The Information daily tech news digest

The Information’s TITV: Tech news and analysis. Every weekday at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET. Now streaming → → Oct 29, 2026 The Information AM Supported by 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. Happy Thursday! Google launches Gemini 4 Carbon, its second major AI model in a month. An NYSE executive says Anthropic's listing has held back the IPO pipeline. Apple launches its first touchscreen MacBook. Read more briefings 1. Google Launches Gemini 4 Carbon, Its Second Major AI Model in a Month By Ryan Barwick Source: The Information Google unveiled Gemini 4 Carbon, which it said is significantly more capable than the model it released less than a month ago, as the company steps up efforts to contend with the leading frontier labs. The back-to-back launches come after nearly a year where Google didn’t release a new flagship frontier model, ceding ground to rival labs OpenAI and Anthropic. The new model is priced the same as Gemini 4 Argon, announced on Sept. 30 and released widely earlier this month, with an introductory price of $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, the company said on Wednesday. That will double after the teaser rate ends. Google says Carbon is a “significant leap in cybersecurity capabilities,” and is nearly two times better at generating secure code than Argon. Carbon’s release comes on the heels of a cybersecurity crisis as rogue AI agents have exploited both corporate and government vulnerabilities. As with Argon, Google said it will release Carbon to a subset of cybersecurity professionals and then to partners in its Fairwind program. It also said it was actively engaged in the U.S. government’s program for pre-release model testing. 2. IPO Pipeline Held Back by Anthropic Listing, Says NYSE’s Martin By Anita Ramaswamy Source: The Information Anthropic’s highly anticipated megalisting has been looming over the broader initial public offering market, holding back other companies gearing up for debuts, Lynn Martin, president of the New York Stock Exchange Group, said at The Information’s WTF Summit on Wednesday. The pipeline for potential new listings is “really strong,” Martin said, but it “has been held back by the Anthropic S-1 having to flip public.” Anthropic publicly filed its IPO paperwork on Monday for a planned listing on NYSE rival Nasdaq. The filing didn’t disclose how much Anthropic is aiming to raise, but previous reports put that figure as high as $100 billion. Martin said there is “a limited amount of attention a portfolio manager is going to devote at one given time,” and given the size of Anthropic’s offering it makes sense for other companies to wait for it to go first. That includes Nscale, which filed publicly last month for a NYSE-listed IPO but hasn’t moved forward yet, a move Martin said was “really good” and “healthy.” 3. Apple Launches First Touchscreen MacBook By Aaron Tilley Source: The Information Apple has announced its first touchscreen Mac computer, but it will come with a massive spike in price. The MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display will start at $2,899. On Tuesday, Apple introduced a new MacBook Pro with the M6 chip and no touchscreen that will start at $1,999. The touchscreen MacBook will be available in 14- and 16-inch versions, as well as M5 Pro or M5 Max chip options. Apple said the touch sensor is built directly into the display panel and not layered on top, a design that is intended to reduce latency. The iPhone’s Dynamic Island—the interactive notification hub—will be making its way to the new touchscreen MacBook. The announcement is a major turnabout for Apple. For years, Apple executives mocked the notion of bringing a touchscreen interface to their Mac lineup, even as a growing number of Windows laptops began incorporating the fea