In This Article:
-
Meta Platforms has a vast ecosystem to monetize in the AI race.
-
The company is investing heavily in AI-related infrastructure.
-
The social networking giant has multiple avenues for growth ahead.
Artificial intelligence (AI) isn't new, but novel applications of the technology have become extremely popular in the past few years. Demand for AI-based services is already high, but according to some experts, we're arguably still in the early innings of this revolution.
Though many corporations are cashing in on this and are attractive from an investment viewpoint, one of my favorites is Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), the parent company of Facebook. Here are three reasons it is a top AI stock to buy.
Meta Platforms' AI initiatives include Meta AI, a chatbot the company first released in late 2023. Almost two years later, Meta AI boasts nearly 1 billion monthly active users. How was the tech giant able to scale this service so fast? The answer is that Meta Platforms already has a vast ecosystem of users across its websites and apps. As of the first quarter, Meta Platforms had 3.4 billion daily active users.
It's hard to overstate how crucial this advantage is for Meta Platforms. Whereas similar services from other companies might have to rely on other -- sometimes expensive -- methods to attract users, Meta Platforms can depend on its brand name and existing ecosystem. While Meta AI hardly generates any revenue for the company, scaling this opportunity first and then working on monetization is exactly how Meta Platforms has operated with other platforms, including WhatsApp. Meta Platforms will, eventually, find ways to monetize Meta AI.
In the meantime, the technology is impacting its results in other ways. Thanks to AI-powered recommendations on Instagram and Facebook, it is driving greater engagement on these websites, leading to stronger ad revenue. But once again, Meta Platforms can achieve these results mainly because of its already massive existing user base. The company's ecosystem will remain a significant strength in the AI race.
Being a leader in deploying various AI applications is not exactly cheap. The technology requires significant computing power. Increased demand for the infrastructure necessary to train and run AI applications is what's driving the immense success of a company like Nvidia, whose data center revenue has skyrocketed in the past few years. Meta Platforms is investing heavily in ensuring it isn't left behind. Management has explicitly stated its intentions to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into AI infrastructure-related expenses over the long term.