Meta’s AI Growth Powers 2024 Profit Surge, Stock Hits New Highs

Meta’s profits and revenue for 2024 rose sharply, leading to an increase in its stock prices. The company plans to significantly expand its AI infrastructure, which is boosting investor confidence.

On Wednesday, Meta, a major social media company, announced that its profits and revenue for 2024 have risen sharply. They also shared exciting plans to grow their artificial intelligence infrastructure in the coming year.

Positive expectations about the company’s AI future caused its shares to rise by up to five percent in after-hours trading, but this eventually settled at a two percent increase.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he thinks that Meta’s AI technology can make the company a leader in the field. However, he also noted that it will take time to achieve this because of the large investments required.

The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp reported a 59 percent increase in net income, reaching $62.36 billion for the entire year. In the fourth quarter, their profits rose by 49 percent to $20.84 billion.

Revenue was $164.5 billion, a 22 percent increase from 2023. This growth was driven by better advertising results, with ad prices going up by 10 percent and the number of ads shown increasing by 11 percent across its platforms.

The strong results come as Meta changes its content rules to win favor with US President Donald Trump.  Recently, the company discontinued its US fact-checking program, which aimed to combat misinformation. This decision was criticized by conservative groups who saw the program as a form of censorship.

Zuckerberg mentioned that 2025 will be an important year for changing how we interact with governments.  Zuckerberg told analysts that the current US government supports American companies, focuses on helping US technology succeed, and will protect American values and interests internationally.

Meta has reduced its diversity programs and loosened its rules on content moderation, especially for some types of speech. These changes might worry big advertisers who are cautious about their ads showing up next to controversial content.  During the analyst call, Meta’s CFO mentioned that the changes did not affect ad revenue.

User Base Grows to 3.35B Daily Users, Up 5% YoY

The company’s user base continued to expand, reaching 3.35 billion active daily users across its platforms in December 2024, representing a 5% increase year over year.

Meta is planning to invest a lot in its infrastructure, expecting to spend $60–$65 billion in 2025, mainly to support its AI projects. Total expenses are expected to be between $114 billion and $119 billion.

Zuckerberg said he believes this year a smart and personalized AI assistant will reach over 1 billion people, and he thinks Meta AI will be the top assistant. 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, which focuses on virtual reality, reported an operating loss of $4.97 billion for the fourth quarter. This loss was less than expected, and the unit earned $1.1 billion in sales.

In 2024, the company grew its staff by 10 percent, reaching 74,067 employees. They also plan to hire more people for technical jobs related to AI development and infrastructure.

Last month, Meta announced it will lay off 3,600 employees, which is 5 percent of its workforce, because they are considered low performers. The company aims to hire new talent to improve its strength. Meta’s stock has done well, but the company is dealing with government rules and new competitors.

Chinese startup DeepSeek has developed a cheaper AI model, which has led Meta to set up special teams to examine and possibly incorporate these new ideas into its Llama AI models. The company expects to earn between $39.5 billion and $41.8 billion in the first quarter of 2025, an increase of 8–15 percent compared to the same time last year.

This view is more positive than expected and suggests that Meta’s recent changes in content moderation might affect their revenue in the next quarter, according to Debra Aho Williamson from Sonata Insights.