Saad Ullah
⬤ Meta Platforms (META) is picking up Manus, an AI company that'll plug the missing piece in its technology stack—the consumer-facing layer. The deal fits into a bigger picture that Microsoft's Satya Nadella called early: AI models by themselves might become commodities, and the real winners will be those controlling everything from infrastructure to the products people actually use. Meta already had the compute power and the models. What it didn't have was a dedicated consumer AI product—that's where Manus comes in.
⬤ The thinking here is pretty straightforward. Competitive advantage in AI is shifting away from just building good models and toward owning the entire chain—servers, software, and user experience all under one roof. Meta's now lining up those pieces vertically, controlling compute, model development, and product delivery. "Only a limited number of firms may be able to fund the massive infrastructure necessary to operate at scale," making it tough for smaller players to keep up without similar resources.
⬤ This points to AI becoming an oligopoly. The infrastructure costs are so high that only a few companies can realistically play at this level. A lot of today's LLM-based apps could get swallowed up or pushed aside by these full-stack providers. Meta's positioning itself as one of those mega-cap firms that benefits from owning and integrating all the major AI layers instead of relying on outside tools.
⬤ Why it matters: AI looks like it's consolidating around big tech platforms with deep pockets and vertically integrated strategies. For Meta, completing its AI stack could reshape how it competes, grows, and gets valued as artificial intelligence moves deeper into consumer and business markets.
Saad Ullah
