In the tech sector, the prevailing view is that it is better to overinvest than to miss a key opportunity. However, investors in large companies do not take such expenses lightly, which was evident from the sell-off of Alphabet Inc. shares last week after the company announced investments in artificial intelligence (AI) exceeding initial expectations. A similar reaction followed for Meta Platforms Inc. when it announced similar plans, writes Bloomberg.

The situation was not improved by the fact that Meta presented its financial report on the same day as Microsoft Corp., whose AI investments traditionally generate quick returns through its Azure cloud business.

Unlike Microsoft, Meta is facing difficulties in directly converting AI spending into revenue. The technology has already improved ad targeting, but even in this area, there are technical limitations. Nevertheless, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg outlined his vision for the development of artificial intelligence more specifically than before, and it appears significantly more realistic compared to his previous ambitions related to the metaverse project.

Meta's strategy focuses on three main directions – developing personal AI agents, building business-oriented agents, and leasing data centers to other companies. All three directions are in the early stages of development, but Zuckerberg has a solid base on which to build them into a sustainable business model.

Unlike his previous project, building the metaverse required the company to develop an entirely new computing platform from scratch – a gamble that led to losses of over $60 billion and remained with a relatively limited number of active users.