The European Commission approved a joint venture between Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) and Reliance Industries Limited of India, under the EU Merger Regulation. The partnership will focus on enterprise artificial intelligence services.
Officials examined the deal under the simplified merger procedure and concluded that, due to its limited market impact, it would not harm competition in the European Economic Area.
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The joint venture expands Meta’s enterprise AI footprint, while Reliance enhances its digital presence alongside its telecom and retail businesses.
On the same day, the Commission disbursed 1.57 billion euros in grants and 41 million euros in loans to Czechia, marking the fourth payment under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, NextGenerationEU’s flagship program. The funds will finance renewable energy upgrades, electricity storage, grid connections, and new health facilities while supporting reforms to simplify licensing and permitting.
In July, Meta acquired PlayAI, an AI startup specializing in natural-sounding voice technology, as part of its broader push to expand AI capabilities, as per Bloomberg. The entire PlayAI team joined Meta under the report.
A June CNBC report indicated Meta explored acquiring AI video startup Runway before finalizing its $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI. The talks with Runway, known for video-generation tools, did not progress and ultimately collapsed.
In 2025, Meta pursued targets including Safe Superintelligence and Perplexity AI, while successfully recruiting Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, Safe Superintelligence’s Daniel Gross, and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman.
Meta ramped up AI investments and expanded into defense technology, partnering with Anduril Industries on augmented reality devices for the U.S. Army.
The move follows Meta’s restructuring of its AI efforts under the new Meta Superintelligence Labs and its aggressive hiring of talent from OpenAI, Anthropic, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google DeepMind, and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).
Price Action: META stock was trading lower by 0.03% to $748.69 premarket at last check on Friday.
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