Meta

Meta is cutting about 8,000 jobs and closing thousands of open roles as it shifts spending heavily into AI. Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to thousands of US staff while both companies cut costs amid rising AI investment.

Meta is building an AI version of Mark Zuckerberg that can talk to employees, give feedback and act like a digital stand-in for the CEO using his voice, behaviour and public statements.

A jury found Meta and Google liable for harming a teen through app design, awarding $3 million in damages. The case focuses on platform design, not content.

WhatsApp will allow AI chatbots to keep working for users with Brazilian phone numbers after the country’s regulator blocked its new restrictions. Brazil’s competition authority is investigating whether the policy unfairly favours Meta’s own AI over other providers.

Meta has bought Singapore-based AI startup Manus for around $2 billion to integrate its technology into Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Meta AI. The deal ends Chinese ownership and operations in China, while giving Meta a revenue-generating AI product with millions of users.

Italy’s competition authority has ordered Meta to allow rival AI chatbots on WhatsApp while investigating possible abuse of its dominant position. Meta plans to appeal, saying the policy protects its systems, but regulators worry it could limit competition and innovation in the AI market.

Meta is developing two proprietary AI models, Mango for image and video generation and Avocado for text and reasoning, expected to launch in the first half of 2026. The company created Meta Superintelligence Labs, hired over 50 AI specialists, and shifted away from its Llama open-source models to compete with Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s AI tools.

Meta is talking with Google about using its TPUs in AI data centres and possibly renting them next year, aiming to reduce reliance on Nvidia GPUs. The news caused Nvidia shares to fall and could boost Google’s TPUs as a serious alternative in AI hardware.

A judge ruled that Meta no longer holds monopoly power, ending the FTC’s attempt to force the company to separate Instagram and WhatsApp. The case collapsed mainly because TikTok and YouTube now offer strong competition, weakening the claim that Meta dominates social networking.

Meta has been sued by two adult film studios that claim the company illegally downloaded thousands of their videos to train its AI systems. Meta denied the accusations, saying the claims are based on guesswork and that any downloads may have come from individuals using its network for personal use.