Meta's market value fell by about $200 billion after the company's shares fell 19% in extended trading on Wednesday.
The decline in shares of the company run by Mark Zuckerberg came despite the company announcing profits and revenues that exceeded expectations in the first quarter of 2024.
But at the same time, Zuckerberg worried the company's investors during Wednesday's earnings call with his focus on long-term investments in artificial intelligence and the metaverse.
Zuckerberg spent almost all of his opening remarks focusing on the many ways Meta is losing money.
Meta relies on digital advertising for 98% of its revenue, but as much as Zuckerberg talked about ads, he was looking to the future.
In his discussions on building a leading AI, he said: There are many ways to build a huge business here including offering ads or paid content and commercial correspondence within AI interactions.
However, Zuckerberg stressed that building a pioneering artificial intelligence is a larger project than any other experiment the company has added to its applications and that it will take many years.
He also stressed that the company will continue to operate efficiently, but noted that converting existing resources into resources for investment in artificial intelligence will lead to the beneficial growth of its investment portfolio.
In the same context, Zorkberg stated that the company has historically witnessed many fluctuations in the stock price during the phase of investing in a new product without generating income from it, pointing to previous efforts such as short videos known as Reels, as well as Stories.
Despite Meta's stock losses in after-hours trading, it has risen about 40% since the beginning of 2024.
