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.	Zuckerberg Testifies in LA Courtroom By Cory Weinberg Source: The Information

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in a Los Angeles courtroom for several hours on Wednesday morning, rebutting questions from lawyers for a young woman who has sued Meta and other tech companies alleging her social media addiction led to depression and suicidal thoughts.

As of Wednesday lunchtime, midway through his expected day long testimony, lawyers had not brought forward any revelatory moments. Instead, Zuckerberg seemed more annoyed than threatened.

Lawyers submitted into evidence dozens of executive emails and employee chats, including one that said "Mark decided the top priority for the company in 2017 is teens." Another internal presentation the next year said that the company's weakness was kids under 13 years old on the platform and "failure to verify age."

2.	Perplexity Ends Ads Experiment By Catherine Perloff Source: The Information

Perplexity is no longer offering ads, an executive told The Financial Times. The AI search startup is pulling back from this line of business as rival OpenAI started showing its users ads in ChatGPT conversations earlier this month.

The company said it was worried ads would undermine users' trust in their platform, with an executive saying "the challenge with ads is that a user would just start doubting everything." Anthropic also questioned the value of ads in chatbots with a Super Bowl ad that painted chatbot ads as distracting, ending with the tagline "Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude."

Perplexity started testing advertising in 2024. Less than a year into its test, Taz Patel, the executive leading the ads effort, left the company, and Perplexity had only let in less than .5% of the brands who wanted to advertise on the chatbot, The Information previously reported.

3.	Snap's Subscriptions Business Passes $1 Billion in ARR By Martin Peers Source: The Information

Snap said its subscription business had hit a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate, as the number of people paying for a Snapchat+ subscription passed 25 million.

The announcement is a rare bit of good news for Snap, which has reported weak ad growth in recent quarters. In 2025, Snap's ad revenue rose 5.8% to $5.2 billion, while "other revenue"—predominantly subscriptions—jumped 63% to $745 million. Snap shares rose 2.4% to $4.84 on Tuesday.

Snap has broadened its subscriptions to include Lens+, which gives subscribers "access to advanced" AI and augmented reality-powered creative tools. It also offers an ad-light verson of Snapchat and a plan that lets people pay to increase storage of their Snaps.

4.	Saudi Arabia's Humain Says it Invested $3 Billion in xAI Before SpaceX Merger By Theo Wayt Source: The Information

Saudi state-backed artificial intelligence firm Humain said Wednesday that it had invested $3 billion into Elon Musk's xAI as part of a funding round in January. The investment preceded SpaceX's acquisition of xAI earlier this month, according to Humain.

The Saudi AI firm, which is owned by the country's Public Investment Fund, said in a press release that it "became a significant minority shareholder in xAI, with its holdings subsequently converted into shares in SpaceX." It's unclear why Humain waited until now to reveal its participation in the round, which xAI has previously said raised a total of $20 billion from backers including Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity and the Qatar Investment Authority. Tesla also disclosed that it put $2 billion into the round.

In November 2025, xAI and Humain said they would jointly develop a 500 megawatt data center in Saudi Arabia, though they have not given a timeline for the project. For now, xAI's data centers are concentrated in the U.S., though SpaceX also says it one day wants to launch a million satellites for an orbital data center.

5.	Netflix Sends Legal Letter to ByteDance Over AI Videos By Juro Osawa Source: Deadline

Netflix sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding that ByteDance take immediate steps to prevent its AI video generation model, Seedance 2.0, from producing content that resembles the U.S. streaming giant's characters, titles or settings, according to Deadline.

Since the Chinese tech giant released Seedance 2.0 earlier this month, early users of the model have praised its ability to produce sophisticated multi-shot scenes with synchronized sound effects, music and dialogue in multiple languages. But the model has also become highly controversial because of numerous AI videos featuring Hollywood celebrities and copyrighted content—including Netflix shows such as Bridgerton, Stranger Things, Squid Game and KPop Demon Hunters.

"Seedance acts as a high-speed piracy engine, generating mass quantities of unauthorized derivative works utilizing Netflix's iconic characters, worlds, and scripted narratives," Netflix said in the letter.

Disney and Paramount Skydance earlier sent similar cease-and-desist letters to ByteDance.

6.	DoorDash Posts Strong Growth on Deliveroo Acquisition By Martin Peers Source: The Information

DoorDash reported 38% higher revenue of $3.955 billion, thanks partly to the acquisition during the quarter of UK delivery firm Deliveroo. DoorDash projected a 37% lift in gross order volume in the first quarter, just a tad below the fourth quarter growth. DoorDash stock rose 8% in after-hours trading.

The company reported a 38% increase in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, although it forecast a slowdown in Ebitda growth in the first quarter of this year, partly due to investments in Deliveroo and partly due to the impact of winter storms in the U.S.

7.	Dylan Patel's SemiAnalysis Mulls Raising Venture Fund By Anissa Gardizy and Kevin McLaughlin Source: The Information

SemiAnalysis, the top chip and infrastructure research firm founded by Dylan Patel, is considering raising money to invest in startups, according to someone with direct knowledge of the discussions.

The talks are in the early stages, and the firm does not yet have a target, but it could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The move to raise a venture capital fund would formalize SemiAnalysis' shift from a pure research provider to an active investor in some of the companies and technologies it covers.

Patel has already raised a $50 million special purpose vehicle as part of infrastructure startup Fluidstack's $700 million fundraising, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. His involvement has not been previously reported. Raising money for a venture fund would allow SemiAnalysis to make additional investments in companies.

Patel declined to comment for this story. There's some precedent for prominent analysts and media personalities to launch venture funds. Harry Stebbings, for instance, raised money for his fund 20VC after building a successful podcast where he interviewed venture capitalists.

8.	Figma Posts Accelerating Growth in Fourth Quarter By Laura Bratton Source: The Information

Figma shares soared as much as 16% in after hours trading Wednesday as the design software company reported a slight acceleration in fourth quarter revenue growth of 40%, up from 38% in the third quarter. The results could reassure investors who have been dumping software stocks over concerns of AI disruption in recent weeks.

Figma—a $12 billion Adobe competitor that went public last year in one of 2025's hottest IPOs —pointed to "increased adoption of AI workflows" across its platform for its revenue growth. The company on Tuesday announced a partnership with Anthropic to integrate Claude Code into its platform and also has a partnership with OpenAI.

The company reported a $195.5 million operating loss, mostly due to stock compensation expense of $218 million.

Figma projected first quarter revenue will jump 38% to $316 million at the midpoint of its range. Figma posted fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share of $0.08. Figma's shares had tumbled 35% over the past six months through Wednesday's close.

9.	Etsy Sells Depop to eBay At A Loss By Ann Gehan Source: The Information

Etsy said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell the clothing resale app Depop to eBay for roughly $1.2 billion. The sale, which is for less than the $1.6 billion Etsy paid for it five years ago, marks an abrupt reversal, since Etsy executives as recently as December were talking up spending to drive Depop's growth.

Etsy shares rose more than 14% in after-hours trading. Though much smaller than Etsy's main business, with sales volume of around $1 billion in 2025, Depop had been a key focus for the company's growth. That included spending heavily on marketing to build awareness of the UK-founded service with U.S. shoppers, efforts that have weighed on the overall company's margins.

"This is a limited surge of marketing for a period of time to expand awareness for a business that we think has tremendous growth potential," Etsy's CEO at the time, Josh Silverman, told analysts at a conference in December. Silverman stepped down as CEO at the start of 2026, with Kruti Patel Goyal, formerly of Depop, replacing him.

Popular articles

Opportunities

Group subscriptions

Learn more

Brand partnerships

Connect with our team