Meta

Meta is the company that started as Facebook, created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 while he was a student at Harvard. It bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, and in 2021 renamed itself Meta Platforms to signal a bet beyond social networks. It is based in Menlo Park, California, and its apps are used by billions of people.

The apps are free, and nearly all of Meta's revenue comes from advertising. Businesses, from a corner bakery to global brands, pay to show ads in the feeds and stories of Facebook and Instagram, and Meta's systems choose who sees each ad based on what people do in its apps. That ability to reach a specific audience cheaply is what advertisers pay for. WhatsApp makes money mostly by charging businesses to message their customers.

Two other efforts are important for tech. Meta's AI lab builds the Llama models and publishes their weights, so anyone can download them and run them on their own computers, which made them a common base for open models. And Reality Labs makes virtual reality headsets (Quest) and smart glasses; it is a long-term bet that has cost a lot of money so far.