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As Big Tech chases enterprise AI, Meta and Apple double down on small businesses

Apple and Meta are playing to their strengths in small business.

While much of Silicon Valley is racing to build the best AI “coworker” for big corporations, Meta and Apple are betting the bigger opportunity lies elsewhere: small businesses.

Meta is launching a new companywide initiative aimed at helping entrepreneurs start and grow businesses using AI tools across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Axios reported Wednesday. A day earlier, Apple unveiled Apple Business, a platform that bundles together tools for managing devices, employees, and customer interactions.

These moves seem different from the AI copilots coming out of Microsoft, Anthropic, and others. Those companies are focused on selling AI into enterprises, with tools that help employees write code, draft documents, and potentially replace some of their coworkers.

Meanwhile, Meta and Apple are leveraging their already strong base of small-business customers — Meta for communication tools and advertising revenue, and Apple through its devices, payments, and app ecosystem — to less flashy ends.

Meta is leaning into its strength as a distribution and marketing platform for small businesses, aiming to offer them AI tools to attract customers, create content, and manage interactions.

“In the AI era, it should be easier than ever for people to build new businesses,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in an internal memo. “We want to build the services that enable this.”

Unlike rivals pouring hundreds of billions into enterprise AI infrastructure, Meta doesn’t have a major enterprise software business to offset those costs.

Apple’s move is less explicitly about AI — and comes as it has struggled to match competitors’ momentum in the space — but similarly plays to its strengths. By consolidating business tools into a single platform, it’s positioning itself as the infrastructure layer for smaller companies operating within its ecosystem.

The AI race may be focused on the enterprise, but Meta and Apple are going after everyone else.

Sora lasted less than one Quibi

OpenAI’s app joins the hallowed halls of video ideas that burned bright and fast.

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$75B

Rani Molla3h

SpaceX, which could file confidential paperwork for its IPO as soon as this week, is now aiming to raise an astounding $75 billion through its pubic listing, The Information reports. That’s 50% higher than previous reports.

For comparison’s sake, the current record holder for money raised in an IPO is Saudi Aramco, which raised $29.4 billion. Or, as The Information noted, SpaceX’s IPO would “surpass all money raised by US IPOs last year.”

Rani Molla4h

Meta execs could make hundreds of millions of dollars — if the company reaches a $9 trillion valuation

Meta, which currently has a market cap of $1.5 trillion, has structured a new executive compensation program that implies a valuation up to 6x higher, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings reported by The Wall Street Journal.

That means some top executives, like CTO Andrew Bosworth and CFO Susan Li, could gain hundreds of millions of dollars if the shares reach those levels, pointing to a roughly $9 trillion valuation by 2031. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not part of the program, the company confirmed.

The company’s expenses grew 40% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, largely driven by employee compensation after shelling out heavily to recruit AI talent. The latest plan suggests those costs could climb even further.

Meta Targets $9 Trillion Valuation With New Executive Incentive Program

Jon Keegan19h

New Mexico jury orders Meta to pay $375 million in child sexual exploitation trial

Meta has been ordered to pay $375 million in civil penalties by a New Mexico jury after the company was found to have violated state consumer protection laws by enabling child sexual exploitation. Meta was accused of failing to protect underage users from adults seeking to harm them, which led to real-world abuse.

Meta has denied the allegations, and spokesperson Andy Stone posted on Threads:

“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal. We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”

Jury orders Meta to pay $375 mln in New Mexico lawsuit over child sexual exploitation, user safety

Meta has denied the allegations, and spokesperson Andy Stone posted on Threads:

“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal. We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”

Jon Keegan20h

Reports: OpenAI winding down Sora as Altman focuses on data centers

The Wall Street Journal and The Information report that OpenAI is discontinuing its once viral Sora text-to-video generation app.

Sora debuted late last year and started off scorching hot, but quickly lost steam.

Per The Information report, CEO Sam Altman has told staff he is shifting responsibilities to focus on building data centers. He also will no longer directly oversee OpenAI’s safety and security teams. Altman shared with staff as well that initial development of OpenAI’s next AI model — code-named “Spud” — has been completed.