The Information's TITV Meta Buys Manus for $2B, Apple’s 2026 Rebirth, Elon Musk’s Failed Goals | Dec 30, 2025
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Dec 30, 2025 Join AI reporter Stephanie Palazzolo as she unpacks Meta's $2 billion acquisition of Manus, an innovative browser-controlling AI agent. Willy Lee discusses the rise of neoclouds like CoreWeave, highlighting their potential in AI infrastructure. Aaron Tilley predicts how Apple plans to rebound from its AI slump in 2026, including a Siri overhaul using external models. Theo Waite delves into Elon Musk's ambitious 2025 targets, assessing where Tesla and other ventures fell short. A spirited discussion on the future of AI and tech investments awaits!
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Agents As Talent And Tech Play
- Manus was an AI agent that automated multi-step browser tasks like booking travel and research.
- Meta bought Manus largely as a talent and agent-technology play to fold into its products and enterprise efforts.
DeepSeek Pivoted Attention To Open Source
- The DeepSeek moment showed Chinese open-source models could compete and forced global attention on open-source AI.
- That led to a proliferation of Chinese open-source models and more developer choice across the year.
Resources + Distribution Fueled Google's Rise
- Google’s 2025 gains boiled down to resources and distribution: vast compute and product reach.
- That combination let Gemini appear across daily Google touchpoints even without replacing core search.