The Information

Photo of Donald Trump via Getty Images. Art by Mike Sullivan

White House Briefs AI Companies on Plan to Review Models Before Release

By Leo Schwartz and Stephanie Palazzolo · May 20, 2026 12:06pm PDT · 1 comment

The White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director hosted a briefing Tuesday for companies including OpenAI, Anthropic and Reflection AI on a planned executive order on AI that will empower intelligence and other government agencies to review advanced models before the models are released, according to people familiar with the matter. ... The White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director hosted a briefing Tuesday for companies...

As Anthropic Costs Mount, Businesses Pressure Software Firms to Shorten Contracts

By Laura Bratton · May 20, 2026 9:00am PDT · 2 comments

Businesses are spending more on Anthropic and other AI providers, and the additional budget has to come from somewhere. One natural target for cuts is other software. While businesses aren’t abandoning their enterprise applications outright, they’re putting themselves in a better position to do so if AI makes traditional apps less important. For... Businesses are spending more on Anthropic and other AI providers, and the additional budget has...

5 Charts That Make Sense of SpaceX’s IPO Numbers

By Cory Weinberg and Valida Pau · May 19, 2026 2:08pm PDT · 1 comment

SpaceX’s initial public offering prospectus will read like a kaleidoscope when it’s unveiled publicly in the coming days. There will be a dazzling mixture of storylines and figures that show huge financial losses, exciting promises, impressive growth and unmet expectations. Information in the prospectus will help investors knit together parts of... SpaceX’s initial public offering prospectus will read like a kaleidoscope when it’s unveiled...

SpaceX IPO Could Return More Than $60 Billion Each for Founders Fund, Valor

By Katie Roof · May 19, 2026 10:59am PDT

SpaceX IPO Could Return More Than $60 Billion Each for Founders Fund, Valor

By Katie Roof · May 19, 2026 10:59am PDT

SpaceX’s initial public offering, expected to be the largest in history, is also set to yield the largest venture returns ever at the time of the IPO. Among those set to win big are Founders Fund, Valor Equity Partners and Sequoia Capital. Valor Equity Partners, whose founder Antonio Gracias is on the SpaceX board and has backed several of Musk’... SpaceX’s initial public offering, expected to be the largest in history, is also set to yield the...

Analog Devices CEO Vincent Roche. Photo by Getty.

Analog Devices in Talks to Buy AI Power Chip Startup for $1.5 Billion

By Valida Pau and Cory Weinberg · May 18, 2026 6:22pm PDT

Chipmaker Analog Devices is in advanced talks to buy startup Empower Semiconductor for about $1.5 billion, in a deal that reflects demand for technology that can manage the intense energy needs of AI chips, according to people familiar with the discussion. The acquisition of the 12-year-old startup would expand Analog Devices’ portfolio of chips... Chipmaker Analog Devices is in advanced talks to buy startup Empower Semiconductor for about $1.5...

Art via Mike Sullivan

Microsoft Executives Sound the Alarm Over GitHub’s Eroding AI Lead

By Aaron Holmes · May 18, 2026 6:00am PDT

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 overtaken it. And the service has suffered from frequent and major outages,... No part of Microsoft better illustrates its predicament in AI than GitHub. The AI boom has...

Photo by Getty.

BlackRock Weighs Multibillion-Dollar Investment in SpaceX IPO

By Cory Weinberg · May 16, 2026 9:00am PDT · 1 comment

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 company from the world’s largest asset manager. The investment would... BlackRock has discussed investing $5 billion to $10 billion in SpaceX’s initial public offering...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

The SpaceXAI Exodus: More Than 50 Recent Exits as Meta, Thinking Machines Hire Staff

By Theo Wayt · May 14, 2026 11:06am PDT

Art by Mike Sullivan.

The SpaceXAI Exodus: More Than 50 Recent Exits as Meta, Thinking Machines Hire Staff

By Theo Wayt · May 14, 2026 11:06am PDT

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 departures come on top of the exits of all of xAI’s co-founders besides Elon... Call it the SpaceXAI exodus. More than 50 researchers and engineers working on xAI’s Grok models...

Cerebras IPO Winners Include Foundation, Benchmark—and OpenAI

By Julia Hornstein, Katie Roof and Cory Weinberg · May 14, 2026 6:00am PDT

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 years into its existence. Then, after it filed to go public in 2024, the... Over the last decade, there were times when Cerebras investors could be forgiven for losing hope....

Erik Bernhardsson, Founder and CEO at Modal. Art by Clark Miller; YouTube.

Startup Modal in Talks to Raise at $4.5 Billion Valuation After Revenue Surges

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Anissa Gardizy · May 13, 2026 10:49am PDT

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, according to two people with knowledge of the round. The steep hike... Modal, a startup that rents out Nvidia graphics processing units and software to help developers...

Art by Mike Sulivan

Apple Explores Ways to Welcome AI Agents in the App Store

By Aaron Tilley · May 13, 2026 10:17am PDT

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 embrace of agentic AI for software creation has put Apple on the... Apple is exploring ways to better incorporate AI agents into its App Store so it can benefit from...

Junyang Lin, former lead researcher of Alibaba’s Qwen models. Art by Clark Miller; YouTube.

Former Alibaba Star Researcher Starts New AI Lab, Seeks $2 Billion Valuation

By Juro Osawa and Jing Yang · May 12, 2026 11:20pm PDT

Junyang Lin, former lead researcher of Alibaba’s Qwen models. Art by Clark Miller; YouTube.

Former Alibaba Star Researcher Starts New AI Lab, Seeks $2 Billion Valuation

By Juro Osawa and Jing Yang · May 12, 2026 11:20pm PDT

Junyang Lin, former lead researcher of Alibaba’s Qwen models, is seeking to raise several hundred million dollars for his new AI lab, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The new AI lab will likely be valued at around $2 billion after the funding round, the people said, adding that the discussions are ongoing and the... Junyang Lin, former lead researcher of Alibaba’s Qwen models, is seeking to raise several hundred...

Stainless CEO Alex Rattray. Screenshot via YouTube/Stainless.

Anthropic in Talks to Buy Developer Tools Startup Used by OpenAI, Google

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Katie Roof · May 12, 2026 2:59pm PDT · 1 comment

Anthropic is in advanced talks to acquire developer tools startup Stainless for at least $300 million, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The four-year-old Stainless sells software to model makers including Anthropic, OpenAI and Google that helps developers, non-technical people and AI agents more quickly access AI models. Such... Anthropic is in advanced talks to acquire developer tools startup Stainless for at least $300...

image via Getty

Microsoft Has Generated More Than $30 Billion in Revenue From OpenAI’s Technology, Spending

By Sri Muppidi and Aaron Holmes · May 12, 2026 11:08am PDT · 2 comments

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 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

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

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...