Meta disburses dvidend for the first time

Market reacts positively as latest milestone reached

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Fourth quarter results from Facebook parent company Meta Platforms say revenue increase 25% to $40.1 billion. Profits rose as much as 200% to $14 billion.

The results are great news for shareholders, who will receive dividends for the first time in the company’s 20-year history. “We have made great progress on our vision of advancing AI and the metaverse,” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Meta stock has been on an upward trend since the pandemic caused a dip in value to $152 in 2022. At time of writing shares were trading at $479.

For the coming year, Meta does anticipate significantly higher costs. Reuters reports that Meta will use custom chips aimed at supporting artificial intelligence. With that chip, Meta wants to become less dependent on current supplier Nvidia. Meta expects to save hundreds of millions of dollars in annual energy costs and billions in chip purchases.

In October, it was announced that Meta is being sued by more than 20 US states for allegedly exploiting young users for profit and showing them harmful content.

In a US Senate hearing Wednesday also attended by the CEOs of TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat and Discord, Mark Zuckerberg apologised to the parents of children who have suffered mental damage from his social media use.

Meta ended the year with 3.1 billion daily active users.

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