The Information — AI
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The Information — AI news-outlet 3mo ago
Edge Inference Chip Startup SiMa.ai Raising at $1.4 Billion Valuation
Nvidia might be on a tear, but some investors are still convinced that there’s demand for another kind of specialized chips. And they’re putting their money where their mouth is. For example: San Jose, Calif.-based SiMa.ai , which develops chips that work on devices such as…
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Microsoft Executives Sound the Alarm Over GitHub’s Eroding AI Lead
No part of Microsoft better illustrates its predicament in AI than GitHub. The AI boom has boosted usage and revenue of the code repository as well as GitHub Copilot, an AI coding assistant. But GitHub has struggled to respond to new AI coding competitors that have since…
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Lenovo’s Internal Memo Shows Uncertainty for Nvidia’s H200 Sales in China
Chinese personal computer and server maker Lenovo Group said in an internal memo to staff last week that there have been no new licenses or policies regarding Nvidia’s H200 chips since March, when Washington approved the sales of the chips to some Chinese companies. Last week,…
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Shein Buys Everlane
Everlane, a San Francisco-based startup that soared during the last decade’s e-commerce boom, will sell itself to Shein, a Chinese discount e-retail giant. The deal values Everlane at $100 million, a far cry from the valuations that it once received at its height. Everlane was…
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SpaceX Launch, Google I/O Headline a Big News Week in Tech
This should be an action-packed week in tech news, what with Nvidia’s first-quarter earnings, Google’s annual I/O developer conference and Meta Platforms’ scheduled layoffs of 8,000 employees. But it is Elon Musk who has the biggest week coming up. For one thing, the first test…
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Gates Foundation Sells Remaining Microsoft Stake
Bill Gates’ charitable trust has sold all of its Microsoft stock and no longer owns any shares in the company, it disclosed Friday. The Gates Foundation Trust reported that it had sold around $3 billion worth of Microsoft stock in the first quarter of 2026. Gates, who is the…
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Anthropic and OpenAI’s Share of AI Startup Revenues Rises to 89%
Anthropic and OpenAI are widening the revenue gap between themselves and the rest of the AI startup field. A group of 34 leading startups in that sector, including Anthropic and OpenAI, is generating nearly $80 billion in annualized revenue, or $6.6 billion per month, from…
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BlackRock Weighs Multibillion-Dollar Investment in SpaceX IPO
BlackRock has discussed investing $5 billion to $10 billion in SpaceX’s initial public offering next month, people familiar with the matter said. The massive order, for an offering that could raise as much as $75 billion, would represent a vote of confidence in Elon Musk’s…
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OpenAI Buys AI Voice Startup Weights
OpenAI bought Weights.GG, a small startup that made an AI voice-cloning tool called Replay, in January, according to a person familiar with the acquisition. A half dozen employees joined OpenAI, which bought the startup’s intellectual property but does not plan to integrate the…
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San Francisco’s Robo-Fight Club, General Catalyst’s Divisive Virality
Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter: • The Big Read: Why Trump officials and VCs love a nuclear power startup’s brute-force approach • Biotech: The case of the disappearing embryo startups • Plus, Recommendations—our weekly pop culture picks: “ Are We Doomed? ” “ Steve Jobs…
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Silicon Valley Likes the Idea of Gene-Edited Embryos. It’ll Be a Wait
Two companies aiming to make better babies by tweaking the DNA of embryos were invited to talk about the future of the technology at SynBioBeta, a major gathering of the biotech world scheduled for earlier this month in San Jose, Calif. As the discussion’s moderator, I felt…
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SpaceX Picks Nasdaq for Mid-June IPO
SpaceX plans to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange as soon as June 12, Reuters reported on Friday. That would represent a slightly accelerated schedule for the space and AI company’s IPO, which had previously been slated for later in June. SpaceX also plans to make its IPO…
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OpenAI Reorganizes Product Teams Around Unified-App Strategy
OpenAI is combining teams working on ChatGPT, its Codex coding product and its API into one organization, pressing ahead on its more streamlined strategy despite the prolonged medical leave of top executive Fidji Simo. OpenAI president Greg Brockman will lead the new product…
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Trump Traded Millions in Tech Stocks in Q1
President Trump traded millions of dollars worth of technology stocks since the start of 2026, new disclosures released on Thursday show. In a report filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, Trump revealed that he bought and sold shares of companies including Nvidia,…
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Ackman’s Pershing Square Builds Microsoft Stake on AI Optimism
Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square has bought a stake in Microsoft, Ackman said in a post on X Friday, arguing that the company’s nearly 15% share slide so far this year has been driven by investors who “underestimate the resilience” of its Office 365 software and growth of its newer…
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Why Trump Officials and VCs Love This Nuclear Power Startup’s Brute-Force Approach
On a cloudy day in late March, Isaiah Taylor, the 27-year-old founder and chief executive of Valar Atomics, a Hawthorne, Calif.–based nuclear energy startup, led me into a large black tent at the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab in the middle of the Utah desert. Dozens of…
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Anthropic Calls for Tighter U.S. Chip Restrictions on China
Anothropic published a new paper on Friday that calls for the U.S. to make sure China’s access to advanced chips is restricted, in the same week when President Donald Trump is in Beijing on a high-stakes state visit to China. In the paper, entitled “2028: Two Scenarios for…
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Trade Representative Greer: Chip Export Controls Not Major Topic in Talks With Beijing
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Friday that U.S. chip export controls were “not a major topic of discussion” at the bilateral meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping “We did not talk about…
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Newmark Data Center Advisor Brent Mayo Departs for DigitalBridge
Brent Mayo, head of data center capital markets at advisory firm Newmark, has left the firm and told people he is joining investment firm DigitalBridge, according to two people with knowledge of the move. At Newmark, which specialized in commercial real estate, Mayo was a part…
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Anthropic Picks Co-Leads for $900 Billion Valuation Funding Round
Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia Capital and Altimeter Capital have agreed to co-lead a $30 billion round of funding into Anthropic at a $900 billion valuation before the money, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions. The investment nearly triples its last…
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Musk, OpenAI, Microsoft Lawyers Deliver Closing Statements
Lawyers for Elon Musk, OpenAI and Microsoft delivered closing statements Thursday in their courtroom battle, setting the stage for jury deliberations next week. A lawyer for Musk argued that it was OpenAI’s 2023 deal with Microsoft that violated OpenAI’s charitable mission, in…
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Cerebras IPO Stock Pop; Apple-OpenAI Drama
This was quite the day. OpenAI is jumping up and down about its unhappiness with Apple (it’s doubtful Tim Cook is shaking in his boots). Big telecom threw down the gauntlet to Elon Musk and Amazon (not that they should worry). We get to both news items lower down. But first…the…
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Cerebras Payday Includes Tiger—And SPVs
Earlier this morning we published exclusive returns on some of the biggest investors in AI chip designer Cerebras, whose shares surged in their first day of trading. The offering represents welcome cash for investors after they’ve seen initial public offerings get delayed year…
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Salesforce Chief Product Officer Fisher Steps Down
Steve Fisher, president and chief product officer at Salesforce, has stepped down and moved into an advisory role at the company, he announced on LinkedIn. Fisher, one of Salesforce’s longest-tenured technical executives, reported to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, his former high…
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Thrive Capital Invests $100 Million in Shopify Shares
Joshua Kushner’s investment firm Thrive Capital has bought roughly $100 million in Shopify shares, Bloomberg reported Thursday , framing the move as a bet on how AI will lead to gains in e-commerce. While Thrive is best known for its startup investments, it has also previously…
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Figma Sees Revenue Growth Jump as New AI Pricing Sticks
Figma stock rose more than 8% in after hours trading as the design-software firm reported accelerating revenue growth for the first quarter. Revenue for the three months that ended March 31 rose 46% to $333 million, higher than the 40% jump in the previous quarter and the 38%…
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Microsoft Names Former EY CEO to Board
Carmine Di Sibio, the former CEO of consulting firm EY, is joining Microsoft as a new board director, Microsoft announced Thursday. Di Sibio’s appointment expands Microsoft’s board to 13 members, the company said. Di Sibio previously spent more than 24 years at EY, ultimately…
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Crypto Bill Advances in Senate, a Win Against Banks
A key piece of crypto legislation passed the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, moving one step closer to becoming law and handing a win to the crypto industry in a political battle against the banking lobby. The crypto market structure bill, called the Clarity Act, would set…
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OpenAI’s Apple Partnership Sours
OpenAI appears to be headed into conflict with another big name partner, Apple. The AI startup is considering legal action against Apple over breach of contract related to the ChatGPT integration deal it announced with Apple two years ago, said an OpenAI employee familiar with…
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Why Anthropic Costs Are Unpredictable
Anthropic customers are already feeling pinched by the company’s AI price hikes, Aaron and I reported Wednesday. Making matters harder, Anthropic customers like PagerDuty and ServiceNow, which says it already blew through its full-year budget for Anthropic AI tools, can’t…
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The SpaceXAI Exodus: More Than 50 Recent Exits as Meta, Thinking Machines Hire Staff
Call it the SpaceXAI exodus. More than 50 researchers and engineers working on xAI’s Grok models have left the AI lab since SpaceX acquired it in February, through layoffs, firings and voluntary departures, according to several people with knowledge of the moves. These…
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U.S. Wireless Carriers to Work Together on Direct-to-Mobile Service
The three largest U.S. mobile carriers said Thursday they’re forming a joint venture that will work together to bring direct-to-device service to customers in remote areas and help eliminate dead spots in coverage. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile said they have an “agreement in…
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AGI Is the Elephant in the Musk v. OpenAI Courtroom
Lawyers for Elon Musk and OpenAI are set today to deliver closing arguments in their trial, which centers on Musk’s allegations that OpenAI breached a charitable trust, in part by violating its charitable mission. The two sides disagree on almost everything in the case, but one…
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Cerebras Prices Offering at $185 a Share
AI chip designer Cerebras Systems priced its initial public offering at $185 a share Wednesday night, well above its initial expectation of between $115 and $125. The IPO price values Cerebras at $56 billion taking into account all outstanding options and warrants. Cerebras sold…
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Cerebras IPO Winners Include Foundation, Benchmark—and OpenAI
Over the last decade, there were times when Cerebras investors could be forgiven for losing hope. The company, which was attempting the difficult and expensive task of developing an alternative to Nvidia’s graphics processing units, didn’t deliver its first chips until five…
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Treasury Secretary Bessent: U.S. and China Will Discuss “AI Guardrails”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with CNBC that the U.S. and China will discuss “AI guardrails” during President Donald Trump’s state visit to China this week. “We are gonna set up a protocol in terms of how do we go forward with best practices for AI…
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Chinese Premier to U.S. CEOs: the Two Countries Should Be Friends, Partners
Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with more than a dozen American executives on Thursday in Beijing, telling tech and corporate leaders that the U.S. and China “can and should continue to be friends, partners.” The meeting with Li, China’s No.2 official, is part of a series of…
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U.S. Clears Nvidia H200 Chip Sales to 10 Chinese Firms
The U.S. Commerce Department has cleared Nvidia’s sales of its H200 chips to around 10 Chinese companies including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com, as Washington eases its restrictions on AI chip exports to China, Reuters reported. Washington also approved H200 sales to…
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Amazon’s AI Shopping Overhaul
Remember Bard? It was the original name of Google’s AI chatbot, but the Gemini brand long ago replaced it. Just as you’ve likely forgotten that history, you’re not likely to remember Rufus in 12 months’ time, either. Rufus, the name of Amazon’s AI-powered shopping chatbot, got…
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Cisco Shares Jump 18% as Cloud Providers Increase AI Product Orders
Cisco Systems reported revenue grew 12% to $15.8 billion in its April quarter compared to last year—up 2% from last quarter—and forecast 14% growth for its current quarter. On an earnings call, Cisco executives said the acceleration stems from major cloud providers ordering more…
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Fervo Raises Nearly $2 Billion in IPO
Enhanced geothermal energy pioneer Fervo Energy raised nearly $2 billion in an initial public offering, giving it the financial firepower to grow aggressively and compete with natural gas to power AI data centers. Fervo is a leader in one of the hottest sectors in energy. The…
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Microsoft Says It Spent More Than $100 Billion on OpenAI
Microsoft estimates it will have spent more than $100 billion on commercial agreements with OpenAI by the end of its fiscal year in June, executive Michael Wetter testified in court on Wednesday. That number includes the $13 billion Microsoft invested in OpenAI, as well as the…
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Latest Version of Anthropic’s Mythos AI is Even Better at Hacking, UK Researchers Say
Anthropic’s latest version of its Mythos AI showed “notable capability jumps” at finding and exploiting undiscovered software vulnerabilities compared to an earlier version of the model, researchers at the U.K.’s AI Security Institute said Wednesday. Anthropic has not released…
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Startup Modal in Talks to Raise at $4.5 Billion Valuation After Revenue Surges
Modal, a startup that rents out Nvidia graphics processing units and software to help developers run and train models as well as agents, is in talks to raise money at around a $4.5 billion valuation. That would be an 80% premium to its last valuation from just a few months ago,…
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Apple Explores Ways to Welcome AI Agents in the App Store
Apple is exploring ways to better incorporate AI agents into its App Store so it can benefit from the tech industry’s hottest trend while ensuring that the software in its store continues to play by its rules, according to people briefed on the matter. So far, the widespread…
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Can Crypto Beat the Banks and Win Over Washington?
This is a critical week for the crypto industry. The most important crypto law ever to hit Congress is about to take a big step forward, and with the crypto market in the doldrums, the timing couldn’t be better. This could be the last chance for the long-delayed bill to become…
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Alibaba Expects $4.4 Billion in Annualized AI Revenue by Year-End
Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu said Wednesday that the company expects its annualized revenue from AI model and application services to surpass 10 billion yuan ($1.47 billion) in the current quarter through June, and top 30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) by the end of this year. It was…
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Tencent Says China’s AI Chip Crunch Is Easing, Plans to Spend More
Tencent Holdings is gearing up to spend more on AI infrastructure after chip shortages began showing signs of relief. Chief Strategy Officer James Mitchell said on an earnings call Wednesday that the company will spend significantly more in the second half of this year, as more…
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How Anthropic Could Take an OpenAI Supplier Off The Table
Is a big AI model maker about to take out a supplier to its archrival? That seems possible if a deal we reported on late Tuesday reaches the finish line. Anthropic is in talks to buy developer tools startup Stainless for at least $300 million, according to Stephanie and Katie .…
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Rent the Runway Cofounder to Step Down as CEO
Rent the Runway cofounder Jennifer Hyman will step down from the CEO role at the end of this week, the clothing rental company said Wednesday. Hyman will remain an advisor to the company through early 2027, and current board member and former Nordstrom executive Teri Bariquit…
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