Happy new year! For my first story in 2026, I looked at how Meta's Reels grew to a $50 billion run rate in 2025. 2020: Meta launches Reels 2022: Users spend 10x more time on TikTok 2023-25: IG promotes OG content/pays creators to post, algorithm gets better 2026: Now TV www.wsj.com/tech/meta-re...

Scoop: OpenAI ended a policy earlier this week that required employees to work at the company for six months before their equity vested. A few months ago, xAI shortened their waiting period, known as a "vesting cliff" from 12 months to 6. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...

LeCun: “I’ve been not making friends in various corners of Silicon Valley, including at Meta, saying that within three to five years, this [world models, not LLMs] will be the dominant model for AI architectures, and nobody in their right mind would use LLMs of the type that we have today."

Meta has been on a pop-up shop spree, opening stores in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Burlingame & most recently NYC on Friday. I interviewed Meta’s creative director about the strategy behind the stores, & we sent a photographer to capture the vibes. For @wsj.com www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta...

My profile for the WSJ’s weekend paper about Yann LeCun, who has been in the news quite a bit this week! www.wsj.com/tech/ai/yann...

Meta Cuts 600 Jobs in AI Division By Meghan Bobrowsky The layoffs will affect legacy teams but not the company’s new TBD Lab unit. @meghanb.bsky.social Gift link!

NEW: Elon Musk’s father, Errol Musk, has been accused by family members of sexually abusing five of his children and stepchildren. Elon has repeatedly had to intervene, a secret that’s spanned generations. Our months-long investigation www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/w...

Meta froze hiring in its AI division last week with sources saying exceptions need Alexandr Wang's permission; the duration of the freeze remains unclear (Meghan Bobrowsky/Wall Street Journal) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Scoop: Meta implemented a hiring freeze in its AI division last week after spending months getting 50-plus new researchers & engineers to join the company. The freeze coincides w/ Meta's broader restructuring efforts & also prohibits current staff from switching teams. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta...

Scoop: Meta’s new superintelligence lab has a name—TBD Lab—and a new project developing the next Llama model. More details from me here: www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta...

Sources: TBD Lab, a team under Meta Superintelligence Labs that houses many researchers poached from rival labs, is spearheading work on Llama's newest version (Meghan Bobrowsky/Wall Street Journal) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Happy pseudo Friday, here’s me on The Journal podcast talking about Meta’s $100 million offers to AI researchers open.spotify.com/episode/0WGM...

Mark Zuckerberg has a secret list of AI researchers that he's targeting in the hopes of turning around his company's AI efforts. New story on Zuckerberg’s hiring spree www.wsj.com/tech/meta-ai...

Sources: Meta has poached three OpenAI researchers, Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai, for its superintelligence efforts (Meghan Bobrowsky/Wall Street Journal) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Scoop: Meta has poached three OpenAI researchers: Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai, according to people familiar with the matter. An OpenAI spox confirmed the three have left the company. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta...

plz bury me at Filoli

Scoop: Tim Cook called Texas Governor Greg Abbott to try to stop him from signing a bill that would require app stores to verify users' ages, according to people familiar with the matter. With Rolfe Winkler and Amrith Ramkumar: www.wsj.com/tech/tim-coo...

Scoop: Meta has been struggling to make breakthroughs with its latest AI model Behemoth and has delayed its internal target for rolling the model out www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta...

Former Instagram executive: "The very platforms that have led to our social isolation and being chronically online are now posing a solution to the loneliness epidemic. It almost seems like the arsonist coming back and being the fireman" www.wsj.com/tech/ai/mark... @meghanb.bsky.social

Over the last week, Mark Zuckerberg has outlined a future where people have AI friends, an AI therapist + AI business agents. “People are going to want a system that knows them well and that kind of understands them in the way that their feed algorithms do,” he said. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/mark...

New analyst notes are coming in ahead of Meta’s earnings next week. MoffettNathanson estimates the tech giant could lose $7 billion from China this year, and up to $23 billion if we enter a prolonged economic downturn

New from me and Jan: The Week That Google And Meta Faced An Antitrust Reckoning www.wsj.com/tech/google-...

deep cut facebook

Lots of interesting stats and emails coming out of the Meta FTC trial. One stat that sticks out to me: Nearly 55% of the time that people spend on Facebook now is watching videos, up from 30% pre-pandemic

Banger of a story on Mark Zuckerberg's failed negotiations to get out of the trial he testified in today www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

The trial that could force Meta to sell Instagram and Whatsapp began this morning. Some stats: *IG ads are expected to account for 50% of revenue this year, per eMarketer *IG is expected to grow 3% among 18-24 yr olds this year, Facebook is expected to decline 2%, per eMarketer

Not surprising but Meta confirms Instagram usage spiked when TikTok went down for 12 hours back in January

Meta's ad business relies on China and could face a $10 billion hit because of the tariffs, says @brianwieser.bsky.social

Mark Zuckerberg is trying to get the White House to agree to a settlement that would prevent Meta from facing an antitrust trial later this month, per WSJ story It's the second ask by Zuckerberg that's been reported in the last few days

Mark Zuckerberg bent the knee to Donald Trump. Now he's asking for a favor in return. In recent weeks, Meta officials have pressed U.S. trade officials to fight against an expected European Union fine and ceast-and-desist order, per reporting from @samschechner.com @kimmackrael.bsky.social

How was xAI's $80 billion valuation and X's $33 billion valuation determined? The numbers were reached following negotiations between the two Musk arms--which both had the same advisers.

Some details from our xAI/X story: -All shares of X & xAI will be exchanged for shares in a new holding company, named xAI Holdings Corp. -Executives at the companies, which share personnel, believe it will be easier to raise money for the combined businesses under xAI.

Just got a “blast from the past” alert from Facebook about this post from 2011

Macmillan's Flatiron imprint isn't pulling "Careless People" from shelves. But its author isn't allowed to promote it, according to an arbitrator's ruling yesterday. Perhaps the controversy will ultimately boost sales. www.wsj.com/business/med...

The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, had dinner with some of the most popular TikTok creators last night. 👀

New: Meta apologized Wednesday night for what it said was an “error” that led to graphic and violent videos flooding the feeds of a vast number of Instagram users, including minors. Meta said it fixed the issue but as of tonight, the videos were still being served.

Just in: Elizabeth Holmes's request to overturn her fraud conviction was denied by an appeals court. She's left with few remaining legal options: 1) she can petition for an en banc review or 2) she can ask the Supreme Court to hear her case. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

Today I learned that there is another season called “burrito season” that runs from March to May

My favorite character on the new White Lotus season is Bart Nixon from The Wall Street Journal who keeps trying to reach Lucius Malfoy for comment on a story while he’s vacationing with his non-Malfoy family in Thailand

On NPR Marketplace today talking about the data center economy www.marketplace.org/shows/market...

A 25-year-old DOGE staffer resigned after The Wall Street Journal asked about an X account that advocated for racism that was linked to him

Google becomes the latest company to rethink its approach to DEI initiatives The company is eliminating its goal of hiring more employees from historically underrepresented groups

Cruise sent a note to riders this morning about its robotaxi service shutting down permanently “While Cruise robotaxis may no longer roam cities, we couldn't have done it without you”

Sources: Meta is discussing moving its incorporation from Delaware to Texas or another state, following similar moves by Elon Musk (Wall Street Journal) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Scoop: Meta is in talks to move its incorporation out of Delaware, to either Texas or another state. Meta has no plans to move corporate HQ out of California at this time.

Post-earnings lunch today

TLDR from Meta's earnings: Meta beat on revenue growth and net income but projected 8-15% growth for Q1 which would be the company's slowest in two years

Breaking: President Trump has signed settlement papers that are expected to require Meta to pay ~$25 million to resolve a 2021 lawsuit that he brought after the company suspended his accounts, per people familiar with the agreement.

Meta reports Q4 results in a few hours. Analysts are expecting: -a 17% increase in revenue growth year-over-year -a 99% increase in capex year-over-year -a 25% increase in net income year-over-year

On a recent call with advertisers, Meta tried to address brand safety concerns, saying the company is "100% committed."