giant ramped up its investments in AI, according to three people with knowledge of the financial results. The company’s revenue for the period rose around 30% year on year to $120 billion, driven partly by robust growth... ByteDance’s net profit in the first half of this year declined by a single-digit percentage to...

Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images.

Wall Street Delivers Verdict on AI Slowdown’s Winners and Losers

By Martin Peers · Sep 14, 2026 5:00pm PDT

Guess who likes the idea of an AI development slowdown? Software investors! Stocks of enterprise software firms, such as Salesforce, Shopify, ServiceNow and Figma, all gained ground on Monday—ServiceNow jumped 7%, for instance, while Salesforce rose nearly 5%. Software firms, of course, have been seen as threatened by AI. Meanwhile, stocks of... Guess who likes the idea of an AI development slowdown? Software investors! Stocks of enterprise...

Photo via Shield AI

Defense Startup Shield AI in Talks for Valuation of at Least $20 Billion

By Julia Hornstein and Jemima McEvoy · Sep 14, 2026 1:44pm PDT

Shield AI, a startup building drones and AI-powered software for the military, is in talks to raise new funds at a valuation of at least $20 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the fundraise. The funding round, if it closes, would represent a roughly 60% increase to Shield’s valuation from just five months ago. The planned funding... Shield AI, a startup building drones and AI-powered software for the military, is in talks to...

OpenAI’s ‘Top Priority’ for AI Agents is Automating AI Research, Says Noam Brown

By Rocket Drew · Sep 14, 2026 1:08pm PDT

OpenAI’s latest AI model, GPT-6 Astra, notched improvements at a variety of professional tasks, from designing video games to transcribing sheet music. But OpenAI’s main goal when training new AI models is making them better at AI research and development, OpenAI research scientist Noam Brown told me. “The number one priority is recursive... OpenAI’s latest AI model, GPT-6 Astra, notched improvements at a variety of professional tasks,...

Art by Clark Miller

The Numbers Behind Chinese Open-Source Models’ Performance and Adoption

By Eric Bellomo · Sep 14, 2026 12:27pm PDT

Art by Clark Miller

The Numbers Behind Chinese Open-Source Models’ Performance and Adoption

By Eric Bellomo · Sep 14, 2026 12:27pm PDT

Open-source AI developments have kept The Information’s reporting corps busy this summer, with news on regulation, Meta Platforms’ return to open source, and the rise of Chinese labs, all culminating with Nvidia’s $12.9 billion purchase of the Hugging Face and the potential $40 billion valuation for startup Thinking Machines Lab. Open... Open-source AI developments have kept The Information’s reporting corps busy this summer, with...

Art by Clark Miller.

Refounding America: The Tax Code Needs to Change in the Age of AI

By Vinod Khosla · Sep 14, 2026 9:01am PDT · 5 comments

Vinod Khosla is founder of Khosla Ventures and has spent the last 40 years in the business of innovation. He was the co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Khosla Ventures is an investor in OpenAI. Major technological revolutions should force a renegotiation of society’s basic economic contract. AI will significantly diminish the requirement for labor... Vinod Khosla is founder of Khosla Ventures and has spent the last 40 years in the business of...

Art via Getty Images

Why China’s Answer to Surge AI Got a $1 Billion Valuation On Just $30 Million in Orders

By Juro Osawa · Sep 14, 2026 7:16am PDT

Unless you’ve been under a rock over the weekend, you’d know that the debate about AI safety took a big leap forward, as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Saturday called for leading AI companies to slow the development of advanced AI, drawing supportive responses from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind chair Demis Hassabis and SpaceX CEO Elon... Unless you’ve been under a rock over the weekend, you’d know that the debate about AI safety took...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Anthropic Data Fears Prompt Nvidia, Palantir and Booz Allen to Restrict Model Use

By Laura Bratton and Aaron Holmes · Sep 14, 2026 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

As paranoia rises over whether Anthropic or OpenAI could learn from their customers’ intellectual property, large firms involved in sensitive corporate work, such as Palantir Technologies, Nvidia and Booz Allen Hamilton, have started demanding new guarantees or reducing or eliminating use of the AI firms’ most advanced models. As paranoia rises over whether Anthropic or OpenAI could learn from their customers’ intellectual...

Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Anthropic Strikes $13.7 Billion Compute Deal With Trump-Linked Rum Group

By Valida Pau and Phoebe Liu · Sep 13, 2026 6:07pm PDT

Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Anthropic Strikes $13.7 Billion Compute Deal With Trump-Linked Rum Group

By Valida Pau and Phoebe Liu · Sep 13, 2026 6:07pm PDT

Anthropic has signed a computing deal worth $13.7 billion over six years with Rum Group, a company with roots in social media and long-standing ties to the Trump administration, according to a person familiar with the matter. The deal is the latest in a spate of cloud computing agreements Anthropic struck in the past year, with major cloud... Anthropic has signed a computing deal worth $13.7 billion over six years with Rum Group, a...

Dario Amodei. Photo by Chance Yeh/Getty Images

AI’s ‘Pacing’ Obsession Misses Real Political Problem

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 13, 2026 3:00pm PDT

Dario Amodei typically isn’t considered some camera-ready media maestro. His interview quotes aren’t particularly pithy, and he struggles to control his strained facial expressions. But his habit of sending his most high-stakes messages via essays posted on his own website, darioamodei.com, has proven to be a brilliant media strategy. “The... Dario Amodei typically isn’t considered some camera-ready media maestro. His interview quotes...

Ford will use Chinese battery technology to power its forthcoming electric Fathom pickup. Photo: Courtesy Ford.

Why Ford Is Right to Rely on Chinese Battery Technology—and Why Others Should Too

By Steve LeVine · Sep 13, 2026 2:00pm PDT

In 2022, amid a multiyear frenzy over electric vehicles, Ford was studying how to cheaply power its EVs. It settled on a battery made by China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd., the biggest—and, many thought, the best—battery maker in the world. The next year, Ford went further, announcing that it would build a plant in Michigan where it... In 2022, amid a multiyear frenzy over electric vehicles, Ford was studying how to cheaply power...

Getty Images.

Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Quietly Discussed an AI Safety Standards Body

By Leo Schwartz · Sep 13, 2026 12:16pm PDT

Anthropic, OpenAI and Google have been holding discussions about working together to create a standards body for the AI industry, people familiar with the matter said, even before Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on Saturday for AI companies to coordinate on testing and auditing the technology. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, for his part, told staff at... Anthropic, OpenAI and Google have been holding discussions about working together to create a...

Getty Images.

Nvidia’s Growing Dependence On a Few Big Customers

By Martin Peers and Qianer Liu · Sep 13, 2026 8:00am PDT · 2 comments

Getty Images.

Sunday Insights

Nvidia’s Growing Dependence On a Few Big Customers

By Martin Peers and Qianer Liu · Sep 13, 2026 8:00am PDT · 2 comments

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has very good reasons to try to develop new customers by investing in a variety of neocloud and AI firms. For all its success, Nvidia’s sales have become increasingly dependent on a handful of customers—some of which may cut back their purchases over time. That becomes clear when you look at its own disclosures... Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has very good reasons to try to develop new customers by investing in a...

Photo via Getty

AI Infrastructure

Why Amazon and Microsoft Are Taking Communities’ Side Against Utilities

By Ann Davis Vaughan · Sep 13, 2026 7:00am PDT

Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle and other AI data center developers are sweetening financial offers to municipalities and regulators to gain approval for new facilities. They’re also getting smarter about standing up for consumers against utilities that have proposed to make the public pay for some of the cost of handling new electricity loads.The... Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle and other AI data center developers are sweetening financial offers to...

Art: Clark Miller

Meta’s Muse Agent Almost Cost Me $408

By Abram Brown · Sep 12, 2026 8:01am PDT · 2 comments

• The Big Read: Investor Anjney Midha cut Anthropic an early check. His hot streak has kept going • Plus, Recommendations—our weekly pop culture picks: “Our Town,” “Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings” and “The Gentlemen”A hotel room’s quality can be measured in terms of abundance: extra towels, spare bathrobes—plenty of Nespresso pods.... • The Big Read: Investor Anjney Midha cut Anthropic an early check. His hot streak has kept...

Art: Clark Miller (Photos: Getty Images)

Early Anthropic Investor Seeks VC Glory With Cash and Compute

By Eli Rosenberg · Sep 12, 2026 6:16am PDT · 4 comments

A few months ago, venture capitalist Anjney Midha received a present from his wife while on a trip to Hawaii: a felt, tan-colored Stetson with his name monogrammed on the side. The hat was meant to cover up a brain sensor Midha has been wearing to gather neurological data for one of the many frontier startups he’s invested in. But it’s since... A few months ago, venture capitalist Anjney Midha received a present from his wife while on a...

Oracle coCEO Clay Magouyrk. Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Oracle Keeps a Lid on Capex as Customers Pay Up-Front

By Martin Peers · Sep 10, 2026 5:00pm PDT

Oracle coCEO Clay Magouyrk. Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Oracle Keeps a Lid on Capex as Customers Pay Up-Front

By Martin Peers · Sep 10, 2026 5:00pm PDT

Forget all that chatter about AI killing us all. We’re back to looking at what really matters—the revenue! Oracle demonstrated on Thursday that demand for AI computing capacity remains pretty darn robust. Larry Ellison’s software and cloud firm reported 30% top-line growth for the quarter ending Aug. 31, a tad better than the company projected... Forget all that chatter about AI killing us all. We’re back to looking at what really matters—the...