The artificial intelligence (AI) market continues to grow rapidly. With many companies competing for supremacy in the field, investors have numerous options to choose from today. It's not a bad idea to look to famous names on Wall Street for investing inspiration, either. Consider David Tepper, the billionaire founder of Appaloosa Management, a hedge fund.
During the first quarter, Tepper and his team decreased the fund's stake in several high-profile AI players, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. Meanwhile, positions in Facebook's parent company, Meta Platforms (META 3.61%), increased during the period. Here's why investors looking to cash in on AI should follow Tepper's lead and purchase shares of Meta Platforms.
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Playing the long game
Meta Platforms' work in AI has had an impact on its financial results. The company successfully increased engagement on its suite of social media websites and apps by utilizing AI-powered algorithms. As its massive ecosystem of 3.4 billion daily active users continues to deepen, advertisers are increasingly seeking it out to place ads in front of their target audiences.
That means higher ad revenue, Meta Platforms' bread and butter. However, the company's most important work in AI may well lie elsewhere. Meta Platforms developed and released Llama, a large language model (LLM), to the world completely free of charge. This decision might seem like a head-scratcher. But Meta Platforms' founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, explained the importance of this open-source model.
The company aims to attract talented AI developers to work on it, as it's free and easy to modify, and ultimately make it the leading LLM on the market. Meta Platforms is taking an almost democratic approach, one it believes will yield tangible results sooner rather than later. Llama powers Meta AI, an AI virtual assistant. As the company's work progresses, it will be able to use AI in even more ways to boost its user base and engagement.
On the other side of the commerce equation, it will enable businesses to launch better-targeted, cost-efficient ads. We are still in the early innings of Meta Platforms' AI revolution, and the company isn't sparing any expense. It plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in AI infrastructure in the coming years.
The path to $3 trillion
Meta Platforms' current market capitalization is $1.6 trillion. It needs to record a compound annual growth rate of 13.4% in the next five years to become a $3 trillion company. This is well above the market's long-term historical return. Further, it could encounter serious headwinds in the meantime. President Donald Trump's trade policies are spooking investors. Some fear it could lead to an economic downturn, something that would affect Meta Platforms' business.
Companies tend to reduce their ad budgets when the economy tanks. So, Meta Platforms' trajectory over the next five years may not look anything like a straight line. But the company could still deliver the returns it needs to join the highly exclusive ranks of $3 trillion stocks as more of its AI work trickles down to the rest of the business. Revenue and earnings should maintain their upward trajectory, even in the face of a slowdown due to economic issues.
Elsewhere, Meta Platforms will continue to ramp up new monetization opportunities. The company's massive user base presents numerous potential growth avenues. One thing it has been working on in the past few years is business messaging on WhatsApp. There will be others. Meta Platforms' revenue outside of advertising is barely meaningful compared to ad revenue, for now. But don't discount other opportunities at its disposal. Lastly, Meta Platforms shares don't look prohibitively expensive.
The company's forward price-to-earnings ratio of 25.2 is above the average of 18.9 for the communication services sector, but Meta Platforms is worth the premium. There is ample upside left for the stock, and in the next five years, it could become one of those rare $3 trillion stocks. It's still a great time to invest in the company.
