JULY 31 – Social media giant Meta Platforms says its profits soared and it is pumping billions of dollars more into artificial intelligence (AI) projects.
The firm – which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – says revenue for the three months to the end of June rose 22% from the same period last year to $47.5bn (£35.86bn), while profits jumped by 36% to $18.3bn.
At the same time expenses are also rising – up 12% to $27bn – as the company ploughs money into fulfilling chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s AI ambitions, and its spending is expected to keep rising.
Meta says the cost of building infrastructure, including servers and data centres, and workers’ pay packages will be its biggest expenses.
Before Meta’s earnings announcement on Wednesday, Zuckerberg posted a video on Instagram describing his plans for developing what he called “AI Superintelligence” that surpasses “human intelligence to solve complex problems”.
He also said Meta will create “personal superintelligence” that uses advanced AI for everyday tasks such as helping users remember things like wedding anniversaries and then making reservations or ordering a gift.
Mike Proulx from research and advisory firm Forrester said Meta is helping “future-proof itself as a growth company” in the event that its current offerings falter.
Meta has been seeking to catch up with rival artificial intelligence developers like OpenAI and Google after the release of Llama 4 family of large language models (LLMs) left some users and investors disappointed.
It has offered $100m pay packages to top AI talent to lure them away from competitors.
Meta has also spent more than $14bn on a stake in artificial intelligence firm ScaleAI and brought in its chief executive Alexandr Wang to help spearhead its efforts.
Zuckerberg’s strategy has been to use the strength of Meta’s core businesses to help fund its AI projects.
He said 3.4 billion people around the world use at least one Meta app every day.
Meta has also deployed AI to improve its advertising business.
But the the cost of developing superintelligence have raised concerns among some analysts.
“AI-driven investments into Meta’s advertising business continue to pay off, bolstering its revenue as the company pours billions of dollars into AI ambitions like superintelligence,” said Minda Smiley from market research firm Emarketer.
“But Meta’s exorbitant spending on its AI visions will continue to draw questions and scrutiny from investors who are eager to see returns,“ she added.
Meta’s shares jumped by more than 10% in extended trading in New York after its earnings announcement.
By BBC
