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."
15.11.2025 12:01 — 👍 68 🔁 13 💬 4 📌 4
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...
23.09.2025 14:24 — 👍 1129 🔁 509 💬 93 📌 84
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
26.05.2025 22:10 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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
08.05.2025 15:30 — 👍 74 🔁 23 💬 11 📌 7
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
22.04.2025 16:30 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
New from me and Jan: The Week That Google And Meta Faced An Antitrust Reckoning
www.wsj.com/tech/google-...
no lmao
16.04.2025 21:01 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
deep cut facebook
16.04.2025 20:51 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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/...
15.04.2025 22:33 — 👍 24 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 1
Story: www.wsj.com/tech/meta-fi...
14.04.2025 17:30 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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
13.04.2025 18:56 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Meta's ad business relies on China and could face a $10 billion hit because of the tariffs, says @brianwieser.bsky.social
03.04.2025 18:19 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1