Sristi Suman Jayaswal
5 min read
In This Article:
As the artificial intelligence (AI) race accelerates toward advanced machine intelligence (AMI), tech giants are pushing boundaries to create agents that can reason more like humans. A key piece of this puzzle is physical reasoning, essential for AI systems to navigate and act within the real world.
Meta Platforms (META) has stepped into this frontier with the launch earlier in June of its Meta Video Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture 2 (V-JEPA 2), a powerful video-based world model that helps machines anticipate how the physical world behaves. Unlike language-only models, V-JEPA 2 learns from video data to predict object dynamics and human interactions using latent-space simulation. It allows robots to “think before they act,” performing tasks like picking up and placing objects in unfamiliar environments.
Meta’s bold move also includes new benchmarks to accelerate physical reasoning research, plus, a reported $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, signaling CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s intent to anchor AI deeply into Meta’s ecosystem.
But does this push into physical AI make META stock a buy, or should investors wait on the sidelines?
Meta Platforms (META) has grown from a college social network into a global tech powerhouse, redefining how billions of people communicate. The California-based tech titan now oversees a sprawling digital empire, anchored by social media giants such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, and is charging ahead into the future with ambitious bets in AI, augmented reality, and the metaverse. What began with a newsfeed has evolved into a full-scale push to shape how humans and machines interact in the next era of connectivity.
That future-facing focus seems to be paying off. Meta's shares have surged more than 700% over the past decade.
In 2025, META has so far delivered a standout 21% YTD gain, and over the past year, the stock has skyrocketed 38.8%, handily beating not just some of its tech peers, which flinched under pressure, but also the S&P 500 Index’s ($SPX) returns. The surge was fueled by rising ad revenues, deeper AI integration, and investor faith in its metaverse roadmap.
Meta’s Q1 2025 earnings report, released on April 30, came out swinging, crushing expectations and fueling a 4.2% jump in the stock the very next day. Revenue climbed 16% year over year to $42.3 billion, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $41.4 billion. But the real knockout punch came from EPS, soaring 37% to $6.43, 23.2% higher than forecasts.
