Newscasts - AI Weekly: Meta wants Manus, AI investors want more in 2026

Dennys

31/12/2025 11:47

Click the following link to watch video: https://share.newscasts.refinitiv.com/link?entryId=1_endfolh1&referenceId=tag:reuters.com,2025:newsml_RW329331122025RP1_930&pageId=Newscasts
Source: 'Reuters - Business videos'

Description: Meta has said it will buy Chinese-founded startup Manus as the tech giant accelerates efforts to integrate advanced AI across its platforms, while AI investors look ahead to 2026. Ciara Lee rounds up the latest stories from the AI revolution. 

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Video Transcript:

From Meta's plans for Manus to the AI outlook for investors in 2026, this is AI Weekly. Meta has said it will buy Chinese founded startup Manus as the tech giant accelerates efforts to integrate advanced AI across its platforms. Financial terms were not released, but a source told Reuters the deal values Manus at $2 to $3 billion. Manus went viral earlier this year on X after it released what it claimed was the world's first general AI agent, capable of making decisions and executing tasks autonomously, with less prompting than ChatGPT and DeepSeek. The company was cheered by Chinese state television, with commentators calling it China's next DeepSeek. NVIDIA is reportedly scrambling to meet strong demand for its H200 artificial intelligence chips from Chinese technology companies and, according to sources, has approached contract manufacturer TSMC to ramp up production. They added that Chinese tech firms have placed orders for more than 2 million H200 chips for 2026, while NVIDIA holds just 700,000 units in stock. SoftBank Group said it completed a $41 billion investment in OpenAI. The move is one of the largest ever private funding rounds that would give the Japanese firm a stake of about 11% in the ChatGPT maker. Artificial intelligence software developer Eliza Labs has ended its lawsuit accusing billionaire Elon Musk's X Corp. of extracting valuable information from the company before launching copycat AI products. A federal judge in Texas dismissed the case after Eliza Labs and X said they agreed to dismissal with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be refiled. X had denied wrongdoing. And as global markets closed out the year, they remained buoyed by strong fundamentals and rising capital flows into growth markets, amplified by an AI driven investment boom, and that's expected to continue into 2026 as investors keep channeling capital into AI linked infrastructure, foundries, and supply chains, as well as betting on growth from data centers, advanced chipmaking, and next generation computing.