META looks to Asia as it makes a more than $2 billion AI acquisition.

We've got the scoop.

Plus, tensions in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and the UAE square off while protests break out

in Iran.

And in the U.S., why politicians on both sides of the aisle are scrambling to act on

affordability. This is going to be a big problem for Republicans moving forward. It's something that

Democrats are really centering their campaigns around. It's Tuesday, December 30th. I'm Luke Vargas

for the Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in your feed once a day

over the holidays with the top headlines and business stories moving the world today.

We are exclusively reporting that META has agreed to buy Singapore-based AI startup Manus in a deal worth more than

$2 billion. But it's not the price tag turning heads. Instead, the purchase marks a rare

example of a major U.S. tech company buying a company with Chinese roots and developed in Asia's

startup ecosystem. Journal reporter Kate Clark told us what made Manus an attractive target.

Meta is acquiring Manus to get further into the AI agent game, which is AI that can complete

tasks for you.

Manus has some really impressive technology there that sort of burst onto the scene in the past

year or so.

And this is a path that a lot of companies want to go down because this is AI that human beings

actually want to use.

And Metas is a huge opportunity for their business to use Manus and not just Manus's technology,

but also the people that created this technology to really get ahead here.

And Kate says Meta has made AI a huge focus this year with a notable example being its investment in scale AI this summer, a deal that saw the startup's founder Alexander Wang join META as its chief AI officer.

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