Meta Platforms, Inc. (META)

Meta Platforms, Inc. builds technology that helps people connect and share, find and build communities, and grow businesses. Its products run on mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality (VR) headsets, and AI glasses. The company is investing heavily in artificial intelligence, including generative AI and the development of what it calls superintelligence, and it is moving toward immersive augmented and virtual reality experiences, which it sees as the next computing platform. It has released its Llama foundation models as open source and expects to train a mix of open and closed models.

Meta reports two segments. Family of Apps (FoA) includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads, WhatsApp (including WhatsApp Channels), and Meta AI, an assistant available across the apps, as a stand-alone app, on AI glasses, and on the web. Reality Labs (RL) develops Meta Quest VR devices and the Meta Horizon Store, and wearables such as the Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta AI glasses and Meta Ray-Ban Display with the Meta Neural Band. It also works on long-term AR efforts, including the Orion prototype. In 2025, 82% of total costs and expenses were in FoA ($96.29 billion) and 18% in RL ($21.40 billion). RL is expected to keep operating at a loss for the foreseeable future, and about 70% of 2026 RL operating expenses are planned for wearables and 30% for VR and Horizon.

Substantially all revenue comes from selling advertising placements to marketers across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads, WhatsApp, and third-party apps and websites. RL earns revenue from consumer hardware, software, and content. Most marketers use a self-service ad platform, supported by a global sales force that works directly with advertisers and through agencies and resellers. RL products are sold through retailers, resellers, distribution partners, Meta.com, and several Meta stores, to both consumers and enterprises. Users, developers, and businesses are also customers of the platform, and the user base has historically grown organically as people invite friends.

Meta has designed and built its own data centers and key parts of its technical infrastructure, and a substantial portion is provided by third parties. It depends on the availability of components, power, and network capacity. It competes with companies offering online connection, sharing, discovery, and communication products, companies selling advertising, companies developing frontier AI models, and makers of consumer hardware and AR/VR products. It is subject to regulation covering privacy, data use, youth protection, AI, competition, and other areas, and relies on patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets to protect its intellectual property. Meta had 78,865 employees at December 31, 2025, and offices in more than 90 cities. It was incorporated in Delaware in 2004, went public in 2012, trades on Nasdaq as META, and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.