Meta Platforms, once known as Facebook, has grown from a college networking site into one of the world’s most powerful tech giants. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard classmates Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes, the company began as TheFacebook.
It quickly caught fire among students and soon expanded to other universities. By 2005, it dropped “The” and became simply Facebook, a name that would soon dominate the digital era.
In 2006, the platform opened its doors to the public, igniting a social revolution. Just six years later, it made headlines with one of the biggest initial public offerings in tech history. From there, the company’s growth skyrocketed as it acquired Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. Both platforms turned into billion-user ecosystems, helping Facebook cement its global reach.
By 2021, the company rebranded to Meta Platforms, signaling a bold pivot toward virtual and augmented reality. This rebrand wasn’t just cosmetic; it reflected an ambition to build a “metaverse,” a connected digital universe. While that vision met mixed results, Meta’s strategic shift toward artificial intelligence (AI) is now driving its next major growth phase.
What Meta Really Does
At its core, Meta connects people. Its suite of apps, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, serves over three billion active users every month. Through these platforms, users share stories, photos, and moments, while businesses engage with customers worldwide.
To support these users and brands, Meta developed tools like Meta Business Suite, allowing companies to manage ad campaigns and interactions from one dashboard. Beyond social networking, Meta has expanded into immersive technology through Reality Labs, the branch responsible for its virtual reality products.
Reality Labs designs innovative devices such as Quest VR headsets and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. These products blend digital content with real-world experiences, creating new ways for people to connect and interact. The division also oversees Horizon Worlds and develops experimental hardware like neural interface wristbands.
The company’s latest frontier lies in AI. Meta’s powerful Llama models (Large Language Model Meta AI) drive its conversational assistant, Meta AI, capable of generating text, images, and videos while providing real-time information. Integrated directly into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, this assistant offers users creative and functional tools that enhance engagement.
How Meta Makes Money
Meta’s fortune largely stems from one thing: advertising. Roughly 98% of its revenue comes from ads displayed on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Every like, comment, or share provides data that helps advertisers reach the right audience. This precision targeting is what makes Meta’s ad system so valuable to businesses worldwide.
The company’s AI-powered Advantage+ ad suite has transformed how brands promote their products. These tools use machine learning to optimize ad performance, reduce costs, and improve returns. The impact has been massive, with an annual ad revenue run rate now exceeding $60 billion.
Although advertising remains its main source of income, Meta also earns money through hardware sales like VR headsets and smart glasses. Subscription-based and creator-focused features are slowly expanding its non-ad revenue. Additionally, the company is exploring AI monetization through enterprise tools and partnerships.
A Look at Meta’s Financial Power
Meta delivered an impressive third quarter in 2025, outperforming expectations with a 26% year-over-year revenue increase, reaching $51.24 billion. The surge came from higher ad impressions and stronger engagement across its apps. Despite a one-time $15.93 billion tax expense that reduced earnings per share to $1.05, adjusted figures reveal a healthy business performance.
Daily active users across Meta’s platforms grew 8% to 3.54 billion, while ad impressions increased 14%. Even better, the average price per ad climbed 10%, proving the strength of its AI-driven ad systems.
AI investments have boosted engagement across all major platforms. Users now spend more time scrolling through personalized content feeds curated by advanced recommendation algorithms. However, this AI expansion requires major investment. Capital expenditures for 2026 are projected to soar as Meta builds next-generation data centers to support its AI infrastructure.
While Meta’s advertising arm remains profitable, Reality Labs continues to record steep losses, around $4.4 billion last quarter alone. Despite that, the division’s long-term potential in VR and AR keeps Meta committed to innovation in this space.
The AI Transformation
Meta’s shift into a serious AI leader became unmistakable in 2025 with the launch of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). The new division brings all of Meta’s AI efforts under one coordinated umbrella. Led by Alexandr Wang, the founder of Scale AI, alongside Nat Friedman, MSL concentrates on four focus areas:
- Large Foundation Models – expanding the Llama lineup and moving steadily toward machine-level intelligence.
- AI-Powered Products – improving tools like Meta AI and the company’s suite of user-facing features.
- AI Infrastructure – building and operating the vast computing systems required for cutting-edge research.
- Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) – pursuing long-term scientific work that lays the groundwork for future breakthroughs.
This structure gives Meta a cleaner path to scaling new ideas. Paired with enormous investments across its technology stack, the company is positioning itself to compete directly with Google, OpenAI, and other AI titans.
Building the Future
To handle the demand of larger models and heavier workloads, Meta recently created a $27 billion partnership with Blue Owl Capital. The goal: build the Hyperion Data Center Campus in Louisiana, a massive facility designed specifically for modern AI operations. Hyperion is only the beginning—Meta is planning additional AI-ready data centers across multiple regions.
Meta also has multiple AI-optimized data centers planned for other regions. These investments reveal a company transitioning from a social media ecosystem to an AI infrastructure giant, owning more of the tech stack that supports its products.
The Smart Strategy Behind Meta’s Fortune
Meta’s long-term success rests on its ability to change course quickly. It has repeatedly reinvented itself—from a campus social site to a global platform, to VR, and now to an AI-driven technology powerhouse. This adaptability has kept Meta ahead of the competition for nearly two decades.
Its deep investment in artificial intelligence underscores this vision. Embedding AI across Meta’s products strengthens engagement, improves advertising performance, and opens fresh revenue paths. Even with Reality Labs operating at a loss, its potential for immersive digital experiences is hard for investors to ignore.
Meta continues to walk the line between near-term profits and sweeping technological bets, and that balance is central to its success.
What Lies Ahead for Meta
The company is preparing for its most ambitious chapter yet. Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of “personal superintelligence” places Meta at the center of the next major tech shift. As both AI and the metaverse evolve, Meta is building the foundation for how people may work, communicate, and create in the coming decade.
From its beginnings in a dorm room to becoming a trillion-dollar giant, Meta’s story is ultimately about reinvention—and its continued focus on AI suggests the transformation is far from over.