Meta traces its origins to a Harvard University dormitory in 2004, when Mark Zuckerberg launched the social media site now known as Facebook. The platform would help reshape the internet, spurring the growth of user-generated content that defined the early to mid-2000s. But Zuckerberg’s ambitions stretched well beyond the online realm, prompting him to establish a team dedicated to studying artificial intelligence.
What to Know About Meta
Meta, previously known as Facebook, is a technology company founded by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. While Meta became renowned for ushering in the Web 2.0 era with its social media platforms, it has since expanded its business into mixed reality and artificial intelligence. The company has more recently taken up Zuckerberg’s call for “personal superintelligence,” funneling resources into its Meta Superintelligence Labs.
Now operating under the Meta name, Zuckerberg’s business has built on Facebook’s original research to become one of the most powerful players in the AI industry, wielding a fair share of political influence in the United States. Let’s take a closer look at what exactly Meta does, how it outgrew its Facebook branding and where it’s headed in the age of massive AI spending.
What Is Meta?
Meta is a social media and AI company led by founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Best recognized for its Facebook platform, the company has expanded its portfolio through the years by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp as well.
Meta has also diversified its services beyond traditional social media over the years, including virtual reality and AI. It has released devices like VR headsets and smart glasses, while developing various open-weight AI models. Different areas of the business often overlap as well, as Meta continues to tailor its AI-driven products to individual consumers.
What Does Meta Do?
Facebook very much remains a part of the business, but Meta has expanded to encompass three main areas:
- Social Media: Meta oversees several social media platforms, where users can create their own written and visual content and engage with each other online. They also provide vital revenue streams to sustain Meta’s overall business.
- Mixed Reality: Meta is a dominant player in virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality, inventing products that combine virtual elements with the real world. Its lineup of Meta Quest headsets is among the most popular devices in this niche.
- AI Research: Meta has become heavily involved in AI research, developing a slate of open-weight large language models it calls the Llama family — and more recently the Muse Spark model, which powers its Meta AI assistant. Artificial intelligence continues to steer the company’s direction as it seeks to catch up in the AI race.
Meta is known for its ability to adapt to the times, embracing the newest technologies that could potentially reshape people’s everyday lives. And perhaps no better change encapsulates this attitude than Zuckerberg’s decision to rebrand Facebook as Meta in 2021.
Meta’s Main Products and Platforms
Meta has cultivated an extensive web of interconnected products to keep it at the forefront of the tech industry. Here are some of its most widely known offerings to date:
- Facebook: As popular as ever, Facebook is Meta’s original, desktop-friendly platform that lets users connect to friends, join groups based on common topics or interests and buy and sell items through an online marketplace.
- Instagram: Instagram is a mobile-first app that centers on visual content. Users can post and share videos and images along with written descriptions, while viewing content shared by personal connections, celebrities, organizations and other entities.
- WhatsApp: WhatsApp is a mobile app that requires only a phone number to set up an account. It’s ideal for global communication, enabling users to form group chats, send messages and make international calls for free.
- Meta AI Assistant: Meta’s personal AI assistant processes natural-language prompts, so users can quickly get food recommendations, look up locations, shop online and more. It’s been integrated across Meta’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
- Meta Muse Spark: Muse Spark is the first member of the Muse model family and now powers the Meta AI assistant. It stands out for its ability to orchestrate AI agents, process visual data and answer health-related inquiries.
- Meta Glasses: Meta Glasses are AI-powered smart glasses that use Bluetooth to connect to other devices, allowing users to take calls, send messages, record videos and complete other actions normally done on their devices via voice commands and hand gestures.
The company is also working on an application programming interface, or API, for Muse Spark, but has had to delay its release several times. An API is software that allows an AI model to be embedded directly into custom projects and tools, and is the only way for developers to actually access a model (and for its developer to commercialize it). They’re typically rolled out alongside a new model to encourage adoption.
Meta originally planned to release the Muse Spark API around the time it launched the Muse Spark model in April 2026, with its chief AI officer Alexandr Wang posting on X at the time that it was “coming soon!” But now, the company no longer has a target release date, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, raising questions about how quickly Meta will be able to monetize all of these massive investments in building its own frontier AI models.
Why Facebook Became Meta
According to a 2021 blog post, Zuckerberg renamed Facebook to Meta because he believed in the future success of the metaverse, or the concept of a virtual world that combines digital and physical elements to support an immersive user experience. Facebook pivoted from being solely a social media company to a so-called “social technology company,” with its mixed-reality products supporting 3D entertainment, games, shopping and social engagement.
Zuckerberg was so committed to the metaverse that Meta even established a platform called Meta Horizon, connecting its mixed-reality products into a single ecosystem. It was essentially a world-building strategy designed to foster a digital community that users could call their own for the long term, and the Meta brand better reflected this shift.
Although Meta has since shifted much of its attention away from the metaverse and Meta Horizon (even shuttering the Horizon Worlds app briefly in 2026) in favor of artificial intelligence, it continues to operate under the Meta brand.
Meta vs. Facebook: What’s the Difference?
Meta refers to the parent technology company owned by Zuckerberg, covering its social media, mixed reality and AI development. Under this umbrella falls Facebook, which now just refers to the specific social media platform.
Meta’s Focus on AI and the Metaverse
Despite Zuckerberg’s continued attempts to generate excitement around Meta’s virtual reality push, the metaverse never really caught on with the general public. As a result, the company has transitioned from its mixed-reality vision and reorganized its efforts around artificial intelligence, eliminating thousands of jobs in the process.
This pivot began in earnest in mid-2025 when Zuckerberg first announced his idea for “personal superintelligence,” promoting AI-first products catering to individual consumers. To achieve this goal, Zuckerberg lured researchers from AI rivals with million-dollar offers to round out the new Meta Superintelligence Labs division. Meta further restructured its teams to align its AI initiatives under the MSL umbrella.
Meta then closed out 2025 by funneling billions of dollars into data center projects, building the infrastructure necessary to train even more powerful AI models. These moves have set Meta up to compete for AI supremacy, although it will likely need untapped revenue sources to realize its goal of artificial superintelligence.
How Meta Makes Money
Much of Meta’s revenue comes from advertisements on its social media platforms. In fact, the company is on track to finally rake in more net ad revenue than Google in 2026, making it the most lucrative digital ad business in the world.
Even so, new revenue streams have become crucial to keep up with the ballooning costs of AI. Meta recently began rolling out subscription plans for its AI services, and Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp all provide consumer subscription plans for those who want access to additional features. Zuckerberg has also proposed selling excess compute from Meta’s data centers, potentially entering the cloud computing business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Meta do?
Meta operates across several key areas. It runs a slate of social media platforms that facilitate online interactions, builds mixed-reality and virtual-reality devices and develops AI-powered products, including smart glasses and models.
What companies are owned by Meta?
Meta’s expansive business portfolio encompasses Facebook, Facebook Messenger (formerly Beluga), Instagram, Instagram Reels, Threads, Oculus VR and Reality Labs. In 2025, Meta also acquired PlayAI, a company that creates AI-generated voices.
Is Meta the same as Facebook?
No, Meta is the parent company that owns Facebook, along with other platforms and products such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.
Who owns Meta?
CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg is the primary owner of Meta. While the company is publicly traded on the Nasdaq, Zuckerberg maintains a commanding 61 percent voting stake through a dual-class share structure. The remaining ownership of the company is distributed among institutional investors like BlackRock and Vanguard, as well as millions of individual investors.
