Sawt Falasteen - Meta posts big profit, aims to take AI lead

The bullish projection about the company's AI future sent shares in the company spiking by as much as five percent in after hours trading, though this later steadied to two percent.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he believed that Meta's AI powers would make it a world leader on the technology, even if he warned that delivering on the hefty investments needed would "take time."

The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp saw its net income soar 59 percent to $62.36 billion for the full year, while fourth-quarter profits jumped 49 percent to $20.84 billion.

Revenue reached $164.5 billion, up 22 percent from 2023, boosted by stronger advertising performance as ad prices rose 10 percent and impressions increased 11 percent across its platforms.

The solid performance comes amid significant shifts in Meta's content policies intended to endear the company to US President Donald Trump.

The company recently announced the end of its US fact-checking program aimed at combating misinformation, a move that followed criticism from conservative voices who viewed such efforts as censorship.

Zuckerberg said that 2025 was going to be a "big year for redefining our relationship with governments."

"We now have a US administration that is proud of our leading companies, prioritizes American technology winning, and that will defend our values and interests abroad," Zuckerberg told analysts.

Meta has also scaled back diversity initiatives and relaxed content moderation rules on its platforms, particularly regarding certain forms of speech -- changes that could potentially concern major advertisers who are wary of having their ads appear alongside divisive content.

On the analyst call, Meta's chief financial officer said the changes had not had an impact on ad revenue.

- User growth -

The company's user base continued to grow, reaching 3.35 billion daily active users across its platforms in December 2024, a 5 percent increase year-over-year.

Looking ahead, Meta plans massive infrastructure investments, with expected capital expenditures of $60-65 billion for 2025, primarily supporting AI initiatives. Total expenses are projected to reach $114-119 billion.

"In AI, I expect this is going to be the year when a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant reaches more than 1 billion people, and I expect Meta AI to be that leading assistant," Zuckerberg said.

But he warned the investments would "be expensive for us to serve all of these people, because we are serving a lot of people."

Meta's Reality Labs unit, which encompasses its virtual reality endeavours, posted a lower-than-expected operating loss of $4.97 billion while generating $1.1 billion in sales during the fourth quarter.

The company expanded its workforce by 10 percent to 74,067 employees in 2024, with plans for further growth in technical roles focused on AI development and infrastructure.

Meta last month said it will dismiss 3,600 employees (5 percent of its workforce) identified as low performers, with the intention to bring in new talent to strengthen the company.

While Meta's stock has performed strongly, the company faces both regulatory challenges and emerging competition.

The rise of Chinese startup DeepSeek's more economical AI model has reportedly prompted Meta to establish war rooms to study and potentially adapt the innovations for its own Llama AI models.

The company projects first-quarter 2025 revenue between $39.5-41.8 billion, representing growth of 8-15 percent year-over-year.

This was a lighter outlook than expected and "indicates that Meta's recent content moderation changes may be having an impact on revenue in the coming quarter," said Debra Aho Williamson of Sonata Insights.

P.Tamimi--SF-PST