In a rather interesting but perhaps unsurprising move, Bill Ackman, the man who runs the show over at Pershing Square Capital Management, announced a huge bet on shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction). He went as far as to say that the Mark Zuckerberg-owned social media, AI, and metaverse firm is “deeply discounted.” Personally, I think it’s hard to argue against that, especially when you consider the magnitude of disruptive AI growth on the horizon, as well as the wild card in Reality Labs.
After plunging around 12% from its post-earnings peak (those were fantastic earnings that showed signs AI bets are starting to pay off, by the way), shares go for just 22.2 times forward price-to-earnings (P/E). Even if you think throwing cash at AI-related CapEx won’t buy Meta a spot at the top of the AI charts, one has to give the founder-led company more respect at these depths.
Meta’s AI strategy might be the one to beat
The company is shifting gears from open-source to closed-source in a move that might transform Meta into a disruptive agentic force that sends shivers down the spines of investors of traditional software companies that might be in serious danger of skating offside. Undoubtedly, Meta might have the business to beat once it adds cutting-edge AI tools to its already powerful platform.
As we progress through the year, we’ll gain a better idea of what Meta’s superintelligence team is up to. It has the talent pool in place, but the big question is what the new closed models, codenamed Avocado and Mango, will be capable of and how they’ll fit into the platform.
With the Manus agent deal aboard, it certainly does feel like Meta has what it takes to become one of the biggest agentic disruptors, not just because it has a powerful agent product and a deep talent pool, but because it has an unmatched data moat needed for hyper-personalization.
For Meta, this could mean greater consumer engagement and ad campaigns that pack for businesses. The “goal-only” ad system seems like it could be the way of the future. It certainly aligns with what investors should come to expect from the agent age.
Meta might master the art of AI monetization
With the ultimate goal and monetization in mind, as Meta gets hard at work on its coming models, I think it’s time to think of Meta as a firm that could disrupt the business models of many SaaS companies. Undoubtedly, some of them are probably already under a great deal of pressure over the fear that agents will swoop in and steal the lunch of firms that have grown content with the seat-based model, rather than the usage and goal-based model.
In any case, Meta is reinventing itself again, and I do think that it’d be wise to follow the smart money’s lead into a name that’s being punished over the shock value of its CapEx numbers for the year.
Yes, Meta is spending a great deal, but of all the mega-cap tech titans getting sent to the penalty box this past month, it feels like Zuckerberg’s firm is best positioned to turn the big bets into big bucks.
It’s not just Ackman who’s been buying
It’s not just Ackman who’s jumping into the stock (he announced a $2 billion bet made from late last year); a number of other hedge funds (like David Katz) bought some shares of the Mag Seven titan, which has now become the cheapest, by far, of the seven names, despite demonstrating AI’s impact on the bottom line.
Ad conversion is marching higher. So, too, is engagement. In my view, that’s the biggest quarterly takeaway, rather than the $115-135 billion spending bill for 2026. So, should this new hedge fund favorite be bought up while the market fails to price in any sort of “Ackman premium” on the stock? I do think so. Meta is just one of three Mag Seven stocks in the Ackman portfolio, but it is the cheapest one and perhaps the most monetizable in the coming year.
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