Meta Platforms, Inc. (META)

Meta sells advertising across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and spends the profit on expensive bets that do not yet pay.

Nearly all revenue is advertising inside its own apps. Value to the advertiser depends on targeting accuracy, which makes access to behavioural data critical. Tracking limits in iOS once removed a meaningful part of that effectiveness, and the answer was to rebuild the ad stack around machine learning on first-party data.

The second storyline is short video and the recommendation feed: competition with TikTok pushed the company from a follow-based feed to an algorithmic one, which in turn restored engagement growth. A separate cost line is Reality Labs, the headset and virtual environment arm, which loses money consistently and is the main point of contention between investors and management.

The third factor is artificial intelligence: the open Llama models, assistants inside the apps, and the compute to run them. It is simultaneously a retention tool and a large capital expense. The principal risks are regulatory — personal-data rules in Europe and transparency requirements for advertising algorithms.