Meta Exempts Italy From WhatsApp Ban on Rival AI Chatbots After Antitrust Order

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Meta Platforms will exclude Italy from its planned ban on rival artificial intelligence chatbots on WhatsApp, following an order from the country’s antitrust authority, according to a notice sent to AI providers and developers and seen by Reuters.

Italy’s competition watchdog, AGCM, last month instructed Meta to suspend the proposed ban while it investigates the company for a suspected abuse of market power, after complaints from rival AI providers. At the European level, the European Commission is also examining whether Meta violated competition rules by restricting access for third-party AI chatbots on WhatsApp, although it has not imposed interim measures.

Blocking rival AI providers from WhatsApp could significantly benefit Meta’s own chatbot and virtual assistant, Meta AI, which was integrated into the messaging platform last year. Critics argue that limiting competitors’ access would further strengthen Meta’s position in AI-powered consumer services.

In its notice to developers circulated earlier this month, Meta said that phone numbers with an Italian country code (+39) are currently exempt from WhatsApp’s updated terms of service, in order to comply with the Italian regulator’s order. The revised terms are scheduled to take effect on January 15 for users outside Italy.

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Meta declined to comment on the changes, referring instead to a previous statement that said the rapid emergence of AI chatbots has placed strain on WhatsApp’s systems, which were not originally designed to support such services. The Italian antitrust authority also declined to comment.

The Italian carve-out drew sharp criticism from rivals. The Interaction Company of California, which developed the AI assistant Poke.com and filed complaints with both Italian and EU regulators, said Meta’s response was insufficient.

“Meta’s move to keep enforcing its new WhatsApp API policy—shutting out AI rivals like Poke.com while only carving out +39 numbers—is deeply disappointing,” said Marvin von Hagen, the company’s co-founder and chief executive. He added that the Italian authority had already found Meta’s conduct to be, at first glance, anti-competitive under EU law, and urged the European Commission to adopt interim measures across the bloc.

Meta Launches “Meta Compute” to Scale AI Infrastructure and Power Superintelligence Push

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Meta has unveiled a new initiative called Meta Compute, aimed at building large-scale artificial intelligence infrastructure and managing the company’s global network of data centres and supplier partnerships as it pursues what it calls superintelligence.

Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the initiative will be co-led by Santosh Janardhan, Meta’s head of global infrastructure, and Daniel Gross. Janardhan will continue overseeing Meta’s technical foundations and data centre operations, while Gross will head a newly created group responsible for strategic capacity planning and business partnerships.

Both executives will work closely with Dina Powell McCormick, who recently joined Meta’s leadership team, Zuckerberg said in a post on Threads.

Meta Compute sits at the core of Meta’s aggressive push into frontier AI and so-called personal superintelligence—a theoretical stage where machines surpass human cognitive abilities. Zuckerberg said the company is investing heavily in data centres and the energy systems required to run them, noting that Meta plans to build “tens of gigawatts” of capacity this decade and potentially “hundreds of gigawatts or more” over the longer term.

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Such computing ambitions would consume electricity on the scale of small cities or even countries, raising concerns about pressure on resources such as power and water. The move comes as Meta seeks to regain momentum in the competitive AI race following a lukewarm response to its Llama 4 model. The company has committed up to $72 billion in capital expenditure in 2025 alone.

Across the tech sector, rising AI workloads are driving a surge in U.S. power demand for the first time in two decades. To secure long-term energy supplies, Meta has signed 20-year agreements to purchase electricity from nuclear plants operated by Vistra and has partnered with two companies developing small modular nuclear reactors.

Morocco Aims for $10 Billion AI Boost to GDP by 2030

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Morocco has set an ambitious target to add 100 billion dirhams—around $10 billion—to its gross domestic product through artificial intelligence by 2030, as part of a broader push to modernize its digital economy. Speaking at a conference in Rabat, Digital Transition Minister Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni outlined a strategy focused on infrastructure, talent development, and regulatory reform.

With current GDP estimated at roughly $170 billion, Morocco sees AI as a key growth lever. The plan centers on expanding domestic data-processing capacity through sovereign data centres, scaling up cloud services and fibre-optic networks, and embedding AI solutions across public administration and industry. According to the minister, these efforts are expected to generate 50,000 AI-related jobs and equip 200,000 graduates with AI skills by the end of the decade.

A core pillar of the strategy is investment in AI centres connected to universities and private-sector partners, designed to accelerate research, innovation, and commercial deployment. As part of this push, Morocco signed a partnership agreement with France-based Mistral AI to support the development of generative AI tools tailored to local needs.

The government is also preparing a legal framework to govern artificial intelligence, signaling an effort to balance innovation with oversight. For the near term, Morocco has earmarked 11 billion dirhams ($1.2 billion) for its digital transformation strategy covering 2024–2026, which includes AI initiatives and nationwide fibre-optic expansion.

Separately, Rabat plans to build a 500-megawatt data centre powered by renewable energy in Dakhla, aimed at strengthening data security and national digital sovereignty. Officials say the project underscores Morocco’s ambition to position itself as a regional hub for AI and data science in Africa.