Bloomberg Daybreak: Trump Deploys Marines to LA
On today's podcast: 1) The Trump administration escalated its response to anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles with the mobilization of 700 Marines, deploying active-duty military on the ground and increasing tensions with California officials. 2) Trade talks between the US and China will continue into a second day, according to a US official, as the two sides look to ease tensions over shipments of technology and rare earth elements. 3) Mark Zuckerberg, frustrated with Meta Platforms Inc.'s shortfalls in AI, is assembling a team of experts to achieve artificial general intelligence, recruiting from a brain trust of AI researchers and engineers who've met with him in recent weeks at his homes in Lake Tahoe and Palo Alto.
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Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
What Drove Meta Stock's 2x Rise?
PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 12: The Meta AI logo is displayed during the 9th edition of the VivaTech show ... More at Parc des Expositions Porte de Versailles on June 12, 2025 in Paris, France. VivaTech, the biggest tech show in Europe but also in a unique digital format, for 4 days of reconnection and relaunch thanks to innovation. (Photo) META Platforms stock (NASDAQ: META) has witnessed a substantial increase, spurred by investor enthusiasm over rising user interaction and consistently robust quarterly earnings. So far this year, Meta has gained 16%, significantly outperforming the wider NASDAQ index, which has increased by 2%. Examining a slightly extended timeframe, Meta's outperformance is even more pronounced. Since the beginning of 2024, Meta's stock has achieved a striking 97% return, rising from about $350 to roughly $700 per share. In comparison, the NASDAQ index recorded a 31% increase during the same timeframe. The remarkable 97% increase in Meta's stock can be linked to three primary factors: We will explore the details of these factors. While META stock has had a positive trajectory, if you seek an upside with a steadier experience than an individual stock, consider the High Quality portfolio, which has surpassed the S&P and recorded >91% returns since inception. Additionally, see – Is Oracle Stock A Buy At $190? Meta Platforms stands as the world's leading social network that connects individuals with friends and family. The company generates revenue mainly through advertising, which it offers to marketers by targeting specific demographics based on information shared by users on its platforms. Meta Platforms' revenue growth recently can be credited to an increase in ad impressions as well as a rise in the average price per ad. Additionally, Meta's family daily active users (DAP) has grown by 7.5% from 3.19 billion in 2021 to 3.43 billion now. The company benefits from its AI initiatives aimed at enhancing advertising. It also intends to leverage AI for generating more content. Not only has the company's sales improved in the past three years, but its net income margin has expanded from 29% in 2023 to 39% currently. Meta's outstanding shares have also decreased by 1% over this timeframe, largely due to the $63 billion the company invested in share buybacks since 2023. The rise in revenues combined with margin expansion and fewer shares has resulted in the company's net profit of $25.58 now, an increase of 72% from $14.87 in 2023. Investors are increasingly optimistic about Meta's stock, and rightly so. The company is experiencing a healthy increase in both ad impressions and the average price per ad, which directly enhances its sales. A significant factor driving this optimism is Meta's proactive investment in AI. This is not merely a trendy term for Meta; AI is significantly contributing to heightened advertising revenues by: Meta is deeply incorporating generative AI throughout its entire social media ecosystem. This includes innovative features such as the Meta AI virtual assistant for chat, advanced image generation, and robust photo editing tools. Moreover, its Llama AI model is quickly gaining a substantial user base, further solidifying its leadership in AI. These potent growth drivers, coupled with Meta's improving profitability—evidenced by a solid 39% net income margin—have significantly enhanced investor confidence. Consequently, the company's Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio has notably expanded from 6.9x trailing revenues in 2023 to 10.6x currently. Indeed, META stock has performed well since the start of 2024. Nonetheless, the rise in META stock has not been steady. The stock's returns were 23% in 2021, -64% in 2022, 194% in 2023, and 66% in 2024. In contrast, returns for the S&P 500 were 27% in 2021, -19% in 2022, 24% in 2023, and 23% in 2024 — suggesting that META underperformed the S&P in 2021 and 2022. Conversely, the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio, featuring a selection of 30 stocks, has successfully outperformed the S&P 500 over the last four years. What accounts for this? Collectively, HQ Portfolio stocks have yielded better returns with lower risk compared to the benchmark index; offering a smoother ride, as shown in HQ Portfolio performance metrics. Considering the current uncertain macroeconomic environment characterized by trade disputes, interest rate adjustments, and geopolitical tensions, could META find itself in a situation similar to that of 2021 and 2022, potentially underperforming the S&P over the next twelve months — or will it experience a strong upturn? From a valuation perspective, we believe that Meta's stock is currently fully valued. Our evaluation places Meta Platforms' valuation at $702 per share, which is quite close to its current market price. The stock is currently trading at 10.6 times its trailing revenues, noticeably higher than its four-year average Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio of 6.8x. While a slight increase in Meta's valuation multiple appears reasonable given its recent strong advertising growth, investors should also take into account the inherent risks. The exact impact that AI will have on the company's long-term earnings growth remains uncertain. This uncertainty renders Meta's ongoing, aggressive investments in AI a potential risk factor. For context, Meta has already invested $77 billion in capital expenditures since 2023, and it intends to allocate an additional $64 to $72 billion this year alone for AI infrastructure. While META stock seems fully valued, it is useful to examine how Meta Platform's peers perform on important metrics. You can discover other valuable comparisons for companies across various industries at Peer Comparisons.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Meta sues developers of 'nudify' apps for running ads on its platforms
June 12 (UPI) -- Meta is suing a company for an app that allows people to create AI-generated nude or sexually explicit images without their consent, the social media company said Thursday. Meta filed a lawsuit in Hong Kong to prevent, Joy Timeline HK limited, the company behind CrushAI Apps, from advertising its apps on Meta's platforms. The company initially ran ads on Facebook and Instagram to promote CrushAi. "This follows multiple attempts by Joy Timeline HK Limited to circumvent Meta's ad review process and continue placing these ads, after they were repeatedly removed for breaking our rules," Meta said. "This legal action underscores both the seriousness with which we take this abuse and our commitment to doing all we can to protect our community from it," Meta said. "We'll continue to take the necessary steps -- which could include legal action -- against those who abuse our platforms like this." Sen. Richard Durbin, D-IIl., sent a letter in February to warn Mark Zuckerberg about allowing his companies to run ads by Joy timeline that break Meta's standards. To tackle more online harm, Meta said it is increasing its "enforcement methods." "We've developed new technology specifically designed to identify these types of ads," Meta said. "Even when the ads themselves don't include nudity and use matching technology to help us find and remove copycat ads more quickly." Meta said it's working with "experts and specialist teams" to upgrade their system in picking up these ads. "Since the start of the year, our expert teams have run in-depth investigations to expose and disrupt four separate networks of accounts that were attempting to run ads promoting these services," said Meta.
Gizmodo
an hour ago
- Gizmodo
Wikipedia Tries to Calm Fury Over New AI-Generated Summaries Proposal
The denizens of the open web don't want anything to do with AI. The Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind Wikipedia, made the unfortunate decision to announce the trial of a new AI-fueled article generator this week. The backlash from the site's editors was so swift and so vengeful that the organization quickly walked back its idea, announcing a temporary 'pause' of the new feature. A spokesperson on behalf of the Foundation—which is largely separate from the decentralized community of editors that populate the site with articles—explained last week that, in an effort to make wikis 'more accessible to readers globally through different projects around content discovery,' the organization planned to trial 'machine-generated, but editor moderated, simple summaries for readers.' Like many other organizations that have been plagued by new automated features, Wikipedia's rank and file were quick to anger over the experimental new tool. The responses, which are posted to the open web, are truly something to behold. 'What the hell? No, absolutely not,' said one editor. 'Not in any form or shape. Not on any device. Not on any version. I don't even know where to begin with everything that is wrong with this mindless PR hype stunt.' 'This will destroy whatever reputation for accuracy we currently have,' another editor said. 'People aren't going to read past the AI fluff to see what we really meant.' Yet another editor was even more vehement: 'Keep AI out of Wikipedia. That is all. WMF staffers looking to pad their resumes with AI-related projects need to be looking for new employers.' 'A truly ghastly idea,' said another. 'Since all WMF proposals steamroller on despite what the actual community says, I hope I will at least see the survey and that—unlike some WMF surveys—it includes one or more options to answer 'NO'.' 'Are y'all (by that, I mean WMF) trying to kill Wikipedia? Because this is a good step in that way,' another editor said. 'We're trying to keep AI out of Wikipedia, not have the powers that be force it on us and tell us we like it.' The forum is littered with countless other negative responses from editors who expressed a categorical rejection of the tool. Not long afterward, the organization paused the feature, 404 Media reported. 'The Wikimedia Foundation has been exploring ways to make Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects more accessible to readers globally,' a Wikimedia Foundation spokesperson told 404 Media. 'This two-week, opt-in experiment was focused on making complex Wikipedia articles more accessible to people with different reading levels. For the purposes of this experiment, the summaries were generated by an open-weight Aya model by Cohere. It was meant to gauge interest in a feature like this, and to help us think about the right kind of community moderation systems to ensure humans remain central to deciding what information is shown on Wikipedia.'
