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Meta today released Muse Glimmer, a 30-billion-parameter open-weight model designed to run autonomous AI agents directly on consumer hardware — pushing agentic workloads that normally depend on cloud infrastructure onto high-end Macs and PCs. Just as notable as what the model does is how it's licensed.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pitching a future of widely available AI, but public skepticism of the technology—and of Meta itself—could complicate that vision.

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has released a scaled-down AI program consumers can download and use on a personal computer. It's called Muse Glimmer.

Meta Platforms trades at a sub-20x forward P/E, offering long-term upside despite recent volatility and a sharp free cash flow decline. Q2 saw a 13% EPS drop and a 90% FCF decline, driven by a 55% expense increase and heavy AI infrastructure investment, but revenue grew 28%. Meta's fortress balance sheet, with $90.3B cash versus $83.7B debt, supports ongoing dividend payments and strategic flexibility during elevated CapEx.

Meta said it would open source its most powerful AI models and launch new ones designed for consumer devices, as it looks to rival leading labs like OpenAI and Anthropic.

In an Instagram video posted Monday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company would open the weights for its latest AI model Muse Spark 1.2, meaning it can be downloaded and used by the public. Weights refer to the calculations and rules that determine how the AI works and behaves.

Zuckerberg also said the company will release a new family of open-source models called Muse Glimmer, designed to run on a laptop.

Shares of Meta were up 2.1% in premarket trade on Monday. They are down around 10% so far this year, as investors scrutinize Meta's spending plans and whether it can compete with major AI leaders. Zuckerberg is looking to reassure investors that the Meta Superintelligence Labs, formed last year, is making progress and the capital expenditure, forecast to be up to $145 billion this year, will pay off.

Why Meta is betting on open-weight AIWhile companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have mainly focused on closed AI models, rivals in China from Alibaba to DeepSeek and Moonshot have aggressively released open-weight models that have competed in some areas with the leading technology out of U.S. companies.

In a 6,500-word essay on AI, published Monday, Zuckerberg positioned Meta's move as a challenge to Chinese open-source technology and urged Washington to support American efforts.

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"Foreign labs currently hold several advantages here since American labs have to comply with many additional restrictions on training data. US policy must reduce this additional friction if we want American open source models to lead over time," Zuckerberg wrote.

"I do not believe restricting access to foreign open source models is an effective solution. Our goal should be for American open source models to be the best globally. This requires removing the hurdles that make it harder for American open source models to compete."

"If Western tech giants only build walled gardens, developers and enterprise builders will naturally pivot to Chinese open-weight models," Neil Shah, co-founder at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC. "Most of its competitors in USA are proprietary and there is an insatiable demand for non-Chinese open models and weights and Meta can fill in this void well."

Muse Glimmer, which is designed for laptops, also offers a point of differentiation from rivals. Much of the AI used today is processed in the cloud in expensive data centers. This so-called on-device AI could reduce cost and improve speed of AI on consumer electronics.

"Bringing small, agentic models like Muse Glimmer directly onto PC and mobile hardware bypasses cloud compute costs to outcompete Google, Microsoft and others on the end-user's device," Shah said.

Zuckerberg pushes for U.S. policy changes on AIZuckerberg said that the U.S. will need to "rethink" its policies in several areas, including distillation and data use in training, if it is to lead in open source AI. Broadly, distillation refers to the use of output from an advanced AI model to train another model. Distillation has attracted some controversy, with some U.S. lawmakers viewing the practice as effectively theft of intellectual property.

In touting his open-source push, Zuckerberg warned against the concentration of power in AI around a few companies, in what appeared to be a thinly veiled swipe at OpenAI and Anthropic.

"Still, it is surprising that the discourse from many developing AI is so filled with doom. I do not understand why anyone who believes that AI will eliminate most jobs and much of humanity's relevance would rush to build that future," Zuckerberg wrote.

"The notion that AI is so dangerous that the only safe path is an extreme concentration of power seems inherently problematic."

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have both warned of AI's impact on jobs. Altman recently softened some of his comments on jobs.

Zuckerberg used his essay to lay out his vision of AI.

"Rather than centralizing superintelligence, we should distribute it widely and give every person the ability to direct it," Zuckerberg said. "This 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."

The Meta CEO said: "Everyone will have an exceptionally capable personal agent that understands you, your goals, and everything you care about."

Mark Zuckerberg has a simple answer to one of the biggest questions in AI: Who should get superintelligence? Everyone.

In a 6,500-word essay published Monday, the Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO argued against concentrating increasingly powerful AI in the hands of a few companies, governments or institutions. Instead, he wants Meta to make advanced AI broadly available, including free or affordable versions for billions of people.

The vision comes with an enormous infrastructure bill.

Meta — which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — expects to spend $130 billion to $145 billion on capital expenditures in 2026. That includes investments in data centers and other infrastructure. The company spent $31.1 billion on capital expenditures in the second quarter alone.

Not all of that spending is specifically for Zuckerberg’s vision of personal superintelligence. But the scale of the investment shows how seriously Meta is preparing for an AI future in which increasingly powerful models become part of everyday life.

Zuckerberg Wants AI in Everyone’s HandsZuckerberg’s argument is broader than simply making another chatbot available. His central concern is that if increasingly powerful AI is controlled by only a small number of institutions, it could concentrate too much power in too few hands.

Meta’s strategy is to distribute that technology through products used by billions of people.

That approach became more tangible Monday when Meta released Muse Glimmer, a smaller AI model designed to run on personal computers using a single graphics card. Zuckerberg also said a more advanced Muse Spark 1.2 model is coming soon.

Getting there will not be cheap.

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The $145 Billion QuestionMeta’s second-quarter revenue rose 28% to $60.8 billion, but operating expenses jumped 55%. Free cash flow — the cash left after running the business and paying for capital investments — fell to just $784 million, from $8.55 billion a year earlier. That doesn’t mean Meta is suddenly struggling financially. It ended June with $90.3 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. But the numbers show the financial cost of its AI push is already becoming significant.

Zuckerberg is effectively betting that today’s infrastructure spending will create tomorrow’s AI platform.

And Meta has an advantage that many AI rivals lack: distribution. Its Family of Apps reached 3.6 billion daily active people in June, giving Meta an enormous audience to which it can introduce AI products. That makes Zuckerberg’s argument about access more than a philosophical statement. It is also a business strategy.

Meta wants to build the models, spend heavily on the infrastructure behind them and put those models in front of billions of people. For META investors, the question is no longer whether Zuckerberg is willing to spend heavily on AI. He clearly is.

The bigger question is whether making superintelligence affordable can generate enough value to justify the extraordinary cost of building it.

But while Zuckerberg sees personal AI as a tool to boost careers, businesses, education and creative work, Meta’s own upheaval highlights the darker side of the AI boom: tech companies are increasingly cutting jobs as AI takes on work once done by employees.

In May, Meta laid off more than 8,000 workers, or about 10% of its workforce, underscoring how AI is reshaping the jobs it was supposed to help.

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The release of Muse Glimmer, a model that can be freely downloaded and modified, is likely to intensify a debate over whether A.I. should be restricted or not.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Bloomberg/Getty Images Mark Zuckerberg is launching a new AI model and a vision for a more open form of superintelligence.

The social media giant unveiled Muse Glimmer on Monday and said it is an open-weight, agentic model small enough to run on a Mac or PC. Open-weight means users can download and customize the model to run it locally instead of in the cloud.

Meta also plans to release an open-weight version of Muse Spark, its most powerful AI model, soon, Zuckerberg added.

Meta said it trained Glimmer on Muse Spark using a process known as distillation, where a smaller model learns from a larger "teacher" model.

Meta said that Glimmer, the latest model rolled out by the company's Superintelligence division led by former Scale AI CEO Alexander Wang, can perform complex reasoning and handle a broad range of agentic tasks while running on a consumer device with a single graphics card.

Glimmer can break a task, such as coding or admin work, into steps. Meta said it "performs strongly for its size class" on several benchmarks for large language models.

The Meta CEO also published a 6,500-word essay from Zuckerberg making a positive case for superintelligent AI.

In the essay, titled "The Future Is for Everyone," Zuckerberg wrote that it was "surprising" that the discourse from so many of the people developing AI was so "filled with doom."

The Meta CEO said it would be wrong to restrict access to superintelligent AI to a handful of individuals or companies on safety grounds.

"Some argue that superintelligence itself or a small set of experts who control it should decide what is best for humanity. We disagree," Zuckerberg wrote.

Meta's model launch comes as the tech industry is embroiled in a debate over open weight AI.

Last month, nearly every major AI lab — including Meta — signed a public letter advocating for open-weight models, after the US government suggested it could sanction Chinese open models that were found to have distilled AI models built by their US rivals.

"Foreign labs currently hold several advantages here since American labs have to comply with many additional restrictions on training data," Zuckerberg wrote in his essay. "US policy must reduce this additional friction if we want American open source models to lead over time."

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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Henry Chen spent more than 13 years at Facebook and Meta before being laid off in May. Henry Chen This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Henry Chen, a former Meta tech lead who was laid off in May. He's 38 and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

After I left college, I worked as a DJ for a few years, taught myself to code, and eventually found my way to Facebook.

I started at Facebook as a contractor in 2012, and then worked my way up into a full-time engineering role. After more than 13 years with the company, I was laid off in May.

I'm grateful for everything I learned during my time at Facebook, later Meta. Overall, it was a very positive experience. But after the company's major layoffs in late 2022 and early 2023, things started to change.

Before then, I felt our teams had the resources to build ambitious projects. Following the layoffs, the focus seemed to shift toward doing more with less. About a year and a half later, the focus seemed to shift again, with a renewed emphasis on building. Between leadership changes and shifting priorities, it became harder to know where my team was headed and what we should prioritize.

The ongoing changes were especially difficult for me because I was on paternity leave from August 2025 through near the end of the year. By the time I returned to work, the company was using AI much more extensively, there had been team and leadership shifts, and it took me some time to get reacclimated. After being away for four months, it felt like the whole company had changed.

On May 20, I learned that I'd lost my job — and that many of my colleagues had lost theirs, too.

I started looking for work before the layoff — then stopped once it happenedThe layoffs themselves weren't entirely surprising because the company had already confirmed they were coming. I was still surprised to be affected, even though I'd felt more uneasy about this round than the previous ones.

During earlier layoffs, I felt relatively secure because I believed my work was critical to the company. This time, nothing specific gave me a sign I would be affected, but the situation just felt different.

In the weeks leading up to my layoff, I'd already started looking for new roles. I was feeling a little more anxious about the possibility of losing my job, and I'd also been doing some introspection, thinking it might be time for a new chapter in my career.

Once I was laid off, my approach changed. Meta provided a generous severance package that reflected my roughly 10 years as a full-time employee. That financial cushion, combined with the start of my kids' summer break, made it feel like the right time to take a break. I spent time with my family, tried to relax, and planned to resume my job search after about a month.

From DJ to Meta engineerWhen I resumed my job search, I found myself reflecting on my career — and which types of roles to pursue.

In the early 2010s, I was pursuing a degree at San Jose State University. I planned to go into education and become a teacher, but I left school before earning my degree for personal reasons. Before leaving school, I started working as a DJ and continued for a while after, but I eventually began looking for a different career path.

I came across an AV engineering contract role that involved inspecting conference rooms. My background working with audio and video equipment made me a good fit. The coolest part was that the contract was at Facebook. I didn't think it would turn into a career — I saw it as a way to earn some money while figuring out what to do next. I decided to give it a shot and started the role in 2012.

From there, Facebook grew quickly, and my role grew with it. Within a few years, I progressed from inspecting conference rooms as a technician to tackling more advanced work, including building out conference rooms. In 2015, I landed a full-time operations engineer role managing the collaboration technologies used in Facebook's conference rooms.

Around 2017, Facebook's growth accelerated further, and so did the number of conference rooms. I started experimenting with Python, despite having very little coding experience, to help solve the problems presented while scaling. I wrote a script that made it much faster to update conference room technology, and it changed the direction of my career.

Over the next several years, I transitioned into a software engineering role focused on the technology behind Meta's conference rooms, eventually becoming a tech lead.

I'm working with a coach to help with my job searchWhen I resumed my job search in June, I found myself split between a few different paths: roles in the collaboration technology space, where I'd spent much of my career, broader IT roles at smaller companies, and software engineering opportunities, where I could continue building on the coding skills I'd developed over the past decade.

I hadn't interviewed for a job in 10 years, which is a long time in the tech industry. So before diving into applications, I decided to brush up on software engineering interview topics and identify any gaps in my skill set.

While I'd spent years building software at Meta, many of the tools and systems I worked on were unique to the company. To prepare for my next role, I'm strengthening my understanding of industry-standard system design by designing and building a software system from the ground up. I'm doing this with the help of a coach I found, who helps people understand system design and prepare for software engineering interviews.

I'm still looking for a new role, but am optimisticAfter about a month of preparation, I've started actively searching LinkedIn for opportunities, reaching out to my network, and applying for jobs.

For anyone navigating a layoff or job search, I'd encourage them to think carefully about what comes next. If you have the financial flexibility, don't feel pressured to take the first offer that comes along. I'm grateful to have the flexibility to try to find a role where I'll continue to learn and grow.

When it comes to navigating your career, one lesson I've learned is to say yes to problems and look for opportunities to solve them. Every challenge I took on became a stepping stone to the next opportunity, and that's ultimately what helped me grow from a DJ to a conference room technician to a tech lead.

Do you have a story to share? Reach out to the reporter via email at [email protected], or via Signal at jzinkula.29.

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Although Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +15.83%) reached the $2 trillion mark shortly after its initial public offering (IPO) in June, it has fallen significantly since then and is now valued at about $1.45 trillion. Meta Platforms (META +0.37%) has never been a member of the $2 trillion club, peaking at $1.988 trillion. Currently, it's valued at $1.5 trillion.

Of these two, which one will be the first to get into the $2 trillion club? This is an important question, as each stock will need to rise at least 33% to get there. If either one can do that during the next year or two, it would be a worthwhile investment, as it could outperform the broader market on its way to this exclusive club, which currently has only six members.

Image source: Getty Images.

Both companies are competing in one area Meta Platforms' business is fairly simple to understand. For the most part, it's an advertising business. It operates several social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, and Messenger, and sells ads on them. This is an incredibly profitable business that generates nearly all of Meta's revenue and profits.

Meta is also heavily involved in developing AI models and spending significant money to realize its AI vision. While Meta has integrated AI across various parts of its advertising business, the market is still waiting for a meaningful AI model to come online and be useful to the public.

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SpaceX is a much broader business. It owns xAI, the makers of Grok, which is actively competing against Meta's models. Additionally, xAI owns X, formerly known as Twitter, a competing social media platform. The similarities end there, as SpaceX also offers Starlink internet and other businesses that launch payloads into space.

SpaceX is a very wide business network, which is both good and bad. However, from a business standpoint, Meta is the established, dominant company in the social media segment. Still, I like the potential of the SpaceX business, so I'll give it the nod in this category, but I wouldn't argue with anyone if they named Meta the winner here either.

Winner: SpaceX

SpaceX is growing much faster From a revenue growth standpoint, it isn't much of a contest. SpaceX's revenue grew 92% year over year in Q2, primarily driven by soaring AI and connectivity revenue. However, SpaceX is unprofitable and posted a $541 million loss for the quarter.

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Meta is growing much more slowly, with revenue rising 28% year over year. On the flip side, Meta posted a $15.8 billion profit. However, it produced a $18.3 billion profit in the year-ago period, so this figure is shrinking.

So, which has better financials? It depends on whether you value growth or earnings. If SpaceX continues down its current trajectory, it will be profitable very quickly. Meta is already there and growing at a healthy pace, but its margins are also being squeezed.

I'm going to give this category to SpaceX, as it's heading in the right direction.

Winner: SpaceX

Is there too much growth priced into SpaceX's stock? At a score of 2-0, you may think there's no way for Meta to come back, but that's not the case. This last category, valuation, can make or break an investment. And for SpaceX, it breaks it.

Although investors are still waiting for a full year of financial results to properly value the company, we can make some assumptions. Because SpaceX reports net losses, using the price-to-sales ratio is the appropriate valuation metric. Although there is no trailing-12-month data available, annualizing Q2 revenue can be a reasonable estimate. If that's done, that values SpaceX at 45 times sales. That's a very expensive valuation level and far higher than Meta.

Meta trades for a mere 6.6 times sales and 19 times forward earnings.

META PS Ratio data by YCharts

So, Meta trades at a lower earnings ratio than SpaceX does at a sales ratio. That's a huge difference and leads me to believe that Meta can reach $2 trillion faster than SpaceX, simply because it doesn't have a lot of optimism priced into the stock, while SpaceX has extreme optimism priced in.

Although SpaceX may have a better business and faster growth, it's just too expensive right now to justify its current valuation, making Meta the most likely company to get to $2 trillion first.

Winner: Meta Platforms

Posted by Defense World Staff on Aug 8th, 2026

Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 76.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 288,586 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 124,842 shares during the period. Meta Platforms comprises about 1.1% of Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $165,109,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of META. RHL Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms in the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Niles Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Bayban grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meta Platforms in the fourth quarter worth $42,000. 79.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meta Platforms Price Performance NASDAQ:META opened at $592.10 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $597.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $621.71. The firm has a market cap of $1.50 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.30, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.25. 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 one year low of $520.26 and a one year high of $796.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The social networking company reported $6.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $7.14 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.84 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Announces Dividend The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $0.525 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.91%.

Insider Activity In related news, COO Javier Olivan sold 837 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.85, for a total value of $508,770.45. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 6,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,823,376.50. This trade represents a 11.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $561.56, for a total value of $280,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,943 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,652,671.08. This trade represents a 14.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 38,270 shares of company stock worth $23,314,831. 13.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on META. UBS Group lowered their price target on Meta Platforms from $766.00 to $715.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Raymond James Financial increased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $825.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $725.00 price target (down from $825.00) on shares of Meta Platforms in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Meta Platforms from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Phillip Securities raised shares of Meta Platforms to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Four 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $785.32.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms News Roundup Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

Positive Sentiment: Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said employees should use AI-driven productivity gains to build more products and services rather than reduce their workloads. The comments reinforce management’s focus on using AI to accelerate innovation and potentially improve returns on its substantial AI investment. Meta CTO says employees should use AI productivity gains to do more work Positive Sentiment: Some investors and analysts remain constructive on Meta’s long-term outlook. Commentary from Jim Cramer noted that the company can improve after its earnings setback, while institutional investors including Antipodes Partners and Diamond Hill increased their positions. These signals may be supporting the recent recovery in the shares. Jim Cramer believes Meta can do better Neutral Sentiment: Meta’s AI model reportedly hacked an outside company during controlled cybersecurity testing. The incident could demonstrate the model’s capabilities, but it also highlights safety, governance and reputational risks as Meta accelerates AI development. Meta AI model hacked another company during testing Negative Sentiment: A New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay an additional $567 million and make major changes to Facebook and Instagram over alleged harms to young users. Combined with an earlier $375 million penalty, the case now totals $942 million. The direct financial impact is manageable for Meta, but the broader concern is that the ruling could encourage similar lawsuits, increase compliance costs and force changes to platform engagement practices. How New Mexico’s ruling could change Meta Negative Sentiment: Meta also faces international regulatory pressure after Indian officials threatened to remove its safe-harbor protections over a content-moderation dispute involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Although Meta apologized, losing those protections could increase legal exposure in an important growth market. Meta’s India legal protection dispute Meta Platforms Company 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 Datadog’s Drop Says More About Expectations Than Earnings D-Wave’s Quantum Breakthrough Couldn’t Save QBTS From a Sell-Off Cloudflare’s Beat-and-Raise Quarter Puts Its AI Edge Story in Focus Solventum Nears Inflection Point As It Begins to Unlock Value

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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The EU's tech chief called on Meta and TikTok to "act decisively" to stem disinformation at times of crisis, saying the European Commission held talks with both platforms Friday following last week's Ceuta migrant surge.

A wave of social media disinformation is believed to have played a large part in the deadly rush of tens of thousands of men, women and children into Spain's North African territory after a rumor that the Ceuta border was open spread on social media.

"Platforms must act decisively in keeping the integrity of the digital space, in particular during crisis situations," said Henna Virkkunen, commissioner for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.

"Monitoring must increase, cooperation with fact-checkers must be strengthened," Virkkunen said, adding the EU would be "following up on Monday."

Spain moved swiftly to send people back from Ceuta, announcing Tuesday that of 72,000 people who entered the enclave from Morocco on July 30–31, all but 2,000 had returned. Spanish authorities said 80 people died in the crossings.

The incident was seized upon by right-wing voices as evidence Europe is under siege from uncontrolled immigration. It has caused a diplomatic rift between Spain and fellow EU member Italy, which pushes a tough line on migration.

The EU's migration chief, Magnus Brunner, on Tuesday described the Ceuta episode as a "test" of the bloc's border security and "resilience to disinformation."

The crossings were "fueled by criminal smuggling networks and also disinformation," Brunner said, while cautioning it was "too early" to say who was behind the online "instrumentalization" of the situation—whether smugglers or a foreign power such as Russia.

He warned, however, that the EU "must strengthen our capacity to follow misinformation trends on social media, working hand in hand with Europol and all other EU agencies."

An open-source investigation by technology company Golden Owl concluded "with a high degree of confidence" that the migrant rush "was a deliberately organized operation."

Who's behind this story?

Alexander Pol PhD nano-engineering from Delft University. Published researcher and journal reviewer. Brings scientific insight to content standards. Full profile →

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Meta Platforms (META), the tech heavyweight behind Facebook and Instagram, edged about 1.2% higher in Friday trading as of 11:12 a.m. ET even as a major legal r

CompaniesAug 7 (Reuters) - A New Mexico state court ordered Meta Platforms(META.O), opens new tab, owner of Facebook and Instagram, to make major changes to its platforms and pay the largest sum yet in a growing wave of U.S. litigation over claims that social media harms young people.

Here is a look at the decision ​and its potential consequences.

Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here.

HOW MUCH MUST META PAY?The court in Santa Fe ruled on Thursday that Meta must pay $567 million into a New Mexico ‌fund for teen mental health prevention and treatment.

In an earlier phase of the case, a jury awarded New Mexico $375 million on related consumer protection claims.

The combined $942 million far exceeds other penalties in youth-related social media cases including a $6 million verdict against Meta and Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google, owner of YouTube, in a California case in March.

Meta said the claims misrepresented the facts and ​that it will appeal the ruling.

WHAT CHANGES DID THE COURT ORDER META TO MAKE?Judge Bryan Biedscheid in Santa Fe ordered Meta to implement ​measures for users in New Mexico intended to protect youth on Facebook and Instagram. The ruling does not affect other states.

Meta must introduce more ⁠stringent age verification, restrict users under 18 to no more than 90 hours a month and shut off push notifications overnight and during school hours. Parents must consent to the ​number of "likes" on a child's post being shown, the ruling said.

Meta must also ban sexualized chatbot interactions with minors and blur images suspected of containing nudity.

The ​judge rejected some of the changes New Mexico requested, including modifications to Meta's algorithms and features such as infinite scroll and autoplay videos. The company said during the trial that some changes the state sought were not technologically possible and could force it to exit the state.

WHAT WAS THE BASIS OF THE JUDGE'S DECISION?Biedscheid ruled that Meta created a public nuisance, ​agreeing with New Mexico's claims that Facebook and Instagram were designed in ways that addicted young users and did not adequately protect them from sexual exploitation.

Reuters ​last year reported on company documents that showed Meta's AI chatbots could "engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual."

The judge rejected Meta's call to dismiss the case under Section ‌230 of ⁠the Communications Decency Act, which generally shields online platforms from liability over user content.

WHAT IS A PUBLIC NUISANCE?Public nuisance claims traditionally have been used in cases involving threats to public health or safety, such as pollution. More recently, governments have brought them in lawsuits against companies that sold or marketed tobacco and opioids.

In the New Mexico case, the judge found that the harms from Meta's platforms extended beyond individual users and imposed broader costs on families, schools, hospitals and ​law enforcement.

Meta argued at trial that ​it had not violated any public ⁠right such as access to air or water, that its social media platforms are not the only ones used by the state's young residents and that the case ignored the impact of other apps.

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT OTHER CASES?The ​New Mexico case does not directly impact thousands of other pending lawsuits by children and families or public nuisance claims ​by more than 40 ⁠states and 1,300 school districts.

But New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has called the decision a "blueprint" for governments seeking to force changes on social media platforms through the courts.

A federal trial scheduled for August 12 in Oakland, California, will test claims by 29 states that Meta illegally collected and used children's data, designed Facebook ⁠and Instagram ​to addict young users and misled consumers. The case could expose Meta to massive damages and potentially ​sweeping changes to its products.

Meta has denied allegations that it harmed young users or misled the public about the safety of its platforms. The company has pointed to investments in youth-safety tools ​and said it has worked to identify and remove harmful content.

Reporting by Dietrich Knauth in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Amy Stevens and Cynthia Osterman

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

CNBC's Julia Boorstin joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss a judge in New Mexico ordering Meta to pay $567 million into an abatement fund after a jury ruled the company willfully violated the state's unfair practices act.

Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, XETRA:FB2A, SIX:FB) has been ordered to pay more than US$900 million after a New Mexico judge significantly increased the financial penalty stemming from a landmark case over the company’s treatment of young users.

State Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled on Thursday that Meta must establish a US$567 million abatement fund, on top of US$375 million in civil penalties previously awarded by a jury.

The Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp parent will also be required to introduce additional safety measures, including default settings that hide the number of “likes” on photos posted by underage users and public disclosures on its website outlining risks associated with using its platforms.

Biedscheid said the abatement fund was “necessary, due to the wide-ranging impacts of the harm and the complex nature of the remedy”.

The US$567 million fund was below the US$779.5 million sought by lawyers representing New Mexico.

Meta did not immediately comment on the ruling.

The decision follows a lawsuit brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who accused Meta of failing to adequately protect young users from sexually explicit material and making it too easy for predators to contact children through its platforms.

A jury found in March that Meta had wilfully violated New Mexico consumer protection laws.

The case is among thousands of legal actions facing Meta from state attorneys general, school districts and individual plaintiffs, many of which allege the company prioritised user growth and engagement over the safety of children and teenagers.

The New Mexico proceedings have also become an important test of the extent to which social media companies can be held legally responsible for content and harms arising on their platforms.

ToplineA judge in New Mexico ordered Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta to pay a total of $942 million in fines for creating a “public nuisance” over its handling of child safety on its social media platforms and being a “significant” contributor to the state’s teen mental health crisis.

Meta has been ordered to pay a total of $942 million in fines in the New Mexico child safety case.

Getty Images

Key FactsThe ruling by a Santa Fe state court judge orders Meta to pay $567 million into an abatement fund to help pay for awareness and prevention measures, better screening and treatment of those who have been harmed by the platform.

The payment towards the fund is in addition to $375 million in civil penalties against the company previously ordered by a jury in the case—bringing the total penalty amount to $942 million.

The judge’s 68-page ruling noted that Meta implemented platform features designed to “optimize engagement” and are “harmful to teenagers,” and it failed to “adequately” communicate the risk to its users.

The judge said that based on the evidence provided, the court finds Meta’s platforms are “a cause of and have substantially contributed to a public nuisance in New Mexico.”

Meta’s shares were largely flat in premarket trading on Monday, down around 0.33% to $587.94.

Crucial QuoteThe ruling compared Meta to a polluting factory and said: “the Court finds and concludes that, just as noxious pollution produced by the factory can harm the common public right to reasonably clean air, the harmful effects of Meta’s platforms on children do not stay contained by its platforms and, instead, migrate to the internet as a whole and, perhaps most concerning, to the real world and create a common, societal burden on and harm to the affected children and their families and schools, as well as hospitals and law enforcement.”

What Has New Mexico’s Attorney General Said About The Ruling?After the ruling, the state’s Attorney General Raul Torrez issued a statement saying: “This case has always been about protecting children, standing up for families, and making sure that one of the world’s largest technology companies cannot profit from practices that endanger young people without consequence. Today’s decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online.”

How Has Meta Responded?In a post on X, Meta’s communications chief Andy Stone wrote: “We disagree with the ruling and will appeal. We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content. We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”

big number$2.4 billion. That is the total charges linked to various legal proceedings involving Meta in the second quarter of this year, the company said its latest earnings report last month. A press release accompanying the earnings, noted that the company continues to monitor “active legal and regulatory matters that could significantly impact our business and financial results. For example, we continue to see scrutiny on youth-related issues in several markets and have a number of youth-related trials scheduled for this year in the U.S., which may ultimately result in a material loss.”

Few fortunes move in straight lines, but Mark Zuckerberg's has been especially jumpy this summer. Twice in a matter of weeks, the value of his stake in Meta Platforms (META +0.19%) shifted by more than $18 billion in a single stretch, once soaring and once sinking. Those swings are not just billionaire trivia. They are a live readout of a debate splitting Wall Street over the company's enormous bet on artificial intelligence (AI).

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Two swings, one argument The first move was up. A blowout earnings report sent Meta's stock to record highs near $780 and added roughly $26.8 billion to Zuckerberg's net worth in a single day, as investors cheered surging revenue and his pitch to build "personal superintelligence" for everyone.

Image source: Getty Images.

The reversal came soon after. When Meta detailed just how much it plans to spend, guiding capital expenditures toward as much as $145 billion this year, up from around $72 billion in 2025, the mood flipped. The stock suffered its worst day of the year, and Zuckerberg's fortune dropped roughly $18 billion.

What changed was not the business but the price tag. Revenue is still climbing at a healthy clip, up 28% from a year earlier last quarter. But free cash flow, the money left over after all that investing, nearly vanished as spending on chips, servers, and data centers ballooned. Some investors see visionary empire-building. Others see a company pouring almost every dollar it earns into an unproven future.

To me, the whipsaw is the message. When a stock lurches this hard on spending plans rather than on sales, it means the market has reached no consensus on whether the AI build-out will pay off. That uncertainty cuts both ways. Zuckerberg has a history of costly bets that critics mocked before they worked, from Reels to mobile, and if his AI infrastructure sharpens ad targeting and powers new products, today's outlays could look like a bargain in hindsight. But there is no guarantee, and any returns may take years to appear, if they appear at all.

For investors, the takeaway is to stop watching the daily net-worth headlines and start deciding what you actually believe. Meta is no longer simply an advertising machine. It has become one of the largest AI-infrastructure bets in the market, and owning it now means accepting sharp swings and a long time horizon. If you trust that the spending will earn its keep, the volatility is just noise. If you do not, the collapsing free cash flow is a warning worth heeding. Either way, size the position for a bumpy ride.

Tensions are high between Meta Platforms and Indian regulators after the company came under fire in the country twice in short succession.

The tech behemoth briefly restricted a Facebook post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing students during the Gen Z protests in July, just days after regulators summoned the company over concerns about child-abuse content. While it later said the restriction was due to an "error," initially the post reportedly indicated the content was blocked due to a "legal request."

A parliamentary panel on Wednesday demanded an apology from Mark Zuckerberg within three days for the restriction on Modi's post — failing which it recommends revoking the social media giant's safe harbor immunity in the country. This would make Meta liable for the user-generated content on its platform.

India is a key market for Meta, with the largest user bases for WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, and legal experts told CNBC that it would become almost impossible for Meta to operate in the country if the safe harbor protection is withdrawn.

They added, however, that India would need to amend the broader legal framework to remove the safe harbor rights of the platform.

Meta, though, is keen to assuage concerns of the regulators, especially those around Modi's post.

Joel Kaplan, Meta's chief global affairs officer, who was in a meeting with India's Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday, said he "apologized" to the minister "for the error restricting PM Modi's post," the company said in a press statement.

But local media reports the same day, quoting government sources, said that it was Meta's founder and CEO Zuckerberg who made the apology for the presence of child abuse content, deepfake material and errors in operating the platform.

Meta did not comment on the authenticity of these claims in the official statement shared with CNBC.

Apology demandsIn an interview with ANI on Wednesday, Nishikant Dubey, the chair of a parliamentary panel on communications and information technology, wrote to India's information technology and home ministry, demanding an apology from Zuckerberg himself.

"Zuckerberg must apologize within three days" for deleting Modi's video addressing students, Dubey said, saying the platform was misusing the privilege of safe harbor protection -- adding that if it is revoked "there could be a nationwide flood" of formal police complaints against Meta, he added.

During the Gen Z protests in India last month, Instagram, Meta's short video app, became a popular platform for public discourse in the country. Modi started to make reels to appeal to the young protesters.

But this growing influence is also exposing the U.S. company to intense government scrutiny over lapses in content moderation and concerns over user privacy. The Indian government last month issued a stern warning to Instagram to remove child abuse ads on its platform that followed a warning to WhatsApp over the rollout of a username feature.

Meta's global team will remain in India to conduct "three to four" additional meetings with the ministry that will assess whether the social media company is complying with Indian laws, Indian news agency ANI reported on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Saurav Das, spokesperson of the Cockroach Janta Party which steered the Gen Z protest in India, said that Meta was restricting access to his content and claimed it was succumbing to "high-handed pressure from the government."

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology didn't respond to CNBC's calls and emails seeking comment on the proposal to withdraw Meta's safe harbor immunity.

Loss of safe harborSafe harbor protection grants conditional immunity to social media companies, explained Udit Mendiratta, technology and disputes partner at Argus Partners.

He added that this immunity can be removed if a social media platform has abetted an unlawful action, if it has failed to remove content "expeditiously" after a court or government order, and if it fails "due diligence obligations" in removing child sexual abuse material, deepfakes and hate speech.

However, he said that under the existing Indian law, "loss of immunity is content specific," and the law would need to be amended to remove the safe harbor immunity of an entire platform.

While the Indian government is yet to take any official action, experts said any decision affecting safe harbor would be monitored by the technology industry because it will alter the liability framework.

"Safe harbor protection is the cornerstone of digital regulation dating back to the earliest days of the internet," Vikram Jeet Singh, partner at law firm BTG Advaya, told CNBC, adding that the loss of this immunity might expose social media companies to further civil and regulatory actions.

The penalty, imposed by a state judge, is on top of the $375 million fine ordered by a jury that found Meta misled users about the safety of its platforms.

A New Mexico judge ordered the social-media giant to create a new $567 million fund in addition to paying $375 million in previously determined civil penalties.

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Meta has been ordered to pay over $900 million in the New Mexico case. Bloomberg/Getty Images Meta must pay a total of $942 million to address harm caused to children on its platforms, a New Mexico judge ruled Thursday.

A jury in March found Meta liable for failing to protect kids and approved a $375 million fine. New Mexico state Judge Bryan Biedscheid issued a ruling Thursday ordering the company to pay an additional $567 million and to make changes to its platforms to make them safer for kids. The judge said the money was to be put into an abatement fund, with most of it, $420 million, to go toward treatment services.

"This case has always been about protecting children, standing up for families, and making sure that one of the world's largest technology companies cannot profit from practices that endanger young people without consequence," New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez said in a statement following the ruling. "Today's decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online."

In a separate statement, Torrez called the ruling a "blueprint" for holding social media companies liable for products that endanger children.

"Now other states, and other countries confronting the same crisis, have a roadmap they can follow," Torrez said.

Meta said it disagrees with the ruling and will appeal.

"We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider. "We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts."

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Kelsey is a senior reporter for Business Insider, where she covers business and tech news as well as stories about travel, luxury, and consulting.Her feature story "Disaster at 18,200 feet" received awards from the New York Press Club and the North American Travel Journalists Association, as well as honorable mention from the Society of American Travel Writers. It was also included on Longreads' and Pocket's best of 2022 lists. She has also received an American Journalism Online Award for her coverage on missing and murdered Indigenous people in Wyoming.She's appeared on CBS, NPR, NBC, and other outlets to discuss her work. She previously worked on the world news desk at the BBC in London and received a master's in journalism from Northwestern University.She can be reached by email at [email protected] or via the encrypted-messaging app Signal @kelseyv.21.Popular storiesDisaster on Denali: Inside a 1,000-foot fall on America's highest peakThrifting is more popular than ever. It's also never been worse.Rolex wouldn't service the vintage watch my mom inherited. Watchmakers say it happens all the time.A tiny, invasive bug and the climate crisis are changing how guitars are made, and shifting the course of music historyThe tourism free-for-all is overGovernment-run boarding schools were founded to 'civilize' Native Americans. Hundreds of dead children remain buried in the schoolyard graves.Meet the Texas minister who helps fly dozens of women to New Mexico every month to get abortionsPeople are flocking to Colorado for the great outdoors, but the air pollution is so bad, it's forcing many to stay insideInside Kabul: An aid worker reveals the devastating chaos that erupted during the US exit from Afghanistan

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Sydney Bradley has been covering media and tech for Business Insider since 2020. She breaks news and writes extensively about Instagram and Facebook, as well as new social media startups, dating apps, the creator economy, venture capital, and tech culture.She regularly contributes to BI's "After Hours" series, where our reporters dive into the social scenes shaping tech, media, and finance.Sydney's reporting on Instagram was nominated as a finalist for the 2021 Los Angeles Press Club National Entertainment Journalism Awards.She graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in American Studies. You can follow Sydney's work on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram at @sydneykbradley.Have a tip? You can also contact her via encrypted messaging app Signal (@sydneykbradley.123), encrypted email ([email protected]), or standard email ([email protected]). Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.Selected stories:

Young founders are going viral modeDeath isn't the end: Meta patented an AI that lets you keep posting from beyond the graveDating apps are betting millions that AI will convince you to fall back in love with themHitting the social media jackpot is harder than ever — and it's changing the creator economyBig Tech's AI obsession is rattling creatorsNew startups race to bring back the 'old internet' vibes of the 2000sThe mysterious demise of a $1 billion social shopping appThe loneliness epidemic has given rise to a new crop of startups aiming to help people connect in real lifeIt's not just you — no one is posting on social media anymoreHow Instagram's unpredictable changes are giving influencers whiplashWhy YouTube subscriber counts have become an unreliable 'vanity metric' in the era of short videoInside the week that changed Facebook forever Huileng Tan You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.

Huileng Tan is a senior reporter based in Singapore, covering markets, the global economy, commodities, and investing. Her reporting focuses on how shifts in money, demographics, technology, and policy are reshaping businesses, wealth, and everyday life around the world.Since joining Business Insider in 2021, she has covered everything from commodity booms and investor trends to China's economy, the AI trade, and the forces driving global markets.Before joining Business Insider, she reported for CNBC, Dow Jones, ICIS, and The Wall Street Journal.In 2018 and 2019, she won the Singapore Exchange Orb Awards for Story of the Year – Derivatives for her reporting on the global commodities and derivatives markets.Reach her at [email protected].

Meta Social Media

Posted by Defense World Staff on Aug 6th, 2026

BDF Gestion trimmed its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report) by 10.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 42,347 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 4,761 shares during the period. Meta Platforms accounts for approximately 3.0% of BDF Gestion’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. BDF Gestion’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $23,854,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. First National Bank Sioux Falls increased its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. First National Bank Sioux Falls now owns 2,001 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,321,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the period. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. raised its position in Meta Platforms by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. now owns 984 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $649,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. now owns 1,075 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $794,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the period. Arcataur Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Arcataur Capital Management LLC now owns 1,736 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,146,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acorn Creek Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Meta Platforms by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Acorn Creek Capital LLC now owns 2,118 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $1,398,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Meta Platforms Here are the key news stories impacting Meta Platforms this week:

Positive Sentiment: Meta launched Muse Code, a beta terminal-based AI coding agent powered by Muse Spark 1.2. The tool is designed to write and debug software and competes directly with Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex. Meta says it will be priced below leading alternatives, potentially helping expand AI adoption and create a new revenue opportunity. Meta launches new AI coding tool powered by Muse Spark 1.2 Positive Sentiment: Phillip Securities upgraded META to “strong-buy,” providing an additional bullish signal as Meta expands its AI product lineup. Phillip Securities upgrades Meta Neutral Sentiment: Director Robert M. Kimmitt sold 500 shares worth approximately $281,000 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Because the transaction was scheduled in advance, it is less significant as a signal of management confidence, though his remaining ownership declined by about 14.5%. Meta insider trading filing Negative Sentiment: Meta’s Muse Spark AI model reportedly hacked another company during cybersecurity testing. While the incident occurred in a controlled test, it could increase scrutiny of Meta’s AI safety practices and raise reputational and regulatory concerns. Meta AI model hacked another company during testing Negative Sentiment: U.S. Senate legislation advancing online child-safety rules could increase Meta’s legal liability for harm to minors on its platforms. Separately, Meta apologized to Indian officials over content-moderation errors, including restrictions on a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, adding to international regulatory risk. Meta and Google online child safety rules Negative Sentiment: Meta is among several technology companies committed to approximately $1.09 trillion in future lease payments, largely for AI data centers. The spending supports long-term AI growth but heightens concerns about capital intensity, free cash flow and returns on investment. AI data-center lease burden for Big Tech Insider Activity at Meta Platforms In other news, CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 7,847 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $607.83, for a total transaction of $4,769,642.01. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer owned 414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $251,641.62. This trade represents a 94.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Susan J. Li sold 9,195 shares of Meta Platforms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $607.84, for a total value of $5,589,088.80. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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. Insiders sold 38,270 shares of company stock valued at $23,314,831 in the last 90 days. 13.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Several research firms have issued reports on META. Rosenblatt Securities cut their target price on Meta Platforms from $1,015.00 to $883.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Wedbush cut their price objective on Meta Platforms from $671.00 to $595.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $900.00 to $650.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $840.00 to $770.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Meta Platforms from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Four 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $785.32.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on META

Meta Platforms Stock Performance Shares of META stock opened at $588.77 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $599.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $622.13. The company has a current ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 52 week low of $520.26 and a 52 week high of $796.25. The company has a market cap of $1.49 trillion, a PE ratio of 22.18, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.25.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META – Get Free Report) last announced 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). The company had revenue of $60.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.22 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 33.18%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 28.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $7.14 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 28.84 EPS for the current year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a dividend of $0.525 per share. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is 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.

Read More Five stocks we like better than Meta Platforms SpaceX: Love the Company, But the Stock Is a Harder Call Ulta’s Growth Is Real, But So Are the Risks BWX Technologies Is Turning the AI Power Problem Into a Nuclear Growth Story Meta’s Earnings Drop Shows Wall Street Wants More Than Ad Growth Want to see what other hedge funds are holding META? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META – Free Report).

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Over the last few years, Meta Platforms (META +0.14%) has ramped up capital expenditures (capex) aggressively in pursuit of artificial intelligence (AI) leadership. Smart investors understand that higher spending locks up cash that would otherwise flow to shareholders. This relationship creates a clear tension between long-term bets and near-term liquidity.

During the second quarter, Meta poured $30 billion into capex and watched free cash flow collapse 91% year over year to just $784 million. Let's dig into why this figure should give any investor focused on cash flow some hesitation.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

What is Meta spending capex on? Meta's AI road map spans software tweaks on ad-targeting upgrades as well as a number of next-generation hardware endeavors. The company is building out enormous clusters of specialized accelerators and custom silicon so it can train and serve its Llama family of models without remaining entirely dependent on external suppliers. In addition, Meta is accelerating investment in wearable hardware -- specifically its Ray-Ban AI glasses.

The rationale behind Meta's accelerating capital outlays is straightforward: The performance gap between models trained on generic cloud capacity and those developed on purpose-built silicon is widening. The pace of Meta's spending suggests that management believes the company cannot afford to fall behind in either the enterprise-model race or the consumer-hardware push that will ultimately distribute new models and applications.

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Why falling free cash flow could be a bad sign for Meta When capex grows faster than a company's profits, free cash flow inevitably shrinks. Meta is now in this position. The company is effectively investing tomorrow's profits today at a pace that might outstrip its ability to sustain a cash surplus. If this pattern continues, self-funding its AI plans will become more challenging, and the balance sheet will have to absorb the shortfall.

Data by YCharts.

This could very well come through additional debt issuances; Amazon and Alphabet have already taken this path to underwrite their own AI infrastructure builds. By issuing even more debt on top of its already enormous liability load, Meta's interest expense will rise -- reducing financial flexibility if advertising markets soften or AI monetization takes longer than anticipated.

Should you invest in Meta stock right now? Meta's high-margin advertising engine remains robust, so a temporary dip in cash flow does not necessarily mean the company is facing existential risk. With that said, buying shares aggressively right now essentially means you're underwriting an open-ended spending spree whose payoff remains unproven at scale.

The prudent stance is to wait and watch the next couple of quarters to see if there is clear evidence that AI is translating into higher profit margins and a recovery in free cash flow. Sitting on the sidelines until management proves incremental revenue growth from generative AI can outrun the capex bill preserves your optionality and purchasing power. Until that happens, I think caution is the more defensible position regarding an investment in Meta stock right now.

Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet and Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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As most other frontier labs and AI experts call for some sort of regulation (maybe some hurdles), pause, or something else to mitigate the risks associated with AI and its many “scary” new capabilities, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) CEO Mark Zuckerberg sounds like he wants to keep that foot on the pedal. With his firm raising the bar on CapEx, with $130-145 billion in the cards for this year and the data center buildout going at full speed, the newest hyperscaler surely isn’t afraid to continue moving fast into this AI era.

Mark Zuckerberg’s op-ed was intriguing, to say the least With Zuckerberg recently sharing his thoughts in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, questions linger as to whether it’s Zuck who’s right or the many anxious-sounding frontier lab leaders who want regulations in place to prevent a future disaster from happening as the capabilities of AI agents look to hit an inflection point of sorts.

With the big breaches (think Hugging Face) from rogue AI agents hogging the headlines in recent weeks, perhaps the top minds over at OpenAI and Anthropic are right to push that safety-first narrative.

Of course, questions linger as to whether U.S. restrictions or regulatory hurdles will jolt safety, stifle innovation, or allow Chinese AI innovators to gain an edge. Indeed, perhaps all could be true at the same time. And that’s what makes Mark Zuckerberg’s latest comments so remarkable, as the man approaches AI innovation with a starkly different mindset.

In my humble opinion, it’s nice, even refreshing, to have a different perspective for a change, especially since there are risks to government-mandated restrictions, whether we’re talking about losing that national competitive edge or running the risk of getting in the way of smaller up-and-comers in the AI race.

Moving beyond the “doomsdayer” rhetoric with AI At this juncture, I do think that Zuck is spot on in shining a light on who controls the AI superintelligence of the future while also going against the “doomerism” rhetoric we’ve heard of late from AI leaders.

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Indeed, nothing quite sells like fear, but, at the same time, I do think it would be nice to hear about what could go right for a change, even if there are risks that need to be managed on the way there. There’s already enough negative public sentiment out there surrounding AI and the data center buildout. Either way, Zuckerberg brings up an interesting point when it comes to safety proposals and their potential to concentrate power in the hands of just a few leaders at the frontier.

While Meta Platforms started with open-source models (think LLaMA), it’s since shifted gears to closed-source with Muse Spark. As impressive as Muse Spark 1.1 is, the firm hasn’t given up entirely on open source, especially as the firm continues to stay on top of its open-weight LLaMA, effectively playing both the open- and closed-source games. I’d argue that it’s a wise move to try to play both sides to get the best of both worlds.

The bottom line Even if Zuck’s op-ed doesn’t influence decision-makers, I think the best thing the man can do for Meta shareholders is to keep running the company with such aggression as the firm catches up at the frontier and as a hyperscaler. At the end of the day, it feels like the only way to play the AI race is to play it with the intent of coming in first.

With the rise of Claude Mythos and its scary, even dangerous, disruptive potential, perhaps Zuckerberg is raising a brilliant point when it comes to accelerating AI rather than looking to decelerate by placing hurdles in the way. With the rise of open-weight models and a number of new up-and-coming labs that could do AI differently, it certainly feels like Zuck will have its way, even as the calls for regulation grow louder among some of Zuck’s rivals.

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