6. Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META)
Motley Fool Asset Management’s Stake: $76.06 Million
Mark Zuckerberg is on a spending spree despite Wall Street concerns about ROI, but bulls believe this huge CapEx would make sense in the long term. Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) has already started to see results of using AI technology.
Meta Platforms’ (NASDAQ:META) AI-powered ads platform Advantage+ improves return for advertisers, which can in turn increase budget allocation toward Meta’s platforms. Market research firm eMarketer estimates that Meta’s net digital advertising revenue could reach approximately $240+ billion by 2026, slightly ahead of Alphabet’s Google in the same category. Meta has over 3 billion daily active users across its family of apps. This scale provides both data advantages for AI training and consistent operating cash flow to fund infrastructure expansion without balance sheet stress.
For the first quarter of 2026, Meta expects $53.5 billion to $56.5 billion in revenue, ahead of analyst estimates of $51.41 billion. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is also planning to reduce its reliance on Nvidia chips by accelerating the deployment of its own custom silicon, the Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA), to lower long-term compute costs. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is down 2 so far this year, and its forward P/E is now 21x, down from its historical average of 25.5x and lower than major Magnificent Seven peers and the broader industry average for high-growth tech.
Ads remain one of the biggest strengths of Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META). Advertising revenue reached $196 billion in 2025, up 22% year over year. The company is already using AI to improve ad targeting. Its generative advertising model, built on an LLM-inspired approach, helped drive a 3.5% increase in Facebook ad clicks and a more than 1% gain in Instagram conversions in the fourth quarter.
Meta ranks sixth in our list of the best AI stocks to buy according to Motley Fool Asset Management.
Harding Loevner Global Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Meta Platforms, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:META) business remained sturdy, markets began questioning whether AI-enabled gains in user engagement and ad targeting are nearing their limits. Investors also grew concerned that margins would decrease next year because of increased spending on AI infrastructure and workers.”
While we acknowledge the potential of META to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than META and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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