Memo

A memo is a short text that someone in a company uses to put something in writing. The word comes from the Latin “memorandum,” meaning “that which is to be remembered.” Unlike an email to a single colleague, a memo is usually addressed to an entire group: a team, a department, or all employees. Typical content includes a decision, a new rule, or an assessment of the situation. The form matters: factual, concise, without detours, often just one to three pages. A memo is not meant to persuade like an advertisement, but to inform and remain comprehensible.

Why leaked memos move stock prices

Large technology companies almost always say the same thing to the outside world: everything is going well, the future is bright. An internal memo, however, is not written for the public. That is why it often states much more clearly what leadership actually thinks. When such a memo is passed on to journalists, this is called a leak.

Such leaks are valuable for financial news because they make decisions visible earlier than official announcements. A memo in which an executive announces cost-cutting measures or layoffs can move that same company’s stock price within a single day. In the AI industry, there have been several famous examples, such as memos about falling behind competitors or about whether a model is too risky to release.

Conversely, executives now sometimes write certain memos knowing full well that they will leak to the outside anyway. The text is then formally internal, but in reality a message to the press, investors, and job applicants. Anyone reading business news should keep this dual role in mind.

Structure: occasion, status, instruction

A memo begins with a header: sender, recipient, date, and a subject line in a few words. This is followed by the occasion, i.e., the reason for writing. The main section describes the current status, ideally with figures and without opinion. At the end comes what needs to be done now and by when.

This order has a practical reason. Readers of a memo have little time and should know after the first paragraph whether they are affected. You can think of a memo like a newspaper article: the most important thing comes first, the reasoning below it. In government agencies, a similar type of document is called an official note and serves to later prove that decisions were made.

A common mistake is equating a memo with meeting minutes. Minutes record what was said in a meeting. A memo, by contrast, is an independent position or instruction from the sender. Both can serve as evidence, for example in court proceedings or in an investigation by a regulatory authority.

From executive letters to note-taking apps

In practice, memos are encountered mainly in companies, ministries, and editorial offices. Schools and clubs also use them, though there they are usually called circulars or newsletters. Anyone doing an internship in an office is almost certain to come across such texts.

The word also appears with other meanings, which can easily lead to confusion. A “memo” can be a short voice message, i.e., a voice memo on a phone. Some note-taking apps and programs carry the word in their name. In computer science, there is additionally the similar-sounding term memoization, in which a program caches already computed results so it does not have to compute them again. This has nothing to do with the written document, except for the shared origin of the word in the concept of remembering.

In news about AI companies, however, “memo” almost always refers to the internal document. Phrases like “in an internal memo to employees” are a signal that the information has not been officially confirmed. Such reports are interesting, but should be read more critically than a vetted press release.