Is Meta Now the Lone Star in the Big Tech Cohort? ETFs in Focus

The beginning of 2025 has proven to be challenging for several major technology companies. Despite huge investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud infrastructure, some of the biggest names in the industry — Amazon AMZN, Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Microsoft MSFT, Apple AAPL and Tesla TSLA — have struggled to impress Wall Street.

Big Tech's Key Areas of Concern

Cloud Revenues Struggle: Amazon, Google and Microsoft all saw weakness in their cloud business, which is considered the key growth driver for these companies. AWS revenues (15.3% of sales) rose 18.9% year over year in Q4, which missed the consensus mark by 0.16%. Microsoft Cloud revenues grew 22%, roughly in line with expectations. Google Cloud revenues grew 28.8%. The figure surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a moderate 4.02%.

Apple’s iPhone Sales Dip: Apple, which relies heavily on iPhone sales for revenues, is struggling with iPhone sales, raising concerns about demand.iPhone sales increased 5.5% year over year in Q4 and accounted for 48.7% of total sales. iPhone sales beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.59%.

Tesla’s Underperformance: Tesla’s financial results missed expectations on both revenues and profits, reflecting weaker-than-expected sales and production issues (read: Tesla Misses Q4 Earnings Estimates, Upbeat on Energy Storage Business).

Downbeat Share Performance of Most Tech Giants

These financial setbacks have weighed on stock performance. Alphabet is off 3.1% so far this year (as of Feb. 12, 2025). MSFT stock is off 2.3%, Tesla has dropped a staggering 11.3%. Apple’s stock has fallen by over 2.8%. Amazon is up about 4% this year but has declined 1.4% since its earnings report on Feb. 7.

Meta’s Standout Performance Amid Industry Struggles

While its competitors are reeling under pressure, Meta META has emerged as the clear winner so far in 2025. The social media giant’s stock has surged 21%since the start of the year (as of Feb. 12, 2025). Its shares are riding an unprecedented 19-session winning streak on Wall Street (as of Feb. 13, 2025).

The key difference between Meta and its Big Tech peers? Per Daniel Howley, the Technology Editor of Yahoo Finance, Meta’s AI investments directly fuel its own business growth rather than being focused on generating outside customers.

Meta’s AI Strategy: Investing for Itself, Not Just Customers

Most major tech companies are pouring billions into AI, but their investments are primarily aimed at building AI-powered cloud services to attract enterprise customers. Amazon plans to spend over $100 billion in capital expenditures in 2025. Google and Microsoft will invest around $75 billion and $80 billion, respectively, as quoted on the above-mentioned Yahoo Finance article.

Meta, on the other hand, is allocating $60-$65 billion to AI infrastructure. After DeepSeek’s low-cost AI success, Wall Street is probably loving the tech company which is spending sensibly on AI and targeting more return on investments (read: DeepSeek Buzz Boosts China Tech ETFs).

Unlike Amazon, Google and Microsoft, which are trying to position themselves as AI service providers, Meta is leveraging AI to improve its own products and user experience, resulting in more direct and immediate business benefits.

How AI is Driving Meta’s Growth

Per the above-mentioned Yahoo Finance article, Meta’s AI-driven initiatives have already delivered improvements across its platforms. It delivered increased user engagement, which results in higher ad impressions and revenue generation.

Meta’s generative AI tools are now being used by 4 million advertisers, a massive jump from just 1 million six months ago. These tools help businesses create targeted, high-performing ads, making Meta’s ad platform even more business-generating.

Meta’s Open-Source AI Strategy: A Future Revenue Stream?

Another factor making Meta an attractive investment is its open-source approach to AI, per the above-mentioned Yahoo Finance article. Meta’s Llama AI models are freely available to developers but with usage limitations — such as a cap of 700 million monthly users per service. While Meta isn’t currently charging for Llama, industry analysts believe it could become a lucrative revenue stream in the future through licensing.

Meanwhile, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has emphasized that the next iteration, Llama 4, will be a major leap forward. It will be “natively multimodal” — meaning it can process text, images and audio simultaneously. It will have advanced “agentic capabilities,” allowing it to interact more intelligently with users.

The AI Race Is Still Nascent, But Meta Leads Currently

While it’s still too early to declare a definitive winner in the AI race, Meta’s approach is paying off faster than its competitors’ strategies. Unlike Amazon, Google and Microsoft, which must win the complexities of selling AI services, Meta is reaping immediate benefits by integrating AI into its core products.

For now, investors can place their bets on Meta and the Meta-heavy exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These ETFs include the likes of Fidelity MSCI Communication Services Index ETF FCOM, iShares Global Comm Services ETF IXP and Vanguard Communication Services ETF VOX.

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