The Information — AI
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The Information — AI news-outlet 4d ago
Fintechs Muscle In on AI Spending
Greetings! AI payments are getting complicated fast—spurring the development of new billing technology. Providers of payments and corporate expense services built big businesses helping companies process bills and track and control major costs like travel and software…
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A Video Subscription Site Gets a New Life From Licensing Videos to AI
A streaming service called CuriosityStream , which offers documentaries on ancient Egypt, the Persian Gulf and other topics, was nearly delisted by the Nasdaq Stock Market three years ago. Squeezed by a post-pandemic glut of online streaming services, its revenue dove 27% in…
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ClickHouse’s Recurring Revenue Passes $350 Million as OpenAI, Agent Use Jumps
Excitement for artificial intelligence agents is benefitting businesses whose software manages and monitors the databases that the AI bots use to accomplish their tasks. ClickHouse, which sells a kind of database that can quickly analyze large volumes of data, such as website…
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Citadel Securities, DTCC Partner LayerZero Launches New Exchange
LayerZero, a blockchain infrastructure startup that counts Citadel Securities, DTCC, and Intercontinental Exchange among its partners, said it’s launching a new blockchain-based exchange targeting financial institutions this fall. Unlike major crypto exchanges, LayerZero’s new…
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Exclusive: Hugging Face Annualized Revenue Jumps 50% to $150 Million
AI startup Hugging Face, known for its repository of open-source models, is generating more than $150 million in annualized revenue, a 50% increase from two months ago , according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The decade-old startup is nearing a deal to sell…
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Nvidia's John Malone Dealmaking Opportunity
Here’s a thought about Nvidia’s future: All the equity stakes it’s accumulating in AI companies—including, as we reported on Sunday , an expanded stake in Perplexity—could become more useful in ways other than simply guaranteeing demand for its chips. Over time the stakes could…
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Alabama Starts Probe Into OpenAI Over Hugging Face Hack
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall launched an investigation into OpenAI’s practices related to its AI models’ recent cyberattack against Hugging Face. The investigation is examining whether OpenAI’s “inability or unwillingness to ensure the safety of its products” violates…
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Meta Plans to Launch ‘Hatch’ AI Agent Platform in Coming Weeks
Meta Platforms plans to launch its consumer version of the OpenClaw AI agent, dubbed Hatch internally, as soon as the next several weeks and is targeting October for its latest AI model, called Watermelon, according to internal documents reviewed by The Information. Hatch is…
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At Apple CEO’s Farewell, Tributes and an Unusually Personal Tim Cook
Next Tuesday, Tim Cook will officially pass the baton as Apple CEO to his successor, John Ternus. But in his final days as the company’s top executive, Apple and luminaries associated with the company are sending the executive off in style. The hyper-private Cook has even opened…
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Inside Musk’s First Address to Cursor: Grok Is Falling Behind
Earlier this month, on the day SpaceX announced it had completed its $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, Elon Musk called into an all-hands video meeting with the coding startup’s staff. Musk told them that SpaceX’s AI unit had fallen behind competitors and that he wasn’t used to…
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Filling In the Gaps in Nvidia’s $500 Billion Financing Pitch
Nvidia shocked the market earlier this month when it lined up half a dozen financial giants, including Blackstone, Apollo and Goldman Sachs, to finance $500 billion of AI infrastructure purchases. The eye-popping figure was a signal to the market that Nvidia is moving away from…
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Nvidia Announces New Customers For Vera CPU, Groq LPX Racks
SpaceX and AI cloud company Nebius are set to be early customers of Nvidia’s Vera central processing units and fast inference-focused Groq LPX racks, two key items intended to expand on Nvidia’s main, graphics processing unit-based products. Analysts and investors have wondered…
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Shein Expects IPO Valuation of $26 Billion
Fast fashion company Shein expects to go public at a valuation of around $26 billion, the company said in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. That would be a sharp decline from the $80 billion to $90 billion valuation it was hoping for three years ago. That decline…
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Jensen Huang's Manic Moves
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang continues to not rest on his laurels, particularly as clouds continue forming over the AI buildout. On Sunday, Phoebe, Valida and I reported that Nvidia was planning to lead a multibillion-dollar investment in Perplexity , the search firm-turned-AI agent…
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Amazon Becomes Vital Sales Outlet For Independent Merchants
When Lauren Wang started Flex in Los Angeles a decade ago, she wanted to create a new type of menstrual care product that wasn’t already on the market—a disposable disc that lasts longer than traditional tampons or pads. Flex sold through its own website early on; it was…
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Nvidia to Raise Flagship AI Chip Prices 17%, Server Makers Say
Prices for Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin chip systems are set to rise about 17%, The Information reported Saturday . The price jump adds to a growing array of cost surprises for cloud providers and other data center developers, including unexpected power delays ,…
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Nvidia Invests in Data Center Power Firm, Preps Multibillion-Dollar Perplexity Deal
Nvidia acquired a minority stake in Cloverleaf Infrastructure, its third equity investment in rapid succession in firms that secure real estate and electricity access for data centers in the U.S. The move is part of Nvidia’s race to lock up data center capacity for its full AI…
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Nvidia Discusses Perplexity Investment at $30 Billion-Plus Valuation
Nvidia is discussing investing in Perplexity as part of an equity round that would value the AI startup at more than $30 billion, according to people with knowledge of the discussion. The round would be worth billions of dollars and boost the startup’s valuation more than 50%…
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Nvidia, Salesforce Are in Spotlight This Week
Some of the hardest-working people in tech right now have to be the corporate communications folks at Nvidia, which is pretty much never out of the news. Aside from updates on its latest AI chips, Nvidia seems to be investing in almost every part of the AI sector, from data…
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Why Unitree’s 460% IPO Stock Pop Wasn’t Unusual in China
Humanoid robot maker Unitree’s 460% surge in its Shanghai stock market debut on Wednesday was the latest in a series of eye-watering first trading-day pops fetched by some recent tech initial public offerings in mainland China’s stock market. It followed last month’s debut of…
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Alibaba Seeks to Raise $10 Billion in Share Sale to Fund AI Investments
Alibaba Group said Sunday that it is looking to raise 80 billion Hong Kong dollars ($10.2 billion) through a major share placement to fund its fast-growing AI investments. The Chinese tech giant, listed in New York and Hong Kong, is selling shares to investors outside the U.S.…
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Nvidia AI Chip Prices to Rise About 17%, Server Makers Tell Customers
Prices for some of Nvidia’s flagship AI server chip systems are set to rise about 17%, according to two people whose firms were notified by server makers that provide such systems. The price hikes generally apply to Grace Blackwell 300 and Vera Rubin 200 chip systems that are…
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America Really, Really Hates Data Centers
• The Big Read: AI promises to cure cancer. Scientists feel existential dread • The new robotics ‘ arms race ’: Who can do the craziest hype video? • Plus, Recommendations—our weekly pop culture picks: “ Dan Taberski’s Manifesto ,” “ A Tender Age ” and “ The End of Oak Street ”…
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No, AI Probably Won’t Cure Cancer Anytime Soon, Scientists Say
Eric Topol is a prominent cardiologist known for his research into deploying AI and other technologies to improve healthcare. He considers himself a Demis Hassabis superfan, and when I spoke to him, he enthusiastically recounted scoring a blurb from the Google DeepMind chair for…
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TikTok Reaches $400 Million Settlement With DOJ Over Child Privacy Lawsuit
The Department of Justice said Friday that TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit regarding their alleged violation of federal children’s privacy laws. The DOJ originally filed its complaint in 2024, alleging that TikTok had…
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Exclusive: OpenAI Explored Stake in Stargate Power Developer Lancium
OpenAI explored its own investment in or acquisition of Lancium, the power developer behind its Stargate facility in Abilene, Tex., last quarter, The Information reported Friday . Ultimately, Nvidia invested billions of dollars in the firm . The OpenAI interest shows the length…
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Nvidia is Using Land and Electricity Deals to Lock In Its Hardware Bundle
Nvidia is racing to lock up data center capacity for its AI hardware before its rivals do. On Friday, the company announced it had acquired a minority stake in Cloverleaf Infrastructure, its third equity investment in rapid succession in firms that secure real estate and…
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Exclusive: Key OpenAI Sales Executive Kaylin Voss Resigns
Kaylin Voss, OpenAI’s vice president of sales in the Americas, has resigned a week after her former boss, Denise Dresser, left the company, according to a person familiar with the matter. Voss had been at OpenAI for just five months. Dresser, who was chief revenue officer, had…
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OpenAI Integrates ChatGPT into Apple Messages on Mac
OpenAI has announced an integration with Apple Messages on the Mac that allows ChatGPT to read, search and send messages. Mac users will be able to ask ChatGPT to analyze users’ messages, such as who are their most frequent contacts. The integration is happening in the midst of…
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Dragoneer Founder Stad to Buy Timberwolves Controlling Stake
Marc Stad, the founder of Dragoneer Investment Group, is buying a controlling stake in the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx professional basketball teams, according to The New York Times’ Athletic publication. Stad is buying the interest at a $4.5 billion valuation from…
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The New Robotics ‘Arms Race’: Who Can Do the Craziest Hype Video?
A couple months ago, a humanoid robot was dispatched to the top of Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo, the surface point farthest from the center of the planet. It was a stunt arranged by Geologic Dome, a nonprofit that uses AI and robotics for nature conservation, which had obtained…
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Barclays Loses Tech Bankers; VCs Get Exits From Poolside, OpenRouter
Barclays has been losing tech bankers lately. Last night I reported that Tim Luke , a veteran semiconductor analyst and banker, is leaving the British investment bank to join Morgan Stanley. His position as a vice chairman in technology investment banking will further strengthen…
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Walmart’s Slowdown Spotlights Amazon’s Strength
This was not the day to be a Walmart shareholder. Stock of the venerable retailer tumbled 9% after the company reported a dip in comparable sales for its U.S. stores in its fiscal second quarter ending July, even as the e-commerce part of its business grew 23%. The results were…
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Nvidia to Reportedly Pay $6 Billion in Licensing and Hiring Deal with AI Model Startup Poolside
Nvidia has agreed to pay $6 billion to license AI model-development software from startup Poolside, the startup told investors in a letter first reported by Newcomer . Poolside was an early developer of a coding AI agent and pivoted to developing data centers before releasing…
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AT&T is Using Open Source Models to Curb Anthropic Bills
Anthropic and OpenAI had better hope more companies don’t follow the example of AT&T. The telecommunications firm plans to keep its employees’ spending on Anthropic and OpenAI models flat in the coming years by using more open-source models such as Nvidia’s Nemotron, according…
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Walmart’s U.S. Sales Slowdown Sends Stock Tumbling 9%
Shares of Walmart fell 9% after the retail giant reported a sharp slowdown in growth of comparable sales at Walmart U.S., even as Walmart’s online sales continued to grow strongly. Overall, Walmart’s revenue grew 5.9% to $187.9 billion. Walmart said comparable sales at its U.S.…
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Nvidia Plots China Comeback With New AI Chip
Nvidia plans to begin small-batch shipments of an AI chip specially tailored for Chinese customers by the end of the year, according to two employees, in what would represent a new route to China for the company. Several Chinese customers have already placed orders for the chip,…
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Robots Are in Their GPT-2 Era
It’s no secret that AI-powered robots aren’t so good yet. They struggle with a broad range of simple tasks, from untangling cables to chopping vegetables. Nonetheless, morale is high among roboticists who are flush with venture cash as they work toward a “ ChatGPT moment ” when…
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Alibaba CEO Expects AI-Related ARR to Reach $10 Billion by September
Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu said on an earnings call Thursday that the company expects the annualized revenue run rate for its AI-related products to reach $10 billion in the current quarter through September, up from $7.3 billion in the previous quarter. Alibaba’s revenue in the…
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Exclusive: UBS Hires JP Morgan Banker Su to Ramp Up AI Banking Efforts
UBS is hiring Nicole Su from JPMorgan to lead its AI investment banking efforts, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Information. Su, most recently an executive director at JPMorgan, will join the bank later this month as its head of emerging AI technology banking in…
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Anthropic’s Enterprise AI Venture Buys Consultancy
A joint venture established by Anthropic and Wall Street firms such as Blackstone has made its first acquisition since its July launch as it looks to boost the growth of Claude, Anthropic’s chatbot, among businesses. Anthropic ’s venture, Ode, plans to announce Thursday that it…
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Veteran Barclays Semiconductor Banker Tim Luke to Join Morgan Stanley
Tim Luke, a vice chairman in Barclays global technology investment banking group, is joining Morgan Stanley as a senior investment banker, according to people familiar with his move. Luke, a long-time semiconductor investment banker and equity research analyst, advised on some…
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Stripe Takes OpenRouter
No one would ever call payment processing a glamorous business, although if anyone could make it interesting, it’s Stripe’s founders, the Collison brothers (they’re Irish, and one of them has a podcast set in a pub!). Stripe has been out of the limelight for a while, but that’s…
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Marvell Gives Google the Right to Buy Up to $12.2 Billion in Stock as Part of Chip Deal
Marvell Technology granted Google rights to acquire a stake of up to $12.2 billion as part of an expanded partnership between the two companies. Under the new deal, which sent Marvell shares up 9.9% in Wednesday’s trading, the companies will collaborate on development of a range…
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Trump Says Regulators Working to Bring Hyperliquid to the U.S.
President Donald Trump said U.S. regulators are working to bring Hyperliquid, a popular offshore venue for perpetual futures, to the U.S. The price of Hyperliquid token jumped 22% after the remark. “I understand that Mike [Selig] is also working to bring Hyperliquid into the…
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Stripe Confirms Acquiring AI Marketplace Startup OpenRouter
Stripe announced Wednesday that it agreed to acquire OpenRouter, a marketplace that aggregates AI models, seeking to position itself at the center of payments to AI firms. Stripe is paying $7.5 billion for OpenRouter, of which $1.5 billion is paid to the startup’s founders and…
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The Hot New Prediction Exchange You’ve Never Heard of—by Design
A new behind-the-scenes exchange called Rothera is betting it can capture a significant share of prediction market trading without running its own consumer app. Prediction markets are dominated by Kalshi and Polymarket, which operate consumer-facing apps as well as exchanges…
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Nvidia Discusses Funding Its AI Data Supplier Mercor at a $20 Billion Valuation
Nvidia has discussed an investment in Mercor, a data labeling provider that helps the chip designer develop its open-source AI models, according to a person with knowledge of the process. The investment would be part of a $20 billion-valuation round. Existing investor General…
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OpenAI to Launch Security Analysis System With Better Privacy Protections
OpenAI is preparing to roll out a system to analyze user interactions with its models for cybersecurity and other safety concerns without storing customer data, in a move that positions the company to potentially lure customers frustrated over how Anthropic has handled similar…
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OpenAI Raises the Safety Bar on Anthropic; Anthropic Expands Its Revenue Lead
In the Anthropic-OpenAI horse race, the now-much-smaller OpenAI has been looking to slow down its ascendant rival. That includes undercutting Anthropic’s model prices, as we covered yesterday , and playing nice with federal officials that have gone to war with Anthropic. Another…
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