The Information

OpenAI Scales Back Shopping Plans for ChatGPT OpenAI is scaling back its plan to introduce shopping directly inside ChatGPT, marking a change in its high-profile effort to put checkouts inside the chatbot. Instead of allowing users to make purcha...

OpenAI is pulling back on its plan to put checkouts directly inside ChatGPT chats, pivoting toward purchases handled through third-party apps. https://thein.fo/4l9YSYN

OpenAI Held Early Talks With The Trade Desk to Sell Ads OpenAI has held early talks to partner with The Trade Desk, a publicly traded ad tech company, to help the ChatGPT maker sell ads, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The talks ind...

Anthropic alleges the Pentagon pushed it to delete language restricting “analysis of bulk acquired data” before talks collapsed. https://thein.fo/4lfz1Pq

OpenAI Is Developing an Internal Alternative to Microsoft’s GitHub OpenAI is developing an alternative to GitHub, Microsoft’s popular code repository that lets software engineers store, share and collaborate on computer code, according to a person with knowledge of t...

The project underscores growing competitive tension between OpenAI and Microsoft—even as their partnership remains intact. https://thein.fo/4b3iJ7w

Quince in Talks to Double Valuation to More Than $10 Billion Online retailer Quince is in talks with investors to raise a funding round that would value the company at above $10 billion after the investment, according to a person with knowledge of the plans. If...

Exclusive: Quince in Talks to Double Valuation to More Than $10 Billion

Quince is in talks to raise funding at a $10 billion valuation after revenue jumps on demand for “affordable luxury” items.

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Anne Wojcicki’s Plan to Revive 23andMe: Rich Donors, Improved Tests—and Maybe Even MAHA When Anne Wojcicki was considering whether she should try to save her life’s work, genetic testing pioneer 23andMe, from bankruptcy last year, many within her inner circle offered the same advice. “Th...

The Big Read

Inside Anne Wojcicki's plan for reviving 23andMe: rich donors, improved tests—and maybe even MAHA.

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Anthropic-Palantir Partnership at Risk After Pentagon Decision For over a year, Anthropic has served the U.S. government through Palantir Technologies, an enterprise software firm known for working with the Pentagon and other federal agencies. Palantir’s customer...

The Pentagon’s move could ripple beyond Anthropic, affecting contractors and cloud providers tied to defense work. https://thein.fo/4l9ROeX

Org Chart Spotlights: Ad Exec Key to Pinterest’s Turnaround, xAI Departures Mount Online scrapbooking app Pinterest is trying to revive its ad sales growth and has reshuffled some of its leadership to help with that effort. Lee Brown, who joined Pinterest as its chief business offi...

Pinterest is reshuffling leadership as it tries to revive ad growth, putting new chief business officer Lee Brown at the center of a push to attract more small and midsize advertisers. https://thein.fo/4u9cxU4

Do Anthropic and the Department of War have common ground? Alexa Liautaud, Partner at General Catalyst, explains the current landscape:

"Anthropic and the DoW have much more in common than they have differences. [They] both believe deeply in defending America.”

As Pentagon Targets Anthropic, OpenAI Moves to Fill the Void A rapid escalation of a dispute between Anthropic and the Department of Defense over military use of its AI models has threatened to cut off Anthropic from wide swathes of its customers, after Defense...

OpenAI’s rapid agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense shows how quickly competitive dynamics can shift in the AI race. https://thein.fo/477AFwr

Anduril Forecasts More Than $4 Billion in Sales, $1 Billion in Losses Weapons maker Anduril expects to roughly double revenue this year to about $4.3 billion, while its operating loss would rise by nearly half to $1.2 billion, according to confidential financial figures...

Exclusive: Anduril Industries expects revenue to reach about $4.3 billion this year, even as operating losses climb to roughly $1.2 billion, according to figures shared with prospective investors. https://thein.fo/4smcUsI

SpaceX is pitching Starlink to European telecom firms. The Information’s Theo Wayt discusses why Deutsche Telekom is partnering with Elon Musk:

"[The CEO] basically said we have to work with SpaceX because they have the best service and we want the best service."

What Amazon and Microsoft Will Win or Lose From OpenAI’s New Deals OpenAI’s wide-ranging partnership with Amazon, announced on Friday as part of a bigger series of funding agreements valuing the company at $730 billion before the investment, means the ChatGPT creator...

Amazon’s expanded cloud deal and chip commitments highlight how AI infrastructure is becoming a scale game measured in gigawatts. https://thein.fo/4aGOV1t

A Claude Catharsis: Accepting When Your Life’s Work Becomes Free and Abundant Not long ago, I spent a weekend writing code with Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant. I’ve been programming for more than 20 years. I was one of the first engineers at Facebook, where I built the origin...

In an opinion piece for The Information, Aditya Agarwal says watching AI reproduce the craft he spent 20 years mastering felt like “wonder mixed with profound sadness.” https://thein.fo/4rb9JTS

OpenAI is shifting its approach to in-chat commerce. The Information’s Ann Gehan and Catherine Perloff discuss the hurdles facing "instant checkout":

Nvidia Cloud Ally Together AI in Talks to Raise at $7.5 Billion Valuation Together AI, one of several up-and-coming cloud providers renting out Nvidia chip servers to AI developers, is in talks with investors to raise around $1 billion in funding at a $7.5 billion valuation...

Exclusive: Together AI, an Nvidia-backed provider of cloud services for AI, is in talks to raise $1 billion at a $7.5 billion valuation.

Read more from Valida Pau, @stephpalazzolo.bsky.social and @anissa.bsky.social 👇
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Read Anthropic CEO’s Memo Attacking OpenAI’s ‘Mendacious’ Pentagon Announcement Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei sent a 1,600-wordmemo to employees Friday as OpenAI announced a deal to provide AI to the Pentagon. The OpenAI move came hours after the Pentagon said it would sever ties wi...

Exclusive: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei blasted OpenAI’s new Pentagon deal in a 1,600-word internal memo, calling its safety measures “80% theater.” https://thein.fo/4stQeqI

Anthropic-Palantir Partnership at Risk After Pentagon Decision For over a year, Anthropic has served the U.S. government through Palantir Technologies, an enterprise software firm known for working with the Pentagon and other federal agencies. Palantir’s customer...

Roughly 42% of Palantir’s revenue comes from U.S. government contracts—raising the stakes of any forced split with Anthropic. https://thein.fo/4l9ROeX

The growth trajectory of Broadcom, discussed by Tristan Gerra, Senior Analyst at Baird:

"Broadcom...is really lagging behind Nvidia by about three years. But if you look at where Nvidia was as a stock three years ago, it peaks for itself in terms of the potential Broadcom has ahead."

Demand from Alibaba and Other Giants Boosts China’s Homegrown Memory Suppliers Chinese tech heavyweights including Alibaba Group, ByteDance and Tencent Holdings are turning to domestic chipmakers to ease the pain from a deepening global shortage of memory chips, according to fou...

Chinese tech giants including Alibaba Group, ByteDance and Tencent are turning to domestic chipmakers as global memory shortages tighten supply. https://thein.fo/4aRHsgb

OpenAI Tops $25 Billion in Annualized Revenue as Anthropic Narrows Gap OpenAI topped $25 billion in annualized revenue as of the end of last month, according to a person familiar with the figure. That’s a 17% increase from the $21.4 billion in annualized revenue the comp...

Exclusive: OpenAI has surpassed $25B in annualized revenue, but rival Anthropic is closing the gap fast with revenue nearing $19B. https://thein.fo/3N5Nq3V

OpenAI Is Developing an Internal Alternative to Microsoft’s GitHub OpenAI is developing an alternative to GitHub, Microsoft’s popular code repository that lets software engineers store, share and collaborate on computer code, according to a person with knowledge of t...

Frustration with recent GitHub outages has pushed OpenAI to explore its own code repository product. https://thein.fo/4b3iJ7w

Alibaba is Moving Faster Than Amazon and OpenAI in AI For Commerce Last week, my colleague Qianer tested an AI agent inside Alibaba’s Qwen app, which resembles ChatGPT. She asked to get a ticket to see Pegasus 3, a comedy film about a race car driver that has been to...

Applied AI: Alibaba is Moving Faster Than Amazon and OpenAI in AI For Commerce

Read more from Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu 👇
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Org Chart Spotlights: Ad Exec Key to Pinterest’s Turnaround, xAI Departures Mount Online scrapbooking app Pinterest is trying to revive its ad sales growth and has reshuffled some of its leadership to help with that effort. Lee Brown, who joined Pinterest as its chief business offi...

Org Chart Spotlight: The Pinterest exec who’s key to a big ads turnaround. Plus, xAI departures mount.

Read more 👇
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Anduril Forecasts More Than $4 Billion in Sales, $1 Billion in Losses Weapons maker Anduril expects to roughly double revenue this year to about $4.3 billion, while its operating loss would rise by nearly half to $1.2 billion, according to confidential financial figures...

Exclusive: Anduril forecasts sales topping $4 billion this year and losses above $1 billion that will continue for years.

Read more from Cory Weinberg 👇
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OpenAI Held Early Talks With The Trade Desk to Sell Ads OpenAI has held early talks to partner with The Trade Desk, a publicly traded ad tech company, to help the ChatGPT maker sell ads, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The talks ind...

Exclusive: OpenAI held early talks with The Trade Desk to help sell ads in ChatGPT, signaling the AI company may rely on outside ad tech partners as it ramps up its advertising business. https://thein.fo/4lfz1Pq

TITV: Tech News Live Every M–F @ 10a PT / 1p ET [Video] Watch TITV. Today’s breaking tech & finance news featuring exclusive reporting and expert voices from industry insiders. Watch live weekdays at 10a PT / 1p ET, or see our previous recordings.

Today on TITV:

-Inside OpenAI’s Revised Shopping Play | Catherine Perloff, Amazon Reporter & Ann Gehan, E-Commerce Reporter

-SpaceX Pitches Starlink to Wary Telecom Firms in Barcelona | Theo Wayt, Elon Musk Reporter

-And more!

Tune in at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET on https://thein.fo/4r9sXJi

OpenAI Selects Law Firms Cooley, Wachtell for IPO Prep OpenAI has picked two law firms, Cooley and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, to prepare for an initial public offering that could come as soon as this year, according to people familiar with the matter. ...

Exclusive: OpenAI has selected law firms Cooley and Wachtell to prepare for a potential IPO later this year, signaling a major step toward going public. https://thein.fo/4d26cne

Thrive, Andreessen Horowitz Head Fastest-Growing VC Firms The biggest venture capital funds are getting even bigger. In the past three years, the top firms have raised billions of dollars—in some cases more than half the total amount they’ve raised in their ...

Thrive has raised about 70% of its lifetime capital just since 2023—showing how quickly megafunds are scaling. https://thein.fo/402bUOv

Amazon Explores Helping Other Apps Sell Chatbot Ads Amazon is exploring offering technology to help other apps and sites sell ads in AI chatbots, according to two people who have talked to the company about its plans. Such an offering could potentially...

As AI chats reshape search, Amazon wants to be the infrastructure layer for chatbot ads across the web. https://thein.fo/4r7SCSU