One of the biggest winners of earnings season appears to be Meta, and with CEO Mark Zuckerberg heralding a new era of ‘superintelligence’ for the tech giant, it could soon be mounting a challenge to become Wall Street’s quintessential AI stock.
Shares in the stock rose more than 11% in after-hours trading following a wildly positive second-quarter earnings call in which Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) posted 22% revenue growth in the second quarter, showing that the firm’s AI investments are already beginning to pay dividends.
The positive earnings data represents the first time this year that the company held its top capital-spending projections steady and highlights that META is a stock worth considering for its implementation of artificial intelligence.
But how high could Meta Platforms ride that AI boom? And could it ultimately become a leading AI stock on Wall Street?
AI Ads Lead the Way
Meta’s Q2 2025 earnings per share far surpassed analyst estimates polled by LSEG, weighing in at $7.14 versus $5.92 expected, while revenues of $47.52 billion exceeded estimates of $44.80 billion.
It was Meta’s advertising revenue that led the way, reaching a total of $46.56 billion compared to projections of $43.97 billion.
Zuckerberg reserved special praise for the company’s utility of AI and its leading role in delivering “greater efficiency” throughout Meta’s ad system.
In the second quarter, Meta Platforms saw 5% higher conversions on Instagram and 3% on Facebook as a result of its AI-powered ad recommendations.
Meta appears set to carry its strong Q2 performance into Q3 2025, forecasting that sales will come in at a range between $47.5 billion and $50.5 billion, exceeding Wall Street estimates of $46.14 billion.
Superintelligence in Sight
In recent years, Meta Platforms has spent heavily on adopting an artificial intelligence infrastructure that appears to already be paying off on Wall Street.
Mark Zuckerberg refers to the technology that the tech giant is building as ‘superintelligence’ and claimed that a breakthrough is “now in sight” in a recent memo posted ahead of Meta’s strong earnings report.
Meta has been hard at work on building a formidable team of AI talent to harness its superintelligence ambitions. The company invested $14.3 billion into Scale AI for a 49% stake in the company and brought in the startup’s CEO, Alexandr Wang, as Meta’s chief AI officer.
Other engineers from firms like Apple, Github, Anthropic, OpenAI and various startups have reportedly made the jump to Meta as part of its artificial intelligence push.
Following the appointment of Wang, Zuckerberg revealed a new business unit called Meta Superintelligence Labs, in which employees will work on foundation models such as Llama’s open-source family of AI models and various other research projects.
Meta is investing heavily in its superintelligence ambitions but is supported by positive ad revenues thanks to the implementation of the technology in improving the effectiveness of adverts shown to its 3.4 billion network of users across all Meta-owned apps.
How Far Can Meta’s AI Boom Go?
At a market capitalization of around $2 trillion, Meta Platforms is still half the size of the world’s largest stock, Nvidia. Could Meta’s AI push help the stock recapture ground on the industry’s biggest artificial intelligence success story?
“With a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 26.39, Meta is far cheaper than the likes of other AI stocks such as Microsoft and Amazon, which both range into the mid-to-high 30s,” explained Steve Frauzel, Head of Market Insights at global brokerage brand Just2Trade. “This makes the stock relatively well-priced for growth, even following its recent post-earnings rally.”
“Looking ahead, if Mark Zuckerberg’s heavy investments in artificial intelligence can continue to drive results in Meta’s AI advertising services, the stock could see a market cap of $2.5 trillion by the end of 2025 with plenty of momentum moving into the new year.”
With a forward P/E that’s lower than the rest of the Magnificent Seven, it’s clear that Meta has the fundamentals to sustain its move into what Zuckerberg defines as superintelligence. Should the platform continue to improve its operational efficiency with the help of AI, META has the potential to gain a value of $1,000 per share in 2025.
Betting on AI
The fact that META ended H1 2025 some 23.17% higher, even during a first half of the year that was punctuated by tariff uncertainty in the United States, shows that the stock has plenty to be optimistic about in the future. But what’s next for Meta Platforms on Wall Street?
Some wary investors may point to Zuckerberg’s track record for betting the house on emerging technologies that have so far failed to come to fruition. The enthusiasm the CEO had for the metaverse has yet to pay off despite investing billions of dollars in its development.
However, the AI boom appears to be building momentum with time, and it’s hard to see Zuckerberg’s proactive approach to adoption failing in the same way as the metaverse.
After strong earnings, optimism at Meta is high. Should Zuckerberg harness the power of ‘superintelligence,’ META could rally to new frontiers.
Disclosure: On the date of publication, Dmytro Spilka did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer. Dmytro Spilka does not intend to make a trade in any of the securities mentioned above in the next 72 hours.
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