Meta Platforms has achieved a remarkable milestone, with its stock completing a historic 16-day winning streak that pushed shares up 17% and brought the company close to a $2 trillion valuation for the first time. According to Bloomberg data, this represents the longest consecutive gain streak of any Nasdaq 100 company since 1990, cementing Meta’s position as a crown jewel in the AI investment landscape.
The rally began in late January when CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to invest over $60 billion in AI infrastructure in 2025, a massive 54% increase from the $39 billion spent in 2024. Unlike competitors such as Google-parent Alphabet, which saw its stock tumble after announcing $75 billion in capex spending, Meta has successfully navigated investor concerns about returns on massive AI investments.
Meta’s resilience was particularly evident during the DeepSeek crisis that wiped out $1 trillion in market value across the tech sector. While Big Tech peers and AI hyperscalers tanked, Meta shares continued climbing. The company’s open-source AI strategy, exemplified by its Llama 4 model, likely insulated it from the worst of the correction. Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun leveraged the moment to argue that “open source models are surpassing proprietary ones.”
Fourth-quarter earnings provided additional fuel for the rally, revealing a fourfold increase in adoption of Meta’s generative AI tools among advertisers. More than 4 million Meta advertisers now use the company’s GenAI creative tools, up dramatically from 1 million just six months ago. Morgan Stanley noted that “digital ads continue to be one of the sector’s leading the GenAI tool curve,” expecting further innovation in image and video creative tools to drive more durable growth.
Zuckerberg outlined ambitious AI goals during earnings commentary, teasing plans to launch leading AI assistant technology in 2025. He believes Meta could develop an AI agent with coding skills equivalent to a mid-level engineer by year’s end, and predicted that 2025 would be the year an AI assistant reaches 1 billion users. Recent workforce reductions to cut costs have also contributed to investor optimism about the company’s operational efficiency.
Key Quotes
open source models are surpassing proprietary ones
Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun made this statement during the DeepSeek market turmoil, using the Chinese AI model’s success to validate Meta’s open-source strategy with Llama 4 and differentiate the company from competitors pursuing proprietary AI approaches.
Digital ads continue to be one of the sector’s leading the GenAI tool curve… as more than 4mn META advertisers are now using one of META’s GenAI creative tools, up from 1mn 6 months ago
Morgan Stanley analysts highlighted this dramatic growth in their post-earnings commentary, demonstrating that Meta is successfully monetizing its AI investments through its core advertising business, unlike competitors still searching for clear revenue streams from AI spending.
We expect further image and video creative tool innovation and adoption to drive higher ad quality and performance, along with more durable growth
This Morgan Stanley projection underscores confidence that Meta’s AI tools will continue improving advertiser outcomes, creating a virtuous cycle of adoption and revenue growth that justifies the company’s massive capital expenditure plans.
Our Take
Meta’s extraordinary performance reveals a crucial lesson about AI investment strategy: execution and monetization matter more than spending levels alone. While Alphabet’s larger $75 billion budget spooked investors, Meta’s $60 billion plan energized them because the company demonstrated concrete returns through advertiser adoption metrics. The open-source positioning also proves strategically brilliant—it allowed Meta to benefit from DeepSeek’s disruption rather than suffer from it. Zuckerberg’s specific, measurable predictions (1 billion AI assistant users, mid-level engineer coding capabilities) provide accountability that vague AI promises lack. The 16-day streak isn’t just a statistical curiosity; it represents sustained conviction that Meta has cracked the code on profitable AI deployment. If the company delivers on its 2025 roadmap, this rally may be remembered as the moment markets definitively separated AI winners from pretenders.
Why This Matters
Meta’s historic stock performance represents a critical inflection point in how markets are evaluating AI investments among Big Tech companies. The stark contrast between Meta’s rally and Alphabet’s post-announcement decline suggests investors are making nuanced distinctions about AI strategy execution, with Meta’s open-source approach and demonstrated monetization through advertising tools winning favor.
The fourfold increase in advertiser adoption of generative AI tools validates the business case for massive AI infrastructure spending, addressing a key concern that has plagued the sector. This tangible return on investment could set a new benchmark for how AI companies demonstrate value to shareholders.
Meta’s resilience during the DeepSeek crisis also signals a potential shift in AI development philosophy. The success of open-source models may accelerate industry movement away from proprietary systems, with significant implications for competitive dynamics. Zuckerberg’s prediction of 1 billion AI assistant users by year-end, if realized, would represent the fastest adoption of any technology platform in history, fundamentally reshaping how billions of people interact with digital services and potentially disrupting entire industries from customer service to software development.
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