The Information AM

Save 25% on an annual subscription to read the most important news about technology and business first. For even more, Save $250 on The Information Pro for unlimited access to our proprietary org charts, databases and surveys.

1.	Trump Administration Said To Be in Talks to Take Stake in Intel By Valida Pau Source: Bloomberg

Intel is in talks with the Trump administration for the US government to potentially take a stake in the troubled chipmaker, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

The potential deal would have the government pay for a stake to help fund Intel’s planned factories in Ohio, according to the report. The plans came after Intel’s CEO Lip-Bu Tan met with President Donald Trump on Monday after the President unexpectedly called for Tan’s resignation over his past investments in Chinese companies.

Intel has spent heavily to build its foundry business but yet to secure a major customer. The company has struggled with low yields on its chip manufacturing.

President Trump has called for more chips to be manufactured in the US to reduce reliance on foreign manufacturers TSMC and Samsung.

Tan, a well-respected figure in the semiconductor industry known for turning Cadence System around, was tasked to do the same for Intel. Intel was criticized for failing to foresee the huge demand for AI chips. Intel shares have fallen by half since the start of 2024, while shares of rivals like Nvidia have soared. They jumped 7% today after news broke about a potential deal.

2.	Google Backs Bitcoin Miner’s Data Center Deal By Anissa Gardizy Source: The Information

A bitcoin mining firm said Thursday that Google would help finance its move to lease data center servers for artificial intelligence development. The announcement didn’t disclose whether Google will rent the servers but it is one of the biggest AI developers and cloud providers, and it recently said demand for such servers is outstripping capacity.

The bitcoin mining firm, TeraWulf, said Thursday that it leased a New York facility to a cloud computing startup, Fluidstack, for $3.7 billion over 10 years. Fluidstack plans to rent out the servers for AI development.

In exchange for agreeing to help finance the deal as a “backstop,” Google will receive warrants entitling it to 8% of TeraWulf, which is publicly traded with a market capitalization of $3.4 billion following the deal’s announcement. (Gwyneth Paltrow and other celebrities backed TeraWulf when it was privately held.)

The deal could presage similar activity involving a slew of bitcoin mining-related firms, some of whom have already parlayed their AI chip holdings into major data center businesses. And it shows how startups have found it difficult to raise debt to buy AI chips or servers on their own and have instead relied on cloud providers such as Microsoft, Google and Oracle that have large balance sheets.

The initial deal between TeraWulf and FluidStack is for 200 megawatts of capacity, about enough to support 100,000 AI chips, which is a fraction of Google’s existing data center capacity. On a call with investors, TeraWulf said that the deal with Google was a “game changer” for its credit rating, meaning it can now raise money for the project at better terms.

3.	Instagram’s Co-Head of Product to Leave Meta By Kalley Huang Source: The Information

Instagram’s co-head of product, Ashley Alexander, is leaving Meta Platforms, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. She joined Facebook in 2013, according to her profile on LinkedIn.

Alexander has worked across the photo- and video-sharing app, including on search, commerce, advertising and features for creators. She was key to launching the option to post non-square photos and videos on Instagram.

Max Eulenstein, who has co-led product with Alexander for the past four years, is becoming the sole head of product for Instagram, according to a person close to the company.

4.	Perplexity Offered Around $1 Billion for Brave Browser By Sri Muppidi Source: The Information

Before its unsolicited offer to buy Google’s Chrome for $34.5 billion on Tuesday, Perplexity had been quietly exploring acquisitions of smaller browser startups, The Information reported. Earlier this summer, the AI search company offered about $1 billion to buy Brave, a privacy-focused web browser and search engine, but the discussions stalled.

Perplexity also had conversations with executives of other browser startups, including The Browser Co. and DuckDuckGo, although those conversations also didn’t lead to any transactions.

These conversations reflect the priority that Perplexity has placed on a browser to the success of its company. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has told investors that a browser could provide important context on users’ browser activity for Perplexity’s search engine.

While the company had roughly $850 million in the bank at the end of last year, it has continued to raise money at a fast pace. It raised over $500 million at a $14 billion valuation and later at a $18 billion valuation. The company is currently in talks to raise more funding at over $20 billion valuation. The company generates over $150 million in annualized revenue, up from $100 million in March.

Other startups, too, have explored buying browser startups. OpenAI, for instance, executives had also spoken to The Browser Co. about possibly buying the company as well. The ChatGPT maker is expected to release its web browser soon.

5.	Trade Desk Stock Tumbles 7% After The Information Report By Theo Wayt Source: The Information

Shares of the Trade Desk closed down 7% on Thursday after The Information reported that Walmart had renegotiated its deal with the advertising tech firm in what could be a first step to the retailer backing away from the company.

Walmart reached a new deal last year with the Trade Desk, which companies use to buy ads across the internet using Walmart shopper data, the report said. The new deal is not exclusive, so Walmart now has the option of using other advertising tech firms. In a statement late Thursday, the Trade Desk said it and Walmart were “fully committed” to their partnership.

Amazon has been making inroads against the Trade Desk by expanding its own advertising service that places ads across the internet. While it’s unlikely Walmart would ever work with Amazon, it could potentially try to build its own technology or partner with another Trade Desk rival such as Yahoo, Criteo or Google. The story said Walmart was unhappy with Trade Desk’s fees. The Trade Desk’s shares also fell sharply last week after the company predicted slower revenue growth in the third quarter, and are down 57% so far this year.

6.	Fintech, Crypto CEOs Sign Letter to Trump to Block Banks’ Data Fees By Yueqi Yang Source: The Information

A group of more than 80 chief executive officers at crypto and fintech firms signed a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to block U.S. banks, such as JPMorgan Chase, from charging fees for access to customer data, which could threaten the business model of fintech firms.

The CEOs at Plaid, Stripe, Robinhood, and Kraken, as well as leaders at venture firms Andreessen Horowitz and Paradigm are among those signing the letter to Trump. Their petition came in response to JPMorgan and other banks’ plans to charge fintech firms hundreds of millions of dollars in fees to access customers’ bank data.

The fight between the big banks and the crypto and fintech industries centers on the so-called open banking rule, which said that consumers owned their banking data and could share it with brokers, fintechs and other companies. The Trump administration has intended to drop that rule and JPMorgan started charging fees for the data. The administration is now revising the rule.

As part of the skirmish,