Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) stands as one of the most influential technology companies in the world, connecting more than 3.2 billion people daily—over 70% of the world's internet users—through its family of social media and communication platforms. Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, Meta has evolved from a Harvard dorm room project into a global technology powerhouse with a market capitalization of $1.85 trillion, making it the seventh-largest publicly traded company in the world as of 2025.

Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, Andrew McCollum, and Eduardo Saverin as TheFacebook, the company originally served Harvard students before expanding to the general public in 2006. What began as a simple social networking site has transformed into a comprehensive technology ecosystem encompassing Facebook (3+ billion monthly active users), Instagram (the world's third-largest social platform), WhatsApp (the fourth-largest), Messenger (seventh-largest), and Threads (320 million monthly active users as of Q4 2024). The company's 2021 rebrand from Facebook to Meta Platforms reflected a strategic pivot toward building the metaverse—an interconnected digital ecosystem spanning virtual and augmented reality technologies.

Meta's financial performance in 2024 was extraordinary, generating $164.50 billion in revenue with $62.36 billion in net income. The company's Family of Apps segment alone produced $162.4 billion in revenue, predominantly from advertising ($160 billion annually), demonstrating Meta's dominance in digital advertising powered by sophisticated machine learning algorithms and unparalleled user data. As of December 2025, Meta's trailing twelve-month revenue reached $189.45 billion, with the company employing 78,450 people worldwide. The business model remains remarkably focused: approximately 99% of revenue stems from advertising across its platforms, where businesses pay to reach precisely targeted audiences based on user behavior, interests, and demographics.

The company's ambitious investment in the future is evidenced by Reality Labs, its virtual and augmented reality division. While Reality Labs generated $2.1 billion in revenue in 2024, it posted operating losses of $17.7 billion, bringing cumulative losses since 2020 to over $69 billion. Despite these losses, Meta remains committed to the metaverse vision, with CTO Andrew Bosworth identifying 2025 as "a critical year for determining the viability of the company's metaverse strategy." The division's products include Meta Quest 3 VR headsets and Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, which sold over 1 million units in 2024, signaling growing consumer interest in AR/VR technologies.

Meta's strategic priorities for 2024-2025 center on artificial intelligence and infrastructure. The company announced capital expenditures of $64-72 billion for 2025, primarily directed toward generative AI development and data center construction. In December 2024, Meta committed to a $10 billion AI data center in Louisiana—its largest ever—as CEO Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed that "Meta AI is on track to be the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year." The company's Llama AI model and Meta AI platform represent major bets on artificial intelligence that could reshape how billions of users interact with technology.

Recent policy shifts have garnered significant attention. In January 2025, Meta ended its use of third-party fact-checkers, replacing them with a user-run community notes system similar to X (formerly Twitter). The company also announced plans to roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. These changes reflect evolving corporate strategies under Zuckerberg's continued leadership. Meta also initiated its first quarterly dividend in February 2024 ($0.525 per share as of Q1 2025, representing a 5% increase), while spending $13.4 billion on share buybacks in the latest quarter—returning substantial capital to shareholders while maintaining aggressive investments in future technologies.