EU Orders Meta to Open WhatsApp to Rival AI Chatbots

Meta announced plans to issue a new class of non-voting shares to fund its artificial intelligence initiatives, according to its third-quarter earnings report released Wednesday. The company will use proceeds from the share issuance for AI investments, potential acquisitions, and employee compensation, with trading expected to begin in 2027. Meta cited the significant scale of investment required to compete in the AI transformation sweeping the industry.

Meta launched two new AI models, Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full, available to Muse Code subscribers and through the Meta Model API. The company claims the models are competitive with industry leaders and plans to eventually power its Muse AI agent with Wonder. Meta has signaled intent to develop specialized models for broader Muse user access, though specific timelines remain unclear.

Manus, an AI agent startup that recently separated from Meta Platforms, has raised more than $500 million in new funding led by Boyu Capital and other new investors. The funding round was announced by Butterfly Effect, Manus's parent company, via a WeChat post. The capital raise follows the startup's unwinding of its relationship with Meta, signaling continued investor confidence in the AI agent space despite the separation.

Google DeepMind, Meta, and Isomorphic Labs are jointly investing $300 million into Biohub, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's nonprofit biomedical research organization. The funding supports a $1.8 billion initiative to build AI datasets enabling researchers to simulate biological systems digitally. Biohub, founded in 2016, aims to develop a 'virtual cell' that could accelerate disease prevention and management research.