… Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company’s AI spending was “accelerating every part of our core business” and that it planned to start selling the technology to other businesses. …
… The state alleges founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was repeatedly warned by some Meta employees about research that found a negative impact on teens, but declined to fund efforts to minimise those harms and made misleading public statements about the amount of harmful content on …
… At Meta’s shareholder meeting in May, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said entering cloud computing was “definitely on the table,” noting that firms were approaching Meta “almost every week” to buy access to its AI models or spare computing power. …
… advocacy director at tech justice non-profit Foxglove, told the BBC it was an “obvious recipe for disaster”. “We’ve already seen a catalogue of harms from non-consensual AI-altered images on social platforms just in the past year,” he said. “It is hard to see why Mark Zuckerberg …
… Meta countered that the attorneys general had no evidence it misled consumers about its platforms’ alleged addictiveness, including in congressional testimony by Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg. …
… Now a trillionaire, Musk is almost four times richer than his nearest rival Larry Page, and more than five times richer than Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg. …
… Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and chief executive of Meta, the company that owns Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, has a similar holding of different classes of shares in his firm. …
Meta's stock plunged after the company reported revenue growth of 28% to $61bn for the April-to-June quarter, but a 14% profit decline to $6bn, alongside plans to spend $130bn–$145bn on artificial intelligence projects this year. Investors expressed concern that Meta's expanding AI spending—which accounted for nearly all of the company's free cash flow this quarter—lacks clear commercial returns yet.
Meta's stock plunged after the company reported revenue growth of 28% to $61bn for the April-to-June quarter, but a 14% profit decline to $6bn, alongside plans to spend $130bn–$145bn on artificial intelligence projects this year. Investors expressed concern that Meta's expanding AI spending—which accounted for nearly all of the company's free cash flow this quarter—lacks clear commercial returns yet.
Meta faces trial in Tennessee over claims that Instagram was designed to be addictive and contributed to a youth mental-health crisis. Tennessee's Attorney General alleges the company violated consumer protection law by knowingly designing the product to drive compulsive teen use, failing to disclose internal research on harms, and misleading the public about platform safety.
Meta Platforms is in talks to lease computing power to Anthropic in a potential deal worth up to $10 billion over two years, according to a source familiar with the matter. The discussions are in their early stages and may not result in a deal.
Meta is facing criticism over its new Muse Image AI tool, which can generate images using other people's public Instagram profile pictures without explicit consent. Advocates and privacy groups warn the feature risks facilitating non-consensual AI-altered images, though Meta says users can opt out through a dedicated setting.
India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has asked WhatsApp to pause its new username feature, which would let users chat using unique usernames instead of phone numbers, citing concerns it could increase online fraud and phishing scams. WhatsApp says the feature is not yet live and has built in safeguards including detection of impersonation and scams.
A U.S. District Judge rejected Meta Platforms' attempt to dismiss a lawsuit filed by 29 state attorneys general accusing the company of designing Facebook and Instagram to addict children and concealing the harms. The judge denied Meta's motion to dismiss claims based on deception and unfair practices, and granted summary judgment to the states on violations of the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
Meta has appointed Kunal Shah, founder of fintech company Cred, to lead WhatsApp, elevating him from a prominent figure in India's startup ecosystem to leadership of a global platform with over three billion users. The appointment follows Meta's $900 million investment in Cred and occurs as WhatsApp seeks to expand into payments, business services, and AI-powered products.
WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart is leaving his role after nearly seven years, during which he scaled the platform to more than three billion users. Indian fintech founder Kunal Shah, who built Cred, will take over as head of WhatsApp.
Elon Musk achieved trillionaire status on Friday with an estimated net worth of about $1.11 trillion, according to Bloomberg, driven by a record-breaking SpaceX stock market debut and the rising value of his stakes in Tesla and SpaceX over the past six years.
SpaceX has raised $75bn from financial firms ahead of its initial public offering on Friday, with shares priced at $135 each and an expected initial stock market value of nearly $1.8tn. If shares trade at or above that price, SpaceX will immediately become one of the most valuable public companies in the world.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees in an internal memo that he does not expect more company-wide layoffs this year, even as the company laid off 10% of its global workforce and transferred 7,000 employees to AI-related initiatives this week, affecting about 20% of the company's total workforce.
WhatsApp has introduced private "incognito" chats with its AI chatbot where neither user nor company responses are monitored and past conversations disappear. WhatsApp head Will Cathcart said users wanted private conversations on sensitive topics like health and finances, though a cybersecurity expert warned this could reduce accountability if issues occur.
Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, which make up more than 80% of AI glasses sales, feature cameras that allow users to record video with a frame touch. Women have reported being secretly filmed and later targeted with online abuse, with little legal recourse since public photography is broadly legal.
Instagram has switched off end-to-end encryption on direct messages worldwide, a reversal of Meta's previous commitment to the technology. The shift means Meta can now access message content, and while child protection groups welcome the decision, privacy advocates have condemned it.
US senators Marsha Blackburn and Amy Klobuchar criticized Meta for removing advertisements by attorneys seeking clients in social media addiction lawsuits. Meta said it removed the ads to defend itself against the lawsuits and prevent trial lawyers from profiting using its platforms.
Meta's stock dropped 7% after the company announced plans to spend billions more on AI projects than initially planned, while investors express anxiety about whether massive AI investments by big tech firms will deliver returns. The four largest US tech companies are spending more than $650bn on AI this year, though Google, Microsoft, and Amazon showed better investor reception by demonstrating early payoffs from their AI spending.
Chinese regulators have prohibited Meta's acquisition of AI start-up Manus, worth approximately $2 billion, citing restrictions on foreign investment in the deal. Meta said the transaction complied with applicable law and anticipates an appropriate resolution.