Tech
Zuckerberg teases agentic commerce tools and major AI rollout in 2026
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta users will start to see new AI models and products from the company in a matter of months.
“In 2025, we rebuilt the foundations of our AI program,” Zuckerberg said on an investor call Wednesday, referring to the company’s recently restructured AI lab. “Over the coming months, we’re going to start shipping our new models and products… and I expect us to steadily push the frontier over the course of the new year.”
But while Zuckerberg didn’t give specific timelines or products, he highlighted AI-driven commerce as a particular area of focus for Meta.
“This also has implications for commerce,” Zuckerberg continued. “New agentic shopping tools will allow people to find just the right set of products from the businesses in our catalog.”
That proposal echoes broader interest in AI-powered shopping assistants across the industry. Both Google and OpenAI have built platforms for agent-enabled transactions, with companies like Stripe and Uber signed on as partners.
But while other AI labs have already built significant technical infrastructure, Meta believes its access to personal data will prove uniquely valuable.
“We’re starting to see the promise of AI that understands our personal context, including our history, our interests, our content and our relationships,” Zuckerberg said on the call. “A lot of what makes agents valuable is the unique context that they can see, and we believe that Meta will be able to provide a uniquely personal experience.”
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In December, Meta acquired the general-purpose agent developer Manus, which provides similar technology. At the time, Meta said it would “continue to operate and sell the Manus service, as well as integrate it into our products.”
The investor call was timed to the release of Meta’s most recent quarterly earnings, which also disclosed a significant increase in new infrastructure spending. The company now anticipates that it will spend between $115 billion and $135 billion on overall capital expenditures over the course of 2026, up from $72 billion in 2025.
In its official filing, Meta attributed the jump to “increased investment to support our Meta Superintelligence Labs efforts and core business.”
While significant, the figure still falls short of the projected $600 billion that Zuckerberg reportedly projected for Meta’s infrastructure spending through 2028.
Meta has previously drawn criticism from investors for failing to clearly state how its massive AI investment will translate to the company’s bottom line. But while details are still thin, Zuckerberg made it clear that the AI labs work would reach the public soon.
“This is going to be a big year for delivering personal superintelligence, accelerating our business, building infrastructure for the future, and shaping how our company will work going forward,” he told investors.
Tech
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Tech
Uber to buy delivery arm of Turkey’s Getir
Uber has agreed to acquire the delivery business of Turkey’s Getir, once one of the biggest success stories of the country’s startup ecosystem, the company announced on Monday.
The deal will see Uber paying $335 million at the outset to purchase Getir’s food delivery business. The ride-hailing giant will also pay $100 million for a 15% stake in Getir’s grocery, retail, and water delivery business, and said it would complete the acquisition of the division over the next few years.
Uber is buying the business from Getir’s biggest shareholder, the Emirati sovereign wealth fund Mubadala. The investment firm was reportedly seeking to sell its stake in the company last year.
The deal comes after a turbulent few years for Getir, which once enjoyed a valuation of $12 billion, that saw the startup scale down its operations massively. The company launched to great traction in 2015, and invested aggressively to expand its operations in the U.S. and Europe, both organically and via acquisitions, especially during the pandemic.
But after the pandemic lockdowns eased, broader consumer demand for food and grocery delivery also wavered, and Getir chose to cut its losses in 2024, shutting shop and laying off thousands of staff in the U.S., U.K., and Europe in order to focus on business back home.
Nearly a year ago, the company went through a struggle for control over a restructuring plan proposed by Mubadala. The plan was opposed by one of Getir’s co-founders, who eventually sued to fight the “illegal coup,” but a Dutch court rejected the founder’s appeals.
The company has raised a total of $2.40 billion so far, according to PitchBook. Documents filed by Getir in court last year show the company valued its group assets at $374 million.
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“This transaction reflects the strength of the business and the progress it has made, particularly over the last year,” Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, deputy group CEO at Mubadala, said in a statement.
Uber said it would combine the new unit’s services with Trendyol Go, a food and grocery delivery service in Turkey that the ride-hail giant bought for $700 million last May. Uber said Getir’s food delivery business alone recorded gross bookings of more than $1 billion in 2025, up 50% from a year earlier.
The deal follows a strong showing by Uber’s delivery business in the fourth quarter, reporting revenue of $4.89 billion, up 30% from a year earlier. The company said Europe, the Middle East, and Asia proved the fastest-growing regions for the business in 2026.
Tech
Discord to roll out age verification next month for full access to its platform
Discord is rolling out age verification globally starting next month, the company announced on Monday. All users will be put into a “teen-appropriate experience” by default unless they prove they’re adults. Age verification will be required to change certain settings and access age-restricted content.
Discord users will need to be confirmed as adults in order to unblur sensitive content or turn off the setting, and only adults can access age-restricted channels, servers, and app commands. Additionally, messages from people a user may not know are routed to a separate inbox by default, and only verified adults can modify this setting.
People will receive warning prompts for friend requests from users they may not know, and only adults will be able speak onstage in servers.
To complete age verification, users need to either complete a facial age estimation or submit an ID to Discord’s vendor partners. The platform plans to add more options in the future. Discord notes that some users may be asked to use multiple methods when additional information is needed to assign an age group.
The facial age estimation requires video selfies, which Discord says never leave your device. Additionally, the company says IDs submitted to its vendor partners are deleted quickly and, in most cases, immediately after age confirmation.
It’s worth noting that Discord disclosed last October that around 70,000 users may have had sensitive data, such as their government ID photos, exposed after hackers breached a third-party vendor that the platform uses for age-related appeals. The breach reflected digital rights activists’ concerns over the use of age checks as a way to make the internet “safer.”
Discord’s global launch of age verification follows the company’s decision to establish age checks for users in the U.K. and Australia last year.
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“Rolling out teen-by-default settings globally builds on Discord’s existing safety architecture, giving teens strong protections while allowing verified adults flexibility,” said Savannah Badalich, head of product policy at Discord, in a press release. “We design our products with teen safety principles at the core and will continue working with safety experts, policymakers, and Discord users to support meaningful, long term wellbeing for teens on the platform.”
The announcement mirrors similar moves made by other online platforms, reflecting growing international efforts to strengthen child safety. Most recently, Roblox introduced mandatory facial verification for access to chats on its platform. Last July, YouTube launched its age-estimation technology in the U.S. to identify teen users in order to provide a more age-appropriate experience.
Discord’s age-verification changes will begin in early March, and both new and existing users will need to verify their age to access age-restricted content.
