The Information

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Microsoft Has Recouped More Than Double Its $13 Billion OpenAI Investment in Revenue

By Sri Muppidi and Aaron Holmes · May 12, 2026 11:08am PDT · 1 comment

For three years, Microsoft was the only cloud provider to sell OpenAI’s large language models to other businesses, an exclusive right it fought hard to preserve after investing $13 billion in the startup. But businesses bought more access to those models from OpenAI directly than from Microsoft over that time, new data show. Even so, Microsoft’s... For three years, Microsoft was the only cloud provider to sell OpenAI’s large language models to...

OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, left, and Cerebras CEO, Andrew Feldman. Photos via Getty Images

OpenAI Is Making Billions Just by Promising to Buy From Suppliers

By Cory Weinberg · May 12, 2026 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Chipmaker Cerebras brought in one of the greatest pitchmen in tech, Sam Altman, to appear in a video to promote its $5.5 billion initial public offering. Seated on a gray upholstered couch and speaking softly, the OpenAI chief executive touted Cerebras’ chips as “the best high-speed inference offering in the world right now.” Altman has a strong... Chipmaker Cerebras brought in one of the greatest pitchmen in tech, Sam Altman, to appear in a...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty.

OpenAI to Save $97 Billion Through 2030 in Latest Microsoft Deal

By Sri Muppidi and Aaron Holmes · May 11, 2026 6:09pm PDT · 2 comments

OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has plenty of things to worry about. But paying OpenAI’s early backer Microsoft as much as $135 billion through 2030 as part of a revenue-sharing deal is no longer one of them. OpenAI’s initial agreement to pay 20% of its revenue to Microsoft could have amounted to that much if the ChatGPT maker ended... OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has plenty of things to worry about. But paying OpenAI...

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China’s Kuaishou Plans to Spin Off Kling AI Video Unit at $20 Billion Valuation

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · May 11, 2026 4:44am PDT

Photo by VCG/ Getty Images

China’s Kuaishou Plans to Spin Off Kling AI Video Unit at $20 Billion Valuation

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · May 11, 2026 4:44am PDT

Chinese social media giant Kuaishou Technology is planning to spin off its Kling AI video business ahead of an initial public offering next year, in an attempt to capitalize on investors’ appetite for AI stocks, according to two people with knowledge of the plans. Kuaishou has held talks with potential investors for a pre-IPO funding round that... Chinese social media giant Kuaishou Technology is planning to spin off its Kling AI video...

Photo of Elon Musk by Getty Images; art by Mike Sullivan.

Cursor Staff Meet With xAI Employees as Layoffs, Exits Mount

By Theo Wayt, Laura Bratton and Erin Woo · May 8, 2026 2:04pm PDT · 5 comments

Cursor is already starting to make its presence known at SpaceX’s AI unit, just weeks after Elon Musk’s firm got an option to buy the coding startup for $60 billion. Cursor staffers have been visiting xAI offices to meet with employees and discuss their work, according to two people with direct knowledge of the companies. Fresh xAI exits have... Cursor is already starting to make its presence known at SpaceX’s AI unit, just weeks after Elon...

DeepSeek To Raise More than $7 Billion as Startup Plots Revenue Efforts

By The Information Staff · May 8, 2026 4:40am PDT

Liang Wenfeng, billionaire founder and CEO of DeepSeek, is planning to write the biggest check for the startup’s first-ever funding round, which the company now hopes will raise up to 50 billion yuan ($7.35 billion), according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks. That would make it the biggest funding round by a Chinese AI company... Liang Wenfeng, billionaire founder and CEO of DeepSeek, is planning to write the biggest check...

Jerry Tworek. Screenshot via YouTube.

Ex-OpenAI Researcher’s Six-Week-Old Startup Targets Funding at $4 Billion Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Julia Hornstein · May 7, 2026 4:33pm PDT · 4 comments

Nvidia’s investment spree in startups that use its AI chips has stoked traditional venture capital firms’ interest in those companies. That has paved the way for brand-new startups taking on Anthropic and OpenAI to raise back-to-back funding rounds, sometimes in a matter of weeks. In the latest example, Core Automation, an AI model developer ... Nvidia’s investment spree in startups that use its AI chips has stoked traditional venture...

Photo via Allen Control Systems.

Anti-Drone AI Startup in Talks for $2 Billion Valuation

By Julia Hornstein · May 7, 2026 12:32pm PDT · 1 comment

Photo via Allen Control Systems.

Anti-Drone AI Startup in Talks for $2 Billion Valuation

By Julia Hornstein · May 7, 2026 12:32pm PDT · 1 comment

Allen Control Systems, a four-year-old startup building an autonomous weapons station that can shoot down drones, is aiming to raise new funding at a valuation of $2 billion before the investment, according to two people with knowledge of the efforts. The startup is targeting a round size of roughly $200 million, the people said. The company’s... Allen Control Systems, a four-year-old startup building an autonomous weapons station that can...

From left, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella via Getty. Art by Clark Miller.

OpenAI’s AI Chip Deal With Broadcom Hits $18 Billion Financing Snag

By Anissa Gardizy · May 7, 2026 11:09am PDT

When OpenAI and chip designer Broadcom announced last fall that they would make custom artificial intelligence chips together, they positioned it as a done deal. The companies said the deal would bring enough chips online before 2030 to consume 10 gigawatts of power, equivalent to five Hoover Dams’ worth of electricity, in a bid to lessen OpenAI... When OpenAI and chip designer Broadcom announced last fall that they would make custom artificial...

Binance's Yi He, left, and Richard Teng. Photos by Getty Images

Treasury Department Demands Binance Compliance After Iran Crypto Reports

By Leo Schwartz · May 7, 2026 9:05am PDT

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has privately demanded that Binance comply with a monitoring program U.S. regulators imposed on the crypto exchange in 2023, when it pleaded guilty to charges related to sanctions and anti–money-laundering violations, The Information has learned. The Treasury Department’s request—which it sent to... The U.S. Department of the Treasury has privately demanded that Binance comply with a monitoring...

Polymarket's Situation Room pop-up in Washington in March. Alex Kent/The Washington Post/Getty Images.

Polymarket’s Homecoming Is Shaky and its U.S. CEO Is AWOL

By Michael Roddan and Yueqi Yang · May 6, 2026 6:00am PDT

Four years after its was exiled from the U.S., Polymarket was desperate to get back into the country. To make that happen, the prediction market bought a derivative and futures exchange that had just gotten a U.S. license and retained its chief executive, Justin Hertzberg, to run Polymarket U.S. Hertzberg appears to be CEO in name only. His main... Four years after its was exiled from the U.S., Polymarket was desperate to get back into the...

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images

Meta Is Building an AI Agent Called ‘Hatch’ and an AI Shopping Tool in Instagram

By Jyoti Mann · May 5, 2026 3:33pm PDT

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images

Meta Is Building an AI Agent Called ‘Hatch’ and an AI Shopping Tool in Instagram

By Jyoti Mann · May 5, 2026 3:33pm PDT

Meta Platforms is building a consumer version of the AI agent OpenClaw and a new agentic shopping tool, people familiar with the efforts said, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushes for products to deliver returns on the company’s huge artificial intelligence investments. Meta is training the OpenClaw-inspired agent, internally called “Hatch,” with the... Meta Platforms is building a consumer version of the AI agent OpenClaw and a new agentic shopping...

Anthropic Co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei. Photo by Chance Yeh/Getty Images

Anthropic Commits to Spending $200 Billion on Google’s Cloud and Chips

By Sri Muppidi, Erin Woo and Amir Efrati · May 5, 2026 1:20pm PDT

When Google last month said it would supply Anthropic with an astonishing five gigawatts of server capacity, the companies didn’t put a dollar figure on that commitment. But as part of the deal, which begins next year, Anthropic plans to spend about $200 billion with Google over five years, according to a person with knowledge of it. The... When Google last month said it would supply Anthropic with an astonishing five gigawatts of...

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xAI’s Fast, Cheap Data Center Build-Out Has Hidden Costs

By Theo Wayt and Valida Pau · May 5, 2026 10:10am PDT · 3 comments

SpaceX is touting xAI’s ability to build data centers quickly and cheaply as a major advantage over rival AI labs, part of a pitch for its upcoming initial public offering. For instance, in SpaceX’s draft IPO prospectus, the company said xAI brought the first two chip clusters at its second data center online at roughly a quarter of what it... SpaceX is touting xAI’s ability to build data centers quickly and cheaply as a major advantage...

Art by Shutterstock; Mike Sullivan.

Amazon Weighs ‘Hybrid Mode’ AI Searches on Retail Site

By Catherine Perloff · May 5, 2026 6:00am PDT

Amazon has so far kept its Rufus AI shopping assistant largely separate from its main commerce search bar. But the retail giant is leaving the door open to adding AI commentary to search results, bringing browsing and researching more seamlessly into the buying process. That includes hybrid modes, such as Amazon showing a conversational blurb... Amazon has so far kept its Rufus AI shopping assistant largely separate from its main commerce...

Anthropic co-founder and president, Daniela Amodei. Kimberly White/Getty Images.

Anthropic in Talks to Buy AI Chips From U.K. Startup

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Anissa Gardizy · May 2, 2026 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Anthropic co-founder and president, Daniela Amodei. Kimberly White/Getty Images.

Anthropic in Talks to Buy AI Chips From U.K. Startup

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Anissa Gardizy · May 2, 2026 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

As Anthropic’s sales explode, straining the servers it uses, the company is considering adding another source of AI server chips in addition to existing suppliers Google, Amazon and Nvidia. The maker of Claude has recently been in talks with London-based startup Fractile to buy its inference chips, which aim to run AI models efficiently, when... As Anthropic’s sales explode, straining the servers it uses, the company is considering adding...

Philip Johnston, CEO of Starcloud. Screenshot via YouTube

Starcloud in Talks for $2.2 Billion Valuation as SpaceX Stirs Interest

By Theo Wayt and Julia Hornstein · Apr 30, 2026 2:24pm PDT · 1 comment

Starcloud, a two-year-old startup building orbital data centers, has told investors it’s in talks to raise at least $200 million at a valuation of around $2.2 billion after the investment, according to a person involved in the deal. The discussions come just one month after Redmond, Wash.-based Starcloud said it raised $170 million at a $1.1... Starcloud, a two-year-old startup building orbital data centers, has told investors it’s in talks...

Photo by David Kawai/ Getty Images.

Shopify Seeks Licenses to Push Deeper Into Fintech

By Ann Gehan · Apr 30, 2026 6:00am PDT

Commerce giant Shopify is seeking regulatory approvals to take a bigger role in offering financial and payments services to the millions of merchants using its software. Shopify has already secured money transmitter licenses in more than a dozen U.S. states to hold and move funds itself, and it is seeking them nationwide. If that happens, the... Commerce giant Shopify is seeking regulatory approvals to take a bigger role in offering...

Michael Nicolls, senior vice president for Starlink at SpaceX, during a keynote speech at MWC Barcelona 2026 in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday, March 2, 2026. Photo by Angel Garcia/Getty Images

SpaceX’s Starlink Revenue Per User Fell 18% As Customers Quadrupled

By Valida Pau and Theo Wayt · Apr 29, 2026 10:53am PDT

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service quadrupled its individual subscribers between 2023 and 2025—but the average revenue each subscriber brought in fell 18% to $81 a month in that period, a draft version of SpaceX’s initial public offering prospectus shows. The decline in Starlink’s ARPU reflects the service’s introduction of... SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service quadrupled its individual subscribers between 2023...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty.

OpenAI Sees $8 ChatGPT Driving Consumer Subscribers to 122 Million This Year

By Sri Muppidi · Apr 28, 2026 2:56pm PDT · 6 comments

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo by Getty.

OpenAI Sees $8 ChatGPT Driving Consumer Subscribers to 122 Million This Year

By Sri Muppidi · Apr 28, 2026 2:56pm PDT · 6 comments

For three years, OpenAI has generated most of its revenue from people paying $20 a month for subscriptions to ChatGPT. This year, it is forecasting a massive shift, expecting a cheaper, ad-supported tier will both draw new users and cause tens of millions of its paying subscribers to downgrade, according to previously undisclosed projections. ... For three years, OpenAI has generated most of its revenue from people paying $20 a month for...