“I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,” Elon Musk tweeted a year ago, referring to Meta Platforms founder Mark Zuckerberg.
“Send location,” replied Zuckerberg.
The fight never happened, but if stocks had corner men, Tesla’s might be throwing in the towel. Meta has outperformed Tesla by 100 points since then. Zuckerberg’s relative youth and…
“I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,” Elon Musk tweeted a year ago, referring to
founder Mark Zuckerberg.
“Send location,” replied Zuckerberg.
The fight never happened, but if stocks had corner men,
Tesla
’s
might be throwing in the towel. Meta has outperformed Tesla by 100 points since then. Zuckerberg’s relative youth and zeal for extreme fitness and martial arts haven’t factored into the win, as near as we can tell. Instead, credit a corporate course correction from the metaverse to artificial intelligence.
When Zuckerberg, 40, began talking excitedly in the fall of 2021 about the future of avatar interactions in the metaverse, investor eyebrows arched. When the pace of investment spending became clear, noses crinkled. And even the name change from Facebook to Meta Platforms still feels like a poorly thought-out tattoo.
Meta is still spending, but now it’s buying something that investors understand—artificial-intelligence might. Returns are already rolling in. AI is recommending a rising percentage of posts on Facebook and Instagram, and telling advertisers which content creators might be good fits for their brands. A growing number of Facebook and Instagram users spend the bulk of their time on short videos served by algorithm—heretofore TikTok’s turf. Free cash flow more than doubled last year to $43 billion—a sign that Zuckerberg has returned Meta to fighting form.
Write to Jack Hough at jack.hough@barrons.com
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