Startups Weekly AI News

December 29 - January 6, 2026

This week brought exciting news about artificial intelligence startups and companies building AI agents - smart computer programs that can do tasks without asking for help each time. The biggest story is that a company called Meta bought Manus, a startup from Singapore, for $2 billion. Manus makes AI agents that can do real-world work like writing reports and organizing information. Another big company, Nvidia, released new AI tools called Nemotron 3 that help AI agents work together better. A Chinese startup called Moonshot AI also released a new powerful AI agent called Kimi K2 that can do 200 to 300 tasks in a row without stopping.

The investment money flowing into AI companies hit record highs. In 2025, AI startups around the world raised $150 billion, which is way more money than ever before. The biggest deals went to companies like OpenAI (which got $40 billion), Anthropic (got $13 billion), and xAI (got $10 billion). People are excited about AI agents because they think companies will finally start using AI to solve real problems and make money from it. However, some experts warn that if AI doesn't actually help businesses work better and faster, all this money could be wasted.

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