Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) is a global technology company headquartered in Menlo Park, California, whose mission is to build the future of human connection and the technology that makes it possible. Originally founded as Facebook in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and co-founders, the company rebranded to Meta in October 2021 to reflect its expanded focus beyond social media toward immersive computing. Meta owns and operates some of the world's most widely used digital platforms: Facebook (the original social network with over 2 billion daily active users), Instagram (photo and video sharing), WhatsApp (encrypted messaging), Messenger, and Threads (text-based social). The company generates revenue primarily through digital advertising across its family of apps. Beyond social media, Meta is making substantial investments in artificial intelligence, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality computing through its Reality Labs division — producing hardware including Meta Quest headsets, Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, and Oakley Meta Performance AI glasses, as well as open-source AI through its Llama large language model series. Meta employs approximately 75,000-80,000 people globally and reported revenues exceeding $150 billion annually. The company's AI research and infrastructure investments include building one of the world's most powerful AI supercomputing clusters.