Mark Zuckerberg and Meta had a transformative 2024, marked by aggressive AI investments and remarkable financial success. Meta’s stock surged 66% year-to-date, adding more than $84 billion to Zuckerberg’s personal wealth according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The company reported earnings beats every quarter and declared its first-ever dividend in February.
Meta’s AI initiatives took center stage throughout the year. The company announced in September that its Meta AI chatbot is on track to become the most-used AI assistant in the world by year’s end. Meta released multiple versions of its Llama AI model, including Llama 3 in April and the recently launched Llama 3.3 earlier this month. According to Minda Smiley, senior analyst at EMarketer, “Meta’s sheer size paired with its AI capabilities have really been a boon for them this year.”
The hardware division also flourished with AI-powered innovations. Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses received significant AI upgrades, including features that help wearers remember things and translate speech in real time. At the annual Meta Connect developer conference, the company unveiled the Quest 3S mixed-reality headset and debuted Orion, its first augmented-reality glasses prototype. Wall Street responded enthusiastically, with Citi analysts calling the newest Ray-Bans a “must buy” and Jefferies analysts expressing increased bullishness on Meta’s AI opportunities.
Meta’s AI capabilities supercharged its advertising business, with advertisers increasing spending as AI features enhanced targeting and performance. Despite massive AI infrastructure investments, the company maintained strong quarterly earnings growth. Meta estimated capital expenditures of $38-40 billion for 2024, up significantly from $28.10 billion in 2023, driven primarily by AI spending.
Zuckerberg underwent a personal transformation, adopting a more relatable public image while strategically positioning himself for the incoming Trump administration. He dined with President-elect Trump at Mar-a-Lago and Meta donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. The company also invested nearly $19 million in federal lobbying during the first nine months of the year.
Looking ahead to 2025, Zuckerberg declared that “next year is a big year for Meta glasses” and predicted that “glasses will be the next major computing platform.” The company plans to continue its AI spending spree while extending its “year of efficiency” philosophy, balancing innovation with financial discipline.
Key Quotes
From a bird’s-eye view, all in all, it was a successful year for Meta. Despite the massive amounts of spending they’ve been doing, they were still able to have growth each quarter in their earnings.
Minda Smiley, senior analyst at EMarketer, summarized Meta’s 2024 performance, highlighting the company’s ability to balance aggressive AI spending with consistent financial growth—a challenge many AI-focused companies struggle to achieve.
Meta’s sheer size paired with its AI capabilities have really been a boon for them this year. Advertisers are already spending so much, they were even before the AI really took off, and this has only really supercharged that.
Smiley explained how Meta’s AI integration created a virtuous cycle in its advertising business, demonstrating how AI can enhance existing revenue streams rather than just creating new ones.
next year is a big year for Meta glasses… glasses will be the next major computing platform.
Zuckerberg’s December prediction signals Meta’s strategic direction for 2025, positioning AI-powered smart glasses as the successor to smartphones in the computing ecosystem.
I still think there’s a long way to go from the consumer adoption perspective and even just what they’re actually doing with their technology, but they’re certainly making strides and trying to really illustrate the real world use cases.
Smiley provided a balanced perspective on Meta’s AI hardware ambitions, acknowledging progress while noting that consumer adoption remains the ultimate test of these AI-powered devices.
Our Take
Meta’s 2024 performance offers a masterclass in AI strategy execution. While competitors like Google and Microsoft have struggled to monetize their AI investments, Meta successfully integrated AI across its entire ecosystem—from advertising algorithms to consumer hardware to open-source models. The company’s approach of making Llama open-source is particularly shrewd, building goodwill and ecosystem lock-in while competitors pursue closed models.
The timing of Meta’s AI pivot couldn’t be better. By shifting focus from the metaverse to AI, Zuckerberg avoided the fate of companies over-invested in unproven technologies. The Ray-Ban smart glasses represent the perfect convergence of AI and hardware—practical, fashionable, and genuinely useful. If Meta can maintain this momentum while navigating regulatory challenges and political relationships, 2025 could see the company cement its position as an AI leader alongside OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. The real test will be whether consumers embrace AI-powered wearables at scale.
Why This Matters
This story represents a pivotal moment in the AI industry’s evolution, demonstrating how established tech giants are leveraging AI to transform their core businesses and create new product categories. Meta’s success in 2024 proves that massive AI investments can deliver tangible business results when integrated strategically across advertising, consumer products, and infrastructure.
The implications extend beyond Meta’s balance sheet. The company’s achievement in building what may become the world’s most-used AI assistant challenges the dominance of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots, intensifying competition in the generative AI space. Meta’s open-source Llama models are democratizing AI development, enabling smaller companies and researchers to build sophisticated AI applications.
For businesses and consumers, Meta’s AI-powered smart glasses and AR prototypes signal the next computing paradigm shift. The integration of AI into everyday wearables could fundamentally change how people interact with technology and information. For the broader tech industry, Meta’s ability to maintain profitability while spending tens of billions on AI infrastructure sets a benchmark for sustainable AI investment, addressing investor concerns about AI’s return on investment that have plagued other companies.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-big-year-meta-stock-products-ai-glasses-2024-12