The Information

Art by Mike Sullivan

ByteDance Suspends Launch of Video AI Model After Copyright Disputes With Hollywood

By Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Mar 14, 2026 9:00am PDT

ByteDance has put on hold the global launch of its latest video-generation model, Seedance 2.0, due to a string of copyright disputes with major Hollywood studios and streaming platforms, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. The TikTok parent released Seedance 2.0 to consumers and businesses in China last month, and... ByteDance has put on hold the global launch of its latest video-generation model, Seedance 2.0,...

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Ex-Anthropic Researchers Are Raising Capital For New Startup at $1 Billion Valuation

By Julia Hornstein, Anissa Gardizy and Sri Muppidi · Mar 13, 2026 12:54pm PDT · 1 comment

Former Anthropic researchers are in talks to raise $175 million at a $1 billion valuation for a new startup that aims to conduct AI-driven research and development for scientific fields such as biology and materials science, according to people who have spoken to them. Andreesseen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins are in talks to co-lead the round,... Former Anthropic researchers are in talks to raise $175 million at a $1 billion valuation for a...

Travis Kalanick. Photo by AP

Travis Kalanick Plots New Robotics and Self-Driving Venture with Levandowski, Uber

By Jessica E. Lessin · Mar 13, 2026 10:18am PDT

Former Uber CEO and cofounder Travis Kalanick is preparing to launch a new robotics and self-driving car company with major backing from the ride-hailing giant, according to several people familiar with the matter. Kalanick has also been discussing acquiring the startup founded by Anthony Levandowski, a self-driving car pioneer who has been... Former Uber CEO and cofounder Travis Kalanick is preparing to launch a new robotics and...

Elon Musk at Space X in Brownsville, Texas. Photo by Marvin Joseph/ Getty Images.

SpaceX Discusses Dividing Up Bank Roles in Echo of Alibaba’s Lineup

By Valida Pau · Mar 13, 2026 10:06am PDT · 1 comment

Elon Musk at Space X in Brownsville, Texas. Photo by Marvin Joseph/ Getty Images.

SpaceX Discusses Dividing Up Bank Roles in Echo of Alibaba’s Lineup

By Valida Pau · Mar 13, 2026 10:06am PDT · 1 comment

When companies typically go public, they appoint one or two investment banks to oversee everything—from valuing the company to lining up investors. That’s not how Elon Musk plans to handle the upcoming SpaceX giant’s initial public offering. The rocket and AI firm has discussed dividing up roles among a larger group of investment banks,... When companies typically go public, they appoint one or two investment banks to oversee...

Rajeeb Hazra, CEO, Quantinuum. Photo via Getty

The Startups Inching Toward an IPO in a Volatile Market

By Valida Pau · Mar 13, 2026 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Startups hoping to go public this year will need plenty of grit to get their shares listed. A rout in software stocks over fears AI will make their businesses irrelevant had already poured cold water on many startups’ initial public offering plans. Then the Middle East war made companies even more nervous about testing a volatile stock market.... Startups hoping to go public this year will need plenty of grit to get their shares listed. A...

Nscale CEO Josh Payne. Screenshot via YouTube/Nscale.

Nvidia Cloud Ally Nscale in Talks to Buy a Major U.S. Data Center Site Ahead of IPO

By Anissa Gardizy · Mar 12, 2026 4:35pm PDT

Nscale, an upstart cloud provider heavily backed by Nvidia whose customers include OpenAI and Microsoft, is in talks to take control of one of the largest available sites for AI data centers in the U.S., according to people with knowledge of the talks and fundraising documents viewed by The Information. A deal to buy the site, located in West... Nscale, an upstart cloud provider heavily backed by Nvidia whose customers include OpenAI and...

Andrew Milich (left) and Jason Ginsberg (right). Screenshots via YouTube/Linkedin.

XAI Hires Two Senior Leaders From Cursor to Catch Up on Coding

By Erin Woo and Theo Wayt · Mar 12, 2026 12:31pm PDT · 3 comments

Elon Musk’s xAI is hiring two senior Cursor leaders as part of an effort to catch up with AI rivals in coding, according to a person with direct knowledge of the move. The pair, Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg, will both report to Musk, the person said. The move follows a string of high-level departures at xAI, including the majority of its... Elon Musk’s xAI is hiring two senior Cursor leaders as part of an effort to catch up with AI...

Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman. Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

Anthropic in Talks With Blackstone, Other PE Firms to Form AI Consulting Venture

By Anissa Gardizy, Valida Pau and Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 11, 2026 7:05pm PDT · 1 comment

Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman. Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

Anthropic in Talks With Blackstone, Other PE Firms to Form AI Consulting Venture

By Anissa Gardizy, Valida Pau and Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 11, 2026 7:05pm PDT · 1 comment

Anthropic is in talks with a consortium of private equity firms including Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman about forming an AI-focused joint venture to sell the Claude maker’s technology to companies funded by the investment firms, according to a person involved in the discussions and another person who was briefed about it. The recent... Anthropic is in talks with a consortium of private equity firms including Blackstone and Hellman...

Photo of the Stargate data center in Abilene, Texas by Getty Images. Art by Mike Sullivan.

Microsoft in Talks to Lease Large Texas Data Center Site After Oracle Walked Away

By Anissa Gardizy and Miles Kruppa · Mar 11, 2026 11:36am PDT

Microsoft is in advanced talks to lease hundreds of megawatts of data center capacity at a closely watched artificial intelligence campus in Abilene, Texas, after rival Oracle walked away from the same opportunity, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions and another person briefed about it. Meta Platforms is also in talks... Microsoft is in advanced talks to lease hundreds of megawatts of data center capacity at a...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

OpenAI’s Shift to Shopping Apps Faces Even More Hurdles

By Ann Gehan and Sri Muppidi · Mar 11, 2026 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

With OpenAI suddenly scaling back on chatbot checkouts, its foray into shopping hinges on convincing retailers to set up shop with dedicated apps within ChatGPT—and getting people to buy stuff there. It faces hurdles on both fronts. ChatGPT apps have been around for just a few months—available for around 100 consumer firms, including... With OpenAI suddenly scaling back on chatbot checkouts, its foray into shopping hinges on...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

OpenAI Plans to Launch Sora Video AI in ChatGPT in Strategy Shift

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Sri Muppidi · Mar 10, 2026 8:54pm PDT

OpenAI plans to soon launch its Sora AI-generated video capabilities in ChatGPT, according to people with knowledge of the effort. The strategy shift could increase the chatbot’s usage as well as its costs. The move comes about five months after OpenAI released a Sora mobile app, which lets people quickly create videos of themselves and other... OpenAI plans to soon launch its Sora AI-generated video capabilities in ChatGPT, according to...

Pony Ma, CEO, of Tencent Holdings. Photo by Justin Chin/ Getty Images

Tencent Joins China’s AI Agent Race With ‘Top-Secret’ WeChat Project

By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Mar 10, 2026 6:00am PDT

Pony Ma, CEO, of Tencent Holdings. Photo by Justin Chin/ Getty Images

Tencent Joins China’s AI Agent Race With ‘Top-Secret’ WeChat Project

By Qianer Liu and Juro Osawa · Mar 10, 2026 6:00am PDT

Tencent Holdings is secretly building a new AI agent for its hugely popular WeChat messaging app, in hopes of leapfrogging rivals like Alibaba Group and ByteDance in the race to dominate China’s domestic AI market, according to four people familiar with the project. The project could dramatically widen how AI agents, which take actions on... Tencent Holdings is secretly building a new AI agent for its hugely popular WeChat messaging app,...

Spark General Partner Yasmin Razavi. Art by Clark Miller; Screenshot via Youtube

Anthropic Backer Spark Capital Targets $3 Billion in New Funds

By Katie Roof and Anissa Gardizy · Mar 9, 2026 7:02pm PDT · 3 comments

Spark Capital, the first venture firm to back Anthropic, is in the process of raising about $3 billion in new funds, 50% more than the size of funds it raised two years ago, according to a person with direct knowledge of the fundraise. The fundraising target will test investor demand in a venture firm that made early bets on one of the initial... Spark Capital, the first venture firm to back Anthropic, is in the process of raising about $3...

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

By Katie Roof and Ann Gehan · Mar 5, 2026 7:02pm PST

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 the talks are successful, the buzzy online brand would more than double its valuation from its last funding round. The fundraise follows continued... Online retailer Quince is in talks with investors to raise a funding round that would value the...

Vipul Ved Prakash, CEO of Together AI. Photo by Getty Images

Nvidia Cloud Ally Together AI in Talks to Raise at $7.5 Billion Valuation

By Valida Pau, Stephanie Palazzolo and Anissa Gardizy · Mar 5, 2026 1:57pm PST

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 before the investment, according to two people with knowledge of the fundraise. The funding would more than double its valuation from a year ago... Together AI, one of several up-and-coming cloud providers renting out Nvidia chip servers to AI...

Brian Schimpf, CEO of Anduril. Photo by Kyle Grillot/ Getty Images

Anduril Forecasts More Than $4 Billion in Sales, $1 Billion in Losses

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 5, 2026 10:08am PST · 1 comment

Brian Schimpf, CEO of Anduril. Photo by Kyle Grillot/ Getty Images

Anduril Forecasts More Than $4 Billion in Sales, $1 Billion in Losses

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 5, 2026 10:08am PST · 1 comment

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 shared with prospective investors. The privately held company is raising $4 billion, valuing it at about $60 billion, in a deal led by existing... Weapons maker Anduril expects to roughly double revenue this year to about $4.3 billion, while...

Art by Clark Miller

Demand from Alibaba and Other Giants Boosts China’s Homegrown Memory Suppliers

By Qianer Liu · Mar 5, 2026 6:00am PST

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 four people with direct knowledge of the matter. The three companies are in talks to buy more standard memory chips—known as DRAM, or dynamic... Chinese tech heavyweights including Alibaba Group, ByteDance and Tencent Holdings are turning to...

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar. Photo by Getty.

OpenAI Tops $25 Billion in Annualized Revenue as Anthropic Narrows Gap

By Sri Muppidi · Mar 4, 2026 7:30pm PST · 3 comments

OpenAI topped $25 billion in annualized revenue as 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 company was generating at the end of the year, according to the person and a second person with knowledge of the figures. OpenAI is still generating more revenue... OpenAI topped $25 billion in annualized revenue as of last month, according to a person familiar...

Art by Clark Miller.

OpenAI Selects Law Firms Cooley, Wachtell for IPO Prep

By Valida Pau and Sri Muppidi · Mar 4, 2026 5:48pm PST

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. Selecting lawyers to prepare for a listing is one of the first concrete steps the ChatGPT maker has made towards a public listing and usually... OpenAI has picked two law firms, Cooley and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, to prepare for an...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

OpenAI Scales Back Shopping Plans for ChatGPT

By Ann Gehan and Sri Muppidi · Mar 4, 2026 5:20pm PST · 1 comment

Art by Mike Sullivan.

OpenAI Scales Back Shopping Plans for ChatGPT

By Ann Gehan and Sri Muppidi · Mar 4, 2026 5:20pm PST · 1 comment

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 purchases directly from product listings that show up in ChatGPT search results, the company is now focused on having checkouts take place inside of... OpenAI is scaling back its plan to introduce shopping directly inside ChatGPT, marking a change...