TNB Tech Minute: Meta Unveils AI Agent For Businesses

**Julie Chang** (0:00)
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Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Wednesday, June 3rd. I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal. Meta launched an AI agent for businesses on its WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger services across the globe today. The autonomous tool will be able to answer customer questions, book appointments, and close sales, among other functions, with future plans for market research and calendar management. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the agent will, quote, eventually help you run your whole business. While the tool is free for now, it will later become a paid subscription. The new agent is part of the company's effort to broaden beyond its core consumer business as it spends aggressively on AI. The tech giant said its AI infrastructure buildout will cost up to $145 billion in capital expenditures this year.
We exclusively report that Google Parent Alphabet sold $35 billion worth of stock this week in underwritten public offerings. Those are transactions in which an institution like a bank purchases the shares and resells them. The company had said it planned to sell $30 billion that way as part of its massive equity raise. A person familiar with the matter says Alphabet reached out to about 75 investors prior to announcing the equity raise Monday. The company said the proceeds would be used to finance data center expansion and secure computing capacity needed to train and run AI models.
And Europe wants to reduce its dependence on foreign tech companies. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, outlined a so-called tech sovereignty package today. It contains policies targeting a broad range of tech infrastructure, from semiconductors to cloud services. The proposals include a revamped CHIPS Act and a Cloud and AI Development Act, aimed to foster demand for EU CHIPS and assess public sector cloud use. The EU's package comes as officials voice concerns over the bloc's reliance on non-EU companies for increasingly important tech. The proposals still need to be negotiated by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union to be approved. And that's it for your TMB Tech Minutes. Check back in the morning for another Quick Tech Update. A new era of business internet is here. Introducing Super Broadband from T-Mobile. Discover more at superbroadband.com.
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