Meta grows with AI: billions in investments despite risks and uncertainties!

Meta grows with AI: billions in investments despite risks and uncertainties!

Meta Platforms is advancing its offensive in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and investing heavily in innovative projects. In the first quarter of 2025, the group recorded sales of $42.3 billion, while advertising revenue increased by 16 percent. This is significantly supported by AI-powered advertising algorithms, which contribute to the operating margin of 41 percent. Still, there are concerns about the high cost of reality labs and generative AI, which could potentially cost billions annually. Despite these challenges, Meta recorded a net profit of $16.64 billion during the same period, up 35 percent year-on-year.

Planned investments in 2025 are between $64 billion and $72 billion, with the aim of both improving user engagement and increasing advertising revenue. However, a delay in the introduction of a new AI model is causing nervousness among investors, resulting in a slight decline in the stock since the beginning of the year. The macroeconomic environment and political risks are also weighing on the entire tech sector, which means the market environment remains uncertain. Investors are weighing the opportunities of the AI ​​offensive against the high fixed costs and potential setbacks. Exchange Express reports that Meta's shares are currently trading slightly in the red.

Creativity and competitive advantage through Llama

As part of the transformation from a pure Facebook company to a tech giant, Meta also launched its first AI conference, LlamaCon. This signals Meta's serious commitment to the field of artificial intelligence. Analysts are impressed and see the company as a serious competitor to Google and Microsoft. In particular, the Llama language model, which has been downloaded over 1.2 billion times, is widely praised. It impresses with its high flexibility, wide applicability and cost advantages compared to other common models such as ChatGPT and Gemini.

A key aspect of Llama is that it is open source and customizable, which is extremely useful for developers and businesses. The introduction of the Llama API also enables Meta to expand monetization via its own infrastructures as a new revenue stream. Meta AI was also presented as a new AI application that is considered a challenger to ChatGPT. Morgan Stanley sees potential in this development, but also sees a need to catch up compared to its competitors. Financial trends highlights that Meta AI is able to access personal user data to provide tailored answers and thus create a personalized user experience.

Strategic expansion of the AI ​​ecosystem

An important strategic step for Meta is to build a comprehensive AI ecosystem that includes its own cloud platforms, software and infrastructure. Partnerships are also being established to expand the reach and efficiency of AI technology. Jefferies analysts see LlamaCon as a signal for the development of a new business model that positions Meta as a provider of AI infrastructure. Integrating AI technology into existing products such as Instagram and WhatsApp could help the company significantly increase its revenue, with Llama's potential alone estimated to be worth up to $80 billion based on current competitor valuations.

Overall, Meta is at an exciting turning point where artificial intelligence technologies bring both hope for change and challenges. The outcome of this AI offensive remains to be seen as the company tries to assert itself in an increasingly competitive market.