3. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 220
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) announced its own large language model called LLaMA earlier this year. The company already offers a chatbot service for small businesses. Recently, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) launched generative AI tools for advertisers that will allow them to test various text copies, images and other media for difference audience to optimize for ROI. In response to a question about generative AI, Mark Zuckerberg touched upon the company’s plans during Meta Platforms’ Q1 earnings call:
“Although there aren’t that many details that I’m going to share at this point, more of this will come in focus as we start shipping more of these things over the coming months. But I do think that there’s a big opportunity here. You asked specifically about advertisers, but I think it’s going to also help create more engaging experiences, which should create more engagement, and that, by itself, creates more opportunities for advertisers. But then I think that there’s a bunch of opportunities on the visual side to help advertisers create different creative. We don’t have the tools to do that over time, eventually making it. So we’ve always strived to just have an advertiser just be able to tell us what their objective is and then have us to be able to do as much of the work as possible for them and now being able to do more of the creative work there and ourselves for those who want that, I think, could be a very exciting opportunity.”
Artisan Value Fund made the following comment about Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“Our top contributors in Q1 were Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) and FedEx. Following sharp declines in 2022, shares of Meta Platforms have more than doubled since their early November 2022 lows. Last year’s drawdown created a highly favorable risk-reward, which we took advantage of by adding to our position. Management has wisely, in our view, recalibrated its spending plans to focus on profitability amid a weaker advertising environment, increased TikTok competition and Apple’s privacy changes. While investors got ahead of themselves back in 2021, extrapolating pandemic growth rates into the future, Meta is still a highly successful enterprise generating over $120 billion of revenue annually on a run-rate basis and has more than $40 billion in cash on its balance sheet to help it navigate its future course. Recent usage and engagement trends for Facebook and Instagram have been positive, and Reels—Meta’s answer to TikTok—is gaining traction.”
