Meta is spending aggressively on AI talent after already outlaying and committing hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastructure. Management is building a long-term moat in advanced social media that will be difficult to compete with for the foreseeable future. My ROI model reveals the potential for substantial AI-specific free cash flow by 2030.
Investors may think this is one of the worst times to buy Meta Platforms (META 0.37%) stock. Although it dominates the social media sphere, the fact that more than 40% of the world's population logs onto a Meta-owned site every day may imply limited growth.
Meta will not sign the European Commission's code of practice for general-purpose AI models, Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan said in a Friday (July 18) post on LinkedIn.
Meta's founder-led vision and aggressive AI investments position it for long-term growth, despite short-term scrutiny over capital expenditures and profitability. WhatsApp's under-monetized 3B user base represents a core driver of future upside, with new ad formats and AI-powered business tools unlocking incremental revenue. Meta's operational strength—$36B in annual free cash flow and robust user growth—funds experimentation and attracts top AI talent, reinforcing its competitive advantage.
Meta has refused to sign the European Union's code of practice for its AI Act, weeks before the bloc's rules for providers of general-purpose AI models take effect.
Meta appointed Connor Hayes, Meta's VP of product for generative AI, to become the head of Threads, per Axios.
The case followed revelations that data from millions of Facebook users was accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political consulting firm that worked for Donald Trump's successful presidential campaign in 2016.
Mark Zuckerberg and other current and former Meta executives have settled a lawsuit filed by a group of shareholders. They were seeking $8 billion for the damage the executives caused the company by allowing repeated violations of Facebook users' privacy in relation to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
This is a developing story.
A lawyer for Meta Platforms shareholders who were suing Mark Zuckerberg and other company leaders told a Delaware judge on Thursday that the parties had reached a settlement agreement, ending a $8 billion trial over Facebook's user privacy violations.
So far this year, one of the better performers among Magnificent 7 has been Meta Platforms Inc.
Famed investor Marc Andreessen is scheduled to take the stand on Thursday to defend his role on the Facebook board of directors when it was hit with a $5 billion fine in 2019 for alleged violations of an agreement with a U.S. regulator to protect user privacy.