Sunday Snacks – Volume 10: Big Bets & Bold Ideas - Netflix’s $83 B Takeover, MrBeast’s Empire & AI Tools to Level Up Your Creative Hustle

Hello friends!
It’s Sunday, December 7, 2025, and welcome back to another edition of Sunday Snacks. This week was packed with blockbuster deals, AI updates, and creator news from every corner of the internet. Grab a warm drink, settle in and let’s break it all down.

🍿 Quick Takes

• Netflix makes a blockbuster move. In a surprise late‑week announcement, Netflix agreed to buy Warner Bros Discovery’s TV and film studios for $83 billion. The cash‑and‑stock deal, struck at $27.75 per share, is one of the decade’s largest media takeovers and will unite HBO Max with Netflix’s streaming platform. Regulatory hurdles remain, but the acquisition underscores how fiercely the streaming wars have escalated.

• Meta inks new AI‑news deals. Meta announced commercial agreements with publishers including USA Today, People, CNN, Fox News, The Daily Caller and France’s Le Monde to feed real‑time articles into its Meta AI assistant. The partnerships aim to boost Meta’s AI’s usefulness and come amid intense competition in generative‑AI chatbots.

• AI safety index highlights risks. A study by the Future of Life Institute found that safety practices at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI and Meta are “far short of emerging global standards.” The index concludes that companies racing toward super‑intelligent systems lack robust controls, prompting calls for binding safety standards and better regulation.

• Meta buys Limitless. Meta acquired AI‑wearables startup Limitless, whose pendant device records and transcribes real‑world conversations. Co‑founder Dan Siroker said the acquisition aligns with Meta’s push to deliver “personal super‑intelligence” through AI‑enabled wearables.

• Alphabet flirts with $4 trillion. Alphabet’s share price rally, driven by investor enthusiasm for the company’s AI strategy, pushed its market value toward $4 trillion on Nov 25. Though still volatile, the milestone underscores Big Tech’s outsized role in the AI boom.

• AI debt raises eyebrows. Goldman Sachs noted that surging debt issuance to fund AI data centers has investors wary. Concerns in investment‑grade bonds are issuer‑specific, while high‑yield markets fear broader sector‑wide risk.

• EU hits X with fines. The European Commission fined Elon Musk’s platform X €120 million for violating transparency rules under the Digital Services Act—the latest salvo in Europe’s assertive tech regulation push.

🔬 Tech & AI

AWS re:Invent highlights: from assistants to agents

Amazon’s annual re:Invent conference had an unmistakable theme: AI for the enterprise. CEO Matt Garman argued that today’s AI assistants are evolving into AI agents that can autonomously plan and execute tasks. To support this shift, AWS introduced:

1. New model‑customisation tools on Bedrock and SageMaker, including serverless fine‑tuning and reinforcement learning capabilities.

2. Graviton5 CPUs with 192 cores and improved data paths, promising better efficiency for AI workloads.

3. Trainium3 chips and UltraServer systems, which Amazon says offer up to four‑times performance compared with previous generations.

Meta delays mixed‑reality glasses

Meta postponed the launch of its Phoenix mixed‑reality glasses to 2027 to ensure more polish. The device (previously code‑named Puffin) weighs about 100 grams and offers lower resolution than Apple’s Vision Pro; employees say the delay gives engineers time to refine the product. The development is part of Meta’s shifting strategy as budgets for its metaverse initiative face cuts.

New York Times sues Perplexity AI

The New York Times filed a lawsuit alleging that startup Perplexity AI scraped millions of its articles without permission, produced hallucinated content and falsely attributed results to the Times. The suit seeks damages and an injunction and highlights escalating battles between publishers and AI companies over copyrighted material.

AI safety and regulation

The Future of Life Institute’s latest AI safety index warns that leading AI firms lack adequate safety practices and that none have robust strategies for controlling super‑intelligent systems. MIT’s Max Tegmark said U.S. AI companies remain less regulated than restaurants and continue lobbying against binding safety standards. The report follows growing public concern after several cases of AI‑linked self‑harm.

💼 Business & Markets

Netflix bets on Warner Bros Discovery

The week’s headline business story came Friday when Netflix reached a $83 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery’s TV and film studios, including its streaming service HBO Max. Executives said the merger would unify content libraries and improve Netflix’s ability to compete globally. The price represents a hefty premium and includes break‑up fees if regulators block the deal. Shares of Warner Bros Discovery jumped 3.2% while Netflix ticked slightly lower on the news.

AI‑linked debt and valuations

As tech companies pour billions into AI infrastructure, they are increasingly tapping debt markets. A Goldman Sachs note observed that AI‑linked bond issuance has surged, but investors are differentiating between high‑grade and speculative issuers. Investment‑grade concerns are issuer‑specific, while high‑yield fears are sector‑wide. The Bank of England warned that the debt‑fuelled AI build‑out could pose systemic risks if valuations correct.

Meanwhile, Alphabet’s market cap briefly approached $4 trillion, fueled by optimism about its Gemini and Veo models. Analysts say strong AI revenues could push the company past Apple’s valuation over the next year.

Meta’s AI deals & acquisitions

Meta’s busy week started with partnerships: the company signed agreements with multiple news publishers to supply real‑time content to Meta AI. Days later, it acquired Limitless, an AI‑wearables startup that makes a pendant device to record and transcribe conversations. Meta intends to combine Limitless’ technology with its Vision Pro‑rival smart glasses and hints at a bigger push into AI‑enabled consumer hardware.

Nebius expands AI infrastructure

Dutch data‑center operator Nebius (founded by Yandex veterans) announced that $20 billion in contracts from Microsoft and Meta will fund its expansion into AI‑specific data center services. Co‑founder Roman Chernin said the company aims to secure 2.5 GW of power capacity by 2026 and expects the AI infrastructure market to grow ten‑ or hundred‑fold.

Prediction markets hit mainstream media

CNBC signed a multi‑year deal with prediction‑market operator Kalshi to integrate real‑time probabilities into its TV and digital programming starting in 2026. The partnership follows similar moves by CNN and signals growing investor appetite for odds‑based market insights.

📈 Creator & Platform Economy

MKBHD’s Panels and Beast Industries

In creator‑world news, Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) will shut down his wallpaper‑discovery app Panels on December 31. Brownlee launched the app earlier this year but faced backlash over pricing and ads; after experimenting with improvements, he acknowledged that the app hadn’t met his vision and will refund all customers. Notably, he plans to open‑source the code so others can build on the project.

Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson’s plan to restructure his empire into Beast Industries, a holding company with three divisions:

(1) Media (his YouTube channels, the upcoming Beast Games Amazon show and an animation studio)

(2) Consumer products & services (Feastables snacks, Lunchly, upcoming Beast Mobile and even financial services)

(3) a creator marketing marketplace that matches brands with creators. The company is valued at roughly $5.2 billion, and CEO Jeff Housenbold hinted that an IPO could be on the horizon.

Creator funding & new platforms

Outside of the PDFs, Net Influencer reported that Jake and Logan Paul closed a $30 million venture fund called Anti Fund I, focusing on AI and robotics startups. The fund uses a “barbell” strategy—investing $100k–$500k in promising seed‑stage companies and multimillion‑dollar bets on growth‑stage leaders—and counts Marc Andreessen among its backers.

Visa partnered with creator‑finance platform Lumanu to streamline payments via Visa Direct. The deal aims to provide near‑instant cross‑border payouts and reduce delays that often stretch 90–120 days. Visa says it will gain visibility into creator payment flows and eventually migrate domestic and international transactions to its network.

TikTok launched a Nearby Feed in France, Germany, Italy and the UK that surfaces local content based on users’ locations and posting dates. Location sharing is optional and available only to adults; posts from under‑18 accounts or older than 90 days are excluded. TikTok claims the feed will help local businesses and notes that research shows campaigns with local influencers perform 46% better than remote campaigns.

YouTube Global Culture & Trends 2025

YouTube’s annual Global Culture & Trends Report offered a fascinating look at how creators are evolving around the world. Key insights include:

• United States: Top‑growing creators use structured series with defined arcs—a departure from the usual vlog format. Druski’s Coulda Been Love dating show and iShowSpeed’s sports series Speed Goes Pro are examples. Channels like Glitch and SleepyCrafter involve fans directly through sneak peeks and hide‑and‑seek challenges, while Technoblade’s channel continued to gain subscribers despite the creator’s 2022 passing.

• South Korea: Success hinges on authenticity and persona. MMA fighter Choo Sung‑hoon’s unvarnished “room tour” resonated with millions, while comedian Lee Su‑ji’s detailed characters impressed viewers. Creators like Anxious Kim Hamzzi use AI personas but maintain human connection through storytelling. Other creators gained traction through “effort premium” challenges, such as walking a million steps or reverse‑engineering food production.

• Germany: Creators are re‑creating third places—physical spaces for community. Papaplatte’s camper‑van road trip and HandOfBlood’s flea market are examples. Football club Delay Sports Berlin, co‑founded by creators, bakes content into its DNA and draws crowds both online and offline.

• Mexico: Live‑streamed events have become cultural phenomena. Supernova Strikers boxing matches and the Skabeche brothers’ Summer Kamp survival tournament each generated millions of concurrent viewers. Reality show La Casa de Alofoke drew over 300 million views.

• India: Creators are transcending regional boundaries. MrBeast gained over 47 million Indian subscribers by dubbing his videos into seven local languages. Channels like KL Bro broadened reach using non‑verbal storytelling and music.

• France, Indonesia, UK & Brazil: The report also highlights creators becoming primary broadcasters in France; Indonesian youth mixing hip‑hop and dangdut into new music genres; British audiences embracing long‑form explainers; and Brazilian creators “gamifying” daily life by turning everyday activities into shared universes.

TikTok sued by Hawaii for “coercive design”

Hawaii filed a lawsuit against TikTok and parent company ByteDance, alleging the app uses “coercive design tactics” that maximize engagement among minors. The complaint argues TikTok monitors usage “down to the minute” and restricts changes that might reduce time spent on the platform. Officials want the court to require meaningful safeguards and accurate disclosure of risks. The suit joins a wave of regulatory scrutiny over social media’s impact on children

🧪 Google Labs Experiments: Mixboard, Pomelli & Flow

Alongside the week’s headline news, Google quietly rolls out several experimental AI tools through Google Labs. These aren’t polished products yet, but they hint at where everyday creative work is headed.

Mixboard – Visualize and expand your ideas

Mixboard is an AI‑powered concepting board that helps you explore, expand and refine ideas. You can start from a text prompt or use one of the pre‑populated boards and then add your own photos or generate unique visuals with Google’s Nano Banana image‑editing model. With natural‑language commands you can make small changes, combine images, regenerate variations and even generate text based on the context of your board. The experiment is live in the U.S. and includes a Discord community for feedback.

Pomelli – AI marketing for small businesses

Pomelli, built by Google Labs and DeepMind, aims to bring professional‑grade marketing to small‑ and medium‑sized businesses. After you enter your website, Pomelli analyzes the site to create a “Business DNA” profile that captures your brand’s tone of voice, fonts, images and color palette. It then generates tailored campaign ideas and high‑quality marketing assets that are grounded in this DNA, with editing tools to refine text and images. The public‑beta experiment is available in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Flow – AI filmmaking built for creatives

Flow is an AI‑powered filmmaking tool built on Google’s Veo video models. It lets you bring your own assets or generate them, organise them on a timeline and then produce cinematic clips, scenes and stories. Flow’s recent update introduced powerful refinement features: you can generate and edit images using the Nano Banana Pro model, doodle prompts directly on frames, insert or remove objects from videos, and adjust camera motion after generation. Together these tools allow you to prototype ad storyboards or creative projects before committing to full production.

🧠Closing Reflection – Playing with AI’s building blocks

My biggest takeaway this week is how quickly AI tools are becoming building blocks for creators, small businesses and big tech alike. Google’s Mixboard, Pomelli and Flow are early experiments, yet they hint at a future where brainstorming, marketing and video production are largely assisted by AI. At the same time, we’re seeing regulators and researchers push back on the risks of unchecked AI development—and investors are debating whether the sector’s explosive growth is sustainable.

So this week, I encourage you to experiment. Try Mixboard to organise your next idea, or play with Flow to prototype a short video. Explore Pomelli if you’re running a small business. And above all, stay curious—the future belongs to those willing to test the tools before they become mainstream.

That’s it for this week. Stay weird, stay learning.

—Fahad

www.linkedin.com/in/fahadaldulaimi/