Yahoo acquires Instagram co-founders' AI news platform Artifact

Artifact is an AI-driven news platform co-founded by Instagram co-founders. It uses an AI-powered recommendation engine to deliver personalized content to its audience. The platform was designed to scale news operations and provide a tailored experience for users by analyzing their preferences and behaviors.

Yahoo acquired Artifact to incorporate its technology across its news and other sites, including TechCrunch, Engadget, and Yahoo Finance. The acquisition is part of Yahoo's strategy to scale its news operations and offer more personalized content to its audience. This move also reflects the challenges media start-ups face in growing revenue, especially when competing with Big Tech companies like Alphabet and Meta Platforms for advertising sales.

After the acquisition of Artifact by Yahoo, the co-founders of Artifact, Systrom and Mike Krieger, will work with Yahoo in an advisory capacity during the transition period. They had previously left Meta, then known as Facebook, in late 2018 and launched Artifact in early 2023.

Yahoo was bought out by private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 2021 for $5 billion.