An activist who blocked the entrance to one of the world’s biggest AI companies is believed to have become the first person jailed for protesting against artificial intelligence as supporters dub her the “Rosa Parks of AI risk”.
Wynd Kaufman, 69, surrendered herself on Friday to authorities in San Francisco. She was found guilty by a jury for her role in an action last year that saw members of the group StopAI chain and lock the front doors of OpenAI’s headquarters in protest against the pursuit of artificial superintelligence.
The retired teacher from Berkeley, California, refused to move from a sit-in protest in February 2025 and pleaded not guilty to multiple misdemeanor charges. She was convicted in June of interfering with a business, trespassing with intent to interfere with a business, unlawful assembly and refusal to disburse a riot. On Friday, sheriff’s officers handcuffed her as fellow campaigners sang to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic (Glory, Glory Hallelujah): “Rise up, rise up and join us/Do not let the tech bros destroy us.”
“It’s absolutely frightening and appalling that these CEOs and AI experts know the dangers and they are pursuing it anyway,” Kaufmyn said before she was imprisoned. “That to me is unconscionable and reprehensible.”
She said she was willing to go to jail not because she was a martyr but because it was an “issue of sounding the alarm, challenging the system and hopefully trying to get the message out”.
Brooke Jenkins, the San Francisco district attorney, said the guilty verdict sent “a resounding message rejecting the notion that protesters can endanger public safety as a means to an end”.
A protest against AI outside OpenAI headquarters in San Francisco, California, on 11 July. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty ImagesAs Kaufmyn was led out from the court, her supporters called out: “Stop AI” and: “Free Wynd” as the sheriff’s officer yelled: “Clear the court” and the judge admonished the protesters.
Dwight Ost, 73, one of two dozen other StopAI activists at the courthouse, called Kaufmyn “a brave and courageous woman”.
“There’s an existential threat that I believe in,” he said. “They can’t control it, and even the so-called experts don’t know what it’s about.”
Kaufmyn had argued that the protest was a necessity and that she believed she was allowed to act to prevent a greater harm from happening. Since the lobby sit-in last year, some of the biggest AI labs, including OpenAI and Anthropic, have reported their models escaping the confinements of experiments.
This week, the US senator Bernie Sanders demanded tech leaders pause AI development, citing fears that, in the wrong hands, it might “lead to new bioweapons that result in the deaths of tens of millions of people”.
Meanwhile, more than a thousand researchers at frontier AI labs this summer signed a letter warning of “a real risk that capability development rapidly accelerates beyond our ability to understand or control the resulting systems”.
Frontier AI labs are locked in a race to create more capable AI models as the companies target IPOs that are forecast to reach valuations in the trillions of dollars. At the same time, Washington is competing with Beijing for supremacy in the fast-developing technology, creating a disincentive for tougher safety regulation.
“The jury rejected [Kayfmyn’s] necessity defence, but as the first person to go to jail over this, Wynd Kaufmyn could go down in history as the Rosa Parks of AI risk,” said David Kreuger, a University of Montreal AI safety expert who has warned AI “may literally lead to human extinction, in the same way that humans have caused many other species to go extinct”. Parks was a Black woman who refused to give up her bus seat for a white passenger in contravention of racist segregation laws in 1950s Alabama, a catalyzing incident for the US civil rights movement of the ensuing decade.
skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion
Kaufmyn spoke on the eve of her imprisonment from her shingled house in Berkeley, which is festooned with Mexican tiles and pro-Gaza signs. She played down the Parks parallel, pointing out her short sentence, but said the comparison had also crossed the campaign group’s mind, given that she is thought to be the first AI protester jailed.
Kaufmyn in front of her home in Berkeley, California. Photograph: Winni Wintermeyer/The GuardianShe said that when she was found guilty, she was “hit with a wave of grief” because she realised her peers “just didn’t get” the danger she believes is posed by the race to superintelligence. But she was beginning to feel “vindicated” as more prominent figures like Sanders were speaking out. She is now braced for the prison experience of an orange jump suit, “horrible food, dirt [and] you can’t sleep”. She has been previously jailed for short periods related to her decades of political activism over causes including Nicaragua, nuclear disarmament, western Sahara and Palestine.
Her message to the chief executives of OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta, which also reported a security incident with its model, was “regain your humanity”. Kaufman said her target audience was ordinary people “and the message being: stop the progress of this technology. Let’s get a global ban on the race to superintelligence.”
Professor Stuart Russell, a leading AI professor at the University of California at Berkeley and president of the International Association for Safe and Ethical AI, gave evidence in Kaufmyn’s defence. He claimed OpenAI’s activities “pose an unacceptable risk”, alleging it had deployed AI systems with inadequate safeguards. He said that further development of these systems “must be conditioned on rigorous guarantees of safety, which are currently unavailable”.
Russell said: “Wynd stood up for her beliefs and is being punished.” He said her beliefs seemed reasonable but “what is unreasonable is allowing a process to continue whereby private entities knowingly create a substantial extinction risk for private gain”.
StopAI has been roiled by its own controversies. Last November, its co-founder, Sam Kirchner, 27, went missing after an internal bust-up over whether or not to use violent tactics. He is said to have told colleagues the “non-violence ship has sailed”, raising concerns he might take violent action against OpenAI employees. StopAI aims to pursue non-violent direct action.
Social networking and AI company Meta Platforms Inc. (META, Financials) is using joint ventures to help fund some of its enormous data-center buildout, keeping
Meta released Glimmer this week, an open-weight AI model anyone can download and run on their own hardware — a contrast to Muse Spark, the company’s more powerful model that stays locked behind its own APIs. The release landed alongside a letter from Mark Zuckerberg arguing AI should be “for everyone” rather than controlled by a handful of labs, but as Equity’s hosts point out, the vision comes with some asterisks.
On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Bellan take a look at Glimmer, Zuckerberg’s 6,500-word manifesto, and more of the week’s headlines, from the true cost of the AI industry’s energy needs to a $250M acquisition gone very wrong.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about:
Who’s on the market for a $300 cocktail robot? Why Anthropic is adding watermarks to its generated text, and users are not happy. The potential cost Amazon’s planned data center in Texas and the startups racing to fix the grid, including Form Energy’s $750M raise for 100-hour batteries, Reservoir’s $8M bet on smarter water heaters, and Discovered Materials’ hunt for cooler chips. Why Joby Aviation’s $500M acquisition of a defense contractor reminds Kirsten of its Blade deal last year — and what the 2028 LA Olympics have to do with it. How a $250M deal between video-clipping startup VideoVerse and sports publisher Minute Media collapsed amidst allegedly forged documents, multiple lawsuits, and a CEO nobody can reach. Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
Theresa Loconsolo is an audio producer at TechCrunch focusing on Equity, the network’s flagship podcast. Before joining TechCrunch in 2022, she was one of 2 producers at a four-station conglomerate where she wrote, recorded, voiced and edited content, and engineered live performances and interviews from guests like lovelytheband. Theresa is based in New Jersey and holds a bachelors degree in Communication from Monmouth University.
You can contact or verify outreach from Theresa by emailing [email protected].
Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.
You can contact or verify outreach from Kirsten by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at kkorosec.07 on Signal.
Anthony Ha is TechCrunch’s weekend editor. Previously, he worked as a tech reporter at Adweek, a senior editor at VentureBeat, a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, and vice president of content at a VC firm. He lives in New York City.
You can contact or verify outreach from Anthony by emailing [email protected].
Rebecca Bellan is a senior reporter at TechCrunch where she covers the business, policy, and emerging trends shaping artificial intelligence. Her work has also appeared in Forbes, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and other publications.
You can contact or verify outreach from Rebecca by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at rebeccabellan.491 on Signal.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial short position in the shares of QQQM either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) has made its Hyperion campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana, the emblem of the AI infrastructure boom, and the arithmetic tells you why. The project’s total price tag could exceed $250 billion, according to Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the financing, while Meta has publicly confirmed only more than $50 billion of that spending. When fully built out, the site will support 1,000 permanent, on-site operational jobs. On the Bloomberg-sourced number, that works out to approximately $250 million per permanent job.
Confirmed Versus Estimated The distinction matters. Meta has officially committed more than $50 billion to the Richland Parish site, a fivefold jump from its original 2024 commitment of $10 billion. The additional roughly $200 billion in the Bloomberg estimate reflects the AI computing chips expected to run inside the facility over its lifetime, not a Meta disclosure. On the confirmed figure alone, the ratio is approximately $50 million per permanent job. Neither figure accounts for temporary construction labor or indirect employment, both of which would substantially lower a broader cost-per-job-supported calculation.
The Jobs Picture in Full Louisiana Economic Development’s July 2026 announcement laid out the labor math clearly. Alongside the 1,000 permanent operational roles (double Meta’s original commitment of 500), the project is expected to generate 7,500 temporary construction jobs at peak and an estimated 1,900 additional indirect jobs in the surrounding regional economy, or over 2,900 new job opportunities beyond the direct operational roles. Full buildout of both phases is not expected until around 2036. The permanent headcount arrives after a decade of steel, concrete, and switchgear. Hyperion itself will span nearly 10 million square feet across roughly 4,000 acres, with at least 5 gigawatts of IT capacity.
A Sector-Wide Pattern The capital-heavy, labor-light shape of this deal is characteristic of hyperscale data centers as a category. Dollars flow to GPUs, transformers, cooling, and land rather than to payroll. Semiconductor fabs across the current AI buildout show a similar profile. Meta guided full-year 2026 capital expenditures of $130 to $145 billion, and Zuckerberg has framed the pace as necessary because “overall industry capacity is going to remain tight for the foreseeable future.” This is corporate capital expenditure funded by the company.
The Community and Ratepayer Side The local ledger includes meaningful community offsets. Meta is contributing $215 million to Entergy Louisiana’s Power to Care bill-assistance and residential energy-efficiency programs, and has committed to fund up to 2.5 gigawatts of clean and renewable energy. Entergy Louisiana President and CEO Phillip May said, “Because Meta is paying the full cost of the infrastructure needed to support its data center, other customers will be protected from rate increases due to Meta’s power needs,” with a projected $2 billion or more in customer savings. Since construction began in December 2024, Meta has contracted more than $1.6 billion with Louisiana businesses.
What to Watch Both the investment and the payoff play out over more than a decade. The signals to watch are the operational milestones: how quickly Entergy’s seven new gas-fired power plants come online, whether Meta’s free cash flow (just $784 million in Q2 2026) recovers as revenue scales, and whether the 1,000 permanent jobs materialize on schedule around 2036. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called the deal one that “puts Louisiana at the center of America’s future in artificial intelligence.” The bill for that seat comes due in gigawatts.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Meta Platforms, Inc. maintains a Strong Buy rating, trading 25% below its 52-week high despite 28% revenue growth and new monetization levers. META's heavy capex and expense guidance are compressing margins and free cash flow, yet the market assigns zero value to future growth engines. WhatsApp's $1B+ quarter and a shift toward pay-for-performance monetization signal a higher revenue ceiling for META's Family of Apps.
Meta Platforms (META +0.93%) has had a challenging past 12 months. The company is dealing with legal and regulatory issues, and its financial results have been mixed, with significant artificial intelligence (AI)-related spending harming margins, profits, and free cash flow. The tech leader is down about 27% from its most recent high. Will Meta Platforms continue sinking, or has the company bottomed out and is gearing up for a rebound? Perhaps looking at past significant stock market declines can give us a clue.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Looking at Meta's past sell-offs Let's start with last year. Between mid-February and early April of 2025, Meta's stock declined by about 31%, partly due to macroeconomic concerns. It did not take the stock too long to recover. Meta had climbed back to brand-new highs by August 2025. So, buying the stock after it had lost significant value would have been a great idea.
META data by YCharts
We can also look at a sustained sell-off from late 2021 to late 2022, during which Meta Platforms' shares declined by about 75%. At the time, Meta was facing multiple headwinds, including declining users and massive spending on its metaverse ambitions. However, this time too, Meta Platforms eventually recovered, although it took some time.
META data by YCharts
Lastly, we can point to the company dropping alongside the rest of the market during the COVID-19 market crash in early 2020. Meta didn't stay down for too long, though.
META data by YCharts
What do these episodes tell us? In every case, Meta's shares dropped more than 27%. And in every case, they eventually bounced back and performed well thereafter.
Can we trust these precedents? Naturally, we can't just rely on the past to predict how the stock may move next. Let's consider arguments from both sides. The bears will point out that Meta Platforms' earnings and free cash flow declined in the second quarter due to large AI investments that aren't yet paying off as much as hoped. Further, Meta Platforms just faced another legal setback, with a judge ruling that thousands of lawsuits the company faces over its alleged addictive social media design, and the impact that it has had on children, can move forward.
This could be a significant long-term risk for the company. And it could put downward pressure on the stock. However, the bulls will point out that Meta's AI efforts have already had a positive impact on the business. They have improved engagement on the platform while also streamlining the ad launch process for companies. And this could only be the beginning. Meta Platforms is reportedly considering launching a cloud computing business where it will rent out excess AI computing capacity to other corporations.
Today's Change
(
0.93
%) $
5.55
Current Price
$
600.52
Meanwhile, the stock appears reasonably valued. Meta Platforms is trading at about 19.9x forward earnings, versus the average of 21.4x for information technology stocks. At current levels, the stock may deliver strong returns once (if) AI spending pays off and boosts revenue and earnings growth. Which side is right? I lean toward the bull side.
Meta's legal troubles are unquestionably a significant risk, but similar issues have had very limited impact on other tech giants' businesses in recent years. And for that matter, it's not Meta's first run-in with the authorities, and previous ones haven't left the business in shambles, or anything close to that. Of course, that's no guarantee that the same thing will happen this time, but these precedents still matter.
I also think Meta Platforms' financial results will improve substantially as AI continues to impact the business. If the company decides to rent out excess computing capacity, that could be a game changer as AI infrastructure spending continues to grow at a good clip. And even if it doesn't, Meta Platforms' step back from aggressive metaverse spending has shown how quickly the company can pivot its strategy, cut costs, and find other lucrative opportunities by further monetizing its large user base.
For all these reasons, Meta Platforms may eventually bounce back and deliver excellent returns, just as it has in the past. Buying the stock on the dip looks like a great idea.
Meta Platforms Inc. (META, Financials), the parent of Facebook and Instagram, said it has erased approximately 756,000 accounts believed to belong to Australian
Meta Platforms (META), the social-media powerhouse behind Facebook and Instagram, rose roughly 1.3% Thursday morning as Australia's under-16 social-media crackd
Roger McNamee, Elevation Partners co-founder, joins 'The Exchange' to discuss Mark Zuckerberg's latest AI essay, the problem with the essay and much more.
Fox News legal editor Kerri Urbahn breaks down the Meta trial as it gets sued for 'addictive' affects. Urbahn talks the NYC pied-à-terre tax and weighs in on the Flock Safety backlash.
Meta is partnering with North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) to expand the pipeline of skilled workers needed to build and maintain America’s rapidly growing AI infrastructure.
The partnership, announced Wednesday, will give Meta access to NABTU’s network of apprenticeship and training programs while helping connect skilled trades workers with Meta projects across the U.S.
"The Meta partnership with North America’s Building Trades Unions means avenues of communication are open, access to our recruitment and training pipeline of skilled craft will become available and we'll be able to deploy craft on an as-needed basis to Meta projects anywhere across America," Sean McGarvey, president of NABTU, told FOX Business.
NEW MEXICO COURT ORDERS META TO PAY $567M, OVERHAUL TEEN PROTECTIONS ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM
The partnership will give Meta access to NABTU’s network of apprenticeship and training programs. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Demand for skilled trades workers has grown rapidly as tech companies invest in data centers and other infrastructure needed to power AI.
McGarvey said the demand is being felt across a range of trades, including HVAC technicians, laborers, operating engineers and others.
NABTU represents more than 3.2 million skilled craft professionals in the U.S. and Canada through an alliance of 14 national and international unions.
Its unions and contractor partners operate more than 1,900 apprenticeship and training facilities across North America and invest more than $3 billion annually in training and education, according to the announcement from Meta.
ZUCKERBERG LAYS OUT VISION TO PUT SUPERINTELLIGENT AI IN EVERYONE'S HANDS
McGarvey said the demand for skilled trades workers is being felt across a range of trades. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
NABTU has roughly 300,000 people enrolled in its registered apprenticeship system, according to McGarvey, who added that number could grow significantly.
"We currently have that 300,000, and we can ramp that up to a million, based on demand," he said.
Meta President Dina Powell McCormick said skilled trades workers will be critical to building the infrastructure needed for the U.S. to compete in AI.
"We are so proud to work with NABTU on this partnership," Powell McCormick said in a statement. "I have had the privilege of working with President McGarvey since I took on this new role, and we are excited to work together on skilled trades.
"This is an important moment, and these men and women of the skilled trades are building the American infrastructure needed to ensure America’s values lead the AI race globally."
META, OTHER COMPANIES MUST FACE THOUSANDS OF LAWSUITS OVER CHILD SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION, APPEALS COURT RULES
A high-tech data center is pictured here. Demand for skilled trades workers is growing as the country’s AI infrastructure buildout expands. (iStock)
The agreement comes as Meta expands its investment in U.S. infrastructure and workforce development.
The tech company said the partnership builds on its Future Is For Everyone Fund, which is aimed at investing in communities, including teachers, first responders and energy and water infrastructure.
McGarvey said the jobs created by the AI boom could last well beyond the initial construction of data centers because the facilities will need regular upgrades.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
"The need for skilled craft on a constant basis in these digital facilities is ongoing long after initial construction is complete," he said.
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) trades at $578.85, well below Wall Street’s average analyst price target of $754.14, leaving an implied gap of roughly 25.8% between current price and Street consensus.
Meta runs Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads, and Reality Labs, and is one of the most aggressive spenders in AI infrastructure. The company is converting an ad-driven business into a full-stack AI platform with custom silicon, gigawatt data centers, and enterprise agents. Rosenblatt Securities carries a Street-high $1,117 target, implying substantial upside from current levels.
A $31 Billion Quarterly Capex Bill Broke the Setup Q2 2026 earnings triggered the selloff. Meta posted diluted EPS of $6.18 against a $7.2173 consensus, a 14.42% miss that snapped a six-quarter beat streak. Revenue beat at $60.8 billion, up 27.96% year over year.
Operating margin compressed to 31% from 43% a year earlier, hit by $2.4 billion in legal charges and $1.2 billion in severance. Capex ran $31.1 billion in the quarter alone, and free cash flow collapsed to $784 million, down 91.31%. Management raised 2026 expense guidance to $165 to $169 billion and narrowed capex higher to $130 to $145 billion. The stock fell 7.95% on the day.
Why 55 of 62 Analysts Are Sticking With the Story Analysts frame capex as strategic offense. Rosenblatt’s Barton Crockett describes Meta’s agentic AI push for small and medium businesses (anchored by the Manus acquisition and WhatsApp distribution) as potentially comparable to the Instagram and WhatsApp deals in long-term value. He highlights 7.7 gigawatts of nuclear power purchase agreements with TerraPower, Oklo, Vistra, and Constellation Energy, which secure clean energy for the Meta Compute buildout.
Zuckerberg cited a 60% jump in daily Meta AI interactions since integrating Muse Spark, an Advantage+ annual run rate above $75 billion, and more than one million businesses already using Meta business agents on WhatsApp and Messenger. The consensus reflects that conviction: 55 Buys, 7 Holds, and no Sells, with recent updates leaning toward reiterations. No analyst has flipped bearish after this quarter.
How META Stacks Up Against Alphabet, Reddit, and Pinterest Meta stands alone as the outlier within the digital ad peer group.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) trades at $343.54, up 9.9% year to date and 69.4% over a year. The $428.04 target implies meaningful upside, backed by 58 Buys, 6 Holds, and no Sells.
Reddit (NYSE:RDDT) sits at $153.45, down 33.2% year to date. The $215.62 target points to meaningful upside, with 23 Buys, 10 Holds, and 1 Sell.
Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) trades near $22.90, down 11.6% year to date. The $28.97 target implies modest upside, and the 19 Buy versus 20 Hold split shows Wall Street is divided.
The largest implied upside sits with Reddit, but Meta stands out on conviction: a near-unanimous Buy tilt on a $1.28 trillion business still growing 28%.
What the Numbers Actually Say Meta is down 12.16% year to date and 26.49% over the past twelve months, while the S&P 500 is up 13.28% year to date. That is meaningful underperformance for a company earning a 30% net margin.
Valuation looks reasonable for the growth: trailing P/E of 22, forward P/E of 20, and revenue expanding 28% year over year. With 55 Buys, 7 Holds, and no Sells, coverage is deep and one-directional.
My Take: A Real Discount With a Real Bill Attached The bull case holds if the AI capex converts to durable, high-margin revenue within two to three years. The path back to $754 runs through margins stabilizing near 31%, Advantage+ scaling beyond the $75 billion run rate, business agents monetizing across WhatsApp, and free cash flow recovering after the initial buildout. If Rosenblatt is right about SMB agentic AI, $1,117 could prove conservative.
The bear case strengthens if capex keeps expanding without matching returns. Spending guidance keeps drifting higher, youth-related legal trials in 2026 could add charges, and compressed free cash flow into 2027 leaves room for multiple compression. I lean cautiously bullish. The consensus gap plus near-unanimous Buy tilt on a business compounding at 28% is hard to ignore, though the next quarters likely look worse before they look better.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
The hyperscalers are spending an immense sum on the AI data center buildout. And it looks like the path of least resistance is higher when it comes to CapEx. Indeed, we’ve heard so much about the AI infrastructure boom, but it’s still in its early days.
It’s more of a multi-year effort, and while CapEx won’t just keep moving higher forever, I do think that investors have plenty of reason to shed their fear of high, rising CapEx when it comes to the cash-rich hyperscalers. It’s not like a company like Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) doesn’t have more than enough to splurge with as they look to capture a big slice of the next big growth market.
With a hefty $145 billion high watermark for CapEx that has some investors on pause, especially after a quarter that didn’t seem to have much in the way of ROI compared to rival hyperscalers, Mark Zuckerberg and company now have a lot to prove as the newest hyperscaler looks to show that it can not only keep up in AI, but move to the very front of the pack.
If there’s a tech visionary who can put up a fight, it’s quite literally Mark Zuckerberg, who was recently seen sparring with a UFC fighter, Merab Dvalishvili, on a barge in the middle of a lake. Meta Platforms might not be the hyperscaler that’s furthest along on the AI monetization curve. But then again, it only announced its intent to sell AI compute via Meta Compute just a few months ago. And its red-hot model, Muse Spark, is also a newcomer to the AI leaderboards.
Don’t sleep on Meta’s Muse
What’s most remarkable, at least in my opinion, is how quickly Muse Spark jumped in the benchmarks. Meta’s Superintelligence team still has plenty of work to do, however, to catch up with the likes of Anthropic or OpenAI. But at the end of the day, the company has now become a credible challenger at the frontier.
Some may think that frontier labs are just spending a fortune to build a marginally better commodity. Of course, there’s a ton of AI competition these days, but the battle at the frontier, I think, is more than just about rapid commoditization.
Arguably, the firm at the front, with the best model, could enjoy much of the spoils. And while the lead is sure to evaporate at the drop of a hat, the big question is whether the leader can continue to raise the bar, staying ahead of rivals that aren’t all too far off in that second spot.
Surprises await at the frontier of AI
When you consider the disruption that can happen at the frontier (think about what would have happened if a Chinese AI company was the first to get to a Claude Mythos-level model), it’s clear that AI labs not only have an important job on their hands, but they might stand to be winners in a winner-takes-most kind of market climate.
Even if that lead only lasts for a few months, the potential spoils for time at the front of the pack could have the potential to lead to massive ROIs that have other frontier labs drooling and spending even more money to achieve.
Of course, it takes more than just sheer CapEx to win the AI race. Talent, strategy, and vision are all key to staying on that fast lane en route to artificial general intelligence and, ultimately, superintelligence.
Meta might seem a bit late to the AI party, but I’d argue it’s already made up so much ground. And with a clean slate and a neocloud-like hyperscaler trajectory, Meta might be the firm to beat as the next wave of AI monetization hits.
The bottom line
For a stock that’s already so cheap, now going for 19.8 times forward price-to-earnings (P/E), weighed down by a relatively tough quarter and recent noise surrounding fines, I think the price of admission is fantastic for bargain hunters.
With such a low bar, it might not take much to fuel a melt-up. Whether that’s cuts to Reality Labs, accelerating AI ads numbers, advancements in its Muse models, or breakthroughs elsewhere in the AI stack, Meta has so many drivers that I think investors are completely ignoring right now amid the latest wave of negative headlines.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Baskin Financial Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 34.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 53,073 shares of the social networking company’s stock after buying an additional 13,587 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises 2.4% of Baskin Financial Services Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Baskin Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $29,895,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in META. RHL Group LLC purchased a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Axiom Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Bayban boosted its position in shares of Meta Platforms by 100.0% in the first quarter. Bayban now owns 70 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.91% of the company’s stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth Several brokerages recently commented on META. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Meta Platforms in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $725.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $770.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $830.00 to $750.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $890.00 to $730.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meta Platforms presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $785.32.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Meta Platforms
Insider Activity at Meta Platforms In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total value of $5,589,088.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 13,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,014,978.24. The trade was a 41.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total value of $1,268,023.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $681,890.56. This represents a 65.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 38,407 shares of company stock valued at $23,391,097. 13.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Key Meta Platforms News Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
Positive Sentiment: Meta officially launched its standalone Facebook Creator Studio app for iOS, offering creators AI-generated growth advice and community-management tools. The rollout could support engagement, creator retention and future monetization. Facebook officially rolls out its standalone Creator Studio app with AI tools for creators Positive Sentiment: Meta and Nvidia released open-weight AI models as U.S. technology companies seek to compete with Chinese labs. Meta’s open-source strategy may accelerate adoption, improve its advertising products and challenge higher-cost AI rivals. Meta and Nvidia plant very firm flag in open-weight AI race Positive Sentiment: Several analysts continue to cite Meta’s strong advertising business, AI-driven improvements in ad conversions and long-term AI optionality. The consensus price target remains substantially above the recent trading level, providing a potential valuation support. The Market Shaved 10% Off Meta Over a Month Neutral Sentiment: Meta’s planned acquisition of Chinese AI startup Manus is being unwound after regulatory pressure, with Manus returning to independent operations. The development limits Meta’s acquisition strategy but removes uncertainty surrounding the transaction. AI startup Manus to resume independent operations as deal with Meta unwinds Negative Sentiment: A German advocacy group filed a criminal complaint alleging that Meta’s AI smart glasses violate privacy laws. The complaint adds regulatory risk to Meta’s growing hardware and wearable-AI strategy. German advocacy group lodges criminal complaint over Meta AI glasses Negative Sentiment: Meta began trial proceedings against claims from 29 U.S. states that Facebook and Instagram were designed to be addictive to children. A loss could result in significant damages, platform changes and thousands of additional lawsuits. Meta, 29 states head to court in youth social media litigation Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that AI infrastructure spending of up to $145 billion in 2026 is compressing margins and free cash flow. Recent commentary also highlighted weaker technical momentum, leaving META more vulnerable to selling pressure. Meta Q2: Strong Growth, But The AI Bill Is Becoming Hard To Ignore Meta Platforms Price Performance Shares of NASDAQ META opened at $578.85 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $520.26 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $596.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $621.07. The firm has a market cap of $1.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.25.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. The business had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $7.14 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.91%.
About Meta Platforms (Free Report)
Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.
Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.
Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms GE Vernova’s AI Power Boom Faces a Profit Test Cardinal Health Earnings: Can Perfection Get Priced In Twice? Nebius’ Q2 Beat Shows the AI Bottleneck Is Capacity, Not Demand Legacy Jet Builders Stall While Embraer Accelerates to New Highs
Receive News & Ratings for Meta Platforms Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Meta Platforms and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
« PREVIOUS HEADLINETaskUs, Inc. $TASK Shares Acquired by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP
NEXT HEADLINE »Best Virtual Reality Stocks To Follow Now – August 11th
Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 5.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 22,398 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 1,249 shares during the quarter. Meta Platforms makes up approximately 1.9% of Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $12,617,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of META. RHL Group LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Axiom Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the first quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Bayban increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 100.0% during the first quarter. Bayban now owns 70 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Insiders Place Their Bets In other news, insider Curtis J. Mahoney sold 2,079 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $609.92, for a total transaction of $1,268,023.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 1,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $681,890.56. This represents a 65.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Javier Olivan sold 3,348 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.97, for a total value of $2,012,047.56. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 9,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,708,013.06. This represents a 26.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 38,407 shares of company stock valued at $23,391,097. Company insiders own 13.53% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James Financial upped their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $815.00 to $725.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Meta Platforms to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $785.00 price target (down from $800.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $700.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-five have given a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $785.32.
Read Our Latest Stock Report on META
Meta Platforms Stock Down 3.4% NASDAQ:META opened at $578.85 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $596.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $621.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a current ratio of 2.23. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $520.26 and a fifty-two week high of $796.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.25.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $7.19 by ($1.01). Meta Platforms had a return on equity of 33.18% and a net margin of 29.83%.The firm had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $60.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $7.14 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meta Platforms Announces Dividend The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.525 dividend. This represents a $2.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s payout ratio is currently 7.91%.
Meta Platforms News Summary Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:
Positive Sentiment: Meta officially launched its standalone Facebook Creator Studio app for iOS, offering creators AI-generated growth advice and community-management tools. The rollout could support engagement, creator retention and future monetization. Facebook officially rolls out its standalone Creator Studio app with AI tools for creators Positive Sentiment: Meta and Nvidia released open-weight AI models as U.S. technology companies seek to compete with Chinese labs. Meta’s open-source strategy may accelerate adoption, improve its advertising products and challenge higher-cost AI rivals. Meta and Nvidia plant very firm flag in open-weight AI race Positive Sentiment: Several analysts continue to cite Meta’s strong advertising business, AI-driven improvements in ad conversions and long-term AI optionality. The consensus price target remains substantially above the recent trading level, providing a potential valuation support. The Market Shaved 10% Off Meta Over a Month Neutral Sentiment: Meta’s planned acquisition of Chinese AI startup Manus is being unwound after regulatory pressure, with Manus returning to independent operations. The development limits Meta’s acquisition strategy but removes uncertainty surrounding the transaction. AI startup Manus to resume independent operations as deal with Meta unwinds Negative Sentiment: A German advocacy group filed a criminal complaint alleging that Meta’s AI smart glasses violate privacy laws. The complaint adds regulatory risk to Meta’s growing hardware and wearable-AI strategy. German advocacy group lodges criminal complaint over Meta AI glasses Negative Sentiment: Meta began trial proceedings against claims from 29 U.S. states that Facebook and Instagram were designed to be addictive to children. A loss could result in significant damages, platform changes and thousands of additional lawsuits. Meta, 29 states head to court in youth social media litigation Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that AI infrastructure spending of up to $145 billion in 2026 is compressing margins and free cash flow. Recent commentary also highlighted weaker technical momentum, leaving META more vulnerable to selling pressure. Meta Q2: Strong Growth, But The AI Bill Is Becoming Hard To Ignore Meta Platforms Profile (Free Report)
Meta Platforms, Inc (NASDAQ: META), formerly Facebook, Inc, is a global technology company best known for building social networking services and immersive computing platforms. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company operates a family of consumer-facing products and services that connect users, creators and businesses. In October 2021 the company rebranded as Meta to reflect an expanded strategic focus on augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside its social media businesses.
Meta’s core consumer products include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which enable social networking, messaging, content sharing and community building across mobile and desktop devices.
See Also Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms GE Vernova’s AI Power Boom Faces a Profit Test Cardinal Health Earnings: Can Perfection Get Priced In Twice? Nebius’ Q2 Beat Shows the AI Bottleneck Is Capacity, Not Demand Legacy Jet Builders Stall While Embraer Accelerates to New Highs
Receive News & Ratings for Meta Platforms Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Meta Platforms and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
Meta's Family of Apps represents the best advertising business in the world, which is growing more than twice as fast as Google. The company's current low valuation is due to uncertainties regarding its huge AI CAPEX, which can be optimized at any time. In Q2, Family of Apps grew 27.5% YoY with a 46.9% LTM EBIT margin. Assuming other segments are worthless, it is valued at just 14.5x EV/EBIT.
Item 1 of 2 A Facebook message is displayed on a mobile phone, as Meta begins blocking new sign-ups for anyone under 16 in Australia, in this picture illustration taken December 3, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams/Illustration/File Photo
[1/2]A Facebook message is displayed on a mobile phone, as Meta begins blocking new sign-ups for anyone under 16 in Australia, in this picture illustration taken December 3, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie... Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Read more
SummaryCompaniesMeta releases account deletion data for period from December to JuneLaw banning social media for under-16s went live on December 10Regulator says platforms face tougher action over complianceParliamentary inquiry to hear evidence about ban on FridaySYDNEY, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Facebook and Instagram owner Meta (META.O), opens new tab said on Thursday it had taken down more than 750,000 accounts it suspected were held by Australians aged under 16 since a world-first ban on teen accounts, and promised more action in the face of possible regulatory intervention.
The company said it had deactivated 462,000 suspect Instagram accounts and 294,000 suspect Facebook accounts from just before the Australian social media ban went live in December to June, up from 331,000 Instagram accounts and 173,000 Facebook accounts it said it had removed by January.
Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here.
The world's largest social media company has said it wants to comply with a law it and other platforms have vocally opposed, just as Australia's internet regulator considers an enforcement lawsuit against platforms, including some that Meta owns, that it says have failed to take sufficient steps to comply with the law.
No other platforms have released compliance data that matches the date range given by Meta, but Australian government figures and multiple independent studies have shown more than eight in 10 under-16s were still on social media in the ban's first three months.
The Australian government proposed the landmark law, which came into force on December 10, on concerns about social media's impact on the physical and mental health of children and young teens.
With other countries around the world considering similar age-restrictions, Australia has accused the platforms of intentionally setting the ban up to fail, and has introduced a law to double the maximum penalty for non-compliance to A$99 million ($69.75 million) and give the regulator greater document discovery powers.
PARLIAMENTARY HEARING ON FRIDAYRepresentatives of Meta, TikTok, YouTube owner Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab and Snap's Snapchat (SNAP.N), opens new tab are scheduled to give evidence in a parliamentary inquiry about the changes on Friday, as are regulatory and government officials.
"Enforcement is ongoing, and these numbers will continue to grow," Meta said in a statement.
"We share the Australian Government's goal of ensuring young people have safe, age-appropriate experiences online, and we are meeting our obligations under the law," the company added.
A 2025 Australian trial of age assurance technology found products on the market could effectively support a ban. Most large platforms, including Meta's, rolled out photo-based age estimation software, although they say they typically first subject users to age inference, or assuming a person's age based on their online activity.
Meta said it was using AI to analyse user profiles for "contextual clues that an account may belong to someone under 16, such as birthday celebrations or mentions of school grades" and to analyse reports about suspected underage accounts. The company added that it had removed the option for a person to make more attempts to set up an account if their previous account was deleted.
($1 = 1.4194 Australian dollars)
Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Kate Mayberry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) shares are falling on Wednesday, well behind the Communication Services sector’s 0.8% decline, as the stock’s weak technical setup left it exposed to selling pressure.
Meta Platforms stock is among today’s weakest performers. What’s weighing on META shares? Why META Stock Is Underperforming Its SectorMeta’s decline outpaced its own sector by roughly 2.23 percentage points, leaving Communication Services ranked ninth out of 11 sectors on the day. That weakness fits a longer pattern: the sector has fallen 1.08% over the past 30 days and 5.74% over the past 90 days, a stretch that has made individual stocks within it more vulnerable when momentum-driven traders pull back exposure.
With the group already out of favor, dip buyers tend to show less conviction and sellers face less resistance when a laggard like Meta comes under pressure.
META’s Chart Still Points to a Stock in RepairMeta entered the session trading below its 20-day, 50-day, 100-day and 200-day simple moving averages, at $601.14, $597.92, $608.17 and $629.17, respectively. That alignment keeps the stock’s intermediate trend tilted lower, even though the 20-day average holding above the 50-day offers a small near-term positive. The bigger technical backdrop still centers on a death cross from December 2025, when the 50-day average dropped below the 200-day.
Momentum readings aren’t helping the case for a rebound. The MACD indicator sits below its signal line with a negative histogram, pointing to fading upward momentum unless buyers step back in. Traders are watching $606 as key resistance, a level near the 100-day average where past rallies have stalled, and $577 as key support, a level where dip buyers have shown up recently.
The stock remains well below its 52-week high of $796.25 and sits in the lower half of its 52-week range of $520.26 to $796.25. Shares are down 26.26% over the past 12 months, a stretch that keeps Meta in recovery mode until it can reclaim ground around its 200-day average.
Benzinga Edge Scorecard Shows Growth Strength, Momentum WeaknessMeta’s Benzinga Edge scorecard reflects the same split. Momentum scores weak at 12 out of 100, consistent with the stock trading below its key moving averages.
Quality sits at a neutral 66.95, suggesting the current pressure stems more from trend and positioning than from balance sheet concerns. Value scores a neutral 54.02, indicating shares may need clearer growth reacceleration to justify a higher valuation. Growth scores strong at 74.93, showing the underlying business remains viewed as solid even as the market waits for stronger confirmation.
German Privacy Complaint Adds to Meta’s HeadlinesMeta also drew attention Wednesday after a German digital rights group, HateAid, filed a criminal complaint against the company and other retailers over privacy concerns tied to its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, according to Reuters.
META Shares Are DroppingMETA Price Action: Meta shares were down 3.23% at $579.77 at the time of publication on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro.
Read Next
Image: Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Meta Platforms META shares fell about 3.4% to $578 on Wednesday as investors weighed fresh privacy concerns in Europe alongside mounting legal challenges in the US, even as some analysts argued the company's artificial intelligence investments continue to strengthen its core advertising business.
The decline comes after Meta's recent recovery above $600 lost momentum.
The stock had previously fallen following its second-quarter earnings report as investors questioned the company's heavy infrastructure spending and the timeline for monetizing its AI investments.
Meta faces renewed regulatory scrutiny after German digital rights organization HateAid filed a criminal complaint against the company over its Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer smart glasses.
The complaint also names units of eyewear maker EssilorLuxottica and several German retailers selling the devices.
HateAid argues the smart glasses could violate German privacy laws governing communication devices capable of recording individuals without their knowledge.
Germany's Federal Network Agency has previously warned that connected devices capable of covert audio or video recording could be prohibited.
While the regulator said it is monitoring the smart-glasses market, it added that it is not currently conducting a formal investigation.
The complaint represents another potential hurdle for Meta as it seeks to expand its smart glasses business, which the company views as a potential long-term growth opportunity.
Meta is also facing legal challenges in the United States after a federal appeals court allowed thousands of lawsuits against Meta, Alphabet's Google, ByteDance's TikTok and Snap to continue.
The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected attempts by Meta and TikTok to overturn a lower court ruling requiring the companies to face more than 3,000 lawsuits alleging their social media platforms were intentionally designed to keep young users engaged and addicted.
The companies had argued that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protected them from liability.
However, the appeals court ruled that the challenge had been brought too early, allowing the broader litigation to move forward.
The court also rejected Meta's request to delay a trial brought by 29 state attorneys general.
The states allege Meta collected and used children's data unlawfully, designed its platforms to encourage prolonged use among young users and misled consumers about platform safety.
The latest ruling follows a separate decision by a New Mexico judge ordering Meta to pay $567 million into a teen mental health fund and adopt additional youth safety measures.
Despite the legal and regulatory headwinds, some analysts remain optimistic about Meta's long-term outlook.
A TipRanks report argued that Meta stock appears undervalued despite investor concerns over the company's projected $130 billion-$145 billion capital expenditure plans.
The report said "AI is already powering Meta's growth," pointing to second-quarter revenue of $60.8 billion, up 28% year over year, while advertising revenue increased 27% to $59.4 billion.
TipRanks also highlighted improving monetization across Meta's platforms, noting that AI-driven recommendations have increased user engagement and advertising efficiency.
The report cited stronger ad impressions, higher pricing and rapid adoption of AI-powered advertising tools among businesses.
It also pointed to WhatsApp's paid messaging and subscription services, as well as continued improvements across Facebook and Instagram, arguing that AI investments are beginning to generate measurable business benefits.
While regulatory scrutiny and legal challenges continue to weigh on investor sentiment, the debate surrounding Meta increasingly centers on whether its significant AI spending will produce sufficient long-term returns to justify its elevated capital investment.
Facebook announced on Wednesday that it’s rolling out a standalone Creator Studio app, an AI-powered app that gives creators personalized tips to grow their audiences and new tools to engage with their communities. The official iOS rollout comes a few weeks after Facebook began testing the app with select creators.
Facebook’s AI creator assistant is built into the new app to provide creators with personalized recommendations based on their content style, performance, audience engagement, and goals.
Creators often have to sift through charts and dashboards to understand their performance, but with the AI assistant, they can get quick answers to questions like “When should I post?” and “What are people saying in my comments?” Creators can also ask follow-up questions.
By giving creators access to the new Creator Studio app, Meta is looking to keep creators active on Facebook as it competes for their attention against rivals like TikTok and YouTube. The company may also be trying to reduce its reliance on third-party tools like ChatGPT when it comes to content ideas and analyzing performance.
Image Credits:Facebook / The Creator Studio app includes several new features, including an AI-powered comment tool that surfaces the most important comments and drafts replies in the creator’s own tone. Creators can edit and approve the suggested replies before posting them, according to Facebook.
Additionally, when creators open up the app each day, they’ll see a feed of daily priorities, including reviewing their latest post’s performance, tracking progress toward their goals, and flagging comments that need a reply.
Creator Studio is available for all creators on iOS in the United States and Canada.
The new app isn’t Meta’s only recent launch; the company has been on something of a product spree in recent months. The tech giant recently released a standalone app for Facebook Groups called Forum that functions similarly to Reddit, an app called Instants that lets users share disappearing photos with Instagram friends, a vibe-coded gaming app called Pocket, and an AI storytelling app called StoryKit that creates AI-generated children’s stories.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
Aisha is a consumer news reporter at TechCrunch. Prior to joining the publication in 2021, she was a telecom reporter at MobileSyrup. Aisha holds an honours bachelor’s degree from University of Toronto and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University.
You can contact or verify outreach from Aisha by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at aisha_malik.01 on Signal.
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Meta Platforms currently trades at $599.12, while Wall Street’s consensus price target sits at $756.95, implying roughly 26.3% upside.
The company behind Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads spent much of the past year as one of the Magnificent Seven‘s steadier performers. A bruising Q2 report and rising anxiety over AI capex have sliced Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) into the lower end of its 12-month range. The gap between price and consensus deserves unpacking, because the Street’s highest analyst thinks it should be far wider.
The Q2 Miss That Sliced 10% From the Stock Meta fell 10.47% over the past month after a Q2 print that snapped a six-quarter EPS beat streak. Revenue of $60.80 billion beat expectations by 0.85% and grew 27.96% year over year, but EPS of $6.18 missed the $7.22 estimate by 14.42%. The miss stemmed from $2.40 billion in youth-related legal charges and $1.18 billion in severance from a May headcount reduction of roughly 8,000 employees. Operating margin compressed to 31% from 43%, and free cash flow collapsed 91.31% to $784 million as quarterly capex hit $30.12 billion.
Shares dropped from $597.37 to $527.50 in the hour after the release before clawing back part of the loss. It was company-specific weakness. Alphabet rallied on strong Cloud numbers the same week, and the S&P 500 gained through the stretch. Meta raised the low end of FY2026 total expenses to $165 billion to $169 billion and lifted its remaining-year tax rate assumption to 15% to 17%.
Why Analysts Refuse to Downgrade Sell-side conviction has barely budged. Of the 62 analysts covering Meta, 55 rate it Buy, 7 rate it Hold, and none rate it Sell. The $756.95 average target still implies solid upside despite the miss.
The most aggressive call comes from Barton Crockett at Rosenblatt Securities, who maintains a Buy with a Street-high $1,117 target, implying roughly 86% returns over the next year. The thesis: layering autonomous agents onto WhatsApp’s business messaging footprint could power automated customer support, storefronts, and sales execution for millions of merchants at high margin.
Meta’s nuclear Power Purchase Agreements with Oklo, Vistra, TerraPower, and Constellation, totaling over 7.7 gigawatts offers a way to de-risk the AI infrastructure buildout without straining the balance sheet. Ad ranking gains are already showing up in the numbers (an 8.3% increase in ad clicks and a 15.7% uplift in conversions on Facebook from the new Meta Generative Recommender) plus a Family of Apps base of 3.60 billion daily active people. The bull case argues the market is punishing a one-quarter cost surge rather than repricing long-term earnings power.
Peers Held Up as Meta Slid Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) trades at $343.80 versus a $428.04 target for roughly 24.5% upside. Shares are down 8.96% on the week but up 71.53% over the past year on a Q2 blowout. Consensus tilts heavily Buy, with 58 Buys and 6 Holds. Wall Street sees slightly less upside here than at Meta.
Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) trades at $23.75 against a $28.97 target for about 22.0% upside. The stock is down 30.54% year over year despite a solid Q2 beat, hurt by retail-ad exposure. Ratings split roughly evenly between Buy and Hold, with the smallest implied upside in the group.
Snap (NYSE:SNAP) trades at $5.51 versus a $7.28 target for 32.1% upside. Ratings are far weaker: mostly Holds, a handful of Buys, and three Sell-side ratings. Shares are down 31.72% year to date.
Snap holds the largest consensus upside at 32%, but on shakier conviction. Meta ranks second on consensus math yet carries the strongest sentiment tilt, and Rosenblatt’s Street-high call is the single largest target across the peer set.
How Far Behind the S&P 500 Meta Has Fallen Meta shares trade at $599.12 with a $756.95 consensus target and 26.3% implied upside. The recent stretch shows the dislocation: Meta is off 10.47% over the past month, 9.08% year to date, and 21.52% over the past year, while the S&P 500 is up 2.07% for the month, 13% year to date, and 21.17% over the year.
Valuation supports the bull view: trailing P/E of 22, forward P/E near 18, and FCF yield near 3.5% before the AI capex cycle peaks. Polymarket traders assign just 42% probability that Meta closes this week above $600, so short-term crowd sentiment is far more cautious than the consensus target.
Weighing the Bull and Bear Cases The bull thesis rests on the AI capex cycle producing the returns management projects. Ad ranking gains are already visible, over one million businesses are using Meta business agents weekly on WhatsApp and Messenger, and if even two of the four monetization vectors (recommender lift, agents, glasses, and enterprise compute) scale on schedule, the $756.95 consensus and even Rosenblatt’s $1,117 target look reasonable.
The bear case sees this as the top of a spending arms race that eats operating income faster than AI can monetize it. Free cash flow collapsed 91% last quarter, youth-litigation trials are queued through year-end, and FY2026 expense guidance of $165 billion to $169 billion leaves no cushion for another surprise.
On balance, Meta is compounding revenue at 28% and funding its future entirely with cash from core apps. That setup warrants close monitoring, particularly on any further weakness in the shares.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Item 1 of 2 Young girls look at their phones as they sit on a hillside after sun set in El Paso, Texas, U.S., June 20, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake
[1/2]Young girls look at their phones as they sit on a hillside after sun set in El Paso, Texas, U.S., June 20, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
SummaryCompaniesStates seek nationwide order imposing age restrictions and eliminating infinite scrollMeta says damages could reach $1.4 trillion, near its $1.5 trillion market capLegal experts describe the trial as 'existential'Aug 12 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab will face a coalition of state attorneys general in a California federal court trial beginning on Wednesday over claims it engineered Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children, a case that could expose the company to massive damages and force it to make sweeping changes to its platforms.
The trial in Oakland, expected to last seven weeks, will test Colorado, Kentucky, California and New Jersey's allegations that Meta designed its platforms to keep young users hooked and misled consumers about their safety. It will also address claims by 29 states that the company illegally collected and used children's data in violation of federal law.
The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.
Jury selection is on Wednesday, with opening statements slated to begin August 18. Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify, as is Instagram head Adam Mosseri.
In terms of potential damages and implications for Meta, the trial is the biggest test yet of youth social media litigation and comes amid a broader reckoning across the globe over social media's effects on young users.
Meta has said the damages could be as high as $1.4 trillion, near the company’s market cap of $1.5 trillion, though the attorneys general have not publicly disclosed how much they may seek.
The attorneys general of Colorado, Kentucky, California and New Jersey are also asking the judge to issue an order forcing the company to implement age restrictions, eliminate infinite scroll and make other changes to its platforms.
A Meta spokesperson said the company strongly disagreed with the allegations and was confident evidence would show its longstanding commitment to supporting young people.
"We've listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most," the spokesperson said in a statement.
BROADER RECKONINGThe states' lawsuit, which was filed in 2023, stemmed from a multistate investigation into Instagram and Facebook's impact on young users. The investigation was announced following disclosures by Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen, who testified before a U.S. Senate committee in 2021 that the company knew its products could harm young users and how to make them safer, but chose not to make those changes in favor of pursuing higher profits.
"Meta knows its platforms are harming children and teens but continues to keep kids addicted, as we’ve alleged in our lawsuit," New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said in a statement ahead of the trial. "Our kids are not data points to be monetized."
A Reuters/Ipsos poll last week found an overwhelming majority of Americans — 85% — think social media can be addictive for children, with 61% of respondents saying social media companies need firmer oversight.
Meta and other social media companies are facing growing pressure from lawmakers and in the courts. Wednesday's trial is among thousands of cases filed by states, municipalities, school districts and individuals over allegations that their products harm young users.
Meta has said the flood of litigation could seriously impact its business and financial results.
Trials in the two cases that have already gone to juries resulted in verdicts against Meta, and last week a New Mexico judge ordered the company to pay $567 million and make changes to its platforms after finding the company responsible for fueling a children's mental health crisis in the state. The company also settled a lawsuit brought by a Kentucky school district that had been slated for trial in June.
Meta has broadly denied the allegations in the cases, saying it has worked to protect children on its platforms. The company has argued it could not have misled consumers about whether its platforms were addictive because "social media addiction" is not a recognized psychiatric condition.
Legal experts said the latest trial could be a pivotal moment for Meta, with recent courtroom losses increasing the pressure on the company.
"Big damage awards and judicial dictates about features both potentially pose existential threats to social media defendants," said Eric Goldman, a professor and co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law.
AN UNUSUAL TRIALMeta on Monday lost a last-ditch effort to delay the trial and halt thousands of other lawsuits it is facing after a U.S. court dismissed its appeal of rulings that allowed the cases to move forward, saying it was brought too early.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who also presided over Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, will oversee the trial and issue her decision after it concludes in October. Rogers made the unusual decision to empanel an advisory jury to issue a decision on specific questions that she will use to guide her ruling. Advisory juries, which are very rarely used, give verdicts on specific issues selected by the judge — but the judge is free to disregard their findings in her ruling.
In addition to monetary damages, the states are asking Rogers to order the platforms to make changes nationwide. The states want Meta to implement age restrictions on users, delete all algorithms and AI models made with children’s data, and eliminate features like infinite scroll and notifications. They also are asking the court to direct Meta to alter the algorithm it uses to promote content to prioritize well-being instead of engagement, and set strict time limits for young users, among many other changes.
The lawsuit is one of more than 3,000 lawsuits filed by school districts, individuals and others in federal court against Meta, Snap Inc (SNAP.N), opens new tab, YouTube parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab and TikTok parent ByteDance that have been centralized before Rogers. A second group of more than 3,300 lawsuits brought largely by individuals against the companies is pending in Los Angeles state court.
Reporting by Diana Novak Jones, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Nia Williams
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Diana reports on product liability, litigation, mass torts and the plaintiffs' bar. She previously worked at Law360 and the Chicago Sun-Times.
The updated Meta smart glasses are seen during the Meta Connect event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, U.S., September 27, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
SummaryCompaniesComplaint targets Meta, Ray-Ban owner units and four retailers in GermanyHateAid says complaint cites law barring sale of covert recording communication devicesDigital communications regulator says it is closely monitoring the marketFRANKFURT, Aug 12 (Reuters) - A German advocacy group has filed a criminal complaint against Meta (META.O), opens new tab and other companies selling the technology group's AI glasses in Germany, arguing the devices violate privacy laws.
Digital rights group HateAid said in a statement on Wednesday that the launch of the devices, the Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer in particular, broke German digital privacy laws, in the latest sign of legal scrutiny in a nation where the right to privacy is highly valued.
Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here.
"There's no place to escape from smart glasses. You have to expect at any moment to be filmed and then exposed on the internet," said HateAid managing director Josephine Ballon.
The organisation reported the management of Meta, units of spectacles maker EssilorLuxottica (ESLX.PA), opens new tab including Ray-Ban, as well as retailers Fielmann, Apollo-Optik, Mister Spex and MediaMarkt to the Frankfurt-based digital crime prosecution unit ZIT.
Mister Spex said it had not been officially notified of a complaint and that it was taking protection of privacy very seriously.
The other companies and ZIT did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
HateAid said its complaint was based on a federal digital data protection law that prohibits the sale of communication devices designed to film people without them noticing.
Germany's digital communications regulator, the Federal Network Agency, previously issued a statement on smart glasses in late 2023, saying that connected devices for covert audio or video recordings were banned.
The agency, known as BNetzA, told Reuters on Wednesday that it was closely monitoring the smart glasses market but was for now not formally investigating any breaches.
"The ownership, import or sale of smart glasses are not banned ... for as long as the recording function is clearly visible, for instance via an optical signal," said a spokesperson.
Broadcaster SWR reported in July that a Hamburg-based state privacy protection agency was taking legal steps against the use of smart glasses.
HateAid said in its statement it had been increasingly registering image-based digital violence, mainly targeting women.
"Smart glasses now allow a particularly inconspicuous surveillance technology to be disguised as an everyday object."
Reporting by Ludwig Burger Editing by Keith Weir
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Meta Platforms reaffirms its commitment to open-source AI, releasing Muse Glimmer weights and pledging Muse Spark weights later this year. META's aggressive AI investments have pressured profitability, with Q2'26 adjusted operating margin dropping to 36.8% from 43% YoY. CapEx guidance for 2026 is $130–$145 billion, nearly doubling from 2025, with a focus on data centers and foundational AI models.
With billions of users around the world, Meta will defend itself against allegations of harming children in a new trial in the United States this week, which experts describe as social media's Big Tobacco moment.
Meta Platforms (META +0.71%) CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a letter on the company's newsroom Monday titled "The Future is for Everyone." It comes as close as anything the company has published to a mission statement for its enormous artificial intelligence (AI) budget. "The defining questions of our age," he wrote, "are who will have access to superintelligence and what will we direct it toward."
His answer is to give the technology to everyone. The same day, Meta released Muse Glimmer, a family of open-weight models small enough to run on a laptop. Zuckerberg said the weights of Muse Spark 1.2, the company's most advanced model, will follow -- meaning the public can download the calculations that determine how the model behaves and use them freely.
So the social media giant is giving away models it spends tens of billions of dollars developing. Is that a problem for shareholders -- or the plan working as intended? I lean toward the second answer, and the letter is why.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
The giveaway is the strategy The letter argues superintelligence should not be "centralized and restricted to a few institutions." The most dangerous scenario, Zuckerberg writes, is "leading AI labs training powerful models and keeping them for themselves." Distribution, in his telling, is both the safety plan and the business plan.
"Now that Meta Superintelligence Labs are up and running, we will resume releasing some open source models soon," he wrote. The releases came the same day.
What the company keeps is everything around the model. The letter describes free versions "accessible to billions of people," with heavier users paying for computing power through what Zuckerberg called a "dynamic auction mechanism" -- a hint that the compute itself could become a business.
The letter carries a governance commitment too. Meta's independent board of directors will approve the safety criteria for releasing models, a decision Zuckerberg writes shouldn't rest with any single person, himself included.
Meta's revenue, meanwhile, still comes almost entirely from advertising. After all, giving away model weights doesn't hand competitors the ad system, the user base, or the data that make that business run.
The bill The spending this philosophy requires is enormous, and it keeps climbing. Meta entered the year expecting $115 billion to $135 billion of 2026 capital expenditures, raised the range to $125 billion to $145 billion in April, and lifted the floor again in July to $130 billion to $145 billion. Second-quarter capital spending alone was $31.1 billion, up from $19.8 billion in the first quarter. And free cash flow shrank accordingly, from $12.4 billion in the first quarter to $784 million in the second.
Profits are feeling it too. Second-quarter net income fell 14% year over year to $15.8 billion as total costs rose 55%. The decline also reflected $2.4 billion of legal charges and severance costs tied to May's job cuts.
Management still expects full-year operating income to come in above 2025's. But the near-term cash story is one-directional. Meta paid $1.35 billion of dividends in the quarter and repurchased no stock, with the rest of the cash flow going into the build-out.
Today's Change
(
0.71
%) $
4.20
Current Price
$
599.12
Can the ads keep covering it? So far, yes. Second-quarter revenue rose 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, driven by 14% year-over-year growth in ad impressions and a 12% increase in the average price per ad.
Of course, the pace is moderating. The second quarter's growth decelerated from the first quarter's 33%, and management's third-quarter guidance of $61 billion to $64 billion suggests more moderation ahead. Still, growth like this at Meta's size is extraordinary.
The stock, though, is not priced as if the manifesto succeeds. At about $597 as of this writing, shares are down about 10% in 2026 and about 25% from their 52-week high. They cost about 18.5 times the earnings analysts expect over the coming year, and about 22 times earnings, against nearly 34 times for fellow AI heavyweight Nvidia.
The market's worry is the arithmetic above (costs growing 55% against revenue growing 28%) and the years of spending the letter implies are still ahead.
Ultimately, I think the letter settles the cheaper half of the debate. Giving the weights away costs Meta little it was ever going to sell, and it fits how the company has always made money -- free products, billions of users, advertising on top. The expensive half is the $130 billion of data centers, and the letter promises more of it. The ad business grew 28% last quarter. The market is paying about 18.5 times next year's earnings for it.
Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX -3.93%) has been perhaps the most talked-about stock on Wall Street since it completed the largest IPO ever in mid-June. Opinions on the company's prospects are divided. Some see an innovative company that has already disrupted the space travel industry and will continue to do so, and perhaps deliver life-changing returns in the process.
Others see an overvalued stock that could eventually succumb to an avalanche of headwinds. Still others, like myself, split the difference: SpaceX's future looks very promising, and it could post strong returns over the long run for those who purchase its shares at the right price, and its current price isn't it. Many companies could outperform the space company over the next five years. Here are two examples: Eli Lilly (LLY -1.37%) and Meta Platforms (META +0.71%).
Image source: The Motley Fool.
1. Eli Lilly Eli Lilly has crushed broader equities over the past five years thanks to its breakthroughs in the GLP-1 market. The healthcare leader's tirzepatide is posting record-breaking sales: Just about four years after its approval, its annual revenue has already surpassed $30 billion. Eli Lilly is posting incredible financial results thanks to this product. In the second quarter, the company's revenue grew 48% year over year to $23 billion, while its adjusted earnings per share came in at $8.38, 33% higher than the year-ago period.
Eli Lilly is trading at 32.7x forward earnings, a valuation that resembles that of a smaller tech company more than a mature healthcare giant. The average forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio in the healthcare industry is currently 18.5. Eli Lilly's premium is justified, given how quickly its revenue and earnings have been growing, and the fact that they could maintain that momentum over the next few years.
Today's Change
(
-1.37
%) $
-16.92
Current Price
$
1,215.02
Even with new competing weight-loss and diabetes product launches, Eli Lilly should have the strongest portfolio among its peers, as its products appear to be the most effective. Tirzepatide is only the tip of the iceberg. The drugmaker's retatrutide, an investigational medicine, posted impressive phase 3 clinical trial results and should be even more potent than Zepbound, especially for people with very high Body Mass Indexes for whom current weight-loss options are inadequate.
Eli Lilly has plenty of other products and pipeline candidates beyond the GLP-1 space, some of which look destined to generate well over $1 billion at their peak. Finally, Eli Lilly has a solid dividend program, and reinvesting dividends will boost returns over the medium term. It's another reason Eli Lilly could beat the market and outperform SpaceX.
2. Meta Platforms Meta Platforms would be performing much better right now if it weren't investing so much money into its artificial intelligence (AI)-related ambitions. In the second quarter, the company's revenue grew by a healthy 28% year over year to $60.8 billion, but its earnings per share dropped 13% year over year to $6.18. Meta's forward P/E of 19.8 looks very reasonable for a tech company of its size and stature, but the market is worried that its AI investments won't lead to the kind of earnings growth it is hoping for.
I disagree. Meta's spending is deliberate, and in my view, it will, eventually, unlock massive monetization opportunities. AI has already improved the company's core advertising business. Now, the tech giant is reportedly in talks to launch a business where it will rent out excess AI computing capacity.
Today's Change
(
0.71
%) $
4.20
Current Price
$
599.12
That would boost revenue and especially earnings and margins, since Meta won't be making significant additional investments to rent out computing power and may even do so at a significant premium over what it paid for it, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted. But that's only the beginning. Meta Platforms boasts 3.60 billion daily active users. This is a significant advantage, especially in the age of AI agents.
Meta could launch all sorts of AI-powered tools -- some free, perhaps some paying ones -- that will increase engagement on its platforms and generate meaningful new revenue streams. For instance, AI agents that could further boost return on ad spend for companies, highly personalized AI assistants for its users, or any number of other possibilities. Some may not believe in Meta's AI vision, but for those who do, the stock might be a bargain at current levels, unlike SpaceX, which appears to be trading at a significant premium.
Meta Platforms remains my top market pick, with the market undervaluing its dominant ad business and AI optionality. META trades at just 19x earnings and 6x sales, despite 28% YoY revenue growth and robust Family of Apps margins. Heavy CapEx for AI/data centers has depressed free cash flow, but management can pivot if AI monetization lags expectations.
Meta Platforms delivered strong Q2 2026 revenue growth and healthy ad performance, but surging costs eroded margins and free cash flow. AI-driven improvements are materially boosting ad conversions and engagement, while WhatsApp monetization and business agents offer credible future upside. Operating leverage deteriorated as costs rose 55% vs. 28% revenue growth, with capex guidance for 2026 raised and little visibility into 2027 spending.
CHONGQING, CHINA - AUGUST 10: In this photo illustration, the logo of Meta is displayed on a smartphone screen with Muse Glimmer logo in the background on August 10, 2026 in Chongqing, China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
VCG via Getty Images
The most consequential feature of Meta’s new AI model is not its 30 billion parameters. It is where the model can live, and therefore who can control it.
Meta introduced Muse Glimmer alongside Mark Zuckerberg’s manifesto, “The Future Is for Everyone.” The releases are inseparable. One supplies the philosophy; the other makes it operational. Zuckerberg argues that superintelligence should not be concentrated within a few corporations, governments or expert institutions. Individuals should decide what matters in their own lives and direct AI accordingly. Muse Glimmer gives that argument something manifestos often lack: a product people can download.
Meta’s Open AI Strategy Distributes Power To IndividualsMost AI competition has been narrated as a race for the most capable model. Meta is trying to change the question from “Whose model is smartest?” to “Who controls where the model runs?”
Zuckerberg positions Meta around personal superintelligence, while characterizing most rival laboratories as builders for companies, governments and other institutions. That distinction is strategically useful, but not absolute. OpenAI’s gpt-oss models, Mistral’s Small 3.1 and Alibaba’s Qwen3-VL also carry Apache 2.0 licenses and can be deployed locally. Anthropic, by contrast, provides Claude and its managed agents through cloud APIs.
Meta’s departure is therefore not open weights alone. It is the claim that distributing AI power is itself a safety architecture. Meta argues that multiple agents, developers and institutions can check one another much as competing powers do in a democracy or market. Openness becomes a political principle, not merely a developer preference.
The position fits Meta’s reach. Zuckerberg plans to offer free personal AI tools to billions of people. A strategy centered on individuals lets Meta compete on familiar terrain: mass distribution.
MORE FOR YOU
Muse Glimmer Expands Control Without Transferring OwnershipMuse Glimmer’s Apache 2.0 license gives users broad, royalty-free rights to use, modify, redistribute and commercialize the model. But downloading its weights does not transfer ownership of Meta’s original model. Meta remains the owner; users receive durable licensing rights. Apache 2.0 does not settle copyright in model outputs.
This marks a meaningful change from Meta’s previous releases. The Llama 4 Community License imposed attribution, an acceptable-use policy and additional terms for companies exceeding 700 million monthly users. Glimmer replaces those conditions with a familiar permissive license. It offers more control than Llama, but not than competitors already using Apache 2.0.
Local Deployment Improves Privacy But Does Not Guarantee ItMuse Glimmer can manage files, interpret images, write and debug code, call tools and recover when workflows fail. Its 131,072-token context window, perception encoder and support for more than 100 languages help it sustain sequences of actions. Those capabilities matter because a useful agent must do more than produce an isolated answer.
When inference occurs entirely on a user’s device, documents, messages and prompts need not be transmitted to Meta or another model provider. The model can operate without an internet connection. Yet this privacy advantage is not unique to Glimmer. Any genuinely local Mistral, Qwen or gpt-oss deployment can offer the same architectural protection.
Nor does a local model make the entire agent private. Connections to email, calendars, external APIs, cloud storage or remote logs can still transmit sensitive information. Privacy depends on the complete system.
Meta trained Glimmer around data minimization, appropriate information flows and prompt-injection resistance. Even so, Meta’s own evaluations show mixed results: Glimmer outperformed Qwen3.6 on tested privacy and injection measures, while Gemma 4 performed better on some of them. Glimmer is privacy-conscious, not demonstrably the universal privacy leader.
Muse Glimmer Extends Meta’s Earlier Local AI StrategyMeta offered downloadable models long before Glimmer. Llama 2 was free for research and commercial use in 2023. Llama 3.1 added 128K context, tool use and components for custom agents. Llama 3.2 introduced lightweight edge models and downloadable vision models, while Llama 4 added native multimodality but required substantially heavier hardware.
Glimmer’s contribution is the combination: permissive licensing, multimodal understanding, agentic training and operation within a 24GB or 32GB memory envelope. Quantization compresses its language model below 20GB, placing a capable, always-available agent within reach of developers, creators and small businesses.
That is not literal ownership, nor is it an unprecedented privacy breakthrough. It is greater authority over where intelligence runs, what information it sees, how it is customized and what it costs to use repeatedly. Zuckerberg says AI should empower individuals. Muse Glimmer makes that proposition more tangible, even if Meta is not alone in pursuing it.
by Todd Bishop on Aug 11, 2026 at 8:59 amAugust 11, 2026 at 8:59 am
Kevin Carlberg, founder and CEO of Noosphere Labs. (UW Photo) A former Meta AI research director has raised $10.25 million for a Seattle-area startup working on what it calls “human-centered physical intelligence” — AI designed to help people interact with and make sense of the physical world, beyond text and images on screens.
A company called Noosphere Labs, led by Kevin Carlberg, disclosed the financing in a Form D filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Reached via phone by GeekWire on Monday evening, Carlberg said he wasn’t yet ready to share details about the startup.
Trilogy Equity Partners confirmed that it led the round. One of the directors listed in the Form D filing is Amy McCullough, a managing director at the Bellevue-based venture firm. Madrona, the Seattle VC firm, separately confirmed that it had “major participation” in the round.
Carlberg’s personal website describes him as founder and CEO of a “stealth AI startup focused on physical AI and real-world intelligence.” The company’s website says, “Human-centered physical intelligence. Built for the world we inhabit,” with a “Coming Soon” title.
The website styles the name Noösphere, with two dots over the second “o” signaling that it’s pronounced as a separate syllable: NOH-uh-sfeer. The term dates to the 1920s, describing a sphere of human thought wrapped around the planet the way the biosphere wraps it in life.
Carlberg spent more than five years at Meta, where he led a research team spanning Reality Labs Research and the company’s Fundamental AI Research group, working on physical AI and simulation for wearable computers and virtual and mixed-reality devices.
Before that, he spent eight years at Sandia National Laboratories developing methods to make massive physics simulations run in near-real time for national security applications. He holds a doctorate from Stanford and is an affiliate associate professor of applied mathematics and mechanical engineering at the University of Washington.
Although Carlberg hasn’t publicly detailed what the new startup is building, his research points to the problems he’s been focused on.
In a paper for the NeurIPS conference last year, for example, he and his Meta colleagues built a benchmark for “assistive wearable agents” — smart glasses and similar devices that figure out what a person is trying to do from video, audio and other signals, without being asked.
Noting how little prior work existed, they assembled a dataset from 348 participants to test it. The best AI models produced a relevant answer only 55% of the time, they found. The researchers concluded that current models “remain far from practical usefulness” at the task.
Also listed as a director in the startup’s filing is Tyler Simpson, a Seattle-area software executive who co-founded commute-management startup Luum, spent 11 years at Microsoft, and was most recently a director and technical program manager at Meta, overlapping with Carlberg.
Carlberg left Meta at the end of 2024 and announced on his website that he was taking a sabbatical. He incorporated Noosphere Labs early this year.
Manus said Tuesday it will "soon resume operating as an independent company," after Chinese regulators in April demanded Meta unwind its $2 billion acquisition of the artificial intelligence startup.
Last December, Meta announced it acquired Manus, a developer of general purpose AI agents that was founded in China in 2022 before relocating to Singapore. The deal quickly attracted scrutiny from Beijing and Washington, with Chinese officials investigating whether it violated the country's rules on foreign investment.
The country's National Development and Reform Commission issued its decision in April, instructing the parties to withdraw the transaction. That kickstarted a complicated unwinding process. Beijing has since tightened tech export controls on cross-border deals, as the U.S. and China compete for talent, hardware and data amid an intensifying AI race.
Manus said Tuesday that some users will need to back up their data generated on or after December 29, 2025, the date the Meta deal was announced.
"This is part of our separation from Meta; we must take this step to comply with regulatory requirements in specific parts of the world," the company wrote.
Meta had planned to implement Manus' technology in its consumer and enterprise products. The deal came amid a string of aggressive AI expansion by Meta, which has been working to build a subscription business around the technology and compete with Google and top AI labs Anthropic and OpenAI.
Last week, Meta released its first coding agent, marking its latest attempt to generate revenue from AI.
--CNBC's Anniek Bao contributed reporting to this story.
Read more CNBC tech newsHugging Face hack marks start of dangerous AI cyber era and many firms 'don't even know it'How a small Israeli startup was linked to rogue AI hacks at OpenAI, Anthropic and MetaWorld's biggest chipmaker TSMC's sales surge 45% amid buoyant AI demandMeta to open source its most powerful AI model as it takes swipe at OpenAI, Anthropicwatch now
Mark Zuckerberg wants to put superintelligence in the hands of billions of people.
DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc (NYSE:DOCN) CEO Paddy Srinivasan says the economics of AI may finally be moving in that direction.
• Meta Platforms stock is gaining positive traction. What’s pushing META stock higher?
In a sweeping essay Monday, the Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO argued that increasingly powerful AI should not be controlled by a small group of companies or institutions. Meta plans to offer free versions of its AI tools to billions of people, while allowing users to pay for more computing power.
Srinivasan, meanwhile, sees a technology shift that could make broad AI access more practical: open-weight models that deliver increasingly strong performance at much lower costs.
"Open weight models are balancing out the intelligence per dollar equation and driving even more usage of AI," Srinivasan told Benzinga in an exclusive email interview.
That could be important for Zuckerberg’s vision.
Open AI Models Are Changing the MathThe appeal of open-weight models is not simply that they can be cheaper.
Businesses can also customize them using their own data and, in some cases, run them on their own infrastructure. Srinivasan said that can help companies keep their intellectual property within the enterprise while adapting models to proprietary information and real-world usage.
The result is a different way to think about AI spending.
Instead of paying the highest available price for every task, companies can choose models based on what they actually need. Srinivasan said the goal is the "right model, right cost, for every task."
DigitalOcean is already building around that idea, offering access to multiple models through its inference infrastructure. Its platform supports models from providers including OpenAI, Anthropic and open-weight developers, allowing customers to choose among them based on factors such as cost and performance.
The Frontier Model May Not Be Needed Every TimeSrinivasan said frontier models — the most capable and typically most expensive systems — are needed for only about 25% of the work among the customers he sees.
The other 75% can often be handled by open-weight models, creating what he described as a typical 25/75 split between closed and open-weight models.
Read Next
That doesn’t mean OpenAI or Anthropic suddenly lose most of their business. The hardest reasoning and specialized tasks can still justify frontier models.
But it does suggest that AI adoption doesn’t have to depend entirely on the economics of the most expensive systems.
And that’s where Zuckerberg’s vision meets Srinivasan’s thesis.
Meta is betting that powerful AI should reach billions. Open-weight models could help make that access cheaper, more customizable and less dependent on a handful of providers. Meta itself is leaning into the approach, with Zuckerberg saying the company plans to resume releasing some open-source models, while Meta also launched the smaller open-weight Muse Glimmer model for personal computers.
The bigger AI race, then, may not simply be about building the smartest model.
It could be about making useful intelligence cheap enough, flexible enough and accessible enough that far more people can actually use it.
For Zuckerberg, that’s the vision.
For Srinivasan, "intelligence per dollar" may be what makes it economically possible.
Read Next
Image via Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$520.26▼
$796.25Dividend Yield0.35%
P/E Ratio22.82
Price Target$785.32
On Aug. 10, 2026, Meta Platforms NASDAQ: META fundamentally altered the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape by releasing Muse Glimmer. This new open-weight agentic model operates on 30 billion parameters and is optimized to run entirely offline on standard consumer hardware.
Releasing highly advanced technology for free under an Apache 2.0 license appears deeply counterintuitive at first glance. Developing foundation models requires billions of dollars in computational power and engineering talent; giving the architecture away seems like an unnecessary sacrifice of a competitive moat.
Get Meta Platforms alerts:
Understanding the underlying strategy requires examining the release's technical specifications. Muse Glimmer utilizes 4-bit quantization, a compression technique that shrinks the model's memory footprint to under 20 GB. It also incorporates a speculative decoding drafter, a specialized companion network designed to accelerate text generation significantly. Developers can now run a highly capable artificial intelligence locally without relying on expensive cloud servers. Meta Platforms is effectively democratizing access to a technology layer that competitors are desperately trying to keep proprietary.
Tactical Genius: Burning Competitor MoatsBy making this foundational software layer open-source and easy to deploy, Meta is executing a brilliant strategy known as commoditizing your complement. Rival technology firms are currently spending heavily to build closed ecosystems. These competitors rely on charging high subscription fees to enterprise clients and consumers to recoup their upfront research and development costs. Meta Platforms neutralizes that entire business model by flooding the market with highly capable, free alternatives, effectively forcing the industry into a margin-crushing hardware war.
This approach serves a dual purpose for Meta. As thousands of developers worldwide download Muse Glimmer, they inevitably stress-test the model, identify inefficiencies, and implement new optimizations. Meta Platforms can then integrate these crowdsourced improvements directly into its advertising infrastructure. The organization does not need to sell software subscriptions to generate revenue. The primary objective is to build smarter algorithms that keep users engaged on Facebook and Instagram for longer, thereby directly enhancing the return on ad spend for enterprise advertisers.
Tactical Retreat: Pricing in the AI BuildoutThe recent second-quarter earnings report triggered a sharp sell-off, pushing Meta's stock price down to roughly -10% year to date. Wall Street heavily penalized Meta over management's aggressive infrastructure spending plans. The firm guided its full-year capital expenditures to land somewhere between $130 billion and $145 billion. Consequently, free cash flow dropped approximately 91% year-over-year, down to roughly $784 million, and operating margins compressed to about 31% from 43% during the same period last year.
These metrics look alarming on the surface, prompting algorithmic trading desks and short-term speculators to unload shares.
Fundamental investors and analysts will look past the immediate margin degradation to evaluate the health of the underlying growth engine. The core advertising business remains an absolute juggernaut. Second-quarter revenue was up by nearly 28% year-over-year to surpass $60 billion. User engagement remains robust, with ad impressions rising by approximately 14%, while the average price per ad increased by approximately 12%.
Meta Platforms is generating healthy cash flow at the top line and aggressively redirecting that capital into data centers and computing power.
Management executed a highly scrutinized capital expenditure cycle during the transition to mobile a decade ago, and they repeated the playbook during the aggressive push to compete with short-form video. In both historical instances, the infrastructure buildout laid the groundwork for significant revenue expansion. The current spending cycle funds the physical servers necessary to power backend tools like Advantage+, which rely heavily on predictive modeling to maximize advertiser value.
Because the broader market heavily discounted the stock following the guidance update, shares currently trade at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of around 20.6. This multiple is unusually low for a dominant technology enterprise demonstrating nearly 30% top-line growth. The current valuation effectively prices in the data center buildout, offering investors a rare opportunity to acquire a profitable advertising monopoly at a steep discount to its historical averages.
Current Price$609.12High Forecast$1,000.00Average Forecast$785.32Low Forecast$595.00Meta Platforms Stock Forecast Details
Beyond capital expenditures, investors must continuously navigate headline risk in the technology sector. Currently, a high-profile U.S. trial brought by four states threatens Meta with up to $1.4 trillion in penalties regarding antitrust and privacy concerns. The market often overreacts to these large figures, creating artificial downward pressure on the stock price.
Evaluating the balance sheet provides the necessary context for this legal headwind. Meta boasts a market capitalization of roughly $1.51 trillion and generates substantial operating cash flow, hovering near $37 per share. The enterprise carries a minimal debt-to-equity ratio of approximately 0.32, providing a fortress-like financial position.
Historically, multi-state regulatory battles involving major technology firms settle for a fraction of the initial demands. Meta has a proven track record of absorbing regulatory fines without derailing its core operations or product development timelines.
Institutional investors appear to recognize this underlying reality. Current short interest stands at a healthy range of 1.5%-3%, suggesting institutional bears lack the conviction to heavily short the stock at its current valuation floor. The institutional consensus suggests these headline numbers serve as starting points for lengthy negotiations rather than existential threats to the overall business model.
The Winning Play: Plotting Your Next MoveMeta's current fundamental and strategic narrative heavily favors accumulation as the market looks toward the next earnings cycle estimated for late October. The initial shock of the infrastructure spending has washed out weak hands, leaving a compelling entry point near the current $590-$595 range.
As developers adopt Muse Glimmer and Meta continues to integrate advanced features into consumer-facing applications, user engagement will likely continue its upward trajectory. Higher engagement directly translates into increased ad inventory and enhanced pricing power.
The launch of an open-weight model secures a strategic wedge against competitors, ensuring Meta will not be locked out of the next major computing platform. While the capital expenditure cycle temporarily pressures margins, the underlying business is growing steadily.
Investors seeking technology exposure without paying an excessive premium might consider adding Meta to their watchlists as the stock continues to consolidate. Patient market participants may find that utilizing the current pullback could provide a strategic advantage, positioning portfolios to capitalize on the inevitable ad-margin expansion driven by these new technological capabilities.
Continue following MarketBeat
Add MarketBeat as your preferred source on Google to see our latest stories in your feed.
Should You Invest $1,000 in Meta Platforms Right Now?Before you consider Meta Platforms, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Meta Platforms wasn't on the list.
While Meta Platforms currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
With the proliferation of data centers and electric vehicles, the electric grid will only get more strained. Download this report to learn how energy stocks can play a role in your portfolio as the global demand for energy continues to grow.
Meta Platforms Inc. (META, Financials), the parent of Facebook and Instagram, suffered another legal setback after a U.S. appeals court allowed thousands of law
AI startup Manus said on Tuesday it will resume operating as an independent company and some user data will be deleted as part of its separation from U.S. tech giant Meta.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of META either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is betting that powerful AI should become abundant and inexpensive — a vision that could put pressure on the enormous valuations of OpenAI and Anthropic.
In a 6,500-word manifesto published Monday, Mark Zuckerberg argued that AI should be broadly accessible rather than controlled by a small group of companies or governments. Meta also released an open-weight model and plans to make a more powerful version available to developers.
The implications go beyond Meta’s AI strategy. If increasingly capable models become widely available, investors may have to rethink how much scarcity — and therefore how much value — is embedded in the leading AI labs.
Read Next
Meta Wants AI to Become AbundantMeta doesn’t necessarily need to beat OpenAI or Anthropic by selling a better model.
Its open-weight strategy could instead help make capable AI cheaper and easier for developers to access, putting pressure on the premium that closed AI providers can charge.
That doesn’t mean OpenAI or Anthropic suddenly lose their edge. Businesses may still pay more for the strongest models if they deliver meaningful advantages in reasoning, coding, reliability, security and AI agents.
But the performance gap matters enormously.
If frontier models remain dramatically better, premium AI could become a massive software business. If open models rapidly close that gap, investors could start treating the underlying intelligence layer more like a commodity.
Meta Doesn’t Need to Sell AI to WinThis is where Meta has an unusual advantage.
Meta already has billions of users and a massive advertising business. It can potentially monetize cheaper, more capable AI through greater engagement, better recommendations, AI assistants, messaging and devices — without needing AI-model revenue alone to justify its investment.
Zuckerberg’s vision centers on personalized AI agents that can help people create, learn and accomplish tasks. Meta is already moving in that direction with its Muse models and Meta AI products.
For OpenAI and Anthropic, the challenge is different: They have to prove that being at the frontier remains valuable enough to support premium pricing and enormous valuations. Anthropic is valued at $965 billion following its latest funding round, while OpenAI reached an $852 billion private valuation earlier this year.
Meta’s open-AI push could become more than a philosophical disagreement.
It could force investors to answer a much bigger question before the next wave of AI IPOs: Will AI intelligence remain scarce and expensive — or will it become abundant, with the real value moving to the products and platforms built on top of it?
If the latter wins, Meta may have one of the better business models for an AI world where intelligence gets cheaper.
Read Next
Image via Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Meta Platforms (META) announcing Muse Glimmer and making other AI models publicly available is good for the broad ecosystem, says James Czerniawski. He believes the move will "compress" the needs of AI and give Meta an edge with accessibility.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of META either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Meta Platforms (META), the social-media and AI powerhouse behind Facebook and Instagram, unveiled its next big AI swing Monday, and the strategy is becoming har
Meta just dropped a massive 6,500-word essay from Mark Zuckerberg outlining his vision for AI superintelligence, alongside a new open-source AI model called Muse Glimmer. Is this a brilliant move to dominate the market, or a desperate pivot to justify their $2 trillion AI spend?
Mark Zuckerberg, the famed CEO of Meta Platforms (META +0.48%) dropped a 6,500-word manifesto on the company’s website Monday outlining his -- and his company’s -- expansive plans to bring free versions of artificial intelligence to billions of people around the world.
Zuckerberg goes into detail in his vision for personal AI assistants that can help people with finances, careers, hobbies, and relationships, and he predicts that AI will help create jobs rather than eliminate careers.
“We propose a philosophy based on individual empowerment as the source of prosperity, invention as the primary purpose of superintelligence, and balance of power as the foundation of safety,” he wrote. “Superintelligence will be among the most important technologies in history, so its opportunities and challenges will likely be greater than any we’ve seen in our lifetimes. We should take this very seriously.”
It’s a bold declaration. And in reading it, I think it’s also clear that Zuckerberg is returning to his old playbook from Facebook’s early days as he looks to spread Meta’s version of “personal superintelligence” worldwide.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
The Facebook modelZuckerberg came up with Facebook while he was a teenager attending Harvard University. The site was designed to help users match names to the faces of fellow students and quickly caught on, spreading to other universities and the general public.
One interesting thing at the time was that Zuckerberg focused nearly exclusively on scaling the company and driving user engagement rather than on profits. It didn’t launch its Facebook Ads platform until 2007 -- three years after the site launched. And when the company was building its mobile app in 2010, Zuckerberg was more focused on attracting 1 billion active users rather than finding a way to sell ads.
“There’s no point right now in having a massive profit,” he said. “(Ads) factor in, like, not at all.”
His focus worked. The mobile app made Facebook even more popular, and by 2013, the company was placing greater emphasis on revenue by serving targeted ads in users’ feeds.
Today, Zuckerberg’s company, which changed its name from Facebook to Meta in 2021, operates Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads, and has an average of 3.5 billion daily users. Advertising accounts for nearly all of Meta’s revenue, making up 97% of the company’s $60.8 billion in the second quarter.
In short, Zuckerberg focused on making sure as many people as possible were using Facebook before he got serious about fully monetizing the product. And he’s doing the same thing with superintelligence and AI.
Bringing superintelligence to the massesIn his manifesto, Zuckerberg writes about AI and superintelligence almost as if it were a human right.
“Some argue that superintelligence itself or a small set of experts who control it should decide what is best for humanity. We disagree. The history of democracy and economics has shown that there is no single objective answer to how people define the best life, and therefore the best approach is letting people decide what matters in their own lives. We believe that delivering superintelligence to everyone is the way to answer this question.” Zuckerberg said Meta will offer free versions of AI personal agents, charting a very different path from AI start-ups OpenAI and Anthropic, which rely on subscriptions, API usage, and enterprise contracts to raise revenue and build out their large language models. Those who want more compute will pay through what he calls a “dynamic auction mechanism” to keep prices low.
But the difference between Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic is that Meta already has an established, powerful advertising revenue stream through its social media platforms to help it develop and fund superintelligence. That’s important because building out AI infrastructure is tremendously expensive, and that cost is already weighing down Meta Platforms’ stock.
Today's Change
(
0.48
%) $
2.82
Current Price
$
594.92
Meta will need to keep the advertising revenue coming in as it works on superintelligence and free AI agents. But if it can scale that business as it did with Facebook, then Meta will be in a position to find ways to profit from its efforts.
And there will be plenty of chances to do so, starting with revenue for additional compute, and products such as augmented reality glasses that Zuckerberg says will be needed “to keep you present in the moment with the people you care about.” Meta could also find ways to monetize AI-generated transactions and business contacts through its apps, or use the data it collects to make its advertising efforts more effective and valuable.
For all that to happen, though, Meta needs to make personal AI agents that people want to use, which means focusing on the user experience, making them fun, and ensuring they are extremely accessible.
That’s the model that worked for Facebook two decades ago. And that’s the model Zuckerberg needs to work for Meta now.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social network would continue to release open models. Bloomberg/Getty Images Don't call it a comeback (yet).
On Monday, much of the tech world was thrilled that Meta returned to open models with the release of Muse Glimmer.
On top of that announcement, CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined his views on the future of AI in a more than 6,500-word essay. Zuckerberg made the case for open models and a broader belief in granting society access to powerful AI, rather than letting companies limit access by imposing their own safeguards.
The news marks a major moment for Meta, which is widely viewed as lagging behind OpenAI and Anthropic in the frontier race.
Here's what everyone from Yann LeCun to the White House is saying
Yann LeCun
Meta's former chief AI scientist Yann LeCun Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Meta's former chief AI scientist Yann LeCun praised the release.
"Good move. Bravo," LeCun wrote on X alongside three clapping emojis in a reply to Zuckerberg's announcement.
LeCun hasn't always been quick to praise his former employer. In January, he called Alexandr Wang, Meta's chief AI officer, "inexperienced" and predicted Meta would lose more AI talent.
After leaving Meta, LeCun co-founded AMI Labs, which focuses on so-called "world models" rather than the large language models that form the foundation of chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Aaron Levie
Box CEO Aaron Levie Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch Box CEO Aaron Levie said the news was much bigger than Meta.
"America now finally has its response to the open weights AI race," Levie wrote on X.
He said the release "is broadly net positive for AI - even frontier closed models - because it helps drive further diffusion of AI."
"This will continue to help drive down the cost of intelligence," he wrote, "it allows companies to run models as they see fit, as well as allows them to post train their own models for specific use-cases to get better performance gains in their domain."
Sriram Krishnan
Sriram Krishnan Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images Venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan praised Meta's release.
"great to see meta back launching open weight models. congratulations to @alexandr_wang and the msl team," Krishnan wrote on X.
Krishnan, who was a White House advisor until recently, also lauded Zuckerberg's essay.
"Great piece from @finkd - especially the theme of AI being something that is personally empowering," Krishnan wrote.
Luther Lowe
Luther Lowe, head of public policy at Y Combinator, is seen here with his wife, journalist Weijia Jiang Paul Morigi/Getty Images Y Combinator policy head Luther Lowe said Zuckerberg had the right message but was the wrong person to deliver it.
"The message is compelling; the messenger has a credibility problem," he wrote.
Lowe said that Meta's decision to ban rival chatbots from accessing WhatsApp Business API doesn't gel with Zuckerberg's broader message about making superintelligent AI widely available.
"If Meta believes in a balance of power that favors individuals, that principle should include the individual's right to choose an AI agent on Meta's own platforms," Lowe wrote.
In June, the European Commission ordered Meta to allow third-party AI assistants free access to WhatsApp. Meta said it disagreed with the decision and would appeal it.
Clément Delangue
Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue expressed excitement for the release.
"Meta is back! well done @finkd @alexandr_wang!" Delangue wrote on X.
Delangue, who has pushed for open models, previously said that Hugging Face had to turn to a Chinese open model to help it address OpenAI's models breach of its systems because proprietary AI models had safeguards in place that prevented the company from getting the help it needed.
Seth Lazar Johns Hopkins University Professor Seth Lazar said Zuckerberg's "overall vision is cool" and expressed optimism if Meta's CEO's manifesto serves as a "North Star" for the company's SuperIntelligence Labs.
"If this constitutes a genuine North Star for MSL, then I am a bit more optimistic about the world we're likely to build with powerful AI (conditional on getting there without everything blowing up along the way)," Lazar, who studies the moral and political philosophy of AI, wrote on X.
Lazar said he was "psyched" that Meta is releasing a model.
"Sometimes protecting individual rights means giving people an agent who will push on their behalf against rules and restrictions that are over-applied and unfairly demanding," he said. "The frontier models are absolutely terrible at this, and our reliance on them portends an Internet that makes us much less free."
Lazar said others in the AI community would likely find Zuckerberg's vision for superintelligence disappointing. One area Lazar said is right to critique is that the Meta CEO sees compute as the main limitation to the use of AI models that exceed human intelligence. Lazar said it's more likely that other limitations will be needed.
"Pretty likely that it'll involve restrictions on some capabilities, and probably this means eg the personal health research scientist is not a plausible vision, or will need a lot more structure, anyway," Lazar wrote.
Ethan Mollick Wharton professor and AI expert Ethan Mollick said Meta's announcement that it will release the weights for Muse Spark, its current most advanced closed model, was the biggest news of all.
"Spark is the big news and is a good model," Mollick wrote on X. "Not quite at the frontier of open models from China, and still well behind the closed frontier, but the best non-Chinese open weights model released in a year."
What matters next, Mollick said, is what Meta does going forward.
"Of course, a lot depends on continuing to release new open models to keep up."
The White House
The White House Kevin Carter/Getty Images The Trump White House was quick to praise Meta's launch of a "Future Is For Everyone Fund" that will support communities where it builds data centers and AI infrastructure.
"President Trump's vision for American AI dominance continues to drive results," the White House's rapid response account wrote on X, sharing CNBC's coverage of Meta's announcements.
Zuckerberg wrote that community investment led to greater support for projects such as data centers.
"We see that communities we invest in over the long term are more supportive of development than communities where speculators start building with minimal investment in the community," he wrote.
Nvidia
Nvidia's headquarters in Santa Clara, California David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images Nvidia, the world's largest company by market cap, offered its praise of Meta's announcement.
Meta has built much of its AI work on Nvidia's chips. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has also pushed the development of open models. Nvidia has its own family of open models called Nemotron.
"Great to see @AIatMet back publishing open models 🙌," Nvidia's AI account wrote on X.
Read next
Brent D. Griffiths You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Brent Griffiths is a senior reporter at Business Insider who covers AI and tech.Previously, he worked at the Washington Post as a researcher on Power Up and the Finance 202. He started his career at Politico where he worked on the web production team and covered breaking news. His passion for covering politics has only grown since he cut his teeth covering the presidential campaign as a student journalist. He's also contributed to the Almanac of American Politics.
ToplineA federal appeals court rejected an attempt by social media companies to dismiss thousands of lawsuits alleging young people were addicted to their services, insisting the appeal using Section 230 of the Communications Act was improperly made and allowing the claims to move forward.
An appeals court ruled an appeal was made too early in the process to use Section 230 of the Communications Act as a defense.
dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
Key FactsIn a brief opinion issued on Monday, the California-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal brought by numerous social media companies, including Meta, Snap and the owners of TikTok, YouTube and Roblox.
Section 230 is a clause of the Communications Act that largely provides immunity from liability to online service providers based on what third-party content other people post on their platforms.
However, the court ruled that Section 230 only provides a defense for liability, “not an immunity from suit”—meaning Meta and the other companies appealed too early in the lawsuit for the court to have “appellate jurisdiction.”
The appeal was part of a massive case that consolidated thousands of lawsuits from individuals, state attorneys general and school districts.
Key BackgroundIn March, Meta and Google lost the first of the social media addiction cases that went to trial. A California jury awarded $3 million in compensatory damages, as well as another $3 million in punitive damages, to a 20-year-old woman who argued she became addicted to their platforms at a young age due to their designs. The bellwether verdict came only one day after Meta lost a state trial in New Mexico, where the social media giant was ordered to pay out $375 million for misleading users about social media’s impact on children’s mental health. The state court hit the company with another $567 million fine last week after ruling it had created a “public nuisance.” However, Meta also notched a rare win when one teenage plaintiff dropped a similar lawsuit in Florida last month. The same teenager already secured settlements with TikTok, Snap and YouTube, the New York Times reported.
Further ReadingMeta And Google Found Liable In Social Media Addiction Trial (Forbes)
Meta Must Pay $375 Million Over Allegedly Enabling Child Exploitation (Forbes)
Bellwether Lawsuit Against Meta Over Social Media Addiction Is Dropped (New York Times)
1:30pm: Labor market 'topsy-turvy' The U.S. labor market is sending conflicting signals, according to UBS, with some leading indicators improving while broader employment measures are edging back toward recessionary territory.
UBS said its leading indicator rose to 38% in July from 31% in June, suggesting conditions have improved over the past six months. However, the June reading was revised down from 44%.
At the same time, the bank’s broader “other” indicator worsened to 49% from 39% in June, reversing much of the improvement seen since February.
UBS said the data paint a “topsy-turvy” picture of the labor market. "Overall, the state of the labor market seen through the lens of these indicators looks topsy-turvy, as the coal mine canaries regain strength just as the bulk of the components appears to teeter around recessionary levels," analysts concluded.
12:05pm: Zuckerberg's AI vision Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, XETRA:FB2A, SIX:FB) (Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, XETRA:FB2A, SIX:FB), Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, XETRA:FB2A, SIX:FB), Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, XETRA:FB2A, SIX:FB)) CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined a vision for artificial intelligence centered on making so-called superintelligence broadly available to individuals, arguing that the technology should expand human capabilities rather than primarily replace workers.
In a 6,500-word essay titled “The Future is for Everyone: The Path to a Positive AI Future,” published on Monday, Zuckerberg said advanced AI could create opportunities in entrepreneurship, scientific research, education and personal productivity.
“We propose a philosophy based on individual empowerment as the source of prosperity, invention as the primary purpose of superintelligence, and balance of power as the foundation of safety,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Zuckerberg argued that concentrating advanced AI among a small number of companies, governments or individuals could create risks by placing too much economic and political power in limited hands. Instead, he said Meta wants to distribute AI capabilities widely and give individuals greater control over how the technology is used.
11:10am: Week ahead After a strong run for US stocks, the week ahead could ultimately come down to one question: Is inflation cooling fast enough to give the Fed room to ease, or will stubborn price pressures keep higher rates on the table?
The main event comes Wednesday with the release of the US Consumer Price Index for July, followed by the Producer Price Index on Thursday and retail sales on Friday. Economists expect headline CPI to ease to around 3.4% annually, while core inflation is expected to moderate to about 2.5%.
The inflation readings take on added importance after last week’s weaker-than-expected jobs report. July payrolls fell by 23,000, while previous months were revised sharply lower, raising questions about the strength of the labor market. At the same time, the unemployment rate dipped to 4.1%, leaving the Federal Reserve with a complicated picture as it weighs its next move.
Thursday’s PPI report will provide another piece of the inflation puzzle, then comes Friday’s retail sales report, offering the first real look at consumer spending in the third quarter.
10:00am: Quiet start Markets were little changed Monday morning as investors took a cautious stance ahead of this week’s key inflation data, with the July jobs report continuing to shape expectations for the Federal Reserve.
The Dow fell 68 points, or 0.1%, to 53,969, while the S&P 500 was essentially flat at 7,761. The Nasdaq slipped 28 points, or 0.1%, to 26,662.
Investor sentiment remains supported by last week’s surprisingly weak jobs report, which showed US payrolls contracted by 23,000 in July. The softer labour-market data has eased concerns about near-term Fed rate hikes, with futures now pricing in no more than a 45% chance of a September hike, down from above 60% before the jobs report.
Now, attention turns to inflation. The consumer price index is due Wednesday, followed by the producer price index on Thursday. Investors will be watching closely for signs that inflation is cooling enough to give the Fed room to keep rates lower.
“As usual, the reasoning is that a stronger-than-expected inflation report will increase expectations of higher Fed rates and could send yields higher and equities lower,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote. “A softer-than-expected figure, on the other hand, would soothe hawkish Fed expectations and keep the market mood in a sweet spot.”
The two-year Treasury yield has been easing from its July peak, while the US dollar has come under pressure as expectations for a more dovish Fed build.
There was plenty of company-specific action to keep investors busy as well. Intel shares sank about 5% after the chipmaker announced plans for a $15 billion common stock offering, while Apple fell nearly 2% after Jefferies downgraded the stock to underperform and said it believes the company may have scrapped plans for an all-glass iPhone.
Berkshire Hathaway was also in focus after reporting that second-quarter profit more than doubled, helped by gains on its stock investments.
Meanwhile, oil prices climbed as markets remained wary that a new deal between the US and Iran has yet to materialize, leaving uncertainty around efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
With inflation data looming, investors appear content to wait for the next major clue on the Fed before making a bigger move.
Ahead of the bell Wall Street is easing into the week rather than charging at it, with futures barely moving despite the major indexes sitting within touching distance of record highs.
Dow futures slipped 0.1%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 contracts nudged higher after a winning week.
The hesitancy is understandable given what is coming.
Wednesday brings the consumer price index, the reading that could settle an argument the Federal Reserve is still having with itself over whether to raise rates as the Middle East oil shock feeds through to prices.
Friday's weak jobs report took some heat out of that debate, though policymakers have made clear a hot inflation print would put a rise back on the table.
Brent is trading around $84 a barrel amid another round of will-they, won't-they over the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran teasing that a deal is very close.
Earnings are thinner now, but CoreWeave, Nebius, Cerebras and Super Micro will all report on the state of the AI build-out.
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, XETRA:FB2A, SIX:FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined a vision for artificial intelligence centered on making so-called superintelligence broadly available to individuals, arguing that the technology should expand human capabilities rather than primarily replace workers.
In a 6,500-word essay titled “The Future is for Everyone: The Path to a Positive AI Future,” published on Monday, Zuckerberg said advanced AI could create opportunities in entrepreneurship, scientific research, education and personal productivity.
“We propose a philosophy based on individual empowerment as the source of prosperity, invention as the primary purpose of superintelligence, and balance of power as the foundation of safety,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Zuckerberg argued that concentrating advanced AI among a small number of companies, governments or individuals could create risks by placing too much economic and political power in limited hands. Instead, he said Meta wants to distribute AI capabilities widely and give individuals greater control over how the technology is used.
A central part of his argument is that AI’s biggest contribution should be invention rather than automation. He said future systems could help people discover medicines, develop businesses, create products and conduct scientific research, while enabling individuals to pursue ideas that previously required larger teams or significant capital.
“I predict that this will not only lead to much greater economic growth, but also more employment over time rather than less,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Zuckerberg also described a future in which people have personal AI agents that understand their goals and interests and assist with areas such as health, careers, finances and hobbies. He said AI could also provide personalized tutoring, creative tools and support for scientific research.
Meta plans to offer free AI tools accessible to billions of people, while users seeking additional computing capacity could pay for greater access, Zuckerberg wrote.
He also rejected the idea that the development of increasingly capable AI should require concentrating power among a small group of institutions.
“The defining questions of our age are who will have access to superintelligence and what will we direct it towards,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Will it be centralized and restricted to a few institutions, or will it be a tool that empowers everyone?”
Zuckerberg acknowledged that superintelligence will bring significant challenges, but argued that broad access could help distribute its benefits while limiting the risks associated with concentrated control.
“Superintelligence holds the promise of giving everyone that power, and building a positive future for everyone,” he wrote.
Shares of Meta traded up 1.3% at about $600 on Monday, down about 9% so far this year.
Meta on Monday released Muse Glimmer, an open-weight model designed to power AI agents locally on consumer hardware, providing the clearest picture yet of what CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of “personal superintelligence” could look like in practice.
The 30-billion parameter model is essentially an open version of Meta’s most powerful closed model, Muse Spark, which the company debuted in April. Glimmer’s weights are available under the permissive Apache 2.0 license, so developers can download them and modify as necessary.
Glimmer is designed to run AI agents that can perform multi-step tasks — like call tools, write and debug code, work with files and screenshots, and execute on a task over an extended workflow — locally on a Mac or PC with a single consumer GPU. It supports text and images, and was trained across more than 100 languages, the company said.
Meta imagines Glimmer being used for things like managing schedules, drafting messages, and organizing files — tasks that would require large amounts of access to personal data. By processing the information on a user’s device instead of sending it to the cloud, Meta is laying the groundwork for a more privacy-sensitive personal agent. Glimmer is also designed to be “always-on” and able to operate “anywhere, anytime, with or without an internet connection.”
That vision mirrors the future Mark Zuckerberg has previously laid out for Meta. Last year, he argued that advanced AI should empower individuals rather than stay concentrated in the hands of a few companies, while also warning that Meta would have to be careful about which of its increasingly powerful models it released openly due to safety concerns.
In a new letter Monday, Zuckerberg reiterated that vision, arguing that distributing superintelligence widely “has the potential to begin a new era of personal empowerment where individuals can use this powerful new capability to reach their full potential, pursue their interests, and improve their lives and the world more than ever before.”
Zuckerberg went on to list the ways Meta’s superintelligence can improve a person’s life, from providing a capable personal agent that “will work 24/7 on your behalf to improve your relationships, health, career, finances, home management, hobbies, and more” to giving people access to tools needed to create a new business or advance scientific progress. The biggest promise of all is that “everyone will have free or affordable access to these tools.”
But access isn’t the same as ownership. Zuckerberg’s promise to distribute superintelligence widely comes as Meta is increasingly distinguishing between models it will release openly and those it will keep under its control. Muse Spark, its more powerful mode, remains closed-weight, while the smaller Glimmer can be downloaded, fine-tuned, and run on a user’s hardware.
As a result, Glimmer offers an early indication of where Meta may draw the line between the AI it wants people to own themselves and the more powerful intelligence that remains under the company’s control.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
Rebecca Bellan is a senior reporter at TechCrunch where she covers the business, policy, and emerging trends shaping artificial intelligence. Her work has also appeared in Forbes, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and other publications.
You can contact or verify outreach from Rebecca by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at rebeccabellan.491 on Signal.
