Commentary: Stock exchange celebrates Meta's new AI hit - Zuckerberg skillfully uses his greatest power
Millions of downloads in two weeks, eleven percent course increase in one day: analysts hail Meta as "killer app". In doing so, Meta merely repeated a ruthless recipe for success.
At the beginning of the year, Meta launched a new stage of Artificial Intelligence (AI), prompting millions of firms and individuals to experiment with the possibilities of AI agents tackling complex tasks. However, the initial hype for Meta faded away, leaving little progress for some time. Then came Mark Zuckerberg with a product for the mass market, similar to Meta in many aspects.
Analysts are already celebrating it as a "killer app." The move showcases Zuckerberg's tactical acumen. The year began with two significant setbacks for Meta's CEO. First, he failed to secure the inventor of Meta, Peter Steinberger, from his rival OpenAI; Steinberger opted for OpenAI instead. The second defeat was the aborted acquisition of the Chinese AI startup Manus, which was also developing AI agents.
The $2 billion deal was in the process of being finalized when Chinese authorities intervened, detaining the founders in Beijing, blocking their travel to Meta's headquarters in Menlo Park, and ultimately preventing the acquisition altogether.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
