By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS Key European Union lawmakers agreed on Thursday changes to draft rules to rein

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 24, 2023--

Mark Zuckerberg’s big bet on the metaverse has now lost $40 billion – and the company intends to lose even more. The huge figures were revealed as part of Meta’s latest results, which generally showed a strong rise in advertising revenue. But they also showed an increase in expenses at the company, with the development not only of the metaverse but also artificial intelligence and legal fees. Meta has been dramatically cutting costs and laying off staff. But at the same time it has been spending heavily on some projects, such as the metaverse, in the face of criticism from those who suggest that the bet is unlikely to pay off. That work on the metaverse is done by the company’s Reality Labs unit, which is responsible for developing technology like augmented reality glasses. It reported sales of $276 million, down from $452 million in the same quarter last year. The unit lost $3.7 billion in the second quarter, putting it on track to have far higher costs than the $5 billion annual target set out in a widely circulated investor note in the fall. The unit has lost more than $40 billion since 2021, including $13.7 billion last year. Meta said it expected Reality Labs operating losses to “increase meaningfully” in 2024 as the company continued to invest in augmented and virtual reality and “scale our ecosystem.” Zuckerberg had previously said Meta would “pace” investments in the division after 2023. He told investors he understood why many of them would feel discomfort over such a long-term bet. But the positive results across the company pushed Meta shares up 7.5 per cent. “We continue to see strong engagement across our apps and we have the most exciting roadmap I’ve seen in a while with Llama 2, Threads, Reels, new AI products in the pipeline, and the launch of Quest 3 this fall,” Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said. Meta’s second-quarter revenue grew 11% to $32 billion in the quarter ended June 30, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $31.12 billion. Ad revenue rose 12% in the quarter, faster than growth at Google, where ad revenue rose 3%. Adjusted earnings per share of $2.98 topped Wall Street targets of $2.91, according to data from Refinitiv. The social media giant has been climbing back from a bruising 2022, buoyed by hype around emerging AI technology and an austerity drive in which it has shed around 21,000 employees since last fall. The company’s shares have more than doubled in value this year as a result. Advertisers are reinforcing those gains by pumping money into digital ads again after months of muted spending, heartened by signs that the economy may overcome a bout of high inflation without suffering a major meltdown. Brands are hedging their bets, however, and sticking with tried and true platforms. That helps Meta and Alphabet while punishing smaller players like Snap, which reported disappointing sales on Tuesday. Meta’s revenue forecast did not specify whether the figure includes any sales that might come from the recently launched Threads app, which does not yet have ads. Additional reporting by Reuters Read More Elon Musk’s ‘X’ is already trademarked by Mark Zuckerberg How Mark Zuckerberg’s new ChatGPT rival could lead to ‘obscene’ AI Meta unveils its ChatGPT rival Llama Here’s how to claim your share of $725m settlement in Facebook’s privacy lawsuit Elon Musk forces firms to pay X $1,000 to keep gold ticks Slack has stopped working

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A first-edition 2007 Apple iPhone has sold for more than $190,000 at auction, far exceeding the estimate.

MrBeast is known for his elaborate videos, with over 175 million subscribers waiting to see what he gets up to next – this time, he has teased that his very own Extreme Olympics will be his "biggest video ever". The 25-year-old YouTuber is no stranger to breaking records. Recently, his '7 Days Stranded At Sea' video also became the most viewed non-music YouTube video in 24 hours. MrBeast is perhaps best known for his '$456,000 Squid Game In Real Life' video inspired by the Korean dystopian Netflix show, which has over 480m views and is also the fastest non-music video to reach 100 million views too. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter But according to the content creator, the Extreme Olympics is going to be even grander spectacle than this. In a tweet, he wrote: "Next Saturday's video I had a subscriber from every country on Earth compete in my own version of Extreme Olympics... "...the sets are 2x bigger than our Squid Game sets, and it's my biggest video ever." MrBeast also shared two stills from the video which show how large one of the sets is as competitors participate in the games, while another shows the YouTuber in a referee top clapping with competitors in the background. When asked in the comments how much the video cost, MrBeast replied: "Over $4 million." The Extreme Olympics video is set to be released on MrBeast's YouTube channel this Saturday (August 19). Elsewhere, MrBeast is being counter-sued for $100 million by Virtual Dining Concepts, the company behind Beast Burger restaurants. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

(Reuters) -SoftBank Group's Arm is seeking a valuation of more than $52 billion in its initial public offering as the

When you receive a text message on your iPhone or iPad, you can let the

Google is introducing its artificially intelligent chatbot named Bard to other members of its digital family — including Gmail, Maps and YouTube — as it seeks to ward off competitive threats posed by similar technology run by Open AI and Microsoft

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 25, 2023--

To defeat all Operation Nightmare bosses in Warzone's The Haunting, players must perform certain tasks throughout Al Mazrah to eliminate the creatures.

BENGALURU, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 26, 2023--