Meta Acquires AI Coding Startup Conductor

Meta Platforms Inc. has acquired artificial intelligence coding startup Conductor in a deal reported by Axios. Conductor's software enables developers to run multiple coding agents simultaneously, each in a separate codebase copy, and review the results before merging them. Supported agents include Claude Code from Anthropic PBC, Codex from OpenAI Group PBC, and Cursor from Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Users pay for these agents via their own subscriptions and keys.

The desktop app runs on Macs, while a hosted version, Conductor Cloud, allows agents to run in separate virtual machines for extended periods. Users can monitor their progress via an iPhone app. Meta engineers have been using Conductor before the acquisition. The company's website now states that over 100,000 people utilize Conductor.

Meta aims to leverage Conductor's speed in product shipping to develop its next generation of AI coding tools. The acquisition followed two recent Meta model releases that highlighted coding as a key strength. The Conductor team announced that new sign-ups and downloads would be suspended, and the cloud service would become read-only and eventually shut down.

Users can export their data or transfer cloud workspaces to their own devices before these changes take effect. Conductor's founders, Charlie Holtz and Jackson de Campos, raised $22 million in Series A funding from Spark Capital and Matrix. The company has never sold user data or trained models on it.